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Vlad Taltos #3
Teckla
The third to be published, this is actually the fifth entry in the timeline of the VLAD TALTOS books, and it represents a darker, more serious turn in the series. Vladimir Taltos is a short-lived, short-statured Easterner (what we would call a human) in a world mostly populated by the long-lived, extremely tall Dragaerans. He is also an assassin and petty crimelord. His lifestyle and career require some difficult moral choices. When his wife Cawti joins an uprising of Easterners and peasant Dragaerans (the Teckla of the title), it causes a severe strain in their marriage, and Vlad begins to question those choices.
THE TECKLA WERE REVOLTING
I'd always known they were. Teckla were lazy, stupid, cowardly peasants. Revolting. Old joke. But now they were revolting against the Empire. New joke. And a Jhereg crimelord, feeling the pinch, was popping the rebels. No joke. But the real joke? I was protecting them, from Me. Lord Vlad Taltos-loyal grandson, loving husband. Jhereg. Sorcerer. Assassin. Everything the rabble hated. Not that I craved wet-nursing a mob of slogan slobbering, doomed radical loonies, all of whom wanted me dead. Particularly since my royal peers, all of House Jhereg, also wanted me dead...
THE TECKLA WERE REVOLTING
I'd always known they were. Teckla were lazy, stupid, cowardly peasants. Revolting. Old joke. But now they were revolting against the Empire. New joke. And a Jhereg crimelord, feeling the pinch, was popping the rebels. No joke. But the real joke? I was protecting them, from Me. Lord Vlad Taltos-loyal grandson, loving husband. Jhereg. Sorcerer. Assassin. Everything the rabble hated. Not that I craved wet-nursing a mob of slogan slobbering, doomed radical loonies, all of whom wanted me dead. Particularly since my royal peers, all of House Jhereg, also wanted me dead...
214 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 1986
21 people are currently reading
1330 people want to read
About the author
Steven Brust
101 books2,310 followersSteven Karl Zoltán Brust (born November 23, 1955) is an American fantasy and science fiction author of Hungarian descent. He was a member of the writers' group The Scribblies, which included Emma Bull, Pamela Dean, Will Shetterly, Nate Bucklin, Kara Dalkey, and Patricia Wrede, and also belongs to the Pre-Joycean Fellowship.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/steven...
(Photo by David Dyer-Bennet)
http://us.macmillan.com/author/steven...
(Photo by David Dyer-Bennet)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 273 reviews
June 23, 2011
4.0 to 4.5 stars. The above quote just about perfectly sums up the tone and style of Steven Brust's JHEREG novels...playfully dark, coolly subdued and dangerously badasstic...in a word YUMMMMMM!! Seriously, I am pretty smitten with Brust's breezy style and this series is currently on a very short list of what I call literary comfort food. They just really hit the sweet spot and are such a potent combination of well written, tightly plotted stories (averaging under 200 pages) with a highly engaging and endearing main character and set in a well drawn, well realized fantasy world. Yeah, I guess you could say I am a bit of a fan.
While I like most every aspect of the stories, I think I am most impressed with the amount of “story” that Brust crams into these slender novels. In this regard, they remind me a bit of Jack Vance’s stories in that Brust is able to accomplish in less than 200 pages what lesser writers can spend twice as long doing half as well. Also, like Vance’s stories, these books, though thin, are not light reading and Brust deals with some serious emotional and political issues while telling his tale.
SERIES BACKGROUND
For those of you not familiar with the series, the stories are set on another planet ruled by an Elf-like species known as Dragaerans. The Dragaerans are much taller and more muscular than humans (averaging 7 feet in height) and are extremely long lived, having lifespans that last thousands of years. The Dragaeran Empire is made up of 17 Great Houses whose members each excel at a particular skill or ability (e.g., fighting, business, intellect, etc.).
In turn, the Empire rules over a much larger population of mostly humans who are referred to by the Dragaerans as Easterners. There have been several hints during the first three books that the Easterners maybe descendants of long lost Earth colonists, but so far I that has not be confirmed in the stories.
The humans are treated as second class citizens and are looked down on (figuratively as well as literally) by the Dragaerans and generally treated with anything from rude indifference to outright cruelty. Vlad Taltos, our main man, is a human who has become a citizen of the Empire as a result of “buying into” one of the less noble houses known as the Jhereg . The Jhereg are assassins and criminals and are generally hired by members of the other great houses to do dirty work.
Vlad is a very skilled assassin and is also a fairly talented witch. His constant companion is his jhereg familiar, with whom he shares a psychic bond (jheregs, for which Vlad’s Great House is named, are tiny dragon-like creatures…see the cover above). Each of the novels is framed as a sort of noir mystery with Vlad being hired to accomplish some task which turns out to be a lot more complicated than it initially appears.
PLOT SUMMARY
This installment is a bit of a departure from the first two in that the plot takes on a very political tone when Vlad discovers that his wife, Cawti***, has joined a group of radical Easterners bent on bringing down the Empire. When the leader of the group is assassinated, Cawti takes up his job. Vlad is several miles short of pleased with this as he fears for Cawti’s safety.
***(SIDE NOTE: Incidentally, Cawti is a former assassin who met Vlad when she was hired to kill him…which she did…but that’s a long story and I just wanted to tease you with that nugget.)
Anyway, as Vlad learns more and more about the “cause” the rebels are fighting for, he begins to question his own life and his choice to be an for the Dragaeran Empire. Meanwhile, his relationship with his wife becomes increasingly strained, making for some very dark moments for Vlad. Vlad generally deals with dark moments by killing people, which he does.
Overall, these books are just about perfect as far as pacing and plot and I love the main character. If you haven’t tried this series, I would certainly recommend that you give it a try. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
July 5, 2024
2024 Reread: Going chronologically this time around, this one and Jhereg are definitely the standouts so far. The others have just been okay.
Previous Review: This is one of the few series where I spend most of my time enjoying rather than analyzing. It’s complex enough to keep my interest (with random splashes of sarcasm that usually make me laugh), but easy-flowing enough that I can sit back and relax into it.
Nothing about this series is typical. Of the three I’ve read, so far Teckla was the least unconventional, but still boasted 100% world immersion. The author never explains anything, choosing instead to throw you into the deep end. It works though, because I pick up many intricacies of the world without having to be expressly told a thing. A good comparison is the principle behind the Rosetta Stone language program (where you learn the language organically as if it’s the only one you’ve heard). Brust’s storytelling works a lot alike that, which is why I feel so immersed with these books. Each novel seems to focus on a different culture/race, and as I read and recognize their names as titles of future books, making me all the more eager to get to those and find out more.
Overall, I’m in for the long haul of this series. They’re perfect palate cleansers between other novels and I appreciate what seems to me like a true merging of genres (with fantasy being the most prominent).
Recommendations: I’d hand this series to someone relatively well-read in the fantasy genre with emphasis on its originality. And humor.
Via The Obsessive Bookseller at www.nikihawkes.com.
Other books you might like:
Previous Review: This is one of the few series where I spend most of my time enjoying rather than analyzing. It’s complex enough to keep my interest (with random splashes of sarcasm that usually make me laugh), but easy-flowing enough that I can sit back and relax into it.
