MRK: It's clear how you feel about ambiguous quotes comparing you to other authors (i.e. "Comparable to Tolkien at his best" I guess it's better than "Comparable to Tolkien at his worst.")
How do you feel though, when another author is compared to *you* in a blurb? I know that both Steven Erikson and J.V. Jones have been compared with you in blurbs on their books (possibly others have as well) Namely in the sense that they could be ranked with you in terms of ability and achievement. Do you take this as a compliment to yourself as well as them?
On a another note, I understand why you would want to be judged on your own merit, rather than using other writers as a yardstick, but are there any authors whom you wouldn't mind being compared to? (e.g. "Comparable to Conrad at his best"?)
PS. For what little it may be worth, I recently wrote a letter to the SyFy Channel and advised them that if they were looking for material for a new miniseries, they couldn't do much better, and could do far worse, than Mordant's Need.
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I'm torn. On the one hand, I can easily argue that all comparisons are invidious. They mislead more than they enlighten. On the other, I can easily understand why people (especially reviewers) make comparisons. Comparisons serve as a kind of cognitive shorthand. If I can tell you (on virtually any reasonable basis) that "If you like X, you're likely to enjoy Y as well," I save myself a lot of tedious explanation--and I avoid coming to grips with all the ways in which X is *not* similar to Y. A purist might claim that comparisons are lazy communication--unless differences and similarities are according equal consideration. But in practice I suspect that we all do it. I know I do. Shorthand exists for a reason. (Here I'm tempted to go off on a riff about "judgment"--the ability to see the differences between similar things--and "wit"--the ability to see the similarities between different things. But inevitably that would take me to Panini's [sp?] "four levels of understanding," so I'll spare you.) As for how I personally feel when other writers are compared to me: that all depends on my opinion of the other writer(s) in question. A fan once told me that his favorite writers were John Norman (he of the "Gor" books), Clive Cussler, and Donaldson. I was not flattered. (10/13/2010) |
Grant Lovett: I am re-reading the Gap books (they are even more relevant (and ejoyable) today than when i first read them). My 2 questions are :
- why italics for the ship names ? I recall you saying you used them in Covenant for foreign words...but not sure why so in this context
- what sort of speed do you imagine Nick used while using his EVA suit in space when attacking Sorus ? I found this part hard to visualise given that the ships seem to move so fast even when dodging the swarm.
thanks again...cant wait for Oct 19th.
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I'm glad you've enjoyed the GAP books! Thanks for telling me. As I understand it, using italics for ship names is "standard." But then, so is using "the": "the Trumpet," "the Bright Beauty," etc.. Clearly I'm comfortable ignoring standard usage whenever I wish. <rueful smile> Hence the absence of italics for ship names in the "Covenant" books. My reasoning there was that I was already using italics for too many other purposes. The last thing the books needed was *more* italics. But the same reasoning didn't apply to the GAP books, so I saw no reason to violate standard usage. The thing to remember about relative speeds--especially in the scene to which you refer--is inertia: in the absence of intervening forces (e.g. significant gravity), a body in motion remains in motion (and it keeps going in the same direction). The people aboard a ship are all traveling at the same speed as the ship. So when Nick launches himself against Sorus, he doesn't need his EVA jets to catch her from a standing start: his only needs them to make up the difference between her speed and the speed he already has (since he's launching himself from a moving ship). In addition, it seems to me that ship speeds in an asteroid belt simply can't be as fast as they look in the movies. Inertia again. The faster a ship moves, the more energy it requires to change course in a restricted space. Does that help? (10/13/2010) |
KK : Hi Steve,
My question is from the 1st Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and concerns the griffin. What was it that stopped Lord Foul developing the (his air force) griffin?
Surely the Despiser knew he would need to defeat Revelstone eventually, and the griffin would have been a powerful siege weapon!
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OK, now you're embarrassing me. <sigh> The *real* reason that Lord Foul doesn't develop griffins as an air force is that I was ashamed of having intruded one into the story in the first place. *That,* I believed then, and still believe, was a failure of imagination. I should have invented a creature instead of borrowing one from standard mythology. Well, I didn't have any better ideas at the time. But the griffin's presence always bothered me, so I avoided relying on it later in the story. (10/13/2010) |
Craig: Hi Stephen,
An opinion and a question if I may.
The evolution of the "txt" into our language has (in my opinion) served to undermine the spelling and punctuation skills of a generation.
The new technology trend now is twitter. "tweeters" post their thoughts and ideas through this medium to hundreds, thousands, if not millions of strangers. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it could evolve into a very unifying and powerful "thing".
