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NorgLyle posted:(I read all of these books back in the 90s when I would devour anything vaguely humorous that was also fantasy or sci-fi adjacent.) How many Xanth and other Piers Anthony books did you read?
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Jun 27, 2019 18:22
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twistedmentat posted:How many Xanth and other Piers Anthony books did you read?
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Jun 27, 2019 23:01
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NorgLyle posted:Too many (which is technically "any" but for specifics I read Xanth all the way up to the one with the entire chapter devoted to moles loving, the first four Incarnations of Immortality and Ghost. I avoided by chance any of the Space Tyrant stuff which is apparently quite awful but the dual hits of mole loving and everything in Ghost were enough to break me out of it). Yea I read every Xanth book up to...which ever one came out after the tie in for the Companions of Xanth. I think at that point I was 16 or 17 and realized I was too old for them. I read a lot of his other books too, the one offs like Isle of Women and such. I totally thought they were clever and funny. But god drat they were bad when I grew up. Turned me off any kind of sci-fi that has comedic elements in novels. Why I HATE HATE HATE Snowcrash. Like Anthony, Stephenson just drips with smugness over his own cleverness. This is also why i never read any Prachett books, the storybook cover art didn't help.
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Jun 28, 2019 00:27
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twistedmentat posted:Yea I read every Xanth book up to...which ever one came out after the tie in for the Companions of Xanth. I think at that point I was 16 or 17 and realized I was too old for them. I read a lot of his other books too, the one offs like Isle of Women and such. I totally thought they were clever and funny. But god drat they were bad when I grew up. Turned me off any kind of sci-fi that has comedic elements in novels. Why I HATE HATE HATE Snowcrash. Like Anthony, Stephenson just drips with smugness over his own cleverness.
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Jun 28, 2019 07:03
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twistedmentat posted:
The Josh Kirby art was a big turnoff for me too for the longest time, but I eventually learnt to ignore it. Paul Kirby taking over after Josh’s passing helped things a lot for me. But you can get all sorts of covers now, the publishers have gone full re-release crazy.
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Jun 28, 2019 08:53
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FactsAreUseless posted:Pratchett's a lot better than Anthony or Stephenson. His early work has a little too much on-the-nose parody but his good stuff is more grounded in its themes and characters. He's still light pulpy airport fiction but there's nothing wrong with that, not every book has to be Serious Literature, and Pratchett's like good fast food - it's not cuisine but you'll have a good time. Pratchett was a great author because he managed to write books that were both light airport fiction and had serious themes. It's why there's very little dispute that the best books in the series are Small Gods and Night Watch.
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Jun 28, 2019 13:36
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The_Doctor posted:The Josh Kirby art was a big turnoff for me too for the longest time, but I eventually learnt to ignore it. Paul Kirby taking over after Josh’s passing helped things a lot for me. But you can get all sorts of covers now, the publishers have gone full re-release crazy. Yea, everyone being wizards wearing robes and pointy hats with stars on them or witches straight off halloween decorations. It worked in the game (the only Discworld media I've ever consumes) because 90s adventure games looked like that, but as a book, it makes it looks like its for kids. FactsAreUseless posted:Pratchett's a lot better than Anthony or Stephenson. His early work has a little too much on-the-nose parody but his good stuff is more grounded in its themes and characters. He's still light pulpy airport fiction but there's nothing wrong with that, not every book has to be Serious Literature, and Pratchett's like good fast food - it's not cuisine but you'll have a good time. I've gotten the impression he's clever without the smugness. Like the parody and jokes is a bit more subtle, rather than going HEY LOOK MY MAIN CHARACTER'S NAME IS HIRO PROTAGONIST! DO YOU GET IT?ISN'T THAT CLEVER??? AREN'T I CLEVER????
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Jun 28, 2019 18:13
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Even in 1996 I didn't think Stephenson actually thought "Hiro Protagonist" was clever. It was a parody of Cyberpunk and while it's far from his best novel, it's also fairly clear none of it was particularly po-faced.
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Jun 28, 2019 19:17
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twistedmentat posted:Yea, everyone being wizards wearing robes and pointy hats with stars on them or witches straight off halloween decorations. It worked in the game (the only Discworld media I've ever consumes) because 90s adventure games looked like that, but as a book, it makes it looks like its for kids.
