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Homeard bound exxellent book@!!! Everyonr shopuld read finsal book in series Humands aka Big Uglies see Lizard Homeworld! ya and have enouh nukes to blow em, up! I love this book not too much repetition bane of allHT boooks TOOW! Excellent piece of work, Harry Turtledove ftw! Long Live Altenrative Science Fiction!
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Ok, that was an amazingly incoherent post, Blayne. However, I do agree that Harry Turtledove's World War series was incredibly well written.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
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On the contrary, this post was quite coherent. What isn't, is my head. Argh, I need some asprin.
Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003
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Blayne Bradley
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posted
After rereading all my posts on sake and hatrack I cant stop laughing.
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quote:Originally posted by ricree101: Ok, that was an amazingly incoherent post, Blayne. However, I do agree that Harry Turtledove's World War series was incredibly well written.
Maybe you should go to bed now. The plotline was interesting, but the writing was - well, I won't say it is the worst cardboard-tasting dreck any human being has ever got published, because he actually manages to get worse in the later books. But dude, "well written"? No. Just no.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Some of his stuff is among my favorite fiction, ever -- the various Videssos books, most of the individual novels -- and I re-read "Guns of the South" once a year, at least.
But the world war series doesn't work at all for me and the Darkness series is worse. Too many characters, not much reason to care about any of them.
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I enjoy the plot in most of his books. But I have to agree with the others in this thread who said that his writing leaves a lot to be desired.
Posts: 413 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I'm tired of Turtledove's repitition. With some of the later books it seems that Turtledove has a very low opinion of the audience because he has to constantly remind us of what happened earlier in the series or the novel.
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Blayne Bradley
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posted
if you wait exactly 5.7 days inbetween books it doesnt sound so bad.
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quote:Originally posted by Blayne Bradley: if you wait exactly 5.7 days inbetween books it doesnt sound so bad.
I read the worldwar and the great war series as they came out, typically about 1-2 years a piece. The repitition still got on my nerves, especially in the later ones. The stories always hold my interest enough though.
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I read the World War + Great War series and found the repition annoying as well. A lot of it must come from the fact that he writes like crazy and probably has some chump editing for him. Let me add that I read all this over the course of several days, an accomplishment that took back-to-back reading.
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I read World War and Great War over the course of a few years. The repetition was terrible. Seemingly every page had some line that could have been cut. HT writes like he thinks his readers only have short term memory. Every The only reason I kept with it was that I was hoping for some resolution. The two series finished with story lines unresolved, which I hoped the last book would handle. As it was Homeward Bound was a huge let down. A complete waste of time.
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Blayne Bradley
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posted
the Great War series is hardly over, the intent is to bring it all the way to 2007, World War I hope continues to become a scifi franchise in its own.
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quote:Originally posted by Stephan: I'm tired of Turtledove's repitition. With some of the later books it seems that Turtledove has a very low opinion of the audience because he has to constantly remind us of what happened earlier in the series or the novel.
Or the chapter, or the page. At this time I cannot bring to mind any examples of being reminded what happened earlier in the sentence, but I wouldn't be too surprised.
I'm not joking about the page. I recall a short story set in the Great War, on the French front. The Apocalypse, as set forth in Revelations, is occurring, and nobody notices because things are already that bad. The locust-horse-things, for example, are cut down by a French machine-gunner who thinks they are German cavalry and he is hallucinating. (Truth be told, comrade John is a bit of a piker when it comes to imagining Bad Stuff happening.) Anyway; at one point, the machine-gunner's friend calls the Germans pig-dogs, and the machine-gunner observes that he likes the word (stolen from German 'Schweinhund'). Then, a bit further down on the page, it is the French high command's turn to be called pig-dogs, and the text goes, I kid you not, "Yes, he liked that word, all right." Sheesh, Harry, we get it, already!
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Stephan: I'm tired of Turtledove's repitition. With some of the later books it seems that Turtledove has a very low opinion of the audience because he has to constantly remind us of what happened earlier in the series or the novel.
Or the chapter, or the page. At this time I cannot bring to mind any examples of being reminded what happened earlier in the sentence, but I wouldn't be too surprised.
I'm not joking about the page. I recall a short story set in the Great War, on the French front. The Apocalypse, as set forth in Revelations, is occurring, and nobody notices because things are already that bad. The locust-horse-things, for example, are cut down by a French machine-gunner who thinks they are German cavalry and he is hallucinating. (Truth be told, comrade John is a bit of a piker when it comes to imagining Bad Stuff happening.) Anyway; at one point, the machine-gunner's friend calls the Germans pig-dogs, and the machine-gunner observes that he likes the word (stolen from German 'Schweinhund'). Then, a bit further down on the page, it is the French high command's turn to be called pig-dogs, and the text goes, I kid you not, "Yes, he liked that word, all right." Sheesh, Harry, we get it, already!
I agree wholeheartedly. And I think it's getting worse with every book. Unless I'm just noticing it more now than before. But it sure seems to be getting worse every time, I think.
So yeah, I agree with you guys. He repeats everything way too much, and doing it even more than he used to.
Posts: 413 | Registered: Apr 2003
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By an interesting coincidence, last night I did come over an example of reminding readers of what happened earlier in the sentence. In "Shall and Must", anthologised in "Roads not Taken", Lincoln has just gotten shot while the war is still on, and the Vice-President is giving a fire-and-blood speech about revenge. We're going to end up with the Confederate states treated as conquered territory, and the peace neither just nor lasting; but that's not the point. The sentence I have in mind goes
"Applause rose from the crowd at the allusion to "John Brown's Body" - and not just from the crowd, but also from the soldiers posted on the roof of the capitol and at intervals around the building to keep the accursed rebels from murdering two presidents, not just one". (My emphasis). "Not just one"? What possible purpose does that serve, other than reminding us that he's just said 'two'? It has zero information content.
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Maybe you should go to bed now. The plotline was interesting, but the writing was - well, I won't say it is the worst cardboard-tasting dreck any human being has ever got published, because he actually manages to get worse in the later books. But dude, "well written"? No. Just no.
