Dzur by: Steven Brust

Dzur
Steven Brust
TOR Books
ISBN 978-0765301482

It is hard to believe that a series of books has kept my attention through 10 books. Yet that is exactly what Brust has done. Every time a new book comes out I go back and reread the entire series up to that point. I read the first ones back in the 80's in high school as they came out, and I thought that the Character of Vlad Taltos was the coolest. He is a member of House Jehreg and a sometime assassin. Vlad once read quickly becomes an immensely popular protagonist. I have introduced these books to numerous friends and all have loved him and the books.

Issola, in the book before Dzur Vlad, is wandering around the countryside with a price on his head, and lamenting about how his life got so turned upside down. Vlad in Dzur, gets to do what he likes best- he starts stirring things up and seeing where the pieces fall.

One of my favorite elements of this series is that you never know how Brust will start chapters off. Each book has had chapter headings in a new and unique way. In the one book it was quick wit "No matter how subtle the wizard a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style." In another it is a list of cleaning and repairs to an outfit. In this one it is a recollection of a meal at Valabar's - a restaurant that makes appearances throughout the series. If Brust is able to create the meal described in these snippets he is not only a master wordsmith but must be close to a master chef.

Brust had Vlad come back to the capitol city because his estranged wife is in trouble. He rushes in where angels would fear to tread. He steps into the middle of a power struggle with organized crimes' two sides of the family. He fears getting friends killed or injured, but is more than willing to risk his own neck. However, as Vlad is getting older, he is also mellowing some and maturing.

Vlad realizes that he cannot do it himself. He challenges his patron Goddess to help as much as she can. He also enlists the help of some of those who have offered, but warns them not to take too many risks. Vlad is a little more subdued and subtle in this book compared to some of the earlier ones. However he is just as enjoyable as a character and the journey with him through the adventure in Dzur is as exciting and thrilling as the previous books.


Like the meal described at the beginning of the chapters, Brust's books need to be savored and enjoyed at the pace they come at us. Just as Vlad describes the meal step by step and makes comparisons between preparing a meal and preparing a hit, Brust leads us to discover more and more about Vlad as we go through the courses in this book.

Like each of the previous 9 books in this series, Jhereg (1983), Yendi (1984),Teckla (1987), Taltos (1988), Phoenix (1990), Athyra (1993), Orca (1996),Dragon (1998), Issola (2001), Dzur (2007), and I'm sure, the forthcoming Jhegaala (2008) and now Iorich (2010) this book is a great read. The series is planned to be a total of 19 books, making this one the middle point as far as volumes. It leaves a lot of questions unanswered and the readers salivating for the next volume.

You can read the author's blog here.
(First Published in Imprint 2007-08-31 as "Series still captivates after 10 books.")

Books by Steven Brust:
Vlad Taltos Publishing Order:

Jhereg (1983)
Yendi (1984)
Teckla (1987)
Taltos (1988)
Phoenix (1990)
Athyra (1993)
Orca (1996)
Dragon (1998)
Issola (2001)
Dzur (2006)
Jhegaala (2008)
Iorich (2010)
Tiassa (2011)
Hawk (2014)
Vallista (2017)

Tsalmoth (2023)
Lyorn (2024)
...

Vlad Taltos: Chronological Order:
Taltos (1988)
Dragon, main chapters (1998)
Yendi (1984)

Tsalmoth (2023)
Dragon, interludes (1998)
Tiassa, section 1 (2011)
Jhereg (1983)
Teckla (1987)
Phoenix (1990)
Jhegaala (2008)
Athyra (1993)
Orca (1996)
Issola (2001)
Dzur (2006)
Tiassa, section 2 (2011)
Iorich (2010)
Tiassa, section 3 (2011)
Hawk (2014)
Vallista (2017)

Lyorn (2024)
...

The Khaavren Romances:

The Phoenix Guards (1991)

Five Hundred Years After (1994)

The Viscount of Adrilankha, published in three volumes:

The Paths of the Dead (2002)

The Lord of Castle Black (2003)

Sethra Lavode (2004)

Other Books:

Brokedown Palace (1986)

To Reign in Hell (1984)

The Sun, the Moon & the Stars (1987)

Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille (1990)

Agyar (1993)

My Own Kind of Freedom (2008)
Good Guys (2018)

Co Written:

The Gypsy (1992) with Megan Lindholm

Freedom & Necessity (1997) with Emma Bull

Incrementalist (with Skyler White):

The Incrementalists

The Skill of our Hands

Incrementalist Short Stories

Fireworks in the Rain - Steven Brust

Strongest Conjuration - Skyler White

Short Stories:

