More thoughts about tie-in fiction

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Because it's considered to be bad netiquette to resuurect very old topics, I'm creating a new thread rather than dredging up the great tie-in fiction debate. Anyway...

As you might remember, I have recently sampled a psir of tie-in authors: the well regarded Dan Abnett and the relatively unknown Keith Baker. Abnett I found to be boring and Baker... well, he's one of the worst authors that I have read in a long, long time. I don't believe all tie-in fiction is bad, but I do think it might be true that the average quality of tie-ins is lower. I believe that had Keith's Baker Dreaming Dark trilogy not been tie-in fiction, it would never have been accepted by any publisher. Simply being branded a D&D book means that this crap has a chance of actually selling.

And very soon, I might be dipping back into one of the brands I used to read: Magic: the Gathering novels. I read a lot of them in my teenage years. Some were decent, some were terrible, a few were very good. So what book is causing me to return? The Quest for Karn. This is a sequel to the Mirrodin trilogy. The low quality of the Mirrodin trilogy is actually one of the reasons I originally stopped reading MtG novels, but this book brings back the great character Karn and MtG's iconic bad guys, the Phyrexians. I'm curious to see if these baddies are as compelling this time as they were the first time around.

Has anyone else had any experiences with tie-ins lately?

[joost]

I recently bought a few Buffy books, haven't started them yet though.

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Well, I've done it. I've bought a copy of The Quest for Karn and commenced reading it as my new train book. (At home I'm still reading Tigana. It's taking me a while - it's a good book, but very long.)

One of the things I liked about the old MtG novels was how interconnected they all were. Most books were based on card sets and grouped in trilogies, and while many told their own story, there were links between all of them. Aside from the decrease in quality, the increasingly thinner links between the stories caused me to lose interest. Well, the interconnectiviness has come back in recent years. The main characters have all been introduced in previous books and this book makes no effort to explain who they are and why they're here. If I wasn't familiar with some of the elements, like the Phyrexians, I would be completely lost.

Which brings to my first niggle with this story. A previous storyline involved the massive invasion of Dominaria by the Phyrexians, which involved an all-out war. In this storyline, an infectious oil is slowly turning the inhabitants of Mirrodin into Phyrexian monstrosities. If the oil is all it takes, why didn't they do that with Dominaria???

[Albertosaurus Rex]

And the story continues... I haven't finished The Quest for Karn yet, but I'm getting close. And I have to say: this book really rubs me the wrong way.

A quick aside. MtG sets are released in blocks of three. In the past, these had a corresponding trilogy of books. This led to problems: the deadlines were very strict because the books had to come out concurrently with the sets. But the sets were being developed during the writing of the book, so certain details would be off. Or things that were important in the set weren't in the book at all, and vice versa. (Legions, I'm looking at you!) And the story was often too thin too carry an entire trilogy, so they began relying more and more on fighting. (They were quickly dubbed "smash stories" by the MtG community.) For these reasons, the trilogies have recently been replaced by single novels corresponding to blocks. This should be an improvement, right? A more focused story, more time to write, etc... right?

Wrong. Most of this book could be summarized as "Running in and out of rooms (and fighting whoever is encoutered there)". 90% of the book is just that. Character development? What's that? The characters barely have any personality, there is nothing to develop!

And then there's Karn. The book is named after him, and this is a major selling point. It made me come back to MtG! Karn the silver golem was originally introduced back in 1997 during the Wheatherlight Saga, MtG's best known and logest storyline, spanning four years, thirteen sets, and thirteen books, seven of which Karn appeared in. He then had smaller roles in three further storylines. Karn is a major character that we are emotionally invested in. And now he's being corrupted by the forces of Phyrexia! This is exciting! Oh, he gets only one brief scene in the 240 pages I've read so far? (Out of 290!)

Then there's Glissa and Geth, two characters from the previous storyline sets on Mirrodin who appear to have turned traitor. Now that's interesting. Are they corrupted too, or do they have a double agenda? Also just that one scene? There is so much missed potential here.

