Extremely condensed reviews: Daughter of Regals, Dzur, and Our Man in Camelot

[jack]

Daughter of Regals and Other Tales (Stephen Donaldson)

I have the same comments as of Reave the Just and Other Tales, namely that I much, much prefer his short stories to his novels, because they all have very interesting ideas, however I find it very draining that they're all about nasty people, nasty situations, and depression.

Roll on disfiguring diseases, people wallowing in self-hate, people cavorting in casual mistreatment of others, destruction of beautiful creatures and last shreds of hope, etc, etc. Obviously great literature is stereotypically associated with black despair, but I get a certain "unhealthy obsession" vibe.

Dzur (Stephen Brust)

I have the same comments as of the last few Vlad Taltos novels. It was fascinating for what it revealed about the overall story of the series, but I didn't really find the novel itself as engaging as some of the others.

Our Man in Camelot

I have the same comment as I really loved all the previous Anthony Price novels, even though friends have warned me that the couple immediately preceding this weren't necessarily up to snuff, but although it followed in the general practice of Price novels, and was fairly interesting in the characters and history, I didn't really engage with it as much as the others.

Major spoilers for Our Man in Camelot and War Games

I liked War Games a lot, being about Audley, and showing Paul Mitchell again coming into his own. But both books were about historical buried treasure made up by Russians again and I'm starting to see that plot twist coming!

Comments

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I'm not overly fond of Our Man in Camelot because of the narrator just not being as convincing as some of the others, but War Game is probably my absolute favourite, Audley POV is always fun and I do not think Audley ever gets his brain stretched quite that far anywhere else.

I find the later Vlad books grow on me on reflection and rereading; I am at a point now where I quite like Dzur, but I did not so much when first I read it. I love the Valabar's bits, though they make it a very bad book to read when even slightly hungry.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I find the later Vlad books grow on me on reflection and rereading

Ah! It seems likely I will too, as I grok the inter-connections more fully. Partly I liked the idea of the happy Dzur, but felt he never really became a character.

I loved the idea of the Valabar bits, but at least on first reading they felt a bit perfunctory. But I'll see how it goes on rereading

'm not overly fond of Our Man in Camelot ... but War Game is probably my absolute favourite,

Yeah. Although I think I prefer the first one (and the next couple) for the moment.