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From: psc@lzwi.UUCP (Paul S. R. Chisholm)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Steven Brust
Message-ID: <121@lzwi.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 1-May-85 00:02:33 EDT
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Posted: Wed May  1 00:02:33 1985
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< Smokey the Bar says, "Stamp out software pirates" [squish!] >

     It's fun to trace influences on writers.  It's a game to which hundreds
of trees and English students have fallen, chopped down and lulled to sleep,
respectively.

     But sometimes the influences are obvious, and even (occasionally)
self-proclaimed.  So it's clear that Brunner has been effected by Dos
Passos, Haldeman by Hemingway (and Dos Passos, come to think of it), and
(Spider) Robinson by Heinlein.

     So has Steven Karl Zoltan Brust been influenced by Zelazny.  The signs
are all there: The wise-ass, almost contemporary character surrounded by
scenes and beings of myth and legend.  The complex, constantly changing
relationships and forces.  The beautiful prose, invisible in its strength,
except when it jumps out and startles you with its beauty.  The unexpected,
sometimes startling humor.  The not-quite-as-flat-as-you-first-thought
characters, protagonists, villains, and spear carriers alike.

     I *like* Zelazny.  So does Brust.  Brust doesn't write as well as
Zelazny.  Well, that's okay; no one writes just like Zelazny, except better.
A few write differently, and also very well, and some more write pretty
well.  Brust writes pretty well.

     I'm telling you all this because, largely on the strength of reviews of
TO REIGN IN HELL, I went out and bought the collected works of Steven Brust,
and I just wanted to keep all the common comments together.  As to the books
themselves, keep reading. . . .
-- 
	-Paul S. R. Chisholm
	...!{pegasus,vax135}!lzwi!psc   The above opinions are my own,
	...!{hocsj,ihnp4}!lznv!psc      not necessarily anyone else's,
	...!{pegasus,cbosgd}!lzmi!psc   including my employer's.