Fan Fiction For Sale
 

I cannot believe it, but I just saw a book on the shelf at Safeway for sale. "Halo" First Strike.

I guess the day of free fan fiction has come of age now. I often wonder whatever happened to all those long stories written by fans of Tribes on the old Tribes Players forum. Man that site was an active one, it had over a million Posts, and some of the fan writing was just increadable.

Well looks like authors are now cashin in on Halo, an inferior game to Tribes by a long shot, but still fun enough to keep ya coming back for more.

I was seriously considering buying the book, it seemed like it would be a good read, but the cost of it weighed against the need for medicine and my lack of funds told me no.

I wonder what other fan fiction has been converted from free to print? I wonder if there is a Tribes book or two out there. I should do a search for them. IF any one reads the Halo book let me know if it was worth it.

I mean I agree that the authors should get compensated for their work, and I support the leap from free to print, and I wish them all the sales in the world.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ February 03, 2004, 17:09: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

I've seen those Halo books also, but never having played the game, the desire isn't there to buy it. But I have seen teh new Star WArs book based on the on-line game. I'm tempted, but it's not a necessity right now. I got more than enough books to read. Maybe when I'm running low, I'll get it.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

There was a fanfic called _The Doctor and the Enterprise_ by Jean Airey which was published in several editions. It was a Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover. It was a fun read, but needed a good editor.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

come over to Canada and you can probably get your medication paid for. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

personally, franchise books, in my opinion, run the danger of being amaturish. and i havn't liked much of the new star trek books.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

As much as a trekkie as I am, I don't really like reading the Star Trek books. I guess I got spoiled reading the Star Wars books, which about 99% of them are in continuity with each other and also the comic books. Paramount has no such desire to have a seamless continuity; they're more interested in making a buck. Also, as far as the ST books go, most of them were hack jobs by people I never heard of before who created a story and slapped the ST crew in there. I think the worse one I read was done by Barbara Hambly. As a fantasy writer, she's great. As a wannabe ST author, she stunk. There's only a handful of ST books I'll read, and those are done mostly by Peter David, Diane Carey, Diane Duane and William Shatner (and his ghostwriters). Sometimes I'll get one because of the subject, but as a rule, I don't buy that many of them.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

If you read Star Trek books ever you should read How Much for Just the Planet. It is a riot.

[ February 03, 2004, 21:32: Message edited by: Loser ]

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

When the games were fairly fresh and new, there were novelizations of both DOOM and XCOM. probably a few others, too.

[joking]In related news, I hear that there are novels with the same titles as the obscure adventure games The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, Neuromancer, Planetfall, Dragon Riders of Pern, and The Wheel of Time. Probably several more. Surely, it is time for hack novelists to stop ripping off games, or at least release their fan fiction into the public domain[/joking]

Speaking of the Dragon Riders of Pern, there has sure been an upswell in the number of Ann McAfree computer adventure games in the Last few years. a couple of them got really good reviews, but I cant remember their names now.

So, how long till Dogscoff publishes his first novel?

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">As both a trekkie and a Whovian, I'm interested in this story. First time I've heard of such a crossover, and I'm curious as to how it worked out. Where can one get a copy of this?

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

I could never get into Dr Who or even the X files for that matter. Those two shows simply just did not appeal to me.

I don't really care for Vampire or other monster / horror books either. Never read Steven King, and really don't like his movies with a few exceptions.


Star Trek books are ok, as long as you avoid certain bad authors.

Of all the Star Wars books written, the two that I enjoyed the most were Han Solo and the Lost Legacy and Shadows of the Empire.

I read mostly Clive Custler books and a few others. I read Sphere before it was a movie, and the book made a lot of sense. The movie didn't though.

I read a book named the Alchemist, and it was good, but I cannot remember who wrote it. Another great read was a crime / drama book about an escaped convict and his buddies taking revenge upon those who put him in jail.

The one thing that I remember about this book, and I am hoping someone here read it and can tell me the name, was when one of the bad guys was afraid that his silenced automatic pistol made too much noise when he shot a cops wife in the back room of store she worked at. He was going to try a revolver the next time.

The Convict escaped while attending a funural. I would like to read that book again, it was a good read.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I'm working on it, although it would help if I actually finished writing something first. I'm going to the local college's open evening tonight to sign up for a creative writing course.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

I too am a fan of Clive Cussler. The Dirk Pitt novels are always a sure bet when lounging by the side of a shimmering azure pool, being served ice cold beer or wine by a smiling attractive waitress, gazing out upon a beautiful tropical vista, and wondering why the current Mrs GT is so afraid of the sun, she has to put so much sun cream on that she looks like a doughball before you roast or fry it.

The one thing about the Kurt Austin series that slightly irritated me is that the lead characters are exactly the same format as Pitt/Giordino. Leading man is heroic, charming, womanising and funny, side-kick is handy, loyal etc - a bit monodimensional in my opinion.

And as for the 2 lost twins of Dirk turning up? that lost it for me. I re-read the book they are alledged to have been conceived in and no-where did it mention that Dirk got his oats with the girl in question - oh maybe when they were underwater with a nuclear missile on its way in.

