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elanya at 01:21pm on 30/04/2003
elanya at 01:21pm on 30/04/2003Joel and I are having something of a disagreement about a book. He really liked it, and I think it is crap.
The book in question is the, um... fifth book in the first Legend of the Five Rings book series, the Crab Clan book. I don't now if any of my friends out there are familiar at all with this series, but they are books writen for a card game/roleplaying series. There are seven books in this series, one for each of the seven main clans (In order: Scorpion, Unicorn, Crane, Phoenix, Crab, Dragon, Lion). I've read all the others. The books are written by about four different authors. Some of them are pretty interesting, because they have interesting characters, and plots, and what have you. The way the series is set up, clearly the authors have either collaborated well, or else they were given scripted stories to tell. I'm not sure if it was a matter of true collaboration or done through the directiiopn of an overall editor. No editor is named, that I've noticed, but the stories are all very interconnected. This has some good and bad points. Sometimes, books lack closure because the events that happen in them are explained/resolved in other books. Other times, things that should probably be suspenseful are completely ruined because you know from other books how they are going to pan out. As an example of this, I already know how one of the fairly maor characters in the Crab book is going to die, and why, because it happened in the Unicorn book. Another issue I have with the series is that the characterization of some characters who appear in multiple books is not consistent. To an extent, this can be explained by the fact that you are seeing their actions, or hearing them speak, from different points of view, and the 'pov character' so to speak, is colouring things with their interpretation. But sometimes, these are pretty damned stretched, I think, and much more a result of the same characters not being written consistently by the differnt authors. There is one character in specific that this has been done to, who appears first in the Unicorn book. Not only is his story still unresolved, and likely to remain so, his characterization is all over the place in other books.
But, still, the series is pretty decent. (I just realized, I sound like
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<lj-cut text="book review, sorta...">
Joel and I are having something of a disagreement about a book. He really liked it, and I think it is crap.
The book in question is the, um... fifth book in the first Legend of the Five Rings book series, the Crab Clan book. I don't now if any of my friends out there are familiar at all with this series, but they are books writen for a card game/roleplaying series. There are seven books in this series, one for each of the seven main clans (In order: Scorpion, Unicorn, Crane, Phoenix, Crab, Dragon, Lion). I've read all the others. The books are written by about four different authors. Some of them are pretty interesting, because they have interesting characters, and plots, and what have you. The way the series is set up, clearly the authors have either collaborated well, or else they were given scripted stories to tell. I'm not sure if it was a matter of true collaboration or done through the directiiopn of an overall editor. No editor is named, that I've noticed, but the stories are all very interconnected. This has some good and bad points. Sometimes, books lack closure because the events that happen in them are explained/resolved in other books. Other times, things that should probably be suspenseful are completely ruined because you know from other books how they are going to pan out. As an example of this, I already know how one of the fairly maor characters in the Crab book is going to die, and why, because it happened in the Unicorn book. Another issue I have with the series is that the characterization of some characters who appear in multiple books is not consistent. To an extent, this can be explained by the fact that you are seeing their actions, or hearing them speak, from different points of view, and the 'pov character' so to speak, is colouring things with their interpretation. But sometimes, these are pretty damned stretched, I think, and much more a result of the same characters not being written consistently by the differnt authors. There is one character in specific that this has been done to, who appears first in the Unicorn book. Not only is his story still unresolved, and likely to remain so, his characterization is all over the place in other books.
