Re: On dragons
Incidentally, for those of you in the UK who are fans of Steven Erikson, he's doing a tour with readings and Q&As across the country around the end of June - early July. I think they might all be in Waterstones branches if you check there.
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Dragons have never been completely uber. Bear in mind an old-age Beowulf with support from one minion polished off a dragon, as did St. George on his lonesome. Dragons could tear up a village with untrained pitchfork-wielding peasants easily enough, but could be readily defeated by a human hero with plenty of resolve. Even in fantasy starting at Tolkein, dragons (or balrogs) were very powerful but defeatable by sometimes even modest heroes. Smaug only ran riot so much because he'd eaten so many jewels for armour, and even then carelessly forgetting to cover one of his major organs. (With that sort of tactical aptitude, he'd be mincemeat playing Dominions.)
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