Sep 02
Click for full imageAndrew T Comments: Darth Vader, before he had the Death Star, trained crows each winter.
Published 1978
(Average: 8.19 out of 10)
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Andrew T Comments: Darth Vader, before he had the Death Star, trained crows each winter.
Published 1978
(Average: 8.19 out of 10)Loading...
(9.25 out of 10) (9.18 out of 10) (9.01 out of 10) (8.97 out of 10) (8.93 out of 10) (8.93 out of 10) (8.93 out of 10) (8.92 out of 10) (8.88 out of 10) (8.88 out of 10)
Lastest Tweet
September 2nd, 2013 at 9:23 am
1978, eh? Did George Lucas know about this?
Nice to see a swordless TING! – it proves they can exist independently.
Surely worthy of a “font problem” tag – no caps, horrible drop shadow, an unusual sense of alignment.
September 2nd, 2013 at 9:39 am
crow looks happy
September 2nd, 2013 at 10:06 am
Phil, that is some serious drop shadowing! Font problems bestowed.
September 2nd, 2013 at 10:23 am
Are the Lord of the Rings boys sneaking up on the His Imperial Darkness?
[Apologies, Andy – our spam system erroneously confused your comment with a shiny lump of spam. TW 09/30]
September 2nd, 2013 at 11:07 am
Klytus, I’m bored. What plaything can you offer me today?
September 2nd, 2013 at 12:28 pm
‘Shhh…be vewwy vewwy quiet…we’we huntin’ Dawth Vadows…huhhuhuhuh!’
September 2nd, 2013 at 2:20 pm
Did his three buddies in the background build a snowman to have a sword fight with?
September 2nd, 2013 at 2:28 pm
Trick or treat, Mr. Brisingamen! Wait … this is all you’re handing out? Shiny pebbles? Don’t try pulling this crap on the other kids behind me, Mr. Brisingamen. They’ve got weapons!
September 2nd, 2013 at 3:08 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weirdstone_of_Brisingamen
“However, within several years Garner had begun to find fault with his debut; in a 1968 interview he referred to it as “a fairly bad book” whilst in 1970 he derided it as “one of the worst books published in the last twenty years… technically… inept”.”
September 2nd, 2013 at 3:38 pm
@fred: even bad Garner (and his opinion of his own books is suspect, especially after his 68 breakdown prompted by Granada’s version of ‘The Owl Service’) is better than Lucas.
As for the cover… I wonder if this is how Lucasfilms and New Line have decided to combat the threat of Marvel/Disney/Pixar : Vader vs Gandalf – ON ICE.
September 2nd, 2013 at 3:40 pm
Those guys in back are rolling stats for their characters.
September 2nd, 2013 at 3:56 pm
The cover is inoffensive… but that font! Oh my.
September 2nd, 2013 at 4:02 pm
no really dude! Brisingamen said it took three days to pass this thing
September 2nd, 2013 at 5:12 pm
Maybe covers like this are *why* Garner started hating the book? (Which is really pretty good, by the way.)
September 2nd, 2013 at 5:36 pm
I can see why Garner would grow to dislike it. The summary above sounds much like Susan Cooper’s books, not because they are derivative so much as they share similar source material. Now, again, that’s not to fault either book. My point is that as the 60s and 70s wore on, the novelty of adapting the myths from the British Isles wore off. It sounds like Garner wanted to judge his own writing on its merits and faults in toto. And if you’re disappointed by your own characterization, or your writing style in your 23rd year (heaven knows, I am!), while your innovations to setting haven’t aged well, then I think you have a legitimate complaint.
Also, I finally twigged to what the cover reminds me of: the film version of Cooper’s book! Look at Eccleston’s outfit and tell me it doesn’t remind you of Darth Moper. Read how useless the B cast are, and tell me they don’t look as ineffectual as that lot in the back.
September 3rd, 2013 at 2:00 am
@Dead Stuff. Yes, but, you see, I’ve actually read the book, so this is my own personal view which I believe is also legitimate. Not that the thing doesn’t indeed have significant flaws – it’s a first novel, after all – but his condemnation seems extremely over-the-top to me. But then authors *are* often like that about their early work.
EDIT: By personal view, I mean, the view that this is actually a good book, not that it was the Vader-on-Ice cover which did the damage. Though really, who knows?
September 3rd, 2013 at 10:05 am
NOOO don’t take it! He’s evil!
http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/2009/03/black-company/
September 3rd, 2013 at 4:58 pm
Never fully believe or see as definitive an author’s judgment of his or her own work: 1. they often lie; 2. they often don’t fully grasp what they’ve written; 3. (following from 2) they have their own view of their work which perhaps shouldn’t be privileged above the reader’s.
Anthony Burgess went to his grave protesting loudly that A Clockwork Orange was a terrible book and that he’d written at least a dozen that were much better, but he was wrong. It’s clearly, as posterity has made clear, out of his forty or so works, his one and only masterpiece.
cf. the New Critics and “The Intentional Fallacy.”
September 3rd, 2013 at 6:20 pm
I see the Disneyfication of Star Wars continues as they remake “Beauty and the Beast” with Vader recast as The Beast. (I can hear the dialogue now: “You’re supposed to be feeding the birds, not Force Choking them!”)
September 3rd, 2013 at 10:12 pm
@ST: ‘Be our…*hsss*…guest, be…*hsss*…our guest…*hsss*…fights with Gandalf…*hsss*…by request!’
September 4th, 2013 at 4:00 pm
“I find your lack of bird seed disturbing.” (Come on, you were ALL thinking of that one.)
September 4th, 2013 at 9:34 pm
I always thought Vader was missing a nice set of mirrored shades.
It’d be like he was from the Deep South.
*wheeze* Hey boy! *Hiss* Boy ah’m talkin’ to ya boy! *Wheeze* Y’all don’ know the power o’the dark side! *Hiss* Dagnabbit!*wheeze*
September 4th, 2013 at 10:32 pm
‘Luke…I am your feather…’
I’ll get me coat.
September 16th, 2013 at 7:34 pm
$DEITY, that font . . . Ace had a real thing for it, back then. Or at least, I’m pretty sure I’ve got a copy of Norton’s Breed to Come with the exact same font on the cover, right down to the drop shadow.
October 8th, 2013 at 8:35 pm
“Ok, who put this tack under my chair?”
December 1st, 2013 at 1:05 pm
[In James Earl Jones voice]
“Birdy…. [*PUFF* *WHEEZE*] birdy nam nam…”
June 30th, 2015 at 11:20 am
[In James Earl Jones voice]
“Here. I brought you a Ting!“
January 26th, 2016 at 8:23 am
Also known as Doctor Doom Finds A Ting On A Snowy Day
May 28th, 2016 at 8:11 pm
Whilst the rest of the New Jedi practice with Master Luke, Kylo Ren works on his sulking.
October 3rd, 2018 at 4:51 am
And another “star wars reference”. Plus “font problems”.
September 18th, 2020 at 3:01 pm
Weirdstone is a fine book – Garner did indeed disown it to an extent, but has since mellowed – it was, after all, his first book. I adapted it for stage back in the late seventies and Alan was happy enough to grant permission and sign memorabilia for it. The two sequels are excellent and his other novels are highly regarded as fine literature.
This cover, however, clearly designed to cash-in on the Star Wars trend, is, awful and takes away all the the mystique of the novel.