In a message dated Fri, 16 Aug 2002 7:55:38 PM Eastern Standard Time, Steven Brust <skzb at dreamcafe.com> writes: > As for why Vlad uses techniques with a rapier that, in > fact, were not developed during the historical period on > Earth when the rapier was in use, I will only say that > there is a reason, and that this is one of the things I had > figured out before I wrote the first word of the first > story about Vlad. oh oh I know this one: "I like cloaks and rapiers. So I write stories with a lot of cloaks and rapiers in 'em, 'cause that's cool." http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue224/interview.html Or did you mean the part about this world being colonized by a bunch of Hungarian socialists led by a master fencer? --KG