Got a thrill today while hunting for the original cover art for Throne Price. (I met the author at a con and he told me I could feature it on Reality-Skimming, but I lost the needful reference to find the website again, so now and then I troll for it.) Didn't find the original cover, that featured Erien with UnderGelion for a backdrop, but did come across a review of Throne Price that I had not seen before, which made me happy. A lot of reviews of ORU books start with descriptions of how far the series is set in the future and other aspects of the background, often not even getting to the nitty gritty of the issues central to the particular book in hand. I am not knocking that approach. Well behaved authors are grateful for all attention, and particulary favorable attention, which many of the reviews that feature the external details of the technology and history of the ORU have certainly given us. It is all good! But I am always particularly delighted when someone's review convinces me a reader "got" the big stuff, from my own (admittedly biased) point of view. The summary of how things wound up the way they are will be the same for every ORU book, but the critical issues will be different in every one. So thanks for making my day, Laurie Thayer!

Paragraph from the review is repeated, below, with link to the site of origin:

Throne Price is a difficult book to summarize due to the twisted nature of Gelack politics and the complex net of shifting loyalties. It's easy enough to call it science fiction, but like all good science fiction, it examines deeper issues: loyalty, love, propriety, sexual relationships (heterosexuality, homosexuality and incest) and family values, among others. Authors Lynda Williams and Alison Sinclair treat each of these subjects -- even the most difficult ones -- fairly.

quote from review on Rambles by Laurie Thayer

posted by Lynda at 13:25   comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments