Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-25626-20150324180019/@comment-874475-20150403051744

TR wrote:

I am intrigued by his "evil idea" for an AH. I assume, given his sense of humor, he means something more off-the-wall, like a world where men can have babies, or something. It's hard to imagine anything more evil than Nazis win/Commies win/Stalin is POTUS. Hopefully he gets a contract.

The whole "Evil Idea" for an AH can work, so long as you follow one simple rule. "You can get away with anything, so long as you back it up with a good story."  That's why I consider "The Last Article," Harry's true masterpiece of AH. It takes massive liberties and risks with the source material and it works aces and spades. For me, Harry's prime problem has always been that he takes massive risks with the subject matter but doesn't put any effort into them. Almost as if he expects you to be so overwhelmed by the idea, that you'll fail to notice that there's little to no story backing it up. This works for short stories, but for long drawn out series, they don't. The result is what ever Harry was trying to accomplish with the idea, backfires spectacularly.



The main reason I've stayed with HT for so long, when any sane man would've quit a long time ago, is because he's ideas are so good, that I hope that this time he'll get it right. These days, I've been burnt too many times, that I can no longer muster the effort to so much as care. I read the article, and while the idea behind “Bombs Away,” interests me, I won't be getting it. I did think about get it from the library like SJ suggested, but did that with Colonization and regretted it.

The point I'm laboriously trying to get to here without trying to sound whiny, and apologises if I do, is that in order to be a fan, you need to have both faith and trust in the author; And I have none.