Naomi Novik ([info]naominovik) wrote,
@ 2006-01-13 23:09:00
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Entry tags:reviews, temeraire

The Ultimate Genre Crossover Challenge
So as one would expect, I have been spending the last few weeks haunting google and blogsearch and feedster, and getting pointers from friends and the Del Rey and HarperCollins publicity folks, collecting all the reviews with much excitement, and here they are so far.

Online Temeraire reviews so far



Now, on to the fun part -- so I was reading the talkback on the AICN review (naturally), and this gem of a comment was posted:

by DocPazuzu, January 9th, 2006 02:20:34 PM CST
Dragons...
...are swiftly becoming the vampires of fantasy fiction, much like vampires became the Star Trek of horror about 15 years ago. Why not combine them in the ultimate genre crossover? A moody, goth vampire whose soul has been bound to that of an ancient, noble reptile that breathes fire. They could then pilot a Starfleet vessel together and send the hearts of a million female renaissance fair freaks into overdrive. Think of the fan fiction! The cosplay! The filking!

And, okay, this is seriously absolute gold, so here we go --



* The Ultimate Genre Crossover Challenge! *

Rules of the game:
  • To play, you must write a story containing: vampires, dragons, AND spaceships.

  • You score a point for each of the following that you *also* include:
    • cats
    • unicorns
    • elves
    • werewolves
    • zombies
    • ghosts
    • any other mythical creatures
    • time travel
    • murder mystery or romance (or hey, double points for BOTH)
    • alternate universes
    • historical personages
    • sword-fighting
    • psychic abilities (telepathy, telekinesis, etc)
    • soul bonding
    • magic spells
    • aliens
    • clowns
    • improbably effective drugs (truth serum, aphrodisiacs, etc)
    • any other element you can come up with and argue convincingly is a cliche

  • Special bonus: five points if you do it in a drabble (100 word exactly). Just remember you have to get vampires, dragons, and spaceships all in there, and it must actually tell a story of some kind.

  • Post the story anywhere you like, in your livejournal/blog or on a webpage, then comment to this post with:
    • A link to your story
    • A list of all your point-winning elements and tally of your total points (I remain the willful and arbitrary judge of the validity of points)

  • You can enter multiple stories.

  • Stories must be posted by February 1.

  • If there are a lot of entries with similar high point scores, I will run a completely non-scientific poll among some number of them to declare the final winner.

You own your own story, of course, and are free to do with it anything you like. I have some vague idea that if this just goes brilliantly, wouldn't it be cool to do an anthology out of the top entries or something, but most likely this is just for fun.

The winner will be declared sometime in early February. And hey, I will even provide a bit of loot -- the winner will get a signed copy of the UK hardcover of Temeraire, plus a spiffy tote bag. All participants win bragging rights. *g*

(Post a new comment)


[info]mtgat
2006-01-14 04:31 am UTC (link)
Okay. I'll bite. :)

Vampires, dragon, spaceships, clowns, unicorn reference, spell reference, cat reference, psychic ability, time travel (with paradox), all in a drabble. Do evil twins count as a cliche? So 11 with a possibility of 12.

And hooray for good reviews on Temeraire!!!

(Reply to this)


[info]destina
2006-01-14 04:56 am UTC (link)
Pssst, did you see the January Locus yet? V. positive review by Faren Miller. Yay!!

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[info]naominovik
2006-01-18 04:27 am UTC (link)
I did! And we immediately managed to spill hot cocoa on it, too. *g* But fortunately I got another copy.

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[info]kassrachel
2006-01-14 05:12 am UTC (link)
Huzzah for positive reviews!

[info]bayleaf is sending me a copy of the UK hardcover version; I can't wait to read it...

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[info]dine
2006-01-14 06:14 am UTC (link)
your challenge sounds like such fun - too bad I'm not a writer! hopefully others will step in to fill the sad lack.

I received my copy of Temeraire on Tuesday with great glee, diving into it over Chinese that night and lingering at the table, cause I couldn't bear to interrupt reading. Wednesday I headed to bed early with the book, and eventually finished and turned off the light at 2:00. I couldn't stop reading! work Thursday morning was painful as a result, but I count the loss of a little sleep well worth the price.

from the fabulous cover art to the wonderful melding of dragons and the Napoleonic wars, this book enthralled me. I've a casual interest in the period - from the war to Regency society - and as a long-time reader of fantasy fiction, you managed to pull together seemingly disparate elements that completely *worked* for me.

I'll be on the lookout for more word on the UK editions, as I'd love to have a matched hardcover set. I've already preordered a set of the US books for a friend's birthday, and will likely end up buying myself a set as well, to be "loaners".

thank you for such a terrific reading experience - I look forward to many more years enjoying your novels!

