We Need To Talk About The Fractalverse

[torylltales]

Paolini announced on twitter recently that To Sleep is the first book in a new series that he's calling the "fractalverse", that is based on the real world and will encompass the future, the present, and the past, with such broad topics as sci-fi alien encounters, and "all the people and issues that we currently grapple with."




Added per Epistler's request:

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The problems I can foresee with this, in no particular order:

* Paolini writing about Black Lives Matter.  We've already seen from the Inheritance Cycle how he writes about people of colour, and I'm not confident he has undergone a period of significant personal growth on that matter.

* Paolini writing from the point of view of a person with a disability, or a person from a racial, cultural, religious, GRSM, etc. minority. One of the most consistent subtexts in the IC is that disabled, "ugly", mentally unwell, etc. are equated evil, sinful, dangerous, or otherwise lesser than an able-bodied person.

* Paolini writing a romance story. Just no.

* The fact that even when he had a clear storyline that was (allegedly) meticulously planned, he still took an average of 3 years to write each book of the Inheritance Cycle, and then took a further 9 years to write To Sleep (and a couple of hastily thrown together short stories that read like he wrote them in a weekend on a dare). Series announcements like this usually depend upon a solid consistent schedule of new content otherwise readers will lose interest and move on.

For example, just look at Ahn Do: He's one of Australia's most beloved writers for older children, but he doesn't rest on the success of his WeirDo and Hot Dog series, he's constantly pumping out new books not only for WeirDo and Hot Dog, but also in his new 'Ninja Kid', 'Mythix', and 'Wolf Girl' series, as well as stand-alone titles. He publishes a new title probably every 3-4 months or so.

If you promise a series, especially an open-ended series as broad as Fractalverse, you need to have the writing stamina and discipline to pump out books consistently, at least 1 per year, and keep up that momentum for more than just 2 or 3 books.

Paolini very likely only has To Sleep at the moment, he doesn't keep secrets well and hasn't said anything about working concurrently on a secnd separate story. Making a grand reveal like that should only happen if he's actually got some work to back it up, like more than one finished or partially finished drafts ready to go

* He hasn't even waited to see if To Sleep will be a commercial success yet, and he's already announcing that it's now suddenly (Ok, so he mentioned the idea in passing in an interview in 2017, but for the most part it's a sudden reveal) part of a massive new series or universe? That's an unwise amount of confidence in his relationship with his publisher and agent, and in his selling power in the adult sci fi market as "the author of Eragon".

* Whatever happened to Brom's prequel, Inheritance Book 5, and all the other material his fans are actually looking forward to? Is he shelving them in favour of working on this new series? Is the collective A_S prophecy, that Paolini is going to keep starting new projects and stringing fans along re. book 5 being "just after this next book" until it eventually becomes clear that he has no intention whatsoever of actualy writing it?

How are his fans going to react if he admits (or if they conclude) that he has no intention of writing Inheritance Book 5, and in fact has been lying to his fans about it for almost a decade? Does Paolini not understand the cost of broken promises?

* The scope of this series is supposed to range from distant future space fantasy, right down to slice-of-life urban drama. Fans of sci fi won't want to read about a day in the life of a 40s-something househusband whose young neighbor is making eyes at him while his wife is away on high-powered corporate meetings; and conversely fans of slice-of-life drama and such are not necessarily going to be interested in reading about deep-space laser-tag battles with Lovecraftian alien entities. He should stick to a particular theme, instead of trying to stretch himself (and his fans) in too many different directions.

 

What do you think about this announcement? Premature, over-confident in his ability to stick to a fast-paced writing schedule, too broad in scope?

Comments

[torylltales]

I mean, this is completely aside from the fact that he's basically trying to copy Brandon Sanderson's big gimmick, the "Cosmere" universe in which pretty much all of Sanderson's novels are set.

[(Anonymous)]

Which works in Sanderson's case because...

