On Sun, 26 Jan 2003 08:51:42 -0600, you wrote: > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: lazarus [mailto:lazarus33pjf at cox.net] >> Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 PM >> To: Steven Brust >> Cc: David Goldfarb; dragaera at dragaera.info >> Subject: Re: An unspoiled perspective on _Agyar_ >> >> >> On Sat, 25 Jan 2003 17:49:22 -0800, you wrote: >> >> >At 04:44 PM 1/25/2003 -0800, David Goldfarb wrote: >> >>not to risk damaging them. So, he read _Agyar_ without >> being spoiled >> >>by the blurb. He reports that he got about halfway through >> the book >> >>before the penny dropped -- he'd had clues before then, but it took >> >>the hero taking a shotgun blast before he was sure what was >> going on. >> > >> >Interesting. But...I can't figure out how that dust jacket >> blurb could >> >have given anything away that wasn't evident by about page 6. >> > >> >> I didn't get it until halfway through, either, but then, I went into >> knowing exactly one thing, it was a Steve Brust novel. That's it. > >Never underestimate readers' obtuseness. (Mine included.) Maybe we get >so accustomed to being told outright, so when someone doesn't hide it, >but doesn't say it outright, we don't know what to do. If we believe >everything we read, then it follows that we do not believe something we >don't read! > >Rachel I think it could also be due to the subtlety of Steve's writing. Most novelists would be very ham-handed about it, if nothing else pounding you over the head with the fact that there might be a surprise, or a twist. Steve's writing is so damned subtle and smooth you find yourself halfway through it before you get a chance to step back and evaluate where you are from outside the book. -- lazarus "Therefore, my Harry, Be it thy course to busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out, may waste the memory of the former days." -- King Henry IV, Part ii Act 4, Scene 5