In 1998, Steven Brust's hugely popular "Vlad Taltos" fantasy adventure series, the previous volumes of which had all appeared as paperback originals, finally moved to hardcover with the publication of Dragon, which went on to be Brust's bestselling hardcover. Now Brust returns to the world of Vlad for a swashbuckling tale that sheds long-delayed light on the very fundamentals of Dragaera and its origins. Vlad Taltos, a sometimes assassin currently on the run from his former associates, is tracked down in his jungle hideout by a most improbable party: Lady Teldra, the infinitely charming chatelaine of Castle Black. Teldra has come to enlist Vlad's help. His friends Morrolan e'Drien and Aliera e'Kieron have vanished, and neither sorcery nor telepathy can find them. Vlad once rescued Morrolan and Aliera from the realm of the Gods. That was hard enough. But now it looks like Morrolan and Aliera are in the hands of the Jenoine: those inscrutable and immeasurably powerful beings who long ago were the makers of Dragaers and the masters of its gods.
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and raised in a family of Hungarian labor organizers,
Steven Brust worked as a musician and a computer programmer before coming to prominence as a writer in 1983 with
Jhereg, the first of his novels about Vlad Taltos, a human professional assassin in a world dominated by long-lived, magically-empowered human-like "Dragaerans."
Over the next several years, several more "Taltos" novels followed, interspersed with other work, including
To Reign in Hell, a fantasy re-working of Milton's war in Heaven;
The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, a contemporary fantasy based on Hungarian folktales; and a science fiction novel,
Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille. The most recent "Taltos" novels are
Dragon and
Issola. In 1991, with
The Phoenix Guards, Brust began another series, set a thousand years earlier than the Taltos books; its sequels are
Five Hundred Years After and the three volumes of "The Viscount of Adrilankha":
The Paths of the Dead, The Lord of Castle Black, and
Sethra Lavode.
While writing, Brust has continued to work as a musician, playing drums for the legendary band Cats Laughing and recording an album of his own work, A Rose for Iconoclastes. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada where he pursues an ongoing interest in stochastics.
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and raised in a family of Hungarian labor organizers, Steven Brust worked as a musician and a computer programmer before coming to prominence as a writer in 1983 with Jhereg, the first of his novels about Vlad Taltos, a human professional assassin in a world dominated by long-lived, magically-empowered human-like "Dragaerans."
Over the next several years, several more "Taltos" novels followed, interspersed with other work, including To Reign in Hell, a fantasy re-working of Milton's war in Heaven; The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, a contemporary fantasy based on Hungarian folktales; and a science fiction novel, Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille. The most recent "Taltos" novels are Dragon and Issola. In 1991, with The Phoenix Guards, Brust began another series, set a thousand years earlier than the Taltos books; its sequels are Five Hundred Years After and the three volumes of "The Viscount of Adrilankha": The Paths of the Dead, The Lord of Castle Black, and Sethra Lavode.
While writing, Brust has continued to work as a musician, playing drums for the legendary band Cats Laughing and recording an album of his own work, A Rose for Iconoclastes. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada where he pursues an ongoing interest in stochastics.
