From: "Lewis Scott (aka Solmu)" 
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1998 17:50:03 +0000
Subject: book reviews

I hope you don't mind long e-mails from complete strangers, as one
follows ;)

Terry Pratchetts Discworld:
> There are almost a dozen more books than the ones I
> listed here. I read the first four and thoroughly enjoyed
> them. The most slapstick world-view I've seen, and I
> really appreciated it coming from Dr. Parker's
> Parageography class at Texas. Probably the best writer along
> with Douglas Adams in the slapstick genre. Unfortunately,
> I thought Wyrd Sisters was thoroughly plodding, so I stopped
> reading after that, hoping someday to have someone tell me
> what the top five or so in the series are so I can just read those
> rather than buy them all.

I'm one of those fantatical Pratchett people who buys all his books
when they come out in hardcover :) So he's one (of several) of my
favourite authors.

So, suprise suprise, I'd recommend you re-consider reading some more
of his stuff :)

A lot of different people have a lot of different favourites in the
series (not really suprising since there are over 20 books now), but
some of the best (this is in general opinion as well as mine) are possibly:
Mort, Guards! Guards!, Reaper Man, Men At Arms, Small Gods, Soul
Music.

The later ones tend to be of a different style to the earlier ones,
while the earlier ones are full of puns and comical humour the later
ones are more subtle.

As you probably noticed his books aren't exactly a direct series -
you can just pick up any one and read it straight off. So if you know
someone who has a couple, or a library, or happen to see one I'd
recommend you pick it up and give it a shot.

Raymond Feists Riftwar Saga
> Pretty good series about a war between two different kinds of fantasy
> worlds, connected together by "rifts" that allow passage between
> the two with the right magic. Lots of surprises and
> good characters here, but I guess I didn't like it
> enough to go out and take a chance on the companion
> books that came out later.

Another one of my favourite authors. The Empire trilogy he co-wrote
with Janny Wurts was more political and had more characterisation,
but was still very similar in style. Personally I loved it - you might, or
might not. But considering you thought the first ones were good but
not great you probably would enjoy them - considering size though
they might only be something to take a risk on if you have nothing
better to do :) You might not like them much, but I'd be suprised if you
actually hated them.

And now... *cackle* Eddings (bet you saw that coming :)). Personally
I like Eddings. I agree that if you study his plots afterwards they
are more than a little thin, and not all that original, but it really
doesn't matter. While reading it it is entertaining, and sometimes
amusing, the fact that the plot is predictable never seemed to worry
me. *shrug* Each to his own. The comments about it possibly being
affected by how old/widely read are interesting. It's possible,
though I'm not sure. When I read the Belgariad I was about 13 and
although I read a lot for a 13 year old I hadn't read much fantasy,
I followed it up straightaway with the Mallorean and though I noticed
the sameness of plot I just didn't care. I left his trilogy the
Elenium for a while, and by that stage had read a bit more fantasy,
and I am only just now reading the Tamuli. I've been trying to find
as much wrong with it as I can having read some bad reviews, but I
just can't :) Yes it's fairly predictable, yes it has some minor flaws, but
it's still an entertaining read. But I guess there is a problem with
that - I find it entertaining and I like it, but if it doesn't
entertain you then there is nothing in it to like, since about it's
only value is that Eddings is a good story teller.

Under Tolkiens 'The Silmarillion' you wrote "I'm told that the
Unfinished Tales do a similar job of telling old history but they are
much better." I heard there was a bit of doubling and contradiction
between Unfinished Tales and The Silmarillion, but since I haven't
read TS I'm not sure. I have however read UF, and personally I quite
enjoyed it, though I was about 14, I like short stories, and I was
going through a Tolkien phase at the time :)

Useful site btw, I was pleased to find some James Blish reviews too
:) I heard about one of his books, sounded interesting so I've been
looking everywhere for reviews - there are a lot of sites saying
"James Blish is an under-recognised pro of the genre" etc. but
unfortunately they don't tend to actually review his books ;)
No wonder he is still under recognised :)

I got given the two Thomas Covenant trilogies and the two Mordants
Need books by a friend who was getting rid of some of their books
(crazy eh? :)), but as I have a *LOT* sitting on my shelves waiting
to be read I haven't got around to starting them yet - guess by the
sound of things I should fast track them to the front of my list :)

I don't know if you have read Terry Goodkind at all, but if not you
should at least consider giving him a try too. He is at times quite
graphic with descriptions. Generic fantasy I guess, but personally I
thought his first two books (Wizards First Rule and Stone of Tears)
were very very very very good. His third was still good, but less so,
and his 4th... pretty good but nowhere near as good as the earlier
ones. I don't know if I would think more of it if I hadn't read the
first three and therefore had high expectations, or less of it
because I hadn't read other very good books by the author - but I
suspect I would actually have thought less of it. Hopefully the 5th will
get better. The first one is self contained, I can't remember exactly
but I think the 2nd was self contained too (ie it won't leave you
hanging at the end), the third was a bit of a cliff hanger, and the
4th too - hinting that he wasn't sure how long his contract would
last but now feels he can keep us hanging ;) Since you don't like
reading ongoing series you'd probably be inclined to give this a
miss, but since the first two are somewhat self contained, rather
than being one long story disected it shouldn't be a problem.
(and if memory serves correctly WFR doesn't leave you with (m)any
questions at the end)

Incidently I've done a few personality tests (all electronic :)) with
varying results, but I am most certainly an INTJ if you are at all
interested ;)

Cya,
Lewis
(aka Solmu)