-
Phoenix
- Vlad Taltos, Book 5
- Narrated by: Bernard Setaro Clark
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $17.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
Verra, Vlad's patron goddess, hires him to assassinate a king whose country lies outside the Dragaeran Empire, resulting in increased tension between the two places. Meanwhile, the peasant Teckla and the human Easterners persevere in their fight for civil rights. As Vlad's wife Cawti is a firm partisan of the movement, and Vlad is not, their marriage continues to suffer, causing Vlad to make some decisions that will change his life forever.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Jhereg
- Vlad Taltos, Book 1
- By: Steven Brust
- Narrated by: Bernard Setaro Clark
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vlad Taltos, a mobster and assassin in the magical metropolis of Adrilankha, is given the largest contract of his career, but the job is even more complicated than he expects.
-
-
Known Of For Decades, Audible Opens My Eyes...
- By Michael on 09-23-12
By: Steven Brust
-
The Phoenix Guards
- By: Steven Brust
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Khaavren of the House of Tiassa is a son of landless nobility, possessor of a good sword and “tolerably well-acquainted with its use.” Along with three loyal friends, he enthusiastically seeks out danger and excitement. But in a realm renowned for repartee and betrayals, where power is as mutable as magic, a young man like Khaavren, newly come from the countryside, had best be wary. His life depends on it. And so does the future of Draegara.
-
-
Hands down my favorite audiobook now!
- By Thea & Eric on 08-06-12
By: Steven Brust
-
To Reign in Hell
- By: Steven Brust
- Narrated by: Jiraiya Addams
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The time is the beginning. The place is heaven. The story is the revolt of the angels - a war of magic, corruption, and intrigue that could destroy the universe. To Reign in Hell was Stephen Brust's second novel, and it's a thrilling retelling of the revolt of the angels, through the lens of epic fantasy.
-
-
Excellent re-telling of the creation story!
- By Mark Twain "Eddie" on 05-21-19
By: Steven Brust
-
Good Guys
- By: Steven Brust
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Donovan was shot by a cop. Four of the nine shots were lethal or would have been, if their target had been anybody else. The Foundation picked him up, brought him back, and trained him further. “Lethal” turns out to be a relative term when magic is involved. When Marci was 15, she levitated a paperweight and threw it at a guy she didn't like. The Foundation scooped her up for training too. “Hippie chick” Susan got well into her Foundation training before they told her about the magic, but she's as powerful as Donovan and Marci now.
-
-
Great Story. Ok Performance.
- By Jason on 10-30-20
By: Steven Brust
-
Dungeon Crawler Carl
- A LitRPG/Gamelit Adventure
- By: Matt Dinniman
- Narrated by: Jeff Hays
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible. In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth - from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds - collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground. The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot.
-
-
A refreshing take on apocalyptical LITRPG
- By Rhexas on 03-01-21
By: Matt Dinniman
-
Ritualist
- Completionist Chronicles, Book 1
- By: Dakota Krout
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The decision to start a new life is never an easy one, but for Joe the transition was far from figurative. Becoming a permanent addition to a game world, it doesn't take long to learn that people with his abilities are actively hunted. In fact, if the wrong people gained knowledge of what he was capable of, assassins would appear in droves.
-
-
Ritual is necessary for us to know anything
- By LITRPG Audiobook Reviews on 05-18-18
By: Dakota Krout
-
Jhereg
- Vlad Taltos, Book 1
- By: Steven Brust
- Narrated by: Bernard Setaro Clark
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vlad Taltos, a mobster and assassin in the magical metropolis of Adrilankha, is given the largest contract of his career, but the job is even more complicated than he expects.
-
-
Known Of For Decades, Audible Opens My Eyes...
- By Michael on 09-23-12
By: Steven Brust
-
The Phoenix Guards
- By: Steven Brust
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Khaavren of the House of Tiassa is a son of landless nobility, possessor of a good sword and “tolerably well-acquainted with its use.” Along with three loyal friends, he enthusiastically seeks out danger and excitement. But in a realm renowned for repartee and betrayals, where power is as mutable as magic, a young man like Khaavren, newly come from the countryside, had best be wary. His life depends on it. And so does the future of Draegara.
