When someone asks me for my personal favorite fantasy series, I usually hem and haw for a while and try to sneak at least two or three extra series into my answer. But if you were to force me, under threat of violence, to trim it down to just one, it would be Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos series. Vallista, the fifteenth novel in the long-running series, is due out on October 17th, making this an excellent time to try and convert some new readers to the Gospel of Taltos.
Explaining what exactly is so wonderful about this series is tricky, partly because it’s so unique and partly because it’s hard to do without including huge spoilers, but at its heart it’s the story of Vlad Taltos, a human assassin living in the Dragaeran Empire, as well as the story of the Dragaeran Empire itself.
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Vallista
At this point you may be groaning “not another assassin,” but let me assure you that Vlad is not your typical run-of-the-mill hood-wearing killer-for-hire that seemed to be on every other fantasy cover a few years back. Vlad is actually one of the most fascinating protagonists in current fantasy. At the start of the series, he’s a smart-ass, bon-vivant assassin and minor crime boss who enjoys good food and wine and has a great sarcastic sense of humor. A good part of the fun of reading this series is following the constant wise-cracks between Vlad and his reptilian familiar Loiosh. (“You’re pretty smart for a mammal, boss.”) As the series progresses, you learn more about Vlad’s past, putting his choice of occupation in an entirely new light, and you also see Vlad evolve into a surprisingly complex character. (On a personal note, as someone who’s been reading these novels for a couple of decades now, I find that my take on Vlad has evolved considerably as I’ve matured as a person and a reader.)
Dragaerans are basically tall humanoids who use sorcery and live for millennia. This may make you assume they’re like elves—and indeed some humans, like Vlad’s wonderful grandfather, refer to them as “elfs”—but the reality is far more surprising and unique. (This is where it’s very hard not to go into spoiler territory, so let’s just join Vlad’s “Noish-Pa” and think of them as elves for now.)
The Dragaeran Empire is an ancient society divided into seventeen Great Houses which all bear the name of, and some resemblance to, a real or mythical animal. So we have the Houses of the Orca and the Hawk, but also the Houses of the Dzur, Dragon, and Jhegaala. Humans aren’t part of the Dragaeran Empire, but Vlad’s father bought his son a title in the House of Jhereg, which is named after a reptilian scavenger and is basically the crime syndicate of the Empire. The Great Houses take turns running the Empire according to the Great Cycle; as the series begins, we’re just a few centuries into the reign of Empress Zerika of the House of the Phoenix.
Here’s the thing, though: I could go on for ages describing the more intricate details of this fantasy universe, but that’s only one of many reasons why these books are so much fun. Another reason is the way the series is structured, because the books weren’t written according to the internal chronology. The second novel (Yendi) takes place before the first one (Jhereg). The events described in Jhegaala, published in 2008, take place right between two books published over a decade earlier (Phoenix and Athyra), and if I understand correctly (not having read it yet), the forthcoming new novel Vallista takes place right before Hawk, which was published right before it.
If that sounds confusing, don’t worry: the details will fall into place as you progress through the series. Readers used to try to rearrange the novels and read them according to the internal chronology, but that became almost impossible when Dragon (1998) switched back and forth between separate branches of the timeline in each chapter of the novel. To preserve your sanity, I sincerely recommend just reading them in publication order.
Speaking of reading order: aside from the fifteen novels in the core series so far, there are also the “Khaavren Romances,” a trilogy (in which the third novel consists of three volumes by itself, so there are actually five of them) set several hundred years before the main series. Because Dragaerans live for millennia, several characters appear in both series, experiencing things that to Vlad (and most readers) will feel like historical events come to life. This is a very odd experience, only heightened by the narrator of the Romances, the esteemed Paarfi of Roundwood, whose incredibly verbose style (reminiscent of Alexandre Dumas, as the books’ titles suggests) takes some getting used to. There’s much more that can be written about these books—they really deserve a separate article—but just to return to the reading order: as with almost all prequels, don’t start with the Khaavren Romances. If you want to stick with publication order, the first one (The Phoenix Guards) was published between Phoenix and Athyra, or otherwise you can pretty much pick them up when you’ve read at least a few books in the main series. (For completion’s sake, there’s also The Brokedown Palace, a standalone novel set in Fenario, east of the Empire. I just now realize this may be the only novel by Brust I’ve never read, so I can’t really talk about how it fits into the series, but it’s clearly connected and I clearly need to read it.)
