The Sci Fi Catholic Yak Module
Sometimes I think famous directors/authors should be obliged to have Beta readers. I know it probably isn't easy, but really! I don't consider myself to be a fanatical fan by any means, but offhand I can name a marvelous fantasy writer who's screwing up his previous masterpieces with an unwelcome follow-up, a famous mystery novelist whose recent books have been so joyless no one thinks he wrote them himself, and well, the Lucas debacle I won't even mention by title.
One of my college friends is a successful genre author, and I promised her that when she starts to stink, I'm going to tell her so. Doesn't Lucas have any normal friends? I never see this issue addressed in writers' spaces, but I think it's pretty crucial once someone has a significant degree of success and should probably be planned from the start.
I can name a marvelous fantasy writer who's screwing up his previous masterpieces with an unwelcome follow-up...
I realize that you might have chosen not to name names on purpose, but can I get the titles of the masterpieces? I'm always on the lookout for some worthwhile fantasy, and I can't think of who you mean off the top of my head, so I might have missed his work. I understand if you'd prefer not to, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.
Brendon-I replied on your spot 'cause Deej is too much of a gentleman for me to knock a living author on his blog, however politely.
Hey, this is a review blog, among other things. We'll knock any author, living or dead, if his work's lousy.
Not lousy, just a master recently disappointing. And his fans are furious already, no need to rehash it here.
Interesting discussion. So if I were contemplating, say, writing a story about a character who is an avenging angel of God, I suppose that would be pretty near the definition of invincible, huh?
Oh, I'm sure you can find an exception to every general rule of storytelling, but I suggest you find some weaknesses for your avenging angel or his story's gonna be boring.
Check out Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness. His angels aren't invincible (though he's reticent about where exactly they go when they die). That novel is least interesting when the angels are most powerful.
Otherwise, if you don't want mortal angels, you could present an angel tempted to fall. But an angel incapable of any kind of defeat would not, I believe, make a compelling protagonist.
This angel idea popped into my head in the last couple of days--I'm not sure what I'll do with it, if anything.
Interesting idea you have their Niall,
by all means go wherever it takes you.
I don't think I need to point out that any good protagonist lacks more and more drama the stronger he becomes. (oops, I just pointed it out! Damn!). I saw alot of this after Goblet of Fire came out. The HP fanfic community was basically split into two camps with regards to creating "5th year fics." One: Make Harry develop uber powers all of a sudden and have him kick all kinds of ass. Two: Go for a more realistic approach and have him undergo a severe training regimen under a tutor (usually Dumbledore), where he would increase his powers gradually (not unlike a shounen manga), and gain some kind of lost knowledge to beat Voldemort near the end. For some imexplicable reason, I found myself drawn to the Super!Harry stories far more than the realistic approach. Although the "Super! Harry" sub-genre eventually succumed to Clicheitis. Come to think of it, the HP fandom is the only one I've seen that's big enough to actually run into this problem.
There's a Christian anime-esque CGI cartoon I was thinking of checking out called Angel Wars Guardian Force (how's that for a title?). You might take a look at that. I haven't seen it yet myself and can't vouch for it.
Then of course there's the Angelwalk series by the infamous Roger Elwood. I haven't read those either, though I did read his unnecessarily gruesome Christian horror The Christening back in middle school. I thought it was awesome then, not because it was any good, but because it was gruesome.
"In a thrilling adventure story - that truly Christian product - your hero does not get eaten by the cannibals, but it is essential to the thrill that he might be eaten. He must be an edible hero."
- G.K. Chesterton, "Orthodoxy"
Nuff said.
Re Chesterton--
EWTN has a repeating series on Chesterton..I've been meaning to sit down and try to watch it from one end to another. One of their recommended books was "The Man Who Was Thursday"--I found it somewhere online for free, downloaded, and proceeded to TRY to read it...put it down after 20 pages as I just DIDN'T GET it...that may be one of those books--or he's one of those authors--that you need a guided reading or commentary..there's tons of symbolism that's over my head.
Sara--try "Orthodoxy" instead.
Xena--thanks for the recommendation...I'll look for Orthodoxy in the library...right now I'm wading through Orphans of Chaos...which I am enjoying...but the Olympics are stealing away my spare time.. 
Stayed up WAAAYY too late last night as it was watching hunky guys with AMAZING arms...drool..
By chance I found Orthodoxy on the Project Gutenburg website...it is a text file that can be downloaded. I think that was the same place I found Thursday.
Here is the link.
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/130
I'm not too keen about printing out 100 pages on my printer, and I really dislike sitting at my computer and reading--I'd much rather recline on my couch with a roaring fire (although not in summer), my purring black cat stretched contentedly across my legs, and a nice glass of Zinfindel while I sink myself into the manuscript.. I am also not an avid book collector so I would probably only read it then it would be headed to the recycle bin.. So in my case it is best to borrow from library..
But others may like this option...especially if their library sources are limited.. a nice thing about printing it out this way is if you like to make notes or commentary as you go along you can set up your document to print out however you like...
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