From rec.arts.sf-reviews Thu Jul 18 14:48:17 1991 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!ugle.unit.no!nuug!ifi.uio.no!sics.se!fuug!mcsun!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!know!dirac.phys.washington.edu From: ingram@dirac.phys.washington.edu (Doug Ingram) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-reviews Subject: Review of _With_A_Single_Spell_ by Lawrence Watt-Evans Message-ID: <30783@know.pws.bull.com> Date: 8 Jul 91 19:24:45 GMT Sender: wex@pws.bulL.com Reply-To: ingram@dirac.phys.washington.edu Followup-To: rec.arts.sf-lovers Lines: 73 Approved: wex@pws.bull.com WITH A SINGLE SPELL by Lawrence Watt-Evans Review copyright (c) 1991 by Doug Ingram [Bibliographic information at the end of the article] While this book isn't exactly part of a series, it is the second book of a group of unrelated tales set in a world called Ethshar. The other two are called _The_Misenchanted_Sword_ and _The_Unwilling_Warlord_. All three books are similar in their approach: they are simply stories about rather mundane people who are the victims/benefactors of very unusual events. That, and a friend's recommendation, are what drew me to this out-of-the-ordinary fantasy book. Actually, all of the books I've read by Watt-Evans thus far (including the Ethshar books and the Lords of Dus series) are similar in this regard, and I find it very refreshing. Not something I'd recommend for everyone, of course, but it's nice to read a light and entertaining story once in a while which doesn't have the fate of the whole world hanging in the balance (well, that's not entirely true in the Lords of Dus series, but I digress). This particular story revolves around an apprentice wizard named Tobas, who is just at the point of mastering his first spell when his master passes away. True to the form of Watt-Evans' hapless characters, Tobas promptly burns down all of his master's old valuable possessions when he tries to break the seals on his master's Book of Spells, leaving poor Tobas looking forward to a bleak future of helplessness and poverty until he decides to venture to the mainland from his home to see what the Hegemony of Ethshar has to offer for him. At first dazzled by the glamor of the big cities, Tobas' stomach soon leads him on a fruitless hunt for work. Finding that no wizards want the burden of an old apprentice and that the town guards have little patience for vagrants, Tobas allows himself to be talked into becoming a dragon hunter by a silver-tongued recruiter. Soon after, Tobas arrives in a remote kingdom with the assignment of killing a nasty local dragon. The rewards, of course, are considerable for Tobas should he succeed, but the job also carries a high mortality rate. It's a real delight to read about Tobas and his fellow recruit, Peren, as they hunt for the dragon like the hapless idiots they are. While not intended as Pratchett-like slapstick, Evans' subtle humor shines through in this book. Of course, Tobas soon finds himself deeply involved in magic and adventure, as one might expect, and it's a delight to follow along with him. The beauty of Watt-Evans style is that he lets the plot follow the protagonist along seemingly random paths, giving the reader a feeling of freedom, for lack of a better term, while still providing a story rich in detail and characterization. Again, it's not the kind of story that I can recommend for everyone, but if you've read too much epic fantasy by Tolkien, Eddings, Donaldson and the like, give Watt-Evans a chance. I picture the first three authors as scholarly professors, preaching a complex and inspiring tale from on high while Watt-Evans, on the other hand, is the weathered old camp guide who is glad to share an amusing tale over a campfire. Each storyteller has his own merits, so if this is the kind of story you're looking for, Lawrence Watt-Evans' Ethshar series may be for you. %A Watt-Evans, Lawrence %T With A Single Spell %I Ballantine Books %C New York %D March 1987 %G ISBN 0-345-32616-4 %P 263 pp. %O paperback, US$3.50 %O order from Ballantine Mail Salies, Dept. TA, 201 E 50th St., NYC, NY 10022. Doug Ingram // ingram@dirac.phys.washington.edu // ingram@u.washington.edu "Carpe Datum" From rec.arts.sf-reviews Fri Aug 16 04:25:50 1991 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!samsung!know!mtgzy.att.com!ecl From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-reviews Subject: NEWER YORK edited by Lawrence Watt-Evans Message-ID: <31610@know.pws.bull.com> Date: 14 Aug 91 15:34:00 GMT Sender: wex@pws.bulL.com Reply-To: ecl@mtgzy.att.com Followup-To: rec.arts.sf-lovers Lines: 50 Approved: wex@pws.bull.com NEWER YORK