DOCSLIB.ORG

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

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Book of Taltos: Contains the Complete Text of Taltos and Phoenix Pdf FREE THE BOOK OF TALTOS: CONTAINS THE COMPLETE TEXT OF TALTOS AND PHOENIX PDF Steven Brust | 389 pages | 08 Jan 2002 | Penguin Publishing Group | 9780441008940 | English | New York, NY, United States The Book of Taltos (Vlad Taltos, #) by Steven Brust Taltos is a fantasy novel by American writer Steven Brustthe fourth book in his Vlad Taltos series, set in the fantasy world of Dragaera. Originally published in by Ace Booksit was reprinted in along with Phoenix as part of the omnibus The Book of Taltos. It does not follow the trend of being named after one of the Great Houses of the Dragaeran Empireand instead takes its title from its protagonist. Due to the series being written out of chronological order, the events of this book are actually the earliest in the series' timeline. The story follows three separate timelines that ultimately come together by the end of the book. The first timeline begins each chapter and features Vlad performing an extremely complicated ritual of witchcraft. Vlad actually begins this ritual towards the end of the third timeline. The second timeline charts the details of Vlad's development through childhood. Much of it overlaps with parts of Jhereg and Yendibut goes into more detail. Vlad was born in Adrilankha, the capital city of the Dragaeran Empire. As an EasternerVlad is held The Book of Taltos: Contains the Complete Text of Taltos and Phoenix scorn by the larger, stronger, longer-lived, and generally more powerful Dragaerans. His father, a restaurateur, also believes that Dragaeran culture is superior to Eastern culture. He attempts to teach Vlad to feel the same and purchases at great cost a title from the House of the Jhereg, making the family technically citizens of the Empire. Vlad is regularly abused by gangs of young Orcaand learns to hate Dragaerans for the scorn they show him. Vlad spends more time with his grandfather, an actual native of the Eastern Kingdoms, who teaches Vlad about Eastern culture. Vlad learns to prefer Eastern fencing to Dragaeran swordsmanship, and Eastern witchcraft to Dragaeran sorcery. As he grows, Vlad begins defending himself from Dragaerans and learns to enjoy hurting them. After his father dies, Vlad continues to sharpen his skills and gains the friendship of Kiera, a Jhereg thief. Kiera introduces Vlad to a Jhereg business associate, Nielar, and Vlad joins the Organization as a simple enforcer. He is partnered with Kragar, a mild and nondescript former Dragonlord, and quickly establishes himself as a capable enforcer. At the age of seventeen, Vlad completes his first assassination job. Thereafter, Vlad begins to live the high life through a steady stream of jobs. Eventually Vlad receives his first job requiring the use of a Morganti blade, to be used on a Jhereg informant to the Empire. Vlad contemplates his job for a while before deciding to pay off the target's mistress. Despite his aversion to the Morganti weapon, Vlad performs the job and achieves still more renown. After a turf war, Vlad's boss is killed and Vlad receives a new boss, whom Vlad quickly learns to hate. Vlad kills his new boss and takes over his operation. Vlad's new operation runs smoothly for a short time until one of his enforcers, Quion, steals some of his money and flees to Dzur mountain, the home of an infamous and near-legendary sorceress called Sethra Lavode. Vlad must recover the money and kill The Book of Taltos: Contains the Complete Text of Taltos and Phoenix or he will lose face. This is the beginning of the third timeline. Vlad decides to speak with Sethra's nominal lord, Morrolan, who agrees to bring Vlad to Dzur Mountain. There, Vlad meets Sethra Lavode, standing over the corpse of Quion. Vlad learns that Quion's theft was manipulated to orchestrate a meeting between Vlad, Sethra, and Morrolan. Angered by the manipulation, Vlad comes close to fighting both Sethra and Morrolan, but Sethra shockingly apologizes for her tactics and tempers cool. She further explains that she wants Vlad to steal a specific staff from the lair of a powerful Athyra wizard, Loraan, because only an Easterner can slip through Loraan's wards. He takes the job. Vlad slips into the wizard's lair without much