At one point it seems like the book starts to unintentionally parody itself. We get lines like:

He had seen many rooms, and exactly none of them made any sense.

"I don't understand. What do we accomplish by this running around down here?"

Might this be the mark of a writer subconsciously rebelling at the terribleness of what he's writing? Which brings me to another point. Unless Robert B. Wintermute is a pseudonym, he has only ever written two MtG novels. In the past, established, if not terribly well known authors wrote the books. Given the strict requirements of writing these novels, does it make sense to have untested authors writing them? This is an annoying trend that started way back around the end of the Wheatherlight saga, when we suddenly got Vance Moore, one of the worst writers ever.

There are good MtG books, but this is not one of them. This is drivel. If this hadn't been a tie-in, no one would publish it and no one would buy it.

Thus ends my mega rant.

[joost]

I recently bought a few Buffy books, haven't started them yet though.

Finished book 1.
Coyote moon: A carnival hosts some shape shifters. A bit short but it captures the tone of the series very nicely.
Night of the living re-run: Buffy and Salem. Something that would've been nice to have in the TV-series, and it works OK in a book.
Portal through time: Buffy needs to stop some timetravelling vampires who want to kill previous slayers in order to disrupt the slayer lineage and allow the Master to rise. Buffy visits Anglesey (Mona) during the Roman invasion in 60, Sumeria during Gilgamesh' reign in 2700BC, Tennessee in 1862 during the Battle of Shiloh and Paris during the French revolution in 1792. Very good, definitely the best book in this volume.

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Well, it's heartening to read that at least the Buffyverse authors aren't writing pointless drivel.

[Albertosaurus Rex]

After finishing The Quest for Karn, I decided to write the creative team of MtG a letter:

Dear Mr. Beyer,

For the past ten years I have been playing MtG on and off, always enjoying it when I have the chance to play, but having few people around to play against. First discovering the game during the tail end of the Weatherlight saga, I became interested in the story and started following the novel line, starting with the excellent "The Brothers' War". However, I found my interest waning after the end of the Weatherlight saga and finally stopped reading in the middle of the Kamigawa cycle. I found that the new stories didn't interest me all that much, I missed the interconnectivity that used to exist between the stories and found that the stories began relying more and more on endless fighting. I still occasionally checked MagicTheGathering.com to check out what was going on, and have to say that I like the new worlds you keep coming up with.

What finally brought me back to the storyline was the "Scars of Mirrodin" block. I didn't much like Mirrodin the first time around ("The Darksteel Eye" is one of the worst novels I've ever read), but bringing back Karn and the Phyrexians? That sure had me interested. So I went out and bought my first MtG novel in years, "The Quest for Karn".

Coming finally to the point: I thought it was terrible. And I am not alone in my opinion. Check the various MtG forums, check the Amazon reviews: they are universally negative. We all expected to see the war between the Mirrans and the Phyrexians, so it was disappointing to find our three heroes arriving on a Mirrodin that has pretty much already lost. But hey, the titular search for Karn might still be interesting. What I found, however, was a very thin story padded out with a lot of running and fighting and no character development. In fact, I think a good alternate title for the book might be “Running in and out of rooms”. It is described in an unexciting way and almost nothing relevant happens. Characters like the Praetors and Thrun, who supposedly raised Melira, are not even mentioned.

Investigating who this Robert B. Wintermute fellow is, I found out that all he has ever written are this book and the Zendikar novel. Is it really wise to let untried authors write these books? MtG books are, as I understand it, under a lot of constraints, such as having to come out concurrently with a set and being written while the sets they’re tying into are still being designed. In the past, you had writers like Jeff Grubb, Lynn Abbey, J. Robert King and Paul B. Thompson write the books. They were established, if not terribly famous authors. They were known quantities. (I do note that the new Planeswalker novels ARE written by previously published authors.) With a newbie author, who knows what they might put out? Sometimes it works, like Scott McGough and Cory Herndon, whose books I enjoyed. But at other times, one ends up with authors like Vance Moore and Wintermute. What did Wintermute do to get commissioned to write this book?