Nothing about this series is typical. Of the three I’ve read, so far Teckla was the least unconventional, but still boasted 100% world immersion. The author never explains anything, choosing instead to throw you into the deep end. It works though, because I pick up many intricacies of the world without having to be expressly told a thing. A good comparison is the principle behind the Rosetta Stone language program (where you learn the language organically as if it’s the only one you’ve heard). Brust’s storytelling works a lot alike that, which is why I feel so immersed with these books. Each novel seems to focus on a different culture/race, and as I read and recognize their names as titles of future books, making me all the more eager to get to those and find out more.
Overall, I’m in for the long haul of this series. They’re perfect palate cleansers between other novels and I appreciate what seems to me like a true merging of genres (with fantasy being the most prominent).
Recommendations: I’d hand this series to someone relatively well-read in the fantasy genre with emphasis on its originality. And humor.
Via The Obsessive Bookseller at www.nikihawkes.com.
Other books you might like:
March 25, 2018
3.5 stars
Wish I could round up, because it is very good, but I can't. Too frustrating.
I read this book a year ago and I still haven't gotten over it yet. It's the book I like least in the series, but it's the only one that I remember most vividly.
The most frustrating thing about this book is experiencing the end of Vlad and Cawti's marriage through Vlad's eyes. Well, everything is experienced through Vlad's eyes since he is the only narrator, but with this book, you feel the limited first-person narration the most and you see all the ways in which it lacks finesse. But then again, this is how we all experience the end of a relationship, right? One-sided and most of the time without closure or answers.
The end of the book once again mimics real life in that there are no resolutions. Things are still tense between Vlad and Cawti, and they are still drifting apart, pulled by different ideals, and you don't know what the future holds. You don't even get to know whether or not they separate or stay together, and these books being written out of order makes it all the more frustrating.
In the last book Yendi, we see when Vlad first met Cawti, back when he was a burgeoning crime lord with lofty ideas and she was hired by one of his rivals to assassinate him, and she almost succeeded. They somehow managed to hit it off and got along well together. That led to the beginning of a quick romance, one of the more realistic portrayals that I've seen in these kind of fantasies. So it was endearing to see that.
(It's like everything was going so well. What happened??? Life happened. Of course. Too much realism bleeding in my fantasy. Can all of this just go away or not? Because I don't read fantasy for the realism. This seems repetitive and unnecessary to say at this point, but I thought it was obvious. I don't read fantasy for the realism. Please bring back convoluted political intrigue and add more dragons and flying castles. No more relationships falling apart gradually over time. Ok thnx.)
When we get to this book though, Vlad and Cawti have been married for some years, they've risen through the ranks of the Jhereg, made a name for themselves, and are very well off and comfortable (for Easterners). But they are drifting apart. We don't know why or what led them to this point. We just know Cawti was drawn to the uprisings in the Eastern quarters of the city, and Vlad wouldn't or maybe couldn't see the point of this movement. He saw it as futile, but she had hope. This was just one more thing piled on top on an already strained relationship.
So to go from Yendi to Teckla, from the beginning of a relationship to its unexpected end in such a short amount of time, is... sad. I'm sure some of the later books will focus on the marriage some more, but I just didn't expect to read the beginning and the end back-to-back like this. It was unsettling and left me feeling conflicted. That's my main problem with this book anyway. Everything else though--the writing, the plotting, the intrigue, the scheming--is still good and very much the same as the 2 previous books.
Cross-posted at https://covers2covers.wordpress.com/2...
Wish I could round up, because it is very good, but I can't. Too frustrating.
I read this book a year ago and I still haven't gotten over it yet. It's the book I like least in the series, but it's the only one that I remember most vividly.
The most frustrating thing about this book is experiencing the end of Vlad and Cawti's marriage through Vlad's eyes. Well, everything is experienced through Vlad's eyes since he is the only narrator, but with this book, you feel the limited first-person narration the most and you see all the ways in which it lacks finesse. But then again, this is how we all experience the end of a relationship, right? One-sided and most of the time without closure or answers.
The end of the book once again mimics real life in that there are no resolutions. Things are still tense between Vlad and Cawti, and they are still drifting apart, pulled by different ideals, and you don't know what the future holds. You don't even get to know whether or not they separate or stay together, and these books being written out of order makes it all the more frustrating.
In the last book Yendi, we see when Vlad first met Cawti, back when he was a burgeoning crime lord with lofty ideas and she was hired by one of his rivals to assassinate him, and she almost succeeded. They somehow managed to hit it off and got along well together. That led to the beginning of a quick romance, one of the more realistic portrayals that I've seen in these kind of fantasies. So it was endearing to see that.
(It's like everything was going so well. What happened??? Life happened. Of course. Too much realism bleeding in my fantasy. Can all of this just go away or not? Because I don't read fantasy for the realism. This seems repetitive and unnecessary to say at this point, but I thought it was obvious. I don't read fantasy for the realism. Please bring back convoluted political intrigue and add more dragons and flying castles. No more relationships falling apart gradually over time. Ok thnx.)
When we get to this book though, Vlad and Cawti have been married for some years, they've risen through the ranks of the Jhereg, made a name for themselves, and are very well off and comfortable (for Easterners). But they are drifting apart. We don't know why or what led them to this point. We just know Cawti was drawn to the uprisings in the Eastern quarters of the city, and Vlad wouldn't or maybe couldn't see the point of this movement. He saw it as futile, but she had hope. This was just one more thing piled on top on an already strained relationship.
So to go from Yendi to Teckla, from the beginning of a relationship to its unexpected end in such a short amount of time, is... sad. I'm sure some of the later books will focus on the marriage some more, but I just didn't expect to read the beginning and the end back-to-back like this. It was unsettling and left me feeling conflicted. That's my main problem with this book anyway. Everything else though--the writing, the plotting, the intrigue, the scheming--is still good and very much the same as the 2 previous books.
Cross-posted at https://covers2covers.wordpress.com/2...
pigs-fly-and-crayfish-whistle
May 15, 2021
May 3, 2024
I always expect a series to have some highs and lows, and unfortunately, Teckla took a dive after the first two installments. I believe another reviewer noted that this was written while he was having marital issues; maybe not, but that might explain this, especially given the plot. Teckla takes place shortly after Jhereg, but unlike the fun mystery thriller motif of the first two in the series, this revolves around a failing relationship and the limits of idealism if you will.
Vald's relationship to his wife Cawti Brust presented as given in the first book; in the second, we learned how he met her (she killed him). Well, when Vald and Cawti were both revived, they quickly fell in love (at bit gag worthy, but not beyond the call). What drives Teckla are the new-found passion within Cawti for social justice and revolution. How did Vald not know about this aspect of Cawti? Did it just develop all of a sudden, or did she always have the drive and somehow it got activated? All in all, pretty dodgy to me. In any case, Cawti starts hanging around some revolutionaries located in the human quarter of the city comprised of mainly humans, but with some Teckla mixed in. Teckla comprise a major house (one of 17) of the Dragaera, but it seems most of their members are serfs in the countryside.
Well, Cawti and her new friends are planning a revolution to end economic and social oppression in the Empire and Vald knows this will get ugly. A big Jhereg boss rules the underground in the human quarter and tolerated the revolutionaries as long as they do not impact his 'business'. Once one of the revolutionaries gets offed (assassinated) by the Jhereg boss as a 'message' (yes, they did start to impact business), well, the ugly starts. The ugliness drives Vald and Cawti apart, as Cawti, like a good little revolutionary, digs in after the assassination, while Vald wants her out for her own safety. The only real mystery here is how the clash will eventually end.
