Letters

@~First a letter from the SynTax Contributor of the Year, 1991-92.

Neil Shipman, Coalpit Heath, Bristol

What a lovely surprise to open the package which arrived on
Saturday and find The Dragon of Wisdom as a prize for being
Contributor of the Year - and a year's free sub to SynTax too.

The Dragon is now sitting proudly on its special wooden base (with
the engraved plaque to the fore!) on the shelf above my monitor. I
only had one other of these Myth and Magic characters and that was
The Wizard of Light (direct from The Grue's cave below Ormskirk -
Blorple, Blorple!) and the dragon complements the wizard superbly.
Thanks very much indeed.

@~No, thank YOU, Neil, for all your contributions - and to everyone
@~else who sent in reviews, hints and everything else over the last
@~year and helped keep SynTax packed with info every issue.
@~Now a suggestion from
Jean Childs, Bagshot

May I offer a suggestion for reviews in SynTax. The full reviews I
have seen so far are well written and interesting. However, many
of your readers may like to contribute but feel they could not
give so much info. You could, in one issue, give two or three
titles to be reviewed the following months and invite short
reviews saying what they liked/disliked, how easy/difficult. To
read different views in one article could be interesting and of
value to prospective buyers.

@~Great idea, Jean and I hope as many as possible of you will join
@~in. I'll suggest three games that are pretty well-known to start
@~with - Guild of Thieves, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and
@~Dungeon Master. If you've played (not necessarily finished) any of
@~these, why not write a few paragraphs about it (or them), just
@~enough to give your views? Then I'll compile the comments into
@~three reviews for next issue.

@~A further letter from Jean brought up two more points:
... (Here's) an interesting topic. Is access to hints a bad thing
for adventure games? Are hints within gameplay a good or bad
thing? How about games being programmed so that when you die or
quit a limited amount of help is made available but only with
regard to the progress made in the game. It could run on the lines
of "You know what you should have done, don't you?" ...

@~Infocom's Journey used a system like that with a 'musings' option
@~at the end of a game. I prefer that idea to a sledgehammer
@~suggestion for where you went wrong as given by the latest Sierra
@~games. Personally I'm not keen on built-in hints unless they're
@~the pop-up type as used in some AGT games and some Infocoms. Just
@~typing 'help' can be too tempting! Plus it can cause problems if
@~you input 'help <character>' in an adventure and get an unexpected
@~response. How do the rest of you feel about built-in hints?

... With regard to games obtained from you recently, top of the list
is 'Castle of the Alchemists'. I can't leave it alone, love it! I
hadn't a clue how to load it, but got there with trial and error.
Problem - can't seem to make use of save facility. It saves but
won't restore, just crashes. Am I loading it wrong? I double-click
on RUN.TTP and then when OPEN APPLICATION appears, I either type
ALCHEMST or *. The game plays fine but I have to start at the
beginning each time. An annoying thing while playing the game is it
rejects some verbs as not known when in fact in certain locations
those same verbs are used. Still, the game itself is brilliant ...

@~My apologies to those people who have had problems with some of
@~the latest ST versions of the AGT games. I think it's an
@~incompatibility between certain versions of TOS and the latest
@~version of AGT (v1.3) resulting in save/restore problems. It seems
@~as though only about 1 in 4 times will a game save properly and
@~be subsequently restored. A few people have, like me, had no
@~problems at all, which is why I've drawn this conclusion. Anyway,
@~I've written to Dave Malmberg of Softworks in the States to see if
@~he has any suggestions. If anyone has a duff disk, driving them
@~crazy, return it to me for a refund or exchange for another
@~game. Atari's TOS changes have caused me so many problems with
@~both SynTax and the PD list .... argh!
@~Now some comments on my review of the Weis and Hickman Death Gate
@~Cycle books last issue taken from two letters from
Kjell Robertsen, Norway

I've read your review of the Weis/Hickman books and I just had to
write a few words about it. You see, I don't agree. I've been a
fan of Fantasy for 30 years and I've read most of what is
available in Norwegian, Swedish and Danish as well as a lot of
books in English.

What most modern fantasy authors deal with is "sword and sorcery"
or, in other words, fantasy based (loosely) on the mythologies and
folklore of Northwestern Europe like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
Unfortunately, most modern authors, including Weis/Hickman, don't
know enough about this mythology, unlike Tolkien who was an
expert.

The problem is that if a fantasy story is to work, it must make
sense within the boundaries the authors are working in. You must
believe the story - at least while you read it.
When I saw the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind - not a
bad story - I didn't believe it. For a man who was supposed to
make "a realistic film about UFOs" he knew amazingly little about
the subject he had made the film about. The same can be said about
the Darksword series. The story isn't bad, but the authors simply
don't understand the kind of fantasy they are writing about. Look
at Lord of the Rings. The author understood the mythology it was
based on thoroughly. He added twists and turns of his own, but it
always shone through that the author really understood fantasy.
Only Lord Dunsany understood it that well. Modern authors don't
come close, except a few. Eddings understands fantasy, it's
evident in the excellent story, the Belgariad. Piers Anthony is
another expert. Read his Incarnations series. Even Xanth makes
sense in a ridiculous sort of way.

Modern authors put a lot of mixed-up fantasy elements in their
stories because it makes money. Fantasy is bigger than Science
Fiction and Westerns put together, but few modern authors
understand their subject. The Dragonlance series is popular but
good fantasy it is not.

