figmo@tymix.Tymnet.ARPA (09/07/85)
From: figmo@tymix.Tymnet (Lynn Gold) Harrison's "The Stainless Steel Rat" is ok, but I would hesitate to recommend it as a first book. It had a well-thought-out storyline, but some of the writing was atrocious from a grammatical standpoint. I ESPECIALLY would not recommend it to a woman as first-time reading. There were too many aspects of the book which came off as an adolescent male's sexual fantasies; I'd come to these passages where I'd think, "How much longer is this going to go on for before we get back to the action?" when Slippery Jim was fantasizing about Angelina. --Lynn UUCP: ...tymix!figmo ARPA: FIGMO@MIT-MC.ARPA
jsq@im4u.UUCP (John Quarterman) (09/22/85)
Another anti-suggestion: don't give somebody a book similar
to what they're used to in some other genre (including "mainstream"
and "literary"). They will only see the similarities, but not
the sf aspects, because they won't understand those. So they'll
only see part of the book and will interpret it as a flawed book
of whatever genre they're used to.
--
John Quarterman, UUCP: {ihnp4,seismo,harvard,gatech}!ut-sally!jsq
ARPA Internet and CSNET: jsq@sally.UTEXAS.EDU, formerly jsq@ut-sally.ARPA