HFQ snippet request

Keith_w wrote:Can I introduce you to L. E. Modesitt Jr., born 19 October 1943 and still writing and attending WorldCons? I just saw a picture of him with Robert J. Sawyer at the current one in Seattle. Robert A. Heinlein had his last book published when he was 77 (Job: A comedy of Justice). Our esteemed author is also 1 year younger than I, so please do not hustle him into his grave nor me into mine.

Oh crap, L.E. Modesitt is that old? He has at least four series that I absolutely love, but if he's 82 he'd better do a Robert Jordan and get someone to write all the Recluse novels for him that he won't have time to write!

This is nearly as depressing as when I found out that Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's (although he's managed to write two books since) or that Marion Zimmer Bradley was dead just as I was really getting into her Darkover novels. (And I just learned that sometimes ignorance is bliss when it comes to the personal lives of your favorite writers. Do not read her Wikipedia page if you like her!)

And yeah, when Heinlein died I took it really hard. Asimov too. Now one of you jokers will probably tell me that Arthur C. Clarke is dead as well! Oh crap, at least he lived to the age of 90 - I'd be THRILLED if RFC lasts that long!

Knowing that you will never read another book by one of your favorite authors is devastating. Anne McCaffery was still alive last time I checked, and her collaborations with her son have been pretty good, although I'm not fond of his solo endeavors - his books seem to read like an outline, rather than the grand adventure that the Planet Pern with its thread-fighting dragons gave to all of us. I still remember the day I opened up "Dragonflight" and started the adventure. If you haven't read those books yet, you're in for a serious treat, and you're going to want your own dragon by the end of the first book! I still want one! (Plus Michael Whelan did most of the covers, and he's my favorite cover artist by far! And he's still alive! He painted the cover of Heinlein's last novel "Job" and the last Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson "Wheel of Time" novel) It makes a really nice wallpaper for your computer by the way...

Ack! Anne McCaffery died in 2011! No wonder her son is writing Pern novels now instead of her. There goes another of the great ones. Too bad they usually don't strike greatness until they're in their 40s or later. (Asimov and Heinlein excluded.)

RFC says in his interviews on his Baen page that he could have been a published author ten years earlier if he'd given it a shot. It's too bad we all lost that decade of books he might have written.

All right, I'm going to end this post before I learn that any other of my favorite authors are pushing up daisies!

Terry Pratchett died in March.

jchilds wrote:Terry Pratchett died in March.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

PLEASE don't tell me who else is dead so I can at least hope for more novels from them!

Did Pratchett have another novel in the works? If so, someone could finish it for him... not that I'm holding out a great deal of hope, and his sense of humor was what made his books great. The Discworld is an absolutely unique place that's awfully fun to read about. The city of Ankh Mopork was a character all by itself, and how many authors can say that about the setting of many of their books?

Where is prolong when you seriously need it? Pratchett could have written Discworld novels forever, since they're fantasy, and Asimov was writing up until pretty much the day he died. As much as I've enjoyed many of his non-fiction books, which make hard core science understandable and interesting, I sure wish he hadn't taken so much time off from writing SF. The Foundation Series was rightly voted the greatest SF trilogy of the first half of the 20th century. Don't gripe at me that the books were printed in the 1950s, since they originally appeared a few chapters at a time in the 1940s SF magazine Astounding, and were then assembled into book form and printed as the trilogy. (The chapters appeared in Astounding at about the rate RFC is giving us snippets lately I might add!)

I didn't find the later Foundation books to be as good, but that was probably because the meat of the story (and the tension of Terminus taking on the galactic empire during a full-fledged collapse) was over.

Honestly, Asimov is the only SF writer who could sit down and write something interesting about just about any subject. His joke book is still one of my favorite books of humor of all time, even though I'm not Jewish, so I don't get a lot of the punch lines! To this day I can still remember the first joke - which he used to illustrate the point that humor is often switching abruptly from one point of view to another.

Roughly, here's her's the joke:
"Did you hear that Mr. Lebowitz fell down the stairs and died?"
"Oh that's terrible!"
"Yeah, he broke his glasses too!"

Not the greatest joke I've ever heard, yet I still remember it four decades later. Go figure...

Needless to say, I won't write any of the jokes from his "Dirty Jokes" chapter here! Ok, maybe one, and they were all pretty tame. The book was in my highly conservative local library after all!

Duckk, I apologize, but I don't think anyone will be offended by this joke, and I've used it in real life a few times. (Ok, maybe the women in the forums might be miffed, but the joke can be told from either the male or female point of view, and it's probably funnier from the viewpoint of a woman, so... )

Mr. Jones unexpectedly gets home from work early and finds his best friend in bed with his wife.
"Joe," he says to his friend, "I'm married to her so I have to, but you?"

(I get lots of mileage out of that joke at my ex-wife's expense.)

