Book Fucking Talk

[Beoric]

It's like people who say they "grew out of heavy metal". Man, fuck you and your post haircut work, Hetfield!

Does it hurt that Lee Aaron is now singing jazz?

 

[The1True]

Well that went to a dark CanCon place... I think I saw her last at the Gloucester Fair back in the early 90's? Like maybe she opened for the Killer Dwarfs? I think one of their roadies stole my teenage date while I was off in a corner getting sick from the discotron

 

[The1True]

On a wildly different note...

I just finished up "Lord of the Shattered Land" by @Howard Andrew Jones . I really liked the episodic format; it allowed for a number of very cool scenarios particularly the Lovely Ones (forgive me if I'm getting the chapter title wrong) which had a truly sinister angle on a healing cult! Lots of vivid swordplay and heroic action. I'm looking forward to picking up "City of Marble and Blood" and "Shadow of the Smoking Mountain"!

 

[Howard Andrew Jones]

[QUOTE="The1True, post: 12959, member: 37"

I just finished up "Lord of the Shattered Land" by @Howard Andrew Jones . I really liked the episodic format; it allowed for a number of very cool scenarios particularly the Lovely Ones (forgive me if I'm getting the chapter title wrong) which had a truly sinister angle on a healing cult! Lots of vivid swordplay and heroic action. I'm looking forward to picking up "City of Marble and Blood" and "Shadow of the Smoking Mountain"!
[/QUOTE]
Thanks for trying it out! I'm delighted you enjoyed it!
Baen just sent me the final version of the cover for 3 last week. Is it cool for me to show it here, or is that too much self promo?
I'm making a final pass on book 3 right now, just a last light read before it goes to copyedit. I'd been planning to return to work on book 4, but I just got word that book 2 will be heading off to get re-released as paperback soon, and so I'll need to give that another read. Typos ALWAYS creep through, somehow, even if it's already been in print. So, poor book 4 will have to wait to get its outline finished just a little bit longer...

 

[The1True]

The cover for Book 3 is up on the Simon and Schuster site (unless it's a 'not final cover' cover).



Pretty rad!

 

[Osrnoob]

Dune Messiah is so short! I am almost done

 

[squeen]

The later Dune books by Frank Herbert (Heritics, Chapterhouse, etc.) were good too. My enthusiasm waned for "Children" (the worst?) and "God Emperor" (no sympathetic protagonist).

 

[Howard Andrew Jones]

It's been years, and I can't recall details, but I remember being quite taken with Heretics and Chapterhouse.

 

[Osrnoob]

Are China M/ Bas Lang books good? Or are they pretentious and hard to read

Authors that make up words are under scrutiny

 

[DangerousPuhson]

Any fans of non-fiction out there? I've been on a good reading kick lately, could use a suggestion or two - ideally something beyond a biography.

 

[grodog]

Are China M/ Bas Lang books good? Or are they pretentious and hard to read

Still in my to read pile.

Any fans of non-fiction out there? I've been on a good reading kick lately, could use a suggestion or two - ideally something beyond a biography.

Recent-ish non-fiction/non-poetry I’ve read that I enjoyed:

- Charles Pellegrino's _Unearthing Atlantis_—one of my favorite non-fiction books (along with John McPhee’s _Annals of the Former World_) in general, and a great blend of historical, mythical, literary, and archaeological research
- Ben Riggs’ _Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons_ (good, but not as good as Peterson’s books)
- Simon Winchester’s _Krakatoa_, _A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906_, _The Map that Changed the World_
- _Megaliths and their Mystieries: A Guide to the Standing Stones of Europe_ by Alastair Service and Jean Bradbery; _Stone Circles of the British Isles_ by Aubrey Burl: _Stukeley's 'Stonehenge': An Unpublished Manuscript_ (edited by Burl and someone else); _Prehistoric Avebury_ by Burl: When we visited England in December 2006, we Stonehenged, but weren't able to see any other stone circles/etc. in our London-based visit. I'd heard good things about Avebury, and will definitely want to visit there when we get back to the UK for another visit sometime. The Megaliths book is a nice survey/overview of the different types of structures across Europe, while the Burl books are deeper-dives focuses on the UK and on specific sites. This is all inspirational fodder for me building out Greyhawk's druids and bardic colleges, as well as tying the various types of sites to gates, faerie rings, demi-planes, etc.

Allan.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

Unearthing Atlantis sounds pretty good, like it might be worth checking out. Thanks grodog!

 

[grodog]

I’ve given UA as a gift several times. Curious to hear your thoughts when you’re done reading!

