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On June 22 2011 06:49 Phil Phoenix wrote:Have you read Ender's Game? I haven't read anything about this book except for the description in the OP and I can promise you that this is NOTHING like Ender's Game.
They are very different. This proves objective writing isn't easy. It's take massive subjective involvement. I'm still very happy for Erika Mitchell, she did something. As an intelligent animal I feel the ordinary is overlooked as obvious.
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On June 22 2011 05:04 Odal wrote:
I don't know if any of you have actually read the chapters but.. Practicing for gsl in team games? It's horribly written and it makes me embarrassed to be a member of the starcraft community
You can not bash a fictional book for not being exactly like the real world. Its fiction for a reason. You can find many books writing about real things where its not completly like the real world (Dan Brown - to name a known one).
You can however dislike the writing style, theme, wording, language and/or tons of other stuff that are more technical. I read a lot, mostly english fantasy, and after reading the sample chapters i was not impressed. But neither was a going "Oh god stop".
It seems like a decent try to write a story involving SC2, but from the chapters it seems to have a wrong angle (for me). It didn't catch me in the ways that other books do after 1-2 chapters. It might get better, it might not - some of my best books had horrible first chapters - but i won't pay to find out.
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Hey, don't worry about the haters. You wrote a fucking book about Starcraft! That's awesome! Honestly, even if it was the worst written, stupidest book of all time (which I'm sure it's not), it would STILL be uberpro.
I expect a HoTS sequel.
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Ugh. Why, when you see the rich wealth of competition, community and personalities, would you write about FBI agents and international fugitive status? Its sounds to me like cookie cutter teen fiction with a Starcraft twist to draw in buyers. When I think of a novel about gamers I want to hear the author discuss what it is life trying to improve at the game while balancing life, school and perceptions of friends/family. The game itself is somewhat unimportant in my eyes; what we want to know about is the E-SPORTS spirit, that which does us to spend hours a day at computers diligently practicing, all the while seeing the beauty and science of the game unfold countless times before our eyes.
When you watch this, this and of course #100 do you think to yourself, "Man, how cool would it be if NaDa was kidnapped by terrorists"?
GL with your book.
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I hope she continues to pursue her hobby & publish again. This feedback is very important for an artist.
Thanks Dali., This helped me conceptualize more of my idea emotionally. Hotbid says it best in his Youtube channel "Showing the spectacle of will, pain, triumph, and emotion that so aptly defines the Korean Pro-Gaming scene."
+ Show Spoiler +
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Edited out vaguely trolly first paragraph.
When it comes down to it, there are certain things that will make me read a novel: a character I can relate to, a plot I care about, or a world I'd like to explore. I'll read a book that has one of these things, I'll really enjoy a book with two, and I'll love and reread and recommend a book with all three. I think some people get the wrong idea when a critic or reader asks for "a character they can relate to." We don't want someone we share the boring aspects of our life with. Its like with your friends - you don't care that you both eat at Chipotle, wear the same brand of socks... the important things you relate to each other about are how you think and your passions. Sean Boxer, as far as the first two chapters go, does not think and is not passionate about anything. He's not passionate about writing; he's approached by an individual who expresses a modicum of interest, and shuts her down. If someone expresses interest to me about say, photography (which I am passionate about), I wouldn't be able to stop myself from talking! Doesn't matter if that person is underaged, male, female, deaf, mute, blind, whatever! Our hero doesn't even blink, which leads me to believe he doesn't care about his writing or want to share it particularly much. He's not even passionate about Starcraft, like the target audience is! He plays a game, reads TL a little, and heads out to go get some coffee. There's nothing there, it just feels like a hobby in the story.
Still, he may have other things he is passionate about that haven't been revealed yet. But how does he think about the world? Can I relate to him in that way?
Routine took over and his mind wandered while he walked the three blocks to The Beanerie, a coffee shop where he was more or less a regular. A light wind tossed his curly blond hair off his forehead as scattered raindrops smeared their way down his glasses. He kept his head tucked to his chest, letting the fresh air clear his mind the way it always did.
