August 2014 Media Thread

ArisKatsaris

This is the monthly thread for posting media of various types that you've found that you enjoy. Post what you're reading, listening to, watching, and your opinion of it. Post recommendations to blogs. Post whatever media you feel like discussing! To see previous recommendations, check out the older threads.

Rules:

Please avoid downvoting recommendations just because you don't personally like the recommended material; remember that liking is a two-place word. If you can point out a specific flaw in a person's recommendation, consider posting a comment to that effect.
If you want to post something that (you know) has been recommended before, but have another recommendation to add, please link to the original, so that the reader has both recommendations.
Please post only under one of the already created subthreads, and never directly under the parent media thread.
Use the "Other Media" thread if you believe the piece of media you want to discuss doesn't fit under any of the established categories.
Use the "Meta" thread if you want to discuss about the monthly media thread itself (e.g. to propose adding/removing/splitting/merging subthreads, or to discuss the type of content properly belonging to each subthread) or for any other question or issue you may have about the thread or the rules.

NOTE: The rules this month have been edited slightly, for the purpose of greater clarity. Their intended meaning hasn't changed, just the wording. Please discuss any disagreement/objection under the "Meta" thread.

Rules:

Please avoid downvoting recommendations just because you don't personally like the recommended material; remember that liking is a two-place word. If you can point out a specific flaw in a person's recommendation, consider posting a comment to that effect.
If you want to post something that (you know) has been recommended before, but have another recommendation to add, please link to the original, so that the reader has both recommendations.
Please post only under one of the already created subthreads, and never directly under the parent media thread.
Use the "Other Media" thread if you believe the piece of media you want to discuss doesn't fit under any of the established categories.
Use the "Meta" thread if you want to discuss about the monthly media thread itself (e.g. to propose adding/removing/splitting/merging subthreads, or to discuss the type of content properly belonging to each subthread) or for any other question or issue you may have about the thread or the rules.

I think Worm is better starting at 3.1 and doing 1-2 as flashbacks.

I read the preview for Pact, and felt like it was promising one thing, then switched in the last few paragraphs to something completely different. Similarly, I was skeptical of Worm until the encounter with Lung (I don't know if I would have made it that far without Eliezer's recommendation, but I am very glad I did).

The information in both intros is valuable, and it sets up the theme--bullies suck, "gaaah why wont this family leave me alone?"--but they invest the reader in one storyline, then completely pull the rug out from under them. Howard Taylor would call this 'breaking promises to the reader'.

(Which suggests the question: how should a writer initiate a story without too much in medias rais[sic] such that the reader knows what they're getting into before the protagonist, but we don't lose valuable information/etc?)

I think Worm is better starting at 3.1 and doing 1-2 as flashbacks.

It is a rule of thumb in writing that many novels (especially those written by relatively inexperienced writers) will feel tighter and better-paced if one lops off the first two or three chapters. I find it interesting that it also applies to Worm.

3Luke_A_Somers12y

The opening chapter of a Song of Ice and Fire gives a nice big unforgettable hint that this isn't simply medieval politics in an odd setting.

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