Books
- rabidtictac
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Re: Books
I've been reading some Neal Asher science fiction. I really like his short stories. I've read some of his longer novellas and I feel his work as at its strongest when he's limited by the short story format. Some writers get a chance to spread their wings and they go in every direction. A short story works best for Mr. Asher, imo. He writes a lot of stuff that reminds me of short stories from Alistair Reynolds. A lot of body horror science fiction shit with spy storytelling.
The guy who made the Greatship series, Robert Reed, is another one who writes extremely interesting short stories ("Katabasis" is his best,) but his proper novels bore me to tears. It's a shame to read an author from a short story collection, love their work, go to the effort to track down their books and realize their books are awful compared to their work in short stories. I can recommend Robert Reed's novellas, "Eater of Bone" and "Precious Mental."
The guy who made the Greatship series, Robert Reed, is another one who writes extremely interesting short stories ("Katabasis" is his best,) but his proper novels bore me to tears. It's a shame to read an author from a short story collection, love their work, go to the effort to track down their books and realize their books are awful compared to their work in short stories. I can recommend Robert Reed's novellas, "Eater of Bone" and "Precious Mental."
Re: Books
Twin Peaks: The Return felt like David Lynch maniacally laughing at nostalgic fans. For most of the season Coop is literally mentally retarded, Audrey randomly shows up near the end and doesn't get any sort of resolution, we never find out what happened to Annie, Leo and several other major characters from the previous seasons, James shows up and plays every Twin Peaks fan's least favorite song "Just You", and the end is a "How's Annie?" level cliffhanger. Plus it didn't have any of the soap opera comfiness of the previous seasons and it was even weirder than Fire Walk With Me. It was great but it was as anti-nostalgic as a revival can get.
- Keith Chegwin
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Re: Books
Never read them. But, if you want to know stuff like what happened to Annie, Leo and all of them then you should probably read The Final Dossier
Kugelfisch wrote: ↑Sat Mar 21, 2020 2:05 amImagine spending a billion US dollars to be a loser. Could've watched animu and be one for free.
- Rushy
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Re: Books
Rereading Sandworms Of Dune(based on old Herbert's notes for Dune 7).
And it's a bad, bad book.
For one, it tries to neatly tie up all the leftover plot arcs from the books by resurrecting a majority of the old characters as gholas just so they could have one 'epic moment'(Yueh gets to kill the Baron, Paul and Chani get to retire on Rakis, Stilgar and Liet micromanage another desert planet, Leto II gets to... become a sandworm, again etc)
Despite the book even MENTIONING that the whole point of the saga was not to allow humanity to fall under a charismatic leader, we conclude with a Cyborg Duncan Idaho becoming the Ultimate Kwisatz Haderach and controlling both humans and thinking machines.
The only cool idea with the gholas is utterly wasted. Two factions resurrect Paul, and the two gholas only meet once at the end, to duel. I would have liked to see the two incarnations of Paul explored more.
The Enemy turns out NOT to be Face Dancers(despite Chapterhouse: Dune flatout stating they are), but characters from the prequels. I think we know who the real heretics of Dune are here.
So, sandworms can just chill on any planet now? I swear, by the end of the book, there's sandworms on the machine planet, sandworms on Rakis(they were chilling under the charred crust), genetically modified seaworms on Buzzell, sandworms on Chapterhouse, sandworms on that one random planet Liet and Stilgar decide to live on...
For no reason other than irony, the Baron ghola can hear Alia's voice Other Memory-style. It's literally never explained aside from the Baron speculating he might have a brain tumor.
"Ultraspice"? What is this, a B-movie?
There's more idiocy, but that was the main points. What a letdown
And it's a bad, bad book.
For one, it tries to neatly tie up all the leftover plot arcs from the books by resurrecting a majority of the old characters as gholas just so they could have one 'epic moment'(Yueh gets to kill the Baron, Paul and Chani get to retire on Rakis, Stilgar and Liet micromanage another desert planet, Leto II gets to... become a sandworm, again etc)
Despite the book even MENTIONING that the whole point of the saga was not to allow humanity to fall under a charismatic leader, we conclude with a Cyborg Duncan Idaho becoming the Ultimate Kwisatz Haderach and controlling both humans and thinking machines.
The only cool idea with the gholas is utterly wasted. Two factions resurrect Paul, and the two gholas only meet once at the end, to duel. I would have liked to see the two incarnations of Paul explored more.
