Muddle Earth

Rating:
Summary: madness on lovingly pulped and sliced tree
Review: ahh in the vein of mr adams,monsiour rankin and jimmmy crankie,muddle earth brings together a veritable phalanx of amusing wriggling and splish-splashing in the shallow end shoal of ideas.having never read any of the authors previous work ,I was surprised to find that shockwave rider was among his many classic works.A well funny read that has the added attribute of getting the brain cells cranking over.If this book were a fruit it would be an amusing shaped dingbung.which exists only in my head.ah well thats what imaginations all about i suppose.buy this book.it will do you much good.

Rating:
Summary: This book was confusing and amusing.
Review: Muddle Earth caught my eye because of the title's resemblance to Middle Earth (Tolkien). It kept my eye because it reminded me of Douglas Adams. The book made me laugh while making me think a lot to try to sort things out. I really enjoyed it and am planning to read more of Brunner's books.

Rating:
Summary: HORRIBLE
Review: We bought this book because it was obviously a take-off on Tolkien, Harry Potter, etc, and we were VERY disappointed. First, perhaps the biggest problem, is that he tries to parody too many things. Writing a take-off on an entire genre means that the vast majority of authors would be in over their heads, including Paul Stewart. Also, if this book was intended to be a loving parody, it was not. It contains the outside shapes and forms of the genre (ie, the take-off on Hagrid/gentle giants, the befuddlingly bad magician, the ridiculously impossibly quest, etc), but it looses the heart behind these cliches/characters which are what makes them loveable in other works. My roommate and I both struggled to get through the book, and it was only because the characters and the story were so un-involving and over-the-top cliches that the book could not engage any emotional investment. Stewart might create good original works, but he should stay away from forms (including farces) that other have done so much better.