Hawk

Vlad Taltos, Book 14

By: Steven Brust

Narrated by: Bernard Setaro Clark

Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Hawk, the latest in Stephen Brusts' New York Times best-selling Vlad Taltos series. Years ago, Vlad Taltos came from the East, to make his way as a human amid the impossibly tall, fantastically long-lived natives of the Dragaeran Empire. He joined the Jhereg, the Dragaeran House (of which there are 17) that handles the Empire's vices: gambling, rackets, organized crime. He became a professional assassin. He was good at it. But that was then, before Vlad and the Jhereg became mortal enemies. For years, Vlad has run from one end of the Empire to the other, avoiding the Jhereg assassins who pursue him. Now, finally, he's back in the imperial capital where his family and friends are. He means to stay there this time. Whatever happens. And whatever it takes.

©2014 Steven Brust (P)2014 Audible Inc.

my review for Vladimir's last book

in the end I felt like the very end of the book was anti-climactic I feel the ending was unclear if this is the last book in the series then maybe the author was intending to leave the book open to the reader or the ending to their own imagination I can appreciate this but realistically I would have loved to a solid conclusion or some kind of closure to the series but maybe I'll listen to it again and see what I missed in the previous 14 books and try to get a deeper understanding of the story

brilliant

again Brust does it. brilliantly written, exciting and entertaining. love his work an he is one of thr best fantassy writers out there

Great read

Great story by Brust. Kept the interest going throughout the story
Very enjoyable , nice ending .., so far.
You will enjoy it

Awesome!

Brust really knows how to write! In addition to his myriad writer skills, he's just a funny m0therfucker lol!

Vlad is back

now the real fun Start's.It is going be good to see him take the to them.

great audio book

I love the story very good audio performance fantastic riding fantastic storytelling. it had me laughing multiple times

Maybe my favorite Vlad Taltos Book

Bernard Setaro Clark becomes more performative in this book, exaggerating some of Vlad's lines a bit. Still a dreamy voice I think about often. Very exciting book. Was not able to put it down. Shared an impression that connections and experiences are valuable. Talk with your friends more. Rely on people. Trust. lol

nice tricky twisty story with just enough humor balancing the grim parts

overall loved it but a touch too much rambling musing. stick with it tho, it's worth the ride

Feels more like the earlier novels

Originally posted at Fantasy Literature.

“My heart gave a thump. It had been doing that a lot lately. I wished it would stop. I mean stop giving random thumps, not, you know, stop.” ~Vlad Taltos

Note: This review contains spoilers for previous novels in the series.

Hawk is Steven Brust’s fourteenth (and latest) novel about Vlad Taltos, a charming assassin living in Dragaera. Over the past 31 years, fans of this series have been through a lot with Vlad and Loiosh, Vlad’s flying reptilian familiar.

We first met Vlad when he was at the top of his game, running the Jhereg criminal organization of Adrilankha. Then he married Cawti, who also used to be an assassin but later became a social revolutionary. The change in her worldview was too much for the marriage to handle and they separated, but that didn’t stop Vlad from betraying the Jhereg in order to save Cawti from being executed. The Jhereg want revenge and have been hunting Vlad for years while he wandered around the Dragaeran Empire. Meanwhile Cawti gave birth to Vlad’s son, which he didn’t know about until later.

Now, Vlad wants his life back. He wants to return to his city and be able to visit his son (now eight years old) without worrying about the safety of his son, Cawti, or himself. So Vlad hatches a plan to make peace with the Jhereg. He thinks he has discovered a new form of sorcery that he can offer to the Jhereg — something that will make them rich and powerful — in return for their promise to call off his assassination. Will it work? Or will he just expose himself and get killed?

After watching Vlad brood for a long time, it’s great to see him come out in the open, face his fears, take charge of his destiny, and once again become the smart assassin he used to be. It’s great to be back in Adrilankha among Vlad’s friends and associates (including a couple of interesting new characters). For these reasons, Hawk feels more like the earlier novels in which Vlad was witty, clever, and full of life. His voice is once again breezy and ironic, and he’s fun to listen to, even when he’s just walking down the street….

…which is fortunate since Vlad does a lot of just walking down the street in this story. Until the very end, the pace is slow and leisurely, but that’s okay since it’s actually amusing just to listen to Vlad bicker with Loiosh, or wish he had a name that starts with “The,” or lament that his cloak doesn’t billow dramatically when he walks down the street.

I’m glad Vlad’s back. I’m not sure when we’ll see the next VLAD TALTOS novel, but I look forward to it. I listened to the audio versions of this series which were produced by Audible Studios. Hawk is almost 9 hours long, though I increased the playback speed as I usually do. Bernard Setaro Clark is an excellent narrator and this is one of those cases where I enjoyed the book more because of the reader’s performance. I wouldn’t think of reading these any other way.

Good one

I read the rest of the series, this was my first audiobook, and I loved it. Loiosh was funny, Vlad was snarky! It was just right. Now I need to go back and listen to them all!