It's a bookish life.

[daiseechain]

I found this late last night on Calapine's journal when I was too zombified to do anything productive, and thought "Hey! That's quite neat. I think I'll do that." The longer I worked on it the slower I got till I was almost gave myself qwerty face. You can tell because my answers get shorter as the night wore on...

Comments

[snowgrouse]

Holy crap, there's someone else who prefers LOTR in movie form. *cling* not that all the world-building and language stuff isn't awesome in the book, but the pacing is bloody dreadful. If they'd made a truly faithful adaptation, they would've had six hours of hobbits walking. And then hobbits walking some more. And then there's a Nazgul. And then the hobbits walk some more.

[daiseechain]

:-D Your description about sums up the real movie.

To be honest I've never made it through the first chapter of LOTR. Honestly. I keep falling asleep.

Pacing! Yes! That's the problem. And I take serious issue with almost any writing that doesn't get that correct - be it in the movies, a book, or on an episode of tv.

[snowgrouse]

It's such a shame, because it's obviously great stuff and everything. But Jesus fucking Christ, Fellowship is one boring book. I keep trying to reread it and I just keep arghing and going "get on with it" and just losing the will to live because nothing fucking HAPPENS. "Have some lovely English countryside. And hobbits walking. And no character or plot development whatsoever. And here's some more countryside. Aren't those trees over there lovely? And let's walk some more." Aaaaaaaaaargh.

[daiseechain]

LOL. Oh for the days when you could get away with that in writing and still be taken seriously.

I think possibly the worst thing about it is the number of world building fantasy books it spawned. You need to have a plot first, people!

[vilakins]

I did read it as a teenager, but I skimmed whole passages (and all the songs--aaaaugh!) to get to the action bits, so I suppose I read it with more of the film's pacing. I tried to reread it properly before the films came out and found it really hard going and gave up at the beginning of book 2.

As it is, the hobbits on the volcano got awfully slow for me in the film. I'm glad they kept cutting away for other stuff. And as for the ending... and ending... and ending... oy. At least Jackson left out the harrowing of the shire at the end.

That so much fantasy is based on it is why I dislike most fantasy: it's derivative and usually all about royal blood and destiny blah blah. [is stroppy socialist] So really original fantasy like Diana Wynne Jones's and Megan Whalen Turner's stands out, and in the latter case (a Greek AU), is good enough for me to order from Amazon. There are far too many royals in it for my liking, but they so make up for it be being really twisty and cunning and deceptive and never what they seem.

[daiseechain]

I've only read one Diana Wynne Jones and although I enjoyed it well enough I felt the ending was really flat. Maybe I read the wrong one?

Not read any Megan Whalen Turner.

I think my problem with most fantasy novels is the trees. I seem to get on fine with fantasy in urban settings, but put it in a forest and I lose interest.

[vilakins]

She's written several series and lots of one-offs, all different in premise and often differing in style and characters within series. Which one was it? I've read fewer than 10 myself.

Hardly anyone's read Turner. I was still dubious after the first book because of the whole fantasy trope of almost everyone who matters being royal, but I kept going and was blown away by that being the only trope that was used without being subverted. They're set in a Greek AU which makes them different for a start, no one is what they seem at first, and the twists and turns are wonderful. Admittedly quite a bit of the first book, "The Thief" takes place in olive groves and other countryside, but it's different enough from other fantasy to feel fresh, and the characters matter a lot more than where they are.

Do you like the Discworld novels set in Ankh-Morpork? :-) THey're among my favourites.

[daiseechain]

I'm so terrible at remembering names of any sort that I had to hunt for a picture of the cover I remembered! It's "The Merlin Conspiracy".

I loved Terry's early books. I stopped reading at about number 20, I think. He began to be repetitious which annoyed me at the time but now has fairly obvious reasons. The Discworld is a fantastic creation and I still adore the Luggage.

[vilakins]

I haven't read that one.

The characters and plots do have an arc in Discworld, but he does like to push his opinions. I hate being preached at, so their are whole books like "Small Gods" which I loathe, but generally I can skip those bits. I thought "Thud" had a really crap plot (but some good character bits) so maybe he's losing it more now. I've got the most recent one on order at the library: Discworld sports teams.