Dreamrider

Rating:
Summary: Ian Myles Slater on A Twice-Told Tale
Review: I have given this splendid fantasy / alternate universes novel four stars instead of five only because it also exists in an expanded (and otherwise revised) form, under the title "Shaman" (Baen Books). Both versions are worth reading, but "Shaman," which unfortunately is also out of print, is probably the more satisfactory, if available.

Some of those who have read the book in either form may not have recognized that the "classic text" read by the protagonist, Mircea Eliade's "Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy," is a real book. It is worth reading in its own right (and at places amounts to a technical commentary on the novel, like Hal Clement's essays on the factual content of his science fiction novels), but it is not nearly as a much fun.

Rating:
Summary: Ian Myles Slater on A Twice-Told Tale
Review: I have given this splendid fantasy / alternate universes novel four stars instead of five only because it also exists in an expanded (and otherwise revised) form, under the title "Shaman" (Baen Books). Both versions are worth reading, but "Shaman," which unfortunately is also out of print, is probably the more satisfactory, if available.

Some of those who have read the book in either form may not have recognized that the "classic text" read by the protagonist, Mircea Eliade's "Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy," is a real book. It is worth reading in its own right (and at places amounts to a technical commentary on the novel, like Hal Clement's essays on the factual content of his science fiction novels), but it is not nearly as a much fun.