Posts Categorized: Feature Article

Feature Article

Article | Why Fantasy Matters

By Aidan Moher February 19th, 2009

Lou Anders, the editorial director at Pyr Books, was recently intrigued by a quote from Tom Purdom:

“Nobody ever became a wizard because they read fantasy. But plenty of people have become physicists and biologists because they read science fiction.”

Through his blog, Anders more or less agreed with the statement, but also posed a question of his readers:

Now, the reason this tickles me is the plug for SF, not the (very funny) dig at F (which I also love). But, as I already have very clear ideas on the purpose of SF, and I happen to love F too, I’ve been contemplating recently what it is that fantasy does – beyond the entertainment/intellectual value that all literature bequeaths – that is unique to its form.

Being an avid fan of fantasy, this got me thinking. What made me look even closer to the heart of the matter was the falling out I had with fantasy (of the epic variety, in particular) I had earlier this year. Part of the drive and appeal of Fantasy was lost to me, and at the time I thought long and hard about why I felt that way. Lou’s question hits close to the heart of the matter.
Read More »

Feature Article

Article | Peter V. Brett Responds to GRRM Articles

By Aidan Moher February 4th, 2009

Peter V. Brett, author of The Painted Man has dropped in to the recent conversations regarding George R.R. Martin. Rather than wading directly into the conversation, Brett instead has some interesting things to say about his experiences as a new author and how some of the behind the scenes things change once you’re writing under a deadline.

From Brett’s blog:

What I would like to discuss instead is my personal experience with writing, and how I feel it relates to the situation, and perhaps gives me a different perspective than many people.

…

I started writing The Painted Man (AKA The Warded Man) sometime in 1999. I wasn’t fully dedicated to it, as I was also working full time and writing other books, but it was a project that I began plugging away at when I had time, and a couple of years later I put aside my other projects and started focusing hard on it. After several drafts (wherein I threw out a good 60% of the original story), I finished the sale manuscript at the end of 2006, approximately seven years after starting it.

…

When I sold the book in 2007, the publisher bought two sequels as well, and asked me how long I expected it to take for me to write them. I had just given notice at my job to shift to writing full time, and told them that I was already well into writing The Desert Spear (true), and that it would take about 9 months to finish it, meaning I would have it done in May/June of 2008. The third book, I said, should be ready about a year after that.

That was a very naïve thing to say, but I had been a professional writer for all of 5 minutes, and was very naïve. Now here we are in January 2009, and I still have two chapters left to write, not to mention several rounds of expected rewrites, all of which I believe are absolutely necessary to get the book up to my own standards, much less anyone else’s.

Read More »

Feature Article

Article | Why You Should Cut George RR Martin Some Slack

By Aidan Moher January 30th, 2009

Shawn Speakman, one of the bloggers over at Suvudu, has long been a defender of George R.R. Martin. Whenever bellyaching occurs at the Official Terry Brooks Forum (a forum dedicated to Brooks, but home to a lively discussion of other authors as well), he is the first one to jump in and defend Martin against those who think Martin owes them something.

The Terry Brooks forum is far from the only place where people complain about Martin’s ‘slowness’, and Speakman has written a compelling argument about why people should give Martin a break. It’s long, but certainly worth the read.

A Song of Ice & Fire is an extremely powerful story that invokes passion in all who read it.

That passion is a double-edged sword, able to cut an enemy as quickly as its bearer. While the four books and two short stories that comprise A Song of Ice & Fire are universally garnered as being some of the best storytelling ever, animosity swirls around George. The fourth book, A Feast For Crows, took five years to be published and it contained only half of the characters fans have come to love. Upon publishing A Feast For Crows, George posted that he was near to completing the other half of the story, A Dance With Dragons, with the novel coming to bookstores quickly.

That was three years ago and A Dance With Dragons is still not complete.

