----- Original Message ----- From: "Dennis Higbee" <den at epia.monger.net> To: <dragaera at dragaera.info> Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 8:44 AM Subject: Re: OT: martin vs Jordan vs Feist vs... > On Wed, 12 May 2004, 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. > > But now he's well into his third Riftwar, and the last series at least had > the same bad guys as the first series and THE KING'S BUCANEER. There > are better examples of this than Feist, though. I should have used the > example that first popped into my head, the Xanth books by Anthony. Those > books are a textbook formula. > > -Dennis Ouch, someone *just* had to mention Anthony! At least I hadn't eaten yet! <shudder> warbi