Glad you enjoyed the book. Some comments on your comments:
I'd say the structure was pretty aggressive for a first novel, but then structure fascinates me. I also used structure to good effect, I think, in my second (unrelated) novel.
Chapter 2 was the first chapter written, then Strom's story. The third short story was cut from the novel but was published in Asimov's. (The Summer of the Seven.) The short stories had six characters in the pod, the novel five, the result of later editorial revision.
No follow-up novel in the works, but when I get around to it, it'll be Moira Ring trying to use Community technology to micro-manage the world (and failing.) More conspiracy; was Moira Ring (or something similar) the goal of the Community from the start?
Oh, I'm so glad you decided to comment! I was really hoping you would!
I do actually admire the aggressive structure. I remember working out the very first start/draft of my thesis (an SF novel) using multiple first person POV, and it didn't go over well with my mentor! Then again, I didn't have the concept to tie it together, like you did. I hope, one day, to have an excuse to do something really cool like that with structure. The sections were still long for me for that book (why, I don't know), but I do admire it. :)
The premise of your second novel sounds really cool. Sadly, I'll have to wait for the mass-market. I have no Kindle and given the economy, finances are tight. :-/ And my husband doesn't understand the book-buying ADDICTION when I have piles upon piles of unread books waiting on me at home. Ooops? :)
Thanks for your comments, and best of luck writing! And congrats on the Compton Cook Award! It's well-deserved!
You are being generous to this book. I really wanted to enjoy it, but plot deficiencies ruined it for me. That's why I don't read Karl Schroeder anymore (though "Singularity Ring" is not as bad) despite all his interesting ideas. His plots are so impossibly muddled and lacking in logic that I quickly stop caring who is doing what with who or against who
( ... )
I agree the blurb is misleading--that's one of the reasons I initially avoided the book, because I didn't want to read about a person (or pod of people) becoming a starship pilot. That bored me.
Thanks for the link to your review! I'll check it out.
Comments 4
- I'd say the structure was pretty aggressive for a first novel, but then structure fascinates me. I also used structure to good effect, I think, in my second (unrelated) novel.
- Chapter 2 was the first chapter written, then Strom's story. The third short story was cut from the novel but was published in Asimov's. (The Summer of the Seven.) The short stories had six characters in the pod, the novel five, the result of later editorial revision.
- No follow-up novel in the works, but when I get around to it, it'll be Moira Ring trying to use Community technology to micro-manage the world (and failing.) More conspiracy; was Moira Ring (or something similar) the goal of the Community from the start?
PaulReply
I do actually admire the aggressive structure. I remember working out the very first start/draft of my thesis (an SF novel) using multiple first person POV, and it didn't go over well with my mentor! Then again, I didn't have the concept to tie it together, like you did. I hope, one day, to have an excuse to do something really cool like that with structure. The sections were still long for me for that book (why, I don't know), but I do admire it. :)
The premise of your second novel sounds really cool. Sadly, I'll have to wait for the mass-market. I have no Kindle and given the economy, finances are tight. :-/ And my husband doesn't understand the book-buying ADDICTION when I have piles upon piles of unread books waiting on me at home. Ooops? :)
Thanks for your comments, and best of luck writing! And congrats on the Compton Cook Award! It's well-deserved!
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Thanks for the link to your review! I'll check it out.
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