Christopher Stasheff

Chrstopher Stasheff

Escape Velocity: This story sets the stage for the rest of the series, telling the story of the origin of Gramarye. Other than that, the story is essentially unrelated. One character does end up appearing in the rest of the series, though... While a bit old fashioned in some ways, it is also very effective social commentary, addressing the apathy of voters and the dangers of choosing safety over freedom.
The Warlock in Spite of Himself: Rod Gallowglass is an agent of a high-tech society who stumbles on the mideval world of Gramarye. He must save the world from evil influences. In the process, he makes some hard decisions about himself. A fun and interesting book if a bit old-fashioned in its treatment of women.
The Warlock Rock: While the series has been kind of light-hearted and campy, this book is absurd. The entire book is a shaggy dog story giving Christopher Stasheff an excuse to make every rock and roll pun he can think of at the same time portraying rock and roll as a bad influence which leads children to be lazy, do drugs, have promiscuous sex, and disobey their parents. I can't think of a single reason to read this book unless you just love bad puns and don't like rock and roll. The other books have been cute and/or interesting but this one just reeks. Don't read this book. Please don't read this book. I guess it wasn't as bad as Tom Clancy's SSN, but it was pretty close.
June 25, 2000