Troy

Clearing up edition confusion

Revisado: 08-14-20

This version (thank you Audible!) is the original version in five books. At one point the first four books (with part of the fifth sandwiched in) was printed as The Once and Future King. Those complaining about missing chapters (e.g. the ant war) are referring to that other version. In this collection those missing chapters come later in The Book of Merlin. They were however changed a little in the all-in-one print compendium. Which is better? Correct? Shrug. They are just different. This one is more complete, despite people’s comments to the contrary.

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Great performance, chaptering fixed! Story ... ?

Revisado: 07-29-20

Originally Audible put this book out with a single 15 hour chapter in the middle (and two 20 minute or less chapters before and after). This has been fixed, thankfully!

Simon Vance is amazing. He's one of my favorite narrators and he delivers a great performance here as usual. He's a perfect choice for the Dune series.

This book ... sigh. I want to love it, and there are things to love about it, but it falls short for me. Herbert refers to it as a love story, but that's a complicated "set up," because it's hard to tell who the participants are in that supposed relationship. I imagine that Herbert is referring to Leto and Hwi, but that's a kind of false, engineered love. It might also refer to Idaho and Hwi, or in an odd way to Siona and Idaho or Siona and Leto ... but I really don't see it as a love story. I see it as a story about fate. The fate of mankind and "the Golen Path" and Leto II. It's a bit tedious and unfocused when read that way. However, it gives Dune fans a lot to chew over.

Some of have complained about the "homophobic" subplot. It's an opinion mainly expressed by Idaho, who is a man out of his time. Others defend same sex play, but also dismiss it as something harmless that people grow out of. So yeah, that's not great. OTOH the book has some strong feminist ideas, for instance why women make up a better army than men. Yes, these ideas are buried in the differences Herbert observes between the sexes. So if you don't believe those differences are there or as generalized as he does it reads as sexism. All in all an interesting book, but problematic for modern (2020s) readers. Who knows what 2030 and 2040 readers will make of it? The complex and possibly dated political ideas enmeshed in the book remind me of reading Heinlein's Starship Troopers with modern eyes.

Recommended for Dune fans only.

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A fantastic novel underserved by the reading

Revisado: 07-24-18

The language is sumptuous, as you might expect if you know anything about Raymond Chandler. His description is unparalleled. His dialogue is also fantastic. But there are a couple of things you need to know before listening.

1. The plot of this one is complicated and Chandler doesn't spoon feed you. Pay attention. If you need to, back up and listen to a chapter or two again if you get confused.

2. The story seems to wrap up about two-thirds the way in and then kind of launch in a new direction, but it's all related.

3. Ray Porter does pretty well with the male voices, barring one or two kind of ridiculous ones. But this audiobook would be FAR better if Audible would have a woman read the female characters' lines and cut them in over Porter's ridiculous performance. The female characters are, admittedly, annoying as written (on purpose), but Porter's comical voices take away any subtlety and, in my opinion, almost ruin the reading. I wish he hadn't tried so hard and gone for a much more subtle touch.

4. This book isn't very kind to women. It's pretty clear early on that the female characters are monsters. So are some of the men, it's true. It's a hard world that Marlowe inhabits and he has to be hard to survive it.

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Truths from a Lovable Goof

Revisado: 02-17-18

This is not a perfect book. Did you expect it to be? This is a book written by a young voice; sometimes a voice that seems immature to me, a man of 50. And frankly, I wanted a story about a guy who lived in a van and the titular wheels don't really make an appearance until, literally, 2/3 the way through the book (outside of a short introduction).

And yet, it's a pretty great book. I am thinking of all kinds of people to whom I want to hand this book. It captures a time; the age of student debt. It captures a spirit; the spirit of volition - of setting one's will to a thing and achieving it and making little of the costs. It captures your heart, at times, for a fellow human being who is both only, and more than just "a van-dweller."

So as I flip over this volume and give it a little pat. Saying out loud, "Good book" like it is a dog that just fetched my slippers. I will highly recommend it not because it will be the "best thing you ever read" but because it speaks truth. And because it speaks those truths not with a practiced and polished eloquence. but rather sometimes awkwardly and maybe even too honestly, from the heart of a lovable goof.

