105 thoughts on “Vlad novel: What do you most want to know?”

  1. I suppose it’s too much to ask that Lady Teldra finally wake up (and not in the last chapter, in case you’re thinking of going a bit Literal Genie on us).

  2. I want to know if Devera really pronounces her name de VEER a. When i read your books I pronounce it in my head as DEV era. Furthermore it ought to be pronounced DEV era. That’s because when I read your books she is in MY head.

  3. Charles: First of all, I don’t believe that, if I’m going to make up funny words, I get to complain about how people pronounce them. Second, there’s a pronunciation guide at the beginning of Jar-head.

    That said, I pronounce it the way you do.

  4. When will Lady Teldra wake up/will she still have some of her old polite personality when/if she does?

  5. I’d like to see the Jenoine storyline advance. Interesting discoveries and developments began in Issola and have seemed neglected since. Mostly though, I just want a neverending supply of more. I can’t imagine being tired of Vlad after only 17 books.

  6. Will Vlad earn the respect of his son? (Some fathers get it unearned, some lose or never get it…)

    Come to think of it, will he find something to respect about his own old man, apart from cooking talent? Noish-pa can’t have raised someone as meritless as Vlad seems to remember.

  8. I want to know how many atrocities Captain G’aereth committed as part of the army which ended the Teckla Republic.

    Oops, wrong series.

    I’m curious about how often the Empire debases its currency in response to fiscal crises. Also whether there is any magical protection against coin-clipping.

  9. Oh, yeah, and finding out the relationship between the word Taltos as it applies to both Vlad and a certain horse.

  10. Recipes! I want recipes!

    Oh, yeah, and finding out the relationship between the word Taltos as it applies to both Vlad and a certain horse.

  12. Besides Lady Teldra, I very much want to know more about Sethra. How has she lived 250,000 years? Is she a vampire in the “blah, suck your blood!” vein (ha!), or something completely different? When will the new incarnation of the Lavodes make their appearance en mass?

    And what’s the deal with Tukko? Is he really older than Sethra?

    I could go on, but these are the ones that have been floating around my mind for the last (what?) 30 years.

  14. I don’t know what you are talking about. All my questions have been answered. I know everything already, so there is no need to hold anything back.

    Really.

  15. At the risk of being serious, I’d love to know about Kragar’s history. How did he arrange to get tossed out of the House of the Dragon? How’d he even meet Mario in the first place?

  16. Lady Teldra, and the relationship between Great Weapons and their companions (wielders) specifically. I think there is a lot more to these relationships than has been revealed. It would also be a joyride to get inside Morrolan’s head, I mean as in point-of-view narrator-style.

    Other than that, I would love the continued exploration of Pel’s interest into Vlad’s life and activities. What a great adversarial chess game that could turn out to be.

  17. I’m scared everyong else picked right up on it at the end of Orca, but Kiera’s revealed secret didn’t answer my question as it seemed to do for Vlad: Why has Kiera always helped him?

  18. I’d like to see what solution Vlad has come up with to get the Jhereg off his back and to see if the hints at a working relationship between Vlad and the Demon crystallizes from all of it.

  19. I’d like to know more about the origins of the Dragerans. Not the Empire, but the people. It has been hinted that they are the result of manipulating Easterners and native animals. Who did it and how? And why? Are these really cleverly disguised science fiction books?

  20. Contingent on where this story sits chronologically, I want to know if Lady Teldra wakes up and what does she do.

  22. I would love to know if Sethra had something more than a passing fondness for Dolivar and was perhaps in a triangle relationship with both him and his brother Kieron. I do not expect that answer anytime soon. (Or for that matter, ever) It would explain some things though…

  23. I ask to make sure I don’t answer it.

    In that case, I want to know how Vlad dies, what the next end-of-book cliffhanger is, and how you will continue to avoid explaining what the word “vampire” means when applied to Sethra.

  26. What’s with the recording boxes? Who’s providing them, why does Vlad trust them enough to narrate his life to them, and when and where does all this happen?

  27. I want to know if the Serioli, creators of Morganti and Great Weapons, have the ability to unmake what they have made, and if so why we never see them doing it.

