The Wizard of Karres by Lackey, Flint, Freer
David Johnston
having three authors named on the cover. Although I feel reasonably
certain that Sedmon the Sixth, aka Sedmon of the Six Lives was
intended to indicate that the same guy had been transferred from body
to body over his six reigns rather than that he was six clones. But I
suppose the squicky elements of the first interpretation would have
undermined the romantic subplot.
William George Ferguson
This was my comment back in 2004 when it came out (I was commenting in
alt.books.m-lackey, which is what I consider my 'home' group)
--begin quoted--
I read the new collaboration between Eric Flint, David Freer and Mercedes
Lackey with a great deal of trepidation. James Schmitz' "The Witches of
Karres" is one of my favorite books, and an attempted sequel by other
authors has a very large opportunity to create a partial vacuum with its
mouth.
It doesn't. The book is actually pretty good, and does a fairly decent
job of capturing the spirit of the original Karres book. It probably
isn't that close to what Schmitz wrote (and then lost during a move), but
still it does okay.
According to Eric Flint, over on rasfw, Misty wrote most of the circus
stuff, except the big fight at the very end of that section.
One of the posters on rasfw was ragging on the portrayal of the Leewit,
but I think they got her clumpin' right. The origin of her name/title was
a little too cute but I'll live with it because it was tied to the
Leewit's big solo adventure.
--end quoted--
Freer and Flint released a follow-up to Wizard of Karres recently. Here's
my comments from February
--begin quote--
Sorceress of Karres Eric Flint & David Freer FakeKarres-2 7
This is the second sequel novel to James Schmitz wonderful Witches of
Karres, this time written by Flint and Freer, without Lackey. As long as
you approach this as a picarasque space adventure, without expecting it to
join in with the original Karres book, it works fairly well. Flint and
Freer do a reasonable job of characterization on Pausert, Goth, and the
Leewit, but the book reads much less like Schmitz than the first sequel
Wizard of Karres. In thinking about it, I think one difference is the
tendency to over-explain what the characters are doing and why. Schmitz
tended let his readers figure things out for themselves. It also bothered
me that Pausert and others addressed the Leewit directly as "The Leewit"
(as in "The Leewit, man the forward gun turret.") As the Leewit herself
said in the original book, she 'the Leewit' like Pausert is 'the Captain'.
If referred to in the third person she should be the Leewit, but if talked
to directly, she really should be called just Leewit, for consistency's
sake (Goth in fact does call her Leewit at one point, but I suspect that
was on oversight on the authors' part).
--end quote--
--
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
(Bene Gesserit)
David Johnston
<wmgf...@newsguy.com> wrote:
>Freer and Flint released a follow-up to Wizard of Karres recently.
Yeah. I got the Wizard of Karres out because of that.
Howard Brazee
<wmgf...@newsguy.com> wrote:
>One of the posters on rasfw was ragging on the portrayal of the Leewit,
>but I think they got her clumpin' right. The origin of her name/title was
>a little too cute but I'll live with it because it was tied to the
>Leewit's big solo adventure.
I don't want to read about the origin of her name/title. It was
perfect as it was.
--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."
- James Madison
Brian M. Scott
<how...@brazee.net> wrote in
<news:of8k565cfb8m94m6s...@4ax.com> in
rec.arts.sf.written:
> On Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:31:49 -0700, William George Ferguson
> <wmgf...@newsguy.com> wrote:
>> One of the posters on rasfw was ragging on the portrayal
>> of the Leewit, but I think they got her clumpin' right.
>> The origin of her name/title was a little too cute but
>> I'll live with it because it was tied to the Leewit's
>> big solo adventure.
> I don't want to read about the origin of her name/title. It was
> perfect as it was.
The explanation is perhaps a bit more sentimental than any
that Schmitz would have been likely to give, but since it's
an explanation that in a real sense doesn't actually explain
anything, it doesn't really change the effect of the name.
And _The Wizard of Karres_ really did capture the feel of
the original; I was very pleasantly surprised. (The second
sequel is much less successful in that respect.)
Brian
Larry
wmgf...@newsguy.com says...
> One of the posters on rasfw was ragging on the portrayal of the
Leewit,
> but I think they got her clumpin' right. The origin of her name/title was
> a little too cute but I'll live with it because it was tied to the
> Leewit's big solo adventure.
What did they say the origin was in the book? Leewit (Loowit) was the
name of Mt. St. Helens in Indian lore. WyEast (Mt. Hood) was her lover.
JAS made occasional use of PNW native lore in his writing, enough that I
doubt the name is a coincidence.
Default User
> In article <vgej56t7agurdbk3a...@4ax.com>,
> wmgf...@newsguy.com says...
>
> > One of the posters on rasfw was ragging on the portrayal of the
> Leewit,
> > but I think they got her clumpin' right. The origin of her
> > name/title was a little too cute but I'll live with it because it
> > was tied to the Leewit's big solo adventure.
>
> What did they say the origin was in the book?
[spoiler space]
It was basically circular. She was named after a traditonal alien name
which came about because of a time travel adventure in the book.
Brian
--
Day 549 of the "no grouchy usenet posts" project
William George Ferguson
It's tied into the backstory of the Nartheby Sprite, and the Leewit
basically finds out the story through time travel. If I'm remembering it
right, there's a closed time loop involved (a character in the past takes
the name 'the Leewit' in honor of her, and then ine nearer past, her folks
name her in honor of that character, something like that).