difficulty, only to discover that Loraan is working late. Morrolan appears and enters magical combat with Loraan and his guards. During the struggle, Vlad finds the staff and uses another of Loraan's artifacts, a magical length of gold chain, to destroy its protective enchantments. Loraan launches a blast at Vlad, but the chain absorbs this spell as well. As Loraan turns his attention back to Morrolan, Vlad stabs him in the back. Morrolan and Vlad flee back to Dzur Mountain. There, Sethra and Morrolan inform Vlad that the staff they stole contains the soul of Aliera, Morrolan's cousin, who was trapped in the staff's jewel during Adron's Disaster. Vlad agrees on the vindictive condition that Morrolan accompany him, knowing that Morrolan is even less likely to escape than himself. Morrolan and Vlad journey to Deathsgate Falls, where Dragaeran corpses are sent for burial. After rappelling down, they enter the Paths of the Dead, a labyrinth that all Dragaeran souls must navigate as a test before entering the Hall of Judgment. Morrolan and Vlad are challenged to a series of duels by twelve dead Dragonlords, but after Vlad tosses a dagger at one of them, they attack en masse. Vlad and Morrolan manage to kill them all, and continue through a number of other tests. They eventually reach The Book of Taltos: Contains the Complete Text of Taltos and Phoenix Lords of Judgment, who judge the fates of all Dragaeran souls that enter the Hall. Vlad and Aliera are cleared to leave the Halls, The Book of Taltos: Contains the Complete Text of Taltos and Phoenix not Morrolan. Aliera refuses to leave without Morrolan and goes to talk with the soul of Kieron the Conqueror, the founder of the Empire and her distant relative. She receives his greatsword after a hostile exchange, but the group is no closer to escaping. Vlad conceives of a plan and begins to perform the complex ritual of the The Book of Taltos: Contains the Complete Text of Taltos and Phoenix timeline. If the ritual fails, Vlad could go insane, or become too tired to leave the Halls himself. Through the ritual, he summons a vial of fluid given to him by Kiera in his youth, which Morrolan injects into his own veins. The fluid is the blood of a god, which allows Morrolan to resist the effects of the Halls. The three escape and return to Dzur Mountain. Sethra, Morrolan, and Aliera all express their debt to Vlad. In the novel, the theme of a discriminating social order is prominent, and critic Stefan Ekman addresses how that theme comes out in the portrayal of the Paths of the Dead. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wesleyan University Press, p. Steven Brust. Brokedown Palace Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. Add links. First edition cover. The Vlad Taltos novels. The Book of Taltos by Steven Brust | LibraryThing Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Taltos : Although this was the fourth book in the series to be published, it's set before any of the previous ones. And, really, it's not one story, but two stories somewhat oddly interleaved. One gives us the details of an adventure alluded to in earlier volumes, in which Vlad goes on a mission to bring a soul back from the dead. The other gives some backstory on Vlad's life and the early days of his assassin's career. The two are told in strict alternation, scene-by-scene, even though they're not very strongly connected to each other, and to be honest I'm not sure The Book of Taltos: Contains the Complete Text of Taltos and Phoenix structure entirely works. The result feels to me a little like Brust kind of smooshed two novellas together because neither of them had enough substance to carry a novel. You would think a journey to the land of the dead would seem pretty epic, or that the dark stuff in Vlad's past would have a lot of weight, but, despite that it all feels very light. Feather-light, really, compared to the nuanced political themes of the previous installment, Teckla. