Steven Brust has long taken enjoyment in playing around
with his narrative style, and in Tiassa, the thirteenth volume of his
Vlad Taltos series, Brust incorporates three different styles while relating
Vlad's involvement with a silver tiassa figurine and the family on a
one-time highwayman known as the Blue Fox. Each of the three sections of the
book take place at different times, although taken together they tell a
single story about Vlad and remind the reader that while a book is a single
narrative, life generally isn't as neat.
The first part of Tiassa
is told from Brust’s traditional first person point of view…Vlad telling
the story, although Brust also shows Vlad meeting, for the first time,
someone with the initials SB, who would like to interview him.
For the second part of the novel, Vlad is off stage, and an
omniscient storyteller is relating the adventures of Cawti and Norathar
several years after the first part. Finally,
Brust returns to the style of Paarfi, his narrator for the Khaavren
Romances, as well as introduce the characters from that series more fully
into Vlad’s storyline.
By writing about three extremely different timelines,
Brust is able to show a wide range of relationships with his characters as
well as showing their growth. The Vlad who appears in the first
section as an enforcer for the Jhereg and the fugitive Vlad in the final
section are clearly the same character, but shows growth between the two
periods. In fact, although Tiassa does have an overarching
plot, it is more a series of vignettes and character sketches as Vlad and
his compatriots, as well as Khaavren, interact in various ways and give a
feel of more happening in the novel than actually does.
The broad span of years allows Brust to explore many of
the themes and ideas he has developed over the series. A potential
Jenoine invasion is heavily featured in the second part, Devera appears as
more than just a minor character, and scenes from Vlad and Cawti's courtship
and the aftermath of their divorce are shown. In many ways, though, Tiassa
feels as if its primary purpose is to set up the events of a future
novel. The silver tiassa which forms the crux of the search has the
feel of a maguffin, although Brust is never quite willing to dismiss it,
leaving the reader with the feeling that it, too, will eventually show
important powers.
Tiassa is not one of the stronger novels in the
Vlad Taltos series, providing a link between Vlad's series and the Khaavren
Romances and pointing, one suspects, to a major event which will take place
in a subsequent novel. For this reason, it is not recommended for new
readers, but rather should be enjoyed, and yes, it is to be enjoyed, by
readers who have a familiarity with Brust's characters as it gives a new
depth to many of them and places them in entertaining circumstances.
