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From: ddern@bbncch
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Donaldson/Covenant --Another Opinion Heard From
Message-ID: <2343@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 21-Jun-85 09:44:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.2343
Posted: Fri Jun 21 09:44:35 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 23-Jun-85 03:28:55 EDT
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Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: Daniel Dern <ddern@BBNCCH.ARPA>

Like any good compulsive sf lover, I'll take a shot at almost anything that can
be found in the science fiction/fantasy area of a bookstore -- and where a book
or author's reputation preceeds it, I'll give more than one try in many cases.

I have not read more than half of any book by Stephan R Donaldson.  I've tried,
but:

  o I could not relate to the main character.  I didn't care about him.
    He seemed to have the emotional subtlety and sense of a deoderant
    commercial, to use the first shallow image to comes to mind.  This is
    not a requisite criterion by my standards, but, in the absense of empathy,
    there should be some implicit point, conflict or interest to keep me
    connected.  

  o Said protagonist (and perhaps others -- memory blissfully dims) had a
    remarkable and off-putting propensity for obscure, dumb ephithets.
    "Helleshin!" comes to mind.  What ever happened to "By the crimson bands
    of Cyttorak", etc?  [ Yes, I know -- this is actually one of Dr. Strange's
    shellscripts ]

  o Opening any of the books at random, any paragraph I read was more likely
    than not to be extremely badly written -- overwritten, wrong words used,
    clumsy, trying to do all the work and not evoking anything.

I think I've given the double trilogy a fair shot, and it's not my pot of tea.
Given the quantity of books, and their popularity in terms of sales, I should
assume there is some merit and value.  And then I think of the Gor books, and
realize that popularity is no absolute guarantee.

I can believe there is something of interest and value inside these books.  I
just couldn't get through the surface for it.

Daniel Dern
ddern@bbn.arpa