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By the standards of what I enjoyed as a nine year-old? Larry Send a noteboard - 10/09/2012 01:04:12 AM
It serves its purpose, just like any airport novel, it's written well enough to convey its rip roaring type story, and it does it relatively well.

Now if we are talking written to a standard that would satisfy elitist literary snobs? Then no, it'll never do that. But then since I daresay 90% of people have no idea about what literary conventions satisfy a 'well written' book, and instead just like what they like, which in most cases is a story rather than how 'well' it's written, that's fine.


I recently finished revisiting several children's/YA stories that I read and enjoyed when I was 9-12 years old. By those standards, the turgid prose, the unnecessary interruptions to refer to the game's imagined past, the stock characterizations, all of those were poor compared to say The Wind in the Willows, the Ramona series, or several others. It may be that because I didn't encounter these books when I was learning to deal with hormones that there is nothing that appeals to me, but I doubt my dim opinion of them is anything inveterate ;)

But the comment about how many people might not know what a "good book" is would not be something that I would share, ironically enough. I hold to that perhaps quixotic faith that some are quite aware of what is well written and that while many may favor what they themselves might label as "trash," they wouldn't hold it in any higher esteem than something to read while taking a shit ;)
Illusions fall like the husk of a fruit, one after another, and the fruit is experience. - Narrator, Sylvie

