Well. That was fun. [SPOILERS below] But alas, somewhat disappointing. While we saw many events of much import, they were not all handled with the detail I would have liked. And I confess that I am left quite puzzled as to the contents of the third portion of this novel-in-three-parts. In order to spark discussion, I shall attempt a sparse enumeration of noteworthy events: * Morrolan charges up Dzur Mountain seeking tribute (bravo!) * Morrolan receives a Morganti weapon, which he calls his "black wand" (not yet capitalized) from Sethra Lavode, as tribute. Well enough handled, yet something is still missing; I find it hard to believe that that event alone constitutes the fulfillment of the multiple prophecies to which we have been privy. In other words, he still needs a soul for his sword -- and if not, well, I confess I find the account lacking. * Morrolan now possesses a floating castle. Well handled. * The matter of Zerika's Eastern lover is explained to some degree. My naturally suspicious mind leads me to make the following supposition: Laszlo is Noish-pa. Evidence? They are both witches; Noish-pa has a feline familiar; they are both from South Adrilankha; Arra presents a precedent for the life-extension techniques of Eastern witches; Laszlo himself presumably survives in Vlad's time, as Zerika is still rumored to have an Eastern lover; we have never heard Noish-pa's proper name. Evidence to the contrary: Vlad's father, and/or mother, presumably are descended from Noish-pa, yet we do not know if easterners and dragaereans can interbreed that I recall; Morrolan knows Laszlo and has met Noish-pa without expressing recognition; Laszlo seems more comfortable with elfs than Noish-pa. Conclusion: we do not know, yet I suspect some connection at least. * The comments of the Gods in _The Paths of the Dead_ regarding Phoenixes come to mind, particularly how "two hidden can combine to produce one visible". This seems a clear indication of a recessive gene, which is by no means a surprise, yet for that interpertation to apply we need have only one Phoenix (whose descendents carry the recessive gene and eventually recombine to produce a full Phoenix). If we take the words of the Gods as reported (faithfully or otherwise) by Paarfi, then the presence of two Phoenixes may be significant, or indeed required; and if required we can surmise that both Zerika and Illista must survive and bear children, their own genetic heritage to combine at some future point and produce a full Phoenix. If this is the case, then we can take as implied that Dragaerans and Easterners can interbreed, which has interesting implications regarding Zerika, Laslzo, and the prior speculation. * Loraan is established by Paarfi to be a separate individual >from Grita, aka Orlann. Referring to my prior treatise on this matter, however, I find that the reasoning presented therein remains intact; the existance of Grita/Orlann remains a matter in which the hand of Paarfi may have overridden the hand of history. Of course, those who choose to apply Occam's Razor (not to mention, to take at face value of the words of the esteemed author) may conclude that this is a merely factual explanation deserving of no further examination. * Kana is messing with the Gods. The consequences of this are not yet known, yet are unlikely to be trivial (and are, in fact, likely to take up a substantial portion of the next volume). Kate Nepveu has some illuminating comments of her own upon this matter which I include by reference (http://www.steelypips.org/). * Piro and company have become separated from their parents and taken up employment as highwaymen. This is disturbing. * Sethra the Younger and Morrolan have discussed invading the east. This strikes me as significant for the future, though not necessarily for the third volume. * The Sorceress in Green continues to play a role along the fringes. If she is, in fact, a Yendi (as I recall from none other than _Yendi_), then this may indicate that she is taking a much larger role than is expressed by Paarfi; that soul of brevity would doubtless have chosen to exclude her entirely were her presence as ineffectual as so far it appears to have been. * Devera appears to be present in obvious and substantial form, though how Paarfi could possibly be aware of the events in which she appears in sufficient detail to accurately include the presence of an individual entirely inconsequential to the events themselves is unexplained. * Eastern witchcraft appears to consider the numbers 21 and 34 significant. 34, of course, is twice 17. 21 is thrice 7. What this means I do not know. * Morrolan's floating castle is quite probably held up by, as Vlad surmised, a rune wrought in the features of the terrain below it that continually tells the castle "Don't fall down." * I would be very much amused by a Vlad novel told from Morrolan's perspective. * Tazendra lost a cousin to Sethra Lavode; her cousin was doing the typical Dzurlord thing of charging up Dzur Mountain. * Interesting and unusual twist regarding Piro's choice of romantic partners. I wonder where it's going? * When's the next one again? ;) -- Matthew Hunter (matthew at infodancer.org) Public Key: http://matthew.infodancer.org/public_key.txt Homepage: http://matthew.infodancer.org/index.jsp Politics: http://www.triggerfinger.org/index.jsp