Jhereg by Steven Brust

A few things kept me from truly enjoying this compendium, which comprises the first three books in Seven Brust's series featuring the assassin Vladimir Taltos. The 3 books included in this compilation are "Jhereg", "Yendi", and "Teckla". Vlad is not your typical assassin. He's more like a modern-day mafia boss, but gets his hands dirty more often than his comtemporary counterparts. Throw in a bit of private investigator work, and you have a nice summation of Taltos the character. The problem with him is he's a bit of a wuss at times and relies too much on the help of the seemingly godlike abilities of the Dragonlords in the first two books. The third book thankfully digresses from this reliance on deus ex machina to pull Vlad from the fire. Also, the reasons the Dragonlords are helping him at all are not very well expressed.
The second thing I didn't like about the book was Vlad's familiar, Loiosh. He appears to be included in the book soley for comic relief, although he does keep an eye out for Vlad and occasionally mixes it up in some of the fight scenes. Unfortunately, Loiosh's constant smart-aleck remarks reminded me of how I felt about Jar Jar Binks in Episode 1.
The third thing that bothered me is the supoporting cast. All the Dragonlords and hired thugs are completely one dimensional. Vlad's wife is more complex, but what the heck is an assassin doing with a wife? His assistant, Kragar, is completely subservient for some unspecified reason.
My last complaint deals with the stories themselves. These are more mystery novels than Fantasy. The plots are sometimes overly complicated - to the point where they appear convoluted, and some of the connections and discoveries seem contrived. This is especially true in the second book.
So what did I like about the book? Mainly the world Brust has built. It's an intermingling of races where humans are not the dominant force. There's a cyclical caste system at work that, while not very well explained, is at least original and interesting. One gets a sense of a vast history that will hopefully be explored in greater depth in the other books.
Overall, it's an entertaining read, but lacks the depth necessary to acheive the status of greatness.