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From: gt3403b@gitpyr.UUCP (Ray Chen)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers,net.books
Subject: Re: JHEREG by Stephen Brust
Message-ID: <873@gitpyr.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 12-Oct-85 16:34:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: gitpyr.873
Posted: Sat Oct 12 16:34:44 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 14-Oct-85 04:26:21 EDT
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Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
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Xref: watmath net.sf-lovers:10557 net.books:2406

Sorry, but I can't let people rag on one of my favorite books.

First, I have no sympathy for anyone who complains about the names &
number of characters in Jhereg.  For one thing, there simply aren't
that many characters, to say nothing of "main" characters (by that
I mean characters whose personalities you get to know).  Their names
are all pronouncable and a pronunciation guide is supplied for the more
difficult names.  (If you thing Jhereg was bad, try The Dragon Waiting
by John Ford.  A great book, but boy do you have to work.)

I count six main characters.  The main character, his partner,
his three Dragonlord friends, and his wife.  Even then, you don't get
to know them that well.  Jhereg is not a characterization book.
Jhereg *is* a story book.

I also found it strange that the initial review referred to the main
character as a "private eye".  Perhaps the book should be re-read.
Vlad Taltos (the main character) is not a private eye.  He's
an organized crime boss and an assassin.

The story itself is the story of an assassination from the initial
contact, to the background work, setup, and execution (if you'll pardon
the pun).

Three things make this book notable as far as I'm concerned.

First, the incredibly consistent and believable world.
SKZB takes a world of psionics, witchcraft and sorcery and
makes it work so well that it almost appears mundane.

Second, while the basic plot is simple, the episodes in the plot
are not.  There are a *lot* of interesting things going on and although
all of them are explained pretty clearly at some point or another,
the sheer deviousness of some of them had me shaking my head in
admiration.

Third, this is one of the few books I've read that gets the reader to
identify and sympathize with an assassin who's trying to kill someone.
I think it's a great tribute to SKZB's ability as a writer that he
manages to do this without making the reader realize that anything
extrordinary has happened.

	Ray Chen
	gitpyr!chen

Georgia Insitute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!chen