Books: A Portal into A Different World (1 Viewer)

adamgrracer

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My favorite book from the fantasy novel series, J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter.
I not only read all the books, but also watched the movies. I really admire this author and this book. I am constantly re-reading and re-watching!
 

The_Doc_Man

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J.K. Rowling demonstrates an important fact: Good writing has its own appeal. The Harry Potter series was well-written with simple concepts, good action descriptions, and relatively easy motivations. It translated well to the screen. (As proof of that fact, Ms. Rowling now has more money from royalties on her work than the British Royal Family had when Elizabeth II was still queen.)

By contrast, the Frank Herbert series starting with Dune did NOT translate well to the screen because so much of what happened was "stream of consciousness" (voice-over as opposed to dialog). A lot of the history you needed to understand the machinations of the Bene Gesserit group required an "expository lump" - i.e. you needed a history lesson to put it all together while watching the movie. Whereas the book had the history lesson interspersed with the action and dialog. Didn't translate from print to screen so well.

Another example of the "translation" issue was the D.F. Jones novel Colossus, which was made into the movie Colossus: The Forbin Project. There, the novel translated well for the most part and was an enjoyable, if chilling, story.
 

Pat Hartman

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I agree. Dune was an excellent book with a complex story and even though I had read the book before I watched the movie, the movie was incomprehensible and also filmed so dark I couldn't see any of the action. I hated it. The opening scenes of the original Star Wars movie looked more like Dune should have looked.
 

Uncle Gizmo

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filmed so dark I couldn't see any of the action.
Also, the audio was all over the place I had to keep turning it up and down to capture the dialogue.

In the cinema, I practically couldn't understand it I just didn't enjoy it at all...
 

CJ_London

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Just to lower the tone😀

I’ve recently finished a series of 10 books ‘starship for sale’ by M Forbes. A cross between Harry Potter and Star Trek. Not intellectually challenging but each book left on a cliffhanger. It has HP type magic combined with ST type technology

fun to read

another author to take a look at is Peter Hamilton who writes space operas - typically trilogies. Some are up there with Dune in my opinion
 

Pat Hartman

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SciFi used to be my favorite genre but somewhere along the way it morphed into fantasy instead and there isn't much actual SciFI left. I'll look at Forbes and Hamilton. I really liked Anne McCaffery. Especially the Dragonriders of Pern but she did several other notable series.

It appears that SciFi is no longer sold in mass market paperback format. I found a few random old books but even popular authors don't seem to be reprinting anymore. All the newer stuff is ebook - which I hate or the expensive paperback format so $12-18 each.
 

CJ_London

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Take a look at eBay and similar for 2nd hand

I use a kindle most of the time- works for me
 

Pat Hartman

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I spend enough time looking at a computer screen every day that i don't want to read fiction using a computer. I also don't want to have to carry a kindle or notepad around. I have at least 4 books going at any one time and they stay where I generally read.
 

The_Doc_Man

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The issue of sci-fi morphing into fantasy is really not that much of a morph if your author wants to write consistent fantasy. I.e. designs rules ahead of time and sticks with them. For instance, Randall Garret's Too Many Magicians, which is a detective/murder mystery set in a world where magic has laws analogous to the laws of physics or chemistry.
 

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