11-01-2009, 12:30 AM | #61 | |
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And I quite liked Nation, but I listened to it rather than reading it on paper. Stephen Briggs (and Nigel Planer) make Pratchett's stuff AMAZINGLY good. |
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11-01-2009, 02:55 AM | #62 |
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The Prince of Nothing Trilogy by R. Scott Bakker. I read all 3 books in a 2 week period since my local library had all three (a rare occurrence!). I struggled through the first two, determined to finish the trilogy and the third was just a total disappointment. The ending didn't bring any conclusion to the trilogy... most likely to leave things open for another trilogy to follow. I will definitely not attempt any further additions to the series.
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11-01-2009, 04:05 AM | #63 | |
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11-01-2009, 07:59 AM | #64 |
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When I started to add a few books to Shelfari, I somehow got the idea of adding all books I could remember having read (from 15-16 yr.). It was rather fun. I don't own many books, so I had to go to the library and check the shelves. I think I got most of them - I re-read a lot so that made the number smaller - re-reads turned out to be close to half of what I'd registered
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11-01-2009, 08:19 AM | #65 | ||
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That's an apt description of the protagonist. Thank you. Quote:
______ Dennis |
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11-01-2009, 08:29 AM | #66 |
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I really enjoyed the Thomas Covenant Trilogy - but my God! - Covenant never learned and he continued to whine his way through a whole series of titles.
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11-01-2009, 09:56 AM | #67 |
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Not sure if Gaiman was influenced by A Fine and Private Place, but The Graveyard Book is essentially a retelling of Kipling's Jungle Book, complete with plots and character analogues. (PS. It's a homage, not a plagiarism, and there's no attempt to conceal the source material.)
Last edited by wayrad; 11-01-2009 at 10:35 AM. |
11-01-2009, 10:19 AM | #68 | |||||
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I'm also fond of _Land of Unreason_. The protagonist is stationed in Scotland during WWII, comes home from a night of drinking deciding he doesn't need more alcohol, and drinks the milk left out in the saucer for the brownies and replaces it with the scotch he didn't want to drink. He goes to bed, and awakens to discover he is being kidnapped to faery land by a bunch of drunken elves... Quote:
George was an officer in the US Army Signal Corps for much of the period Amra was published, and managed the logistical issues of publishing Amra from places like Korea. (He retired as a Lt. Colonel in the '70s.) He also described amusing encounters with Army security, as they attempted to understand his fan activities, and things like his membership in "The Cult of the Nameless", a long running Amateur Press Association I was also involved in back when. Quote:
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11-01-2009, 10:31 AM | #69 |
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I like original Conan stories by Robert E Howard very much, and I find stories written based on Howard's notes readable - but I never found any other author who could write a Conan story in the spirit of original stories. The continuations were either boring, if nothing happened, or horrible when the author was trying to write in his own style in Conan universe. I remember particularly disgusting butchering of Conan and Belit's personality by Poul Anderson - one of the worst books I have ever read.
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11-01-2009, 11:32 AM | #70 |
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Graveyard for me was DNF. I didn't give it much of a chance, and perhaps that is because I read a short story by Gaiman over at BSCreview (Heliotrope is the online magazine.) OMGosh. That story was...sorry, I have to say it...soooo bad. SO BAD. So when I wasn't enjoying Graveyard, I just took it back to the library. It wasn't horrible, but I had no...nothing grabbed me about the ghosts. Then too my immediate reaction was sympathy for the little kid and I just wasn't sure I was in the mood to read about the poor guy.
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11-01-2009, 06:37 PM | #71 |
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John Norman's Gor Series is for me the worst written fantasy series of all time. I'd be hard pressed to decide which I hated more, the content or the prose style.
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11-01-2009, 07:25 PM | #72 |
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It wasn't the style that got to me so much as the fact that every single plot development hinged on one or more characters behaving with incredible stupidity...
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11-01-2009, 07:53 PM | #73 | |
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Stylistically, Norman is prone to expository lumps, like interrupting the building description of a sea battle with a pages long digression on Gorean shipbuilding technology and naval tactics. Amusingly, some of the Gor Books were returned to print in the 90's by porn publisher Masquerade Books. ______ Dennis |
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11-01-2009, 08:00 PM | #74 | |
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Someone in another forum once asked if there were Third Order Idiot Plots that required the readers to be idiots. I said "Yes, they're called Star Trek novels...", grinned, ducked, and ran. ______ Dennis |
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11-01-2009, 08:07 PM | #75 | |
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Oh, you mean like David Weber... |
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