A financial scandal? In an imaginary setting? An interesting scandal? I'm impressed...

Yeah. Without giving too much away, Orca essentially asks the reader to assume that the Dragaeran Empire operates on broadly similar principles to the trade-based empires of the Victorian era, and then gives us Steven Brust's theories about how those operated, which seem sound and well-reasoned. That the Dragaerans have teleportation magics - which effectively allow the sort of fast communication that the telegraph did in the 19th Century - means that it isn't too much of a leap in terms of the imaginary setting, and actually makes all kinds of things which seemed jumbled in the earlier books make sense. Brust's worldbuilding has always taken a backseat to the story and the prose style (which is as it should be), but Orca gives the clearest picture we've had yet of what Vlad's world is like and why it's like that.

I really need to get round to reading these, they sound very good. It's just I'm afraid they'll take a George RR Martin dive on me... I might wait until you've read them and *then* decide =P

Well, specifically until they're complete and you've read them - which could be a long time coming.

For what it's worth, I'm of the opinion that you can just read The Book of Jhereg and The Book of Taltos and then just stop - the five novels contained in those books describe a more-or-less complete arc, and while you don't get complete closure you can at least close the book and imagine what happens to Vlad next.

The Book of Athyra, on the other hand, seems to be establishing and developing a new arc (which spins off of the old one), so yeah, might be an idea to hold off until I can give the all-clear.

I am the Minesweeper of fantasy fiction. :D

Or the fantasy fiction canary...