Syl Sabastian

I was a prolific reader before I came to science fiction. For some reason, sci-fi, then had a poor reputation, being seen as silly, frivolous and even childish. This was during my school years, and reading mostly in isolation, I had no reason to doubt this perspective, but, luckily, a really good friend set me straight, recommending as proof to the contrary, the Foundation series. i reluctantly agreed to give them a go, out of honesty, and am I ever glad I did.

Foundation is perhaps the perfect starter book for immersing in the wonders and glories of science fiction. It's sophisticated, complex, mature, exiting and just about everything one could want from a book. After Foundation, and the rest of the series, my reading switched to predominantly sci-fi/fantasy.

Reading Foundation is a spectacular highlight in my reading “career.” Now, after many decades, I am looking forward to rereading it, the entire series, and the additional books which have been added. A huge want-to-read.

I came to The Gunslinger as a non-fan of King, and on the whole, still am. But something about this series grabbed my interest. I don't remember precisely, but mainly it wasn't horror and was by King. Happy I was at the pleasant surprise and soon immersed my attention into the series. (Which I still intend to finish.) What fascinated me, and still does, are a few distinctive features of the books as a whole.

The mood-tone of the work, I call it the cine of writing, is particularly memorable. To me there's a kind of rolling continuity of mood-tone, like enjoyable instrumental music which just keeps going and one enjoys continuously. I found this constancy to be intriguing, as it seemed to me the books did not vary much by way of emotional quotient, but possessed a constancy of hold on me.

The particular reality fascinated me, but not for its uniqueness. I've read thousands of sci-fi and fantasy books, so many I can remember only a fraction of the titles, thus the particular type of reality itself was not the intrigue, but its peculiar blend of unreal and real. I persistently had the feeling that this unreal reality, was in some way real. But not because King did a good job of immersing me, which he did, or was particularly descriptive, which he's not, but because the story, the overall, has the effect of conveying the sense that's it's written from personal experience. Like the eccentricities of some of the characters, they particularly had that realness which comes from weirdness which is really too weird for a story, but is nonetheless true. The floor-cleaning woman comes to mind

This unreal realness I enjoyed tremendously. A constant mystery. The particular elements which are unique to the story, like the riddles, the door etc, are thus magnified as interesting when connected to from this perspective and view. The whole series took on an entirely different focus and relationship. A somewhat unique perspective I had not encountered before and have only encountered in one other book, one I am currently reading. (Unfathomable by Rose Moon.)

That constant feeling leads to the ongoing question, “But how could this be real?” Or, “How could King have witnessed this if not?” The speculations which result are a joy for me. However, as excellent as this aspect of the book and series is, it's not what stays with me. What I retain is that mood, the Feel of Roland, a rare character name I can remember, and how I too knew him. Knew Roland before I read King's recollections of his adventures.

Dune is a powerful work, but I often see emphasis only on the political/intrigue side of things. on the rivalry between the great houses and the game o thrones aspect. But for me, this was a minor part of the book and series' appeal. Dune is a spiritual work to me, the underlying theme, the one that makes it such a powerful work and series, is the evolution of consciousness. It is the ultimate story of self-improvement, and the challenges and problems which can attend “success.”

The focus on ethics, integrity, loyalty, honesty etc, these give the book and series it's depth, but it's done in a non-preachy way. Frank Herbert was deliberate in this aspect of his writing. he talked to his son about it, telling him that the story was important, and any value beyond that had to be added supplementally, not as the focus. And in this he succeeded admirably. There is much wisdom and value in Dune and the series, if we look past the excellent story. A book that adds to us while entertaining. Highly recommended. Few books achieve this lofty ideal.

What's enjoyable about this? The main characters are constantly negative, moaning, complaining, bickering, spiteful, mean etc. All the time. How this received a Hugo is beyond me. So what if there is some world-building or new races etc, without enjoyable characters and something of value out of it all, what's the point? What did I gain from reading this? Pretty much nothing. Do readers gain value by feeling superior to the absolutely crappy main characters? I suspect so, but not for me thanks. It's not even educational as to that psychology, just crappy.
And, just in the interest of balance. I have read literally thousands of novels, probably 10 times what i can remember to add to Goodreads, and VERY seldom do I read something that is unenjoyable, this is an exception. That it was awarded a Hugo is depressing. The only reason it's not one star is that it is not poorly written edited etc.

