tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post7176761569514790759..comments2024-03-26T15:35:56.004-04:00Comments on Delta's D&D Hotspot: Late-Era Lankhmar and Other Pulp FantasyDeltahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00705402326320853684noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-16433167170510703742013-07-29T17:53:33.918-04:002013-07-29T17:53:33.918-04:00Absolutely. As a further example (in the other dir...Absolutely. As a further example (in the other direction) my girlfriend gets the <i>New Yorker</i> magazine, and the number of times someone takes a passably interesting 20-page article and later publishes it as a full-length book drives me bonkers. Actually the Gould book above that I read this month has the same problem: it would be a great magazine article, but to stretch it into a book he had to repeat the some pablum dozens of times over ("Later I will explain why .400 batting has disappeared from baseball..." xxxxxx). But the last chapter was good.Deltahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00705402326320853684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-89333047727074837022013-07-29T17:49:21.111-04:002013-07-29T17:49:21.111-04:00Agreed! And thanks for the Edwards reference.Agreed! And thanks for the Edwards reference.Deltahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00705402326320853684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-92087624741720999192013-07-29T17:48:26.273-04:002013-07-29T17:48:26.273-04:00You're pretty well anticipating my Wednesday p...You're pretty well anticipating my Wednesday post, which includes specific dates and a bit more nuance. Admittedly I have mixed feelings about the stuff circa 1970, even though it won awards. But the real fall-out-of-the-chair date for me is 1975-6.Deltahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00705402326320853684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-72395062432616523712013-07-29T11:21:51.070-04:002013-07-29T11:21:51.070-04:00The padding in novels is insufferable. My mother u...The padding in novels is insufferable. My mother used to regularly read Reader's Digest Condensed Books. Several times she really enjoyed one, so she borrowed the unabridged version from the library. She was always disappointed. The unabridged version was never as good as the abridged. The people preparing the abridged versions got rid of a bunch of junk, leaving a better story.Geoffrey McKinneyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00042661843714609025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-89781137016058709452013-07-29T10:55:22.335-04:002013-07-29T10:55:22.335-04:00Ron Edwards, in his analysis of the S&S genre ...Ron Edwards, in his analysis of the S&S genre in the Sorcerer & Sword supplement to the Sorcerer rpg, excludes from the genre both Swords of Lankhmar and Swords and Ice Magic. There is a definite shift in tone in the latter two works. Personally, I too prefer the earliest stuff. <br />Same thing can be said about Moorcock; the original Elric stories (they have been published a few years ago by Gollancz in a single volume) are absolutely wonderful and dripping with atmosphere, and can be definitely considered S&S. The later stuff (including the rewriting of Stormbringer)...mehAntoniohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17258180992723371727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-75845854238382853462013-07-29T08:53:44.871-04:002013-07-29T08:53:44.871-04:00Where's you dividing line between "early&...Where's you dividing line between "early" and "late"? The series spans 1939 to 1988.<br /><br />"Ill-Met in Lankhmar" was published in 1970 and won a Nebula and Hugo award so at least some people think it's good. "The Snow Women" (1970), likewise isn't bad. "The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar" (1968) and "Sadness of the Executioner" (1973) are pretty good too, I think.<br /><br />The only <i>novel</i> in the whole series is <i>Swords of Lankhmar</i> and that is in the latter half, but somewhat early in 1968.<br /><br />Given that your basing this on the two collections you mentioned and not the publication dates, is it possible you just don't care for the short stories in <i>Swords and Ice Magic</i> and <i>Knight and Knave of Swords</i>? I'd agree these tend to be the lesser lights of the series (with some of them being flat out made) but it isn't because theiy're novel length or multi-beat over single-beat stories, particularly.Treyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04647628467658839351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170237526012357403.post-75883774066737204402013-07-29T05:32:44.288-04:002013-07-29T05:32:44.288-04:00"I've read the entire F&GM oeuvre in ..."I've read the entire F&GM oeuvre in the span of the last year. ... The early stuff is fantastic and leaps off the page. The later stuff is dreadful and exhausting."<br /><br />"If you think about it, why would this not be the case?"<br /><br />I'm not going to disagree, but it makes me wonder how much of this could be down to us as readers, or rather our approach to a body of work. We often read in publication order for example, rather than say, reverse chronological order.<br /><br />Re your last full paragraph, maybe we're also doing the breaking through, getting established and enjoying a guarantee? It's reasonable to think we're colouring a set of works by the nature of our reading them.Porkyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.com