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Message: <blockquote data-quote="takyris" data-source="post: 3112762" data-attributes="member: 5171">Except that age has been the big selling point, even on this thread. As soon as anyone attacks the book's quality, the "but he's just 15!" response pops up.Really? Then you don't know much about the publishing industry. Getting an in with the publishers isn't exactly a level playing field. I mean, good for the kid, for using all his advantages, but let's not turn him into a big underdog.You are wrong. Saying that there is no such thing as bad writing is a gross oversimplification. If you really believe that, then any real conversation is pointless, because you're going to work the "Different people like different things" mentality, and by that logic, we can't really say that hitting yourself in the head with a hammer, because even though the vast majority of the world can agree on a set of standard principles, somebody's going to insist that it gave him visions of Nirvana, so we need to say that individual tastes vary.No.Have you been to a writing workshop? No workshop is perfect, but you pretty quickly come up with some general aspects that you can use to judge writing. Voice, Plot, Characterization, and Setting are the easy big four, although there are others.I am sorry if this bothers you, but yes, it is possible to say that a work is bad. Some people can enjoy bad writing -- for example, people without the critical ability to distinguish good writing form bad, people who haven't been exposed to good writing and have no other standard by which to judge, and people whose love for a particular element (say, dragons) is sufficient to override concerns about bad writing.No. It was bad. Sorry.See above. Bad writing can still be popular, but popularity doesn't suddenly make it good writing. Also, the degree to which popularity is driven by market forces and the publishing industry is pretty well known to those who work in that industry.Levity. If you read really really carefully, the fact that I implied that he has a shirt made of hundred dollar bills is not mean to be taken literally. It's my roundabout way of saying that while I wouldn't want my parents to have used their publishing connections to get my mediocre teenage book published, I'd probably get over that not-want if it meant that I had a whole bunch of money. Ten years from now, the kid will probably feel about like that. Assuming his writing improves, he'll be a bit embarrassed at Eragon, but glad at where it got him -- and what it got him.Oh no, I'm definitely saying it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Well, not "mentally deficient", but "lacking in critical reading or appreciation skill for the fantasy genre". Doesn't make them bad people. I enjoy music my wife hates, because she's got a lot more musical training than I have. I am an infant compared to her in music appreciation.If you got a lot out of Eragon, good for you. But yeah, it's a bad book. Either you're enjoying it because the author was 15, or you really like books about dragons (or orphan lads, or some other iconic fantasy element), or you haven't read a lot of fantasy, or you don't have the critical ability to distinguish good writing from bad.</blockquote>

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