[LMB] OT: Recommendation

[Marilyn Traber]

Elizabeth Holden wrote:
>
> (I'm saying this even though I haven't read his more recent books.... But I intend to. The last
> one I read was "Monstrous Regiment".  Favourite so far: "Wyrd Sisters".)
>
> namaste,
> Elizabeth
>
>   
I am particularly fond of his take on Faust [Eric] where they go back 
and run into Laveolus and the fall of a Troy equivalent where they detai 
who is to take care of a child ...

Cant quote the exact exchange, but the Lt tells the Sargent to "See to 
the child" and by the time it got down to the rank private the wording 
was something like 'watch the sprog' - a microcosm of the british 
paradigm of the officers being the gentler class, and the enlisteds 
being the cockney lower class.

Some of his fringe books are good but really take liking the rest of the 
series first. I have heard people liken his sense of humor to that of 
the Piers Anthony Xanth series [ghu seriously forbid, no wthey are twee] 
but really he likes to work in earth jokes - he parodies the eastern 
mystic religions by having several monastaries in the different mountain 
ranges that include the brethern of time [one of whom keeps bonsai 
mountains, and has a rather nice volcano] to the Brothers of Cool. He 
parodies the whole tenured education system with the Wizards and their 
tower. He has an entire book parodying Australia, and the Guards series 
references essentially the city guards of innumerable fantasy novels [in 
the colour of magic they are essentially poking fun at the whole Grey 
Mouser/Farhfad genre] and big cities. He touches on racial profiling, 
guilds and organized crime and their ties to the government, secret 
societies and various aspects about living in cities. he manages to put 
Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler into every culture and timeframe [poking fun 
at the fact that there will ALWAYS be an enterprising person selling 
stuff in alleys of dubious provenance and quality]

Oddly enough, I actually read TCoM first, and it didnt drive me away - 
but then again I spent a lot of time reading teh genre he was poking fun 
at, and saw where he was poking fun and decided to wait and see what 
happened in the books.