> 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. Yeah, nothing like the real world at all... (Crusades anyone?) Not that I'm defending Jordan <shudder>, and I stopped reading Feist probably 10+ years ago, but historically nobles had a pretty obnoxious tendency to travel on 'quests' (aka military campaigns) - and our historical heroic literature (Medieval Romances like the Grail Romances, Beowulf, Iliad, Odyssey, etc) are full of the same 'trap'. Sorry I just don't think that's a particularly valid criticism. David Rodemaker