17 Comments on “Mini-Pimp”

1. Wicked!

   I have yet to crack open Coffee Shop but it has moved to the guilt stack where it will be devoured soon enough.

2. I would deem it an insult to be compared to Orson Scott Card…

3. I don’t. He’s a fine writer. He’s got some political and social positions I don’t agree with, but they are neither here nor there regarding his writing ability.

   Well, except for Empire.

4. “I don’t. He’s a fine writer. He’s got some political and social positions I don’t agree with, but they are neither here nor there regarding his writing ability.”

   You…haven’t read Shadow of the Giant, have you. I used to consider him one of my favourite authors despite the fact his religious dogma has condemned me to all sorts of nasty (ever notice that the greatest writers of the first half of the 20th century were often nasty people IRL?), and I even forgave him for his super-slo-mo dropping of the ball during Xenocide and Children of the Mind. But he has managed to irrevocably grind the same franchise into Can’t-Save-It-Land TWICE now. While Ender’s Game remains a perfect book, I simply cannot support OSC anymore now that he is a sad, pathetic man writing what have become sad, pathetic books. Giant was the last straw for me.

   I devoutly hope you will remain a great and will not go the way of OSC or Heinlein…the latter, while initially brilliant and groundbreaking, kept plowing the same handful of ideas over and over, deeper and deeper, until the horrendous meta-fest of The Number Of The Beast assured everyone that he really HAD lost it. Stay fresh, Scalzi, and stay awesome.

5. ..can I ask why my name showed up as Valsira in that comment? I am certainly not Valsira.

6. I have no idea.

7. The Internet clearly wants to rename me, for whatever reason. I really wish it wouldn’t trample all over me like that.

8. Errr… Scalzi *stomps* Card and Haldeman. Heinlein, I don’t know… let’s taste-test a few dozen more books, first.

   Don’t pick on Number of the Beast too much, Julia. Heinlein had had a massive brain injury before writing it.

9. Just ordered my copy of the limited edition Ghost Brigades to go with my Old Man’s War.

   I’m a huge fan of Vinnie – he walked away with the Best Artist award at this year’s British Fantasy Awards, and to tell the truth, there’s barely an artist in the world that can touch him at the moment. If he’s not a huge name within two years then there’s just no justice in this world.

   Anyhoo – looking forward to reading The Ghost Brigades.

   As far as Card is concened, he’s still pumping out good work. He’s not as consistent as he was in his early days, but even on his bad days* he’s better than most published practitioners of the art these days.

   .
   .

   *Empire, excepted, of course, but everyone’s allowed an off-day.

10. Can you seperate a writers personality from his work? I have to. A lot of my favorite writers have some unsavory qualities. Lovecraft and Hemmingway – Both mysoginistic bigots of the first order. They both had flaws as writers, but each has a superb body of work.

    A more contemporary example might be China Mieville. I find his politics very objectionable, but I think he’s a really talented writer and I read everything he publishes.

11. Card, Haldaman, Heinlein, – Is there thinking quality Sci-Fi or are they following the military genre classics Ender’s Game, Forever War and Starship Troopers? Personally I feel that, aside from these works, the authors have widely disparate interests and careers.

12. Card, Haldeman, Heinlein, Sclazi, now there’s a SF Mount Rushmore I’d pay to see.

    Ah, I can just hear the tourists standing at the $.50 binoculars.

    “Oh look, a bird just flew up Scalzi’s nose. They must have a nest there.”

13. Oh noes!! Can I haz only perfect stories!? My authorz dissapointz!! I can’t haz perfection!! I cryz!!! I hopes Scalzi is the Jesuz author of perfection!! He can haz his own museum!!

    Can I haz miracle storiez . . . with believeable characterization (none of that guy in a girl suit and girl in a guy suit nonsense) and subplots, that you know, go somewhere, all the while enthralling me like a tween girl at a Hanna Montana concert?? I so wants to squealz!!!

    And can theyz politics match mine? Even the stuff I haven’t thought about? Kind of like authorzsoulzmates! Fanz 4 evah!

    Pimpz on Scalzi, pimpz on!

14. Don’t be haytin’ on The Number of the Beast. It may not be the finest example of literary craftsmanship Heinlein ever wrote, but dammit, I thought it was a fun book. And when you get right down to it, that’s all I really ask of a book, to be entertained.

15. Ok, Color me terminally confused…I fear I missed something in an older whatever, but I typically read this stuff on breaks at work don’t have time at home and the proxy at work was blocking whatever for a while.

    Anyway, just what is the problem with Card’s “Empire”?

16. I know lots of people rag on the later Heinlein novels as overindulgent or something, but I have to say that one thing about The Number of the Beast — it wasn’t predictable. And even when you look at the catlike morality of the humans in the middle of the Mama Long saga, he still managed to come up with endearing characters like the little kitten who popped in and out of places.

    A changed man in his old age? The Door Into Summer featured an odd romantic relationship, too, and it was first published in 1956. But of course everyone remembers the cat. (grin)

    Dr. Phil

17. You know, it’s really easy for a certain segment of society to pick on OSC, but from the perspective of one who has worked with him… there are two or three people in this field who have gone far out of their way when I needed advice, understanding, or assistance, and, his social and political views notwithstanding, though he had no idea if I were gay, straight, Republican, Democrat, or any mix of anything in between, Scott was demonstrably in my corner, and for that I’ll be forever grateful.

    William Schafer