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From: SUTHERLAND@TL-20A.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Wounded Land Series...
Message-ID: <2372@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 25-Jun-85 10:28:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.2372
Posted: Tue Jun 25 10:28:05 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Jun-85 01:58:44 EDT
Sender: daemon@topaz.ARPA
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: Dean Sutherland 


Jim Gardner says:

> Second reason.  NOBODY in any branch of literature (that I have
> read) can match Donaldson for vileness.  Everyone else is a
> bush-leaguer compared to him: constantly despicable protagonists
> surrounded by even worse antagonists with just enough virtuous
> characters on the periphery to make the others seem worse in
> contrast.  

Try Glen Cook's "Black Company" trilogy (The Black Company, Shadows Linger, and
The White Rose).  The Black Company of the title is a mercenary company trying
to survive and fulfill their contracts (in that order).  They are working for
one of the most evil types I have run across in a long time.  Their job is to
put down a rebellion.  Most things, however, are not what they seem (of
course), but it still takes until the third book of the trilogy to meet anyone
who might be accurately described as a "goodguy".

The series is VERY bleak, but it is good reading.  Unlike TC, it has no great
literary pretensions.  Instead it is a quality piece of workmanship; a good
read with at least a few well developed characters.  I recommend it for anyone
who is not easily depressed.

Dean F. Sutherland
(sutherland@Tartan.ARPA)