An Act of Contrition - Liavek (1985)

An Act of Trust - Liavek: The Players of Luck (1986)

A Dream of Passion - in the convention chapbook for Ad Astra (1986)

An Act of Mercy - Liavek: Wizard's Row (1987, with Megan Lindholm)

An Act of Love - Liavek: Spells of Binding (1988, with Gregory Frost and Megan Lindholm)

Csucskári - Excerpt from The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: First Annual Collection (1988)

A Hot Night at Cheeky's - Liavek: Festival Week (1990)

Looking Forward: Excerpt from Athyra in Amazing Stories, March (1993)

Attention Shoppers - Xanadu (1993)

Abduction from the Harem - in Timewalker Issue 14 (October 1996)

Drift - Space Opera (1996)

Valóság and Élet - in Sandman: Book of Dreams (1996)

Calling Pittsburgh - in Lord of the Fantastic: Stories in Honor of Roger Zelazny (1998)

When the Bow Breaks - The Essential Bordertown (1998)

The Man From Shemhaza - in Thieves' World: Enemies of Fortune (2004), reprinted in Year's Best Fantasy 5 (2005)

Klava with Honey - Eeriecon Convention Chapbook #4 (2005)

Chapter One - in Eeriecon Convention Chapbook #6 (2007)

The Desecrator - on tor.com (2011)

Fireworks in the Rain - on tor.com (2013)

The Least Among Us by Martin O'Shea & Tony Wright

The Least Among Us
Martin O'Shea & Tony Wright
Ascendant Press
ISBN 0955294509

I must admit I do not read a lot of graphic novels. Nor do I read comics all that much anymore. I was asked if I wanted to review this one, and thought I would give it a try. I have read it a few times, because I do not like to give negative reviews, yet with that said, this book has strengths and weaknesses.

The artwork is great. The variety of frames used, and styles is both visually pleasing and easy to read. Some of the graphics, especially of the inside of churches, would make amazing posters or prints.

The story on the other hand is a little confusing. Is the intent of the book to say that the church covers up sexual abuse, or that Christians should all be vegetarians and involved with animal rights, or that Catholics are not good Christians? The story seemed incomplete; I felt like I started a book in the middle and got to the end to find out that it was missing the last pages.

I find I cannot say what the story was really about because I could not figure it out for sure. If more volumes become available I would pick them up for the artwork and see if the intent of the story becomes clearer.

I would give the book 5 out of 5 for the artwork and 2 out of 5 for the story.

The Santa Mysteries by: S. William Shaw

The Santa Mysteries
S. William Shaw
Lulu Press ISBN
9781430322214
swilliamshaw.com

After finishing this book, my only regret was that there is not yet more available from Shaw. Shaw's writing style is very similar to Steven Brust, especially Brust's -- 'Vlad Taltos' books. This book is a fun, humourous, fast-paced book that will draw you in and keep you racing for the end, and then leave you wanting more.

This story focuses around the adventures of three youngsters; our man with a plan is Bennett Short, and his two sidekicks are Darcy Decker and the Pickle, aka Stanley Valentine. Bennett is a big fan of the Man in Red, and we do not mean the one with horns and pitchfork. Santa is his hero and he has a plan to sneak aboard Santa's sleigh. He wants to get to the North Pole and find out all the Santa Mysteries and write a tell-all book and make a gazillion dollars.

But as most of us know, things do not always go according to plan. Bennett and his friends do get to the North Pole and they get to hang out with Santa. However Darcy's curiosity leads to devastating results.

In this awesome little book you will find our Al Gore as a robot created by Santa, and see Santa abducted by aliens who hate Christmas and all that is fun. You will watch Darcy go from being arrogant and expecting Pickles to mess things up, to realizing that he does so again and again. Yet with all of that, Darcy never gives up and keeps striving to correct his mistakes and make up for the damage he has done.

This is in part a coming of age story, part adventure and a whole lot of fun. We watch Darcy grow and mature, and we in turn can learn from him and face the struggles and difficulties in our lives anew. The greatest power of story is that story at its best is myth, but not myth in something that is not real, but myth in the sense of the ultimate underlying reality of existence. Shaw captures the essence of that second type of myth in this and his other book Sherman Oak and the Magic Potato. In that sense, even though he has only published 2 books, he is in my opinion a great writer.

This is a book that was so fun to read I have already started it a second time, this time reading it more slowly to savor the story rather than racing through as I did the first time I read it.

