John Crowley, on the other hand, writes wonderful, intricate, rewarding SF. For me, his only peer for sheer prose style in SF today is Gene Wolfe. But, while Gene Wolfe's prose is just wonderful to behold, John Crowley has a marvelous deceptive clarity. It's always readable. I'm caught up in the story, hardly noticing how I'm being carried along. But later, on closer examination, the harder I look, the deeper it gets. For the beginning reader, I'ld recommend "Engine Summer", a marvelous story that's still very approachable. To me, however, "Little, Big" is his best work, dealing with many marvelous, quirky characters, the modern world and the land of Faery. It does take some some effort to complete, but is entirely worth it. I'm still not quite sure what to make of "AEgypt". Part of it is probably my obtuseness (and I've only read it once), part of it is that fact that it's not complete: there is going to a couple more books to complete the story. All of his books deserve to be read. [C] == Short Story Collection /John arpa: JWenn.ESAE@Xerox.com dontletyourmindwanderitstoolittletobeoutalone-ly ---------------------------------------------------------------- Crowley, John [U.S.A., 12/1/1942- ] The Deep [1975] Beasts [1976] Engine Summer [1979] Little, Big [1981] AEgypt [1987] Novelty [1989] [C]