JKR v. Eddings
Oct. 11th, 2005 12:16 pm10 Reasons Why Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince Would Have Been Better If David Eddings Had Written It
1. The campyness of the HPverse would still be cute and campy, but the dramatic parts would be more dramatic.
2. The jokes would be funnier.
3. They both over-use adverbs, but Eddings makes better use of adjectives.
4. The Half Blood Prince would have turned out to be a character like Silk, and in two weeks he'd have the Order of the Phoenix running like a proper covert spy organization. Meaning more spying and less dying. And in three months he'd have recruited 3/4 of Voldemort's spies to work for the the Order instead. And in six months the Dark Lord would wake up one day to find all his financial assets had disappeared, all his magical items of power had been stolen down to the wand under his pillow at night, nearly every Death Eater had been bought off by the other side, and someone had tied his shoelaces together.
5. If Ginny were Ce'Nedra, she'd never put up with this Angel from Buffy season 3 shit. She'd call him on his idiocy and manipulate him into running in circles for daring to dismiss her.
6. Ginny would have a personality.
7. The mystery of HBP's identity would have been more interesting, and actually mattered to everything else that happened in the book.
8. Neville wouldn't have been forgotten about after being the most awesome character in book 5.
9. Luna would have had a an actual plot purpose instead of being forgotten about too.
10. Dumbledore would have had a more impressive end than waiting around for a Draco of all people to kill him.
EDIT: Half Blood Prince spoilers in comments, vague Belgariad/Mallorean spoilers too.
1. The campyness of the HPverse would still be cute and campy, but the dramatic parts would be more dramatic.
2. The jokes would be funnier.
3. They both over-use adverbs, but Eddings makes better use of adjectives.
4. The Half Blood Prince would have turned out to be a character like Silk, and in two weeks he'd have the Order of the Phoenix running like a proper covert spy organization. Meaning more spying and less dying. And in three months he'd have recruited 3/4 of Voldemort's spies to work for the the Order instead. And in six months the Dark Lord would wake up one day to find all his financial assets had disappeared, all his magical items of power had been stolen down to the wand under his pillow at night, nearly every Death Eater had been bought off by the other side, and someone had tied his shoelaces together.
5. If Ginny were Ce'Nedra, she'd never put up with this Angel from Buffy season 3 shit. She'd call him on his idiocy and manipulate him into running in circles for daring to dismiss her.
6. Ginny would have a personality.
7. The mystery of HBP's identity would have been more interesting, and actually mattered to everything else that happened in the book.
8. Neville wouldn't have been forgotten about after being the most awesome character in book 5.
9. Luna would have had a an actual plot purpose instead of being forgotten about too.
10. Dumbledore would have had a more impressive end than waiting around for a Draco of all people to kill him.
EDIT: Half Blood Prince spoilers in comments, vague Belgariad/Mallorean spoilers too.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-11 10:29 pm (UTC)Well, that's not really what you did either-- you just did the Mallorean plot with the HP names, not the HP plot as retouched by another author. But still I know what you're getting at. Actually, that was my problem with the Sparhawk books. I read the two Belgariad series first, and by the time I got around to the books with Sparhawk I was just tired of it. It felt exactly the same to me right down to the sentient glowy blue stone and god-like powers. And I liked the bloody battles less and the world he created less (I'm not so much into the heavy dark-ages style fantasy with religious themes and crusades) than in the other series.
So can't exactly say I share the love. :) But I should add that I *did* read all three of those books, which means I've read 15 books by Eddings, which all in all is a hell of a lot more than I plan to give JKR. She'll get me for HP 7 and if she ever writes again afterward I'll try that to see if she's gotten better by being freed from the constraints of her first series, but if it's just mediocre then chances are low that I'd commit myself to another 7-book series.