The Iron Tower + Two Ways To Appreciate Middle Earth

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I don't feel like I've missed out on much by passing on HBO's A Game of Blood and Boobs, either.

The name is apt, but I enjoyed the show regardless. Well, except for the last couple of seasons, when they had run out of material and had to write everything themselves. Meh. Still, even those were better than a series forever unfinished.

[JSWolf]

To me, it seems silly to adapt a book series for TV when that series in unfinished and unlikely to be finished before the TV series catches up.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

To me, it seems silly to adapt a book series for TV when that series in unfinished and unlikely to be finished before the TV series catches up.

I guess they hoped in the beginning that GRRM can actually get off his a$$ and finish the book series before the TV series gets that far... a naive hope, of course.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I don't think I'll finish the book series now, even if GRRM does. Don't really care anymore. He waited too long.

I hope he ultimately finishes the series. It sucks to be living through it now, but it will be good for future readers to have a complete series.

I'm not even a fan. I've not read the books or watched the series. But A Song of Ice and Fire is likely the most important fantasy series since Lord of the Rings* and it should be completed.

*Based on quality and impact on culture. I don't mean to dismiss Moorcock's Elric or Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun.

[gmw]

You mean the Internet was wrong? I was just reading (briefly) an article saying how poor the finale to Game of Thrones was. I thought that meant the series was finished. (Not that I actually care; I don't follow the books nor the TV series.)

Curious to see you mention Elric, ZodWallop. Nothing like having an "Eternal Champion" to make sure there never had to be an end.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Are there any long series you liked that you enjoyed?

I don't read many series; the exception would be my jones for Napoleonic War fiction where I've read/am reading several. So I'll cite one of those, the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian with 20 books and a fragment.

These are wonderful books, the best of the genre, which I started reading over five years ago and which I enjoyed so very much that I decided to ration myself, with the result that I've recently only finished the 17th. I'm in it for the full ride, but it seems undeniable that the most recent books I've read are not up to the standard of the earlier ones. The dialogue and characterizations are as sparkling as ever, but the incident and action have become tired, at least for me. I still love the series, but too many more below-par books and I'll wish O'Brian had let Jack and Stephen go on in the ether without any more input from him.

Aside from what seems to me to be the fact that any series gets tired eventually as there's nothing new to do or say and no new way to do, is that I think the failing of the author's powers can be a factor. I just finished another book, really a novella, in a different Napoleonic Wars series which was third in the chronology but last written. It was terrible, a disjointed mess, and I saw that several reviews noted the author's age as he was in his 80s when he wrote it. I'll move on to the next, but it doesn't take many bad books to ruin an entire series.

I used to read mysteries a long time ago and I well remember that my interest in many if not most series would carry me a couple of books past my liking for them. It would be with relief that I'd realize that I was done with them. For each, it would be a mixture of the books getting bad (author got lazy and/or too big for his or her britches) and my just getting bored with everything about them. Genre books repeat.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by gmw

You mean the Internet was wrong? I was just reading (briefly) an article saying how poor the finale to Game of Thrones was. I thought that meant the series was finished. (Not that I actually care; I don't follow the books nor the TV series.)

the TV series ended. The book series, famously, has not.

Curious to see you mention Elric, ZodWallop. Nothing like having an "Eternal Champion" to make sure there never had to be an end.

I'm not a fan of fantasy novels in general. I enjoy them every once in a while. But from my outsider's perspective, it seems like Lord of the Rings, Elric, Thomas Covenant, Book of the New Sun and A Song of Ice and Fire are milestones that pushed fantasy forward.

I do think it will be a shame if GRRM never completes his series. My suspicion is that he'll finish the books once the heat dies down. I can't help but wonder if the spotlight from the show game him performance anxiety.

[Dr. Drib]

^ You might (possibly) wish to add the Gormenghast trilogy to that list.

It's by Mervyn Peake. Check it out.

It's great, in my opinion.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I do think it will be a shame if GRRM never completes his series. My suspicion is that he'll finish the books once the heat dies down. I can't help but wonder if the spotlight from the show game him performance anxiety.

