3.3 KiB
A Gadget Too Far - musings on failure states for sci-fi
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Author: u/PeridexisErrant put aside fear for courage, and death for life*
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Score: 5
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Created: 2014-11-16T08:40:29
Post:
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.