This has aroused a great deal of anger for many of George’s fans. Five years is a long time to wait for a sequel to arguably one of the best fantasy series of all time, especially when most writers are able to produce sequels between one and three years. But as I’ve come to discover, anger is one of the least logical emotions we possess; it can lead people to conclusions that are not wholly accurate—if not down right wrong. Much of the animosity I see written about George and his lateness is colored by that kind of anger and, while I believe there are two instances where fans of A Song of Ice & Fire are more than allowed their ire, most of it lacks any authenticity whatsoever.

This article hopes to dispel some of those erroneous angry feelings and assumptions out there—or at least give a different side to things that most readers probably have not thought of.

Speakman hits the nail on the head when he alludes to the double edge of the passion wielded by Martin’s fans. It’s that passion, that desire for the world, the characters and the story of A Song of Ice and Fire, that sets Martin’s fans apart from others. Without those passionate fans, Martin’s series would not be at such soaring heights of popularity today and, ironically, he might not be afforded the luxury of taking years to finish each volume. At this point, George certainly doesn’t right for money and clearly wants to put out the best possible novel. That same passion that drives people to be such fanatics of his series is also the same passion that fuels the accusations of laziness, lack of enthusiasm of just plain ol’ football fever that are constantly leveled at Martin by his ‘fans’.
Read More »

Feature Article

Article | Reflecting on 2008

By Aidan Moher January 4th, 2009

2008 was the first full year for A Dribble of Ink and it served up both a lot of challenges and a lot of rewarding moments. As a fledgling blog started in ’07, I felt that I had a lot to prove and a good chance to carve out a place among the heavy hitters of the blogosphere.

Did I succeed? That’s for the readers to decide, but personally I feel like A Dribble of Ink, and myself as a blogger, grew in leaps and bounds over the previous year.

One of the biggest moments for me in 2008 came in June, when I re-posted SFX Magazine’s list of the top 100 SFF authors of all time, as voted on by their readers. Little did I know that this quick aside (secretly written at work, unknown to my boss) would lead to over 2,700 views A Dribble of Ink in one day. Why so many? Well, Neil Gaiman, who ranked third, saw the list and posted about it on his blog. I nearly shit myself when I saw the referral from his web site; in my books Gaiman is about as close to a god that a living mortal can get. That day, above all others, really helped me see what all the hard work in maintaining A Dribble of Ink is worth. Thanks to Gaiman, and all the people who discovered the blog because of his link, I broke a big milestone in 2008: 100k views. In retrospect, I think I owe Mr. Gaiman a hell of a thank you.
Read More »

Feature Article

Article | Novels of the Year (2008)

By Aidan Moher January 1st, 2009

I struggled with doing a ‘Novel of the Year’ post for a while. Frankly, I haven’t read nearly enough of the novels published in 2008 to make any sort of blanket statement about which was the ‘best’ of them all.

I came to a happy medium by deciding to go through the books I did read in 2008 and pick my very favourites from among them. I’ve split the award into two categories – Favourite Overall Novel and Favourite Novel Published in 2008 –to allow for a bit more variety.

Without further adieu, here’re my favourite novels I read in 2008!

Favourite Overall Novel

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

I bought The Shadow of the Wind over 3 years ago, when the praise for the novel was just starting to eke its way to my ears. Despite my excitement for the novel, it sat on my shelf for months and months, sorely neglected until my recent travels to Europe. Knowing I’d be a fool not to bring it with me, I tossed it in my backpack and gave it the change it deserved.

Part of the reason I think it say on my shelf for so long was that I was certain it could never live up to the hype. How could a novel that’s so universally adored possibly not be a let down? In some ways I figured that the anticipation of reading it would be better than the actual act. An hour into my plane ride I realized just how wrong I was.

From the very first pages, The Shadow of the Wind enraptured me in a way that few novels have since childhood. I few into civil war era Spain and was reluctant to leave every time I had to put the book down. Lucia Graves (who translated the novel from its original Spanish language) did an absolutely phenomenal job and deserves every bit as much credit as Zafón for successfully keeping the beautiful language intact through the translation process.

Not only was The Shadow of the Wind the best book I read in 2008, it maybe very well be my favourite novel of all time. I eagerly look forward to the sequel, The Angel’s Game, which will finally see an english release later in 2009.

You can find my full review HERE.
Read More »