Newsgroups: alt.fan.piers-anthony
Subject: What is this world coming to?
From: Jonathan Baird Homer <jh85+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 14:21:30 -0400 
Organization: Freshman, MCS general, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Greetings,

    This is my first posting to this board, but I have been reading it
for several weeks now.  In general, I've been terribly dissappointed
with the quality of postings.  However, I must applaud
rraf@dciem.dciem.dnd.ca (Rob Feltham) who found the patience to post a
partial list of Anthony's works.

    Thank you, Rob, but that really shouldn't have been necessary. 
Anyone who considers themselves an Anthony fan (and I'm going to make a
bold laep of faith here) should own at least ONE of his books.  Now, if
this book was published any time in this decade, it should have a fairly
complete list of Anthony's books on the back of the title page.  So,
before anyone else decides to post responses, take a look at this page. 
We would be able to avoid stupid (and unexcusable) mistakes like "I
think the first book in the series about Phaze and Proton (called
Apprentice Adept, by the way) was called Out of Phaze"  Wake up!  Split
Infinity was first.  Out of Phaze was fourth!  Additionally, the trilogy
confusion could have cleared up with one response, not 37.

    As cjohnson@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Carl A. Johnson) mentioned earlier,
all of you should go out and get yourselves a copy of Bio of an Ogre. 
Read it until you understand it and then look at the last few pages to
find Piers' bibliography.  Admittedly this is now somewhat out of date,
but it does list the publishers and dates, etc.  Judging from his
previous postings, this Carl Johnson guy must be one of the only true
Anthony fans out there.  I imagine that he and I could get to be really
good friends sometime...

    I'm sorry if any of you have taken offense at my ravings.  I don't
mean to be quite so harsh, but I am serious about looking at an Anthony
book before posting if you are not sure of your answers.  This way we
would waste far less time on trivial issues, and would be able to spend
more time intelligently discussing Anthony's wonderful novels.  Which
incidentally, I shal devote the rest of this posting to...

    The general consensus is that Macroscope is excellent.  I couldn't
agree more.  This is truly the pinnacle of Piers' 'pure' Sci-Fi writting.
    I must say that the Mode Series is a futile attempt to re-create the
Apprentice Adept flavor.  Mode isn't bad by any means, it just doesn't
have the power of Apprentice Adept.  The concept of 'The Game' was
brilliant.  That was my favorite part.  I also want to say that Piers
should have left it at three books.  Out of Phaze - Phaze Doubt detract
from the first three.  I guess it is understandable though.  If I was
Piers, I probably wouldn't turn down who knows how many thousands of
dollars for four more books that could share in the glory of an already
successful series.

    More important business calls... (The Penn State vs. Miami game)
    Maybe in the future we can discuss relevant issues on this board and
make it worthwhile.


    -Jon   

------- "I am thinking of the immortal words of Scorates, who said, ---------
                 ---------  "I drank what?" -----------
Newsgroups: alt.fan.piers-anthony