What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech
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@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@dafyre said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
Working my way through LOTR books again. I'm farther along now that I got last time I tried to read it... Almost done with The Hobbit.
I read through them when I was younger. I was sorry. Bad writing. Only books ever where I felt that the movies were better than the books. The movies have better writing and pacing. They took an okay story from the books, and enhanced it with vastly better writing technique. LOTR as books would get a C in a college writing class. They fail in nearly every way.
Ha ha ha ha! I totally agree with you about (most) of the movies. I haven't seen Desolation of Smaug or Battle of Five Armies yet. I keep saying I'm going to and then forget when I have time, lol.
Edit: I'm not one to critique a fantasy story, unless it's proofreading for grammar missed steaks. I have a vivid imagination as is, so I don't need all the descriptive stuff like what goes into Tolkien works.
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@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
I thought Zahn might be continuing the SW canon, which sounded like a great idea. That he decided to join the world of "Zahn never happened" makes sense, he knows where his bread is buttered. He has a family to feed, I assume. Whatever. But it was interesting enough to make me think SW might have a future I cared about. But, I'll get over thinking there is any hope.
Zahn... you are my only hope.
Hopes... squashed.
Interesting - I'm not sure anyone could legally publish a Legacy based novel now and not get sued into the ground.
If I'm wrong, please feel free to educate me with more than "you're wrong"
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@Dashrender said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
I'm halfway through the new book... I'd say neither of these live up to the memory I have of the original Zahn triology. They are good, but definitely not as good. As a matter of point - I started reading Alliances 4 weeks ago, and haven't gone back to it.
If you were Zahn, imagine how hard it would be to really put the effort into doing what he did before. They basically burned him like crazy, and they made it that taking the universe seriously has no future. Now its stewards don't respect it. So there is neither a culture of quality, nor the personal benefits of doing a good job. I can only imagine that for Zahn last time was passion, and this time is pure dollar signs. Which really, is how everything Disney is. That's why you choose the Disney life, yeah it makes a lot of money, but there is no soul in it.
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@Dashrender said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
I thought Zahn might be continuing the SW canon, which sounded like a great idea. That he decided to join the world of "Zahn never happened" makes sense, he knows where his bread is buttered. He has a family to feed, I assume. Whatever. But it was interesting enough to make me think SW might have a future I cared about. But, I'll get over thinking there is any hope.
Zahn... you are my only hope.
Hopes... squashed.
Interesting - I'm not sure anyone could legally publish a Legacy based novel now and not get sued into the ground.
If I'm wrong, please feel free to educate me with more than "you're wrong"
Disney will sue for sure. Disney had the laws altered to remove the long standing right to do that. Watch the video, that's what the video is about. The insane corruption that Disney has been involved in and how they are undermining literature in America.
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@dafyre said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@dafyre said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
Working my way through LOTR books again. I'm farther along now that I got last time I tried to read it... Almost done with The Hobbit.
I read through them when I was younger. I was sorry. Bad writing. Only books ever where I felt that the movies were better than the books. The movies have better writing and pacing. They took an okay story from the books, and enhanced it with vastly better writing technique. LOTR as books would get a C in a college writing class. They fail in nearly every way.
Ha ha ha ha! I totally agree with you about (most) of the movies. I haven't seen Desolation of Smaug or Battle of Five Armies yet. I keep saying I'm going to and then forget when I have time, lol.
Sadly they altered the story a bit in those and changed some characters pretty dramatically, which wasn't ideal.
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@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@Dashrender said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
I'm halfway through the new book... I'd say neither of these live up to the memory I have of the original Zahn triology. They are good, but definitely not as good. As a matter of point - I started reading Alliances 4 weeks ago, and haven't gone back to it.
If you were Zahn, imagine how hard it would be to really put the effort into doing what he did before. They basically burned him like crazy, and they made it that taking the universe seriously has no future. Now its stewards don't respect it. So there is neither a culture of quality, nor the personal benefits of doing a good job. I can only imagine that for Zahn last time was passion, and this time is pure dollar signs. Which really, is how everything Disney is. That's why you choose the Disney life, yeah it makes a lot of money, but there is no soul in it.
