Conference noted::sf

    MacAvoy has produced a sequel to "Tea with the Black Dragon," entitled
    "Twisting the Rope."  It takes place a few years after the first
    novel, in 1986 in fact.  Mayland Long and Martha Macnamara are still
    a couple, though Martha has so far not accepted Mayland's proposals.
    They are running a concert tour of a traditional Irish music band.
    One of the band members turns up dead and everyone is suspect.
    
    Just as in "Tea with the Black Dragon," the fantasy elements in
    this book are very subdued.  More subdued, in a way, than in the
    first book.  It is a pretty good read, but I found it less engrossing
    that TwtBD, perhaps because the fantasy element, when revealed,
    wasn't nearly as remarkable as the element revealed in TwtBD.
    
    At least it shows a realistic version (barring the immediate problems
    they are solving) of what the "happily ever after" of the first novel
    would be like.  Also, you get to meet Martha and Mayland again,
    which I find pleasant in itself.  Perhaps this is the middle book
    of a trilogy and just suffering from mid-trilogy slump, a common
    ailment.
    
    If you really liked "Tea with the Black Dragon," you may kinda like
    this one.
    
    Earl Wajenberg

    I have recently read "The Grey Horse," a new fantasy by MacAvoy,
    set in Victorian Ireland.  I recommend it highly.  The hero is a
    puka, a shapeshifting fairy.  He is an interesting character, earthy,
    innocent, and likeable, but still not entirely human.
    
    Earl Wajenberg

	I might be wrong, but aren't the books Beauty, The Blue Sword
	and it's sequel (I cann't remember it's name), also by MacAvoy ?

	If they are, and anyone wants to know more I will dig them out
	of my library and post summaries.

	CJA

    If "Beauty" is the recent re-telling of the Beauty-and-the-Beast
    story, then no, it isn't by MacAvoy, though I can't remember the
    author's name.
    
    Earl Wajenberg

    
    The books you're thinking of are by Robin McKinley, not Roberta
    MacAvoy.  McKinley writes excellent children's fantasy (YA, too)
    and has won the Newbery Award and had a Newbery Honor Book. Her
    books include:
       BEAUTY
       THE BLUE SWORD (Newbery Honor)
       THE HERO AND THE CROWN (Newbery Award)
       THE DOOR IN THE HEDGE (novelettes)
    
    Andrew Sigel
    

	Re: .-1

	Yup, your'e right, I looked them up over the weekend.

	I enjoyed them anyway, even if they are not by R.A.MacAvoy.
	I haven't read THE DOOR IN THE HEDGE though, any good ?

	CJA

    Haven't read anything by McKinley that isn't any good.
    	Andrew

    	And oh by the way...
    
    	Don't be put off by a book because it's a "children's book".
    In fact, The sight of the Newberry award on any fantasy book will
    make my buy it even if I've never heard of the author in my life.
    
    	Another vote for the McKinley books.  Beauty was marvolous and
    I can't wait for another book in the Damar series.  Door in the Hedge
    is a bit less acessible than her other books, I found, but not bad.
    McKinley is one of the half dozen authors that I ALWAYS look for
    and that Gary (my husband) knows he should buy on sight.
    
tlh
        

    Perhaps it's time to start a topic on McKinley?

	Re: .7    -< They don't give those awards for nothing... >-



	Yeah, but they're American ..... :^}

    R. A. MacAvoy has come out with a new novel, "Lens of the World," the
    first in a trilogy.  For those of you who, like me, are sick of 
    sequelitis, take heart; MacAvoy knows how to write a real trilogy
    (three separate but linked novels, as opposed to one novel published in
    three installments).  I would never have known this was a triology if
    the cover hadn't said so.  Furthermore, if the "Trio for Lute" is any
    guide, the next book need not suffer from mid-trilogy slump.
    
    "Lens of the World" is an epistolary novel, written as a series of
    letters from the narrator to his king.  The narrator is Nazhuret "the
    Goblin," aged forty, narrating the adventures he had around age 20.
    He was an ugly little shrimp of a boy, growing up at an Eton-like
    boarding school for gentry, sponsored by a remote uncle, with no known
    parentage himself.  After graduation he meets Powl, a man who becomes
    (though that word is never used) his guru, and the adventures start.
    
    This is MacAvoy's first fantasy set in a fictitious world.  (But not
    her first such fiction.  "Third Eagle" is set in an SF future.)  At
    first I thought it was the semi-standard medieval-or-something world of
    Tolkien-and-water fantasy, but no, it's a Renaissance-or-something
    world.  Watching the parallels and differences is interesting.  The
    narrator's country is sort of like England a century or so after the
    Norman conquest, but, like France, borders a country full of people
    like Moors.  So far, so medieval.  But the technical level is
    definitely renaissance, as the reference to lenses shows.
    
    But the unreality of the nations and languages is nearly the only
    fantasy touch.  The hero MAY encounter a werewolf, but he is never
    really sure.  He certainly encounters a large carnivore, but whether it
    should be called a dragon or not is very arguable.  No one does any
    obviously effective magic.  But, as with "Tea with the Black Dragon,"
    this very light tincture of fantasy works well.  For one thing, it
    keeps you guessing, since you do not know what is truly possible here.
    
    And, as always, MacAvoy's characters and narrative style are excellent.
    
    Earl Wajenberg

    After a long gap, the second book of the "Lens of the World" trilogy
    has come out.  It is called "The King of the Dead" and is the further
    adventures of Nazhuret.  (See .11.)
    
    "King of the Dead" is what Nazhuret's name means in the language of
    Rezhmia.  Rezhmia is the vaguely Arabic nation bordering on Velonya,
    the vaguely Norman-English nation where Nazhuret lives.  He has a
    foreign name because his mother was Rezhmian -- and of noble birth. 
    This geneology, combined with the yogi-like skills he acquired in the
    previous book, are the reason he is sent on an espionage/diplomatic
    mission to Rezhmia, to try to head off a war.
    
    He is accompanied by his lady-love, Arlin, whom we met in the first
    book, a sort of lady musketeer.  (She is not typical of Velonyan or 
    Rezhmian women, a fact that is not only rationalized but made an 
    integral feature of the plot.)
    
    I haven't finished the book yet, but it looks as if MacAvoy does indeed
    avoid the mid-trilogy slump as I said in .11.
    
    Earl Wajenberg

I read _KotD_ before _LotW_ and found I liked _KotD_ much better.  In fact,
given the wrappers for each novel, it makes more sense that way.  Nazhuret
writing for his tutor in the second book, while in the first for the king
about his tutor (after the tutor had died).