A novel written by Steven Brust, The Phoenix Guards is both a great story and incredibly funny. Terrific read; I highly recommend it. The Phoenix Guards takes place is Brust’s usual fantasy world, but has a completely different cast of characters from the usual. The entire story is written as a mockery of Alexandre Dumas and the stereotype of 19th century literature, and it Brust executes this mockery flawlessly. Brust describes his belly-acher as “a blatant ripoff of the Three Musketeers.” I couldn’t dream of putting it any better than that. Read this one. Shill out whatever you have to get a copy, and read it. And get ready for the quickest proven method to washboards abs, because they’re gonna hurt like hell by the time you’re done.