Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!CAIN@SRI-AI.ARPA
From: CAIN@SRI-AI.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: TEA rebuttal
Message-ID: <12684@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Apr-84 06:15:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12684
Posted: Wed Apr 25 06:15:24 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 30-Apr-84 05:43:04 EDT
Lines: 39


	In regards to Donn Seeley's review of R. A. MacAvoy's
TEA WITH THE BLACK DRAGON: I think the review missed the mark.
	In fact, reviews like this which do little more than summarize 
the plot of a book have never impressed me as being fair to the author.
The plots of many of my favorite books sound pretty trite when put
through such a narrow filter.
	To me, the impact of a book comes from a less tangible source;
from the writer's commitment to the story.  This expresses itself in the
writer's ability to conjure true-to-life characters, to engage them in
dialogue in which I feel a part, and then to confront them with problems
to draw them out of themselves.
	If the writer fails in these, then I am tempermentally incapable of
reading the story.  For that reason, two out of every three books I start
end up in the trash by page seven.  However, any story succeeding in these
things finds a home on my bookshelves.
	TEA is the kind of book I read with pleasure.  The characters begin
to come to life in the first sentence and are allowed to grow and to change
throughout the book.  The dialogues are fun to read, and the plot, though
simple, is calculated to explore each of the character's strengths and
weaknesses.  It is the kind of book which goes onto a smallish shelf I have
for books to be re-read every couple years.
	That Seeley's review summarizes the main woman character (Martha) as
"dotty" or the main man (Mayland) as "reclusive" tells me the two of us read
distinctly different books inside the same cover.  No mention is made of the
fact that this love story involves two people over the age of 50 (one possibly
much older), or that the most intriguing mystery is Mayland Long's past.
Mention of the distinctly Zen/Tao flavor of the book is also omitted.
	In addition, Seeley refers to the cover blurbs as "overkill."
Do I rightly hear him saying the book did not deserve the favorable reviews
it received from others (which is tactless at best)?  Am I then to assume
that nominations received by TEA for the Nebula, the Hugo, the John Campbell,
the Phillip K. Dick, and the Compton Crook awards are mere gaudy trappings?
	Sorry, but for all these reasons I feel the review was unfair to
a very good book.

Ron Cain
CAIN@SRI-AI
-------