Sethra Lavode

by Steven Brust
I am so crushed that this ends sounding like it’s the last Phoenix Guards book he will write. I seriously hope that’s not the case and that there will be another book after this one.
Brust’s Dumas-style high fantasy novels are a joy — provided you like Alexandre Dumas’s writing style. If you don’t, the books will probably seem terribly bloated. I mean, these people talk like this:
“I do not understand what you have done me the honor of saying.”
and:
“I believe we are about to have the honor of charging you.”
And the narration is even more wordy. But it’s a wordiness that is pleasurable, like satin sheets or rich chocolate. Brust has brought this huge, complicated world to life, and while it’s the same world inhabited by the characters of his Vlad Taltos books, it’s even cooler because of the way he writes about it.
And I love the characters. LOVE!
But don’t start here. Get The Phoenix Guards and 500 Years After and start with them. THEN you can read the huge, multi-volumen epic that culminates with Sethra Lavode.
(Book 27 in 2005)