Hi all,
       I'm reading SHADOWHEART by James Barclay. I've never heard
of him but he's already written four of these, so I assumed he knew
what he was doing... WRONG!

 He's an idiot.

 There's a city-state under siege by two other city-states (something
like Medieval Italy with elves, magicians and a dragon). Firstly,
they're defending the town *outside* the city walls. To me, that's
not a siege but okay it's SF, I can suspend disbelief.

 The baddies are about to break out. Their evil plan is to take
*another* city-state! and turn off the magic which comes out of a hole
in the ground. (Don't blame me, I didn't invent this rubbish).

 But everything is okay because the goodies have a brilliant
general, and when the "stupid" general decides that this breakout is a
great opportunity to reinforce his men, waylay the breakout and
annihilate them with superior numbers, the "brilliant" general
explains why that is so stupid. His plan is to maintain the siege and
let his own force be wiped out so that the breakout can escape. 

 Is he kidding?

 Mr Barclay is an idiot who knows nothing about medieval sieges,
battles, or anything else. I even wonder about his dragon, but his
elves follow the Tolkien pattern so I guess they're real enough.

 My New Year resolution for 2004... stop reading bloody Fantasy.

Regards,
Bob

--- BQWK Alpha 0.5