Timewaster's Guide Archive

Everything I know about civilisation I learned from "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," by Edward Gibbon.

Will Durant's working version is a much quicker read, however;

http://www.willdurant.com/civilization.htm

"Steampunk" by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer was my starting point.  Not only does it have a wide selection of stories from across the sub-genre, but it puts the stories in the wider context of the development of Steampunk.

There's been a debate going on around the web lately about fantasy, specifically the tendency toward less morally elevated characters and stories..  I thought I'd post some of the articles here and get some reactions.

It started with an article, "The Bankrupt Nihilism of Our Fallen Fantasist," by Leo Grin talks about the increase in nihilistic and gritty fantasy as opposed to the more traditional Sword and Sorcery of Robert E. Howard, and High Fantasy by Tolkien.  The article uses the works Joe Abercrombie as as its main example of this trend

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/12/the-bankrupt-nihilism-of-our-fallen-fantasists/

Abercrombie replied, rather glibly I thought, on his blog.

http://www.joeabercrombie.com/2011/02/15/bankrupt-nihilism/

The Black Gate ran an interesting rebuttal to several remarks Ambercrombie made.

http://www.blackgate.com/2011/02/20/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-fantasy-novel/

I don't know if this is one of those things which is a lot of sound and fury, but I find the discussion intriguing.  As someone who enjoys the more traditional moral heroes (like Dresden) and more traditional stories where people are basically decent, and are distinct from the bad guys, I don't much like the more nihilistic fiction trend.  I have for a long time known that I had to avoid works that were more "real," or "gritty."  I'm not saying that there's no place for works like that, but they're not to my taste.

Frankly, I find the idea that works like Abercrombie now dominate fantasy (an idea expressed in the first article, the one that started it all) is absurd.  The more traditional fantasies are still the ones that sell.  There hundreds who want to be the next Jordan, or Sanderson or Butcher.  I don't know many people who want to be the next Abercrombie.  There might be a few who want to be the next George R.R. Martin, and that's a scary thought.  But I think that the former authors are popula,r and inspire emulators, not because they sell so well, but because there is a joy in reading that kind of fiction, and a joy in writing in that vein.

I've put this up a couple of places I know fantasy readers hang out.  I'm hoping to get an idea of what writers and readers alike think about the rends in fantasy today.
Anyway, that's my opinion.  What's yours?

"The skirmish over prices is possible because of deals that publishers negotiated with Amazon this year that allowed the publishers to set their own prices on e-books, while Amazon continues to choose the discount from the list price on hardcovers."
-NY Times article

The publishers had been threatening legal action because Kindle downloads were a flat 9.99.

I wonder if Amazon price pointed the hardbacks at just below the Kindle price to prove a point.
 

I honestly don't understand what people see in the series.  It's a good story, it's just not that remarkable.  A world where the seasons change slowly is as old as the pulp magazines.  The Dragon killed by the Lion to be threatened by the Wolf feels like a Middle-English poem to me.  The rest of the plot feels like a fantasy version of War and Peace.  I am a firm believer that his writing makes the series so compelling.

All but one character I liked remained alive after book two, and he's not even in a Feast for Crows.  Jon Snow has been beyond the Wall for over a decade!  By rights, the next time we see him, he should be thirty-five.

My group still enjoys using the old cards from the original set.  And not all the old cards are at a disadvantage there are some cards that are rather over powered. 

http://wildgunmen.com/blog/2010/09/22/10-most-overpowered-old-school-magic-cards/

 Here's an that illustrates some of the best examples.  In sum, while there's been a lot of power creep there's also been a lot of mana-cost creep as well.

I don't particularly like George R.R. Martin (the one exception being "The Armageddon Rag").  However, some writers I really like, Roger Zelazny for example, have written in the Wild Cards Universe.  I was wondering if it was worth getting into.

Anyone have an opinion?

Star Wars books are a mixed lot.  Some are good, and some are bad.  A lot of the worst ones came after the movie prequels came out, when Lucas Arts started to exert more influence on the story lines.  This led to some decision making that many fans disagreed with. 

Timothy Zhan, Kevin J. Anderson, and Micheal Stackpole did some their best work in the Star Wars universe.  I really don't like anything of Anderson's outside of it, actually.  I would recommend them as a starting point.  You need the back story those provide to understand anything more recent anyway.  You can generally find the books very cheaply in used bookstores.  I see them all the time.