Phoenix (novel)

Phoenix is the fifth book in Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series, set in the fantasy world of Dragaera. Originally published in 1988 by Ace Books, it was reprinted in 2002 along with Taltos in the omnibus The Book of Taltos. Following the trend of the Vlad Taltos books, it is named after one of the Great Houses and features that House as an important element to its plot.

Plot Introduction

Vlad gets wrapped up in a war between the Empire and a neighboring Dragaeran kingdom as well as the on-going conflict between his wife's revolutionary group and the House of the Jhereg.

Trivia and Allusions

• Brust wrote this novel with the intention of taking a long break from writing about Vlad, but this did not happen
• The character Aibynn is based on Brust's drum teacher, Robin Anders
• Vlad's line "Across the great salt sea. Out past the horizon. To sail beyond the--" references the Robert A. Heinlein books Beyond This Horizon and To Sail Beyond the Sunset, the latter itself a quote from Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "Ulysses"

The House of the Phoenix

House Phoenix is the smallest Noble House in the Empire because a Dragaeran is not considered a Phoenix unless an actual phoenix passes overhead at the time of birth. Members of Phoenix are the most noble of all Dragaerans and tend to have an air of majesty. Their House color is gold, and they tend to have gold hair and eyes. Phoenix is the first House in the Cycle, and thus each Phoenix Emperor is responsible for beginning the Cycle anew. Most become decadent at the end of their reigns, but every seventeenth Phoenix Emperor is a "reborn" Phoenix and never sinks to decadence.

Like the mythological beast, Dragaeran phoenixes are flying creatures that die in flames and ressurect from the ashes, representing the House's role of rebirth, rejuvenation, and decay in the Cycle. Phoenix appears twice in the Cycle Poem: at the beginning, "Phoenix sinks into decay", and at the end, "Phoenix rise from ashes gray".