The Second Apocalypse

Earwa => General Earwa => Topic started by: Wilshire on March 25, 2015, 03:26:19 pm

Title: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: Wilshire on March 25, 2015, 03:26:19 pm
Some quotes i thought might convince otherwise those that  didnt want to buy TKOMH part 2 and the RSB interview for $3:

Quote
(That said, I really have been crazy productive despite not publishing anything in four years. I’m literally sitting on four completed drafts of four different books. My project for 2015 is getting each of these completed and ‘out there.’)

and later on :

Quote
[GdM] What else can your readers expect to see from you in the next year or two? What are your plans for the future after The Unholy Consult (Aspect Emperor #3)? 32
[RSB] Books, fuck. Hopefully a bunch of them! I have a ‘no-blank page’ rule in effect until I have all these projects out the door.
Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: Aural on March 25, 2015, 03:49:36 pm
Thanks Wilshire, that's good news. I wonder what the four books are, TUC, LT&G, maybe Disciple sequel [and] something else?

I haven't bought it yet, but from the sample on Amazon,

(click to show/hide)

Heh.
Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: Wilshire on March 25, 2015, 03:58:41 pm
We are a lovely people, if I do say so myself,.

MG is, without a doubt, our quintessential link to the rest of everyone. His horde of bakkerfan's accounts and direct line to GdM has likely done more for spreading the words of bakker through the interwebz than any other one person.
Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: Madness on March 25, 2015, 04:19:24 pm
Quote from: Ejjannelsouda on March 25, 2015, 03:49:36 pm
(click to show/hide)

I hadn't noticed that :).

Quote from: Wilshire on March 25, 2015, 03:58:41 pm
MG is, without a doubt, our quintessential link to the rest of everyone. His horde of bakkerfan's accounts and direct line to GdM has likely done more for spreading the words of bakker through the interwebz than any other one person.

+1 8). Great job, MG!
Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: mrganondorf on March 29, 2015, 06:46:24 pm
Quote from: Wilshire on March 25, 2015, 03:58:41 pm
We are a lovely people, if I do say so myself,.

MG is, without a doubt, our quintessential link to the rest of everyone. His horde of bakkerfan's accounts and direct line to GdM has likely done more for spreading the words of bakker through the interwebz than any other one person.

w00t w00t!  :P
Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: Aural on March 30, 2015, 06:55:23 pm
So GM#3 has a 1/5 rating on Goodreads... wonder if it's anything Bakker said.
Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: Madness on March 30, 2015, 06:58:37 pm
Only has 1 rating so far.
Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: Wilshire on March 30, 2015, 07:12:19 pm
Quote from: Ejjannelsouda on March 30, 2015, 06:55:23 pm
So GM#3 has a 1/5 rating on Goodreads... wonder if it's anything Bakker said.

With Bakker's huge influence, it must have been :P.
Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: Aural on March 30, 2015, 08:58:06 pm
Quote from: Madness on March 30, 2015, 06:58:37 pm
Only has 1 rating so far.

Aw... so not only does it have a one star rating, only one person has read it?
Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: Wilshire on March 31, 2015, 02:50:54 am
Quote from: Ejjannelsouda on March 30, 2015, 08:58:06 pm
Quote from: Madness on March 30, 2015, 06:58:37 pm
Only has 1 rating so far.

Aw... so not only does it have a one star rating, only one person has read it?
That was probably bakker too.
Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: Aural on April 04, 2015, 05:05:46 pm
Just saying guys. You might want to post opinions of issue#3 on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Grimdark-Magazine-Issue-Scott-Bakker-ebook/dp/B00V6DEXDK).
Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: Madness on April 04, 2015, 05:37:07 pm
Good call, Nskoghar. I did Goodreads and Amazon too.

Great reviews - much more generous than I. I barely did a cursory perusal of the other parts of either issue #2 or #3 (and I even got #1 for free because of a fuck up when I bought issue #2 and I don't even think I've read it at all).
Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: The Great Scald on April 27, 2015, 03:37:39 pm
I've now read both parts of "The Knife of Many Hands" - it's definitely not terrible, but far from the best Bakker has written. It had some good parts, but felt very awkward and "patchy", and ended too abruptly. If I didn't know better, I'd think this was Bakker's first story.