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Jun 28, 2019 21:32
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One of the first descriptions of Rincewind is the fact that his pointy hat has WIZZARD on it
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Jun 28, 2019 21:35
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Snow Crash is brilliant but I can't stand the rest of Stephenson's work.
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Jun 29, 2019 01:16
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Laterite posted:Snow Crash is brilliant but I can't stand the rest of Stephenson's work. Diamond Age is good. Anathem is great imo.
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Jun 29, 2019 01:36
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I remember giving up about halfway through Snow Crash during his librarian infodump chapter. He’s got at least one good idea on every page, but the man can’t write for toffee.
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Jun 29, 2019 01:40
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Laterite posted:Snow Crash is brilliant but I can't stand the rest of Stephenson's work. This opinion is super weird to me
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Jun 29, 2019 01:49
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The_Doctor posted:I remember giving up about halfway through Snow Crash during his librarian infodump chapter. He’s got at least one good idea on every page, but the man can’t write for toffee. The infodump chapters are actually the best part of the book. He explores interesting themes and builds a very clever world, but his prose is garbage. Amazon is doing a Snow Crash miniseries too, right? That one will probably end up being better than the novel.
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Jun 29, 2019 02:54
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TK-42-1 posted:Diamond Age is good. Anathem is great imo. Anathem and The Baroque Cycle are capital-L Literature to me and are totes amazing. Snow Crash will likely be decent but drat I want a long series covering the whole Baroque Cycle, it would be soooooo dope
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Jun 29, 2019 02:55
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TK-42-1 posted:Diamond Age is good. Anathem is great imo. Yeah I liked both of those and Snow Crash. Couldn't get into Cryptonomicon at all though.
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Jun 29, 2019 20:01
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Zodiac is good, in an 80s thriller sorta way.
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Jun 29, 2019 20:45
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I don't know how Michael Sheen does it. He has a gift for taking unpleasant characters and making them feel real and human. Aziraphael for example
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Jul 1, 2019 14:59
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You find Aziraphale unpleasant?
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Jul 1, 2019 16:01
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The_Doctor posted:You find Aziraphale unpleasant? Nope, quite the opposite, Martin makes him very loveable. Taken as written, Aziraphale is an effete cowardly idiot and the TV show does stray that way a bit too much sometimes, but managed to pull it back. Edit, embarrassed I misspelled Aziraphale Sloth Life fucked around with this message at 12:44 on Jul 2, 2019 |
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Jul 1, 2019 17:58
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The_Doctor posted:You find Aziraphale unpleasant? I liked Crowley more than Aziraphale when I read the books but liked Aziraphale way more in the show. Either I'm no longer an edgy teenager or Sheen did a fantastic job. Possibly even both.
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Jul 1, 2019 19:38
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Sloth Life posted:I don't know how Michael Sheen does it. He has a gift for taking unpleasant characters and making them feel real and human. Aziraphael for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NMkmhtPGuo
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Jul 1, 2019 20:05
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Sadly, nobody's uploaded my favorite Wesley line: "There's only one Wesley Snipes in this world!"
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Jul 1, 2019 23:46
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FactsAreUseless posted:Sadly, nobody's uploaded my favorite Wesley line: "There's only one Wesley Snipes in this world!" That and no one knowing Tracy's age are my favorite 30 Rock gags
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Jul 1, 2019 23:59
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That Michael Sheen and Sarah Silverman dated for awhile kind of boggles my mind.
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Jul 2, 2019 00:43
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Laterite posted:That Michael Sheen and Sarah Silverman dated for awhile kind of boggles my mind. 
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Jul 2, 2019 01:39
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Davros1 posted:Please, won't you consider signing this petition to get this blasphemous program removed from Netflix? A bit older news now but I didn't see it mentioned in the thread. Netflix UK and Ireland has responded. https://twitter.com/NetflixUK/status/1141787587390201862 Also they appear to be making a Sandman TV-series, which could be anywhere between amazing and atrocious.
