What are you reading ?

Very slowly reading The Plot Against America by Philip Roth, which in many ways feels like a book one would write in 2021 in response to recent events.

I finally completed my re-reading of A Darkness at Sethanon, the last book in the Riftwar series. I blame Everquest for slowing my reading down, but now I'm on to the next book, Prince of the Blood.

I just finished @Aubrielle’s “Mary, Everything” and it exceeded my expectations - and as I said in my review on GoodReads it is perhaps my favorite book so far this year (and 14th book I finished in 2020).

“Mary, Everything” mixes romance, awakenings, fantasy, alternate timelines, feminism, love, magic, internal struggles, bone-crushing combat, good and evil and everything in-between, and it knits it all together into a compelling story that delivers a complete chapter but leaves plenty open to learn and explore in the next books.

Now I am reading “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” - which is the story of a 15 year old autistic (presumed but not stated) boy who seeks to solve the mystery of the murder of his neighbor’s dog. Very interesting narrative so far.

Originally Posted by TomRon
Now a question, should I continue on with the rest of the series? Does it get more interesting in regards to characters and intrigue, or is it more of the same?

I think Dune is fantastic. The sequel (Dune Messiah) seemed disappointingly shallow in comparison, and the third one was a mess. They get worse from there…

But hey, maybe the inverse will be true for you. After all, I thought think Dune aged quite well and consider it a must-read for any SF fan.

Yeah Dune is the best one in the series. Dune Messiah was ok but if the first one didn't impress you you should probably stop.

I would also agree that Dune, the first book, is by far the best in the series. I've probably read that one a dozen times over the years, yet never re-read the ones that followed. They just didn't measure up for me.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of the original Dune. I thought it had real depth, and Frank Herbert was an interesting guy.

And Prince of the Blood is done. This one follows the exploits of two princes, sons of one of the main characters from the original series. After hearing so much about the Kesh nation, you finally get to explore some of it. I'm about ninety pages into the next book, The King's Buccaneer.

I was reading recently about the marketing campaign around the dreadful (although I like it) David Lynch version of Dune. Apparently the studio wanted to market it to kids in a similar way to Star Wars, so they developed action figures, colouring books, and games to sell to children. Of course, Dune doesn't exactly lend itself to those things, and the results were a bit bleaker than the studio were expecting…

Some examples from the children's colouring book:

There's an entertaining overview of the troubled history of bringing Dune to the big screen here:
https://mobile.twitter.com/PulpLibra…39618292441089

Originally Posted by Pongo
I was reading recently about the marketing campaign around the dreadful (although I like it) David Lynch version of Dune. Apparently the studio wanted to market it to kids in a similar way to Star Wars, so they developed action figures, colouring books, and games to sell to children. Of course, Dune doesn't exactly lend itself to those things, and the results were a bit bleaker than the studio were expecting…

Some examples from the children's colouring book:

Spoiler – Pictures of character deaths

There's an entertaining overview of the troubled history of bringing Dune to the big screen here:
https://mobile.twitter.com/PulpLibra…39618292441089

Interesting. Seems the marketing department didn't realize Dune was never meant for kids in the first place. It was basically GOT in space with Herbert's philosophy.

Now we have the books being rebooted and I found the the TV versions be the best representations of the books. As the movies always fail in some way or another.

Marvelous colouring book. They saw nothing wrong with a healthy dose of darkness for the children, in the 80s.

I'd recommend the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, about the wildly ambitious and rather bonkers attempt to turn Dune into a cinematic epic. The interesting thing was how influential many aspects of the failed production were to later works.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jodorowskys_dune

Finished my favourites by Patrick Hamilton - Hangover Square, Slaves of Solitude, and Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky.

A great but straightforward writer, who also wrote the play Gaslight, from which we get the term "gaslighting"

Originally Posted by txa1265
I just finished @Aubrielle’s “Mary, Everything” and it exceeded my expectations - and as I said in my review on GoodReads it is perhaps my favorite book so far this year (and 14th book I finished in 2020).

“Mary, Everything” mixes romance, awakenings, fantasy, alternate timelines, feminism, love, magic, internal struggles, bone-crushing combat, good and evil and everything in-between, and it knits it all together into a compelling story that delivers a complete chapter but leaves plenty open to learn and explore in the next books.

Now I am reading “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” - which is the story of a 15 year old autistic (presumed but not stated) boy who seeks to solve the mystery of the murder of his neighbor’s dog. Very interesting narrative so far.

Omg best compliment ever!!

Thank you SO MUCH!

I completed the King's Buccaneer last night, and it was a fitting conclusion to re-visiting Feist's awesome world. I'm not going to re-read some of the other offshoots now, but might give them a visit later in the year.

Up next for me will be Sanderson's, "The Way of Kings". This will be yet another re-read for me, but I also have the following books lined up and they will be virgin territory, so I'm looking forward to plunging in!! I do recall enjoy the first book when I first read it like ten yrs ago, so I'm hopeful that the other novels are equally enjoyable, or perhaps even better.

Polished off The Way of Kings yesterday, and it's every bit as good the second time around. The bloody book is huge, and yet I swear every word is relevant, with the editing job being one of the best I've ever seen. There is no bloat. I'm not the biggest Sanderson fan, but I'll give him huge props for doing some very good world building, with truly well-thought out magic systems.

I'm already thirty pages into book two, Words of Radiance, and loving it. This one I've not read till now, and every page is a delight!

Now I'm four hundred pages into the second book, and savoring every single word!! It really is only getting better!

Originally Posted by TomRon
I tend to listen to a lot more books than I read these days, I hope that counts? After having thought about it but never getting around to it I've finally reached the end of Dune (the first book). I wasn't expecting too much going in, it's a book over 60 years old after all, and I find those seldom age well (I feel the same way when comparing LotR to modern Fantasy. Fantastic as a genre builder, but a pretty lackluster read).

Having reached the end I have to say it's an ok book, but nothing I would propose anyone outside nerd cycles to listen to. Now a question, should I continue on with the rest of the series? Does it get more interesting in regards to characters and intrigue, or is it more of the same?

Given what you say - NO DON’T CONTINUE
the official next two books were ok but nowhere Dune, and the later books? To call them dross would be insulting dross

I'd love to get my paws on this copy. I bet that's worth a few quid!

https://www.kuenzigbooks.com/pages/b…?soldItem=true

I am currently reading the first book in the Undying Mercenaries series, Steel World, as well as the first three books of the Earthsea cycle by Ursula k Leguin.

Just finished I, Robot from Asimov and diving into the Hainish cycle now by Le Guin.