Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83 based; site hound.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxb!mhuxn!mhuxm!mhuxj!houxm!hound!rfg From: rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re:Re: Piers Anthony Message-ID: <917@hound.UUCP> Date: Mon, 18-Feb-85 13:46:29 EST Article-I.D.: hound.917 Posted: Mon Feb 18 13:46:29 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 20-Feb-85 03:19:24 EST References: <533@topaz.ARPA> <60@unc.UUCP>, <141@gitpyr.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ Lines: 31 [] Here' an opinion/speculation that's bound to draw flames, flames,flames: I think Piers Anthony's writing has gone to pot. I believe his first published material was the "Battle Circle" trilogy (Sos, the Rope, ...etc.) which I thought was superb, fantastic, even swell. then came the O-O-O trilogy, good, great, super, but ..not quite as swell. From there its been all down hill with fantasy and mumbo-jumbo vaguenesses. He seems to be following the well worn track laid down by his forebears such as Newton and Herbert. I speculate it's easier to write that mystical trash because nothing has to synch, nothing has to be worked out in detail, logic is verboten, anything goes. I tried to keep reading anything Pier's wrote because of the level of his first six, but I couldn't keep up. He could grind out the progressively more mindless garbage faster than I could digest it. This transition wasn't overnight. Sure, the first Xanth book was clever and funny. Not like what had gone before, but passable. Still, the third? the seventeenth? ...? Similarly, anyone who could write Under Pressure (Dragon in the Sea) earned the status of I would read anything he wrote. But....same comments as for Piers. After I couldn't bring myself to read the dung books anymore I kept buying them anyway. But...I've lost count. I couldn't remember how many I would have to have read before I saw Dung the movie to hope to understand it. Similarly, after the Principia... I guess mind-rot gets most of us in the end, but not all. Several held on pretty well until the grim reaper came along. Even, most, perhaps. Sure, few do as well in their dotage as when they were young and fiery.Still, with Piers and Herbert I really feel the sense of loss. I bet they cry all the way to the bank, every day. -- "It's the thought, if any, that counts!" Dick Grantges hound!rfg