Malazan Empire: Contest for best Quick Ben vs Vin crossover fanfic - Malazan Empire

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Contest for best Quick Ben vs Vin crossover fanfic Congrats to the Suvudu Cage Match finalists!

#1 User is offline   Terez 

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Posted 03 April 2011 - 10:20 PM

Copied from my blog:

Terez said:

I don't know about you guys, but I could sure use a Suvudu Cage Match write-up that just knocks my socks off. Anyone agree? I usually (not always, but usually) read a paragraph or two and I just feel all squirmy because it's so different from the prose of the original authors (who are usually more similar to each other in style than either is similar to the style of the Suvudu write-ups whether they are official or dropped in the comments). And then there are continuity issues to contend with (typically in the world or character details, since plot is mostly irrelevant). Well...okay, I admit that this is a really tough genre of fanfic to tackle. Crossovers! No one reads those, right? The only thing worse is bad smutfic.

So, I have an extra copy of The Way of Kings, first edition of course (some might see this as a bad thing, but too bad cause there is no second edition hardback yet so far as I know - if there is, I'll try to haggle a trade if you want). Presumably there are a lot of BrandonFans who would love to have a personalized copy of the book. I bet many of them are even MalazanFans, too. I'm going to JordanCon in two weeks, and judging based on previous experience, I can probably get Brandon to do something pretty crazy to your book, like maybe draw a picture for you (his drawings are amusingly bad), or give obscure hints on plot details, or deface your book with bad spelling and schizophrenic conversations with himself, or maybe I could even get him to insult you. He's a nice guy like that. And I bet some of you are more creative than me when it comes to deviant personalization requests. Creativity is, after all, what I am looking for here.

All that being said, I didn't ask his permission or anything. This is not an official contest - it's just me and a copy of TWOK. I'll take it and your specifications for personalization (so long as they are within reason of course) to JordanCon, where Brandon must sign books for The Man for one hour (mwahahaha), and then I will ship said personalized copy of TWOK anywhere in the world—free of charge, of course.

I want a good Quick Ben vs Vin. I don't care who wins in your story. I'm voting for QB but a crafty VinWin would be just as appreciated as a crafty BenWin - unlike Perrin, Vin actually has a believable chance to beat QB, and I would love to see that written well because I love convincing Underdog Wins scenarios. There are no real rules other than that it must be in English, and it must be QB vs Vin, and one of them must win - I'd suggest it being 500 words or more, but if you can knock my socks off in 100 words then by all means be my guest. If you want to write 20,000 words, be my guest (though it better be good because length alone won't cause you to win and if you don't interest me in the first 500 words or so...well, I'll be bored, and I would hate for you to go through all that effort just to bore me).

You can post it here or at the suvudu page for Quick Ben vs Vin (when it goes up), you can link it here or at the suvudu page, or you can email it to me at terez27@gmail.com (so long as you understand I'm going to post it if you win). You can enter it anonymously if you like, for whatever reason (though of course if you win you'll have to own up to who you are in email when you send me your mailing address unless you are willing to go through some convolutions to hide your location from me, which I assure you is not necessary). You can do a collaborative if you like but I only have one book. You can PayPal me (same email) for additional books or substitutions (so long as Brandon is the author), but no more than three altogether because I'll probably have to not only stand in line three times but also pull rank to get even that many signed. You can enter and defer the prize to a friend. Deadline will be Sunday April 10 2011 at 12 noon EST or 5pm GMT (24 hours before the match closes) though I'd suggest thinking about how you want your book personalized before then since JordanCon is April 15-17.