I’m sorry if I keep going on and on, but the thing is that I’m a longtime storyline fan and that I’m not just disappointed, but bewildered. Did you read “The Quest for Karn”? What on Earth convinced anyone that it was a good idea to publish this? Then again, being written under such a strict deadline, I suppose that it was too late to commission another author.

I don’t want to sound rude, but please explain: what on Earth where you guys thinking?

I'm curious if I'll get a reply, and what it will be.

[Farseer]

I, too, am curious!

Aside from the actual subject matter of the letter, AR, you have such an incredible command of the English language that I am floundering to come up with a suitable compliment in response! Brilliant!

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Why thank you very much. You are always so full of kind words. I should do that myself more often, in my personal life. In get exposed to English a lot in my daily life - 99% of the articles I have to read for university are in English. Some of my lectures are in English, because we have international students. Most fiction I read is in English. Most television I watch is in English. It rubs off on a person. And yet, I still managed to accidentally type "were" as "where", the type of error that makes me cringe whenever I see somebody else do it.

Unfortunately, in writing this letter (which I have already emailed) it was very difficult to remain kind. I hope it is a fair and balanced letter - I didn't want to come across as an angry fanboy with entitlement issues. I did make sure to praise those books and authors that I did enjoy. But for the life of me, I don't understand what must be going on in their heads.

In the normal creative process, an author comes up with a story, writes it and sends it off to a publisher, often collecting a slew of rejection letters before finally being published. In the case of MtG, the designers make a card sets, craft a setting and accompanying storyline, and then seek out an author to write the novel. Fine, that can work. Witness the excellence that is The Brothers' War. But if you go that route, you need to get an author who has been published before, someone who's proven their worth. After all, given the very strict deadline, you can't really reject the novel when it's finished. So why, why, why have some newbie write the books? How did that conversation go?

Click here to see my grotesque little speculation...

Wizards of the Coast offices, 2008

WotC editor #1: We need someone to write the Zendikar novel. Any suggestions?
WotC editor #2: What about an established genre author?
WotC editor #1: I'm afraid they will turn up their nose at tie-in fiction.
WotC editor #2: Why not one of our D&D authors then? Despite the reputation those books have, there's a fair deal of decent writers out there.
Robert B. Wintermute: Can I write the book?
WotC editor #1: And what are your prior accomplishments? Have you published anything before?
Robert B. Wintermute: No.
WotC editor #1: Why not? Have you never written fiction before? Or did you not send it to a publisher? Or was it rejected?
Robert B. Wintermute: Just let me have a go at it. What could go wrong?
WotC editor #2: You're on!

Wizards of the Coast offices, 2009

WotC editor #1: We need someone to write the Scars of Mirrodin book. Any suggestions?
Robert B. Wintermute: Can I do it again?
WotC editor #1: Everyone hated Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum. Why would we hire you again?
Robert B. Wintermute: I'll be good this time!
WotC editor #1: We're bringing back Karn and the Phyrexians. Many fans who fond memories of them. Think you can do them justice?
WotC editor #2: Come on, let him do the book.
WotC editor #1: Why? Give me a reason. Any reason.
WotC editor #2: Because our reputation has become so tarnished that no reputable author wants the job. Wintermute, you're on!

Wizards of the Coast offices, 2010

WotC editor #1: We need somebody to write the Innistrad novel.
Robert B. Wintermute: Can I write it? Please?
WotC editor #1: Why? Everybody hated Scars of Mirrodin: The Quest for Karn. Did you ever read up on old continuity?
Robert B. Wintermute: Third time's the charm, right?
WotC editor #2: You're on!
WotC editor #1: I'm out of here.

Note: I don't know who will actually be writing the Innistrad novel.

Sometimes I read a book that I don't like, and I'll think "Well, maybe somebody else likes it. Who knows?" Not with this book. I can't imagine anyone, anywhere in the process, maybe not even the author, considering this to be a good work of fiction.