----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Simmons" <scs at lokkur.dexter.mi.us> To: <Gaertk at aol.com> Cc: <dragaera at dragaera.info> Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2004 10:19 AM Subject: Re: Amber -> Dragaera? /snip/ > > My presumption is that Zelazny, like Gordy Dickson in his last few > years, made a financial decision to do the Amber work for money rather > than craft or art. I certianly understand and respect that decision, > and as a husband and father I'll even salute it. But it doesn't mean > I have to respect the work turned out because of that decision. And > I am very pleased that Zelazny still set aside time and effort to write > Zelazny books alongside the Amber books. If only Gordy's health and > circumstances could have permitted the same, sigh. > > the other Steve > I get the same feeling. It's the one that hovers (IMO) over Glen Cook's later Garrett novels. For one thing, small plot elements begin to consume more and more pages. You get the feeling the author is mechanically moving the characters from place to place, rather than paring down exposition and description to the minimum necessary to support the hot-potato story he can't wait to get onto the page ("Now I'm going to show you something REALLY cool"). When Zelazney was (again, IMO) really having fun with what he wrote, ideas and developments came thick and fast. In the first novel in each series (Amber and Cook's Garrett books), the author creates and populates an entire alternate universe, plus tells an intense and complicated story within that universe. The later books get longer, and do so without the heavy lifting of world-building. Eventually, rather minor stories take volumes to tell; things drag. Of course, there are a lot of other variables, and this is just my general impression. But in each case, the "drag" of the later volumes had to overcome my entuisiasm for the series; i.e., I tore into the books, eager for more, only to be disappointed. LJ