Ok, back to RFC - PLEASE live a long, happy, fruitful life, write lots more books, and finish the HH and Safehold series - and the Multiverse if you can. I could happily live with that. Another Fury book would be icing on the cake, and you can get back to Bahzell (as if you need my permission!) as soon as you've finished your SF series. (I enjoy swords and sorcery as much as anyone after all.)

Dictate as fast as you can my friend, because many of us here on the forums won't be around to read the final novels. We sincerely pray that you'll live long enough to finish them though!

And while you're at it, could you please post another snippet?

Don't panic, McGuiness, but make sure you pre-order the last Discworld book RIGHT NOW from Discworld.com before their special embossed edition sells out. It's called The Shepherd's Crown and is due out on 27 August (there's a Discworld Diary coming too) and they are VERY reliable sellers. Alas. you're too late for the extra-special gold-slipcase edition but Waterstones has a different one at https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-sh ... 0857534828 without the gold.

Cheers

John

McGuiness wrote:

jchilds wrote:Terry Pratchett died in March.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

PLEASE don't tell me who else is dead so I can at least hope for more novels from them!

Did Pratchett have another novel in the works? If so, someone could finish it for him... not that I'm holding out a great deal of hope, and his sense of humor was what made his books great. The Discworld is an absolutely unique place that's awfully fun to read about. The city of Ankh Mopork was a character all by itself, and how many authors can say that about the setting of many of their books?

Where is prolong when you seriously need it? Pratchett could have written Discworld novels forever, since they're fantasy, and Asimov was writing up until pretty much the day he died. As much as I've enjoyed many of his non-fiction books, which make hard core science understandable and interesting, I sure wish he hadn't taken so much time off from writing SF. The Foundation Series was rightly voted the greatest SF trilogy of the first half of the 20th century. Don't gripe at me that the books were printed in the 1950s, since they originally appeared a few chapters at a time in the 1940s SF magazine Astounding, and were then assembled into book form and printed as the trilogy. (The chapters appeared in Astounding at about the rate RFC is giving us snippets lately I might add!)

I didn't find the later Foundation books to be as good, but that was probably because the meat of the story (and the tension of Terminus taking on the galactic empire during a full-fledged collapse) was over.

Honestly, Asimov is the only SF writer who could sit down and write something interesting about just about any subject. His joke book is still one of my favorite books of humor of all time, even though I'm not Jewish, so I don't get a lot of the punch lines! To this day I can still remember the first joke - which he used to illustrate the point that humor is often switching abruptly from one point of view to another.

Roughly, here's her's the joke:
"Did you hear that Mr. Lebowitz fell down the stairs and died?"
"Oh that's terrible!"
"Yeah, he broke his glasses too!"

Not the greatest joke I've ever heard, yet I still remember it four decades later. Go figure...

Needless to say, I won't write any of the jokes from his "Dirty Jokes" chapter here! Ok, maybe one, and they were all pretty tame. The book was in my highly conservative local library after all!

Duckk, I apologize, but I don't think anyone will be offended by this joke, and I've used it in real life a few times. (Ok, maybe the women in the forums might be miffed, but the joke can be told from either the male or female point of view, and it's probably funnier from the viewpoint of a woman, so... )

Mr. Jones unexpectedly gets home from work early and finds his best friend in bed with his wife.
"Joe," he says to his friend, "I'm married to her so I have to, but you?"

(I get lots of mileage out of that joke at my ex-wife's expense.)

Ok, back to RFC - PLEASE live a long, happy, fruitful life, write lots more books, and finish the HH and Safehold series - and the Multiverse if you can. I could happily live with that. Another Fury book would be icing on the cake, and you can get back to Bahzell (as if you need my permission!) as soon as you've finished your SF series. (I enjoy swords and sorcery as much as anyone after all.)

Dictate as fast as you can my friend, because many of us here on the forums won't be around to read the final novels. We sincerely pray that you'll live long enough to finish them though!

And while you're at it, could you please post another snippet?

McGuiness wrote:

Keith_w wrote:Can I introduce you to L. E. Modesitt Jr., born 19 October 1943 and still writing and attending WorldCons? I just saw a picture of him with Robert J. Sawyer at the current one in Seattle. Robert A. Heinlein had his last book published when he was 77 (Job: A comedy of Justice). Our esteemed author is also 1 year younger than I, so please do not hustle him into his grave nor me into mine.

Oh crap, L.E. Modesitt is that old? He has at least four series that I absolutely love, but if he's 82 he'd better do a Robert Jordan and get someone to write all the Recluse novels for him that he won't have time to write!

<snipped for brevity>

RFC says in his interviews on his Baen page that he could have been a published author ten years earlier if he'd given it a shot. It's too bad we all lost that decade of books he might have written.

All right, I'm going to end this post before I learn that any other of my favorite authors are pushing up daisies!

He's only 72 - so you have an extra decade! As for RFC starting a decade earlier - he would have been a very different author if he had started then, and may never have a written a word we liked. Be grateful for what we have ! and for all the other authors that you read and love. Valar Morghulis.

John Prigent wrote:Don't panic, McGuiness, but make sure you pre-order the last Discworld book RIGHT NOW from Discworld.com before their special embossed edition sells out. It's called The Shepherd's Crown and is due out on 27 August (there's a Discworld Diary coming too) and they are VERY reliable sellers. Alas. you're too late for the extra-special gold-slipcase edition but Waterstones has a different one at https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-sh ... 0857534828 without the gold.

Cheers

John

THANK YOU!

I'm going to miss Terry Pratchett a great deal, but it's a comfort to know that there's one more novel left. I wish it featured Commander Vimes, but I like the Tiffany Aching books as well, and when the author is dead, beggars can't be choosers, they can only be grateful!

I'm utterly astonished that Pratchett managed to write three books after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, including two really good ones featuring Commander Vimes, who I think is a hoot, and another Chalk novel.

Goodbye Terry Pratchett. Your legacy will live on for centuries to come, since your setting is unique and your humor is timeless, not to mention the dozens of memorable characters you created.

"IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO GO NOW."

"But I just finished this book."

"FOR WHICH YOUR FANS WILL BE VERY GRATEFUL."

"How sharp is that scythe anyway?"

SNIP!

I wonder how ironic you found that moment, and whether you laughed?

Keith_w wrote:

McGuiness wrote:Oh crap, L.E. Modesitt is that old? He has at least four series that I absolutely love, but if he's 82 he'd better do a Robert Jordan and get someone to write all the Recluse novels for him that he won't have time to write!

<snipped for brevity>

RFC says in his interviews on his Baen page that he could have been a published author ten years earlier if he'd given it a shot. It's too bad we all lost that decade of books he might have written.

All right, I'm going to end this post before I learn that any other of my favorite authors are pushing up daisies!

He's only 72 - so you have an extra decade! As for RFC starting a decade earlier - he would have been a very different author if he had started then, and may never have a written a word we liked. Be grateful for what we have ! and for all the other authors that you read and love. Valar Morghulis.

Whew, so Modesitt will likely be around quite a while longer than my limited math skills predicted! That's the best news I've had all day, since every author I've researched on Wikipedia turned out to be dead!

I swear I'm not going near Wikipedia again to see what my favorite authors are up to. Pushing up daisies is not a new job skill I want to see them develop!

I suppose whether we should be grateful for the RFC we have, or wish that he'd gotten started sooner depends a great deal on whether he had the HH, Dahak, Safehold, Starfire, the Multiverse, and his solo books already conceived and possibly outlined during that lost decade, or whether he'd have mostly used that time to polish his writing skills. I wouldn't exactly complain if all the novels we're waiting for him to write in the next decade were already written!

No, RFC wouldn't be the same author whose works we enjoy so much. Not that he'd be a bad author by any stretch, and he'd have another decade of polishing his technique under his belt by now. The books would certainly be different, and some would never have been written, while others we'll likely never see would have. The question is "Would we like the greater quantity of books he'd have written by now more than the books he's actually written?"

Since he might have gone ahead and killed off Honor like he planned to, we might not like the answer to that question!

We'll never know of course, but it would be fascinating to hop into a time machine, tell him to get writing a decade earlier because he was going to be a successful SF novelist, then compare what he produced vs. what we have so far. Any other books or series that he wrote would be fascinating, and presuming we could store our digital copies of his current writings in an unchangeable time bubble, we'd actually end up with more than an extra decade of RFC's writing, because of the differences.

Yes, there's probably a plot for a time travel novel in there somewhere, so anyone who wants to give it a shot, go for it!

If I had the option to travel back in time like that, I'd just take the entire Harry Potter series with me and retire in luxury! Of course not being English would cause me some problems, since I couldn't figure out the language differences - I distinctively remember having problems realizing JK Rowling was referring to Harry's sneakers at one point! Besides, she earned every cent, even though she concedes now that she made a mistake and that Harry and Hermione should have ended up together, which I was screaming for from the 4th book on! Oh well, in some alternate universe some brilliant young wizards and witches have been born to carry on Hermione's incomparable brains and Harry's indomitable courage...

So on Monday I go in for surgery to repair a ruptured tendon in my arm, yesterday a friend and co-worker was admitted to the hospital for a stroke, and my wife tells me they may cut her job. Been just that kind of a week. Not sure if the next snippet is going to be upbeat or not, but I could really use one to take my mind off things.
And while there is never any time table for this sort of thing, it has been three weeks or so I think.
Not pushing mind you, and I know your life, Mr. Weber, is also filled with problems and deadlines, still It might be nice to head back to cheery old Safehold where all they have to worry with is war, rebellion, religious strife, an orbital sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, visitations from computerized pseudo-religious megalomaniacs, and the survival (long-term) of the human race.
OH hell I'm not beyond begging.
SNIPPET PLEASE!!!!!!


Larry

to Paraphrase Bruce Buffer:

IT'S
T I I I IME

Heck, I'm not reconciled to Stanley Weinbaum's premature death.

It's easier to take if you have written a thank you to them.