The Jim Butcher Files: Dresden . Codex Alera . Cinder Spires & More

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

Just an FYI - when I sent mine in I got a reply that the full body photo doesn't have to be nude...

Was that a reply, or a panicked request???? ;-)

Hitch

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Was that a reply, or a panicked request???? ;-)

Hitch

Actually I've gotten several more replies now - it's starting to look like it might be another stalker...

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Finished off The Last Dance. A very good read indeed. I'm reminded a bit of Asimov's robot books. The framework style is a bit like the first I, Robot and the mystery tie in reminds me of his The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun.

I wasn't sure that is exactly a style. It makes a lot of sense when you got many interviews, and you don't want to clutter the book needlessly with dialogue. One little nitpick about The Last Dance is how one interview continues to the next and extends on the story. As if the people planned it that way.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

I wasn't sure that is exactly a style. It makes a lot of sense when you got many interviews, and you don't want to clutter the book needlessly with dialogue. One little nitpick about The Last Dance is how one interview continues to the next and extends on the story. As if the people planned it that way.

Apparently, a couple of the interviews started off as short stories that the author later brought into the framework. The framework style was a style that I've seen used by various authors in order to use previously written short stories in a book.

Actually, I think the "as if the people planned it that way" was something the writer was trying to convey.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Apparently, a couple of the interviews started off as short stories that the author later brought into the framework. The framework style was a style that I've seen used by various authors in order to use previously written short stories in a book.

I am not so sure, unless you researched it a bit. When I read it, I thought it amazing that he created short stories just to make the interviews more personal. It is complicated to make a good short story to begin with. I mean, there is only a limited amount of words to bring the point across that needs to be made. Plus he cheated once by

Spoiler:

ending a story with: I could tell you more about this and that, but everything was highly predictable and planned out, so I bother you the details. I didn't need it filled in, I filled it in myself. I even made extraordinary room for special plans. I got to appreciate, by that time, the difference between a normal plan and the execution, and that particular plan and not so normal execution.

Actually, I think the "as if the people planned it that way" was something the writer was trying to convey.

And the reader was supposed to guess at it early around? I understand that ultimately it is the author himself to make up the story as a whole. Either way it was done obvious enough and leaving enough doubt as to how. Mhh, that is funny, I just read about that. File it for later, as sure it might get explained. Or maybe not.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

I am not so sure, unless you researched it a bit. When I read it, I thought it amazing that he created short stories just to make the interviews more personal. It is complicated to make a good short story to begin with. I mean, there is only a limited amount of words to bring the point across that needs to be made. Plus he cheated once by

Spoiler:

ending a story with: I could tell you more about this and that, but everything was highly predictable and planned out, so I bother you the details. I didn't need it filled in, I filled it in myself. I even made extraordinary room for special plans. I got to appreciate, by that time, the difference between a normal plan and the execution, and that particular plan and not so normal execution.

And the reader was supposed to guess at it early around? I understand that ultimately it is the author himself to make up the story as a whole. Either way it was done obvious enough and leaving enough doubt as to how. Mhh, that is funny, I just read about that. File it for later, as sure it might get explained. Or maybe not.

Well, he mentioned I think in the afterwards that a couple of the interviews were short stories that had appeared elsewhere. Murder on the Aldrin Express appeared in 2013 and Brigas Nunca Mais in 2015.

[Tarana]

Just finished reread of Death Masks. Last read in 2014, so it was pretty fresh. Will move on to Blood Rites on Monday. Mostly listening when on errands or working on Ebay (downsizing, so selling lots of stuff). I am endlessly selling or giving away books. Makes me glad I have ereaders...