Stickler
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This was a douchey thing to have said, and I'm sorry. I want to be nicer around here. My apologies. It's a good book.
Jazzfanz Bookclub
- Thread starter JazzGal
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This was a douchey thing to have said, and I'm sorry. I want to be nicer around here. My apologies. It's a good book.
LogGrad98
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I recently read Lost Souls by Dean Koontz. It is the 4th novel in his re-imagining of the Frankenstein story. I think they are pretty well done and show some serious creative thinking. This one ended pretty abruptly, even for a cliff-hanger-style ending, but on the whole it had me pushing buttons on my kindle faster than a fat kid trying to get a stuck twinkie out of a vending machine.
Its alright dude. No worries.
AtheistPreacher
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I re-read both Ender's Game and Watership Down over Christmas... one on the flight to my parents' house, the other on the way back. Both classics, they always get to me.
Stickler
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I love both books.
I feel like I have to include the following disclaimer: loving Ender's Game is in no way an endorsement of the Orson Scott Card who exists now. Two different writers, in my opinion, the young Card and the older Card.
LogGrad98
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I agree with your assessment of Card. He has gotten stodgy in his old age and uses his books more and more to push his politics. But Ender's Game is one of the best books of all-time IMHO. I like a lot of his other books too, but his latest I have a hard time reading. Empire was pure garbage.
AtheistPreacher
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Terry Goodkind went the same route. His Sword of Truth series was interesting until about halfway through, at which point it became almost pure political allegory. Not only that, but it was political allegory I vehemently disagreed with.
As for Richard Adams, he never pushed his opinions on his readers with his later books... but his later books simply weren't very good. Watership Down was his first book, which he wrote in his spare time, and this after he had already turned 50. But after it got published, and he suddenly had a writing career, he never wrote anything particularly compelling ever again. I tried reading both Shardik and The Plague Dogs, but I didn't finish either. They were boring as hell.
Just goes to show that sometimes there's that indefinable magic to a book or a film that just can't be duplicated, even by the same creator. Watership Down and Ender's Game are exhibits A and B for that.
Even younger Card had a bit of that in him.
Examples: Tales of Alvin Maker series and the Homecoming Saga.
But I'll always remember the irreverent Card who wrote the Mormon version of The Devil's Dictionary.
Oh, and the last book I read was this one:
I like Budiansky quite a bit and happened to get an advance copy.
Stickler
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Had a bit of what? I didn't identify what my objection is to the writing of the older Card. Also: The Homecoming Saga was written by the older Card.
LogGrad98
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I think kicky was referring to Card's political pontificating in his books.
My most recent read (reading it now). Stephen King "The Mist". My initial impression is pretty standard King. Not a whole lot different from many of his books/stories where the poor unfortunate people have to take refuge in some public building against some nameless terror outside just dying to get in (Langoliers, Cujo, Trucks, to a lesser extent Pet Sematary, Dream Catcher, Cell, etc.). I guess this formula works well to help him sell books and make movies, but it is pretty predictable. Nonetheless he is good at building suspense and at least making it an entertaining read.
My most recent read (reading it now). Stephen King "The Mist". My initial impression is pretty standard King. Not a whole lot different from many of his books/stories where the poor unfortunate people have to take refuge in some public building against some nameless terror outside just dying to get in (Langoliers, Cujo, Trucks, to a lesser extent Pet Sematary, Dream Catcher, Cell, etc.). I guess this formula works well to help him sell books and make movies, but it is pretty predictable. Nonetheless he is good at building suspense and at least making it an entertaining read.
Gyp Rosetti
Banned
Heroes by Robert Cormier. ****ing great.
Loggrad's right. Although I quoted you I was expanding upon the statements made by subsequent posters as well.
The First Homecoming Saga book was written in 1992. That's almost 20 years ago. In my mind that's a significantly younger version of the man.
Stickler
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LOL. Well, yes, he was younger then than he is now. But since it was me who introduced the idea of the younger Card vs. older Card, I'm allowed put pinpoints on the timeline to clarify what I meant by that. The Younger Card ceased to exist roughly around 1990.
Ok. I just perceived more bleed. For example, I would think of "Lost Boys" as an example stylistically of "old card" but that was published the same year as the first Homecoming book.
LogGrad98
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For me the dividing line so to speak of young vs old Card was in about 1996 when he published Children of the Mind ending the original Ender Speaker series. The political undertones made that book the worst of the series IMHO. Also that year was Pastwatch, the Redemption of Christopher Columbus. Again very politically driven, although it retained enough YC (Young Card =) to make it very entertaining.
FWIW I still read most of what Card publishes. He has still had solid works, especially in the Shadow series, which, since it is directly about politics, is much easier to read and forgive the pontificating. Since I started the Alvin Maker series in the 80's I am looking forward to Master Alvin.
As an aside, did you see that he had a stroke on New Year's Day?
https://www.examiner.com/speculative-fiction-in-national/orson-scott-card-suffers-a-stroke
I sure hope he recovers. That is a rough way to ring in the new year.
Stickler
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Lost Boys was all right, but clearly the product of a far more conservative mind than the one that wrote Ender's Game, Wyrms, Treason, and all those great short stories. Personally, I draw the line at Xenocide, which he wrote for money, rather than out of any hunger to tell great stories. (This is documented somewhere in an introduction to one of the many unnecessary cash-grab Ender books.) Homecoming was really lazy stuff -- not only from a storytelling standpoint, but from a political one. The Shadow Series and the "Author's definitive" editions of his previous books are direct attacks by the older politically- and monetarily- motivated Orson Scott Card on his younger self. It's really been a shame to see this writer who was once incredibly audacious and passionate and daring turn into this stodgy cash-printing hypocrite.
But if I can separate the man from his writing career for a moment, I believe he's a good person and I hope he has good health and gets well. I don't hate the man, but I'm not thrilled about the writer.
I'll leave out his political writing completely -- his worldwatch essays and so forth -- since that opens up an entirely different can of worms.
But if I can separate the man from his writing career for a moment, I believe he's a good person and I hope he has good health and gets well. I don't hate the man, but I'm not thrilled about the writer.
I'll leave out his political writing completely -- his worldwatch essays and so forth -- since that opens up an entirely different can of worms.
Boondocksaint27
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Hey Trout, you read this one yet? Excellent, excellent novellas. 1922 in particular I read on a flight from Long Beach to SLC and couldn't put it down. I think King is always great, but IMO he's at his best when writing short stories like in Graveyard Shift or Just After Sunset.
Hey Trout, you read this one yet? Excellent, excellent novellas. 1922 in particular I read on a flight from Long Beach to SLC and couldn't put it down. I think King is always great, but IMO he's at his best when writing short stories like in Graveyard Shift or Just After Sunset.
I haven't, but I will pick it up ASAP. I trust you when it comes to King.
Negative. Is it fiction or a 'How To' on writing?