I'll look into Clarke. When the book hit it big a few years ago, I shied away from it on general principle. Hype nearly always has the opposite effect on me. The length issue doesn't bother me. The reward at the end does: was it worth reading? That's the same issue I have with Rothfuss. He's a great writer and loads of snarky fun on a convention panel, but I probably won't read his second book until I can read the third as well.
Silver-Midnight, what I meant was not that PR folks should be reading Anne Rice or Dracula, but that they should at least make some ventures into the mainstream sf&f classic catalog. Heck, even just read some sf&f published in the last 20 years. If they don't know the old tropes, they can't twist 'em into new and wonderful shapes. I can only take so many urban werewolves and vampires (and I love werewolves and vampires!)
There are brilliant, fearless writers in UF and PR. I'm dazzled every time I read one, and they have my loyalty forever. But I've noticed a form of segregation from those genres' editors and agents over the last few years. Some, whose names I will not use here, have even outright *said* it to me: "Our readers don't want really complex worldbuilding and characters, so we're not looking for it."
Silver-Midnight, what I meant was not that PR folks should be reading Anne Rice or Dracula, but that they should at least make some ventures into the mainstream sf&f classic catalog. Heck, even just read some sf&f published in the last 20 years. If they don't know the old tropes, they can't twist 'em into new and wonderful shapes. I can only take so many urban werewolves and vampires (and I love werewolves and vampires!)
There are brilliant, fearless writers in UF and PR. I'm dazzled every time I read one, and they have my loyalty forever. But I've noticed a form of segregation from those genres' editors and agents over the last few years. Some, whose names I will not use here, have even outright *said* it to me: "Our readers don't want really complex worldbuilding and characters, so we're not looking for it."