Raymond's Reviews #165

%T Pegasus in Flight
%A Anne McCaffrey
%I Del Rey
%D November 1991
%O paperback, US$5.99
%P 293
%G ISBN 0-345-36897-5

This sequel to Pegasus In Flight and prequel to Rowan (RR#140) is business very much as usual for McCaffrey these days --- slick but essentially contentless genre writing, including just the right proportions of adventure, romance and wish-fulfillment psionics to keep her target audience reading. I was bored stiff. Her fans won't be. Caveat emptor.

%T The Bradbury Chronicles
%E Willam F. Nolan
%E Martin Greenberg
%I ROC
%D November 1991
%O cloyhbound, US$19.95
%P 327
%G ISBN 0-451-45134-1

I don't like the style Ray Bradbury fans and some fellow-writers find so appealing, and I don't like many of the authors who've gathered here to pay tribute. Nevertheless, I can tell the difference between something done badly and something done well that I dislike for other reasons, and it looks to me as though this anthology is a must-have if you are a Bradbury fan. The only piece in it I really enjoyed was Nolan's Bradbury parody at the end, but if you are one of those still enthralled by Bradbury's muse you will probably find much more to enjoy.

%T Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat: A Graphic Novel
%A Faye Perozich / Daerick Gross
%I Ballantine
%D November 1991
%O paperback, US$25.00
%G 0-345-37394-4

It was inevitable that someone would attempt to adapt Anne Rice's vampire books to the graphic novel format. Unfortunately, this volume is but a pale echo of Rice's fearless depiction of diabolical glory. Faye Perozich succeeds in condensing Rice's prose into a comprehensible narrative, but Daerick Gross's paintings are too vague and impressionistic to do justice to the painful intensity of Lestat's vampiric experience. His clever use of blood and fire motifs does not quite succeed in capturing the warped poetry of the violence described in Rice's text. The result: a failure, albeit a brilliant one. [CCO]

%T Leroni of Darkover
%A Marion Zimmer Bradley, ed.
%I DAW 
%D November 1991
%O paperback, 334 pp, US$4.99
%G 0-88677-494-2

"Leroni of Darkover" is typical of MZB's Darkover theme anthologies; it contains a number of slight, charming stories by women of all ages about various aspects of Darkovan life. The writing is far from extraordinary, but the stories are pleasant enough if the reader is sufficiently familiar with, and fond of, the Darkover novels. [CCO]