Author Topic: What are you reading?  (Read 845686 times)

slic

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Reply #600 on: September 18, 2008, 12:08:07 PM
I did and it won't. I have to also say even 4 hours wouldn't be enough - I think a mini-series could do it justice, but I'm not sure who would pick that up.



stePH

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Reply #601 on: September 18, 2008, 01:14:52 PM
Watchmen can only work best as a visual medium.  And not some watered down two hour movie either.  I can't see how they would tie in the Pirate comic with the rest of the story as well as he did if they had just words.  Besides some of the costumes just have to be seen! And let's not forget the ink blot tests!

Didn't you hear?  Snyder wants it to be four hours!  The question is, will WB let him do it?

My question is, will it be released on schedule, or are they still quibbling over who had the rights to the script?

Wait ... is that one question, or two?

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Listener

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Reply #602 on: September 18, 2008, 09:54:31 PM
Listener, you crazy :P

Watchmen can only work best as a visual medium.  And not some watered down two hour movie either.  I can't see how they would tie in the Pirate comic with the rest of the story as well as he did if they had just words.  Besides some of the costumes just have to be seen! And let's not forget the ink blot tests!

Thinking of the Pirate comic and Star Trek books tweak the old memory of reading "Spock's World" by Diane Duane, and how it switched between "present day" and Vulcan history.  It worked fairly well, if memory servers.

Well, the novelizations of "The Life and Death of Superman" and "Batman: No Man's Land" work really well for me. I really enjoy reading more when it's just words, and while I appreciated the artwork in Watchmen, I really read it for the story. I think a good author could really turn it into something worth reading.

I see your point about the Black Freighter. Honestly, that part never enthused me any of the times I read the story.

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Listener

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Reply #603 on: September 18, 2008, 09:54:50 PM
I did and it won't. I have to also say even 4 hours wouldn't be enough - I think a mini-series could do it justice, but I'm not sure who would pick that up.

HBO. Showtime. Sci-Fi. *shrug*

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slic

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Reply #604 on: September 19, 2008, 05:42:30 PM
I'd hope so, but Sci-Fi doesn't have the budget, and I don't think HBO or Showtime would consider a comic book series.  Having said that though, I suspect that with Batman and the others movies doing so well it might take less convincing now.



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Reply #605 on: September 19, 2008, 05:45:42 PM
I'd hope so, but Sci-Fi doesn't have the budget, and I don't think HBO or Showtime would consider a comic book series.  Having said that though, I suspect that with Batman and the others movies doing so well it might take less convincing now.

Everyone knows about Batman and Spiderman.  A lesser known comic would be a much harder sell.



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Reply #606 on: September 21, 2008, 06:07:16 PM
In my continuing Discworld quest I have finished The Last Continent, Carpe Jugulum, The Fifth Elephant, The Truth, Thief of Time.

I noticed an error in The Truth.  I have a third or fourth edition paperback, so they had plenty of time to catch it.  Gaspode was an informant and used the name Deep Bone.  This is obviously a play on Deep Throat from the Watergate movie All the President's Men (read the book, it's not in there).  Once in The Truth they refer to Gaspode as Deep Throat.  I was a sentence and a half further on and then said, "wait a minute." and went back to check it.



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Reply #607 on: September 22, 2008, 11:22:14 PM
Finished the first Terok Nor book, "Day of the Vipers" by James Swallow. Pretty good read, though nothing was really surprising except for how long it took everyone else to figure out what was up with Vedek Gar.

Now reading the second, "Night of the Wolves" by SD Perry and Britta Dennison. Not as good, and definitely not as fast-moving as the first. I have faith, though; Perry's other books have had good endings.

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Reply #608 on: September 23, 2008, 02:33:49 AM
Just finished Cybermancy by Kelly McCullough, it is a sequel to WebMage.

Rather interesting look at magic, computers and the offspring of the Titans.

I liked both books.  The main character really gets whacked with the consequences stick!




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Reply #609 on: September 28, 2008, 09:15:44 PM
I picked up a copy of The Black Hole for $.75, and just started it.  Yes, the movie from around 1980.  I haven't seen the movie since I was in grade school, and had actually mentioned it to my wife.  So, when I saw it on clearance at my local used bookstore, I snagged it up.



stePH

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Reply #610 on: September 29, 2008, 12:42:38 AM
I picked up a copy of The Black Hole for $.75, and just started it.  Yes, the movie from around 1980.  I haven't seen the movie since I was in grade school, and had actually mentioned it to my wife.  So, when I saw it on clearance at my local used bookstore, I snagged it up.

That was one of many film novelizations by Alan Dean Foster, wasn't it?

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Reply #611 on: September 29, 2008, 02:55:58 AM
I picked up a copy of The Black Hole for $.75, and just started it.  Yes, the movie from around 1980.  I haven't seen the movie since I was in grade school, and had actually mentioned it to my wife.  So, when I saw it on clearance at my local used bookstore, I snagged it up.

That was one of many film novelizations by Alan Dean Foster, wasn't it?

I don't have the book at home, it's in the truck.  I will check this week.  That sounds right, though



stePH

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Reply #612 on: September 29, 2008, 04:52:27 AM

[The Black Hole]
That was one of many film novelizations by Alan Dean Foster, wasn't it?

I don't have the book at home, it's in the truck.  I will check this week.  That sounds right, though

Over a decade ago when a friend was suggesting Alan Dean Foster to me, I sneered and said "the guy who writes all the movie books?  No thanks."  How wrong I was.  After overcoming my prejudice, I loved the Flinx/Commonwealth stories, and other novels such as Midworld and Into the Out Of

But I think the first one of his books I read was either Star Wars or Alien (depending on whether or not he wrote Star Wars -- I remember the author credit on the cover as being "George Lucas".)

