>>Tekla is my absolute favorite, it's gritty, heart wrenching and reminds us >>that life can really suck. I believe it makes the good times in Jhereg and >>Yendi all the more sweet. It also spoke to me personally, as I had gone >>through a similiar situation myself and could sympathize. This is the book >>that made Vlad >>"real" to me. But isn't that the point? Steve tries to, he has said, write the creature for which he titles the book. Yendi was intriguing, Dragon was war-like, and Teckla not only highlighted the trials of the supressed and exploited working class, but also *was* a trial--it shows us that sometimes, life can be like an onion. It can have different layers to it, and different textures, and that sometimes, like as we can see in the life of an easterner in Dragaera, or one of the teckla, that life/layer/texture really sucks, and there's nothing you can do about it. jon