tim@unc.UUCP (06/30/83)
Despite your claims, Wolfe (that's with an `e' on the end -- were
you even paying attention?) did not make up any words for Shadow of
the Torturer, or the other three books in the Book of the New Sun.
Check the OED if you don't believe me.
People's reactions to this book are VERY inconsistent. It seems
that you either think it's the greatest thing since indoor plumbing,
or think it only suitable for disposal by such means. As for me, and
the Science Fiction Writers of America (givers of the Nebula Award),
we are firmly in the former camp.
======================================
The overworked keyboard of Tim Maroney
duke!unc!tim (USENET)
tim.unc@udel-relay (ARPA)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hillcfv@packet.UUCP (06/30/83)
Complaining that Wolfe keeps meandering off onto something totally unrelated?
Funny, I can't seem to remember where Tom Bombadil really related into the
true scope of LOTR......
SotT is NOT a fast paced book. It was not written to be a fast paced book. If
you want fast pacing, read Return of the Jedi. It is a very detailed and
imaginative book that tries to envelope you in an entire culture. It makes
you THINK and it involves you in the material. It is not, as I call it, an
easy read. If you are looking for something that will throw everything at
you, find another book. SotT makes you reach in and work with the book and
allows you to build the reality of Urth with your own feelings as well as
what the book says. I had a lot of trouble getting into SotT at first simply
because there are so few books that make demands on my brain out there that
I had trouble learning how to think and react to a book again. THAT is what
made SotT so enjoyable for me, and so rare in the publishing industry...
--
>From the dungeons of the Warlock:
Chuck Von Rospach
ucbvax!amd70!packet!cfv
(chuqui@mit-mc) <- obsolete!patcl@tektronix.UUCP (07/05/83)
After reading the accolades for SotT ("better than Tolkein", etc.),
I started it with high expectations. It was one of the
most poorly written novels I've read, and the
only thing that kept me going all the way through was the fact
I kept expecting (due to the rave reviews)
some fantastic plot twist which would suddenly make
everything interesting. In fact, "plot" (what there was of it)
development occurs at a snail's pace. Wolf is constantly (and
annoyingly) meandering off onto something totally unrelated to
the current situation or anything else in the book.
Is this supposed to create a "mystical" tone? Or does Wolf perhaps
simply not have the ability to create a coherent story?
The use of made-up names (for animals, etc.) which are never
explained really seems like a cheap literary trick (since it's easy
to make up a strange name, but harder to really invent something
and make the reader understand it). As to comparisons with
Tolkein: SotT is as bad as LotR is good.
Patrick Clancy
Tektronix