Happy anniversary
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Link to the interview with timestamp for the quote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGdppBDpsZ4&t=7930s
I thought this was an interesting remark on how the choice of cover art does a disservice to the sales and the potential readers alike. Henry has seemingly no interest in picking up the books because of the cover art. Once he was made aware that the books were in fact the story before the games, he did read them and says he found them “absolutely spectacular”.
Did I probably spend way too much time on this weirdly specific topic? Yup.
Firstly, I LOVE this series, so this is definitely not meant to be a “Robert Jordan can’t write women” post. Several of the women are some of my favorite characters ever. That being said, I have issues with some of the gendered stuff (as most people do) and one of the things I noticed while reading was that Jordan repeated certain expressions a lot; an example of this being the pouting and sulking. These are not completely exclusive to children of course, but when I think of “pouting” I imagine a toddler sticking their lower lip out and preparing to throw a tantrum or being childishly upset and “sulking” is usually an immature/childish descriptor, as opposed to “annoyed” or “angry.” I’ve personally only ever heard someone use the word “sulking” in regards to children. If you Google Image these words it’s photos of …
Damn it was good! I was enjoying it from the beginning but the final quarter just blew me away.
On reflection I seriously enjoyed the “Interludes” and they really paid off for the final stretch, to the point that it’s power in relationship building only really hit me at the end when I nearly cried.
I also understand why a lot of people seem to DNF around 30% but it honestly wasn’t an issue for me. The intrigue and the suspense around if/how they will get caught out gradually builds as the charades get more elaborate and other players get involved. I will always suggest pushing through as the reward is worth it. (But I do understand).
For anyone unsure of whether or not to pick this up or continue I also highly recommend the audiobook. The narration is stellar and once I started the audio to help with the time I could read, I felt like I was missing out to go back to the paperback. (Shocking I know).
It’s a great story and well deserves the praise and …
Orcs, Uruks, and goblins. They’re an essential part of most modern fantasy, and a central element in all three of the main stories by Professor Tolkien. The word ‘Orc’ has been used since the 10th Century, but you don’t need to be a die-hard Anglo-Saxon scholar to be familiar with them. From Dungeons & Dragons, to Warhammer, to World of Warcraft (and far beyond) Orcs are about as quintessential to fantasy as Elves and Dwarves are. However (pretty much without exception) all the Orcs that we know and love, are variations on the iconic foot soldiers of evil that were put forward by the grandfather of modern fantasy - J.R.R. Tolkien. So today I’ll try and tackle one of the most enduring questions regarding the Professor’s writings. What’s the difference between Orcs, Uruks, and Goblins, in the lore of Middle-earth?
Now I’ll warn you right off the bat, the answer to this question is both very simple, and also frustratingly complex. But let’s start …
I remember the time in high school a classmate lend it to me. I came home, starting reading, only stopping to eat lunch and dinner. I finished the book by midnight. One of the most amazing literary experiences of my life. This book by German author Michael Ende sits at the very top of my favorite fantasy books of all time, along with The Lord of the Rings and A Wizard of Earthsea.
Now that I’m reading it to my 7 year old son, and seeing how passionate he is about it, I wonder why it almost never gets mentioned. It is a very original fantasy, connected with deep human experiences, relevant to all ages, very fun to read. It’s one of those books that can change you forever, giving you insights that will accompany you for life. It was very famous at its time. It also has the worst movie adaptation of all fantasy, IMO.
If you haven’t checked it out, please do. Michael Ende deserves to be remembered and appreciated. If you have read it, please give me your opinion on it, and tell me why …
On July 12 2011 A Dance With Dragons released. I remember picking the book up and reading it in between seasons 1 and 2 of the show, and wondering what was going to happen in the next book. Now 10 years later, I never thought I would still be asking that question. Do you still have hope that the series will actually be finished? I probably won’t read it again until the whole series is complete, if that ever happens.
I’ve read 1984 by George Orwell and I enjoyed it. I decided to read another book of the same genre and I stumbled across Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
However, no matter how much I try to read it, I just can’t. I’ve tried for five or six times and I just can’t complete the first chapter.
Do you have that book that no matter what, you just can’t read or is it just me?
I’m a big fan of apocalyptic and post apocalyptic fiction and after reading too many of these books during the pandemic, it’s abundantly clear this trope is completely played out. I get it, it’s human drama on a primal level. It’s one of the ultimate fears in a world without modern medicine. It’s not a death sentence like many other medical conditions, no one is getting a new heart valve installed or liver transplant. But it feels like I’ve seen every conceivable variation on this theme and I hope authors will note how over saturated this is in the genre. It’s bad enough that as soon as a female protagonist is having sex, you know the story is going to revolve around her pregnancy.
And honestly, it smacks of a little casual sexism. It reduces otherwise complex characters down to this narrow view and reason to survive. It gives every generic leading man a righteous cause to fight for. I get why it’s used, but it’s time to let a …
I feel so free! WOW. Why was I shoplifting from Barnes and Noble this whole time?? Joking! But seriously having a library card as an adult is such a great feeling.
I only just started to get into reading at age 25. I read as a kid but from middle school onward I just stopped. Convinced myself I “didn’t like to read”. I was smoking a lot of pot and watching TV and movies. But I recently quit smoking weed and have been using books to help me stay sober. It’s the best. A healthy way to escape and relax that still keeps my brain active. I’ve gotten really into fantasy and sci fi. I love humor so Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Kurt Vonnegut, Christopher Moore have been my go to guys lately.
