Anyone seen Dragon 352 yet?

[Desdichado]

If Mieville isn't a good writer then I daresay Tolkien isn't either. Though I don't think PSS was perfect, it had some great imagery, mood, and (like you said) great ideas. The details of the world, which are expanded upon in The Scar are great too.

Well, there you have it. Since it's not hard to build a case that--at least by conventional novelistic writing standards--Tolkien isn't a good writer at all, I won't even try to dispute you.

That said, I love Tolkien to death and thoroughly enjoy his slow starts, meandering plot, archaic vocabulary and whatnot. I could probably do with a little less of his poetry, especially the elvish poetry, but I love Tolkien and don't care about his faults. I embrace them, even as bold strengths that few other writers would (or could) indulge in.

But I won't argue that he's not necessarily a good writer. Although I will point out that sales and popularity are a better indicator of being a "good writer" than conventional novel writing standards anyway.

 

[Mean Eyed Cat]

I'm really looking forward to 352. I'm a big fan of China's work and think it would be cool to run a campaign in his world.

Here's a good article about China and some of the influences [including D&D] on his works:

<China Mieville Interview>

 

[Dire Bare]

I muscled through Perdido Street Station and although it had some great ideas, it was pretty badly written and desperately needed an editor to chop a good 100-200 pages of superfluous nonsense from the book. The Scar I dropped in frustration after a few chapters.

Meiville is not a good writer. But he does have the odd good idea now and then, and the setting is intriguing. Hence my interest in this issue of Dragon.

A terrible writer huh? I guess that's why so many love his novels and the Paizo folks seemed inclined to dedicate a large portion of the next issue of Dragon to Mieville's works.

It's cool if you didn't care for Perdido Street Station, but to simply state, "Meiville is not a good writer" is hyperbole and a tad insulting to those of us who love his work.

 

[Treebore]

Well, there you have it. Since it's not hard to build a case that--at least by conventional novelistic writing standards--Tolkien isn't a good writer at all, I won't even try to dispute you.

That said, I love Tolkien to death and thoroughly enjoy his slow starts, meandering plot, archaic vocabulary and whatnot. I could probably do with a little less of his poetry, especially the elvish poetry, but I love Tolkien and don't care about his faults. I embrace them, even as bold strengths that few other writers would (or could) indulge in.

But I won't argue that he's not necessarily a good writer. Although I will point out that sales and popularity are a better indicator of being a "good writer" than conventional novel writing standards anyway.

I was going to say that when I read his post, but you have saved me the trouble, and said it better than I would have.

Just that I am not a Tolkien lover. I skipped over huge parts of the LotR novels because I could not stand the needless descriptions. Still, I love LotR.

 

[Desdichado]

A terrible writer huh? I guess that's why so many love his novels and the Paizo folks seemed inclined to dedicate a large portion of the next issue of Dragon to Mieville's works.

His novels are very niche at best. To imply that they are widely loved is to wildly misrepresent the situation.

It's cool if you didn't care for Perdido Street Station, but to simply state, "Meiville is not a good writer" is hyperbole and a tad insulting to those of us who love his work.

No, actually it's neither. Good can have one of two implications in that case 1) something that follows conventional standards of "good" novel writing, or 2) something I personally like. It only has to not meet one of those for me to be able to claim that he's not a good writer, and as a matter of fact, it fails to meet either of them.

If you find that insulting, that's your own affair. I refuse to accept responsibility for you feeling insulted if I've said nothing insulting.

 

[JustKim]

I dropped my subscription because our public library has one. I only buy the issues that I really like now. Our library gets them like clockwork.

Listen, if you're sure your library will have the issue at a specific date then more power to you. I thought you deserved to be told that people are geniunely not receiving the issue, and not simply ignoring your request. To be effectively called a liar and then suffer an eyeroll smiley (and wise is the gamer board that removes that one from the smiley database) is not exactly the response I was expecting. I think that's understandable.

 

[Pants]

Although I will point out that sales and popularity are a better indicator of being a "good writer" than conventional novel writing standards anyway.

Pfeh on conventional writing standards

 

[Chris Tavares]

Mieville is not a bad writer. However, after having read both King Rat and Perdido Street Station, I never want to read anything of his again.

The reason is that both of these books, and therefore presumably both of these writings, present settings and characters with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. New Crobuzon is such an awful place that it would be improved by hitting it with a nuke. The characters only fight for it because, like domestic abuse victims, they can't imagine anything better.

In fact, in Perdido Street Station, the only thing that was described in any way as colorful, attractive, or beautiful was the most evil, nasty monsters of them all.

The writing was good, but the end experience was just so unpleasant that I really don't want to go back there.

 

[Odimax]

We don't even have these in the office yet, so I'm afraid it's a while yet.

--Erik

According to www.paizo.com, Dragon #352 shipped to subscribers on January 2, and appears on newsstands January 24.

Of course - as quoted above - Erik Mona had yet to see the issue as of the morning of January 4.

Anyone have any updates? How early does Paizo get the printed copies in comparison to when they ship? Are the website dates generally on target, or just an estimate?

Cool cover. http://paizo.com/image/product/catalog/TSR/TSR82352_500.jpeg Is that drawn by Ashley Wood?

 

[Alzrius]

How early does Paizo get the printed copies in comparison to when they ship?

I know that Erik once said that my reporting on an issue tends to happen about a day before their office copies go out, though that's not exactly a hard-and-fast statistic.