Dunno about you, but nuclear weaponry being fired at me is a sure-fire way to dampen my libido.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I'm working on it, although it would help if I actually finished writing something first. I'm going to the local college's open evening tonight to sign up for a creative writing course. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I for one will buy your book.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

dogscoff I am writing as well..

Its damn hard... If I must tell you... I am thinking that working on characters, and an overall story line first is the way to go..

then write a chapter on one of the ideas in the story line... Then another and another...

Then link them..

Most stories are in 3rd person. So the goal to a chapter seems to be keep the view point from just one character and one time line...

I am looking at the books I enjoy and seeing how they are structured...

But it is hard to write everyday...

We can chat off line about it... Pass on tips etc... No need to reinvent the wheel or for both of us to commit the same mistakes

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You're right about Kurt Austin. He's almost a perfect clone of Dirk Pitt. If you're going to create a new superman/diver/all around good guy, then at least make him different than the original. I guess Cussler is so used to Dirk Pitt mold that he can't break it for a new guy.

As far as Pacific Vortex, I don't remember much about it now. It's probably been close to 20 years since I've read it, and I don't know where my copy is at the moment. Probably in storage. I'll have to re-read it one of these days.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

Sachmo: Thanks.
Tesco: Yeah, I'm always happy to chat/ email about writing.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well, yes and no. I mean I can see your point but put yourself in that situation: There you are, with the knowledge that nuclear obliteration is headed your way. Barring some sort of miracle or superheroic intervention, you have only minutes to live. You look to one side and sitting next to you you see your wife or lover or maybe even just some random woman*. Her chest is heaving with fear and you can see despair welling up in her eyes.

I know I would.**

--
*I can't be arsed to type out the various gender/ sexuality options, but you know, imagine who or whatever it is that happens to push your big red button.
--
**Within certain boundaries of taste, obviously..

[ February 04, 2004, 15:28: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

Dogscoff, fair comment and yes, if I knew I was facing certain death, any female within grabbing distance would be in for trouble I can tell you.

BUT

I should have qualified my statement to say that "nuclear weaponry being fired at me, where the only chance I have of avoiding being incinerated in a bLast of actinic fire, means that I have to move really really very very quickly indeed, always dampens my libido".

If certain death, sure thing, I would rather go on the job than sitting under the table gibbering in terror

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">May I recommend Stephen King's excellent book On Writing? It has lots of wonderful tips, and the guy is a master author.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

Why thank you. I will look for that book.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

what would i do if i knew death was coming for me? anyone else seen the 'Last'* episode of red dwarf? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

* i put it in qoutes becuase i'm still hoping they'll make more.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

I know I've seen every Red Dwarf episode at least once, but I can't recall the "Last" episode of season 8. What was it about?

Also, speaking of Stephen King, if you're not really into horror, then read the book that got me interested in King in the first place. When I was in tech school, someone loaned me their copy of The Dead Zone. After reading that, I was hooked. I haven't watched the tv show, though, so I can't say how it compares to the book or the movie.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">A Web search on "The Doctor and the Enterprise" (the whole phrase including the quotes) or "Jean Airey" should turn up some sources. The former is how I found the author's name; I have no idea where my copy is packed away.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">i'm not sure if you want spoilers, if you do, tell me and i'll PM. basically, Rimmer kicks Death(bones and all) in, well, it was very painfull for Death. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

BBC's got a red dwarf qoute generater! http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/reddwarf...ox/index.shtml
" Well, the thing about a black hole - it's main distinguishing feature - is it's black. And the thing about space, your basic space colour is black. So how are you supposed to see them? "
- Holly, Marooned

Rimmer: "Step up to Red Alert!"
Kryten: "Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb. "
- Kryten, Legion

"So... let me get this straight. You want to fly on a magic carpet to see the king of the potato people and you're telling me your completely sane? "
- Rimmer, Quarantine

[ February 04, 2004, 23:14: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

Atrocities, I also read Clive Cussler. I've read all of the Dirk Pitt novels, and 2 of the 3 Kurt Austin ones. Haven't read the newest ones, as they're in hardback. Also, just finished reading the Sea Hunters II. I like the way he mixes his take on history and then describes his search for whatever wreck he's looking for. In this Last book, they tried to find the PT-109. It was published in 2002, so there's nothing written about Robert Ballard finding it. Unfortunately, I still haven't seen any footage on the wreckage. I guess I'll have to try Google to see if there is any available on the 'net.

And hey, what's wrong with Stephen King? He's my favorite author by far. He's a great read; not all of his books are about vampires, but the majority of them do involve some type of horror situation. Don't go by the movies. All of them stink in comparison to the books except for The Langoliers, which was a mini-series and is pretty faithful to the source material.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

Have you read the Red Dwarf books? They beat the series hands down, although I never got round to buying "Last human".

Look out for "Colony" as well by one half of the RD writing team- that's a good read.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

As far as I can tell, there was only 2 RD books ever written. At least, they're the only ones I've seen on teh book shelves. They were both hilarious, though. Almost as funny as Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe. I wish they had written more of them.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Nope, three. Red Dwarf, BTL and Last Human. Last human appeared several years after the first two, and (so I hear) closed the loop quite nicely and ended the series- BTL ended on a bit of a cliffhanger if I remember correctly.

