Hitchhiker's Guide Trailer

[Shockeye]

He never resolved any threads, just kept adding more. And more. And more.

[Roac]

He never resolved any threads, just kept adding more. And more. And more.

People keep buying his books, so why stop?

[Shockeye]

He never resolved any threads, just kept adding more. And more. And more.

People keep buying his books, so why stop?

Because no one is ENJOYING the books. They buy them and read them because after 5 books you just keep buying in the silly hope that it'll end. It's the perfect example of grudgereading.

[Riggswolfe]

I loved some of the characters in those books, then he started focusing more and more on the Aes Sedai and their split, and all the petty bickering. I finally got to the point where I skipped chapters that had anything to do with Egwene, Nynaeve, or any of the others and only read about Rand, Matt (he's my boy), Perrin, and the bad guys.

The books became fun again. Though it bothers me. I've never done that before. I read a book cover to cover or not at all. This feels like cheating. Almost like I'm using scene select to watch only the best parts of a movie on DvD.

[Roac]

Because no one is ENJOYING the books.

People enjoy them enough to keep buying them, despite what you may think, so again - why stop?  It puts a check in his pocket, and face it - this is a job, and he's making damn good money.  It's like on the extreme end, you have people like William Hung.  It obviously works, there's money to be made, so why not?  Your fault is in thinking your (personal) definition of good is what artists should aim for.  Mostly, they aim to make it big (aka, get rich).  If I could spend minimum effort to rake in millions, I'd do it in a heartbeat, and you sure as hell would too.  If there was any hollow feeling of "man, would be nice to produce something of substance" after the fact, then go back and make that AFTER the royalties have rolled in.  Not strangely, that's what a number of artists do.

[WayAbvPar]

I finally got to the point where I skipped chapters that had anything to do with Egwene, Nynaeve, or any of the others

I can sum up everything you missed-

Nynaeve tugged on her braid and acted like a bitch.
Elayne sniffed and acted like an entitled bitch.
Egwene crossed her arms beneath her breasts and acted like a bitch.

[HaemishM]

You forgot the dialogue.

"Men are so woolheaded."

Yes, that's for all chapters and all 3 characters.

[MaceVanHoffen]

Nynaeve tugged on her braid and acted like a bitch.
Elayne sniffed and acted like an entitled bitch.
Egwene crossed her arms beneath her breasts and acted like a bitch.

And Birgitte got bonded to Elayne in a sideplot that had vaguely lesbian-ish overtones.

[Margalis]

If the books suck stop buying them, problem solved. I've read a couple of Conan books by Robert Jordan and they were dreadful. If the guy real talent it isn't apparent.

Edit: Real talent other than making money that is.

[MaceVanHoffen]

Edit: Real talent other than making money that is.

The guy has writing talent.  That comes through in the first Wheel of Time book, and in his Conan anthology.  He's just lazy.  He develops the world and his characters well to a point, and then just .... stops.  His first Conan story began with great dialogue and an elegantly built storyline around our favorite barbarian's origin that he turns to shit with boobs and swords about halfway through.  Maybe that's about the time he ran out of money and needed to get the thing published.

[AOFanboi]

Here's a clue Mr. Jordan:  Move the story along with each book instead of retelling the same damn story from a different character's perspective.  Finish Wheel of Time and move on already.

Maybe he has the same inability to actually finish a book series storyline that afflicts Orson Scott Card and Piers Anthony?

All bow down before the might that is Zelazny's Amber anyway. I was happy the prequel trilogy Dawn of Amber used the same technique as the two quintlogies (entire story from single character's perspective).

[kaid]

The first few books of the wheel of time series were not bad. They were not great either but I have seen worse and it has some interesting ideas. The problem is somewhere down the line Robert Jordan must have lost all of his editors in some freak accident because any good editor should redmark about 800 pages of his last 3 books and told him to either cut them out or rewrite them.

