Mr. Villiers, if you are not a dangerous man, you had best learn to be one

[rolanni]

Slow at the day-job, gray outside, Yr Hmbl Narrator short on sleep. Hard to get motivated. For anything. Fortunately or not, there wasn't that much requiring my attention, and so I pursued a re-read of Star Well by Alexei Panshin. It's been a long time since the last re-read and I am delighted all over again. Pity they're out of print. If you like ebooks, though, you can get all three en omnibus, with a nice cover, too, right over here.

Arriving home, I threw in a load of laundry, and took another stab at the foreword for The Dragon Variation. Maybe this time, I got it right.

Comments

[birdhousefrog.livejournal.com]

NO WAY! You're a Panshin fan, too? I have all three books in original print editions, bought at the time they were printed. I was always so disappointed that he didn't continue it. Now I want to go read them again. I'm glad there's an ebook edition, too. And Rite of Passage is one of my all-time sf novels. Sort of the way people feel about OSC and Ender's Game. Because when I read it, I was, well, all of 13 and it resonated.

Oz

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, me too. I loved Rite of Passage and the deep "we can but should we" question at the heart of the novel.
But and still my very favorite SF books are Liaden. :)
Barbara in Texas

[gary-farber.livejournal.com]

If you haven't told him, I'm sure Alexei would be happy to hear this.

Villers

[(Anonymous)]

I also grew irritated as it became clear that Panshin had abandoned the series.

Unlike the reviewer in that link, I don’t want Alexei to return to the Villers books. They were the works of a young author. I doubt that the man could duplicate the delicious tone of the stories at this late date.

[readinggeek451]

I've been meaning to re-read those. I adored them 20 years ago, but haven't picked them up since, so I'm almost afraid to.

Your book

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Sharon,
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You guys made my year. I have been swindled out of a fair amount of money by a merchant who gave my credit card number to some "service". Naturally we lost savings in the bank bust(I put MY money is CDs but that's another story). Worse I have a friend from Sloan Business School (MIT) who told me sometime ago that "they" the other heads of banks, all knew things were unreal, but they were making so much money they didn't care.
I was getting depressed.
Then your book arrived as promised.
I was stunned.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Apparently I can trust someone.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Yours,
Nancy Blignaut
PS. I put this here because my computer won't use the other mode of communication.

Re: Your book

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

We do try to keep our promises. One of our little idiosyncrasies.

I'm sorry you've been through such a rough patch. Enjoy the book, and thank you so very much for your support and interest.