Tsalmoth: A Vlad Taltos Novel

by Steven Brust

Overview

Hold on to your hats and get ready for another swashbuckling adventure in Tsalmoth, set in Steven Brust’s bestselling Vlad Taltos series!

First comes love. Then comes marriage…

Vlad Taltos is in love. With a former assassin who may just be better than he is at the Game. Women like this don’t come along every day and no way is he passing up a sure bet.

So a wedding is being planned. Along with a shady deal gone wrong and a dead man who owes Vlad money. Setting up the first and trying to deal with the second is bad enough. And then bigger powers decide that Vlad is the perfect patsy to shake the power structure of the kingdom.

More's the pity that his soul is sent walkabout to do it.

How might Vlad get his soul back and have any shot at a happy ending? Well, there’s the tale…

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765382856
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/12/2024
Series:	Vlad Taltos Series , #16
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	159,726
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 5.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

STEVEN BRUST is the author of Dragon, Issola, the New York Times bestsellers Dzur and Tiassa, and many other fantasy novels. He lives in Minneapolis.

Editorial Reviews

02/13/2023

Brust’s wise-cracking crime boss and witch Vlad Taltos returns for an exciting 14th fantasy noir replete with murder, magic, and love (after The Baron of Magister Valley). Vlad is a rare Easterner (read: human) living in the Dragaeran (read: elf) Empire, and he’s bought his way into the criminal House of the Jhereg. Brust’s series moves around on the timeline of Vlad’s life, and this installment fills in some of his early adventures while he is still a low-level boss engaged to fellow Easterner and assassin Cawti. Someone has killed a member of the house of Tsalmoth who owed Vlad 800 imperials, and Vlad hopes to find a way to recoup his loss. In Vlad’s hands, this mission becomes characteristically complicated: before the tale is over, the sorceresses of the Left Hand of the Jhereg become involved; Vlad (temporarily) becomes a demon; and the succession of the House of Tsalmoth comes into question. In between all the chaos, he and Cawti plan their wedding. Vlad’s narration is cocky and quick-witted as ever, and it’s a joy to revisit his usual costars, among them his strangely unnoticeable Jhereg employee, Kragar; his powerful Dragonlord friends Morrolan, Aliera, and Sethra Lavode; and his familiar, Loiosh. Series fans won’t want to miss this. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Tsalmoth:

“Vlad’s narration is cocky and quick-witted as ever, and it’s a joy to revisit his usual costars... Series fans won’t want to miss this” —Publishers Weekly

“Brust’s writing is even more assured here than it was when he too was a younger man. Tsalmoth is full of the same magic of Jhereg but with more depth and earned swagger.” —Locus

“Tsalmoth is an easy introduction to Brust’s Draegaran world for new readers and an exciting continuation for returning fans.” —Booklist

Praise for Steven Brust and the Vlad Taltos series:

“Delightful, exciting, and sometimes brilliant.”—Neil Gaiman

“An indubitable master of swashbuckling high fantasy.”—Booklist on Five Hundred Years After

“One of those natural caper writers...A writer who can spin a yarn that keeps you guessing until the end.” —Cory Doctorow

“With his arch humor and quasi-archaic narrative style, Brust pays homage to Dumas, Zola, and other masters of swashbuckling adventure.”—Library Journal on The Paths of the Dead

“Steven Brust might just be America’s best fantasy writer.”—Tad Williams

From the Publisher