Science/Fantasy Fiction - was part of "R J has passed away"

Ack! Why did anybody have to mention Kevin J. Anderson? I just had a horrible 'Prelude to Dune' flashback.

You didn't read the Butlerian Jihad bullshit. Nor the butchering that the supposedly "conclusion to the saga" books were. You are lucky. I am not...I still shudder upon remembering it.
 
Guess I am to be grateful that I have never read a book by Kevin J. Anderson. :)
 
Guess I am to be grateful that I have never read a book by Kevin J. Anderson. :)

Yes. Unless you fancy reading boring, uninspiring stuff. And basically I wouldn't include Star Wars and Star Trek books when arguing about an author's merits or lack of...most of the footwork is done for you there, a lot of ppl will probably like your stuff simply because it's SW or ST and so on. You're pretty much home safe when you write Luke with a lightsaber battling evil and Kirk being a womanizer, there aren't many nuances there.

OTOH, you're pretty much fucked when you actually have to understand that Frank Herbert meant to relay more through his writing than:Sardaukar kill, Fremen kill, Bene Gesserit mind-control and so on, and that a multi-layered plot!=simply switching between a bajillion uninteresting characters that are stretched over the entire universe, doing pretty much predictable things...when you have to write a complex character and understand that neither were the Harkonnen pure evil fucks, nor were the Atreides goodie-two-shoes, that it's the grays that give substance to a world, not blacks and whites.

Getting back to Jordan, my main worry is that if some shmuck takes up his work now, he'll probably finish it by endlessly writing about how Rand wanked on his 3 women and so on or some other silly, trivial, immediately evident thingie one can discern whilst reading The WOT. Jordan, for all of his useless piling on of things, actually tried to relay more(at least initially, he probably lost it at some point)...good and evil aren't as clearly drawn out, he actually got ppl to think about some things, like is The Dark One the incarnation of Evil or is he simply Cold Death or something else.
 
I suppose the only fantasy I read these days is Terry Pratchett, but his stuff is more of a Pratchett-style than fantasy per se and I must admit I've not enjoyed many of his more recent ones as much as the earlier stuff.

Sadly it appears that Pratchett has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's

http://www.paulkidby.com/news/index.html

An Embuggerance

Folks,

I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news. I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's, which lay behind this year's phantom "stroke".

We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism. For now work is continuing on the completion of Nation and the basic notes are already being laid down for Unseen Academicals. All other things being equal, I expect to meet most current and, as far as possible, future commitments but will discuss things with the various organisers. Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there's time for at least a few more books yet :eek:)

PS I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as 'I am not dead'. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think - it's too soon to tell. I know it's a very human thing to say "Is there anything I can do", but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.

:cry:
 
Unfortunate news. I only hope that when the time comes that he can't continue with his work, no books are left half-finished for others to complete.
 
I'm hearing about his death now. It's very sad.

I don't know about you guys, but I feel specially sad when an author that wrote a book I read dies. It's like me and "him" shared thoughs and a world created by him. Like it somehow connects us.

RIP



ps: Want a read a kick ass fantasy series? Read Malazan, Book of the Fallen, by Steven Erikson.
 
The Malazan series is very difficult reading for anyone but the hardcore fantasist. I've plodded through the first four and heard a lot of people stall by 5 or 6.
 
The Malazan series is very difficult reading for anyone but the hardcore fantasist. I've plodded through the first four and heard a lot of people stall by 5 or 6.

I agree it's not an easy read. It's an extremely different and complex world, and the author does not go about giving everything chewed up for the reader. Specially in the first book, which you already start in the middle of this huge battle.

But since when is easy been synonymous to good where art is concerned?

I read all seven so far, and definately place Malazan (along with ASOIF) miles apart from other series.
 
I agree it's not an easy read. It's an extremely different and complex world, and the author does not go about giving everything chewed up for the reader. Specially in the first book, which you already start in the middle of this huge battle.

But since when is easy been synonymous to good where art is concerned?

I read all seven so far, and definately place Malazan (along with ASOIF) miles apart from other series.

Since when is difficult synonymous with good where art is concerned? Ah right since people were pompous :p

I think a book is good if it is enjoyable to read, that is why I read. If it is tiresome, then I do not think it is good, even if the writing is well done. A truly exemplary book has excellent writing, excellent plot, and excellent clarity.

Anyway as far as jordan is concerned I always thought that if Rand were to live as most here seem to think impossible, it would have to be by the death of Min to bring about symmetry.
 
Since when is difficult synonymous with good where art is concerned? Ah right since people were pompous :p

I think a book is good if it is enjoyable to read, that is why I read. If it is tiresome, then I do not think it is good, even if the writing is well done. A truly exemplary book has excellent writing, excellent plot, and excellent clarity.

I'm not saying everything that's hard is good. But in my experience, in all kinds of arts, everything that is truly deep and touches you in a special way, is less likely to all around popular. The reason for that, is because people of are different from one another.
 
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