Interview of Julian Egelstaff (cont')

JE: The later books, especially the Grandmaster series, really lacked the kind of wonder and excitement in the earlier books that's created by discovering cool little stuff, like the Firesphere. Or maybe I'm just romanticizing since I was most heavily into it around the time when I got book 10, and at that point I must have read books 1-5 several dozen times each. Regardless, it's true that compared to the first five books, the later ones don't have nearly as much neat loot to pick up, the Grandmaster series is a virtual wasteland of special items.

RG: I was a kid then too, but book 3 is hardly one of my favorites. Maybe it's because I hate the snow so much, though living in Colorado doesn't help that in any way!

JE: No, book 3 is not one of my favorites either. But it's very visceral, very real. Magnamund really got a new dimension through it, I think. Nothing compares to slogging across the Viad glacier. The Danarg just doesn't cut it. I think the problem with the later books is that things degenerated to a series of encounters and the story was lost. Book three is a good example of that, versus book 8. The Viad glacier was a neat story, there's something to tell there and that made the world seem real because of the detail. In later books, like 8, the adventure is not told through narrative, but rather through encounters. First the anapheg, then the acid pools, the giant frogs, the spiders, and on it goes. Every page is another encounter, pick a number, fight a monster, do you survive, do you not survive. There's no story until you actually have to climb up the tree to locate the temple. So, since you miss out on the narrative, the whole Danarg seems less threatening, since you never ever get to see it in the text, you're just picking numbers to see if you live.

RG: Ah yes... "Your eagle eyes have already caught the glint of the Korlinium spire long before the telltale clicks confirm the fact." Or something like that.

JE: Bingo. That's cool, that's way cooler than killing the anapheg. I mean, big deal, of course you kill the anapheg, it's just another monster. The story is recovering the lorestone, not killing monsters, so how about some story telling here!

RG: What is your favorite book then?

JE: Well, book 1... book 4, 5... book 6, 7... book 10--sort of (it's too short after the battle, but the side trip to the temple is cool)... book 18. Now, that's not a favorite of course, those are just the ones I like the most. Note the absence of later books. That's partly my bias that I already discussed, and partly because I think the best story telling was in the first couple regardless.

RG: What?! Not book 11? ;P

JE: No, not book 11, there's almost NO choices in book 11. Yuck. Story telling and narrative is one thing, but I'd like to be able to have a slightly different adventure each time I read it, thanks! 11 may be my least favorite. I haven't read most of the grandmaster series more than a handful of times though, so it's probably not fair to compare them directly with the original series.

Anyway, an absolute favorite... Gee... A toss up between 4, 5, 6, 7. Each book exemplifies something that's great about the series and isn't done better anywhere else ever again. Book four has an element of mystery that's painfully lacking from later books. Book five has a great mixture of settings and events that's just a blast to read, it's a great mix, it's never boring, which is a hallmark of a good Lone Wolf book, or any book really. Book six is a great overland adventure, and I love overland adventures, and the Stornlands are very cool indeed--more of that detailed Magnamund coming to the fore. And book seven has great atmosphere, at least I thought so, I was really drawn in. It's a fun book because you really never know what's going to happen, and you never know if you're going to die. Book 18 is maybe a better overland adventure than book 6, but, well, I haven't read it enough to say. Taken together, those aspects as exemplified in those books are the best things about the series, I think.

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