Well, not really, but I couldn't resist using that phrase. This was good, faster paced and more fun than POTD. I do have to disagree with whoever complained about the choice of stopping point: this was not at all a cliffhanger (no one is in immediate danger), and (unlike POTD) we know where everyone is at that time and more or less what they're doing. It seemed to me that Brust was being anti-sensational; he handled many of the plot points in a remarkably mundane manner: Pel's conflict of interest, Blackwand, the second Phoenix, the Devera appaerances, and several events involving Zerika. As for the question of marble, I believe Vlad mentions somewhere the white marble inside of Castle Black. For anyone surprised by the actions of certain people at the end of LOCB, all I can say is that you were warned. Specifically, on the first page of chapter 18. (And those of you discussing the Orb/Cycle/Emporer/phoenix would find the rest of that chapter enlightening as well.) Some criticisms: my copy wasn't glued cleanly, and there were of course some typoes (sorry, I didn't note where). I did however note a couple places where the dialogue gets somewhat confused, if not outright misattributed: pages 81 and 336. --KG