While I have much sympathy for revolution, especially when the poor and down-trodden rise up to overthrow the oppressors, this felt rather ham handed to be sure. We have our passionate speakers of the movement and Cawti aligned against the hard practicality of Vald. In some ways, this installment gives us a different side to Vald, one torn between his 'street' ethics and the love for his wife and her ideals, but it just felt canned to me. Yes, the prose continues to be excellent and witty at times, but this was a downer for sure, unlike the fun, lighthearted first two installments. Workers of the World Unite! 2.5 radical stars, rounding up!
Vald's relationship to his wife Cawti Brust presented as given in the first book; in the second, we learned how he met her (she killed him). Well, when Vald and Cawti were both revived, they quickly fell in love (at bit gag worthy, but not beyond the call). What drives Teckla are the new-found passion within Cawti for social justice and revolution. How did Vald not know about this aspect of Cawti? Did it just develop all of a sudden, or did she always have the drive and somehow it got activated? All in all, pretty dodgy to me. In any case, Cawti starts hanging around some revolutionaries located in the human quarter of the city comprised of mainly humans, but with some Teckla mixed in. Teckla comprise a major house (one of 17) of the Dragaera, but it seems most of their members are serfs in the countryside.
Well, Cawti and her new friends are planning a revolution to end economic and social oppression in the Empire and Vald knows this will get ugly. A big Jhereg boss rules the underground in the human quarter and tolerated the revolutionaries as long as they do not impact his 'business'. Once one of the revolutionaries gets offed (assassinated) by the Jhereg boss as a 'message' (yes, they did start to impact business), well, the ugly starts. The ugliness drives Vald and Cawti apart, as Cawti, like a good little revolutionary, digs in after the assassination, while Vald wants her out for her own safety. The only real mystery here is how the clash will eventually end.
While I have much sympathy for revolution, especially when the poor and down-trodden rise up to overthrow the oppressors, this felt rather ham handed to be sure. We have our passionate speakers of the movement and Cawti aligned against the hard practicality of Vald. In some ways, this installment gives us a different side to Vald, one torn between his 'street' ethics and the love for his wife and her ideals, but it just felt canned to me. Yes, the prose continues to be excellent and witty at times, but this was a downer for sure, unlike the fun, lighthearted first two installments. Workers of the World Unite! 2.5 radical stars, rounding up!
July 27, 2015
Another very easy read, but this time Vlad has his most difficult challenge ever... His wife.
I can't think of a better way to seriously cramp the style of a man who succeeded against all the odds to win the most high-paid assassination than to have his wife decide to go all in on a revolution for the downtrodden in the slums, especially since Vlad's at the top of his game, rich as hell, and have powerful people owe him favors.
Of course, that's exactly what happens, and he's just trying to save his marriage while being unable to accept or go along with the ultimately doomed idealism. Hell, this would have made a fine novel, full of outrage, love, hopeless fear, and sadness, and all without a touch of fantasy. Fortunately for us, we've got a flying novel that goes down so smooth it might as well have been a dragon dipping into a lake.
I never felt so close to Vlad as during this novel, and that may be because I'm already invested in the character, or it could be because the conflict is real, immediate, and scary, while only occasionally turning into a bloodbath.
Revolution. It was painful to read mainly because it seemed so ill-prepared and idealistic, which was probably an artifact of seeing it through Vlad's eyes, but I couldn't help but agree. It's nice to imagine that hoards of angry peasants can do more than step up to be slaughtered, but come on... what was Cawti thinking?
I suppose this novel felt the most real. It was a squabble between a married couple, with the regular complications of mob-wars, assassinations, and plotting one's own death... and that was only on the husband's side.
Forgive me if I am stuck wondering how this whole novel would have played out written from Cawti's point of view. It might have turned into something savagely different and fun instead of being tinged with despair. Who knows? I might be sitting on this one for a while wondering that very question. That's a good thing. I'm getting more for my money on this read. :)
I can't think of a better way to seriously cramp the style of a man who succeeded against all the odds to win the most high-paid assassination than to have his wife decide to go all in on a revolution for the downtrodden in the slums, especially since Vlad's at the top of his game, rich as hell, and have powerful people owe him favors.
Of course, that's exactly what happens, and he's just trying to save his marriage while being unable to accept or go along with the ultimately doomed idealism. Hell, this would have made a fine novel, full of outrage, love, hopeless fear, and sadness, and all without a touch of fantasy. Fortunately for us, we've got a flying novel that goes down so smooth it might as well have been a dragon dipping into a lake.
I never felt so close to Vlad as during this novel, and that may be because I'm already invested in the character, or it could be because the conflict is real, immediate, and scary, while only occasionally turning into a bloodbath.
Revolution. It was painful to read mainly because it seemed so ill-prepared and idealistic, which was probably an artifact of seeing it through Vlad's eyes, but I couldn't help but agree. It's nice to imagine that hoards of angry peasants can do more than step up to be slaughtered, but come on... what was Cawti thinking?
I suppose this novel felt the most real. It was a squabble between a married couple, with the regular complications of mob-wars, assassinations, and plotting one's own death... and that was only on the husband's side.
Forgive me if I am stuck wondering how this whole novel would have played out written from Cawti's point of view. It might have turned into something savagely different and fun instead of being tinged with despair. Who knows? I might be sitting on this one for a while wondering that very question. That's a good thing. I'm getting more for my money on this read. :)
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October 21, 2017
I read this nearly 2 decades ago and didn't really enjoy it then. Now that I'm older, wiser, better educated? I despised it. It was a maddening slog in which Brust retconned his characters' motivations, personalities & histories to force them to fit the new conflicts he wants to introduce -- it's part propaganda, part author-using-art-to-work-through-his-personal-issues, and everything is sacrificed in the service of those goals. You see, Steven Brust is a devout Trotskyite and his marriage had imploded at the time he wrote this. Both are so obvious here that it's almost as though he's trying to hit the readers heads over the head.
What is more, the order of this entry in the series is awful. Book 1 ("Jhereg") was an introduction to the characters, who were happily married; Book 2 ("Yendi") was a flashback tale of how the happily married characters met and fell in love; but now Book 3 ("Teckla") was a massive retcon, informing us that, two weeks after Book 1, their marriage is in shambles, because Cawti was a political fanatic all along and secretly despised Vlad. Never mind everything that went on between them prior to this novel. Never mind the fact that she worked happily alongside the aristocracy -- indeed, her sisterly relationship to the heir to the throne is entirely jettisoned and the heir goes unmentioned during this novel, no doubt because it fails to fit Brust's political agenda and re-imaginings of the characters.
I suppose we're supposed to be impressed with the hollow, childish, anachronistic rhetoric the Revolutionaries spout or Cawti's self-centered, fanatical hypocrisy or Vlad's baffling gullibility... But I certainly wasn't. Not a bit. And I may not re-read the rest of the series as a result.
