Vallista
A Novel of Vlad Taltos
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4.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
Full of swordplay, peril, and swashbuckling flair, Steven Brust's Vallista is a treat for longtime fans of this popular fantasy series, a deep dive into the mysteries of Dragaera and all within it.
Vlad Taltos is an Easterner—an underprivileged human in an Empire of tall, powerful, long-lived Dragaerans. He made a career for himself in House Jhereg, the Dragaeran clan in charge of the Empire’s organized crime. But the day came when the Jhereg wanted Vlad dead, and he’s been on the run ever since. He has plenty of friends among the Dragaeran highborn, including an undead wizard and a god or two. But as long as the Jhereg have a price on his head, Vlad’s life is…messy.
Meanwhile, for years, Vlad’s path has been repeatedly crossed by Devera, a small Dragaeran girl of indeterminate powers who turns up at the oddest moments in his life.
Now Devera has appeared again—to lead Vlad into a mysterious, seemingly empty manor overlooking the Great Sea. Inside this structure are corridors that double back on themselves, rooms that look out over other worlds, and—just maybe—answers to some of Vlad’s long-asked questions about his world and his place in it. If only Devera can be persuaded to stop disappearing in the middle of his conversations with her…
Vlad Taltos Series
1. Jhereg
2. Yendi
3. Teckla
4. Taltos
5. Phoenix
6. Athyra
7. Orca
8. Dragon
9. Issola
10. Dzur
11. Jhegaala
12. Iorich
13. Tiassa
14. Hawk
15. Vallista
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The clever 15th book in Brust's Vlad Taltos cycle (after Hawk), set in a fantasy land where humans uneasily coexist with the 17 clans of long-lived nonhumans called Dragaerans, continues his recent trend of pastiching genres by taking on the gothic novel, including overt and occasionally overly cute references to classics such as The Mysteries of Udolpho and Jane Eyre. Series hero Vlad, a not-entirely-hapless human who's currently on the run from Dragaeran crime bosses, gets a visit from Devera, the otherworldly young daughter of his friend Aliera, asking for his help. She leads him to a mysterious building called Precipice Manor and vanishes, and Vlad finds himself unable to leave. As he searches the building, he meets a ghost who claims to have built it, encounters servants ranging from butlers to sorcerers, and finds rooms that connect to one another in defiance of geometry. He also discovers that some paths take him to different times. In spite of the book's limited location, it's hardly a suitable introduction for new readers of the series, but longtime readers will have a lot to get excited about: many of the mysteries plaguing Vlad are solved here, and the Paths of the Dead, long one of the more complicated elements of this universe, are a major plot element. Brust's signature wit and narrative voice keep the action flowing and entertaining.
