The Confabulator Cafe

Tag: Greg Egan

  • Plot > Character (But both matter. A lot.)

    Plot is more important to me than character. Without a plot, there is no story. Without a story, what the heck are we doing? Character sketches are well and good, but I’m more interested in the voyage, not the people traveling with me.

    That said, terrible characters can ruin a good plot, while interesting characters can totally save a horrible plot. You definitely need a good mix of both to have a successful story.

    As a SF guy, I’m probably more tolerant of plot-driven, character-poor stories. If the story uses lots of
    whiz-bang technology that bends (or breaks) the laws of physics, and those plot points are illustrated to me, the reader, via wooden, two-dimensional characters…I’ll still probably dig it. I’m in it for the pseudo-science as much as anything else. Other genres may not allow for the level of forgiveness I sometimes mete out to the books I read.

    That said, the truly memorable, interesting, recommend-to-everyone-you-know stories are the ones
    with whiz-bang technology wielded by kick-ass characters. So, Permutation City by Greg Egan manages to bend my noodle with its technology, but its characters are only “meh.” On the other hand, Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan manages to wed far-future tech with a hard-as-nails detective Takeshi Kovacs, and the combination results in a story I’ve shared with anyone that’ll listen. Likewise, John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War combines neato tech with a fascinating set of characters, and the final product is nearly perfect.

    So, Plot comes first for me. But Character is almost as important, especially when you want to elevate a good story into a great story.

  • (s)

    Q: What’s your favorite book?

    A: I refuse to answer that question, on the grounds that it suggests there can be a singular answer

    Q (amended): What’s your favorite book(s)?

    Long A: Ahhh, now that’s more like it! See what magic can occur with the addition of two parentheses and an ‘s’?

    There are many, many books that have inspired me throughout the years. I took this assignment as an opportunity to reminisce about my experiences with the stories I’ve read throughout my lifetime that have shaped my current tastes and proclivities in fiction, as well as my own style of writing. The exercise was a fun trip down memory lane, and it was surprisingly enlightening for me, as well.

    I will skip over some of the required reading all children that love books will have read. Things like Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, or C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, or Madeleine L’Engel’s A Wrinkle in Time. I read them. Of course I read them. And they inspired me and affected me like they did millions of other readers. But that also means that waxing rhapsodic about these books would be an exercise in repetition that I’m loathe to pursue.

    So, what are some stories that not everyone has read, that still profoundly affected me throughout my life?

    (more…)