This contains books six and seven (by publication date) of Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series, about an assassin (or, at this point, ex-assassin) and his reptilian sidekick, set in a fantasy world with some really well-done world-building. Honestly, I think I like the world-building better than I like the stories themselves. Not that those aren't fine, but they're usually not super memorable. And I really like the world-building. For a fantasy realm, it feels extremely real to me.

Anyway, the two individual novels included here are:

Athyra: The plot to this one is very slight. But it is interesting in that it's the first book in this series that's narrated from a POV other than Vlad's, in this case a young peasant who gets caught up in Vlad's doings. Which gives us a somewhat interesting view of Vlad from the outside, while making for a rather different tone and voice with much less of the irreverent wisecracking we usually get. So it's a bit more subdued, and, in the end, more of a downer than I was expecting.

Orca: If the plot to Athyra is slight, this one's almost too complicated. It starts with Vlad attempting to help out an old woman who's about to lose her land, in exchange for her helping him with something else, and grows into an investigation of a complicated plot involving banking and murder. Come to think of it, this one's maybe a little depressing, too, just for how reminiscent it is of problems with real-world banking systems. It is an interesting story, though, and one that also features a couple of surprising revelations. ( )

http://startredder.livejournal.com/388071.html#cutid1 Athyra

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2Z7SIXFVR398T/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm ( )

An omnibus of Athyra and Orca.

Athyra A noticably different Vlad book, not only because it is chronologically (so far at least) the first book after Vlad's self-imposed exile but also because it is the first book not told by Vlad himself. Looking at Vlad through the eyes of a teenage Teckla who has lived his life in a rural farming community gives a very strange view of the assassin and his jheregs, removing most of the mystery elements (at least to the reader who already knows what Vlad is) but in turn giving a very different view of Vlad's philosophy and sarcasm.

OrcaI really enjoyed this book, although I wouldn't list it as the best Vlad book it was a much more interesting break from the standard style then Athyra was. While we get to see Vlad through someone else's eyes again we also get to hear from Vlad himself and I almost cheered the first time I read him talking to Loiosh. The mystery is a bit convoluted and it's a shame so much exposition got crammed into the last couple of chapters, but the journey was fun and it was great to see more of Kiera. ( )

Athyra: 3 1/2 stars; read 10/10/2016.
Orca: 4 stars; read 18/10/2016. ( )