Dzur is Brust’s long-awaited followup to Issola in the Vlad Taltos series. It’s an interesting mix of new material and old standbys of the Vlad series. In terms of series revelations and introductions, I counted at least five or six events of a similar stature to the Lesser Revelation of Orca. And it’s worth noting that the Greater Revelation of that novel is not directly revealed but gets enough in-jokes that it becomes tiresome.
In terms of actual plot movement, however, the book is a light one. Although the book is somewhat heavy on new characters, they don’t advance the plot a great deal, and in many ways the book more closely resembles the early Vlad novels than the more recent ones. Forced by circumstances to confront the Jhereg (both the Right and Left Hand thereof), Vlad finds himself resorting to older methods and haunting his older territories. In that respect the book was more familiar and somewhat more disappointing. I felt it could easily have taken place earlier in the life of the character and the series, and were it not for the Greater Spoiler of Issola, should have. There’s a certain episodic quality since little of long-range import was resolved.
It’s hard to say whether this piece of the series is disappointing or just surprising. That’s going to depend on how the new elements in the series are used in future novels. This is definitely a wait-and-see-before-judging book. It was, however, a fun read for a longstanding fan of the series. The problem is that Dzur both tastes great and is less filling, and only one of those things is a compliment.
