Editing Steven Brust (section)

==Writing career==
{{Anchor|Vlad Taltos}}

===The Dragaeran books===
The '''Vlad Taltos''' series, written as [[high fantasy]] with a science fiction underpinning,<ref name="walton2009">{{Cite web |last=Walton |first=Jo |date=November 16, 2009 |title=Playing the angles on a world: Steven Brust's Dragaera |url=http://www.tor.com/2009/11/16/steven-brusts-dragaera-a-really-cool-fantasy-world/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151101134231/http://www.tor.com/2009/11/16/steven-brusts-dragaera-a-really-cool-fantasy-world/ |archive-date=November 1, 2015 |website=Tor.com |publisher=Macmillan}}</ref> is set on a planet called Dragaera.<ref name="wolf">{{Cite book |last=Wolf |first=Mark J.P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k60W4FvGG5UC&dq=dragaera&pg=PA335 |title=Building Imaginary Worlds: The Theory and History of Subcreation |publisher=Routledge |year=2014 |isbn=978-1136220814 |page=335}}</ref><ref name="mapping">{{Cite web |last=Newell |first=Bryan |year=2011 |title=Chapter 2 – Methods and Assumptions |url=http://bryann.net/dragaera/map/Methods_and_Assumptions.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105185547/http://bryann.net/dragaera/map/Methods_and_Assumptions.html |archive-date=January 5, 2016 |website=Mapping Dragaera}}</ref> The events of the series take place in an Empire mostly inhabited and ruled by the Dragaerans, a genetically engineered humanoid species,<ref name="lavode">{{Cite book |last=Brust |first=Steven |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1-4fCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT92 |title=The Book of Jhereg |publisher=Penguin |year=1999 |isbn=1101665734 |page=92 |quote=Jenoine ... once used the Dragaeran race (and, I might add, the Easterners) as stock to practice genetic experimentation.... [T]here are theories which claim that Easterners aren't native to Dragaera at all, but were brought in by the Jenoine from somewhere else to use as controls for their tests.}}</ref> having characteristics such as greatly extended lifespans and heights averaging about seven feet. Referred to as "[[elf]]s" by some humans, they refer to themselves as "human". The Dragaeran Empire controls a region that is "enclouded" by a perpetual overcast that blocks the sun from view.

Vlad Taltos is one of the human minority (known by Dragaerans as "Easterners"), which exists as a lower class in the Empire. Vlad also practices the human art of witchcraft; "[[táltos]]" is Hungarian for a kind of supernatural person in folklore.  Though human, he is a citizen of the Empire because his social-climbing father bought a title in one of the less reputable of the 17 Dragaeran Great Houses. The only Great House that sells memberships this way is, not coincidentally, also the one that maintains a criminal organization.  Vlad proves surprisingly successful in this organization.  Despite being a human and a criminal, he has a number of high-ranking Dragaeran friends and often gets caught up in important events.

Brust has written 17 published novels in the series, which is proposed to run to nineteen novels&nbsp;– one named for each of the Great Houses, one named for Vlad himself (''[[Taltos (Steven Brust novel)|Taltos]]''), and a final novel which Brust has said will be titled ''The Final Contract''.{{Citation needed|reason=Only reference I can find is on a fan page (http://www.panix.com/~alexx/future.txt) referencing an article that is no longer available.|date=July 2019}}  The first three novels resemble private-eye [[detective fiction|detective stories]], perhaps the closest being [[Robert B. Parker]]'s [[Spenser (fictional detective)|Spenser series]].  The later novels are more varied than the first three.  Though they read like fantasy, there are science-fictional explanations for some things.

Brust has also written another series set in Dragaera, the ''[[Khaavren Romances]]'', set centuries before Vlad's time.  Since Dragaerans live for thousands of years, many characters appear in both series.  It is partly an homage to [[Alexandre Dumas père]]'s novels about [[The Three Musketeers]], and is five volumes long, following the pattern of Dumas' series.  The books are presented as historical novels written by Paarfi of Roundwood, a Dragaeran roughly contemporary with Vlad.  Paarfi's old-fashioned, elaborate, and highly verbose writing is explicitly based on Dumas', though with a dialogue style that is, at times, based on [[Tom Stoppard]]'s wordgames in ''[[Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead]]'' (according to Pamela Dean's introduction to ''Five Hundred Years After''). ''[[The Baron of Magister Valley]]'', an additional Paarfi novel, is modeled after Dumas's ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo]]''.

The two series are finally brought together in the thirteenth novel in the Vlad series, ''Tiassa'', which can also be viewed as the sixth novel in the Khaavren series. ''Tiassa'' comprises what are in effect three related novellas, each told in a different style and connected by a common theme. The first section reads like the first three novels in the series, with first-person narration by Vlad but including Khaavren's son, Piro; the second section has a different viewpoint character in each of its chapters; and the third section is narrated by Paarfi in the style of the earlier ''Khaavren Romances'', with Khaavren as the viewpoint character and interacting with Vlad.

