Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

I've written two entries for Urban Dictionary, KJA and hack writer(of course linking to one another ).
They're now under reviewing, and I'm not too sure they'll make it(though I used clean language, better than UD seems to have as a standard), but if so, it'll be nice to have some "up" votes for them.

Not sure you'll be able to view these still under review, but...
KJA.
hack writer.

And of course, making more such defenitions("scientologist" is still strangely abesnt, and I'm too humble to make that one, but it's in the KJA tags) would be nice, especially people with such...talents as SC or Omph.

Well, umm, thanks for the interest, ya'll.

Anyway, it failed so far, maybe I needed to use less grammatically correct phrasing and more vulgar slang. Seems nothing is any good without dicks in it in that place.

Anyone else wants to help the people there understand what P&B are all about?

This is kind-of a toughy, you know?

I mean, I sometimes end up on that site when looking for definitions of unfamiliar slang, but I don't really know anything about it. My impression is that the contributors aren't the sort who read a lot of books...or who would necessary recognize the difference between a hack and a good writer even if they do.

So they probably wouldn't know KJA from Adam (or Eve)...or they're among his most diehard fans.

I guess I'm just not sure the users of the site are the best audience for the message. Sorry.

Yea, but it was on my favorites so I checked it out.

Any better dictionary/wiki' type site we can put the good word in without getting ignored? Wiki' of course wouldn't let us do that, it's far too...balanced(I wonder if they say something like "Hitler is thought to be a rather bad guy among some people". See, I mention it 24/7 ).

I am CONSTANTLY horrified by this "Prequel/Sequel" thread.

The funniest thing is that I'd never read any other KJA than his Dune stuff (pre-forums), but in an effort to see the OH side of things I picked up his "Hidden Empire" book, to see if "Dune" was clouding my view of his style and skill. But nope. SotSS is kicking some serious arse, I'm already on book 5.

I dare say you OHer's have made a KJA fanboy of me!

Yes, Simon, and I got the serious ass that's being kicked for ya rightchere:



Butt seriously, I wouldn't let too many people know you actually like those books. (Or the new Dune ones, either, for that matter.) I mean, I wouldn't ever bring them up in a context where you're trying to impress someone with your scifi savvy. You'll just come across as dumb.

(And that's only of benefit if the person you're trying to impress is dumb. )

I don't need to impress anyone, I'm a big fan of people just being honest and true to themselves. We all say stupid things from time to time, can't be helped...

If you like it you like it, I haven't read any of his stuff, so can't comment on it.

Simon wrote:I don't need to impress anyone, I'm a big fan of people just being honest and true to themselves.

Oh, OK. Getting a better picture now. Duh-huh.

We all say stupid things from time to time, can't be helped...

Yeah, but what can you say about someone who writes REALLY stupid things in book after book after book?

A Thing of Eternity wrote:If you like it you like it, I haven't read any of his stuff, so can't comment on it.

Last summer I read a few chapters while home in the States and I've read the synopses on Wikipedia and various reviews online. The things that sound interesting are mostly pinched from other authors; the things that are original to Kevin are mostly silly. (The names of the Hydrogues and Faeros alone are enough to induce terminal tittering.)

I didn't realize until the other day that the name of the series comes from the unique astrophysical situation of the planet of the humans-in-funny-costumes-with-funny-sounding-names aliens, the Ildirans; according to Wikipedia:

Ildira - The Capital of the Ildiran Empire, heavily populated primarily due to the fear of isolation. Ildira is in a binary system, however its unusually close proximity to two other star systems, results in seven individual suns being clearly visible with a high degree of magnitude in the Ildiran sky, as a result the planet experiences no night.

Having evolved on such a planet, the Ildirans are evidently terrified of the dark. (OK, quick quiz: What Azimov short am I now thinking of? )

Supposedly Kevin majored in physics or astrophysics, right? I wonder if he actually worked out the characteristics of the system to any degree. (Seriously...I doubt it.) As soon as I can get whatever data on the system he provides in the books, I'm going to run a simulation in Celestia and see whether it's really possible to have a planet where it would never get dark. If all the stars aren't close enough to share a barycenter (=be part of the same system), I suspect they'll be far enough away and appear small enough that the amount of light from them won't be that significant.

Verisimilitude: a prerequisite for discriminating readers.

SC wrote:Having evolved on such a planet, the Ildirans are evidently terrified of the dark. (OK, quick quiz: What Azimov short am I now thinking of? )

I, Robot?

No, wait, that's what the Dune Legends series is based on, my bad.

I'm on the 5th book now. I'm not sure I've ever read anything like it.

It's a strange mix between sci-fi and fantasy, leaning more toward fantasy. Which is cool, I like it, but I could see someone who digs the "science" in sci-fi not.

I just read a chapter where characters are flying around like Iceman (from X-men comics) shooting bolts of ice and energy at one another. It was a bit out there.... I like that sort of thing but it was out of place in the Saga series... still the books have many other great spots which make up for stuff like that.

Simon, since it's mostly fantasy there probably isn't much actual detail, but could you PM or email me any info on the Ildiran home star system?

no problem, I'll PM or post it here later.

Cheers/thanks.