OT-Black Company - Page 6

JimMorrison · #51 July 6th, 2008, 04:58 AM

Quote:

HoneyBadger said:
...Scary-crazy, like people who sell their homes and give the money to televangelists...

Oh man.

The truth has claws.

I wasn't going to drag this thread around anymore, but thanks for hitting the part about the Reign of the Pointlessly Long Series. If Moby Dick or War and Peace were written today, they'd be split in 3 without hesitation. Then the publisher would ask for more. They would then beg for -anything- with the same characters, or in the same world, rather than get new creation that they would have to go through all the bother of trying to sell all over again.

Renojustin · #52 July 6th, 2008, 05:55 AM

Yeah, and if Tolkien lived back in 1930 or something, The Lord of the Rings would have been finished in 230 pages.

Side Note: scariest aliens ever in a novel = The Mote In God's Eye by Pournelle and Niven

HoneyBadger · #53 July 7th, 2008, 03:10 AM

Gormenghast was in several volumes too. The point isn't that authors suddenly jumped from tiny books to huge series, like it had never occurred to them before to continue their work along the same vein, it's that suddenly it was *expected* from them, to do so. Dozens of series suddenly came out, and grew longer and longer, because it was the fashionable and profitable trend.

Honestly, JimMorrison is spot on, calling it the "reign of the pointlessly long series", because a lot of these series have no business being as long as they are. If a body of work is very long, but of reasonable quality throughout, and each book adds to the body of work, then I'm happy as a clam about it. More goodness, what's not to like? But how many series can we look at and say, "every book here is sheer gold!"?

There are some. The Gunslinger series comes to mind, as does George Alec Effinger's awesome Marid Audran trilogy (which was only a trilogy because the author died), and ofcourse Terry Pratchet's Diskworld, which can continue on into infinity, as far as I'm concerned.

But for every author worthy of a major series, we seem to get 10 or 20 with diarhhea of the typewriter.

Leif_- · #54 July 7th, 2008, 04:48 AM

Quote:

HoneyBadger said:
Gormenghast was in several volumes too. The point isn't that authors suddenly jumped from tiny books to huge series, like it had never occurred to them before to continue their work along the same vein, it's that suddenly it was *expected* from them, to do so.

Not coincidentally, this happened at about the same time that personal computers and word processors entered the scene.

Saxon · #55 July 7th, 2008, 10:39 AM

May I suggest The Sundering by Jacqueline Carey? The first book is Banewreaker. It is fabulous and is essentially the Lord of the Rings, told from the other side. Sure, the story is different, but the heart of it is there.

Why do the bad guys do it? What drove them to it? The books look at the characters of the �evil� characters and makes �the good guys� play a minor role and a somewhat evil one at that. If the Knight in Shining Armor has a sword and kills people, is he really that good?

I found this on George RR Martin�s website and must credit him for pointing out the LOR symmetry. He lists what he has been reading recently. Dan Simmons does the same on his site. Looking at what top authors are reading, with their comments, is often a much better guide at where to find quality reading than listening to random jokers like me in a forum.

MaxWilson · #56 July 7th, 2008, 12:39 PM

Quote:

HoneyBadger said:
But for every author worthy of a major series, we seem to get 10 or 20 with diarhhea of the typewriter.

CoughcoughXanth!coughcough.

Sturgeon's Law, though.

-Max

HoneyBadger · #57 July 7th, 2008, 03:30 PM

Leif, the Mahabharata is a trilogy consisting of approximately 1.8 million words. I don't think they had personal computers and word-processors 2400 years ago.
Certainly, word-processors and pcs and even typewriters sped up the process, but this wasn't just a case of sudden invention increasing output. Those things didn't cure writers block, for one thing.

HoneyBadger · #58 July 7th, 2008, 03:36 PM

And Tolkien got his popularity in the 60's when the books were re-discovered by the hippies, not in the 30's, and it was in large part the popularity of his books that started the trilogy craze.

Leif_- · #59 July 7th, 2008, 03:50 PM

Quote:

HoneyBadger said:
Leif, the Mahabharata is a trilogy consisting of approximately 1.8 million words. I don't think they had personal computers and word-processors 2400 years ago.

Yes, yes, there were long books and stories long before word processors entered stage right, but it was with the the arrival of the word processors that books of 300+ pages became the norm.

Endoperez · #60 July 7th, 2008, 04:11 PM

I think endings are one of the most important parts of any story. A good beginning can get you started, but what you'll end up remembering will probably be the ending. There are exceptions, though:

"Mrs. Whitaker found the Holy Grail; it was under a fur coat."
So starts Chivalry, a short story by Neil Gaiman

Also, the forewords of the Dragonlance novel Soulforge, and spesifically the quote about iron-making. It's a powerful start, even though the story isn't too special by itself.