Two questions regarding authors
1)Every so often when it gets slow and I run out of sites that are probably okay to be looking at on desk, I remember that I keep meaning to start reading the Dresden Files. For some reason this branch can't keep Storm Front in. Whenever I check, there's like six holds on it. Meanwhile the second, fourth, and eighth books in the series are right there on the shelf ten yards away. Does it matter terribly much in which order I read them?

2) I just reread Dave Duncan's Great Game trilogy after giving up on it as a teenager. It was a decent read, but also contained a whole lot of OH JOHN RINGO NO-style treatment of women and minorities. I'm looking at an old Library Journal that has a review of a novel of his about alchemists in an alternate Renaissance Venice. They say it's pretty good and I have a secret weakness for fantasy Venice. On the other hand, I'll pass if it's full of the same creepy "Hooray white people! British colonial-style oppression of native peoples is awesome!" and "Rape bad! But interesting! But bad!" moments that those were. Anybody read much Duncan? Does he commonly throw those sort of icky scenes and attitudes into his stories?

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temaris
2009-02-10 10:26 am UTC (link)

I'm always surprised that he tells that story; he doesn't seem to realise what a smug, arrogant little shit he comes across as, trying to deliberately undermine and sabotage his teacher. He doesn't seem to have learned from it either. It does amuse me a lot, though, because clunky as SF is there's an originality and engaging quality to it that his beloved Alera series utterly lacks.

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m_butterfly
2009-02-10 10:42 am UTC (link)

I actually get a bit embarrassment squicked by his "PLZ READ MY OTHER BOOKS" pitch he does at the back of every Dresden now, not in the least because there's an undertone that he's aware they're nowhere near as good but we're supposed to like them anyway because this is what he really wanted to be doing ever since childhood. It's also a bit vexing because man, you're a best selling author whose series has been turned into a comic and a show. You might want to accept this neon sign from above that traditional high fantasy is perhaps not for you and stop complaining about it.

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	temaris 2009-02-10 10:49 am UTC (link)
	God, yes. He can't stop being all 'but this is my baaaaaaby, you must love my baaaaaaby sobsob' soon enough for me. Move on, man. Move on and grow up. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

m_butterfly
2009-02-10 11:14 am UTC (link)

I keep reminding myself it could be worse. It could be Laurell K Hamilton. I mean, not only are his books getting better instead of worse, he's nowhere near as crazy as her, just a bit... immature, I suppose. And also lacking in all conception of height, because if Harry is actually 6'9" he and Murphy are having all their conversations with the aid of a bullhorn.

(I think it actually seriously is a problem he has because he describes almost everyone in the books as "average height" or "an inch or two above average height" unless they're certifiably short, and I do the same thing with distance, which is my personal weakness. So I am taking that 6'9" from Welcome to the Jungle as evidence of why he vagues it up and ignoring it for his own good.)

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temaris
2009-02-10 11:23 am UTC (link)

The two of them are actually my favourite examples of storytelling vs writing skills. You can actually watch their writing ability arcs crossing.

Butcher had writing skills, but his storytelling has improved hugely, and his writing has gained a lighter, less hamfisted touch, which, to give him credit, has to be the result of listening to critics he trusts. LKH started out as a incredibly good storyteller, with poor writing skills, but the story grabbed so much it didn't matter. But she hasn't really ever gained technical skills, and that with her failure to listen to good, trusted critics has meant her storytelling, the spark that made Anita Blake & co interesting, has drowned under the weight of her porn obsession -- and the technical skills just aren't there to carry the story along.

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	m_butterfly 2009-02-10 11:33 am UTC (link)
	And the irony is, she got him published. They'd make for an interesting chart. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

temaris
2009-02-10 11:41 am UTC (link)

::g:: did she now? That *is* ironic!

I seem to remember that one of JB's objections to Paul Blackthorne playing Harry was he wasn't tall enough. I don't know how tall JB is, but he clearly thinks of Harry as about 6ft 2 except when he remembers he's meant to be some sort of giant among men. Harry rarely bashes his head on doors, or while going down stairs, doesn't apparently have to buy his clothes from specialty shops, and as you say, doesn't have to bend double to talk to the emphatically petite Murphy. My brother is 6'4" and only recently has been able to find clothes which weren't too short in the leg or arm.

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