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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Lit Literature member interviews

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Point Given , Jun 6, 2013.

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  1. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    I can answer that for her: otters.
     
  2. krtmd

    krtmd Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 5, 2012
    Unfortunately, I'd have to say this ended up being the big mystery of this 13 book series. Much to my extreme disappointment.

    eta. Not that anyone asked me. [face_blush]
     
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  3. CooperTFN

    CooperTFN TFN EU Staff Emeritus star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1999
    13? Jesus.
     
  4. Barriss_Coffee

    Barriss_Coffee Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2003
    I have two questions. The second of which is going to get srsly personal.

    1st - What do you think are the chances of Corran appearing in the ST? What would be your reaction if he did? (in fact, do you even trust his character in the hands of Abrams/Lucas?)

    2nd - We now all know you've dressed as Corran. A few of us know your mother dressed as a certain Star Wars character as well -- a certain Wookiee, as I might recall. I never heard the story behind that, so my question is this: What on earth possessed your mom to dress up as Chewy? Is she some sort of super-Star Wars fan too?
     
  5. s65horsey

    s65horsey Otter-loving Former EUC Mod star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 2006
    22. Which nonhuman species is your favourite or you want to see more of?
    Chironian, obviously. I can't imagine why they're not in more stories...

    Cathar. I don't know why I like the cat-like species, but I do. They've been in a lot of comics so I'm not sure I necessarily need to see more of them though it is strange that they appear in the various timelines in the comics but not the books as Jedi.

    I think we need more ewoks in the stories, personally.

    Coop - I will get to your question.

    23. What do you think are the chances of Corran appearing in the ST? What would be your reaction if he did? (in fact, do you even trust his character in the hands of Abrams/Lucas?)
    You know I haven't actually thought much about this. I adore Corran and if he could be included as how Stackpole wrote him I'd think that was the greatest thing ever concerning my fandom. I don't actually think this is going to happen though. It would fit to have him if they're going to do a Jedi Academy type of story and I really hope they include some of the EU characters as a nod to the fans who have been with the story the entire time. I guess if he does make an appearance I'd wish it was something simple, teaching a class to the lead characters or something like that. Simple, difficult to mess up, but a way to include something special for us.

    24. We now all know you've dressed as Corran. A few of us know your mother dressed as a certain Star Wars character as well -- a certain Wookiee, as I might recall. I never heard the story behind that, so my question is this: What on earth possessed your mom to dress up as Chewy? Is she some sort of super-Star Wars fan too?
    My mom is a Star Wars fan. She's been a Harrison Ford fan from when she first saw the originals in the theater. She had a Han Solo cardboard cut out glued to the wall at school (6th grade teacher) for many years (with the gun covered up) and a bunch of action figures as well. I'm pretty sure a Yoda cut out and an R2D2 one also made an appearance at school. Anyways, the charter school she worked at in CA made a big deal about dressing up for Halloween so my mother decided to get ridiculous costumes each year she was there and the whole point was so that no one knew it was her dressed in the costume other than the students in her class. So it was a silly way to surprise the teachers she worked with and her boss who absolutely loved Halloween.

    She asked me if I ever thought I'd use a Chewie costume and I figured sure, so she bought one. It was a huge hit with the kids (K-6th grade) and she had me show up at school dressed as the X-wing pilot as well for the parade of costumes. Basically my mom is a big kid.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  6. s65horsey

    s65horsey Otter-loving Former EUC Mod star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 2006
    Ok here goes. I apologize for some of the jumbled thoughts but I don't want to hold up the thread so I'm just putting this out there.

    25. What does it say about the status of female leads in genre fiction that your (positive) summation of the end of the Sookie series dealt entirely with which man she ended up with?
    krtmd really hit the nail on the head already, but I'll go ahead and answer this fully anyways. When these first started out I thought they were going to be about so much more than just a story about Sookie's love life, but definitely several books in it was possible to tell that the story really was all about her love life. I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. Paranormal Romance novels have really carved themselves a share of the market over the last decade. Several of the authors that I read turned their series this direction and for some the stories got better and for others the stories really suffered but they seemed to pick up a whole new set of readers who were over the moon about the books. Laurell K Hamilton's first 8 books are some of the best stories I've read with a female lead. Then she discovered (and helped invent) the current breed of paranormal romance books and the next 12 books were absolutely awful pieces of smut that turned their backs on the wonderful female lead present in the first 8 books.

    Charlaine Harris at least provided a mystery for the characters to solve in each book she wrote and attempted to hide the love story within the mystery. I don't think it is wrong to like a book series for what it is, a paranormal love story with a little bit of mystery mixed in. The question when reading each book was never really is Sookie going to make it out of this predicament alive, but more along the lines of which male is going to make a mistake and upset Sookie the most. That is actually one thing True Blood has over the original books. It isn't as much of a love story (yet). I commend the author for ending the series when she did. It has to be tough to walk away from something so successful and recognize that her writing was slipping, the stories weren't as good as the original ones and the characters were becoming a little stale.

    I do think this is indicative of a larger problem in the fantasy genre: female leads without the love story becoming the central focus. As I’ve stated already Hamilton was able to do it until she went off the deep end though she appears to be backpedalling quite a bit in her latest installments of the series and getting back to why Anita Blake was so popular in the first place (she saw a big drop in sales in 2009 iirc.)