But.
By design, the format of this broadcast of information (it is not sharing, that implies getting something back) is limited to 140 characters...including spaces and punctuation marks.
This does accomplish 2 critical things for the person composing a 'tweet".
1. It forces them to focus their thoughts into a concise, hopefully coherant message, so there is no content BUT their core of their message. That is not a bad thing.
2. It forces them to dramaticaly simplify the language.
As an example, a 'twitter' version of the above points may read like this...
Spelling not good B/C txts. Tweets cool new tech for mny ppl. nfo max 140 ltrs. 1 way nfo. Tweets 2 point but only easy words. Eg like this.
To me that is horrifying. Obviously the number of questions in the GI indicates that people do want to know your opinion about things...so...have you considered items like this, and if so, what do you think?
Regards
Craig
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I may be the wrong person to ask for an opinion. I have absolutely no interest in Twitter, or "tweets," or text messages--or blogs--or Facebook--or.... If my work demonstrates anything, it shows that I strive for *complete* communication. And if my life demonstrates anything, it shows that I value real relationships with real people. (10/21/2010) |
James DiBenedetto: Steve,
Did you know that one of the future technologies you wrote about in the Gap Cycle is now officially a reality?
ABC News ran a story just last night about a new, experimental technique to help obese patients control their weight via electrodes implanted in the brain. I'd call that a case of primitive, first generation Zone Implants, wouldn't you?
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I didn't know; but I'm certainly not surprised to learn that medical science is moving in that direction. I was simply trying to be logical--if that's the right word--when I described most of the "science" in the GAP books. (10/21/2010) |
Steve Trimble: Hi again, Steve ...
I just re-read the first chapter of AATE here on this site, after i had finished re-reading FR for the third time. I felt like I just needed to drop you a line--in part because you're so open and friendly in your responses to your readers, and also because your work still has its old deep magic.
After I read Runes, I admit to a certain amount of trepidation ... would The Last Chronicles fall into the slumber that was the final few books of King's The Dark Tower series ... so emotional and fulfilling in its first few installments, and yet somewhat unfocused and colorless by the end volumes? You were attempting the culmination of a world, of defining all you had created--and all that we loved about it. I am a judge like any other reader, and I wondered if you would be equal to the task.
Okay, so I've read two volumes and one chapter of the four book set. It seems to me that you have found the literal means to grapple with titanic and unexplainable things. For example, I loved how Covenant sloughed off his divinity and reluctantly--perhaps fatally so--resumed his essential humanity. "Hellfire, doesn't that *mean* anything to you?"
Anyway--a question. When you defined these things in your mind in preparation for defining them on paper, was that question in your mind; that is, how can I answer these essential questions and make the reader believe? Or is that so obvious as to be rhetorical?
Thanks, Steve ... stories like this are truly special.
--Steve
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You're phrasing the issue differently than I would. I don't ask, "how can I answer these essential questions and make the reader believe?" From my perspective, making the reader believe is a function of the quality of the writing, the design of the narrative, the insight into the characters--and the clarity of the writer's intentions. (In the example you cite, I think I can say without disrespect that King's intentions shifted as he wrote.) No, the question that terrifies me is, "How can I possibly write and plot and understand well enough to earn the reader's attention and justify my intentions?" That's probably just what *you* asked. (10/25/2010) |
Dangerous Dave from Denver: If memory serves, prior to, and during your professional career, you have been a teacher.
What were the courses you taught? Did you enjoy teaching? And did those experiences in anyway help your own writing?
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I had two teaching phases in my life. One was as a teaching fellow at Kent State: Freshman English. The other was as an assistant instructor at the Ghost Ranch Writers' Workshops. At the time, the first was my definition of the abyss. The second was extremely difficult because I saw what the students were doing very clearly--but I was younger than any of them, and I had never been published, so I had no credibility. But both experiences were extremely beneficial to my own writing. They forced me to clarify what I believed about writing in general, and how I wanted to go about my own writing in particular. To this day, however, I hate teaching writing. <sigh> So maybe I'm human after all. On the other hand, I love teaching karate. Maybe because I don't take karate so personally.... (10/25/2010) |
Bob DeFrank: Hello and hope you're doing well.
Just a question out of curiosity: Do you see each of the three Ravers as specializing in anything? The Despiser usually has Samadhi in situations where he deals more closely with people, as a political manipulator with the King or even a leader as of the Clave, and he's pretty effective. Do you think the other two have certain skills that influence the jobs their given and the methods they'd use?
