The Not a Book Club Club discussion

So I'm just about caught up. I added this to the group shelf. Supposed to come out June 17th. I hope I can get it in audio the same day..

Will anyone else be joining me?

*raises hand*

I've had a few series that did the paperback->hardcover change over. That still drives me a little nuts.

Of course since I prefer MMPB as a form factor, I have a few other series where I caught up and had to make the switch or wait an extra year.

I didn't realize expanse wasn't in hardcover before since I've done it all in audio, but yeah, good for them.

Of course I hope their success doesn't cause the series to be dragged out.

I didn't realize Cibola Burn was going to be in hard cover. Alex, that would drive me nuts too. Good on them though.

Tentatively raises hand

Hey, since CB is coming out in hardcover, I decided to check on what date the audio version is being released. It will be on the same day as the print version. They have a new narrator, Erik Davies. He's...okay.

I wonder why a new narrator? I wasn't necessarily attached to the last one though. I had to look up who it was.

They switched to Blackstone for this one which may have forced them to go with someone else. Yeah, the last one definitely had some hangups, but he did pretty well at pronouncing long, scientific words. The new guy sounds a little lazy from a sample I heard, but he may just take a little while to get into a book.

Alex wrote: "Rob, this won't bother you since you're doing audio, but Cibola Burn comes out in hardcover. Now, I'm quite excited for Daniel and Ty, because this is a step up, but it TOTALLY MESSES..."

Along with the change to hardcover, they also changed the spine design:



Its now big author font with small title font. I assume this is because 'James SA Corey' is now a successful, known commodity that is more marketable on the spine than a cool sounding title.

Also, there are no 'extras' in the back of the book like the others in the series (and other Orbit books).

Great picture. I'm still catching up on the series, but its summer, so hopefully I'll get to this one fairly soon after it comes out!

It doesn't bother me too much. I've pretty much given up on having a perfect looking bookshelf.

The orange colour used on Cibola Burn is actually really hard to read on the inside flaps of the dust cover because someone decided they should use silver font on an orange background. That was a poor choice.

I posted the discussion threads. Thanks to Geoff for providing the chapter split!

Looks like I should finish my audiobook tomorrow so I can jump right into this on Tuesday morning barring any issues downloading.

Unfortunately, unforeseen expenses are forcing me to wait on Cibola Burn. Lame. I'll check out the threads when I can get the book.

And they've just announced a new deal for books 7-9.

Yeah. Mixed feelings on that. I was going to post a link to the article, but I forgot.

Rob wrote: "Yeah. Mixed feelings on that."

Why? I feel that's a very pessimistic viewpoint (not just from you but a vocal portion of fans) that perpetuates because some series have debatably run too long (Wheel of Time and Song of Ice and Fire). Why can't there be hope for it to be good?

The same thing happened when Disney bought Lucas. There were all these people who thought it would be disastrous. Why can't it be good? They announce JJ Abrams is directing episode 7. "WTF" the internet says, "it'll be bad like Star Trek Into Darkness". What about all the great stuff he's done? They make the initial cast announcement and there's only 1 woman. "OMG", the internet cries, "just another male-centric sci-fi movie". Maybe, Daisy Ridley is the star of the movie? Did people think the cast was 12 people and they weren't going to announce other cast members?

The first 4 books have been great. So far in the series, the only part I disliked was the female, religious character (can't remember her name) from Abaddon's Gate. The other books that Daniel Abraham has written are all good; both the Long Quartet series (4 books), which is finished, and the Dagger and the Coin series (3 books, 2 coming), which is ongoing.

It's not just books. It's all media. Content publishers/financiers and to a lesser degree (it seems) content creators are unable to just write a complete story and then walk away.

There is just too much money in it. It's a lot easier to sell a book/movie/tv show for an existing IP than for a new one. So they turn our sequel after sequel. Reboot after Reboot.

They drag things out to the point of making their fans sick of it, rather than going out on top. So few things seem to have the courage to just tell the story the originally intended and then move on to the next thing.

I originally thought Expanse was going to be a trilogy when I started it. Now it's going to be 9 books?

I think the first 2 are a lot better than the last 2 have been. Though I'm only a few hours into book 4. I haven't liked the POVs in either of the last 2 books nearly as much, so maybe that's a large part of it.

Personally I think Robin Hobb has a good formula. She's done multiple trilogies that tie together. You can get a complete story and stop. Or you can continue on to the next one if you want more. Or how Sanderson is doing his Cosmere stuff.

As far as Star Wars, it can be good. But I'm not expecting it. I was so disappointed with the prequels. I think it's easier to assume they will be bad and be pleasantly surprised if they do a good job rather than hoping for the best.

I'd like a lot more stand alones and trilogies rather than long series. But there is too much money in sequels/spin-offs.

Rob wrote: "I originally thought Expanse was going to be a trilogy when I started it. Now it's going to be 9 books?...Personally I think Robin Hobb has a good formula. She's done multiple trilogies that tie together. "

I think that the Expanse is probably going to follow something similar the Hobb formula. The first three books were set in our solar system. Now they are expanding/colonizing new worlds. Maybe the third trilogy has light speed travel and full on alien civilizations. All this with the connecting thread of Holden. Is that so different from Fitz & Fool in Hobb's books (full disclosure: I've only read Assassins Apprentice, but I know those two characters are important/present in the later trilogies). I think you could have the story of Cibola Burn without Holden & the Roci crew but you'd have to introduce new characters (and make us care about them) to make it work.

Rob wrote: "It's a lot easier to sell a book/movie/tv show for an existing IP than for a new one... Reboot after Reboot"

This a completely different but absolutely terrible scourge on media right now. A perfect example is the new Michael Bay Ninja Turtles movie. My generation who watched the original cartoon on TV isn't going to like it because they'll change things, its Michael Bay and it won't be good. And current kids aren't really into the Ninja Turtles. Who is this movie for? But reboots aren't what we're talking about here.

Rob wrote: "Or how Sanderson is doing his Cosmere stuff."

Sanderson is hiding his 20-30 book epic behind his standalones and trilogies. And I love it. But someday, its all going to crash together, people aren't going to bother to continue when he announces that book 25 (or whatever) will require knowledge of the entire Cosmere and he'll lose readers who didn't know they were signing up for that.

You're taking my mixed feelings as only negative, when it's both. They might do a fine job with it, but for now I'm leary about 3 more books.

Books may not suffer from reboots, but they certainly suffer from the sequel problem.

I have the same mixed feelings about the new Fitz and Fool trilogy. And I love those books. It's for exactly that reason that I'm concerned.