What is more, the order of this entry in the series is awful. Book 1 ("Jhereg") was an introduction to the characters, who were happily married; Book 2 ("Yendi") was a flashback tale of how the happily married characters met and fell in love; but now Book 3 ("Teckla") was a massive retcon, informing us that, two weeks after Book 1, their marriage is in shambles, because Cawti was a political fanatic all along and secretly despised Vlad. Never mind everything that went on between them prior to this novel. Never mind the fact that she worked happily alongside the aristocracy -- indeed, her sisterly relationship to the heir to the throne is entirely jettisoned and the heir goes unmentioned during this novel, no doubt because it fails to fit Brust's political agenda and re-imaginings of the characters.
I suppose we're supposed to be impressed with the hollow, childish, anachronistic rhetoric the Revolutionaries spout or Cawti's self-centered, fanatical hypocrisy or Vlad's baffling gullibility... But I certainly wasn't. Not a bit. And I may not re-read the rest of the series as a result.
December 9, 2019
I first read this series a couple of decades ago and as this was my favourite fantasy series I thought I'd revisit Vlad's adventures and intrigues. I was surprised when re-reading Yendi that it still held together nicely today. The same is true of Teckla, but in different ways, and the elements that kept me from enjoying it as much as the others when I first read it still come through today.
Whereas Jhereg and Yendi, the first two Vlad Taltos books, were a sort of swashbuckling mafioso fantasy, Teckla is a tale of protests and uprising, of Vlad's life and marriage being turned upside down as he's forced to reconsider his own role in a fundamentally unfair political and economic system. It's both impressive and depressing that many of the questions that come up in Teckla are the same ones we wrestle with today. You kind of walk away with a feeling that we may not be nearly so modern as we think we are.
I think that's part of why Teckla never worked for me as a book—not because the themes aren't important but because they come in so very early in a series that currently spans 15 books. We haven't really had a chance to enjoy Vlad's wise-cracking, swashbuckling life before we're basically told it's all a lie and he's a part of a terrible system and should really go off and take up farming. Were the series a trilogy, I'd be all in favour as it's an interesting way to bring his story to an end. But as only the third book, Teckla is not only kind of a downer on its own, but it makes it awkward when the series soon after tries to recapture that sense of fun and adventure.
The second aspect of Teckla that made it hard for me to enjoy was that it mostly hits one note throughout the entire book. Someone tells Vlad he's awful, he tries to ignore them even as he wrestles with how to protect his wife from her revolutionary activities (Brust wisely makes sure we see the unavoidable hypocrisy in him being so in love with Cawti that he refuses to consider her wishes), then he launches a plan that involves killing people, knowing it will ruin their marriage, and then . . . somehow we get right back to people telling him how awful he is.
There's no real sense of act structure in Teckla, and therefore no real sense of pace. It's hard to decide whether any particular attempt on Vlad's life is noteworthy because there's a bunch of them that all come to roughly the same conclusion.
That's not to say the book doesn't have merits. Brust's writing always combines a sense of adventure with deeper questions about humanity and Teckla's no exception. It's just that there's a pervading sense not so much of dread but of depression. Brust, having made us fall in love with Vlad, his strange associates, and his marriage to the same assassin who once killed him, takes all of that away from us without really replacing it with something new. You don't really get the sense that Vlad or his world have changed in any significant way, only that the previously bright colours have faded from his world.
Whereas Jhereg and Yendi, the first two Vlad Taltos books, were a sort of swashbuckling mafioso fantasy, Teckla is a tale of protests and uprising, of Vlad's life and marriage being turned upside down as he's forced to reconsider his own role in a fundamentally unfair political and economic system. It's both impressive and depressing that many of the questions that come up in Teckla are the same ones we wrestle with today. You kind of walk away with a feeling that we may not be nearly so modern as we think we are.
I think that's part of why Teckla never worked for me as a book—not because the themes aren't important but because they come in so very early in a series that currently spans 15 books. We haven't really had a chance to enjoy Vlad's wise-cracking, swashbuckling life before we're basically told it's all a lie and he's a part of a terrible system and should really go off and take up farming. Were the series a trilogy, I'd be all in favour as it's an interesting way to bring his story to an end. But as only the third book, Teckla is not only kind of a downer on its own, but it makes it awkward when the series soon after tries to recapture that sense of fun and adventure.
The second aspect of Teckla that made it hard for me to enjoy was that it mostly hits one note throughout the entire book. Someone tells Vlad he's awful, he tries to ignore them even as he wrestles with how to protect his wife from her revolutionary activities (Brust wisely makes sure we see the unavoidable hypocrisy in him being so in love with Cawti that he refuses to consider her wishes), then he launches a plan that involves killing people, knowing it will ruin their marriage, and then . . . somehow we get right back to people telling him how awful he is.
There's no real sense of act structure in Teckla, and therefore no real sense of pace. It's hard to decide whether any particular attempt on Vlad's life is noteworthy because there's a bunch of them that all come to roughly the same conclusion.
That's not to say the book doesn't have merits. Brust's writing always combines a sense of adventure with deeper questions about humanity and Teckla's no exception. It's just that there's a pervading sense not so much of dread but of depression. Brust, having made us fall in love with Vlad, his strange associates, and his marriage to the same assassin who once killed him, takes all of that away from us without really replacing it with something new. You don't really get the sense that Vlad or his world have changed in any significant way, only that the previously bright colours have faded from his world.
December 22, 2023
It’s official. I am now a fan of Vlad Taltos. He may even be one of the great characters of the Fantasy genre.
He’s not a hero nor is he a villain. There’s a little bit of both in there, but I don’t know that he can actually be called an anti-hero. He may be beyond classification. Sometimes he’s a wiseass, sometimes he is just wise, but he is always intelligent, and more intelligent than nearly everyone around him. That intelligence is born and nurtured in a mind that is always thinking, working on itself and on the problems that surround it. He is deadly, cold, temperamental, occasionally foolhardy. He’s capable of loyalty, capable of deep love, capable of caring, and capable of shoving a knife into a lackey’s heart simply because he’s annoyed. He is – in short – one of the most complex and complete characters I can think of.
And, as fans of the Vlad Taltos series will tell you, Vlad is only one level of the series’ complexity. But he is the bedrock upon which everything else rests, and keeping Vlad compelling, keeping him interesting, allows Brust to do things with his stories that he wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.
In the case of Teckla, Brust is able to engage in meditations on big issues like division of labour, worker and peasant power, racism, and revolution, while he’s busy engaging with the more personal issues of trust in love, self-reflection and family loyalty. Teckla is so many things. And thanks to Brust it is never too many things.
I’m reading these in order. Teckla is the best so far. I’ll be taking a break from Vlad for a while, but I will be back very soon.
***
I used to rate this five stars, but after my third reading I have had to drop a star. I simply cannot consider a book five stars when my third time through I literally forgot everything that happened. Everything. It's so strange. I thoroughly enjoyed the book again. Came out loving it, in fact, but it was like I was reading it for the first time. Age? God I hope not. But then maybe I can star rereading everything I've ever loved like it's the first time.
My stomach just turned like Vlad's after a mundane teleport.
