I have read several of Steven Brust’s stories about Vlad Taltos.? They are all great stories so I had some preconceptions going in.
The premise of this is that there is a world where there are “humans” and “easterners”.? The “humans” are broken into different groups all based on various dragons.? These are both ethnic and organizational groups.? The organizational elements actually have a cycle of rule and how the emperor is determined.
“Easterners” don’t make it very high in the social structure.? Vlad is an exception though he has climbed his ladder in the least desirable group, the Jehreg (they are kind of the mafia kind of organization).
Magic is important to the stories too.? Magic is broken into different kinds including sorcery and witchcraft and maybe others.? Another important element is that Vlad has an actual Jehreg dragon (Loish, a small dragon) that is his familiar who is physically tied to him and mostly sits on his shoulder.? Loish also has a mate who sits on Vlad’s other shoulder.
Vlad’s exception in that he’s socially high on the ladder is really important in that he has lots of friends in different places.? They play an important part in this story.
Now to the story.? This is a reasonably complex story of Vlad coming back to town even though the Jehreg (the organization) has a price on his head.? He finds that his wife has some problems and he decides to help out.? An interesting element of the story is that it has? back drop of Vlad having a very elegant, multi course dinner throughout the story.? I was constantly hungry throughout the book.
The story was a little slow but had lots of great dialog though I remember it being crisper and sharper in some of the older books.? Still with all that, I enjoyed the book a lot and it was fun to follow the twists of the plot through Steven’s twists till the end.? I missed these stories.