[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by clockworkzombie

I like a lot of Anthonys work. I am planning to pick up a few Xanth books again as I had read the others in my public library, but only the first 5 perhaps.

I'd make it the first three, but your tolerance level may be greater.

In one of the Xanth books he had an article after the end of the novel that talked about how he writes books, he writes the outline and fleshes it out a little then attempts to sell it to publishers. If they do not buy it he does not write the book. So now he does not spend time writing a book only to find he cannot sell it, part of the contract negotiation is a price and delivery time.

That's actually standard practice for an established author. Books are sold based on an outline and sample chapters. New authors will have to submit a complete manuscript, simply to prove they can complete a book, but an author with a track record will simply float a proposal, and complete the book upon getting a contract.

I noticed the comment on the GOR series. A friend told me the first 6 or so were superb then it got on horseback and galloped away. I am in Australia so when I tried to buy the first book I was hit by the dreaded geographic restrictions.

When and where did you try to get them? I don't think they are in print in the US. Norman did the first 6 or so for Ballantine books, then shifted to DAW Books when Don Wollhiem was still alive. He got dropped by DAW after Don's daughter Betsy took over upon his death. Norman claims his sales were fine, thank you, and blames getting dropped on Betsy and editor Sheila Gilbert, who objected to the female slavery motif. They were picked up some years back by a US porn publisher called Masquerade Press, but that no longer exists.

The first six being readable is about right. The premise is that Gor is "counter-Earth", held on the othr side of the sun from us by the advanced science of the insectoid Priest-Kings who rule the planet. The Priest-Kings have been kidnapping people from Earth for centuries and dropping them on Gor, so the planet has pockets of human cultures from across Earth and throughout history. The Priest-Kings control technological development, so things like building technology and medicine are advanced (they have electric lights and "Stabilization serums" that stop aging), but combat is mano a mano with edged weapons.

The protagonist, Tarl Cabot, is a John Carter type who is dropped on Gor and becomes a Tarnsman - a rider of giant hawk like birds - and a renowned warrior. A background cultural bit in the early novels is that most Gorean women are slaves. The hero's girlfriend is a "Free Companion" - a member of an order who rejects slavery as a woman's normal state. She is kidnapped early on and Cabot sets out to find and free her, but she is soon enough forgotten. Female slavery becomes a dominant foreground motif, based on the idea that a woman can only be truly happy, fulfilled (and multi-orgasmic) if she totally submits to a strong male master.

Tarl Cabot increasingly becomes an arch-typical Gorean male, and becomes increasingly one dimensional and boring in the process. I didn't stop reading the books because I objected to the premise - I stopped because I lost interest in continual BDSM fantasy masquerading as SF.

I have just finished The Wizard of Karres and I enjoyed it. In reference to the earlier person calling it bad I have to say it is not as good as the original. I think the missing ingredient is humour. The humour is different to the original and is missing a certain something along with distrust and disrespect for authority.

Eric Frank Russell could have written a sequel with the same humour and anti authority angle I think.

I remember reading some Christopher Anvil in the 80s and I think he could do a similar thing, I have just purchased an Anvil book and am looking forward to reading it and will see if my memory is correct.

Schmitz had a gentle and wry humor, and a lively sense of the absurd. Russell might have been able to do it, though I get a different feel from his work and I'm not sure he'd have quite the right fit.

I don't really see Christopher Anvil fitting either, though I think I see why you do.

Sadly, Schmitz had completed a sequel to _The Witches of Karres_, but the manuscript was lost in a move.
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Dennis