Bryan Newell wrote: >Possible explanations: > >1. Vlad is a very long-lived Easterner, and is narrating his tales to Brust >at the same time Paarfi is narrating Viscount to Brust, long after the >actual events occurred. > >2. The magic box is not constrained by time (in much the same way the Paths >of the Dead are not), or possibly there are two different boxes, each of >which transmits at a different speed, and Vlad's box (being older, of >course) takes longer to transmit to Brust, whereas Paarfi's box is like >Ender's ansible (since he appears to have a real-time conversation with >Brust in one of the prologues). It just so happens that Brust is getting >both transmissions at roughly the same time. > >3. Vlad's box is a recorder, not a transmitter, and years later, someone >else (Kiera, Savn, or (doubtful) Paarfi?) transmits his recordings to Brust >(possibly using Paarfi's box, which seems to be a genuine two-way >communication device). I rather like the idea of Savn being Vlad's >biographer. > >4. It's a good old fashioned Crack. > >5. I really need to work on my suspension of disbelief. > >Thoughts? > >Bryan > > The box IS a trnasmitter, but it's going through a relay located in the Paths of the Dead (or maybe Verra's halls) and therefore can pick up signals on extremely odd (not to mention convenient) time intervals. Either that, or Steve has a window like Morrolan. Majikjon