Tsalmoth (Vlad Taltos, #16)
I can’t believe this series is in its 4 decade. The first book of the series, Jhereg was released in 1983, and its now 2023 for the 16th book of the series. Granted, the author has been writing other books during this period, but you’re looking at a book every 2.5 years. Its not bad, but given how short the books are, you start to think if the author will ever finish.
That aside, Tsalmoth is a throwback to the younger days of the main character. He’s planning for his wedding, and every foreword of every chapter is basically a small paragraph on how easterners do weddings, either food, or vows, or decorations, or guest invitations. The actual story is a classic whodunnit and mcguffin rolled into one. There are some interesting portions becuase he works quite a bit with his wife cawti in this one, and she’s a bit of a delight in the sense of how she partners well with vlad, who’s been a solo operator for so long that I can’t remember any of his fights when partnered up (partly because his familiar IS his partner most of the time). So its nice to see a bit of a mixup, almost reminds me back of the old farfhard and gray mouser fights.
However, the story does drag on quite a bit. the mcguffin search becomes two mcguffin searches, and a simple mystery turns into a 3 or 4 layer cake of complexities. But the outcome was never in doubt. I think the simple formulaic stories that worked so well for 9 or so of the 16 novels has finally worn its welcome. The characters has no development becuase its the past, the story itself is ok, but not compelling and we’ve seen the stories all over again. just a retread.
read it if you’ve read the other 15 novels. skip otherwise.