a very long post, starting with a lengthy digression which can be skipped, and a quite critical take on Issola, which can be skipped by deletion. spoilers, obviously. Those who like SKZB may well enjoy Raymond Chandler. In fact, Vlad may be an indirect descendant of Philip Marlowe, Chandler's competent, moral, sensitive, snarky man in a crime-riddled landscape. I recently reread _The Long Goodbye_, the last of the great Philip Marlowe novels (_Playback_ was written on Chandler's deathbed and is a wild exaggeration of the case I make below.) The novel is a meditation on many of Chandler's central concerns - honor, friendship, alcohol, beautiful women, and violence. These concerns, and Chandler's strengths as a novelist (extraordinary prose style, vivid characters, control of tone - everything except mastery of plot), turn what had been genre pulp into literature. But by the time of _TLG_, Chandler was losing his grasp. The novel is too long, too flabby, and there's too much of the author working out his personal problems. The effect is to give the reader (through Marlowe, Chandler's fantasy-self) what he wants, not what he needs (formulation stolen from Josh Whedon). A smart, beautiful, rich woman who Marlowe barely knows throws herself at him. Later another smart, beautiful, rich woman throws herself at him, leading to the first on-stage sex scene in the novels. Marlowe is tortured, and gets to beat up a guy who humiliated him (another man later humiliates the guy more), and a main character's torture is frequently referred to. Another major character is a talented writer of pulp novels struggling with alcohol - another macho stand-in for Chandler. The plot is arranged to force Marlowe into contact with the above characters. A strong novel, but... Some of the above thoughts helped crystallize some objections I have to _Issola_. Let me hasten to add that I find it perhaps the most enjoyable installment of the Vladiad since _Jhereg_, but perhaps that's a question of want/need. First, the initial scene between Vlad and Teldra. Her arrival at night seems contrived to me. Perhaps no one could be found to reach Loiosh (Cawwti comes to mind, of course) or Vlad (Sethra in concert with Daymar, or Verra) directly, and I'm not clear how Teldra gets Morrolan's windows to work for her - but she seems to arrive in the wee hours to give Vlad an excuse to spoon with her under a fur rug. Then there's a data dump from Sethra. I don't think any of this information turns out to be of use to Vlad, and the critical bits could have been brought out more naturally in the course of the novel. Later we have a data dump on sorcery. Then there's the mission from the J. They give V a box to send him to visit Verra - but no way to get back. And no way to confirm he was successful. And anyway, was he really supposed to be successful? The J's actions are so unfathomable, their inability to understand human motivations so profound (except when it's convenient, such as being able to predict Vlad would come to rescue Morrolan and Aliera), that they become pure embodiments of plot. Does Vlad have to spend time alone with Teldra? Fine, let M/A go and trap V/T together. Does the trellanstone have to be discovered? Fine, it's in the one room, discoverable with Vlad's special tool (which the J show no interest in). Does Vlad need to be one-armed for the finale? No problem. Then there's the set of (shipper?) events - V makes M/A blush, V leaves Verra speechless, Verra disses Sethra then has to ask what her advice was, Verra fights like a tag, the Necromancer has a heart-to-heart with V, V has to tell Aliera to use Pathfinder, T has to tell M how to see the trellanstone, T feeds V by hand, and (to some extent) T encourages V to shamelessly flirt with her. Then there are the persistent bits where I said, Huh? Isn't ... Then there's the battle scene, which to me feels phoned in. To summarize, the novel purpose seems to be designed to advance the plot of the Vladiad through data dumps, coincidences, and Jea ex machinas; to hit certain emotional buttons; to give Teldra stage-time; and to get Godslayer finished. Now, these things are not necessarily bad in isolation, but in concert I feel I've been want-not-needed. Contrast this with _Dragon_, a novel I didn't much enjoy on first reading, and still only admire. It has a series of excellent, vivid vignettes - the first meeting with Daymar, the trip to see the Serioli, the business with StY. The main thread of the plot is interesting, educational, and plausible. The entire book is economical and integrated and paced perfectly - when V has his discussions with the Dragons in his troop, one feels that this is a good time for a conversation - during the V/T conversations in _Issola_ one feels Time to undergo more bonding. At the end of _Dragon_, Vlad has learned and grown and placed parts of his past into context, and so has the careful reader. Most of the central books of the Vladiad are need, not want novels. _Orca_ requires a lot of attention to detail, _Athyra_ starves us of Vlad and Loiosh, _Teckla_ is painful. In these novels, we see Vlad developing in the face of new events - learning as he copes with life. In _Issola_ I think we see development thrust upon him - he's Vlad/Teldra now, or V/L/T instead of V/L; the reader goes along for the ride, fun stuff happens, the plot moves forward. To conclude, a quote from the end of _The Long Goodbye_, Marlowe saying goodbye to a friend who was in effect dead before the novel started, a talking-to that the older Vlad might have given his younger self: I'm not sore at you. You're just that kind of guy. For a long time I couldn't figure you at all. You had nice ways and nice qualities, but there was something wrong. You had standards and you lived up to them, but they were personal. They had no relation to any kind of ethics or scruples. You were a nice guy because you had a nice nature. But you were just as happy with mugs or hoodlums as with honest men. Provided the hoodlums spoke fairly good English and had fairly acceptable table manners. You're a moral defeatist. I think maybe the war did it and again I think maybe you were born that way.