Phoenix (alkuperäinen julkaisuvuosi 1990; vuoden 1990 painos)

As a Vlad Taltos novel, it doesn't follow the same tricks as the previous novels, which bodes well. The main issue, assassination, starts and finishes almost immediately, but the ripple effect tears the rest of his life apart.

I can't say that I'm very surprised that his marriage has fallen apart, because that was the main terror of the last novel, as was the revolution, which has now finally blown up the great city.

Poor Vlad. Not only is his vaunted practicality falling to shit, he's actually becoming a reasonably respectable hero that actually CARES to do the RIGHT thing. Oh my. I mean, it's not like we haven't seen a glimmer of this moral and caring Vlad in the past, of course, but to actually admit it to himself?

Oh, The Horror.

And so ends one major chapter of his life, in more ways than one, and he's left with only his dragon companions and his trusty blade and Wonderous Magical Item.

Where will he go? What kind of mischief will a major crime boss and assassin extraordinaire get up to now, without a wife or crew to hold him back?

There's absolutely no reason in hell to go over the implications of the title, except that Mr. Brust had imbedded his own meanings quite nicely into the worldbuilding without ever needing to apply it to our mythology. Too bad the story, itself, does the job quite adroitly. :)

Reborn!!! ( )

Solid book that first introduces Vlad to a land outside of Dragaera. It's a short read, but a lot happens within that timeframe to change Vlad's life forever. ( )

one nice thing about a shorter book, you don't get bogged down in anything. Vlad helps save the Empire from invasion and from being torn apart from internal strife, but he also separates from his wife and takes off in exile to start a new life as a not an assassin"." ( )

Phoenix is the fifth Vlad book and follows on immediately from Teckla (the third, not the fourth, book). In Teckla Vlad wanders around being kind of angsty. His problems haven't really been resolved by Phoenix, he's just become more resigned to them. It isn't fun the way, say, Taltos was, but I still enjoyed it, because Vlad's problems are interesting and Vlad's a funny guy.

Also, Vlad still has Loish, his jhereg familiar and one of my favourite characters.

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like when things are going wrong - your wife is ready to leave you, all your notions about yourself and the world are getting turned around, everything you trusted is becoming questionable - there’s nothing like having someone try to kill you to take your mind off your problems. ( )

This book continues Vlad's strange adventures as he meets the Demon Goddess. He's trying to oppose her will, he thinks, or is he actually doing her will? A bit more fantastical and adventurous than the usual Vlad novel. ( )