Forum’s Favourite Thrill - The Order vs. Outlier Round 2 Heat 79

[Colin YNWA]

Week 10 is quietly fascinating. No really BIG hitters, but some fascinating ties. What looks like some tough choices, some great stories, a local derby and a prime example of how a lesser thrill could just slip quietly through to later rounds by the luck of the draw. Good, interesting mixing coming this week.

I mean there's a joke somewhere with Outlier and its chances of progressing far in this tourney. It's one I won't make though as I think it's great. I'm not sure how common a view that is, or how popular it was. The Order is equally difficult to judge. There are folks like me who love it, but equally there are folks who seem to have lost it entirely. So again an interesting match-up which I just can't call.

The Order - more info

Vs

Outlier - more info

Just reply in this thread naming your favourite thrill of these two series at the beginning of your post (or use Bold tags so I can spot it easily) and say what you like about these wonderful stories after that.

Match ends early on the morning of Sunday March 27th  and the winner gets a place in Round 3 (of 9!!!).

What on Earth is ALL of this?

For those that need 'um and can be bothered to follow 'um there's some simple rules

Any questions, just ask as ever - and have FUN

[broodblik]

Both of these I am enjoying. But this round I will be going for The Order.

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

Outlier- which I thoroughly enjoyed in the Meg floppies, but ignored when running in the prog. The Order has always been unreadable for me, despite my admiration for John Burns in other contexts.

SBT

[rogue69]

The Order

[Magnetica]

I always enjoyed Outlier. It didn't seem to be that popular based on review comments at the time - I'm not sure why.

[BPP]

One I can't take the script, one I can't take the art.

So, Hersey, again.

[abelardsnazz]

Outlier.

[Barrington Boots]

The Order for me although the strength of it's earlier episodes are carrying it somewhat. Nothing wrong with Outlier, but John M Burns on art and all the early historical craziness in The Order is great: the first series especially was brilliant.

[Dark Jimbo]

Part of me wishes The Order was still a tale of werewolves, robots and over-the-hill warriors in 13th century Germany - the further it strays from that initial premise, the larger the cast gets, the more it seems to lose its way - but it still trumps Outlier, which I never really liked, even when I re-read it in the Meg floppies.

Absolutely bonkers (but flawed) beats competent (but dull).

[CalHab]

Outlier, which I enjoyed on re-reading in the floppies. The Order is beautiful but incomprehensible (to me at least).

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

i haven't lost the order entirely. it lost me. beautiful to look at, but needlessly tortuous and conceptual.
it gives me a headache. it makes me feel stupid. and it has little discernable sense of actual character.

outlier, on the other hand, was alright.

[AlexF]

Outlier has loads of cool ideas, and builds to a very satisfying conclusion. But it's a bit of a struggle along the way, not always easy to follow what's going on, and who I care about following.

The Order has like a million cool ideas, and started building to a satisfying concept before ditching that in favour of upping the cool idea factor. How it can ever build to a conclusion is beyond me! That said, the characters and trappings of The Order grabbed me hard and haven't let go yet. So while it's tight, I'm with The Order.

Looks like this'll be hard-fought tussle!

[Blue Cactus]

Outlier was an enjoyable sci-Fi story with decent concepts and a measured, careful three book structure. The order is -W and Burns firing a gatling cannon of ideas at your face and I have absolutely no idea where it's headed.

The Order.

[Richard]

Outlier.

[NapalmKev]

The Order.

Cheers