On May 12, 2004, at 11:12 AM, Joshua Kronengold wrote: > Dennis Higbee writes: >> As far as Martin v. Jordan goes, I'm not sure what you mean by "tinker >> with the formula." Jordan's not formulaic. Someone like Feist is >> formulaic; he tells the same story over and over. > > Is he? I'm annoyed by Feist because he's a mediocre writer, because > he stole (through a third party, but who cares?) outrageously from > M. A. Barker (and never admitted it), and because cutting Magician > where they did for the paperback edition was a crime against humanity, > but I wouldn't say that, say, Magician was particularly similar to > Mistress of the Empire, or that either was similar in any way to > Faerie Tale. He also fell into that David Eddings trap of allowing his nobles to up and leave on year long, globe spanning quests.