From: Anthony Gardner 
Date: Sun, 20 Apr 1997 14:13:20 +1000

My last letter got me to thinking, A thousand things to recommend, and
only a limited lifetime in which to read them. Anyway, here are some
thoughts.
        Anybody who reads more than a certain amount of fantasy will comment on
the number of 'save the world' type stories out there, from Tolkien,
through Donaldson and Brooks and many others. Thus it is a real breath
of fresh air to find a series where the hero is not all that heroic and
has quite enough personal problems on his plate without the problems of
the world being added to them. Such a series is the "Farseer" series by
Robin Hobb. This consists of three books, not all out in paperback yet,
"Assassin's Apprentice", "Royal Assassin" and  "Assassin's Quest".
        Also if you are after something different, Daniel Keys Moran has
written some interesting books. "The Armageddon Blues" is a time travel
paradox book written better than most, but it includes an idea called
the precepts of semi divinity- 1. Mind thine own business, 2. Don't
worry about it. Even if you find yourself not agreeing with them, the
results of their application are interesting. "The Ring" is another by
Moran which is worth reading. It is probably more about the effects of
social exclusion on an individual than anything else. It put me in mind
of how "Ender's Game" could have turned out had Card decided to let
Ender live his life as a military man.
        There are many books which say more about the time in which they are
written than about the story within and the skill of the author. Many of
these do not stand the test of time if read as a contemporary story-
apart from language and style shifts, they simply do not stand up to the
quality generally required by the publishers today. A large amount of
50s and 60s science fiction falls into this category, even including
award winners like "Stranger in a Strange Land" as the issues which they
address are no longer of interest. Even novels which many readers would
agree are good for other reasons lose some of their punch to the ravages
of time- For example I believe that Tolkien was the first to use the
idea of man sized elves- (prior to that they were 'little people' like
fairies, goblins, leprechauns etc), an idea which is scarcely even novel
there days.
        There are some older novels which do stand the test of time. For
soldiering, I can recommend Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War" and R.A.H's
"Starship Troopers", both of which had a cult following in their day (a
thing which would normally make me avoid them like the plague). Heinlein
also wrote an interesting book on a  computer becoming intelligent in
"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", which is very good, but superseded by
orders of magnitude in "When Harlie was One"- The single book I would
recommend if you have ever felt the urge to read a book about
non-malevolent machine intelligence. Much of Fred Hoyle is also worth a
browse.
        Katherine Kerr's "Palace" is a book which I cannot recommend highly
enough. I know you weren't impressed by Deverry-neither was I (I am
never impressed by an author who cannot write a series where each book
can stand alone to some extent), but Palace is rich in character and
world construction with a very human trend in the upper classes of
society of recapturing the glory of the ancients (remember the
renaissance). The end is left slightly open as though for a sequel, but
I had no sense of dissatisfaction in the ending- Thoroughly worth a
look.
        You may have noticed David Zindell, for the size of the volumes he
writes if nothing else. I have read two of his books, "The Broken God"
and "The Wild". As may be surmised by the length of his books, there are
long stretches of tedium, but these are broken by stretches of
incredible brilliance. Unfortunately another editor who needs to be
shot. The books are speculation into sociological changes in the human
race after many years (he puts much work into languages, philosophies
and religions). Generally good but it annoys me how he assumes that
entire planetfuls of people have similar beliefs  when all evidence of
the human race points to something quite different.
        On annoying trends in authors, the assumption that the killing of magic
in their world is a satisfying end is like saying that initiating a
runaway fission reaction is good because it makes the area sterile and
"pure". Amongst authors guilty of this most horrible crime are
Weis/Hickman in their seventh book in the Dragonlance series "Dragons of
Summer Flame" (on which I have previously commented negatively) and L.E.
Modesitt Jr. in her series conclusion "The Death of  Chaos"- the title
says it all really, where's the fun in the world without a bit of
unpredictability? The rest of that series though, is really very good.
With regards to your comment to one of your letters that you have
avoided reading Modesitt because of the similarity of the jacket art to
that on the "Wheel of Time" series, I believe Modesitt came before
Jordan so who is copying whom? To an extent you're amazingly right, both
sets of  cover art were drawn by Darrell K. Sweet- you have a good eye.
        And now to say some things about Robert Jordan, I have read the first
four books in the series since I last wrote to you and I have to as that
anyone who has paid Aus$100 (~US$75) for the seven books so far has been
the victim of a scam. The books I read equate to the sort of pulp you
see at newsagencies- "Planet of the giant man-eating crocodiles" etc.
