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From: patcl@tektronix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: SotT comments
Message-ID: <1206@tektroni.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 5-Jul-83 02:24:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: tektroni.1206
Posted: Tue Jul  5 02:24:59 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 30-Jun-83 03:19:27 EDT
Lines: 20

After reading the accolades for SotT ("better than Tolkein", etc.),
I started it with high expectations. It was one of the
most poorly written novels I've read, and the
only thing that kept me going all the way through was the fact
I kept expecting (due to the rave reviews)
some fantastic plot twist which would suddenly make
everything interesting. In fact, "plot" (what there was of it)
development occurs at a snail's pace. Wolf is constantly (and
annoyingly) meandering off onto something totally unrelated to
the current situation or anything else in the book.
Is this supposed to create a "mystical" tone? Or does Wolf perhaps
simply not have the ability to create a coherent story?
The use of made-up names (for animals, etc.) which are never
explained really seems like a cheap literary trick (since it's easy
to make up a strange name, but harder to really invent something
and make the reader understand it). As to comparisons with
Tolkein: SotT is as bad as LotR is good.

	Patrick Clancy
	Tektronix