Subject: (urth) Book Covers

From: J. Schultz <jschultz at wcnet.org>
Date: Wed, 06 May 1998 22:49:17 +0000

I'm intrigued.  I've never seen the British covers for the Urth cycle.
Tony, if you would be so kind, send those scans my way too.

I will say that the greatest fault of the Maitz covers can also be seen as
one of its good points.  When I first read the Urth cycle, at the tender age
of 19, I had nothing to tell me that this wasn't the run of the mill sword
and socerey stories I was used to.  Besides the praise of critics covering
its back cover, I thought I was in for a traditional, well told story set in
your basic pseudo-middle age fantasy backdrop.  Imagine my surprise when I
realized that the citadel was and ancient spaceship now in disrepair!

As to bringing Wolfe to the people..  : )
Fantasy and Science Fiction alike have taken a wrong turn somewhere.  Much
like Hollywood, their are cranking out books using the same formula over and
over again.  To even get Wolfe's books I have to go to a huge Barnes and
Noble bookstore, because in smaller stores the SF/F shelves are cramed full
of garbage.  Case in point:  Let's see a show of hands...  How many of you
have been in bookstores where the STAR TREK, STAR WARS, and DUNGEONS AND
DRAGONS novels out number all the other SF/F books?  (Don't get me wrong,
there's nothing wrong with a good mindless fantasy book every now and then
but the trend is becoming an epidemic)  Good authors are turning to these
series to make money, and I can't really blame them.  The rewards for
literary SF/F are slim.

Speaking of this, anyone have any suggestions for further reading.  I'm
hungry for a good story and I can get lost in a bookstore for hours without
ever making a decision.  Any help in the right direction would be
appreciated.

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/