A powerful, emotional read. It's not every day we get to see life from a side we wouldn't ordinarily know. Experiencing the unimaginable is powerful because we tend to not believe what we can't imagine. When we do, and we know what we didn't before, we can't undo such knowing. Awareness is powerful, as is Understanding, both which don't always come easy. This amazing story, well delivered, adds to us human beings, providing a Perspective on the human condition which extends us as people. “The moment we treat others as less than human, that's the moment we become monsters.” A quote which comes to mind for me to represent a deep Understanding from the book. A sharing of intimacy-of-being well worth reading.

There's a reason Steven King recommends never using a word if there is a simpler one that will do. Because, sadly, when authors stretch their readers, and those readers can't quite make the stretching, they end up feeling stupid. Tending to react badly to the experience. Or, overreacting, mostly with negativity. Unreasonably so. This book, from reading through its reviews after I read it, seems to do just that.

It's a good engaging read, well written. A detailed story, connecting to complexity and the non-usual. Definitely not going to be everyone's thing. However, personal like or dislike seems to be much confused with the quality of the work itself. I might not personally enjoy something and still be able to recognise and appreciate it as a work of good quality. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be common among reviewers, who assume if they did not like, then it “must” be bad.

There is much to recommend the work, form its insight into Princeton University life to the illuminations on renaissance intellectual life. Most of all, it provides insight into Immersion and obtuse interest which can consume some. This might seem removed from our ordinary life, but, through the extremes portrayed in the book, we come to understand any mindset or psychology that can become waylaid by immersion. This can happen with ego, ambition, sex, career, status, or any number of “mundane” obsessions.

This book does an excellent job of illustrating those diversive and sometimes destructive distortions of perspective which can result. Not to mention the power of choice, awareness and deliberation. The necessity of character, and how its lack is so consequential. If we look at the book, its story, the characters, from this more abstract perspective the story has much to offer indeed. Well worth the read.

My rating standard is more strict than most, just how I started, and like to keep the consistency. This book would have earned a very high 4 stars from me except the ending I felt was weak relative to the rest of the book. It's as if the last part was written by other authors. Still good, but not as potent as the rest.

My review is based not on the book itself, as it was read it so long ago, I don't remember details, which is somewhat remarkable, as I remember the effect of the book. transformative, profound revelationary, this is the best I can manage. I was transformed into worlds of thought, deep thought, worlds where intent and meaning reigned. The book required a serious commitment from the reader of Attention and willingness-to-truth, a remarkable requirement, adding to the books magic. A classic that lived up to it billing.

This stood out for me because of the sophistication of the story and the characters especially. there was a depth to the insights, while seemingly speculative, were in fact based on real possibility, potentiality, and experience. As a grand extrapolation, expertly done, it was outstanding, as well as containing all of the usual excellent elements of entertaining and riveting story-telling. But this book had that elusive More that made it a stand-out for me.

I read bunches of Piers decades ago. This is one of his earlier works and one of the best from at least a dozen series of his I read. But it's still the best I've read out of literally thousands of sci-fi books for representing truly alien life forms. Truly excellent. And of course there are love affairs. But, the nice twist is that the human is inside an alien body every time. So it's the psychology which is making love, not the body. And well, there's some freaky sex also, but not lurid or salacious. Well done indeed. (From a comment, I made on a post looking for recommendations of inter-species love affairs.)

I remember details of few of the books I read back then, but I do remember this series, as it stood out. A novel and unique concept, well, back then, well executed, with an excellent play on the discrepancies between various psychologies, with the hero being a somewhat primitive fellow, but, not, as many automatically assume, stupid and unsophisticated. The hero is neither, after his own fashion. I've been fortunate to extensively interact with a real-life version, but that's another story.

This series provides everything good storytelling has to offer, with the bonus of also being excellent sci-fi. The tour of a potential universe with all its diversity is well worth the read alone. One of the all-time top series I've read.

