Re: [MUD-Dev] OT: Books

[Maddy <maddy#fysh,org>]

On Sun, 14 Dec 1997, Matt Chatterley wrote:

> On Sat, 13 Dec 1997, Sauron wrote:
> > Matt Chatterley wrote:
> > > On Fri, 12 Dec 1997 s001gmu#nova,wright.edu wrote:
> > > > On Fri, 12 Dec 1997, Adam Wiggins wrote:
> > > > > Frank Herbert's Dune.  See Tolkien.

[Lengthy discussion about the Dune books]

> Heh. This can be said to be true - I did read all five (or was it six? I
> seriously lost count!), and elements did carry through well. I think the
> style with which Herbert tackled them was quite different to anything else
> I had (have?) read, and intruiged me for a book or too, but soon wore
> thin. I would definitely read Dune again, and even Messiah, but I wouldn't
> go further purely on literary merit. Quite right; chapterhouse was just
> plain strange.
> 
> And the film was *dire*!

Actually I liked the film - it helps if you disassociate the book from it
and treat it as a seperate thing.

> > > Heh. I am repeatedly impressed by the quality of the TV show, as far as
> > > spin-off shows go. The first movie was a *classic* (Chris Lambert, AND
> > > Sean Connery!), the second was utterly bizarre, and the third sucked.
> > 
> > I really loved the first, the second one was well I don't know what it
> > was, and the third on its own was a fairly good movie, but when compared
> > to the rest of the "franchise" it is disappointing. 
> 
> The third was reasonable as a 'run of the mill action movie', something
> which I counted the original above. This is the trouble with sequels - you
> compare them to the originals, and they have generally lost the sparkle.

The 2nd Highlander film should be ignored completely - it only makes sense
if you see the highly editted version of Highlander that the Americans saw. 
Basically they removed all the plot, charactisation and just made it into a
full action movie.  McCloud lost all of his past etc. and so they were able
to make one up for the 2nd film.

Anyway, might as well give a brief list of the books that have influenced
me.  Nothing has really and truely biased me, but I still like most of the
books.

- The majority of the Forgotten Realms series.
A good clean consitant story world - plenty of nice ideas about how to do
religions.

- Discworld: Terry Pratchet
Very very funny - my style of actual writing seems to bend towards the same
as T.P. - at least that is what people have told me.

- The Xanth series: Piers Anthony.
Likewise, very funny.  Putting puns in a mud would probably be a bad idea,
but humour definitely is.

- Master of the Five Magics: (can't remember who wrote it)
I like this mainly for the detailed magic system.

Maddy