What's Good, And How Do I tell?
I've been wondering whether early reviewers tend to be more positive than the average (because they read it faster!) but one month after release and The Last Son of Dorn continues to stubbornly pick up positive reviews.
I'll take that
In fact it's currently the best rated of the entire series, which is nice. Weird, but nice.
It continues a trend I've recently started paying attention to whereby the work I think of as 'my favourite' consistently rates lower with readers.
For various reasons I look back on Echoes of the Long War (3.71) more favourably than Last Son of Dorn (4.17). I love world building, exploring characters and cultures, establishing a tone, and 'Echoes' has that in spades with its microscope on the Fists Exemplar and First-Captain Zerberyn. 'Dorn' is far more action-packed, lighter on character, and with most of the heavy lifting in that regard already done for me.
This is a theme for me.
I much preferred Gotrek & Felix: Kinslayer (3.91) to the universally adored and almost-award-winning, Gotrek & Felix: Slayer (4.29). Mostly because I got to play with Snorri Nosebiter, imagine what Felix's life would be like once he finally managed to settle down, and play with the love triangle between him, Kat and Ulrika. Plus, Dragon Ogre!
I told everyone that would listen that Great Red was my absolute favourite of the Realmgate Wars audios, now proud owner of a 3.30 rating while the one I wasn't so sure about, Only the Faithful, hammer porn in all its lightning-spitting glory, is sitting pretty on 4.0
And the kicker.
I still think that Gotre & Felix: City of the Damned (3.79) contains some of the most beautiful writing I've ever put down.
Yes. The value of my opinion is more-or-less on parity with the pound just now.
Time to own up to the fact that I'm just really, *really* good at bolter-porn
I've been going back over Last Son of Dorn in my mind lately, trying to figure out what's caused it to be so well-received. Aaron Dembski-Bowden has said that he can tell me in two sentences, which he'll tell me at Black Library Live. I'll look forward to that! In the mean time, if anyone has an opinion of their own to offer on the matter I'd love to hear it.
It also leads me to reconsider the old adage to 'write what you want to write' and to hell with what the markets say is popular.
Because I clearly know nothing
I'll take that
In fact it's currently the best rated of the entire series, which is nice. Weird, but nice.
It continues a trend I've recently started paying attention to whereby the work I think of as 'my favourite' consistently rates lower with readers.
For various reasons I look back on Echoes of the Long War (3.71) more favourably than Last Son of Dorn (4.17). I love world building, exploring characters and cultures, establishing a tone, and 'Echoes' has that in spades with its microscope on the Fists Exemplar and First-Captain Zerberyn. 'Dorn' is far more action-packed, lighter on character, and with most of the heavy lifting in that regard already done for me.
This is a theme for me.
I much preferred Gotrek & Felix: Kinslayer (3.91) to the universally adored and almost-award-winning, Gotrek & Felix: Slayer (4.29). Mostly because I got to play with Snorri Nosebiter, imagine what Felix's life would be like once he finally managed to settle down, and play with the love triangle between him, Kat and Ulrika. Plus, Dragon Ogre!
I told everyone that would listen that Great Red was my absolute favourite of the Realmgate Wars audios, now proud owner of a 3.30 rating while the one I wasn't so sure about, Only the Faithful, hammer porn in all its lightning-spitting glory, is sitting pretty on 4.0
And the kicker.
I still think that Gotre & Felix: City of the Damned (3.79) contains some of the most beautiful writing I've ever put down.
Yes. The value of my opinion is more-or-less on parity with the pound just now.
Time to own up to the fact that I'm just really, *really* good at bolter-porn
I've been going back over Last Son of Dorn in my mind lately, trying to figure out what's caused it to be so well-received. Aaron Dembski-Bowden has said that he can tell me in two sentences, which he'll tell me at Black Library Live. I'll look forward to that! In the mean time, if anyone has an opinion of their own to offer on the matter I'd love to hear it.
It also leads me to reconsider the old adage to 'write what you want to write' and to hell with what the markets say is popular.
Because I clearly know nothing
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by
David
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Oct 14, 2016 12:38AM
Coincidentally, I talked about this subject with Combat Phase (http://www.combatphase.com/) earlier this week. Expect the podcast to appear on their website in the next couple of weeks
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Interesting stuff. Of course, the moment you start to try to chase a particular style or audience is when it'll go wonky. Aside from being your favourites or not, thinking back to these projects which ones did you find easier or harder to write?
Gav wrote: "Aside from being your favourites or not, thinking back to these projects which ones did you find easier or harder to write?"Hmmm, Headtaker, my first, was probably the easiest. Probably because I wasn't thinking all that hard about it or worrying about it. I was just having fun and occasionally looking disbelievingly at my luck.
But out of the ones above? I'd say Slayer. Gotrek and Felix pretty much wrote their own scenes.
