West
Finale Katara
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Post by West on Jan 12, 2007 20:41:30 GMT -5
^6yeah, sort of agree.
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Post by katie Uzumaki on Jan 12, 2007 23:54:00 GMT -5
Yep....if it had come out before Star Wars and LOTR them GOD knows what would have happend! THE WORLD WOULD BE DESTROYED!!!!
Just kidding... *shifty eyes*
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Post by CountessRachel on Jan 22, 2007 10:35:36 GMT -5
Well, for a guy to have published by the time he's 19, write a New York Times Best Seller, win an award or two and make a movie, he's got to have done SOMETHING right. Anyone else in here had that kind of experience yet?
Didn't think so.
Yeah, the guy writes a bit like Tolkien and it's got some similarities to Star Wars. You kind of run that risk when writing a certain genre. It's like my rooommate and me. I listen to electronica, she listens to country XP. To her, all my music sounds the same and to me vice versa. I like the Inheritance Trilogy. A little cliche here and there yes, but the story is fun to follow and his character development I love as well, save for Arya.
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Wilderness Writer
Wolf Sokka
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~Weaver of Words~
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Post by Wilderness Writer on Jan 22, 2007 22:49:34 GMT -5
Kaneda!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!
Thank you so much for finding that page! It has to be the greatest thing I've ever read about the Eragon trilogy. Like you, I despised the book. I think somewhere, way deep down, it is caused a little by envy. A 19 year old with obviously very little talent has manged to become reknown. Why? His parents. As publishers, he had a gateway to success while the rest of us writers have to plod and struggle along just to get our first article published. I do envy his advantage.
Another little part of me despises it because it reminds me so much of my ex-boi's work. A fantasy writer just like Paolini, he took cliche after cliche, mixed in purple prose, and then swaggered around pretending that he'd just written a masterpiece rivaling Tolkein himself. I suppose I painted chad's face on Paolini just a smidge.
But, for the most part, my hate of his books is from genuine frustration with crappy writing. The author of the site is absolutely right when he speaks of "info dumping". Besides overusing the same word, this is the most annoying writer mistake to me. Breaking up the flow of a story to describe the character's clothing, appearance, background, and other assorted little trivial details just makes me want to groan.
And yes, cliche bothers me. I know that cliche is almost unavoidable in the fantasy genre. Ever since Tolkein, it's hard to come up with new ideas. But somehow fantasy writers, good fantasy writers, manage to avoid it. Tolkein did it first, and Tolkein did it best, but you don't have to give up in defeat. Dragon Riders of Pern is a great example. The writing is excellent, and the idea is original.
And stolen. Eragon rapes the Dragonriders books. I'm actually quite surprised Paolini hasn't been fined heftily by the author. Star Wars is another great idea done well in the fantasy genre. Again, Paolini is either too lazy or too dull to think up his own plot, and instead steals from Star Wars in an almost scene-by-scene pilliage that would be funny if it didn't make your eyes bleed.
I really wanted Eragon to work. Part of me cheered because he was a young writer, and I wanted to see a young writer succeed in the very, very, very difficult and cut-throat world of writing. But being young does not give excuse to bloated, cliched, stolen work overwrought with purple prose and unsatisfying climaxes.
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West
Finale Katara
Posts: 8,335
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Post by West on Jan 23, 2007 16:39:31 GMT -5
^^wow long post. ;d
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Post by appacatbus on Jan 23, 2007 16:45:36 GMT -5
Well i have discoevered a worse fantasy than "Inheritance"
"The Eye of Argon" is the single worst fantasy novel ever published in the history of mankind. Its cr@ppiness is the stuff of legends.
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Wilderness Writer
Wolf Sokka
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Post by Wilderness Writer on Jan 23, 2007 19:34:58 GMT -5
I haven't read that one.
Crappy fiction by itself really doesn't bother me that badly. I mean, it happens. "Piratica" to me is the absolute worst fantasy could ever read in your life. A completely unbelievable plot, weak characters, poor dialogue, and an idea so unworkable that you might think it was thought up by a child. But, like I said, crappy fiction happens.
But it does NOT become a phenomenon. It does NOT become a NY Times bestseller. It DOES NOT get its own movie. Crappy fanfiction written by a fifteen year old does NOT get these things because there are far more mature and talented writers who really deserve these things. Gerrald Morris comes to mind. The best YA fiction I've ever read, but lost in obscurity.
Paolini did not plod through years of hard work, countless rejection letters, blood, sweat, tears, self-doubt and general misery. He did not suffer through hours and hours of a soul-sucking day job in order to support himself in the night when he spends his few precious hours translating his heart and mind onto paper.
Paolini did none of these things. His mommy and daddy had connections, the marketers saw potential in, not his writing or his plot, but in his AGE and capitalized on that. This brings me grief, and a feeling of righteous indignation at the injustice of it.
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Post by appacatbus on Jan 23, 2007 22:58:22 GMT -5
the whole "his parents published it" thing is what really pisses me off.
That means he skipped completely over the most painful part of being a writer. the regection lettes, the neverending rewriting, etc. He just got his cr@p to jump over all that. Its a bit of an insult to all the struggling authors out there (and i know a couple)
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Wilderness Writer
Wolf Sokka
Zutarian Propaganda Writer
~Weaver of Words~
Posts: 2,802
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Post by Wilderness Writer on Jan 23, 2007 23:13:31 GMT -5
Hi! We must never have met! My name is Wilderness. I have never been known to write anything short. Nice to meet you.
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Post by appacatbus on Jan 23, 2007 23:15:39 GMT -5
^ up untill just now then
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Post by katie Uzumaki on Jan 29, 2007 21:45:23 GMT -5
Well i have discoevered a worse fantasy than "Inheritance" "The Eye of Argon" is the single worst fantasy novel ever published in the history of mankind. Its cr@ppiness is the stuff of legends. I have not even HEARD of that one... XDXD That was funny Kaneda! I was just about to say that too!
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Post by firexphantom on Feb 17, 2007 23:33:56 GMT -5
When I first read Eragon I thought it was a complete rip-off of Tolkien who invented the epic fantasy genre. I noticed it follows the guidelines of MANY fantasy good v. evil stories.
1. person who must take up a responsiblity and save a culture (reluctant hero)
2. wise man who helps him along the way and shows him which way he should go (wise man)
3. loyal friend who will be with the main character until the end (loyal friend)
I don't think Eragon is a masterpiece but people do consider it to be brilliant because the younger audience can read it and get into it.
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Post by appacatbus on Feb 20, 2007 2:17:13 GMT -5
I don't think Eragon is a masterpiece but people do consider it to be brilliant because the younger audience can read it and get into it. Brilliant marketing that is.
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Growly
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Post by Growly on Feb 22, 2007 8:11:49 GMT -5
I agree with Wilderness Writer and Kaneda. I refuse to touch the books - to me the ripoff seemed so blatant that I couldn't condone it. And I do admit to being supremely annoyed at the fact that some fifteen year old Tolkien wannabe got the easy road to success with help from his parents. For anyone who has toiled and striven for publication, seeing someone skipping all the obstacles is a horrendous miscarriage of justice. He should have had to take his lumps and rejection letters like everyone else - and let his work stand on its own merit and not his parents' connections.
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Post by appacatbus on Feb 22, 2007 14:06:01 GMT -5
He should have had to take his lumps and rejection letters like everyone else He certainly would have had alot of those...
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