Recent Readings (and other literary talk)

[Necron 99]

'Salem's Lot is my 2nd favorite King novel. If you've not read it, I highly recommend you put it in your queue!

I don't care for the 70s era made for TV adaptation. The 2004 TV version was pretty enjoyable but there were a couple of instances with it being adapted for a modern audience. If you've not read the book then you wouldn't necessarily notice the changes...

Yep, I need to read it. Having not read it, I enjoyed the movie and still do.

[grodog]

The later stories of Rhialto the Marvellous were ok, though, in my opinion not quite as captivating as the ones involving Cugel.

I liked the original collection better. Cudgel is such a cad that I can’t get really into him as a character (although he is entertaining, in a watch-a-train wreck kind of way ).

However, the most interesting aspect of Rhialto's stories was that it gave the history of and basis for Ioun Stones, of which any old school D&D player should be familiar. It was cool to read the source material that gave Gary the inspiration for those mysterious, magical items.

Gary also wrote an essay about his interest in and friendship with Vance, if you’re curious: http://www.dyingearth.com/files/GARY%20 ... 0VANCE.pdf

Allan.

[Necron 99]

Well, I finished reading Reliquary and to be honest, I'm a bit glad it is over. It had some interesting ideas and I think they could have made it more believable if they had just tried, but overall it just wasn't that captivating of a read, in my opinion. The plot was a continuation of the original book, but there was this twist at the end that was just so implausible that I felt like the authors weren't even trying. This is one of those times, where I'd say the movie is better than the book(s). Oh well, I gave it a shot. Not sure if I'll get back to this series later on or not.

I moved on to a couple of shorter books, two by John Bellairs. First I read The Face in the Frost, a tale of two wizards on a quest to stop a third evil wizard. This is a book that was recommended in Appendix N of the AD&D DMG. I had read just about every book that Bellairs had written back in my high school and early college days, but this was one I had not gotten around to until now. I enjoyed it. I then moved on to another book in his Anthony Monday series, The Dark Secret of Weatherend where 14-yo Anthony and his older pal Ms. Eells stumble across an evil wizard seeking to bring the end of the world by summoning a cataclysmic storm. Bellairs' Anthony Monday and Johnny Dixon series of books are written for teens and young adults, and it really shows, now, revisiting them at a much older age. I don't dislike reading them, but I find more enjoyment in reading other works.

After finishing that one, I have now decided to move on to a new series of books which I have never read, but has many good reviews. I started reading F. Paul Wilson's The Adversary Cycle. The first book, The Keep, was made into a movie back in the 80s; not only was it a movie, but through 3rd party publishing Role-Aids, it was also made into an AD&D adventure module. I remember catching bits and pieces of the movie back in the day, haven't actually watched it fully but reviews are mixed. Regardless, the series has six books, I'll probably read the first and second then come back to the others at a later date, unless the series is REALLY good and manages to keep my attention.

[Necron 99]

I finished reading The Keep and found it to be a pretty cool take on the legend of the Nosferatu in Romania. At some point now, I'll have to watch the movie, even though I already know it's not as good as the book, based on reviews by other folks. Instead of moving on to the second book in the series, I decided to jump over to a fantasy novel that someone on Facebook mentioned as being one of their favorite series. I'd never heard of the series or author so I thought I'd give it a go.

If you ever wanted to read a book about the ups and downs of owning a magic sword, then this book is the perfect one for it.

The old wizard wasn't exactly happy with Valder, who'd led his enemy to his hut. Now hut and magical supplies were destroyed. But he'd promised the young scout a magic sword to get him safely back to his own lines -- and a much enchanted sword Valder would get! The resulting sword gave perfect protection -- sometimes! It could kill any man -- or even half demon. In fact, once drawn, it had to kill before it could be put down or sheathed.

Army wizards told Valder that the sword would keep him alive until he'd drawn it 100 times; then it would kill him! It wouldn't prevent his being wounded, maimed or cut to pieces, but it wouldn't let him die. If his new job as Chief Assassin for the army didn't make him use up the spell, he'd be practically immortal.

