The Morcyth Saga

The Morcyth Saga by Brian S. Pratt is essentially a single book in seven instalments the first of which was offered free on Barnes and Noble's Nook System, the concept of getting one hooked so the remaining books in the series be bought having worked in my case though I went to another source for the remaining 6. The books are essentially one long Dungeons and Dragons role-playing session that runs for several years in the life of it's central character James, a youthful mage. Whereas the first two books begin well by the third it starts to stretch belief that one person could possibly get himself involved in that many scrapes and escape each essentially unscathed. The characterizations and interpersonal relationships are well-taken and the books certainly don't lack for action-adventure.

Though I realize not everyone is as fanatical about grammar as I one would expect that someone who reached his twenties in the nineties uses a word processor to write. Why then would even a simple word-processor not have caught the spelling errors, the incomplete sentences, and dangling participles and run-on sentences. It seems obvious that editors no longer do much editing.

Full Circle

Full Circle by Michael Thomas Ford is the story of two childhood friends who grow up experimenting with gay sex before they can even give their exploration of each other’s bodies a name. While one has a predeliction to play the field the other, who narrates the tale, tends toward more monogamous relationships and feels betrayed when others stray. In telling the story of these lives Ford lays out the history of the gay movement, the Vietnam War, and the scourge that AIDS becomes in the gay community.

With its insights into the dynamics of family life, boyhood relationships, the high school and college experience, growing maturity and self-awareness, military life, this book rises above the level of most gay literature to become in part a sociological and psychological examination of modern society. Beginning with a phone call in the middle of the night in the present day, the narrator takes us back to the story of his grandparents and parents, his birth, and his life to the point where the phone rings. As impressed as I was with the first two-thirds of the book I began to get incredulous at the idea that one person could have been involved in the lives of so many important historic personages and as struck as I was with the aptness of the first half of the book the author seems to have run out of steam at some point along the line and the eventual closing chapters seem truncated and incomplete.