I'm back to the basics: The Lord of the Rings. I've restarted reading it (in english, of course) when I started reworking my fantasy world. While I try to keep he story as different as I can I do like Tolkiens style. It just inspires me to think of my own fantasy world.
Back when I first read it, back in 1967, it wasn't like anything else I'd ever read before. Many people see it now as mainstream Fantasy, but at the time it was amazing, groundbreaking stuff. For many years I used to treat myself to reading it twice a year ...in the summer and during the Christmas break. Maybe I should do it again. I always got sucked back into the story, whenever I re-read it. I loved its slow pacing, which allowed me to 'live' in Middle Earth for a while. I was not quite so fond of the ditzy songs (glimmering shimmering...ad infinituming), but everything else ...loved it.
I've read quite a few Tolkein books over the years (not the Silmarillion) but when I tried the Hobbit again recently I found it hard to get into. I have read a lot more in the past decade so perhaps that has changed what I enjoy processing in my books. Not sure, but his style is very old english.
When I first read it I had watched the movies 1 and 2 before - and still this book caught my imagination. I guess it sets my standards for what I call a good fantasy book as it drew me in like no other fantasy book ever again. Funny thing: even tough I did watch the movies first my imagination of middleearth differs in some parts greatly from the movies, e.g. I do imagine the main characters different in looks and behaviour. @Krispee I agree it is kind of old fashioned when it comes to style - but that's part of what I like and expect in a classical "High Fantasy" novel with orcs, wizards and elves. There is a modernized german translation of it - I've read the '67 versions in both languages - but it just seems strangely anachronical. I don't think it fits if Sam calls Frodo "Boss" suddenly - even though technically it'd be a correct expression. Even in english I just think it sounds strange in the context.
I guess that's a problem when it comes to translating a book, never quite the same. I might have a go at the Silmarillion sometime, even though it is well regarded as the least easiest book to read of Tolkein's.
Just read Nabokov's screenplay for Lolita. Fascinating to see a man try to turn his book into a screenplay especially Nabokov as his books don't have very much dialogue in them. It's like he lost control of his word play and his power to wield the reader. I'm not sure who could read this and not understand what a villain Humbert is. Interesting too what he chose to highlight versus what the two movie adaptions chose to highlight.
Halfway through Joe Abercrombie's newest book A Little Hatred, which is the first in a trilogy which is being referred to as 'The Age of Madness." And I am LOVING it. It started a little slowly, introducing lots of characters. However, each introduction was memorable, and now the characters are interacting well. Already a few unexpected twists, and, as usual with an Abercrombie book, I have no idea how it's all going to turn out. Of course this particular volume will end as a To Be Continued, but Abercrombie is prolific and reliable. He finishes his series in good time. I have no hesitation buying and reading the first in any series he starts. Abercrombie is the kind of author whom I trust. I trust him to get the job done, and to both surprise AND satisfy my reader expectations. His characters are unique and believable, and in some ways this 'world' of his certainly mirrors our own.
It is a problem with some authors. I was reading Patrick Rothfuss' books, The Name of the Wind, but the third and last has been years now and I've given up on him. I get that he's busy dealing with the film rights to his first, etc. but if you leave readers hanging on for years then some, like me, are just going to find something else to read.
It's worse than that, actually. I not only won't finish reading a series that seems to have stopped, but I won't read another one either. Especially from that author. Not until the series is done and dusted. I just don't trust authors who don't finish. I know Neil Gaiman has said, famously, that George RR Martin is 'not your whore,' meaning he doesn't owe the readers 'more' just because they bought his books. I disagree. While I wouldn't put it quite that strongly, what Martin has 'sold' the reader is a story. What he has given us is an unfinished one. We have every right to feel aggrieved. If an author sells the concept of a 'series' and readers buy the first couple of books and get invested in the story, I do think an author needs to finish the series ...in a reasonable time frame as well. Otherwise, don't start one and sell it as a 'series.' That IS cheating the customer. I stopped reading "Song of Ice and Fire" along about the end of the third book (just a few years ago, before they started filming it) when it dawned on me that there were probably 5 more books to come, and that George RR Martin was stuck on Book 5, or something like that. That it had been nearly 6 years since he'd released a new one. It had all the earmarks of a neverendum ...which still hasn't actually 'ended' yet, although the filmed series has dragged to—what some feel is—a dubious conclusion. Is it the author's conclusion? We won't know until/if he ever finishes the damn thing. There are a couple of authors whose output is steady enough to warrant me starting to read their new series as soon as the first book comes out. Abercrombie is one of them. So is Phillip Pullman, whose second in the three-parter "Book of Dust" series is due out next month. I trust these authors to finish what they start. I'm not a fan of the Harry Potter series, but Rowling was also on top of producing the books in a timely manner, and actually managed to stay ahead of the movies, which seemed to come out hard on the heels of the previous book. I think if you're going to start a series (and so many of our writers here on this forum claim to either be doing this or intend to do this) you need to be aware that 'writer's block' and 'series sales' don't always mix. Leave readers dangling 'forever' while you try to figure out what comes next, and they won't forgive you for it.