But, still, the series is pretty decent. (I just realized, I sound like <li-user=illumancer> making an 'anime report' here, hee!). The Crab book, now. The Crab, it has been explained to me, are supposed to be blindly arrogant. That's fine. I can accept that. Their job, in this setting is to man a wall that separated the empire, Rokugan, from the Shadowlands (a tainted, evil place). They stop the Shadowlands creatures from breaking past the wall and invading the empire.... on a daily basis. (Which makes me wonder how they ever had an opportunity to build said wall in the first place, but, I digress ^-^).Their job is to protect the Empire from this threat. In the books, the Empire is kind of destabilized. The current Emporor is sickly and weak, and when he is alert enough to take control, he is a whiney, evil, brat. His wife pretty much rules, and she is rather shifty herself, to say the least (but arguably, not completely evil). In the Crab book, the head of the clan (the Daimyo), gets convinced somehow that the best way to protect the emperor is to join forces with the shadowlands, and take over. The idea is that the Crab are too strong to become tainted, so they can use their enemies to the advantagebof the empire, and then, presumably, turn on them once they have control of the empire. Now, I haven't actually gotten to the part where they make that deal yet, I'm just in the build-up, about a third of the way in (these books aren't very long, I read the other five in about 2-3 days, ehren I have no internet). But I'm finding I'm not *convinced*. It is hard to explain. In theory, I can understand how they would come to that kind of decision. After all... they are characterize by that whole Blind Arrogance thing, and if the Daimyo thinks that the best way to protect the country is by bringing it under his power, and is arrogant enough to think he can use the Shadowlands wiothout them using him, I can accept that. But it isn't quite that simple. For one thing.... there is an Evil Sorceror (tm). And I mean, litterally, ever passage I read with this guy makes me think "Well, gee, I guess Mordecai Blackheart wasn;t the kindly old benevolent Wizard we thought he was. I guess the Black robes, and Tower of dark stones that radiates evilness and from which the occasional tortured shriek can be heard should have been a hint!". I mean really. He does have that kind of tower (his name is Kuni Yori, though, not Mordecai Blackheart ;). There are severed heads of strange creatures hanging from the ceiling! One of the characters goes nside, and sees this. He isn't disturbed, on principle,m by his father's magician torturing Shadowlands creatures: they are the ennemy. I guess I can accept that too. But really. I do't understand how only *one* character can think this guy is at all shiufty :p
There seems to be a... I can't exactly phrase it well, but a contradiction in their arrogance. One one hand, they are all like "We have to use every weapon available to fight the Shadowlands, they are the ennemy, this is our place, it is what we do, and the other clans are all pussies because they could never hack it." The Crab are more about brute force than cunning and tactics. But they also have the attitude that they can;t possibly be corrupted, because they understand the Shadowlands, they are toostrong to fall into that temptation. They aren't allowing themselves to be manipulated, they are in complete control, so it is okay... I don't know. I don't see why their arrogance shuldn't be telling them that the problems of the empire are beneath them, that let the rest fall, at least they will still be true to thrie clan. or even that, if the empire needs them to take control, they they certainly don't need to allythemselves with a force that they have consistently held out agains for centuries in ordeer to win. Blah. I'm not expessing this very well. I don't think there is any subtelty to the book, or the manipulation here.
The Crab book, I will note, is written by a guy who has never written much fiction before. He's written gaming manuals. There is some really bad writing/editing in the book, and I think it is affecting my suspension of disbelief. I can understand the *story* but it is being told so poorly that I';m having trouble swallowing it. The author is failing to convince me of the arugments, so I can't understand, even from their point of view, how any of the characters could get that deluded. But then again, they haven't given in yet, either. I'm dubious, but I guess I'll have to wait and see.</lj-cut>
And, completely unrelated, <lj-cut text="I'll see you all in Hell!">
<b>The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to <i>the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!</i></b><br>Here is how you matched up against all the levels:<br><table cellspacing="1" style="margin: 5px; background-color: #000000; border: none; font: 10pt arial, verdana, 'sans serif';"><tr style="font: bold 12pt arial, verdana, 'sans serif'; text-align: center; color: #ffffff; background-color: #333333;"><th><b>Level</b></th><th><b>Score</b></th></tr><tr style="background-color: #220033; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#0" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Purgatory</a></b> (Repenting Believers)</td><td style="color: #3344bb; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>Very Low</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #110022; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#1" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 1 - Limbo</a></b> (Virtuous Non-Believers)</td><td style="color: #3344bb; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>Very Low</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #220011; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#2" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 2</a></b> (Lustful)</td><td style="color: #ff1133; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>High</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #330011; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#3" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 3</a></b> (Gluttonous)</td><td style="color: #ff1133; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>High</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #440011; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#4" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 4</a></b> (Prodigal and Avaricious)</td><td style="color: #aa33aa; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>Moderate</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #550011; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#5" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 5</a></b> (Wrathful and Gloomy)</td><td style="color: #aa33aa; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>Moderate</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #660011; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#6" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 6 - The City of Dis</a></b> (Heretics)</td><td style="color: #c40033; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>Very High</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #770011; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#7" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 7</a></b> (Violent)</td><td style="color: #ff1133; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>High</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #880011; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#8" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 8- the Malebolge</a></b> (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)</td><td style="color: #c40033; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>Very High</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #990011; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#9" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 9 - Cocytus</a></b> (Treacherous)</td><td style="color: #aa33aa; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>Moderate</b></td></tr></table><br><b>Take the <a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-test.html">Dante's Inferno Hell Test</a></b></lj-cut>
And now, I'm going to the gym, arrr.
