Well I finished it. (the book)
While I was at my dad's house over Christmas I finished the book I was reading. I had brought several others but when I looked at them to decide what to read next I realized they were all book 2 or book 3 in sets. So I ended up reading "The Butlerian Jihad" on my axim. It was co-written by Brian Herbert (who isn't the writer his father was) and Kevin Anderson (a hack fan-fic writer who barely writes better than I do). It was alright but was too obviously one in a series. I mean some books are written to be series and that's fine but when the story simply stops going that's poor writing. Why not wait and release them all together rather than making us angry about having to wait. Even "The Empire Strikes Back" finished it's story before an ending that screamed sequel. So when I next had the opportunity to get a book I got (or perhaps already had) "House Atreides". I read that but it shared the same faults as the last one (which was thousands of years ago in the Dune timeline while the "House" books are only 40 years or so before the movie). Some chapters seemed like they were intended to be released separately because all of the sudden, in the middle of the book, the main characters are reintroduced. As if I couldn't remember from the last page who these people where or why they were important/related to each other. And the end simply stopped again. Crap!
However given it was Dune and I've read everything Herbert wrote on it I decided to order all the others that were out. "The Machine Crusade", "House Harkonnen" and "House Corrino". I just finished wading my way through the first one. Again it simply stops and at several points the main characters are re-introduced. As if they were written for teenagers rather than people who read all the other books. And poorly written for teenagers at that.
At the retreat Jack saw I what I was reading and asked about it. I told him it was okay but the writing was lousy. He told me that there will only be so many books I'll be able to read in my life and that I shouldn't waste one of those slots on a bad book.
I considered it and stopped reading for awhile but eventually picked it back up and finished it. Kind of like why I read all twelve of the Thomas Covenant books by Stephen R. Donaldson years ago. The first was very good, the next two or three were okay but after that they got predictable and repetative. But I waded my way through all twelve (or was it sixteen). Never looked back and never read anything else he did.
I guess I'm funny that way.
While I was at my dad's house over Christmas I finished the book I was reading. I had brought several others but when I looked at them to decide what to read next I realized they were all book 2 or book 3 in sets. So I ended up reading "The Butlerian Jihad" on my axim. It was co-written by Brian Herbert (who isn't the writer his father was) and Kevin Anderson (a hack fan-fic writer who barely writes better than I do). It was alright but was too obviously one in a series. I mean some books are written to be series and that's fine but when the story simply stops going that's poor writing. Why not wait and release them all together rather than making us angry about having to wait. Even "The Empire Strikes Back" finished it's story before an ending that screamed sequel. So when I next had the opportunity to get a book I got (or perhaps already had) "House Atreides". I read that but it shared the same faults as the last one (which was thousands of years ago in the Dune timeline while the "House" books are only 40 years or so before the movie). Some chapters seemed like they were intended to be released separately because all of the sudden, in the middle of the book, the main characters are reintroduced. As if I couldn't remember from the last page who these people where or why they were important/related to each other. And the end simply stopped again. Crap!
However given it was Dune and I've read everything Herbert wrote on it I decided to order all the others that were out. "The Machine Crusade", "House Harkonnen" and "House Corrino". I just finished wading my way through the first one. Again it simply stops and at several points the main characters are re-introduced. As if they were written for teenagers rather than people who read all the other books. And poorly written for teenagers at that.
At the retreat Jack saw I what I was reading and asked about it. I told him it was okay but the writing was lousy. He told me that there will only be so many books I'll be able to read in my life and that I shouldn't waste one of those slots on a bad book.
I considered it and stopped reading for awhile but eventually picked it back up and finished it. Kind of like why I read all twelve of the Thomas Covenant books by Stephen R. Donaldson years ago. The first was very good, the next two or three were okay but after that they got predictable and repetative. But I waded my way through all twelve (or was it sixteen). Never looked back and never read anything else he did.
I guess I'm funny that way.
posted by banzai at 09:40
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