I really like what I've read of Brust, though my experience with the books is actually rather spotty because it's based entirely on what was available in assorted local libraries and bookstores (in Bangladesh) a few years ago. That having been said, I agree with you fully - Taltos is a very modern character, which makes him easy to sympathize with as a protagonist (yes, I can sympathize with cold-blooded killers) - but Brust does it pretty well and the character doesn't seem anachronistic at all. Which is a relief.

In "500 Years After", which is connected but not really part of the series (I think), the story is focused around a group of Dragaeran "elves"... and it's done a lot more formally (just this side of actual "thees" and "thous", but not far off), and though it does feel clunky at times it doesn't detract from the rest of the book. On the whole, though, I prefer Taltos as a protagonist... but maybe that's just species chauvinism!

"500 Years After" is part of the "Khaavren Romances", which is a prequel series to the Vlad books which are deliberately structured like the Three Musketeers novels. I've not read "500 Years After" but I started "The Phoneix Guards" (the first in the Romances) and didn't like it: Brust doesn't imitate Dumas and Jack Vance nearly as well as he imitates Hammett and Leiber.

Of course, this makes me wonder whether Brust ever writes in *his own voice* as opposed to a style in homage to/inspired by writers of the past. Hmmm.