Dragaera

A question re: Beginning Fantasy for Youth

Dennis Higbee den at monger.net
Mon Nov 25 10:08:51 PST 2002

On Mon, 25 Nov 2002, Matthew Hunter wrote:

> On Mon, Nov 25, 2002 at 10:36:31AM -0600, David Dyer-Bennet <dd-b at dd-b.net> wrote:
> > "Casey Rousseau" <casey at trinityhartford.org> writes:
> > > As for Kurtz, yes, I was explicitly recommending the first two trilogies.
> > That's about right.  Either that or just the first 1.  I'd be very
> > doubtful about anything past that, anyway.
> 
> That's odd.  IMHO they get better, rather than worse.  
> Particularly the first trilogy -- it's very rough, obviously an 
> early and unpolished set of books.

This is the consensus among Deryni fans.  The author herself has said on 
numerous occasions that she'd like to take out a number of elements from 
the first trilogy that she only put in because she "thought they had to
be there."

> But then, I am a bit of an occultist myself, so I speak Kurtz's 
> language regarding the endless use of ritual magic by the Deryni. 
> That's such a large component of the later books that anyone not 
> on her wavelength would find it rough going.

I'm not interested in the occult at all, and I enjoy all the Deryni books.  
I am interested in medieval history, though.  I think that might be 
another core audience for her.

-Dennis