-
-
Hands down my favorite audiobook now!
- By Thea & Eric on 08-06-12
By: Steven Brust
-
To Reign in Hell
- By: Steven Brust
- Narrated by: Jiraiya Addams
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The time is the beginning. The place is heaven. The story is the revolt of the angels - a war of magic, corruption, and intrigue that could destroy the universe. To Reign in Hell was Stephen Brust's second novel, and it's a thrilling retelling of the revolt of the angels, through the lens of epic fantasy.
-
-
Excellent re-telling of the creation story!
- By Mark Twain "Eddie" on 05-21-19
By: Steven Brust
-
Good Guys
- By: Steven Brust
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Donovan was shot by a cop. Four of the nine shots were lethal or would have been, if their target had been anybody else. The Foundation picked him up, brought him back, and trained him further. “Lethal” turns out to be a relative term when magic is involved. When Marci was 15, she levitated a paperweight and threw it at a guy she didn't like. The Foundation scooped her up for training too. “Hippie chick” Susan got well into her Foundation training before they told her about the magic, but she's as powerful as Donovan and Marci now.
-
-
Great Story. Ok Performance.
- By Jason on 10-30-20
By: Steven Brust
-
Dungeon Crawler Carl
- A LitRPG/Gamelit Adventure
- By: Matt Dinniman
- Narrated by: Jeff Hays
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible. In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth - from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds - collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground. The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot.
-
-
A refreshing take on apocalyptical LITRPG
- By Rhexas on 03-01-21
By: Matt Dinniman
-
Ritualist
- Completionist Chronicles, Book 1
- By: Dakota Krout
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The decision to start a new life is never an easy one, but for Joe the transition was far from figurative. Becoming a permanent addition to a game world, it doesn't take long to learn that people with his abilities are actively hunted. In fact, if the wrong people gained knowledge of what he was capable of, assassins would appear in droves.
-
-
Ritual is necessary for us to know anything
- By LITRPG Audiobook Reviews on 05-18-18
By: Dakota Krout
-
Agyar
- By: Steven Brust
- Narrated by: Steven Brust
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From best-selling fantasy author Steven Brust comes this paranormal novel of immortality - and its price...Born over a century ago, Agyar was once a frivolous young man, before he found unwanted immortality in a woman's blood-red lips. Now he goes from woman to woman, and decade to decade, finding himself at last in an Midwestern college town, where he must choose between the seductions of salvation - and of destruction.
-
-
An unusual vampire tale
- By Joella Berkner on 05-13-19
By: Steven Brust
-
Unsouled
- By: Will Wight
- Narrated by: Travis Baldree
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sacred artists follow a thousand Paths to power, using their souls to control the forces of the natural world. Lindon is Unsouled, forbidden to learn the sacred arts of his clan. When faced with a looming fate he cannot ignore, he must rise beyond anything he's ever known...and forge his own Path.
-
-
Amazingly Addictive and Oddly Cleaver
- By ronnito on 05-31-19
By: Will Wight
-
Nine Princes in Amber
- The Chronicles of Amber, Book 1
- By: Roger Zelazny
- Narrated by: Alessandro Juliani
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amber is the one real world, of which all others including our own Earth are but Shadows. Amber burns in Corwin's blood. Exiled on Shadow Earth for centuries, the prince is about to return to Amber to make a mad and desperate rush upon the throne.
-
-
Great book, lame deal!
- By Robert on 08-13-12
By: Roger Zelazny
-
Elric of Melniboné
- Volume 1: Elric of Melnibone, The Fortress of the Pearl, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, and The Weird of the White Wolf
- By: Michael Moorcock, Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
- Length: 24 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Moorcock began chronicling the adventures of the albino sorcerer Elric, last king of decadent Melniboné, and his sentient vampiric sword, Stormbringer, he set out to create a new kind of fantasy adventure, one that broke with tradition and reflected a more up-to-date sophistication of theme and style. The result was a bold and unique hero: a rock-and-roll antihero who would channel all the violent excesses of the '60s into one enduring archetype.
-
-
Skip the first chapter, it's not Moorcock.
