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A review by orlion
Crack'd Pot Trail by Steven Erikson
4.0
Huh, it's been about a year and I still have not reviewed this book. Well, time to take some few moments of my day to do so. In Crack'd Pot Trail, the story follows those who have sworn to hunt Bauchelain and Korbal Broach down for their crimes and they end up in this stretch of desert....
Okay, the plot is not important. Like all Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas, this is all about Steven Erikson getting something off his chest. In this case, he is letting off some steam for various reasons related to being an author in the Fantasy Genre. You know the problems:
1)Waaah! The critics won't take my work seriously!
2)Waaah! The fans take my work too seriously!
3)Waaah! Those critics miss the point! Don't you recognize my genius?
4)Waaah! Those who are successful don't actually understand their craft and steal from more talented writers!
5)Waaah! Waaah! WAAAAAAAAH!
You've also heard variants of these from the reader's sides including critiques that include buzzwords as "world building", "character development", and "plot" and so forth.
Erikson, in about 180 pages, essentially tells all those who hold these views to go f*ck themselves. And that is what I have found enjoyable about this novella. It is a fairly accurate, if satirical, view of the culture that has been built around the fantasy genre. A culture that so often is trying to be more then it is that it often becomes its worse critic as it seeks to devour itself.
Oh, did I mention there's cannibalism in this book? Because there totally is.
And thus, in an effort to be this all encompassing critique on the current affair of genre literature, the novella forgets it is a Bauchelain and Korbal Broach tale and they really do not feature much at all.
Oh, Erikson, one day your cleverness will piss your readership off so much that they'll stop buying your books.
Okay, the plot is not important. Like all Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas, this is all about Steven Erikson getting something off his chest. In this case, he is letting off some steam for various reasons related to being an author in the Fantasy Genre. You know the problems:
1)Waaah! The critics won't take my work seriously!
2)Waaah! The fans take my work too seriously!
3)Waaah! Those critics miss the point! Don't you recognize my genius?
4)Waaah! Those who are successful don't actually understand their craft and steal from more talented writers!
5)Waaah! Waaah! WAAAAAAAAH!
You've also heard variants of these from the reader's sides including critiques that include buzzwords as "world building", "character development", and "plot" and so forth.
Erikson, in about 180 pages, essentially tells all those who hold these views to go f*ck themselves. And that is what I have found enjoyable about this novella. It is a fairly accurate, if satirical, view of the culture that has been built around the fantasy genre. A culture that so often is trying to be more then it is that it often becomes its worse critic as it seeks to devour itself.
Oh, did I mention there's cannibalism in this book? Because there totally is.
And thus, in an effort to be this all encompassing critique on the current affair of genre literature, the novella forgets it is a Bauchelain and Korbal Broach tale and they really do not feature much at all.
Oh, Erikson, one day your cleverness will piss your readership off so much that they'll stop buying your books.