Brust’s Jhegaala at Black Gate

Over at Black Gate today I’ve put up my review of Steven Brust’s Jhegaala,which originally appeared in Black Gate #13. With the next in the venerable series, Iorich, due for release in January of next year,  I thought it would be a good time to talk about the most recent book.

For anyone not familiar with these books — which have been going for over twenty-five years at this point! — they are essentially a series of connected but stand-alone adventures of thief/assassin Vlad Taltos and his wise-cracking familiar. A human in a world of Dragaerans (think Moorcock’s Melniboneans), Vlad doesn’t have the muscle or the magic to go toe-to-toe with the majority — so he relies on his wits instead. A really fun, fast sword & sorcery series in the old style, and the perfect remedy for anyone suffering from fat fantasy malaise.

I’ve noticed a lot of good posts about the Taltos series and Steven Brust’s work in general from Jo Walton over at Tor.com lately, check them out:

• Playing the angles on a world: Steven Brust’s Dragaera
• Jhereg
• Yendi
• Teckla
• Taltos
• Phoenix
• Orca
• Dragon
• Issola

And a few on the Dumas-styled Khaavren Romances (which I still have not read!):

• The Phoenix Guards
• 500 Years After

Looking forward to seeing what more she has to say on the series.