On Thu, 2002-12-19 at 12:22, Andrew Lias wrote: > > > There's a reason for this, at least as regards Feng's -- it's not > > > one of his better works. ;) That and To Reign In Hell both had > > > significant problems. > > > >Strange.. I really enjoyed both books, although I do consider 'To Reign > >in Hell' to be one of the best books I've read, period. It's also the > >book I recommend to people who want to read Brust, but not necessarily > >jump into a series. > > Ditto, per tRiH. I can't tell you how many times I've reread it, or how > many times, for that matter, that I've bought it because my copies of it > keep walking off. > > I suppose that one could argue that there are points where Steven gets a > little too precious... depicting Mephistopheles as a dog who speaks > Elizibethian English is pretty zany, but I think that it's a good zany. > > More than that, the book tackles a tough theological question. At the time > I first read it, I was still a devout Muslim (although the book assumes a > more-or-less Christian cosmology, Islamic theology is close enough for the > question to be valid). I won't say that this is *the* book that motivated > me to return to atheism, but it was certainly influential in as much as it > helped to catalyze certain thought processes. As such, I not only think > that it's an excellent book, in and of itself, but it is a book that has > particular meaningfulness, to me. I'm not a Christian myself, although I do know a bit about the mythos. I personally found it very interesting because I don't necessarily believe in absolute good and evil. While there are things I consider good and evil, I still believe that for the most part these are concepts designed by society, not by higher beings. So I liked seeing the classical 'good' and 'evil' portrayed as being nothing more than just individuals who were pushed into certain things by the events surrounding them (and the unknowing help of a single trickster). On a different level, I also find it interesting that an event as momentous as the Fall could be caused by littler other than one person just having a little fun with what he told people. > >I've never read F&N. I started once, then started to lose track of who > >is who, then was told by friends who are much better at keeping track of > >characters that they had the same problem.. so I put it down and just > >haven't picked it up again. > > I'm always leery of collaborations, so I've been really reluctant to even > pick it up. Then again, I was reluctant to start tStM&tS (for different > reasons) and tore through it once I got past the first few chapters > (although I'm still puzzled at the relationship between the two story > lines). Some collaborations are good.. ie Good Omens and Gypsy. Jag