In the realms of science fiction and fantasy, Steven K. Brust's fans have become accustomed to discovering exciting, and strange, yet believable new worlds. "It is very easy to cheat when writing fantasy--to say, `This is magic, it just works,' " Brust once commented. "But if one is able to avoid this trap, one has the power to work real magic with the story. For me, magic must be either an alternate set of physical laws, used to express something about how we view our tools, or else a metaphor for Mystery, or the Unknown, or whatever."

Brust's own Hungarian ancestry is evident in many of his books, especially his popular five-book series that chronicles the adventures of Vlad Taltos, a warlock and hired assassin educated by a swordsman and a sorceress, who carries out assignments on behalf of the Dragonlords of the Dragaeran Empire. In Jhereg (1983), the...