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7 votes
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Asimov at 100: From epic space operas to rules for robots, the prolific author’s literary legacy endures
9 votes -
Is France still at the center of the French-language literary world? Or, to ask a broader question, is there a center at all?
6 votes -
Jo Nesbø: ‘We should talk about violence against women’
4 votes -
William Gibson, the writer who invented ‘cyberspace’ – and possibly the most influential living sci-fi author – on the challenges of keeping up with a reality even stranger than fiction
16 votes -
Olga Tokarczuk – Nobel Lecture
4 votes -
Author and Norway princess's ex-husband Ari Behn dies aged 47
5 votes -
Jeff VanderMeer, the author of “Annihilation,” brings us fresh horrors with each new book. So why does he remain an optimist?
5 votes -
Protests grow as Peter Handke receives Nobel medal in Sweden – Turkey joined Albania and Kosovo in boycotting Tuesday's Nobel prize ceremony
5 votes -
GQ has selected their favorite books of 2019, and asked each book's author to make their own recommendation
5 votes -
How to live like Jane Austen
4 votes -
Karl Ove Knausgård is to become the sixth contributor to the Future Library, which collects works by contemporary authors that will remain unread until 2114
9 votes -
Is Tolkien's prose really that bad?
Recently I was reading through a discussion on Reddit in which Tolkien's writing and prose were quite heavily criticised. Prior to this I'd never seen much criticism surrounding his writing and so...
Recently I was reading through a discussion on Reddit in which Tolkien's writing and prose were quite heavily criticised. Prior to this I'd never seen much criticism surrounding his writing and so I was wondering what the general consensus here is.
The first time I read through The Lord of the Rings, I found myself getting bored of all the songs and the poems and the large stretches between any action, I felt that the pacing was far too slow and I found that I had to force myself to struggle through the book to get to the exciting parts that I had seen so many times in the films. Upon reading through The Lord of the Rings again recently my experience has been completely different and I've fallen in love with his long and detailed descriptions of nature, and the slower pacing.
Has anyone else experienced something similar when reading his works? Are there more valid criticisms of his prose that extend beyond a craving for the same high-octane action of the films?
13 votes -
Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo share Booker prize 2019
5 votes -
Stieg Larsson and the unsolved murder case of Olof Palme
11 votes -
How to be a professional author and not die screaming and starving in a lightless abyss
15 votes -
“This has to end. We cannot say it any clearer.” A guide to the decades-long familial dispute over John Steinbeck’s estate.
7 votes -
In "The Testaments", Margaret Atwood expands the world of "The Handmaid’s Tale"
8 votes -
Orwell knew: We willingly buy the screens that are used against us
10 votes -
Beloved author Toni Morrison has died at 88
18 votes -
Despite being a best-selling author, Jane Austen was paid very little
6 votes -
Eight crime writers who wrote other forms of literature, including literary novels, memoirs, and even works of history
7 votes -
Rebuilding Jane Austen’s library
6 votes -
Jo Nesbø, master of Norway noir, returns with his creepiest yet
5 votes -
Novelists have condemned the Staunch prize – for thrillers without violence against women – as a ‘gagging order’, after organisers said the genre could bias jurors
7 votes -
Sandra Boynton is tweaking some of her beloved children’s books. But why mess with perfection?
7 votes -
Romance novelists write about sex and pleasure. On the internet that makes them targets for abuse
9 votes -
Liu Cixin’s war of the worlds
12 votes -
How the hell has Danielle Steel managed to write 179 books?
13 votes -
1982 video interview with Asimov, Wolfe, and Ellison
9 votes -
A very happy 50th birthday to 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'
9 votes -
Of vices and rears; or why I've stopped reading Jane Austen
9 votes -
How Dr. Seuss’s Oh, The Places You’ll Go! became a ubiquitous (and cliché) graduation gift
4 votes -
How to write about Africa
6 votes -
Binyavanga Wainaina: 'How to write about Africa'
2 votes -
Nothing but the truth: The legacy of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four
5 votes -
From Agatha Christie to Gillian Flynn: Fifty great thrillers by women
5 votes -
Murder and the missing briefcase: The real story behind Harper Lee’s lost true crime book
5 votes -
Four books by Asian American authors republished as Penguin Classics
9 votes -
Encyclopedia Brown and the case of the mysterious author
9 votes -
Eudora Welty on Charlotte's Web, Dorothy Parker on Winnie the Pooh, and more classic reviews of beloved children's books.
5 votes -
Gene Wolfe turned science fiction into high art
7 votes -
The most prescient science fiction author you aren’t reading: Feminist dystopian fiction owes just as much to this woman — who wrote as a man — as Margaret Atwood.
8 votes -
Kosoko Jackson’s book scandal suggests YA Twitter is getting uglier
12 votes -
James Patterson donates $1.25 million to classroom libraries
9 votes -
Amazon and Viola Davis to adapt Octavia Butler's novel, Wild Seed
6 votes -
The rise of robot authors: Is the writing on the wall for human novelists?
4 votes -
James Kelman on the Booker, class and literary elitism
4 votes -
What author has the best worldbuilding?
It's a simple question, or is it? How would you measure best? Complexity? Realism? Creativity? Detail? I think it's fairly obvious that Tolkien has set the gold standard of all worldbuilding, but...
It's a simple question, or is it? How would you measure best? Complexity? Realism? Creativity? Detail?
I think it's fairly obvious that Tolkien has set the gold standard of all worldbuilding, but more recent authors like GRRM, Brandon Sanderson and JKR or the late Terry Pratchett have also created beloved worlds.
Some, like GRRM, are apparently more interested in complex worldbuilding itself rather than finishing their novels while others like JKR use the worlds more as a window dressing without keeping it fairly consistent. Is it alright if the Wizarding World is inconsistent if it serves the plot? How complex can Westeros become before it gets in the way of the story?
I think that GRRM and JKR are both extremes on the spectrum. When reading The Song of Ice and Fire, I felt like GRRM needed a proper editor to reign him in while JKR managed to build a fantastical world in 7 books which, upon closer inspection, makes no sense. On the other hand you have Terry Pratchett, who with the Discworld was clearly more interested in creating a parody of the real world, but still managed to make it very interesting and unique.
Thoughts?
21 votes -
Five emerging Australian authors talk about writing their breakthrough novels
7 votes