Quite plainly, he doesn't think. He's filled with the routine, taking out the trash, getting takeout, drinking coffee... and then he even feels the need to clear his mind out of the boring stuff! To what end? Even if it's something little, like "He ducked his head and walked a little faster in the rain, wondering if, in fact, he was getting his glasses wetter by jogging..." And then the audience thinks, "Oh, I totally know someone like that!" Or if you're me, you go, "Oh, I totally do that! If I go faster, I add a relative horizontal component to the velocity of the raindrop which makes it hit the plane of my glasses more! Surely there must be an optimal speed to walk at the minimizes time out but ...." and so forth. Instead, we're left with nothing to latch on to, just a dry, empty guy walking down the street thinking about absolutely nothing.
And then he sits down to write his novel! Hopefully we can get something from him that we can relate to! How does he write? How does his imagination work? Do I know someone like him? Am I like him? Instead of a description of his personality or his imagination, a very rich well of information which can be drawn upon, the author instead gives us a picture of fish flopping around in his empty ocean of a brain.
The thread of the story recovered, it was easy for him to spill the contents of his mind across the keyboard. Ideas unspooled from his mind, chasing one another like carp until afternoon turned into dusk...
That tells me nothing about Sean, his goals, his thoughts, his personality, his passion. What a wasted opportunity!
And then there's the plot. From the synopsis it sounds mildly interesting, but hardly consider me sold. While we don't get a glimpse of it in the sample chapters, I can forgive that for the development that should have been happening. My only comment is that I hope the author did her research. Throwing things like the FBI in cheapen it and make it feel "Hollywood-fake" unless you add a thick veneer of well researched polish.
While I was writing this wall of text, someone else mentioned how many storylines already exist in the communty, and that's true to some extent. Imagine a mystery novelization of the betting scandal in Korea! Using the infamous "based on a true story" you can even add in a foreign player character, some heightened drama, and bam! instant mystery novel. If you want a more character driven sports novel plot (think movies like The Fighter, Million Dollar Baby, Remember the Titans, etc.) find / create someone who goes through that struggle to succeed, the underdog who we cheer for. If the community is already cheering for them in real life, imagine how easily you can hook a reader by adding drama to the situation of something like Tasteless vs Day9, or Grrrr trying to make it in Korea.
And then there's the setting. The real world, which is, to be fair, quite interesting. But there's no focus on it! You're exploring Korean culture, from a westerner's perspective... make sure to play up the differences, the similarities, the shocks, and all the little details that make culture so intriguing. Again, none of this comes across in the samples, but I hope it is well developed when the time comes.
While I'd love to support endeavors of the Starcraft community, the sample chapters do not give me much faith that my expectations for a good plot or setting will be met. Hopefully the author can work on her writing and come back with something more well crafted.
Good luck!
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Sounds like a lulzy funfic ESPORTS
glhf, but I don't think I'll be picking it up anytime soon.
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I think if you were to write a book about SC2 you would be far better off writing about the lore, although that is definitely the intellectual property of blizzard so it would be hard.
I just don't think that anyone but a pro-gamer can understand what they put themselves through and their training regiments ect so for anyone to write about it is doing it ignorantly.
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I dunno, 1 post for that account kind of ruins it for me. This isn't an advertisement site to reach a hard-to-get demographic, but ppl seem to forget that from time to time
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On June 22 2011 08:08 tehemperorer wrote:
I dunno, 1 post for that account kind of ruins it for me. This isn't an advertisement site to reach a hard-to-get demographic, but ppl seem to forget that from time to time
Its under sponsored threads, meaning that person paid money to have it show up here.
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On June 22 2011 08:06 Richis wrote:
I think if you were to write a book about SC2 you would be far better off writing about the lore, although that is definitely the intellectual property of blizzard so it would be hard.
