The Book of Taltos: Contains the Complete Text of Taltos and Phoenix

This is the second collection of books about Vlad Taltos - human assassin in a world of elves. It's a great read! This collection continues the story of Vlad - the first 3 books are in "The Book of Jhreg" which I also highly recommend.

These books are a cross between fantasy and gangster story telling. These books are well written and you want to keep reading them over and over.

This is an omnibus containing Taltos and Phoenix A novel in three parts, or streams. Vlad is involved in some heavy duty witchcraft, is looking back at his earlier life in some greater detail than in earlier books, and is also showing us how he met Morrolan. As far as the latter goes, a complicated sorcerous plot leads Vlad and Morrolan on a decidedly dangerous mission to Deathsgate Falls and the Paths of the Dead. A couple of the important magical artificats appear : Spellbreaker, for Vlad, and Aliera's Great Weapon. 4.5 out of 5 Vlad gets himself into quite a lot of poo owing to his desire to keep his estranged wife Cawti from being executed as a revolutionary. Before that, though, he makes a deal with his patron goddess of witchcraft, and the two end up being related via the kingdom of Greenaere, some 'work' and possible war. Vlad ends up on the lam from the Jhereg because he testifies about their goings on to the Empress. 4 out of 5

Mr. Brust is a very fine storyteller. His plot construction techniques and style are sharp, witty, intelligent and engaging. His characters are believable not only because they are flawed, but also because their lives are not composed of epic quests, but of real lives. Whether or not Mr. Brust is aware of it or not, he has also done something very unique in the fantasy field. He has utilized American influence as much as European taking elements of organized crime drama and detective stories in a world of very strange creatures and even stranger people. I've read seven of the Vlad Taltos books and have not read a single one that I did not enjoy.

Before Robin Hobb's "Farseer" series and before HBO's "The Sopranos," there was Steven Brust and his protagonist, Vlad Taltos. Vlad is a mob member and an assassin, as well as a member of a racial minority, in a complex and deeply dysfunctional society. Dragaera is a world where very long-lived elves wielding powerful sorcery, short-lived humans, a host of other intelligent species and even gods exist in a uneasy, unhappy state of intermittent war and uneasy peace. Vlad lives in a part of the world where the elves rule, and his people, for the most part, live in squalid slums. He takes his hatred for his oppressors and turns it into a career, and assassinates elves at the behest of other elves. He becomes a minor mob boss in the Jhereg, the criminal underground operated by the elves. All of this is accepted behavior in Brust?s vividly imagined world. Yet as the two novels in this book show, Vlad's best friends are all among his oppressors. He may loath the Dragaerans in general, but he comes to value them individually as friends and colleagues. Cynical and noble, murderous and ethical, cold-blooded and warm-hearted; he is a mass of contradictions and yet a self-consistent whole.In addition to a fascinating protagonist set is an complex world, Brust experiments with literary forms. Whether it?s a homage to Dumas ? as in "The Phoenix Guards" and "Five Hundred Years Later" ? or interlocked chronologies as in "Taltos" in this volume, he uses those techniques to inform his narrative. Brust is a fine writer, with a nice sense of irony and narrative structure. Finally, the stories here are a part of the evolving story of the puzzle that is Vlad Taltos. If you enjoy this book, you should also read "The Book of Jhereg," an earlier collection of Vlad Taltos novels.I enjoy the Vlad Taltos stories very much; I think you will too.