Teckla

Vlad Taltos, Book 3

By: Steven Brust

Narrated by: Bernard Setaro Clark

Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

The third Vlad Taltos book represents a darker, more serious turn in the series. Vladimir Taltos is a short-lived, short-statured Easterner (what we would call a human) in a world mostly populated by the long-lived, extremely tall Dragaerans. He is also an assassin and petty crimelord. His lifestyle and career require some difficult moral choices. When his wife Cawti joins an uprising of Easterners and peasant Dragaerans (the Teckla of the title), it causes a severe strain in their marriage, and Vlad begins to question those choices.

©1987 Steven K. Z. Brust (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Rebel Uprising

In this 3rd book in the series Vlad finds himself trying to take neutral sides. But when his wife is fully invested in the uprising he finds himself at odds with his wife. If he wants to keep her safe he must make a decision. While all this is going on he finds that the competition is trying to movie in on his turf. I enjoyed listing to Vlad try to juggle his personal life and his business life. As you've come to expect Bernard Setaro Clark's narration had the same quality as the first two books.

Oh my! Not even close to what it should be...

Hmmm... after reading the first book in this series, I immediately bought the remainder of the books because I figured they would all be similar in quality and tone. Now I am worried that I was mistaken.

The first book was a noir vigilante book set in a foreign (fantasy) world. The second was more along the lines of an almost-noir detective novel, and although there was not much vigilantism, the dark theme remained. This one was... well... a soap opera-y philosophical fiction. It had no detective work going on; it had no noir; it had no vigilantism. It was more than a bit on the lecture-y side (oh, look how bad "THE MAN" is and how the "system" controls us) and involved the main character essentially pacing back and forth (literally, from one side of town to another, and figuratively in trying to figure out his wife) and bemoaning the apparent breakdown of his marriage (in the face of her struggle against governmental control of "the people").

See my disappointment? It is missing all the features I enjoy (vigilantes, noir, detectives) and includes some of my main pet peeves (morals and lectures). And what was left - man pulling his hair out over relationship breakdown - really didn't tickle my emotional armpits. I simply didn't care. Maybe I'm callous, or maybe Brust simply is better at writing noir than emotional pieces.

I really hope the next one is back to the good stuff because this one was just not worth reading. If this had been the first book I'd read by Brust, it would have been the last. In fact, I'm half tempted to ask for my money back because I feel like I was ripped off - I thought I was buying a noir fantasy with vigilante overtones and I got a philosophical political treatise instead.

The narration is fine. There is nothing gory or graphic and I don't think there is any swearing.

Complete departure from the series.

I was extremely disappointed in this book.

I very much liked the first two books in the series. There was action, there were twists, there were great plans slowly revealed, there were characters of power as friend and foe. I expected more of the same.

Instead I got a drawn out tale about how people change. Sure, there were a few strategy bits, but it was mostly a tale of a man realizing that the woman he is married to is not the woman he married. The secondary story is politics. There is also a fair bit about refusing to look at things from other points of view. There are no real twists.

The story was still well told. In fact, the segues were possibly the most interesting part of the book.

I felt cheated out of the time I invested in this book. Several other books in the series look promising, but I doubt I’ll read them -- this was just so far outside of what I expected that I have no confidence in the rest of the series.

Vlad Taltos broods

Originally posted at Fantasy Literature.

Teckla is the third novel in Steven Brust’s series about Vlad Taltos, a human assassin who lives in the empire of Dragaera which is populated mostly by a species of long-lived tall humanoids who were genetically engineered by sorcerers and divide themselves into clans depending on their specific traits. In the first VLAD TALTOS novel, Jhereg, we met Vlad, an Easterner whose father bought the family into the nobility of the lowly house of Jhereg. Vlad, like many of the Jhereg, is a crime boss and controls a portion of the city of Adrilankha. In the second book, Yendi, we learned how Vlad met his wife Cawti when she was sent to assassinate him. He died but was revivified by his minions and married Cawti.