Any actual changes or advancements in the story usually come in the space of about 50 to 100 pages spread across 1000 or so pages of whiney bitchs tugging their hair and descriptions of their cloths.

If robert jordan had a good editor who could red pen him into tightening his work up and getting to a point they would probably be readable.

kaid

[kaid]

Oh I forgot to mention the one thing that really boggles my mind about the Wheel of Time books. The whole concept of the wheel of time gives Robert Jordan all the space he needs to spin an infinite number of series on different turns of the wheel. There was never any need for this never ending eye gouging dead horse beating series to get dragged out to this extant.


kaid

[MaceVanHoffen]

Oh I forgot to mention the one thing that really boggles my mind about the Wheel of Time books. The whole concept of the wheel of time gives Robert Jordan all the space he needs to spin an infinite number of series on different turns of the wheel. There was never any need for this never ending eye gouging dead horse beating series to get dragged out to this extant.

EXACTLY.  Pure genius.

[Alluvian]

Maybe he has the same inability to actually finish a book series storyline that afflicts Orson Scott Card and Piers Anthony?

Add George RR Martin to that list, but not because I don't enjoy his works, he just WONT RELEASE THE FUCKERS!  When the hell is the current release date for Feast for Crows anyway?  Or has he renamed book 4 by now?  Wasn't it due like 2 years ago?

Oh, and I never read any Robert Jordan.  Instead I will just defer my commentary into a concise "What Kaid said."

[murdoc]

Add George RR Martin to that list, but not because I don't enjoy his works, he just WONT RELEASE THE FUCKERS!  When the hell is the current release date for Feast for Crows anyway?  Or has he renamed book 4 by now?  Wasn't it due like 2 years ago?

I starting reading Game of Thrones and am hoping he gets Feast for Crows out this year, but his website still says:

I said that I hoped to have the book done by the end of the year. Famous last words. No, it's not done, though I am getting closer. I have more than thirteen hundred pages in final draft form and another hundred or so in roughs or fragments, but there are still some chapters yet to write. I'm telling myself that I'm on the home stretch. As soon as FEAST as done, I will announce it here.


—George R.R. Martin, January 17, 2005

[Paelos]

He'll die before he finishes the climax chapter. Mass geek suicides will occur.

[Fraeg]

what I want is a phantom edit for the wheel of time.

give me the thief, the wolfboy with the axe, and mr. woolheaded lummox himself, and thats it. 


My conspiracy theory is that Jordan had either a horrific divorce or just hasn't come out of the closet yet.  Never have I seen an author paint nearly every female character in his books as annoying as he has.

[HaemishM]

I bet his wife made him do it.

[Shockeye]

Knife of Dreams On Schedule
   
Posted by: Kathana on Tuesday, April 5th, 2005

Robert Jordan emailed us today with the following:

"The best news of all is that Knife of Dreams is on target to be
    finished this month. For the first time in more than ten years,
    WON'T be on tour two months after a book is done. I can't tell you
    what a luxury that seems."

For months, Jordan has been saying that he would like to be finished with the Knife of Dreams manuscript by April, so that he and Tor can spend the summer giving it the full editorial treatment. This has not been done since The Lord of Chaos . Usually, they do a quick and dirty editorial process to get the book in the store for us as quickly as possible. From this, it sounds like he is right where he wants to be and we can expect the book to be released on schedule in October.

[kaid]

Knife of Dreams On Schedule
   
Posted by: Kathana on Tuesday, April 5th, 2005

Robert Jordan emailed us today with the following:

"The best news of all is that Knife of Dreams is on target to be
    finished this month. For the first time in more than ten years,
    WON'T be on tour two months after a book is done. I can't tell you
    what a luxury that seems."

For months, Jordan has been saying that he would like to be finished with the Knife of Dreams manuscript by April, so that he and Tor can spend the summer giving it the full editorial treatment. This has not been done since The Lord of Chaos . Usually, they do a quick and dirty editorial process to get the book in the store for us as quickly as possible. From this, it sounds like he is right where he wants to be and we can expect the book to be released on schedule in October.