He’s not a hero nor is he a villain. There’s a little bit of both in there, but I don’t know that he can actually be called an anti-hero. He may be beyond classification. Sometimes he’s a wiseass, sometimes he is just wise, but he is always intelligent, and more intelligent than nearly everyone around him. That intelligence is born and nurtured in a mind that is always thinking, working on itself and on the problems that surround it. He is deadly, cold, temperamental, occasionally foolhardy. He’s capable of loyalty, capable of deep love, capable of caring, and capable of shoving a knife into a lackey’s heart simply because he’s annoyed. He is – in short – one of the most complex and complete characters I can think of.
And, as fans of the Vlad Taltos series will tell you, Vlad is only one level of the series’ complexity. But he is the bedrock upon which everything else rests, and keeping Vlad compelling, keeping him interesting, allows Brust to do things with his stories that he wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.
In the case of Teckla, Brust is able to engage in meditations on big issues like division of labour, worker and peasant power, racism, and revolution, while he’s busy engaging with the more personal issues of trust in love, self-reflection and family loyalty. Teckla is so many things. And thanks to Brust it is never too many things.
I’m reading these in order. Teckla is the best so far. I’ll be taking a break from Vlad for a while, but I will be back very soon.
***
I used to rate this five stars, but after my third reading I have had to drop a star. I simply cannot consider a book five stars when my third time through I literally forgot everything that happened. Everything. It's so strange. I thoroughly enjoyed the book again. Came out loving it, in fact, but it was like I was reading it for the first time. Age? God I hope not. But then maybe I can star rereading everything I've ever loved like it's the first time.
My stomach just turned like Vlad's after a mundane teleport.
October 3, 2017
This was a reread and with luck, and a little planning, I'll avoid ever reading it again. Yeah, it's well-written and I still like Vlad, but everything else about this book is a giant downer. Cawti's character changes and not for the better. The book starts with the realization that Cawti has gotten involved with this group of revolutionaries, apparently months ago. Without saying anything to Vlad. And it's not that she should clear things with him, or anything, but it very much is that she has been doing something that is important to her and hasn't bothered to bring him along or talk with him about it or anything else that you do with loved ones and things you find interesting or important. So she has been hiding this thing like a guilty secret and this whole book is her choosing these new people over Vlad and getting mad that he's confused and hurt. Yeah, his reactions aren't that great, either, but seriously, I spend this whole book wanting to shove Cawti down a dark hole somewhere so Vlad can find someone who actually loves and supports him.
And it doesn't help that we get none of his other friends in this book, either. Sure, we have Kragar, but even he's just work support. So we have an isolated Vlad trying to figure out what Cawti sees in these clowns and knowing that she's in danger and he wants to save her if at all possible. It's depressing and I'm so glad we're done with this one on our reread so we can move on. Not that Phoenix is much better, relationship-wise, but at least there's more than the stupid revolution (with ills and abuses we're only ever told about and never see) going on.
And it doesn't help that we get none of his other friends in this book, either. Sure, we have Kragar, but even he's just work support. So we have an isolated Vlad trying to figure out what Cawti sees in these clowns and knowing that she's in danger and he wants to save her if at all possible. It's depressing and I'm so glad we're done with this one on our reread so we can move on. Not that Phoenix is much better, relationship-wise, but at least there's more than the stupid revolution (with ills and abuses we're only ever told about and never see) going on.
August 17, 2023
This book is utterly terrible. It's both a shrine and a condemnation to toxic masculinity. It's unorganized and boring and depressing.
Our main character is stupid the whole book. He is angry at his wife (for teaching reading lessons to impoverished people), and makes everything worse at every turn. He refuses to talk to her, or hear her. Refuses to acknowledge his own feelings. Actively tries to murder his wife's friends and destroy what she believes in.
I kept thinking this book would get better and our main character would learn his lesson, but he doesn't. I can't tell if the book is trying to say, "See, solving all your problems with violence and refusing to deal with your emotions (toxic masculinity) is bad, because it breaks down your relationships." Or if the book is trying to say, "Actually toxic masculinity is totally okay, because the hero got what he wanted in the end and his wife was the one who needed to apologize."
I hate this book. It's so poorly done, on every front. I'm going to go read the next book now, because I liked the previous books and I'm hoping that this one is a fluke and not a foretelling.
Our main character is stupid the whole book. He is angry at his wife (for teaching reading lessons to impoverished people), and makes everything worse at every turn. He refuses to talk to her, or hear her. Refuses to acknowledge his own feelings. Actively tries to murder his wife's friends and destroy what she believes in.
I kept thinking this book would get better and our main character would learn his lesson, but he doesn't. I can't tell if the book is trying to say, "See, solving all your problems with violence and refusing to deal with your emotions (toxic masculinity) is bad, because it breaks down your relationships." Or if the book is trying to say, "Actually toxic masculinity is totally okay, because the hero got what he wanted in the end and his wife was the one who needed to apologize."
I hate this book. It's so poorly done, on every front. I'm going to go read the next book now, because I liked the previous books and I'm hoping that this one is a fluke and not a foretelling.
October 19, 2017
I dreaded reaching this point in the series. Even when I was obsessively re-reading the first four books (as published), I don't think I read this one more than maybe twice. That's how unpleasant it is.
What makes this book so unpleasant is not only that Vlad's marriage starts to implode, but that it does so because Cawti, who until this point has seemed fairly sensible, becomes a total raging idiot. I loved Cawti from Jhereg and Yendi, both for her strength as a powerful female character and as Vlad's wife and partner. There were (maybe still are) so few good married relationships in fantasy, I cherished this one. And Brust went and torpedoed it.
The problems are entirely Cawti's fault. Cawti's relationship with the revolutionary Easterners and Teckla damages her marriage not because she's advocating the overthrow of the Empire (though that's a problem by itself), but because she not only kept her activities secret from Vlad, but also tries to blame him for her existential crisis. There's a scene early on where Vlad, understandably upset that Cawti is putting herself in danger for a ridiculous cause, tries to have a conversation with her about the issue that's come between them. He asks her for an explanation. And instead of talking about herself, Cawti tells him he needs to work out why he's an assassin and that he's not a bad person just because he's had to kill people to survive. Except Cawti is talking about herself. Her reasons for becoming an assassin are mostly similar to Vlad's. And yet instead of owning up to her guilt and remorse, she has the nerve to tell Vlad he ought to analyze himself. Whether this is true or not is irrelevant; this is not how married people should deal with each other.
I'm not the leftist Brust is. I sympathize with Vlad, who makes the point that he dislikes revolutionaries because they think ideas are more important than people. The argument he has with the revolution's leader Kelly, in which Kelly responds to this point with his own argument that ideas don't come out of nowhere and represent what people believe, is a nonstarter with me. It doesn't matter where ideas come from; when ideas take the place of caring about individuals, I think those ideas are dangerous. Which is not to say ideas can't change the world. Big change, when it comes, hurts people. But I'm not fond of people who watch others being hurt in the name of the Big Idea and claim that history will vindicate them. It doesn't help that Kelly & Co. want the stupidly enormous change of destroying the Dragaeran Empire. That's like the American colonies trying to get their freedom by destroying the entire British Empire. I'd have been more sympathetic if they'd gone for something reasonable, like freedom from the Jhereg machine.
And speaking of that:
One more spoiler:
And I guess the ending is a spoiler, too:
On to Phoenix, which I have also read infrequently. I have only a few memories of it, and those aren't good ones. But I'm withholding judgment for now.
