Dragaera

Issola, Dragon, J Whedon, and Chandler's The Long Goodbye

Wed Mar 17 16:54:08 PST 2004

Matthew wrote:
> As I mentioned to Philip in a private reply, I thought in particular 
> that Vlad seemed to be a lot more on-edge in Issola than in previous 
> books. I kinda wonder how much of the characterization problems that 
I 
> had and, from your description, you had in Issola were just because 
of 
> the massive amounts of stress that the characters are under in this 
> story. 

I thought that when I read the book myself.  Vlad was under an awful 
lot of stress throughout that book; first, from the internal conflict 
of being dragged back into the world that he had left behind; and 
second, from the stakes once the action gets going and things get 
rough.  

I kind of agreed with the comments about most of the characters being 
more elemental in Issola, but again... I attributed a lot of that to 
the stressful conditions.  I mean, I always figured that one of the 
reasons Morrolan is usually so snarky is that he can pretty much handle 
situations by himself.  Having Vlad/Aliera/Sethra along is just him 
being generous and sharing the gore to be spilled.  Same with Aliera 
and her half-Valkyrie half-grrrl power attitude.  In Issola, they 
actually have to be discrete and work together, and Dragons (and 
dragons) seem to rather dislike that.

Cheers,
Trager

PS.  Sethra was abrupt at times because she's still unhappy Vlad knows 
her secret.  And by the way, unbeknownst to us all, Vlad is Mario (a la 
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde).