Sunday, December 14, 2008

Orson Scott Card ... Is Pissing Me Off!

I'm kind of getting sick of Orson Scott Card. On his blog he has an article where he refers to himself as "Uncle Orson" and he reviews everything (hence "Uncle Orson Review Everything"). I used to enjoy reading it but it's just kind of ridiculous how he has such a high ego that he thinks it certifies him to comment on everything, and to do so as a supposed Uncle. His book writing has really been below par, his reviews are un-researched and annoying, and he himself is very pretentious.

NEWEST ENDER BOOKS
This upset attitude stems from my recent readings into the Ender-verse. Card wrote an amazing book in Ender's Game, followed by some great sequels in the same thread: Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant. I have also heard that his Alvin Maker series is pretty outstanding. But his most recent work is just going off his old stuff and is not done very well.

He wrote a book called "War of Gifts." It is supposed to be a short-story of Christmas in Battle School. I had heard of it but wasn't really interested and thus never read it. That was until I went on my cruise and found it in the Cruise Ship Library (yeah they had a Library with a very decent selection). I picked it up and TRIED to read it. Emphasis on tried. It was terrible. It starts off with some character we have never heard of in Battle School who is very uninteresting. That's a great way to start a book sub-labeled "An Ender Story" right? It was terrible and I'm glad I never wasted any money on it.

"Ender in Exile" is Card's newest effort to make extra money on old work. It seems that he is out of ideas and decided to do a book version of a Directors Cut DVD. You know the DVD's where they have all kind of behind-the-scenes and deleted or extended scenes? That's basically what this book is. It's like left over notes and side stories that Card had left over from Ender's Game. It's supposed to be a "Direct Sequel to Ender's Game" but really most of the story takes place during the last few chapters of Ender's Game (he doesn't even get to the Shakespeare Colony until about 2/3's of the way through the book!). It's a collection of deleted scenes and random short stories, some of which seem irrelevant.

So why did "Ender in Exile" get made? My guess is he needed or wanted some more money. He's not writing new stories, he's just riding the wave of the old ones. What has he lately worked on? The two afore mentioned books, and comic-book adaptions of his old works (the Alvin Maker series, the Ender's Game series, the Ender's Shadow series, etc.). I enjoy the comic-book adaptions, but come on! Why hasn't he written anything credible lately? He's too busy writing a...

Stupid Blog
Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous. The thing that really pissed me off was his review of Quantum of Solace the latest Bond flick. His review said that it was surprisingly good "only because the filmmakers had seen the Bourne movies and decided that Bond should be reborn as Bourne, only British." and "The trouble is that while stealing from the Bourne plotlines, the filmmakers also thought they should make Quantum of Solace look like the Bourne movies, too."

The "stolen plotline," as he puts it, is that the agency has turned against Bond and he's a rogue agent. Well, that isn't the first time this has happened in the Bond franchise. Then the worst was the accusation that "the filmmakers also thought they should make [it] look like the Bourne movies, too." DO YOUR HOMEWORK CARD!!!

He also said: "Worse yet, the movie began with so many action sequences and so little explanation of what was going on that we never quite got to the point of caring how the action bits came out." Well, if you had seen Casino Royale, you would have known exactly what was going on you retard!! He explicitly stated in the blog how he had never seen Casino Royale, then doesn't get it when Quantum starts off right where the last movie left off, Literally! Quantum of Solace takes place ONE HOUR after Casino Royale. The movie was supposed to start how it did, or else it wouldn't make sense. If Card wasn't such a pompous jerk he would know that (again do your homework if your going to spout off, Card).

Here's a list of some key people who worked on BOTH films and might be inclined to BE THEMSELVES and produce the same type of work! Imagine that: a director of photography who shoots things the same ways!
- Shaun O'Dell, director of photography on Quantum, and directory of photography on Ultimatum
- John Gamble, worked on Camera Focus on Quantum and worked as a Focus Puller on The Bourne Ultimatum
- Marc Atheford, same jobs...
- Dean Morrish, loader on Quantum, and camera loader on Ultimatum
-
John Bowman, video playback on Quantum, and video assist on Ultimatum
- Stephen Nakamura, colorist on Quantum, and digital film colorist on Ultimatum
- George Richmond, camera operator on Quantum, and B camera operator on Ultimatum
-
J. Patrick Daily, gocam operator on Quantum, and stunt performer on Ultimatum
-
Richard G Pearson, editor on both Quantum and The Bourne Supremacy
- Terry Madden, assistant director (2nd unit) for Quantum, and 1st assistant director for Ultimatum
- Terrence Madden (same?), 2nd assistant director for both Quantum and Ultimatum
- Gary Powell, stunt coordinator for both Quantum and Ultimatum
- Rob Inch, assistant stunt coordinator for Quantum and stunt performer for Ultimatum
-
Rowley Irlam, same jobs as previous
- Nicola Short, stunt coordinator's assistant for both Quantum and Ultimatum

3 comments:

Christopher Maloy said...

I hate to be the one who says it, but I told you so. I told you so. I told you so.

I am telling you that when I saw him at comic con he was such an ass. His ego and attitude to Peter David (who I think is a GREAT writer) was jaw dropping.

He had one super hit with Ender's Game and has been riding the writer train for a long time. Any new writer putting out the crap I have read recently from him would never get published.

Usually when he sticks to Ender (like in the Shadow series) he does OK, but it seems that he is even starting to slip there.

I seriously think he likes to hear himself talk.

Thanks for the updates on the new Ender In Exile book. I was going to go out and blow the money on it, but I think I can wait. There are too many great books to read than to waste my time on crappy books.

T.J. Shelby said...

Agreed. My idolization of OSC began it's downfall after that Comic-Con trip. I also used to enjoy his blog but no longer. Now I just read his stuff so I can mock him.

Jodi Jean said...

attention OSC ... you made crappy books to make money ... but then on top of that you bad mouthed BOND ... a big no-no ...

sorry he's so disappointing!