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Reply #613 on: September 30, 2008, 12:31:42 AM
I'm now re-reading "Stranger in a Strange Land" for a discussion group.  I read it in the early Eighties and absolutely hated it.  This time out, I'm really looking at it to see why I had that reaction.  I'm about 1/2 way through and have a fair idea about what I hated and I'm able to see the good parts also this time. 

The copy I have was printed in 1968 and has that hideous cover with the two naked women in the hot tub.  Number one reason to hate it.



stePH

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Reply #614 on: September 30, 2008, 12:50:14 AM
But I think the first one of [Alan Dean Foster's] books I read was either Star Wars or Alien (depending on whether or not he wrote Star Wars -- I remember the author credit on the cover as being "George Lucas".)

It was Star Wars.

http://www.nndb.com/people/513/000022447/

Quote
Under the pen name "George Lucas", Alan Dean Foster wrote Star Wars.

 ;D

Quote
Under his own byline, he wrote Alien, Outland, Starman, and Dark Star, but in all these novels there's an additional line on the cover: "based on the screenplay by" someone else. As a writer, "novelizations" of movies provide a good paycheck for relatively easy work -- the story is already written, you just have to expand it to the length of a book, and Foster is good at it. He's also written dozens of books that weren't based on movies.

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slic

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Reply #615 on: September 30, 2008, 02:05:30 AM
I'm 99% sure he wrote "Splinter in the Mind's Eye" which was the first sequel to Star Wars.  It's pretty good.  Most notable is how it doesn't follow or setup any of the mythos of the Star Wars universe as we now know it. 



stePH

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Reply #616 on: September 30, 2008, 02:38:19 AM
I'm 99% sure he wrote "Splinter in the Mind's Eye" which was the first sequel to Star Wars.
I'm 100% sure of it; I have a copy (though I've yet to read more than a chapter, and that ten years ago.)  It's Splinter of the Mind's Eye BTW. 

It's pretty good.  Most notable is how it doesn't follow or setup any of the mythos of the Star Wars universe as we now know it. 
Yeah, that was written back in the days before Empire, when there were also two or three "Han Solo" novels by Brian Daley (which I also never got around to reading.)

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Reply #617 on: October 01, 2008, 12:23:36 AM
I'm now re-reading "Stranger in a Strange Land" for a discussion group.  I read it in the early Eighties and absolutely hated it.  This time out, I'm really looking at it to see why I had that reaction.  I'm about 1/2 way through and have a fair idea about what I hated and I'm able to see the good parts also this time. 

The copy I have was printed in 1968 and has that hideous cover with the two naked women in the hot tub.  Number one reason to hate it.

I listened to the unabridged audio book of this, and enjoyed it.  Guess it was about a year ago.  I am not saying I grok it, though...



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Reply #618 on: October 02, 2008, 12:12:30 AM
just finished Dune last night.  greaaaaaat friggin read.
i had seen the old david lynch movie interpretation before reading the book, about 3 or 4 times, and i still like it just the same.  i find it interesting that he invented the weirding modules... completely out of the blue.  they were not in the book at all.  it serves the movie well, but its... kinda weird that they werent in the book.  i kept expecting to have them show up.  anyway, still enjoy both the movie and the book.
are the other books in the series worth reading?

either way, i am moving on to Rant by Chuck Palahniuk, gotta expand my Palahniuk experience! :)
i wanted to read Survivor but the bookstore here at UF was out and i was gonna either read that or Rant and... here i am :P

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


stePH

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Reply #619 on: October 02, 2008, 02:44:43 AM
just finished Dune last night.  greaaaaaat friggin read.
i had seen the old david lynch movie interpretation before reading the book, about 3 or 4 times, and i still like it just the same.  i find it interesting that he invented the weirding modules... completely out of the blue.  they were not in the book at all.  it serves the movie well, but its... kinda weird that they werent in the book.  i kept expecting to have them show up.  anyway, still enjoy both the movie and the book.

Those "weirding modules" are what I hate most about Lynch's film.  >:(  They completely destroyed the concept of what badasses the Fremen are -- they didn't need special weapons to kick the asses of the Emperor's elite guard -- just surviving harsh desert life gives them all they need.

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Reply #620 on: October 02, 2008, 10:49:45 AM
just finished Dune last night.  greaaaaaat friggin read.

are the other books in the series worth reading?

One of the first threads in the forums was about that very question.



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Reply #621 on: October 02, 2008, 04:46:42 PM
Currently reading the 1602 graphic novel by Gaiman et al.

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Reply #622 on: October 02, 2008, 05:26:18 PM
Currently reading the 1602 graphic novel by Gaiman et al.

I need to reread that again sometime. 

The Graveyard Book came in the mail last night.  Very cool looking (although, watch out stePH...it's got McKean illustrations).  I can't wait to dig into it...


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Reply #623 on: October 02, 2008, 06:23:38 PM
The Graveyard Book came in the mail last night.  Very cool looking (although, watch out stePH...it's got McKean illustrations).  I can't wait to dig into it...

McKean illustrations are tolerable if they're not integral to the story, like in Coraline or Stephen King's Wizard and Glass (book 4 of "The Dark Tower").  But he makes comic books unreadable.

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Reply #624 on: October 02, 2008, 06:37:52 PM
It's definitely closer to the stuff he did for Coraline, except it seems to be entwined or border the text for a few pages at the beginnng of each chapter, instead of just the first page.  I didn't look too closely, because I wanted to wait 'til I read it to get the full impact, but what I did see looked cool.