The Enemy turns out NOT to be Face Dancers(despite Chapterhouse: Dune flatout stating they are), but characters from the prequels. I think we know who the real heretics of Dune are here.
So, sandworms can just chill on any planet now? I swear, by the end of the book, there's sandworms on the machine planet, sandworms on Rakis(they were chilling under the charred crust), genetically modified seaworms on Buzzell, sandworms on Chapterhouse, sandworms on that one random planet Liet and Stilgar decide to live on...
For no reason other than irony, the Baron ghola can hear Alia's voice Other Memory-style. It's literally never explained aside from the Baron speculating he might have a brain tumor.
"Ultraspice"? What is this, a B-movie?
There's more idiocy, but that was the main points. What a letdown
- Kugelfisch
- The white ghost
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Re: Books
I had a feeling it would be mega garbage like that. If anybody ever asks me, read the first book and be done with the series. The second is meh, the third is good again but the setup at the end leads to nothing but disappointment in the rest of the series. Avoid all other Dune novels like the plague.
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Centuries of blood becomes erased!
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- Rushy
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Re: Books
Damn, I forgot the biggest fuck you to the readers: nothing that anybody does matters because "the Oracle of Time"(some prequel fuckwad who might as well be from the Q Continuum) comes and erases the evil computer network for the heroes and sends Guild Heighliners full of bombs to help humanity's unified space fleet.
Also, how does Duncan unlock Kwisatz Haderach powers, you may ask? He just gets told he's the Kwisatz Haderach. That's it. He's told this and then Duncan thinks he can do anything the Atreides and Miles Teg could do.
But how does he avoid going megalomaniac like Paul and Leto II? "I won't let that happen." That's it.
Fucking fanfiction level writing. I agree with Kugel for the most part(though I do think Dune Messiah at least is vital), but I do genuinely enjoy the Dune: House trilogy written before this, which basically shows everyday life and political maneuvering for Houses Atreides, Harkonnen and Corrino for a whole generation until the events of the original novel. It's an engrossing read if you're a fan of the Dune universe and want to spend time with the characters without the whole messiah storyline that Dune focuses on.
Also, how does Duncan unlock Kwisatz Haderach powers, you may ask? He just gets told he's the Kwisatz Haderach. That's it. He's told this and then Duncan thinks he can do anything the Atreides and Miles Teg could do.
But how does he avoid going megalomaniac like Paul and Leto II? "I won't let that happen." That's it.
Fucking fanfiction level writing. I agree with Kugel for the most part(though I do think Dune Messiah at least is vital), but I do genuinely enjoy the Dune: House trilogy written before this, which basically shows everyday life and political maneuvering for Houses Atreides, Harkonnen and Corrino for a whole generation until the events of the original novel. It's an engrossing read if you're a fan of the Dune universe and want to spend time with the characters without the whole messiah storyline that Dune focuses on.
- Kugelfisch
- The white ghost
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- Joined: Sat Mar 25, 2017 1:36 pm
Re: Books
Duncan Idaho is a far, far, far worse Gary Stue than Rey is a Mary Sue. He's "My Immortal" kinda shit. I honestly never, ever want to fucking hear anything about that shit character ever the fuck again. He seriously pisses me off. Fuck that guy!
How can anyone write that kinda shit? There are no fucking stakes with the fucker. He's brought back again and again for no reason that's ever explained. He gets to be god for no reason. He's treated amazingly by all characters despite being the least trustworthy character.
I won't ever read anything Dune related ever again. That whole universe got totally destroyed for me. After the first three books, nothing feels like you're actually reading Dune at all anyway so I just regard that crap to be terrible fan fiction.
Seriously, Miles Teg was the only interesting character after that and he did nothing with him. Set ups over set ups with no payoff.
How can anyone write that kinda shit? There are no fucking stakes with the fucker. He's brought back again and again for no reason that's ever explained. He gets to be god for no reason. He's treated amazingly by all characters despite being the least trustworthy character.
I won't ever read anything Dune related ever again. That whole universe got totally destroyed for me. After the first three books, nothing feels like you're actually reading Dune at all anyway so I just regard that crap to be terrible fan fiction.
Seriously, Miles Teg was the only interesting character after that and he did nothing with him. Set ups over set ups with no payoff.
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Centuries of blood becomes erased!
I am the white ghost!
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