Re: Nebula Finalists 1982

On 2024-05-07, William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:

James Nicoll wrote:

Another round of Nebula finalists, this time from the 1982 awards.
 
Which 1982 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
 
The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe
Little, Big by John Crowley
Radix by A. A. Attanasio
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
The Many-Colored Land by Julian May
The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas

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The Wolfe and the Crowley, of course.  Very find books, reread often.
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I've read the May twice, but the series goes downhill rapidly, at least
for me.

I agree with the May (and the other two). The May is one of the rare
cases where my opinion of the first book of a series went down as I
read more of the series.  There are plenty of series where my opinion
of the series goes down after I read more, but not many where the
opinion of the first book itself goes down.

I think it's because May did such a nice job of the world and
character building in the first book, but then expanded on those
later in directions that were much less convincing.

It's a shame; I really liked the first book - enough so I got
the rest of the first quartet in their British paperbacks instead of waiting
for US publication.

Chris