edited by Lawrence Watt-Evans A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright (c)1991 Evelyn C. Leeper This original anthology of twenty-four stories has as its theme the New York of the future (though one is more an alternate history/cross-time story). In his introduction, Watt-Evans talks about the appeal New York has always had for science fiction writers. This may be true, but I would be curious to see what the sales figures for this in and out of New York are compared to a randomly chosen anthology. Is this perhaps the product of a bunch of New Yorkers who think everyone is fascinated by New York? With twenty-four stories one gets quite a range of styles, from humorous fantasy to dark horror to classic science fiction. In a single author collection or "Year's Best" anthology this is fine, but here the strong stories overpower the lighter works. After A. J. Austin's "Another Dime, Another Place" (a tale of a magical bag lady), a story about racing pink elephants, no matter how well written, is going to look pale and frivolous. And the examination of relationships in Martha Soukup's "Ties" makes a brief look into a yuppie toddler's mind seem superficial, even if in another setting it might have proved amusing. There are the usual cyberpunkish futures, of course. There is the haunting ghost story "Long Growing Season" by Robert J. Howe. There are a couple of horror stories. (One suspects some people may say *any* New York story is a horror story.) And there is on distressingly obvious story: Warren Murphy and Molly Cochran's "A Nice Place to Visit." (In their defense, they are primarily mystery writers and may not be familiar with the Pohl and Harrison stories this parallels, or with John Carpenter's ESCAPE >FROM NEW YORK. But the editor should have noticed.) On the whole this is a good anthology, and its size means there's probably something for every taste. (It helps to spread the stories out, so that a light story doesn't suffer by following immediately on the heels of a powerful one.) But then I'm a New Yorker and may not be impartial. If you are not familiar with New York you may react to this as I would to an anthology of sports science fiction. Assuming you have some interest in the subject, try this book. %B NEWER YORK %E Lawrence Watt-Evans %C New York (where else? :-) ) %D June 1991 %I ROC %O paperback, US$4.50 [1991] %G ISBN 0-451-45045-0 %P 370pp Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com From /tmp/sf.15692 Tue Mar 30 18:13:51 1993 Path: lysator.liu.se!fizban.solace.hsh.se!kitten.umdc.umu.se!sunic!lunic!eru.mt.luth.se!enterpoop.mit.edu!usc!wupost!spool.mu.edu!agate!stanford.edu!rutgers!micro-heart-of-gold.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu.!wex From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: CROSSTIME TRAFFIC by Lawrence Watt-Evans Message-ID: <9211252117.AA14781@presto.ig.com> Date: 26 Nov 92 03:55:00 GMT Sender: news@news.media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.misc Organization: Lines: 72 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) CROSSTIME TRAFFIC by Lawrence Watt-Evans A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1992 Evelyn C. Leeper Although the blurb says, "When travelers from alternate realities collide, an infinite number of possibilities arise," this description applies to only ten of the nineteen stories in this collection, and even that is probably stretching it. All this proves, of course, is that Watt- Evans isn't as limited as the blurb might imply. It is true that more than half of the stories are about alternate realities, but from reading the introduction it does seem that the intent was to include in this collection all the stories Watt-Evans wrote in this category. The net result is a somewhat skewed sample of Watt-Evans's writing, I suspect. But on to the stories. There are at least four first-rate stories. "Why I Left Harry's All- Night Hamburgers" has won a Hugo and been nominated for a Nebula, but in case you're unfamiliar with it, let me just say that this captures the sense of wonder of science fiction, and of other things, in a story of a visitor from parallel worlds. Alas, the sequel, "A Flying Saucer with Minnesota Plates," is not up to it in quality, but it was a tough act to follow. Another excellent story is "Truth, Justice, and the American Way," which I reviewed when it first appeared in Resnick's ALTERNATE PRESIDENTS. Here Watt-Evans postulates a victory by Hoover rather than Roosevelt in 1932. This results in a cascade of changes involving Japan, Germany, the Soviet Union, and Jews all over the world. This story is one that has stayed with me; it