The Gun Counter

dfwmtx wrote:I've only read "Red Shirts" and the short story of his in the "Black Tide Rising" short story collection. What's the most odious Scalzi works, the ones that would get me on this "Oh, that's why he sucks!" page?
Like I said, only read two bits of his, but I'm impressed by his work on a technical level. Few people every write a decent 2nd person POV, and doing an entire story in dialog with no other narration or exposition is pretty good too.

Honestly, "Old Man's War" was quite good to excellent. Yeah, there is some 'messaging' in the story but its not overbearing (it gets there in later books and is slammed into your face at the end).

If I had read Fuzzy Nation without ever having read H. Beam Piper's stories, I would probably have said it was gritty and sadly realistic in some aspects with somewhat heavy-handed messaging but still good. He doesn't rub your face in his dislike of firearms, they're just barely there compared to Piper's works. But corporations, colonialism, environmentalism, etc, yep.

What has turned me off of Scalzi overall is his presence on twitter and his blog/forum. His positions on things political, the Hugos, the Sad Puppies, his treatment of people who disagree with him (he has reportedly, confirmed to a substantial degree, modified posts to his boards that he disagreed with to make the posters look bad/stupid/etc).

I tried the Fuzzy book because I liked Old Man's War. I read it, and i sent it on. I'll doubtless re-read Piper's again in the future, in part because I love the Second Federation and would not mind living in it at all.

Just starting A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson - a humorous look at a hike of the Appalachian Trail. I've been meaning to try it for a while, and I found it in a used book store while waiting for a table at a restaurant in Durham, NC.

dfwmtx wrote:I've only read "Red Shirts" and the short story of his in the "Black Tide Rising" short story collection. What's the most odious Scalzi works, the ones that would get me on this "Oh, that's why he sucks!" page?
Like I said, only read two bits of his, but I'm impressed by his work on a technical level. Few people every write a decent 2nd person POV, and doing an entire story in dialog with no other narration or exposition is pretty good too.

I've enjoyed his works, but, because of his activities related to Sad Puppies, I'm not buying any more.

I didn't remember which box of books to look in when I got the bug for them so I bought new copies of the Forever War, the authors version with stuff that got left out of earlier versions, and Starship Troopers. Reading Starship Troopers, after so long a time since the last time, has reminded me just how much they screwed up the movie.

Last night I started on Dune. Haven't read that one in more than a few years either.

But what I want to know is when is Ringo going to do another Kildar book?

Johnnyreb wrote:I didn't remember which box of books to look in when I got the bug for them so I bought new copies of the Forever War, the authors version with stuff that got left out of earlier versions, and Starship Troopers. Reading Starship Troopers, after so long a time since the last time, has reminded me just how much they screwed up the movie.

Verhoeven, the director, hated the 'politics' of the book, couldn't make himself read it all the way, and had others describe it to him. He made the government fascist instead of a representative democracy, and sucked out almost all the magic from the story. Another f*cking movie industry suckweasel.

Rich Jordan wrote:

Johnnyreb wrote:I didn't remember which box of books to look in when I got the bug for them so I bought new copies of the Forever War, the authors version with stuff that got left out of earlier versions, and Starship Troopers. Reading Starship Troopers, after so long a time since the last time, has reminded me just how much they screwed up the movie.

Verhoeven, the director, hated the 'politics' of the book, couldn't make himself read it all the way, and had others describe it to him. He made the government fascist instead of a representative democracy, and sucked out almost all the magic from the story. Another f*cking movie industry suckweasel.

It tells you something that the director described the movie as "attractive people killing bugs and having sex."

Weetabix wrote:

Rich Jordan wrote:

Johnnyreb wrote:I didn't remember which box of books to look in when I got the bug for them so I bought new copies of the Forever War, the authors version with stuff that got left out of earlier versions, and Starship Troopers. Reading Starship Troopers, after so long a time since the last time, has reminded me just how much they screwed up the movie.

Verhoeven, the director, hated the 'politics' of the book, couldn't make himself read it all the way, and had others describe it to him. He made the government fascist instead of a representative democracy, and sucked out almost all the magic from the story. Another f*cking movie industry suckweasel.

It tells you something that the director described the movie as "attractive people killing bugs and having sex."

words from an asshole ruining stories and wasting celluloid.

"To the everlasting glory of the infantry, shines the name, shines the name of Rodger Young"... Verhoeven probably just didn't get it at all.

Just watch the Roughnecks cartoon if you want to see Starship Troopers come to life.

I've read all the Reacher I can possibly read till there's more. Now I'm reading Stephen King's "The Shining". Also picked up "Death in the City of Light" to balance this crap fiction out with actual horrific non-fiction. Humanity can be much scarier than any supernatural twaddle.

I think that is why fiction is so popular. It is easier for someone to think about scary stuff that can't really hurt them.

I'll just leave this here...