A). He took years seeding, planning, and developing the Cosmere

And...

B). Sanderson's a machine when it comes to pumping out content. His fans always are treated to something new, while waiting for the next Stormlight book. And even with Stormlight itself, he keeps fans regularly updated on the progress being made.

[(Anonymous)]

It does feel like he's riding on Sanderson's coat-tails. Also the cosmere, a gimmick? Nah :P

- Anontu

[torylltales]

Not all gimmicks are cheap or poorly made.

gimmick /ˈgɪm ɪk/
noun
1. an ingenious or novel device, scheme, or stratagem, especially one designed to attract attention or increase appeal.


Yeah, Cosmere is a gimmick. That doesn't cheapen it, though.

[epistler]

Riding on other people's coattails is one of the only things Paolini is genuinely good at - let's face it.

Fractalverse Issues

[(Anonymous)]

1. Paolini, a sheltered white guy who doesn't do any research (Eragon having his own bedroom, and Roran fighting with a smithing hammer, anyone) writing about Black Lives Matter? No. Writing about anything political? No.

2. Paolini writing from the perspective of a disability? No. The way he treated mental illness in the IC, and said that Galby was just mad was insulting. He will also probably inflict the Magical Cure trope, where the disabled person will lose their disability. Furthermore, it takes a lot of research to portray a wheelchair-user, an autistic person, and a person with Down syndrome, in a correct and respectful manner, (especially when incorrect portrayals can do such harm) and I don't think he is ready for that.

3. Considering the terrible sex in To Sleep, NO.

4. The dude's a slow writer. He needs to announce the next book before it is almost done. A lot of fans have probably gotten tired with his not publishing another Inheritance book.

5. To Sleep will probably tank. I don't know what that will do to his career, but nothing good will happen.

6. If he breaks that promise, 99.9% of his fans will desert him. The ending of Inheritance was horrible.

7. Yeah, stretching your themes never works well. There is a reason that you never put high school drama in a si-fi story (unless that story is about aliens going to earth schools, or vice versa). Rick Riordan, a great writer, has a shared universe for his multiple series, but he keeps the theme, urban fantasy, the same. Also, Paolini cannot write fantasy or sci-fi well. He should stick to those, and quit while he's ahead

In conclusion, I do not think the fractalverse will work out. Also, I don't really like the logo. An actual fractal would be better.
-UltimateCheetah

Re: Fractalverse Issues

[(Anonymous)]

On the one hand he should be allowed to try these things even if past records aren't encouraging.

Yeah the logo isn't much.

- Anontu

Re: Fractalverse Issues

[(Anonymous)]

"On the one hand he should be allowed to try these things even if past records aren't encouraging."

People should be allowed to try new things, but terrible potrayals of disabled people and minorites can do serious harm.

"Yeah the logo isn't much."

It's awful, isn't it? It looks utterly generic, forgetable, and bot at oll unique.

-UltimateCheetah

Re: Fractalverse Issues

[torylltales]

"he should be allowed to try these things"

Paolini is absolutely "allowed" and completely free to try whatever he wants. In the privacy of his home and his personal computer or typewriter or exercise book or whatever medium he prefers to write with or on.


This is not about Paolini being able to try new things, this is about him publishing and expecting people to pay for them.

The problem with Paolini's approach is that he doesn't seem to have or nderstand the reason for having an archive drawer in which to keep his experiments, writing exercises and half-baked ideas that went nowhere. Instead of sticking with his one franchise that had a solid fan base and good sales figures, and then experimenting with genre and style on his own time and for his own benefit and putting those experiments in a drawer while he works on the next book of the series that fans have been pleading with him to write for almost a decade, Paolini seems to think every one of his side-projects and experiments with genre should be commercialised for profit.

[snarkbotanya]

Paolini writing from the point of view of a person with a disability, or a person from a racial, cultural, religious, GRSM, etc. minority.

