@MightyDemon82 The Octopus Man looks interesting, adding it to my reading list (Both Mistborn and the Culture series are already on there, lying patiently in wait... if four day work weeks ever becomes a thing here in Norway I'm declaring that extra day "reading day" for me )
@Matthewnh Been a while since I read them. Do you feel they still hold up?
They are still good.
The writing gets better as the series progresses. Some people argue that a few of the books are too long, but I don’t think that matters if you are enjoying what you are reading. They have lost a lot of the tension in the story, because we all know what happens now.
I do find that as a I am reading, I have the images from the films in my head, but that would happen anyway. It would be the same if I re-read “2001” or “Starship Troopers”.
@Matthewnh Completely agree re.: long books, as long as they don't drag on. Some of Stephen King's largest bricks suffers a bit from bloat and I've near lost my patience with a few of them, but all in all I don't mind a long novel if the story is good and the plot is moving forward.
In most cases I like having the image of the actors in an adaptation in my head when reading, even if I haven't seen the adaptation in question. I think it was around either Order of the Phoenix or Half-Blood Prince when the movie cast replaced my "head cast" as I read the books. I made a conscious effort to recast The Expanse in my head after the first trailer arrived, but two of the characters (Holden and Naomi) were so different in my head that it wasn't until the final two or three books in the series that my head "got onboard". A friend of mine had such a vastly different Amos (differing even from the description in the novels) that it actually impacted his enjoyment of the series.
@FuriousMachine@Matthewnh It’s true how a movie or TV rendition of a book can enhance or ruin the impact of reading it. It’s usually dependent on which you do first and whatever you get exposed to earlier (either the live adaptation or the book) will become your default version of the characters. For Harry Potter, I didn’t start reading the books until about the third movie was out so I’d had enough exposure to the cast that as I read the books the cast was on my head. It’s what’s made playing Hogwarts Legacy interesting because Peeves was left out of the movies and the character representation in the game is really nothing like I had imagined in my head. Also, when they recast Dumbledore, I had to grow accustomed to the Michael Gambon interpretation.
If memory serves, Rowling was supposed to have been very involved in consulting with the movie adaptations and so I suspect it’s why they are truer to what one might imagine the characters and world to have been like. Which is why I’m befuddled that Hermione’s race was reportedly miscast. I feel like Rowling was given the opportunity to validate the cast beforehand. I don’t know though.
So many movie adaptations get the characters completely wrong though. Ender’s Game comes to mind. The Hunger Games is another. Despite liking the movies, the actors and actresses are really nothing like their book version, even Katniss.
@Th3solution The "Hermione was accidentally race swapped" thing is weird - in one of the books (I can't remember which one) somebody mistakes her for one of the Weasley family - and they're all famously pale of skin and red of hair.
PS Just checked - it's Amos Diggory in "TGoF" who asks Arthur if Hermione is a Weasley.
@LN78 Supposedly there’s a section in one of the books that says Hermione’s “white face stuck out”, or some similar verbiage. Which I can see the possible metaphorical use of color there, but the Weasley reference is even more at odds. Perhaps she could be an adopted Weasley... 🤔
When I read the books I already had the image of Emma Watson in my head so I didn’t really pay mind to the detail.
It’s a strange issue and I think that at the end of the day this is Rowling’s intellectual property so she can say whatever she wants about it, but it does seem like she’s prone to just say things for the sake of making a point and stirring up controversy. It’s a fair criticism to say we, the public, are inherently culturally prejudice to assume characters are all heterosexual white people, but it seems like she must have forgotten some of her own writings in the process. And like I say, why allow for the casting of Watson if the actress wasn’t even the visage of who you intended to portray?
Nevertheless, I have come around on the retrospective diversification of characters after seeing Hamilton. Initially I thought it was an unusual artistic choice to cast different racial versions of historical persons, but when I watched it I found it actually refreshing.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution I think Rowling did something similar with Dumbledore, claiming he was always canonically gay even though there was nothing in the text to indicate that idea. As you say - they're her characters so she gets to make the final determination even if she is doing it to stir up some controversy or score PC points. It's not really important either way.
PS Apparently there is an early illustration by Rowling herself in which Hermione is depicted as white.
@Th3solution@LN78 Wow. I wasn't aware that JKR claimed Hermione was race swapped for the movies... that is indeed weird.