    I want to know how old Noish-pa really is. I also want Vlad to catch Noish-pa and the Empress in flagrante delecto :P

    I think I really *really* want to know why Sethra has been watching and mentoring Vlad since he was very young, both as her self and in her other guise. She does nothing by simple whim (maybe by complex whim), and she’s watched out for him since before he joined House Jhereg. I am surprised Vlad hasn’t asked her yet.

    One small niggling question: why the huge disparity in characterization of Tukko between when Vlad shows up at Sethra’s place and Tukko shows up, and when Paarfi puts words in Tukko’s mouth?

    Finally, can Godslayer affect witchcraft and psychic abilities (and maybe even necromancy) as easily as it does sorcery?

  29. I’d like to know about the future of Vlad’s love life. I think he deserves a good woman.

    Also, anything about the Serioli, Morganti weapons, Verra, and Vlad’s past life.

    Really about anything would be good as long as it is written in first person from Vlad’s point of view.

    Consider attaching instant Klava to copies of the book :)

  30. What is the relationship between Vlad’s reincarnated soul, the fact that he seems to have been destined to wield a Great Weapon, and the close companionship he (a mere mayfly) has with a great number of the most important people in the Empire, as well as the goddess of death? Call them A, B, and C. Are A and B independent? Is A sufficient to explain B and C? Is Verra enough to explain A, B, and the rest of C?

  31. A recurring theme of your work seems to be that not only is there not such a thing as an omniscient reliable narrator, there cannot be such a thing. This plausibly arises from an evident conviction that all participants in an event have a subjective component to their experience of the event and hence cannot recount the event objectively; that there is no way to recount the event that is independent of the participants; and that there is no way to average over or compare the participants’ accounts to subtract or cancel the subjective component.

    My question is: What does Vlad think of literary analysis?

  32. Since Godslayer was named PRIOR to the Teldra/morganti/spellbreaker event (the Sothoii in the cave) – What god has it been used to slay (prior to unmaking) or is there prophecy involved and what god(s) WILL be slain?

  33. When are we going to see a Dragera RPG (or sourcebook for GURPS)? You did an online chat with SJ Games many many years ago, where such a thing was discussed and speculation occurred. And as far as I know, nothing more has been said, publicly, about it.

  34. “Vlad kill Verra” That’s surely the substance of The Last Contract?

    “Why has Kiera always helped him?” Well, Sethra has probably known about Vlad’s status as the reincarnated Dolivar for longer than Vlad has known her, or Kiera.

  35. Well, Sethra has probably known about Vlad’s status as the reincarnated Dolivar for longer than Vlad has known her, or Kiera.

    Probably. But why would that make her help him? Oh, I can make guesses. A few of them, especially with the knowledge from Kiera in Orca, that part of the “why” is “guilt.” (I just reread it this past week, so that’s why it’s so fresh in my mind.)

    And don’t get me wrong; I love wondering about things like that. It’d just be cool to know someday. ;-)

  36. With respect to Sethra helping Vlad, I would be surprised if guilt were a major motivation. But I expect that the biggest risk to someone thousands of years old is terminal boredom. Surely, Sethra had to have been quite surprised by the reincarnation, and is subsequently curious to see what Dolivar-as-an-Easterner will get up to. Consequently, she’d need to find a way to stay close to him…

  37. Chy, my non-canonical answer is that the reason Sethra has lived for so long is because she’s obviously a key player in the gods’ plan to keep the Jenoine out of their world. Therefore, helping Vlad (and potentially, Dolivar) has something to do with long-range plans, especially as we don’t know what sources of knowledge she has available to her.

    As to why she *likes* him… well, I think when you live for a very long time, smart-asses can get entertaining.

  38. Sethra didn’t get to be this old by neglecting hints. This is a universe where unusual things often turn out to have reasons behind them. Vlad-is-Dolivar is highly unusual (as far as we know) and thus it seems wise to kep him alive for whatever purpose he may turn out to have. (Sethra may also have an odd perspective on keeping people alive).

    And yes, he’s pretty entertaining. We are, after all, still keen to read more about him.

  39. I have several more-or-less technical questions, but I guess they will never be resolved.

    1. Houses are supposedly hereditary, but not always. Anyone, even an Easterner, can join the Jhereg. And one character, whose name I have forgotten, managed to become a Dzur by defeating 17 Dzur champions in single combat.
    Was he originally mixed race, perhaps the son of the mixed couple in the second Khaavren romance?

