When a tank isn't a tank

[tidge]

34 minutes ago, lemming said:

Turtledove replaying WW2 in various ways comes to mind.  I'm forgetting who it was, but some series I read, and it wasn't plot, but some description of a fight and it was nearly an exact quote of some other fight.

 

When this happens in the same book, I blame the editor (or "publisher's reader") as much as I blame the writer. I suppose I can absolve the editor/publisher and assign all of my annoyance to the author when the author is clearly just filling pages with slop. As an example, I'm reminded of Dan Brown's DaVinci Code which has the exact scene play out several consecutive chapters as the characters visit different sites (one immediately after the previous). This was clearly Dan Brown just "getting away with it." and it was the last book of his I read similar to Kevin J. Anderson (see above)... when the author breaks the illusion that they care about their craft for me, I don't have to waste any more of myself on their work.