Dzur, Brust. Yes. Brust uses a couple devices in this installment near the limits of what they’ll tolerate, aggravated by my belief that the parallel construction (device one) seems to exist only to help justify the weak tie of the action to the title (device two). That (minor, really) distraction aside, this is a Vlad Taltos novel, in more of the classic mold than we’ve seen in several books. As cranky as I’ve become of late, I still enjoy Brust’s writing.
I remembered his ties to the so-called "Pre-Joycean Fellowship" and dug around to find out what that’s about (when I last considered the question, rec.arts.sf (pre-split) was my sole source of info; things have changed somewhat). Finding this old post of Brust’s has yet again brought home the realization that I’m not looking for straight-forward storytelling so much as I am looking for writing in service of the story and the characters. If your story needs trickery (and you’re good enough to pull it off), you must get tricky. Zelazny is, after all, a hero of mine, too.