The first book is one of the worst books I have ever seen which was
hyped as any good (Most authors do not have the hide to advertise their
crap books as brilliant literature). The feeling I get is that  Robert
Jordan read "Lord of the Rings" and the "Shannara" series and then wrote
a book which was about as good a ripoff of Shannara as Shannara is of
The Lord of the Rings, with a corresponding decrease in quality. Not
only is the story at any point boring and pointless, without any decent
characterisations, but the overall storyline is not going anywhere. This
should be obvious by the fact that he has got up to seven volumes,
steadily increasing in size, with no end in sight. Didn't anyone tell
the man that a story must have a beginning, middle and end? He has a
pathetic beginning, a middle that looks like a set of short stories
bundles together, and no end in sight. In addition he changes focus back
and forward sometimes almost without warning.
        No book can be good when the reader sees the story as at patchwork of
ideas from other authors. A shepherd becomes a king, now let me see, I'm
sure I've read that somewhere before... Amongst others, Jordan has
flogged stuff from The Belgariad/Mallorean (Eddings), Shannara (Brooks),
Empire (Wurts/Feist) and Dune (Herbert). The first two should tell you
something about the overall quality of the series, and Jordan should be
crucified for the last two. Even worse, many of the major events in the
storyline are predictable up to 100 pages ahead of their happening,
presumable he was trying to give enough hints that when the inevitable
happened, the reader says "now who didn't I see that coming? All the
clues were there" (Dorothy Sayers does this admirably). If so he failed.
I would say that most of  the people telling you that this series is
good are trying to justify their expenditure. It's sad really, Like
someone who has just dived into water with ice on the surface saying
"come on in, the water's fine". Maybe they should just admit that if you
paid more than $2 per book for this series then you look like a complete
drongo.
        Anyway, some recommendations of authors whose books you have already
read. "Grass" by Sherri S. Tepper is actually the middle book of a
loosely connected trilogy, the first of which is "Raising the Stones"
and the last of which is Sideshow. I can recommend only the first of
this trilogy to you. I find it difficult to believe that the others were
even written by the same author. "Raising the Stones" is very good. I
can also recommend Ian M. Banks' book "Player of Games", another book
about the Culture (as is "use of weapons"). Most of his books have just
come out in paperback reprint. In addition, the two books "Jack of
Shadows" and "Eye of Cat" by Roger Zelazney are well worth reading..
        Some new authors you may like try- For light Horror Tanith Lee and John
Wyndam (esp Midwich Cuckoos (Although I may be guilty of recommending
this one because it was the first to have the idea rather than on its
own merit, but I think it deals with the idea well)). For humour Tom
Holt's "Flying Dutch" (I didn't find any of his other books any good).
For modern science fiction, Greg Egan has written several excellent
books including "Quarantine". If you ever wondered in your university
courses what possibilities uncollapsed waveforms would provide on a
macroscopic scale, then this is for you. Includes aliens whose existence
depends on their waveforms remaining uncollapsed.
        A suggestion for your library- why don't you write a section on where
to find books. You could include as suggestions:
1. Book exchanges- Pretty obvious I know.
2. Charity sales- lifeline has a yearly sale here of donated books, I
would rate it as the ultimate sale to pick up out of print books and
cheap copies of old favourites. In Toowoomba, a city of about 80000, the
sale has boxes of books set in aisles over about 2 acres on a huge shed.
Many estates donate all but a few of the deceased's books to charity.
3. City Council Libraries -particularly good if you're short on cash and
for single novels, though you have to wait for series' to come in if you
reserve them, and the most popular books are hard to get hold of.
4. Bookshops- this is not so obvious, but some browsing will show that
different bookshops have different suppliers, and some books can be
impossible to get except through the right chain. For example, some
chains may be particularly good at procuring new copies of  books you
thought were out of print. In addition, many bookshops can order in
books for a minimal fee, especially if you order several at once. As
many are hooked up to a bookseller's web, they can track down the
physical location of hard to find books.
5. Online books- There are several sites which hold copies of books
which are out of copyright. You could try bibliomania at
http://www.bibliomania.com/index.html
6. Friends- let's face it, how many stories about books start with "a
friend recommended", or "I borrowed it from a friend".
        That is all for now (sorry about the extended length), I look forward
to seeing updates on your excellent pages.

                Tony Gardner
                Brisbane, Australia.