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Darth Wong wrote:

Perinquus wrote:Is it just me, or are the currently active sci fi writers just not up to the level of Heinlein, Anderson, Asimov, and others of that generation?

Those men were more original, daring, creative. Current sci-fi writers have often read an awful lot of sci-fi themselves, so they end up being infected by a lot of brain bugs and they can become quite derivative of other work.

We may have a problem then. As the saying goes: "There is nothing new under the sun". As time goes by, sci fi in general may get less and less original. Or else the only way to be original will be to get really strange out like some psychedelic drug trip - in which case the high brow literary critics will no doubt love it, but mainstream audiences will be left scratching their heads, kind of like most people react to modern art these days.

It'll require some new concept in technology coming out for science fiction to be rejuvenated. When computers became big, the Cyberpunk genre appeared (though I'll admit Gibson was the only one of those I could read). The space race was what spawned a lot of good science fiction in the Golden Age. Asimov was a fluke; his kind appears once in a generation.

FireNexus wrote: That's why I enjoy Robert A. Heinlein. He's the motherfucking man, as far as I'm concerned.

Wierd thing: I've found him writing of blasters and vibroblades. Are these just common things in sci-fi, or did he maybe invent the terms?

Blaster: Asimov, Pebble in the Sky, 1950.

Vibroblade: I don't know.

I'm a huge Zahn fan. I think he's the best SW writer the EU has seen yet. I'm currently rereading the Thrawn trilogy right now, and appreciate the depth of character in those books. Unlike the other novels (ESPECIALLY the fucking X-wing series) the Imperials aren't a bunch of idiotic fuckups. There's tactics going on, a military mindset, etc. And I'm not just talking about Thrawn.

When I first found out KJA was writing a SW book, I was overjoyed. I was a big fan of his first book, "Resurrection Inc." and thought he'd be perfect. Unfortunately, he is an awful SW author. (But certainly not the worst. That crown goes to the bitch that wrote The Crystal Star.)

I would love to see another Saxton book. Matter of fact, I'd love to see a Wong EU story pitched to Del Rey, with Dr. Saxton on board for technical support. Send a short story to SW Insider, Mike!

Darth Wong wrote: When people with actual life experience write sci-fi, it might be good. When pure geeks write sci-fi, it's probably going to be shit. And when soap-opera writers hired by B&B write sci-fi, the fountains of stupidity gush forth.

That's true. When the geeks write sci-fi, they tend to ignore things like human nature to create utopian societies, or societies in which everyone acts in a very strange manner. Only when people write books that use the technology to propel the story do we see successful sci-fi.

Lord Poe wrote:I'm a huge Zahn fan. I think he's the best SW writer the EU has seen yet. I'm currently rereading the Thrawn trilogy right now, and appreciate the depth of character in those books. Unlike the other novels (ESPECIALLY the fucking X-wing series) the Imperials aren't a bunch of idiotic fuckups. There's tactics going on, a military mindset, etc. And I'm not just talking about Thrawn.

I think that the Zahn trilogy is great, but I also think that too many people blindly accept it as the best book without stopping to check out the others. Personally, I think that Star by Star (Denning) was written as well as anything Zahn ever wrote, though I agree that Zahn is quite obviously the more consistent.

[Anderson] is an awful SW author. (But certainly not the worst. That crown goes to the bitch that wrote The Crystal Star.)

Obviously somebody has never read The Approaching Storm.

I would love to see another Saxton book. Matter of fact, I'd love to see a Wong EU story pitched to Del Rey, with Dr. Saxton on board for technical support. Send a short story to SW Insider, Mike!

Yeah, maybe Saxton'll put in a good word for you with their publishers.

Master of Ossus wrote:

Lord Poe wrote:I'm a huge Zahn fan. I think he's the best SW writer the EU has seen yet. I'm currently rereading the Thrawn trilogy right now, and appreciate the depth of character in those books. Unlike the other novels (ESPECIALLY the fucking X-wing series) the Imperials aren't a bunch of idiotic fuckups. There's tactics going on, a military mindset, etc. And I'm not just talking about Thrawn.

I think that the Zahn trilogy is great, but I also think that too many people blindly accept it as the best book without stopping to check out the others. Personally, I think that Star by Star (Denning) was written as well as anything Zahn ever wrote, though I agree that Zahn is quite obviously the more consistent.

part of the other problem arises that people hristen it without ever having read the trilogy novelisations. Honestly they are simply awesome pieces of literature, they give so much more character and thought that I often wonder if the movies do justice to the novelisations of them.

[quote="Master of Ossus]
I think that the Zahn trilogy is great, but I also think that too many people blindly accept it as the best book without stopping to check out the others. Personally, I think that Star by Star (Denning) was written as well as anything Zahn ever wrote, though I agree that Zahn is quite obviously the more consistent.[/quote]

Star by Star didn't set the world on fire, but it was a good book. A lot of the EU is terrific, and its the shitty books that tarnish the image of the others.

[Anderson] is an awful SW author. (But certainly not the worst. That crown goes to the bitch that wrote The Crystal Star.)

Obviously somebody has never read The Approaching Storm.[/quote]

Whoa there, Tex. Yes I have. Again, I was disappointed. Alan Dean Foster, the guy who wrote the Star Wars novelization writing a book? It was SURE to be a home run! Unfortunately, it was long, and boring, and repetitive, and BORING....