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Better than Dune?

Revisado: 02-02-18

This book is very, very good. Perhaps better than Dune. But you have to understand that the action is psychological. So, in terms of physical action, not much happens until the last third of the book.

The jihad has happened in the 12 years since Dune. Paul is responsible for billions of deaths. He is surrounded by sycophants that would deify him and courtiers that would see him knocked off his pedestal. Among them is Irulan, who has been denied his affection and his offspring and is conspiring with off-worlders. (All of this is revealed in the first couple of chapters, BTW, so not really spoilers.) Paul is trapped in his prescience; an unwilling tyrant filled with self-loathing.

As you get into this story, you need to realize you are reading about a Paul who is caught in a trap and is desperately looking for the way out. The book is about hard choices; what is he willing to sacrifice to find some kind of acceptable future?

I say that, because I sort of hated it in the beginning. It's a bit of a grind, but really worth it! There are so many good moments of dialogue, so much psychological and political tension. I also like that it is a story of redemption (overcoming one's self rather than overcoming an enemy). I don't really feel like your reading of Dune is complete without reading this book as well.

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A Fantastic YA Novel & a Good Read for Adults Too!

Revisado: 02-02-18

This book really holds up. I read it first as a 10 year old. I had already read The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Narnia (series), Earthsea (trilogy) and other fantasies. This was my first Dragonriders of Pern book. (First of many.) It's a coming-of-age story about a young woman in a largely male-dominated society. She is a free spirit and musician, but her father wants her to keep her place and give up her "tuning." Fire lizards, tiny dragonlike creatures play a role in the story, as you might guess from the cover. Like most Pern books this one has themes suited to animal lovers, romantics, and dreamers. It still hits me in the feels. :)

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Fun,but Shallow

Revisado: 02-02-18

A lot of silliness amounting to not much of a point. At times I really enjoyed this book, but at other times I was bored or annoyed with the meandering narrative. It could use some editing for clarity and, frankly, for humor. It felt like every joke Pratchett and Gaiman came up with got thrown in. Not a bad book, but it doesn't compare to Wodehouse or even Adams for enjoyable humorous blathering. That's my opinion, take it for what it's worth.

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For animal lovers, seekers, and psychologists

Revisado: 02-02-18

This book is going to stick with me for a while. I literally just finished it about 30 seconds ago and I don't think I'm ready to talk about it intelligently, but here are some bullet points to flesh out later. Maybe I'll just leave them here as reader questions for others. My gut reaction says that this is a damn, fine book and I would recommend it to anyone.

• It makes obvious references to Adam and his Creator in the same way Frankenstein does, which invites the comparison. How are the two books alike/different?

• Sirius talks a lot about the Spirit and search both scientific and mystical sources for truth. Eventually he forms some kind of in-between truth (much like he is an in-between creature) of the Spirit. What did I make of that as a reader? How does it relate to wordless song/singing, as featured in key moments of the story?

• This book wasn't always gripping as a story. It never felt unfocused, to me, but the style of it seemed less concerned with events and more concerned with a kind of seeking for truth. Will I agree with this assessment later? Does this focus/structure somehow make it harder to read?

• War looms over this tale. It seems crucial to me in some way, but I can't quite put a finger on it other than to say that it forces the characters to separate at times. But how does war affect the story's themes? What other big abstracts come into play (e.g. Religion, Love, the Wild) as forces that drive us?

• There is both sadness and strangeness in this story. Where and how did it break my heart? Where and how did it make me feel uncomfortable?

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Falls short on history, survival, story, narration

Revisado: 01-20-18

This bit of historical fiction is fine, as far as it goes, but I found it mostly a lackluster read because it's not enough of any one thing. Let me explain.

As a historical novel, it begins with some colorful characters from the fur trade era, but then plays with the facts and fills in gaps so that the story absolutely becomes fiction. In other words, you can't read it as a history novel. (It helps that in the afterword the author tells you where he changed and filled in the story.)