    2. It is said that a Phoenix must be the child of two Phoenixes and, in addition, an actual phoenix must be sighted flying above the house when s/he is born. What is the house of someone born to two Phoenixes for whom no bird is sighted? Is Zerika to be the last Phoenix with the house dying when she does?

    3. Finally, it seems that the houses (except the Tekla) produce very few children. The four companions in Phoenix Guard appear to have produced exactly one offspring among them. One is dead and the others are getting on in years, even for Dragaerans. In fact, in all the stories only Khaavren appears to have any children at all, except for Teckla. Are the houses dying out?

    4. What actually happens to mixed race people. Short of trying to destroy Dragaera, that is. Do they automatically become Teckla?

    Of course, these are not questions for Hawk. So you are safe in not answering them.

  40. 1. lady Teldra waking up at sometime within the novel.
    2. Vlad to get a hot chicha again. Upon rereading the first few books it strikes me as always how much of an awesomely hot and bad ass woman Cawti is, as opposed to the later books where she is a homely revolutionary who is still bad ass.
    I just fell like he needs another strong woman backing him up. (maybe this is teldra?)
    3 Kragar back story would be nice and maybe it would work in this book with daymar maybe being the one who helped him get out of the dragon.
    4 more daymar ( im sure this is inevitable with the book being Hawk
    5 some form of resolution to the vlad/jhereg war. maybe them forgiving him because of some form of help he provides them (killing someone of course)
    6 some as yet unknown gotcha moment as at the end of orca, or Kragars reveal of who he is the contractor for. I know that you have said in the past that there are no more people pretending to be someone they are not, but i love big sweeping reveal that change everything. they give me an excuse to go back and reread the books… like i need another excuse.
    7 more lady teldra being a badass weapon.

  41. SPOILER ALERT!
    Pre-Empire: I would love to see a multi-book novel that details the revolt from and banishment of the Jenoine, continuing on to the conquering of and establishment of the Dragaeran Empire.

    Elde Island: I would like to what happened in the aftermath of the Viscount of Adrilanka. Considering that they sided with the Pretender and considering that Pel was appointed Prime Minister, I expect that Zerika was well within her means, and rights, to just absorb Elde Island into the Empire entirely, though that obviously didn’t happen.

    Mario: Mario was right there with Aliera during the Adron Disaster, and we know what it took (via Taltos) to get Aliera back to the land of the living. How did Mario make it back?

    Vlad: Unless something particularly clever happens (which is certainly not beyond the capabilities of the author), if Vlad manages to live through the resolution of the Jhereg problem, I can’t imagine that they would welcome him back into the House, let alone the Organization, with open arms. Would he be willing to become a Teckla, would he fight his way to become a Dzur, or, more likely, would he grab his family and go live with the Easterners?

    Great Weapons: What are the rest of the Great Weapons, and what abilities do they posses? What was the plan that the Serioli had to use them against the gods?

    Sethra: Just what is the relationship between Sethra, Dzur Mountain, and Iceflame?

    Serioli: Are you ever going to grace us with a book that details the history, culture, and other aspects of the Serioli?

    Technology: Is there any reason why, in 250,000 years of history, there hasn’t been technology developed beyond that of the musketeer era, without the guns? I see potential for awesome techno-wizard devices if nothing else.

    Seas and other lands: I was really expecting Orca to give details of the sailing culture and any other lands that haven’t been mentioned in the books so far. Would you be willing to write a sea adventure which expands our understanding of the geography beyond the Dragaeran Empire and the Easterner Territory?

  42. I’d like to find out what really was the relationship between Lord Morrolan and Lady Teldra. And will Vlad allow Morralan to touch Lady Teldra if she waks up.

  43. Does Vlad, via his great weapon, becomes a god? And do we ever get the back story of how humans were relocated from Earth? Bonus question, will Vlad ever stumble onto a beach and see the top of the Stature of Liberty and scream, “You blew it all up! You idiots! You.. blew it all up!” *sobbing*

  48. I agree with “Absolutely nothing” and preferring surprise, but I’ll just note that I would spend vast sums on Kindle Singles or even full-length novels about Kragar.

  49. What about the cat-centaurs?
    What’s the difference between a mockman and a gorilla?
    What does a winneasaurus look like? We know they taste good.

