[Aptorian]

Raymond Luxury Yacht;331154 said:

TG is a blatant rip-off crap artist. I can't believe his crap, trying to say he's not read RJ. What crap. It's like he was reading WoT at the same time as writing his piece of crap Sword of Crap crappy series. (Which is not fantasy, by the way. It's.....wait for it......wait for it......

Spoiler

COMPLETE AND UTTER CRAP!!!!!!!

I will actually take the side of Goodkind on this.

People have been writting books and making films for a long time. It's hard to come up with an idea that doesn't some how have similarities with other works in todays fantasy market.

I've been working on a book idea, what could turn into a series and I keep finding out what I think is an original thought has been used before.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

I see what you mean, you can find influences in anyone's writing, even SE. I think it is to coincidental though that so much of TG has direct parallels to RJ. Even if he didn't do it on purpose, it's there, and happens too frequently and strongly to be called just influence.

[Terez]

Aptorian;331401 said:

People have been writting books and making films for a long time. It's hard to come up with an idea that doesn't some how have similarities with other works in todays fantasy market.

I've been working on a book idea, what could turn into a series and I keep finding out what I think is an original thought has been used before.

RJ talks about this in interviews...he said that's why he was so deliberate with what he borrowed from the real world. Everyone who writes, borrows, whether or not they recognize it...the point is to acknowledge that and then make something new and interesting despite.

[Terez]

Oh, and while we're on the subject, I could draw tons of similarities between aSoIaF and Malazan to WoT. You could say that these ideas were developed further in the respective series (like wolf dreams, or mastering chance as a world metaphysics view) but again...that's the point. Take what's already there, work with it, and take it even further.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Oponn's coin does seem eerily similar to the dice rolling in WoT, people hearing them tumble in their heads and whatnot.

[Terez]

Yeah, though it only manifests in that fashion with Mat in WoT - but that's hardly a summation of the theme for the series, either. Just a detail.

ETA: And now that I've thought on it, I don't really think the wolf dreams are so much further developed in aSoIaF...developed differently, sure...but I find the whole Tel'aran'rhiod idea to be much more interesting than the warg idea, not that the warg idea isn't a good one.

[Aptorian]

we got ourselves a WAAAAAAARGH!!!

[Terez]

I can't wait for Arya and Nymeria to get back together....

Wait, wrong thread...

[Optimus Prime]

I just feel so sad about what happened to RJ. Especially because people used to joke about what would happen if he died before he finished the series

Spoiler

The Forsaken had so much potential but they are too "stupid" to reach their full awesomeness. That always pissed me off. Besides Ishamael/Moridin of course.

[caladanbrood]

Terez;331474 said:

I can't wait for Arya and Nymeria to get back together....

Rule 34? :eek: That's just so badly wrong!


To be honest, I think you can find striking similarities between any series if you look closely enough. Most of them are simple coincedence, and most of the rest are due to a similar inspiration. You could make quite a good case for RJ having ripped off Frank Herbert, but I doubt you'd get many to believe you

[Optimus Prime]

It's really hard to have an "original concept" these days. I got 50 pages into a story I really thought was earth shatteringly different...and then I had my older brother point out all these similarities with some other writers...I was crushed

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

That happens to me every time I think i have an idea for a story. What's funny is when it is blatantly biting off of what I'm readingright then. For example, I was reading some Black Company the other day and was struck with an earthshattering revelation that it would be a great idea to have a book about a mercenary company. Dumbass.

[stone monkey]

Once you've been around long enough to have read a lot of pretty much everything; it's very unlikely that you'll find anything that you can consider to be truly original. It's probably been well over a decade since that happened to me.

The best you can hope for is that it's done well.

[Terez]

Xander;331491 said:

Spoiler

The Forsaken had so much potential but they are too "stupid" to reach their full awesomeness. That always pissed me off. Besides Ishamael/Moridin of course.

Spoiler

Well, if you're going to make exceptions, then I'd also take Demandred out of the idiots. It may well be that he's idiotic sometimes, but we've had little to indicate any stupidity on his part, and his points of view are I think highly indicative that he's far from stupid - his point of view at the Cleansing is a good example, and the one from the prologue of Lord of Chaos another. Seeing as how we have next to no idea what he's been up to all this time, it's difficult to accuse him of stupidity. I might also count out Semirhage - her thoughts in chapter 6 of Lord of Chaos, her only point of view, are...interesting. Her philosophy on life is cold and shows little sign of weakness. She got caught in the end, but she planned that attack rather well, actually - if it hadn't been for all the useful ter'angreal Cadsuane and Nynaeve were sporting, especially the weave-breaking one, then Semirhage would surely have come out on top. Mesaana is the weak link of that alliance, obviously - I wonder sometimes why she's a part of it.

I don't think I would count Graendal among the stupid, either. Her air of frivolity is all a calculated distraction, same as her streith. Stupid Sammael (he's definitely stupid) managed to control Graendal for a brief time, but in the end, Graendal came out on top of that alliance. I wonder if she's going to be caught up in Arad Doman, or if she's going to run (or if she's run already), because she's already made it clear she's not stupid enough to face Rand in a direct confrontation.

Ishamael/Moridin I think is not quite sane enough for his intelligence to amount to much. I've seen some people argue that he's actually aware that, if his master wins, he'll be destroyed along with everything else, and he just doesn't care. I disagree because I think he's shown otherwise, but I can understand how some believe it of him. He's crazy.

[Aptorian]

Raymond Luxury Yacht;331537 said:

That happens to me every time I think i have an idea for a story. What's funny is when it is blatantly biting off of what I'm readingright then. For example, I was reading some Black Company the other day and was struck with an earthshattering revelation that it would be a great idea to have a book about a mercenary company. Dumbass.

Funny, the story I'm working on is about a group of mercenaries

Only they're less like the black company and more like an insane mix between the A-team and the Mission Impossible team.

And their employers are would-be gods :GA:

[caladanbrood]

Aptorian;331771 said:

Funny, the story I'm working on is about a group of mercenaries

Only they're less like the black company and more like an insane mix between the A-team and the Mission Impossible team.

And their employers are would-be gods :GA:

Sounds like Otherland

[Macros]

that sounds like it has the potential to be awesome
or horrendously bad, so bad its good, either way its a winner

[Aptorian]

Nothing like Otherland... and yet... there is a correlation between machines and the fabric of reality in my story.

There you go, no original thoughts.

[Gabriele]

Lol, we've all got that T-shirt.

When I mentioned on my blog that I'd introduce magic stones into my Kings and Rebels world which is basically an alternate history, and described that those stones were forged in Atlantis and kept in the Lost Kingdoms of Avalon, Kêr Ys and Vineta, that they could govern lesser stones and were a constant temptation for their Keepers because of the power they have, someone commented, "oh, like Tolkien's palantiri."

Yeah, well, um, a bit maybe, but different.

[Obdigore]

The most recent 'original' story I have seen was the stuff by Sanderson. With the metal in the blood magic system, and the 'dark ruler won' premise.

Meh, maybe I just haven't read where it has been before.

Gabriele - that is also like Gemmel's stones of power thing. Atlantis and temptation and all. Sounds like yours isn't going to be a meteor though, which is good!