On 3/6/2021 1:20 PM, Jeff Zeitlin wrote:
> I would love to see a review of this series in Freelance Traveller;
> unfortunately, it's going to take at least a year and several re-readings
> before_I_ could do it justice (you don't want to know how many times I
> read the Jao Empire series before writing my review of _The Course of
> Empire_).
>
> Nevertheless, this is a book that I would think most Traveller fans would
> enjoy: While I don't see Walter as another K.D.Wentworth when it comes to
> alien creation, I do feel that the zor, as portrayed in this series, are a
> good answer to the Campbellian Challenge*.
>
> There is also a lot of other setting material that will resonate with
> Traveller fans; one could easily see this as an Alternate Traveller
> Universe. The story as told is at the epic-influence level, similar to the
> dire goings-on of_The Lord of the Rings_, though spanning several
> viewpoint characters and about a century of time, rather than being a
> single person's quest.
>
> The series is available in print from Amazon, and in e-book from Baen
> Books. Titles in the series (in order):
>
> 1. The Dark Wing
> 2. The Dark Path
> 3. The Dark Ascent
> 4. The Dark Crusade
I can't recommend this series highly enough! It is everything Jeff
stated and a lot more, IMO. The Zor are, IMO, the most "real" alien
species I've seen in SF and agree that they are an excellent answer to
Campbell's challenge. After The Dark Path (or was it The Dark Wing?)
came out, I traded several emails with Mr. Hunt and found him easy to
approach, eager to talk, and someone that I would roadtrip to go to if
he ran a game.
If you have the time, I strongly urge you to read the series if only the
first book, for a good look at how aliens are done right. They aren't
retreaded human societies tossed into a blender with a couple other
ideas and then presented, they aren't dogs or cats in space, they aren't
humans in turbans or with weird ears/foreheads, the Zor are truly alien.
Kurt
--
Kurt Feltenberger
xxxxxx@thepaw.org/xxxxxx@yahoo.com
“Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm scared I'm not living enough." - Me