Joel and I are having something of a disagreement about a book. He really liked it, and I think it is crap.
The book in question is the, um... fifth book in the first Legend of the Five Rings book series, the Crab Clan book. I don't now if any of my friends out there are familiar at all with this series, but they are books writen for a card game/roleplaying series. There are seven books in this series, one for each of the seven main clans (In order: Scorpion, Unicorn, Crane, Phoenix, Crab, Dragon, Lion). I've read all the others. The books are written by about four different authors. Some of them are pretty interesting, because they have interesting characters, and plots, and what have you. The way the series is set up, clearly the authors have either collaborated well, or else they were given scripted stories to tell. I'm not sure if it was a matter of true collaboration or done through the directiiopn of an overall editor. No editor is named, that I've noticed, but the stories are all very interconnected. This has some good and bad points. Sometimes, books lack closure because the events that happen in them are explained/resolved in other books. Other times, things that should probably be suspenseful are completely ruined because you know from other books how they are going to pan out. As an example of this, I already know how one of the fairly maor characters in the Crab book is going to die, and why, because it happened in the Unicorn book. Another issue I have with the series is that the characterization of some characters who appear in multiple books is not consistent. To an extent, this can be explained by the fact that you are seeing their actions, or hearing them speak, from different points of view, and the 'pov character' so to speak, is colouring things with their interpretation. But sometimes, these are pretty damned stretched, I think, and much more a result of the same characters not being written consistently by the differnt authors. There is one character in specific that this has been done to, who appears first in the Unicorn book. Not only is his story still unresolved, and likely to remain so, his characterization is all over the place in other books.
But, still, the series is pretty decent. (I just realized, I sound like <li-user=illumancer> making an 'anime report' here, hee!). The Crab book, now. The Crab, it has been explained to me, are supposed to be blindly arrogant. That's fine. I can accept that. Their job, in this setting is to man a wall that separated the empire, Rokugan, from the Shadowlands (a tainted, evil place). They stop the Shadowlands creatures from breaking past the wall and invading the empire.... on a daily basis. (Which makes me wonder how they ever had an opportunity to build said wall in the first place, but, I digress ^-^).Their job is to protect the Empire from this threat. In the books, the Empire is kind of destabilized. The current Emporor is sickly and weak, and when he is alert enough to take control, he is a whiney, evil, brat. His wife pretty much rules, and she is rather shifty herself, to say the least (but arguably, not completely evil). In the Crab book, the head of the clan (the Daimyo), gets convinced somehow that the best way to protect the emperor is to join forces with the shadowlands, and take over. The idea is that the Crab are too strong to become tainted, so they can use their enemies to the advantagebof the empire, and then, presumably, turn on them once they have control of the empire. Now, I haven't actually gotten to the part where they make that deal yet, I'm just in the build-up, about a third of the way in (these books aren't very long, I read the other five in about 2-3 days, ehren I have no internet). But I'm finding I'm not *convinced*. It is hard to explain. In theory, I can understand how they would come to that kind of decision. After all... they are characterize by that whole Blind Arrogance thing, and if the Daimyo thinks that the best way to protect the country is by bringing it under his power, and is arrogant enough to think he can use the Shadowlands wiothout them using him, I can accept that. But it isn't quite that simple. For one thing.... there is an Evil Sorceror (tm). And I mean, litterally, ever passage I read with this guy makes me think "Well, gee, I guess Mordecai Blackheart wasn;t the kindly old benevolent Wizard we thought he was. I guess the Black robes, and Tower of dark stones that radiates evilness and from which the occasional tortured shriek can be heard should have been a hint!". I mean really. He does have that kind of tower (his name is Kuni Yori, though, not Mordecai Blackheart ;). There are severed heads of strange creatures hanging from the ceiling! One of the characters goes nside, and sees this. He isn't disturbed, on principle,m by his father's magician torturing Shadowlands creatures: they are the ennemy. I guess I can accept that too. But really. I do't understand how only *one* character can think this guy is at all shiufty :p