Oh hell no... we're already seeing in TSiaSoS that he can't write women, and we saw back in Eldest that he can't write characters with his own non-religious identity convincingly.

a clear storyline that was (allegedly) meticulously planned

I do believe that at least the broad strokes were planned. That one dream sequence in the middle of Eragon matches up too well with the ending of Inheritance for there to have been no planning. However, the way even foreshadowed events often feel like Ass Pulls shows that he didn't do nearly the amount of planning that he always says he did.

I'm actually pretty sure that Paolini and I write in a pretty similar fashion: we have a general outline, and then we just kind of seat-of-our-pants the connecting material.

He hasn't even waited to see if To Sleep will be a commercial success yet... That's an unwise amount of confidence in his relationship with his publisher and agent, and in his selling power in the adult sci fi market as "the author of Eragon".

THIS. TSiaSoS may be getting a lot of marketing, but I sure haven't seen a response that would justify turning it into a big series in the eyes of the publisher. This feels like an almost Shakespearean level tragedy waiting to happen.

Whatever happened to Brom's prequel, Inheritance Book 5, and all the other material his fans are actually looking forward to?

I maintain that I will almost certainly get off my ass and finish Consequence before Paolini releases Book 5... if he ever does.

[(Anonymous)]

Actually his fractalverse thing is the announcement of a connected universe of stories. So it's different to announcing a dozen sequels for the space brick.

[(Anonymous)]

"Oh hell no... we're already seeing in TSiaSoS that he can't write women, and we saw back in Eldest that he can't write characters with his own non-religious identity convincingly."

Oh yeah. Kira is a disaster, with all the whining about Alan.

"However, the way even foreshadowed events often feel like Ass Pulls shows that he didn't do nearly the amount of planning that he always says he did."

Namely Brom being Eragon's father, the Elundarya, etc.

"This feels like an almost Shakespearean level tragedy waiting to happen."

I know. The book is terrible,and it's for adults, when most of Chris's fans are kids that have grown up, and it doesn't bring anything new to the table. Furthermore, with all that hype, people are going to be disappointed. Especially with the Venom sequel coming out and the alien named Soft Blade.

"I maintain that I will almost certainly get off my ass and finish Consequence before Paolini releases Book 5... if he ever does."

Can't wait for it! I'm not sure how Paolini will make a passable book 5.

-Ultimate

[epistler]

Talk about counting one's chickens before they're even out of the mother hen's ass. He doesn't even know if the Galactic Brick is going to be successful or not.

I had an idea for an epic scale expanded universe spinoff for my own most well known series. How much have I told my fans about it, you might be wondering?

Absolutely nothing. I haven't announced it at all, or even hinted at it. Why? Because I don't know if it's going to work out yet. I've only written part of one installment which I haven't touched in months since then, and all the other installments are just vague outlines in my head at the moment. And there's no publisher attached to the project either.
For all I know that's never going to change, and as such I'm keeping my mouth shut until I'm absolutely 100% certain that it's going to happen to the point that I can say who's publishing it and can provide release dates, titles, and blurbs.

By the looks of things Paolini is just posturing here, trying to make it look like big things are coming when none of these exciting upcoming projects actually exist. Either way if he wants to set everyone's expectations way too high and put a whole lot of unnecessary pressure on himself... mission accomplished.

[(Anonymous)]

On one hand it isn't an announcement of books he hasn't even started yet so having release dates, titles and blurbs aren't neccessary.

On the other while he has every right to intended for his future stories to be in a connected universe, the timing of the announcement strikes me as very "look at me. I'm doing one too!" and without substance to evoke excitement.

I hope one day you'll be able to release/ announce your universe, Epi

- Anontu

[silverskyfeather]

Paolini... should probably not announce that. you can hardly have an extended universe without at least a few books. And an extended universe is something fans tend to pick up on. It would probably be better as a discovery for loyal fans rather then a random Marvel-style announcement.

