I'm so frustrated by Scalzi. He seems an enormously decent human being, and his fiction just leaves me cold.

As in, I just bought and read Starter Villain, and the premise deserved to be either a short story or a much denser novel. It was meh.

In other news, I read The Properties of Thirst by Marianne Wiggins for book club, and it was great, although felt rather unfinished (she had a stroke 3/4 of the way through writing it and her daughter worked with her on the ending but it's a big shaky).

Currently loaded on the kindle is Countess by Suzan Palumbo. No, I have no idea why I borrowed it from the library. Presumably I saw a rec for it, put it on hold, and now it has shown up on my Kindle. Hope it's good!

Oh, that’s too bad. Starter Villain was the first Scalzi that really won me over! I’m still a bit iffy on his oeuvre in general, but that one I just thoroughly enjoyed in an uncomplicated way. I still don’t think I’m going to read Old Man’s War, though.

I liked his Kaiju Preservation Society. Old Man’s War failed to hold me.

He seems an enormously decent human being, and his fiction just leaves me cold.

Yep, same. His blog/Twitter/Bluesky is delightful, his books are...mostly pretty boring, I find. I'm glad he's successful, because I do genuinely think he's a good person, but his writing does not grab me.

his writing does not grab me.

There's no density to it, no full sensory experience, no layers. It means his work can be easily adapted to the screen, I suspect. But it's just 2D to me.

IMO! Other people may be getting more out of it than I do.

That does sound right. I’m gonna file that away to think about next time I do read something of his. I get in moods where thinking about why I don’t really like what I’m reading seems way more important than just reading something I like…and if I do like the next thing of his, considering it under this lens should also be illuminating.

I’m currently reading Days of Shattered Faith and I have zero complaints so far. Other than with my memory, since I can remember just enough from the first two books to be sure that I’m missing a lot of references/resonances (like “oh, this character is actually that character from the first book! What was his deal? Nope, don’t remember” only it takes a lot longer for me to work through that

I have Something Extraordinary up next and that whole series has been such a mixed bag of stuff I wanted to like conceptually mixed with stuff I actually like rather a lot but peppered with stuff I just don’t care for at all. I don’t know whether I hope I like it or look forward to hating it at this point

I really liked Redshirts. Starter Villain was fine.

Huh. I loved the Old Man's War series and pretty much everything else he's written.

I'm glad people like his stuff! I keep trying to like it and it just... doesn't take.

After today's article about Gaiman (it's basically expanding on the stuff that came out last year, so I do not recommend anyone force themselves to read it), I'm thinking about the books on my shelves. I know this is something we've been through before and will again, and I think any approach is valid.

I don't want to get rid of my Sandman books, but am I ever going to be able to read them again? If the argument is that other people were involved in its creation--artists, letterers, colorists, etc.--then can I put it in the same bucket as the Good Omens TV show, or even the Good Omens book, where other people were involved in its creation? If that's the standard, do I get rid of my copies of Neverwhere and Stardust and Coraline? Even books have editors and copy editors and cover artists.

As far as Whedon and Rowling go, I decided not to let them take the work from me, but I was more involved in those fandoms. Am I still able to read and enjoy fanfic for Good Omens or Sandman?

I know this is a debate that will never end, and I'm not saying anything new.