Pest Watch

[DuneFishUK]

GB probably only knows what he reads in the Tor newsletter. Nth successive NYT best-seller, successful tour every year - all the usual stuff - and they're still writing new books. Also, negative reviewers quite often put a "but fans will lap it up" coda on their reviews to pacify any "fans".

It's a given that any Dune continuation wouldn't satisfy everyone, so the occasional Talifan is to be expected - it's only when you read a little deeper that you realise they might actually have a point this time

I don't think GB is a KJA fan, but I do think he thinks Conway is a 12 year old.

[Hunchback Jack]

I don't think GB is a KJA fan, but I do think he thinks Conway is a 12 year old.

I agree. I don't think GB is really taking sides; he's just making some generically favorable comments about the Dune series because he probably hasn't read the books, and doesn't want to slam another writer in public.

HBJ

[SandChigger]

See, I don't understand that at all. Why not slam bad writers?

A bad writer, by association, makes all writers look a bit suss. If you're a writer, why not pillory the hacks?

[Freakzilla]

See, I don't understand that at all. Why not slam bad writers?

A bad writer, by association, makes all writers look a bit suss. If you're a writer, why not pillory the hacks?

Maybe he doesn't want to because he's written in other author's universes and doesn't want to get lumped in with the hacks?

[Omphalos]

I know a lot of old school lawyers who say that the practice of law used to be that way. You never bad-mouthed another lawyer because the tables could be turned on you. It sure as hell ain't that way any more, but it apparently used to be. I guess it's a professional courtesy.

[SandChigger]

Again my point: why extend any courtesy to someone in your profession who is acting unprofessionally?

I don't consider someone a hack just because they've written or are writing in another's universe. It's the way they go about it that determines whether they're a hack or not.

Kevin J. Anderson is a hack.

[Omphalos]

Again my point: why extend any courtesy to someone in your profession who is acting unprofessionally?

I don't consider someone a hack just because they've written or are writing in another's universe. It's the way they go about it that determines whether they're a hack or not.

Kevin J. Anderson is a hack.

I said why.

You never bad-mouthed another lawyer because the tables could be turned on you.

Being a hack is not "acting unprofessionally." Hacks are necessary to the liquidity of the publishing industry. The public is voracious for books, especially shitty ones with barely intelligible plots, asinine characters, and easy-to-overgeneralize concepts. We can thank god that assholes like Anderson built up an industry that can afford to take chances on new authors and even some established ones. After all, 95% of the idiots out there go for the low-hanging fruit. It's the rest of us who are smart enough to get ladders that get the good stuff that has not rotted on the branch, and the tender leaves.

I always go back and forth on this. I don't give Anderson more credit that he deserves, but I am a bit afraid of the future. I think that hes a moronic dipshit, but he's done his work by filling the appropriate niche. He's just pissed us off by wandering away from Star Wars, video-game-go-novel books and X-Files, by talking some other suspected moronic dipshits into allowing him to try and fail with something important. Unlucky roll of the dice for us, but Anderson certainly has not elevated himself from "symptom" to a "full fledged "problem" yet. Its not like his shit isn't going to disappear from the public discourse before the next generation comes along. At least I hope (and there is the dilemma, BTW).

God I hope he never wins an award.

[SandChigger]

I still don't buy the first part. So what if you're accused of hackery if it's not true?

I don't particularly like the industry analysis, but you know more about it than I do. Shitty world, what else is new.

And he'll no doubt eventually get a nebulous one from his circle-jerk buddies in the Seriously Fucked Wankers Association.

[Omphalos]

I still don't buy the first part. So what if you're accused of hackery if it's not true?

I don't get you, Chig. If you're not a hack, let your record stand for itself. People accuse me of shit all the time. Very little of it is true, and I really dont listen to any of them too much.

[SandChigger]

I still don't buy the first part. So what if you're accused of hackery if it's not true?

I don't get you, Chig. If you're not a hack, let your record stand for itself. People accuse me of shit all the time. Very little of it is true, and I really dont listen to any of them too much.

Oh, OK, I think I see what the problem is. (My "So what if..." is a bit ambiguous.) I meant what I underlined in your response. (If it's not true that you're a hack = if you're writing good books & behaving professionally, why should you worry if someone calls you a hack? It's not true, and you know it's not.)

[Omphalos]

Ah!

[Hunchback Jack]

I don't think Bear is knowingly defending a hack, I suspect he doesn't know enough to really comment one way or the other. Not so much a cover-up as playing it safe.

Besides, as Freak said, Bear has written in other universes himself, so he may not want to appear as a pot to Keith's kettle.

HBJ

[SandRider]

hey, y'all remember when Brian Conway said I had 'invited' him here ?

found the post he was talking about,
buried in the "Dune Community" forum @Amazon

Your post: May 4, 2009 8:54 AM PDT
SandRider says:
and hey, Conway, since you're already lurking on Jacurutu, why don't you join & post there ? It's an open forum, you might spend some time reading past discussion and get a clue. I'd just LOVE to hear what you have to say and be able to respond in a more open and honest manner that is allowed on these public, "civilized" forums.

[GamePlayer]

connie never needed an invite; the guy was always here, like Jack Torrence in The Shining
If Jacurutu didn't allow the forums to remain visible for non-registered members, he would have already been registered.

[Freakzilla]

The invitation is open for any fan of the new books to come here an explain to us how they deserve to be called "good", much less "Dune Books."

If we are not missionaries to the heathens, then we're just blowing each other.

[Hunchback Jack]

Couldn't agree more.

HBJ

[SandRider]

aww, dangitall, Conway's taken down the "Chaos Forum" on his blagh.