The Teckla of the title of this third book are the peasant clan of Dragaera. For generations they’ve been the down-trodden masses. But now they have a charismatic leader who is stirring them up and fomenting revolution. The Easterners have joined them and so has Cawti, Vlad’s ultra-competent wife. The revolution is causing some difficulties for Herth, one of the other Jhereg bosses and Vlad learns that Herth plans to murder the leaders of the revolution, including Cawti. Vlad is being pulled in multiple directions. He wants to please and protect his wife, and his heritage is Easterner, but he’s now a noble in one of the Dragaeran houses. What is a cold-hearted crime lord assassin to do? Kill people, of course.

For such a short book, there’s plenty of plot in Teckla — assassinations, investigations, revolutionary rallies, break-ins, kidnapping, torture, rescues. To emphasize the action, Brust titles each chapter with a snippet from the laundry list that Vlad Taltos must have compiled at the end of the adventure — “Chapter 3: And repair cut in right cuff,” “Chapter 4: One pair gray trousers: remove blood stain from upper right leg.” These cute chapter titles foreshadow the events in the chapter.

But the main focus of Teckla is Vlad’s insecurities about his own profession and lifestyle and his relationship with Cawti. Cawti wants to live her own life, but she’s heading into trouble. Vlad just wants to protect her, but she doesn’t want his protection. Vlad also doesn’t want to cause more tension between himself and the other nobility of Dragaera. The couple find themselves being pulled in opposite directions and starting to wonder how well they actually know and love each other.

I like the VLAD TALTOS series mainly because I like Vlad Taltos. I like his competence, his breezy but philosophical style, his thoughtful analysis of himself and others, and the amusing way he looks at life. In Teckla, Vlad is mostly feeling insecure and depressed, which is unusual for him (or so it seems to me after reading the previous two books). I enjoyed how he began to question his place in Dragaera and his thoughts about social status, the government’s role in society, the worship of causes and ideas, and the need for revolution. But because of his failing marriage, Vlad does a lot of brooding in this book. While it makes him feel human and sensitive (which is kind of nice for an assassin, I suppose), it’s not the Vlad Taltos we know and love and, frankly, it gets tiresome, and even annoying, after a while. I hope that Vlad will be back to himself in the next novel, Taltos.

I’m listening to Bernard Setaro Clark’s excellent narration of Audible Frontier’s audio version.

This was stupid

I like the first book

I liked the second book even though it was a prequel to the first book

This book begins several months after the events of the first book and it’s stupid

It’s not that you wouldn’t do this to someone you love it’s that marriages don’t survive stuff like this it was stupid and if she was the character they portrayed her to be in the first and second book she wouldn’t of done that and if the main character was the person they portrayed in the first and second book he wouldn’t of put up with it either and would’ve ended the relationship this was a stupid book

worst of series

pretty awful mishmash of depression,relationship problems and Marxism. Hated about 75% of it. Narration excellent though.

This used to be one of my least favorite Taltos books...

After Athyra, which still is my least favorite, I never really enjoyed Teckla. But I just have this a listen again -- maybe it's the third time in 20 years I've read (listened to) it -- and with the political climate, and perhaps a little of my own maturity, I have to say this is a much better story than I remember it being. The ideas being evaluated are complex and while occasionally the characters are a little archetypal, there's a lot of interesting discussion of politics and making the word in ones own righteous image. Definitely worth a re-read.

Good but...

If you've liked the previous books, you should like this one.

This book focused on the tensions ever present and continuously causing problems within Taltos's world relating to how humans and Tekla are treated.

However, unlike the predecessors, this book didn't revolve around a master plan that had to be figured out but, rather, where Taltos felt he fit in with the world. As I had become accustomed to these puzzles, I did feel mildly let down at having no great master plan to figure out alongside Taltos, so I felt a bit more bored listening to this one.

So, 4 for stars for the story, while I continue to love the narrator. Overall, I'll give a 5 star because the book still gave excellent insight into this world, how it works, etc.

DECLINE! 😱

I started the first book cautiously but ended enjoying it immensely.
I looked forward to many future books as enjoyable.
The second book not as good.
The third his weakest so far.
The author does not do well with cognitive exploration of personal philosophies.
I do plan to try his next book.

not the best book

for me . to much Marxism. relationship dynamics are wrong. way to much self pity. however. this is such a interesting world I can forgive quite a bit.