takes the old "what if World War II never happened?" question and gives it an unusual and perhaps surprising answer. In "Storm Trooper," the barriers between the alternate realties are developing holes, and pieces of other universes are falling into ours. Reality storms, they're called, and so to deal with them .... It seems a slim idea, but Watt-Evans develops it well. "Real Time" may be the ultimate Time Patrol story--after you've read it, you'll never look at the genre quite the same way again. Some of the other stories have their charms as well. "Monster Kidnaps Girl at Mad Scientist's Command!" is a fun send-up of old (and new) monster movies. If you like Bradbury, you'll appreciate "Windwagon Smith and the Martians." There's emotion in "An Infinity of Karen," Arabian Nights fantasy in "The Palace of al-Tir al-Abtan," pirates in "The Final Folly of Captain Dancy," ... in short, something for everyone. I suppose my one complaint is more directed at the editor than Watt- Evans. The book is poorly laid out. The stories behind the stories, which would normally be set as paragraphs before the appropriate stories, are run together in a sixteen-page introduction that is somewhat daunting. Then, instead of leading off with the strongest story, the book starts with Watt- Evans's first story--a clever enough piece, but not the strong start one expects. As a result, the reader might give up prematurely, thinking, "If this is the BEST story, ...." That would be a pity, so I will specifically warn against such thinking. This collection is worth reading, and I recommend it. %B Crosstime Traffic %A Lawrence Watt-Evans %C New York %D 1992 %I Del Rey %O paperback, US$3.99 %G ISBN 0-345-37395-2 %P 247pp Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | ecl@mtgzy.att.com -- --Alan Wexelblat, Reality Hacker and Cyberspace Bard Media Lab - Advanced Human Interface Group wex@media.mit.edu Voice: 617-258-9168, Pager: 617-945-1842 wexelblat.chi@xerox.com The world may not be plaid, but that doesn't stop me painting stripes. From rec.arts.sf.written Sun Aug 28 23:52:15 1994 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!trane.uninett.no!eunet.no!nuug!EU.net!uunet!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!news.umbc.edu!eff!news.duke.edu!godot.cc.duq.edu!hudson.lm.com!terrazzo.lm.com!not-for-mail From: dani@telerama.lm.com Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Watt-Evans and Friesner: Split Heirs Date: 28 Aug 1994 10:39:09 -0400 Organization: Telerama Public Access Internet, Pittsburgh, PA USA Lines: 15 Message-ID: <33q7id$kbo@terrazzo.lm.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: terrazzo.lm.com I can't properly review "Split Heirs", by Lawrence Watt-Evans and Esther Friesner, because I couldn't read past the first forty-odd pages. It's one bad joke after another. Obviously it's a humor which appeals to some people, because I've heard good things about this book, but three chapters about a kingdom in which nobody has the brains of a radish were all I could handle. ----- 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 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Aug 4 02:47:27 1996 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!02-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!01-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!Austria.EU.net!EU.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.kei.com!uhog.mit.edu!news!news From: "Stevens R. Miller" Subject: Review: "The Lure of the Basilisk" by Lawrence Watt-Evans Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Keywords: author=Stevens R. Miller Lines: 137 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu (Graystreak) Organization: Law Office of Stevens R. Miller X-Newsreader: (ding) Gnus v0.94 Date: Sun, 28 Jul 1996 21:30:46 GMT Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Lines: 137 "The Lure of the Basilisk" by Lawrence Watt-Evans Review by Stevens R. Miller This review is in the public domain. Books take their readers to other times, other places. None do that so well as fantasy novels. The fantasy author has the power of a god and can use it to build worlds that neither do, nor ever really could, exist. That's an awesome task by itself, yet the fantasy author, having built a world, must go on to the more mundane task of telling a story there. And, mundane as it may be -- by comparison to having scratch-built a universe -- it can be rather more difficult than most other fictive drama. This is because, lacking anything familiar, the fantasy world may not easily generate events about which a reader will care. The great names of the genre have most often met this