
Readerbreeder |

"So she understood, but that didn't mean she liked it, and that didn't mean she liked the red-haired beanpole of a boy who answered her loud and impatient summons." -- Boneshaker, Cherie Priest
D.A., have you read anything else by Scott Westerfeld? I am listening to the Uglies books on audio, and I'm wondering how the Leviathan stories match up...

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D'Agosta's cigar had gone out, and he fumbled for another match.
- Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Reliquary
Eric and Julia invited me to their house, on a hill behind a gate guarded by two big pit bull mixes, which turned out to be a couple of marshmallows.
- Mark Frauenfelder, Made By Hand
Pigeons shared the air with jackdaws and hawks and sparrows and escaped parakeets.
- China Mieville, Perdido Street Station

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Readerbreeder |

Readerbreeder wrote:"SCARING THE LITTLE GIRL? LADY!""The experiment is about to commence."
-- Stephen King, "The Langoliers", in Four Past Midnight
Yeah, I'm finding the written story better than the movie version. Of course, there are places where Plan 9 from Outer Space was better than that movie...

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The Eldritch Mr. Shiny wrote:Yeah, I'm finding the written story better than the movie version. Of course, there are places where Plan 9 from Outer Space was better than that movie...Readerbreeder wrote:"SCARING THE LITTLE GIRL? LADY!""The experiment is about to commence."
-- Stephen King, "The Langoliers", in Four Past Midnight
Balki FTW.

Readerbreeder |

Readerbreeder wrote:Balki FTW.The Eldritch Mr. Shiny wrote:Yeah, I'm finding the written story better than the movie version. Of course, there are places where Plan 9 from Outer Space was better than that movie...Readerbreeder wrote:"SCARING THE LITTLE GIRL? LADY!""The experiment is about to commence."
-- Stephen King, "The Langoliers", in Four Past Midnight
True enough, Balki is awesome --

Doodlebug Anklebiter |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |

"We tear down whole streets and cities and put new ones up at a mind-numbing rate."
Alvin Toffler, Future Shock.
Added musical interlude.

Haladir |

"In Korea, the Chinese Communists deployed almost a quarter of a million men to battle positions south of the Yalu River before the United Nations became aware that its widely dispersed elements were even seriously threatened."
--The Art of War by Sun Tzu, translated by Samuel B. Griffith, from the introductory chapter "Sun Tzu and Mao Tse-Tung". (1963)

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"In Korea, the Chinese Communists deployed almost a quarter of a million men to battle positions south of the Yalu River before the United Nations became aware that its widely dispersed elements were even seriously threatened."
--The Art of War by Sun Tzu, translated by Samuel B. Griffith, from the introductory chapter "Sun Tzu and Mao Tse-Tung". (1963)
That may be the funniest sentence I've ever read.

Doodlebug Anklebiter |

See, now that's cool, but here's what I got:
"I will go first--the follow me closely."
Blah right?
But the sentence before that one?
"'It was woven from the tresses of dead women, which I took from their tombs at midnight, and steeped in the deadly wine of the upas tree, to give it strength.'"
--Robert E. Howard, "The Tower of the Elephant" from the eponymous volume edited by De Camp and Carter

Fire Mountain Games |

The book I justed finished reading (again, for the zillionth time) was my own. And so I give you:
"Covered in breathtaking bas relief showing the deeds of angels and
phoenixes, this columned temple is a masterpiece of classic
architecture, perfect in its proportion."
--Gary McBride, "Way of the Wicked Book Three: Tears of the Blessed"
Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games

Doodlebug Anklebiter |

"Her voice was more musical than a silver-stringed harp, but edged with cruelty."
--Atali, that hussy, in "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" as published in Conan of Cimmeria.
"The Cimmerian cried out suddenly and they wheeled."
--Another wasted sentence from "The God in the Bowl" as published in The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian.
REH

Comrade Anklebiter |

"Local 574 was chartered around 1915 as a 'general' local."
--Farrell Dobbs, Teamster Rebellion. Watch out Minneapolis employers, we're coming for you!
"On the other hand, colonial Whig leaders found during the 1760s and 1770s that crowds , once raised, sometimes got out of hand."
--You better believe it! Eric Foner, Tom Paine and Revolutionary America.

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Once again, lameness. The first four sentences on page 55 are some pretty badass proto-D&D rogue looking for traps shiznit, but the fifth sentence is:
"A short, narrow corridor was disclosed."
Sigh.
--REH, "Black Colossus" in Conan the Freebooter
Not only does that sentence lack color, it demonstrates painfully bad writing. Passive voice has its place, but in this example, it specifically avoids agency, and worse yet it is far more awkward and cumbersome than an active sentence would have been.
"Beyond the doorway stretched a short, narrow corridor."
"A short, narrow corridor lay ahead."
Or better yet,
"Shrouded in thick shadow, a short, narrow corridor invited Frodo into it's cold, murky embrace."
*waits for the REH fans to send their death threats*
Yes, I know he probably never intended that single sentence to be dissected. That's the way the 'sentence 5' game works, though...