  50. I’m always at least somewhat pleasantly surprised by what I read, but the questions that I refer to are things that I wonder about. I certainly don’t ever expect an actual answer to them, but they are a reflection of what is going through my head.

  52. 1. Is there someone who covers the other “shifts” of the cycle, when the Dragons and Phoenixes are at the bottom? Does Sethra “take a break”? Are there different Great Weapons that tend to show up at those times? What do those time periods look like?

    2. Vladimir Lavode? Emperor Taltos? Verra’s cabana boy? Where is Vlad headed?

  53. I have a million questions…I’d just love it if the next one fills in some of the holes….or gives hints that might possibly apply to a hole or two….and yeah, I’m ready for the Jhereg situation to wrap up.

  54. I’d like to know why Vlad doesn’t talk to the damned device more often. Perhaps then, Steven could get the books out more frequently.

  55. “Vladimir Lavode? Emperor Taltos? Verra’s cabana boy? Where is Vlad headed?”

    The first is an astounding concept. The second Vlad would hate, and it would require breaking the Cycle (possible if Cawti has her way, but I think it’s one of the major constants of the series). The third is a hilarious image, and the concluding question is the heart of the matter. One that you can’t get around, by the way. >:) lol

    The question by Big Mike of “What happens when two Phoenixes have a kid and no bird is sighted” would be interesting. Also, “What happens when a Phoenix and a non-Phoenix have a kid and a Phoenix IS sighted?” Feel free to answer these questions with a (non-historical) example. :)

  56. I don’t have a question of my own, for the reasons others have given, preferring surprise and deferring pleasure. However I just wanted to say that reading this thread is to become aware of numerous little itches in my brain and if I focus on these itches they are composed of little voices clamouring “Morganti, Lady Teldra, Serioli, Noish pa, Sethra…” Oh Steve what have you done to me. Don’t stop!

  57. What are the details of each year of Vlad’s life prior to the end of Tiassa?

    In other words, no more flashbacks ;-)

    I am genuinely curious why those 17 animals have Houses named for them. Why no House of the Winneasaurus?

  58. Do they have bacon on Dragaera? I assume they must, because they have pig eatin’s, but I don’t remember specific references.

    Oh, yeah, and all that stuff about Noish-pa’s name, Lady Teldra waking up, why Sethra helped Vlad, why Verra is so interested in Vlad, how will the House of the Phoenix rebuild itself, where Sethra’s from, more about Vlad as Dolivar? That’s interesting too.

    But mostly, I just want to know about the bacon.

  60. To Charles@2 and skzb@3, I just wanted to say that I once asked Don Kingsbury how to pronounce the names of the characters in Courtship Rite. He said he had never given it any thought, that he had just chosen them for visual appearance on the page.

  61. to see Vlad walk the pattern at Tir-na Nog’th…oh wait wrong universe.

    I story told from Sethra, Morrolan and Aliera about something stupidly insane that Vlad is doing.

    Food from the Far West (well far west for the Dragearan empire)

  63. Will Vlad find the discipline to avoid killing Daymar now that Lady Teldra could (presumably) help protect his brain from being fried by the backlash?

    What will it take to wake Lady Teldra up?

    When will the Jhereg realize Vlad’s too darned tough and useful and conveniently redefine his threatening of the Imperial representative to reduce the egg on their face?

    When will Valabar’s start delivering to Indiana or Texas?

  64. Wake Lady Teldra – check
    Resolve the Jhereg vendetta – check
    More details on Sethra’s interest in the young Vlad – check
    But, for me, it’s all about the romance and the girls. Please sort out Vlad’s love life as I think you’ve tormented him enough for the time being.

  66. Is Zerika to be the last Phoenix with the house dying when she does?

    It seems to be in the nature of the House to survive. The poem of the cycle is important, and the last line is:

    “Phoenix rise from ashes gray.”

  67. Pel vs. Vlad: Extreme strategist vs. Extreme tactician — that would be a wonderful thought experiment to prove the superiority of one over the other (or the other over the one).

    Vlad has mentioned visiting Noish-pa at Szurke, but by his own admission has yet to do so despite the years passing since the end of events in Phoenix. Witches can live a loooong time, but,… That is a conversation I have imagined differently every time a book following Phoenix comes out.