    The problem Harris ran into is that she didn’t create a powerful heroine in the first place. Sookie can read human minds, yes, but she’s at a complete disadvantage compared to the vampires, fairies and were-animals. There was nowhere to go but the love story for her series. I’ve been doing some research because I read a lot and I can no longer count on a Sookie book being released so I have some hopeful authors on my list to track down that supposedly have a strong female lead. When I’m done with those series I’ll let you know if I feel things turned into love story vs strong female fantasy heroine. One example that I currently have would be Patricia Brigg’s Mercy Thompson series. She’s married, yes, and the first couple of books included a love story part but the love story was a side story to the main ass-kicking storyline.

    The majority of the time I feel like the female is intentionally written dumb or not as strong so that she can be rescued by a sexy vampire/were/fairy and then they live happily ever after. These types of books drive me crazy and do nothing to dig females out of the love story hole they tend to find themselves in. I grudgingly admit that there are people out there who love to read stories like these and they can have them. I had hoped with the creation of the paranormal romance genre that my regular fantasy genre could stand tall on its own with some strong females but I don’t think the books are being separated out properly at the publishing level yet. At this point the young adult fantasy authors are the ones who have stepped up to create strong female characters which is why I read a lot of YA stories.

    Let me be clear, there is nothing wrong with including a love story as part of the work in the fantasy genre, but it should not be the central theme of the story as unfortunately happened with the Sookie Stackhouse series. I checked Amazon’s reviews of the last book and had a great laugh. I am definitely in the minority on liking how the ending was done.
     
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  7. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
    I feel sorry for your mom. She has to be burning up in that suit.
     
  8. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    Stover's Barra books. Badass female lead.
     
  9. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
    I've been meaning to read those... how are they in comparison to the Caine books?
     
  10. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    They're slightly more pulp-adventurey. They're more like Heroes Die than Blade of Tyshalle. Asskicking, philosophy, but not as visibly arty. They're totally worth it.
     
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  11. krtmd

    krtmd Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 5, 2012
    s65horsey - ITA with what you said re. Sookie series. Well, except for liking the final book. And I have lots of reasons for disliking it, the sinking of my ship notwithstanding.
     
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  12. CooperTFN

    CooperTFN TFN EU Staff Emeritus star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1999
    cthugha, Jedi Ben and instantdeath like this.
  13. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
    Sounds fun. Although the objective snoody reviewer side of me would say that Blade of Tyshalle is probably the better book, I actually think I enjoyed Heroes Die more. Was just too much fun. And I've got a soft spot for authors taking established archetypes and cliches and both turning them on their head, while still somehow embracing them.

    And yes, horsey, read Saga. Cooper actually got me to read it via one of those links of his :cool:
     
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  14. CooperTFN

    CooperTFN TFN EU Staff Emeritus star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1999
  15. krtmd

    krtmd Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 5, 2012
    Oh, now that is good news.

    Coop sent me Saga's way as well. Do you get a cut?
     
  16. s65horsey

    s65horsey Otter-loving Former EUC Mod star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 2006
    That's comics though...I want books!
     
  17. CooperTFN

    CooperTFN TFN EU Staff Emeritus star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1999
    [face_plain] [face_plain]:mad:[face_not_talking]

    All I want is people to talk to about it.
     
  18. krtmd

    krtmd Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 5, 2012
    My apologies if I touched a nerve. I read it on your recommendation and loved it.
     
  19. s65horsey

    s65horsey Otter-loving Former EUC Mod star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 2006
    I assume those faces are at me for my comment. I won't apologize for how I feel. [face_not_talking]
     
  20. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
    Racist [face_not_talking]

    To be serious, I would suggest checking out the first free issue of Saga. It's free! And really good. But also free.

    Comics, as a medium, tend to be underestimated. There are some really great things you can do in them that you can't do as well in prose (and vice versa, of course). I'm sure some just genuinely don't care for them, but I find a lot of people who think they're not into them can be surprised.
     
  21. s65horsey

    s65horsey Otter-loving Former EUC Mod star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 2006
    Its not like I don't read comics guys. I'm just saying what I really would like is this sort of thing in BOOK format.
     
  22. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    Which is why Coop linked you to the Trade. :cool:
     
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  23. s65horsey

    s65horsey Otter-loving Former EUC Mod star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 2006
    [head_desk]

    I can read one of those in one sitting. I need something that is going to take me several days or weeks to get through.
     
  24. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
    While I have not had a chance to read it myself yet, I've been told by multiple people that Leviathan Wakes is, in GRRM's words, a "kickass space opera" that puts fun first without sacrificing literary quality (though I've personally always felt qualifiers such as "literary" are somewhat arbitrary), sort of in the same vein as Saga. The last book in the trilogy actually just came out.
     
  25. s65horsey

    s65horsey Otter-loving Former EUC Mod star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 2006
    Starring...two males.

    Edit: Don't get me wrong, I like good stories with male leads ie Dresden Files is probably one of my favorites if not my favorite in the Fantasy genre. Although the fact that the kindle book (for Leviathan Wakes) is only $3 makes it worth it to try out. But still it isn't what I'm looking for.
     
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