- By Ted C. on 02-17-22
By: Michael Moorcock, and others
-
Monster Hunter International
- By: Larry Correia
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 24 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Five days after Owen Zastava Pitt pushed his insufferable boss out of a 14th story window, he woke up in the hospital with a scarred face, an unbelievable memory, and a job offer. It turns out that monsters are real. All the things from myth, legend, and B-movies are out there, waiting in the shadows. Some of them are evil, and some are just hungry. Monster Hunter International is the premier eradication company in the business. And now Owen is their newest recruit.
-
-
Suprizingly entertaining
- By Konstantin on 02-17-12
By: Larry Correia
-
The Captain
- The Last Horizon, Book 1
- By: Will Wight
- Narrated by: Travis Baldree
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a little-known planet, Archmage Varic Vallenar casts a grand spell to empower himself with the magical abilities of his alternate selves. The ritual works too well, granting Varic not only the magic but also the memories from six lives. Including their gruesome deaths. Now, Varic has power greater than any wizard in galactic history, but he knows that won’t be enough. The enemies he faced in those alternate lives were apocalyptic in scale. Terrors of technology and magic. Nothing that he, or anyone, can defeat.
-
-
why do I have to type stuff
- By Joshua on 04-05-23
By: Will Wight
-
Another Fine Myth
- Myth Adventures, Book 1
- By: Robert Asprin
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Skeeve is a magician’s apprentice (and a wanna-be thief) until an assassin’s bolt kills his master, Garkin. Along with Aahz, the green-scaled, purple-tongued demon and master magician summoned by Garkin, he sets out on a quest to get even. The road to vengeance is bound to prove rocky, however, because Skeeve can barely light a candle with his beginning magic, and Aahz has lost his own considerable magical abilities as a consequence of Garkin’s summoning spell.
-
-
Funnier in print
- By Kimberly Mason on 07-09-22
By: Robert Asprin
-
Dominion
- A Coldfire Novella
- By: C. S. Friedman
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 2 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four hundred years after mankind's arrival on Erna, the undead sorcerer Gerald Tarrant travels north in search of a legend. For it is rumored there is a forest where the fae has become so powerful that it devours all who enter it, and he means to test its power.
-
-
It is what it is
- By MrBoobo on 06-11-12
By: C. S. Friedman
-
Storm Front
- The Dresden Files, Book 1
- By: Jim Butcher
- Narrated by: James Marsters
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A call from a distraught wife, and another from Lt. Murphy of the Chicago PD Special Investigation Unit makes Harry believe things are looking up, but they are about to get worse, much worse. Someone is harnessing immense supernatural forces to commit a series of grisly murders. Someone has violated the first law of magic: Thou Shalt Not Kill. Tracking that someone takes Harry into the dangerous underbelly of Chicago, from mobsters to vampires....
-
-
Excellent Story, Distracting Sound Engineering
- By Tom on 05-20-10
By: Jim Butcher
-
Falling Free
- Miles Vorsokigan, Book 4
- By: Lois McMaster Bujold
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leo Graf was just your average highly efficient engineer: mind your own business, fix what's wrong, and move on to the next job. But all that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat, where a group of humanoids had been secretly, commercially bioengineered for working in free fall. Could he just stand there and allow the exploitation of hundreds of helpless children merely to enhance the bottom line of a heartless mega-corporation?
-
-
Don't read this one first
- By Carol on 02-20-13
-
The Black Company
- Chronicles of The Black Company, Book 1
- By: Glen Cook
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some feel the Lady, newly risen from centuries in thrall, stands between humankind and evil. Some feel she is evil itself. The hardbitten men of the Black Company take their pay and do what they must, burying their doubts with their dead - until the prophesy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more. There must be a way for the Black Company to find her....
-
-
Hard Boiled Morally Ambiguous Epic Fantasy
- By Jefferson on 03-18-11
By: Glen Cook
-
Attempted Vampirism: Publisher's Pack
- Attempted Vampirism, Books 1-2
- By: L. G. Estrella
- Narrated by: Joel Froomkin
- Length: 17 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Contains books one and two of the Attempted Vampirism series: Attempted Vampirism and Attempted Adventuring.
-
-
Loved it!