Disney has a committee meeting. They have the Thrawn Trilogy in hand. Committee decides to purchase the franchise. Decides that drivel is the way to go forward. Smashes franchise to pieces.
All is well -
@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@dafyre said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@dafyre said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
Working my way through LOTR books again. I'm farther along now that I got last time I tried to read it... Almost done with The Hobbit.
I read through them when I was younger. I was sorry. Bad writing. Only books ever where I felt that the movies were better than the books. The movies have better writing and pacing. They took an okay story from the books, and enhanced it with vastly better writing technique. LOTR as books would get a C in a college writing class. They fail in nearly every way.
Ha ha ha ha! I totally agree with you about (most) of the movies. I haven't seen Desolation of Smaug or Battle of Five Armies yet. I keep saying I'm going to and then forget when I have time, lol.
Sadly they altered the story a bit in those and changed some characters pretty dramatically, which wasn't ideal.
lol. I'm about done reading the Desolation of Smaug (they're about to kill the wabbit --I mean dwagon)... I guess I 'll have to stop after it's over and watch the movie.
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@dafyre said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@dafyre said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@dafyre said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
Working my way through LOTR books again. I'm farther along now that I got last time I tried to read it... Almost done with The Hobbit.
I read through them when I was younger. I was sorry. Bad writing. Only books ever where I felt that the movies were better than the books. The movies have better writing and pacing. They took an okay story from the books, and enhanced it with vastly better writing technique. LOTR as books would get a C in a college writing class. They fail in nearly every way.
Ha ha ha ha! I totally agree with you about (most) of the movies. I haven't seen Desolation of Smaug or Battle of Five Armies yet. I keep saying I'm going to and then forget when I have time, lol.
Sadly they altered the story a bit in those and changed some characters pretty dramatically, which wasn't ideal.
lol. I'm about done reading the Desolation of Smaug (they're about to kill the wabbit --I mean dwagon)... I guess I 'll have to stop after it's over and watch the movie.
Highlight of the movies... Dr. Who as one of the wizards.
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@Dashrender said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@PhlipElder said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@PhlipElder said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
Picked up Timothy Zahn's new Thrawn Alliances book so am re-reading its predecessor then the new one.
He is a fantastic writer. Great book(s).
There is a new one in the series? I just found my copies of the old trilogy a few days ago.
Yeah, Disney's new canon versus what is now called the "Legends" series or old canon originally doctored by Lucas himself.
The new canon covers the movies, TV series, other online series, and any of the new books published since "The Force Awakens".
In a way, it's a good thing and in a way the decision was a bad thing.
It was good because Disney was not locked in to retelling what was already written in the plethora of Legends books and series. It was bad for much the same reason. So much was left behind.
Another good that came out of it is Zahn's ability to write using his hindsight and augmenting things. The first book was and is amazing. I'm already 3/4 of the way through it. I expect no less from the new "Thrawn Alliances" book.
I'm halfway through the new book... I'd say neither of these live up to the memory I have of the original Zahn triology. They are good, but definitely not as good. As a matter of point - I started reading Alliances 4 weeks ago, and haven't gone back to it.
I haven't really thought of it that way.
I've read the Legends Thrawn Trilogy at least two or three times. They are one of my favourite set short of some of the Han Solo sets, the Millennium Falcon stories, the ongoing tension and eventual marriage of Luke Skywalker to Mara Jade, and many of the other series sets.
I get a sense that much of what Zahn wrote in the Trilogy is there in the new book. There are plenty of references to key bits and pieces. What I'm enjoying is the delving into the Empire's court politics and Thrawn's ice breaker smashing through it for lack of a better analogy.
I especially like the first person bits throughout the book. It's neat. We get a pretty good idea of what is going on with Thrawn as he moves about his various challenges. Eli is a good offset character too. They work well together.
All in all, the original trilogy still stands as one of my favourites right up there with Asimov's Foundation Series. The current one, and it's left to be seen about Alliances, would fall somewhere in the top 25 maybe.
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I really liked the original trilogy, for sure. What's sad is that while the books continue to exist, obviously, there is a certain "no one cares" anymore, about possibly the best bits of the entire Star Wars universe.
