What Book Are You Currently Reading?

[JBond]

The End of Eternity

[PsYkOoOoO]

I have about 50 pages left to Dune by Frank Herbert, and I think it is a fair time to give my thoughts on the book. Again, this is the first time I am reading the book, and I always say that it is better late than never with such things. At this point, I am giving it a 3 or 3.5 upon 5 stars. I can see and I fully understand why many consider this to be the Lord of the Rings of science fiction. Having been written in the 60s, Dune must have been ahead of the curve in more ways than one. Underneath the main plot of conspiracies, espionage, politics and conflicts between Houses (which were all super interesting), the philosophical and existential aspects of the book escaped me quite a bit. I'm not sure if I just don't have the capacity to grasp some of the ideas, or that Herbert became too obsessed with that aspect of the story. The book is divided into three parts, so to speak, and I love part 1 of it deeply. In fact, I was onboard all the way until the Duke was betrayed, and Paul and Lady Jessica were exiled into the desert. All of that –*awesome. Then the middle portion came in, and they started mingling with the Fremen. It definitely was interesting to see the Fremen culture, explore their way of life and how they came to survive in the harshest conditions.

Yet, I got really tired of all the rites and rituals that they had to perform throughout the middle portion, all the stuff about prescience and prophecies (I generally don't like that in my stories). It made it seem as if melange is basically marijuana, and everything is high in this book. Don't get me wrong, the basic story was still interesting enough to get me going. I'm not the kind of person to get this far in the book if I don't actually like it (Kurt Vonnegut didn't do it for me), but I just wanted to get through all the Fremen/Paul/Lady Jessica stuff. In fact, I don't say this often, but I enjoyed all the villain stuff more in this book. As twisted as the Baron was, I found his chapters (few and far in between) to be the most interesting. Perhaps it is my experience with A Song of Ice and Fire talking, but all the scheming, plotting and conspiring really intrigued me about the story.

Now that I have 50 pages left of the book, the Fremen suddenly decided to wage war against the Harkonnen. Paul just decided to wake up from his three-week long trance and told everyone that the enemies have surrounded the planet. It's not that I need pages and pages of battles and whatnot, but I didn't get a sense of preparation or impending doom throughout 95% of the book. Dread, yes, but not a lot of anxiety and preparation. I generally do not like my protagonist to be some kinda superhuman who can see the past, the present and the future, and worse than Paul doesn't seem to have a lot of personality(or am I missing something here). Anyway, I'm glad that I am almost done with the story, and that I can finally move on to other books. I must say that it has been a long time since I've come across such a unique and well-constructed world, though. I give Herbert all the credit for that. If only we got less of the philosophical mumbo jumbo jammed into the plot. As shallow as that sounds.

[JBond]

Did you at least notice how much of an influence it was on Star Wars? Like...a lot?

I found melange interesting because it was so many things. It was a drug, but also a literal spice, it was magic powder, and it was money.

[PsYkOoOoO]

Originally Posted by JBond

Did you at least notice how much of an influence it was on Star Wars? Like...a lot?

I found melange interesting because it was so many things. It was a drug, but also a literal spice, it was magic powder, and it was money.

In many ways, yes. I was more interested in the value placed on water. That was really interesting, to me.

[JBond]

Honestly, I don't like Dune as much as most people do. But it's pretty good. So are the first two sequels.

[PsYkOoOoO]

Originally Posted by JBond

Honestly, I don't like Dune as much as most people do. But it's pretty good. So are the first two sequels.

I seriously doubt if I will move on to the sequels, though. I think I've read somewhere that the sequels are a little bit more succinct? But I think I want to move on to other books, at least in the mean time. I can honestly say that I LIKE Dune too and, like you, don't love it nearly as much as all the five-star reviews that I've read.

[JBond]

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend continuing if you didn't love the first one.

[Ramplate]

Finished Confessions of a D-List Supervillain - Nice to listen to something different. I haven't seen too many straight up superhero novels that I've seen. Not a bad story.

Next I think I'm going to go historical with American Uprising by Daniel Rasmussen.
It's the story of the largest slave uprising in 1811 - a largely untold story.

[Ramplate]

Wow 100 heads hanging on sticks along the river
no that's not the Taliban in Afghanistan - and no not Vlad the Impaler.

That's along the German Coast down near New Orleans. And the name of the river is the Mississippi.
It was a major event that helped push Louisiana to join the union so it wouldn't happen again
1811 ....what does that remind us of? The War of 1812 yup, and that helped Jackson take New Orleans back. Interesting stuff - Good book.

Next I 'm not sure, but maybe I'll listen to Prey by Michael Crichton ... yeah I'll do that. I'm trying to design a super hero character for a role playing game I play called Mutants & Masterminds A character Who is a cloud made up of nano and synthetic material particles on an atomic level..

A Swarm of Tiny Little Robots Muwahahahahaha! Anyway , Good book from what I recall - I listened to it in rehab last time.

[PsYkOoOoO]

Got over Dune. I'm moving on to The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazny.

[JBond]

That's a huge book, no? I read his book Lord of Light. Pretty cool. No wait, I think I read two of his books. The other might be called This Immortal.

[PsYkOoOoO]

Originally Posted by JBond

That's a huge book, no? I read his book Lord of Light. Pretty cool. No wait, I think I read two of his books. The other might be called This Immortal.

Yep. It's actually called The Chronicles of Amber, and it has two major arcs with five books each. This edition that I have is a 10-in-1 version. I wanted to find a smaller edition so that I can carry it around, but this is the only one that I found. I have a love/hate relationship with omnibuses.

[JBond]

I love omnibi (?). Unless I don't finish them. Then they just taunt me from my bookshelf...

[PsYkOoOoO]

I'm comfortable with books trying to taunt me even if I haven't finished them. To me, if I don't like the book, I don't finish it. It doesn't bother me all that much. Unless I buy it and then not read it for months on end. Then, well, yeah.

[MovieBuff801]

Just started Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.

[JBond]

Originally Posted by PsYkOoOoO

I'm comfortable with books trying to taunt me even if I haven't finished them. To me, if I don't like the book, I don't finish it. It doesn't bother me all that much. Unless I buy it and then not read it for months on end. Then, well, yeah.

I'm the opposite. If I start a book, I have to finish it. With rare exceptions.

[PsYkOoOoO]

So what did you give up on?

[JBond]

Come to think of it, nothing that I didn't eventually go back to finish. Like I took a long break on A Feast for Crows.

[flight]

Currently i am reading a well known Novel Mr. Chips.
_________
Experience Flight

[sshuttari]

Mistborn Trilogy: The Final Empire

[Ramplate]

I finished Prey - good book and there's more to it than I recalled from several years ago.

Next I think I will listen to The Running Man by Stephen King
I bought 4 Stephen King books because this month they are giving a prize (you get one chance per King book to win) of a copy of The Wind Through The Keyhole which is a new story in the Dark Tower series.

[Justin]

Edit.

[Deexan]

[PsYkOoOoO]

Just finished Nine Princes in Amber from the Chronicles of Amber. Moving on to book 2, The Guns of Avalon! Great read so far.

[JBond]

So is it Fantasy? Like, Sword and Stone?