Adrienne Martini Reviews Lyorn by Steven Brust
Lyorn: A Vlad Taltos Novel, Steven Brust (Tor 978-0-76538-286-3, $27.99, 288pp, hc) April 2024.
Before you read further know this: Lyorn, the 17th novel in Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos series, is not the place to begin. So much has happened to Vlad since Jhereg was published in 1983 that there is really no way to jump directly into this part of the ocean. Even for those who’ve kept up with this assassin turned fugitive turned [redacted], it’s hard to keep it all straight 40 years on. Which is really a great excuse to start again from the beginning, now that it seems we’ll only be waiting for two more books to finish out what Steven Brust started four decades ago.
With that said, in Lyorn, Vlad is on the run from the Left Hand of the Jhereg, a faction of whom would very much like him permanently dead after the events of Tsalmoth. He’s hiding out in a super sketchy locale: the Crying Clown Theatre, which is in the process of rehearsing a three-day musical extravaganza whose opening night is just around the corner. Vlad is not an appreciator of theatrical arts, and what follows is a fish-out-of-water caper as he solves the problem of not getting himself killed.
It should be easy; but if you know how Vlad’s life goes, you won’t be shocked when it gets weird. Or, as his familiar Loiosh says, “Of course it’s going to be more complicated. It’s you.’’ What follows is a deep dive – and this former theatre professional can confirm that Brust did his homework and gets the details right – into all that goes into another opening of another show. There are Dragaera-specific song parodies and well-observed Easter eggs about life backstage. Vlad’s ongoing arc moves a little more toward its end. Vlad’s edges are increasingly frayed, so much so that his now ex-wife heartbreakingly sums up what his life has become of the past 17 installments.
Lyorn is what you’d want this far into this story, more or less, as both the writer and his readers moved from bright, young things at the same rate as Vlad into something a little bit wiser and a lot less young.
Adrienne Martini has been reading or writing about science fiction for decades and has had two non-fiction, non-genre books published by Simon and Schuster. She lives in Upstate New York with one husband, two kids, and one corgi. She also runs a lot.
This review and more like it in the May 2024 issue of Locus.
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