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A review by mafiabadgers
Tsalmoth by Steven Brust
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
2.0
First read 01/2025
I hate to say it but, well, it's more of the same, isn't it?
I really don't think any series needs to be this long. All the character development, all the really big plot stuff (and there's been little enough of that recently) could fit comfortably into a dozen books, probably less if you were prepared to be vicious. That's not to say I didn't enjoy this one. Mostly, though, I believe that if a series is going to be this long, it has to really earn it. Episodic adventures are simply not the way to my heart.
As for this particular book, it's nothing that hasn't been done before. Vlad is a Jhereg crime boss, he has a minor problem, he spends most of the time being confused about who's doing what to whom, and over the course of his involvement it spirals into a larger problem before having a moderately dramatic dénouement. We're talking Dzur levels of exciting.
My favourite Brust books to date have been the ones where he's gone all in on themes (Teckla, Phoenix) or shown off his technical talent as a writer (Tiassa), but after those the Vlad books work best when he's got his friends around him. This is certainly one of those books, with the focus being mostly on Cawti. Brust isn't a romance writer, and I don't think he wants to be, so their relationship mostly consists of wisecracks and sappy comments, with Loiosh frequently threatening to throw up, as though Brust is worried that this will be very unappealing to his readers and wants to head off any criticism. It doesn't quite do it for me, for some reason. Also,Cawti saves Vlad's life a couple of times throughout the book, which makes it feel really stupid that she more or less divorced him because he saved her life a bit too frequently. Vlad's whole thing is having other people do him favours. Got involved in a Jhereg gang war? Here's 20,000 gold, my boy! Turned into a demon? Let me erase your memories to fix that for you. Criminal organisation hunting you down? Why don't you stay with me for a bit, never mind the risk that I'm taking. It's terribly illogical, but of course people are illogical; I could have forgiven this if Brust had shown how their later problems had sprung from their respective characters, but the closest we get to that is Cawti trying to expand Vlad's vocabulary, which is not quite in the same league.
I hate to say it but, well, it's more of the same, isn't it?
I really don't think any series needs to be this long. All the character development, all the really big plot stuff (and there's been little enough of that recently) could fit comfortably into a dozen books, probably less if you were prepared to be vicious. That's not to say I didn't enjoy this one. Mostly, though, I believe that if a series is going to be this long, it has to really earn it. Episodic adventures are simply not the way to my heart.
As for this particular book, it's nothing that hasn't been done before. Vlad is a Jhereg crime boss, he has a minor problem, he spends most of the time being confused about who's doing what to whom, and over the course of his involvement it spirals into a larger problem before having a moderately dramatic dénouement. We're talking Dzur levels of exciting.
My favourite Brust books to date have been the ones where he's gone all in on themes (Teckla, Phoenix) or shown off his technical talent as a writer (Tiassa), but after those the Vlad books work best when he's got his friends around him. This is certainly one of those books, with the focus being mostly on Cawti. Brust isn't a romance writer, and I don't think he wants to be, so their relationship mostly consists of wisecracks and sappy comments, with Loiosh frequently threatening to throw up, as though Brust is worried that this will be very unappealing to his readers and wants to head off any criticism. It doesn't quite do it for me, for some reason. Also,