Issola – Steven Brust

Tor, copyright 2001, printed 2001, 255 pages

ISBN 0-312-85927-9

Edited by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Read April 2011 (age 33)

First time read

This is book #9 by publication order of the Vlad Taltos series of novels.  I wouldn’t recommend starting here.  If nothing else, read Athyra and Orca first, but better yet is starting right from Jhereg (if you want to follow publication order), or Taltos (if you're more chronologically inclined).

From the dust jacket:

On the run from House Jhreg, which he double-crossed, Vlad Taltos has been living far too long in the woods, where you can’t even get a decent cup of klava first thing in the morning.  Then suddenly he’s found by, of all improbable people, Lady Teldra, the courtly, preternaturally charming servant of his old friend the Dragonlord Morrolan.  Teldra has come to ask for Vlad’s help, because Morrolan and Aliera have disappeared, and it looks like they may be literally gone from the world.  Consulting the ever-interesting and fabulously powerful Sethra Levode, Vlad and Teldra find that Morrolan and Aliera are being held captive by the Jenoine.

Who have hitherto been a mystery – perhaps not to a lord like Morrolan, but certainly to Vlad.  Indications are that the Jenoine may have made Dragaera and may once have been the masters of the gods themselves.  Not the kind of guys you want to go up against.

Cynical, Vlad may be.  And he certainly claims to be looking out for Number One.  But Morrolan and Aliera are his friends, and he can’t bring himself to abandon them – even if it means doing battle at the Sea of Amorphia itself.

After all, what’s a little cosmic battle with beings who control time and space?  It’s better than hunkering down in the woods without even so much as a drinkable cup of klava.

The order isn’t quite accurate, but the overall plot elements are there.

Reactions, and probably some spoilers, after the break: 

Overall:

It was a welcome thing to be back in the head of our hero, Vlad.  Unfortunately, his head really wasn’t all that fun of a place to be.  The story was very complicated, metaphysically speaking, and involved, you know, the gods, their enemies, and the god-powered people that Vlad knows back on Draegera.  Vlad played a small part in most of the events, and spent most of the book confused and feeling powerless.  Major plot events happened, we got to learn a bit more about Vlad, a lot more about Teldra (Morrolan’s greeter, as far as we knew until this book), but ultimately, it was a bit of a disappointing entry in the Vlad Taltos series.  It’s certainly worth reading for completeness, and there are always the wonderful little turns of phrases that define Steven Brust’s writing to me.  In any event, it’s a quick read.  One of the major ongoing story threads is resolved, and steps get made toward resolving some of the other issues – his exile from the city of Draegera, among others.

Rating: 3

Characters:

As ever, the characters are a strength of the book.  I’m getting tired of the sad, mopey, on-his-own-too-much Vlad, though, and would prefer the plucky, in-over-his-head-but-punching-above-his-weight Vlad.  It’s part of the maturing process, I know, but still – the books are getting a bit less fun, since Vlad is having less fun navigating his way through all the terrible things that are happening to and around him.

Setting:

The setting was still interesting – there is lots yet to learn about the world, and magic, and the gods and all that.  The past few books, the new stuff is starting to become scarcer, though.  It’s unfortunate, but I think we’re getting out of the expository phase of the series, and into the plot-ier events.  The earlier books were better at intermingling the plot and expository elements, to my mind.

Plot:

The story is starting to rely a lot more on continuity between the books, which is unfortunate, as there are so many books, that I don’t remember all the details from the previous books.  The plot this time was dealing with an unknowable enemy who uses different mechanics of living than humans, and it didn’t really work very well for me.

Premise:

Following directly behind Athyra and Orca, Vlad needs to go rescue his friends, who’ve been kidnapped.  But there’s more… It was a decent set up, but I didn’t follow along the whole way with the whole Jenoine thing.  Vlad was in over his head, and didn’t get it. Given the style of the first-person viewpoint, where we only see what Vlad understands and thinks important, if Vlad doesn’t get it, I don’t get it.

Readability:

Excellent, as ever.  Good pacing, even if the events were, in many cases, incomprehensible to the main character, and therefore to me, as well.

Other Opinions:

Russ Allbery - Liked it WAY more than I did.  He apparently followed along better than I did.

Fred Bush at Strange Horizons - He also figured that it was important to read, but not that great.

Robert Tilendis at Epinions.com  - Nice review.  Liked it better than I did.

William Thompson at SFsite.com - Similar feel to my read.