I've read many many golf books, at the time I pretty much read all I could lay my hands on with none of them really standing out, except this one. besides being a good story, there is real value in the book. It's been a long time since I read it, so don't remember the details specifically, but do remember it impacted me at the time and made a difference. how exactly I cannot say, other than perhaps connecting to a predilection of mine, which is to come at matters from an abstract perspective, to go deeper, and look beyond the obvious. This marvellous read does just exactly that. Gravity Golf - need I say more?

As a boy, I was deeply into sailing, racing specifically. I consumed every available book on sailing available to me at the time, especially racing, I could find. Of all of them, one stood out, this one. (The original edition) I found it near the end of the time I was sailing, and it included everything the other books lacked. I was by then an accomplished enough sailor to be able to fully appreciate the book's expertise. An amazing manual of excellence then, and should still be. What made it especially excellent were the levels of discernment and sophistication involved and how their communication. It's always a joy to hear a true expert on a subject. Of the thousands and thousands of books I read as a youth, few stand out as memorable, this is one of them.

Don't be put off by the appearance of this series being somewhat similar to Lord of the Rings. Yes, there are certainly similarities, but, consider them genre only. The series is an excellent read, with the trials and tribulations of The Unbeliever taking many surprising twists. Certainly one of the better fantasy series. I enjoyed the idea of the series being an alternate reality extreme variation, only barely recognisable from its origin inspiration.

I wish to touch on another aspect of the books. I read them a long time ago, and can remember little of the details, but what does stay is what impacted me at the time. Besides thoroughly enjoying and reading the entire series in one go, there's a deeper mystique to the stories.

I always felt a decided More to the writing. Like the author had wild personal experiences, too wild for normal telling and was forced to re-format them into this tale and the fantasy format. In particular, the white-gold connection. At the time I was not aware of it's alchemical and scientific significance, but my impression then was decidedly that there's much more going on than the story directly states.

The series has a spiritual quality, adding to the enjoyment. While certainly not overt, it's there nonetheless. A connection to a something, what precisely not easy to say, but there. A bonus which enhances the series tremendously. I felt the same with LotR, but different. With Tolkien, I recognised it at the time as an unspoken connectedness of all things, and of all that's done and said, especially if energy, attention and Intent are involved. With Donaldson however, the spiritual, or perhaps metaphysical aspect, is more complex, and subtle. A fine layered mystery which permeates the story and writing.

Everything one wants from sci-fi! It's exciting, clever, adventurous, has a marvellous concept, well executed. The characters are diverse, intriguing and most interesting. There are surprises and twists and most of all the read is great and excellent fun. Highly Recommended. A book I will predict is destined for great things, it's seldom such works of depth and complexity which are also lots of fun come around.

Charming and sweet, relaxed and comfortable, all the while also being very Real. The situations the characters face and deal with are not manufactured or contrived, but all too real as I can attest to not only from personal experience but also from working with clients who have gone through such profoundly life-altering wake-up calls and the profound shifts-of-being needed to deal with them. Sandra Rector does a most excellent job of sharing this accurately without overdoing it at all.
How the characters deal with difficulty is likewise realistic, and, a most important and, how they DO deal with them, without such resolutions or successes happening artificially or all too conveniently just to make us feel good. We DO feel good because the characters in the story display Good Character even while of course not being perfect. They are Real people, dealing with the realities of life. A marvellous story showing how this certainly IS possible, and that's a marvellous gift, to see real stories such as this exemplify the qualities and characteristics we all CAN have and aspire to, and the magic of the story is how it shows us, without any doubts at all, that not only CAN Magic and good fortune happen, but it's also up to us to fully seize such opportunities and make the most of them.
Many many subtle life-lessons included and in such a way they're hardly noticed, because never are we preached at or lectured. It's all just there, simply, honestly, and real, all the while also with a constant sweetness and appreciation for the simple goodnesses of life most unfortunately just take for granted and thereby miss.
A most valuable journey to remind us we don't need all we think we need to be happy. happiness can come so easily, if we but heed the examples of the characters.
A most excellent exemplification of Good People living good lives.
Cleanly written with a smooth flow, and of course, a love story and More.
Well done Sandra. A good book indeed. :) <3