The last poster wins

[bethjunkie]

After four years, you'd think one of us would have won by now :confused:

[Thor.]

:mellow:

[Ironman5000]

I win every day :thumbsup:

[M48A5]

:mellow: I win multiple times a day.

[brokenergy]

No you don't

[billyro]

 

 

Yeah, I know the feeling. A fairly long while back I was reading a book called Eisenhorn which was what initially got me into War Hammer. As gothic horror sci-fi goes, it was perfect, if a little unusual. It was split into three "books" which each were stand-alone(and great) novels, but when you read them together, slotted neatly into one grand conspiracy and then ended with a grand crescendo. And then the writer re-visited it a few years later and added a second spin-off(Ravenor) franchise that actually managed to do everything the originals did, but better.

 

For me Eisenhorn is everything a Sci-Fi needs to be. Great characters, good plot, lots of smaller sub-plots, and an ending which wraps them all up properly, leaving nothing undone. It also just makes a sort of subjective sense to a reader. Characters act, age(it DOES span over a hundred years), and change as you'd expect them to within the context of their lives. It's not predictable, but neither does it make bizarre plot decisions or force ridiculous plot mechanics. Some times the bad guys do win, and when that happens, good guys die, including main characters. Many writers shy away from this, Abnett instead uses it as a vehicle to alter other main characters and set up later plots. It's beautifully done.

 

It's writing like this that keeps me reading 40,000. It's one of those universes that on face value, has nothing of worth. It's derived from a needlessly bloody '80s war-comic. But it's the writers that have made it compelling. Some of it's writing-certainly in quality, and often in theme and feel as well, are just a lot better than other sci-fis I've read. It's certainly a lot better than Star Wars, which often feel like poorly edited fan-fics.

 

That. So much that. I absolutely love stories with this. Tons of books could benefit with some thought put into these kinds of things. It's very similar to A Song of Ice and Fire, and everyone knows how much of a success that series turned out. One of the main hooks was

Eddard being executed in the first book

and it was like, BOOM! But it just made the story more interesting.

 

Isn't it nice when authors put that little bit of extra thought into their books?

 

I need more to read, but I've exhausted a lot of them. :sad:

 

 

EDIT: Argh, I want to use BTB's Enhancements Mod for Morrowind, but I also want to use Better Morrowind Armour. Why can't they just be compatible?

 

 

Exactly. Abnett kills off a few favourite characters, but it never feels forced or detracts from the story. If anything, it actually makes things more interesting-it lets you know early on that this is a serious story and that there's no Star-Wars like "Storm-Trooper effect" to protect main characters. Without spoiling anything, an example is one of the main characters in the first book-is killed at the beginning of the second, and then in the third his daughter becomes a major character, with her father's life and death being inspiration and source of conflict respectively. I wish more authors were willing to do things like this. Having your core group of characters sheltered in a little bubble of rainbows, immune to harm and seemingly unable to be hit by even trained marksmen(anyone who's watched the first Star Wars film will know I'm getting at) detracts from any sense of dangers or risk.

 

An earlier series by the same guy followed a particular army regiment-again, same trick. Characters are ROTATED rather than held. As the story progresses, old characters die and new ones take their place, it makes full sense in the context, it's often very well done, and it rings true with both the high-risk nature of front line First Recon and the ongoing theme of courage and sacrifice. If you one of those guys wading through an avalanche of gunfire, impossible to hit, mowing down endless hordes of goons, it would ruin the story. It's about a unit of ordinary men and women being thrown into the most miserable situations and doing their best to survive in a galaxy where being the best humanity can train isn't really good enough.

 

Just imagine how different Star Wars(to use the running comparison) if A, Storm Troopers could shoot straight, B, a couple of actually meaningful, important(as in, not the usual faceless "rebel guy in the background who's obviously going to get blown up" and without coming back to life in the next film) characters got killed off in the process, and C maybe the alliance was portrayed as having a harder time of things(since they're always winning in every film, they literally are never shown as losing) It'd be perfection.

 

 

As bizarre as this sounds, I haven't actually watched all the Star Wars films. I've seen a few but I just don't really feel like I need to. I guess I'm just not really into sci-fi. :/

[M48A5]

:mellow:

[billyro]

http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/agyNbvx_700b.jpg

 

Hahaha, so that's why! :D

[M48A5]

:yes:

[billyro]

Grr, I hate the sugar cane fields just outside our house. They're flowering right now and I can't stop sneezing. :down:

 

 

And I also hate Games for Windows Live. Who the hell was the guy who invented it, and what weapon shall I use to kill him?

Edited August 1, 2013 by billyro