What detail of which book ruined it for you?

[akiburis]

Stephen King again (poor SK, I love his writing, but his editors suck eggs).

What, may I ask, do you suck?

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by akiburis

What, may I ask, do you suck?

Not eggs ... at least not when I last checked.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Do you know why English words will have that u, but American ones won't? It's because you share an island with Gaelic. You have all these extra vowels, and they have to go somewhere.

They all ran away from the Welsh in the first place...
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by HarryT

One of my pet peeves - in David Webber's "Honor Harrington" series, there's a group of people who speak German (I forget their name off-hand). The German is horribly "wrong".

It's how many years in the future? Languages change over time, despite the best efforts of folks like the French Academy to freeze them. Why do you assume the dialect of German these folks speak will resemble the current form? Or do you feel the errors are simply so fundamental that German wouldn't mutate in that direction, even if it is centuries from now?

(BTW: It's "Weber" with one b.)
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Dennis

[HarryT]

I think it's highly unlikely that the basic grammar of the language will change to the extent of appearing to have been written by a person with the most superficial knowledge of German grammar, but I'll grant you that it is a possible explanation.

PS: Sorry about the spelling mistake. I have a friend called "David Webber" (with two "b"s), and constantly get the spelling of the two confused!

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

I'll give you another example ... Stephen King again (poor SK, I love his writing, but his editors suck eggs).

I'd blame King. I think he long ago reached the point where no editor dared touch his work. (When you have sales like King's, you can insist on being published as is, and make it stick, because the publisher will be afraid you'll jump ship for another house if they don't cave in.)

Tom Clancy is another in that category. The last Jack Ryan book badly needed editing -- there was at least one plot thread that went nowhere and could have been excised without notice -- but I don't think anyone dared point that out to him.
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Dennis

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I'd blame King. I think he long ago reached the point where no editor dared touch his work. (When you have sales like King's, you can insist on being published as is, and make it stick, because the publisher will be afraid you'll jump ship for another house if they don't cave in.)

Tom Clancy is another in that category. The last Jack Ryan book badly needed editing -- there was at least one plot thread that went nowhere and could have been excised without notice -- but I don't think anyone dared point that out to him.
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Dennis

I suppose that's true, although it's harder to blame King, if only because I can't really expect him to know much about medical diagnostics and technology. So, I can see him making those sorts of stupid goofs ... and that's why they have editors ... right? To check that stuff??

I wrote to SK after the mistake in "Carrie." I got a very nice note back from him. Man that was a long time ago. It would be like me to have kept it, but I have no idea in which box (crowded into the extra garage with all the other boxes full of the junk of a misspent life) it's in.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I think it's highly unlikely that the basic grammar of the language will change to the extent of appearing to have been written by a person with the most superficial knowledge of German grammar, but I'll grant you that it is a possible explanation.

You might well be right. People attempted to teach me Latin, French, and Spanish, but I know next to nothing about German, and wouldn't catch the error. While the vocabulary of a language mutates, underlying grammatical and syntactic structure tends to be more stable.

PS: Sorry about the spelling mistake. I have a friend called "David Webber" (with two "b"s), and constantly get the spelling of the two confused!

As long as you don't confuse their writing...
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

I suppose that's true, although it's harder to blame King, if only because I can't really expect him to know much about medical diagnostics and technology. So, I can see him making those sorts of stupid goofs ... and that's why they have editors ... right? To check that stuff??

Assuming the editor dares to do so. Like I said, I don't think any editor will try to correct King.

(Amusingly, a friend once stated the no publisher makes money on King. His contracts are so good that what would ordinarily be publisher profit on the book goes into King's pocket. They publish him for the status of doing so.

Sounds unlikely, but the friend is in a position to know and has no reason to make up the story, and publishers have demonstrated stupidity and incompetence often enough that I can believe they'd think like that.)

And sometimes the editor may simply not know enough to do the correction. There's an old mystery by Dick Francis with a plot revolving around a computer program to handicap horse races. Francis is conscientious, and does careful research. The book made it obvious he did careful research, listened to people who knew about computers and programming, and didn't understand what he was told.

His editor apparently didn't know enough to catch the bloopers, either.

I'm a SysAdmin for a living, so I noticed, but I'm not sure how many other readers did.

Writers I know tend to belong to writer's groups, and pass around manuscripts for critique to catch that sort of thing. I don't believe Francis has that sort of network to rely on.
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Dennis

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by HarryT

One of my pet peeves - in David Webber's "Honor Harrington" series, there's a group of people who speak German (I forget their name off-hand). The German is horribly "wrong".

The Andermani Empire.

[WDecraene]

I don't tend to get put off by details. What annoys me are authors who value quantity of writing above quality. A lot of (mainly fantasy) series are too badly written, could in fact do with a decent rewrite, including the deleting of half of the original content. I've read a fair share of trilogies that should've been erm .. duologies (?)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

The Andermani Empire.

That's the one - thanks!

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by WDecraene

I don't tend to get put off by details. What annoys me are authors who value quantity of writing above quality. A lot of (mainly fantasy) series are too badly written, could in fact do with a decent rewrite, including the deleting of half of the original content. I've read a fair share of trilogies that should've been erm .. duologies (?)

Amen.

[beatonl]

Worst one I encountered was where the Heroine (an American) asks the Hero (an Irishman) where Cornwall is and he replies "about two hours *North* of London."

?!?! I know this was sci-fi - but relocating Cornwall to Leeds?

[basschick]

okay, i'm convinced - i'm going back in time to vote for you

Originally Posted by pshrynk

A lot of those 60's cartoons were quite subversive. The Simon Bar Sinister character in Underdog being one of them. Watch re-runs of Rocky and Bullwinkle and you'll drop your teeth at the innuendoes and frankly sexual tones set by the dialogue, all the while being perfectly entertaining for the littluns. Today's cartoons are a pale ghost of what we have had in the past.

that must make jeopardy a challenge

Originally Posted by Patricia

'w' is a vowel in Welsh - it sounds something like 'oo'. (Maybe that's why it's called 'double-u').