Mayer Alan Brenner

A fan of Terry Prachett and all things fantasy, I was hooked by the 3rd page of Catastrophe's Spell. A great fantasy story with fun fantasy elements, lots of magic (lots of 'pulsing'), gods, and characters with mysterious lives before the beginning of the series. We follow Max the Vaguely Disreputable who doesn't like gods, Shaa who is under some sort of curse, and the detective who gets pulled into everything but does so with a calm, clever attitude.
The language is easy to read and often whacky, the dialog is great. When the characters do in fact call each other things like nincompoop, how can you go wrong?… (meer)

While still very enjoyable and fast-paced, "Intrigue" didn't grab me as hard as [book: Catastrophe's Spell]. Much like Brust's [book: Yendi], the complications and resolutions feel forced, causing the book to lose some of the appeal of its MacGyver-like spontaneity.Still, sarcasm, sword fights, spell-casting, spies, and subversives make for a pretty good second book in the series.EDIT: Forgot to mention that the books are freely downloadable from target="_top">http://www.mayerbrenner.com/… (meer)