I agree wholeheartedly. Going into it, I was half afraid he might have lost the recipe for the magic sauce or whatever, but my fears were soon put to bed. I'm about 4/5 through, and not ready for it to end. I have *questions*, damn it! For the most part I'm loving the new characters, and of course it's great to be reacquainted with the heroes and villains of yesteryear (insofar as those terms apply in an Abercrombie novel). For anyone who might be curious, I have to say that this is not a good place to start your First Law reading experience. It *is* a standalone trilogy, yes, taking place decades after the first, but... It builds heavily on what came before, and without the prerequisite knowledge you'd miss all sorts of juicy foreshadowing, misdirections, implications, and tragedies in the making.
Agree wholeheartedly, I have actually given up on Rothfuss because I've actually forgotten the story to some extent. Rowling and others have shown that it can be done, you can finish your stories and be involved with film rights etc, if you really want to. One wonder if some authors, when they become successful, enjoy the success more than the writing. I haven't read Martin and never will until he actually finishes his stories, if he does, as he is getting older and doesn't look to be in the best of health sometimes. As for not forgiving, they might follow that up with not actually buying, which is going to hurt the writer more than anything else.
Implying that GRR Martin enjoys fame more than writing by comparing him to JK Rowling is kind of hilarious considering that Rowling has written a couple of dozen books and a dozen or so newspaper articles whereas GRR Martin has written at least twice as many books, not to mention his short stories or his work as an editor and contributor for close to a hundred other publications as well as writing for at least 6 television shows. Seriously, GRR Martin is a very hard working writer. Just because he's not working on "that one thing everyone knows him for" doesn't mean he's not doing anything.
Yeah. Good point. In fact, what discouraged me from finishing Song of Ice and Fire was finding out that he was working on all sorts of other projects and letting that one slide. He seemed to be losing interest in it and moving on ...while leaving his readership dangling. Of course I have no idea what his actual situation was, but that was what his readers were left with. A neverendum that STILL isn't finished. How many people out there would start buying a series if they knew it was never going to be finished? Most people buy series books (with an overall story arc that needs resolution) assuming they will be finished at some point. If an author doesn't finish the series (barring death, debility, etc) then he or she lets the readers down. In my opinion, anyway.
Well given that George Martin is quite a bit older than Rowling it's not surprising that he has written more, also I wasn't implying anything about Martin, only a general disatisfaction with some writers inability to finish their series. George Martin's series is different in that he has created a massively complex world which is inhabited with a large number of characters, it's not surprising it's taking him a long time. Still, some colleagues of mine are still a little annoyed that it's taken him so long, but that's them not me, I've never read Game of Thrones.
To be honest, with A Song of Ice and Fire, I really don't think there's any possibility it can be finished in a "BAM! this is done, everyone's happy now," kind of way It's like reading a history book. When you get to the modern era, there isn't some grand revelation that makes all the pieces fit and ends the Boer War on a thematic note. It doesn't matter where the series stops, because you already know, or have a feeling, how it all ends, or fails to end.
I've wondered for a while now about GOT (from my friend from work, who's read everything and watched everything and moans at me when we talk about it) whether the ending of the tv series is really the ending of the book. My theory was that they were different but that's just a theory.
More or less, yeah... Except for The Heroes, I think the stand-alone sequels work well as self-contained stories. It's just that they work so much better as, to borrow from gaming lingo, "expansion packs". I think this new trilogy stands less well alone, but it can if it must.
Since I wrote my first post on the subject, I've finished reading the Abercrombie book (neglecting all my other duties.) Damn. It's good.
Personal tragedy (only for the morbidly curious) is having me take solace in a so not me genre pick: My first venture into ‘ Fanny Hill ‘ Blimey that 1740s prison guy could scribe a euphemism or twenty!
Well, I'm into the Heart of Darkness, and it's pretty good. He does write 'pass the bottle' a lot but other than that...