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[info]naominovik
2006-01-18 04:34 am UTC (link)
Thank you so much! And the *tentative* word on the UK editions right now is August 06 and January 07 for books 2 and 3 respectively. But I'll post here as soon as I know the dates for sure. :-)

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[info]budclare
2006-01-14 08:45 am UTC (link)
Fic here.

A vampire, a spaceship, a dragon, plus a werewolf, a zombie, an elf, a cat, precognition, a mystery, a clone, an alien, and a historical person. And it's a drabble. So, 14? But I sort of cheated...

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[info]bravecows
2006-01-14 09:40 am UTC (link)
...

So clearly you're going to infect the original fiction world with your CRAZY as well. Is nothing sacred? :O

p. s. I use the icon only because I do not have a horrified! icon. yes.

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[info]randomblade
2006-01-14 04:16 pm UTC (link)
Done. Oh god. Why!?

We have Dragon, Elf (with silver eyes, and 'leaf' in his name), 2 soul bonds, Zombies, Cats, Gryphons, Werewolves, Henry V & Wellington (historical characters), swords, unicorns (white), light warring against dark, prescience, clowns, confusion spells, Portal-to-alternate-universe spells, Mr Spock travelling through time on a spaceship, an elven bow(tm) and vampires.

That's 23. 24 if both soul-bonds count.

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er.
[info]qian
2006-01-15 09:07 am UTC (link)
Pereira and the Angel of Clocks

I make that 13 points -- it depends whether you see God as a historical personage or a mythical creature, but it's a point either way. I've counted the possibility of soul-bonding as a point.

Other cliches I didn't count, 'cos I'm not sure they do count: angels. Shopping for curtains. Um, do I get a point for the fact that the psychics are gnomes?

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ooh!
[info]qian
2006-01-15 09:11 am UTC (link)
16 points if the vampire, dragon and spaceship each count!

(Reply to this) (Parent)
here goes!
[info]phoenikoi
2006-01-15 06:09 pm UTC (link)
And also, Pasta

Most of my points would be passing references, really.

Um, 18 points...? Additional point if the sink love counts as romance? I counted elf ears for the elf reference. There was no actual cat, but a few feline references. I squished in a couple of references together - the mention of tim-travel/dimension-hopping alternate universes as a new technique being used by police in the murder mystery reported in the newspaper. Infatuation potion for the improbably effective drugs reference. I'm counting the name magic as a magic spell.

And three more points if the vampire, dragon and spaceship count as a point each. Grand has a space ship! And the alien in the cupboard was building one. Out of plates.

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[info]cherylmorgan
2006-01-16 06:04 pm UTC (link)
Talking of competitions, there are three copies of the UK edition of Temeraire to be won in the Emerald City Subscriber Draw (see here).

When I wrote that I thought it was trade paperbacks I had, but having got back to the UK I have discovered that they are actually proofs.

Naomi has kindly signed plates to go in each one.

And thanks for the great book, Naomi!

(Reply to this)

The series
(Anonymous)
2006-01-18 03:40 am UTC (link)
Dear Naomi,

My name is Patrick St-Denis and I'm the creator of the weblog www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com. Since I write fantasy book reviews, I would love to have the opportunity to review your work. My following now includes readers from 82 countries, which should interest your publishers.

Feel free to peruse the blog at your leisure (there are recent interviews with R. Scott Bakker and Steven Erikson), and if you are interested, you can find my email address in my profile. I just need the contact info of your publicists at HC and Del Rey, and I'll take care of the rest!

I feel a little silly to leave you a comment like this, but I could find no way to contact you directly.

Best of luck with the release of the first volume!

Cheers,

Pat

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[info]ashnistrike
2006-01-18 10:30 am UTC (link)
I came here from, I think, Genreneep, and couldn't resist. I tried.

Here.

A vampire, a dragon, and a spaceship. The vampire is also an historical personage. The dragon is also an alien. The spaceship is also a time machine. There's a zombie cat, a unicorn, an elf, a werewolf, a ghost, an implied alternate universe, and psychic control of the time-traveling spaceship. A romance, and a murder (which would have been a mystery at the time, yes?). Also, a mysterious island of doom, a mustache-twirling villain (who is also a warlock), and a single tear shed for the dead dragon. And hey, the spaceship crashes, so the ghost is shipwrecked on the island. All in 100 words. I count 25 points?

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[info]giddygeek
2006-01-22 12:21 am UTC (link)
Okay, we've got the requirements: a vampire, a dragon, and a spaceship.

For points we've got: a cat, unicorns, elves, werewolves, zombies, a nymph, an ogre, a fairy, time travel, a murder mystery, a romance, a very, very alternate universe, Ben Franklin and Einstein, telepathy and telekinesis, a soul-bond, magic spells, aliens, clowns, aphrodisiacs and um, I'm coming up with a total of 21.

Xundelfiday

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[info]dracostella
2006-01-24 05:51 am UTC (link)
I wrote this.

