who's playing this game?
SimsHost:
Stephen R. Donaldson does have a large following of fans, among whose numbers you will not find me. :)
I've never tried reading romance novels, either, unless you count the works of Robert Heinlein and Edgar Rice Burroughs. I've long been intrigued by them, though, because so many of my fellow SFWAns write romance n the side. The "Regency Romance" seems to be all the rage.
Fantasy stories have been crowding SF off the shelves for quite some time now. Even my brainchild, Norwescon, now bills itself as "an annual northwest science fiction and fantasy convention." Like all children, it has departed quite widely from its parents' plans for its future. There's a reason for this: for the run of the mill novels, fantasy outsells skiffy at least two to one.
I've never been very fond of Bradbury. There's a certain artistic merit to his prose, but I have difficulty suspending disbelief to get into his flights of fancy. My impression of Asimov is the opposite--he came up with a few really good plots and settings, but most of the time his execution of the stuff should have been executed. But then, Asimov didn't write any of his stories. He just blasted out an initial rough draft and left it to editors to write the complete story.
Amusing story: At the 1961 World Science Fiction Convention in Seattle, a shiny new writer walked up to Robert A. Heinlein, hoping to impress The Dean. "My name is Harlan Ellison," he said. "I've sold more than a million words of science fiction."
Without missing a beat, Heinlein responded in his deep baritone, "There aren't that many words in the English language, so you must have sold some of them more than once!"
Kitiara:
Quote from: Renatus on 2005 August 12, 13:37:35
For those looking for interesting fantasy, I recommend Patricia A McKillip. Less so anything written before 1990, although her Harpist series is decent - her writing took on a more distinct style by the time she wrote "The Sorceress and the Cygnet", and kept it. Her writing is dreamlike - reminds me at times of Bradbury - and her worlds... well, some of them are rather medieval, and there are some fantasy creatures, yet it's entirely different from your usual sword and sorcery fare.
Katherine Kerr's Deverry series is quite excellent. I've also heard good things about China Mieville, but I haven't read the book of his I have yet because it's a gift to myself for when I finally finish writing a particular manuscript. (Sigh, it's been four months already...)
I like McKillip too, another one I forgot earlier. Oh, and Ellen Datlow, and Tanith Lee.
I got started by reading Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Loved it. Decided to try more sci fi. Got lucky. My next attempt was The Hitchhiker's Guide. Since, I've decided that sci fi is really good stuff. Fantasy, in my opinion is often better, but not always. I like the technology of sci fi but when I've read 20 pages of nothing but technical jargon with no plot, I start to get frustrated. I tend to go with fantasy more often because I still get that 'not quite real' story, without risking it being 80% jargon. Anyone ever read Sister Light, Sister Dark by Jane Yolen? Kind of a chic thing (amazonish) but very good.
On the non sci fi front, anyone else like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig?
DrBeast:
Quote from: ElviraGoth on 2005 August 08, 02:36:51
Quote from: DrBeast on 2005 August 07, 23:18:17
Well I'm certainly a science guy. I'm a vet doing my PhD in the Pharmacology laboratory, dabbling with DNA and doing research on poor, hapless albino rats (although I know that deep down they're the ones experimenting on me!).
Ever read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy et al? My favorite trilogy of five books!
A late answer, but an answer nonetheless (blame it on my vacations and my infrequent visits to netcafes!): yep! I'm not smart enough to come up with such a theory on my own!
SimsHost:
Quote from: Kitiara on 2005 August 12, 21:19:43
... I like the technology of sci fi but when I've read 20 pages of nothing but technical jargon with no plot, I start to get frustrated...
There's a trick to writing really good SF, which Stanley Schmidt beat into my head during six rewrites of my story, "The Last Plague" before he would print it in Analog. (Some of my writer buddies started calling it "The Last Rewrite"!) You have to work through all the technical details and then leave 95% of it out of the story.
Instead, show how the characters react to the stuff you've invented. Now matter how much effort you've invested in getting the technical details right, the story is about the people, not the rivets.
Fantasy writers often make the same blunder with elaborate descriptions of social structures, spell-casting systems, family trees, and how castles are made. Geez, folks, if you just want to bloat the word count, throw in a sex scene.
witch:
So what have you written Greg and what's your handle as an author? I'm wondering if I've ever read anything of yours. If you don't mind me asking of course! ;)
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page