Tony’s Comments (group member since Dec 19, 2018)

Tony’s comments from the Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy group.

After the disappointment of the Star Wars parody, I am continuing Asimov's Future History with The Robots of Dawn, the third of the Elijah Baley / Daneel Olivaw books.

I finished May the Farce be with You!. The second part did have a couple of bits that made me laugh, but overall it was pretty disappointing.

I have finished the first part of May the Farce be with You!. It never reached a level of laugh out loud funny, but there were some amusing moments. I'm not particularly inspired to read the prequel parody that is the rest of the book, but I'm a bit of a completist and it's not going to be a long read, so I expect I will.

I am reading May the Farce be with You! which is a parody of the original Star Wars movie. It's actually a double book which can be flipped over to read a parody of the prequel. Based on my enjoyment so far (nearly halfway through the first book) I'm not likely to read the prequel parody. It's not horrible, but I'm not finding it particularly funny.

I have finished The Naked Sun. I expect I will read something entirely different before I continue Asimov's Future History with The Robots of Dawn, which was written 26 years later.

I haven't read any of the 45 recent hits either, but there are several that I will probably get around to at some point.

My reading across the subgenres was also fairly evenly scattered, with a few in each of the books listed. I feel that if I were to take the time to go through my library and catalogue my books into subgenres that it may well reveal some preferences, but that's far too big a job for me to be bothered with :)

I agree with most of what Andrea wrote - particularly about Donaldson :)

I rarely have a set reading order for what I'm going to read next because I know that the genre I feel like reading may well change from the start of one book to the next. I can spend an hour or more browsing my TBR books looking for inspiration, or I may have a particular book in mind and jump straight into it. And there are times when I may wait a day before starting the next book, as I feel more in the mood to watch TV, or play a game, or whatever. I can't say that it makes me feel anxious when I'm in a mood like that.

I do find that it is far more common to come across people who think it's unusual that I actually read books, and I am somewhat disturbed by the number of people I see in news videos and vox pops who seem proud of not having read a book since school.

I've read 20 of the fantasy list, but I generally read more sci-fi than fantasy. I also have another 15 or 16 on my TBR list.

Interesting to see The Hobbit ahead of Lord of the Rings - that's not usually the case. It's also not common to see The Silmarillion so high on the list.

There are some omissions that surprised me - no Elric, no Conan.

I finished Jirel of Joiry which also fills in my pre-1940 Bingo slot. The book consists of 6 short stories all published during the 1930s and leaning more to dark fantasy than swords and sorcery. I particularly enjoyed "Quest of the Starstone" which also features Moore's other iconic character, Northwest Smith. Smith was, in many ways, an inspiration for Han Solo. Oddly this story is missing from most earlier publications of this collection.

I have started the second of Asimov's Elijah Baley novels - The Naked Sun.

I've read 37, many of them not included on my Read list - I thought about entering all the books on my shelves when I joined GR, but it is a job that has been put into the "I'll get around to it someday" list :)

Interesting that the top 5 books on the list are all dystopian.

The Caves of Steel fills in the genre blender slot, being both science fiction and a detective story, so that gives me all the Ns and leaves me needing a shared world book to complete all the 1s.

As one of the roots of metal was prog rock, it's not surprising that many metal bands have a strong fantasy influence.

For those in Australia, the TV series adaptation of War of the Worlds starts on SBS this Thursday (July 9). It was on in America last November, but I don't believe it has been available on any of the streaming services here.

Also, starting on July 18, SBS will begin showing Fear the Walking Dead, which shows what happened while Rick was unconscious in hospital. It will be on weekly (perhaps a double episode) but the first 2 seasons will be available for streaming. This started in America in 2015, and was available here on Foxtel (I think) but that won't have been available to most people.

NekroRider wrote: "Just started Mary Shelley's The Last Man and can already tell this is gonna be right up my alley.."

I have it on mt TBR list, but I find the pacing in Frankenstein to be rather slow, so I'm not in any hurry to start it.

Rachel Adiyah wrote: "Sadly, I think that Kevin Anderson is best known for his legions of Star Wars books written back in the 1990's."

Ah, ok. I love the Star Wars movies, but I haven't read many of the books, so I wasn't aware that he had written a bunch. They would, of course, be far more widely known than Saga of the Seven Suns.

G33z3r wrote: "I saw a note in the movie news last week that there was a casting call for extras for the LotR in New Zealand. So I assume Apple's Foundation has the edge, since it's actually done some filming :)"

Possibly, but there have also been casting calls for "funky" looking people for LotR. Looks like it may be a race to the wire :)

Brian Herbert was "assisted" by Kevin J Anderson who is possibly best known for the Saga of the Seven Suns .

I have read Hunting Harkonnens and The Butlerian Jihad which are the first short story and the first novel of the series that sets up the Dune Universe. Certainly not badly written but, like the Saga of the Sevens Suns, I found the pace a bit slow. I haven't felt a great need to read more, although I do have both House Atreides and Sisterhood of Dune on my TBR shelves.

Most people will agree that Dune is a great book and well worth all the accolades it has received. In my opinion the second book, Dune Messiah, isn't great, but worth reading to maintain continuity (it's short) for the third book, Children of Dune, which is excellent.

The second trilogy - God Emperor, Heretics and Messiah - I cou;dn't even finish God Emperor, and never started the other two.

The Horus Heresy series is the most popular series that they have produced.

Nice work. Thoughtful commentary and a well put together video.