The Book of Dragon, by Steven Brust

Review copy from Tor.

This is an omnibus of Dragon and Issola, and as such was a third or fourth reread of each for me. However, I haven't reread them in six years, which turns out to matter: I remember them well enough to know that Dragon is good and Issola is quite possibly my favorite Vlad book, but not so well that I was mumbling the lines along with the characters.

This is, by the way, the wrong place to start. There is no typical Vlad book, but the directions in which these are atypical lean heavily on preestablished relationships; you will not get the impact of the spearpoint without the rest of the spear. When we were in college, Dragon was the new exciting one and timprov tried starting there and can tell you: start somewhere else.

For fans of the series, this is a lovely omnibus edition, and the books hold up well after a decade or more. Dragon is still the incongruity of Vlad going to war, and the stylistic difference between it and Issola even in Vlad's own voice is a lovely contrast, a clear feeling of being in sure hands.

And I mean. Super magic weapons. Also alien monsters. Also Lady Teldra, Lady Teldra, Lady Teldra. What more could you want?

Why do I love the shows that make me cry?

Anybody else watched up through 3.2 of Flashpoint? Uff da. Big uff da.

( spoilers for what really got to me and why )

I can't even tell you who my favorite character is. I mean, I love Enrico, so Greg Parker's got to be up there. But I am even not hating Sam any more. This show. This is my show.

Also I am glad that the season opener deviated from the usual episode structure, because it's time they let themselves do that.