Re: Congratulations, Jasper!
Posted by:
jon (---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: June 20, 2003 09:56PM
Much food for thought in this thread. Thought good. Coughing bad. Taking it in the order I think of it;
I believe LIAGB to be a better book than TEA. For why? Because TEA was gestated over seven years and many versions, including a transition from third to first person, and many of the joins still show. LIAGB is much better structured and paced, and written with the confidence that only being published can bring. The plot hangs together better, and the jokes arise more naturally from the situation (when they're not dreadful puns, anyway). WOLP, I have to say, is better yet, but for different reasons, but you can find out all about it at midnight ... oh, no, wait, that's some other book, apparently. (And I wouldn't be in Carla's hat tonight for all the gold in Gringott's bank. Overhyped hackery).
Mr. P. I broadly agree with Sarah (but would add Thief of Time as a bum note). I think it's wrong to see TP as a fantasy author, anyway; he's a humorist first and foremost, and on the whole quite a good one. Good characterisation, too, which is rare in a humorist and practically unheard of in fantasy. But perhaps he ought to think about writing less, and certainly writing less Discworld ... he is starting to repeat himself a bit. The 'literary world', btw, has never had any time for him, or for any other author who doesn't make them look clever. Yes, Greer and Paulin, I do mean you.
An author who constantly repeats himself is Robert Rankin, sat there at the top of the SFX poll. The Brentford Trilogy is pretty good, but for the rest, you've read one funny apocalypse you've read em all. Which brings us to Mr. H*lt. I too read him before I read Mr. Ff. I had bought TEA and some other books to take on holiday, and then forgot to pack them. Cue frantic search round Manchester Airport for replacements, one of which was Wish You Were Here. It was utterly dreadful, and I *did* throw it across the room. You might say I came to Jasper on the rebound, but perhaps you'd better not.
Actually, JRRT apart, I usually can't stand 'fantasy' unless it's played for laughs, so I'm most unlikely to be reading David Eddings any time soon.
As for the SFX poll, I'm not surprised LIAGB is only third ... it's probably a bit literary for the average SFX reader, who usually likes more pictures in his reading matter. I don't read SFX much these days .... you just can't take a mag on the train that has a semi-clad Sarah Michelle Gellar on the cover and a title where the middle letter is obscured by same.
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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty