| To Ham: 'The Last Assassin' was the 4th or 5th book, I think. I'm deployed and it was free, so I picked it up and read it. He covered enough of the back story that I could get a feel for what had happened in earlier books, so I wasn't really lost. The book stood on its own, but did incorporate elements from previous books (his relationships and a friend of his, the bad guy, etc), but like I said....he threw enough info in there to fill the reader in on what had happened.
To Saidin: That list looks correct. The books are nothing like Forgotten Realms. They're quite difficult to explain, really. There IS magic in the world, but Vlad doesn't really use it. It is written in 1st person (Vlad's POV). It has humor, but well placed, not overdone campy stuff. I just really enjoyed the Vlad books. Pick up Jhereg (or the compilation volumes: The Book of Jhereg, for example--the first 3 books in one). If you enjoy the Drizzt/FR books (I did, as well), you'll enjoy these, I think.
He also wrote some more books that are in the same time period with the same characters, but in a different writing style ('The Paths of the Dead', '500 Years After, 'The Lord of Castle Black'). I DID NOT enjoy those books. His writing style in those was....odd, I think is the best way to put it. The ones you've listed, though....great stuff. | 