    My hypothesis is that Lady Teldra is already awake. She has, at least Vlad has surmised and I concur, influenced him subtly even though she is not (to his mind) yet awake. So Teldra will “wake up” when Vlad is ready, not when she has had any particular experience. Curious how that hypothesis matches the possible reality.

    What changed Kragar? In Yendi, Vlad called him a disaster as someone running a territory. Ever since the end of Phoenix, Kragar has not only held the territory (which doesn’t work if you’re not tough or competent enough) but made improvements that cannot have been cheap. For a guy no one would listen to when he was a Dragon, he’s commanding respect now. What happened with him? He seems happier and more at ease now than any time I can recall.

    For grins and giggles, I’m curious as to how Lady Teldra will react to Lady Saruchka. Would not at all mind learning more about the latter Lady.

  68. Maybe it has been in the books already and I missed it, but I want to know what Vlad’s favorite junk food is. A culture like Draegara (too lazy to spell properly at the moment) has to have deep fried bits of something, salted, or spice or marinated and possibly battered.

  69. 1, It seems to me that, once Vlad does start communicating with Lady Teldra, she will be able to help Vlad remember many things that he cannot himself remember. Thr resulting revalations might be very interesting.
    2. I enjoy imagining the scene where Vlad runs across a “full-sized” jhereg…yikes!
    What’s that up in the sky? It’s a bird, it’s a…flying Jhereg on a jhereg?
    3. Vlad’s son will soon be a teenager, with all the good and bad decisions that ensue.

  70. @57
    The houses are those specific animals becasue those are the tribes that were the strongest. we know that the tribes formed according to genetics and that somewhere in each persons lineage from a specific house, that they have genetic material from that specific animal i.e. a Dragon having dragon DNA, a Hawk having hawk DNA etc. except for jhereg of course which are all half breeds, rejects, easterners and probably genetically the reminents of the “other animals tribes ( LOL just thought of a kentha tribe made me laugh)
    @58
    was actually just listening to The Pheonix Guards (the audio books are really good for any that were wondering, how could they not be?) and they mentioned kentha bacon (which of course made me think, since I’ve always thought of kentha as a cow like animal;
    A can one make bacon out of a cow and B Are kentha more like cows or pigs? or are they just a convenient mix of both so that SKZB can just say kentha meat and we know hes talking about some form of farm animal meat
    @19
    reread Jhereg. there is basically an entire chapter about how the jenoine genetically manipulated “stock” dragereans with animal DNA and possibly brought in easterners form a different plane and gave them psyonic (i know totally spelled wrong but too lazy to remember correct spelling)powers to acta as a control. Vlad of course wonders if the “stock ” for the dragereans was actually humans (which i think is an interesting idea)
    Basically Dragerea is all a big Jenoine Genetic experiment that got entirely out of hand (would be interesting to see maybe a short novella from a jenoines point of view, talking about “the experiment” or something like that. I imagine that they are pretty pissed that their experiment got so out of hand and out of their control.

  72. JP@67- This is just speculation of course, but I imagine that necessity changed Kragar. I am not really a leader in any sort of capacity, but that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t make a decent leader if I was suddenly made in to one. The same goes for anyone who has never really had experience leading (or being resourceful, or creative, etc.); necessity may require them to be more than they, or others, think possible of them.

    lookingaround@69- I would hope that SKZB wouldn’t have and jhereg riders of Dragaera. That would be cheesy. Our host tends to pay attention to established sciences (at least as far as they pertain to the world of his creation), and among those principals, unlike what you may have seen in movies or on TV, a flying creature that is only two or three times larger than its intended rider is not sufficiently large to fly with the load of the rider. It may very well be able to ride along the ground easily enough, but considering that nature doesn’t usually require flying creatures to carry a significant portion of its own weight into flight. I would estimate that ten times the rider’s mass should be the benchmark for the low end of being able to effectively fly.

  73. What do I want of the next Vlad novel? “I want to take you home, pull off your jacket, run my hand down your spine and curl up with you on the couch.”- Sir Reads-A-Lot (@librarianfonz) via twitter.

    Reminds me of the deliberate misinterpretation Vlad has of Cawti’s question “What do you want?” when they were together. Forget what book it was. Their light banter seemed even more fulfilling than Vlad’s and Loiosh’s because of the more relateable tones. Romantic relationships are more universal. Sadly, I’ve never had a wisecracking lizard shoulder accessory (or two) before.

