jcp.jhu%UDel-Relay@sri-unix.UUCP (06/23/83)
From: J.C. Patilla <jcp.jhu@UDel-Relay> [HYSTERIA MODE] NO MORE SF-MUSIC !!!!!! Pleeeeeeeeease let's not do that again !!!! Messages in Ewokese, if you want, but no more space music ! [end hysteria mode] Re the Dune movie - the editor of MUSICIAN magazine claims that Sting told him he is playing "one of the three bad guys in the movie" but the editor forgets which one. I can however find this out from someone at A&M records if anyone's dying to know. A friend of mine claimed that the Thomas Covenant books were the most meaningful he had ever read and even loaned the first one to me. I got about 2/3 through it when I decided I couldn't take it anymore. I have read some badly-written sf before (and lots of badly written other crap) but this book just took the cake for being the absolute worst-written piece of science fiction I have ever read. It hurt my eyes ! I really *wanted* to like it, too - Donaldson had some good ideas but they were so badly expressed that the charm the book might have had was utterly lost. On the other hand, I picked up The Shadow of the Torturer from seeing recommended in this very digest and was immediately hooked. It is at the other extreme, a beautiful example of rich, well-textured writing. I ran around to every bookstore in town to collect the other paperback editions out and then had to borrow Citadel in hardback just to be able to finish. I have never expected great shakes in style from science fiction - I read for plots and ideas, but it was a real joy to see something that was engaging and fantastical and also of considerable literary value. Wolfe's command of the language is impressive, and the fact that every word in all 4 books is in the OED makes it even better. j.c. patilla