Where to start with Steven Brust

[barsoomcore]

Hi, my name is barsoomcore, and I'm a frothing Steven Brust fanboy. Thanks.

 

[Pielorinho]

See, Teckla is the book that really hooked me on Brust and made him stand out from the other fantasy writers. It's the moment where Vlad turns from "Standard Fantasy Hero" to "Real Honest-To-Siskel Person". Where Brust goes from creating pretty keen fantasy stories to writing literature that carries some real weight.

I agree: after reading Jhereg and Yendi, I wasn't very impressed with Vlad as a character at all. It was his growth in Teckla that made me think I might want to find the other books in the series.

Which I've not done yet; my local library doesn't have them (or rather has only a few of them). I need to haunt the local used bookstores.

Daniel

 

[Hypersmurf]

I like Teckla, and I read it any time I reread The book of Jhereg... but I don't enjoy it the way I do Jhereg or Yendi.

I don't really like Athyra much.

Taltos, Phoenix, Dragon, Orca, and Issola are all good.

I love the two Khaavren books; the Viscount books haven't grabbed me yet.

And Freedom and Necessity is awesome. I need to find something else by Emma Bull.

I've lost my copy of Agyar To Reign in Hell was... interesting. Good. But not something I'm in a hurry to reread.

But my vote would definitely be "Start with Jhereg".

-Hyp.

 

[talinthas]

heh. _To Reign in Hell_ is one of my all time favorite books, and certainly my favorite work of Brust's =)

So much so that i wish people read that in school instead of the insufferably boring john milton, who is currently making me cry over a final term paper that just won't write =(

 

[barsoomcore]

I'd love to do Jhereg as a movie, but not set in Dragaera, just here on good ol' earth. Two rival mafia clans, some guy hiding from one within the household of another -- and for that bit where Vlad replays his memory for Cawti ("The strange action of the bodyguards at the assassination attempt."), use a security cam recording.

Then our heroes stage an elaborate caper to convince... well, let's not spoil it, shall we? But it'd be good.

 

[barsoomcore]

I hope it doesn't alarm anyone that I can just randomly quote not-even-particularly-memorable-lines from Steven Brust's first novel. I'm not kidding around, here.

Stick with Milton. He's got things to tell you. Things Brust doesn't.

Long-winded and yeah, kinda insufferably DULL things, but things.

 

[Desdichado]

Well, I've taken Paths back to the library because they had too copies of Jhereg available (and also because a book I ILLed had come in.) Now, as soon as I finish reading The Tarim Mummies by Jim Mallory and Victor Mair, I'm open to giving it a shot.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I hope it doesn't alarm anyone that I can just randomly quote not-even-particularly-memorable-lines from Steven Brust's first novel. I'm not kidding around, here.

I've never been able to convince anyone to read the Khaavren Romances I quote some dialogue or a Paarfiism at them, and they flee in terror

All of these actions, be it understood, had happened so quickly that they were over, save for the twitching of the body and the appearance of Khaavren's naked sword, so that none of the onlookers actually saw what happened - there had been a quick motion, a loud sound, and then the changed circumstance. A Teckla screamed. A voice said, "Well, my dear Khaavren, our arrival seems to have been timely." We should note here that, in fact, it was not a voice which spoke at all, but, rather, a person - yet as it took Khaavren some little time to identify the voice (and, hence, the person), we have chosen to use this locution to both indicate the unknown identity of speaker with reference to Khaavren, and fulfill our desire to delay, if only briefly, the revelation of the speaker's name to our readers, thus striking with two edges at once, as the Dzur say, and saving ourselves from the necessity of over-explaining, which could not but provide an annoyance to the discerning reader.

-Hyp.

 

[Sir Whiskers]

See, Teckla is the book that really hooked me on Brust and made him stand out from the other fantasy writers. It's the moment where Vlad turns from "Standard Fantasy Hero" to "Real Honest-To-Siskel Person". Where Brust goes from creating pretty keen fantasy stories to writing literature that carries some real weight.

Whereas I like the pure escapism of the other books. Teckla was a bit too "real" for my taste. It's not a fun story, but it is all-too-real.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Whereas I like the pure escapism of the other books. Teckla was a bit too "real" for my taste. It's not a fun story, but it is all-too-real.

Yeah.

Spoilers for Teckla and Bujold's A Civil Campaign:

Spoiler

I like Cawti, and I like Cawti-and-Vlad, and seeing their relationship crumble doesn't give me pleasure.

I compare it to A Civil Campaign - one of my favourite books ever - and while seeing the pain and tribulations Ekaterin has inflicted on her - by Miles and by circumstance - makes me tear up every time, it comes out right in the end, and I'm not left feeling depressed when I get to the end of the book.

Teckla is not a book I read to feel good.

-Hyp.