From: Jeff Brown 
Date: Tue, 21 Mar 95 16:24:30 -0800
Subject: Mosaic book reviews page
 
For the first time, I just scanned your book reviews page.  I have a
couple of recommendations.  It shows that all but the last of these are
old stories, things written at least a decade ago.
 
1.  Silverberg's Majipoor books are ok but far from his best.
I was probably clinically depressed when I read them, but my
favorite Silverberg stories are "Downward to the Earth" and
"Nightwings"; both bear on redemption, personal and (in the latter
story) for the whole race.
 
2.  Zelazny's Amber series are his most ambitious books,  but again
far from his best.  He is also known for sci-fi/fantasy stories
where the characters play-act (or otherwise invoke personally)
various pantheons.  The first of these, "Lord of Light", is
based on the Hindu and Buddhist pantheons, and is (as is so often
true) the best.  Another book I very much like is "Doorways in the
Sand", which bears little resemblance to anything else he's written.
His "Jack of Shadows" is a tremendous disappointment: a wonderful
idea that he makes a hash out of.
 
3.  McIntyre's "Dreamsnake" is very good, though later re-readings
made me wonder about it; the protagonist is nearly worshipped,
while all the male characters seem to have very little reason to
be allowed to live.
 
4.  Hal Clement wrote two major books, "Mission of Gravity" in
the early 50's (it should have won either the first or second Hugo)
and "Star Light" about 1970.  He was a hard-core hard-science
sci-fi writer, meaning he holds himself strictly to technology
he knew about or could easily imagine at the time (leading to the
oddity of a tank-like vehicle being armed with a conventional
projectile cannon in "Mission of Gravity" where most authors were using
energy weapons).  The two employ the same central characters
(centipede-like entities from a very-high-gravity planet rotating
near breakup velocity) and focus more on the personality issues ...
"Star Light" is about the best breakdown-in-communications story
I can name off the top of my head.
 
5.  Keith Laumer wrote a lot of crap in his Retief series, though
I am told the earlier stories in that saga were decent.  Some of
his other stuff is very good.  "Dinosaur Beach" is to my mind
the last word on time-travel stories.  Some of his short stories
feature characters of heroic stature: "Field Test" (one of his
Bolo stories) and "End as a Hero" (which I *think* is a piece of
a novel whose title escapes me) both are in this category.
 
6.  My wife likes most of Mercedes Lackey's stuff, which I have read
relatively little of, just some short stories and her "Arrows of
the Queen" series.  So far it's ok, though I haven't read anything
monumental yet.  Tends toward very good female protagonists in
fantasy stories.
 
I should scan my shelf at home and look for some non-fiction titles
for you, though I am more of a history fiend than you are, I think.
 
jeff