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Post by charlesuirdhein on Aug 5, 2018 13:49:57 GMT
All scifi and fantasy? That's a pretty broad statement. I agree it's true in some cases, but I don't find it to be true in all. I've definitely found things worth reading. And I've also read some things that truly weren't worth the effort. You make a fair point - a lot of my statements are pretty broad and it is a failing of my debating style. I always hope it's clear I'm being over-general, but I am repeatedly told otherwise, so I apologise. I really should stop that. Obviously it can only be the ones I've tried to read. In my experience all that I've read (or given up on) has been (for me) bloody awful in the way previously described. Maybe I've been lead astray. (It must be said that I'm very easily lead.) I will happily take suggestions on stories/novels/novelas that might change my broad opinion. But I'm not a fan of Asimov, Tolkien or Martin. And yet I love P.G. Wodehouse who could be argued to have the same faults. So bear my utter lack of consistency there in mind. Go read Glen Cook's The Black Company. You don't have to like it or anything but man, succinct and terse.
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Post by Ela on Aug 5, 2018 22:19:32 GMT
I'm very tempted to re-title this thread to add the additional phrase "Now with scifi and fantasy book recommendations".
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2018 4:59:52 GMT
I'm very tempted to re-title this thread to add the additional phrase "Now with scifi and fantasy book recommendations". You wield such magical powers
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Post by Ela on Aug 6, 2018 6:12:00 GMT
I'm very tempted to re-title this thread to add the additional phrase "Now with scifi and fantasy book recommendations". You wield such magical powers I wouldn't do that to bobod.
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Post by Ela on Aug 6, 2018 6:16:00 GMT
Back to thinking about Dune, I realized I feel the same way about Dune and its sequels as I feel about the sequels to How Green Was My Valley. Like Dune, How Green Was My Valley was a good story, well told. And then he wrote sequels that descended into bizarreness. They both should have quit while they were ahead.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2018 8:07:17 GMT
Back to thinking about Dune, I realized I feel the same way about Dune and its sequels as I feel about the sequels to How Green Was My Valley. Like Dune, How Green Was My Valley was a good story, well told. And then he wrote sequels that descended into bizarreness. They both should have quit while they were ahead. Dune's a funny one because most of the stories can be taken more or less standalone. The first three are great, they do really nice things with the genre and the idea of the Chosen One in general. Then comes the books written in the 1980s starting with God-Emperor and there's one hell of a tone shift for just this one book (almost like a Socratic dialogue). Then, it swerves again into another style just for the final two. Like, for me, the "space" in space opera isn't a substitution for "soap", but "grand" instead. Grand opera. After the original three, Heretics and Chapterhouse swing from grand opera to rock opera. Not entirely bad, if you enjoy that style of approach, but the whiplash inherent in the change is phenomenal. Like someone's dosed the tea with salt instead of sugar.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2018 11:39:26 GMT
Back to thinking about Dune, I realized I feel the same way about Dune and its sequels as I feel about the sequels to How Green Was My Valley. Like Dune, How Green Was My Valley was a good story, well told. And then he wrote sequels that descended into bizarreness. They both should have quit while they were ahead. First three Dune novels yes they were the best
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