Je suis méchant.
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This may be one of the most dire reviews you shall ever read - 09/09/2012 09:12:25 PM 2357 Views
Certainly one of the most original, you get points for that. - 09/09/2012 10:39:00 PM 1603 Views
Well... - 09/09/2012 10:57:25 PM 1618 Views
A review of a D&D bestiary could be more dire. - 09/09/2012 11:29:17 PM 1453 Views
Perhaps - 09/09/2012 11:50:20 PM 1550 Views
Hey now. Owlbears are awesome. - 11/09/2012 02:35:28 AM 1786 Views
That page is painful to behold - 11/09/2012 03:09:29 AM 1559 Views
They are popular as they are fun, easy reading books - 10/09/2012 12:11:24 AM 1533 Views
"Popular", "Fun," and "Easy" doesn't have to be equated with poorly-written - 10/09/2012 12:16:27 AM 1770 Views
Poorly written by what standard? - 10/09/2012 12:29:17 AM 1622 Views
By the standards of what I enjoyed as a nine year-old? - 10/09/2012 01:04:12 AM 1569 Views
So like I said, by the standards of Elitist Literary Snobs - 11/09/2012 12:03:08 AM 1632 Views
Nice attempt at sophistry, but alas, it fails - 11/09/2012 12:38:24 AM 1589 Views
Was that meant to make any sense? - 11/09/2012 01:43:13 AM 1788 Views
Re: Was that meant to make any sense? - 11/09/2012 01:54:23 AM 1583 Views
I'm with Wibble on this (big surprise) - 12/09/2012 03:07:53 PM 1671 Views
Heh. - 12/09/2012 03:43:52 PM 1798 Views
Pretty much so - 12/09/2012 04:19:35 PM 1762 Views
When did you put up that header? - 12/09/2012 04:35:20 PM 1590 Views
I didn't put it up - 12/09/2012 04:51:32 PM 1494 Views
I shall tread lightly so. - 12/09/2012 06:15:51 PM 1608 Views
- 12/09/2012 07:25:29 PM 1466 Views
+6 health? What game are you playing? - 12/09/2012 07:52:52 PM 1523 Views
The Game of Life? - 12/09/2012 08:23:53 PM 1584 Views
Re: Pretty much so - 12/09/2012 08:50:57 PM 1616 Views
You apparently do not read my blog/reviews much - 12/09/2012 09:07:18 PM 1638 Views
Actually, I read them almost never - 13/09/2012 03:07:48 PM 1648 Views
I think my IQ dropped a little bit when I parsed what you said - 13/09/2012 04:16:21 PM 1612 Views
Yep, your usual rebuttal... *NM* - 17/09/2012 02:14:56 PM 813 Views
No, not really - 17/09/2012 06:25:15 PM 1449 Views
Yes, Yes, wrap yourself in arrogance and declare yourself correct until your opposite gets bored... - 17/09/2012 11:12:17 PM 1730 Views
Nah, I just wipe my ass with arrogance - 18/09/2012 12:23:44 AM 1986 Views
The last word with me is rather difficult to obtain - 18/09/2012 02:48:03 PM 1531 Views
Don't try to argue with them. They've made their judgments. They are better than you. - 10/09/2012 09:36:17 PM 1559 Views
Defensive much? *NM* - 10/09/2012 10:31:17 PM 858 Views
He never said you couldn't enjoy it. - 10/09/2012 11:10:11 PM 1691 Views
Indeed - 10/09/2012 11:17:20 PM 1555 Views
But they aren't. - 10/09/2012 11:48:14 PM 1595 Views
Prove it. *NM* - 11/09/2012 03:12:17 AM 781 Views
He also went on to compare liking the books to having the standards of a nine-year-old. - 11/09/2012 02:34:18 AM 1547 Views
You didn't read what I said very well then - 11/09/2012 03:16:21 AM 1544 Views
I believe that they were not meant for adults. - 10/09/2012 12:30:05 AM 1578 Views
Basically, both get dubious kudos for trying something new by the dire standards of the day. - 10/09/2012 11:38:22 PM 1612 Views
Interesting point - 11/09/2012 12:41:01 AM 1544 Views
Are you aware of the game's alignment rules? Some of the novels struggle with this. - 12/09/2012 10:58:37 PM 1616 Views
Not aware of it at all until now - 12/09/2012 11:18:57 PM 1562 Views
How is that possible? - 12/09/2012 11:28:33 PM 1535 Views
My dad was (and is) influenced by Evangelicals - 13/09/2012 12:17:36 AM 1460 Views
Wait, so you didn't read the Chronicles first? - 13/09/2012 02:12:13 PM 1476 Views
No - 13/09/2012 02:18:03 PM 1525 Views
Well, it's sort of like starting Jordan at Lord of Chaos - 13/09/2012 05:18:23 PM 1562 Views
Oddly enough, I started WoT at CoS in November 1997 - 13/09/2012 05:56:04 PM 1479 Views
Chronicles is considerably weaker - 13/09/2012 11:14:38 PM 1551 Views
12 modules, not 15 - 14/09/2012 02:55:39 PM 1729 Views
These threads are so much better than the rape threads! *NM* - 12/09/2012 04:03:01 AM 883 Views
You're just waiting to see if I'll use hexameter in the next one *NM* - 12/09/2012 04:32:31 AM 712 Views
When do we get to see some alexandrines? *NM* - 12/09/2012 12:41:29 PM 784 Views
Or quatrains? - 12/09/2012 03:25:13 PM 1441 Views
At least you didn't read the Baldur's Gate novelizations - 14/09/2012 04:29:17 AM 1480 Views
Sssssh! - 14/09/2012 05:10:19 AM 1535 Views
People become lesbians for no reason! - 17/09/2012 04:34:20 PM 1402 Views
I think my IQ dropped further upon learning of this - 17/09/2012 06:29:29 PM 1425 Views
Baldurs Gate wooooo! - 14/09/2012 04:13:34 PM 1662 Views
Is the review dire because of the subject or the sonnet form? - 14/09/2012 04:24:37 PM 1592 Views
Both - 14/09/2012 04:36:59 PM 1505 Views
it would be unusual for someone to just randomly pick books like that up - 14/09/2012 05:05:37 PM 1807 Views
Interesting scenario - 14/09/2012 10:16:11 PM 1509 Views
Re: Interesting scenario - 15/09/2012 09:55:59 AM 1771 Views
Re: Interesting scenario - 17/09/2012 06:28:57 PM 1428 Views

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