My panel for bittercon.

Big long series are very popular (readers like them because they know what to expect, publishers like them because they know how well they'll sell, authors like them because publishers like them). But sometimes an author will lose control of the story and just start flailing around at random. What are the signs this has happened?

My list:

• Individual volumes end at arbitrary points and lack their own story arc


• Focus shifts from the original main characters to minor characters introduced partway into the series


• New mysteries added without old ones being solved


• Page counts increase while the number of events decrease


• Cliffhangers aren't resolved in the next book

I'm not just referring to Robert Jordan here; I suspect GRRM is already showing some of these, and this post was prompted by seeing that last point in the latest mystery by Carole Nelson Douglas.

via james_nicoll

( Sounds like another silly quiz )

I just got an email from Lawrence Watt-Evans announcing the start of his second serialized Ethshar novel, The Vondish Ambassador. So I'm now reading three serialized novels online; the other two are Diane Duane's The Big Meow and Brandon Sanderson's Warbreaker. Kelley Armstrong is also doing a serial novella, but I need to read more of her novels first.

I'm also following several webcomics, most of which have novel quality stories: Girl Genius, A Miracle of Science, Order of the Stick, No Rest for the Wicked, and Hello Cthulhu. I'll probably add Freefall once I finish reading the archives (3 strips per week * 8 years = a heck of a lot of strips).

I was checking Amazon to see exactly where my copy of Girl Genius vol 4 is, and happened to glance at the information section:

Ship Carrier: USPS
Tracking Number: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Status: In transit

Order #: XXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX
Shipment Date: Apr 24, 2006
Destination: Richardson, TX, United States
Estimated Arrival: Dec 23, 2005

Snitched from rolanni

Those I have read are in bold. Those I have started but not finished are in italics.

( Major SF Awards )

Hmm... finished 11 and started 3 more. That's better than I expected.

Um, right, I'm supposed to be talking about what I'm reading.

I normally read two books at a time: one at home, and one during breaks at work. My choices for the latter are restricted to books that have section breaks every 15 minutes, which limits things considerably. Pratchett of course works well, and I found out last year that Steven Erikson works too, so after reading Midnight Tides at work, I decided to re-read the previous volumes in the series. I also decided not to booklog my re-reads.

Then two weeks ago I noticed I was only halfway through Deadhouse Gates, and at that pace I wouldn't finish until the end of March, which would only leave me about a month to re-read House of Chains before The Bonehunters arrives. And since I didn't have anything to read at home right then (no one publishes stuff I like this time of year), I brought it home to finish (and took Issola to work so I'd have that re-read before Dzur comes out in August[*]). And just as I was starting HoC, I received my copy of the final electronic edition of The Spriggan Mirror, so I re-read that (I didn't notice any significant changes from the first draft), and the included short story "Sirinita's Dragon", which I should have booklogged, but that night I came down with a bit of stomach flu (or something similar). And since I don't care much for short stories in the first place, it's probably better if I just don't comment on it.

While recovering, I finished HoC, and then last night I read the Prologue and first two chapters of the webcomic A Miracle of Science, (recommended in a discussion of my favorite webcomic, Girl Genius) which is amusing so far.

Speaking of GG and inconsistency, I've decided that I will booklog Agatha Heterodyne and the Circus of Dreams when I get it, even though I've already read it.

[*] Today I heard a rumor that Dzur will be offered as a Baen WebScription in May.

Next Book: Lawrence Watt-Evans, Out of this World

kate_nepveu commented here, here, and here about American Book Review's 100 Best First Lines from Novels.

There's not much I can add to Kate's comments, so I'll just offer some lines that I think should be on the list, one for each major category:

Self-referential:
Sometime during your life -- in fact, very soon -- you may find yourself reading a book, and you may notice that a book's first sentence can often tell you what sort of story your book contains.

Terse and in media res:
No shit, there I was...

Profound:
Everything starts somewhere, though many physicists disagree.

Famous:
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

Long and rambling:
When my workday is over, and I have closed my notebook, hidden my pen, and sawed holes in my rented canoe so that it cannot be found, I often like to spend the evening in conversation with my few surviving friends.

Story hook:
The day I died started off bad and got worse in a hurry.

Ganked from seawasp. Same basic drill; bold what you've read, strike out what you don't like, italicize what you'd like to read but haven't yet...

( Only 20 books?! )

Where is Chaos: Making a New Science? Or Flatland? And how many young geeks even recognize Dick and Wyndham? What else is missing... oh, duh, Lord of the Rings. How could they forget the greatest novel of the 20th century?

"If there's a God, and arithmetic is inconsistent, then She is *not* a Nice God."

(Dr. David Tate, in RASFW's annual debate about the proof of God in Carl Sagan's novel Contact.)

From thomasyan:
- Search your blog archive
- Find your 23rd post
- Find the fifth sentence
- this is apparently meant to say something about you.
- Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions

One thing it says about me is that I don't write much. It took me two months to write 23 posts, and the 23rd only had 3 sentences, so this is the second sentence from my 24th post, Banned Books Meme:

Second list is from the ALA.