perelgut@utai.UUCP (Stephen Perelgut) (12/15/85)
Soul Rider Book Four: The Birth of Flux and Anchor
Jack L. Chalker
Tor Books, 1985 (paperback)
The Soul Rider series is an interesting trilogy written by Jack L. Chalker.
There were times when I thought he got his characterizations from John Norman's
Gor series, but that doesn't seem to always be the case. He is definately
fascinated by short women (145 cm tall) with very small waists, long hair,
and incredibly large breasts ("out of proportion"). I have sometimes wondered
if he wrote the series just so that he could describe them.
This fourth book is the foundation for the trilogy. Don't read it until
you've read the other three, or until you decide you don't want to read the
other three. Part of the pleasure of the books is that you don't know what
is possible or why. This book tells you EVERYTHING.
In the author's note, Chalker states that he never intended to publish this
material but reader requests for information made it desireable. Whatever the
reason, he's right: this is much better than genealogical charts and
appendices. He's managed to write a good novel that just happens to explain
everything that was left unexplained in his previous three books. And gives
a pretty good history to the whole thing.
On my scale of +4 to -4, I'd give this book a +3 if you've read the others.
I'm not sure if anyone would get as much out of it if they hadn't, since I'm
biased. The other books rate 0 to +2 depending on how deep you want your
charaters to be portrayed. The stories are quite good. Anyone out there
who's read Book 4 without reading 1-3?
--
Stephen Perelgut Computer Systems Research Institute, University of Toronto