If Disney didn't maintain the right to sue by bribing government officials, someone would have taken that line and forked the universe to keep a canonical one that people actually were passionate about.
This is exactly why open source is so important.
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Foundation remains my favourite sci fi as well.
Funny, I only have two sci fi series sitting on my shelves here... Foundation and Zahn's trilogy.
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@PhlipElder said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@Dashrender said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@PhlipElder said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@PhlipElder said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
Picked up Timothy Zahn's new Thrawn Alliances book so am re-reading its predecessor then the new one.
He is a fantastic writer. Great book(s).
There is a new one in the series? I just found my copies of the old trilogy a few days ago.
Yeah, Disney's new canon versus what is now called the "Legends" series or old canon originally doctored by Lucas himself.
The new canon covers the movies, TV series, other online series, and any of the new books published since "The Force Awakens".
In a way, it's a good thing and in a way the decision was a bad thing.
It was good because Disney was not locked in to retelling what was already written in the plethora of Legends books and series. It was bad for much the same reason. So much was left behind.
Another good that came out of it is Zahn's ability to write using his hindsight and augmenting things. The first book was and is amazing. I'm already 3/4 of the way through it. I expect no less from the new "Thrawn Alliances" book.
I'm halfway through the new book... I'd say neither of these live up to the memory I have of the original Zahn triology. They are good, but definitely not as good. As a matter of point - I started reading Alliances 4 weeks ago, and haven't gone back to it.
I haven't really thought of it that way.
I've read the Legends Thrawn Trilogy at least two or three times. They are one of my favourite set short of some of the Han Solo sets, the Millennium Falcon stories, the ongoing tension and eventual marriage of Luke Skywalker to Mara Jade, and many of the other series sets.
I get a sense that much of what Zahn wrote in the Trilogy is there in the new book. There are plenty of references to key bits and pieces. What I'm enjoying is the delving into the Empire's court politics and Thrawn's ice breaker smashing through it for lack of a better analogy.
I especially like the first person bits throughout the book. It's neat. We get a pretty good idea of what is going on with Thrawn as he moves about his various challenges. Eli is a good offset character too. They work well together.
All in all, the original trilogy still stands as one of my favourites right up there with Asimov's Foundation Series. The current one, and it's left to be seen about Alliances, would fall somewhere in the top 25 maybe.
If I was giving a rating to the original Zahn triology, I'd say it was 95%, this new one would be like 85%... Still a good read, not as exciting because, well you already know Thrawn from the original, the character is basically the same, so you aren't learning much new in that regards, but the court stuff was definitely pretty cool. I like seeing Thrawn grow through the ranks.
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I'm currently reading Animal Farm by George Orwell. Has anyone of you read it?Please feel free to recommend new books!
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@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
Foundation remains my favourite sci fi as well.
Funny, I only have two sci fi series sitting on my shelves here... Foundation and Zahn's trilogy.
The Foundation Series is easily one of my favorite Scifi series as well. So good in fact that I got my Harry Potter obsessed sister to read it (she's not in to science fiction) and she loved every minute of it.
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I thought the first one was great, but that the other books sort of got away from it too much. maybe I should try and given them another try in a few years as I get through my queue
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@valentina said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
I'm currently reading Animal Farm by George Orwell. Has anyone of you read it?Please feel free to recommend new books!
That's a classic. Lots of us had to read it in school. Pretty common to be in a reading list.
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@Donahue said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
I thought the first one was great, but that the other books sort of got away from it too much. maybe I should try and given them another try in a few years as I get through my queue
You have to read the Trilogy to even complete the story. The first book doesn't really stand on its own.
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@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
@Donahue said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
I thought the first one was great, but that the other books sort of got away from it too much. maybe I should try and given them another try in a few years as I get through my queue
You have to read the Trilogy to even complete the story. The first book doesn't really stand on its own.
I have, I've probably read 4 or 5 books in the series. But that was years ago, and before I discovered audiobooks.
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@valentina said in What Are You Currently Reading Outside of Tech:
I'm currently reading Animal Farm by George Orwell. Has anyone of you read it?Please feel free to recommend new books!
