NOT QUITE SCARAMOUCHE

Addition to Rosenberg’s Guardians of the Flame fantasy series (Not Exactly the Three Musketeers, 1999, etc.), wherein a bunch of expatriate Earthlings struggle to bring modern sensibilities to a 16th/17th-century sort of world where magic works. By now the cast of characters will be comfortably familiar: grizzled old know-it-all Walter Slovotsky, young doesn’t-wannabe emperor Jason Cullinane, the picaresque but honorable musketeers Pirojil and Kethol, ex-slaver Toryn, Ahira the dwarf, the wizard Erenor (more powerful than anybody save Walter realizes), and the helpful telepathic dragon Ellegon. This time out, there’s plenty of local color, recaps, reminders, and hints, but after more than 100 pages, still no sign of a plot. Your move.