Praise for Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

[Robspierre]

Personally I think KJA used the CoS to pump up his "stature" in the publishing field so he could say "look at how many books I can sell!" He comes across as a sleazy snake oil salesman more than anything.

Rob

[Phaedrus]

Why are they dead?

[trang]

KJA a scientologist? bad combination gets worse!

[Omphalos]

Why are they dead?

I think its kind of funny how the blurb about Quentin Hubbard says that he did not drink, but the photo is of him hoisting a glass of champagne.

[SandChigger]

Kevins nebula nomination was for a work he co-wrote with Beason, dunno about the Bram Stoker award though several good writers have earned it as well as total hacks , as far as national best sellers, how many of those are due to his work in established universes? X-Files, Star Wars, Dune? Has his own material done as well? Nope.

Rob

I don't think anyone properly addressed this one, did they? I just had a look at KJA's page on WP:

Awards

• Blindfold: 1996 preliminary Nebula Award nominee
• Climbing Olympus: nominated for Bram Stoker Award
• Ground Zero: #1 on the London Sunday Times best seller list and voted "Best Science Fiction Novel of 1995" by readers of SFX magazine
• Guinness World Record for "Largest Single Author Signing" (previously set by General Colin Powell and Howard Stern)
• Jedi Academy trilogy: three top-selling science fiction novels of 1994
• Novels with Beason: nominated for the Nebula Award and the American Physical Society's "Forum" award
• Ruins: on the New York Times best seller list (The first X-Files novel to do so) and voted the "Best Science Fiction Novel of 1996"
• Star Wars anthologies: best selling science fiction anthologies of all time.
• X-Files novels: international best sellers.
• Young Jedi Knights Series: New York Times best sellers.

So...in short, he's got bestseller rankings and a few voted-best-novels, but no real heavyweight awards.

Hell, even Robert J. Sawyer has done better than that.

("Robert James Sawyer has won forty-one national and international awards for his fiction, most prominently the 1995 Nebula Award for his novel The Terminal Experiment; the 2003 Hugo Award for his novel Hominids, first volume of his Neanderthal Parallax trilogy; and the 2006 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for his novel Mindscan. He has had two additional Nebula nominations, ten additional Hugo nominations, and two additional Campbell Memorial Award nominations.")

[Hunchback Jack]

What's a "preliminary Nebula Award nominee"? He was on a draft list?

It looks like the "bestseller" novels were all, in fact, Star Wars or X-files novels. Now, I haven't read the Star Wars, but I have read the X-files, and they were quite good. The story was okay, and they "felt" like X-files stories. A fun read, in other words. And I'm sure they sold very well.

But hardly groundbreaking SF. Or even remotely of the caliber of even the worst Dune novel.

HBJ.

[Omphalos]

Nebula awards nominees are winnowed away, and some added, before they vote on finals. He was eliminated in the first round.

[Robspierre]

Kevins nebula nomination was for a work he co-wrote with Beason, dunno about the Bram Stoker award though several good writers have earned it as well as total hacks , as far as national best sellers, how many of those are due to his work in established universes? X-Files, Star Wars, Dune? Has his own material done as well? Nope.

Rob

I don't think anyone properly addressed this one, did they? I just had a look at KJA's page on WP:

Awards

• Blindfold: 1996 preliminary Nebula Award nominee
• Climbing Olympus: nominated for Bram Stoker Award
• Ground Zero: #1 on the London Sunday Times best seller list and voted "Best Science Fiction Novel of 1995" by readers of SFX magazine
• Guinness World Record for "Largest Single Author Signing" (previously set by General Colin Powell and Howard Stern)
• Jedi Academy trilogy: three top-selling science fiction novels of 1994
• Novels with Beason: nominated for the Nebula Award and the American Physical Society's "Forum" award
• Ruins: on the New York Times best seller list (The first X-Files novel to do so) and voted the "Best Science Fiction Novel of 1996"
• Star Wars anthologies: best selling science fiction anthologies of all time.
• X-Files novels: international best sellers.
• Young Jedi Knights Series: New York Times best sellers.