But more then that, you need some okay world building to pull off something like that. Yet, Paolini's new sci-fi has some pretty bad world building. Not good for the support of an entire multi-book super series. I'm not very confident. and I suspect that Paolini can't pull off that many books. hopefully I'm wrong.

[(Anonymous)]

Fans noticing it and then an author confirmation is much better. Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere was "revealed" after readers noticed reccuring names in his different series. At some point he went ahead and "introduced" the Cosmere.

- Anontu

[epistler]

I really really hope he isn't going to try and use Angela as the key which ties everything together.

[vorpaltongue]

That's an unwise amount of confidence in his relationship with his publisher and agent, and in his selling power in the adult sci fi market as "the author of Eragon".

Even at first glance he doesn't have a leg to stand on. Being the "Author of Eragon" matters about as much as a gnat's carcass in such a market.

If there's any advice I would give him, it would be "don't say you're going to do it, just do it!" Worst case scenario, your fans wouldn't know what would have been, and best case it's a nice surprise.

[dinogrrl]

That's...very ambitious. And I predict it will not go over well with his fans, given his proven bad track record.

I mean dang, that's like me saying that I have a whole collection of short stories that take place in the same universe as my main Lightbringer story. Which may is all well and good, but Lightbringer hasn't even been finished, so people don't have a reason to care. Saying "There's a bunch more where that came from!" is a completely moot point, and at this time would speak more to a lack of focus than the awesomeness of the story's universe.

[(Anonymous)]

Lightbringer? That sounds interesting. Is it inspired by the Brent Weeks books?

[cmdrnemo]

Well,

First off, anything will sell like hot cakes if it has enough marketing behind it. And Paolini is just big enough a name to convince people to put that kind of cash into the marketing. Right now we are only seeing the people who already pay attention to him sub set reaction. Which is mostly his fans. I’ve already predicted this book will satisfy them. We can expect a reasonable to high initial sales count under standard marketing and word of mouth from current fans.

However, the book sucks. This one is targeted at an adult audience. Which means it isn’t going to get that babies first fantasy pass that Eragon got. It’s going to get people who already know most of his sources. So it’s going to hit a limit. After that the word of mouth is going to be universally negative. There’s going to be a fair number of BookTubers who call this one of the major books of the year they didn’t finish.

I don’t expect the scale of Twilight. Because I don’t expect it to sell like Twilight. But, that general sort of reaction. Why is this popular it sucks? Being the most common reaction by the end of the year.

[baronleduc]

Oh wow ...

Either Paolini is super ambitious and he's not patient to research/work to polish (like me... *hides in shame*), or he's arrogant and thinks he's the shit. As I've read several of his novels for years and reading hilarious sporks, I bet the latter.

He hasn't even waited to see if To Sleep will be a commercial success yet, and he's already announcing that it's now suddenly

That's the point bothers me the most. Unless you have prescience talents and can see the future, nobody knows if a novel is going to be an instant success or an embarassed flop. Even Frank Herbert had a hard time before a publisher took a chance with Dune.

That fractalverse sounds like a library disaster. So we have to acknowledge that Inheritance series is going to be part of it, isn't ?

[hidden_urchin]

If someone has a history of strong sales, they can pull it off. Scalzi is the most memorable, I think, with his multi-million dollar deal for thirteen books over ten years (also with Tor, IIRC). But he's the big name of popular SF right now, so he's a safe commercial bet.

I'm kinda curious if there's a contract for Fractalverse, which would be something interesting, or if it's more aspirational speech.

[littlecaity]

*FACEPALM* No, Chris. Just no. Stop. You are making yourself look like an even bigger twerp than you already have.

This will never work and I fully expect to never hear about his fractals again.

[gharial]

How about Paolini being in any way prolific. The guy's release rate averages worse than George R.R Martin's. If he's to make any kind of ongoing series then he need's to up his rate of publishing considerably.