--- Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote: > spoilers, obviously. > > > > > > > > <snip Raymond Chandler discussion> > 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. > I wasn't as happy with Issola as I wanted to be. I did enjoy it more than Orca or Athyra -- mainly because some of my favorite characters got more page time. That said, my biggest issue wasn't so much a "want vs. need" problem as it was a consistent characterization problem. Throughout the entire book, I felt like M and A had been lumped into a single character -- DRAGONLORD (read like government cheese labeled "CHEESE" in big black letters). I could deal with seeing M and A's individual arrogant sides brought out in an unusual situation, but the rest of their personalities just seemed to disappear into a big black void of indestructible dragonlord arrogance. It didn't help matters any that all of their other personality flaws were magnified to the point of being nearly intolerable (e.g. fighting amongst themselves, hot-headed desire to kill things first and ask questions later, etc.) I've never seen M or A as perfect, but some of the things they did in Issola just struck me as way too stupid or way too heavy-handed, even for dragonlords. The other major character that bothered me in Issola was Sethra. She somehow moved from the zone of "vaguely condescending most of the time and occassionally bitchy when not in a good mood" to "outright bitch most of the time." I never got that impression from Sethra before Issola. And what about Vlad? He spends a good amount of page time in Issola debating whether or not he even really like M & Co. as friends or just considers them nothing more than people he owes honor debts to. It seems to me that wasn't even in question when he high-tailed it out into the wilderness in the first place. > > Contrast this with _Dragon_, a novel I didn't much > enjoy on first reading, > and still only admire. I loved Dragon. If only as an excuse to see V miserable and L having a great time ribbing him, it was a fun read. It also answered alot of questions and gave some more insight into V's ties with his dragonlord friends, which are things that I always look forward to in these books. Amy __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam http://mail.yahoo.com