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Aug. 24th, 2026 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eve_primeThe Phoenix Guards, by Steven Brust. Khaavren Romances #1.
For more than 20 years, Steven Brust has been writing a very entertaining series about an assassin, Vlad Taltos, who lives in a fantasy world with two types of humans: those built like us, with lifespans like ours, and another species that’s somewhat bigger and lives for maybe three thousand years or so. The ones like us are the Easterners, who mostly live on the eastern side of the continent, and whose culture is basically Hungarian. The fancier ones are Dragaerans, on the western side of the continent. Vlad is an Easterner who lives among the Dragaerans and has several very powerful ones for his closest friends and colleagues. Brust is writing Vlad’s story in a series of 19 books, each written in a slightly different style. So far 17 have been published, and he says he’s written the final book and is at work on the next-to-final book, so it seems high time for me to reread the series.
But first, I wanted to reread the world’s historical fiction, “written” by one of my favorite characters, Paarfi of Roundwood, a Dragaeran historian publishing in Vlad’s time but writing in a style that’s both modeled after Alexandre Dumas and amusingly pretentious. Here’s a typical sentence: “[They] found themselves in a small, stuffy basement, which would have been damp, smelly, close, and dark, were it not, in fact, well-lit, which prevented it from being dark.” Ha! Even better are the dialogues, which are in a very stilted and wordy style that copies something Dumas did at one point, I suppose, because he was being paid by the word? Suffice it to say that if you’ve read the Vlad books to your child, don’t bother with these, because they probably won’t appreciate them, but as an adult you might develop a deep affection for the style.
Anyway. The Phoenix Guards was obviously inspired by The Three Musketeers, and its characters are mostly Dragaerans living a thousand years before Vlad. (Thanks to their long lifespans, at least two of them also appear in his books.) Khaavren, a young Dragaeran who’s skilled with his sword, ventures out into the world and joins the emperor’s guard, along with three others: the moody Aerich, the flamboyant gambler Tazendra, and the scheming (in a good way) Pel. The first chapters are, to be honest, rather dull, as they keep getting into fatal duels with others. Again and again. But then they set out on an adventure, and the story really picks up, as does the character development. It’s absolutely grand fun, especially the conversations with the emperor that resolve the problems at the end. If you can be patient with the attitudes and dueling at the beginning, it’s definitely worthwhile.
For more than 20 years, Steven Brust has been writing a very entertaining series about an assassin, Vlad Taltos, who lives in a fantasy world with two types of humans: those built like us, with lifespans like ours, and another species that’s somewhat bigger and lives for maybe three thousand years or so. The ones like us are the Easterners, who mostly live on the eastern side of the continent, and whose culture is basically Hungarian. The fancier ones are Dragaerans, on the western side of the continent. Vlad is an Easterner who lives among the Dragaerans and has several very powerful ones for his closest friends and colleagues. Brust is writing Vlad’s story in a series of 19 books, each written in a slightly different style. So far 17 have been published, and he says he’s written the final book and is at work on the next-to-final book, so it seems high time for me to reread the series.
But first, I wanted to reread the world’s historical fiction, “written” by one of my favorite characters, Paarfi of Roundwood, a Dragaeran historian publishing in Vlad’s time but writing in a style that’s both modeled after Alexandre Dumas and amusingly pretentious. Here’s a typical sentence: “[They] found themselves in a small, stuffy basement, which would have been damp, smelly, close, and dark, were it not, in fact, well-lit, which prevented it from being dark.” Ha! Even better are the dialogues, which are in a very stilted and wordy style that copies something Dumas did at one point, I suppose, because he was being paid by the word? Suffice it to say that if you’ve read the Vlad books to your child, don’t bother with these, because they probably won’t appreciate them, but as an adult you might develop a deep affection for the style.
Anyway. The Phoenix Guards was obviously inspired by The Three Musketeers, and its characters are mostly Dragaerans living a thousand years before Vlad. (Thanks to their long lifespans, at least two of them also appear in his books.) Khaavren, a young Dragaeran who’s skilled with his sword, ventures out into the world and joins the emperor’s guard, along with three others: the moody Aerich, the flamboyant gambler Tazendra, and the scheming (in a good way) Pel. The first chapters are, to be honest, rather dull, as they keep getting into fatal duels with others. Again and again. But then they set out on an adventure, and the story really picks up, as does the character development. It’s absolutely grand fun, especially the conversations with the emperor that resolve the problems at the end. If you can be patient with the attitudes and dueling at the beginning, it’s definitely worthwhile.
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Date: 2026-08-25 08:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-08-25 08:47 am (UTC)Oh, ha, I just found a link on reactormag.com that introduces people to the series, and then I appear in the comments (from 8 years ago): https://reactormag.com/an-appreciation-of-the-vlad-taltos-novels-by-steven-brust/
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Date: 2026-08-25 09:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-08-25 10:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-08-25 08:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-08-25 09:58 pm (UTC)The books about Vlad are reasonably compact and quick reads. You'd have a good idea whether you'd like them simply from "Jhereg."