When you introduce elves, wizards and dwarves in a story then you
have told your reader that your story is going to be set in the
Nordic - or Germanic - mythology. That mythology is going to be
your background. If you introduce Chinese dragons (the benevolent
kind) instead of the ones the knights used to fight or magic
cauldrons from Welsh mythology, then you have taken elements from
one mythology and put it into another, and your background won't
work anymore. It simply is not true that in fantasy everything can
happen, it has to follow the rules of the background or the
mythological "frame" the author has set by the kind of elements he
has decided to introduce. W/H's books don't work because the
authors have taken elements of several mythologies and mixed them
together into some sort of soup.

Tolkien knew this. The Hobbits, even the Black Riders, are something
you would expect from Nordic mythology. The introduction of a magic
cauldron of the Welsh kind would have destroyed his frame and his
story wouldn't have worked. Anthony also knew this when he wrote
the Incarnations series, even the three aspects of Fate are
correctly done. You could have taken his story and put it into the
Greek mythology instead of the original one and no-one would have
seen the difference.

It's perfectly alright to write your own fantasy that doesn't have
any elements from the mythologies, but as soon as he introduces
something from one of them, the author is telling you that his
story is to be set in that mythology.

Brooks' books are typical. He takes the elves from Nordic myths,
thereby telling you that you can expect a Nordic mythological
story and then he gives you something entirely different. It
doesn't work, although the story - in my opinion - is better than
the TSR fantasy series, I didn't believe it.

Eddings' Belgariad is an original story with nothing taken from
any mythology, even the wizards aren't wizards but sorcerers which
is a modern invention. They don't use magic but will to work
miracles. It's believable, and a great story in its own right.

@~Right, points taken, Kjell. I guess that, basically I'm not so
@~well up on the different types of mythology and what goes with
@~what. If Merlin and King Arthur turned up at Ragnarok, I'd realise
@~something was up, but if I enjoyed the story, I wouldn't be too
@~concerned.

@~It all comes down to how much you know about a topic and how
@~important it is that people are logical and accurate. As a
@~zoologist, I get infuriated by scientific names given in the wrong
@~case in what is supposed to be a science-based novel - it's the
@~same sort of thing.

@~As far as books are concerned, I look on them as enjoyment and a
@~break from everyday life. Same goes for films. Plus, I must be
@~gullible because there are very few of either that I don't believe
@~while I'm reading or watching them eg Close Encounters I found a
@~very moving film and got totally immersed in it. But, following
@~your letter, I'll certainly aim to look more for consistencies in
@~future books though I'll no doubt still enjoy the ones that mix
@~'em up as well.  Thanks for all the interesting points you made.
@~More on books from
Steve Cook, Wellingborough

The main reason for writing is to sound you out on the idea of a
regular book section, or maybe just something to fall back on in
quiet months. I don't know how big a percentage of your readership
take their hobby beyond their keyboards but I wouldn't mind betting
quite a few have enjoyed Arnie Schwarz etc as Conan or read one of
the many Sci-Fi or fantasy books on the market.

I personally have always been a great reader. During one blissful
period of unemployment I practically lived in the library and would
read on average five or six paperbacks a week. I was never that
selective - I'd read any old crap - but my staple diet was
science-fantasy as it was known in them days.

A friend of mine once lent me a series of books by an American
author named Donaldson. The series was 'The Chronicles of Thomas
Covenant - Unbeliever'. Probably the finest works I've ever read
(and I've read a few). These stories changed my perception of the
books I read. Since then I've been somewhat selective in reading
material. My only criticism of both the Covenant series is that
the books are somewhat deep and not easily accessible which can be
off-putting for your more casual reader - a case in point; my
wife's taken six weeks to read about 90 pages. Although
perseverance pays off. I'd strongly recommend these books to
anyone.

Donaldson followed this up with a two book series named 'Mordant's
Need'. This series is superficially very similar to its
illustrious predecessor although it is a very good series in its
own right. Apart from a book of short stories the only other book
on the market by him is his latest work which is a science fiction
reworking of 'Das Ring', you know, the Wagner opera.

There have been many others worthy of reading. Ones I'd recommend
being:
Saga of Exiles - Julian May - excellent 4 books, Sci-fi series
Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien - unmissable classic

Elric of Melinbone - Michael Moorcock - patchy but in parts
excellent
Belgariad/Mallorean - David Eddings - nice characterizations
Dragonlance series - Weis and Hickman - brilliant. You've played
the game, now read the books. Again, great characters.
Magician and others - Raymond E Feist - good storytelling.

There are also some real turkeys. I've always been a big fan of
Stephen King and when I read of his doing a series of fantasy my
hopes were well high. Oh dear. What can I say? Avoid at all costs.
Some other geezer called Terry Brooks who wrote about elves
(Shannara series), load of old pony. (Hugh Cook's a bit hit and
miss as well).

There are so many books to choose from and, in my opinion, they
can be every bit as rewarding as playing fantasy adventure games.
They can add another dimension and, if nothing else, can provide
an alternative when you've reached an impassable point in your
current game.

I think it would be nice if SynTax could be used as some type of
readers' forum with a wide range of views and opinions being
voiced of a variety of books. This may not be what your readers
want. I can only ask. The only reason I mention this is the very
close links between the two genres and the rather 'adult' cerebral
nature of your games players (what a creep).

@~I think it would be nice too! The response to the early book
@~reviews has been encouraging and I hope that enough readers will
@~show an interest in reviewing books as well as software. I feel
@~the two hobbies are closely linked too and I think that's why I
@~personally prefer text games to graphic games because I can
@~imagine my own pictures to go with the storyline, just as I do
@~with books.  There are two more book reviews this issue and I
@~hope more will follow.