It also tries to tell a cool survival story, but the passages devoted to frontier life provide too little detail to be satisfying and too much detail to stop short. (Why bother giving half the detail if you aren't going to write that kind of novel?) The protagonist's triumphs often seemed too easy or unbelievable. And when something intricate was being described, like building a boat from buffalo hide, I couldn't quite picture it from the description given. The author just supplied a string of sentences in service of describing a process without really giving you a clear picture of it.

Finally, it makes an effort to tell a cool "story of revenge" and yet fails to tell a compelling one at either end. From the beginning I didn't really hate the two characters that the protagonist wants to get his revenge on. Yet he remains committed to revenge. I fully expected a version of what happened, and I won't spoil it, but I'll say it wasn't satisfying. It could go one of two ways, right? He either gets his revenge or forgives one or both. And I really didn't care which it was going to be (which tells you something). At the moment he realizes his revenge/non-revenge on each (again, avoiding spoilers) I just kind of shrugged. It didn't feel meaningful or complete to me.

Is the movie better? I haven't seen it. I suspect it is. This performance was again "fine" as far as it goes. I felt like Holter Graham's voices were a bit too forced. They characters often sounded a bit cartoonish to me. It also seemed like he had a few voices he used in rotation and some of the characters ran together.

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Mostly great readings of varyingly good stories.

Revisado: 01-08-18

Dreams of Terror and Death: The Dream Cycle of H. P. Lovecraft

My favorites are marked with an exclamation point after the track number. This collection leans toward broad inclusiveness in deciding which stories belong to Lovecraft’s dream cycle. If you want a shorter, more focused experience, I suggest the following tracks (only): 5-13, 16, 17, 19-24, 52-59. This gives you the Randolph Carter cycle, the stories it references, and a few extras that are too good to miss.

ALL TRACKS

1: [Fragment] Azathoth read by Robertson Dean.

2: [Fragment] The Descendant, Simon Vance.

3: [Fragment] The Thing in the Moonlight, Sean Rennet.

4: Polaris, Elijah Alexander.

5!: Beyond the Wall of Sleep, Stephan Rudnicki.

6!: The Doom that Came to Sarnath, Robertson Dean.

7: The Statement of Randolph Carter, Bronson Pinchot.
~ Part of the Randolph Carter cycle. I like Pinchot but I wasn’t a fan of this reading. It was too amped up.

8: The Cats of Ulthar, Elijah Alexander.

9!: Celephais, ready by Simon Prebble.

10!: From Beyond, Tom Winer.

11: Nyarlothotep, Stephan Rudnicki.

12!: The Nameless City, ready by Malcolm Hilgartner.

13: The Other Gods, Stephan Rudnicki.
~ I did not like Rudnicki’s reading. His voice was pitched in a way that I found hard to follow. It sounded like he needed a drink of water.

14: Ex Oblivone, Sean Rennet.

15: The Quest of Iranon, Elijah Alexander.
~ Couldn't finish because of Alexander’s reading.

16!: The Hound, Simon Prebble.

17: Hypnos, ready by Simon Vance.

18: What the Moon Brings, Sean Rennet.

19!: Pickman’s Model, Malcolm Hilgartner.

20-23: The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (Carter), ready by Bronson Pinchot.
~ Part of the Randolph Carter cycle. You can’t beat this one for sheer inventiveness. It really maps out Lovecraft’s dreamlands. And yet it isn’t much of a “story.” So just enjoy the ride; don’t expect a great payoff.

24: The Silver Key, Bronson Pinchot.
~ Part of the Randolph Carter cycle.

25: The Strange High House in the Mist, Tom Winer.

26-49: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Robertson Dean.
~ This story is a bit of a slog. Also, the text in this one has at least one error. The beginning of file 30 is incorrect. The internal numbering of chapters in general is off the texts I have (I checked three), but that’s not a big deal. Somehow, though, the beginning of file 30 is actually the text from the beginning of the next section. (Skip to file 31 and you’ll see they open with the same phrase.) The file gets back on track right away, but it should start with “In 1766 came the final change in Joseph Curwen. It was very sudden, and gained wide notice amongst the curious townsfolk…”

50-51: The Dreams in the Witch House, John Lesko.

52: Through the Gates of the Silver Key, Bronson Pinchot.
~ Part of the Randolph Carter cycle.

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