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[matgb]

innerbrat on the portrayal of women in comics. Very good. Very good indeed.

For those that, like me, briefly liked Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule but couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, this comment thread is also worth a read.

Comments

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

You. London. Visiting. When?

Grammar is for the weak :P

[matgb]

Hopefully next S-C; Ms Banana can actually make it as the 3rd Friday is a different weekend to the 3rd Saturday.

To be confirmed though, and probably booking accommodation in tow (she "doesn't do floors" - and can probably afford to pay).

Good to see you back online; kept meaning to ring, but, well, you know what I'm like...

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

What about those of us who hated Wizard's First Rule, and knew EXACTLY what was wrong with it?

At any rate, one reason why Goodkind is not worthy of consideration
for any merit:

Quasi-medievaloid society. Protagonist's brother (who we are not
supposed to know is in league with the Main Bad Guy, even though it is
transparently obvious from the very first page) is in some position of
authority in quasi-medievaloid little village on the ass end of
nowhere. And he gives a speech, wherein he acts and sounds _exactly_
like a 1990's political whore, imploring that the noble people of the
little village on the ass end of nowhere, "form a committee to
investigate the dangers of," (wait for it) "fire."

Yes.

Fire.

Yellowy-orange stuff what has been known to emanate from logs after
lightning strikes. Fire. Form a committe. Of quasi-medievaloid
ignorant jerkwads totally dependent on fire for their crafts and
manufactury, and who, even though they are quasi-medievaloid jerkwads,
should be fairly confident that they've mastered the art of not
burning their entire village down every three days.

This is the sort of idiotic drivel one gets when one picks up a
Goodkind novel. Committees to investigate the dangers of fucking
fire, for Chrissakes. This is stupidity best measured in decibels.

Never have I seen so much undeserving praise heaped on an author, nay,
not even since Caligula stuck a quill pen up his horse's ass and
declared him poet laureate.

John S Novak III, here

And that's one page like 6, of a book whose idea of subtle characterisation is to have the sooper sekrit villain RAPE THE BARMAID half a paragraph after his introduction.

That book was stolen from me about 100 pages in. I really never missed it, at all. It was abysmal.

[matgb]

I was leant it as pulp entertainment, and read it as such, I was studying at the time, so pulp entertainment was good. I've never been into literary analysis, and tend to not read online stuff to do with books, so never saw any reviews; friends liked the book, I sorta enjoyed it, liked some of the ideas, but couldn't figure out why it bothered me.

Hindsite says that it was simply crap, but I've read many better books since then. Besides, the bit criticised could equally be read as an exmple of how a demagogue can twist a crowd on any subject if they really want to, I've seen it done for dafter things.

[innerbrat]

...That's not actually WFR, though is it? I don't recognise that summary.

Except as a description of the B-Arkian's firt town meeting.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

That's Wizard's First Rule. That's in like the first 10 pages of Wizard's First Rule.

[innerbrat]

Ooops. See? I lose. And people expect me to write an essay on the godsdamn thing. Oh well.