From: tony gardner 
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 12:49:19 +1000

Dear Doug,
           I'm writing again to recommend some book's I've read since my
last writing. I'm including some recommendations and otherwise from my
letter that disappeared, if you were interested. I'm very interested in
the quality of debate you have stimulated re Jordan. I've noticed that
even fans who say of "Wheel of Time" that they
quite liked it (without being fanatical) are being turned off by the
long wait between volumes. With the seventh volume's release date being
delayed twice, release dates for the eighth volume like "maybe October"
inspire little confidence. Quite frankly I see this as yet another
example of Jordan's woeful lack of professionalism, but that could
simply be another example of my anti Jordan fanaticism which is unswayed
by argument.

        I recently read the last of Iain M. Bank's sci-fi novels to previously
escape me. "Feersum Enjinn" is a book I would rate as being equal with
his other two best "Player of Games" and "Excession". He has once again
produced an astounding work of good sci-fi. Though the writing style is
noticeably less polished than that of his later works, it redeems itself
with the unusual feature for Banks that his main character is both
likable and engaging. The main character's part is written in phonetic
English, which is something I expected to hate, but in this case it
improves the character development no end. In addition, Bank's book
of short stories "The state of the art" were excellent. I was
particularly interested in the novella by the same name that was included
in the volume. It had an excellent discussion on the point at which a
culture may be considered stagnant. I know I'm marked as a fan
of Bank's sci-fi works, but I will continue to recommend them
highly. In contrast, one of his non-sci-fi books, "Whit" (written under
the name Iain Banks) bored me beyond belief.

        I've recently been trekking my way through Marion Zimmer Bradley's
"Darkover" series. It's large, but each book is stand alone, and due to their
age, many can be found cheap second hand. Enjoyable workmanlike fantasy about
a rediscovered colony of earth's people with psionic technology.

        I noticed that someone wrote to you at length about earthsea. A point
worth noting about the series is the selection of cover artwork. Very early
in the first book it notes that Ged is black. A dark, dark black. And yet all
issues I've seen show a white man. I suspect that such a blatant misrepresen-
tation is not an error. Not that it probably matters.

        Frederick Pohl's "The Cool War", is yet more evidence of the value of
older sci fi. It's basically a story set post cold war about covert operations
and new methods of waging war which leave the victimized country unaware that
they've been attacked. He says a lot of interesting things about germ warfare
and the recognition of attack in this type of attack.

        One of Robert Silverberg's latest "The alien years", I found to be
typical of his erratic quality. Some will no doubt rave about it, but my
jaded tastes found it quite bland. From the bland to the brilliant,
David Zindell has finished off his "A Requiem for Homo Sapiens"
brilliantly. The completed series now stands as:
"Neverness"
"The Broken God"
"The Wild"
"War in Heaven"

        Where "Neverness" is written previous to a trilogy consisting of the
other three.   These books just get better as they continue, although I
will admit that when he gets off the sci-fi and tries to go into heavy
character development I ended up skipping pages. However this is
primarily in Neverness which is noticeably a less skillfully written, and
more poorly edited volume than its sequels. You could probably enjoy the
last three without having ever read the first.

        I was interested to see that I agreed strongly with your review of the
Galactic Milieu. Though I liked "Intervention", I found the characters
in "Galactic Milieu" too strong and knowledgeable, and truth be told,
far from as likable as Rogi. I admit to having been disappointed- not
because they were bad (quite the contrary in fact) but because I had
expected better. I also read "Earth" by David Brin and found that the
ending being a little unlikely did not really spoil it for me, but the
disjointed writing style, jumping from one character to another and
back, really got my goat. I think that because of this he totally failed
to do anything but very basic character development.

        "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt is well worth reading. It won the
Pulitzer prize for literature, but unlike many of its companions it is enjoy-
able and fascinating reading even for someone who's not an art critic. It is
an autobiographical look at the life of the author growing up in Limerick in
Ireland in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the city. It's easy to read (I
finished it in an afternoon), but worth rereading.

        The second newest Terry Pratchett "Jingo" marks a significant dip in
the quality of his work. Uninspired is probably the nicest thing I can say
about it. Probably not the one to start on if you haven't read too many
of his works and this may be the reason it was never released in paperback.
If you get enthused to try some of his works, I recommend the ones which are
satires as well as humour. "Small gods" and "Interesting times" are the
two I recommend to someone who has never read any Pratchett before.

       The newest Pratchett is entitled "Last Continent". It's very good and
very funny and set in a hypothetical place that's very like Australia.  Light
reading, but many of the more subtle jokes will be lost on anyone without
an understanding of Australian contemporary culture.

       Lastly two books which have come to my
attention because they were written locally. "The Tasmanian Babes
Fiasco" by John Birmingham and "Zigzag Street" by Nick Earls. Not the
kind of fiction which usually attracts me but they stood out from the
amount of giggling from one of my housemates as they were being read. I
don't want to spoil them but they're both funny and well written with
happy endings. I don't really know if they are being distributed
overseas, but they're definitely worth a look. The kind of books you buy
just to lend to other people.

        All the best and keep up the good work.
                        Tony Gardner
                        Brisbane, Australia

PS-Airport reading recommendation: series "Hope" David Feintuch.