Allan.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

That's what I mean: I care about Anne Shirley et al. in a way Herbert never made me care about Duncan Idaho

I agree with Hemlock; Dune's characters mostly suck.

If you've only read the first book (as I have no draw to read beyond it), Duncan Idaho especially comes off as a real dud character. It's annoying because the whole first half of the book he's being talked up as this amazing force that's going to fix everything, and then as soon as he shows up it's just "I'll save you Atreides! Ah - I'm stabbed and dead!". It's like Herbert tried to hype him up, but never actually did anything with that hype. He was being built up to Mary-Sue status (and apparently is one in the later books, to my knowledge), and he just.... dies in his first and only fight? Fuck man, that's like Rocky going down in the first round. Just super anti-climactic.

The rest aren't much better. Thaufir is an awesome computer-replacing person who does... nothing. Piter is an awesome computer-replacing person who does... nothing, then dies. The Bene Gesserit are an awesome sisterhood playing 5-D chess who do... nothing. Don't even get me started on Doctor Yueh being literally the only person they don't suspect of being the traitor turning out to be the traitor - so he's conditioned to be immune to influence, but can totally be blackmailed like any other chump? WTF is that?

Paul is a total Mary-Sue (in the first book, at least). Jessica is just there. Leto is interesting in a tragic-figure way... too bad he fucking dies right at the get-go, to make more room for describing different kinds of sand. Vladimir (and the other Harkonnen) are good villain persona - especially in film - but I can't for the life of me recall any details of whatever plan they had because it was so non-essential to the plot.

The freaking Fremen culture is arguably the most interesting "character" in the book (and it ain't a character).

 

[bryce0lynch]

. The Bene Gesserit are an awesome sisterhood playing 5-D chess who do... nothing. Don't even get me started on

Well, they did create the ultimate being in the universe ... albeit one generation too soon. Seems like "free will" was a flaw in their plan

 

[Two orcs]

Well, they did create the ultimate being in the universe ... albeit one generation too soon. Seems like "free will" was a flaw in their plan

Their plan had several flaws, the biggest was the incredible hubris of thinking themselves capable of controlling/aligning a super-being if they succeeded in creating it. The Bene-Tleilax made a Kwizats Haderach much earlier (by direct genetic manipulation) but they always ended up killing themselves as they didn't see a way out of Tleilax imprisonment. The other Bene Gesserit problem is the stifling mothering control they wanted over humanity, their goal was breeding "mature" humanity with better ability to plan long term, a humanity which was more adult (and more like themselves) but under their control this was also a stagnating influence which also lead to a literal dead end. You can see this in effect when Leto II controls the Empire through an all-female army on the theory that their mothering-smothering control of the universe would build up forces in direct opposition to it, extreme cravers of freedom.

 

[squeen]

I finally watch Lawrence of Arabia and loved it. First off the cinematography was stunning --- easily light-years beyond what's in movies today. Ironically, I think some of the Tatoonie scene in Star Wars evoke it, but only as a faded echo. Apparently, it took 2 years in the desert to film.

CGI cheapens spectacle. Simply knowing that what's in that film represents true creation (a place you could go) makes it that much more worth looking at. We've lost some skills since the Golden Age.

The film came out in 1962, and it's extremely clear it was the major progenitor for Dune (1965).

Ironically, 60 years later, the medium came full-circle back to film and Villeneuve, with all the millions in CGI, couldn't match the spectacle of the original. He also failed to find as enigmatic lead-actor as O'Toole.

Think I'm going to get a copy of Seven Pillars of Wisdom (by T.E. Lawrence).

 

[DangerousPuhson]

Ironically, 60 years late, the medium came full-circle back to film and Villeneuve, with all the millions in CGI, couldn't match the spectacle of the original. He also failed to find as enigmatic lead-actor as O'Toole.

Well, I guess it wouldn't be a proper endorsement by squeen unless it somehow also simultaneously managed to disparage the way we do things here in the 21st century...

You must really hate Pixar stuff, eh? I hear it has a lot of CGI.

 

[squeen]

I've got no beef with CGI generating things that don't/can't exist, just as cost-saving for things that do. I also like cartoons.

But I will always feel ripped off watching a video game pretending to be reality.

I do appreciate 21st century things that are done with excellence. I just can't pretend mediocre is great.

 

[squeen]

Favorite recent (2009) SciFi movie that was unexpectedly good: Pandorum

I heard nothing about it before I watched it. That's always a plus...which I have now ruined for you if you look behind the spoiler tag.