One star books

[reinaert]

I read Friday when I was really young - maybe 10 or 11. My uncle had lent me Harsh Mistress, and I had become obsessed, and Friday was the first other Heinlein book I found at the library.

I recently went back to it, a few years ago, and I was blown away by how kinda bad it was.

Why does a novel about a clever woman need a sneering professor's college course in astronavigation jammed in the middle of it?

 

[NJBob]

I would add Atlas Shrugged but it doesn’t even deserve 1 star. What an unreadable mess.

 

[TheDoctorWasIn]

Why does a novel about a clever woman need a sneering professor's college course in astronavigation jammed in the middle of it?

I agree, of course - but then again, Neal Stephenson is probably my favorite author, so I'm not sure I can complain about that sort of thing.

 

[reinaert]

I would add Atlas Shrugged but it doesn’t even deserve 1 star. What an unreadable mess.

The thing with Rand is We the Living is a real novella, with interesting, multidimensional characters, and actual ambiguity.

There was talent there. And then Mencken praised her.

 

[TheDoctorWasIn]

The thing with Rand is We the Living is a real novella, with interesting, multidimensional characters, and actual ambiguity.

There was talent there. And then Mencken praised her.

I read Anthem and don't remember hating it.

I didn't get more than 50 pages into Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead.

 

[reinaert]

I agree, of course - but then again, Neal Stephenson is probably my favorite author, so I'm not sure I can complain about that sort of thing.

Right. I have Anathem on a read cycle, and it's famously anvilicious. But Neal can write. Heinlein is like Tolkien, and as a reformed junior high Objectivist, Tolkienist and Heinlein junkie, this still hurts, but it's true: Heinlein was a bad writer, and a worse man.

 

[reinaert]

I read Anthem and don't remember hating it.

I didn't get more than 50 pages into Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead.

If only she hadn't stolen Anthem from the infinitely better We by Zamiatin

 

[TheDoctorWasIn]

If only she hadn't stolen Anthem from the infinitely better We by Zamiatin

Honestly, I don't remember anything about Anthem, other than I didn't hate it. It didn't make the strongest impression on me.

But I'll check out We - I'd never heard of it, but a google search tells me I should have.

 

[Cordelier]

I know this is sacrilege... but I could never get past the Two Towers in Lord of the Rings. I must have tried reading the whole thing about 6-7 times, and I think I only ever managed to finish the second book once out of those attempts. Sorry... I think Tom Bombadil and endless passages about the minutiae of Hobbit family histories just ground me down.

 

[NJBob]

I know this is sacrilege... but I could never get past the Two Towers in Lord of the Rings. I must have tried reading the whole thing about 6-7 times, and I think I only ever managed to finish the second book once out of those attempts. Sorry... I think Tom Bombadil and endless passages about the minutiae of Hobbit family histories just ground me down.

I couldn’t put the trilogy down. I thought it was a great read. I loved the attention to detail.

 

[Lycanthrope]

Stranger in a Strange Land

Pretty much anything by Hemmingway (how much does a Hemming weigh?) other than The Old Man and the Sea

****ing, goddamn, The Catcher in the Rye

I have always suspected my viscerally negative reaction to Catcher stemmed from the fact that I didn't read it until I was thirty. Read it after the age of 18 and it's just "crumby."

I nominate Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. Absolute shit novel.

 

[Lycanthrope]

I couldn’t put the trilogy down. I thought it was a great read. I loved the attention to detail.

I will still pick it up, open it to a random page, and just start reading. Always entertaining.

 

[Lycanthrope]

I found it to be the perfect representation of deep, clinical depression.

Interesting perspective.

 

[NJBob]

I will still pick it up, open it to a random page, and just start reading. Always entertaining.

I also liked the movies, they were much closer to the original than I expected.

 

[Lycanthrope]

Another shit novel: Battlefield Earth by Hubbard. The only thing worse is the movie based on it.

 

[TheDoctorWasIn]

Another shit novel: Battlefield Earth by Hubbard. The only thing worse is the movie based on it.

Everything Hubbard ever wrote was garbage.

 

[Lycanthrope]

I also liked the movies, they were much closer to the original than I expected.

First three films were outstanding. I liked the Hobbit trilogy less, still good but no comparison.

Which is kind of how I feel about the books, too. LOTR > The Hobbit.

 

[Lycanthrope]

Everything Hubbard ever wrote was garbage.

I read Dune for the first time as a freshman in high school and got utterly obsessed with it, despite preferring fantasy to science fiction novels. Herbert actually got me willing to try other science fiction, and unfortunately Battlefield Earth was what I stumbled across. Immediately went back to swords and sorcery novels.

 

[Cordelier]

I couldn’t put the trilogy down. I thought it was a great read. I loved the attention to detail.

I think there's a fine line between the sublime and the ridiculous when it comes to detail in a novel. One of my favorite writers is Douglas Reeman... he's not shy about attention to detail - but I guess the difference is I'm actually interested in the details he wrote about. It was hard for me to achieve interest about Bilbo Baggins' 2nd Cousin's Mother-in-Law.

 

[Lycanthrope]

I think there's a fine line between the sublime and the ridiculous when it comes to detail in a novel. One of my favorite writers is Douglas Reeman... he's not shy about attention to detail - but I guess the difference is I'm actually interested in the details he wrote about. It was hard for me to achieve interest about Bilbo Baggins' 2nd Cousin's Mother-in-Law.

As much as I love Tolkien that still made me laugh.

Same with George RR Martin - I enjoyed Game of Thrones but good LORD that man could write about what people were eating for pages.

 

[NJBob]

I think there's a fine line between the sublime and the ridiculous when it comes to detail in a novel. One of my favorite writers is Douglas Reeman... he's not shy about attention to detail - but I guess the difference is I'm actually interested in the details he wrote about. It was hard for me to achieve interest about Bilbo Baggins' 2nd Cousin's Mother-in-Law.

You got a point but details like that give the story a sense of realism and depth. Don’t we all have a 2nd Cousin’s Mother-in-Law?

 

[Cordelier]

As much as I love Tolkien that still made me laugh.

Same with George RR Martin - I enjoyed Game of Thrones but good LORD that man could write about what people were eating for pages.

*L* Thanks for the warning... I had it in the back of my head to try reading Game of Thrones someday. Maybe I'll try The Expanse instead?

 

[reinaert]

I couldn’t put the trilogy down. I thought it was a great read. I loved the attention to detail.

I reject all of this. Tolkien:writing as death:sleeping.

 

[Cordelier]

You got a point but details like that give the story a sense of realism and depth. Don’t we all have a 2nd Cousin’s Mother-in-Law?

Sure... doesn't mean I'm interested in meeting her though.

 

[reinaert]

*L* Thanks for the warning... I had it in the back of my head to try reading Game of Thrones someday. Maybe I'll try The Expanse instead?

Abercrombie.

Joe absolute ****ing master of the craft Abercrombie.