[ Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | 1997 | Review Home ]
World Tales, Idries Shah (incomplete)
The Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin/The Pleasantries of Mulla Nasrudin, Idries Shah (incomplete)
Core, Paul Preuss (incomplete)
I am culling for the nth time through the genre paperbacks, another ruthless round of try-and-read-it-again-and-if-I-fail-toss-it. This is the second Paul Preuss novel I've repeatedly tried to read over a period of years and just completely failed. Fortunately, I've never bought them new. Detail for no particular reason. Unlikeable characters. An unholy speed between article-in-Science and monstrous application thereof in the Real World. Give me a break. I don't like these traits much in classic SF, and there's no longer any real excuse.
The Last Coin, James P. Blaylock (incomplete)
Blaylock is wacky. I keep wanting to like the kind of wacky he is, and I just don't. It's not that I don't believe what's happening -- it's that I can't acquire any further interest in seeing what will happen next. This has many of the some weird stuff happening as Good Omens, but at least there I cared. I'd be just as happy to see every last one of these twits dead from the word go. I did not feel that way about Tadfield.
Chronosequence, Hilbert Schenck
I finished this one, which says something: it kept my interest enough for me to finish it. Therein lies most of the reason why I keep reading Tor novels, whether I buy them hardcover, paper or used. They at least manage to interest me long enough to finish it. The down side is, I'm unlikely to ever read this one again. Why? The characters are reasonably likeable. The plot, while fantastic, is self-deprecating enough to make up for that. I like the idea of what Our Alien wants so bad. The sex is somewhat titillating. Strong female characters, check. Favorable depiction of minor homosexual sibling incest, check (only other depiction I know of that's even approximately neutral are those sisters in Varley's trilogy). What's not to like? Well, the self-deprecating aspects of the plot are entirely too close to self-parody -- the author isn't taking it that seriously, so why should I? The plotting is entirely too convenient -- the character conveniently forgets, then conveniently has an opportunity to be reminded later on when the time is ripe. It's a journeyman novel: not actively shoddy, an acceptable level of workmanship, but not particularly good. Not bad enough to nix the author on entirely, however.
Dragon Magic, Andre Norton
Competent instances of juvenile fiction are few and far between, and instances which are readable for the first time by an adult a decade or more later are a real pleasure to encounter. I remember enjoying books like Steel Magic as a child, so I picked this one up on a whim at Twice Sold Tales. Four boys live in an outlying suburb, away from the other children their age at school. New to the area, their distance (and differences) make it hard for them to find friends. Lonely, and more than a little bored, they decide for their own reasons to investigate the contents of a nearby house which about to be torn down. They successively find, and assemble sections of a puzzle depicting four dragons. As each boy sneaks in and discovers the mysteriously glowing pieces and assembles a dragon, he finds himself transported to another time, place and body, a small player in an important historical event. These four tales form the core of the book, but the lessons the boys learn in them apply in the then-and-there as well, as they learn to take responsibility for their lives and actions, and realize that learning about the past can help them make sense of and take pride in their differences. Best of all, it doesn't come across as preachy, either.
[ Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | 1997 | Review Home ]
This file recreated from The Internet Wayback Machine in January 2002. Copyright Rebecca Allen, 2002.
Created March 31, 1997 Updated January 10, 2002