From: Inire <inire@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) An Exchange of Hostages
Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2001 01:29:20 


--- Nigel Price <nigel.a.price@virgin.net> wrote:
> Going through some back copies of Locus, I found a
> review in the July 1997
> issue for a book entitled "An Exchange of Hostages",
> by Susan R Matthews.
> According to the review, the book follows the career
> of a sympathetic
> torturer in a decadent future galactic empire where
> judicial torture is the
> norm. Similarities with "Dune" are mentioned, as
> well as a stylistic
> similarity to C J Cherryh, but there is no reference
> to Wolfe or Severian.
> Has anyone on the list read this book? Is it any
> good, and does it show any
> evidence of Lupine influence? On the face of it, "An
> Exchange of Hostages"
> sounds perfectly horrid, but then, that's what I
> thought "The Shadow of the
> Torturer" was going to be like - before I read it.
> 
> Nigel, mildly curious in Minety

I read it, and was intrigued enough to buy (and not
yet read) the second in the series. The story has
little if any Lupine influence, IMO, especially since
Matthews seems to get off on horrid descriptions of
torture, a touch that Wolfe leaves out IIRC. 

an okay read, but not crucial.

-j

=====
Jeff "My dice hate me!" Miller      
				ICQ# 57242517
"The idea of verifying facts about the world through controlled repetition seems alien to just about everyone with the _possible_ exception of Fr Inire, and he's a bug-eyed space monster. . ."           -Jim Henley, on the URTH list

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