Alpha reviews and John Brown says why I am awesome

Elitist Book Reviews on MHA:

http://elitistbookreviews.blogspot.com/2011/07/monster-hunter-alpha.html

And Super Author John Brown says why I’m so damn cool:

http://johndbrown.com/2011/07/why-im-gonna-purchase-correias-monster-hunter-alpha-on-monday/

And don’t forget that the Campbell voting closes soon! If you are a voting member of WorldCon, get your vote in there before it is too late.

I would love to win (duh).  If I don’t get it, I’m rooting for Dan Wells. The other day when I was googling my name I found one place that ranked the Campbell nominees. They placed me at #6. Out of 5.   🙂  Apparently I wasn’t “nuanced” enough for them. Or as they said, I was a relentlessly single tone throw back. Oh, how the literati elite hate me.  

Why yes… I am a throw back. Pulp and proud, baby. So basically, **** your nuance. I’m going to go write about a ninja robot fighting a dinosaur on top of a flaming monster truck inside an exploding volcano. If you don’t like it, there are plenty of depressing sob-novels about losers wallowing in self pity to choose from.

I haven’t seen Captain America yet, but I’ve noticed something from all of the negative reviews that make me want to go see it. Certain reviewers are using the same code language to bash Cap that are used on me. Lacking nuance (i.e. there is good and evil), jingoistic (the American characters aren’t apologetic),  one dimensional (my characters aren’t flat at all, just that in the circle jerk of professional reviewing, characters driven by duty, morality, or loyalty read as unrealistically simplistic, while out here in fly-over country those things are still considered to be things to aspire to), and more of the usual claptrap about solving problems with violence.

Yeah, I think I’m going to go watch Captain America now.

 

Monster Hunter Alpha, audio book is out
On Border's closing

49 thoughts on “Alpha reviews and John Brown says why I am awesome”

  1. “I’m going to go write about a ninja robot fighting a dinosaur on top of a flaming monster truck inside an exploding volcano.”

    I would totally read the hell out of that book. Gimme pulp any day over boring-ass litfic.

    1. Seconded.

      And just out of curiosity, Larry, is that a hint as to the major battle in the next Grimnoir book? It would be hard to top your “teleporting ninja battle on top of a flaming dirigible” fight scene, but that just might do it.

      1. ~~~“teleporting ninja battle on top of a flaming dirigible”~~~

        And just how cool was that sentence to write.

        As I’ve stated elsewhere, I’m hoping for rocket-packs.

  2. Isn’t “nuanced” liberal speak for weasel worded or wishy-washy?
    The last time I recall nuanced being used a lot was in connection with John Kerry. And he was and is weasly.

  3. Captain America isn’t such a great movie but I did love Chris Evans’ portrayal of Cap. He put a believable performance and explanation of a man who just wanted to do his duty. Plus they have the preview for The Avengers movie after the credits. Hell yeah!

  4. Those dingle-berries that wield the “critics pen” are far too wimpy to understand such concepts as loyalty, honor & sacrifice. I have to say that I’d never heard of you before I read MHI. You were, after all making your publishing debut, a brand new author (you still had your tags and that new author smell). I had simply entered the word “Zombie” into Amazons search and every book with that word in it came up. As I scanned the long list the cover image of your tale caught my eye. I read the blurb, bought the book immediately and was an avid fan from that moment on. Your a best seller because your books reflect the views of the majority of Americans. Your ever growing army of fans pleads and nags at you for the next book in your expanding series of tales. You have our greatest respect and undying loyalty. In my mind that’s the highest award we can give.

    1. I would like to clarify my above comment. It was in no way meant to include the two links Larry mentions in his post but was refering, rather to his comment on the “literati elite”. ’nuff said.

  5. I read Alpha some time ago (Earc)….guess it’s about time to reread. I liiiiiiike it. Good escapist fiction…and I say that with the greatest respect. I really like escapist fiction. I can “identify” with harbinger.

    Keep up the good work. Grimnoir II is out when?

  6. Rest assured that Captain America is awesome for exactly the same reasons your books are… Hell of a ride.

    So, yeah, what you already said :).

