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Post by hengest on Jun 29, 2022 3:27:07 GMT
I don't know a single one of the works you listed above, Ironnerd , I'm sorry to say. I have not gotten especially deep into the genre myself. Things I have enjoyed: LOTR (favorite novel) drafts and unfinished works by Tolkien The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle And I can't think of anything else, although I'm sure I'm forgetting some... Oh, Elric (Moorcock) had some good features, though far from a favorite. |
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Post by Ironnerd on Jul 4, 2022 22:08:43 GMT
Hey, Hengest. I have ready LoTR, but never really liked it. Great story told is as long and drawn out a way as possible. I began to dread meeting a new character because I knew that we were going to get the entire history of his people and their lands, and probably a poem/song as well. I did, however, enjoy the Hobbit (maybe I am just not a matured reader...). I loved the Peter Jackson LoTR Movies, and put up with the Hobbit movies (THREE?). When I was a kid I really enjoyed the Rankin Bass and Bakshi adaptations, but they don't hold up all that well. I read Last Unicorn to my kids, and we all thought it was pretty cool. I could not get going in Elric... Just could not do it. I read many of the Narnia books, and enjoyed them. Then I found Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle and I was done. Although Larry Niven did write a VERY good fantasy novel. I like the Anime for a lot of reasons. First, it Anime. Second, it is cool to see a different take on Orcs, Dragons, Goblins, etc... Third, it's all pretty and flashy and has lots of cool fighting without a great deal of depth (so... perfect for me...) I guess I could also add Wakfu. It's French (and is based upon a PC game), but still a pretty good animated D&D-like story. My kid says Fangbone should also count, and the more I think about it the more it resembles some of my earlier campaigns. |
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Post by hengest on Jul 4, 2022 22:52:33 GMT
Hey, Hengest. I have ready LoTR, but never really liked it. Great story told is as long and drawn out a way as possible. I began to dread meeting a new character because I knew that we were going to get the entire history of his people and their lands, and probably a poem/song as well. I did, however, enjoy the Hobbit (maybe I am just not a matured reader...). I loved the Peter Jackson LoTR Movies, and put up with the Hobbit movies (THREE?). When I was a kid I really enjoyed the Rankin Bass and Bakshi adaptations, but they don't hold up all that well. I am interested in all takes (well, many -- I don't like the type where someone says "I hate this book because I don't like books that don't have magic rings" -- like, what?) on LOTR. I can see why you don't like the novel if you don't like that stuff. To me all that (poems, songs, histories) seems appropriately thin so as to let you imagine what was or what maybe was. But if it just feels like noise that gets in the way of the plot, then why would you like it? To me the plot has never really been that interesting. There's a troublemaking treasure and eventually it's gotten rid of. Again, to me, the plot itself feels like a plot device that gives you an excuse to enter the world. My favorite part of the book is Fellowship (Books I and II, up to and then after leaving Rivendell). I think I know why. The action starts in basically a bumpkin part of the country where there is nothing especially unusual happening. Blah blah magic ring ok. Then the party of Hobbits starts out on a journey that, at first, takes them through very familiar country. And then less familiar. And less. And they finally need a guide... And each step of the way, having already identified with the characters and their basically non-fantastic (minimally fantastic world), you slowly walk with them into this wider world and accept it, bit by bit. A key moment is when they enter the Old Forest and Merry tells them some things about it, how the High Hay was built and the trees did this and that, and it's like, "Wait, what? This stuff is real? He just accepts it?" And you do (or I do) accept it. I think it's very remarkable and enjoyable. Of course, if you aren't into that, then basically the whole book would be a distraction from the book!  |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Aug 20, 2022 21:13:31 GMT
I don't know a single one of the works you listed above, Ironnerd , I'm sorry to say. I have not gotten especially deep into the genre myself. Things I have enjoyed: LOTR (favorite novel) drafts and unfinished works by Tolkien The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle And I can't think of anything else, although I'm sure I'm forgetting some... Oh, Elric (Moorcock) had some good features, though far from a favorite.I blazed through the first Elric book, but I haven't read any of the others. I have a stack of them I bought, and I plan on reading them after I complete the Dune novels. |
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Post by Ironnerd on Aug 21, 2022 20:11:57 GMT
Hermmm... I'll have to give Elric a retry.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Aug 21, 2022 21:32:52 GMT
Hermmm... I'll have to give Elric a retry. It was Elric of Melnibone that I was able to read so quickly. I read so much that I only had to read like 30 pages the next day to complete the book. I stalled on the second book BUT that was a year that I exceeded my yearly reading goal of 12 books by 7 or 8 books and one of them was 1,200 pages. I was mentally exhausted. I'm bound and determined to give it a second go. |
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