HiWire 994 Posted December 18, 2020 Report Share Posted December 18, 2020 Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews The Jennifer Lawrence movie was based on this book (haven't seen it). I'm halfway through and completely engrossed. Great for fans of Le Carré, Fleming, etc. More spycraft and character-building, less Hollywood prurience. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
luvdunhill 3,266 Posted December 18, 2020 Report Share Posted December 18, 2020 Plus recipes! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TMoney 3,678 Posted January 17 Report Share Posted January 17 (edited) Late last year I was reading a feature (maybe it was a profile of the movie coming later this year?) where the author made reference to Dune as being impenetrable to a lay audience and full of gobbeldy-gook. I first read the book about two decades ago, so I figured it was a good time to pick it back up and re-read. I'm happy to say the opposite is true. Far from being impenetrable, I found it all but impossible to put down once I got momentum going. I think it has aged beautifully. I think it is well deserving of its "classic of the genre" status. Dune's brilliance, to me, comes from the combination of its world-building, characters, prose (better than I remembered), and plot (schemes within schemes). I think Dune ends up as more than the sum of its parts. In not being overly reliant on any one aspect of story-telling, it succeeds in a way that a lot of classic sci-fi does not under contemporary scrutiny. Herbert's focus on character and location give Dune timelessness in ways that sci-fi novels overly reliant on cool/novel technology can never be. I also can't believe how middle-eastern the book is having re-read it after travelling to the region. -- I'm not at all excited about the 2021 movie. I get wanting to bring this story to a wider audience who is never going to read a 600 page sci-fi book from the 60s. Dune is just so fulfilling to those of us who love it. However, even with low expectations for the movie I fully expect to be disappointed. The Lynch movie at least nailed the production design and a lot of the casting, even if it ended up a colossal mess. The story is just very difficult to cram down to a 2-3 hour script without losing a lot of the richness that makes Dune what it is. But hey, paging @cutestory! When was the last time you (re)read it, Jeffy who is known to us as Maud'dib, and how did it hold up for you? Edited January 17 by TMoney 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TMoney 3,678 Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 Absolutely wonderful. This is a great complimentary read to those who have watched the show, or a wonderful journey for those who have not seen it yet. I'm really impressed by Tevis as a writer. Ender's Game is one of those books you give to precocious young people who might feel ashamed of being smart. Maybe it is time to re-think that default option and give them this classic instead. Best compliment I can give the book is I read it in a single day. It hooks you and won't let you go. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sherwood 1,419 Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 On 1/17/2021 at 4:25 AM, TMoney said: I also can't believe how middle-eastern the book is having re-read it after travelling to the region. I read it for the first time a few months ago, and I found it very similar to you. It was really well-paced, I felt propelled from one plotline to the next, my unhappiness at leaving one storyline outweighed always a little by excitement to revisit another. It's really a great story, laid out well. The discussions about reading order and canon are impenetrable and detract from the experience somewhat, but what can you do? I highlighted the above because I think the sort of Arab fetishism the writing about the Fremen exhibits did not age the same way the rest of the book did. Obviously public conceptions about the Middle East have shifted greatly here in the West, and I'm personally very fond of the kind of romanticized Bedouin culture seen in works like Dune and Lawrence of Arabia, but I also think it's a little skin deep. The noble savage thing is a well worn trope and it fits the larger hero's journey nicely, but it does feel like a bit of moralizing on Herbert's part. It also removes me from the fantasy somewhat, as the other major factions don't seem to have the same obvious real-world counterpart. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TMoney 3,678 Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 One hundred precent, Tyler. I am in total agreement. That is part of why I have zero interest in Herbert's sequels. He caught lighting in a bottle once, but trying to stretch it out beyond the one book has no appeal to me. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
n_maher 11,598 Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 39 minutes ago, TMoney said: One hundred precent, Tyler. I am in total agreement. That is part of why I have zero interest in Herbert's sequels. He caught lighting in a bottle once, but trying to stretch it out beyond the one book has no appeal to me. I listened to Dune this year and enjoyed it thoroughly. The sequel, no thank you. It was a total struggle and it'll be the last of the series that I bother with. In other news I (unsurprisingly) took @en480c4's recommendation and have now listened to Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth. The former is effing fantastic. The second was more difficult, for reasons I will not divulge (spoiler) but finished incredibly well and has me looking forward to the final book in the trilogy to see where the story goes. The audio books are highly recommended, the narration and narrator are brilliant. 6 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Voltron 25,082 Posted January 26 Report Share Posted January 26 I actually slogged through all of the sequels and it was rough. I got on such a roll that I read his son's cheesy prequels and such. In my defense, commuting on the streetcar was a painful slog at the time and I fully associate the sound of the MUNI announcement chime with Dune and the Guild. 4 1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jose 1,637 Posted February 2 Report Share Posted February 2 I have some books waiting for me.This year will be very, very long again.I'm reading the book about SR71. IMO one of the most beautiful planes in the world. I have been lucky enough to see it twice (and a F14A and others) on the deck of the Intrepid (NY). 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blessingx 5,646 Posted February 15 Report Share Posted February 15 Thinking about history and presidents, I started this today. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TMoney 3,678 Posted February 16 Report Share Posted February 16 (edited) Robert Caro - The Path to Power What can I say? Best book on politics I've ever read. Maybe best book on history I've ever read. There are certain books that I know if I see them on someone's shelf that we will get along instantly. Caro is a national treasure. This is so well written and so meticulously researched. It is a 1,000 page monster but it goes down smooth because the history, cast of characters, setting and Caro's prose are so compelling. The first book is less a strict biography of LBJ but more a history and study of America in the beginning of the 20th century with LBJ as a the central character. Texas politics, the Hill Country, the Great Depression and the New Deal all are described so brilliantly. I hope to finish the other 3 volumes this year. There is a chapter in the book about the daily hardships of rural America pre-electrification that is just an absolute knockout and can be read on its own as a great piece of non-fiction. Edited February 16 by TMoney 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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