Book 11

Finished off the Jhereg collection. Yendi and Teckla rounded the book out. Yendi was another fun little romp detailing the meeting of Vlad and Cawti. Teckla however was anything but fun. There were little flashes of fun and the trademark bits that make the series are still there, but the plot is much more serious and features much trouble in Vlad's personal life.

It's interesting in a couple ways. I remember while I was reading Jhereg that I found it interesting that Vlad was married. That type of character rarely is. And in Teckla some of the reasons become clear for the marriage - it looks like it's to set up some tension for the rest of the series. Vlad and Cawti's marital problems help mirror the conflict Brust is setting up in the world he's created. The odd thing is that (for me at least) it works. Vlad and Cawti's courtship is pretty whirlwind. And arguably it allows for the possiblitiy of some problems as they don't really know each other all that well. But Jhereg, which takes place chronologically after their courtship in Yendi, paints a picture of a couple in love. And then Teckla throws that out the window. Almost immediately. But you still feel for them. Despite the fact that it's all so quick, Brust's writing covers the gaps pretty well.

So, I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series, but I'm a little more tentative now. Yendi ends on a hopeful note, but the woods are still present and anything can happen. We'll see how it goes. But not for a while... I've got a couple other books I'm going to try and get through first.