One reason I'm doing this is because Brandon probably won't write his own version, partly because Steven Erikson isn't likely to participate, and partly because he doesn't know QB well enough to write him and has no desire to piss off Malazan fans by doing it badly (not that this is a foregone conclusion by any means, but it's understandable that Brandon would be a little wary about it). I'm just guessing there, but I think it's a good guess. So it's only appropriate for the fans to take charge. For those of you who don't know me...I'm not trying to promote my blog here or anything. I only post about WoT usually, and only intermittently at that. I'm just promoting good cagefiction. I mean, I JUST WANT A NICE, ENTERTAINING QUICK BEN VS VIN. That's all. It may be that the official write-up will be great - we shall see! - but I'm preempting the possibility that it won't be by posting this contest before it goes up.

I'm hoping that the Vin vs Quick Ben match will be both competitive and friendly. Let's do this in the spirit of celebrating the diverse entertaining reads that are Mistborn and Malazan, and in the spirit of reaching out across fandom lines to get to know each other in a good way. Sometimes it's hard...but for some reason, I'm thinking this is going to be a truly exciting match.


Update: Peter Ahlstrom (Brandon's assistant) notes in the comments that TWOK was in its third printing by release date, probably due to an underestimation of how much WoT would boost Brandon's sales. However, the point was that the first printings have a good number of typos. No corrected hardback editions have been released yet, though the paperback edition has hopefully been corrected.)

By the way...thanks to all the Malazan and Mistborn fans who beat the odds to make this happen!

This post has been edited by Terez: 06 April 2011 - 04:11 PM

The President (2012) said:

Please proceed, Governor.

Chris Christie (2016) said:

There it is.

Elizabeth Warren (2020) said:

And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.
4

#2 User is offline   Shiara 

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Posted 07 April 2011 - 12:55 PM

Vin crouched, fingering the coppers in the pouch at her waist and waiting for the dark man across the span of bare earth to make the first move.

The man seemed to blur as he stepped forward – blur and split apart into eight identical figures, spreading out to face her at the other end of the arena.

Eyes flicking from one to another, Vin tensed and burned steel, casting out an arc of coins and pushing them towards her multiple foes.

***

After sending out his illusions Quick stepped back against the wall and nudged open D’riss. Using the warren to slide into the sun warmed stone, he settled in to watch and test his opponent. Though the arena appeared grainy and dull, the girl blazed to his eyes, as did the crowd seated above. After a moment’s hesitation, dark streaks shot from her hand towards his decoys, fast as quarrels, tearing into the figures. Five of them dropped, clutching mortal wounds, and sent out the others to warily flank her, illusory blood dripping from glancing blows.

Crouching within the stone he inspected one of the pieces of metal that had clinked against the wall nearby. A coin?

This might be interesting after all...

***

Vin didn’t like this – nothing felt right. How could a man split himself like that? The three approaching from ahead and to either side didn’t look at each other, seeming to work together without direction. None were armed that she could see. She burned iron but the only metals she could sense were the faint lines disappearing up into the crowd (jewellery, perhaps?) and the stronger blue lines to her own coins, in her pouch and scattered at the other end of the arena.

They were getting close now, empty hands rising in unison – mages?

Vin burned pewter and darted to the left, putting herself between one of them and the wall. She tossed a coin at the wall, hearing it slam against the stone as she leapt at the man, pushing hard to send herself flying feet first to smash into his chest.

***

Quick started as the girl moved, frighteningly fast. Before he knew it she had slammed into his illusion, bearing it to the ground and whipping twin obsidian blades across its throat.

Sliding along the curved wall to bring himself closer, he sent one of his two remaining illusory selves toward her with a snarl, a wave of rippling gold sorcery bursting forth at its gesture.

The girl dove and rolled, scattering coins from her pouch in a glittering arc as the wave rolled through where she had been moments earlier. The small discs of metal flashed as they passed through the shimmering wall – and emerged untouched to clatter to the gritty arena floor. Barely pausing for breath, she leapt up – and up, higher than he would have thought possible.