Bold for emphasis. This is EXACTALLY the problem with robert jordan they skip the whole editing process which means his books are bloated meandering piles of scholck.


kaid

[Flashman]

EDIT - Nothing to see here. Move along. Didn't see that review was already posted on page 1

[stray]

Heh, didn't I already post that on page one? A 5 page fight ensued soon after -- Do we really need another one? 

[Flashman]

Heh, didn't I already post that on page one? A 5 page fight ensued soon after -- Do we really need another one? 

crap. I didn't see it. 

Sorry.

[Abagadro]

I saw it this afternoon.  It was well put together, casting was good and had some very amusing parts with some good "Adams" moments. they jerked with the plot alot, unecessarily expanded certain aspects and rushed some parts.  I'm still thinking it over, but I would give it a marginal thumbs up. My wife has never read the book and didn't like it much.

[Pococurante]

So in the rush to create new fans they lost the old ones?

Adams' humor is sublime.  I don't expect the Tarantino fans of the world to enjoy it.  Not enough tenderizer mallet for them.

[Samwise]

I saw it last night and thought it was pretty good.  Nothing got cut out that I missed all that much (with the sole exception of a Guide entry discussing the uses of a towel, though Ford smacking Vogons with it was classic), and I liked most of the bits that got added, the POV gun especially.

There actually was a tenderizer mallet scene, which tickled me greatly.

They have attempted to acquire learning, they have attempted to acquire style and social grace, but in most respects the modern Vogon is little different from his primitive forebears. Every year they import twenty-seven thousand scintillating jewelled scuttling crabs from their native planet and while away a happy drunken night smashing them to bits with iron mallets.

[trias_e]

Some of the changes/additions didn't make much sense to me, and I didn't really like Zaphod at first (he butchered the line, 'If there's anything bigger than my ego on this ship I want it tracked down and shot'  [or however it goes], and that pissed me off).  Still, it was good.  Could have been better, but since I think it would be difficult to make a good movie out of the book, I was fairly happy overall.

[Samwise]

I blame the director for that one..

[TheWalrus]

I know we're already off the Robert Jordan hook, but thought I'd pitch in this annoying tidbit...


Check out how many times he uses the word "dryly" in a chapter. Someone pitch that dude a thesaurus. And no, thats not a giant extinct lizard.

[ahoythematey]

A lot of people here frighten and confuse me with their reading habits.  If these authors and their serials are so damn mediocre, why continue reading them?

As for the actual topic, Hitchhiker's was fun, and Zooey Daschanel is still so cute it's probably a crime.

[schild]

Zooey Daschanel is still so cute it's probably a crime.

Haven't seen HG2G yet, but yes. This is a true statement. As is the one quoted.

[voodoolily]

My favorite part was the little flash animations. Very funny. And of course, Mos Def and Sam Rockwell can do no wrong.

[CmdrSlack]

Saw it, enjoyed it, felt it was mostly harmless.

I even enjoyed the opening part, which probably left some people in the theater going, "WTF?"

Mild spoil:
Dolphin Broadway Sendup for the win...don't ask me why it was so bad it was good.

If you haven't seen it, stay thru the credits.  Trust me.

If you have and didn't, well, it was neat.

On the whole I think it was good, but I also think that having read the books a bunch of times in my life helped.  I couldn't imagine how someone like my fiancee's sister (who is not an avid reader and hasn't read the books) would get it.  She decided to opt out on it, so it was ftw for everyone.

I'm almost hoping they'll do Restaurant at the End of the Universe next.  But I also still believe that sequels can't be all bad.  Unless, of course, you're Ice Cube.

[Samwise]

I really want to see a film version of the thing that Arthur keeps killing.  That alone would make a sequel worth watching.