I just read the first five Vlad Taltos novels. . .

[xiphias]

They rock. But then, you all already knew that, didn't you. I now know where undauntra got her name from.

Also, it occurred to me: Vlad Taltos and Spencer: separated at birth? Vlad doesn't quote quite as much poetry, and has a first name, but other than that. . .

Comments

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Um, I beg to differ.

Anyway, to explain: Vlad Taltos is the main character in a series of fantasy novels by Steven Brust. He's an assassin and crime lord (at least, up until the end of the last book I've read, although he goes through some changes at that point, and I have no clue what he's going to be in the next book I read), and a member of the Noble House of Jhereg, which is the noble house which is in charge of organized crime.

Spenser is the main character in a series of mystery novels by Robert B. Parker. He's a private detective, and ex-police officer, and ex-boxer, and served in Korea, which mean that he's at least sixty-eight now, so it's starting to get a little difficult to suspend disbelief with him as a two-fisted tough-guy hero.

Anyway, in my mind, the two characters have a lot in common. To start with, they're both two-fisted rough-and-tumble tough-guy heros cast in the Sam Spade mold. They both have rather complex relationships with the women they love, and have had to do a lot of accomodation and mental reshifting to make the relationships work -- if they do work.

Also, they're both excellent cooks, and you occasionally get a couple pages of the tough-guy heroes, in first person narration, explaining what they're making for dinner.

The main differences are that Vlad actually kills people a lot, being an assassin and all, while Spenser rarely kills more than one or two people per book, and Spenser quotes a lot more poetry. Oh, and Vlad uses magic, since he lives in a magical world, and Spenser doesn't, since he lives in Boston.