From /tmp/sf.4146 Tue Aug 9 02:09:33 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!EU.net!uunet!spool.mu.edu!agate!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: aahz@netcom.com (Aahz) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: _The Far Kingdoms_ Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 20 Jun 1994 19:48:38 GMT Organization: The Cat and Dragon Lines: 43 Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu Summary: buy, but don't keep Keywords: adventure fantasy Originator: mcb@remarque.berkeley.edu Review of _The Far Kingdoms_ by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch Reviewed by Aahz (aahz@netcom.com), copyright 1994 Did Homer's _Odyssey_ make your blood sing? Did H. Rider Haggard make you long for still-unexplored lands? _The Far Kingdoms_ is a solid piece of adventure fiction; not a classic by any means, but not trivial fluff, either. Cole and Bunch do a fine job of a derivative work, evoking their predecessors without seeming to do too much plagiarism. They do cater to modern sensibilities, though: instead of placing the adventures on (or in) an unexplored area of Earth, they create a new world where magic works. Fortunately, the magic doesn't intrude much on suspension of disbelief (as Eddings' so often does). _The Far Kingdoms_ is written in the first person, which lends a different tone from Cole's and Bunch's previously better-known Sten books, though the writing style is not much different. Overall, if you like travel stories set as fantasies, I'd recommend buying this, but I wouldn't necessarily reserve space for keeping it. This is the first book of a series, but it looks like each book will stand alone; this one certainly does. %A Cole, Allan & Bunch, Chris %T The Far Kingdoms %I Del Rey/Ballantine %C New York %D July 1994 %G ISBN 0-345-38056-8 %P 426pp %O paperback -- --- Aahz (@netcom.com) Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 Androgynous kinky vanilla queer het Usenet is not a democracy. It is a weird cross between an anarchy and a dictatorship. From /tmp/sf.4191 Tue Aug 9 02:46:46 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!trane.uninett.no!eunet.no!nuug!EU.net!uunet!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!uhog.mit.edu!nntp.club.cc.cmu.edu!hudson.lm.com!tusk.lm.com!not-for-mail From: dani@telerama.lm.com Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Cole and Bunch: The Far Kingdoms (spoilers) Date: 17 Jul 1994 15:47:01 -0400 Organization: Telerama Public Access Internet, Pittsburgh, PA USA Lines: 35 Message-ID: <30c1rl$j8h@tusk.lm.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: tusk.lm.com I was expecting better from Allan Cole and Chris Bunch. Their eight-book "Sten" series was a skilled science-fictionalization of military- and adventure-fiction which also made some interesting points about how societies govern themselves. "The Far Kingdoms", by contrast, is a dull fantasy adventure -- indifferently executed and with little redeeming depth. Spoiled young Amalric gets permission to co-lead a small expedition eastward (where nobody goes), in search of the (possibly mythical) Far Kingdoms. He and his men face assorted dangers, often surviving because the authors pull appropriate rabbits out of the hat so that he can be saved by forbidden magics, by ghosts, by special powers, by inept enemies -- whatever it takes. Nor do the assorted dangers ever cohere into one story. Having a sinister figure show up and say "I was behind those events, for reasons which seemed good at the time" doesn't really do it. Nor, for that matter, do we see the characters grow as a result of their experiences: They change, sometimes for the better, but the changes seem arbitrary, and unrelated to what they have seen or done. It doesn't help that much of the outcome is telegraphed by the narrator going "now that I'm old and rich and famous for my discovery..." In brief, it's a sword-and-sorcery fantasy with little to distinguish it. Individual scenes are well written, but they fail to add up to a well written novel. ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com dani@telerama.lm.com 'T is with our judgements as our watches, none Go alike, yet each believes his own --Alexander Pope