Re: Has anyone read my favorite

Subject:

Comments:
: : : : : How about some feedback : : : What kind of books are they? Scifi or fantasy? I've never heard of him, but I'm always interested in someone Vance-like. : : : ---Mike : : Like a lot of Vance books the Emancipator is part fantasy, part, : : SF, much as Vance's the Demon Princes series cannot, in my opinion, be labelled one or the other. Vance has created baroque landscapes a universe populated by pre-industrial cultures side by side with advanced technologies with personal rocketships, FTL drives and communication. Aldridge has done very mucy the same in his books. : : These books describe, in beautiful detail, incredible worlds complete with complex cultures and myths. The protagonist, an enforcer named Ruiz Aw is sent to the planet Pharaoh, to look into the disappearance of entire performing troupes, prior to "harvesting" by the Art League, who consider the inhabitants of Pharaoh their valuable property. Ruiz Aw is commissioned to find the poachers, but if he is caught, the Gencha death net anchored deep within his brain, is programmed to kill him. : : The names of places, characters and things, like those created by Vance are masterful: The Art League, Dilvermoon, the Sook Slave Pens, Bidderum, Halakum, Bhasmaret, Mocrassar Moc) bondwarriors. : : Aldridge paints intricate visions of exotic places and customs that remind me of parts of Vance's Planet of Adventure (Tschai, The Dirdir, Emphyrio, The Pnume, etc.) as well as parts of the Demon Princes. : : Yet, Aldridge, does not attempt to imitate the style, or anguage of Vance. The resemblance is purely on the basis of creativity, sensibility, imagination, and freshness of ideas & superb quality, as well as morality (contrast of good vs. undescribable evil). : : Just when you think, Aldridge cannot top this or that idea ideas, he will further surprise and amaze you with even more twists and turns of plots, and ideas. : : A brief selection from page 2 of Book I: The Pharaoh Contract : : ------------------------------------------------------------- : : In the half-light of the overhead glowstrips, the hall seethed. Beasters walked, staggered, crawled, swaggered, hopped. Every near-variant of humanity was represented. Everywhere pointed ears quivered, teeth glinted, fur grew luxuriantly in garders of human flesh. Gleaming selenium scarabs--the personaskeins, the devices that filled each beaster's brain with the chosen beast--clung to the base of each skull. No other adornment was permitted on the Level, no garment that might conceal a weapon. : : Ruiz watched the passing faces with sidelong glances, concealing his curiosity, fascinated by the animal lusts and fears and rages that twisted the human features. His own personaskein, set at legal minimum, showed hime the shadow shapes that lived within the beasters, ghostly colored outlines that swirled about the human shapes. That tall rawboned old man with the carefully coifed mane of white hair, for example: What had moved him to abandon his executive desk for the uncertainties of the Beaster Level, to play noble stag? And what of the well-kept young : : woman? She was skillfully painted with fashionable body toners, she wore her thick orange hair in a love knot, and her sharp little fingernails were buffed into crimson perfection. She wore the personaskein of a great serpent; she stood waiting in the shadows and in her eyes was a slow careful hunger. : : Near the far side of the open space, Ruiz observed a pack of wolfheads lounging against the bulkhead, a dozen men and women with wide yellow eyes, facial hair in grizzled tufts, and furry bodies as hard and narrow as slats...He passed under the biolume sign that flashed PANGALAC LAW ENDS HERE into the darker corridor beyond. Ruiz felt movement behind him as the pack gathered. : : Leroe called the brethren together, making the snuffling sound of inquiry. : : "Meat goes into the killing grounds," he said, and growled, a soft sound, full of pleasant anticipation. : : "Dangerous?" asked Camilla, his mate, second in the pack. "It moved with great confidence; it smelled of much purpose and little fear." : : Leroe snarled, and Camilla edged back, wary of his strength. "Perhaps the meat is too stupid to be afraid," Leroe said. "It is only one, soft with humanity. Can we fail to feed?" : : ---------------------------------------------------- : : Since this is in the spirit of a review, I believe this sampling of the book not to be in violation of the copyright

Optional Link URL:
Link Title:
Optional Image URL: