{"id":884,"date":"2011-02-23T00:42:27","date_gmt":"2011-02-22T23:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/?p=884"},"modified":"2020-04-22T02:51:02","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T01:51:02","slug":"tau-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/?p=884","title":{"rendered":"TAU 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The temptations of self-publishing are obvious. Every aspiring writer looks at the dross that sometimes makes it through the professional filter \u2013 in books and magazines \u2013 and thinks to themselves: if they publish his shit, why won\u2019t they publish mine? <\/em>Self-publishing offers the hope of getting your work \u201cout there,\u201d bypassing the established professionals\u2019 market domination, and letting the public judge.<\/h3>\n

But sometimes those professionals have a point.<\/p>\n

For example, Tau 4<\/em> by VJ Waks.<\/p>\n

It is possible that there\u2019s a half decent story buried in this book. But I couldn\u2019t find it.<\/p>\n

A clich\u00e9d plot with a mad scientist, a rogueish space pirate and an innocent girl who just happens to have been given the ability to turn into a giant, cat-like, predator rumbles along on predictable rails. Will Gerda Tau fall in love with space pirate Captain Col? [Yes!] Will they avoid the clutches of the mad scientist? [Of course!] Will good triumph over evil? [D\u2019uh!]<\/p>\n

But what really damages Tau 4<\/em> is the appalling quality of the writing, both in detail and in overall tone.<\/p>\n

The story is conducted at an hysterical emotional pitch \u2013 the characters teeter on the edge of screaming hissy fits or furious outbursts. Which would be fine if it all built to some meaningful release, or if it ebbed and flowed to add rhythm to the story. But it doesn\u2019t. Tau 4<\/em> is like being screamed at by a six-year-old who has attention deficit disorder and is overdosing on Sunny Delight. It isn\u2019t pleasant to begin with and it quickly becomes very irritating.<\/p>\n

The pacing of the story doesn\u2019t help. Pages pass in minutely detailed recounting of the juvenile \u201cemotional turmoil\u201d of the main characters but, after chapters (and chapters) of debate and intrigue to persuade the native \u201cPeople\u201d (the author must have spent ages thinking up that one) to attack the mad scientist\u2019s fortress, the actual assault is then, infuriatingly, dismissed in two paragraphs (395-6).<\/p>\n

But it is the details that really sink VJ Waks\u2019s novel.<\/p>\n

Like the fact that she has no control of the point of view of her writing. In Chapter 8 (chosen randomly) the character describing the action changes at least fifteen times. Sometimes the POV switches three times on the one page (320 or 328, for example). This is not deliberate style, it is sloppy writing.<\/p>\n

Plus, there\u2019s the failure to control detail: A \u201cmid-sized battlecruiser\u201d (123) becomes a \u201cdual-wing fighter\u201d two pages later. Three men at the helm of the ship (131) become four when they are all named. And Waks seems particularly fond of adjectives, particularly \u201ccruelly\u201d and \u201cviolently\u201d which she peppers liberally through passages of text. And under it all, is the desperation of a writer trying too hard, her writing becoming so convoluted that it jettisons all meaning:<\/p>\n

But what Bereg hazarded to surmount was no mean feat. For never had the warriors of the People yet attempted a direct assault on the terrible ramparts which continued to grow every stronger in the Valley of the Rift and it was just such an assault that Bereg now proposed to make. (390)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Until, finally, we come to the eyes. Oh lord, the eyes! Eyes \u201cflash\u201d and eyes \u201cglitter\u201d, eyes are \u201cgrim\u201d and eyes are \u201csharp\u201d, eyes become \u201cglowing copper orbs\u201d and eyes \u201cflicker with a pale light\u201d \u2013 in one paragraph on page 132: \u201cCol\u2019s eyes that suddenly flashed dangerously… Teng\u2019s dark eyes glittered like obsidian… their eyes [were] on him, cold and deadly\u201d \u2013 not only are the descriptions all hopelessly clich\u00e9d but the repetition becomes first funny, then distracting and finally maddening.<\/p>\n

Like the rest of the book.<\/p>\n

VJ Waks \u2013 Tau 4<\/em>
\nAuthorhouse, 2007, 496 pages, \u00a315.49, ISBN: 978-1434333933<\/p>\n

(Originally published in Vector <\/em>259, Spring 2009)<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The temptations of self-publishing are obvious. Every aspiring writer looks at the dross that sometimes makes it through the professional filter \u2013 in books and magazines \u2013 and thinks to themselves: if they publish his shit, why won\u2019t they publish mine? Self-publishing offers the hope of getting your work \u201cout there,\u201d bypassing the established professionals\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[8,15,10],"tags":[69,43,46,71],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/tau4.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27AP7-eg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=884"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":887,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884\/revisions\/887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}