I feel like a kid again. Like I’ve just discovered a great joy in life that will always be there for me. I felt giddy walking around the library and picking out books. I feel silly for denying myself this joy for so much of my youth. But now I’m catching up.
Update: Wow this blew up! Thank you …
So, i’am really intrigued by this, in most book reviews that i see, including movies, people complain if a character is likeable or not.I don’t understand, so if a character isn’t likeable, this ruins the whole book?For example, i read a book about a werewolf terrorizing a small city, but i never cared if a character was likeable or not, the fact thet the book was about a werewolf , with good tension and horror makes the book very interesting to me.
And this is for every book that i read, i don’t need to like a character to like the story, and there are characters who are assholes that i love, for example, Roman Godfrey from the book “Hemlock Grove”.
Another example, “Looking for Alaska”, when i read the book, i never tought that a character was cool or not, only the fact that the story was about adolescence from a interesting perspective made the book interesting to me.
I want to hear your opinion, because i confess that i’am …
This is an icebreaker question I ask on dates. It’s a good conversation piece to overcome any awkwardness.
I only sometimes judge. I had one guy tell me that he wasn’t that into reading and couldn’t think of any books. Big time judgment.
But if someone gives an answer referring to a book I DON’T like, then we get to have a fun debate!
Mine are:
1) The Absolute edition of Sandman by Neil Gaiman. (Who else is pumped for the upcoming show?)
2) House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. (I can get lost in that book for a looong time… )
3) The Long Way to A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. (It’s a serious comfort book for me! )
What about you?
Edit: A couple of things I wanted to clear up.
I absolutely do not judge people for not reading. I have plenty of friends who either don’t like to read or who have trouble reading due to things like ADHD.
However, I was an English major and went on to get my MLS. I’m a reader, a writer, and a …
As a longtime science-fiction fan who comes from a part of the world where science fiction isn’t so liked or well known, this sub means the world to me. It’s like a microcosm of like-minded people who can connect me to the best parts of popular culture and literature. I’m so grateful to everyone who has recommended amazing books for me here and everyone who participates regularly in keeping worlds of wonder open to the rest of us. This sub helped me get through several covid lock downs sanely.
Just woke up this morning feeling super grateful.
Covers “Ancillary Justice” (book 1 - 2013), “Ancillary Sword” (book 2 - 2014), “Ancillary Mercy” (book 3 -2015).
►Review:
“Ancillary Justice” is the first in the highly acclaimed, multi-award winning “Imperial Radch” series, from a debut female author [Wikipedia, Goodreads]. It felt very different from most of the sci-fi that I’ve read and loved, in not being primarily about a technologically exciting setting, cosmologically consequential events, or near future insights. It’s overwhelmingly character driven, with an extreme focus on their development and back story.
Consequently, I was not utterly riveted by the first book, coming to it a couple years late, with a gap of a few more years before recently returning to finish the arc. But the story really grew on me; I can understand why this caused a splash.
I’d describe the core (feel good) hook of these books as ethics competency porn. The central …
So I have a deep hunger for a good military scifi series. Unfortunately as we all know space opera in general and military scifi in particular is over run with Mary-Sue’s. If I have to read one more book about the square jawed space marine who always does the right thing and talks like he stepped out of a Second World War movie I might just vomit. Likewise if the author describes a female lead as being; “incredibly beautiful, even though she doesn’t know it,” I stop reading and immediately chock that book up as good for kindling and not much else. Frankly I find these over the top heroes to be so annoying that in about half the books I read I start rooting for the bad guy.
I want something like Hornblower in space. That might sound like a good description of Honor Harrington, and indeed the Honorverse would be exactly what I was looking for if I didn’t find Honor herself to be insufferable.
Don’t think recommendations have to be to heavily weighted toward …
I just stumbled over The End of Men, the debut novel by Christina Sweeney-Baird, and had to do a double-take when I read that she was born in 1993. I was wondering whether there are any other good SF novels written by authors born in the 90s (or even 2000s). Any young talents worth watching out for? And please don’t say Dan Simmons.
I m looking for books where humans found some long lost artifacts or technology or weapons(maybe millions or billions of years old) and uses it carelessly to their own advantage but wakes up a dangerous threat in the process. It could be anything like waking up an older dangerous civilization, signaling some distant powerful alien races or maybe the artifacts themselves are enough threat in some mysterious ways that humans do not realize yet. Anything and everything will work for me. My favourite scenario(not necessary for recommendations): humans have colonized a few star systems or at least our solar system in pretty much distant future and are highly-advanced civilization by our standard and then they find artifacts on some planets. Maybe some politics and power curves. Some psychos trying to gain dominance over by using this long lost newly found technology and then they piss off something really dangerous.
Everything about this film works..from its off the wall humour, dubbed voice acting placed over a kung fu movie called Savage Killers (which is kinda boring if I’m honest) to its parody of kung fu movie tropes..the main star Steve Oedekerk is very fun in the lead role & I’m sadden he hasn’t done much since, in terms of acting (maybe he has, I don’t know). The fun bit with the cow which is a Matrix reference is my favorite scene along with the Lion King reference “this is CNN”. The main villain Betty is my favorite character in the movie lol everytime he’s on screen I cracked up. All in all, its a dumb comedy done right & its better than alot of today’s comedies which are honestly more gross out shock humour than actual comedy.