Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
What kind of stories do you want?
Traveller Fiction II
- Thread starter Andrew Boulton
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Keklas Rekobah
SOC-14 1K
What kind of stories do you want?
[ ] Epic, spanning several books
[ ] Stand-alone, with the same characters
[ ] Stand-alone, with different characters
[√] All of the above
[ ] Epic, spanning several books
[ ] Stand-alone, with the same characters
[ ] Stand-alone, with different characters
[√] All of the above
Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
You can select more than one.
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
What's more important to me is the quality of writing first. If the books aren't written by a good writer telling a good tale, then, it doesn't matter what type of story is being told.
Second, in importance, is familiarity with the Traveller universe. A good writer telling a yarn and knowing the universe would be something to get, no matter what type of story was being told.
Second, in importance, is familiarity with the Traveller universe. A good writer telling a yarn and knowing the universe would be something to get, no matter what type of story was being told.
Darn that was my choice too...
However, when forced to choose one...I choose Epic as it allows the author to improve with feedback. Also, allows multiple storylines and side quests to be explored rather than a railroad approach that a stand alone might.
Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
Trust me, everyone agrees with you there!
Yeah, one of my favorite authors is Mack Maloney. A lot of what he writes is totally implausible, but they're damn fun reads. It's like a poor film that's been well shot, execution can cover a multiple of sins. Not all, but lots. And Mack's stuff isn't really implausible so much as just out there while at the same time being grounded.
Piers Anthony; kind of the same thing, especially with his series of books starting with "On a Pale Horse". It's a real far fetched world, but the fun is in reading about it. The quirks of a society that is steeped in magic, science and religous mumbo-jumbo. Situations and characters make for the story.
Weber, ditto. Lots of authors are able to ground the most unreal and fantastic settings, then mold those into a cohesive and interesting story.
Quirky characters and quirky settings by themselves don't make for a good read or a good story (film or written). It's all about bringing the audience into that realm and letting them have fun; horror, action, comedy, sci-fi, fantasy, romance... genre doesn't matter.
Piers Anthony; kind of the same thing, especially with his series of books starting with "On a Pale Horse". It's a real far fetched world, but the fun is in reading about it. The quirks of a society that is steeped in magic, science and religous mumbo-jumbo. Situations and characters make for the story.
Weber, ditto. Lots of authors are able to ground the most unreal and fantastic settings, then mold those into a cohesive and interesting story.
Quirky characters and quirky settings by themselves don't make for a good read or a good story (film or written). It's all about bringing the audience into that realm and letting them have fun; horror, action, comedy, sci-fi, fantasy, romance... genre doesn't matter.
Thoth-Amon
SOC-12
Give me epic. When i get into a story and characters, i dont want it to ever stop.
I won't buy game related fiction most of the time. The only ones I've enjoyed have been some of the shorts in the SWAJ, some of Dragonlance, and the Starfire novels by Webber. Oh, and Wild Cards.
Given that Webber also was the line developer for the Starfire game line... and that the battles in the novels drove the game's added tech trees... and it was originally SV Cole's setting... it's a surprisingly good read. Then again, when I read HH, the battles all looked like a redescription of battles played out in Starfire. I could hear the dice-rolling whilst reading it. And HH is better written than his Starfire novels. (And I won't read any more because I hate Captain Harrington with a flaming purple passion; she should have been driven out, along with about 1/3 of the problem officers for her, for being simpering fools.)
The TNE novels I didn't enjoy. The quality for game related novels tends to be low; more about driving sales than telign a good story well.
For the most part, I read stuff that could be translated into Traveller with some work... Bujold, McCaffrey, Doohan & Stirling, Niven, Herbert, Herbert and Anderson.
(And yes, I LIKE the H&A, and HH&A Dune novels.)
