Guardians of the Lost Library

[Stephen King's The Elmo]

U$A 27 just came out here in the States with Don's "Guardians of the Lost
Library".  A treasure hunt in the grand tradition, it concerns Scrooge's
search for the Library of Alexandria, gateway to untold ancient wealth.
Scrooge and his nephews cross four continents in the quest for the 
peripatetic volumes of knowledge and uncover some startling lost knowledge
of their own.

The odyssey is packed with Don's usual asides and sight gags in addition to
the Barksian main story.  Don's style does not lend itself to grand vistas,
though, and so the ducks' discoveries are not as visually awe-inspiring as
their first sighting of Cibola or Plain Awful.  Nonetheless, this is not a
Barks story, it is a Rosa story, and it is successful in that; this is
among Don's best works.  It is also nice to see Don work on a story which
does not stem directly from previous Barks work.  (In fact, a major plot
point hinges on previous *Rosa* work.)

It is something of a shame that Duck Tales is not being produced any more.
Don has written Donald into a passive stay-at-home role, making this a 
perfect vehicle for the television series.

The story has been affected by its own constraints.  There are so many stops
along the trail of the library that each one seems rushed, as does the
opening.  However, my mathematical inclinations appreciated the way the
library dwindled six orders of magnitude in the chase.

On the whole, "Guardians of the Lost Library" is a successful addition
to an extraordinarily impressive body of work.

	greg
--
"The very word insect is a combination of two ancient Greek words:  `in',
meaning `a' and `sect', meaning `repulsive little creature.'  Thus not only are
spiders insects, but so are crabs, jellyfish, the late Truman Capote, bats,
clams, olives, and those unfortunate little dogs, `pugs', that appear to have
been struck repeatedly in the face with a heavy flat object."--Dave Barry
  
elmo (morrow at physics.rice.edu,morrow at fnal.fnal.gov)