    (That was a joke, possibly in bad taste. I don’t meant to diminish Loiosh and Rocza in any way. They are more than shoulder accessories, I just though that line was too good to keep to myself.)

    To add on to my earlier post, Vlad’s son is a point of interest as well. What’s his life going to be like? Is he or will he be as talented at manipulating and organizing situations as his father? And how to satisfy that reader’s curiosity without going all ‘next generation?’ That’s not a rip on Star Trek in particular, but on following bloodlines linearly as a plot device in general.

  74. More thoughts on @6, freely given, and happily signed over to SKZB:

    I want the story of Vlad’s father — in a first-person narration, ending with his death. (Either tied up neatly with an epilogue by another character, or poignantly left hanging; see, e.g., “Jack of Shadows.”)

    Noish-pa didn’t raise any fools. For every action Vlad disapproves of, there was a reason, and a damn good one. Vlad never knew the half of it, and he never will.

    And as usual, most of what Vlad *thinks* he knows is completely wrong.

  75. Let’s get to know Vlad’s son… It would be great to see Vlad, Noishpa and the kid in a room talking about fencing, strategy or witchcraft.

  77. What is the relation, if any, between the Great Sea of Flux and the Paths of the Dead/Halls of Judgement, and is this why we can’t have a map?

  78. Is Vlad (and Devera for that matter) a demon? And, is the e’Kerion line of dragons part of a special breeding program by Verra to keep certain traits, such as the ability to create amorphia and the demon-esque traits alive in the world? If so, is it merely to combat the jenoine or does she have other goals in mind?

  79. I’ve been reading the series as SF with a fantasy flavor, but treating that as an unproven hypothesis the entire time. Learning the mechanics of reincarnation, souls and the Paths of the Dead could settle that one way or another. Not that I need to.

  80. If the planet Dragaera is on has a moon, and if not, how the general cast would react to one.

    Also the incident about the Necromancer’s soul being borrowed by dead Easterners and the supernatural skirmish in Morrolan’s window tower.

  81. One from the first novel: Who is Vlad’s mother and why have we never seen her?

    One from the most recent novel: So Kiernon is alive again? This should be interesting.

  82. Is the rare occurrence of Phoenix coloration in certain Dragonlord lineages part of the key to how the Cycle can persevere with Zerika as the last Phoenix?

  83. Late to the party, as always, but… here’s my two cents:

    I don’t really have any specific questions I’d like answered – I enjoy the surprises you throw us with each novel and the overall mystery of the series. You’ve proven adept at choosing which secrets to keep and which to reveal, to great effect. But, I’ve been wishing for awhile now that you’d spend one novel devoting a handful of chapters to Loiosh’s narrative. (I suppose asking for every other chapter would be a bit of a stretch, so I’m keeping my request reasonable.)

    I loved the interludes from Rocza’s perspective, and would be curious to get inside Loiosh’s head, and see how he thinks, unfiltered by Vlad’s retelling of events. We know that he has roughly human-level intelligence (crammed into a tiny lizard brain) yet lacks the equivalent faculties. Hearing the story from his end of things could reveal quite a lot of interesting things about him, Vlad, and their world in general, that Vlad would be unaware of or consider not worth remarking upon. (For some reason, I was particularly struck by the revelation that the overcast is poisonous – I don’t know why.) Plus, it would be an opportunity to explore just how different he is, as a (presumably enhanced by psionics) witchcraft familiar, from his own kind – especially Rocza, and what kinds of strains that puts on their bonding.

    So yeah, that’s what I’d like to know. What Loiosh is thinking.

  84. Well, you’ve psychically picked up on several things I wanted to see in the last several books (back to Orca), but two things in particular jump out at me.

    1. Please, please, please, Lady Teldra, wake up!
    2. You’ve said that Sethra is a Dzur (I don’t remember in which book you mentioned that) and implied strongly that she’s a Dragon. Is she a hybrid? I’ve been thinking of her as Dragon-Dzur, but I don’t know. But we also know she’s older than the Empire and initially there were more than seventeen houses; is she from a House that no longer exists? I’ve been wondering about this for years.

    Finally, these aren’t questions, but I hope Vlad finds a way to resolve the Jhereg situation without getting killed and I hope there’s more with Lady Saruchka.

