jim@TYCHO.ARPA (05/21/85)
From: jim@TYCHO.ARPA (James B. Houser)
Finished reading the Trumps of Doom (why the sudden rash of
_people_underlining_book_titles_?) last night. A clasic case of "if
you liked the other books in the series ...". One complaint is that
dispite all the action not much really happens in this novel. It is
more of a stream of conciousness type affair. One interesting note is
that the book is set only a few years after the battle in chaos.
Generally enjoyable though.
One thing I have noticed recently is a rash of fairly
reputable SF writers including their computers in a novel. There is
some of this in TOD but the last Gateway story is probably a better
example. I have an image of these guys being given a Trash-80 for
their birthday and after a month or so the illness strikes. Getting a
little tired of every protaganist being a computer whiz especially
when the writer has only a superficial background to go on.
-------davidk@dartvax.UUCP (David C. Kovar) (05/23/85)
> > One thing I have noticed recently is a rash of fairly > reputable SF writers including their computers in a novel. There is > some of this in TOD but the last Gateway story is probably a better > example. I have an image of these guys being given a Trash-80 for > their birthday and after a month or so the illness strikes. Getting a > little tired of every protaganist being a computer whiz especially > when the writer has only a superficial background to go on. Zelazny wrote "Coils" with Saberhagen (sp?) many moons ago, before it was a craze. He also wrote "The Changling" and another one in the same world. All three of these did a goo job of dealing with technology, and "Coils" with computers specifically. I hope that you were not grouping Zelazny in the "... writer has only a superficial background...". Though, I must admit, I was not too wild about the Ghostwheel. But it was a bit more than your average computer ... :-) -- David C. Kovar USNET: {linus|decvax|cornell|astrovax}!dartvax!davidk%amber ARPA: davidk%amber%dartmouth@csnet-relay CSNET: davidk%amber@dartmouth "I felt like a punk who'd gone out for a switchblade and come back with a tactical nuke. 'Shit', I thought. 'Screwed again. What good's a tactical nuke in a street fight?'" "Burning Chrome" by William Gibson