(I posted this to The Library of Babel recently, which reminded me that I have a whole bunch of old Brust reviews, which I'll post here over the next few days. Since this is the first of the Vlad books, and the most recently read, we'll lead off with Jhereg...)
Jhereg by Steven Brust. This was the first Vlad book published, so it has more incluing than some of the later volumes, but no lack of glorious First Person Smartass narration:
We were all friends here. Morrolan carried Blackwand, which slew a thousand at the Wall of Barritt's Tomb. Aliera carried Pathfinder, which they say served a power higher than the Empire. Sethra carried Iceflame, which embodied within it the power of Dzur Mountain. I carried myself rather well, thank you.
I love this stuff. Oddly, though, I ended up reading it again for about the seventeenth time because of work.
I acquired advisees this year, three freshmen who I'm supposed to steer down the proper collegiate path over the next couple of years. I am, of course, encouraging them all to be physics majors, but in addition to that, I talk to them about all manner of everyday stuff.
Including books, of course. And when I discovered that one of the three reads fantasy novels, I immediately recommended Brust (he's exactly the right type of person to get hooked by the Vlad books). On recently merging libraries with Kate, we ended up with extra paperback copies of most of the Vlad books, so I dug out the copy of Jhereg and gave it to him last week.
I ran into him today in the hall. The first thing he said to me was "Are there more of these?" Followed by "Awesome!" when I told him there are nine so far... I'll bring the spares of Yendi and Taltos in tomorrow...
Of course, prior to handing the book off, I had it in my office for a few days. So, of course, I started reading it in idle moments. And shortly after passing that copy on, I came home and dug out the copy we're keeping. They're that addictive... I'll be lucky if I can keep from tearing through the rest of the series again.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
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