But back to the main series! Each novel (except, so far, Taltos) is named after one of the seventeen Dragaeran Houses, and in most cases, Vlad takes on some of the characteristics and attributes of that House throughout the novel, so e.g. in Dragon he ends up a soldier, and in Issola he becomes remarkably courteous. In Jhereg, Brust even applies this technique on the chapter level: each chapter begins with a quotation that connects back to one of the Houses, in the same order they appear in the Cycle, and Vlad does or says something that’s reminiscent of that House.
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The Book of Jhereg
Brust also likes to play around with the internal structure of each novel in utterly delightful ways. My favorite example is Teckla, which starts off with a list of instructions for Vlad’s launderer-tailor. (“1 grey knit cotton shirt: remove wine stain from rt sleeve, black tallow from lft & repair cut in rt cuff.”) Each chapter starts off with a line from this (literal) laundry list and, at some point in the chapter, you find out how that item of clothing was damaged. Other novels in the series are structured around the menu for an elaborate meal (no one describes food as mouth-wateringly as Brust does, especially in the Valabar’s scenes in Dzur) or the various steps for casting a spell.
Now here’s the oddest thing about this series for me. Even though Brust is performing the literary equivalent of flying trapeze work with all his structural tricks and his convoluted chronology, the actual novels themselves are short (most of my ratty old paperbacks are around 300 pages), tightly written, and purely entertaining. You can read most of them in a few hours. Because the books are mostly self-contained, over the years they’ve started functioning similarly to Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series for me: quick and entertaining novels that are still rewarding after multiple readings.
For a series that’s been going for over thirty years now (Jhereg was published in 1983!), it’s stayed remarkably consistent, so if all this enthusiastic rambling intrigued you, I recommend picking up The Book of Jhereg, an omnibus edition of the first three novels in the series.
Stefan Raets reads and reviews science fiction and fantasy whenever he isn’t distracted by less important things like eating and sleeping. His (sadly neglected) website is Far Beyond Reality.
Never heard of this series, but your review makes me want to give it a shot. Off to the bookstore!
@1 – The older ones are collected in omnibus editions. I think the first nine at least. 3 books per omnibus.
I’d second reading them in Publication Order. When Dragon came out, Steve actually stated that part of what he was doing was messing with the people who were reading them according to internal chronology.
And while he is SCRUPULOUS about not actually spoiling things (such as a certain massive reveal in Orca) in other novels, he is less strict about making non-spoilery statements in novels published AFTER a reveal and it would IMHO be reasonably easy to guess certain spoilers, if you read the books in more or less internal chronological order. Plus you would miss some, “Ah I see what you did there,” moments where he alludes to his spoilers in a fun, arch, manner.
Finally, if you’re going to read the Khaavren Romances at ALL (and you might bounce off the Dumas-ian style found therein if you really REALLY like Steve’s more Hemingway-esque standard style, and it’s not actually REQUIRED), then if you really want to get the most synergy between the two series, make sure you start the Phoenix Guard (Khaavren) sometime close to Phoenix (Vlad), and make sure that you finish Five Hundred Years After (Khaavren) sometime before you read Orca (Vlad), and make certain you finish the Viscount of Adrilankha Trilogy (The Paths of the Dead, The Lord of Castle Black, Sethra Lavode) in the Khaavren Romances before (best done JUST before) Tiassa, in the Vlad Series. But the two series styles are WILDLY different, and you really don’t have to read the Khaavren stuff. I’d consider them more optional, especially if the Paarfi/Dumas style “voice” is at risk of putting you off Vlad.
Also, and without getting into spoiler territory, you need to remember as you read these two series, first, Vlad lies (he can be an unreliable narrator) and, second, Paarfi is a horrible suckup (his falsehoods tend to run in consistent, politically expedient, directions).
I wonder how many readers of this post will be like me — Taltos fans come to read about how right we are to be Taltos fans.
I first picked Jhereg from the bookshelf when it had no sequels, prequels or side-quels, and am still a joyously dedicated reader all these years later — though oddly just like you I’ve never read Brokedown Palace. Keep meaning to.
Anyway, thanks for the affirmation. I enjoyed this post very much.
This article speaks truth. I have loved these books for decades, and I was thrilled to wake up today and realize that I would have my hands on Vallista before the end of it.
I actually read The Phoenix Guards first, unaware that it was a prequel. At first, I was taken aback by the tone when I switched to the Vlad novels, but I have grown to like them more. Brust can switch tones like a champ. I love that he can make you sympathize with a character in one scene, and then present that character in an entirely different light in another.
