The first two books, Jhereg and Yendi, offer a fairly fresh take on things: Our hero, Vlad Taltos, isn't much of a hero but an assassin and small-time crime boss, just trying to do his job. The plots revolve around his finding solutions to problems that can't be tackled head-on, when social convention forces a bit of riddle-like convolution. The narration relies heavily on dialogue, which is an interesting delivery method, but it unfortunately works against itself. Too often the biggest discoveries and moments occur in dialogue. Instead of seeing Vlad figure things out, we get them filtered through conversation. After the fact. Despite pleasant-enough prose and characters and story, especially in the first book, this reliance on exposition is a drawback. 
 The third book, Teckla, does a much better job placing the focus immediately on Vlad. We remain for the most part in the present moment, in his head, and receive much less exposition. The plot revolves around an uprising of the lower classes and its effect on Vlad and his wife, who become involved to differing degrees. Brust's obviously feeling the (psionic) funk blast, which is a bit eye-rolly at times, but it's a worthwhile avenue of exploration. Especially with its effects on the characters, at a personal/relationship level, being much at the fore--that's really nice to see in a fantasy novel.