***

At the zenith of her pewter-enhanced jump, Vin eyed the coins she had scattered deliberately around the feet of the two men. Another wave of light came arcing towards her and she pushed a coin against the wall beside her, sending her out over their heads. In an instant she extinguished her pewter and flared duralumin, pulling with all her strength on a coin beneath each of the men below. They shot towards her, hitting the men in their trajectory and pulling her downward, blades at the ready if the coins hadn’t done enough damage. Duralumin and steel depleted, she burned pewter resist the damage of her accelerated fall, landing in a crouch and spinning in a whirl of silk and blades to slash at the staggering men.

Vin panted as the last man fell to the ground at her feet. She blinked. There was no blood. None on her blades, none spattered on the wall beside her. She stepped back warily, looking to the others she had downed earlier.

Hands grabbed her shoulders and she shrieked as she was pulled –

***

– back into the stone with him.

He had seen enough – the girl was strong, but all her powers seemed to rely on those coins. Not enough to defeat him. A wave of energy from behind as she stood over her ‘kills’; a simple gesture opening up the earth beneath her and crushing her within; a small push to open a gate sending her to the depths of Ruse, the pressure killing her before she could drown; all were well within his capabilities. But Quick had had enough of this pointless killing. What had any of them done to deserve this?

Here in the stone those who had brought them to this couldn’t watch, couldn’t counter as he opened gates to take them back to their own worlds, to continue lives interrupted by this meaningless contest –

– but before he could speak, she rammed an elbow into his gut and knocked him free of the stone.

Quick got to his feet slowly. There was no helping her now. His connection to D’riss had allowed him passage through – by breaking his hold on her, she had condemned herself to death, her body forever entombed in the wall of the arena.

He bowed his head as the crowd roared above him.

(Co-written by Shiara and Lucifer's Heaven)
*casting the shaved knuckle*
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#3 User is offline   Terez 

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Posted 07 April 2011 - 01:10 PM

Thank you for your marvelous submission, Sister Shiara!

The President (2012) said:

Please proceed, Governor.

Chris Christie (2016) said:

There it is.

Elizabeth Warren (2020) said:

And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.
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#4 User is offline   Shiara 

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Posted 07 April 2011 - 01:17 PM

*blushes*
*casting the shaved knuckle*
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#5 User is offline   QuickTidal 

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Posted 07 April 2011 - 01:39 PM

Brilliant Shiara! Very nicely written. Quite some skill there I think.
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#6 User is offline   Loki 

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Posted 07 April 2011 - 01:41 PM

I liked the write-up but....*don't hit me* it all depends on there being a walled enclosure. What if there were no walls and it looked more like a football stadium?

YES! I did look for SOMETHING to nitpick at.

It was really good guys, I really liked it. better then the one on the Suvudu site and more in keeping with Ben's dislike of being used.

Wry, on 29 February 2012 - 10:50 AM, said:

And you're not complaining, you're criticizing. It's a side-effect of being better than everyone else, I get it sometimes too.

~TQB~
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#7 User is offline   Cyphon 

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Posted 07 April 2011 - 01:41 PM

I like it.

QB was a bit wussy with all the, 'let's not fight anymore you guuuys'. But up until then, and how Vin died, twas awesome.
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#8 User is offline   Shiara 

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Posted 07 April 2011 - 01:53 PM

View PostCyphon88, on 07 April 2011 - 01:41 PM, said:

QB was a bit wussy with all the, 'let's not fight anymore you guuuys'. But up until then, and how Vin died, twas awesome.


QB isn't always about the 'let's kill everyone, yaaaaay!' either ;)
*casting the shaved knuckle*
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#9 User is offline   Lucifer's Heaven 

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Posted 07 April 2011 - 01:58 PM

Woo!
I'm glad it was well received ;)

Loki, if there were no walls, D'riss into the ground :D Or turn invisible and fly, this just seems like less effort :D
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#10 User is offline   Loki 

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Posted 07 April 2011 - 02:03 PM

View PostLucifer, on 07 April 2011 - 01:58 PM, said:

Woo!
I'm glad it was well received ;)

Loki, if there were no walls, D'riss into the ground :D Or turn invisible and fly, this just seems like less effort :D


I know, I just wanted to be pedantic :D

Wry, on 29 February 2012 - 10:50 AM, said:

And you're not complaining, you're criticizing. It's a side-effect of being better than everyone else, I get it sometimes too.

~TQB~
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#11 User is offline   Cyphon 

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Posted 12 April 2011 - 10:55 AM

View PostShiara, on 07 April 2011 - 01:53 PM, said:

View PostCyphon88, on 07 April 2011 - 01:41 PM, said:

QB was a bit wussy with all the, 'let's not fight anymore you guuuys'. But up until then, and how Vin died, twas awesome.


QB isn't always about the 'let's kill everyone, yaaaaay!' either :D


Indeed. But then this is such a remote situation from where all the characters are situated, who knows how most of them react.
Para todos todo, para nosotros nada.

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#12 User is offline   Pig Iron 

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Posted 12 April 2011 - 06:38 PM

Whatever happens in the actual fight, it should have a prologue starting 100 000 years earlier featuring Sky-Keeps and at least one Elder God.
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#13 User is offline   Shiara 

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Posted 13 April 2011 - 02:24 PM

View PostPig Iron, on 12 April 2011 - 06:38 PM, said:

Whatever happens in the actual fight, it should have a prologue starting 100 000 years earlier featuring Sky-Keeps and at least one Elder God.


No way in hell I could write that convincingly :p
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#14 User is offline   Terez 

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Posted 18 April 2011 - 07:51 PM

So, I only had two entries for this contest. Shame, that. Brandon said I should have mentioned it to him and he would have tweeted it (Peter was nice enough to link it from his blog). But really, it's ambitious to run a contest for something that hardly anyone will have the guts to do. Writing good fanfic is hard enough, but writing crossovers is even more difficult obviously.

Anyway, I offered the free copy of TWOK to both Laura and ShiaraLuci, but Laura accepted first. I offered to send ShiaraLuci a free signed copy of Hero of Ages (the last Mistborn book) but they opted to purchase a copy of TWOK instead, and for personalization they requested a drawing of a greatshell. Since I plastered his amusingly bad artwork of Asmodean all over the web, he apparently decided he needed to put some more effort into it this time. At first when he saw the post-it personalization request, he was all, '!!!' so I suggested he just draw a lump with some antennae but he looked at me like I was crazy and set about drawing this thing:

Posted Image

So, I got him to sign my copy of Hero of Ages (I hadn't got it signed last JordanCon because a friend of mine had borrowed it):

Posted Image

It's funny because I was talking to like three people at once while he was signing my books, and not really paying attention to what they were writing, but I remember Brandon asking me, 'You voted for Quick Ben didn't you?' And I'm like, 'I supported Vin up through the semifinals, but in the finals I voted for Quick Ben.' And Brandon says, 'Okay.' I guess that's when he wrote this. :D

I watched him draw this one, though. I think I will take the book to WorldCon and ask him to apologize in a red sharpie for defacing my book:

Posted Image

Also, I said 'You drew the yeard!' and for the record let it be known that Brandon didn't skip a beat and he knew exactly what a yeard was. And Zod is his name for Tairy. Cute huh?

As soon as ShiaraLuci sends a mailing address, I'll send the book.

The President (2012) said:

Please proceed, Governor.

Chris Christie (2016) said:

There it is.

Elizabeth Warren (2020) said:

And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.
2

#15 User is offline   Shiara 

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Posted 19 April 2011 - 12:12 AM

THAT IS SO FREAKING AWESOME. I lol'd when I realised that those little dots were people :D
*casting the shaved knuckle*
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#16 User is offline   Binder of Demons 

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Posted 19 April 2011 - 07:27 AM

I take my hat off to you Terez, those are awesome. And congrats to luci+shiara.

It's great to see such a busy and successful author still has such a good sense of humour when dealing with his fans. It does come across in his podcast too. I can't believe he actually did the Yeard drawing though.

I will have to get around to reading his books soon.

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