First read 07/2024

Brust has a real talent for making passing references to events (causing the characters' lives to feel very full and interesting), then coming back later to write whole books expanding on said events, without ever making the original lines feel jarring when evaluated in light of later discoveries. Star Wars writers have only ever managed the first step.

Dragon is the eighth Vlad Taltos novel published, but one of the earliest chronologically. The timeline jumps around between the big battle (narrated in frustrating fits and starts), the events leading up to it (which make up the bulk of the book), and Vlad's composition of the text. It's the first book to make reference to Vlad's writing process, suggesting he has some magical gizmo that takes down what he tells it, and that dictating these stories might have some sort of therapeutic value to him, which is an intriguing spin to put on a narration that went unremarked for seven books. Perhaps it's this willingness to take his time over unfolding details of the characters and world that enables Brust to sustain his jumping around across so many books.

Readers irritated by the lack of action in Athyra and Orca will be satisfied by the large-scale bloodshed that characterises Vlad's time in the military. He's younger, less paranoid, and more stupid, which was frustrating in other books but works well here since he's outside his area of expertise. The three narrative threads don't quite flow into each other, but for the most part it's another enjoyable Taltos story.