When I was still in college, I attempted to read a book named _Phoenix_, and stopped after the first chapter or so; I don’t know, it just didn’t grab me. The copy I had was borrowed from a guy who stole my girlfriend, so I didn’t feel too bad about keeping it.
A couple years later (the exact amount of time doesn’t matter), I was dating a different girl, and she waxed poetic about this amazing series she’d read, with a character named “Sethra Lavode” (you would have had to hear her say it). This time, I started with _Jhereg_ and _Yendi_, and by the end of the second book, I was in love.
I’m a huge fan of dialog, and Vlad’s snarky counterpoint to Morollan’s nobility and … well, I really like it. All of it.
_Teckla_, of course, made me want to throw the book across the room.
I flew through _Taltos_ and _Phoenix_ this time around, and since the latter ends at “a nice stopping point”, I figured that was the end of it.
It was 1991. Verra, may the water on your tongue turn to ash, that should have been the end of it. (See what I did there? 😀 )
By a year or two later, I had convinced all my friends to read the books, and we happily sat around wondering things like “If they ever made a movie, who would play each character?” (Tommy Lee Jones as Vlad sticks in my memory from this time)
I had already discovered _The Phoenix Guards_, resigned to enjoying the five “Jhereg” novels as the whole series, when I ran across a copy of _Athyra_, left behind at the bus stop, on the way to work, in 1993.
Since then, for the past 24 years, I’ve been waiting for each new book to come out, and buying it on the first day I’m aware of it (usually, and lately, that translates to “the day it’s released”).
The “Jhereg” series is slated for 19 books, of which the fifteenth has just been released. The “Khaavren Romances” are complete at 5 books.
It takes the author, Steven Brust, about 2 years to release each title. Sometimes he’s working on two books at once, in which case, he can put one out per year for awhile. However, what often happens is that he’s putting a book out in The Other Series, and not the one you’re hoping for, and so the extra wait is extra painful. Books 7-9 in the series were interspersed with releases of the Khaavren books, which was poignant, but still enjoyable. The latest releases are interspersed with Incrementalists, which makes me want to tear my eyeballs out.
There’s a story arc that began at the end of _Phoenix_ that I keep hoping will resolve itself, but it seems unlikely to happen, at this point. That is, I was hoping for it to resolve itself, and then have 5 or 6 more books to enjoy “post glitch”, so to speak, but as there are only 4 books left, well..
There have been a lot of “but that’s another story” moments built up over the course of all these novels. He’s gone back and touched a few of them, which is good for backstory, but always leaves me a little disappointed, because I am really interested in seeing the main story progress.
The 14th book, _Hawk_, was really one I’d been looking forward to (she woke up!), and then this latest one, _Vallista_, somehow felt the need to take a throwaway bit of plot device (there’s this room…) and make a whole book out of it.
I’ve read the book twice, now (it’s been out for 3 weeks); I feel like that’s the minimum number of reads I need before I can start deciding whether I like the book or not. I’ve decided that _Vallista_ is ok, not a favorite, not a hated. There are a few books in the series that I dislike intensely; this means I’ve only read them 3 or 4 times, where I’ve read my favorites more like 20 times. There are a couple that I can take or leave; those I’ve read about 6 or 8 times. I’ve bookmarked the spots in _Vallista_ that I feel I’ll be referring back to, once future books come out, and some of this to-do list starts getting checked off.
So. _Creotha_, _Tsalmoth_, _Lyorn_, and _The Final Contract_ are left.
Here’s hoping that Vlad starts really figuring out what having a Great Weapon is all about. Like, seriously — bring it on.
Thus begins another 2 year wait.
How many more times will I have read _Issola_, _Dzur_, _Tiassa_, and _Hawk_ before then? … Only time will tell.