8.5 KiB
[RT][HF] Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos Novels
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Author: u/Escapement Ankh-Morpork City Watch*
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2m2i9y/rthf_steven_brusts_vlad_taltos_novels/
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Score: 20
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Created: 2014-11-12T13:09:43
Post:
The Cool Stuff Theory of Literature is as follows: All literature consists of whatever the writer thinks is cool. The reader will like the book to the degree that he agrees with the writer about what's cool. And that works all the way from the external trappings to the level of metaphor, subtext, and the way one uses words. In other words, I happen not to think that full-plate armor and great big honking greatswords are cool. I don't like 'em. I like cloaks and rapiers. So I write stories with a lot of cloaks and rapiers in 'em, 'cause that's cool. Guys who like military hardware, who think advanced military hardware is cool, are not gonna jump all over my books, because they have other ideas about what's cool.
The novel should be understood as a structure built to accommodate the greatest possible amount of cool stuff.
- Steven Brust's Cool Stuff Theory of Literature, from The Paths of the Dead
Steven Brust has written a large number of related novels about protagonist Vlad Taltos, living in a nation of what are more-or-less elves called Dragaerans. This fantasy series is one of the more well-realized I've read.
Firstly, from a rational perspective, a lot of the time Vlad's problem solving involves thinking things through, and working out things in a fairly logical, reasonable manner. He solves 'puzzles' and works out things by inference and analysis. Furthermore, he's typically presented with problems and antagonists that stem from fairly reasonable desires of all parties involved - almost everyone does things for real reasons, which tend to be fleshed out and explored, and understanding these motivations and what people are actually trying to accomplish is often one of the focuses of the books. It is not rationalist, but qualifies as rational, and is exceptionally well-written.
The magic system is pretty well defined, as well, and for the most part makes some sense - there are a few types of magic which tend to have fairly distinct capabilities which are well realized and integrated into the society as a whole. The presented world tends to make sense and be fairly reasonably realistic. The series and it's world gets more and more complex and interesting as it goes along, but a lot of what's revealed tends to have been foreshadowed and hinted at well before in preceeding novels (even all the way back to the first few fairly often). It rewards rereading and paying close attention. Each book is a self-contained story with full plot including some sort of setup and resolution, and most of them are pretty short, but there's a lot of interconnected themes and overarching plots and interesting world-building and the like happening somewhat in the background.
The protagonist, Vlad Taltos, is very interesting - the first person viewpoint for much of the series works extremely well because he is such an interesting narrator. He has a lot of snark and sarcasm and dark humor, and has a lot of great dialogue. It's sort of like Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden, but in some respects arguably better as he has a telepathic familiar to play off of at all times, even when he must be outwardly silent.
The Dragaerans in Brust's books have a distinctly alien viewpoint that means that though physically they're pretty close to human in physical appearance (if exceptionally tall), in perspective and viewpoint they are very alien and different at times. This comes through especially clearly and well in those books and sections of books where Brust chooses to write from another (non-Vlad) viewpoint. The Dragaerans are divided into seventeen Houses named after fauna of their world, which tend to have different characteristics and roles in society. The books themselves take their names from these houses, and tend to have overarching themes or motifs that relate in some ways. The exceptions are the books Taltos (named after the protagonist) and the final book in the series which Word of God states will be The Final Contract.
The books should definitely be read in order of publication. Brust likes to jump around in the overarching story's chronology even within a single novel, so reading them in strict chronological order would involve going back and forth between some books and others multiple times, and the series works best in the publication order. This means: Jhereg, Yendi, Teckla, Taltos, Phoenix, Athyra, Orca, Dragon, Issola, Dzur, Jhegaala, Iorich, Tiassa, Hawk. He has written 14 of the projected 19 books that will complete the series, and is working on the next (Vallista).
The series tends to improve as the series progresses. The one real exception is the novel Teckla (third in the series). I have read that Brust was going through personal problems at the time and these influenced the writing. While this book is nowhere near as lighthearted as some others, and is at times almost painful to read, I still suggest not skipping it as it is fairly pivotal for the overarching plot of the series and sets up a lot of stuff that occurs later. If you are enjoying the series up to Teckla, I suggest just powering through it knowing that things do change and get (much!) better later on, and there is some payoff.
There is also a completed series of five related novels called the Khaavren Romances. These are very much Dumas pastiches - they correspond directly to the d'Artagnan romances, i.e. The Phoenix Guards -> The Three Musketeers, Five Hundred Years After -> Twenty Years After, Vicomte of Bragelone trilogy -> Viscount of Adrilankha Trilogy. These should ideally be read before hitting Tiassa in the Vlad series as the plot of that book will make a lot less sense and be less enjoyable otherwise. These are very differently written, and are a lot less rational but they're really fun reads. They're written in an extremely ornate and baroque style throughout, with dialogue that echoes Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and therefore you really should try The Phoenix Guards before purchasing the whole set - there are some people who don't enjoy the style.
Brust also wrote some other books. Brokedown Palace read sort of like a fairy tale at times and is set in the world of Dragaera, but wasn't as interesting as other works set there. Freedom and Necessity was pretty neat, having a realistic and well-researched depiction of 19th century Europe, cool philosophy bits, an interesting plot, and a neat structure as epistolary novels. To Reign in Hell was basically a lot like a good Zelazny novel (seriously the authorial voice was exceptionally similar throughout). The Incrementalists, a fairly recent novel, had some interesting transhumanist themes, being about a society of mind-transferring people slowly improving humanity's lot through careful work and influence over long time periods. Agyar is the a reasonably good urban fantasy/horror novel. A few books were disappointing - Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille had an amazing plot idea to start it off but the resolution was weak, while The Gypsy was pretty much the worst thing either of it's authors (Brust and Megan Lindholm aka Robin Hobb) ever worked on, and The Sun The Moon and The Stars was mostly a tedious book about a starving painter with no fantastic elements save a semi-related Hungarian folktale interspersed throughout the text.
"Seventeen is the mystical number!"
Comments:
u/RandomDamage [+6] (2 hours later)
Steven Brust isn't trying to write rationalist stories, but obvious logical flaws break the flow of the story and are not cool.
u/Empiricist_or_not [+4] Aspiring polite Hegemonizing swarm (an hour later)
I'm not sure I'd say this is rationalist, but in my own classification it's puff, but puff I've deeply enjoyed since my teen years and still buy as soon as I see a new one.
u/Escapement [+6] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (2 hours later)
I did tag it rational rather than rationalist. I put it up mostly as something people might like judging by my opinion of the tastes of the subreddit. It's good fantasy stories with consistency and logic and factions that are driven by more than 'are good/evil'.
I have also been buying his books compulsively since formative years.
u/EliezerYudkowsky [+3] Godric Gryffindor (7 hours later)
I enjoyed Jhereg and Yendi, which both contain problem-solving in large quantities; these were less present in later stories.