After burning through the show The Magicians, a depressed Harry Potter figure goes to college and finds a cold cruel world, I couldn't wait for more show so I read the first book.
Which is alright, the show and the book diverge pretty early on, kind of like two people where given the same outlines and then told to write the same story.
The story of the book isn't going to blow anyone's socks off but I enjoyed the journey. It touches on the training of a mage far more than the Potter books, there's a whole lot of places where the characters are just grinding out their abilities.
The thing I do like about it is that by the end all the characters are pretty competent magicians, There are no moments of "well, you won because love/chance/destiny". I also like how they touch on the ennui that one would imagine would overcome any human who suddenly found that they could twist reality to whatever they really wanted. The adults out in the world are basically wrestling with finding a purpose in the face of being able to do pretty much anything. Like being in a RPG, maxed level, more gold than god, every spell and bit of eq at your fingertips, the bad guy's dead, and now find something else to do!
I preferred the books and bailed on the TV series. For me, the TV series making the characters older didn't make any sense and just made the characters seem age-inappropriately immature. The book series fleshes out the characters more, while the show condenses them down into clichés. The TV series tried to pack in a lot of action and soap opera drama, whereas the books emphasizes that magic is a hard-learned and dangerous skill and that how one treats and reacts to people defines the relationship. Characters in the show seem to conveniently forget or overlook how another person did something kind or horrible to them in previous episodes. In general, I found the books worthwhile, if occasionally poorly paced, reads and the TV series trite and inartfully vulgar.
It may just be a factor of reading the book before seeing the show and vice versa.
I also really enjoyed Penny being a giant asshole in the books and that he becomes one of the most powerful characters in the book as opposed to Quentin or a more likable character.
Trying to listen through Cryptnomicon and, well, is it bad form to quit 1/4 way through a book? Consider 1/4 is like 10 hours on the audiobook. I just cant keep enthusiasm. The reader is annoying, the use of the word Nipponese is pretty goddan painful not to mention constant use of the resultant abbreviations-cum-slurs, and between that and the way these various characters are written as acting or thinking, and the whole thing is annoying. And slow. And jumps around too much.
I can't see whatever results later in the story being worth what I have to sit through. At least Reamde was ridiculous action. Seveneves also had serious issues but the setting was so cool and the stakes so high and the characters interesting enough to overlook that it worked.
Earlier stuff makes me wonder how anyone let him get far enough to finally bust out a story life Seveneves.
Anyway even if I come back later, im putting it aside because Babylon''s Ashes, next book of The Expanse series, is out tomorrow in the US! I'm so ready. Go Mars!
Trying to listen through Cryptnomicon and... is it bad form to quit 1/4 way through a book? Consider 1/4 is like 10 hours on the audiobook... I just cant keep enthusiasm. The reader is annoying, the use of the word Nipponese is pretty goddan painful not to mention constant use of the resultant abbreviations-cum-slurs, and between that and the way these various characters are written as acting or thinking, and the whole thing is annoying. And slow. And jumps around too much.
I can't see whatever results later in the story being worth what I have to sit through. At least Reamde was ridiculous action. Seveneves also had serious issues but the setting was so cool and the stakes so high and the characters interesting enough to overlook that it worked.
Earlier stuff makes me wonder how anyone let him get far enough to finally bust out a story life Seveneves. I Anyway even if I come back later, im putting it aside because Babylon''s Ashes, next book of The Expanse series, is out tomorrow in the US! I'm so ready. Go Mars!
That's basically what I did. I enjoyed the bit about the unrecognized math genius talking with Turing then getting blowed up
Then I enjoyed the bit about the guys in the 60s with spreadsheets involving fuck you money less...
The bit where cryptonomicon goes to japan just drags and drags and drags until I just gave up. I have more I could be doing with my life.
Patriotic Fire: Andrew Jackson and Jean Lafitte at New Orleans is awesome, but the audio version of Bruce Springsteen's autobiography, read by Bruce Springsteen, was released yesterday so that takes priority.
I preferred the books and bailed on the TV series. For me, the TV series making the characters older didn't make any sense and just made the characters seem age-inappropriately immature. The book series fleshes out the characters more, while the show condenses them down into clichés. The TV series tried to pack in a lot of action and soap opera drama, whereas the books emphasizes that magic is a hard-learned and dangerous skill and that how one treats and reacts to people defines the relationship. Characters in the show seem to conveniently forget or overlook how another person did something kind or horrible to them in previous episodes. In general, I found the books worthwhile, if occasionally poorly paced, reads and the TV series trite and inartfully vulgar.
It may just be a factor of reading the book before seeing the show and vice versa.
I also really enjoyed Penny being a giant asshole in the books and that he becomes one of the most powerful characters in the book as opposed to Quentin or a more likable character.
I completely agree with the criticisms of the show. The whole thing with them being grad students in the show was a bit weird, I mean, why is being a magician a graduate thing?
The only things I like from the show more was how the Beast seemed to loom over everything. It added a nice edge of paranoia. I guess there may be more of that in the 2nd and 3rd books, I've only just started the second one yesterday. I was told that the show kind of mashes the first and second books together in weird ways, only getting Quentin's pov for the book was a bit weird given all the shifting around the show does.
I finished the Maddadam trilogy. It's solid. The second and third books basically are from the perspective of all the side characters that interact with Jimmy and Glen in the first book. The people who disappear or otherwise influence them.
Comments
It may just be a factor of reading the book before seeing the show and vice versa.
I also really enjoyed Penny being a giant asshole in the books and that he becomes one of the most powerful characters in the book as opposed to Quentin or a more likable character.
I can't see whatever results later in the story being worth what I have to sit through. At least Reamde was ridiculous action. Seveneves also had serious issues but the setting was so cool and the stakes so high and the characters interesting enough to overlook that it worked.
Earlier stuff makes me wonder how anyone let him get far enough to finally bust out a story life Seveneves.
Anyway even if I come back later, im putting it aside because Babylon''s Ashes, next book of The Expanse series, is out tomorrow in the US! I'm so ready. Go Mars!
Then I enjoyed the bit about the guys in the 60s with spreadsheets involving fuck you money less...
The bit where cryptonomicon goes to japan just drags and drags and drags until I just gave up. I have more I could be doing with my life.
The only things I like from the show more was how the Beast seemed to loom over everything. It added a nice edge of paranoia. I guess there may be more of that in the 2nd and 3rd books, I've only just started the second one yesterday. I was told that the show kind of mashes the first and second books together in weird ways, only getting Quentin's pov for the book was a bit weird given all the shifting around the show does.