Star war aftermath: A crime against the English language

originally posted by: crayzeed
a reply to: crazyewok
Thank you very much. How simple, we never even guessed that. And to tell you the truth it never even entered my head to check the actual guardian report. It's funny isn't it that The Guardian allows the word to be published but not ATS.

Well how else will the talentless libtards get to rant and rave on there favorite news paper ?

Wendig is "entitled" to a good book review dammit!

How was anyone able to surmise there was a gay character?

I could hardly figure out what was being described at all.

Thank the Sith Lords I never dropped any credits on this monstrosity.

originally posted by: projectvxn
How was anyone able to surmise there was a gay character?

I could hardly figure out what was being described at all.

Thank the Sith Lords I never dropped any credits on this monstrosity.

Yeah save your money.

If you want a good starwars book get the thrawn trillogy by Timothy Zahn.. Mikey mouse might say its not "cannon" anymore but micky mouse can go screw himself if Aftermath is what we have to look forward too.....

too many "likes" make it sound like it was written by a valley girl

Thanks for the heads up, I'll be avoiding this book at all costs. Hope they either scrap the next 2 installments, or bring in another writer who knows the difference between inspiration and indoctrination.

As a 35-year-old who read the Zahn novels and assorted other EU books more than a decade ago, this saddens me... there must be a few out there who could have the vision to give us some new and interesting ideas, and write them down correctly to properly represent the Star Wars legacy. Come on Disney, get your S**** together!

a reply to: M4nWithNoN4me

Yeah if mickey mouse has a single piece of buiness sense they will sack this talentless hack and bring in Zahn to repair the damage with the other two books.

Honnestly Zahn could take a # and smear it over paper and it would be better than this book!

some more quotes from the book if you can believe them.....

"The TIE wibbles and wobbles through the air, careening drunkenly across the Myrrann rooftops - it zigzags herkily-jerkily out of sight."...

I don't like this plan. It sucks. It sucks the fumes from a broken speeder bike. It sucks the vapor from the hindquarters of a gassy eopie

Thanks, Darth Obvious. Or is it Emperor Palpable

In fact this book is so terrible it would be funny if not my favorite franchise.

I have read almost every book of the old EU. I am now starting to read the books of the new EU. So having read almost every book and comic that takes place in the Star Wars universe. I can safely say that Aftermath was the worst Star Wars book I have ever read.

The writing style was not even the worst part. I can easily get past that. The worst part is how he handled the characters and story. Mon Mothma wanting to disband the New Republic military while the majority of the Empire is still out there is the stupidest thing ever. The main characters being a whiny teenager and his mom was another bad move. They trick you into thinking Wedge will be the main character but then switch to the story about the teen and his mom.

Nothing even really happens plot wise. The story goes nowhere. The book did not seem like a sweeping space saga like the previous books. This was Star Wars trying to be political. I pray that the other Grand Admiral hinted at the end of the book is not Thrawn. Please oh please do not ruin Thrawn.

a reply to: crazyewok

Maybe you should write those books! your spelling skills are stellar......or are they a chrime against the english language?

a reply to: crazyewok

There is a circle, freshly being opened in the realms of the underworld, specifically for morons who ruin fantastic, galaxy spanning franchises, with awful, and I mean just the worst possible descriptive writing imaginable.

Can you imagine if Arthur C Clarke or Issac Asimov, or for that matter Gene Roddenberry, had been THIS bad?

My childhood would have been such a dark and artless place without them. It galls me that something as beloved as the Star Wars universe, has been handed to clueless hacks who seem to possess all the sophistry of a tire iron to the kneecap. I am utterly disgusted by the examples you have given here, and I personally believe that there ought to be a law against this sort of dross.

I mean, I know the human race is not exactly getting entirely smarter, that our level of eloquence as a species is in somewhat of a slump just at the moment, but this is INTOLERABLE waffle!

a reply to: crazyewok

Speaking as a professional, I don't see anything wrong with the writing examples you quote. The prose is vivid, muscular and conveys feeling very well. The subject-matter is comic-book cliché, and the style suits it perfectly.

Speaking critically, what exactly do you dislike about the man's writing?

Anyone else who wants to have a go at this question is also welcome. Mr Brit, for example: what is it about this style of writing that makes you want a special circle of Hell to accommodate its perpetrators?

originally posted by: Curious69
a reply to: crazyewok

Maybe you should write those books! your spelling skills are stellar......or are they a chrime against the english language?

Maybe I should. Least I can get my tenses right and develop a character.....

originally posted by: Astyanax
a reply to: crazyewok

Speaking as a professional, I don't see anything wrong with the writing examples you quote. The prose is vivid, muscular and conveys feeling very well. The subject-matter is comic-book cliché, and the style suits it perfectly.

Speaking critically, what exactly do you dislike about the man's writing?

Anyone else who wants to have a go at this question is also welcome. Mr Brit, for example: what is it about this style of writing that makes you want a special circle of Hell to accommodate its perpetrators?

The TIE wibbles and wobbles through the air, careening drunkenly across the Myrrann rooftops - it zigzags herkily-jerkily out of sight."...



If you cant see anything wrong with that in ADULT FICTION I question your judgement......

Plus the majority of Amazon reviews agree with me.
You dont write starwars books to push the boundaries of the English language and other arty farty crap, you do it to tell a good story and please the fans.

