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From: leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: JHEREG by Stephen Brust
Message-ID: <1273@mtgzz.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 19-Oct-85 22:27:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: mtgzz.1273
Posted: Sat Oct 19 22:27:21 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 20-Oct-85 06:16:35 EDT
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Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Middletown NJ
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I never got the original of this article, a number of articles have
never reached our system due to a recent building move.  The pieces I
did get were from a good article posted by Dave Berry.

>In his review of JHEREG by Stephen Brust Mark R. Leeper writes 
>
>>      Aside from the multiplicity of unfamiliar names--probably not a
>> drawback for most other readers--the story is fairly well-written.  I did,
>> however, all too often come up confused as to who was who in the book and
>> because of that, did not enjoy the book as much as I might have.
>
>Oh, poor you! I bet you put away Zelazny's "Lord of Light" after the first
>few pages. 

No, I stuck with it.  I didn't think it was all that good however --
admittedly a minority opinion.  And what is bothering you?  I said in
the review exactly where I was coming from.  You even quoted my saying
that most readers would not have the same drawback that I had.  You
seem to be irritated that there exist readers who have problems
remembering character names.

>And how often do you read historical books? Especially the ones
>on times and lands quite remote. 

Do you count DSITANT MIRROR by Barbara Tuchman?  That was no problem
reading.

>I am sure you've never read any of the
>Russian great writers -- because you couldn't remember the names and places...

Do you count Gogol?  How about Chekov?  I like the former and don't
care so much for the latter.  Both are readable and did not cause the
problems I had with the book in question.

>JHEREG does not sport an overwhelming cast of characters. Their names
>are easily remembered and pronunciation is given.

>Next time why don't you set up a list of names of characters you encounter 
>in a book and who they are 

I do this fairly often actually.  Particuarly if I am going to review
the book later.

>and just give them plain English names (for your
>own benefit) like "Joe", "Pete", etc. and think of everything in those terms. 

Most people I know who read Russian novels a lot tend to abbreviate the
long Russian names to the first sylable.  Of course that doesn't help
if a single character has three different names, as they sometimes do.

>And as long as we are at it why not replace magic with something else. Like 
>cabs instead of teleports... CPR instead of "raise dead" spell... 
>If the story doesn't make any sense after all these transformations --
>I guess it wasn't good enough to start with... 

All to often, such a substitution wouldn't make much difference in the
story.  That's where space opera got its name.

Oh, Dave.  CPR is Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, a sort of emergency
first aid.  The Red Cross and several local companies give classes in
how to do it.

				Mark Leeper
				...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper