OT:An Observation

narf poit chez BOOM · #1 June 10th, 2004, 07:03 AM

I get seriously annoyed every time I see another book with a dark lord who's hordes threaten the kingdom and the only one who can save them is the prophesied king/queen, who has a band of loyal companions who's ranks include a thief and a priest+healer and some sort of outback character, either a barbarian type, a ranger type or a predatory animal that is non-theless either intelligent and loyal or just loyal.

Yes, there really are a lot of books that seem to match that description exactly, although I generally only read the back.

Although the back is generally accurate enough when it comes to the basic types of abilities the heroes have.

Randallw · #2 June 10th, 2004, 07:36 AM

I gave up reading such books. TSR (or WotC, or whatever) churns out such books continuously. They just get first time authors to write books without knowing much of the continuity, or at best D&D players. My favourite Fantasy writer, David Gemmell, refers to such books with Bearded Dwarfs, slim elves and Orcs (LotR rippoffs) as "PixieS**T".

Edit: Has anyone noticed the Similarity between "Battle beyond the Stars" and "The Magnificent Seven". I'm not sure but I have my suspicions.

. Now I mentione it, they both have a coincidental resemblance to "The Seven Samurai". I wonder

[ June 10, 2004, 06:48: Message edited by: Randallw ]

narf poit chez BOOM · #3 June 10th, 2004, 07:42 AM

Oh, no. It's not just the elves, dwarves and orcs crowd. The plotline is spreading. Somebody needs to put most of it out of my misery.

And the sad thing is is that that kind of plotline can actually be done well, but after you see the nth book with that kind of plotline, you just don't really care anymore.

Atrocities · #4 June 10th, 2004, 08:01 AM

Ok now, be nice or I will delete this thread in a bitter tempor tantrum and take my ball and leave!

Randallw · #5 June 10th, 2004, 08:03 AM

Ok, sorry. Didn't mean to take the thread off in a bitter direction.

narf poit chez BOOM · #6 June 10th, 2004, 08:12 AM

Sorry. I wasn't exactly bitter, it's just that sometimes I enjoy being bitingly ironic.

Which still doesn't help. I'll stop now.

Jack Simth · #7 June 10th, 2004, 08:39 AM

It's not very common to run across a concept both original and (widely considered) good in a well-established media (either seperately is reasonably common, however), simply because people have been at it for a long while. When something both original and good comes along, it's often a smashing success. Others, seeing that success, copy it, and then the attack of the clones begins. For a while it works - with film, the first few copycats include their own spins and twists, often have better effects due to bigger budgets, better performers, et cetera, and the idea hasn't become old news. After a while, however, the concept is old news, the copycats have flooded the market for that style, people get sick of it, public intrest flags, and budgets folow. It can be cyclical - a copycat of a piece that hasn't been done in fifty years or more is new to the majority of the current audience.