Saturday, February 20, 2010

More whining from the Guardian: Now Banks

Talk about a meme...

Two days following the Martin whine-fest, the Guardian's resident sf blogger and (sometime Cinerati commenter) Damian Walter baits Iain M.Banks about finishing a Culture trilogy started thirteen years ago.

I assume it's somewhat tongue in cheek, but still.

I'm waiting for The Giant Rat of Sumatra, the fourth Millennium novel, another Uncle Fred book, and the rest of Kubla Khan myself.

2 comments:

David Chute said...

Another point that might be worth making is how much readers are being asked to remember in these huge novels, and for how long. You've complained about this yourself. How about a policy of saving up rather than writing on credit? Finish the damn thing before you start publishing it.

Tulkinghorn said...

It's been done from time to time: take the Baroque Trilogy, for example.

This is what I was getting at in mentioning LOTR.

Assume for a second that the seven volumes, or whatever, of the Martin book were published at once, or over a relatively short period.

It would cost a FORTUNE -- at least $150-$200 to buy.

Who does that? And who can make any money by lowering expectations of income AND waiting ten-fifteen years before the income starts coming in?