Oolite Bulletins

DaddyHoggy wrote:

I find myself agreeing with Terry Pratchett in the sense that Sci-Fi is a sub-set of "Fantasy" - fortunately, my dad introduced me to E.E. Doc Smith, Asimov and Clarke at the same time he introduced me to Tolkien and CS Lewis (about 9yrs old!), so I never saw them as different!

Pratchett is a very clever man... and I've never read a Discworld novel yet. However, I have been very entertained by the BBC's radio dramatisations of several of the stories. The BBC do these things so well... they did a few great radio dramatisations of Blakes 7... brilliant. Tolkien is in a class/category all of his own. C.S. Lewis I first read as a teenager... I am not liking at all... pseudo-religious... I'll stop there, I think.

Imprint cant be found here - http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Imprint
While The Dark Wheel can be found - http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/dkwheel.htm


In case anyone stumbles on this thread and hasn't read either.

OneoftheLost wrote:

Anyone else had their influences take hold of their writing in the wee hours of the morning without realizing it?

[heresy alert]

Sort of on that subject, but from the other angle, I have another confession to make: I’ve never read Drew’s work either… when I was eventually able to tear myself away from playing this great game long enough to think about reading some Oofic, the idea for Coyote had already popped into my head. Once I’d decided to write Coyote, I dared not read any Oofic, most especially Drew’s, for fear of being derivative, or subconciously copying ideas.

Now though, I can let myself read his work… I have my own Ooniverse and characters (who give me little peace).
But I’ve decided to wait until Drew's trilogy is complete, then I’ll read all three… I’m really looking forward to it.

[/heresy alert]

El Viejo wrote:

DaddyHoggy wrote:

I find myself agreeing with Terry Pratchett in the sense that Sci-Fi is a sub-set of "Fantasy" - fortunately, my dad introduced me to E.E. Doc Smith, Asimov and Clarke at the same time he introduced me to Tolkien and CS Lewis (about 9yrs old!), so I never saw them as different!

Pratchett is a very clever man... and I've never read a Discworld novel yet. However, I have been very entertained by the BBC's radio dramatisations of several of the stories. The BBC do these things so well... they did a few great radio dramatisations of Blakes 7... brilliant. Tolkien is in a class/category all of his own. C.S. Lewis I first read as a teenager... I am not liking at all... pseudo-religious... I'll stop there, I think.

re: Lewis - yes - horrible religious under(over?)tones but still "fantasy" and in my naivety I didn't see the religious pap until I read it again when I was older.

I haven't read any of the latest Discworld novels - but Colour of Magic is just a glorious gag-fest, although Reaperman is my favourite.

DaddyHoggy wrote:

I find myself agreeing with Terry Pratchett in the sense that Sci-Fi is a sub-set of "Fantasy" - fortunately, my dad introduced me to E.E. Doc Smith, Asimov and Clarke at the same time he introduced me to Tolkien and CS Lewis (about 9yrs old!), so I never saw them as different!

My dad did a similar thing - I've now appropriated about half his sci-fi/fantasy bookcase!

About a quarter of the way through imprint and not really very impressed. The author has an annoying habit of chucking flowery phrases in for no obvious reason other than showing off as far as I can tell.

This sort of thing...

"He reasoned his reluctance, as the screen proceeded through a panoply of bluster, and pinpointed a fear of quiescent dreams being scattered and shared."

or

"A ghastly ache in his muscles, now malleable in a lingering mould of stiffness..."

It's like a packet of Parma Violets. Too much perfume and not enough content.

His descriptions of combat (IMHO) are also awkward and very non-Elite, he also refers to the Torus drive as a 'SpaceSkip' which is not only *wrong* but has me imagining big yellow containers filled with old tellies floating through space.

I'll finish it, but I'm not a fan so far. I'm sticking with TDW which remains properly 'Elite' to me.

[heresy alert]

Sort of on that subject, but from the other angle, I have another confession to make: I’ve never read Drew’s work either… when I was eventually able to tear myself away from playing this great game long enough to think about reading some Oofic, the idea for Coyote had already popped into my head. Once I’d decided to write Coyote, I dared not read any Oofic, most especially Drew’s, for fear of being derivative, or subconciously copying ideas.

Now though, I can let myself read his work… I have my own Ooniverse and characters (who give me little peace).
But I’ve decided to wait until Drew's trilogy is complete, then I’ll read all three… I’m really looking forward to it.

[/heresy alert]

Burn him! Burn him! You may have to indulge me with that one. As a trilogy I think my writing is going to look a bit uneven when ready quickly in sequence. 'Status Quo' is quite 'tongue in cheek', with a bunch of in-jokes for those in the know and a deliberately rather obvious and predictable plot. Mutabilis is a bit more serious and twisty. Incursio should be both longer and deeper (wahay!), with a tougher, more oppressive atmosphere.

Comes down to the motivation for writing each book. SQ was very much aimed at complimenting the basic instructions/wiki so a new Ooliteer had a bit more of a frame of reference, so there's more talk of ships and tech than there is pure drama. When writing M I wasn't bothered about this, so I explored the characters a bit more than the tech and went after that old Elite myth 'Raxxla'. In Incursio it's all about the war against the Thargoids, which is a more threatening time than the 'relative' peace we encounter in-game (unless you've got the various Thargoid OXPs loaded) - It's also my 'last' Oofic, so I wanted to 'go out in style'.

I might review the trilogy in this light, for a final spit and polish as a whole, once I've finished Incursio. Collector's Edition?

Cheers,

Drew.

DaddyHoggy wrote:

although Reaperman is my favourite.

Tsk, surely Witches Abroad is everyone's favourite!

I loved Witches Abroad - but Death is my favourite Character, so not hard to see why RM is my favourite. Ah, Bill Door scything the wheat one stalk at a time, because that's the way he has to do it...

I'd have to go with Night Watch myself, but as Sam Vimes is my favourite character that's not too surprising.

The sheer horror I experienced upon Death failing to appear in Unseen Academicals cannot be expressed without making some words up.

Phantom Hoover wrote:

The sheer horror I experienced upon Death failing to appear in Unseen Academicals cannot be expressed without making some words up.

I am reading this now and I am sure there is at least one occurence where Death makes an appearance. Always a pleasure having that guy around, I think he's really one of Pratchett's best creations.

another_commander wrote:

Always a pleasure having that guy around, I think he's really one of Pratchett's best creations.

As I said above, I've only listened to three or four radio dramatisations of Pratchett, never read one of his books. But Death is a great character, brilliantly portrayed by the BBC... really good listening.

"Guards, Guards" is a favourite of mine, though I think I still like the original 'Colour of Magic' the best.

Cheers,

Drew.

I think we should all join Thargoid's other forum en masse!