There seems to be a... I can't exactly phrase it well, but a contradiction in their arrogance. One one hand, they are all like "We have to use every weapon available to fight the Shadowlands, they are the ennemy, this is our place, it is what we do, and the other clans are all pussies because they could never hack it." The Crab are more about brute force than cunning and tactics. But they also have the attitude that they can;t possibly be corrupted, because they understand the Shadowlands, they are toostrong to fall into that temptation. They aren't allowing themselves to be manipulated, they are in complete control, so it is okay... I don't know. I don't see why their arrogance shuldn't be telling them that the problems of the empire are beneath them, that let the rest fall, at least they will still be true to thrie clan. or even that, if the empire needs them to take control, they they certainly don't need to allythemselves with a force that they have consistently held out agains for centuries in ordeer to win. Blah. I'm not expessing this very well. I don't think there is any subtelty to the book, or the manipulation here.
The Crab book, I will note, is written by a guy who has never written much fiction before. He's written gaming manuals. There is some really bad writing/editing in the book, and I think it is affecting my suspension of disbelief. I can understand the *story* but it is being told so poorly that I';m having trouble swallowing it. The author is failing to convince me of the arugments, so I can't understand, even from their point of view, how any of the characters could get that deluded. But then again, they haven't given in yet, either. I'm dubious, but I guess I'll have to wait and see.</lj-cut>
And, completely unrelated, <lj-cut text="I'll see you all in Hell!">
<b>The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to <i>the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!</i></b><br>Here is how you matched up against all the levels:<br><table cellspacing="1" style="margin: 5px; background-color: #000000; border: none; font: 10pt arial, verdana, 'sans serif';"><tr style="font: bold 12pt arial, verdana, 'sans serif'; text-align: center; color: #ffffff; background-color: #333333;"><th><b>Level</b></th><th><b>Score</b></th></tr><tr style="background-color: #220033; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#0" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Purgatory</a></b> (Repenting Believers)</td><td style="color: #3344bb; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>Very Low</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #110022; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#1" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 1 - Limbo</a></b> (Virtuous Non-Believers)</td><td style="color: #3344bb; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>Very Low</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #220011; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#2" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 2</a></b> (Lustful)</td><td style="color: #ff1133; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>High</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #330011; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#3" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 3</a></b> (Gluttonous)</td><td style="color: #ff1133; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>High</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #440011; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#4" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 4</a></b> (Prodigal and Avaricious)</td><td style="color: #aa33aa; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>Moderate</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #550011; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#5" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 5</a></b> (Wrathful and Gloomy)</td><td style="color: #aa33aa; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>Moderate</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #660011; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#6" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 6 - The City of Dis</a></b> (Heretics)</td><td style="color: #c40033; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>Very High</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #770011; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#7" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 7</a></b> (Violent)</td><td style="color: #ff1133; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>High</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #880011; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#8" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 8- the Malebolge</a></b> (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)</td><td style="color: #c40033; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>Very High</b></td></tr><tr style="background-color: #990011; color: #eeeeee;"><td style="padding: 4px;"><b><a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html#9" style="color: #ff3344; text-decoration: underline;">Level 9 - Cocytus</a></b> (Treacherous)</td><td style="color: #aa33aa; background-color: #333333; padding: 4px;"><b>Moderate</b></td></tr></table><br><b>Take the <a href="http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-test.html">Dante's Inferno Hell Test</a></b></lj-cut>
And now, I'm going to the gym, arrr.
Then again...
Re: Then again...
Re: Then again...