Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

Winds of Dune, out for a week now:

Amazon rank: #345. Weak.

Amazon reviews: 11. Not even the preeks are bothering to defend it.

Dunenovels.com: One thread with one response. The responder asks, rightfully so, "Has anyone even read this book?"

Legitimate reviews: None that I've seen. Everything has been from blogs.

Looking at all this, I'm beginning to think that if we weren't talking about Jessica's Wind, then no one would be. It's the biggest non-event I've seen in quite a while.

that means we won, right ?

yippee.

why don't I feel any better about the whole thing ?

SandRider wrote:why don't I feel any better about the whole thing ?

Because, once again, the news isn't reporting that Kevin J. Anderson has been hit by a bear-shaped meteor.

Let's see what the "score" will be on the New York Times best-sellers list next week.

I guess I just hate waiting for the "judgement of history"

it took years & years for the truth of the Tonkin Gulf Incident to come out
and the war in Viet Nam to be seen as a mistake ....

a little quicker on the false-WMDs & invasion of Iraq, but there is still an undercurrent
of approval of the Bush Administration's handling of all that - Sept 11 as an
"Act of War" instead of an international crime ....

I'm not saying the Silly-books are of that kind of importance, of course.

I'm saying that I believe that in the "long-run", this period of Dune history
will be glossed over - a footnote to a footnote in literary history.

But that "long-run" is longer than I've got to run,
and I'd like to see some vindication in my lifetime.

Not too worry, that well timed Berg Dune adaptation is right around the corner to create another fervor of interest in bad book buying

SandRider wrote:But that "long-run" is longer than I've got to run,
and I'd like to see some vindication in my lifetime.

In general, you've already got some.

By which I mean that TheKJA's books have been, and always will be, instantly forgotten 10 minutes after they are read. As will the author himself, as soon as he either retires or shuffles off this mortal coil. He won't even be a footnote to a footnote, and he knows it ... and it kills him. It just eats him up inside. Ninety percent of his bitterness and overall nastiness comes from looking in the mirror every day and seeing nothing more than a hack writer of bad Star Wars EU drivel.

In terms of Dune, though ... yes, we'll all have to wait a bit for history to forget TheKJA's contributions. But they will be forgotten by history, just like the rest of his crap. A hack is a hack is a hack. Fifty years from now, Dune will continue to be re-printed; McDune will be seen as the HLP's folly. History will not be kind to them. Mark my words, O Grizzled Confederate.

TheDukester wrote:Winds of Dune, out for a week now:

Amazon rank: #345. Weak.

Amazon reviews: 11. Not even the preeks are bothering to defend it.

Dunenovels.com: One thread with one response. The responder asks, rightfully so, "Has anyone even read this book?"

Legitimate reviews: None that I've seen. Everything has been from blogs.

Looking at all this, I'm beginning to think that if we weren't talking about Jessica's Wind, then no one would be. It's the biggest non-event I've seen in quite a while.

I had made a prediction (a pretty safe one, probably) that WoD would not sell as well as PoD. However, I didn't think it would be released to this little interest. If this keeps up, maybe we won't see the 15 more books detailing the Great Schools, Paul's fourth trip off-planet before "Dune," etc.

Oh, god, Frybread, don't even mention that in jest: they've still got three years left in the YA Young Paul period before the Atreides get to Arrakis.

All the excitement was premature now it's just flapping in the breeze...

Still no Youtube videos of Kevin promoting his Winds!

Yeah I wonder how they will reconcile Throne of Dune with Young Paul getting back from his Broadway Musical career just a few days before the Atreides leave for Arrakis and Leto's "this will be your first trip off world" statement. Oh Yeah, Irulan just made that up.

Anyone want to speculate that the meeting Brian and KJA had with their TOR reps on Tues. was a meeting discussing possible failing sales? At what point does it become more lucrative for TOR to buy them out of their contract?

Winds of Dune is categorically a failure, and not one that can be blamed on us. Ironically, aside from the blatant contradictions, super retarded mini-plots and shoddy inconsistencies there are parts of it that are remarkably well written (for KJA and Brian I mean.)

Oh DO tell.

Quotes or page numbers.

SandChigger wrote:Oh, god, Frybread, don't even mention that in jest: they've still got three years left in the YA Young Paul period before the Atreides get to Arrakis.

