A review by chalicotherex
The Castle of Iron by L. Sprague de Camp, Fletcher Pratt
1.0
"Maybe the guy's a sadist. According to all the correlations, abnormal sex patterns should be common in this Moslem society where they keep all respectable women locked up. Besides his personality reminds me of that sadist we used as a case study—you know the one I mean—that real-estate fellow the SPCA got after."
Implying bestiality is a bit much. At any rate, it's outside of the spirit of Orlando Furioso. Also one of the psychologist heroes is called the Rubber Czech and he's Jar-Jar Binks-level stupid. And there's all that annoying, phoney not-quite-middle-english that people once used to signal Ye Olden Times.
Quite disappointed. Was really hoping someone in the twentieth century cared about Orlando Furioso, but apparently not. I doubt the authors read more than a synopsis of it (though there probably wasn't a good translation at the time).
It's a shame because I liked the premise: scientists/psychologists who travel to alternate realities based on works of literature. And there is one pretty good slam at the beginning: they want to learn more about the universe based on Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, but can't enter it for plot reasons, and opt instead for Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, whose universe operates on a similar logic because Spenser lifted all the best bits from it.
Quit less than half way in. Might return to it someday but I don't know.
Implying bestiality is a bit much. At any rate, it's outside of the spirit of Orlando Furioso. Also one of the psychologist heroes is called the Rubber Czech and he's Jar-Jar Binks-level stupid. And there's all that annoying, phoney not-quite-middle-english that people once used to signal Ye Olden Times.
Quite disappointed. Was really hoping someone in the twentieth century cared about Orlando Furioso, but apparently not. I doubt the authors read more than a synopsis of it (though there probably wasn't a good translation at the time).
It's a shame because I liked the premise: scientists/psychologists who travel to alternate realities based on works of literature. And there is one pretty good slam at the beginning: they want to learn more about the universe based on Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, but can't enter it for plot reasons, and opt instead for Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, whose universe operates on a similar logic because Spenser lifted all the best bits from it.
Quit less than half way in. Might return to it someday but I don't know.