The Friday 56 for 4/28/23: The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True by Sean Gibson

This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it.

from Page 56 (and 57) of:

The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True by Sean Gibson

“Hey, wait a second!” the obsessive among you say (I’m going to pretend there are people who obsessively read this blog), “you already did a Friday 56 for this book! What gives? Is this just a re-run?” No, no, this is not a re-run (but that’s a good idea when I’m pressed for time). Gibson’s publishers recently re-issued this book with a fancy new cover, so I’m using this as an excuse to share this thing that made me smile (and made me hungry, too).

“We have to go back,” said Nadi as she stared into her wine glass.

“To Velenia?” asked Rummy.

“Yes.”

“Where there’s a homicidal wizard with an incredibly powerful weapon who has every intention of turning us into shish roundabobs?”

(Shish roundabobs were an ingenious invention that was revolutionizing food service across Erithea; unlike shish kabobs, which are pointy and pose constant danger throughout a meal, to the point (pun fully intended) where you can’t really relax and enjoy the lovely combination of meat and vegetables they offer, shish roundabobs are fashioned from a stick that has a pointed end in order to slide easily through food, but the pointy part snaps off once the food is on to reveal a soft, round tip that is much less dangerous if you happen to poke yourself in the eye with it. Even better, the stick is hollow, and can be filled with whatever substance best compliments the meal you’re eating—yogurt sauce, hot sauce, garlic sauce, lizard blood…whatever you fancy. It’s been whispered that the woman who invented them once lost an eye while eating a shish kabob, but I met her, and the worst injury she ever suffered eating a shish kabob was a tiny scratch on the roof of her mouth that took about a minute and a half to heal; she’s an exceptional marketer, however, so she generally wears an eyepatch wherever she goes—often switching it from one eye to the other so that she doesn’t strain her vision—and lets people make assumptions about the dangers of shish kabob consumption, leading, in most cases, to an uptick in sales for her invention. She’s pretty amazing.)

But, I digress.