This book review was part of a podcast discussion.
Listen to the episode here.
Jhereg is the story of Vlad, a human assassin, in his journey to kill a thief who stole millions from the treasury. Vlad is a human witch in a world of tall sorcerers called Dragaerans. Using his familiar, witchcraft, and sass Vlad must find and kill the thief before the general population hears about the robbery and start to get ideas. I will say that I was not that impressed with the book and do not plan on continuing the series at this time. I cannot pin down what I did not like about the book other then it iss possible I was not in the mood for it and was not fully engaged while reading. I did enjoy the rules of magic, and the way the non-permenance of death affected the world and society was my favorite part. My least favorite part of the book was the underuse of Vlad’s wife, Cawti, and the lack of elves, despite the recommendation for this month’s theme
There are two main magic types in this world: the sorcery of the Dragaera and the witchcraft of the humans. Sorcery appears to be based on psychic abilities, while witchcraft is more ritual based. Humans can do sorcery, but we don’t see if the Dragaera can do witchcraft. Another part of sorcery is the ability to put the soul back into a body if the body still has its head, it has been less than 3 days since the person has died, and there are no more powerful magics preventing the body from receiving the soul. This ability changes the rules in the game of assassinations. In this part of the world, people are killed to give a message to the individual rather than those who survive the individual. This concept is very fun to think about and how it changes the world around it.
My biggest pet peeve was Vlad’s wife: the book introduced her and, I feel, misused her. I would love to have seen more of her and learn more about her back story. She was only important until the end of the book. The wasted potential annoyed me. Overall it was not a bad book I just was neutral on it. I do not plan to continue the series.
South Carolina
I am new podcaster who has been enjoying the fantasy genre for many, many… many years. I will read most any fantasy book but high and steampunk are my favorite subgenres.
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