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Forum URL: http://www.eyrie-productions.com/Forum/dcboard.cgi
Forum Name: Undocumented Features General
Topic ID: 145
Message ID: 10
#10, RE: Teaser for a possible Exile story...
Posted by Laudre on Oct-10-01 at 01:44 AM
In response to message #8
>Harrison has some -very- neat ideas (witness Make Room, Make Room! and
>the Eden series, to say nothing of the Rat's adventures), but he is at
>best, IMHO, a mediocre -writer.- His characters tend to be -very-
>one-dimensional, Slippery Jim being one of the few we get a more solid
>picture of.

No argument here, at least as far as the Stainless Steel Rat novels go. But then, the Rat books are maent to be full of one-dimensional caricatures that act pretty much as background material against which Our Hero acts.

I'd argue that his To The Stars trilogy (that's the name I know it by; I forget the titles of the individual novels, but it's some of the hardest SF I've ever read, and I have it in a book club omnibus edition) is an example of the kind of stuff he can do when he's being dead serious, and not having fun (Rat) or playing interesting what-if games (Eden, another work of his I greatly enjoy that has a few glaring flaws in its character development). While I'd have to sit down and reread it to give a more informed opinion (I read it in high school; while I still have it, I haven't reread it yet), I do recall being amazed that this was written by the same man responsible for Slippery Jim. (Though I get the same feeling when I read any given Eden book.)

> My favorite Rat story, for this reason is 'A Stainless
>Steel Rat is Born,' which gives us a solid view of where Jim comes
>from and how, despite his criminal tendencies, he developed his inner
>moral core.

That, I think, is my single favorite Rat story as well. I also greatly enjoy reading about the character of the Bishop, and the dialogue between Jim and the Bishop is hugely entertaining.

> as James and
>Bolivar were not even complex enough to be one-dimensional characters.
>They're the sci-fi pulp version of Rosencranz and Guildenstern.

They're mini-Jims. That's their entire raison d'etre from a plot standpoint.

-- Sean --

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