Caesar was ambitious.....

[ellenkushner]

While responding to a letter from a student in Indiana looking for "the quote from the beginning of the original print. Which is the information I was trying to gather on the book, I can never remember that quote and the book mysteriously disappeared from the library the year before I left high school." - I think he means the epigraph, and so lazily searched Google for Swordspoint Plato Thurber - I came across lines from a Swordspoint review on that made me laugh out loud:

The book is filled, however, with intrigue and fantasy-kingdom politics, which does nothing for me. In fact, I found myself rolling my eyes at the first half, which reminded me overly of Julius Caesar.

Hey - if that's what it takes to get compared to Shakespeare - well, I'm not proud!

Comments

[hilleviw.livejournal.com]

Oh noes! You wrote complexity and plot! Oh poor, poor, reader.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Hey, listen - I hated "Julius Caesar" in high school, too. The full review is actually terrific - she ended up loving the book despite its "flaws" - but I got a huge kick out of that flash of, "Oh, no - this is like that thing they made us read that's supposed to be really good but was no fun at all!"

[hakumeiun.livejournal.com]

That's like getting slapped across the face with a baby bunny--not quite as scathing as the person wielding the bunny intended, but a real feel-good moment for the person being slapped.
Good for you, getting insulted so well!

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

No, no - the rest of the review is really great! She ended up loving the book in spite of herself! I'm not insulted - I'm just delighted and amused at the comparison. I hated "Julius Caesar" in high school, too.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, whatever the content of the review, she clearly came to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

[mantichore.livejournal.com]

Curses, I wasn't connected. That's me, above.