JGP

It's a standalone. They all are, pretty much, excepting the duology and trilogy. So giver. And, unlike many, I personally wouldn't rank Last Light amongst the lower tiered of his forays. I quite liked it.

Preserving an ineffable something, words chasing words-- it's like, you want to cast this or that moment in amber while not noticing that such constraint is akin to taking a garrote to momentum. This is not to say that there aren't times for it, but one has to be discerning in those choices. I used to suffer from the same affliction myself with my own writing, until a good friend in my writing group helped me work my way out of it. It's a definite problem, writing so much about what's happening that nothing actually happens.

I've become a kinder gentler over the years and even I want to box this guy's ears in. Referring to archaic diction as some kind of elevated prose and/or vocabulary has got to be one of the more ridiculous things things I've read in this back and forth so far [besides two chapters of the writing in question] Here's some constructive criticism, Richard: you're stuck in the writing [whether you think it's good or most inthread think it's bad is actually irrelevant] story is what you need to master first, artful prose after. If your story doesn't hook me, and it didn't, I'm not sticking around. I think that would go for most readers, and most writers.

Oh, I don't know. I'm actually finding the post rating/reputation thing very fascinating on a socio-psychological level. Granted, people who care about it shouldn't be made to feel bad for doing so; we're all entitled to our feelings, yet... Yet. We, each of us, deal with silent judgement day in, day out. Is the new feature really so much different than those other interactions in real life? It's just another reality check. I know it's a fantasy board, but come on guys. None of us live in one. Honestly, I don't mind anything that helps this place, and it's denizens, become a little more real. I mean, I for one don't come here to escape. That's what books are for.

The drama this has evoked makes me laugh. I'm quite indifferent to the feature, but maybe we should just keep it as is. Gold, Jerry. Gold.