Posted by Mick Scannell on May 04, 1999 at 07:48:33:
In Reply to: Re: 15 of 17 posted by Dean McMillan on April 13, 1999 at 13:00:55:
: : Tried to read _Rhialto the Marvelous_, but just couldn't get into it. Surely the least of the 4 books in the cycle. Have only managed to get through it once and remember it not at all except that it seemed not too bad a read at the time.
IMO, it ranks above 'Overworld' but below the remaining two. I like the way in 'Rhialto' Vance conjures up a sense of the fantastic by hinting at incomprehensible arcane matters during, say, the conversation between R and his butler about the latter's tasks in the laboratory. The various mages are tantalisingly vague in their descriptions, but sufficiently so to be impressed at his imagination.
As for Cugel, I've always found him to have an almost Mafiosan streak to him. To his enemies, he's implacble; to his friends, he's generous : witness the last pilgrim who Cugel returns to protect in 'Overworld', or the old bloke constructing the columns in CS.
Best Regards,
Mick