## A Gadget Too Far - musings on failure states for sci-fi

* Author: u/PeridexisErrant  *put aside fear for courage, and death for life**
* URL: http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/dlnw.htm
* Score: 5

* Created: 2014-11-16T08:40:29

### Post:

[Link to content](http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/dlnw.htm)

### Comments:

> **u/FeepingCreature** [+2]  *GCV Literally The Entire Culture* (3 hours later)
> 
> > Even though the writing is inoffensive and even amusing, enlivened by the odd wisecrack, one's lack of interest in Merlin's perils is relentlessly fanned into a blaze of apathy
> 
> _Ouch._
> 
> Author has a real chip on his shoulder. Great read, though more for amusement value than learning.
> 
> [edit] Okay, there's some learning in there with the sheer volume of examples of how easily a series can get overrun by gadgets.

>> **u/Escapement** [+2]  *Ankh-Morpork City Watch* (9 hours later)
>> 
>> The very best Merlin-style gadget-overrunning-the-character short story, of all time, is very definitely Moorcock's The Stone Thing. It basically takes the premise to it's logical conclusion and beyond, and makes of it a thing of glory. You can find it included in Elric At The End of Time, among other collections.
>> 
>> This short story, where Moorcock parodies his own work by bringing some of his worst qualities to an extreme, is the only Moorcock story I actually enjoyed at all. Some people definitely did enjoy MM's stuff (as I become aware when reading Gaiman's One Life, Furnished in Early Moorcock) but I tried multiple series of it and never was drawn in.

> **u/Drexer** [+2]  (10 hours later)
> 
> > Only a few seem to devise realistic, complex and involving problems, and then meet them with realistic and complex answers -- which can of course include tragic acceptance of a dilemma's insolubility, although speaking as an optimist I rather hope not.
> 
> And yet we didn't get any examples of such. This was quite a disdainful read when it came to the works it mentioned. It seemed more interested in listing them off to be shot than in evaluating the subject matter.
> 
> I got the point 10% through, but no ideas on how it could have been solved.

>> **u/AmeteurOpinions** [+3]  *Finally, everyone was working together.* (20 hours later)
>> 
>> He actually does give an example of something he thinks did it "right", at the very end.
>> 
>> >As a contrast to that disappointing moment in Xenocide where almost everything suddenly comes too right too easily, I point the finger at Greg Bear's Queen of Angels (1990). 
>> 
>> Somebody in this sub ought to read that book and post about it, for science.

> **u/eaglejarl** [+2]  (16 hours later)
> 
> Asimov had a saying about the duty of critics: "be the subject ever so wide and vasty, screw up your nerve and say something nasty!" Given that this article consists largely of "this author / book is really well known and liked and respected and I enjoyed it, but it was awful!", it really brings that saying to mind. 
> 
> Additionally, a quick google for Langford's work shows a bunch of parodies and some co-written works; I would be more impressed by literary criticism from someone who actually had some literary credits under his belt.

> **u/None** [+1]  (3 hours later)
> 
> I like a good savaging of bad writing as much as the next guy, but honestly, the dry, disdainful tone really cuts into the humor.

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