"What is it? You don't like dancing?"
"No, I don't like learning. It means doing things I don't know how to do right, and I hate that."
"Taltos Vladimir, you know how to do all sorts of things right, which means you must have spent a lot of time learning."
"Yeah, that's why I know I don't like it." ( )

For fans of this series, I expect this is one you will really enjoy. This one is pure flashback, except the very end. Vlad is telling an old story of his days in the Jhereg, before he and Cawti got married. This might be pure fan service, but who cares? Having Vlad back in Adrilankha, happy and courting and in love is great. Brust does a great job of portraying 'that couple' - the ones that spend 100% of their time together and who are so in love they produce eye rolls and snarky comments from friends and familiars. Plot wise, this is the usual Vlad mystery-thriller plot, but we do learn some very interesting things about Vlad's past. The ending is an absolute cliff-hanger, I can't wait for the next book. ( )

This is more of a 4.5 than 4 star read, but it was overall quite fun! In many ways I enjoyed it a lot more than "Vallista", in part because it was largely hanging out with a lot of familiar characters rather than a new cast, and that offset Vlad's sometimes random mystery solving. That set-up was still present, but with a lot of familiar faces and character interactions and little subplots that were fun to explore. Unfortunately these books don't make me laugh until I cry like they used to, but I was grinning and chuckling for a large portion of this.

I still hope that someday Brust will start labeling some of the conversation lines he has in long back-and-forths, because he still seems to have issues accidentally having people talk to themselves, or otherwise not making clear when a line doesn't switch back to a different character in a two-person conversation. This happened at least twice, and it's a problem with many of the books in this series. It's okay to add a "x said" or "x replied" to make sure you're not messing up the back and forth, Mr. Brust. I promise. No one will get mad at you.

I adored Cawti in this, and Cawti and Vlad's relationship (though I could have done with less of Loiosh and other characters being notably disgusted by how in love they were. Yes, I too find people who are REALLY in love with each in public sometimes irritating, but the constant references to vomit were a bit much). I think the interludes with whatever random topic is going to dominate chapter starters didn't exactly work, just like it didn't really work with that one volume that did the same thing with cooking (I think that was "Dzur"?). I get there's a theme and Brust sticks with it, and here it was marriage, and it was interesting to see the backstory and see how different characters acted, but it felt out of place. I cannot actually see any newcomers coming into this and understanding what's going on, because there's so many references to different events out of chronological order. Yes, it's book 16 in a series with an additional spin-off pentalogy, and two standalone spin-offs, but chronologically this is book 7. Mostly. Even I, at times, had issues understanding when things were happening. Though I will say I think the ending was handled quite well, particularly the second to last chapter. That being said, if you're already in this far, probably you know what's happening and you're in for the long haul, so it's not a major issue.

I also particularly loved Vlad and Morrolan's relationship in this. It was just a lot of fun, and played with that relationship in a way I don't recall seeing in other books. Admittedly it's been many years since I read the first 13-14 books, but still. Kragar was a delight, too, as always. There was just a lot of fun in this, despite how distressed Vlad was, and even that was handled in an interesting way. I liked going more into Vlad's trauma and how he does and doesn't handle that, and how he has all these people around him who want him to deal with it/want to help him deal with that, and how his refusal to conflicts with their relationships. It's a lot of fun, reading-wise.

A last criticism is that while I did enjoy it more than "Vallista", I don't think the central narrative was as strong. Confusing as "Vallista" could be, the mystery was set up in an oddly straightforward manner (which is funny, considering that volume had even more time travel). In "Tsalmoth", Vlad just seems to be flailing around for something that sticks to make it seem like the mystery matters and he's supposed to be involved in it. He does that a lot in his stories, but it just felt really random and reach-y in this one in a way that was odd to read. It's still a good story that mostly gets by with a lot of fun character stuff and learning more about Vlad's past, as well as showing how Cawti met Kiera and Sethra, but I often asked "why are you doing this again?" whenever Vlad was doing something.

Overall, though, it was another enjoyable entry in the series. Looking forward to "Lyorn" next year! And I plan to give "The Baron of Magister Valley" a shot at some point before then. ( )

This isn't the best of the Vlad Taltos books I've read, however, it does explain a few things about how Vlad and Cawti were married, who was invited. Surrounding this event, we have a mystery - a Tsalmoth who owes Vlad money mysteriously ends up dead, so instead of dropping the matter when it becomes obvious that this is part of a bigger job by someone in the House of Jhereg, instead he goes full force on it, pissing off a lot people.

I really like how these stories show off each house in the Draegaeran Empire - Tsalmoth isn't one that is described often, and finding out more about how they work was interesting. ( )

Back in time, to the run-up to Vlad and Cawti’s wedding. Some of the events are surprising, because Vlad forgot them. He gets involved in a Tsalmoth conspiracy or two, runs up against a faction or two of the Left Hand, and experiences some surprising sorcerous attacks. It seemed like there were some boxes to check before the series finale, and mostly Vlad’s relative youth was shown by having him learn new words, but I still want to see how the last one goes. ( )