[Taylor514ce]

I enjoyed S. M. Stirling's "Island in the Sea of Time" series, but had to be in the proper frame of mind. They aren't great literature, or even great SF. They aren't outright horrible, but definitely have a 15-yr old boy's fascination with violence and kink, and those sections appear indeed to be written by a 15 year old boy.

So, I thought, might as well read the Corvallis books. Big mistake. These were written by that 15 year old boy's 11 year old brother. The comic-book Wiccans and Tolkein teens set my teeth on edge. I've never read a book where I so desperately wanted horrible things to happen to the book's protagonists. Please, please, someone garrote Juniper Mackenzie and let a bear eat Mike Havel, "so mote it be".

Imagine this bright idea for a book and you'll pretty much understand the books:

"Gosh, it'd be cool if like, technology like power and stuff stopped working and like, Wiccans would survive cuz they know nature and wow, the book could like have lesbians because that's hot and then warlords and all those cool medieval killing machines and Tolkien fanatics would be good because they like bows and arrows and could hunt, and also be lesbians who could make out in the woods and speak Elvish and people would starve and ride horses and start like clans and stuff and have lesbian warriors and witch songs and stuff. When girls kiss it makes my pee-pee tickle I gotta write this book."