- By swyrlgirl on 01-05-21
By: L. G. Estrella
Related to this topic
-
The Best Man's Ghostwriter
- By: Matthew Starr
- Narrated by: Glen Powell, Nicholas Braun, Ashley Park, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 37 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A bad best man’s speech can ruin a wedding. Why do we plan every detail of a perfect day and then give the groom’s idiot best friend five minutes of total power? Enter Nate (Glen Powell), a speechwriter-for-hire who helps people write incredible best man speeches. To keep the best man from embarrassing himself (and the newlyweds), Nate uses his list of don’ts: Don’t mention the exes, don’t be rated R, and don’t bum everyone out. Nate’s system never fails. That is, until he meets Dan (Nicholas Braun).
-
-
SO GOOD
- By Csutty on 09-23-24
By: Matthew Starr
-
Born a Crime
- Stories from a South African Childhood
- By: Trevor Noah
- Narrated by: Trevor Noah
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this award-winning Audible Studios production, Trevor Noah tells his wild coming-of-age tale during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa. It’s a story that begins with his mother throwing him from a moving van to save him from a potentially fatal dispute with gangsters, then follows the budding comedian’s path to self-discovery through episodes both poignant and comical.
-
-
Great book and perfect narration
- By MarilynArms on 12-15-16
By: Trevor Noah
-
Slaughterhouse-Five
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: James Franco
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Traumatized by the bombing of Dresden at the time he had been imprisoned, Pilgrim drifts through all events and history, sometimes deeply implicated, sometimes a witness. He is surrounded by Vonnegut's usual large cast of continuing characters (notably here the hack science fiction writer Kilgore Trout and the alien Tralfamadorians, who oversee his life and remind him constantly that there is no causation, no order, no motive to existence).
-
-
Don't Quit Your Daytime Job, James
- By Keith on 11-20-15
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
The Great Indoors
- By: Ginny Hogan
- Narrated by: Mae Whitman
- Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alice's journey begins as all good journeys do: hitting on the sales guy at REI. After a tumultuous breakup, a quick career transition, family upheaval, and a sobriety journey that didn't fix her life quite as much as she expected it to, Alice decides that the only way to solve all her problems is to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. But as she begins preparing for the months-long quest, she realizes the answers she's seeking might not be on top of a snow-covered mountain. Especially since she just learned there was snow in California.
-
-
Chuck full of laughs to lift anyone's spirits.
- By Laura Boogaert on 09-22-24
By: Ginny Hogan
-
I Can't Make This Up
- Life Lessons
- By: Neil Strauss - contributor, Kevin Hart
- Narrated by: Kevin Hart
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Superstar comedian and Hollywood box-office star Kevin Hart turns his immense talent to the written word by writing some words. Some of those words include: the, a, for, above, and even even. Put them together and you have the funniest, most heartfelt, and most inspirational memoir on survival, success, and the importance of believing in yourself since Old Yeller.
-
-
Best Audiobook I Ever Listened To
- By Sam Clear on 07-13-17
By: Neil Strauss - contributor, and others
-
American Psycho
- By: Bret Easton Ellis
- Narrated by: Pablo Schreiber
- Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Patrick Bateman moves among the young and trendy in 1980s Manhattan. Young, handsome, and well educated, Bateman earns his fortune on Wall Street by day while spending his nights in ways we cannot begin to fathom. Expressing his true self through torture and murder, Bateman prefigures an apocalyptic horror that no society could bear to confront.
-
-
Fanntastic book but maybe not for everyone....
- By So Fain on 03-27-11
-
The Best Man's Ghostwriter
- By: Matthew Starr
- Narrated by: Glen Powell, Nicholas Braun, Ashley Park, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 37 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A bad best man’s speech can ruin a wedding. Why do we plan every detail of a perfect day and then give the groom’s idiot best friend five minutes of total power? Enter Nate (Glen Powell), a speechwriter-for-hire who helps people write incredible best man speeches. To keep the best man from embarrassing himself (and the newlyweds), Nate uses his list of don’ts: Don’t mention the exes, don’t be rated R, and don’t bum everyone out. Nate’s system never fails. That is, until he meets Dan (Nicholas Braun).
