Reviews

Jhereg, by Steven Brust

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wildflowerz76's review against another edition

5.0

Why does most of the good fantasy seem to revolve around assassins? I enjoyed this one a lot. I own The Book of Jhereg, which has the first three books in the Vlad Taltos series. I immediately jumped right into the story. I liked the characters and the world. I am a bit confused as to how their government and cycles work (and I'm 1/3 into the third book and it's not getting any clearer), but that's fairly minor compared to how much I'm enjoying it.

krakentamer's review against another edition

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4.0

I guess I need to just accept the fact that I'm a Fantasy reader. I've resisted that label for a long time, but obviously I must get SOMETHING out of it, or else I wouldn't keep tackling them. And yet... this one kinda falls outside of that genre. So maybe I only like Fantasy books that have other genres mixed in, for instance (like this one): a caper novel.
There's lots of interesting ideas in here, and I think that I'm going to start adding in some other books from the series to my list to read.

araleith's review against another edition

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2.0

I kept waiting for this book to get interesting or compelling and it never ever did.

majkia's review against another edition

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4.0

What a fun read! Assassin, witch and Jhereg finds himself accepting 'work' that turns out to be far more complicated than he first thought. Lots of great witty dialog and impressive plot.

taysbookshelf's review against another edition

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3.0

Meh. Flat characters. An entirely forgettable story. Pretty much non-existent worldbuilding. The book was fun, and I appreciated the lighthearted tone, so it's not a total bust, but I will not be continuing this series.

leelah's review against another edition

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4.0

4,5 stars

Some time ago I read a blog post called Five Books with Unforgettable Animal Sidekicks. Pretty fun post with many books I am familair with and then somebody in comments mentioned Vlad Taltos and his animal sidekick, Loiosh.
And the more I read the more I got interested because:
Loiosh is a small dragon!
Loiosh is a dragon with personality of a cat!!!
Loiosh has psychic bond with Vlad and has the snarkiest comments and observations!

How can I resist that?
The truth is, I am not sure I would give this a go have I not saw this post, but I am glad I did. You know how fantasy books are usually kind of hard, meaty reads? Jhereg is totally the opposite and reads like fast-paced, easy and light adventure.

Bare bones: series is set in The Dragaerian Empire, planet under the rule of Dragaerians. They are very tall, they have they can live for thousands of years and in other places they call them elves or fairies (just too give you reference). Humans in series are called Easterners and they are considered lower species and despised, barely tolerated by Dragerians. Dragaera is divided in 17 Great houses (clans), each one represented by animal. Vlad Taltos is Easterner and part of Jhereg, a house known for mercenaries and opportunists- they act like one big crime family- if you want someone dead you come to Jhereg. Thus, Vlad Taltos is a professional assassin and he just got hired to kill an impossible target for huge amount of money.
Anyway, this book was just cracky,a bit campy and immensely fun read.
Even if it sounds confusing, it really isn't. Think of it as fantasy version of Ocean 11 but where heroes have to kill a guy instead of stealing something.

And Loiosh? Oh, well...

“Loiosh,” I thought to my familiar, “find Daymar.”
“As Your Majesty requests,” he answered.
“Feel free to save the sarcasm.”
A telepathic giggle is an odd thing to experience. Loiosh flew out the window.