So...in short, he's got bestseller rankings and a few voted-best-novels, but no real heavyweight awards.

Hell, even Robert J. Sawyer has done better than that.

("Robert James Sawyer has won forty-one national and international awards for his fiction, most prominently the 1995 Nebula Award for his novel The Terminal Experiment; the 2003 Hugo Award for his novel Hominids, first volume of his Neanderthal Parallax trilogy; and the 2006 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for his novel Mindscan. He has had two additional Nebula nominations, ten additional Hugo nominations, and two additional Campbell Memorial Award nominations.")

None of his own "original" work made the list except for those he partnered with Beason. Quantity over quality.

rob

[orald]

Why are they dead?

Grow up.

If you get into something as stupid as this you deserve to die.

I nominate all $cientology members to an automatic Darwin Award when they die.

[SandChigger]

(Sorry, but that doesn't really make sense.)

[Mr. Teg]

Whatever happened with the remainder of that white paper on his Scientology connections?

The "white paper" has to sit on the backburner while I finish up other projects. However, I will make sure you are sent a galley copy for review next year. And that's all I gotta say about that...

[GamePlayer]

KJA sport fly shit, he should win the SP

[Omphalos]

Whatever happened with the remainder of that white paper on his Scientology connections?

The "white paper" has to sit on the backburner while I finish up other projects. However, I will make sure you are sent a galley copy for review next year. And that's all I gotta say about that...

Can't wait! BTW, great sig smiley.

[Omphalos]

Kevins nebula nomination was for a work he co-wrote with Beason, dunno about the Bram Stoker award though several good writers have earned it as well as total hacks , as far as national best sellers, how many of those are due to his work in established universes? X-Files, Star Wars, Dune? Has his own material done as well? Nope.

Rob

I don't think anyone properly addressed this one, did they? I just had a look at KJA's page on WP:

Awards

• Blindfold: 1996 preliminary Nebula Award nominee
• Climbing Olympus: nominated for Bram Stoker Award
• Ground Zero: #1 on the London Sunday Times best seller list and voted "Best Science Fiction Novel of 1995" by readers of SFX magazine
• Guinness World Record for "Largest Single Author Signing" (previously set by General Colin Powell and Howard Stern)
• Jedi Academy trilogy: three top-selling science fiction novels of 1994
• Novels with Beason: nominated for the Nebula Award and the American Physical Society's "Forum" award
• Ruins: on the New York Times best seller list (The first X-Files novel to do so) and voted the "Best Science Fiction Novel of 1996"
• Star Wars anthologies: best selling science fiction anthologies of all time.
• X-Files novels: international best sellers.
• Young Jedi Knights Series: New York Times best sellers.

So...in short, he's got bestseller rankings and a few voted-best-novels, but no real heavyweight awards.

Hell, even Robert J. Sawyer has done better than that.

("Robert James Sawyer has won forty-one national and international awards for his fiction, most prominently the 1995 Nebula Award for his novel The Terminal Experiment; the 2003 Hugo Award for his novel Hominids, first volume of his Neanderthal Parallax trilogy; and the 2006 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for his novel Mindscan. He has had two additional Nebula nominations, ten additional Hugo nominations, and two additional Campbell Memorial Award nominations.")

None of his own "original" work made the list except for those he partnered with Beason. Quantity over quality.

rob

i reviewed one of those Beason/Anderson books once. It was not half bad, and gave it a comparatively decent review. but in the grand scheme of things, it is a throw away book.

[Robspierre]

I think it is more telling that he's never been up for the Hugo since that is one voted on by pretty much the genre's hardcore fans.

Rob

[SandRider]

bumping cause it's funny :

Brian Herbert, the son of Frank Herbert, is the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers. He has won numerous literary honors and has been nominated for the highest awards in science fiction. In 2003, he published Dreamer of Dune, a moving biography of his father that was nominated for the Hugo Award. In 2006, Brian began his own galaxy-spanning science fiction series with the novel Timeweb. His earlier acclaimed novels include Sidney’s Comet; Sudanna, Sudanna; The Race for God; and Man of Two Worlds (written with Frank Herbert).

