Line #7 Creator/StevenBrust


1	[[quoteright:348:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/skzb_with_dancers.jpg]]
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3	Steven Karl Zoltán Brust (born November 23, 1955) is an American {{Fantasy}} and ScienceFiction author of Hungarian descent, best known for his Literature/{{Dragaera}} series, including the [[FilmNoir noirish]] Vlad Taltos cycle, and the Khaavren romances, a {{pastiche}} of Creator/AlexandreDumas. He is a member of The Scribblies, a Minnesota-based writers group that also includes Creator/EmmaBull, Will Shetterly, Creator/PamelaDean, and Creator/PatriciaCWrede, some of whom he has collaborated with.
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5	In addition to his writing, he was the drummer for the fantasy-oriented funk-rock band Cats Laughing, which also included Creator/EmmaBull.
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7	!! Books include:
8	* ''Agyar''
9	* ''Cowboy Feng's Space Bar & Grille''
10	* ''Literature/{{Dragaera}}'' series:
11	** The Vlad Taltos novels (15 so far)
12	** The Khaavren Romances (three or five novels, depending on how you count)
13	** ''Brokedown Palace'' (a standalone novel, loosely associated with the series)
14	** ''The Baron of Magistar Valley'' (Provides backstory to a character in the ''Taltos'' series.)
15	* ''Literature/FreedomAndNecessity'' (with Creator/EmmaBull)
16	* ''The Gypsy'' (with Creator/MeganLindholm)
17	* ''My Own Kind of Freedom'' (a novel based on the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' television series)
18	* ''The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars'' (a modern-day retelling of an old fairy tale)
19	* ''Literature/ToReignInHell''
20	* ''Good Guys'' (2018)
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24	!! Tropes in works without their own page:
25	* AsYouKnow: Subverted in ''Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille'': "Don't tell me what I already know."
26	* CutHisHeartOutWithASpoon: From ''Agyar'', "I will draw forth thy bones one by one ere I send thee to the Devil, that for all time thy shapeless body shall serve as a carpet for the minions of hell."
27	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The hags epidemic in ''Cowboy Feng's'' started in the 1980s, has no known cure or real treatments [[spoiler: until the future Feng comes from]], and victims are often treated with contempt and disgust, or outright violence in the case of the villains. This parallels the very real AIDS epidemic (and in fact Brust has outright said that the book came partially from his disgust at how victims were treated).
28	* EarthThatWas: In ''Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille'', the staff of the eponymous time- and space-travelling restaurant is trying to find out, among other things, whether or not the Earth is still around and still viable. [[spoiler: Nope. It was nuked.]]
29	* FutureImperfect: ''Invoked'' by the decor at Cowboy Feng's, to ensure that any ''genuine'' examples of historical incongruities will be dismissed as the restaurant's kitschy style.
30	* InnBetweenTheWorlds: In ''Cowboy Feng's Space Bar And Grille'', the titular eatery jumps from world to world (and time to time) whenever an atomic bomb goes off nearby. And that's been happening a lot lately...
31	* LoveAtFirstSight: Billy in ''Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille'' falls hard for his love interest in the space of a couple days. Justified, as he's been nuked multiple times ''before'' the story even starts [[spoiler: and discovers Earth is a smoking ruin early on]], and tells the reader that he knows his deep feelings must come partially from an attempt to cope with that.
32	* MeaningfulName: Billy Kevely's love interest is named Souci, which is French for "worry", and also for "marigold", which in some cultures symbolizes pain and grief. Souci both causes and feels no end of worry and heartache even before [[spoiler: we learn she's part of Sugar Bear.]]
33	* NothingIsScarier: The symptoms of Hags disease in ''Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille''. It's 100% fatal [[spoiler: for now]], and people are terrified of it, but all readers know about what it does is a very dark joke one of the characters tells that implies it's horribly disfiguring.
34	* NotUsingTheZWord: The vampiric narrator of ''Agyar'' never once uses the word "vampire", nor does he ever explicitly describe himself feeding on blood, though he does so many times. Agyar tells the story simply to put his thoughts on paper, and therefore does not explain anything that would be second nature to himself.
35	* OurVampiresAreDifferent: ''Agyar'' is about vampires, though the novel never actually calls them that or portrays the actual blood sucking. They're pretty classic vampires, with the central point being that a master can call and command its offspring.
36	* SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom: The BigBad of ''Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille'' is an organization that has been systematically nuking humanity to cinders. They're called Sugar Bear.
37	* UnreliableNarrator: Billy Kevely never outright lies to the reader, but he tends to make omissions. [[spoiler: Chiefly, that he's actually ''the'' Cowboy Feng, not a hapless banjo player along for the ride. An eagle-eyed reader may note that Billy is always very, very careful with his words when it comes to who knows the truth about the restaurant, in such a way that he never reveals he does nor outright claims he doesn't. The closest he gets to a flat lie is calling Earth his homeworld, and that's more a case of ExactWords--he considers Earth his homeworld because he's a human, not because he's ''from'' there.]]

Context Creator / StevenBrust