What Do You Think of Pastiches and What Are Your Favorite and Least Favorite Pastiches?

B

BAYLOR

There Are Always new Things to Learn.
Joined
Jun 29, 2014
Messages
24,370
These are novels , novellas and short stories done by one writer using characters and settings of another writers. It's Usually with permission if the writer gives it and without permission if the writer has passed on and his works and the rights to them have become public domain . The quality of such pastiches can be variable from excellent to godawful. What do you think of the very idea of writers doing pastiches and do you think they have literary value ? And what are your favorite and least favorite pastiches?

And if im incorrect in any way about my definitions and understanding OF pastiches and the rules and rights to a using a writers works, please tell me, because Im 100 percent sure on this.

Thoughts? :)
 
Last edited:
Pastiches may have great literary value if pastiches-writers know very well about the stories they're pastiching. I do think that there's only a very thin line between a good pastiche and a tribute.
 
I'm currently reading Fuzzy Sapiens, the sequel to H. Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy. A sequel, written by William Tuning after the original author's death, Fuzzy Bones, is on my TBR shelf. I understand a posthumous manuscript was later discovered and published and that there are several other "Fuzzy" stories by other authors including John Scalzi. No idea if any of them are any good. I may soldier on to find out, but would be interested in other opinions as well.
 
Timothy Zahn's very first Star Wars trilogy (starting with Heir to the Empire) is the only thing that springs immediately to mind. Way better than any other SW books I read after, but it was SO good it made me try probably 30!
 
When I hear the word pastiche I immediately think of Conan. There are dozens of pastiches ranging from awful to okay. I've read a good many of them and while it may seem like a good way to keep a character going, I think in the end it does more harm than good.

One of the best things I ever heard, was that after Banks' sad passing there would be NO Culture novels written by other authors. Just as it should be.
 
Final Solution by Michael Chabon -- Sherlock Holmes pastiche and one of the best I've read; beyond that, just a strong, touching piece of fiction beautifully written.

Druid's Blood by Esther Friesner -- another Holmes pastiche, though the names were changed due to lack of permissions (I think); not as good as the Chabon, but great fun.

"The Mote in the Middle Distance" by Max Beerbohm -- Henry James pastiche/parody; https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14667/14667-h/14667-h.htm#mote
if you've ever read Henry James when writing in his circumlocutory prose style, this story of two Jamesian children dithering over their Christmas presents should have you amused if not laughing out loud.



Randy M.
 
I didn't even know what a pastiche was, so that's useful. In that case, I believe that some of David Weber's Honorverse books qualify -- there are a number of books of short stories set in the Honor Harrington world, each story written by a different person. Those are quite all right with me.
 
You are limiting pastiche a bit in this discussion.
What I mean is that pastiche can be all of what you say but so much more than that and it would be beneficial to examine the whole rather than the part.

On a basic level pastiche is the copying of style, technique, and character of a work. It doesn't have to be in the same universe with the same characters, but had much of the same flavor and sometimes delves into parody.

Still within your limitation there are a few branches from that.
There is the continuation where the author might take up where things left off and or in some cases branch off into subplots that speculate on events that occur around and between times within the older works.
Then there are those works that pluck the characters out and place them in slightly different times or worlds but try to stay true to the style in which that character is originally created.

At the furthest extreme there are those that pay homage or allude to the world and character of another author and though calling them pastiche might be stretching the limits, there is a need to be able to identify the difference between these and the examples above.

The true pastiche would be those that can make use of the character and or the world and maintain the style of the writing to create the complete experience that will give a new reader the same feel that they might have when they read the original. Homage and Allusion tend to present the figures but fail to give a true sense to the reader of the entire experience.

I think there is much room for those that extend the story and maintain the same feel or atmosphere of the original allowing both seasoned readers and new readers the same experience that is in the original.
 
The current master of the pastiche is of course Sebastian Faulks, though his works are not SFF. He wrote a James Bond book, and recently published a Jeeves and Wooster novel. He changes his writing style to suit apparently, and while I haven't read them, I've heard great reviews.
 
I was soured on Pastiches back when I first picked up one of the Tarzan- Barton Werper titles. He spent 4 pages trying to decide if he should bring along beans on his excursion to deepest, darkest, Africa.
These books were rightfully pulled from the shelves(copyright) and hopefully pulped immediately.
 
Conan Road of Kings and Bran Mak Morn Legion of the Shadows both by Karl Edward Wager. They are excellent books. (y)
 
The 7 percent Solution by Nicholas Meyer (y)
 
Clipped from the Theodore Sturgeon profile page on Wiki::

Sturgeon ghost-wrote one Ellery Queen mystery novel, The Player on the Other Side (Random House, 1963). This novel gained critical praise from critic H. R. F. Keating, who "had almost finished writing Crime and Mystery: the 100 Best Books, in which I had included The Player on the Other Side ... placing the book squarely in the Queen canon"[5] when he learned that it had been written by Sturgeon. Similarly, "William DeAndrea, author and ... winner of Mystery Writers of America awards, selecting his ten favorite mystery novels for the magazine Armchair Detective, picked The Player on the Other Side as one of them. He said: "This book changed my life ... and made a raving mystery fan (and therefore ultimately a mystery writer) out of me. ... The book must be 'one of the most skillful pastiches in the history of literature. An amazing piece of work, whomever did it'."[5]
Click to expand...
 
tinkerdan said:
You are limiting pastiche a bit in this discussion.
What I mean is that pastiche can be all of what you say but so much more than that and it would be beneficial to examine the whole rather than the part.

On a basic level pastiche is the copying of style, technique, and character of a work. It doesn't have to be in the same universe with the same characters, but had much of the same flavor and sometimes delves into parody.
Click to expand...

This kind of pastiche I tend to enjoy. I will never read the other kind where they are actually using someone else's characters and settings.
 
Michael, you might like Matthew Hughes' Jack Vance pastiches, then. I haven't read the novels, but the short stories in The Gist Hunter were good fun and caught what I remember of the flavor of Vance without using Vance's settings or characters.


Randy M.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
bwb Vote for your 3 favorite reads of the year + see what everyone else loved :) Promotions 2
D Your top 3-5 favorite Science-fiction writers currently? Book Discussion 7
chongjasmine Sherlock Holmes Pastiches Literary Fiction 4
ravenus Shadows over Baker Street and other Holmes pastiches Book Discussion 8
Lobolover Worst Lovecraft Pastiches/"Mythos" Writing H P Lovecraft 39

Similar threads


Back
Top