I posted your message to the dragaera list and gotten replies from a number of people. I'm going to forward them all to you, beginning with my own repost of your message. Now that I've seen their replies, I recognize the Saberhagen Swords books, which I've read. I certainly didn't recognize them from your description, and I don't see any similarity at all in the two series beyond the use of a couple of concepts that are common currency in fantasy literature. Saying that Brust (not "Burst") based Dragaera on the Swords/Empire series is kind of like saying that, oh, the DareDevil movie is based on the Smallville TV series because they're both about guys with unusual abilities who travel through the air. You wrote: "Burst thanks him for the Idea / genisis of the world in the 1st book of seris". Brust says "Nah. I've read a lot of Saberhagen, including those books, but I don't recall stealing from them. I was too busy stealing from Zelazny." Can you give a citation (book title and page or chapter) for the acknowledgement you refer to? Again, though, thank you for pointing out what seemed to you to be a real connection. I'm glad that you enjoy Brust's work and my own Cracks and Shards pages. -- Mark A. Mandel http://world.std.com/~mam/Cracks-and-Shards/ a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website