stassen@trwspp.UUCP (07/24/84)
(* *) Someone recently asked for publisher information for "The Princess Bride". Here it is: _The Princess Bride_, by William Goldman A "Del Rey" book, published by Ballantine books. Thirteenth printing, April 1984. Philip Jose Farmer's World of Tiers: Many of the sf-lovers have been recommending PJ Farmer's "World of Tiers" series. I read books three through five about three years ago, and just recently tried to acquire the whole set for myself. I managed to find (on the shelf, though some are no longer in print) all except the "middle" (3rd) one, _Behind the Walls of Terra_. As of a few months ago, it wasn't possible to order a copy. This may be rather disappointing for those who become hooked on the series and can't find half of the books. Any information leading to the purchase of said copy will be repaid with eternal gratitude. Jack L. Chalker's "xxx of the Dancing Gods" series: /*************************************************/ / / / Spoiler warning!!! Skip to next / / section / / / /*************************************************/ I just finished "Demons of the Dancing Gods" a few weeks ago, and have rather mixed feelings about it. He spends a little more time, and explains a lot more about the workings of his "backwash" world, but the story suffers heavily when Marge becomes "Kauri" and is no longer a prospective romance for Joe. Not that this couldn't change in book III, but he seemed to be spending a lot of book I preparing us for what would happen when Marge is freed of her celibacy restriction. In all, though, it is good reading (I couldn't put it down!), and is filled with reasonably good plot twists and lots of humor. "Next section" If anyone's in the mood for a little more dealing with the worlds of fantasy, I have a few recommendations to make: (1) Christopher Stasheff's set of books: _The Warlock in Spite of Himself_ _The Warlock Unlocked_ _Escape Velocity_ _King Kobold Revived_ TWiSoH is the best fantasy/science fiction (it does touch both worlds) I have ever read. I have read it more than ten times, yet each time I read it I find something new. If you intend to read more than one book, the order in which they are listed above is the order in which they were written (and therefore the best order in which to read them). Stasheff (no, not a relative; my last name is "Stassen") creates a believable world, complete with justifiable ecomomy, yet manages to bring in such entities as ghosts, elves, and fairies. (And you thought it was hard to bring Spock back to life in a believable manner!). The first book is unquestionably the best of the four, and the second and third are rather good. The last book is a remake (as in "complete rewrite") of the first novel he ever wrote (which flopped), and still isn't quite as good as the other three. The humor present in all four of the books is mainly sarcasm or parody, yet it is both at a rather intelligent level and blended into the story very well. In all, they're the best "technology meets 'sufficiently advanced technology'" books that I've seen. (2) Robert E. Vardeman's "Cenotaph Road" series: _#1 Cenotaph Road_ _#2 The Sorcerer's Skull_ _#3 World of Mazes_ _#4 Iron Tongue_ _#5 Fire and Fog_ _#6 Pillar of Night_ (coming this December) Robert E. Vardeman (of another-series-of-six-books fame), has also written one or two of the recent Star Trek novels. This series, however, is all fantasy and *no* science fiction. It is a complete "Swords and sorcery"-type novel that has "our heroes" running all over the universe chasing a bad magician by the name of "Claybore". It makes decent reading, puts forth a lot of interesting worlds, and constains a small amount of humor and romance. I only have one complaint, but it's a spoiler -- /******************************************/ / / / Spoiler warning -- quit here / / because there ain't no more / / after the spoiler. / / / /******************************************/ I don't like the way he carelelessly tosses aside the romance between his two main characters - it was slowly building for four novels, and destroyed in about half of the fifth one. Not only that, but I have to wait until December to find out where this depressing cliff-hanger will lead. --------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Chris Stassen twrrb!twrspp!stassen "That's no moon!"