obrien%rand-unix@sri-unix.UUCP (11/28/83)
In response to a question...yes, here's another Vance lover. But then, I like most authors who have real command of the language (any Jane Austen fans out there?). In fact I'm partway through "Cugel's Saga", which is fresh out, and represents the third entry in his "Dying Earth" milieu. It's been, what? twenty years since "The Eyes of the Overworld"? Unfortunately, I don't find "Cugel's Saga" as enthralling as the first two books, and in fact it's pretty inferior Vance. It certainly IS Vance, which makes it much better than most of the other stuff currently being published, but there's a certain sense of depth missing, and things are just too predictable. I'm glad to own it, but I could have wished for better. "Lyonesse" was far better. On other fantasy fronts, David Eddings' "Belgariad" series is shaping up nicely, and I can't resist another plug for Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Sun". Certainly any lovers of fine writing and language should check this one out. And, lest we forget, Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", while not strictly fantasy, describes an awfully strange world, has fine writing, and can still put me on the floor laughing, some 165 years after its first publication. The author was cute, too. Mike O'Brien