h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A517529

He writes good books and he seems like a nice chap, what more can I say...~grin~

Greebs.. xx

He's a favorite author of mine as well, so I was glad to see this one.

HOWEVER.... the text is *startlingly* similar to that of his biography on his official website (whose URL I cannot mention but can easily be discovered via a Yahoo! search).

I'm not suggesting that this is plagiarism, per se -- I know it can be incredibly easy to come up with text that is almost the same if you're starting from the same facts. But, I'd say the similarity is close enough to create potential problems with the copyrighted material rules.

On a completely different note, I think the entry could also use some fleshing out in terms of the different types of books, etc., he's written. He's undoubtedly written some of the best novelizations ever (The Last Starfighter being one of those amazing examples where the novelization is far better than the movie); plus there is considerable diversity between his short fiction, "series" fiction, and standalone fiction (with Quozl being one of my all-time favorite books).

Mikey

Thanks for the comments Mikey, it is terribly hard not to write in the same sort of style as anyone else writing a short bio. of someone... the info will always be the same, and trying to convey it in a different way can be difficult. I will go back and try to come up with some different words. I did write to ADF to clear up some facts and get more information, but ultimaly the info is still the same, no matter how you write it.
I will look into providing more facts about his work, but I found that doing this, the article soon goes out of date when the author writes more books or short stories. So I didn't want to list to many of his accomplishments for that reason, just what I thought the average reader would know, and might get them interested in reading more of his work.
As to stating your favourite works, well I could have done that as well... but that isn't really an objective view is it. I do agree The Last Starfighter was a good book, but then I often find books to be better than the films as they leave something to your imagination and films don't.
Anyway.. thanks again... I will go through the article again and try to work something out..
Hugs Greebs.. xx

hey, Greebo!

I wouldn't worry as much about the idea of it automatically being out of date. a) the entries aren't set in stone, edited entries will be updated from time to time, b) even if some info on new works was added every couple years, that could actually be good enough. I wasn't saying that you should list *all* his works (or even all the ones I subjectively consider good ), just that it might take a deeper overview of his writings to interest a new reader.

BTW, I've been planning on starting a field researcher project (as soon as my current on is done, anyway!) on women in science fiction -- was originally going to do SF authors in general, but decided that would be too overwhelming of a project. Anyways, would you potentially be interested in contributing an entry or two? Here's the URL for a bare bones version of the preliminary plan: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A485903

later

Mikey

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review Sin Bin' to 'Alan Dean Foster- Author'.

From Peer Review Sin Bin to Flea Market.