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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Out of Print, Sure, but it was a good book.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Fate's Trick (Paperback)
Original Review by Carlos Angelo and reprinted for you here...Before anything else, it needs to be said that this book is not a novel, but rather a "game book," in the style of an RPG solo adventure. Even though you might not be a fan of RPG, you already may have seen this type of story where at the end of a chapter, you get to decide (or luck determines) how the story unfolds. As one can see by the subtitle "A Crossroad Adventure in the World of Robert Heinlein's Glory Road," this book takes place in the same universe of the sword and sorcery novel Glory Road, by Heinlein; that is, the universe of the "Twenty Universes." The book opens with a short introductory essay by Isaac Asimov about parallel universes. While the theme of that essay stands in accordance with one of the main aspects of this book's inspiration, Glory Road, it is curious that Asimov makes no mention whatsoever of Heinlein's book (while he mentions two of his own). The impression one gets is that Asimov wrote a fairly generic essay in order to be able to use it later in some collection of articles. Right after that, we have an introduction to the game books in the Crossroads Adventure series, where the main concepts of that type of adventure are explained: the hero and his abilities (strength, intelligence, wisdom/luck, constitution, dexterity and charisma), hit points, damages, combat sequences and so forth. Finally we have the story: Alex Tanen had fought in Viet Nam in the 60's, alongside his friend Easy Gordon, the protagonist of Glory Road. Two decades later he is a not-quite-successful magician in Florida. It is not that his tricks aren't good; to the contrary, he devotes himself with intensity to his art, even managing-much like the actor The Great Lorenzo in Double Star--to be arrogant about it. However, as with Mike in Stranger in a Strange Land, Alex doesn't have the charisma needed to captivate his audience. At a time when he seems to have hit rock bottom in his career, he receives by mail, without anyone's knowing which hotel he was staying at, a winning lottery ticket. But to collect the prize he has to meet a mysterious and enchanting woman, who takes him on a round of adventures (and hazards) in other worlds. Any similarity with Glory Road is no mere coincidence. Obviously we cannot expect that a game book has the same level of prose as a Heinlein; the language and story are a bit simplified. Even so, fans of the Heinlein novel surely will enjoy seeing Oscar, Star, Rufo and Jock (the Doral) again; and meeting Palina, Star's daughter, and her little sister, Tam, daughter of Oscar and Star. Perhaps even more interesting is to be able to revisit the planet Nevia and learn in more detail about its complex ecology, an ecology based on physical laws different from those of our universe. In general, Matt Costello did a good job, respecting to a great degree the characters and universe created by Heinlein, and even his additions to that universe are compatible (with a few exceptions) with what Heinlein himself might have created. One can only dream that someday Hollywood screenwriters will be as faithful to the spirit of Heinlein. Original Review by Carlos Angelo reprinted here for you...
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