Message-ID: <17506@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 13-Mar-84 15:50:00 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.17506
Posted: Tue Mar 13 15:50:00 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 16-Mar-84 02:28:41 EST
Lines: 30

Well, I finally got up the drive to read The Magic Labyrinth (book 4 of
Riverworld).  It took a long time to start due to the discouraging
reviews I have read in this meeting.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I
enjoyed the book and I think it did quite a good job of wrapping up the
Riverworld mystery.  Maybe I missed something, but I thought the reason
behind it all was quite good.  The series is quite long, though, and I
would not read it a second time.

Now to Lem.  I have seen some transactions claiming what a great writer
he is.  I have read The Cyberiad, Solaris, and The Invincible.  The
Cyberiad was very good and very funny, and the other two (both novels,
while The Cyberiad is a collection of shorts) started off well.  But he
has an extreme problem ending those two novels!  The Invincible started
off great and got better, but when I got to the end, I was looking for
at least another chapter.  It was as if he ran out of paper.  It really
ticked me off for such a great book to have such a lack of ending.  I
read Solaris because I heard some of the plot and was interested (and I
figured it couldn't just drop off like the other did-he is supposed to
be a good writer).  ss Solaris is good about 1/3 of the way through.
Then it starts a down hill run the likes of which I have never
encountered before.  By the time I waded through the muck to the end (I
never leave a book unfinished) I wished I had never heard of Lem and
never started this book!

So that some of you out there will know what type of stuff I do like (so
you can determine if these reviews will do you any good), my favorites
are Niven, Chalker, Hogan, Piers Anthony, "Doc" Smith, and Alan Dean
Foster to name a few...

               >RUSTY<           RNeal.dm8%pco -at cisl

Message-ID: <613@hcr.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-Mar-84 17:33:13 EST
Article-I.D.: hcr.613
Posted: Wed Mar 21 17:33:13 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 21-Mar-84 18:01:01 EST
References: <17506@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Organization: Human Computing Resources, Toronto
Lines: 8

Cheers! I couldn't agree more. I had heard that Solaris was considered one of
S-F's classics, and therefore thought that I was missig the point as I read
the story. By the end of it however, I realized that pseudo-sentient world
books were simply not up my alley. It was nearly as bad as Dahlgren, and I
realy deserve a medal for reading THAT  one to the end.

			Paul Bonneau
			hcr!hcrvax!paulb

Message-ID: <886@cvl.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 22-Mar-84 17:11:04 EST
Article-I.D.: cvl.886
Posted: Thu Mar 22 17:11:04 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Mar-84 09:43:51 EST
References: <17506@sri-arpa.UUCP>, <613@hcr.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Md. Computer Vision Lab
Lines: 7

Dhalgren!  I thought I was really missing something.  I've never been able
to get past the first 100 pages or so on a number of attempts to read it.
Anyone want a copy of it for REAL cheap?  This is definatly one I don't want
to keep.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Louis A. Mamakos - Computer Science Center (Systems Staff) - Univ. of Maryland
Internet: louie@cvl.ARPA     uucp: ...!{seismo,ihnp4,allegra}!rlgvax!cvl!louie