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From: @RUTGERS.ARPA,@MIT-MC:jen%mit-nessus@mit-athena.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Pamela C. Dean's "The Secret Country"
Message-ID: <1912@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 7-May-85 12:49:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.1912
Posted: Tue May  7 12:49:55 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 8-May-85 05:29:55 EDT
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Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: jen%mit-nessus@mit-athena.ARPA (Jennifer A Hawthorne)

I just finished reading Pamela C. Dean's "The Secret Country" the other 
night and felt impelled to comment on something that really ticked me off.
The book itself is a reasonably good read; it concerns a group of kids
who invent an imaginary land for themselves and then manage to actually
get to this place through the use of two magic swords. BUT---

****FLAME WARNING****
IT NEVER ENDED!!  By this I mean that "The Secret Country" seems to be
the newest entry into the "One Story in Several Books" class of series, 
right up there with Eddings' Belgariad, The Lord of the Rings, Julian
May's The Pleiocene Exile, Zelazny's Amber books, and so on, and so on.  
Thank you, SKZB, for having the decency to finish your stories at the same
time you finished your books.
     I don't want to give anyone the impression that I hate this sort of
series; they're great if you are looking for an epic-sized read.  But I
get VERY upset when (as with "The Secret Country") there is no way to tell
that the book is not complete aside from actually reading the thing!  The
publisher did not deign to put "Book One in the Secret Country Series" or
some such notice on the cover so that I would be forewarned.  I reached
the end of the book and couldn't believe my eyes!  I felt cheated, and quite
angry at the author, although I later realized that this was unfair to 
Ms. Dean as she probably had no say in the matter.  
     When I complained (loudly) about this to my unfortunate roommate, she 
said that the publisher probably thought that putting a notice on the cover
would diminish the sales of the book, as some people refuse to start
a series until the entire work is finished.  She also suggested that now
that I had read the first part, I'd undoubtedly buy the rest of the books
when they came out, ensuring decent sales.  But it occurred to me, later, that
being advertised as part of a series did not hurt the sales of Julian May's 
"The Adversary" or of Eddings' "Enchanter's End Game".  In fact, they both made
the national SF best-seller lists. As for reading the rest of the series, I'm
not sure I will.  I don't like feeling that I've been tricked into something 
I might not otherwise have done.  
     Does anyone out there have similar feelings?  

*****Flame Off*****

On a similar note, "Trumps of Doom", the newest Amber book, is now out in 
hard-cover with some of the most awful cover artwork I've seen in a while.
It, too, is part of a series like the first five (one story in several books)
and  (MILD SPOILER) it ends on a terrible cliff-hanger.  Arrggh!  Zelazny
is a sadist.
     Out of curiousity, SKZB, how does an author feel about the cover artwork
on his books?  I noticed on "Yendi" that Vlad has no mustache and looks a lot
older than twenty-one.  The artwork on the paperback edition of "To Reign in 
Hell" looks nicely executed, but since I haven't read it yet, I don't know
if it is faithful to the content.  How about it?

					--Jennifer H.---

"Does the artwork on a book EVER have anything to do with the content?"
					-common question at MITSFS