Aaron wrote:Like Zou.
Zou actually wasn't a bad writer when it came to 'Emperor's Mercy'. Sure he's no abnett (despite Abnett's praise) but it was a pretty solid book and I think it had a nice 'military' atmosphere to it that was different and interesting for 40K. But he fucked up Flesh and Iron the same way KJA fucked up the Jedi Acaedmy trilogy. Dull characters, unengaging plot, and nothing to really pull at the reader so they just really plod through from start to finish. Not a good way to write a book. And Blood Gorgons was just CSM fetishism through and through. but what really killed him were the plagarism accusations, I think.
In 40K terms KJA is more like CS Goto, writing Eldar. Goto gets a bad rep because nerds obsess over the little detials (OMG HE DIDN'T STICK MULTILASERS ON VEHICLES. HERESY! Some people should read some of the early 40K fluff about multilasers...) but the DoW novels were passable and the Deathwatch stuff was pretty good. His Eldar work was.. however.. fucking
boring. Eldar Prophecy was the one horrible novel he did because it was incredibly
dull. I mean the bad parts of DoW were okay because I could at least laugh at the silliness of Gabriel having his little religious seizures, but I didnt even get that with Eldar Prophecy.
Infinity Biscuit wrote:I used to list KJA as one of my favourite authors as a kid.
I tried rereading the Jedi Academy trilogy a few years ago after I'd reread the Thrawn trilogy. I literally couldn't get ten pages in before I gave up because the writing was so terrible. And since I'd remembered those books so fondly I don't think it was bias or anything.
Like, I couldn't even get to any objectionable plot or characterisation aspects since it was the writing itself that turned me away. Is that ever listed as a complaint for KJA or is it just the way people perceive him as mishandling the IP?
I dont think they ever intellectualize it beyond 'KJA is shit'. For me it wasnt the writing per se, although the guy can come up with some incredibly silly shit. The novels were just plain
boring however. There was nothing really interesting to engage a person, the action didn't really feel.. action worthy. It was just plain dull. I can forgive bad writing even because it at least
engages me, even if its in a critical manner. But boring writing doesn't engage me at all, and that's worse. Although Darksaber was a bit better than the JAT in that regard (in the sense there were things happening, although I still can't forgive 'Daala you're such a pain.' Not exactly sterling comeback material.)
And as I said his Dune stuff is pretty hit and miss, which is the best thing you can say about the guy. Some stuff is good and some of it isn't.