If you compare to the quality of past starwars books like those by Timothy Zahn or Stackpole it is indeed dross.

a reply to: Astyanax

I measure the quality of the writing and the phraseology within, against several data sets which I am privy to. First, and most relevant to the genre, is the writing which has been previously associated with the Star Wars franchise. I am, of course, aware that much of the pre-existing lore associated with the Star Wars universe has been pushed aside by the official owners of the brand, however, that means absolutely nothing, because as any reasonable person knows, no matter who holds the purse strings, those who have invested time and love into the franchise are the ones who decide what to pay attention to. With that in mind, comparing the quality of the phraseology and grasp of language found in the examples above, with that found in even the least well executed elements of pre-existing cannon, finds the new work lacking in flair and respect for the reader.

No where else in the entire history of novelised works associated with the franchise, can such sophomoric and pubescent blather be found.

Second of all, I compare the phraseology with that to be found in other science fiction novels, covering similar themes, those of space warfare, combat in futuristic environments and utilising weapons and training not available in our galaxy/period of history. I can name several authors, off the top of my head, who write better work, with greater linguistic flair and with a greater grasp of the language appropriate to warfare in futuristic environments, and who would have made a much better job of devising descriptive sentences to achieve an effective transmission of meaning and atmosphere.

From everything I understand of the work in question, it was written as young adult/adult fiction, and yet has a style which could only hold the attention of a particularly unimpressive ten year old. That is not in the least acceptable.

Also, given the authors responses to criticism, hiding behind some invented outrage over a non-existent problem with the sexuality of the character, rather than addressing their obvious shortcomings as an author, and indeed as a Star Wars fan, it is clear to me that the author themselves knows exactly what is wrong with the work, and has simply failed to address the concerns expressed by readers because he knows there is little to no defence for such a poor effort.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Wish I could give that 5 stars.

Michael A. Stackpole, Timathy Zahn,James Luceno and Kevin j Anderson all set the standard and bar to what star wars books should be written to.

I dont care what Mickey mouse says about Cannon or wants but the books the above have written are far better so far than what house of Micky has dredged up in Wendig here.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Dont know if you read I Jedi by Stackpole.

That was the first starwars novel to be done in first person. And he carried it due to the fact he developed a extremly good character and story.

a reply to: crazyewok

If you cant see anything wrong with that in ADULT FICTION I question your judgement.

It's because I can't see anything wrong with it that I ask.

Writing and editing are my profession. I have a professional interest in your opinion because it differs so much from mine. If you can explain why you find this fellow's writing so bad, it may give me an insight into readers' minds that I haven't had before.

You dont write starwars books to push the boundaries of the English language and other arty farty crap, you do it to tell a good story and please the fans.

Does that mean there's a Star Wars formula, and this writer is being criticized because he won't stick to it? In what ways does he deviate from the formula?

If you compare to the quality of past starwars books like those by Timothy Zahn or Stackpole it is indeed dross

I'm afraid I don't read Star Wars novelizations, so this comparison doesn't work for. Do you have any quotes to offer? Or perhaps you could list one or two science-fiction writers whose prose you admire?

a reply to: Astyanax

It is difficult to say if you havent read the old EU books.

There has always been a somewhat unofficial formula of writing in past tense. Though as I mentioned there was at least one case of breaking that rule with a first person novel but Stackpole got away with that due to developing a extremely good character. And Wendig fell flat on that reduceing former fleshed out character to meme spouting morons.

Timothy Zahn basically set the bar and standard for Starwars novels. Guess he is very similar to David Webber (in fact Zahn has written a few novels joint novels with him). They are both similar in some ways to Bernard Cromwell (not Sci fi I know).

As for other science fiction writers? Frank Herbet with Dune immediately comes to mind though his style is different to what I would expect in a starwars book so you cant really compare him.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Thanks for the considered reply, Brit.

I measure the quality of the writing and the phraseology (partly by)... the writing which has been previously associated with the Star Wars franchise.

So you're saying there is a formula, and writers who take up the franchise had better stick to it. Fair enough.

No where else in the entire history of novelised works associated with the franchise, can such sophomoric and pubescent blather be found.

I don't mean to offend, but if one is criticizing the quality of others' writing, one should be careful of one's own. 'Sophomoric' and 'pubescent' mean different things, and neither of them is a synonym for 'childish'. Still, I take your point, which is the same as before: this guy isn't keeping to the formula.

I can name several authors, off the top of my head, who write better work, with greater linguistic flair and with a greater grasp of the language.

Would you like to give us some of those names? Earlier you mentioned Asimov and Clarke. That's rather a low bar you're setting. And neither of them was really given to writing space-opera, unless you count the Foundation series, which was really about grand historical sweep rather than action set-pieces.

From everything I understand of the work in question, it was written as young adult/adult fiction, and yet has a style which could only hold the attention of a particularly unimpressive ten year old.

Are you certain of this? As a ten-year old, I liked plain, straightforward storytelling. Truncated sentences and exuberant punctuation would only have confused me. The books that ten-year-olds really go for — the Harry Potter series, for example — are not written like that at all.

On the other hand, there are plenty of old pulp-magazine SF stories, as well as more recent work by people like Harlan Ellison, Norman Spinrad and Michael Moorcock, which play the kind of syntactical games you are objecting to.

Perhaps our friend crazyewok is more on target when he speaks so charmingly of 'arty farty crap'.

What do you think?

a reply to: crazyewok

As for other science fiction writers? Frank Herbet with Dune immediately comes to mind

What did you think of the moment in Dune where Paul Atreides is told of the (supposed) murder of his children, and doesn't show any emotional reaction? Did you think old Frank was writing well there?