Thursday, December 4, 2008
Books 21 Years of Mercilessly Battering Poker Metaphors
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 1:37 PM
When I was a teenager, I was both a book nerd and a comic book geek. And so I loved the Wild Cards series, which was a series of sci-fi novels about an alien virus that kills 90% of the people it comes in contact with, turns most of the rest into monsters, and gives the rest super powers.
The Wild Card books are now 21 years old, and Bookgasm discusses the Wild Cards series today. The newest is a book called Busted Flush, and it sounds as though, like many sci-fi series, things have gotten too complex and impenetrable for their own good:
But as entertaining as it is, BUSTED FLUSH is not for the uninitiated. Those already familiar with past exploits of the aces and jokers will have an easier time keeping up with the numerous characters and events. Everyone else might want to first read INSIDE STRAIGHT or some of the background essays provided on the series website before taking on the latest addition to this unique but intricate series.
Sci-fi writers seem to forget that there's a way to write a series so that people can jump in partway through. Lots of writers—and George R. R. Martin, the Wild Cards editor, is a huge problem in this regard with his own fantasy series—make their books incredibly dense, so that there's no way to get into things without going back to the very beginning. That's not how you get people into a series of books: You get them hooked on the new one and then they go back and buy all the old stuff, if they're interested. I could totally see myself picking up up a Wild Cards book to read over a weekend sometime, just out of nostalgia, but the idea of all these decades of history that I've missed building into something I can't keep track of is probably enough to turn me off from that idea. Which is kind of a bummer. I could use some good escapist sci-fi right about now.
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1
Goddamn George R.R. Martin is making me crazy. Even though the Song of Ice and Fire series is great, it's like you meet a character and then watch them get shit all over for 4000 pages. When they start to get up, someone comes along, shits on them, and then kills their dog in front of them.
And unlike Robert Jordan (who sucked epically for the last few Wheel of Time books, but at least had how the series would end mapped out), Martin seems to revel in pointing out that if he kicks the bucket, that's it for the series. And let's face it, dude isn't exactly in prime health.
And unlike Robert Jordan (who sucked epically for the last few Wheel of Time books, but at least had how the series would end mapped out), Martin seems to revel in pointing out that if he kicks the bucket, that's it for the series. And let's face it, dude isn't exactly in prime health.
3
That is why it's so great.
Even though the Song of Ice and Fire series is great, it's like you meet a character and then watch them get shit all over for 4000 pages. When they start to get up, someone comes along, shits on them, and then kills their dog in front of them.
That is why it's so great.
4
Paul,
You should try Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory... It's great writing, smart plotting, and not about the economy collapsing or the End of Everything as we know it. I wrote it up on Goodreads a while back...
I'm sure Martin has been busy dealing the the pilot for the HBO series for Ice & Fire, but the next book should come out next year (knock wood)...
And if Pandemonium isn't your cup o tea, try City of Thieves by David Benioff, the guy who just cowrote the pilot episode.
Sure, it's about the siege of Leningrad, but if escapism isn't working, try "it could be worse" dolloped with a healthy heapin' of black humor....
You should try Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory... It's great writing, smart plotting, and not about the economy collapsing or the End of Everything as we know it. I wrote it up on Goodreads a while back...
I'm sure Martin has been busy dealing the the pilot for the HBO series for Ice & Fire, but the next book should come out next year (knock wood)...
And if Pandemonium isn't your cup o tea, try City of Thieves by David Benioff, the guy who just cowrote the pilot episode.
Sure, it's about the siege of Leningrad, but if escapism isn't working, try "it could be worse" dolloped with a healthy heapin' of black humor....
5
@2: You are correct. I respectfully retract the past tense. @4: I will try Pandemonium. Thanks to you both.
7
You're still following Wild Cards? Man, that series jumped the shark so badly around Book 6-7... did they suddenly get good again and nobody told me?
8
@7: I was as surprised as you were to find they're still making 'em. I think I got as far as book 7 myself.
9
This is exactly why I'm put off by superhero comics. I'd like to read a good Batman story that doesn't require me to know everything that happened in the past 50+ years of Batman comics.
Also, I just read Pandemonium and I thought it kind of sucked.
Also, I just read Pandemonium and I thought it kind of sucked.
10
What #9 said. Over-complex continuity ruined (superhero) comics and Star Trek the way that barnacles ruin wooden boat hulls. Serializing a story, even on TV, limits its audience immediately.
Franchise-branded books suck by definition, though. I love superheroes and sci fi but I wouldn't read a Wildcards "novel" on a dare.
Franchise-branded books suck by definition, though. I love superheroes and sci fi but I wouldn't read a Wildcards "novel" on a dare.
11
I agree with 9 and 10.
Paul's right, jump-ins are a good method to hook in new readers if it's done well, and not just for sci-fi: Baby Sitter's Club does that (Sorry for using that reference, but that's one of few book series I used to read regularly, but I stopped ~10-12 yo (I'm in my mid-20s now.)).
Paul's right, jump-ins are a good method to hook in new readers if it's done well, and not just for sci-fi: Baby Sitter's Club does that (Sorry for using that reference, but that's one of few book series I used to read regularly, but I stopped ~10-12 yo (I'm in my mid-20s now.)).
13
Is George RR Martin having trouble getting people to buy his books or something? Seems to me like just a different way of telling a story, and he doesn't seem to be having trouble attracting readers...
I don't even know what wildcards are, but as for the Song of Ice and Fire, I think it is "good quality trash." Once I heard they were making an HBO series out of it I stopped reading the books and decided to just wait for the TV show that might even be better. Tolkein he is not.
Gene Wolfe who is vastly superior to pretty much anyone out there writing sci-fi tends to write in 4-parters or trilogies that don't make any sense unless you start from the beginning; they basically end up as really long books, e.g. Book of the Long Sun.
I don't even know what wildcards are, but as for the Song of Ice and Fire, I think it is "good quality trash." Once I heard they were making an HBO series out of it I stopped reading the books and decided to just wait for the TV show that might even be better. Tolkein he is not.
Gene Wolfe who is vastly superior to pretty much anyone out there writing sci-fi tends to write in 4-parters or trilogies that don't make any sense unless you start from the beginning; they basically end up as really long books, e.g. Book of the Long Sun.
14
I hate Law & Order, but really, this is what Law & Order is best at: it doesn't stray from its formula. It doesn't do "story arcs". It doesn't develop the main characters' personal lives. It doesn't matter which year an episode is from, you can drop in and get it without any prior knowledge.
15
Well, JenK, I'm not necessarily talking about Law & Order, either. I like for my characters to change, but it's important for them to be recognizable as they change, and for the change to be explained. When I was a kid, I came into reading, say, X-Men comic books and I would see a character and want to know more about him or her and there would be enough detail for a new reader to understand what the character was all about. And the detail was handled seamlessly as part of the exposition (this is ideal) or as a small statement that the more experienced reader could skip over (this is what happened more often than not in X-Men.) And it was an enjoyable thing to pick up, and dig backwards and learn about. A lot of sci-fi could learn that sort of lesson.
16
Paul, have you tried Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs novels? i read the middle one first and had no trouble getting into them. (but they *are* ultra-violent and full of nasty people.)
for light-n-fun sf, John Scalzi is your man. also, Red Thunder by John Varley (but not the sequels).
for light-n-fun sf, John Scalzi is your man. also, Red Thunder by John Varley (but not the sequels).
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