Brust!

In the most recent quiz, one of the quotes was from Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos series, which is a fantasy series of very clever non-boat-anchors about a former hit man who lives in a world where humans are an oppressed minority. Marchmaine predicted that no one would get it, and he was quite correct. Which is a damned shame, because they’re wonderful books, much more entertaining (IMHO) than anything by, say, Jim Butcher.

As a small but highly characteristic taste, here’s an excerpt from the latest book, Hawk, published a few months ago:

My name is Vlad Taltos. I used to be an assassin.

When you have a price on your head you’ve got nothing: no contacts, no access to your operating capital, no chance to see your estranged wife and eight-year-old son. You move around to anywhere you think will keep you ahead of the hired killers. You do whatever work comes your way. You rely on anyone who’s still talking to you: a notorious thief whose name makes everyone around you check his pockets; an undead Enchantress famous for destroying anyone who comes near her; a sorcerer known to have sacrificed entire villages to his goddess; his even more hot-tempered cousin; and a flying lizard of a familiar with a nasty sense of humor.

Bottom line: As long as you’re wanted, you’re not staying anywhere.