Reread: Jhereg

 I ended up re-reading Jhereg once again because of Jo Walton's What Makes this Book so Great. Indeed, this book is great. The voice of Vlad Taltos is perfect, just the right amount of cockiness and self-assurance. Taltos is not a great person (hey, he assassinates people for a living), but he's a great story teller. The novel is a lot like a heist story --- there's a setup (we're giving you a ton of money to get rid of this one guy), introduction to the characters are just enough to get you inclue'd but not long enough to bore you or drag in a lot of exposition, and the action is fast.

There are many places where just like a mystery novel or heist story, Taltos explains the plan to his buddies but doesn't explain them to you, only showing you the plan as it is put into action. This feels like a conceit, mostly because you would never do that when you tell a story to someone else, but Steven Brust does it with such finesse that you're willing to go along with it.

I enjoyed the book enough to keep going in the series. I guess I'm yet another victim of Jo Walton's.