Comments | jeff_duntemann: Everywhere, But Not Notable

jeff_duntemann

Everywhere, But Not Notable

Feb 14, 2007 14:15

Earlier today Slashdot aggregated an article on Wikipedia entitled, "Wikipedia Is Failing," which actually points up one of the strengths of Wikipedia: That a weak and slightly whiny opinion piece (not even an article in any sense of the word) could be mounted there. There have ( Read more... )

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etfb February 15 2007, 01:27:56 UTC

The Everywhere Girl issue seems to be related to a war of some sort between the tech news site The Inquirer and person-or-persons-unclued in Wikipedia. I don't think it's entirely about notability, more about some twit with an axe to grind.

The point is well made, however.

(Oh, and off topic: I just finished reading The Cunning Blood. Bravo! Now I have to go back and reread it, cos I'm dopey from bronchitis and I had trouble concentrating. Bloody good read though! When's your next SF book coming out?)

jeff_duntemann February 15 2007, 01:59:54 UTC

I had a hunch it might be something like that. Still, the Wall Street Journal did a very sober article indicating that Wikipedia is hugely more concerned with "notability" than is warranted.

Many thanks for buying TCB. It's a complicated story, with a lot of moving parts. I made Carol (who does not read much SF) a cheat sheet to help her keep it all straight. The cheat sheet evolved into a FAQ that I will post when I finish it, though it's full of spoilers.

The book is currently at Baen, offering mass-market paperback rights, and it's been there going on a year. I know, with Jim Baen dying and all, that I have to be patient. But something in me is very hesitant to pour a lot of energy into The Molten Flesh until I have confidence that I can sell it to a major publisher. This November it will have been ten years since I began writing The Cunning Blood. I don't have a lot more ten-year blocks to write--and sell--novels in. Maybe the politics is wrong; I don't know. All I know is that that kind of book is hard to write, and would be ( ... )

obreerbo February 15 2007, 03:49:15 UTC

That FAQ would be interesting to see. One thing that always nags at my mind, too, is the prospect of writing a concordance for the book, that would piece together all the various aspects of the world behind the book in an easy fashion. Now that's a project that would be a good use for MediaWiki (the software behind Wikipedia)...

etfb February 16 2007, 13:32:56 UTC

My Beloved's reading speed is somewhere between Garrick and Allen (there's an obscure reference for you!), which means she's incredibly fast. She can inhale a Pratchett book in a couple of hours if the Elder Daughter of DOOOM and the BatPup are otherwise distracted. I'm looking forward to giving her TCB to read to see if the complexity of the plot is amenable to her reading style. It may just make her slow down!

I liked it, as I said. It felt like a less dark and pessimistic Alastair Reynolds, or perhaps Neil Stephenson without the in-jokes (but with the ability to end a story, which he's never developed), with even the mildest touch of Larry Niven without the endless exposition and twee Californian-ness. As I said, I'm looking forward to re-reading it, which I don't often do.

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