Simons Mith

Not a bad fantasy novel, reads a bit like it was generated from quite an enjoyable (for the players) D&D campaign. But were that the case it would have been more fun for the players to play through than it is for us to read about. (I doubt that it actually /was/ a D&D game, but that's how it came across, to me and at least one other reader.) Some good ideas in here which might be eminently nickable for an RPG, but only an average read, or a hair above.

A touching story, joyous, sad and romantic at different points. I think my favourite scene was right at the start of the book, when the traveller meets his future wife for the first time in his timeline and she's so delighted to see him again (after a gap of a couple of years, for her) that she completely bowls him over. I will usually read a 500-odd page book in two or three chunks; this one got read in a single sitting, something I don't often do. It's going to become an acknowledged classic, I'm sure of it.

An entertaining piece of military sci-fi

I have to largely quote a friend reviewing the same book, who wrote

"A Chinese box of a tale, with one tale containing another, which contains yet another, sometimes to the depth of six or seven tales. And Valente has this way of mentioning rather wondrous magical things in an almost matter-of-fact way, and describing the ordinary as if it were exotic, which I liked a lot."

I can't think of a better way to put it.

A sci-fi classic. I think this is his best book