That’s right, it’s time for another look at what I’ve been rea- What? You want to know what I’ve been recently writing?
Yyyeah, I’ve been working on stuff, but for my next novel, I’ve still got people looking it over for me. I want it to be the best it can be, and I definitely want it read beforehand–I do some weird things in it and want to make sure it’s not too out there. Rest assured, though, I am always working on things; none of these things will ever directly make me any money, but you will be able to see them someday when they’re ready.
*sits down and plays video games for several hours*
Oh, right, the stuff I’ve read. Well, April was a time for Discworld, as I finally read the next book in the series, Eric. But not just Eric, the illustrated Eric. The illustrations are all very nice (a great deal nicer than the rather mundane covers the Harper Collins versions use), but I’m a writer so let’s get to the story. It was all right, maybe a little disjointed, but was fun. I’d actually read the play Doctor Faustus for a class in college, so I had some background in it that. And in going over it in my head, I seem to remember one small part in particular, a sort of inversion to the grandfather paradox wherein Rincewind remarks that time travel only seemed appealing in order to kill your own grandfather.
Anyway, while on the subject of a Rincewind story, which means The Luggage can’t be too far behind, something occurred to me about The Luggage while reading this story: it’s an overpowered character. But the kicker here is, The Luggage just doesn’t care. Not in a “life is meaningless” sense, but in a “i don’t care if this IS a physical impossibility, I’M GONNA DO IT” sense.
Most of the time badly-written overpowered characters–you know, like Mary Sues–make a point to show this power, and beats everybody with grace and style and- bu- ju- ih- gh- just, The Luggage just doesn’t care. It’ll just mow over people like they’re ants. Most people in online role plays (oh boy, time to confuse a bunch of people!), if they are called out for god-modding, would stop and complain that they aren’t god-modding. The Luggage would basically just shrug (despite having no shoulders) and then eat them, with no regard for “rules” or “common decency” or “code of conduct” or “logic”.
And that’s why it’s amazing. Because it just doesn’t care. It’s just angry.
Also why it can turn a chimera into pudding (see: Sourcery)
Moving on, the next Discworld book is Moving Pictures, which I would probably rank actually as one of my favorites. The story was interesting, though the backstory may have been a little hazy (yet at the same time a little obvious), and characters were fun. I always like good characters, and Victor’s carefree-until-he’s-at-risk-of-getting-a-care-at-which-point-he-cares-vastly-about-getting-back-to-being-carefree attitude was interesting. I also liked Gaspode’s rough snark contrasted with reluctant loyalty. Clearly he is a diamond in the rough. Or quartz in the alley. I dunno.
And finally, we come to Reaper Man. I like the character of Death. He’s strangely spontaneous, though I suppose death can happen at any time, so spontaneity wouldn’t be too far out of character. The thing about Reaper Man though is, I would say it’s an okay story, but really it’s an okay two stories. There are two different stories going on here. Both of them have the same root cause, but they don’t really cross at any point. One story seemed to have a rather abrupt climax with a hazy conclusion, the most of it before and the ending was pretty good, while the other sort of comes out of left field with no prior suggestion of it. So it was a little confusing there. Can’t say it’s one I particularly like, but I guess you win some, you lose some.
So what’s next? Well, it turns out the next Discworld novel is not one my library has. Whoops. They have the ebook version, but my stance on that stands at that being the cheap version. But that’s okay; I was wanting to try and read some books by independent authors; you know, people basically in the same circumstance I am, except maybe a little more well-known because let’s face it no one is less-known than I am. So I might look into that. Also maybe read Machine of Death, whiiich my library does have. I came up with my own idea regarding the machine of death recently, actually, so clearly I must read the two collections involving it to make sure the idea hasn’t been used.
That’s it for now, see you in another month probably!
Duth Olec's Cuckoo Cosmos 