Introduction

by Larry Niven

I made my brother read Empire of the East. He builds and runs apartment buildings; he doesn't read much science fiction or fantasy. But he loved The Lord of the Rings, and I told him this was better. I think it is, though I'll admit that it's a matter of taste.
Fred Saberhagen has a fine grasp of magic. The laws he postulates are strange, but rigorously selfconsistent: the least one must demand of fantasy.
He has a fine flair for poetic justice-the invisible third principle of magic. There were times when my hair stirred at the horror I saw the East bringing upon themselves . . as in Watership Down, when Hazel summoned the dog.
But as a writer, I most admire Saberhagen's imagery. Consider his description of the Dark Lord, Zapranoth:
"The earth seemed to sink down beneath his feet, as stretched cloth would yield to the weight of a walking man."
And of the Beast-Lord Draffut, impregnated with elemental life:
It was as if he walked in snow or gravel, instead of solid stone; for at his touch, rock melted, not with heat but as if quickening briefly into crawling life, to quiet again when he had passed.
Images vivid and simple, easy to see, and clearly impossible; images that stick in the mind. My mind has watched the battle between Zapranoth and Lord Draffut, while toy armies of men stopped their own battle to watch, and I won't forget any of it.