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From: jeffh@brl-sem.ARPA (the Shadow)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Cherryh vs. McCaffrey
Message-ID: <370@brl-sem.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 15-Aug-85 16:22:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-sem.370
Posted: Thu Aug 15 16:22:00 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 19-Aug-85 08:10:01 EDT
References: <3170@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> <348@baylor.UUCP>
Reply-To: jeffh@brl-semnes (VLD/VMB) .ARPA (the Shadow)
Organization: only the Shadow knows
Lines: 42

>> >May St. Patrick forgive you for the mortal insult to Erin.  I will
>> >struggle to do the same.  I concede that McCaffrey may be a 'low
>> >taste' writer, but she can at least imbue her characters with some
>> >personality--something at which Cherryh fails utterly.
>
>And gee, on the local bulletin boards we just had a discussion about how
>bad her male characters are. They all talk like a '50s western.
>
>I like her stuff, but to compare Cherryh unfavorably with her? Ick.

HA!!  McCaffrey is wonderful!  Her books always have an accesible
plot which the reader can recognize in minutes by relating the
current book to any of her other works.  Her protagonists lose
nothing in the translation from book to book, nor do they suffer
a change in personality to match their name changes and her minor
caricatures never get in the way of her plots.  Many authors could
learn something about consistency from her; her readers always know
what they are going to get from a McCaffrey book.

CJ Cherryh, on the other hand, has actually had the *gall* to vary
her writing style between books.  She throws in plot twists that
surprise her readers when they absolutely *knew* what was going to
happen next.  She even forces the poor reader to acquaint himself
with a character from *scratch*, no prior referents allowed (her
characters even mature as time passes), as if anyone really needs
a new person at the center of each story.  Her alien societies feel
totally foreign to human experience; how can she expect any reader
to relate to that?

Give me McCaffrey any day, that way I won't have to think too much.

All this may have something to do with why I only have all 23 (24?)
of CJ Cherryh's books sitting on my shelf, but have an entire three
of Anne McCaffrey's.

	"Lord Julius, the Minister for Executive Planning requests an audience."
	"Not a chance -- the last time I gave him an audience,
	 he just stood there and stuttered till everyone walked out."

				the Shadow
				ARPA:	
				UUCP:	{seismo,decvax}!brl!jeffh