It's tempting to answer the other man's sardonic observation with a sarcastic comment in kind. Novel? Really? Snake had no idea waking up in the wrong clothes isn't normal. Does that mean coffins as beds has also gone out of style?

There are a couple reasons he doesn't. First, he's beginning to suspect that standards of normal might be very different from what he's used to. Secondly, not being dead is far more interesting.

"We're in a country I don't recognise," he says, "where courtyards are built of stone I've never encountered before. Not to mention before all this, I was trapped in a sinking ship at the mercy of someone trying their level best to kill me. Under the circumstances, I don't think it's an odd conclusion to come to."