Customer Reviews

THE LION OF FARSIDE

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I am on Amazon.com right now because I just finished Dalmas' "Lion of Farside" and I am looking for a sequel! Dalmas' protagonist, Curtis Macurdy, is what we all wish we could be when faced with tough, frightening situations: Brave, cool, and smart. His wife is taken to an alternate Earth, and he follows to get her back. Along the way, he is by turns a slave, a swordsman soldier, and a magician. He demonstrates attributes that all of wish we had, if we were in his position. Interpersonal relationships are a bit different in this alternate Earth, and the ending is not what you may expect. Now if I could just find that darn sequal...

Just finished the book. A decent idea, decently executed, but lacking a few touches that would have set it apart. Dalmas is somewhat guilty of a mistake many fantasy authors make, plopping the reader into a fully-formed world without proper background. While exposition is often discarded in favor of action in fantasy, the world of Yuulith (sp?) suffers from the "D&D syndrome" -- elves, dwarves, even hobbits under other names. While Dalmas hints at the background that would make this story feel more complete (history, evolution of politics, etc) he leaves most of the background blank. The motivations and history of the Sisterhood, for example, are lacking to the point where they are almost stereotypical. He does a better job capturing the spirit of a medieval world, and his Curtis character is quite likable, if a little simple. All in all a good read, but I couldn't help wondering how good it would have been with a little more depth.

I was given this book by a friend, and was immediately put off by the cover (which, it seems, has nothing to do with the book itself!). In fact, until I ran out of other books, this sat on my shelf. Well, I must admit that it captured me within the first chapter! It's a nice escapist novel with strong characters, positive messages, and a story which keeps you riveted and wanting more. In fact, I, too, am back on Amazon.com looking for a sequel!

This book kept me anxiously coming back for more throughout. The plot isn't the most believable: a man forming vast alliances and launching a major war, just because his wife may be in the enemy's country? Despite that, I loved the book. Very original, good character development, positive, lots of gratuitous sex, ... By the way, it can be downloaded free from Baen's website as a teaser to the whole series. It got me hooked.

As these kind of stories go, I found it intelligent and original. Our young hero falls in love with a beautiful woman sometime before W.W.I. They marry and everything seems to go fine. But this woman actually comes from another world, one in which magic is common and wars are fought with bows and swords (a medieval land) connected to our own Earth through dimensional gates.
It all turns sour when his wife is kidnapped, while he's away, and taken to such world. He must follow and try to save her...
Curtis Macurdy will have to overcome many problems in his quest, while learning the ways of a different world.
The plot was good and thoughtful. I found most interesting the progression and growth of the characters. Though ultimately sad I'm very anxious to read the sequels.

My only complaint is that the sisterhood shared some similarities to Herbert's Bene Gesserit, and no book can survive any comparison (even a minor one) to Dune.

I felt like reading something light one evening, and selected this from Baen's online library. At every plot twist, I read on raptly aghast, until somewhere in the second half I tossed it away.

I demand that a novelist grasp the subject matter he describes, have interesting characters, and be skilled with language. Dalmas does none of these.

The world is strained, and what the characters accomplish even moreso. The characters are intriguing for the first dozen pages, then are squashed into two dimensional vehicles for the skills and situations the author wants to write about.

The language is half slang, half anachronism. Dalmas lavishes ill-organized detail on random objects or events, then rushes through stilted dialogue at crucial story junctures.

For example, chapter 33, entitled 'An introspective morning at the zoo,' begins with a page or so about two characters going to the zoo. Compare the following two sentences, the first from 'The Lion of Farside,' and the second from the beginning of chapter 9 of Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina.'

"The Emporor's Animal Park had a foot of wet granular snowon the ground, but the morning was calm and sunny, and before noon already somewhat above freezing." (Dalmas)

"At four o'clock, conscious of his throbbing heart, Levin stepped out of a hired sledge at the Zoological Gardens, and turned along the path to the frozen mounds and the skating ground, knowing
that he would certainly find her there, as he had seen the Shtcherbatskys' carriage at the entrance." (Tolstoy)

Dalmas then lavishes pages on listings of animals, and never lapses into a description less superficial than a pair of adjectives. There follow several pages of political background, inserted with minimal connection to the story at hand, and the chapter closes by listing a couple more animals.

At the end, a reader familiar Jane Austen's rendering of Elisabeth Bennet's introspective moods scratches his head and looks once more for any introspection of the part of the characters.
I don't demand much of fantasy and science fiction. James White's hospital station books or Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga are pleasant diversions for a slow evening. They share a quality the Lion of Farside lacks: they don't hurt to read.