4.2 KiB
Story Completed: Business as Usual (Vlad Taltos x Worm / post golden morning)
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Author: u/Farmerbob1 Level 1 author*
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Score: 16
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Created: 2017-01-23T02:29:34
Post:
Comments:
u/None [+2] (9 days later)
[deleted]
u/Farmerbob1 [+1] Level 1 author (12 days later)
I plan on doing the same sort of exercise for my next project, except, hopefully, I will stick a little closer to plan, and limit bloat a bit better. 'Business as Usual' ended up being longer than several of the actual Vlad Taltos novels.
u/AugSphere [+1] Dark Lord of Corruption (6 hours later)
Couldn't resist peeking at the last chapter, even though I haven't finished reading all of the preceding ones. I've got to say "somebody explains to the main character precisely how little agency they have and gloats about them not being able to do anything about it" is about the least favourite way to end a story for me. Don't think I'm gonna bother with the rest of it, since it has such a frustrating ending.
u/Farmerbob1 [+1] Level 1 author (14 hours later)
Writing a rational Vlad Taltos is very difficult, however I did state in my response that the story was based on rational story building, not fully rational.
If you don't know the Jhereg universe books, then you don't have the background knowledge to understand that Vlad himself is almost certainly a god, but he doesn't know it, and would probably reject it if he did know it. The two chapters before the epilogue hint at this based on his conversations about how gods think and act, accompanied by Tattletale's headache reactions to Vlad as he subconsciously meddles with reality.
Vlad does attempt to deal with everything rationally from a human point of view, with I would like to think are significant successes, but eventually he starts bending reality just enough to win.
If you would like to think of it from Verra's point of view, the story was a lot more rational, since one of her greatest goals was to force Vlad to utilize his divinity.
This is not a new thing. I am fairly certain Verra did the same thing, forcing Vlad to unconsciously utilize his divinity, in the Jenoine encounter where Vlad created Lady Teldra.
Perhaps I did a poor job of writing a story that is irrational on one level, and rational on a different level, but it's hard to write Vlad Taltos any other way.
u/AugSphere [+3] Dark Lord of Corruption (16 hours later)
There is certainly no need to defend yourself or the story. The work may well be perfectly faithful to sources, have many good qualities and even be rational, I have made no claims with regard to that.
My issue is simply with the "ha ha, now the protagonist must listen to how he was manipulated and why he can't get the thing he wants" ending. It's just an unsatisfying and frustrating closure to the narrative for me, regardless of any other qualities the work may have. Even then, it's not like you have an obligation to cater to my personal tastes in narratives.
u/Farmerbob1 [+1] Level 1 author (17 hours later)
You are entirely correct, however I felt obligated to respond because you said you judged the story by the epilogue. As a writer, that's a bit irritating because the epilogue is where you are supposed to tie up loose ends, not tell a story. But you certainly have a right to judge writing in any way you wish.
u/Farmerbob1 [+1] Level 1 author (3 minutes later)
While the story definitely is not strictly rational, it was the result of mostly-rational planned story-writing. There were two threads. One for planning the story, the other for writing it. There is a link to the planning thread on the first page of the story thread (which is what I linked here.)
Total story length is 110k words, so it's a bit longer than most fanfics.
u/Protikon [+1] very model of a singularitarian (13 hours later)
Yes, but what is it about? Is it any good?