I actually dressed as an assassin from the House of Jhereg for Halloween once when I was in Jr high. That’s how much I loved Vlad. Even conned my Mother into reading the series (she loved them!), course, this was back when there were only 3 books in the series. ^^;
I’ve fallen far behind though…I should restart the adventure. Thanks for the reminder.
It occurs to me that I’m shamefully far behind in the series at this point, and of the Khaavren Romances, I’ve only read The Phoenix Guards. Must rectify that.
And I do recommend Brokedown Palace. And Brust’s non-Jhereg books, especially The Gypsy.
And back in 2006 or 2007 he wrote, and published on his own blog, a short fanfic novel (My Own Kind of Freedom) about a certain, lamented SF/western series canceled entirely too soon by Fox …
One thing I ask before launching myself in such a long series: are the book quite self-consistent?
In this days, I’ve grown quite bored with neverending series where the books never get to a point, so I’m not starting any new series unless it’s a self consistent book or the author have already closed the series (after finishing it!).
@8fizz, Brust’s books are a lot fun and self-contained. More like an on-going serial or comic; where the main story comes, mostly, to a conclusion. I am always pleased to see when a new book comes out.
They follow Vlad’s life in the Dragaeran Empire and are very episodic.
Quite fun & humorous to read as well.
Kato
Each book is a solid story on its own. It’s kind of like the Miles Vorkosigan books in that regard, rather than Wheel of Time or A Song of Ice and Fire. Every new book is a delight, but you’re not left hanging waiting for what happens next, because each book is its own story.
I didn’t realize a new book was coming out. I’m shamefully behind on the series and need to figure out which omnibus books I have to get to catch up. And then do a reread, of course!
I loved the Khaavren Romances, flouncy language and all! It sets the whole tone for the books in a (to me) delightful way.
These books are amazingly well-written and have held up over the years unlike few others. I just re-read them all again last year and they read as well as they did when they came out. The trilogy, which I always think of as the Dumas trilogy, is such a love letter to The Three Musketeers trilogy I’m not sure anyone who doesn’t love the original as much as, well, Steven Brust, would appreciate all he’s done there with it. It’s a marvel that die-hard musketeers fans shouldn’t miss.
This sounds really cool by chance I stumbled upon the series today and picked the Book of Jhereg up.
I was wondering how come he uses so many Hungarian words until I found out his full name. :)
While these books look like pretty straight forward “wise-cracking assassin fantasy”, there’s a lot of depth and nuance right from the start.
For instance, dragaerans generally refer to themselves as ‘humans’, and call those short, hairy, short lived people (ie Vlad, and by extension, us) “Easterners”.
Easterners for their part call the tall, thin, incredibly long lived (400 years is an average age) people “elves”, and probably worse names because easterners are very much third class citizens in the Dragaeran empire.
So, right from the start you have Vlad interacting with people who look down on him (literally) and will outlive him by centuries.
And that’s without even getting into the science fictional elements such as the Jenoine (who created the world, the dragaerans, some/most of the gods, but not the Easterners), or the two (or more) types of magic.
The books are great, and among my favorites. Jhereg is one of the best opening books of any multi-book series. It is akin to an Ocean 11 caper in which Vlad realizes that he has been hired to make a seemingly impossible hit, with potentially world-affecting stakes, and he has to utilize all available resources to make it all work. Brilliant stuff and works on its own and as a world building vehicle I re-read it last week and it remains impressive. (I also re-read Dzur, the one where the complex plot is amazingly wrapped around a multi-course dinner at Valabars, the best restaurant in all of SFF literature.).
The comparisons to Vorkosigan are apt, as the supporting casts around the principal character are a large part of the fun. Instead of Elena, Ivan, Cordelia, Bel, the Koudelkas, Simon, Mark and the like, you have Kragar, Kiera the Thief, Morrolan, Aliera, Sethra, Cawti, the Demon, Lady Teldra, Noish-Pa, Daymar, and, of course, Roczka.
In response to @8, the series has a plan for wrapping up. The series will be the 17 houses, plus two books not related to houses (Taltos, which dives fully into Vlad’s original story, and the final book), totaling 19 books by the end. So, with the publishing of this latest book, the 15th, there are only three houses to go (Lyorn, Cheorotha and Tslalmouth) and then final book. I assume the books will begin to shape towards some type of appropriate series resolution, even if I have no idea what that will be.