Let's see, I have the vampire, dragon, and spaceship. Also included are (yes, of course I'm stretching a bit...)

elves, werewolves, aliens, a murder mystery and a romance (you need to squint... still no? Squint harder. It's there, really...), soul bonding (and/or magic spell, and/or psychic abilities, it all depends on interpretations really), and it's all written in 100 words.

That makes... I have no idea how many points...

I think I broke something writing this.

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Challenge
(Anonymous)
2006-01-29 09:24 am UTC (link)
Okay, here's my story http://shadowglider.blogspot.com/2006/01/infodumps-murder-and-master-plan.html .
Spent several hours on it and my wrists feel weird, but, yay got it done. Forgive any spelling or grammar error, stayed up a little too late.
Okay, the points I know I have, vampire, dragon, alien spaceship, zombies, elf, ghost cat, unicorns, soul bond, swordfight, a magic spell, improbably effective drug, alternate universes, clown bartender, werewolf, mythical creatures, and a mention of a historical personage. So 18.
Now the points I'm not sure about. A prophetic elf may or may not be considered to have psychic abilities, the story could be thought of as sort of murder mystery, another mythical creature, illegitimate sibling, sort of evil twin, snarky sidekick, narcissistic sidekick, and a bar - smoky to boot! So if those count, 26.

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: Challenge
(Anonymous)
2006-01-29 09:27 am UTC (link)
Forgot to add, a Dark Lord, and the revealing of the master plan.

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[info]lacewood
2006-01-29 05:15 pm UTC (link)
[info]phoenikoi got me into this and I really don't know why I bothered when this thing has more cliches NOT on the list than cliches ON the list. Also, when this is 10, 000 bloody words.

http://toxicskyremix.livejournal.com/3995.html#cutid1

Included: vampires, dragons, psychic powers (weird ones), sword fighting

Peripheral/questionable: spaceship, cat, ghost , zombies, werewolves/wolfmen, elves, unicorns, improbably effective serum (does vampire blood count?)

Extras: street brats/thieves, juvenile crime syndicates, nursery rhyme figures, post-apocalyptic universe, ancient relics, lost ancient people/gods, rumours of possible return of Gods, Ominous Bombastic Prophecies, masked swordsmen, angels, oracles

ENTIRELY SHAMELESS: A ship named Napoleon. (Only marignally less shameful than calling it Marie Antoinette)

I have no idea, er, how to count these points. 23/24? Assuming everything gets counted, that is.

... And I'm very sorry about screwing up the HTML and double-posting.

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[info]fenris_wolf0
2006-02-08 03:28 pm UTC (link)
Wow! Off to read these (I broke down and got the UK edition, so I am among the happy readers who are now impatiently waiting to read the second book!)

*happy reader, owner of a beautiful UK hardcover*

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[info]lianneb
2006-02-09 11:48 pm UTC (link)
Hee!

I got my February issue of Locus Magazine in the mail yesterday, and there was a review of Tremaire/His Majesty's Dragon (They like Tremaire better as a title).

It was a glowing review. In fact, it was practically a *rave* review. The reviewer loved the book and thinks other people will too.

Go you!

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[info]naominovik
2006-02-17 05:15 pm UTC (link)
Yes, I finally got to see this! *is very happy*

(Reply to this) (Parent)
My belated entry
[info]leonardr
2006-02-10 05:07 am UTC (link)
Low-scoring, but I like it: "Malcolm". Thanks for the restrictions!

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: My belated entry
[info]naominovik
2006-02-17 04:37 pm UTC (link)
Hi Leonardr -- I haven't been able to reach the link; it's reporting that the site can't be resolved -- maybe the server's gone down? I'd love to read and link this one with the rest, so let me know if there's another place I can read it?

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: My belated entry
[info]leonardr
2006-02-18 10:39 pm UTC (link)
Try it again; the server was indeed down for a while yesterday.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: My belated entry
[info]ddvtek
2006-12-07 02:32 am UTC (link)
Is it too late now

Don
http://www.pluginready.com

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[info]barberio
2006-09-14 06:18 pm UTC (link)
The hyper-circus was galacticly renowned. Run by the Dragoncats the circus travelled through space to show their exhibits and performers. Board their shuttles, and you'd be taken to see Elves ride soul bound Unicorns, use their timemachine to meet Shakespeare, watch the telekinetic swordfighters of Rrall... All that their robotic clowns captured, or their magicians could waylay, was there.You could even see their werewolves, ghosts, zombies, and the dread pan dimensional vampire. But it all ended to a romance. She seduced the accountant by slipping something in his drink, shot the owner and ran off with the whole lot.

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[info]barberio
2006-09-14 06:34 pm UTC (link)
I know the contest is over, but I couldn't resist the challenge.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]7wrc
2007-05-02 09:39 pm UTC (link)
:-)

(Reply to this) (Parent)

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