Should we create 2012 Works? Seems odd to have a title for a 2012 work before we have anything for 2011. Also seems odd to have something announced so far in advance.
When we've had something announced so far in advance in the past, it has tended not to be published at the original time, under the original title, matching the original description, if it's published at all. Appeasement, The Battle of Teutoberg Forest, Winter of Our Discontent. . . . Turtle Fan 16:39, March 20, 2010 (UTC)
- I'm pretty sure I created an article for the Big Switch, so we do have one article in the 2011 category (or we should anyway). As for titles--we can always move things. TR 18:21, March 20, 2010 (UTC)
- The Big Switch?
- My point with titles was more that works announced this far in advance tend not to come out as advertised. Turtle Fan 20:53, March 20, 2010 (UTC)
Earlier Release?[]
Can't decide if I'm pleased by the prospect of Eruptions coming out earlier than announced or not. I liked the idea that TWTPE might get most of HT's attention for a couple of years, and that Eruptions had some additional time for revision, and that, hopefully, both series would be stronger for it.
On the other hand (if this new date is true), I was looking forward to this series quite a bit, so having it earlier than I expected is kind of nice. TR 16:48, February 22, 2011 (UTC)
- I think it suggests good things. While TWTPE did get better in 2010 than it had been in 2009, I'm not sure credit is due to HT's empty plate; and if it is, I'm not too fond of this idea that he should tell us "You want a halfway decent novel? Well, then you'll have to give me all year to work on it and nothing else!" One novel, one short story, and one anthology that did not contain a single new short story: Last year is absolutely astounding for its laziness.
- His collections never contain a new story. Seems unfair to indict him for that. TR 17:46, February 22, 2011 (UTC)
- Huh, looking at the Bibliography I see you're right, with one possible exception. I could've sworn there's usually something new in those things.
- A&OP had nothing that was less than three and a half years old. That means that any veteran reader would have had time to track each of the stories down independently--and since the book was marketed to glom off the success of a previous series, it would seem to be targeting veterans rather than readers who could be introduced to his writing as some of the other anthologies were.
- Hell, earlier in the year I had bought John Joseph Adams's Federations just for that ridiculous "Someone Is Stealing . . . " thing. A better bet than buying A&OP for it: The Adams collection had stories by other authors, both of which I'd never heard of before. Some of them were quite good. Others I never did get around to reading, though they showed promise. Turtle Fan 17:55, February 22, 2011 (UTC)
- Meanwhile, HT's already committed to other projects this year anyway, though no full-length novels; and if he's got enough ideas ready-formed for this series, I'd rather he just jump right into it. Sitting around while good ideas grow moss isn't always harmful to quality, but it often is. Turtle Fan 17:44, February 22, 2011 (UTC)
Cover and Summary[]
may be found here. Nothing revealing on any front, but it's nice to know what the cover looks like. TR 21:24, April 25, 2011 (UTC)
- The cover's gorgeous, but we all know what happens when you judge a book by its cover, especially a Turtledove book. The "summary," well . . . Turtle Fan 21:29, April 25, 2011 (UTC)
Reviews are up[]
Publishers Weekly seems unfavorable, whereas the person who writes as Harriet Klausner seemed to rather like it.
- Harriet Klausner likes everything she reads. I remember skimming through a discussion on an Amazon user forum where someone crunched some numbers and figured out that she posted an average of six reviews a day, most of them five-star. So impressing her is not hard. Turtle Fan 21:30, October 24, 2011 (UTC)
- I mean to type "the person who calls him/herself Harriet Klausner". In small defense of this particular review, usually Klausner's reviews read like re-writes of dust jacket summaries. This one has enough detail that the writer had to have at least skimmed the book. TR 15:52, October 25, 2011 (UTC)
- Actually it kind of reminded me of when you're in college, and you didn't bother to read for class, so right before you get there, you skim the reading and latch onto a few details which seem major enough to allow you to bluff your way through if necessary.
- Then again, I do tend to take a pretty low view of Klausner myself. Five stars for The Golden Shrine indeed. Turtle Fan 03:10, October 26, 2011 (UTC)
The fact that it is a personal story for a family rather than a global epic like everything else HT writes does not bode well for our project here, regardless of the actual merits of the series. TR 17:55, October 24, 2011 (UTC)
- We'd had such high hopes for this one. . . . Steven Harper was finally going to give us another real Canadian PM, Prince Charles was going to show up, and on and on. Thinking back on it we did come up with some rather strange ideas on that score.
- Plenty of opportunity for the Ferguson clan to watch the news reports about PM of Canada saying this thing or that thing. TR 15:52, October 25, 2011 (UTC)
- I agree as far as opportunities are concerned. Remember ItPoME was basically a personal family saga too. Given the POD had been some 70 years earlier, we wouldn't get many present day historicals but with Eruption, we potentially could. As for the quality of the story, I guess we will have to wait and see. ML4E 21:02, October 25, 2011 (UTC)
- I suppose. HT does like to have ordinary schlubs run into the great and powerful. The advantage to a large cast is that he can spread it around. Chester Martin can bump into TR and we think "Oh, that's cool." But if he'd bumped into TR and Debs and Sinclair and Hoover and Smith and Taft and Truman and Custer and Wilson and Knight and Featherston and Morrell and Abell and Stuart, etc, while remaining an ordinary schlub.
- (I guess the closest HT ever came to doing that was when Yeager met Eisenhower, Einstein, and Mussolini. My thoughts alternated between "Oh, look, an accurate Del Rey cover, for once" and "Can someone please say what those three were doing together?")
- As for quality, fair point that we should wait and see. But we've all read a great deal of Turtledove and I really do feel this format will not play to his strengths. You mention ItPoME, and I think the comparison is valid based on what we now know. I found that an interesting thought experiment, but not a compelling novel. On the other hand, RB was only two POVs, and two fairly closely related ones at that, and that's my all-time favorite Turtledove book. However, while we saw a lot of Shakespeare's personal life, so much so that just exploring the atmosphere he inhabited was one of the book's joys, it wasn't about him. (And still less was it about de Vega.) Turtle Fan 03:10, October 26, 2011 (UTC)
- Still, this doesn't sound terribly interesting. Yet another Southern Californicator POV whose life sucks frets over his kids while all hell breaks loose around them? Frankly I don't think that kind of macro-to-micro human touch plays to HT's strengths. All the times that George Enos went missing, and then when he died for real, and Sylvia would have scenes where she had to face the prospect of raising the kids without their father--Those all felt kinda halfhearted, like HT just wanted to get through them so he could get back to writing combat scenes and geopolitical power plays. Krispos offered some perspective for this sort of thing in the first half of the first book, particularly after the cholera plague killed his parents and sister; but while his grief was believable, he mostly paid attention to the need to overcome devastation on a village-wide scale. One could argue that the desperation of the circumstances denied him the luxury of a proper mourning period, but there was not even a "Now, my father, I can mourn for you" mini-scene like the one in Dune.
- Truthfully, I wasn't excited about this book to begin with--I had all I could do to remember it was even coming out--and I find these summaries--not the critical parts of the reviews, but the summaries which seem quite closely aligned with one another--quite disheartening. Turtle Fan 21:30, October 24, 2011 (UTC)
Well, it has dropped.[]
I won't be seeing my copy for a couple of weeks--I ordered another book that won't release until next Tuesday (truth be told, I'm looking forward to that book more).
- I think I might take a pass on this one altogether. I wasn't that excited about it before the two reviews we saw went up, and they both made the book sound downright boring to me.
- One or two other reviews circulating are more favorable. Re-reading the PW review, that particular reviewer seemed to spend a lot of time lamenting HT's "male revenge" fantasy. In other words, there seems to have been a bit of ideology mixed in. TR 04:31, December 7, 2011 (UTC)
- Hmm, true. Doctrinaire reviewers are cause for caution, certainly. Turtle Fan 20:27, December 7, 2011 (UTC)
- What's the other book you're getting? Turtle Fan 04:01, December 7, 2011 (UTC)
- Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol. 4. TR 04:31, December 7, 2011 (UTC)
- Never much cared for Judge Dredd myself, but enjoy. Turtle Fan 20:27, December 7, 2011 (UTC)
I have found a few preview pages on Google. It appears we may create pages for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ali Khamenei-naturally, they are only idenitfied by title, but HT goes into sufficient detail that it's "obvious" who they are.
- Well that's pretty cool. Hopefully HT's finally willing to make the bold statement that political figures who had not retired by the time of his writing exist.
- Or maybe somewhere in the text we'll learn that the "obvious" hints actually talk about Ahmoud Mahmedinejad. :( Turtle Fan 04:01, December 7, 2011 (UTC)
- Makes sense. Birmo had that happen in Without Warning too. Iran decides that, with the US gone, Israel will not be able to defend itself on its own and sucker-punches it. Israel pulls out the nukes and beats Iran like a drum with them, then launches preemptive strikes on everyone who had voiced support for Iran, of which there were many. Unfortunately, writing based on the endemic hatred that some of those countries have for Israel will never expose an author to charges of writing something unrealistic. Turtle Fan 20:27, December 7, 2011 (UTC)
Not much on any other important persons or events. After our experiences with TBS on Google, I suggest Google should be treated with a grain of salt until about a month after the book is released. TR 20:06, December 6, 2011 (UTC)
- True, though it was quite accurate with regards to LatA. Turtle Fan 04:01, December 7, 2011 (UTC)
- There is that I suppose. TR 04:31, December 7, 2011 (UTC)
I stopped by a bookstore and took a look at it. At first it looked like it would be all from Colin Ferguson's POV (first scene waking up from a bender in his Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Motel 6 room while vacationing at Yellowstone) but it is mainly an info-dump about the geology. I skipped through bits and pieces and found it does, indeed have his kids as other POVs. Not sure when the volcano blows but by page 120 he's back in L.A. and being visited by a Geology grad student he met at Yellowstone (and gave him the info-dump). Looks like gratuitous sex scene coming up but I didn't look for it. I'll wait until I can pick up a copy at the library as usual. ML4E 00:45, December 10, 2011 (UTC)