Kevin J. Anderson has written dozens of national bestsellers and has been nominated for the Nebula Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the SFX Readers’ Choice Award. His critically acclaimed original novels include the ambitious space-opera series The Saga of Seven Suns, as well as The Martian Wars, Captain Nemo, and Hopscotch. He also set the Guinness-certified world record for the largest single-author book signing.

[lotek]

talking of Guinness(no not that one)records completely stupid, KJA's in good company(or he's good company for them

1 FASTEST TALKER: In 1995, Canadian Sean Shannon recited Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy, 260 words, in 23.8secs.

2 HEAVIEST VEHICLE PULLED OVER 100FT: This year, Derek Boyer of Australia pulled a 30.68-tonne truck-trailer combination 30.5 metres.

3 HIGHEST SHALLOW DIVE: In January, Danny Higginbottom of Louisiana dived 8.90m into 30cm of water.

4 BREATH HELD VOLUNTARILY: The USA's Robert Foster held his breath for 13mins 42.5secs in 1959.

5 LONGEST TIME TO ENDURE FULL BODY ICE CONTACT: Wim Hoff of the Netherlands stood in an ice cube-filled tube for 1hr 17mins in January.

6 MOST CONSECUTIVE POGO-STICK JUMPS: In 1990, Gary Stewart did 177,737 in California.

7 MOST GLASSES BALANCED ON THE CHIN: In 2001, Ashrita Furman managed 75 pint beer glasses for 10.6secs in New York.

8 MOST ONE-FINGER PUSH-UPS: In 1992, Paul Lynch performed 124 in London.

9 OLDEST PERSON TO LOOP THE LOOP: In 1998, Adeline Ablitt, 95, did a glider loop over Leicestershire.

He's a proper challenger for the fastest talker

[Freakzilla]

Recently here in Atlanta, a guy performed Hamlet as Simpsons characers... by himself. Of course Homer was Hamlet.

[Nebiros]

Captain Nemo?! How can he receive praise for that? That is not his original creation. That is a character created by Jules Verne. It is amongst many other franchises he has taken the liberty of borrowing. Byron seemed to have been trying to list their original creations. He got it wrong on that one.

[Freakzilla]

Was it about young Captain Nemo joining the circus?

[TheDukester]

Ah, yes, the Nemo book: Keith manages to piss off the fans of yet another writer:

http://www.amazon.com/Captain-Nemo-Fant ... 0743444094" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Some of my favorite reactions:

"Right from the start Mr. Anderson demonstrates that his understanding of science is woefully lacking."

"Tie it all to dull writing and a drab storyline and what you get is a dreary, dreary book that will make your blood boil with annoyance."

"If you are looking for a dull, plodding story with nonsensical science, ungrammatical English, zero-dimensional characters, switching (and confusing) viewpoints, embarrassing name-dropping from Jules Verne's stories, contextually meaningless action scenes, and every other amateur mistake a writer could make, then read CAPTAIN NEMO."

Oh, but don't worry, Keith (and all you KJA apologists): I'm sure those people are just "haters" and "Talifans."

[Freakzilla]

I think I'm begining to see a pattern here...

[lotek]

patterns within patterns even

[Slugger]

2.0 out of 5 stars Extremely disappointed, August 3, 2002
By James L Mulder (Colorado Springs, CO) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Captain Nemo: The Fantastic History of a Dark Genius (Hardcover)
As others have said, Anderson describes Verne as a no-talent hack unable to come up with any original ideas without his periodic letters from Nemo. I find this especially ironic since Anderson has done nothing himself but tell synopses of Verne's work with only the barest of cohesion to fit into his storyline.

The only redeeming virtue of this book s that it may inspire readers to explore Verne's orignal works for themselves.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Kinda sounds like Anderson (sub)consciously based Verne off himself...

[SandRider]

it might be a good idea to look around amazon and find
all the other non-Dune KJA-hatin' reviews, for use against
the pretards next time around. (The Winds of Dune have already
blown out ...)

"see, 'tards ? it ain't just us, most people around here think
KJA sucks, at everything ..."