-
-
SO GOOD
- By Csutty on 09-23-24
By: Matthew Starr
-
Born a Crime
- Stories from a South African Childhood
- By: Trevor Noah
- Narrated by: Trevor Noah
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this award-winning Audible Studios production, Trevor Noah tells his wild coming-of-age tale during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa. It’s a story that begins with his mother throwing him from a moving van to save him from a potentially fatal dispute with gangsters, then follows the budding comedian’s path to self-discovery through episodes both poignant and comical.
-
-
Great book and perfect narration
- By MarilynArms on 12-15-16
By: Trevor Noah
-
Slaughterhouse-Five
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: James Franco
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Traumatized by the bombing of Dresden at the time he had been imprisoned, Pilgrim drifts through all events and history, sometimes deeply implicated, sometimes a witness. He is surrounded by Vonnegut's usual large cast of continuing characters (notably here the hack science fiction writer Kilgore Trout and the alien Tralfamadorians, who oversee his life and remind him constantly that there is no causation, no order, no motive to existence).
-
-
Don't Quit Your Daytime Job, James
- By Keith on 11-20-15
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
The Great Indoors
- By: Ginny Hogan
- Narrated by: Mae Whitman
- Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alice's journey begins as all good journeys do: hitting on the sales guy at REI. After a tumultuous breakup, a quick career transition, family upheaval, and a sobriety journey that didn't fix her life quite as much as she expected it to, Alice decides that the only way to solve all her problems is to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. But as she begins preparing for the months-long quest, she realizes the answers she's seeking might not be on top of a snow-covered mountain. Especially since she just learned there was snow in California.
-
-
Chuck full of laughs to lift anyone's spirits.
- By Laura Boogaert on 09-22-24
By: Ginny Hogan
-
I Can't Make This Up
- Life Lessons
- By: Neil Strauss - contributor, Kevin Hart
- Narrated by: Kevin Hart
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Superstar comedian and Hollywood box-office star Kevin Hart turns his immense talent to the written word by writing some words. Some of those words include: the, a, for, above, and even even. Put them together and you have the funniest, most heartfelt, and most inspirational memoir on survival, success, and the importance of believing in yourself since Old Yeller.
-
-
Best Audiobook I Ever Listened To
- By Sam Clear on 07-13-17
By: Neil Strauss - contributor, and others
-
American Psycho
- By: Bret Easton Ellis
- Narrated by: Pablo Schreiber
- Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Patrick Bateman moves among the young and trendy in 1980s Manhattan. Young, handsome, and well educated, Bateman earns his fortune on Wall Street by day while spending his nights in ways we cannot begin to fathom. Expressing his true self through torture and murder, Bateman prefigures an apocalyptic horror that no society could bear to confront.
-
-
Fanntastic book but maybe not for everyone....
- By So Fain on 03-27-11
What listeners say about Phoenix
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- KH
- 12-16-14
A turning point in Vlad's story
Originally published at Fantasy Literature.
Phoenix, the fifth novel in Steven Brust’s VLAD TALTOS series, is a turning point in Vlad’s story. By the end of this book, his life will have changed drastically. The story begins as Vlad is stuck in a situation that he might not be able to get out of alive. In desperation, he calls on Verra, his patron goddess, for help. She saves him (or so it appears), and in return she demands that he sail to the island kingdom of Greenaere and assassinate its king. Vlad can’t refuse, and so he goes. This sets off a series of events that eventually lead to a Teckla revolution in Adrilankha. During all the turmoil, both Vlad and his wife Cawti, a member of a rebel group, are captured and rescued more than once, and both have reason to believe they don’t have much longer to live. The usual crew is there to help, though, including Kragar (Vlad’s assistant), Loiosh and Rocza (his jhereg familiars), and Morrollan and Aliera (powerful Dragonlords). There are new faces, too, including a spacey drummer from Greenaere. In the end, Vlad pisses off all the wrong people…
The plot of Phoenix is fast moving and fairly exciting, though I didn’t think it always made perfect sense (such as how easy it was to get close to the king — twice —on that island). Adrilankha is a city on the brink of war and Vlad is highly engaged because not only does he suspect that his actions may have caused the conflict, but his wife is a key member of a group that’s fomenting revolution. Vlad realizes that if she’s arrested and executed as a traitor, it might be his fault. The couple was already having marital problems due to Cawti’s growing dislike for Dragaeran society and Vlad’s role in it. The events in this story may push them apart forever. These events also make Vlad step back and take a look at his life. Is this really who he wants to be? A Jhereg crime boss, an assassin, and the lackey of a demon goddess? We see him questioning everything he stands for. Vlad tends to be flippant and snarky, which makes him fun to listen to, but this inner turmoil gives him more depth.