What makes this book so unpleasant is not only that Vlad's marriage starts to implode, but that it does so because Cawti, who until this point has seemed fairly sensible, becomes a total raging idiot. I loved Cawti from Jhereg and Yendi, both for her strength as a powerful female character and as Vlad's wife and partner. There were (maybe still are) so few good married relationships in fantasy, I cherished this one. And Brust went and torpedoed it.
The problems are entirely Cawti's fault. Cawti's relationship with the revolutionary Easterners and Teckla damages her marriage not because she's advocating the overthrow of the Empire (though that's a problem by itself), but because she not only kept her activities secret from Vlad, but also tries to blame him for her existential crisis. There's a scene early on where Vlad, understandably upset that Cawti is putting herself in danger for a ridiculous cause, tries to have a conversation with her about the issue that's come between them. He asks her for an explanation. And instead of talking about herself, Cawti tells him he needs to work out why he's an assassin and that he's not a bad person just because he's had to kill people to survive. Except Cawti is talking about herself. Her reasons for becoming an assassin are mostly similar to Vlad's. And yet instead of owning up to her guilt and remorse, she has the nerve to tell Vlad he ought to analyze himself. Whether this is true or not is irrelevant; this is not how married people should deal with each other.
I'm not the leftist Brust is. I sympathize with Vlad, who makes the point that he dislikes revolutionaries because they think ideas are more important than people. The argument he has with the revolution's leader Kelly, in which Kelly responds to this point with his own argument that ideas don't come out of nowhere and represent what people believe, is a nonstarter with me. It doesn't matter where ideas come from; when ideas take the place of caring about individuals, I think those ideas are dangerous. Which is not to say ideas can't change the world. Big change, when it comes, hurts people. But I'm not fond of people who watch others being hurt in the name of the Big Idea and claim that history will vindicate them. It doesn't help that Kelly & Co. want the stupidly enormous change of destroying the Dragaeran Empire. That's like the American colonies trying to get their freedom by destroying the entire British Empire. I'd have been more sympathetic if they'd gone for something reasonable, like freedom from the Jhereg machine.
And speaking of that:
One more spoiler:
And I guess the ending is a spoiler, too:
On to Phoenix, which I have also read infrequently. I have only a few memories of it, and those aren't good ones. But I'm withholding judgment for now.
May 24, 2022
Book 3 in the Vlad Taltos series. Another re-read. I'd give it 3.5 stars rounded down.
This story has a very different tone than the first two. I believe that I had read somewhere that this is the one that was written when the author was in the middle of a divorce, and the storyline reflects that upheaval.
This is not my favorite of the series. It is just as well-written, and worth the time, but the content was a bit of a bummer. Reading about was kind of depressing, and its effect on Loiosh and Rocza was unpleasant. Other than that, Vlad was up to his tricksy ears in plans, plots and revenge. He's good at all three of those. There's also a revolution brewing, so he is experiencing quite an identity crisis while trying to figure out where he himself stands.
I'm planning to continue my re-read of the series after a brief detour to another series in a different genre.
This story has a very different tone than the first two. I believe that I had read somewhere that this is the one that was written when the author was in the middle of a divorce, and the storyline reflects that upheaval.
This is not my favorite of the series. It is just as well-written, and worth the time, but the content was a bit of a bummer. Reading about was kind of depressing, and its effect on Loiosh and Rocza was unpleasant. Other than that, Vlad was up to his tricksy ears in plans, plots and revenge. He's good at all three of those. There's also a revolution brewing, so he is experiencing quite an identity crisis while trying to figure out where he himself stands.
I'm planning to continue my re-read of the series after a brief detour to another series in a different genre.
Read
May 3, 2024Relationships and a workers' revolution: such a challenging subject for a fantasy book, and really a radical thematic departure from the first two installments. I later discovered (following Brust's blog in the olden days) that he tends to lean heavily towards socialism and is both opinionated and educated on the topic. Once I learned that, this book made more sense: essentially a pamphlet to convince the reader (as a stand in for Vlad), I think. Brust is at least a decade older than I, but I don't know if his age stretches into the 60s revolution.
May 31, 2011
1,5 / 5
this is the third book i've read in this series..
While i do like the universe, and the concept, i'm becomming increasingly dissapointed with this series..
I have different standards for the first books in a series and the later...
It is to be expected that the universe and the characters in the first stories are a bit hollow, and thin, since that can be filled out later.. i think that was the case with the dresden files..
But this series doesnt really seems to deepen, it was written so that one could read the series in no particular order, and that really makes it weak.
This story in particular was stupid, really really stupid ! 80 percent of it consists of a fight Vlad has with his wife (who has been irrational in all the books so far), and its very tedious reading.. wont go into detail, but this story made no sense at all. He continues to make a problem out of nothing for the entire book, and then when he has reached his page count, resolves everything in 4 pages...
I havent given up on these books yet, but they are seriously stretching it !
this is the third book i've read in this series..
While i do like the universe, and the concept, i'm becomming increasingly dissapointed with this series..
I have different standards for the first books in a series and the later...
It is to be expected that the universe and the characters in the first stories are a bit hollow, and thin, since that can be filled out later.. i think that was the case with the dresden files..
But this series doesnt really seems to deepen, it was written so that one could read the series in no particular order, and that really makes it weak.
This story in particular was stupid, really really stupid ! 80 percent of it consists of a fight Vlad has with his wife (who has been irrational in all the books so far), and its very tedious reading.. wont go into detail, but this story made no sense at all. He continues to make a problem out of nothing for the entire book, and then when he has reached his page count, resolves everything in 4 pages...
I havent given up on these books yet, but they are seriously stretching it !
June 20, 2014
-Más Fantasía noir, con aproximaciones al thriller y toques de humor.-
Género. Narrativa Fantástica.
Lo que nos cuenta. Vlad Taltos es un asesino y empresario de toda clase de negocios ilegales en la capital del Imperio Dragaerano, Adrilankha. Ahora cuenta con mucho dinero y tiene ganas de ampliar sus zonas de control, pero la aproximación de su esposa a la causa de los orientales, cuyo líder acaba de ser asesinado, le crea muchos problemas ya que los miembros de este grupo tienen muchas reivindicaciones que bordean la rebelión contra el Imperio. Tercer libro de la serie de Vlad Taltos.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Narrativa Fantástica.
Lo que nos cuenta. Vlad Taltos es un asesino y empresario de toda clase de negocios ilegales en la capital del Imperio Dragaerano, Adrilankha. Ahora cuenta con mucho dinero y tiene ganas de ampliar sus zonas de control, pero la aproximación de su esposa a la causa de los orientales, cuyo líder acaba de ser asesinado, le crea muchos problemas ya que los miembros de este grupo tienen muchas reivindicaciones que bordean la rebelión contra el Imperio. Tercer libro de la serie de Vlad Taltos.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
February 4, 2009
I thought this was one of the weakest books in the series. The author was going through a divorce, and unfortunately this life event took over his novel. This book consists of nothing but a married couple fighting, having the same argument over and over without any resolution. Vlad is at his most unlikable, too - hard to sympathize with. Some critics liked the "realism" of it, but I found this book slow and depressing. You can skip this one and not miss anything.