Sounds interesting! Unfortunately the books are surprisingly expensive online, as ebooks or otherwise. So I’ll add this to my “list of books to try and find in the used bookstore” which is an alarmingly huge list :)
I picked up a random book of Vlad’s series on a trip to Hawaii years ago. I just read it out of boredom and was surprised how good it turned out. My trip ended up with me spending some 10-15 hours reading while in Hawaii while I could have been doing other things. That’s how much I enjoyed it.
I’ve been reading this series in real time, which is somewhat amazing to me. I think when I started as a teen only the first two had been published. I can’t think of anything else from that far back that I still have as much (probably more) affection for and which I feel like has kept every bit of its quality. The only thing that comes close in affection would be the Myth Adventures books which stayed fun but got pretty scattered as RA’s life got… let’s go with “complicated.”
I do wish someone would produce something on the order of The Lurker’s Guide for the books. I enjoy the connections as I have spotted them but I don’t have the time in my life to re-read them all to catch some of these things. Plus my mediocre memory would no double miss them all over again :)
@17 – in fairness to the prices, The Book of Jhereg really comprises what was initially published in three novels. So while $12 would be a lot for a backlist novel it’s cheaper than average if you look at it as 3 $4 books. The free sample is actually the early chapters of JHEREG so odds are poor you’ll be dropping that $12 with no inkling of whether you’ll enjoy it.
Started with Brust back when Jhereg was his only book, and have really enjoyed the whole thing, aside from the change in book size (which unfortunately, has me at an unpleasant crossroads — can’t toss out my originals, can’t bring myself to buy everything all over again, can’t stand the idea of moving them off of the paperback-sized shelf I built where they fit perfectly). Please, please, please, publish all of the books in the original small paperback size, w/ the nice embossed and foil-imprinted covers w/ the original cover art.
The last book is apparently to be titled The Final Contract and I’ll be very sad when it is published, esp. ’cause when it comes out, I’ll have to go back and re-read all of them, including Teckla, which I found so emotionally wrenching that I’ve never re-read it, but believe I can flash in everything that happens in it when re-reading the balance of the books (also haven’t been able to re-read The Viscount of Adrilankha due to the tragedy at the end, and being really annoyed by the protagonist.)
@21 – with you 100% on Teckla. I’ve re-read all of the others multiple times but that one…yikes.
Sold!
I’m in desperate need of a new series. I’ve been rereading many of my old faves, as I’ve been disappointed in quite a few new recommendations. There are several people on this thread whose favorites match my own, so I will trust their love for Vlad.
First, thanks for the head’s up on the publication of Vallista!
And second, thanks for introducing more folks to Dragaera, and evidently for reminding others to return to the series. This really is one of my favorite worlds, and I have to say that I find the pretentious writing style of Paarfi of Roundwood one of the most delightfully amusing reading experiences I have ever had. Just be sure you’ve read at least some of the Khaavren books before you get to Tiassa – I was laughing out loud at Paarfi’s take on Vlad. (And I wonder if Paarfi’s dreadful attempt at erotica is still floating around online?)
God, I loved the Dragaeran books when I was younger. I still love the Khaavren series, but the others have begun to wear a bit thin for me.
In my zeal to make sure I got the newest when it first came out, I accidentally ordered it twice. Like many of the others here, I picked up the first book when it was the only book. Steven Brust is one of of very, very few authors I still have to buy and read immediately.
My now college age son remembers Phoenix Guards and 500 Years After fondly. This was one of my more ambitious read aloud to him in his younger years (though the first 5 books of Belgariad and Amber were both probably a bit longer). I think Paarfi of Roundwood’s style is better when read out loud :)
It was a great series that I think has been going downhill for awhile. I received the latest when it came out (the speed of Ebooks) but have started it three times without being able to get through it. My impression from the last three books is he is more interested is showing off how imaginative he is, rather then telling a story. So far (47% on my third attempt) Vallista is like going through a D&D dungeon crawl where the DM spends 80% of the time describing the rooms. And I do not play RPGs!
Agree with the comments about the Khaavren Romances (i.e. The Musketeer Homages). They are simply fabulous.
I second (or is it by now fiftieth?) the recommendation to read them in publication order. As Raets notes, the first book was thirty years ago and I read it then so maybe I have forgotten any references but the first few are strictly in-city. Maybe ten years ago the threat of super-Gods appeared, but they also appeared (at the same Earth time) hundreds of years earlier in the Khaavren and Lord Morrolan stories. It would be weird I think, to read the Khaavren stories and learn of this existential threat, then see nothing of it until midway through the Taltos stories.