This book would be a great end-of-term summer read, and now you can get the ebook version of it for free. The author, on his website swilliamshaw.com, is offering the ebook versions of either of his books free. So stop by and drop him an email and you can get 2 great books to read for free, or if you prefer you can order them through Amazon and get hard copies and support his writing of more adventures for you and me to enjoy.

(First published in Imprint 2007-07-27 in the book review column.)
p.s. It would be great to see illustrated versions of his books at some point in the future.

Catholic Carnical 129

The Carnival is up at 'Living Catholicism' this week is 'Prayer . . . and Spring Break' Check it out!

Check out the Catholic Carnival submission form complete with screenshots in this post: BlogCarnival.com Submission form.

Or join the Google group to be made aware of call for submissions and when new Carnivals are up and where they are up.

The Catholic Carnival FAQ.

Free Ebooks from S. William Shaw

S. William Shaw is running a promotion at his blog that I think you should take him up on. He is currently offering free ebook version of both of his books The Santa Mysteries and Sherman Oak and the Magic Potato.

I have read both and can highly recommend each of them. I reviewed Sherman Oak a while back. And am publishing a review of The Santa's Mysteries next week in the Imprint.

So stop by his blog and request the ebook's, they will be great for reading from a palm or pdq while traveling this summer as a family.

swilliamshaw.com

The books will leave you waiting for more of his books to become available!

Catholic Carnival 128

It is my turn to host the carnival again, it is both an honour and a privilege to be able to host it. A lot of writing in the blogsphere lately has been around the Summorum Pontificum & Motu Proprio, that proliferation is evident is this weeks carnival. To all who have contributed, Thanks! To those who yet have, please join in the fun.

To begin Matthew S at Play the Dad? Be the Dad! gives us "Something to chew on....."

Next at 50 Days After we have an artilce called "A Soldier's Best Weapon" about the Rosary as a spiritual weapon.

Then on over to have a look at a link to 'a recent talk given in Rome looks at the limits of historial method of studying Jesus' over at Kicking Over My Traces.

Further along our journey we encounter Ebeth at A Catholic Mom climbing the Pillars, who shares with us 'A Word about Reading lists'

CatholicLand! reminds us that "Time flies" SWP offers his two cents on the Motu Proprio and what it means for intra-faith dialogue.

Then we journey with Eric as he shares a number of posts about the Summorum Pontificum. With him we hop once, twice and three times.

Slowing down to look at the roses. Kevin at HMS Blog talks to us about "God's Law In Our Hearts" a reflection on the Mass readings for Sunday 7/15, focusing on God’s law as in harmony with, but also requiring conversion of, our hearts.

After slowing down to reflect with Kevin, Sarah reminds us How My Garden Does Grow! The garden outside is blooming with flowers and busy with bees, and the garden inside includes an active toddler and the joys of my life. From her blog in just another day of Catholic pondering.

RobK writing from Kyrie Eleison in his first submission to the Carnival picks a post about Pope Benedict comparing him to a Modern day Ezra & Nehemiah. He states "the article is about how the recent releases from the Vatican, the moto proprio and the document from the doctrine of the faith, along with some of the negative reaction from outsiders casts the Pope as a modern Nehemiah and Ezra".

With a hop across the pond we have Tom O'Toole from Fighting Irish Thomas with a post about Friday the 13th and the Horror Show Headlines! (Almost explains why us Irish are prone to partake of the drink.)

Next still on the green isle we have Jim Martorana at Friends of Fighting Irish Thomas with a post called "Gifts from the Bridegroom".

From the Blog 'You a prayerful conversation" we have an excellent reflection on Bad Theology. Are you an object or a person? Is God an object or a person? Does God see you as an object or a person? Do you use objects or persons? Do you use people? Does God use people? Depending on your answer, it can lead one into bad theology as described in a quote by Paul Tillich from his book -The Courage to Be-, a theology that is all to common and rejected by most atheists. Their short reflection follows.

Jumping back across the Atlantic we have Christine Schult at The World...IMHO writing about the U.S. bishop defends bishops' right to rebuke pro-abortion politicians.

Then swinging south to Hollywood we encounter The B-Movie Catechism. This week The B-Movie Catechism takes a look at Ron Ormond's 1953 stink fest Mesa Of Lost Women and asks the question, "Can filming something this awful be considered an act of evil?"

Heidi at Streams of Mercy shares with us about the Courage to Be Catholic and shares about lunch with Elisabeth Elliot (Thomas Howard's sister) and review of his latest book, "The Night Is Far Spent.

