There's never a dark night of the soul where he comes to realize his horrible mistakes-no, turns out destiny's groomed him for even greater greatness. He's a bit of a Mary Sue, except that he's also awful several times throughout without any indication that anyone (other than mean, bad people) might think he's being awful. The characters have no character whatsoever-the main character especially so. He admits spending the Vast Majority of his time on working out the details of his magic system, and comparatively little time on plot and characters, and it certainly shows. The author's preface (or whatever one calls a preface when it shows up at the end of the book) was very illuminating. (I particularly appreciated the little covert jokes, not just the now-not-unusual employment of Maxwell's demon, but the use of painted-daisies in a magical preparation to rid a barbarian of lice, and willow bark in one to relieve pain.)ĭefinitely recommended for a real good overview of traditional Western European magic, wrapped up in a not very well done story. A lotta things make sense, now, that were just sort of a mishmash, before. Can't say how much, if any, he regularized or imposed structure, for he went well beyond what was in the folklore and anthro courses I've had. But said claim- mirabile dictu! -turned out to be legitimate. My skepticism was challenged by the cover blurb's claim, "one of the most logical detail of the laws of magic ever to appear in fantasy".
In 2016, he retired the company and began a new full time career of writing.Just out from Del Rey is MASTER OF THE FIVE MAGICS by Lyndon Hardy (who "became interested in fantasy while wandering through the fringes of fandom as an undergraduate at Caltech"). After retiring from aerospace, he cofounded a software consulting firm, Alodar Systems, specializing in business processes, ERP solutions, and application integration. For 30 years he worked at TRW helping to build ground station software for satellites. He received a BS in Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1962 and a PhD in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1966. Lyndon Hardy was born in Los Angeles, and except for a few years spent in Texas while growing up, has lived in California all his life. Together they have two daughters and four living grandchildren.
He lives with his wife, Joan, in Torrance, California. While at CalTech, in 1960 he organized and led what has been called the best college prank ever pulled - The Rose Bowl Card Stunt Caper. As of yet, he has not figured out a plot line for a stamp collector who saves the world. In addition to reading and writing, he has sporadic bursts of enthusiasm for collecting stamps and playing cards. He became interested in fantasy while wandering through the fringes of fandom when he was at Caltech. Lyndon Hardy (1941- ) Author, prankster, grandfather
0 kommentar(er)
