Apparently I have no original content to report, so I'll report somebody else's.

[featherynscale]

This is the best story I have ever heard regarding the motivation for writing a book. The author in question is Jim Butcher, and the story comes from gamera_spinning, who attended a book signing by Mr. Butcher last night:

The Codex Alera books were actually written on a bet in a heated internet discussion. The person he was arguing with dared him to write a good book about a bad idea, and he said, "No, I'll write a good book about TWO bad ideas". The ones that he was given were: a Lost Legion of Rome and Pokemon.

I have never had any great desire to read Codex Alera, but I do now.

Comments

[arkhamrefugee.livejournal.com]

I have actually read the whole series and I think it is darn good!

More of other people's content

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

http://montecook.livejournal.com/139955.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Weird (overblown, but maybe useful)

Re: More of other people's content

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Ah ha. Got it. I'm also mentally placing the Night Watch series here.

I have a hard time imagining China Mieville and Storm Constantine occupying the same sub-genre, but that might just be because I adore Mieville and can't make it through the stuff of Constantine's that might fit the definition here. I like Constantine's more traditional fantasy, though.

[kaikias.livejournal.com]

That...wow. That is fairly awesome.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I know. With just that statement, Mr. Butcher's bad-assness quotient rises significantly in my estimation.

[dop4.livejournal.com]

Ditto.

...and he's deffinitely winning the bet.
The "Lost Legion" aspect is pretty obvious. But I'd never made the Fury - Pokemon connection before.

[adammaker.livejournal.com]

And he did such a fantastic job with them that you would never see that the furies are pokemon(s).
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I totally love that series and what he did with it.