At Catholic Fire Jean shares about how It Sure is Hard Finding Help Killing Babies Nowadays! In writing about late - term abortionist George Tiller has his hands full these days - not only is he facing criminal charges for performing illegal late-term abortions, but he just can't seem to hire and retain help at his Wichita office anymore. Here's an easy way we can all let him know our concerns about his actions.

In a great post called "My Domestic Church: 5 tips on how not to to witness to Catholic Christians" Elena from My Domestic Church shares about how after spending considerable time debating and discussing with our Protestant sisters in the blogosphere, I thought I would submit an article with tips on how they could better "witness" to us Catholics!

Returning to Rome and the Moto Jay at Living Catholicism writes about "The Return of the Latin Mass" He states 'Just my thoughts on the “return” of the Latin Mass.' But as we all know with Jay it is never a "just" and always worth a read!

Sticking to Rome & Jay then writes to us from Deo Omnis Gloria "Did Pope Benedict XVI really reassert that other Christian denominations are not true churches?" In that he analyzes what the newest Church document Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church really says about protestant denominations.

Last but not least Joseph from Ho Kai Paulos ask some hard questions in "Paying the Price" An article that talks about the price to be paid for getting to live a Christian life and seeing it as a privilege.

Then my own submission, I know I have been pushing FR. Jacques Philippe books lately. When I find an author I like I tend to read everything they have written. Only 4 of Fr. Philippe's books have been translated into English. Part of me dopes not want to read the fourth so I still have something left to read, and part is itching to read it. Last week I published a review of his third book I have read this year Interior Freedom in my University Newspaper. His prose are easy to read yet deep and rich in meaning and application. His books are some of my most treasured and those I try and lend out most often currently. (In fact I have not read the fourth because it is lent out.

Thanks for sticking with the journey through the blogsphere in this weeks Catholic Carnival. Maybe we will be stopping by your place for a post or to see you host soon!

Mea Culpa to Donna Marie for not promoting last weeks Catholic Carnival 127 the "Summer Mothering" theme for not promoting it earlier. It's been a rough few weeks.

Check out the Catholic Carnival submission form complete with screenshots in this post: BlogCarnival.com Submission form.

Or join the Google group to be made aware of call for submissions and when new Carnivals are up and where they are up.

The Catholic Carnival FAQ.

The Dark River by: John Thelve Hawks

The Dark River
John Twelve Hawks
Doubleday
ISBN 9780385514293

This is the second book in the fourth realm trilogy. I stated of the first book, The Traveler, that it was "the best fiction book I had read in a decade!" This book is a very close second. John Twelve Hawks weaves an unforgettable tale of suspense and drama that will draw you in and captivate you in a way that few other authors achieve. Hawks helps us to look at our world in a whole new light, and gives an entirely new meaning to the term 'Big Brother is Watching'.

This book continues a year after The Traveler finished, and once the action starts, it does not end. The action races at breakneck speed and reads like 'a post 9/11 conspiracy theory meets 1984'. Hawks shows a world where people are collectively selling their freedoms for a perceived peace or security. With a story as unique as the Matrix, and the captivating writing unlike anybody else, Hawks serves up a masterpiece.

There are four main categories of people in these books: Civilians, who go about their daily lives, Travelers who can send their life force from their body to alternate realms, The Harlequins who are trained warriors dedicated to protecting the Travelers, and finally The Brethren, as they call themselves, who wish to create a system of control over the whole world, a virtual Panopticon. This group is called, 'The Tabula', by their enemies.

The Tabula are trying to achieve their Panopticon through computer surveillance - RFID chips in what we buy and in our ID and credit cards. Their only goal is to make the human race homogeneous and dominated by the belief that they must behave a certain way because they are always being watched. For the first time in history, a Traveler, Michael Corrigan, is working with the Brethren and trying to conquer the only other surviving travelers -his brother Gabriel, and his father Matthew, who has been missing for 15 years since the Tabula attacked the family home.

Both of the brothers are searching for their long-lost father, both are trying to figure out how to use their ability as travelers, and both believe they are on the right side. Only by reading will you find out what will happen in this battle of wills and battle between light and darkness.

This is a book masterfully written that will draw in readers from all walks of life and of all ages. Read it and see if you cannot hardly wait for your friends to read it, so that you can discuss it and debate it. It will also have you looking very differently at all the cameras that capture our images hundreds of times a day.

Hawks has written another bestseller that will surprise you, stun you and amaze you, both with the story and the way it is told.

(First published in Imprint 2007-07-17 in the book review column.)