Thanks in advance. Eagerly awaiting AATE.
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Frankly, I have no opinion. We're outside the text again. I don't think of the Ravers as distinguishable from each other in any way--for the simple reason that my story doesn't require them to be distinguishable from each other (and I only invent--sing along with me--what I need). (10/25/2010) |
John: At the end of The Illearth War, the Forestal Caerroil Wildwood says Hile Troy's attempt to use the white gold is "a Breaking of Law." How was that use a 'breaking of Law'?
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Hmm. Keep in mind that when I wrote the first "Chronicles" I had no intention of going on. Under the circumstances, there were any number of questions that I didn't need to think about. Any answer I might offer you now involves retroactive reasoning, which I usually try to avoid. But of course Hile Troy is not a "rightful" white gold wielder. And from a moral perspective (considering, for example, "the necessity of freedom"), handing over the ring out of a sense of defeat (Covenant just wants somebody else to take over his responsibilities) isn't really comparable to *marrying* someone with it. In one sense, Covenant's action is a surrender. But in another, it's an abdication. His surrender at the end of "White Gold Wielder" is entirely different. (10/25/2010) |
Tim Brieger: Mr. Donaldson,
Has anyone ever approached you regarding the language issue related to your works? Meaning, how did it come to be that Covenant, Hile Troy and Linden all speak with, and understand everyone in the Land from the second they arrive? I understand Foul's ability to communicate, as the Creator's, but the average everyday stonedowner speaking English?
In the end, I do love your philosophy about writing what you needed, especially when people ask you about other areas of the Land, social and political development, maps. I guess this falls under that heading.
Thanks again for your time and patience with all our questions.
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Look at the issue from a different perspective. How could I sustain, even briefly, the internal integrity of Covenant's Unbelief if he couldn't even talk to the people he meets? If the whole experience is a form of hallucination, which he desperately strives to believe--if it's all being generated inside his own failing mind--then *of course* everyone else speaks his language. What else could they possibly speak? (Obviously "inhuman creatures" like the Waynhim and ur-viles are a different case. Since they represent alien concepts in Covenant's thinking, he wouldn't *expect* to understand them.) (10/25/2010) |
John Blackburn: An easy one I hope: why is there no map in Mordant's Need? I remember reading it and thinking "I could do with a map" as there is quite a lot of discussion of geography. Did you prepare a map for your own use while writing it?
Best of luck with AATE. I'm certainly buying it!
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Actually, I did work from a rough map (which, btw, I no longer possess) while I was writing. But I had quite a list of reasons for not including it with the published text. E.g. I wanted to teach myself not to rely on the descriptive "shorthand" of a map. That was a salutary narrative exercise. However, the main reason--the *main* reason--was that I wanted to do everything in my power to STAY AWAY from the prior example of the "Covenant" books. I did *not* want "Mordant's Need" to look or feel or even smell like More Of The Same. That's why so many of the world-building details are--for lack of a better term--more "conventional" than they are in "Covenant." That's why the world is "flatter" (more mundane), and the magic is more mechanical. I wanted to get away from "archetypal" fantasy and write a more "human-centered" kind of fantasy (as I called it at the time). In retrospect, I like to think that was an important and necessary step in my growth as a writer. It certainly helped prepare me for the GAP books. (10/25/2010) |
Jim Peterman: Hello Stephen.
Congratulations on finishing AATE, and I wish you all the luck and energy you need with TLD.
I was pre-ordering AATE on amazon.ca today, and I see they are also offering a "Against All Things Ending 12-Copy Signed Prepack" in the $350 range. There is no explanation or description with the entry though.
Can you offer any insight?
Thanks,
Jim
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This offer is aimed at bookstores. In addition to the pre-autographed books, such offers often include a free-standing display rack (called a "dump") that bookstores can put out front to attract attention. (10/25/2010) |
John: Steve,
It's 9/21/2010 as I write this, and I find that I can actually buy AATE online at some U.S. book sellers. I will not buy, as I do not know if you will receive any compensation for these books; as the publication date is in October I wonder if these are stolen? Or perhaps some book sellers jump the gun to make a buck?
John
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If you could actually *get* the book in September, it was probably an ARC (advance reading copy), and those aren't supposed to be for sale. (I certainly don't get any compensation.) But most legitimate online booksellers allow you to *order* a book several weeks before publication. In those cases, you won't *receive* the book until the publication date--and I *do* get my usual royalties. (10/25/2010) |