From rec.arts.sf-reviews Wed Jun 26 10:56:35 1991 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!samsung!know!dg-rtp.dg.com From: sheol!throopw@dg-rtp.dg.com (Wayne Throop) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-reviews Subject: Review of _A_Man_of_His_Word_ series by Dave Duncan Message-ID: <30317@know.pws.bull.com> Date: 24 Jun 91 23:33:03 GMT Sender: wex@pws.bulL.com Reply-To: sheol!throopw@dg-rtp.dg.com Followup-To: rec.arts.sf-lovers Lines: 68 Approved: wex@pws.bull.com %A Dave Duncan %B A Man of His Word %D July 1991 %G 0-345-36630-1 %I Ballantine Books (Del Rey) %T Perilous Seas Composed of _The_Magic_Casement_ _Faery_Lands_Forlorn_ _Perilous_Seas_ _Emperor_and_Clown_ (not yet published) Review Copyright (c) 1991 Wayne Throop This is a series in progress by Dave Duncan. Duncan has shown noticeable improvement since his _The_Seventh_Sword_ series, and I thought _The_Seventh_Sword_ was pretty good. And in addition to improved technique, the basic background of the book has some very interesting features to explore. First, like Donaldson's _Mordant's_Need_, Duncan has come up with an interesting, well-thought-out basis for the magic effects in the series. Magic is based on Words of Power. Not, as in LeGuin's Earthsea, words in a First Language that manipulate their referents, but rather words that give "powers and abilities" to humans who know them. Knowing a single word makes one a "genius", two an "adept", three a "mage", four a "sorceror". There is some sort of limit at four. A genius has essentially "one superpower", such as clairvoyance, or strength, or charm, or whatnot. An adept can learn any human skill almost instantly, and normally has several "superpowers". A mage can work illusions and temporary physical magical effects. A sorcerer can create permanent independent spells. (This is, of course, a much simplified version of the basic notion. For one example, why not tell your friends your word if you know one? This issue is addressed.) In addition to this, the human races in the story are named after supernatural races in our world: Imps, Elves, Gnomes, Goblins, Fauns, Pixies, Faeries, etc. Duncan makes good use of this interesting feature in several regards, keeping his comments on human prejudice and prejudgement >from being too cliche because of the novel context. The series (with three of the four issued so far) follows the adventures of the Princess of Krasnegar, Inoson, and her loyal (but lowly) subject Rap. Inoson is of mixed Imp/Jotnar blood, and Rap is of mixed Faun/Jotnar blood. As one might expect in an adventure with a princess, the succession of the throne of Krasnegar is a turbulent one, and is in crisis in passing to Inoson. Complicating events are the mysterious motives and legacy of the founder of the realm several generations ago, a sorcerer or mage who divided his Words of Power among his children, along with twisty politics and scheming both on the large stage of the Roman-Empire-Like Imp-ire and also local squabbles for power, both magical and mundane. Suffice to say that adventure ensues. The three books in the series so far have been fast-paced and full of adventure, so as to drag you along for a fine ride, as well as having complex, plausible societal underpinnings. The mood varies from dashing adventure, to dry humor, to complicated intrigue, to reflective contemplation. In case you couldn't tell, I like the series, and am looking forward to the concluding book. -- Wayne Throop ...!mcnc!dg-rtp!sheol!throopw From rec.arts.sf.written Tue Sep 22 19:14:17 1992 Path: isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!olivea!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com!dani From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Duncan: The Cutting Edge (minor spoilers) Message-ID: Date: 22 Sep 92 06:38:08 GMT Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Lines: 40 Dave Duncan's "The Cutting Edge" is first book in his "Handful of Men" tetralogy, the sequel to "A Man of His Word". The turn of the millenium is approaching and Things are Falling Apart. The center cannot hold. This book is spent primarily in setting up the problem -- the Impire is under attack from all sides, the Protocol which prevents massively destructive Mage Wars is in collapse, and someone or something nasty lurks in the background -- and in reintroducing the cast, now some fifteen years older. It's time well spent, and this tetralogy should be almost as good as the previous one, though the first one had an attraction this one necessarily lacks, since the reader got to learn the secrets of magic as the protagonist did. In one sense, the catastrophe is Rap's fault -- nine out of ten fantasy sequels are the result of letting a villain go in the first series -- but since a massive collapse seems destined to occur every millenium, he can't be held completely to blame. Part of the book follows the doings of a talented Pixie, but I strongly suspect that the information we are given in this part -- especially that some people have an affinity for magic that causes them to seek out Words -- will turn out to apply to Rap's son. Minor spoiler time. The upshot of Inos's attempt to kill her Words was that one did die, and the other three were greatly weakened. Rap now has one strong word and three 'ghost' words, so while he is qualitatively a sorcerer, he is an exceedingly weak one. I wonder if one solution to the mess he's currently in might not be to obtain a fifth word again. Since three of his words are widely shared, this might give him the qualitative edge that having five words brings, without quite as much pain. (And he can always kill one of his words if it comes to that.) ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com It was mentioned on CNN that the new prime number discovered recently is four times bigger then the previous record. -- John Blasik From /tmp/sf.5173 Mon Apr 12 22:38:28 1993 Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!uunet!olivea!decwrl!netcomsv!netcom.com!dani From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Duncan: Upland Outlaws Message-ID: Date: 10 Apr 93 05:32:12 GMT Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Lines: 42 I went ahead and got book two of "A Handful of Men". The question is, was it worth getting a hardcover now, rather than wait six months for the paperback, given that there are still two more books to come in the tetralogy? On balance, the answer is 'no'. "Upland Outlaws" was enjoyable, but it wasn't special, and could have stood to wait half a year. Mostly, it suffers from middle-book-syndrome (or should that be "second- quartile syndrome"?). Book one, The Cutting Edge, sets up the problem and introduces the main characters. Book two, almost by definition, gets devoted to in-between stuff: In this case our intrepid heroes split up and head for various corners of the map on various missions. Presumably book three (The Stricken Field) will follow these missions and book four (The Living God -- which title is probably a major spoiler) will bring all the threads together for the climax. (There's a structural reason for short sequences of books to be trilogies, and I suspect this one should have been a trilogy, but for page-count or marketing decisions. Certainly book two ends on a very artificial cliff-hanger.) Not much happens in "Upland Outlaws", for all that it takes 355 pages not to happen. Shandie, Rap, and company escape from Hub at the last possible instant, and conclude that the only hope of defeating the Covin (Zinixo's mind-controlled sorcery monopoly) is to find enough sorcerers who are still uncontrolled and lying low. Since Zinixo now controls the Impire, the members of that company scatter to the outlying lands to find help before Zinixo gets around to conquering them. The parts of the first book that I enjoyed the most were the Krasnegarian scenes, for some reason, but there are a lot fewer of them in this book. Krasnegar is touched upon only enough to set up a situation whereby, improbably, Inos and the two older children find themselves trapped on the mainland, in the middle of a war. Well, I *wondered* how they were going to get themselves involved. To return to my earlier point/s, this book is enjoyable, but there's no need to rush to get it in hardcover, if you weren't already planning to. ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com Watership Down: You've read the book. You've seen the movie. Now eat the stew! From /tmp/sf.4146 Tue Aug 9 02:01:34 1994 Xref: liuida rec.arts.sf.reviews:578 alt.books.reviews:3353 rec.arts.sf.written:61165 Path: liuida!sunic!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: ibic@sunsite.unc.edu (Internet Book Information Center) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,alt.books.reviews,rec.arts.sf.written Subject: IBIC REVIEW #11, "The Living God" by Dave Duncan Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 17 May 1994 18:34:56 GMT Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Lines: 65 Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <2qvipl$9cq@bigblue.oit.unc.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu X-Author: Frederick Zimmerman Originator: mcb@remarque.berkeley.edu IBIC REVIEW #11, "The Living God" by Dave Duncan I thoroughly enjoyed this, the fourth and concluding volume in Dave Duncan's "A Handful Of Men" series, which is itself a sequel to Duncan's "A Man of His Word" series starring the stableboy-turned-sorcerer Rap, King of Krasnegar. Dave Duncan's character as an author reminds me of the character of Bink in Piers Anthony's A SPELL FOR CHAMELEON--an ordinary person whose abilities, average in most respects, are transformed and transfigured by a single, mysterious, extraordinary talent. (Incidentally, for those who have not read CHAMELEON, I mean this as a compliment; it is an excellent book.) Duncan's fantasy world, which is populated by imps, elves, dwarves, goblins, jotunn, and dragons, is not an especially original conception. Nor is the plot of "A Handful of Men", which involves a magical threat to the foundations of the Impire of Pandemia. Without Duncan's transfiguring talent, this would be routine genre stuff. The talent that makes Dave Duncan special and makes his Rap novels jewels of the fantasy genre is a simple one: he is a wonderful storyteller. Because of this talent, his fantasy world, based on a handful of clever premises, is skillfully elaborated. His plot is crisply executed and builds to a conclusion which I found both satisfying and surprising. His characters are utterly engaging and his style lucid and literate. In The talent that makes Dave Duncan special and makes his Rap novels jewels of the fantasy genre is a simple one: he is a wonderful storyteller. Because of this talent, his fantasy world, based on a handful of clever premises, is skillfully elaborated. His plot is crisply executed and builds to a conclusion which I found both satisfying and surprising. His characters are utterly engaging and his style lucid and literate. In short, his work is a prose poem to the art of writing entertaining fiction. short, his work is a prose poem to the art of writing entertaining fiction. So to continue the Xanth analogy, what are the future prospects for Duncan's work? Is there any sign that he is beginning to repeat himself and churn out formula product? Thankfully not; this, the eighth novel in the Rap series, is as fresh as the first. There is no obvious sequel to this book, so it's difficult to guess where he will go from here; but my hopes are high. --Frederick Zimmerman %A Duncan, Dave %T The Living God %I DelRey %C New York %D April 1994 %G ISBN 0-345-37899-7 %O hardcover, US$20.00 %P 385 pp. Previous IBIC Reviews, as well as links to many other Internet information resources related to books, are available via the Internet Book Information Center WWW serverspace (provided courtesy of SunSITE, a joint project of the University North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Sun Microsystems). The URL is http://sunsite.unc.edu/ibic/IBIC-homepage.html. Selected text resources are available by anonymous ftp to sunsite.unc.edu; directory is /pub/electronic-publications/ibic. The IBIC Gopher server is unavailable. E-mail comments encouraged to ibic@sunsite.unc.edu.