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Post by tdenmark on May 26, 2020 23:22:49 GMT -6
I started this thread way back on January 22 when I was already deep into the book and here it is May 26 and finally finished this relatively thin book. So it took at least 5 months to read. Of course there were long gaps in between readings occasionally.
The last time I remember having this hard a time reading a book was the first time reading A Game of Thrones. I hated that book and powered through it because all my reading friends said it was so great. (yes I think it is great now)
Not that either book was particularly hard to understand, I just didn't get into them.
I'll have to think on it a bit. Sometimes my opinion changes over time as I reflect on a book. It certainly had some good ideas, and I have no doubt JK Rowling plundered from it. As others have.
Now I'm going to rewatch the Tales from Earthsea movie by Studio Ghibli. I don't know if I'm interested in reading any more books in this series.
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Post by Finarvyn on May 27, 2020 4:29:35 GMT -6
Well, if it takes 5 months to read each one I can certainly understand your reluctance to continue. I think that the Earthsea Trilogy are decent books and each has its own feel, but I can also say that when I find an author I don't like I find that I have little interest in reading that author. (Roger Zelazny, for example, is one of my most favorite and least favorite authors of all time. When Zelazny writes from a first-person-snark like Amber or Donnerjack or Lord Demon others like that, I love Zelazny's prose. Then he writes some philosophical stuff and I'm like … what?)
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2020 5:46:39 GMT -6
The Earthsea anime that followed a few years later, at least, wasn't too bad. A bit too slow, for my taste, but a charming reimagining of the books, as far as that seemed possible. Had fun with it, and the conceptual designs were pretty amazing. In defense of the anime adaptation, it was directed by a first-timer, Goro Miyazaki. His famous father Hayao Miyazaki was supposed to direct but it was handed down to the younger man, who had been a gardener of all things before directing this film. Considering his complete lack of experience he did a decent job with the adaptation, I'd say.
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Post by Zenopus on May 28, 2020 23:00:34 GMT -6
The Earthsea anime that followed a few years later, at least, wasn't too bad. A bit too slow, for my taste, but a charming reimagining of the books, as far as that seemed possible. Had fun with it, and the conceptual designs were pretty amazing. In defense of the anime adaptation, it was directed by a first-timer, Goro Miyazaki. His famous father Hayao Miyazaki was supposed to direct but it was handed down to the younger man, who had been a gardener of all things before directing this film. Considering his complete lack of experience he did a decent job with the adaptation, I'd say. I haven't seen Tales of Earthsea yet, but Goro's TV series, Ronja the Robber's Daughter, is amazing. It's also an adaptation, of a book of the same name by Astrid Lindgren of Pippi Longstocking fame. Highly recommended, particularly for parents & kids to watch together. It's on Amazon Prime.
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Post by crusssdaddy on May 28, 2020 23:19:12 GMT -6
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2020 3:39:03 GMT -6
In defense of the anime adaptation, it was directed by a first-timer, Goro Miyazaki. His famous father Hayao Miyazaki was supposed to direct but it was handed down to the younger man, who had been a gardener of all things before directing this film. Considering his complete lack of experience he did a decent job with the adaptation, I'd say. Hehe, don't get me wrong: I like the "Earthsea" anime quite a lot. I'm not necessarily, whatever, "an ardent fan" of the works of the Miyazakis, but I think that the anime was well done for what it was trying to accomplish, which, in my opinion, was to capture the atmosphere of the setting. I also liked that we didn't get yet another version of Ged's origin story, as the tur-ree-bull TV series and the excellent audioplay already had done that. A good movie. If I had kids, I'd probably watch it with them.
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2020 4:19:05 GMT -6
In defense of the anime adaptation, it was directed by a first-timer, Goro Miyazaki. His famous father Hayao Miyazaki was supposed to direct but it was handed down to the younger man, who had been a gardener of all things before directing this film. Considering his complete lack of experience he did a decent job with the adaptation, I'd say. Hehe, don't get me wrong: I like the "Earthsea" anime quite a lot. I'm not necessarily, whatever, "an ardent fan" of the works of the Miyazakis, but I think that the anime was well done for what it was trying to accomplish, which, in my opinion, was to capture the atmosphere of the setting. I also liked that we didn't get yet another version of Ged's origin story, as the tur-ree-bull TV series and the excellent audioplay already had done that. A good movie. If I had kids, I'd probably watch it with them. I'm a Ghibli fan in general, not just exclusively the senior Miyazaki. I think their methods of story-telling are unique in either the East or West. Notably the way they use silence and slow shots in their movies. They never seem to force action to happen. They can just show scenery and let it breathe. That's magical to me. Back to Earthsea, though, I tend to agree with your assessment. It's a solid adaptation because it doesn't just tread the same old ground. It does its own thing, and sometimes that's what an adaptation means, especially when you adapt a western work into an eastern style or vice versa. It needs a bit of "translation" or re-imagining, and they pulled that off. I enjoy the story and the twist on the setting that's shown here. I actually watched this before the books were on my radar, and I can enjoy both for different reasons. I can't always say that about two different versions of the same concept, but it applies here.
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Post by Vile Traveller on May 29, 2020 22:39:25 GMT -6
Hehe, Japanese fathers can have a serious case of competitive dad syndrome. I remember the story of this 70-year old son of a 90-year old sushi master, who rebelled and set up his own restaurant because his dad still didn't think he was ready to take over from him.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2020 23:02:10 GMT -6
This is a pretty decent overview of the early series, and of the not-so-good-very-bad early-2000s miniseries. Not too deep, but makes for some easy listening.
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Post by cometaryorbit on Aug 23, 2020 15:43:47 GMT -6
The dragon part in "A Wizard of Earthsea" was really incredible, and really shapes how I think about dragons - perilous and terrifying, but "wondrous" in a way that more horrible monsters just aren't.
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Post by tdenmark on Oct 6, 2020 21:55:40 GMT -6
Well, if it takes 5 months to read each one I can certainly understand your reluctance to continue. I think that the Earthsea Trilogy are decent books and each has its own feel, but I can also say that when I find an author I don't like I find that I have little interest in reading that author. (Roger Zelazny, for example, is one of my most favorite and least favorite authors of all time. When Zelazny writes from a first-person-snark like Amber or Donnerjack or Lord Demon others like that, I love Zelazny's prose. Then he writes some philosophical stuff and I'm like … what?) Stephen King broke me with The Tommyknockers. I hated that book. Up to that time I read every single King book voraciously as they came out. I still haven't recovered even though there have been some King books I've enjoyed since then, like the first few Dark Tower books, but I will never again be able to read him with the same love I had for his writing when I was a teen.
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Post by tdenmark on Oct 6, 2020 22:08:50 GMT -6
The dragon part in "A Wizard of Earthsea" was really incredible, and really shapes how I think about dragons - perilous and terrifying, but "wondrous" in a way that more horrible monsters just aren't. I will agree, the Dragon scene was one of the best things in the book. Many of the ideas in the book were really good, I think reading it aloud to my kids wasn't the best way to experience it.
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