Beyond Reality discussion

Please let us know if you've read the book! No spoilers please - we'll set up some topics for more in-depth discussion later.

I finished it yesterday. Typical Brust - lots of bantering, witty dialogue, very little exposition, leaving the reader to figure things out for him/herself. I liked it, but at the same time I found the contrast between the light-hearted writing style and the fairly dark story to be a little odd. I'll say more once the spoiler thread gets started.

I started this one but find that I am reluctant to read it.....keep picking up the other books I am reading instead

Well, my first impression is that this book seems hard to get ahold of. My local book store didn't have it, nor does my library. I didn't want to pay full price for it, so that ruled out my usual online sources. I did find it on half.com for $.75, though, so that's not too bad. Of course, once you pay shipping you're practically covering the cost of the book anyway... but, ah well.

I'm not sure when I'll get around to reading it. Probably not this month, so I'll have to come back after the discussion is over. Ah well.

I started this novel this morning over a cup of tea. It grabbed my attention quickly. Too bad I have to work this morning, or I'd just curl up with more tea by the fireplace and read straight through. Brust is so much fun.

Steven Brust

What did you think of the first paragraph? I thought it was pretty bold. I need to re-read this book at some point, but I'm so behind with other books that it's not likely to happen soon.

Bold? Sort of an in-your-face inside editing joke? :)

I remember reading it the first time and almost snarfing coffee all over the book. I thought it was pretty bold because this was (as far as I know) only the second book he published. The first one was Jhereg, which was even bolder, I think - start of a 19 book series, containing spoilers for the end of the series (which hasn't been written yet). I wonder if a debut author could get away with this now, almost 25 years later.

This isn't going very fast for me. hard slogging...

I just started reading this last night, and am on page 94. My first impression, as per my current status, is that Abdiel's a douche.