===Short stories===
Most of Brust's short stories are set in [[shared universe]]s.  These include [[Emma Bull]]'s and [[Will Shetterly]]'s ''[[Liavek]]'', [[Robert Asprin]]'s ''[[Thieves' World]]'', [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[Sandman (Vertigo)|Sandman]]'' and [[Terri Windling]]'s ''[[The Borderland Series|Borderland Series]]''.

===Style and literary theory===
Brust was a founding member of a Minnesota-based writers' group called [[The Scribblies]], which included [[Emma Bull]], [[Pamela Dean]], [[Will Shetterly]], Nate Bucklin, [[Kara Dalkey]], and [[Patricia Wrede]]. He also was a founding member of the [[Pre-Joycean Fellowship]].

He has rejected a distinction between science fiction and fantasy, stating that no belief in such a distinction can withstand an encounter with the writing of [[Roger Zelazny]].<ref name="brust20160229">{{Cite web |last=Brust |first=Steven |date=February 29, 2016 |title=No belief in a distinction between science fiction and fantasy can withstand an encounter with Zelazny. #justsaying |url=https://twitter.com/StevenBrust/status/704353038060752896 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309164141/https://twitter.com/StevenBrust/status/704353038060752896 |archive-date=March 9, 2016 |website=Steven Brust on Twitter |publisher=Twitter.com}}</ref>

==== Writing style ====
There is a certain amount of variation in the writing style amongst the Taltos novels, as well as between Brust's various series. Brust uses a different narrative approach in almost every novel in the Taltos series. Some of these approaches are more purely stylistic and have minor effects on the actual story-telling; some are profound and involve the point of view of characters whom the reader never expected to get to know so well.

Further, as the writing of the Taltos novels has spanned over four decades, they have been influenced by events in Brust's own life. A fascination with the Mafia&nbsp;– subsequently brought into a somewhat shocking perspective by the murder of a friend&nbsp;– profoundly influenced his storylines, as did the breakup of his marriage. The events and arguments of his books, especially ''Teckla'', are acknowledged by Brust to be influenced by his lifelong interest in Marxist theory and practice. Brust's parents were activists in the Workers League, the predecessor to the [[Socialist Equality Party (United States)|Socialist Equality Party]], and he continues to identify as a "[[Trotskyist]] sympathizer," linking to the SEP-affiliated [[World Socialist Web Site]] on his personal website.<ref name="SHInterview">{{Cite web |last=Olson |first=Chris |date=February 3, 2003 |title=Interview: Steven Brust |url=http://www.strangehorizons.com/2003/20030203/brust.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131008045518/http://www.strangehorizons.com/2003/20030203/brust.shtml |archive-date=October 8, 2013 |access-date=December 29, 2012 |publisher=Strange Horizons }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Brust |first=Steven |date=August 30, 2012 |title=About |url=http://dreamcafe.com/about/ |website=Dream Cafe}}</ref> He endorsed the SEP's presidential candidates in the 2016 US elections.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Author Steven Brust replies to petition of writers against Trump |date=May 30, 2016 |url=http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/05/30/brus-m30.html}}</ref>

==== Literary theory ====
In contrast to contemporary academic studies in literature, Brust has put forward what he called "The Cool Stuff Theory of Literature":

<blockquote>All literature consists of whatever the writer thinks is cool. The reader will like the book to the degree that he agrees with the writer about what's cool. And that works all the way from the external trappings to the level of metaphor, subtext, and the way one uses words. In other words, I happen not to think that full-plate armor and great big honking greatswords are cool. I don't like 'em. I like cloaks and rapiers. So I write stories with a lot of cloaks and rapiers in 'em, 'cause that's cool. Guys who like military hardware, who think advanced military hardware is cool, are not gonna jump all over my books, because they have other ideas about what's cool.<ref name="walton">{{Cite web |last=Walton |first=Jo |date=January 20, 2010 |title=A conversation with Steven Brust about writing the Dragaera books |url=http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/01/a-conversation-with-steven-brust-about-writing-the-dragaera-books |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130824123948/http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/01/a-conversation-with-steven-brust-about-writing-the-dragaera-books |archive-date=August 24, 2013 |website=Tor.com |publisher=Tor Books}}</ref></blockquote>

Brust elaborated, "The novel should be understood as a structure built to accommodate the greatest possible amount of cool stuff."<ref name="SHInterview" />

==== Motifs ====
The character Devera, usually a cute brown-eyed girl of about nine, appears as a [[motif (literature)|motif]] in all of Brust's novels.  In the Dragaeran books, her name is Devera. She is the (future) daughter of another character and seems to be able to appear anywhere in time and space. In Brust's non-Dragaeran books her appearances are usually brief and not always obvious.