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From: brust@hyper.UUCP (Steven Brust)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Metropolis and Brunner
Message-ID: <156@hyper.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 3-Apr-85 19:11:14 EST
Article-I.D.: hyper.156
Posted: Wed Apr  3 19:11:14 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 6-Apr-85 02:44:51 EST
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> > 
> > ...  SONGMASTER, in my humble opinion, falls apart
> > at the end, although it is tremendous up until then.
> Let's pick some nits.  I have to disagree with you here.  All books
> must end sometime (though I'm beginning to believe XANTH will go
> on forever) and how the book ends quite diverse and varys a good
> deal.  I found the end of SONGMASTER quite refreshing.  Its not
> the "and everyone lived happily ever after", nor is it "and everyone
> died and all was depressing and dark" nor "and Joe went home to grow
> wheat, Same went in search of the mysteries of the Universe, me ..."
> ala lol instead SONGMASTER had a delicately bittersweet ending and
> end which though sad, didn't leave me sad.  A rather insightfull ending
> in which a man with a rather unhappy life left his mark for posterity
> not linked to his name but rather to the most important facet of his
> life, his song.

None of this was why I feel the ending weak.  Doing all of this is
fine, but it is not acceptable to tell ninety percent of a story within
a few weeks, then resolve the plot in a time-span of years in a single
short chapter.  This is sloppy craftsmanship.


The point is that, to get an absolute top-notch rating on my
own, quite personal, scale, a book must do ALL of the things
I was discussing, and do them well.  Your points about Bradly
and Eddings are well taken, and there are some good books here,
but I was speaking of absolute top-of-the-line.


> c)  Symbolism stinks, virtually always societal, culture, and time
>     oriented, misplace any of these and you have an unreadable piece
>     of trash.  No thanks.

Interesting.  To me, if the symbolism gets in the way (as happens all
too often with...never mind; I'd better not say), then I agree; but
using symbols to convey a deeper level WITHOUT INTERFERING WITH THE
STORY--IN FACT ADDING TO THE STORY can be tremendous.  That is, on
my six or seventh reading when I start to pick it up.  I can be
awfully dense.