January 20, 2016
speaking out of my own experience ,revolution doesn't work like that
and about his wife waking up feeling disgusted by him and his life choices ,and he the little bitch he is will literally kill himself trying to protect her ,not that she wants him to
but love man ,love
and about his wife waking up feeling disgusted by him and his life choices ,and he the little bitch he is will literally kill himself trying to protect her ,not that she wants him to
but love man ,love
December 26, 2016
I think the main reason for not liking this book as much as the first two in the series is a change in tone. I felt that the plot and, more important, the general mood of Vlad was much more serious in this novel. One of the reasons why I enjoyed the first two novels was the lighter tone compared to a lot of fantasy. This book was a bit of a downer because Vlad spends a lot of time sulking about his wife Cawti throughout the entire novel. I thought maybe the difference in publication & chronological order would explain the major shift in Cawti but this book directly follows Jhereg. She's an enigma wrapped in a conundrum in this novel. Maybe I also missed Vlad's Dragonlord friends, who were absent during this book - they're good fun.
Overall, its not bad enough to sour me on the series. Onwards to Taltos (at some point).
Overall, its not bad enough to sour me on the series. Onwards to Taltos (at some point).
June 14, 2023
This will probably never be one of my favorite books, but now that I'm older, I understand a lot better the messages that it's giving. It also helps that I've listened to the Revolutions Podcast since then, so I can see where the message is coming from and going. I think my biggest issue with it now is that Vlad spent far too much time on introspection that it felt like this book could have been quite a bit shorter without losing that much.
Old review:
There was far too much socialist/communist/trotskyism in this book. I had a hard time finishing it, but I have heard that after this book the series starts getting really good.
Old review:
There was far too much socialist/communist/trotskyism in this book. I had a hard time finishing it, but I have heard that after this book the series starts getting really good.
October 12, 2011
Vlad's wife wants to be a revolutionary. Vlad doesn't want her to be a revolutionary. Conflict ensues.
It would have been more interesting if I had been invested in their relationship, but so far that has been my least favorite aspect of these books. I like Vlad Taltos and I like Brust's writing well enough to continue, but I'm hoping these get better.
It would have been more interesting if I had been invested in their relationship, but so far that has been my least favorite aspect of these books. I like Vlad Taltos and I like Brust's writing well enough to continue, but I'm hoping these get better.
September 20, 2020
This 3rd book crept a smidge closer to 4 stars. I like that Loiosh had more of a central role through books 2 & 3. I think I will end up giving the next omnibus a chance.
January 21, 2019
This one was the best yet.
June 21, 2023
The only fun thing about this installment was Loiosh (as always), Vlad drinking an absurd amount of klava, and washing his blood-stained clothes. The majority of new characters (and some old ones) were irritating due to their newfound ideals and an almost cult-like obsession with a bunch of other, similarly irritating, Tecklas.
August 24, 2025
I didn’t like this 3rd installment as much as the first two, but I did like how the book ended. Maybe it’s a new direction for the series?
August 8, 2013
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
Teckla is the third novel in Steven Brust’s series about Vlad Taltos, a human assassin who lives in the empire of Dragaera which is populated mostly by a species of long-lived tall humanoids who were genetically engineered by sorcerers and divide themselves into clans depending on their specific traits. In the first VLAD TALTOS novel, Jhereg, we met Vlad, an Easterner whose father bought the family into the nobility of the lowly house of Jhereg. Vlad, like many of the Jhereg, is a crime boss and controls a portion of the city of Adrilankha. In the second book, Yendi, we learned how Vlad met his wife Cawti when she was sent to assassinate him. He died but was revivified by his minions and married Cawti.
The Teckla of the title of this third book are the peasant clan of Dragaera. For generations they’ve been the down-trodden masses. But now they have a charismatic leader who is stirring them up and fomenting revolution. The Easterners have joined them and so has Cawti, Vlad’s ultra-competent wife. The revolution is causing some difficulties for Herth, one of the other Jhereg bosses and Vlad learns that Herth plans to murder the leaders of the revolution, including Cawti. Vlad is being pulled in multiple directions. He wants to please and protect his wife, and his heritage is Easterner, but he’s now a noble in one of the Dragaeran houses. What is a cold-hearted crime lord assassin to do? Kill people, of course.
For such a short book, there’s plenty of plot in Teckla — assassinations, investigations, revolutionary rallies, break-ins, kidnapping, torture, rescues. To emphasize the action, Brust titles each chapter with a snippet from the laundry list that Vlad Taltos must have compiled at the end of the adventure — “Chapter 3: And repair cut in right cuff,” “Chapter 4: One pair gray trousers: remove blood stain from upper right leg.” These cute chapter titles foreshadow the events in the chapter.
But the main focus of Teckla is Vlad’s insecurities about his own profession and lifestyle and his relationship with Cawti. Cawti wants to live her own life, but she’s heading into trouble. Vlad just wants to protect her, but she doesn’t want his protection. Vlad also doesn’t want to cause more tension between himself and the other nobility of Dragaera. The couple find themselves being pulled in opposite directions and starting to wonder how well they actually know and love each other.
I like the VLAD TALTOS series mainly because I like Vlad Taltos. I like his competence, his breezy but philosophical style, his thoughtful analysis of himself and others, and the amusing way he looks at life. In Teckla, Vlad is mostly feeling insecure and depressed, which is unusual for him (or so it seems to me after reading the previous two books). I enjoyed how he began to question his place in Dragaera and his thoughts about social status, the government’s role in society, the worship of causes and ideas, and the need for revolution. But because of his failing marriage, Vlad does a lot of brooding in this book. While it makes him feel human and sensitive (which is kind of nice for an assassin, I suppose), it’s not the Vlad Taltos we know and love and, frankly, it gets tiresome, and even annoying, after a while. I hope that Vlad will be back to himself in the next novel, Taltos.
I’m listening to Bernard Setaro Clark’s excellent narration of Audible Frontier’s audio version.
Teckla is the third novel in Steven Brust’s series about Vlad Taltos, a human assassin who lives in the empire of Dragaera which is populated mostly by a species of long-lived tall humanoids who were genetically engineered by sorcerers and divide themselves into clans depending on their specific traits. In the first VLAD TALTOS novel, Jhereg, we met Vlad, an Easterner whose father bought the family into the nobility of the lowly house of Jhereg. Vlad, like many of the Jhereg, is a crime boss and controls a portion of the city of Adrilankha. In the second book, Yendi, we learned how Vlad met his wife Cawti when she was sent to assassinate him. He died but was revivified by his minions and married Cawti.
The Teckla of the title of this third book are the peasant clan of Dragaera. For generations they’ve been the down-trodden masses. But now they have a charismatic leader who is stirring them up and fomenting revolution. The Easterners have joined them and so has Cawti, Vlad’s ultra-competent wife. The revolution is causing some difficulties for Herth, one of the other Jhereg bosses and Vlad learns that Herth plans to murder the leaders of the revolution, including Cawti. Vlad is being pulled in multiple directions. He wants to please and protect his wife, and his heritage is Easterner, but he’s now a noble in one of the Dragaeran houses. What is a cold-hearted crime lord assassin to do? Kill people, of course.
For such a short book, there’s plenty of plot in Teckla — assassinations, investigations, revolutionary rallies, break-ins, kidnapping, torture, rescues. To emphasize the action, Brust titles each chapter with a snippet from the laundry list that Vlad Taltos must have compiled at the end of the adventure — “Chapter 3: And repair cut in right cuff,” “Chapter 4: One pair gray trousers: remove blood stain from upper right leg.” These cute chapter titles foreshadow the events in the chapter.
But the main focus of Teckla is Vlad’s insecurities about his own profession and lifestyle and his relationship with Cawti. Cawti wants to live her own life, but she’s heading into trouble. Vlad just wants to protect her, but she doesn’t want his protection. Vlad also doesn’t want to cause more tension between himself and the other nobility of Dragaera. The couple find themselves being pulled in opposite directions and starting to wonder how well they actually know and love each other.
I like the VLAD TALTOS series mainly because I like Vlad Taltos. I like his competence, his breezy but philosophical style, his thoughtful analysis of himself and others, and the amusing way he looks at life. In Teckla, Vlad is mostly feeling insecure and depressed, which is unusual for him (or so it seems to me after reading the previous two books). I enjoyed how he began to question his place in Dragaera and his thoughts about social status, the government’s role in society, the worship of causes and ideas, and the need for revolution. But because of his failing marriage, Vlad does a lot of brooding in this book. While it makes him feel human and sensitive (which is kind of nice for an assassin, I suppose), it’s not the Vlad Taltos we know and love and, frankly, it gets tiresome, and even annoying, after a while. I hope that Vlad will be back to himself in the next novel, Taltos.
I’m listening to Bernard Setaro Clark’s excellent narration of Audible Frontier’s audio version.
April 23, 2013
Well, they cannot all be winners. Teckla is the third book in the Vlad Taltos series by Steven Brust. The Teckla is the house of the least cunning and least assertive and all around omega-resident of the Empire. It, then, is a fitting title for this surprisingly not-good book.
Teckla is the story of all marriages. In this book, Vlad and Cawti have grown and changed as people are wont to do when time passes. They both find themselves struggling with the question of whether or not they have grown together, apart, or independently of one another. And while this is a real struggle that real long-term life partners really endure and really have to come to terms with, using this struggle and Vlad's confessional as the driving plot of a novel just isn't enough. There are no lessons that you can take away from his struggle to apply to your own, other than the already apparent universality of the struggle, and the conclusion that he reaches for his relationship with Cawti isn't necessarily the solution for everyone. Plus, the passive and introspective nature of this novel just brings on the yawns.
But, while Vlad is realizing that Cawti's personal development wasn't frozen in time when he married her, Cawti has also gone off to join the human analogue of the Black Panther movement, complete with dominant-race sympathizers. Cawti wants Vlad to denounce his profession of assassin because she - and her Malcolm X - have made a complicated argument about how "the man" has forced Vlad into this profession. Vlad, however, disagrees with both the assertion that he should abandon his profession and that "the man" is using him as a puppet. Vlad then struggles with guilt and even the fact that he feels guilt over this disagreement. Cawti is ideologically set and resents what she sees as Vlad's lack of enlightenment; she treats him with contempt as a result of this resentment. We've all seen this movie before.
So, yes, there are interesting elements. We have what almost amounts to a race riot, except the tension is deescalated by the dominant race, instead. But what remains ... it just isn't enough for me to call this as complete and well thought out a novel as the previous two in the series. This one is just tedious.
Though as a bright spot, the chapter gimmick was interesting.
Teckla is the story of all marriages. In this book, Vlad and Cawti have grown and changed as people are wont to do when time passes. They both find themselves struggling with the question of whether or not they have grown together, apart, or independently of one another. And while this is a real struggle that real long-term life partners really endure and really have to come to terms with, using this struggle and Vlad's confessional as the driving plot of a novel just isn't enough. There are no lessons that you can take away from his struggle to apply to your own, other than the already apparent universality of the struggle, and the conclusion that he reaches for his relationship with Cawti isn't necessarily the solution for everyone. Plus, the passive and introspective nature of this novel just brings on the yawns.
But, while Vlad is realizing that Cawti's personal development wasn't frozen in time when he married her, Cawti has also gone off to join the human analogue of the Black Panther movement, complete with dominant-race sympathizers. Cawti wants Vlad to denounce his profession of assassin because she - and her Malcolm X - have made a complicated argument about how "the man" has forced Vlad into this profession. Vlad, however, disagrees with both the assertion that he should abandon his profession and that "the man" is using him as a puppet. Vlad then struggles with guilt and even the fact that he feels guilt over this disagreement. Cawti is ideologically set and resents what she sees as Vlad's lack of enlightenment; she treats him with contempt as a result of this resentment. We've all seen this movie before.
So, yes, there are interesting elements. We have what almost amounts to a race riot, except the tension is deescalated by the dominant race, instead. But what remains ... it just isn't enough for me to call this as complete and well thought out a novel as the previous two in the series. This one is just tedious.
Though as a bright spot, the chapter gimmick was interesting.
October 6, 2021
Perhaps I'm showing my romance-reader tendencies here: a big part of my issue with the book was Vlad's total and enduring cluelessness as to Cawti's unhappiness. Cawti is miserable, Vlad doesn't understand why, and Cawti is getting caught up in movements and activities that Vlad doesn't understand - and rather than trying to understand, or working with her, he simply rescues her, again and again, in ways that he knows she doesn't want and will not appreciate. It's like watching someone bang his head against a wall repeatedly: he knows he's doing something wrong, he doesn't understand why it's wrong, and he knows it's going to have the opposite effect of what he wants, but he feels compelled to do it anyway. By the end Vlad still hasn't come any closer to understanding what precisely went wrong in their relationship, and his perspective is so limited that I didn't feel as a reader like I really understood it either, save that Cawti changed and Vlad couldn't grasp how or why or how to work with it; Vlad's total confusion as to what happened left me confused as well, and it didn't feel narratively satisfying.
July 29, 2013
Teckla is the third novel in Steven Brust’s series about Vlad Taltos, a human assassin who lives in the empire of Dragaera which is populated mostly by a species of long-lived tall humanoids who were genetically engineered by sorcerers and divide themselves into clans depending on their specific traits. In the first VLAD TALTOS novel, Jhereg, we met Vlad, an Easterner whose father bought the family into the nobility of the lowly house of Jhereg. Vlad, like many of the Jhereg, is a crime boss and controls a portion of the city of Adrilankha. In the second book, Yendi, we learned how Vlad met his wife Cawti when she was sent to assassinate him. He died but was revivified by his minions and married Cawti.
The Teckla of the title of this third book are the peasant clan of Dragaera. For generations they’ve been the down-trodden masses. But now they have a charismatic leader... Read More:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
The Teckla of the title of this third book are the peasant clan of Dragaera. For generations they’ve been the down-trodden masses. But now they have a charismatic leader... Read More:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
September 30, 2009
I really like the whole Vlad Taltos series by Brust - but this one was horrible, there's no other way to say it. It was all about the revolution of Easterners and the Teckla in South Adrilankha, it read like some revolutionary pamphlet. Vlad and Cawti were fighting the whole time and she behaved in such an uppity way, she looked at him like he was some kind of filth on her shoes, that I couldn't understand what he saw in her, why he still loved her and kept running after her like a lost puppy. And even Vlad's usual "victory" smacked of defeat this time, he didn't really get his revenge. So yeah, too philosophical, too revolutionary, too boring.
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