Books Thread

Trying to get through American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It's not as good as I expected

 

It's decent enough, but it's definitely over-praised.

Also doesn't help that it's obvious Neil was furiously masturbating to his own writing in certain parts.

 

Holy shit, yes!
My issue with it, along with the self-masturbatory writing is that, at least so far, the protagonist is dull as a doorknob. "He's tall, he does coin tricks, he loved his wife". I cannot think of any other identifying characteristics of him

 

As I said to my friend, Shadow is not a character, he's a plot device. He only exists to act as a vessel for the reader to experience the story rather than being a driving force behind it. As I got into the last half of the book I started to think that was intentional, to some degree. A couple "big moments" are the result of Shadow actually deciding to do something instead of just watching while things happen around him. Then there's Laura's comments on Shadow's lack of a personality, and that stupid goddamn name, though these points could very well be Neil covering his ass.

Still, for the entire book Shadow is not defined by who he is, but what he is, and that does not a character make. Even what's supposed to be Shadow's defining moment is all about what he is rather than the decision he (supposedly) made.

 

I'm reading Le Morte D'Arthur right now which is a little difficult due to how it's written. It you're used to things like quotation marks and not-really-clunky-sentences, it's kind of hard to get through. I've been reading it out loud to help follow the writing but I kind of feel like a little kid doing that. (at least that way my cats get to hear the story too!) I'm enjoying the story though, Arthurian legend is always a treat.
I read The Once and Future King quite a while ago so I might read it again after I finish this.

 

Finished Dune last night. I've got mixed feelings about it. Whilst I love the world building and the characters the story feels bloated (it takes half of the book for the plot to start) and the ending is rushed as hell. Baron Harkonnen just kind of...dies and the Emperor seemingly vanishes into thin air. Halleck doesn't get any closure which bugs me and all that stuff with Leto II doesn't ever go anywhere.

There's also the strange phenomenon of the book not knowing who the main character is, as Jessica seems to be the protagonist until the Harkonnens attack then it switches to Paul...and then switches back to Jessica when the two meet up with the Fremen and after that it's Paul again. Hell, Jessica gets put on a bus for the final act.

But my biggest gripe is that the Alejandro Jodorowsky film was never made. I was salty about it when I found out and I'm still salty about it to this day.

 

Yeah, I agree - the world building and characters in Dune are excellent, but the story can be confusing at times

 

While looking for something in the garage I came across some very interesting books in my dad's collection. I have some questions.

Spoiler

I'm learning that LSD is anything but practical to produce.

 

That's probably worth some money tbh.

 

It actually looks pretty easy to get a hold of, it's for sale on the author's website. Speaking of his website, oh boy http://www.unclefesterbooks.com/index.html

 

So I decided to bite the bullet and read through Dune: Messiah, the first of five fucking sequels. I'm only a couple of chapters in and now we have fish people who have mastered genetic engineering. Also the entire universe has been utterly fucked by the Fremen.

 

Stop now before it's too late. Nothing good with come out of this endeavor.

 

I'm beginning to think you're right, because last night I just went through a scene where Paul's sister practices fencing in the nude. What the flying fuck is going on?

 

You're not even in the weird part of the Dune sequels yet. I read all of them and don't have any idea what the flying fuck went on from God Emperor of Dune onward. That one increases the what-the-fuckery tenfold. especially considering that

Spoiler: SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

the book centers around how God Emperor Leto II is a giant sandworm who doesn't have genitalia, functioning or otherwise. But everyone thinks he does and he has to tell people that he does not possess a giant sandworm cock to fuck bitches with. He gets so annoyed he considers asking the Tleilaxu scientists to make him a big fake peener just to freak people out.

You are in for a wild fucking ride.

 

Oh no.

Oh god.

Spoiler: I can't

@Mortal Wombat please help me, I can't tag you right now for some reason but this is code red, I repeat, code red.

 

@Sexual Tyrannosaurus

 

I have been summoned?

 

So I finished Dune: Messiah last night and I have to say I don't think I'll be touching the Dune books again. It was a very dull book about Paul walking around his house thinking about stuff. The only interesting thing was the finale when he got nuked and later threw a knife into Scytale's face. Duncan overcoming his identity issues was cool as well, even if it did happen in the space of one paragraph. But then the book ends with Paul fucking off into the desert because he values local law over his entire fucking empire and his family and everything. Yeah.

In my local library (where I got these books to begin with) there's a book on the Bene Gesserit (the crazy space nuns who want to take over the universe) which I'm not going to touch with a fucking barge pole held by somebody else. I think I'll just stick to the 1984 film when it comes to consuming Dune media. It's a shame, really. I kept hearing great things about the books and all I got was a bunch of very verbose weirdos with silly names buggering about in a desert going into very specific detail about what they're thinking at that current moment.

 

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