challenge by implicating tremendous issues that generate a sympathetic concern. Tolkien, the archetype, put the whole of Middle Earth into jeopardy and equated Frodo's struggle against Sauron with the transcendent battle of all good against all evil. If the reader doesn't care about that, what else is there? To make the story accessible, Tolkien made Frodo as simple and ordinary a character as he could. The reader may not be a hobbit, but he can identify with being a small player in the great game of life. The interplay of vast, forbidding forces and Frodo's gentle honesty made perfect use of an impossible time and place to tell a gripping story. In "The Lure of the Basilisk," Lawrence Watt-Evans chose to do it a harder way. Nothing so grand as good-versus-evil is implicated as the protagonist, Garth, pursues his self-appointed quest for eternal fame. Instead, putting his faith in a local oracle, Garth (a big, strong, slightly dumb humanoid non-human known as an "overman") accepts the assignment of the Forgotten King to capture and bring back the first living thing he finds in the crypts of the city of Mormoreth. That's a pretty big order, as it turns out, but it's not the start of a big story. That is, while one might develop a vicarious sense of purpose while reading about the penetration of Mordor, who would care about Garth's ego? Well... I would. Or, to be more accurate, I came to care about the adventure his ego forced upon him. While I didn't particularly give a damn about his reasons, I was able continuously to identify with Garth's approach to his mission. Watt-Evans has told this story in meticulous detail, never wavering from Garth's third-person limited point of view. As a result, the reader sees what Garth sees, knows what Garth knows, and has the chance to noodle out the solutions to the myriad problems that Garth must solve. It's almost like (to overuse a phrase) being there. For example, Garth acquires a jewel that can render him invisible. Upon his first use, he discovers that this has a few downsides. To begin, he can't see his own body or possessions (and burns his fingers as a result). Next, he can't move anything that he can see. Then, he drops his sword and can't find it. Say, what if he drops the jewel? Uh oh... Though Garth isn't human, he's nothing so special that the reader feels intimidated. Instead of being a character for the reader to watch, Garth is a vehicle for the reader to ride. You don't follow him, so much as let him carry you along. As his quest proceeds, the reader can't help but want Garth to succeed, because -- as with Frodo -- a sympathetic bond develops. It takes a few pages for this to happen, but it grows stronger as Garth's progress improves. Garth himself is a refreshingly direct, honest fellow. He has no love for violence or death and will not cause more trouble than he can justify. He's a dreadful liar with the result that his straightforward dialogs are more disarming to his adversaries than any Baileyesque cross-examination. And, though he isn't human, he has no remarkable special abilities that appear when nothing else will solve the dilemma of the moment. Now, in case it isn't clear, I liked this book. But, one might ask, why choose something from 1980 (and probably out of print, as far as I know) to review? As with the problem of fantasy itself, what could possibly make anyone care about "Lure" when Watt-Evans is publishing new stuff today? The answer is in the amplified power of this particular book to do what other books can only do in a limited way: take you to another time. In this case, the time is the moment when a new writer's career was launched. In an engaging and self-effacing essay (available among his Web pages), Watt-Evans has explained the birth of this novel as the almost-didn't-make-it springboard to the twenty-something novels and over 100 short stories that have followed it. (Let's not be ambiguous: "Lure" has three sequels; the other stuff is just the rest of the author's oeuvre.) In an autobiographical sketch that parents everywhere should keep from their children (for fear they will all follow his example), Watt-Evans does as much as anyone can to reinforce the notion that a relentless, chuck-it-all devotion to writing will get one published. He flunked out of Princeton (Princeton!) and was told to wait a year before reapplying. He collected over 70 rejection slips (submitted with that reapplication as evidence of his seriousness) while waiting for his first sale. "Lure," which had begun as a novelette (novella? I can never remember the difference), was one of those. Years later, rid of Princeton for a second time, Watt-Evans