Jordan’s Comments (group member since Jan 18, 2015)

Jordan’s comments from the Return of the Rogue Readers group.

It certainly does. I mean, the first horcrux was able to control Ginny, one of the later ones turned Ron emo. Harry was the last of them and therefore had the smallest piece of Voldemort, but 10 years is a long time.

Length? Subject matter? Similar titles?

Suggestions for Book #3?

I saw this post on Reddit and had to share it. The Dursleys were awful, right? Mean to Harry, generally shitty people. Worthy of our contempt!

This guy suggests that they were so awful because they spent 10 years with Harry. Harry is a horcrux. Behold:

http://graphicnerdity.tumblr.com/post...

This one really caught my eye in my youth.

The author is doing an AMA on Reddit. For those unfamiliar, an AMA is an interview conducted by the users of the forum.

http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comment...

Possible? Yes, I didn't catch anything that would refute the possibiity.

However, he did say that she married and moved away, right? Also, that he never saw her again. I suppose that could mean "he never saw her (alive) again."

Why would they be missing him if it was her funeral? Why would he speak at the funeral of a girl he kissed 30 years ago? These are questions.

The part I was talking about was one of the two older Hempstock women. I tried to skim through the book just now, but I must have missed it. I believe she compared the worlds to grains of sand...or maybe I did that myself. I don't know. It was a very "There are other worlds than these" type comment.

As for the funeral, here is what I noticed. Correct me if I missed anything:

*He spoke at the funeral before going to the Hempstock Farm.
*He mentioned his sister in a sentence followed by the phrase "and other well-wishers."
*He mentions people will ask him about his wife and that their marriage soured an failed long ago.
*He says his kids wished they could be there.

From that I deduce that it was not one of his parents or his children. It wasn't his sister or ex-wife. It wasn't his own funeral due to the Hempstocks saying he would be back again, and the fact that he spoke. It could be a friend, but he made several remarks about how he had no friends. It's not likely a distant family member because if it were why would his sister be a well-wisher and not a mourner alongside him?

It seems that Neil deliberately wrote this part to be vague and open-ended, but I would love to hear any theories.

As for your thoughts, Tye, I get where you are coming from. I have a bias against the sort of discussion where there is no real evidence to support a theory. Sure, maybe Neil planned for this book to be about a grown man who looks back on his childhood and realizes it was all in his imagination. Maybe it's a tale of a coping mechanism for a kid who feels his family doesn't love him. Maybe Lettie really did move to Australia and the loss of his only childhood friend was too devastating for him to deal with. Hell, maybe he is autistic. Maybe the Hempstocks never existed, that they are hallucinations he experiences while on drugs...which uses to cope with his emotions.

I didn't see any evidence for any of that, though I am by no means the most observant reader. Did you? What do you think was really going on and why?

Lettie definitely did not move to Australia. She is wherever whatever she is goes when they need to do whatever it is they do.

As for the funeral, I still ask, who was it for?

Also, when Old Lady Hempstock was talking to little Ringo Geldof after the Hunger Birds attack she made a comment about how they could have destroyed this world and nobody would notice, it was just a world, after all. I liked that bit.

Also, yes, this would have been ideal in a collection a la 'I Am Legend" The length pleased me, but y'all know I love brevity. It left me wanted more, which is never a bad thing.

My audiobook copy didn't have those topics included, unfortunately. No, I don't think it set a pessimistic tone. However, the funeral interests me. Who was it for?

Hop to, son. The book is good and while it was spoiled for you by some goddamned sasquatch keep in mind that books are about the journey, not the destination. That's what I said to King when I scolded him over his ending of DT7.

Avatar 2 will be even better.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is read by the Gaiman himself and he does a fantastic job. If anyone is considering getting into the audiobook thing this would be a great one to check out.

I don't think Garret means to say his ability was unreasonably high, just that he thinks a person *with* that high level of skill and ability would not behave that way.

And I disagree.

The psychological evaluations for going into space are likely very, very rigorous, but "type of sense of humor" is almost certainly not part of it. They would test for the likelyhood of you going crazy and killing your crewmates, or having a panic attack in an enclosed space. They would look for how rebellious you are or how well you handle isolation.

I know for a fact that NASA isn't a stiff, white shirt and black tie sort of place. They probably don't put whoopie cushions under the Director's seat, but who knows. Exhibit A is Bobak Ferdowsi who has a red and black mohawk with stars shaved into the side of his head.

He is is a systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was a member of the crew behind the 9-year mission that put the Curiosity rover on Mars. He was 24 years old when he earned his masters in aeronautical and astronautical engineering and got a job at NASA. 24.

If that guy is just a couple years older than us then it's a safe assumption that he is a fan of South Park, Family Guy, The Simpsons, Archer, etc, etc.

So, taking that all into consideration I don't think it alters the believably of the book at all. It didn't even tap gently on the fourth wall (or whatever we call that concept in books).

That doesn't mean I enjoyed it. I didn't like his Jim Carreyian sense of humor, but taste is so very subjective. I think this book was aimed at the general reading public, not at a niche crowd. The general public likes Family Guy. They like Jim Carrey.

Do you get me? Do you? It's absolutely imperative that you get me.

Awesome! It begins...

In recent memory two books that really worked as Audiobooks were Dune and Joyland. I enjoyed Joyland as a book and as an audiobook. The story and all that was great, but the audiobook stands out above most for me because the narrator did a great job. It improved an already good experience.

Dune, on the other hand, was not one of my favorite books. Since we have a policy of keeping the discussion of the book in it's own thread I won't go into detail, but suffice to say I didn't find myself as eager to pick that book up, or in this case hit play. However, the narrator of Dune was the highlight for me. The voices were good, I could clearly tell character from character, the emotions felt real, and to be hones't it kept me interested enough to finish.

There have been audiobooks I wanted to listen to but turned off because I disliked the voice of the narrator, his/her style, etc.

I think they are two unique experiences. I got halfway through Imajica in both formats. Once on the Kindle and once as an audiobook. I made it further in the audiobook, but it was not fated to be at that time. Having done both I found the transition from Kindle to Audiobook a little jarring. People reacted differently and the emotions weren't quite right. I quickly got into the flow, however.

We all have The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Shall we read that next? Any other suggestions?

It was Watney's sense of humor, definitely. I see where they are coming from when he says things about the incoming robot being gay and when he yells. The yelling was disturbed my peaceful listening experience. It didn't take away from the book, however.

I may have asked this in the previous group, but I will ask again. Some people have criticized the authors dialog, they say Mark Watney sounds like a teenager at times. Did you think that was so?

I enjoyed The Martian. I think the action was paced well. I also thought it had a nice balance between the technical jargon and exposition in a way that made it easily accessible to laymen like me.