Not bad, it seemed. There had to be a catch somewhere. There was -- and it was a lulu!

So far, it's an strange read, quite the different approach to magical weapons. I still can't decide if I'm enjoying the story or not, it gets interesting for a bit, then seems to lull, then back to something interesting. It's a weird ebb and flow between enjoyable and just meh. I keep waiting for it to turn a corner and then just stay at a pace that makes me want to not put it down, but I've yet to find one. There are several books in the series, I'll see how I feel at the end of this one before deciding if I'll continue with the next book.

Regardless of whether or not I decide to continue with this series, I have another book that I'm going to read through, after. I found out that the movies received a novelization and reviews seem to be pretty good. Apparently the book adds a lot of "scenes" and extra bits that fill in some blanks from the movies. It's something different, so why the heck not.

[Ancalagon]

That's a pretty cool take on the magic sword. Definitely a "double-edged blade" if you catch my meaning.

I'm in the middle of a story at the moment and wondering what the next book on the read list shall be... So many to choose from on my shelves...

Never knew Ghostbusters had been novelized! Look forward to your opinions on The Misenchanted Sword and Ghostbusters.

[Captain_Blood]

So far, it's an strange read, quite the different approach to magical weapons. I still can't decide if I'm enjoying the story or not, it gets interesting for a bit, then seems to lull, then back to something interesting. It's a weird ebb and flow between enjoyable and just meh. I keep waiting for it to turn a corner and then just stay at a pace that makes me want to not put it down, but I've yet to find one.

This is very much how I would describe the Otherland series by Tad Williams. Except that it goes from boring as all hell, to meh, to 20 pages of interesting before diving right back down to boring as all hell for the next 300 pages (not an exaggeration). So if you ever think about picking up City of Golden Shadow don't. I still regret reading all the novels hoping it would become something worth the time spent. Classic sunken cost fallacy.

Now if you're in for something that will make you laugh and are familiar with JRPGs and Zelda style games the Arcane Ascension series by Andrew Rowe is worth it. The books are pretty short and super easy to read. Sufficiently Advanced Magic is a fun and adventurous slice of life sort of story, that I would recommend to anyone with interests in LitRPGs, RPGs in general, magic systems, coming of age stories, anime, or dungeon crawls. Liking all those things isn't required, but if you like one of them you'll most likely find something to hook you and make you laugh.

I will warn that he is definitely part of the woke crowd, but with the exception of the latest book where an entire subplot is shoe horned in for no other purpose than to virtue signal the series it hasn't been negatively affected by it. In the case of the latest book I think the offending subplot was used because he was running up against a deadline, needed word count, and just didn't have a way to effectively move his story along without revealing other plot points too early. Still worth the read, but definitely the weakest of the series by far.

[Necron 99]

This is very much how I would describe the Otherland series by Tad Williams. Except that it goes from boring as all hell, to meh, to 20 pages of interesting before diving right back down to boring as all hell for the next 300 pages (not an exaggeration). So if you ever think about picking up City of Golden Shadow don't. I still regret reading all the novels hoping it would become something worth the time spent. Classic sunken cost fallacy.

I started the Otherland series. Found the first two books interesting, but then just got tired of it and never finished the last two. Initially I found the premise and plot to be pretty interesting with the virtual world hopping and underlying "enemy" aspect that was a mystery. But I just got burned out on it.

So far, with this one, it still maintains it's odd pacing and plotting. I finally hit a turn in the story and thought, ok, now we're getting somewhere and then it began again with a whole new direction but still kept hills and valleys. And overall, it still isn't that interesting of a story when you get down to the basics of it all. The characters are never fully fleshed out, you get names and some sparse descriptions and then nothing else other than a random mention here and there. Even the protagonist is just kinda hollow, I guess is the word. I'm over 70% done with the book, gonna finish it out, but there's nothing that would make me want to start the next one, at this point.

