Metal Reviews

Ending to IT: OOH LOOK A GIANT SPACE SPIDER AND 100+ PAGES OF DRIBBLE AND HOOHA.
Ending to Insomnia: BUY THE DARK TOWER.

Saying 'it could be good... if' doesn't count. I could be King of England... if only I was royal blood and English.

The Stand: Fine. It is good, excepting the Hand of God part. I did think the epilogue to The Stand was quite excellent.

It: Man, that was some good dribble and hooha.

Insomnia: And we all agree that The Dark Tower is good!

The epilogue isn't the ending.



Sure, if you like turtles and nonsense. And not GOOD nonsense like WSB, BAD nonsense like Saturday Night Live.



When I read a novel I don't want to paddle through 1000+ pages to get to an advertisement for another novel, thanks.

Concur! Especially if you are a little tired of typical fantasy.

Hmm well I don't read 'pixie-shit' fantasy - singing Elves and dancing dwarves and so on. Tolkien was the only one to pull that off, and there are still parts of Lord of the Rings that are excruciating. The fantasy author I read the most is David Gemmell, but I am looking for something a little more grand - he has a compelling, immediate writing style, but his plots are very interchangable. But what keeps bringning me back is his gritty and (for the most part - too many silly demons in his later stuff) down-to-earth style.

I have not read David Gemmell, but gritty and down-to-earth are fitting adjectives for George Martin. Traditional fantasy elements are used _very_ sparingly and in a realistic manner. Instead the emphasis is on plot (intricate), politics/intrigue and personalities. But I had better stop before I sound like some gibbering fanboy..

I can't stand his writing style. He writes as he goes, he doesn't map it out first hand, so I feel he just rambles on and on and on. The only book I have ever liked from beginning to end was Dreamcatcher. I thought that book was excellent. The movie sucked, of course.

The new one is about cell phone tones making people go...get this...insane! :shock:

It was his bloodiest and angriest that I know of.

Yeah, the movie was total ass.



...yeah, I don't even need to read that to mock it. Saves me time.

I still implore everyone to read The Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett. It's a stunning book.

Generally, the epilogue constitutes a good part of the ending, and in this case, as it resolves the fate of one of the main characters (ie: the villain) it is indeed part of the ending. Thus that part of the ending was very enjoyable, while the others were at least enjoyable, barring one stupid Hand of God. Hence, what I would call a good ending.





Well, who doesn't like turtles? I did enjoy the parts concerning the deadlights quite a lot, and the character death was done quite well; put it down to personal taste.





But really, besides the villain orchestrating everything being the main villain of the Dark Tower series and his four page appearance, thats about the main crux of the advertisement. The main plot points of the book are resolved; really, besides those four or five pages, the ending is completely unrelated to the Dark Tower. I don't understand how those four or five pages can ruin an ending so completely.

Eyesore: You like David Eddings and you complain of King's writing? I mean, King isn't that good, but eww... The Malloreon was some of worst fantasy I have ever read. Poorly written, and right up there with Terry Brooks and Terry Goodkind for most overrated fantasy authors. Ehh.. No accounting for taste I guess.

Radagast: Martin is as realistic and gritty as you would like. No elves, dancing is usually followed by decapitation, the only "dwarf" is an actual slightly deformed midget (and the best character I've ever read in fiction to boot) and magic level is kept low. I really cannot stress enough how much I recommend this series to anyone with the slightest interest in fantasy, or even medieval historical fiction.

The epilogue is what happens after the ending. Ergo, it isn't the ending.



Fine with me.



Because the ending is otherwise so unsatisfying. The climax was badly done; the whole Charlie Pickering debacle was done much better than the stupid Crimson King thing was. It didn't feel even remotely threatening like Pennywise did.

The ad just ruins it more.

I have only read the Belgariad series by Eddings, which I thought was quite good. Scratch that, I also read the first book, and half of the second book of he and his wife's recent The Dreamers series and thought it was pretty bland. I couldn't get through book #2. I plan on giving the books after the Belgariad series a chance at some point, though, as I've heard he went downhill after he began writing with his wife.

As for Terry Brooks, we'll disagree on that one because I think that dude is awesome. I couldn't get into the Word & Void series, but the Shannara and Landover books were all excellent. Very good stuff.

Sold!

Re-reading:




By Robert Graves. What a fantastic book.

since i've just ended reading a lot of Plinius(both the Elder and Younger) at school i should tell you that the younger will suit you very much if you like Cicero, his Epistulae are a literal masterpiece while the Elder's Naturalis Historia is better if you want the view on nature (see the title) in that particular time.

Thank you for the reccomendations, my good man. I do intend to read both Plinius's soon, though first I think I'll end up reading at least some of the history of Livius, and see if I enjoy that (as his reputation for using incorrect facts to support a wider theme kind of discourages me at this point). Are you studying classical history as your major, by any chance?

i wish..i'm 15 my man, if you didn't know yet. I study latin so i have to translate texts and books by classical age authors. I don't know if it makes me a nerd but i enjoy reading all of them very much. Anyways, if you are in search for more classical authors, tell me

Ahh, you lucky bastard... I've always wanted to learn latin, but no school I've gone to thus far has offered it. That must be quite excellent... And if reading classical history makes one a nerd, then I am a huge one as well. I bought Livy's War With Hannibal today, so I'll be able to tell you if that's any good and hopefully reccomend stuff to you as well. Keep on rocking.

Just finished Thinner, by King.

Honestly, that was a great ending. I wish he'd write endings that wrapped the whole thing up so well often.

Gonna work on The Long Walk next.

oh, almost forgot to ask, have you ever seen the television series of 'I Claudius'? nothing special but still nice to see. And i don't know if you know/mentioned him but try Ovidius!