Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Although it doesn't have the same satisfying fall-and-rise arc as Dune, if that's what your mate likes about it. More just "everything's so fucked that getting impaled on a metal thorn tree by an incomprehensible god of death seems like a pretty good option". It's great, though.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I had seen that recommended but I read the first page of the kindle sample and thought it looked like toss. But perhaps I was too quick to judge.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Actually tell a lie I read the first SENTENCE and thought it looked like toss.

Screenshot 2023-12-11 at 14.49.23.png

But I think what put me off was "played Rachmaninov's Prelude in C-Sharp Minor", and I can see that perhaps there's a Ballardian thing going on here of juxtaposing something very specifically of our world with "great, green, saurian things". (Ala. the doctor sitting down to eat a german shepherd at the start of high rise.)
 

droid

Well-known member
Its a bit all over the place but its also one of the great sci-fi epics, with a major plot thread built around the life of Keats, of all things.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Actually tell a lie I read the first SENTENCE and thought it looked like toss.

View attachment 16941

But I think what put me off was "played Rachmaninov's Prelude in C-Sharp Minor", and I can see that perhaps there's a Ballardian thing going on here of juxtaposing something very specifically of our world with "great, green, saurian things". (Ala. the doctor sitting down to eat a german shepherd at the start of high rise.)
TBF, Dune has the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen introduce himself to the reader by asking "Is it not a magnificent thing that I, the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, do?" - while talking to characters who obviously know who he is (some guy he's employed for decades and his own nephew).
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Yeah I've not read Dune either.

I guess I enjoyed Game of Thrones which is stylistically something of a dogs breakfast so perhaps it doesn't matter.

Cheers chums
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
Actually tell a lie I read the first SENTENCE and thought it looked like toss.

View attachment 16941

But I think what put me off was "played Rachmaninov's Prelude in C-Sharp Minor", and I can see that perhaps there's a Ballardian thing going on here of juxtaposing something very specifically of our world with "great, green, saurian things". (Ala. the doctor sitting down to eat a german shepherd at the start of high rise.)
Yeah, that sentence is a heap of shit. A page is more than enough to get a sense of the author's style, just as talking to someone for 5 seconds is enough to realise you will find their voice even more annoying over 2 hours, and so you prefer to adopt someone else thank you very much.
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
TBF, Dune has the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen introduce himself to the reader by asking "Is it not a magnificent thing that I, the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, do?" - while talking to characters who obviously know who he is (some guy he's employed for decades and his own nephew).
It's called exposition and it's for your benefit.
 
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