Comments | arrakis: Ok. I was wrong about BH/KJA books

marlowe1 in arrakis

Ok. I was wrong about BH/KJA books

Apr 29, 2009 16:15

I am re-reading The Machine Crusade. I know that the admission for many of you is tantamount to saying "I am sticking sewing needles in my eyeballs", but I liked the books the first time I read them ( Read more... )

Comments 7

erin_ruston April 29 2009, 21:11:15 UTC

They made good one shot popcorn for me, but a second read is out of the question.

marlowe1 April 30 2009, 00:31:59 UTC

I think that's a good rule of thumb. Usually for movies I know whether or not I want to see them again; but on rare occassions I am surprised by how bad I find a movie upon repeat viewing. Kung Fu movies come to mind - Fung Sai Yuk, My Father the Hero and the like - where the first time I watch I'm blown away; the second time I just can't stand them and realize all the slow parts.

For books, I usually assume that if I love a book the first time I'm going to like it the second time. For example, I just read Confederacy of the Dunces for the third time.

evilgerbil April 29 2009, 21:54:08 UTC

Yes. They are that bad. The sequels are even worse, because they take characters you already know and make them incredibly, mind-numbingly stupid.

mejoff April 30 2009, 15:26:02 UTC

Stupid, and subject to irredeemably weak, melodramatic, sub soap opera plots that don't seem to fit in the same universe as the originals.

friggasgirl April 30 2009, 02:21:43 UTC

I thought they were among some of the worst written books I've ever read. That list also includes Twilight. I read them once. Never again. I'm still trying to bleach my brain to forget the stories.

mejoff April 30 2009, 15:22:20 UTC

Awful. awful books, as I feel I may have warned you some time ago before you read them the first time... or was that someone else?

marlowe1 May 15 2009, 04:53:04 UTC

I liked them the first time I read them. I think I had a LOT of good will at the time. I even defended them as "well not up to the originals but popcorn."

Sigh.

What's worse is the fact that I just read a mystery about a detective from China who comes to England to search for his kidnapped daughter. Called Bad Traffic. Turns out it was the same kind of expositional bullshit. Makes me wonder if any writer can write a decent book these days.