perelgut@utai.UUCP (Stephen Perelgut) (12/06/85)
The Warlock Enraged
Christopher Stasheff
Ace Science Fiction, 1985 (paperback)
"The Warlock Enraged" is the fifth book in Stasheff's Warlock series. It
is also, by far, the worst. Yechhh!!!
First, let me deal with the first four books in the series. Ignore the
order of publication, read them chronologically in the story line. I just
finished re-reading them that way. It's worth it. The first book (really
the 4th) is a prequel set a few hundred years before the rest of the series.
The next books happen at year n, n+1.5, n+8, and n+11. The order is
Escape Velocity
The Warlock in Spite of Himself
King Kobold Revived
The Warlock Unlocked.
The series deals with a second son of a second son who is working for
a true democracy. He lands on a Lost Colony planet where inbreeding has
made many people true espers. The stories deal with how he foils
time-travelling anarchists and tyrannists to protect the future democracy.
Anything more I'd say would spoil the stories.
This book suddenly makes our calm, rational, loveable hero into a moody,
tempermental, raving moron. The explanation (taken from some PSYCH 100
textbook) is late and lame. If you can't figure out the plot and result by
the middle of the book, go back to watching Happy Days on TV. The book is
full of long, predictable, boring sections that seem mainly to add filler.
About as satisfying as sawdust in hamburger would be.
On a scale of -4 to +4, I give this one a -3 (would have been -2 except
that I just read the other 4 books and they're worth +2-+3 each). For
completists only. Borrow it in paperback if you've read everything else on
your bookshelf.
--
Stephen Perelgut Computer Systems Research Institute, University of Toronto