  7. Well, I don’t know about you guys but I only read books that I can attach hidden meanings to everything.

    “ninja robot fighting a dinosaur on top of a flaming monster truck inside an exploding volcano” What a great way to speak of the toil of underprivileged prostitutes in Quesbecistan.

    Not everyone looks deeply enough to see it, you have to learn it from enlightened professors while drinking espresso french mocha. Ta ta.

  8. I wasn’t really planning to see it, but I probably will if the critics use the same terms they use for your stuff. I usually ignore professional critic reviews and go to the viewer reviews. I took enough english and literature classes to know that there is such a thing as digging too deep to find something that doesn’t (or shouldn’t) exist.

  9. Some people might not like the pulp aspects of Larry’s books, but I love the fact that the only chance any of these vampires are going to “sparkle”, by God, it’s going to involve either white phosphorus or thermite.

  10. Captain America was both good and confusing as hell- I could not believe such a patriotic/moralistic/noble story could be made into a movie in Hollywood without some cynicism creeping in- like Stark’s slightly over-the-top mercenary attitude in the first Iron Man.

    However, not only wasn’t it there, but it told the story in such a way you couldn’t grope for hidden meanings or dilute the message by over-analyzing.

    It was also a better movie than Iron Man 2 by a significant amount, and Iron Man 2 was frikin’ awesome.

  11. Saw Captain America today it rocked big time.I was surprised it did not suck from the buzz in the months till the opening.

  12. Larry, don’t let the snob’s opinion matter to you. Your work stands on its own merit. Although it may be nice to be recognized by your peers, the literati are not your peers. They are only holding the gates. Your readers can recognize the quality and soul that lives in your work.

    In time, those who may be looking down their noses at you will be passed by those who are looking to the future rather than those trying to apply the standards of the past.

    Have the better revenge by enjoying your popularity while laughing your way to the bank.

  13. Most of the reviews I’ve seen have been very good for Captain America unlike the reviews for Green Lantern and his amazing neon underwear. Which doesn’t look like will be seeing a sequal of anytime soon.

  14. I also don’t get the film critics who slam “Captain America” for “lack of nuance.” Please, scribblers, try to understand one simple point about the plot:

    IT’S ABOUT A SUPERHERO G.I. WHO KILLS LOTS OF NAZIS.

    Where, pray tell, is there room for “nuance?” Or need for same? Dude, I’m here to see a bunch of Nazis get their asses kicked. Just give me a large Coke and a bag of popcorn, please. Extra butter, and hold the nuance.

    …You just know that the same fools who are criticizing CA for its excessive American patriotism and lack of nuance were the ones praising Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” to the hilt. Wasn’t a lot of “nuance” in that movie, either. And while the Basterds weren’t quite as…heroic…as Captain America, they also unapologetically killed lots of Nazis, so much so that they ended World War II a year early by the time Tarantino was done with the historical rewrite.

    I haven’t yet seen Captain America, but from what I’ve heard about the movie so far, the Captain didn’t beat to death and/or scalp captured Germans the way the Basterds did.

    Funny how IB’s war crimes didn’t bother the reviewers while CA’s apparent patriotism does, innit?

    Truth be told, IB’s war crimes didn’t bother me, either. They were Nazis. They deserved it. More popcorn, please.

    When “Basterds” came out on video, I bought a copy and watched it back-to-back with “The Dirty Dozen” because you just can’t get too many dead Nazis in a single sitting. When “Captain America” comes out on video, I expect to get that one too and make it a trilogy… 😉

    1. Gonna have to disagree with that last statement, you’ve obviously never played Nazi Zombies lol

  15. Establishment critics, and the literati whose loafers they lick-shine, don’t seem to like pulpy odes to the independence and honor of solidly good men because at some level they sense that the underlying nuance on the page and screen reflects an understanding that they themselves are kissing cousins to the national socialists getting their jackbooted ar$es handed to them – much to the popular delight of the simple folk whose ways they despise, and whose pocketbooks and souls they envy.

  16. “Why yes… I am a throw back. Pulp and proud, baby. So basically, **** your nuance. I’m going to go write about a ninja robot fighting a dinosaur on top of a flaming monster truck inside an exploding volcano. If you don’t like it, there are plenty of depressing sob-novels about losers wallowing in self pity to choose from.”

    You have no idea how wonderful it was to read this.

  17. “Why yes… I am a throw back. Pulp and proud, baby.”

    You’re in good company. Even early pulp authors whose reputations have increased over time still get derided by the literati frequently. Hammett, Chandler, Howard, Lovecraft, Bradbury, etc.: They all still get slagged. Hell, one of the lecturers I had for an English class in college devoted a session to the “stupidity” of Edgar Allen Poe.

    Captain America was a lot of fun, btw.

  18. Speaking as someone who picked MHI off of a library shelf and said, “This looks cool. I think I’ll read it.”, someone who will read almost anything, and as a recent high school graduate, books like MHI are more likely to get kids reading than something like Great Expectations (one of the very few books I will not read).
    Keep up the good work.

  19. Not sure if anybody has noticed this yet, but…

    Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    #1 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Contemporary

    #2 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > General

    #50 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Contemporary

  20. Larry,
    Maybe I’m a little biased (I have loved all your books, and have the next two pre-ordered. . . . and I’ve loved comic books since I was a kid, with Captain America being one of my personal favorites) but I think the people bashing Cap and bashing you are most likely the same pathetic little men and women who are sitting around in their over-priced, trendy little condos, browsing the internet on their over-priced, trendy-at-the-moment tablet computers, drinking their over-priced non-fat, decaf soy lattes and complaining about every facet of life in the greatest country in the world, while doing absolutely nothing productive at all.
    When we walked out of the movie theatre on Friday evening, I asked my pre-teen daughter what she thought of the movie. She had a big smile and said, “I loved it!” Nobody had to ask my 6-year-old son what he thought – because he was yelling “That was AWESOME!” (Of course he was wearing his Captain America costume left over from Halloween, and carrying his Captain America shield that I made for him from a pizza pan – with people all over the parking lot cheering him on!)
    Keep writing great stuff that real Americans love to read – we’re still out here!

  21. Can not wait for this to come out on Audible. Hope this posts. This site isn’t exactly friendly to blind users 🙁

  22. FYI, I picked up my MH Alpha @ 1pm today 7.24.11 at B&N in West Des Moines, Iowa. There were 5 left, in a shelf spot that looked like it held 20 at one point.
    Also got your other 2 books that I had not read, MH-V and Hard Magic. I had one of your non-Baen MHI books, one of the last couple on Amazon right before that brief period where nobody had any because the Baen version wasn’t out yet. Now I have reading for the beach vacation! Good luck with Alpha!

  23. Larry, are you aware of these people?

    http://mypadmedia.com/index.html

    They been leaving comment spam all over sites like Ace of Spades HQ. It appears to be a scam ripping off authors, offering unlimited e-book downloads to jailbroken iPads. (The fact that their site offer jailbreak instruction is a big red alert. The authors being ripped off apparently includes you since they’ve been promoting one of your books via comment spam:
    http://minx.cc/?blog=86&post=319158#c13914146

    This may be something for your publisher to look into and rouse the attack lawyers if necessary. At the very least, advertising through comment spam is not something any author should want attached to his name.

    1. It usually doesn’t do any good. Stolen stuff of mine shows up all over the internet. They’re like roaches. You put heat on one and it just scurries over to another doman.

  24. Go see Captain America without fear.

    Ebert’s review did scold it for the fact that Cap didn’t bang the female lead.

    I guess it’s hard to critique character development when you completely miss all of it so badly that you don’t get who the character is at all.

  25. Larry. Do you know if downloads of your books from Audible.com count as sales towards the Best Seller list? Even though I am blind I’d be more then willing to pick up a print copy of MHA as well if it will help you towards a higher ranking.

  26. Simplistic is when you apply liberal amounts of firepower to destroy evil before it destroys you.

    Nuanced is when the character(s) search desperately and pleadingly for a rational way to NOT apply liberal amounts of firepower to solve the problem of destroying evil while they have identity crises, moral and ethical dilemmas, and somewhere in all of this they find a justifiable reason to lay down, give in to the evil, and die.

  27. Cap is awesome. He punches Hitler in the face. 200 times. What sort of “nuance” do you need for that? Is he supposed to angst about it afterwards?

  28. I saw that movie, was really good. Thought the first half of it would have made a good stand Alone movie.

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