>People on the list will remember other cracks if they recall them; it's my >sense that the story doesn't hang together well, but I could be biased. >Even by the Paarfi-as-Dumas view, _FHYA_ couldn't be as wrong as the >Aliera-related-to-Vlad version. Paarfi has the Orb moving to Adron of its own volition even though, as Paarfi himself later tells us, the Cycle has not turned. I can't imagine anything Aliera could say that could be more wrong than that... _Taltos_ was the fourth book published. Even if you want to somehow dismiss Aliera's claims in _Jhereg_ as some kind of meta-story "author hasn't got his universe fully defined yet" thing, I don't see how you can dismiss _Taltos_ the same way. You might as well just say that Paarfi is the real authority and that others are unreliable or even liars, despite being witnesses to the actual events of the time and privy to the councils of one of the principal players behind those events. The real question is "Why would Aliera lie?" To impress Vlad? I hardly think so. She's plenty proud enough of her heritage without having to dress it up for a Jhereg/Easterner. Whatever Aliera thought of Adron's plans, she was never ashamed of him or his actions. On the other hand, Paarfi is a novelist who needs to tell an entertaining story. He has every reason to bend the truth. His story requires Adron to be a noble idealist who brings about the ruin of the Empire through misguided ideals and a case of extraordinarily bad luck rather than a simple desire for power. I'm not sure how Paarfi could be considered anything like authoritative, particularly in comparison to Adron's own daughter.