Steven Karl Zoltán Brust (born November 23, 1955) is an American fantasy and science fiction author of Hungarian descent.

He is best known for his series of novels about the assassin Vlad Taltos, one of a disdained minority group of humans living on a world called Dragaera.

The Vlad Taltos series, written as high fantasy with a science fiction underpinning,[2] is set on a planet called Dragaera.

[3][4] The events of the series take place in an Empire mostly inhabited and ruled by the Dragaerans, a genetically engineered humanoid species,[5] having characteristics such as greatly extended lifespans and heights averaging about seven feet.

These include Emma Bull's and Will Shetterly's Liavek, Robert Asprin's Thieves' World, Neil Gaiman's Sandman and Terri Windling's Borderland Series.

Brust was a founding member of a Minnesota-based writers' group called The Scribblies, which included Emma Bull, Pamela Dean, Will Shetterly, Nate Bucklin, Kara Dalkey, and Patricia Wrede.

Some of these approaches are more purely stylistic and have minor effects on the actual story-telling; some are profound and involve the point of view of characters whom the reader never expected to get to know so well.

A fascination with the Mafia – subsequently brought into a somewhat shocking perspective by the murder of a friend – profoundly influenced his storylines, as did the breakup of his marriage.

The events and arguments of his books, especially Teckla, are acknowledged by Brust to be influenced by his lifelong interest in Marxist theory and practice.

Brust is a singer-songwriter and drummer who has recorded a solo album, and who has played in the Minneapolis-based folk rock band Cats Laughing, and with the Albany Free Traders,[11] and Morrigan.

On April 3, 2015, Brust performed as part of Cats Laughing in a reunion concert at the Minicon 50 science fiction convention in Bloomington, Minnesota.

[12][13] In March 2016, Cats Laughing released a double CD of their 2015 reunion, A Long Time Gone, as well as a DVD by the same title with documentary concert footage.

[14] The title is a reference to "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", a short story by Brust's literary hero and mentor Roger Zelazny.

"[17] Conversely, a critical review by AllMusic's Roch Parisien emphasized that "Songs from The Gypsy represents a failure of multimedia integration.

As an audio CD, the disc serves up ten songs, ranging from acoustic trad to bluesy rockers, that ironically form a less cohesive whole than previous Boiled in Lead releases.

The better numbers (like the title track) incorporate Celtic rock with Hungarian, Middle Eastern, and other interesting worldbeat influences.

Brust has performed dramatically in several Shockwave Radio Theater productions, notably Closing Ceremonies (aka The Fall of the House of Usherette) and PBS Liavek.

[25] Brust's novels have been translated into numerous languages, including Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, Estonian, French, German, Hebrew, Polish, Russian, and Spanish.

Paarfi describes these novels as works of history written for a popular audience, and published with great success during the reigns of Empresses Zerika IV and Norathar II.