Starkess Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Pern is definitely SF. Some of the books are less so than others, but given the back story and the novels that feature it heavily (ie All the Weyrs or Dragondawn), it's pretty hard to deny it. Could it be pretty easily re-dressed as fantasy--replace science with magic and explain Thread as a curse rather than an astronomical phenomenon? Yes. But that's not how the books are written, so yeah. SF. Even the name comes from its SF backdrop (Parallel Earth: Resources Negligible)!(Not that I own "The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern" or anything...:leaving:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukelavee Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Pern is Scifi, it just worked best when the science was really rare.Even then, the series dies when Robinton does.The "prequels" were painful, and the short stories make me cry.Robert Aspirin is dead? :(I still have all my Myth and Thieves World stuff, i loved that back in high school.Weber? it's not just the Honor books, most of his stuff is, for me, terrible. His style is readable, his plots are ok, his characters are horrible. Hell's Gate sits unfinished 2 years later, His "Schism" series is so heavy handed it's unreadable (actually, most of his stuff is just so heavy handed when it comes to religion and politics it hurts me).I'll be honest - when I basically regulated him to bathroom reading was when I read an Honor book, "A short Victorious War", and it's blatant transplant of teh French Revolution, and the leader, Rob St. Pierre.Oddly - I can read him teamed up with Ringo, but not Ringo solo. I can read Weber with White, but solo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted May 4, 2011 Author Share Posted May 4, 2011 I liked the prequel where the placed the dragon stones. But not the one whete they made landing. I think the dragon stone (Dragoneye?) worked for me because its not a prequel being force fit into tje canon, just a story in a different time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curethan Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Yeh, Pern should be classed as soft sci-fi, but if you index it by the books it keeps company with on most home bookshelves its fantasy. Dragon covers and all that.Probably a few reasons it can be classed as game changing really :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 This is exactly why Eddings started writing fantasy. He had no intention of doing so until he saw how well it was selling. He was also clearly inspired by Star Wars though- in plot terms, and to a certain degree characters, there's a lot more similarities to SW than LotR in the Belgariad. I mean, the main character is a sandy-haired farmboy who lives with his Aunt. And ends up a chosen one with a glowing blue sword, via travelling with a wise wizard and a totally awesome loveable rogue. And the bad guy has a metal mask to hide his burnt face. I do wonder given the timings of the post-Brooks explosion whether Star Wars should be given much more credit for the way fantasy went in that period, despite the lack of spaceships in the written stuff. In The Rivan Codex (his sort-of behind-the-scenes guide to writing the books) Eddings states that he had no interest in writing fantasy until his mainstream work had bombed and then, whilst in the bookstore, he flipped through Lord of the Rings and saw it was on its 44th printing. He went, "KER-CHING!", went home and started drawing up the map of the Belgariad continent and away he went. He doesn't mention Star Wars as an influence but he may well have been going for that.Neither does Brooks, though the timing is interesting (Sword of Shannara was published the same month that Episode IV came out, a few months after the early release of the novelization got people excited about it). But IIRC he started writing it in 1974 or 1975, which makes such influences dubious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grack21 Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Pern is Scifi, it just worked best when the science was really rare.Even then, the series dies when Robinton does.The "prequels" were painful, and the short stories make me cry.Robert Aspirin is dead? :(I still have all my Myth and Thieves World stuff, i loved that back in high school.Weber? it's not just the Honor books, most of his stuff is, for me, terrible. His style is readable, his plots are ok, his characters are horrible. Hell's Gate sits unfinished 2 years later, His "Schism" series is so heavy handed it's unreadable (actually, most of his stuff is just so heavy handed when it comes to religion and politics it hurts me).I'll be honest - when I basically regulated him to bathroom reading was when I read an Honor book, "A short Victorious War", and it's blatant transplant of teh French Revolution, and the leader, Rob St. Pierre.Oddly - I can read him teamed up with Ringo, but not Ringo solo. I can read Weber with White, but solo?Well, to each his own, but Weber doesn't hide the fact that he's writing the Napoleonic Wars in space. You can hate his writing if you want but saying he doesn't own up to what he's doing is ridiculous if you've ever read any interviews with him.Yeah Robert Asprin passed away oh lemme look it up...yeah stolen from ye mighty wikipedia:Asprin died May 22, 2008,[6][7] in bed, where he had been reading a Terry Pratchett novel. He was to have been the Guest of Honor at Marcon that weekend.In 2008, his heirs donated his archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.[8]:( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Neither does Brooks, though the timing is interesting (Sword of Shannara was published the same month that Episode IV came out, a few months after the early release of the novelization got people excited about it). But IIRC he started writing it in 1974 or 1975, which makes such influences dubious.I doubt SW had much influence on the writing of Sword of Shannara, but it may well have had a big effect on sales, and therefore a knock-on effect on the genre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukelavee Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 Grack - I will totally admit I'd never ever read an interview by Weber. Like I said, tho, it's my tastes and reasons - if the guy was unreadable.........well, he wouldn't fill up the shelves, would he?Man, that's a great way to go - reading Pratchett. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted May 5, 2011 Author Share Posted May 5, 2011 Grack - I will totally admit I'd never ever read an interview by Weber. Like I said, tho, it's my tastes and reasons - if the guy was unreadable.........well, he wouldn't fill up the shelves, would he?Man, that's a great way to go - reading Pratchett.I think Reading A Pratchett Novel will be added to my list of ways I'd like to go. It will probibly be about 3rd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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