Vlad Taltos' latest adventure - IORICH - by Steven Brust

The Iorich is a fictional animal representing Justice and Retribution created by author Steven Brust to enliven his continuing adventures of the erstwhile assassin Vlad Taltos. Baronet Taltos, an Easterner (read: human), is part assassin, part sorcerer, part witch, and complete wise-cracking and irreverent protagonist living amidst the much longer lived Dragaereans.  A semi-feudal place where sorcery levitates castles, and nobles belong to one of seventeen houses named for the local fauna. The eponymous Iorich personifies Justice, thus the Iorich house run the legal system, the criminal court, and form the staff of advocates.
The story begins with Vlad not far from the capital, where he has been on the run for double crossing his own house - the Jhereg, a house of Greed and Corruption.  He finds out that his friend Aliera has been arrested on a capital crime and for which she had long been engaged to the wide knowledge of all.  Vlad must return, at significant risk to himself, to unravel why she would be arrested now for something she had been doing for years.  There must be more to the story that he had heard from afar. And indeed there was quite a bit more before it winds itself down to a a fairly predictable ending.  However, we do not read Brust's Dragaerean novels to enjoy unexpected endings.  Brust spent many years rewriting the D'Artagnan novels of Alexandre Dumas pere.  He has honed his already formidable skills in plot and dialogue by immersion in the works of an acknowledged master.  His wit does get the better of him occasionally, mostly through self-referential inside jokes, but these are few and the comedic gems are highlighted at the end with "Deleted Scenes" in which Brust shares with s some scenes that were supposedly edited out of the novel.  Most are funny without any context and even more humorous in context.
For those that have not visited the world of Mr. Brust yet,  I recommend it however perhaps in one of the three or so omnibus editions currently in print.  For those that are already familiar with his work, you will neither be surprised nor disappointed.

What to write about...

It makes sense to me to start the exercise of writing on writings I've read with a listing of works that I would like to share my opinions on.  Thus here is my draft of works that I'm interested in rereading in order to better share my thoughts or works that I'm in the process of reading initially that would fall into the same category.  Look for blog thoughts in the future on these works:

Tigana - Guy Gavriel Kay
Bridge of Birds - Barry Hughart
Cloudsplitter - Russell Banks
Iorich - Steven Brust