tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post130877950365262564..comments2024-03-29T20:04:30.755+08:00Comments on Monsters and Manuals: Good Dragonlance Sentences: IntroductionUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-87779848775582650952018-10-09T04:48:58.303+08:002018-10-09T04:48:58.303+08:00Lovecraft is an odd measuring stick. Some of his s...Lovecraft is an odd measuring stick. Some of his stories are very uneven, to put it mildly, particularly when it comes to the prose. <br /><br />And which Moorcock are we talking about? The one who banged out Elric novels in a week or so to pay the bills at New Worlds? Or the more carefully crafted short stories, novellas and novels like Gloriana and Mother London? Randy Ghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15415135776841347161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-60750700729962763352014-01-09T04:50:48.320+08:002014-01-09T04:50:48.320+08:00Almost there. You're definitely exceeding expe...Almost there. You're definitely exceeding expectations.<br /><br />However, if you keep saying crazy things along the way to proving this one narrow point, then we'll have to make more betsZak Sabbathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08812410680077034917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-43029402717754386522014-01-08T21:56:39.110+08:002014-01-08T21:56:39.110+08:00Thank you, Ive just been searching for info about ...Thank you, Ive just been searching for info about this topic for a while and yours is the greatest Ive came upon so far. But, what in regards to the bottom line? Are you positive concerning the source?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.top-ten-web-hosting-reviews.com/" rel="nofollow">Top Ten Web Hosting Reviews</a>Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12375401124093245251noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-13900682234246619082014-01-08T21:23:54.571+08:002014-01-08T21:23:54.571+08:00A far more interesting project would be to mash up...A far more interesting project would be to mash up a story from HPL sentences and Weis & Hickman sentences.<br /><br />DAGONLANCERoger G-Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08594440701279968693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-36940647828166703752014-01-08T19:14:51.174+08:002014-01-08T19:14:51.174+08:00Reading through the first chapter of Time of the T...Reading through the first chapter of Time of the Twins, I thought it was reasonably well-written in comparison to what I'd been expecting. I read quite a bit of Wilbur Smith, James Clavell, writers like that. Weis & Hickman are certainly no worse. noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-6730793729467522812014-01-08T19:13:19.989+08:002014-01-08T19:13:19.989+08:00Almost good, then? The names are bad, I'll giv...Almost good, then? The names are bad, I'll give you that. That's almost inescapable with DL, unfortunately. noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-39093948323068425872014-01-08T19:12:01.108+08:002014-01-08T19:12:01.108+08:00Limiting it to Weis & Hickman for now...at a c...Limiting it to Weis & Hickman for now...at a chapter a week the Legends will take long enough! I never read much of the Dragonlance books by other authors, except for Kaz the Minotaur and some of the short story collections...oh, and the "Meetings Sextet". noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-35067895368584809522014-01-08T19:09:05.995+08:002014-01-08T19:09:05.995+08:00The definition is what we agree is good. It's ...The definition is what we agree is good. It's too much hassle to get into anything more complicated than that.noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-26221736716047008182014-01-08T09:42:05.006+08:002014-01-08T09:42:05.006+08:00Hah! Good sentences; not sure how to compare them...Hah! Good sentences; not sure how to compare them to HPL or MM; I'll need to look at Zak's examples. I can't say I ever considered them great writers in a technical sense but both are very inventive (if we gloss over the fact that Moorcock seems to have found a story he likes and keeps telling it over and over).<br /><br />I was one of the people who said the DL novels are no good (admittedly having read only the first one, and getting summaries from secondary sources like RPG materials!). But I'd want to distinguish between bad writers and bad writing, and bad stories/bad fantasy. What I have "against" DL is that the plot and characters are so derivative without adding much to the genre (I mean: you can be derivative, and also be inventive, like most good fantasy, or be derivative, and either create stupid things or add very little, like what I consider bad fantasy). I think what I have against DL (apart from being a contrarian) is that the stuff Hickman & Weis made up seems so lame. Gully dwarves, kender, dragonmen, all that. The idea that the gods (or at least divine magic) no longer work in that world was a good addition. But so much was bad invention. The actual construction of good descriptions, analogy & metaphor, turns of phrase -- the mechanical stuff of good writing -- they seem to have, based on those passages. So good form, bad content, IMO.<br /><br />BTW "Blog of holding" was doing some rehabilitation of DL by mining the plot for good RPG ideas and I found that eye-opening too. <br /><br />Maybe my middle-aged self, with such lower expectations than my younger self who hoped for novels set in something I recognized as a D&D world, would like DL more.<br /><br />Anyway thanks for taking this stuff so seriously and raising the level of discourse. This post should lead to some interesting discussion.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-80301625964323113022014-01-08T09:02:38.567+08:002014-01-08T09:02:38.567+08:00(And saying any of that's better than Scrap Pr...(And saying any of that's better than Scrap Princess or Tom Middenmurk is the craziest of crazy talk)Zak Sabbathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08812410680077034917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-10014365804290385532014-01-08T08:51:00.644+08:002014-01-08T08:51:00.644+08:00The first one's last sentence is close, but th...The first one's last sentence is close, but the elaboration and re-elaboration of the same ideas almost kills it.<br /><br />And the names are so bad they kinda poison it.<br />Zak Sabbathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08812410680077034917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-91841504320435744872014-01-08T08:40:47.606+08:002014-01-08T08:40:47.606+08:00i wouldn't compare it to lovecraft (since i su...i wouldn't compare it to lovecraft (since i subscribe to houellebecq's opinion that hp is actually good writer) but would argue that hickman/weis could go toe to toe any day with martin or jordan. <br /><br />opossum101https://www.blogger.com/profile/14918781180223282882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-55151490926822275472014-01-08T08:08:02.903+08:002014-01-08T08:08:02.903+08:00Is this limited to Dragonlance novels by Weis &...Is this limited to Dragonlance novels by Weis & Hickman or do works by other authors qualify?<br /><br />Because if you want to get through this in any human timeframe, try Jeff Grubb. At least <i>Lord Toede</i> managed to be funny on purpose.<br /><br />I've been doing something similar in the Finnish-language blog LOKI, where I've been digging into the phenomenon of the tie-in novel and recommending particular novels as good reads. There's not a lot of Dragonlance and no Weis & Hickman on that list. The sheer size of the corpus tips the odds in your favour, though. Odds are that at least someone in there managed to pen something interesting.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-39538586294274399872014-01-08T06:50:21.049+08:002014-01-08T06:50:21.049+08:00So, what is the definition of a "good" s...So, what is the definition of a "good" sentence for this little exercise? <br /><br />The challenger (Zak) might be inferring knowledge of a "good" author. How about finding "bad" sentences from that author as well? Kind of outside the specific scope here, but it would still be fun. You could then list several good and bad sentences and ask people to match them with the correct author.<br /><br />Thanks for sharing.Digital Orchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00276516390269689741noreply@blogger.com