Writing the anti-genre

[threemonkeys]

Sometimes when you are struggling with a book, you have an "ah ha" moment that turns it around for you. I thought I had such a moment when reading Richard Morgan's fantasy The Steel Remains. I'd been struggling with what looked like an attempt to bust the genre - doing stuff that was "original" in an attempt to create a point of difference. When you try too hard to do something like that, it seldom works - you just have to tell your story in your voice and if difference arises then its all good. Except that what Morgan was doing didn't seem all that original either. Then I had the "ah ha" moment and realised that he was trying to write a Michael Moorcock story. It all fit together and I was able to see what was Moorcock and what was I assumed Morgan's own voice. It made the book so much easier to take. Not that much more enjoyable though - see I have to confess to not being all that big a Moorcock fan. I have been a Morgan fan though - overall it averages out to being readable but not startlingly good.

But getting the influence did make me happy. Well until I read the afterword in the acknowledgements basically said that the influences should have been very obvious. That plus the fact that three influences were cited and I'd only got one of them - perhaps the fact that I hadn't read the others at all is consolation. Lets hope that Morgan goes back to writing with just his own voice.

Comments

[dedbutdrmng.livejournal.com]

Oh, damn. Forgot about that one. Yes, you are entirely right there. Black man was a cracker. For some reason I thought that was a Neal Asher.