Steven Brust is one of my favorite authors (I know, he's on the list, so he must be,
but even among the authors on the list, he stands out as one of my favorites, so I guess he's a favorite of
the favorites). I especially enjoyed the novels involving Vlad Taltos. Vlad is, by profession, an assassin.
In addition to this, he's a foreigner in a culture that doesn't take well to foreigners. But he has very
important friends. And he has some wonderful adventures.
I have to say, though, that probably the Brust novel I enjoyed the most was Cowboy
Feng's Space Bar and Grille. I keep hoping that he'll come out with a sequel to it, but he doesn't seem
to be listening. Freedom & Necessity was also an excellent read, but I'll warn you now, it was a
difficult read. I found myself reading one or two chapters at a time, just because my brain couldn't
take any more. I really got into it, though, and I strongly recommend it for anybody who loves political
intrigue.
Books I've Read by Steven Brust
Agyar A suave and mysterious drifter shares an abandoned house with a compassionate
African-American ghost and spends the nights seducing various inhabitants of an Ohio college town.
(from an Amazon.com review) Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille(out of print)
Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille is a great place to visit, but it tends to move around a bit. From Earth to
the Moon to Mars to another solar system, it is always just one step ahead of whatever mysterious conspiracy is
reducing whole worlds to radioactive ash. And Cowboy Feng's may be humanity's last hope for survival (from an
Amazon.com review) Freedom & Necessity(with Emma Bull)
The early 19th century was a heady time of repeated challenges to the assumption that the social order as it stood
was supernaturally (divinely) ordained. A particularly sticky web of politics and romance traps Susan Voight and
James Cobham in a dense, thrillingly suspenseful plot connecting a reforming democratic labor movement, Chartism,
to a secret society, the Trotters Club, whose corrupt members intend to exploit a magical ritual for their personal,
complicated purposes of vengeance and power. Layers of truths and falsehoods mislead and confound the protagonists
in their dealings with each other and the conspiracies; they come to understand that only honesty can save them.
Although the perversion of the natural power of sorcery fails because it is unnatural, the social order, unnatural
or not, is more resistant to justice. (from an Amazon.com review) The Gypsy(with Megan Lindholm)
In Lakota, Ohio, veteran cop Stepovich and his irritating young partner Durand unwillingly become involved in a
series of killings, apparently connected: in one case the murder weapon is a distinctive gypsy knife; in another
the victim is an old gypsy fortuneteller. Stepovich arrests a confused suspect and takes a knife from him, but some
sort of psychic connection is established: Stepovich knows the man isn't guilty and fails to turn in the knife, and
soon the suspect mysteriously vanishes from jail. Turns out that the man, a Hungarian gypsy named Csucskari, exists
in both the physical and spiritual worlds; he is waiting for the coming of the devil--in this instance, a horrid
female devil named Luci, the Fair Lady, who has ensorcelled a number of young people and threatens to drown the
world in darkness. Csucskari's purpose is to oppose her, but first he must join with his musician brothers Raymond
and Daniel, and obtain a psychic assist from another necessary participant, the Coachman. Stepovich is psychically
involved, too, as are Durand and Stepovich's former partner Ed; Stepovich's teenaged daughter is one of Luci's
victims. The affair will result in a desperate battle on the spiritual plane, as cops and gypsies struggle to
overcome Luci and her thralls and minions (from an Amazon.com review) To Reign in Hell
(hard cover)
or (out of print)
To Reign in Hell is deft and subtle in weaving a tale of conflict among friends -- the Firstborn of Heaven.
Satan and Yaweh, archangels, and lesser angelic minions populate an Eden like Heaven. Conflict comes among
them unbidden and grows. The heroes are not necessarily whom you expect from among familiar names. (from an
Amazon.com review) The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars Since his first Vlad Taltos novel in the mid-1980s, Steven Brust has gathered a loyal
audience. With The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, originally published in 1987, Brust interweaves a traditional
Hungarian folktale with the modern story of three young artists' struggle against the world's indifference. This
underground cult novel will now be enjoyed by a wider and new generation of readers. (from an Amazon.com
review)
The Dragaeran Novels
Vlad Taltos
The Book of Jhereg (Jhereg, Yendi, and Teckla in one volume)
Vlad Taltos x 3! Three Steven Brust fantasy novels in one all-new edition-featuring intrepid assassin Vlad Taltos
and his jhereg companion. A welcome addition to any fantasy fan's library, The Book of Jhereg follows the antics
of the wise-cracking assassin Vlad Taltos and his dragon-like companion through their first three adventures-Jhereg,
Yendi, and Teckla. From his rookie assassin days to his selfless feats of heroism, the dauntless Vlad will hold
readers spellbound-and The Book of Jhereg will take its place among the classic compilations in fantasy. (from
an Amazon.com review)
Jhereg Our anti-hero in this story is Vlad Taltos, a pragmatic assassin who constantly finds
himself in extroadinary situations. The story centers completely around him, and he is an interesting enough
character that he carries the burden fairly well. The freshness of the writing has to do with its roughness.
This isn't the poetry of Herbert or Tolkien, instead it has a rough and tumble realism to it that you don't see
often in this genre. The world of Steven Brust has no romance in it's magic, which somehow makes the world
romantic. It's a kind of gunslinger-y high-fantasy. (from an Amazon.com review)
Yendi Vlad Taltos tells the story of his early days in the House Jhereg, how he found himself
in a Jhereg war, and how he fell in love with the wonderful woman, Yendi, who killed him. (from an Amazon.com
review)
Teckla Right after he almost single-handedly saves the Empire from an internecine war, our
surly hero discovers just where his wife has been disappearing to in the evenings--she's been keeping company
with a bunch of Easterner and Teckla insurgents who wish to break the Cycle and bring a rule of the people, by
the...wait...oh yeah. Anyway, along the way Vlad discovers that his peers in House Jhereg are provoking the
revolutionaries and realizes that his now-estranged wife is caught in the crossfire (from an Amazon.com
review)
Taltos Lord Vlad Taltos returns in the prequel to Jhereg, Yendi and Teckla in a fantastic
adventure in which readers learn what really happened when Vlad found himself walking the Paths of the Dead.
(from an Amazon.com review)
Phoenix In Steven Brust's fifth novel of the Vlad Taltos series, our "hero" (Vlad Taltos)
attempts to come to terms with his role as an assassin, his "racism" and his job as a crime-lord. Vlad begins
to realize that, perhaps, what he does for a living is wrong. He then confronts his weaknesses head on. Add to
this the fact that everyone in the book is trying to kill him and you are in for the ride of your life. (from
an Amazon.com review)
Athyra Vlad Taltos, sorcerer, sometime witch, and former assassin, and his faithful jhereg take
on the biggest hitters of the House of the Jhereg. (from an Amazon.com review)
Orca Vlad--wanted all over the Empire, and trying to elude capture--aids a young boy who saved
his life and probes the secrets of the House of the Orca. (from an Amazon.com review)
The Khaavren Romances
The Phoenix Guards Khaavren, a young swordsman of the House of Tiassa, and three companions in search of
adventure join the Emperor's guards and find themselves immersed in treacherous imperial politics when they become
the only hope of saving the Draegaran Empire. (from an Amazon.com review)
Five Hundred Years After The sequel to The Phoenix Guards follows closely the model of Dumas' Twenty Years
After; in fact, it helps to be familiar with Dumas's Musketeers to fully appreciate Brust's romance. Five
centuries after the close of the earlier work--Phoenix Guards, that is--Brust's D'Artagnan, Khaavren, is still
serving in the guards. Unfortunately, the emperor has begun to lose his grip and mortally insults Adron the
Dragonlord. Add Adron's ambitious daughter and several other influences, magical and human, to that beginning, and
you have a complex plot to which Brust does full justice. (from an Amazon.com review)
