An omnibus volume consisting of books 10 and 11 (by publication order) of Brust's Vlad Taltos series, featuring former crime boss and assassin Vlad Taltos, a human who has lived most of his life among the elf-like Dragaerans.

In this case, I definitely have to review the two separately.

Dzur: This one follows on almost directly from the previous book, Issola. I finished that one feeling rather excited to see what might come next, but I can't say this installment really paid that off. There are some developments in the ongoing story arc, but they all feel more like setup for the future than anything else, and the actual plot, which features some power struggles among organized crime operations, wasn't especially interesting. And while I'm sure there are readers who might really enjoy the long descriptions of food that start off each chapter, I can't say I'm among them. Not that any of it was bad. Even the weakest of these novels manages to be at least mildly entertaining, but while this one still clears that bar, I don't think it gets very far over it.

Jhegaala: Here we're jumping back in time again to fill in an important gap in Vlad's narrative thus far. And this one I definitely liked. I found the plot much more interesting, to begin with. Yeah, I might look very slightly askance at the way Vlad has to spend several pages at the end explaining to us everything that just happened, but Brust is clearly playing on mystery novel tropes there, in a very self-aware sort of way, so I'll allow it. It also features Vlad taking a trip back to the eastern land of his family's origins, which I found interesting. I've often said that the world-building is the best thing about this series, but while reading Dzur, I'll admit, I was starting to think maybe we'd explored that world enough by now that there wasn't much left to do with it. But, of course, there was this whole region and culture that had only been touched on so far, and I'm glad to have finally gotten to spend some time there. It's a good installment for character stuff for Vlad, too. Since he's on his own this time (well, except for his constant reptilian companions, of course), we get to spend a lot of time in his head, and I always find that interesting. His cynical sense of humor is always fun, even when he's going through some very dark times, as he is here. But I also like the way Brust paints him in such complicated shades of gray. It would have been very easy, I think, to let Vlad become simply heroic, and even easier to turn him into the kind of antihero whose actions you're never expected to question as long as he looks cool doing them, or, alternatively, into a soggy bundle of what-have-I-done angst. Instead, Brust lets him be sympathetic and likeable and funny, but also finds ways to quietly remind us that despite all the ways in which Vlad can be a good guy, he's not entirely a good person, and he's kinda-sorta okay with that. And that, to me, is much more interesting to read.

Rating: Dzur gets a slightly generous-feeling 3.5/5, but Jhegaala is a very solid 4. I'm not sure how to average that out. I guess mathematically it ends up being closer to 3.5/5 than anything else, so let's go with that, even though it doesn't really mean anything. ( )