HEDRICK@RUTGERS.ARPA (12/24/83)
From: Charles Hedrick <HEDRICK@RUTGERS.ARPA> "Prince Ombra", Roderick MacLeish [this is the fellow who does the news on PBS]. This book is showing up in the "best-seller" section of bookstores, so some of you may (like me) be wary of looking at it. It is in fact a very fine fantasy. It is set in the present day. The protagonist is the heir of the likes of David and King Arthur. It is his task to confront Prince Ombra, the source of all evil in the Universe. Such champions are born from time to time. Unlike all other mortals, they know their purpose in life (and remember where they were before they were born). At a certain point in their lives, they discover the mystical stone of Ra, which arms them for the confrontation, and in some unexplained way, summons Prince Ombra for battle. The somewhat unusual thing about this particular hero is that he is 8 years old. As you might imagine, such a task is a bit much for an 8-year-old to handle, and he does do some ill-considered things. Indeed his equivalent of Merlin (each champion has a Teacher and a Rememberer - Merlin was the Teacher) is a child psychaitrist called in to handle his obvious peculiarities. The book has a number of strong points: - the writing is very fine. The language is close to poetry in many points. - the characters are convincing and human. He does best with disillusioned people fighting their way to find hope in the world (or resisting doing so). - the handling of evil is very interesting. Prince Ombra attacks the small New England town in which our hero lives. But what is interesting is that he attacks and withdraws several times. It is fascinating to see how his presence or absence affects all the minor day to day conflicts that go on around us. The most impressive accomplishment of the book is this ability to see through the mundaneness of everyday life to the conflict of good and evil that lies behind it. Interestingly enough, its weak point is its portrayal of good. MacLeish clearly believes that there is good in the Universe. One of the characters says that people are afraid to believe in perfect evil, because if they do they will have to believe in perfect good. And then they will have to take tranquilizers all the time to hide from how far short they fall. But the fact is that we see Prince Ombra quite clearly, but all we see of good is humans struggling to find a bit of hope in the world. In that sense this book typifies the tragedy of modern life, that so many of us find it all too easy to believe in the Devil, but not in God. It is thus interesting to contrast this book with C.S. Lewis' book "That Hideous Strength". The latter, although probably somewhat inferior as a piece of literature, has very similar strengths: it helps us see through the veneer of the world to the conflict between good and evil going on around us. But Lewis gives a convincing portrayal of both good and evil. -------
msc@qubix.UUCP (Mark Callow) (12/29/83)
xxx
From: Charles Hedrick <HEDRICK@RUTGERS.ARPA>
"Prince Ombra", Roderick MacLeish [this is the fellow who does the
news on PBS]. This book ...
The only person I can think of that you might mean is Robert MacNeil of
the MacNeil-Lehrer Report. This type of error in an article casts doubt
on the accuracy of the rest of it. Is the book in fact by Robert MacNeil
or are you confused about who does the news on PBS?
--
From the Tardis of Mark Callow
msc@qubix.UUCP, decwrl!qubix!msc@Berkeley.ARPA
...{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!decwrl!qubix!msc, ...{ittvax,amd70}!qubix!mscreg@vaxine.UUCP (Rick Genter) (12/29/83)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: a book you might find interesting
References: <736@qubix.UUCP>
Rod MacLeish is a commentator on NPR's (that's National Public RADIO) show
"Morning Edition". Please check your comments before commenting on other
people's comments.
Rick Genter
Automatix Inc.
...!decvax!linus!vaxine!regjim@randvax.ARPA (Jim Gillogly) (12/30/83)
-------- Prince Ombra is indeed by Roderick MacLeish. He does an occasional Spectrum appearance on CBS Radio (KNX in my area). (You know, "Rod MacLeish??) I read the book but wasn't too thrilled with it. There are bunches of avatars of Good throughout the years, as described in the previous note, and they must confront Evil in their own time and either win or lose ... losing dooms the Earth to the effects of Evil until it burns itself out for awhile. (That's not a spoiler yet.) I didn't find the author's vision of the pre-life state very compelling; nor was I impressed with the quality of the competition to the Ultimate Evil ... you wouldn't expect Luke Skywalker or any moisture-farmer of that ilk to be successful against the whole Empire, would you? Me neither. Jim Gillogly I/ / randvax!jim I_/ jim@rand-unix I