  87. Christopher @84

    Hmm…good point about Sethra being older than the empire. I had always assumed that she was a dragon, and had fought her way into Dzur for some reason….perhaps to wield more influence with them? But it had never occurred to me that she might be something else entirely…..other than the obvious, of course.

    Personally, I’d love a book one of these days that goes into the happenings before the empire, and gives more backstory for her, as well as general history…..

  88. Steve:

    Count me in with the hoards screaming for Teldra to wake up…

    […and have several fascinating conversations with Vlad, culminating with Vlad taking a casual stroll through Adrilankha, “politely” informing the Jhereg bosses who THEY are working for, now…]

    Yeah, we’re ready for Vlad to take off his jewelry for good… :)

    Barring that, any further explanation of taltos creatures, and how they are related to Cawti and Vlad, would be nice. [Seriously, dude — I just reread Brokedown Palace, and I *STILL* don’t know what’s “real”…]

    Speaking of which, as one final digression — are you aware of the WEIRD order the sections of some of your ebooks are being placed in?

    For example, in Brokedown Palace, the Prologue comes at the END of the book, followed by “A Note on Fenarian Pronunciation”, “Books by Steven Brust”, and only *THEN* comes the Epilogue!

    It would take a true fan to even notice there IS an Epilogue in this book!

    I’ve seen similar oddness in a few of your other ebooks — I’m only reading Kindle format, but I assume other formats are derived from the same source…

    Anyway, thought you should know…

  90. Mob mentality, Lady Teldra…;-) Or just more about the Great Weapons in general.

    Definitely more culinary tales, Dzur was brilliant that way and so many people just don’t know how to enjoy a good meal. Plus you just gotta love recipes based around animals that don’t exist!

    ((shameless suck up)) Thanks for creating this amazing world that has lead to so much enjoyment for so many of us!! ;-p

  91. Since there seems to be at least two Chrises, and since I’m surely not the first one to read and/or post on this blog, I’m adding an initial to my name. To be clear, I am the Chris who posted 41, 50, and 72 in this thread.

    Interesting points of view for a book to be written from: Loiosh, Sethra/Kiera, Verra, Zerika, Necromancer, Kregar, Pel, Daymar, a Jenoine, a Serioli, the Orb, and one of Vlad’s minions.

    More stories from the Easterners would be great.

  92. I want to know about the silver tiassa and its powers. That section where Devera is rambling at Vlad and then gives it to him is really cool and intriguing.
    I think it’s kind of funny that no one here’s mentioned Savn at all, as he seems pretty important. At least to Vlad and his motives.
    I guess I’d rather see more about Great Weapons and Sethra’s past too, though ;) Love this series.

  93. Steve:

    Pirate YOU??? Perish the thought!

    (Actually, I stopped pirating ANYTHING way back when the Commodore 64 died off…)

    Nope, these are the real live bought-em-from-Amazon kindle ebooks.

    I’ve re-bought all of your Dragaerean books in Kindle format (after having previously bought them all in paperback/hardcover), and several have similar problems.

    I’ve been rereading them all anyway (while waiting for your earlier books to come out for Kindle) — I’ll be happy to report other issues if you like…

    Biggest annoyance so far — something about the formatting of Tiassa on Kindle causes it to frequently skip a line between screens. If you change the font size or line spacing, the line re-appears, but then a few screens later, ANOTHER line disappears between one screen and the next. Re-size AGAIN, problem solved temporarily…

    It might be related to the specific device/Kindle software I’m running… but out of 60 books or so I’ve bought and read on the same device, no other book has had this issue.

    Best wishes, as always…

  94. Reed: Okay, I’ll pass it on. I mean, it isn’t as if I’m going to get all bent out of shape by the existence of pirated editions, but I’d be embarrassed to bring this problem to Tor’s attention only to be told these were illegal versions, know what I mean?

  96. JP@95 Jurabin, who was the Prime Minister under Emporer Tortaalik, had an official title of Baron of Beespatch. So, in court, it would have been common to refer to him by the name Beespatch. His title seems to indicate that, within the Empire, there is a county which is called Beespatch, which Jurabin is responsible for. This is much like Pel was often called Galston, because he is the Duke of Galston, which presumes that there is a realm which is known as Galston.