All of the political mayhem gives Brust a chance to give us a little more information about how his world works (I admit that I’m still shaky on this and not sure that it all fits together very snugly). We learn more of its political history and how its caste society functions. We also learn, along with Vlad, a little more about how the magic works after Vlad makes some discoveries on the island he visits. (Until now, Vlad has known almost nothing about the world outside his own country.) Lastly, there are some revelations about a couple of Vlad’s acquaintances. Two of them are related in a surprising way.
So, at the end of Phoenix, things are different. Will this be good or bad for Vlad? Will this be good or bad for the series? I guess we’ll see…
Audible Studios’ version of Phoenix is 8 hours long and narrated by Bernard Setaro Clark. He’s got Vlad’s cocky voice down perfectly. I love these audio versions of VLAD TALTOS.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jason
- 11-06-19
A MUST for any avid fantasy enthusiast!
This series. This author. This narrator.
Top tier. Refreshingly different. Perfectly executed.
Too much to say on this series to put into words, so I suggest you just get started reading book 1 Jhereg and meet me back here when you're ready to give it a go.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tristan D.
- 10-22-19
A shift
Narrator getting stronger, enjoying the theatrics. Story wasn't my favorite but this book seems like a means to an end.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bramz
- 01-10-18
excellent reading and story loved every minute
excellent reading and story! can't wait to listen to the next one, already downloaded it
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Trevor
- 10-31-12
A Fantastic Transitory Point for the Protagonist
Initially, Phoenix was to be the point at which Steven Brust would go on hiatus from the Vlad Taltos character; that didn't happen, but the finalized tone for many plot points in the series thus far still shines through.
One of the stronger entries in the Vlad Taltos series to this point, Phoenix provides a good endpoint to the front end of Vlad's ideals, beliefs and relationship with House Jhereg, while setting up for a promising, soul searching future for the series.
Vlad is just as devilishly charming and smart mouthed as we've come to expect in the series, but we also see a very welcome time of self doubt and a fair amount of instances of seeing a softer side to the character; particularly when dealing with Cawti, his wife, or Noish-Pa.
Noish-Pa also shines through rather surprisingly in this entry, getting a fair amount of character development compared to his earlier involvement in the series. Cawti and her band of revolutionaries, meanwhile, takes somewhat of a backseat compared to their part in Teckla.
The involvement of the gods in this universe also gets some light shed onto it, showing us just how involved a god is willing to get in the lives of mortals.
The writing for Phoenix is as strong as it usually is, while providing a plot more balanced between action and emotion than did the emotionally dark Teckla; Vlad having come more to grips with the status of his relationship with Cawti. Bernard Setaro Clark continues to deliver his fantastic performance and characterizations.
This entry is at least on par with Jhereg, which I feel has been the strongest entry in the series so far. Those looking for something new from Vlad Taltos will enjoy this transition to the next part of his life.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David D. Schneider
- 02-23-15
A Very Nice Comeback! 😱
In Something Other than a Prequel!
I enjoyed this quite a bit and listened to it in one day. Everything very good, nicely paced, and well written -- except the soliloquy at the end -- which I suspect is some type of transition to the next book. I plan on finding out . . . 😱
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jesse of the Jungle
- 12-29-20
Wonderful -
The author + narrator = perfect combo. A lot happens in this novel (this is for the word count)
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 🔥 Phx17 🔥
- 07-21-24
Maudlin
Shall we listen to the slow unraveling of Vlad and Cawti’s relationship?
Or listen to endless ruminations while Vlad is imprisoned?
The eyes glazed over, the ears zoned out. Five books in and I still don’t understand the world,
the time jumps, and the goddess connections.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful