I am about half-way through Jim Butcher's (that's
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jimbutcher)
First Lord's Fury, which is I believe the last book in his
Codex Alera series.
I resisted reading the CA for awhile, since the "pimpery" in the endpages of some of the
Dresden Files books rubbed me the wrong way. Becuase I'm an often contrary cuss.
This was a mistake. Codex Alera is really, really good. And FLF is the best so far: apocalypse and awesome. (For more on awesome, see below.)
Last night, after I set down the book to prep something to eat, I had a Dresden-relevant thought:
1. The DF series ends with a capstone trilogy that will, in all likelihood, be a big ol' apocalypse.
2. FLF is, as noted above, rockin' the house.
3. FLF is Jim
practicing for the capstone DF trilogy.
(And an associated 4., Jim's setting the bar for himself pretty high, if #3 is true.)
Now, onto the awesome.
Four of my favorite current authors are Jim Butcher, Steve Brust (lj user="skzbrust">), Scott Lynch (
scott_lynch), and Arturo Perez-Reverte -- who are all writing long series that fantastically hit my joy, whose volumes I snap up as soon as possible, and read as only an obsessive can.
In cogitating about Dresden Files/Codex, Vlad Taltos/Khaavren Romances, the Gentleman Bastards Sequence, and the Captain Alatriste books, I have learned some lessons for my own fiction writing (which I hope to resume Real Soon Now, after current projects are cleared off the sched):
A. Bring the awesome -- both awesome-good (badass moments; best thing that could happen) and awesome-bad (badass moments; worst thing that could happen).
B. Increment awesome dial +1.
C. Goto A.That's a little flip, but not untrue.
In comparing and contrasting with the last several stories I've tried to write, I've discovered one of my particular problems: I am not starting the awesome dial at 0 or 1 -- I'm starting it, at minimum, around 8.
Even if this one goes to 11, there's not much room to grow...
which is why most of my fiction writing efforts peter out after 2 to 4 chapters.(headdesk)
So thank you, Gentleman (Author) Bastards, for the lesson.
Tags: 240 dollars worth of puddin', books, dresden, improvement, sf&f, writing
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