I understand, I have to stop counting my chickens before they hatch. This is one of those times I wish I had prescience.

TheDukester wrote:In terms of Dune, though ... yes, we'll all have to wait a bit for history to forget TheKJA's contributions. But they will be forgotten by history, just like the rest of his crap. A hack is a hack is a hack. Fifty years from now, Dune will continue to be re-printed; McDune will be seen as the HLP's folly. History will not be kind to them. Mark my words, O Grizzled Confederate.

the McDune novels are like a bad comic book cross over :

I dunno, man.

Don't get me wrong, I *want* it to be true. But Tor are still publishing NuDune in hardcover. They're still sinking a bunch of money into promotional tours and advertising. I agree that Winds is not the super blockbuster that the Dune 7 novels were, but clearly they think it's worth promoting big-time. And maybe there are enough hordes of people who will buy anything with Dune on the cover to keep the series going.

If we saw small print runs or PB-only releases, then I could see that as evidence of the series dying. But as of now?

Reduced sales: certainly. Washed up? I don't think so. Winds of Dune would have to tank atrociously for that to happen.

HBJ

I highly expect to see the sales rank drop sharply at the end of the week. Especially since its no where near the top 10 on the best-seller list.

Sorry wait, thats wrong. Its not even on the list.


Well, hey, now that Dune is no longer a Bestselling series, maybe the Hack will move on. Parasites do that when the Host begins to die.

I suspect KJA will have to be dragged kicking and screaming away from Dune. Dune has prestige and credibility in SF circles that KJA has no hope of getting himself. I think he sees Dune as his best chance at a Hugo.

HBJ

Not on the Bestseller list?! Wow, so soon! My prediction was that this would be the LAST book to reach the bestseller list encouraging them to write one more: Throne of Dune. Maybe we will not see Throne published after all.

In fact, if they stop NOW I will forgive Brian and Kevin for their short stories and Sandworms and actually buy Paul of Dune knowing that Norma is not in it and it's the last of their best sellers.

I'd call you a moron but it's obvious you're more off than I thought.

SandChigger wrote:

I'd call you a moron but it's obvious you're more off than I thought.

Hunchback Jack wrote:I suspect KJA will have to be dragged kicking and screaming away from Dune. Dune has prestige and credibility in SF circles that KJA has no hope of getting himself. I think he sees Dune as his best chance at a Hugo.

HBJ

At the moment, Dune has all the credibility of a cancerous polyp. I wonder how many authors in KJA's circle secretly laugh behind his back at his train-wreck Dune attempt.

Ampoliros wrote:I highly expect to see the sales rank drop sharply at the end of the week. Especially since its no where near the top 10 on the best-seller list.

Sorry wait, thats wrong. Its not even on the list.


Well, hey, now that Dune is no longer a Bestselling series, maybe the Hack will move on. Parasites do that when the Host begins to die.

I would hope so, but what franchise would take KJA? As far as I know, he's been demoted to editing novels in the Star Wars EU and not writing them. He'll probably keep writing Superman novels until DC Comics realizes he sucks and demotes from that. His solo attempts at scifi have resulted in the forgettable "Saga of Seven Suns" crapfest. The X-files franchise is all but dead. Maybe he could latch-on to Star Trek with novels based on the new movie??

Nebiros wrote:Not on the Bestseller list?!

In terms of the NYT list, there's no data yet. The latest chart had a cut-off date of Aug. 1; Winds debuted on Aug. 4.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/books ... &ref=books" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seriously, it's all public information ... not sure why this is so hard.

Hunchback Jack wrote:They're still sinking a bunch of money into promotional tours and advertising.

I think I'd disagree with this. TheKJA is on a whirlwind tour of just the Northeastern U.S. (very easy travel distances) that he is doing by train (cheaper), and Bobo is not even supposed to appear at all of the stops (one less person to pay for). And Keith is doing things like washing his clothes in the sink, which tells me they've got a virtually non-existent expense account.

As far as advertising goes, I haven't seen anything that's not on a website controlled by either Tor or the HLP.

Frankly, the whole thing seems pretty weak to me. Certainly, it's not as comprehensive an effort as was made for PoD.