Summary of recent reading(July-September 2020)

Tiassa by Steven Brust: Part of the Vlad Taltos series. This one was really good. It is written from the perspectives of different characters in the story– not first-person like the other books in the series, but the focus shifts between different different people in each chapter, and you get to learn about other characters.

The story itself is also pretty cool. The Jhereg cook up a really large hoax– an imminent Jenoine attack– just to rope in Vlad, but Cawti prevents that from happening.

Hawk by Steven Brust: This may have been the best book in the series so far. Spoilers ahead. Vlad is trying to make a deal with the Jhereg to stop trying to kill him. And it works. Sort of. There’s a good amount of suspense and the build up to the end is amazing. I’ve said this before, in an earlier summaries post, but man Brust sure can write. Even after being more than ten books in, each book still feels fresh.

Vallista by Steven Brust: A mystery where Vlad has to figure out how a time-warping manor works, in order to rescue Devera.

The Wandering Earth by Liu Cixin: a collection of short sci-fi stories from the author of The Three-Body Problem. All are thematically quite similar to each other(and to The Three-Body Problem) but they still feel quite fresh; I enjoyed all of the stories in the book.

Julian by Gore Vidal: a historical novel around the life of the 4th century Roman emperor Julian. The book is written as his memoir, with some commentary by two philosophers who knew him. I enjoyed this book. I find historical fiction to be a really interesting genre and it seems pretty underappreciated. Creation by the same author is also a good read.