But yes, very enjoyable. One of those books you can pick up and open at random and enjoy just a few pages, much like HHGTG in that respect.
Talkie Toaster is so much funnier in the books than the series, he's brilliant.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Nope, three. Red Dwarf, BTL and Last Human. Last human appeared several years after the first two, and (so I hear) closed the loop quite nicely and ended the series- BTL ended on a bit of a cliffhanger if I remember correctly.

But yes, very enjoyable. One of those books you can pick up and open at random and enjoy just a few pages, much like HHGTG in that respect.
Talkie Toaster is so much funnier in the books than the series, he's brilliant. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Thanks for the updated info. I didn't know there was a 3rd book. Now I'll have to look for it. Hopefully this used bookstore I've been going to lately will have it.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

Speaking of Red Dwarf, does anyone know if there are going to be anymore dvd releases? I got season 1 & 2, but I haven't seen any other seasons coming out in the near future. Also, there was a rumor about a RD movie. Does anyone know anything about that?

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

I walked through the book store today after dropping my truck off to be worked on and I could not help but notice all the sci-fi books. My God just about every aspect of sci-fi has been written about. I ponder this for a while as I browsed through the books and finally came to the conclusion that there is nothing new that one can write about that at some point in the past has not already been written. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

This is why we are seeing the move from free fan fiction posted on the web to Fan Fiction for sale in stores.

As the population grows, more and more original ideas are going to become harder and harder to find as more and more poeple are going to be working on or thinking the same thing but knot realize that someone else is also thinking or working on the same thing.

I fear now that the day of ground breaking new ideas for stories is gone and a new dawn of copy-cat and rehashed stories is upon us.

I cannot help but feel depressed by this knowning that in my life I have seen the invention of so many wonderous things, and the publishment of so many wonderful books and such and now, half way through my expected life span, I have nothing new to look forward to except the old renewed. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

It has all been done, there is nothing left that can be done that is new, so let us review the past for new ideas on old things.

I am so depressed. Time to have a flavored coke.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It has not been all done. There are still millions of ideas if not more out there that we haven't even thought about yet. Sure maybe the basic principle has been touched upon but we will not run out of fresh innovative ideas for years to come. Just think of what could be accomplished if the human mind used all of it's capacity! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif I look forward to the day when I will be able to enjoy such a time.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">well, according to a short blurb written Arther C. Clarke, we are not running out of ideas. there are still plenty. the article was written a while ago and the ideas he suggested have been written about, but he sees no problem with taking old stories and adding your own ideas to them. in the article, he said that 'what is needed is not no imagination or more imagination, it's some imagination.'

what your saying is like saying that every kind of food that can be invented will be invented. you *may* be close to the truth if all you look at is broad catagory's, bread, pastry, cake, pie, meat, dairy, etc. but people still manage to take the old and put them together in ways that are new and different.

heh. the whole Honor Harrington series could have come out of one sentence: 'what if a woman commanded a starship?' that would be all that was needed to start thinking 'what kind of culture would the woman live in' and 'what type of person is she?' and pretty soon, you got 11? 12? very good novels.(actually, HH was inspired by horatio hornblower and i think that also makes my point and much more simply.)

like the guy said, 'some imagination'.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

I agree. I don't think every idea has been used to death yet. Heck, there are probably a lot of the old sci-fi books I've never read and will probably never get a chance to read. But that doesn't mean that if I were to write a novel and it happened to be close to what someone wrote 50 years ago, that the idea has already been used. It would just be a coincidence. As a matter of fact, I have 2 story ideas I've been toying with for years, but have never actually written them down. I can't say they're original ideas, but I've never seen a similar story in print, at least not yet. Maybe one of these days I'll actually write them out. And I'll continue to buy and read the books I find interesting. Not that I find all sci-fi and fantasy books interesting, at least from the brief description on the back of the book. But if a story is good, it doesn't matter to me if 20 different authors have used a similar formulae. As long as I get pleasure from reading it, that's what counts to me.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

Hey, just don't try to READ all those sci-fi books. You'll wind up posting all sorts of wierdness, and starting dozens of retarded threads, and getting into bizzare flame wars, and eventually get yourself kicked off the forum. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

you might even LEARN something! we can't possibly have that, can we? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

Some authors have PhD's, and you can actually learn a thing or two while reading the sci-fi books. Even Michael Crichton books seem plausible, given the science (maybe except for Timeline, although I'd love to see a time machine in action). The only reason I didn't pursue my interest in astronomy was because I didn't want to take physics and the higher math courses. I barely passed basic algebra. I can't imagine trying to do calculus or trigonometry.

Re: Fan Fiction For Sale
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It has not been all done. There are still millions of ideas if not more out there that we haven't even thought about yet. Sure maybe the basic principle has been touched upon but we will not run out of fresh innovative ideas for years to come. Just think of what could be accomplished if the human mind used all of it's capacity! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif I look forward to the day when I will be able to enjoy such a time. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Go try and patented something.