I, for one, hope that the series actually reaches its conclusion; the plan was always to get through the entire cycle, after all. And with Taltos adding an extra book, that means eighteen books instead of seventeen. I can see how an author could get burned out on a series well before reaching that threshold.
That said, I do really like these books. I actually prefer the flowery style of the Khaavren romances — for the comedic effect — but I’ll never complain about Loiosh snark. I only wish we could hear Rocza’s lines.
I would recommend this series for the humor alone (although certainly the ease of reading, short length, and fun of the fantasy worlds it shares are definitely pluses). There’s no book or book series that can make me laugh so hard I cry and my sides hurt just after a few pages at the beginning. And it keeps going. No matter how down I feel, no matter how rather dark the story gets, there are some truly funny moments or at least moments that make you grin. Heck, my favorite is the one about banking! He made a funny, short book about banking/shell corporations essentially! How many authors do you know who can do that with a fantasy novel? And it’s not just fantasy – there are science fiction elements tucked away in there, and it’s fun. Can’t wait to read the new one.
I would hesitate to recommend “Khaavren Romances” to someone who doesn’t like the “Three Musketeers”. At any rate, even though they’re set earlier than most of the Vlad Taltos books, they shouldn’t be read first, unless you’re a diehard Dumas fan. It also helps to read the shorter Vlad Taltos novels first to get more familiar with the worldbuilding before diving into Khaavren.
To put a pin in this discussion, note that the Hugo and Nebula winning author Jo Walton, occasional blogger on the site who used to blog here a LOT in the late aughts and early part of this decade, conducted a re-read and blog post series about all of Brust’s works, as well as interviewing Brust. The posts are thoughtful and entertaining, and are worth reading (as are the similarly comprehensive treatment she gave to ASOIF, Vorkosigan and the many works of CJ Cherryh, among many others).
Use the Tor.com search function to find Jo’s Brust works and browse as appropriate, mindful of spoilers if you haven’t jumped fully into Taltos/Khaavren-World.
Just to add a contrary view – I think I actually began with Brokedown Palace. I thought the original Vlad Taltos books were terrific – about the first 6 or so. By now, though, the series has degenerated into the same jokes over and over, and it feels like Brust is no longer even trying. And the prequel ‘trilogy’ – which I was originally very interested in – is pretty much unreadable; it’s a one-line joke repeated over and over and over for hundreds of pages.
I think Brust is a very strong writer, but I wish he’d write more To Reign in Hell type novels, and get out of the Taltos rut he’s been in for years now.
Not all of the books are available on Amazon for Kindle; they list the omnibus editions but they’re not actually for sale. That means my collection of Taltos novels is still missing some of the earlier books, and that makes it hard for me to recommend to other people.
Other than this issue (which I do not understand; what is the point of a publisher refusing to sell a book?) I have always regarded the Taltos series as my #1 fantasy. The characters are human (even the non-humans), complex and multi-faceted and that makes the books a joy to read, even when the stories are weaker. Yes, not every book is as good as the best of them, but they are all fun reads.
I will add, if you love Roger Zelazny and you haven’t tried Stephen Brust, then that’s the closest match in style that I can think of and I would recommend you try the books. Of course, The Phoenix Guards is more Dumar-esque, and you have to put on a certain mind-set to read that series enjoyably.
It seems the order is quite a discussion. The author gave it’s point of view in the Tor/Forge blog (I’m curious why Tor didn’t link it)
http://www.torforgeblog.com/2017/10/17/where-to-start-with-vlad-taltos/
33. Evil Overlord — if Vlad isn’t your poison (and hey, nothing is for everyone), you might try the Incrementalists series he’s now co-writing with Skyler White.
I had trouble with To Reign in Hell because of one of the few things about Brust’s writing that cause me difficulty: far more than other writers, he tends to omit dialogue tags (“she said”, etc) unless they’re strictly necessary. It isn’t as much of a problem for me in the Taltos series, since their dialogue sections tend to be more compact and/or involve multiple people — but the long interchanges in To Reign… challenged my reading comprehension more than I’d like to admit. Again, though, nothing is for everyone.
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On a completely separate note: the Taltos series is arguably the most readable set of books that are known with certainty to have been written based on an RPG character (source: Reddit AMA, https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1mkvv4/hello_and_well_met_i_am_novelist_steven_brust_ama/, search text for “homebrew”). I might claim “only” or “exception that proves the rule” if I were being snobby, but I try not to be…. I would love to hear counterexamples, though!
