Welcome to Litsy!

Ooh, friends, I had SUCH a great time with Steven Brust's 16th Vlad Taltos novel. It's full of mysterious happenings, criminality, magic that's both down to earth and WEIRD, relationships that shine, and a ton of MOMENTS that enrich the wider series.

Basically, it's a Vlad book, and a durned good one at that.

This time around, I got a particular kick out of how Vlad‘s narration shifts with one of his friends in the room for the recitation. ⬇️

I‘m now in the homestretch with TSALMOTH; Ruby assisting. It‘s got me thinking about how the series plays with chronology, and how it‘s been ages since we last saw Vlad this young, and how much fun it is to watch him enjoy being in love, and tell stories, and tinker with his vocabulary. Brust almost always delivers a good plot, but his characters and their narrative voices are what keep me coming back.

This is me taking days upon days to read a tiny little book, even though I love it so far. Too many other demands on my time. I‘m now out in the country with Breezy, awaiting a snow storm (ugh), so maybe I‘ll finally manage to make some serious progress with it.

I finally started TSALMOTH this morning! I only had time over breakfast for the first chapter, but I‘m excited. This is Vlad at his most conversational, with a strong narrative voice and lots of cool little asides to go with the story at hand.

And yes, I screenshot the cover from LibraryThing to make for more interesting social media posts than the ARC cover allows.

This week‘s happy thing: I got an ARC of the next Vlad Taltos novel! Daisy‘s equally delighted (or she‘s just happy to have a tasty bone in front of her).

Now to decide whether I‘ll dive in in early March or wait until a smidge closer to its April release date…