Race swapping in general is fine by me, though I think I would react negatively to the casting of a white actor for a black/latinx/asian character. Not for the race swap itself but for the fact that there is still room for more diversity in entertainment, in my opinion, and there are plenty of "white" roles out there for white actors to get their hands on.
The only time race swapping doesn't work for me is if it actually goes against something that defines the character. I'm not all that familiar with Resident Evil history, but I seem to remember reading that the Albert Wesker character was a white supremacist, which made it so weird that they cast the late, great Lance Reddick in the role. Haven't seen the show, so can't speak to whether it worked or not (knowing Reddick, though, I assume he carried what I understand to be an otherwise poor show).
Apparently in the first few movies, they cast Rick Mayall as Peeves the Poltergeist. But all of his scenes were cut. He kept making the young actors laugh too much.
Mayall’s low opinion of the Harry Potter movies is fairly well-known, too.
Finished Peter May's "The Fourth Sacrifice" this weekend and though, for me, it fell a bit short of the first novel in the series, I still enjoyed it quite a bit. 3.5 stars of 5 (for me, 3 and above is a good read).
Now continues my Witcher project, with "Time of Contempt" and while I felt the previous one ("Blood of Elves") dragged a bit in places, this one starts out quite promising (I'm about a quarter in)
@FuriousMachine that's great, I hope you enjoy it. Also if like andriod/robot stories, Martha Wells Murderbot series is the best scifi series I have read.
Terry Pratchet's The Colour Of Magic is what I've been reading.
... I honestly haven't read a book in a good long while (Books 1 & 2 of A Song of Fire and Ice being the last books I read which was well over a few years ago) and so I decided to change that.
I'd never read any of the Discworld books before though I do recall playing the point & click PS1 game a bit... Soooo I was surprised to read about the Trunk/Luggage so quickly and have memories flood back about that.
I finished the first... Arc? Or is that a chapter? Either way I've found out how the fire in Ankh Morpork truly started Two Flower telling Broadman about and selling him "In-Sewer-Ants" and then the first case of In-sewer-ants fraud??
So it's already been rather amusing and I already find Rincewind a hoot.
... Thanks to the knowledge of that PS1 game now rattling around in my skull again all I can hear is Eric Idle whenever Rincewind speaks however
Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"
@HallowMoonshadow I love the Discworld books, and I too hear Eric Idle whenever Rincewind speaks
You've got tons of great books (and a few less great) ahead of you, should you decide to continue. The next novel in the series, Light Fantastic, is nothing short of brilliant. Cohen the Barbarian and his horde are priceless!
I expect to get to the last two books in series some time this year, so it will be weird not having a new Discworld novel to look forward to when those two are done.
The copy I have mentions that I could read the books in certain arcs (so to speak) (Wizards, Witches, The Guards) but... That seems like I'd miss out on some references and the likes no?
Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"
@HallowMoonshadow Yeah, you can absolutely read the arcs separately, and I don't recall there being tons of cross references, but there are certain characters that pop up all over the place, so I think I'd recommend reading all of them in publication order. Some people prefer the witches books, some the Watch, others the wizards, but I really enjoyed them all
@Kidfried I don't really remember much of the second game, and while I kept hearing that the third, Discworld Noir, was the best one, I never got around to trying it. Come to think of it, my memory is foggy about the first game as well, but I do have warm, fuzzy feelings
@HallowMoonshadow The Pratchett books are wonderful fun and I love the whole world they’re in. The first two books are Rincewind’s story but after that he becomes a very peripheral character but that’s what makes the series so much fun.
There are a few one off stories but also lots of different groups of characters who different books focus on but not overly written as specific sequels (but obviously with story elements that carry over).
I’ve just slowly been working through the books in chronological order of release as you can see Pratchett hitting his stride as you get into them. Death is such a great character, The Witches are wonderful fun, and The Watch are awesome too. Gaspode the Wonder Dog is one of my favourite side characters though!
Pratchett such an under appreciated writer though as people see him almost as a kid’s writer or are turned off by the fantasy setting but he’s an immensely clever writer and very socially aware.
The “Vimes boot theory” is one that made the news a while ago as the cook and campaigner Jack Monroe used the idea to highlight how lowest priced foods are normally jacked up more than the higher priced ones;
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes "Boots" theory of socioeconomic unfairness.
@Kidfried Yeah, I can imagine. I'd probably give it a go if it showed up on GOG or something, but I guess there are rights issues or they would have picked it up a long time ago.
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