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. As feather-light fantasy entertainment goes, it's entertaining enough, and I still enjoyed the world-building touches, as well as finding Vlad a The Book of Taltos: Contains the Complete Text of Taltos and Phoenix interesting and sometimes amusing character. Phoenix : And now we're back to what we might call the series' present again. This one is set right after Tecklaplunging us back into the messy political situation that still prevailed at the end of that book, and following up on developments that happened in it. Which means that, like Tecklait has a much more serious tone to it, and this one is definitely a proper novel. The plot, which involves Vlad being hired by a goddess to commit an assassination that turns out to have unforeseen consequences, was interesting, but for me, it's Vlad's character development that really shines here. Reading this immediately after Taltos nicely highlights the subtle yet significant changes Vlad has gone through over the course of his life, and he is very much continuing to change through this book.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • LEAD FICTION Matt Goldman
    FORGE BOOKS M A Y 2 0 1 8 LEAD FICTION Matt Goldman Gone to Dust The debut from Emmy Award-winning Seinfeld writer Matt Goldman: “A perfect blend of light touch and dark story.”—Lee Child A brutal crime. The ultimate cover-up. How do you solve a murder with no useable evidence? Private detective Nils Shapiro is focused on forgetting his ex-wife and keeping warm during another Minneapolis winter when a former colleague calls with the impossible. Suburban divorcee Maggie Somerville was found murdered in her bedroom, her body covered with the dust from hundreds of emptied vacuum cleaner bags, all potential DNA evidence obscured by the calculating killer. Digging into Maggie’s cell phone records, Nils finds that the most frequently ON-SALE DATE: 5/1/2018 called number belongs to a mysterious young woman whose true identity could shatter the Somerville family--but could she be guilty of murder? ISBN-13: 9780765391308 EBOOK ISBN: 9780765391292 After the FBI demands that Nils drop the case, Nils is forced to take PRICE: $9.99 / $12.99 CAN. hisinvestigation underground, where the case grows as murky as the contents PAGES: 304 of the vacuum cleaner bags. Is this a strange case of domestic violence or SPINE: 19.050 IN something with far reaching, sinister implications? CTN COUNT: 48 CPDA/CAT: 10/MYSTERY KEY SELLING POINTS: SETTING: MINNEAPOLIS * SUCCESSFUL SCREENWRITER, DEBUT NOVELIST: After an ORIGIN: FORGE HC (8/17, Emmy-winning career as a TV writer and a playwright, honing his talents at 978-0-7653-9128-5) storytelling and dialogue, Goldman finally feels ready to break out with this AUTHOR HOME: LOS ANGELES, CA first book.
    [Show full text]
  • A Playset for the Fiasco Story-Telling Game. Adrilankha Credits Written by Corey Reid with Input from Jody Kline and “Kitesh”
    A Playset for the Fiasco story-telling game. Adrilankha Credits Written By Corey Reid with input from Jody Kline and “Kitesh”. Obviously the whole thing is based on the works of Steven Brust, who if you don’t know is a fantastic writer and you should start with Jhereg. Enjoy. Boilerplate This playset is an accessory for the Fiasco role-playing game by Bully Pulpit Games. This playset is copyright 2011 by Corey Reid. Fiasco is copyright 2009 by Jason Morningstar. All rights are reserved. For more information about Fiasco or to download other playsets and materials, visit www.bullypulpitgames.com. If you’d like to create your own playset or other Fiasco-related content, we’d like to help. Write us at [email protected]. No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style. Two Words On the subject of criminal activities, with notes as to their likely (not to say inevitable) outcome Life in the Empire’s greatest (remaining) city isn’t ever easy, but opportunity can appear at the most unexpected moments. A chance encounter, a stolen glance, an inattentive button-man, and the world can be your oyster. Sometimes, though, you’re the oyster, and the world is that blunt knife getting forced in through your shell. Maybe you’re a low-ranking Jhereg enforcer looking to make a little on the side, and you just had a Dragon noblewoman spill her drunken secrets within your hearing. You HAD to tell that old Eastern guy enough so he’d cast that spell, but how were you to know the Left Hand of the Jhereg was ALREADY involved, and now somebody says Sethra Lavode is asking around? It may be time to lie low, or it may be time to start sticking knives into everyone who looks like they need it, and just hope the mound of bodies keeps the Phoenix Guards confused long enough for you to get out from under.
