Brust, Steven - Yendi

[oyceter]

Umm... yes, this is the first Taltos book I've read. I think I just skirted around them for a while, largely because the one Brust book I read (To Reign in Hell) drove me crazy and I never managed to finish Agyar.

But I was in the library and flipping through them, and the back of Yendi said something like, "Hi, I'm Vlad Taltos, assassin. [Something something something jhereg war something something]... and this is how I fell in love with the woman who killed me."

"Oooo!" I thought. "OOOOOO!" (I am SO predictable.)

Unfortunately, aforementioned female assassin is not as cool as I'd like, but there are so many other cool and kickass female characters in the book that I don't care.

As far as I can tell, Vlad is an Easterner (human) in a land of Draegarians. There's a whole lot of stuff about class in the book, as Draegarians can be one of seventeen different classes. Sometimes it seems as though these classes are like race; i.e. people go on about pure Dragon genes or something. But then, you also have classes like jheregs, where you can buy your way in.

Or something. I'm not really sure what's going on with the world right now, except that dragons are all noble and violent and jheregs are assassins. Or thieves? Or underworld creatures? Or something?

Anyway. Vlad the human jhereg manages to get himself in a jhereg war, which seems to be a lot like a gang war, only with assassins and sorcery involved. Along the way, he gets assassinated and falls in love with said assassin and finds that his little jhereg war is a little larger and more political than he previously thought.

I wasn't particularly interested in the plot, and there were a few too many expositiony bits in which Vlad must expound upon all his theories as to what the grander plot is. And as you all can probably tell, I have no idea what's going on with all the worldbuilding. But I like Vlad, and he's got a fun, hard-boiled detective voice, and more importantly, Aliera and Sethra Lavode and really freaking cool. I mean -- two long-lived kickass powerful women! (Have I mentioned how predictable I am?)

So is it ok if I just sort of randomly read the other books? I have figured out that there is an important chronology in place for the Khaavren books, but the other Vlad books seem to skip around the internal chronology, and I am too lazy to track down everything in order via my library.

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

Disclaimer: this is copied & pasted from a manuscript copy because I'm not at home and don't have my book to type out from. I believe it's very close to the final version. Copyright Steven Brust.

I chose this bit because it doesn't have any names to redact (except the restaurant's, which I suppose could be considered a spoiler, but the reason why is in the cover copy, so it's already out there).

***

CHAPTER 04
Mushroom-Barley Soup

There were several different soups that could have appeared at this point, of which I passionately enjoyed all of them except the beet soup. Today was one of my favorites; I smelled the mushroom-barley before Mihi arrived with it. The bowls were wide, white, and there was wonderful steam coming out of them.

Valabar's mushroom-barley soup is something I can almost build. At least, I can come closer to achieving the right effect than I can with most of their menu.

First, I quarter a whole chicken. Then I throw the carcass into a pot with onion, garlic, celery, salt, pepper, and a bit of saffron. I clean the stock and dust it with powdered saffron. I cook the barley in the same pot (which took me a bit to figure out), and throw in some chopped garlic and shallots that I've sauteed in rendered goose fat until they're clear, and wood mushrooms, nefetha mushrooms, or long mushrooms, whatever looked good at the market that day. Then I just cook it until it reduces.

That's almost like Valabar's. I've never quite identified the difference. I mean, I've found some of it. I tried sea-salt instead of mined salt, and got closer. Then I used white pepper instead of black pepper, and that helped too. I had to play with the amount of saffron, and I think I finally got it about right. But there's still something that isn't quite the same. It might be how they sauté the onions: a subtle difference in time there can change a lot.

It was a bit of an annoyance, but not enough to prevent me from enjoying what was in front of me. That first taste just hits you, you know, and as the aroma fills your nose, the broth—just the tiniest bit oily from the goose fat—rolls around on your tongue.

It's wonderful.

[oyceter]

*drools*

Am now hungry, even though I just finished lunch.