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Urbane Guerrilla · 12-09-2008, 01:54 AM

Good call on Piers Anthony, wolf.

He wrote better than L. Ron Hubbard.

"Series" on a cover usually means one or two books' worth of artistic and literary virtue is diluted to fill five or more. Life's too short.

One exception I can think of to the above is Zelazny's Amber, though I got much more of a stylistic kick from the first part of it than the second part/second series. Where Zelazny went right was that he took his time -- years between books, with other novels intervening, letting ideas and themes germinate, incubate, and flower instead of giving us a line of potboilers. Zelazny always did have the sensibilities of a poet. He didn't rush. Good publishing contracts, maybe.

12-09-2008, 01:54 AM	#1288
Urbane Guerrilla Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Southern California Posts: 6,674	Good call on Piers Anthony, wolf. He wrote better than L. Ron Hubbard. "Series" on a cover usually means one or two books' worth of artistic and literary virtue is diluted to fill five or more. Life's too short. One exception I can think of to the above is Zelazny's Amber, though I got much more of a stylistic kick from the first part of it than the second part/second series. Where Zelazny went right was that he took his time -- years between books, with other novels intervening, letting ideas and themes germinate, incubate, and flower instead of giving us a line of potboilers. Zelazny always did have the sensibilities of a poet. He didn't rush. Good publishing contracts, maybe. __________________ Wanna stop school shootings? End Gun-Free Zones, of course.