Back from New York, Jhereg
November 24, 2001 (12:00 AM) ( link )

I'm back from New York—the trip was awesome, thanks very much. In reading news, while in New York I got very much into Steven Brust's first Vlad Taltos book, Jhereg. Jhereg is not a great book by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a lot of fun. In a way, it reminds me of David Gerrold's fantastic War Against the Chtorr series in its cotton-candy style. But Brust also throws in all sorts of amusing asides: little bits of detail, casually related, that only get fleshed out later, brief comments by Vlad that reveal his character without being blatantly expository, etc. In other words, Jhereg is some of the best mindless entertainment I've ever read. I'm just glad there are something like a dozen books so far in the Vlad Taltos cycle.