Well, now I know what I'm asking next time.

I had a snappy answer for that... but I guess you'll have to take my word for it.

I was about to say, Ms. Sears didn't even ask you about the proper way to eat a sandwich though your nose. But I see she plans to remedy that next interview.

Amazon informed me yesterday that my copy of A Guile of Dragons will be here August 6th rather than August 28th, which will give me a good excuse to put down this history of concrete I'm reading. No, I'm not making that up. Actually, given your day job, Concrete Planet might be right up your alley.

History of concrete actually sounds pretty interesting. Thanks for the link!

Very traditional, an anarchy. The Shire is one.

Pretty close, anyway--offices like the Shiriffs and the mayor seem to be only vestigial traces of government.

This is a pretty Tolkienian book in lots of ways (though there aren't any hobbits) (or elves).

That interview made me wonder if you had Le Guin's The Dispossessed in mind. It's been my favorite exploration of anarchy and community so far. I wonder if I'll find anything of Anarres in the Wardlands.

I just picked up my copy of A Guile of Dragons. How will I go to sleep, knowing that book is in my house and I'm not reading it?

Yes, that was definitely one of the things that was in my mind as I wrote. (And its prequel, "The Day Before the Revolution".) The more I learn about ancient civilization, the less I'm convinced that "custom" would be an advance on written law--it's always been the other way around. But UKL confronts boldly many of the key issues that would have to be resolved if an anarchy were to work, even as a plausible mental experiment.

Plus it's a marvelous novel of particular people and intellectual adventure. There haven't been many novels that good in the history of sf/f... and Le Guin wrote most of the others.

I'm afraid GUILE isn't in that league--just adventure fantasy. But I hope it doesn't disappoint.