    It is possible that, in the 250 or so years of the Interregnum, that the meaning of Beespatch had gotten twisted, the way that history tends to do (especially in dark ages).

  97. There have been so so many specific incidents just casually mentioned in passing through-out the early books of the series, but never explained…. I really need to reread the series again to refresh my memory of what some of those were.

    For now, I have to say that I would like to know more about Vlad’s parents, especially his mother and the real circumstances surrounding how she died.

    I would also love to hear how Sethra/Kiera first met Vlad. From her viewpoint, if it was actually the same time as when Vlad first met her.

    It would also be extremely cool to finally learn more about Cawti’s family history and its connection to Fenario.

    And speaking of Fenario, how about letting us in on some of what Vlad might have learned about Verra while in Fenario.

  98. Did Kiera/Sethra know that Vlad was Dolivar reincarnated from the first time she met him or did she only find out from Aliera after her soul was rescued?

  99. I’ll leap on the bandwagon, late as the date is:
    Great Weapons, Teldra, etc. – of course.
    Sethra/Kiera and her motivations (although I appreciate the problems of getting inside a 250,000 year old mind…)
    Resolve the Jhereg vendetta (although I just don’t see that having a happy ending).
    The Morrolan POV is genius – yes, please.
    Kragar — there seems to be more there than meets the eye, if he’s fronting for Mario…
    Obviously the holes in Vlad’s memory are going somewhere.
    Obviously Pel and Vlad are going to have some sort of run-in.
    Obviously Vlad’s seemingly simultaneous existence in different places is pointing to one possible resolution of the series, given what we know about Gods…
    The Vlad/Vlad Norathar/Cawti/Noish-Pa line is going to have to resolve some sort of way… I could see young VN inheriting a Great Weapon (maybe with an extra soul driving the bus?) at the end of The Last Contract… assuming dad isn’t weilding it like a fist full of thunderbolts.

    But more that anything else, I want this thing to Wrap Up. I’m not one of these endlessly open-ended series fans: I want a Tale, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. I want loss, joy, humor, philosophy, sci-fi, derring-do, love, life and death. I want stuff that I don’t see coming, that mystifies and delights.

    So far, more or less consistently, you have delivered the goods, and I love you for it.

  100. Oh, and Savn/Sara too… I have no idea where that’s heading, and it would be nice to see where it leads.

    And Aliera/Devera/Verra (Heh. I just saw that: Verra/De-Vera…)

    Question: does Vlad’s interest in Sara relate to Lady Teldra’s House?

  101. When Vlad asks Kiera to look in on Noish-pa (at the end of Orca), I would like to be there when that meeting takes place. Would it be before or after Noish-pa turns his estate into an autonomous collective?

    RE: Charles@2 and skzb@3: in the Vlad audiobooks, it’s pronounced “zhe-REG”, but in the Khaavran romance audiobooks (at least the beginning, since I’m only up to Chapter The Tenth), it’s pronounced “ZHE-reg”. It’s probably a generational, or maybe a pre-AD/post AD thing.

  102. Feel free to reveal that Kragar *is* Mario- they’re never seen together; Kragar’s ability to apparently disappear at will; Aliera’s inexplicable distain for him as a cover (classic m.o. for hiding true feelings).

    It seems pretty obvious that Vlad is a de facto Lavode, especially given Sethra’s comments when discussing who to send when the Jens abducted Morrolan, and when she sends the newest Lavode-in-training to hang with Vlad at Valabar’s to watch and learn.

    It would be great if it was revealed that Vlad is, or will become, undead. Can’t recall which novel, but at one point, Sethra gives Vlad a funky-tasting glass of wine, and she has an odd little smile, or whatever.

    @Chris F. If Beespatch’s title is baron, then I would think his land would be described as a barony.

  103. @ppcli- You’re forgetting the part where the meaning of Beespatch has been changed by history during the Interregnum. Of course, this is all speculation anyway.

  104. Why the hell hasn’t a movie/screenplay been written for the Dragaerian world? I feel like the only person who feels as if this story could trump epics like LOTR or Dune(so much feeling!) Jhereg has SciFye channel written all over it!

  105. I don’t know if I want the Lady Teldra to wake up or not, I just want her (sleeping or waking) involved again. There is a “beyond intimate” relationship between Vlad and her in the form of the Great Weapon. How does that change Vlad?

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