Steven Brust

Hey, did I ever mention that my favorite author, Steven Brust, is from Minnesota? I already knew that but was reminded of the fact when he mentioned it in in his latest blog post.

Brust is most well known for his Vlad Taltos series. The first couple come off as pretty cheesy -- the "gimmick" of the series is that it's kind of a Mafia saga set within a sword-and-sorcery fantasy world. Also, the main character has a pet miniature dragon with whom he has a lot of corny-as-hell dialogue. But if you can get past these things there's some depth there, and it's really not the typical Tolkien rip-off. For example, the fifth book in the series ends up dealing with socioeconomic issues like "Hey, aren't all those peasants who support the romantic and swashbuckling nobility, like, totally being oppressed?" Brust is a bit of a socialist (these left-wing Minnesotans!), but he's a damn great writer.

Brust only has one book set in Minnesota -- Agyar -- but I definitely wouldn't recommend that one as a starting point. He currently lives in Las Vegas and is very into poker :-)