--- Matthew Hunter <matthew at infodancer.org> wrote: > On Tue, Feb 15, 2005 at 09:29:15PM -0800, Steve Brust > <skzb at dreamcafe.com> wrote: > > On Tue, 2005-02-15 at 19:30, Mark A. Mandel wrote: > > > The sexual masochism of the narrator is central to her character and > to the > > > plot, but it is not the point of the book. The author does not dwell > in (gory, > > > juicy, sickening... take your pick) detail on those scenes, any more > than Gene > > > Wolfe luxuriates in torture scenes in his Shadow of the Torturer > tetralogy. Well, somewhat more. > > Well put. That was my recation as well. > > Thirded. If anything, that aspect of the series is somewhat > underdeveloped; it's important in one fairly vital way, but the > reader is not really given the opportunity to understand why the > character reacts that way, This one's been dealt with. > nor does that aspect of her > personality grow or change detectably. Somewhat unfortunate, but they're notbooks where you look for depth of any kind. Another complaint I have about her sexuality is that it's repetitive. Silk ropes, whip, X-acto knife, orgasm. Many real sadists and masochists have varied fetishes and like to act out dramas (which one of Phedre's customers does once, if I remember correctly). Or so I'm told. > But everything else about > the series ranks very, very highly. Not to my taste. I enjoyed it, but I had to overlook the writing style with its endless malapropisms, as well as the Germanish, Jewishish, Irishish, etc. cultures. Unlike Mark, I couldn't mention it in the same sentence as _The Book of the New Sun_. (I know he wasn't comparing prose, philosophical depth, etc.) -- Jerry Friedman __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250