I named my cat Loiosh.
…I’m not saying it was a GOOD idea.
When I originally read Jhereg I didn’t really like it. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t like it either. But The Phoenix Guard was recently available and so I read, and fell in love with, that book. And then had to wait for the rest of the Khaavreen Romances to be written. But I loved them too.
Then I went back and reread Jhereg and finally enjoyed it. I just finished Teckla awhile back and will get back to reading through the rest of the books in a bit.
I think I needed the Khaavreen Romances to set the world in my mind before I could go back to the Vlad books. Plus, I just really dig Paarfi’s style!
You talk about interesting structures of some of the not-new books; when he was GoH at Boskone a few years ago, he said Hawk was structured like the old Flying Karamazov Brothers routine called “The Terror Trick” — in which every now and then an object was presented, then left out for the audience to wonder what is going to be done with this increasingly random-looking collection.
The Vlad series has been on auto-buy for me since I discovered it in the late 80s, but that said, I would agree with Evil Overlord in #33 that there were a couple of books that felt more phoned in. However, I feel like Brust has regained much of the original Vlad spirit in the last couple of books. In retrospect, I think some of the styles and themes must reflect Brust’s own changes as he as aged, including relationship issues and health issues, which means expecting the same tone as the beginning of the series will find something every different at the end. The Vlad/Khaavren books have survived years of my personal library purges, and I have been working on getting them in hardcover.
I’d also throw out that I loved the Khaavren Romances without having read Dumas. The style did take some getting used to, but I found it very witty.
The Incrementalists–ugh. Pass. I read a lot of UF but wasn’t impressed with this series.
First of all, I blame Brust for my not having become a writer. He stole the working title of my first masterpiece, ‘To Reign in Hell’. Seeing it there on the bookshelf in front of me was quite a blow. I went into finance instead. ;>)
I’ve been reading these since the 80’s, it’s an incredible series. I feel it’s important to read them in order of publication in order to build your knowledge of this world in synch with Brust building it. Some things will make less sense otherwise. I love the characters, and I love the series, and even if a book didn’t appeal to me so much on first read, his novels generally seem to reward a 2nd or 3rd read. I’m a huge fan of Yendi, Taltos, Issola, and Dzur, in particular, but any Vlad Taltos book makes me happy.
If you are a fan of the three musketeers, the Khaavren Romances should be right up your alley; it’s both a tribute to and a satire of Dumas’ work & style. The Phoenix Guards is one of my favorite fantasy books simply for the sheer exhuberance of it and the themes it contains, as well as one of my favorite obscure/pithy lines that ‘food would not hinder my enjoyment of the afternoon’. Ok, yeah, my sense of humor can be quirky. The sequel ‘500 years after’ is a bit workman-like but solid. The three books that make up the Viscount of Adrilahnka also provide a lot of great background to the Taltos series, but have so much territory to cover that they come off a bit uneven.
Dang, I forgot to mention. Brust actually wrote a ‘choose your own adventure’ book based on the Vald Taltos world back in the 80’s. Also, don’t miss the Firefly episode that he wrote for the fun of it. It’s really well done.
Have to say, I loved reading this post. It’s also been my favorite series for almost 25 years since my 8th grade English teacher recommended the first novel Jhereg to me to borrow and my grandmother bought me Phoenix as my first book into the series later on. Still my favorite author and the only author I’ve ever written an email to saying how much I enjoyed his work (and he even took the time to write me back). Always makes my year happier to read another one, and one of the authors who inspired me to write creatively when I was a kid. Glad to see folks reading this who get to discover the series for the first time, you’ve got a lot of great reading ahead of you – even if you’re not like me and had time to re-read them all a couple of times over. Really is a cut above, I think the only writer I’ve found in fantasy is Jim Butcher who gave me a similarly great world to be apart of (and he even gave a shout out to Brust in his last book). Glad to see there are still huge fans out there for the ol Vlad one of the all time great characters (and supporting cast).
I was just researching the number 17 for a book I am writing, because of an obsession I have with it since I was a child. Then I find out from Wikipedia that this guy here is also crazy about the same number. Releasing on October 17th. Heh. Then I look at this article. 17 people chose it as favourite! Yes. This is a sign. Or just stupid coincidence. Or both. I’m gonna try to make something out of it I suppose.