Reread April 2011I'm going to up my rating from 3 stars to 4 stars. After reading this book, I didn't start reading the IAD series because I didn't find it that great. Now that I've read the series, and LOVE it, it's one of my favorites. I did enjoy Nikolai & Myst this time around, they're not very prevalent in the following books and enjoyed their personalities. I did think it was a bit chauvinistic but understood that it was something Myst needed, craved even. Give this series a shot, it's fantastic.Oh, and Nix is awesome. I didn't read the other short stories, only The Warlord Wants Forever.