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).