From: Anthony Gardner 
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 18:26:13 +1000

I must compliment you on an excellent page. Unfortunately, I think you
have suffered from reading some of the worst books by some of your
reviewed authors.
	An excellent review of Orson Scott Card's "Ender" series. unfortunarely
he seems to be very variable with outstanding successes like
"songmaster" and "Hart's hope" to then write a dodgy series like the
"prentice Alvin" series seems a shame. Likewise, humerous moments like
the dehydrated water in the "memory of earth" and its sequels are
diminished by cardboard-cutout characters and timescales that are simply
inconsistant.
	Your luck with reading the bad books by good authors is most evident
with C.J Cherryh. While "Downbelow Station" and other books in her
"Merchanter" series (Cyteen, 40000 in Gehenna, heavy time, cyteen and
several others whose names escape me at this time) are heavy going (but
excellently inventive science fiction that make Donaldson's "Gap" series
look obviously derivative) these are offset by an excellent trilogy that
I can truly recommend consisting of "Invader", "Foreigner", and
"Inheritor".
	While S.R. Donaldson's "gap" series is badly derivative, it is still
worth reading. A bit lengthy (and somewhat bloody and sexually
perverted) but probably worth it. Some of the best titles in science
fiction.
	While still on science fiction, timothy zahn has written a series
"conquerer's pride", "conquerer's heritage", and "conquerer's heritage"
with a weapon that puts me somewhat in mind of the space rotation bomb
in the weis/hickman "star of the guardians". zahn is still good though
and does some very credible writing on inter-racial politics where the
races have incompatible mindsets.
	If you haven't read it the weis/hickman dragonlance series then do so.
I would say that it may even be superior in some respects to the lord of
the rings. It consists of 3 "dragons" books, 3 "twins" books and a
seventh book which is an absolute abortion and not worth reading.
"Knights of the Black earth", and its sequel "robot blues" are books in
the "star of the guardians" universe and vastly superior to any of the
original trilogy. Margaret weis once again shows her skill with creation
of quirky and likeable characters.
	In your section on tolkien, I notice you have not read his incredibly
funny "farmer giles of ham" which seems to have vanished into definitely
undeserved obscurity. It is infinitely superior to his much overvalued
"Silmarillion" which most people would unreservedly rate as crap were it
not for the tolkien connection. 
	You were right not to read Katherine Kurtz's final series. "King
Javan's Year" was one of the worst books I have read from a respected
author.
	A respected author, who became famous for her "witchworld" series,
Andre Norton has written many books worth reading. "The crystal gryphon"
is a brilliant book, another of the fantasy genre which has strangely
retreated into obscurity. Its sequel "The jarcoon Pard" is worthless in
comparison. Andre Norton has also written a large number of books
generally classed as children's fiction, but which were written as
anything but. "catseye" is the only one of the titles of these that I
remember, but it is probably not the best example of her skill in this
genre.
	Robert Heinlein is another author who has become more famous for his
adult fiction, but did far better work on his fiction for younger
people. Reading any of these, you will note that his reputation as a
science fiction author. I can particularly recommend "citizen of the
galaxy" which is probably a time-diminished equal for "ender's game".
Others of Heinlein's work worth readind include: "red planet", "tunnel
in the sky", "space cadet", "time for the stars", "between planets",
"space family stone", "farmer in the sky" and a host of others. His
great reputation in the early days of science was and is richly
deserved.
	Back to fantasy to say that I am in total agreement with you about my
indifference to David Eddings' fantasy attempts in "The Belgariad" and
"The Mallorean", He has, however, written a very fine book called "The
Losers" and is actually quite good so long as he stays away from
fantasy. (Did anyone else notice how riddled with inconsistancies the
above two series were?)
	I also agree with your opinion that the Riftwar series after "magician"
is scarcely worth reading. "Magician", though, is excellent and it shows
that Feist spent far longer on this than any of the others (I believe it
was his first book). Contrary to the general trend of the Riftwar
series, the trilogy of books "Daughter of the Empire", "Servant of the
Empire", and "Mistress of the Empire" by Janny Wurts document a struggle
on the Tsuranni side of the rift. These are excellent from the beginning
and only get better
	One of the major figures in heroic fantasy who you have missed is David
Gemmell. His book "Legend" is one of the books I would recommend for any
fantasy enthusiast. The ending is a bit less than the quality of the
rest of the book, but still streets ahead of many other author. He has
also written a large number of other Drenai novels which are quite good.
He has also written an excellent trilogy of "The Jurusalem Man". These
are excellent also. David Gemmell has also written several novels
without series including "The Knights of Dark Renown" which has an
interesting, and as far as I know, unique system of magic. Read it
yourself for more. He has also written a series which I have not read
which includes "The Lion of Macedon" and "Dark Prince", which is about
Alexander the Great.
	You mention the author Robert Asprin in your reviews, but you make no
mention of his "Myth" series which is absolutely hilarious (but
unfortunately deteriorates towards the end of the series) the first book
in the series is called "Another Fine Myth". He has also written a
couple of very funny books called "Phule's Company" and "Phule's
Paradise"
	The humourous "Stainless Steel Rat" series has also added a couple of
volumes since you have last recorded one. It now includes "..For
President", "..Wants You", and "...Sings the Blues"
	That is all for now, I look forward to seeing updates on your excellent
pages.
		Tony Gardner
		Brisbane, Australia.