{"id":187,"date":"2006-02-05T08:39:38","date_gmt":"2006-02-05T15:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=187"},"modified":"2021-05-30T21:32:21","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T01:32:21","slug":"teckla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/187","title":{"rendered":"Teckla"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teckla<\/a><\/em> (1987) Steven Brust<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In case you were thinking that I love absolutely everything that Steven Brust has written, this book is the proof that I don’t.<\/p>\n

Back to the continuing time-line, the book follows immediately after the events of Jhereg<\/em>. Unlike previous books, this story involves on the Jhereg, the jhereg, Cawti, Vlad, and various Easterners and Teckla. For me, the addition of Vlad’s grandfather, Niosh-pa, whom I like a lot, doesn’t make up for the fact that we spend no time with Morrolan and Aliera and Sethra in this book. In fact, we don’t even get to see Kiera.<\/p>\n

Additionally, this book is about Vlad and Cawti’s marriage starting to fall apart. Cawti is at loose ends. Her partnership with Norathar ended with Norathar was reinstated to the Dragon house, became the Dragon heir, so Cawti has been looking for something to do while Vlad runs his business.<\/p>\n

The problem is that Cawti become involved in a group seeking to end the oppression of Easterners and Teckla. This places Vlad and Cawti at odds, as the group attracts the attention of the Jhereg who run that area, and the Jhereg attempt to deal with this problem in the way they know best.<\/p>\n

This is not a fun book. It’s a dark, angry, and unpleasant book. This doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good book, it is just not the book that I particularly want to read. Unfortunately, you must read this book to understand the events of later books. Skipping this book would be a serious mistake, however skipping this book as you reread the series, is perfectly fine. The writing and dialog remains excellent, as does the plotting. This is simply not a story that I enjoy reading.<\/p>\n

In fact, I did a good deal of skimming, because the book is simply far darker and uglier than I want to deal with. As I said about Jhereg, the Vlad series is comfort reading for me, but this book is not comforting. In fact, Teckla<\/em> reminds me of may least favorite Spenser<\/a> book, A Catskill Eagle<\/em>. In both books, the main character’s partner goes off the deep end, and takes the main character with her. Although I find less to dislike about Cawti than I do about Susan, I still find them both irritating in their respective books. I realize that we are supposed to find sympathy for Cawti, but I just don’t.<\/p>\n

Though it was fun, seeing Khaavren for the first time, even if at the end of his career.<\/p>\n

If you are reading the Vlad Taltos series for the first time, you must read this book to understand later books. And it is a well-written book. However, if you are expecting the light, fun romp of the previous two books, get used to disappointment.
\nRating: 5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teckla (1987) Steven Brust In case you were thinking that I love absolutely everything that Steven Brust has written, this book is the proof that I don’t. Back to the continuing time-line, the book follows immediately after the events of Jhereg. Unlike previous books, this story involves on the Jhereg, the jhereg, Cawti, Vlad, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,291,41,39],"tags":[129,245],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-paper","category-reread","category-sword-sorcery","tag-steven-brust","tag-vlad-taltos"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/siQkW-teckla","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/20","url_meta":{"origin":187,"position":0},"title":"The Vlad Taltos Novels","author":"Michelle","date":"April 27, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"The Vlad Taltos Novels by Steven Brust Longer reviews for individual books can be found on my Steven Brust page. When I recommend fantasy books, this series is at the top of my list. The books are relatively quick to read, and is written in the tone is that of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/02\/Jhereg.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":189,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/189","url_meta":{"origin":187,"position":1},"title":"Phoenix","author":"Michelle","date":"February 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Phoenix (1990) Steven Brust Chronologically, Phoenix follows Teckla. Verra, the demon goddess, has \"work\" for Vlad. She wants the king of Greenaere killed, and she refuses to say why. Vlad and Cawti are still at odds, with no reconciliation on the horizon, as Cawti's actions with the revolutionary group continue\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/02\/Phoenix.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1260,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1260","url_meta":{"origin":187,"position":2},"title":"Jhegaala","author":"Michelle","date":"July 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Jhegaala (2008) Steven Brust First things first, I love Steven Brust, and I love the Vlad Taltos books. That said, this is not anywhere close to being one of my favorite books in the series. Jhegalla is set between the events of Phoenix and Athyra. We learn some of what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/Jhegaala.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":191,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/191","url_meta":{"origin":187,"position":3},"title":"Orca","author":"Michelle","date":"February 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Orca (1996) Steven Brust Set about a year after the events of Athyra, Vlad has wandered into Northport in search of a sorcerer who might be able to cure Sven, the Teckla boy who lost his mind during the events of Athyra. He finds one, however, her price is keeping\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/02\/Orca.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":190,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/190","url_meta":{"origin":187,"position":4},"title":"Athyra","author":"Michelle","date":"February 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Athyra (1993) Steven Brust Once you get past the fact that it is not written from Vlad's point of view, Athyra is a very good book. The story is told from the point of view of Sven. It's not first person like the other Vlad books, but we know Sven's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/02\/Athyra.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":186,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/186","url_meta":{"origin":187,"position":5},"title":"Yendi","author":"Michelle","date":"February 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Yendi (1984) Steven Brust Yendi is the second book in Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series, however, in the time line it comes before the first book, Jhereg. Instead of taking off from where Jhereg left off, we go back in time, to when Vlad met Cawti, his future wife. Yendi\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/02\/Yendi.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}