He has said that once he knows the ending, he loses the will/drive to write. That's what supposedly happened with ASOIAF. He just doesn't want to write the series anymore.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

He has said that once he knows the ending, he loses the will/drive to write. That's what supposedly happened with ASOIAF. He just doesn't want to write the series anymore.

Sounds more like that he wrote himself into a corner. And now he cannot untwist all the knots of loose ends he created to reach his desired end. At least not in a way that he thinks it should be done. It sounds like it is already complicated enough, so he should just leave a lot unanswered and only solve some of the mystery. Leave the rest to fill in by the reader.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I've never liked Stephen King either. Not even Eyes of the Dragon. Just not a fan of his writing style, I guess, having read at least 3-4 books from him, and not liking any of them.

Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head there for me too - writing style.

But then, I don't like many very popular authors. Steven Erikson, Robert Heinlein, Joe Abercrombie, to name but a few. And not Moorcock, either, actually. I did manage to finish an omnibus volume of his Elric books many years ago, but my reaction to those was pretty much 'meh'.

I quite liked the odd Heinlein novel ... Stranger In a Strange Land In particular.

Moorcock's Eric stories were okay, had its highs and lows. I much preferred his hero Corum, and a few others. But I do admit, I like his stories for a variety of reasons, so Gloriana for one was great and very different to his Sword & Sorcery fantasy ... and while I read Mervyn Peake's amazing Gormenghast after, I can belatedly see the influence on Moorcock. EDIT - I see Dr. Drib has brought this book up too.

OTOH, I do like some popular authors. Tolkien, of course. George R.R. Martin. Robert Jordan. Brandon Sanderson. Brent Weeks. And many more.

George R.R. Martin is of course seen by some as the American Tolkien, which I don't really agree with, but I can see why they think that, and he tells a great story and seems to be going to great lengths now, to build the back story of history to give greater depth, and making his work seem even more similar in that regard, to Tolkien.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Timboli

George R.R. Martin is of course seen by some as the American Tolkien, which I don't really agree with, but I can see why they think that, and he tells a great story and seems to be going to great lengths now, to build the back story of history to give greater depth, and making his work seem even more similar in that regard, to Tolkien.

In my opinion, they're nothing alike. And I like them for entirely different reasons. GRRM for his characters and plot, Tolkien for his world-building.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I have to admit: I'm not a fan of Tolkien. I love The Hobbit. It's likely my most re-read book, since I discovered it as a child and have read it again every five or six years or so.

But The Lord of the Rings held no interest for me.

It's pretty clear, that even if we like the same things, we can like them for different reasons. And why the notion, that often occurs to many, that if you like so and so then you should like so and so, is often untrue.

Lord Of The Rings, one cannot deny, is quite a heavy read, and for that reason I have not read it often ... it requires me to be in the right frame of mind. And with my huge library of many unread books, it is just so easy, to pick an easier read, that is still going to be greatly rewarding, if not perhaps to the same degree. I do admittedly like well written complex reads though. The Dune series, as you mention later, is a great favorite of mine. And the very thing that turns off many readers with Jordan's Wheel Of Time series, is what greatly appeals to me ... all the different threads.

I would have to say at this point in time, that the offshoot to the Riftwar saga by Raymond E. Feist, the Empire trilogy he did with Janny Wurts, is my all time favorite story. Wheel Of Time series is right up there though, and some others not too far away.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

In my opinion, they're nothing alike. And I like them for entirely different reasons. GRRM for his characters and plot, Tolkien for his world-building.

I can't disagree.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's actually easier to to create an ePub and using that as the source, convert the ePub using Kindlegen and there you go, KF8 & Mobi.

What I'd like to know is how this was created. What god awful software was used to create just a Mobi eBook.

Yeah, it should be simple, so that is why I am suspicious that not everything now, is quite right mentally.

I also wonder how he got the book into a digital format in the first place ... perhaps that's the clue to why Mobi.