was at the eve of abandoning writing altogether when Del Rey told him they would buy the novel version of the story. To read it is, therefore, to see the author in another time and place. Apparently steeped in the modality of late '70s fantasy, the young (twenty-five or so) writer spoke in a voice of those times. For example, Garth's field of vision is his "gaze." A dining room is a "chamber." Townsfolk say "methinks." It gets a bit grandiloquent at times, but that's the way fantasy was, in the late '70s. In the same vein, fantasy of that era often seemed a bit embarrassed about itself. As a result, one often found hints that the world being rendered was either a precursor (Tolkien himself gave in to this one) or follower of our own. Watt-Evans hints that Garth lives in a land descended of the one we live in. It neither helps nor hinders the story; I suspect it is merely an artifact of the times in which the author found himself. In delightful contrast to these features -- which are a minor aspect of the book as a whole -- are the passages where the author's individual voice is clear. For example, when Garth is confronted in a show-down by the wizard Shang, he is told, "You will recall that I told you I would kill you if you captured the basilisk." He answers, "We all make foolish remarks on occasion." A purely derivative author, slaving himself to Howard or Lovecraft, wouldn't have had the confidence for dialog so droll. Lawrence Watt-Evans is, by anyone's standard, an established professional writer. "The Lure of the Basilisk," his first book, does more than take you to its fantasy world. It will take you to the moment when a coming professional writer didn't yet know he would ever be established, when a Ring of Power set the standard he would have to meet, and when a Princeton degree meant no more to him than being a teller of stories. 3 stars out of 4. %A Watt-Evans, Lawrence %D March 1980 %G 0-345-28624-3 %I Ballantine Books %T Lure of the Basilisk, The -- Stevens R. Miller http://www.interport.net/~lex/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Nov 10 23:37:28 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!usenet From: "Aaron M. Renn" Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Dragon Weather by Lawrence Watt-Evans Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 08 Nov 1999 14:45:20 -0500 Organization: GNU's Not Unix! Lines: 46 Sender: wex@deepspace.media.mit.edu Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: deepspace.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 20.3 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2496 Dragon Weather by Lawrence Watt-Evans Review Copyright (c) 1999 Aaron M. Renn Conclusion: Worth Reading Watt-Evans frequently posts on a newsgroup I read, so when I saw that he had a new release out, I figured I'd buy it even though I was unfamiliar with his work. That's the easy part of ass kissing. The hard part is writing a review and posting it to said newsgroup where he'll see it. But I'm either brave or foolish -- take your pick -- so here it goes. Arlian is a young boy in a backwoods town whose life is upended when dragons swoop in and destroy his village, killing everyone but him. Almost immediately thereafter a band of looters shows up and sells our friend Arlian into slavery. After seven years of working in an iron mine, Arlian escapes and swears vengeance on those who mistreated him. Lots of adventure and mayhem ensues. Despite its length, the book is a quick and entertaining read. I got the impression that it was written to appeal to a younger audience, though the hardcover price tag is certainly for the very mature. Mostly the book is an action/adventure story with a few elements of mystery and romance thrown in. The question of "What is justice?" is explored as the main philosophical point, but not at any serious level of depth. Much like Julian May's Perseus Spur, which I also recently read, this one was far more entertaining than I would have expected from the storyline and writing style. Perhaps that's because light adventure stories appeal to me. I don't know. After the more serious On Blue's Waters by Gene Wolfe that I just finished, this sort of fun novel was exactly what I needed. I'm not sure it's worth $27 for a hardcover, but this one is definitely worth picking up in a paperback edition. Warning: Obligatory sequels sure to follow, though this book stands alone and finishes with a nice bang. %A Watt-Evans, Lawrence %T Dragon Weather %I Tor %D 1999-10 %G ISBN 0-312-86978-9 %P 480 pp. %O hardcover, US$26.95 Aaron M. Renn (arenn@urbanophile.com) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/