From: Tony Gardner 

Dear Doug,
          Hello again, I was glad to see an update of your page recently. I was
very impressed with the comments you received from Guy Gavriel Kay. I
just finished reading his "Fionavar Tapestry" trilogy, but I cannot say
that I enjoyed it as much as you seem to have. I enjoyed his "A Song for
Arbonne" far more. I can see why you enjoyed them. "Fionavar Tapestry"
has many stylistic similarities to Covenant, including a preponderance
of wood magic- a kind of updated version of many English folk tales. If
you like this kind of thing, Robert Holdstock has written several books
including "Mythago Wood" and "The Hollowing", which draw strongly on
English myth (You know, the kind where imps, bogles and Will 'o the
Wisps are just looking for some fun and a tasty snack) I would classify
them as almost horror. They never did much for me, but you may enjoy
them.
        With respect to additional books in series which you seem to have
enjoyed, Orson Scott Card has written a fourth book in the "Ender"
series called "Children of the Mind". Although Ender Wiggin is no longer
the main character in the series, it continues along the same vein as
"Xenocide" with the quest to save Jane and kill the intelligent virus. I
personally thought it lacked some of the almost poetic language of
"Xenocide" and some of its coherence, it still rates as a good book. I
thought Card used the instantaneous travel method to pad the story a
little too much.
        Also Robert Silverberg has written two additional books to his
"Majipoor" series, "The Mountains of Majipoor"- almost a novella in
length, and "The Sorcerers of Majipoor"- a full-length novel. Neither
involve Valentine nor, as far I can remember, even mention him. Both are
quite decent, but I got bored with the series about the third book. The
first three relied for some of their appeal on being a freakshow of
species, and the last two are no different.
        Silverberg, being a prolific writer over a long period has also written
a number of quite good books. He gets quite strange sometimes. I
enjoyed, amongst others, "Face on the Waters"- a world almost entirely
covered by water (Guess where "Waterworld" got many of its ideas), "Star
of Gypsies" and "Tom 'o Bedlam"- they both defy succinct description,
and a post-apocalyptic book "Winter's End" and its sequel "Queen of
Springtime". Being a prolific writer of some fame does have its
downturns in that his publishers seem to relax their monitoring on
quality. Silverberg's latest dog is "Hot Sky at Midnight". "Kingdoms of
the Wall" is somewhere in between. (You'll probably like it if you're a
big Silverberg fan).
        Another old hand at the sci-fi game is Frederich Pohl. I believe he was
an editor of one of the pulp magazines. He received the Nebula for his
book "Man Plus" which is like a cross between "Frankenstein" and "The
Surgeons of the Six Million Dollar Man try Speed" I highly recommend it
as it more than stands the test of time. It has a sequel which is worthy
of it, "Mars Plus". I believe he received the Hugo for "Mining the
Oort", which I also enjoyed. Pohl also deserves an award for writing a
book (which I've never read) titled "Syzygy"- The longest word I know
which is all (nominal) constants. I have no idea if it is actually about
oppositions.
        Niven-Pournelle have written an excellent sequel to their "Legacy of
Herot" in "The Dragons of Herot", where they make a shift from horror
towards ecology.
        James Gleik has written a wonderful book- "Genius" which is about both
Feynman and the rise of Quantum ElectroDynamics. It contains all the
usual suspects- Oppenheimer, Gell-Mann, Dyson, Bethe and Ralph Leighton
(who I think is generally identified as the author of "Surely You're
Joking Mr Feynman" and also "What do You Care What Other People Think").
It is easy reading and does not include any equations, but the
glimmering of some of Feynman's ideas (like the non-uniform motion of
particles along the time axis) are conveyed. Genius is a balanced
biography, with both his successes and failures in equal proportion.
        John Christopher, often recommended as the successor to John Wyndham,
is well known for his series "Tripods" series (which was serialised by
the BBC), and "Sword of the Spirits", both of which are surprisingly
often found on the children's bookshelves. I say surprisingly, because
for all the simplistic style of writing, the issues are not those
generally regarded as mainstream for children. Both are well worth
reading, but his adult books, including "The Death of Grass" (aka "No
Blade of Grass") are equally good. "The Death of Grass" proposes a virus
which kills all grass species (wheat, rice, etc), causing a breakdown in
society.
        You give a very low opinion of Robert Ludlum in your reviews of his 2nd
and 3rd Bourne books. While I agree that these books are not that good,
I wonder that you seem not to have read the book from which these are a
spin-off. "The Bourne Conspiracy" is quite a good book, and a movie was
made of it which is the best adaptation of a book I have ever seen. It
deals with a (fictional) plot to capture "Carlos, the Jackal"- a very
real terrorist who was on the run for over 30 years.
        Illich Ramirez Sanchez, known as "The Jackal" was captured in 1995 in
the Sudan. He has been involved as a significant figure in several
guerrilla groups.
        He has publicly admitted to his 1973 assassination attempt on a British
Millionaire named Edward Sieff, who was a well-known Jewish businessman
and owner of the Marks and Spencer stores in London. Within the next two
years, he was believed involved in the takeover of the French Embassy at
The Hague, the killing of the two French Intelligence agents for which
he has been recently captured, and a 1976 takeover/kidnapping of OPEC
oil ministers in Vienna, Austria. Later in 1976, he was involved in a
Skyjacking that led to the now famous Entebbe raid by Israeli commandos.
        In 1982 and 1983, "Carlos" is suspected of several bombings in Paris,
France, resulting in deaths of at least thirteen people and the wounding
of one-hundred and fifty more. In the mid-1980's, it is believed that he
may have also participated in the planning and execution of several
operations against Israel, operating out of Syria and Lebanon.
        He is also suspected in the 1983 bombing of a French cultural center in
Berlin, the 1981 attack on the studios of Radio Free Europe in Munich,
the massacre at Lod airport in Tel Aviv and the attack on the Israeli
athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics (where 11 died), although many
suspect that the last is the work of Black September.
        I also slightly disagree with your review of Bill Bryson's "notes from
a Small Island". I found the first half of the book, with its
description of the Fleet Street shakeup in the 70s both informative and
highly entertaining. I found the second half of the book mostly boring.
In addition, I was surprised to find that I took exception to his use of
foul language. I have no problems with this when it is used to emphasise
a point, or to indicate strong feeling, but it seems that in the latter
half he has inserted 4 letter words almost at random.
        I must, at this point de-recommend two books, which have been
recommended to you by several people. "Iron Dragon's Daughter" by
Michael Swanwick was the worst book I have ever read the whole way
through. Let no more be said. David Wingrove's "Chung Kuo" is a series,
now up to about 7 books which shows promise the whole way, but fails to
deliver. It suffers from having too many major characters, with too
little said about each. With a very heavy hand from the editor, these
could have been good, but as they stand don't bother.
        Finally a word about a singular book which I can recommend. "The Man
Who Was Magic" is a charming story by Paul Gallico. It's pretty old now,
but has possibly even improved with age. It is a story about a city of
magicians who are the standard ones we know- ie slight of hand, smoke
and mirrors. To this city are attracted many seeking to join the
fraternity of magicians, amongst whom is a real magician named Adam who
thinks all the slight of hand is real. It's a book about the real thing
amongst disillusionment. Worth buying in hardback.

        Regards,
                Tony Gardner
                Brisbane, Australia.