Given that Webber also was the line developer for the Starfire game line... and that the battles in the novels drove the game's added tech trees... and it was originally SV Cole's setting... it's a surprisingly good read. Then again, when I read HH, the battles all looked like a redescription of battles played out in Starfire. I could hear the dice-rolling whilst reading it. And HH is better written than his Starfire novels. (And I won't read any more because I hate Captain Harrington with a flaming purple passion; she should have been driven out, along with about 1/3 of the problem officers for her, for being simpering fools.)
The TNE novels I didn't enjoy. The quality for game related novels tends to be low; more about driving sales than telign a good story well.
For the most part, I read stuff that could be translated into Traveller with some work... Bujold, McCaffrey, Doohan & Stirling, Niven, Herbert, Herbert and Anderson.
(And yes, I LIKE the H&A, and HH&A Dune novels.)
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Ouch! Zing!
I think Webber does better running with someone else's premises than his own... the first couple HH novels felt like retread.
CosmicGamer
SOC-14 1K
In this poll I selected:
[ ] Epic, spanning several books
[x] Stand-alone, with the same characters
[x] Stand-alone, with different characters
I found this poll a bit confusing. The question was
- a fictitious tale, shorter and less elaborate than a novel.
and
- the plot or succession of incidents of a novel
So, I'm not sure if your asking about short stories, large Novels, or everything.
The way I interpreted it, the first choice would be sizable stories. I could be wrong. Books do come in a variety of lengths. (also a variety of heights, widths, thicknesses, font sizes
) To me, it indicates that each book doesn't completely tell a story by them self because it spans several books. I wouldn't be interested in reading a book that possibly has no beginning or ending (if it is the middle of the series). I would like each book to tell a story.
I wouldn't mind as much if a story spanned a series of short works that came out in rapid succession.
As per the third option, I have no problem with a series of Novels or short stories where each can stand alone but they use the same characters. They can even be Epic, telling a larger story when put together.
[ ] Epic, spanning several books
[x] Stand-alone, with the same characters
[x] Stand-alone, with different characters
I found this poll a bit confusing. The question was
Even the dictionary can't decide exactly what a story is, giving several definitions including:
- a fictitious tale, shorter and less elaborate than a novel.
and
- the plot or succession of incidents of a novel
So, I'm not sure if your asking about short stories, large Novels, or everything.
The way I interpreted it, the first choice would be sizable stories. I could be wrong. Books do come in a variety of lengths. (also a variety of heights, widths, thicknesses, font sizes
) To me, it indicates that each book doesn't completely tell a story by them self because it spans several books. I wouldn't be interested in reading a book that possibly has no beginning or ending (if it is the middle of the series). I would like each book to tell a story. I wouldn't mind as much if a story spanned a series of short works that came out in rapid succession.
As per the third option, I have no problem with a series of Novels or short stories where each can stand alone but they use the same characters. They can even be Epic, telling a larger story when put together.
Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
Anything and everything.
Thunderbolt
SOC-12
I decided to go with stand alone, as epic multi book stories can be too demanding of my reading time. I think my ideal would be a series of short stories with the same characters.
My favorite kind of book is the one I've dubbed the "mosaic background novel". It's not the same as a mosaic novel, which is often written by multiple authors, although most (all?) mosaic novels are also MBNs. I define it as a group of books where the main characters of one book or series are routinely used as minor characters in other books/series. Prime examples of authors who write like that are P.G. Wodehouse, John Buchan, and J.T. Edson. Note that spinoffs may be, but aren't necessarily MBNs.
Mind you, a mosaic background enhances my enjoyment of good books but does not make for good books in themselves. I eventually stopped buying J.T. Edson because he came down with Succesful Author Syndrome and his mannerisms got unbearable (Also, his growing habit of taking perfectly good short stories and blowing them up to novel length without adding anything substantial to the plot was both tedious and annoying).
Hans
Mind you, a mosaic background enhances my enjoyment of good books but does not make for good books in themselves. I eventually stopped buying J.T. Edson because he came down with Succesful Author Syndrome and his mannerisms got unbearable (Also, his growing habit of taking perfectly good short stories and blowing them up to novel length without adding anything substantial to the plot was both tedious and annoying).
Hans
Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
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