review: The Hunter's Blades

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

reference: http://www.timewastersguide.com/view.php?id=1111

It makes a lot of references back to the old material, which preserves a lot of continuity and a lot of the character that fans have come to like, but there are other problems. Kinda good, kinda bad.

[Spriggan]

Not to change subjects but do you really see Salvatore as a "professional fan-fic" author?  That kinda seams like a backhanded complement.  Especially to him since he has a lot of creative control with the setting, I see him as one of the people working on creating/developing the world.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I called him an author of "professional semi-fan fiction." which has an imiportant semantic difference. Maybe it's a backhanded complement, but it conveys my intention quite well. Forgotten Realms books (even Salvatore's) have the feel of the "fan fiction" series writing books I've read for D&D, Star Wars, Star Trek, and so on. It's ok if that's what you like, I don't mean it to be insulting. But I don't think it's an inaccurate description of the subject matter.

[Spriggan]

So you're basically saying any author who writes in a setting they didn't create (excluding versions of our world) are writing a form of Fan-fic?  I still don't buy that, arguably there are paid authors like that, but I don't see most that way.  Too me there's not much difference between say Salvatore and someone writing a TV episode plot for Star Trek (or any show for that matter.  Friends, ER, Buffy).

Though what would be intresting is to hear what certain editors at a certain publisher that happens to release this stuff thinks.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

no, that's not what I said.
I said that they FEEL LIKE other fan fiction books. It can be justifiable or not. It may be respectable. I'd do it if I got offered money to write it. I did not say that this was a bad thing. I did not disparage it. I just said what it feels like.

to reiterate: I said it was "SEMI-" fan fiction. That does not say it IS fan fiction. Nor does it say that fan fiction is bad. I'm not trying to malign anything here.

[Fellfrosch]

Spriggan hit the nail on the head, in my opinion: any author writing a novel for a setting (or characters, though that doesn't apply with Salvatore) that he or she did not create is writing a form of fan-fiction. That's how fan-fiction is largely defined in my mind. If you want to attach a negative label to that (i.e., all fan-fiction is bad) then we have a different idea of what fan-fiction is.

[stacer]

Though what would be intresting is to hear what certain editors at a certain publisher that happens to release this stuff thinks.

You talkin' to me? Did you rub my lamp?

Bob created his setting, though it is based off other settings--isn't that right? (I don't work with him directly.) I do think there's a difference between fan fiction (fiction written by an amateur based in another author's world) and quality fiction set in a world based on an intellectual property owned by a company that they're hired to write for. If I understand Sprig right, he's saying that shared-world series fiction is like writing for a TV series, and I would say it's probably pretty similar. Someone creates the world, and a certain number of authors have to work within those parameters.

I really can't say much more than that. Working for a certain publisher editing certain books, I'm having a good time. It's certainly a different way of doing things, but the authors I work with are really good. If you want to see some good shared-world fiction, go check out the Dragonlance: The New Adventures series in the children's series section.