Novelisation: crappy

POSTED BY: BrainMissing
UPDATED: Monday, October 17, 2005 08:45
VIEWED: 19854
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BRAINMISSING

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 2:04 AM

Who is Keith DeCandido and where the hell did he learn to write? I could have done a better job of this novelisation when I was still in high school. His sentence structure is awkward and pitifully, reminds me of some of the stories in my Grade 12 writing class at the beginning of the year (before we'd learned anything). He has even forgotten (or perhaps never heard) the 1st rule of writing: show, don't tell.

Lines that were laugh-out-loud funny in the movie fall flat when wrapped in his child-like descriptions. He has completely lost the brilliance of Firefly by explaining EVERYTHING that everyone does - how can our favourite man of mystery be mysterious when we know the motivations behind all his actions? Not to mention that I would be sorely disappointed if I truly believed those were the motivations that Joss Whedon meant him to have.

Keith DeCandido, if you're reading this, take a gorram creative writing course.

Whoever chose him, read a gorram scifi book. Find out where the talent lies. There's plenty of writers out there who are hysterically funny, and don't insult the intelligence of their readers. Serenity deserves better than this, guys. Come on.

GHOLA

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 2:26 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by BrainMissing:

Keith DeCandido, if you're reading this, take a gorram creative writing course.

He probably is, KRAD sometimes posts on this site so could you limit it to constructive criticism and not outright flaming.

TOMANTA

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 2:57 AM

I rather enjoyed the novelization, but I did have a few problems with it. Primarily that it read much like the screenplay with a few extra lines thrown in. I had just read the shooting script and that probably made it more apparant. It's clear that KRAD is a fan of Firefly, though - which is the only reason I picked it up in the first place.

Movie novelizations are tricky, because you cannot include much more action outside of what the screenplay contains, unless you fill "gaps" in time (and there are not very many gaps in Serenity to fill). Otherwise, the book would be much shorter.

(Oh, it might be noted that KRAD writes a LOT of science fiction. I'd say the fact that he continues to get published says something about his writing).

Speaking of writing, it is hard to take criticism of an established author seriously when the criticism has several spelling and grammatical mistakes. The real 1st rule of writing is proofread :). Normally I would have ignored them, as I see far, far worse every day... but when complaining about someone else's writing, they stand out.

---
"Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government."

RABIT

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 3:00 AM

I'm sorry you felt that way about it. I personally enjoyed the book and thought KRAD did a good job of putting the information into a format that not only fleshed it out but added a significant amount of clarity and information.

I honestly didn't have a problem with his writing, but I'm not known for my grammar.

Rabit

VELOXI

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 3:05 AM

I personally liked the novel a lot, read it twice. It was better than a Star Wars novel, I thought. ;)

RAKARR

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 3:14 AM

Sorry I don't know what you guys are talking about? What novel? Well any novel about Firefly not done by Joss isn't worth your time people! I don't know this from experience, but from what Joss said himself! He said some thing like that HE can't even read them cause if he does he gets so frustrated with them that he ends up re-writing them himself. After I read Joss saying that (some where on this site I think) I'm not gonna bother with a Firefly/Serenity novel unless it's by Joss himself. Those will be the only ones to satisfy all the fans.

"I am a leaf in the wind."
Big Damn Fansite - Where the Browncoats gather.
http://www.freewebs.com/bigdamnfansite

TOMANTA

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 3:18 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Rakarr:
Sorry I don't know what you guys are talking about? What novel? Well any novel about Firefly not done by Joss isn't worth your time people! I don't know this from experience, but from what Joss said himself! He said some thing like that HE can't even read them cause if he does he gets so frustrated with them that he ends up re-writing them himself. After I read Joss saying that (some where on this site I think) I'm not gonna bother with a Firefly/Serenity novel unless it's by Joss himself. Those will be the only ones to satisfy all the fans.

It is just the novelization of the film. I don't remember Joss saying he gets frustrated... but I do recall him saying he doesn't have the time to read them. But it wouldn't surprise me... I mean, if he didn't at least tweak every script for Buffy/Angel/Firefly he came very close.

"Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government."

SNIPER

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 3:28 AM

I also didn't like the novelization- because of the writing. The characterizations were way off for Mal and Jayne, among others, and the prose was far too lax for a movie novelization.

BRAINMISSING

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 4:49 AM

Normally I wouldn't be so acerbic - when I'm critiquing for a creative writing class, for instance, but I was pretty upset.

Two points:
There were no spelling mistakes in my post. You may have been referring to the Canadian spellings of certain words, such as 'favourite' and 'novelisation'. I believe my grammar was also correct as I double-checked it, but I am not perfect by any means.

Secondly, I am comparing this novel, not to Star Wars novels, but to the quality of writing in the Firefly series. It just doesn't measure up.

DOCRAILGUN

Wednesday, October 5, 2005 5:04 AM

That may be, but you're holding the novelization up to quite a standard. What makes Jossverse stuff good is his dialogue and writing. We certainly can't say that Joss wrote much "sci-fi". There's no science involved. :)

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