obrien@csnet-sh.arpa (08/21/84)
From: Mike O'Brien <obrien@csnet-sh.arpa> I've just finished "Raphael", by R. A. MacAvoy, and I can wholeheartedly recommend the series which it concludes, the first two books being "Damiano" and "Damiano's Lute". Good writing is, thankfully, becoming less rare in the fantasy field, and this is very good writing indeed. What is much more rare is originality, and this we receive in full measure here. I hadn't realized how irritated and depressed I was becoming, reading all of the other recent fantasy. (One major offender in this regard is Patricia C. Wrede: an excellent writer whose works I enjoy, but whose plots, and most of whose characters, practically have visible mold marks.) MacAvoy lets me rejoice in not knowing what is coming next. This is not the frenetic confusion that marked things like the "Illuminatus" trilogy, but a well-played sense that the author knows what is coming, and dares you to guess what it is. There are times when the author hides too much of the overall motivation of the book, and what started as a tightly plotted story turns picaresque. There is nothing wrong with a picaresque novel, to be sure, but a transition to and from such a style within a single book can be jarring. Compared to the grevious literary offenses committed by the author's peers, however, this is a minor flaw indeed. Those who take their literature straight, and can be found in the company of Jane Austen as well as Robert Heinlein, will enjoy these books immensely.