I just don't think that anyone but a pro-gamer can understand what they put themselves through and their training regiments ect so for anyone to write about it is doing it ignorantly.
That's why writers do interviews and research. Do you really think pro players, when asked about their path to becoming a pro (especially for a published book), would do anything less than spill their guts?
Funny that you'd mention realism and writing with first hand knowledge, yet the book is about FBI agents and "bureaucratic red tape".
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Wow, thanks for all the feedback!
Some positive, some less so. I would just say for perspective, this isn't a book about Starcraft, but a thriller set against an eSports background, and I would take it as such.
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The chapters didn't really sell it to me, the cover is awesome tho.
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The summary sounds so ridiculously cheesy rofl, don't think I'll be reading.
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On June 22 2011 05:04 Odal wrote:
I don't know if any of you have actually read the chapters but.. Practicing for gsl in team games? It's horribly written and it makes me embarrassed to be a member of the starcraft community
Hi! I'm the author, and a few people have commented on this so I just thought I'd weigh in. Obviously as a pro gamer, the majority of his games are 1v1. But, what I wanted to convey in his interactions with his teammates was a sense of camaraderie. Gamers get a lot of crap for being loners, but what I'm trying to show in this book is a vibrant community.
As for the poorly written part? Well, all I can do is shrug to that. I do, however, appreciate that you took the time to read the sample chapters.
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Lol, this is why self-publishing by amateur writers is a terrible idea.
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On June 22 2011 05:30 Benjef wrote:
How long is that book? I'm very interested to read it but I'd like to hear some reviews first :D. Available in the UK? (Paperback)
The book is a little over 76,000 words, or about 300 pages as a paperback. Thanks for your interest!
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On June 22 2011 06:31 floor exercise wrote:Show nested quote +On June 22 2011 05:04 Odal wrote:
I don't know if any of you have actually read the chapters but.. Practicing for gsl in team games? It's horribly written and it makes me embarrassed to be a member of the starcraft community Yeah. I don't want to shit in someone's sponsored thread but I am torn between this just being bad but an honest person's effort at writing a story or if it's the result of someone who noticed how popular SC2 is lately and having the clever idea to type out a short story one afternoon and sell it because they knew at least a handful of people will support anything if you throw out the magic word (esports). It's not very good
I think it's understandable to wonder where I was coming from when I wrote this. After all, I'm not a gamer!
My husband is, however, and I came up with the story idea while he was telling me about the GSL last year. Pro gaming was an entirely new world to me, and I thought it would be fun and cool to introduce people to it.
And it was.
I learned how to play Starcraft 2, I watched so many Day9 replays I sometimes hear Sean Plott's voice in my head, and I took enough notes to choke a goat. Starcraft 2 is cool, and my goal in writing this book was to share a fun story and maybe introduce new people to pro gaming.
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On June 22 2011 07:28 Dali. wrote:Ugh. Why, when you see the rich wealth of competition, community and personalities, would you write about FBI agents and international fugitive status? Its sounds to me like cookie cutter teen fiction with a Starcraft twist to draw in buyers. When I think of a novel about gamers I want to hear the author discuss what it is life trying to improve at the game while balancing life, school and perceptions of friends/family. The game itself is somewhat unimportant in my eyes; what we want to know about is the E-SPORTS spirit, that which does us to spend hours a day at computers diligently practicing, all the while seeing the beauty and science of the game unfold countless times before our eyes. When you watch this, this and of course #100 do you think to yourself, "Man, how cool would it be if NaDa was kidnapped by terrorists"? GL with your book.
Thanks for commenting! I can't do anything about my idea seeming cookie-cutter. It is, admittedly, not the most original idea in the world.
However, if you read on you will see that I did my best to do justice to the very issues you've brought up. I won't give away any spoilers, but I am acutely aware of the perils of pursuing a passion that many people may not understand or give credence to.
It's tough to convey the emotional scope of a novel in the first two chapters, but should you ever find occasion to read on I think you'll be mollified by what you find.
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EPT
