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%T Mad Roy's Light
%A Paula King
%I Baen
%D September 1990
%O paperback, US$3.50
%P 275
%G 0-671-72015-5
This book is not weird at all; it's a fairly conventional space
adventure with romance touches, aimed straight at McCaffrey and Lichtenberg
fans. Jennan Bartlett is one of only six human members of the trading Guild
that dominates Sagittarius Sector. Her joy at finally getting her first
assignment as chief of a trade team is shattered when she discovers that
the briefing tapes contain secret instructions to do the unthinkable;
sabotage a trade. Someone has set both Jennan and the Guild up for a hard
fall -- but who? Is it the D'raussa, the organized-crime syndicate? Is it
the sinister aliens rumored to be in contact with them? A human trading
house? And how is the stolen artifact called `Mad Roy's Light' involved?
Read and find out. No masterpiece this, but it has solid writing, competent
worldbuilding and quietly believable characters.
%T Echoes of the Fourth Magic
%A R. A. Salvatore
%I Roc
%D September 1990
%O pb
%P 318
%G 0-451-45029-9
Any reviewer needs to develop a high tolerance for genre crud -- but
after reading about 15 pages and flipping through the rest of this dreadful
turkey I found myself simply unable to go on. Galumphing grade-school prose
sketches a jejune, completely derivative plot peopled by thumpingly obvious
characters; the total transcends the merely bad, entering the realm of
teeth-grindingly awful. The silly damn' map and pretentious, laughable
glossary don't help. Shame on Roc for not bouncing the ms higher than up.
%T Dawn Song
%A Sharon Green
%I Avon
%D September 1990
%O paperback, US$4.95
%P 373
%G 0-380-75453-3
Yet another female-viewpoint fantasy-romance -- looking pretty good by
contrast with `Echoes of the Fourth Magic', I must say, but not recommended
unless you have a particular yen for Green's brand of poniard-packin'-mama
fantasies (a lady friend of mine once characterized her, cattily but
accurately, as the female equivalent of John Norman). 'Nuff said.
Up to Eric's Home Page | To Index | Thu Sep 27 14:47:18 EDT 1990 |
Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>