[Necron 99]

When you're living in Orwell's 1984 (not the awesome reality of that year in the decade) with a Ministry of Truth. The author is no longer alive and the publishing company has "decided" for the audience, what is allowed and what is not through its hiring of "sensitivity readers".

Full Article: HERE

Augustus Gloop can't be 'fat', the (gender neutral) Oompa-Loompas aren't 'small' and even the BFG's gone PC: 'Woke' publishing censors REWRITE Roald Dahl's classic books for new editions that remove all language snowflakes might find 'offensive'

Roald Dahl's beloved children's books are being rewritten by sensitivity gurus to remove language they deem offensive, including creating a world where no one is 'fat' and the Oompa Loompas are gender neutral. Publisher Puffin has hired sensitivity readers to rewrite chunks of the author's text to make sure the books 'can continue to be enjoyed by all today', resulting in extensive changes across Dahl's work.

Considerable edits have been made to descriptions of the characters' physical appearance - the new editions no longer use the word 'fat' which has been cut from every book, The Telegraph reported. Hundreds of changes were made to the original text, extinguishing Dahl's colourful and memorable descriptions, some over fifty years old, to make his characters less grotesque. Mrs Twit's 'fearful ugliness' has been chopped to 'ugliness' and Mrs Hoppy in Esio Trot is not an 'attractive middle-aged lady' but a 'kind middle-aged lady'.

Gender is also eliminated with books no longer referring to 'female' characters. Miss Trunchbull in Matilda, once a 'most formidable female', is now a 'most formidable woman', while her 'great horsey face' is now called 'her face'. Oompa-Loompas who were once 'small men' are now 'small people' and Fantastic Mr Fox's three sons have become daughters. Passages not written by the late author, who died in 1990, have also been added by the publisher to complete their new editions.

In The Witches, a paragraph describing them as bald under their wigs is followed shortly by a new line: 'There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.' A witch posing as a 'cashier in a supermarket' now works as a 'top scientist' and Matilda reads Jane Austen instead of Rudyard Kipling. Mental health was another focal point for sensitivity readers with the words 'crazy' and 'mad', which Dahl used in a comic fashion, removed from his books.

The Big Friendly Giant in The BFG no longer wears a black cloak and characters cannot turn 'white with fear', as the words 'black' and 'white' no longer exist in the new editions. Elsewhere, the Cloud-Men in James and the Giant Peach are now known as 'Cloud-People'.

Changes were made by Puffin and the Roald Dahl Story Company - bought by Netflix in 2021 for a reported £500 million.

But the review began in 2020 when the company was still run by the Dahl family who, the same year, apologised for the author's anti-semitic statements. Dahl, a fighter pilot during the Second World War, is one of the best-selling children's authors in history with more than 250 million books sold. According to The Telegraph, Matthew Dennison, Dahl's biographer said the author carefully chose his vocabulary, he said: 'I'm almost certain that he would have recognized that alterations to his novels prompted by the political climate were driven by adults rather than children.'

Problems with the content of Dahl's children's book were heightened in 2020 when a Hollywood version of The Witches received backlash after the Grand Witch, played by Anne Hathaway, had a finger missing from each hand. Paralympians and charities said it was offensive to the limb-difference community and Warner Bros was forced to issue an apology. In the latest edition of The Witches, 59 changes have been made to avoid offence, such as the phrases 'You must be mad, woman!' and 'great flock of ladies' being changed to 'You must be out of your mind!' and 'great group of ladies'.

[Ancalagon]

I just don't abide censorship which is all this is. Experience a book / film / music / whatever as intended. If it is good then it will stand on its own.

Imagine how may folks in 'Murica would lose their damned minds if a publisher sanitized the Bible like this by removing references to man and woman, violence (murder, rape, animal sacrifice, etc.), slavery, etc.

[Captain_Blood]

Go woke, go broke. i'm sure the financial performance of the re-writes will be dismal.