"Lord Kalvan series worth reading?" Topic

A couple of days ago I discovered that there was more than one Lord Kalvan book, with eight in the series. Do they mesh with Piper's style? Are they worth reading? Thanks.

Hi

first book was great. Great Kings War was good and the rest go downhill fast. He add too many characters and expanded the scope of the story to include the whole continent.

I can only agree with Wackmole9 on the first two – I have not read any of the John F. Carr follow-ons. I might pick up his first (third in the series) as an epub to see if I agree.

Agree. The first book is Piper, so great. The second is adequate but obviously a set up for a series which did not bode well. I've never red any of the rest.

Have to agree with the others. I loved the first book. Piper didn't write the rest and it shows. The second was OK, I stopped after that.

The Last One SUCKED to high heaven…the previous, mediocre.

Stick w/#'s 1 & 2, but they go downhill afterwards.

I looked at #2. I'd say Read the original and stop. I don't know whether anyone can match Piper at what he does, but certainly Carr (and Scalzi) can't.

Contrary case. If you're a Sherlock Holmes fan, buy Kepperman's Dust and Shadows and The Whole Art of Detection. They're the only straight Sherlock Holmes which may be better than Arthur Conan Doyle.

If you like the original novel, was it because of the writing style or the subject matter? If the writing style, I wouldn't bother with the remaining books in the series as Carr and fellow co-writers simply can't match Piper's wit, descriptions, and action sequences. Carr is to Piper as August Derleth is to Lovecraft. If it's the subject matter, i.e., the alternate timeline and what happens in it, then they many be worth reading just to see how the extended story develops. I've read all 8 novels. "The Hos-Blethan Affair" is the best of the last 6 (it's the second last novel in the series) and comes closest to being similar to the original novel. I always found it ironic that Piper considered himself a failure and committed suicide right before receiving the mail where Lord Kalvan was accepted. If only Piper had lived to write more.

I only read the Piper but it was great.

I have a physical copy of the miniatures game, Down Styphon!

You can get the PDF for $4 USD

link

Well, I rather enjoyed all of the sequels. While I have to agree that Carr can't quite capture the magic of Piper's writing, most are still good yarns and contain many wargmable scenarios. Plus you gotts be rooting foer the fall of the House of Styphon!

Disappointed, but not surprised. I may try the second one to see what I think.

@Andrew, thanks for the link.

Thanks to all for responding.

gamertom, read John F. Caff's H. BEAM PIPER: A BIOGRAPHY some time. I've heard maybe half a dozen or so variations on the "Piper's check was in the mail" story one time or another, but none of them are true. He'd already sold two sections of Lord Kalvan to Campbell at ANALOG. Not clear when exactly the whole thing was sold to Ace. Quite possibly not until after he was dead, and Piper certainly would have sold the third and final installment to Campbell before the book sale. The way it was done killed the magazine sale.

But Piper was broke, and there was nothing else in the pipeline. Fuzzies and Other People had been rejected. He was rewriting a detective novel which already hadn't sold. His old agent was dead. His new agent wasn't communicating.

And he was despondent over the political situation. On Wednesday 4 November--the day after the Presidential election--he wrote "The only thing that will save this country now is an Act of God, and God doesn't exist." On November 5th he shot himself.