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4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent work of Soft 70s Science Fiction, Sep 2 1999
By A Customer
The feel of technology in these books is quite alien to what you will read in hard science fiction novels, but this is not necessarily a bad thing, as no one can perfectly predict or extrapolate technology into the future.I was disappointed by many references to things that were obviously on the way out even in the 70s, things like manila folders full of files (yes, we have them now, but less than we did 30 years ago, and centuries from now, I doubt that high-tech socities will be using them). However, once you get by these small problems (and the problems are made small by the stories other strengths), you will find an absolute bare-bones story, hard on target, without frills and distractions, flying toward conclusion from the first words of each book. The plots are well done and the pacing excellent. The obstacles the characters face are difficult to overcome and many times are intangible things which must be thought around rather than simply blown up. One of the worst dangers faced by the author is that the main character is, to put it simply, quite nasty. A master of many martial arts, weapons, espionage techniques, slieght of hand, and chemistry (especially as relates to poison); it can be difficult to present a story with any challenges for such a character, but Jack Vance does a good job by the by. Kirth's main problem is that he is overconfident, and this comes back to haunt him a time or two. Personally, I wish he'd had a few other shortcomings to make it easier to relate to him and to make obstacles harder to overcome (although, as I said, many of the obstacles aren't of the sort that any physical skill will help on). Overall, an excellent series, with better than average writing, and in some cases, excellent writing. I bought them both the moment they appeared (on the recommendation of a friend), and I was not disappointed. Definitely worth the money.
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