Published by Deborah on 24 Oct 2005 at 08:26 pm
Lost: Endangered Species
I caught the sight of this book while trowling the grocery store and picked it up, thinking that this might be better than the TV show. Ninety-nine percent of the time, books are better than movies or TV. Perhaps this would help shed some light on what’s going to happen in the mini-series, I thought. Another thought: Maybe I’ll get some ideas for my NaNoWri novel, which is (unless I can come up with a better idea) a spoof about Lost.
I paid for the book, took it home, and actually read 18 pages before I became distracted by the characters of my own story. The writing is pretty good, but I am disappointed to see that half of the book (195 pages) deals with the main character’s pre-crash life.
Come on people! I don’t give a rat’s ass about the character’s life history. I really don’t.
Does that make me shallow and unfeeling? Excuse me if I don’t care about that, either. Just give me the damned story–the REAL story!
Okay, I’m done ranting. Not surprisingly, Amazon reviewers gave this book a 1-star review.
Lee Carlon on 25 Oct 2005 at 4:13 am #
A spoof of Lost sounds good.
And i couldn’t agree more, the show has been pitched to us as a group of plane crash victims surviving on an island, who cares what they did before, it’s nice they’ve all got histories and such, but yeah, get on with it.
Orikinla Osinachi on 25 Oct 2005 at 7:55 am #
“Okay, I’m done ranting. Not surprisingly, Amazon reviewers gave this book a 1-star.”
Therefore, Amazon reviewers were also ranting as you were?
That was funny.
I wish you all the best in your November Literary Challenge.
50,000 WORDS in a month?
Go at the rate of 10 solid pages a day of well-crafted narrative with a complex plot and subplots and you would end up the proud author of a classic. Who knows? You could make the next Time 100 Best Novels List. Zadie Smith just started writing some years ago and her “White Teeth” made the list.
Deborah on 25 Oct 2005 at 8:06 am #
At first I thought about making this a comedy spoof, but I’ve never written anything funny before. Most likely, it will be sick and twisted, with several instances of horror thrown in.
Deborah on 25 Oct 2005 at 8:25 am #
You never know, Orikinia. Yes, this is going to have to have a complex plot and subplots if it is going to be anything like the original.
Pat Kirby on 26 Oct 2005 at 7:54 am #
In my experience most media-inspired novels suck. I slogged through a Underworld novel, the prequel to the movie, recently. Sucked like overpriced vacuum.
Backstory is fine as long as it’s properly integrated into the main story, IMO. But when it’s thrown in for the sake of creating false sentiment or angst, fuggetaboutit.
Deborah on 26 Oct 2005 at 8:24 am #
You’re right about the backstory, Pat. I’ve read a couple based-on-the-movie books which sucked. The book has a better chance if it was written first and the movie made later.
As for my story, I expect it to suck just as bad. But I’m writing it for the sake of fun. I’m going to have to rent the Lost DVD because there are some things that I’ve forgotten–like why Sawyer killed that man down in Australia.