The Cincinatti Signing
Matthew Hunter
little crowd, which made me happy (lots of time to get to know The
Creator) and him happy (150+ people showed up in Lexington the day or so
before, which he said was draining). The hat and cane were there...
The bookstore was also passing out the poster-size maps to the
first couple people who showed up... I was late, and didn't get one, but
they said they'd order one... :)
Here's what I got out of him:
He is aware of us, and the Bela discussion. We had a rather long
convoluted discussion about Bela and the Darkfriend social, which seemed
to leave everyone else clueless, when I identified myself as a
net.jordanite...
We complain about the Sweet covers. He complains about the
German covers. (Well, not much. But one in particular had a naked woman
wearing pearls holding back an army with a wave of her hand (The Great
Hunt) and "I had _no_ idea where they got that one.")
You don't want to hear about his British agent.
He mentioned "Never trust anyone with power who isn't
uncomfortable with it" as being related to Rand's leaving so many
sa'angreals in safe places...
He mentioned Hyperion... he loved the book until he read the
ending. "There was no ending, no resolution." At that point, he threw
the book across the room and never got around to reading Hyperion II.
About Aes Sedai and their oaths:
"Rand is in control, one way or the other -- depending on exact
oaths, who was Black Ajah, and how willing they are to hold to those oaths."
Given that most were from Arafel, where they have 'strange ideas
about honor', and the first clause in that sentence, I'd say that the
non-BA AS who swore will be inclined to support him (mostly) honestly.
About skill comparisons between main character swordsmen: "Read
the book." About the forms used: I was curious, so I asked if he had
studied the swordfighting arts or just researched. It's research, and
the forms come from Japanese swordfighting and some European fencing, before
the advent of well-designed and well-made guns made swords obsolete. He
mentioned one book in particular, but I can't remember the title... :(
Newsflash!
The covers aren't as bad as we thought they were. The 'extra'
character in TEotW really was in the book, but was cut out later, because
he had too little to do. His parts were distributed out to the other
characters, but they never got around to cutting him from the cover.
Physics/Math background and how it affected his writing:
-only marginally useful
-structure
-Schrodinger's Cat and other Quantum Physics stuff helps with
conceptualization of fantasy structure.
His Editor (also his wife) said that the physics and math was
more important than he gave it credit for. ;)
I asked if he had anything he wanted to pass on to the net as a
whole, and he responded, "50% of the FAQ (pre-tFoH) is wrong."
He wants a copy of the latest FAQ, which I presume can wait until
we can incorporate the primary points from LoC into it. PNH, can we send
that through you or through some other medium?
He likes Mexican food and treats his driver well. ;)
Pam Korda
> -Schrodinger's Cat and other Quantum Physics stuff helps with
>conceptualization of fantasy structure.
The fun comes when you try to use it in conceptualization of the Real
World, though!
> I asked if he had anything he wanted to pass on to the net as a
>whole, and he responded, "50% of the FAQ (pre-tFoH) is wrong."
pre-TFOH? that's a while ago. and we were notoriously wrong in our FOH
predictions. the only thing that came close was that there was MPS in
it. And all I have to say, is Logain getting un-gentled came up as a
net.theory in those bygone pre-FOH days.
And if 50% is wrong, that means 50% is right! (I am assuming that the
50% wrong is from the theories section. There is a lot of general
stuff in there, too.)
> He wants a copy of the latest FAQ, which I presume can wait until
>we can incorporate the primary points from LoC into it. PNH, can we send
>that through you or through some other medium?
Being the FAQmaster, I'll take care of this, soon as I get it done.
(I'm working on it, really.) So, it would be really, really nice if
one of you people who is supposed to be doing me a timeline could do
it _soon_. If not, I'll just pick my favorite from my collection and
put it in there.
Pam Korda
ko...@kimbark.uchicago.edu
Bill Garrett
:
: [Robert Jordan] mentioned Hyperion... he loved the book until he read the
: the book across the room and never got around to reading Hyperion II.
Yes! YES!! Finally someone who agrees with me! Hyperion was such a
beautiful story until Simmons destroyed it with the _lamest_ closing I've
_ever_ seen any time since third grade English class.
: I asked if he had anything he wanted to pass on to the net as a
: whole, and he responded, "50% of the FAQ (pre-tFoH) is wrong."
Of course, back then about 50% of the FAQ was devoted to "Is Verin Black?"
I rest my case.
: He likes Mexican food and treats his driver well. ;)
I know a great Mexican restaurant in Arlington, VA, where we've coincidently
had a social before...
--
Bill Garrett I am a firm believer in optimism because
gar...@cs.unc.edu without optimism, what is there?
Roxanne
are two halves of one book. Mr. Simmons delivered it to his publisher
as *one* book. *They* decided, at the last minute, that it was too long
to put out in one package, and more or less arbitrarily broke it in two.
As Alice is fond of saying when recommending that a person buying
_Hyperion_ should also buy _Fall of Hyperion_: It's a wonder they didn't
break it in the middle of a sentence...
If you haven't read it, maybe you should. It's a great book (and not
nearly so much a horror novel as some of his other stuff).
- Roxanne
Aaron Bergman
wrote:
:mhu...@iglou.iglou.com (Matthew Hunter) writes:
::
:: [Robert Jordan] mentioned Hyperion... he loved the book until he read the
:: ending. "There was no ending, no resolution." At that point, he threw
:: the book across the room and never got around to reading Hyperion II.
:
:Yes! YES!! Finally someone who agrees with me! Hyperion was such a
:beautiful story until Simmons destroyed it with the _lamest_ closing I've
:_ever_ seen any time since third grade English class.
You just have to get over walking off into the sunset singing "We're off
to see the wizard" and read the next book. Personally, the duology as a
whole is one of my favorites ever.
Aaron
Thomas R Pennington
Some more little tidbits that HE said at Cinn:
Someone said that she was glad that Perrin was back in LoC
RJ said that it seem that of all the characters that people told him they liked
the most votes went for Perrin.
When asked which was his favorate?
"They all are my favorate, when I am writing about one, I like him even if he
is Padan Fain."
RJ showed that in the hat he wears, the name "Rand" is there.
-thomasx
3
alden stradling
|> mhu...@iglou.iglou.com (Matthew Hunter) writes:
|> :
|> : [Robert Jordan] mentioned Hyperion... he loved the book until he read
the
|> : ending. "There was no ending, no resolution." At that point, he
threw
|> : the book across the room and never got around to reading Hyperion II.
|>
|> Yes! YES!! Finally someone who agrees with me! Hyperion was such a
|> beautiful story until Simmons destroyed it with the _lamest_ closing
I've
|> _ever_ seen any time since third grade English class.
|>
used, where things resolve, where worlds die and people do cool stuff.
Hyperion is just the collection of stories and setup of the plot. Consider
it a header file for the code Fall_of_Hyperion.c. I did the same as
Jordan, except that I am compelled to finish series, and was not real
disappointed. There are a lot of really good resolutions throughout the
book. I liked it.
YMMV
Alden
tif
Aaron Bergman <aber...@minerva.cis.yale.edu> wrote:
>You just have to get over walking off into the sunset singing "We're off
>to see the wizard" and read the next book. Personally, the duology as a
>whole is one of my favorites ever.
...except that there's supposed to be a third book called _Endymion_.
Rumor on r.a.sf.w says that it'll appear in mid-1995, but I'm not holding
my breath. I agree, though -- _Hyperion_ and _Fall_ were great except
for their endings. Not having read other Simmons books, I won't
speculate on his (in)ability to finish his novels.