Yet There Are Statues

Yendi by Steven Brust

If you read my review of Brust’s Jhereg, which precedes this book in the Taltos series of novels (by publication order though not chronology), you’ll get a pretty good idea of what to expect from this book as well. Yendi is more of the same, but like many sequels it isn’t quite as well-executed. The plot doesn’t fit together quite as well and Brust’s rather rough hand with dialogue and characterization beyond the narrative voice makes a mess of the romantic subplot. There’s also a really poorly handled Shocking Revelation.

One thing Brust does well is he layers in a lot of hints at backstory without insisting on telling you everything. A lot has happened in these characters pasts, and occasionally its mentioned, but for the most part you don’t actually know any details. That can be a nice thing. However, Vlad Taltos is really kind of low on the totem pole in his organization, yet he’s got ridiculously powerful and influential buddies. And when I say buddies, I mean buddies. He hangs out with legendary figures, and as far as I can tell the only reason they give him the time of day is because they like being around him. He’s not a particularly smart or witty guy and his occupation is one they mostly find distasteful, so it’s hard to imagine how he has gotten to know such luminaries. I’m sure Brust has some backstory that will come up later in the series and that will show how reasonable it all is, but based on the material in this book it’s all hard to believe.

If you have to fly somewhere this book would make for a pleasant diversion, but like Jhereg this book is short enough it might not last the whole flight. According to Brust he tries to write each book in the Taltos series so that it can stand on its own (good thing, these older ones can be hard to find). That being so, there’s no reason to read this book unless you really, really like the others.

Teckla by Steven Brust

This is the third published Taltos book. The earlier two books were vapid procedurals. By the end of Yendi I was wondering if Vlad Taltos was the least self-aware protagonist I’ve ever read about. In Taltos Brust switches things up: there’s still a procedural detective story plot going on, but finally some larger issues are being raised. Taltos has always seemed like a suspiciously nice guy considering he’s an assassin, and finally Brust starts exploring the morality of the situation. In a sophisticated move, he explores the ethics of Taltos’ life while also examining the ethics of the empire in which the series takes place. Unfortunately, the political side of the book isn’t handled very well, but Brust makes up for it with much better character work than in Yendi. Brust has shown me enough that I’ll continue reading the series, but I would still recommend it mainly for fantasy fans who enjoy light plot-driven narratives. Try Jhereg and then this one and you’ll have still read less than a typical fantasy novel from the bookstore.

Jhereg by Steven Brust

This is a very lightweight fantasy procedural. It’s essentially a detective story, except it has an assassin for a main character instead of a policeman or a private investigator. You might not think those are equivalent roles, but Steven Brust disagrees. Vlad Taltos, the aforementioned assassin, finds that in order to kill his target he must first puzzle out what his target is trying to do, why he’s been hired to kill him, etc. In short, nothing short of a grand unified theory of the target is acceptable before killing him. I’m making it sound foolish but Brust engineers the story in such a way this makes sense.

This is a fantasy, so there’s some standard fantasy stuff going on as well. The main character has a familiar, virtually everyone can do magic of one kind or another, death is only permanent in the right circumstances, and there’s some sort of pseudo-feudal society. No elves or dwarves, thank goodness (not in this book at least), and for the most part the world building is handled well. The main character is a sort of low level functionary in a large scale, quasi-legitimate organized crime syndicate. Brust actually trusts the reader to pick up on some details through context and implication rather than spending page after page of infodumps, which is nice. Ultimately, though, the world building isn’t anything to write home about.

If you’re going to enjoy this novel, you’re going to enjoy the convoluted plot, the laconic first person narrative voice, and perhaps the fact that unlike modern fantasy novels this 1983 book is quite short. The good news is if you liked this, there are something like eight more. If you’re not interested in harmless beach reading, look elsewhere.