I don't know if Bakker has gotten worse as a prose writer or if he's just awkward in the swords-n-sandals Howard genre (which he's emulating in this story), but it's a very far cry from the last things he wrote. WLW and "The False Sun" were Bakker at the top of his game, so this recent drop in quality is a bit weird. Maybe he was trying to overcome writer's block? Maybe he's just really unused to the Conan genre, being more of a cerebral guy? Maybe his fantasy-writing skills are rusty after spending all this time blogging about neuroscience? I have no idea.

Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: Wilshire on April 27, 2015, 03:48:32 pm
Madness suggested that a lot went missing from draft to word-count-capped GdM publishing. But thats just an excuse, he should have planned better if he knew he was going to run out of words. Still though, maybe he's just no good at paring down stories/ideas  to consumable morsels, and/or time restraints kill his prose. He certainly hasen't had a publication deadline and a word cap in recent years, so maybe he's rusty.
Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: The Great Scald on April 27, 2015, 04:32:16 pm
Quote from: Wilshire on April 27, 2015, 03:48:32 pm
Madness suggested that a lot went missing from draft to word-count-capped GdM publishing. But thats just an excuse, he should have planned better if he knew he was going to run out of words. Still though, maybe he's just no good at paring down stories/ideas  to consumable morsels, and/or time restraints kill his prose. He certainly hasen't had a publication deadline and a word cap in recent years, so maybe he's rusty.

Yeah, maybe he's used to writing longer novels and posting stories on his blog where the word-count limit is the sky, so the constraints of a fan-mag choked this story. But I agree, he should definitely have planned to make it short in the first place - "The False Sun" is a lot shorter, and it's also Bakker's best short story by far. This one was just badly edited and awkwardly written.

I liked a lot of things about the story - the use of magic was really creative, the politicking of the Scarlet Spires was cool, the Queen of Ainon was a rare non-prostitute female character, and the Norse barbarian in a decadent southern city is always an adventure classic - but it just felt awkward and sloppily put together. A lot of parts were good, but the whole wasn't.

Some scenes are too long and verbose, others are way too short, there's typos all over the place. The ending, wherein Our Hero escapes the city and Carythusal burns down in the space of one sentence, is way too abrupt to make sense. My reaction to the whole story was just "meh".
Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: The Great Scald on April 29, 2015, 02:08:39 pm
I noticed a fanfic on Bakker's site that also deals with the outbreak of the Shrial-Sorcerer war. It's called "The Burning of Carythusal" or something like that.

I actually liked that fanfic better than this Grimdark vignette - in the fanfic story, the war breaks out when Shriah strikes the first blow, by dressing up the Mysunsai mercs as Shrial envoys and sneak-attacking the Scarlet Spires during a truce meeting. This version is a lot better than Bakker's low-effort pulp story where the Spires start the war by bewitching a gladiator into killing the Ainoni royals.

It's a shame that this story wasn't better written, because I know Bakker can do a lot better. It wasn't terrible, but it's a far cry from "The False Sun", which was brilliant.


Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: The Great Scald on April 29, 2015, 02:23:23 pm
Other comments on this story:

- The protagonist was okay for a swords-n-sandals pulp story, although he could've been given more depth - Bakker pulled it off well with Cnaiur, and could've done the same here
- Shinurta was creepy and disturbing, reminded me of Iyokus
- The use of magic was really clever, intelligent use of sorcery by the people of a setting where anti-magic defenses are common
- The setting was good, Carythusal really felt like a depraved Neo-Babylon or late imperial Rome
- The Queen could've been better written, but it's still nice to see a non-prostitute female character in Bakker
- The dialogue ranged from decent to cringeworthy
Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: Wilshire on April 29, 2015, 02:58:04 pm
It is a shame that he didn't make more of an effort to leverage his only step into the limelight (however dim) more effectively. Might have been mentioned above or elsewhere, but its like he either is completely unaware or totally dismissive of fans (and acquiring new ones). He hasn't had any exposure anywhere in 4ish years, and this is what he put out... Its certainly not a mystery to me why he's a "mid-list"
author even though his writing is worth so much more :P.
Title: Re: Grimdark #3 -Bakkerview
Post by: Bolivar on April 29, 2015, 09:55:23 pm
The ending was a little abrupt but I'm going to give the whole thing another shot, as I suspect it might read a bit better in one sitting rather than split how it was.