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Jul 2, 2019 11:24
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Executive producers Gaiman and David Goyer, Showrunner the guy who wrote Wonder Woman and has a bunch of soap comedramas like Gilmore Girls and Grey's Anatomy to his name. I'm leaning towards "atrocious but will bamboozle the online crowd into thinking it's amazing".
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Jul 2, 2019 14:11
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My Lovely Horse posted:Executive producers Gaiman and David Goyer, Showrunner the guy who wrote Wonder Woman and has a bunch of soap comedramas like Gilmore Girls and Grey's Anatomy to his name. I'm leaning towards "atrocious but will bamboozle the online crowd into thinking it's amazing". It will either be atrocious or it won't be Sandman. It will be weird if it gets as far as A Game of You, though. When that story was first published everyone raved about how progressive it was because it dealt sympathetically with trans issues and even had a trans artist - and it really was progressive, 1992 was a lot shittier in that regard. But in 2020 it's more likely to be pointed out that the trans character is explicitly told "gently caress you, the universe says you're a man because you were born that way" then gets fridged as an indirect result of the actions of her fellow tenants.
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Jul 2, 2019 14:55
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By bringing it to Netflix, they can play with Lucifer as well, can’t they?
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Jul 2, 2019 15:12
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The_Doctor posted:By bringing it to Netflix, they can play with Lucifer as well, can’t they? Lucifer is tainted forever now, I think.
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Jul 2, 2019 15:41
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Jedit posted:It will either be atrocious or it won't be Sandman. I think a TV adaptation might want to trim some of the less central stories anyhow, both to create a tighter narrative and to conserve budget. Dream barely showed up in A Game of You and the most important consequence (Dream starting and then ending a relationship and getting sad) happened offscreen and could easily be replaced by any number of other reasons for him to mope. Not that I'd expect them to do that, they'll probably plow right on ahead and translate it beat for beat as much as they can.
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Jul 2, 2019 16:00
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My Lovely Horse posted:Executive producers Gaiman and David Goyer, Showrunner the guy who wrote Wonder Woman and has a bunch of soap comedramas like Gilmore Girls and Grey's Anatomy to his name. I'm leaning towards "atrocious but will bamboozle the online crowd into thinking it's amazing". Goyer is also famous for saying he hates comic books but mostly works with their adaptions. I think he's a primary sufferer or Nolanitis (when you think that Nolan's Batmans are the alpha and omega of comic adaptions so everything must be realistic and grounded like they were). So with Gaiman there he can't go "Having him literally be the god of dreams is unbelievable, what if we made him a psychologist that studied dreams? No Neil, no Comic Book adaption has been successful by being true to the source material. No one would go see a movie with a guy wearing a star spangled suit." And that's what I think happens when WB gets people to adapt DC stuff.
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Jul 2, 2019 19:19
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I just finished watching this show, and it's loving perfect. I enjoyed the book since it was a tour de force of Gaiman's and Pratchett's strengths, but I enjoyed this even more. Sheen and Tennant are awesome, and the way they play off of each other is incredible. I know there are calls for a second season, but I'm really hoping they leave it at one season because I don't know how they can top it.Laterite posted:That Michael Sheen and Sarah Silverman dated for awhile kind of boggles my mind. WAT
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Jul 9, 2019 20:37
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To be fair, Sarah Silverman is older than she seems. Also, still not nearly as odd as Joanna Newsom being married to Andy Samberg, or that time Cat Power dated a 20 year old model
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Jul 10, 2019 00:56
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It's just more that I'd never imagine them being together, not so much an age difference. It's like how Pete Davidson managed to date Kate Beckinsale for a while (although there IS an age difference there).
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Jul 10, 2019 02:11
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Bogus Adventure posted:It's just more that I'd never imagine them being together, not so much an age difference. It's like how Pete Davidson managed to date Kate Beckinsale for a while (although there IS an age difference there). or the guy from super troopers that are all the drugs being married to christina hendricks
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Jul 10, 2019 04:55
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Bogus Adventure posted:It's just more that I'd never imagine them being together, not so much an age difference. It's like how Pete Davidson managed to date Kate Beckinsale for a while (although there IS an age difference there).
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Jul 10, 2019 05:18
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FactsAreUseless posted:This is one of the grossest things I've ever read. dudes got a massive hog
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Jul 10, 2019 05:43
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