Schtoof.

[wolfebyte]

You know, it really pisses me off, when authors use this sort of, "And suddenly, the hero becomes a complete idiot for a few hours!" type ploy to push a plot forward. Shouldn't editors be watching for weak shit like that in published works

Comments

[calzephyr77]

Ooof..the whole world is just going to poop!

Actually, I'm not surprised to hear this...there was a Margaret Weiss series I read even though it was woefully bad...she managed to retell Star Wars and mangle Daleks, The Magnificent Seven and probably a few others things into it. Like, holy ripoff woman! She could have been a little less transparent anyway.

I think actual writers have forgotten how to write!

[wolfebyte]

Well, some literary devices and basic plot devices have been used so much, or so well, that any use of them at all will be seen as ripping off someone else, so it's a common criticism in fantasy/sci-fi (where 'the way things should happen...' is almost as by-rote as in Harlequin Romance. Almost.) so it's fairly forgivable from that perspective.

I'm much more miffed by character inconsistencies, or - as the same author did just before I stopped reading the series - serious plot/timing inconsistencies. It's like he just said to himself, "Gee, I hope the timing is confusing enough that none of my readers will notice it took character A no time at all to get twice the distance character B had to travel, so that A could get there before B!"

Dumb. :P

In other news, are you doing Nanowrimo this year?

[calzephyr77]

Hmm, now I don't feel so bad for all my "evil computer" story ideas from last year. I'd rattle one off to Bud and he would name the movie it was from (out of all of the ones he cited, I only saw 2001) and I was like "But, but, it's not like HAL..." and "But, but this happens!" :-)

I think I might take another stab at NaNoWriMo, depending on how busy things are. I have clones on the brain :-)

[wolfebyte]

Heh, yup, the evil computer has been used a lot, but more recent things than 2001 have pulled it off better than "I, Robot" did (since the evil computer there seemed like a complete rip-off of the one in Deux Ex, even if it was based off of a book written long before

[wapsie]

Kill me too. I've got no time for anything but work anymore.

[wolfebyte]

Heh, all we need is 4 or 5 more people and we can make a good re-enactment of the final scene of Reservoir Dogs... ;)

[ntshadow]

Were you thinking of a particular example of that type of author fuckup?

Oh, and Asimov's I,Robot didn't have evil computers. He hated that cliche so much.

I assume you've read The Fantasy Novelist's Exam?

[wolfebyte]

Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series