    [Show full text]
  • 01 Gustafsson Layout 1
    AIC nr. 20 2/2017 ©2017 AIC Schwab’s Imaginary Ethnographies: Inspiring a Student’s Wanderings through Familiar Literary Texts and the Development of New Subjectivities ANGELA GUSTAFSSON WHYLAND Southern New Hampshire University Reading, because we control it, is adaptable to our needs and rhythms. We are free to indulge our subjective associative impulse; the term I coin for this is deep reading: the slow and meditative possession of a book. We don’t just read the words, we dream our lives in their vicinity. The printed page becomes a kind of wrought- iron fence we crawl through, returning, once we have wandered, to the very place we started. (Sven Birkerts) When I first read the proposed theme for this issue and thought about Schwab’s Imaginary Ethnographies, I was struck by the similarity between Schwab’s realizations about reading, and my own recent, driven rereading of Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos science fiction/fantasy series1, set in the semi-fictional world of Dragaera. The ques- tions that Schwab poses, and Schwab’s experiences reading Buck’s Peony, had me fo- cused more than I normally would on why Brust’s series is such a touchstone for me as a reader. Then, looking back outward to other readers, I wondered, how does reading, as a kind of dreaming, potentially change our views of self, and perhaps change how we interact with our “reality”, our lived world, and what that could be?2 I have chosen to discuss the works of Steven Brust, who has not yet been a part of academic conversation, in the hopes of opening up those existing conversations to the many other creative works of speculative fiction.
    [Show full text]
  • Table of Contents
    Complete List of Contents Volume 1 Publisher’s Note ................................................... xi Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy ................ 46 Contributors .......................................................xiii Arthur Rex ........................................................... 48 List of Genres ..................................................... xxi The Artificial Kid ................................................ 50 Introduction .......................................................xxv Science Fiction and Fantasy ............................ xxix At the Back of the North Wind .......................... 51 At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels ................................................... 53 The Absolute at Large .......................................... 1 The Atlan Series .................................................. 54 Accelerando .......................................................... 2 Babel 17 ............................................................... 57 Adam and Eve ....................................................... 4 Barefoot in the Head .......................................... 58 Adventures of Vlad Taltos ..................................... 5 Baron Munchausen’s Narrative of His Aegypt, Love and Sleep, Daemonomania Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in and Endless Things ........................................... 8 Russia ............................................................... 60 Against Infinity .................................................... 10 The
    [Show full text]
  • Spring 2020 Tor Catalog
    SPRING 2020 TOR This edition of the catalogue was printed on November 12, 2019. To view updates, please see the Spring 2020 Raincoast eCatalogue or visit www.raincoast.com 20S Macm Tor Deal with the Devil A Mercenary Librarians Novel by Kit Rocha Deal with the Devil is Orphan Black meets the post-apocalyptic Avengers by USA Today and New York Times bestselling author duo Kit Rocha. Nina is an information broker with a mission - she and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to save the hopeless in a crumbling America. Knox is the bitter, battle-weary captain of the Silver Devils. His squad of supersoldiers went AWOL to avoid slaughtering innocents, and now he's fighting to survive. They're on a deadly collision course, and the passion that flares between them only makes it more dangerous. They could burn down the world, destroying each other in the process. Or they could do the impossible: team up. This is the first book in a near-future science fiction series with elements of romance Tor On Sale: May 12/20 Author Bio 6.12 x 9.25 • 336 pages 9781250209368 • $24.50 • pb KIT ROCHA is the pseudonym for the author duo Donna Herren and Bree Fiction / Science Fiction / Adventure Bridges. They are best known for their gritty and sexy dystopian BEYOND Series: Mercenary Librarians series, and were the first indie authors to receive a Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award. They currently live three miles apart in Alabama and spend their non-writing time caring for a menagerie of animals and Notes crafting handmade jewelry, all of which is chronicled on their various social media accounts.
    [Show full text]