The vampire/dracula books by Bram Stoker are classic, but I never could get into Dracula. I found Mina too annoying.
It's an artifact of the times. In Lair of the White Worm, there is another "Mina" kind of character, and also a poor black fellow falling under the "savage slave from the dark continent" variety, constantly referred to by the "n word".
But I still very much enjoy the writing.
The value in Dracula is that it is an epistolary (a form I study and practice myself) and an exceedingly good one, at that, in terms of craft. You don't see many of those around anymore. I'd love for a good writer to do a Diablo book in the epistolary format, like the diary on the D3 site.|||Oh don't get me wrong, whenever Mina wasn't around I really liked the book. But yeah I have them all somewhere, and they are indeed very well written.
....it's just Mina. Oh well.|||So ya, I started reading The Name of the Wind. It's amazing! It even has geometric progression and what I think is thermodynamics in it.|||Ahh, it's good to hear someone mention Burroughs. He's quite underappreciated in my opinion. I am currently reading The Summons by John Grisham.
Re The Inheritance Cycle:
Most of the criticism I have heard, is that it is basically Star Wars and LOTR mixed. Paolini could be accused of making few original contributions to the story. He seems to basically rehash the Force as the Ancient Language/Magic, and set it in a quasi-medieval fantasy world, as opposed to a Galaxy Far, Far Away. There are even examples of old, time-wearied masters (Obi-Wan/Brom) teaching young, upstart apprentices (Luke/Eragon) in the ways of The Force/Magic common to both stories. That being said, I really enjoy the books, and also mourn what could have been an excellent film adaptation, had it been properly executed.|||Anyone waiting on the new one in the Game of Thrones series by George RR Martin?
I always liked a few of the old series of George's stuff from Analog magazine and I just found them on the internets.
Enjoy - http://www.ebookstack.com/content/tuf-voyaging & http://www.ebookstack.com/content/way-cross-and-dragon
only two I have read and can recommend, the first was a collection of related shorts and the second was a serialized novella.
They also have the Wild Card series of superhero type books he edited there.
and a few others I missed or don't remember.
http://www.ebookstack.com/ebooks_search ... omy%3A1284|||My wife's been trying to track down those Wildcard books, actually. I don't really approve of those types of sites for literature (as there is so little money to be made to begin with) but they are impossible to find otherwise.|||FRED SABERHAGEN's Vampire stuff is good.
.
The Dracula Tape, is the story of Bram Stoker's Dracula told from Dracula's point of view, in this version, Dracula survives the best efforts of Harker, Van Helsing and company, who are portrayed largely as bungling fools, Van Helsing in particular as a fraud and heretic, and Dracula while alive as a violent and mean-tempered but nonetheless Orthodox Christian who fought the encroach of the Ottoman Turkish Empire into Europe. ("There is not an ounce of soil here which has not been enriched by the blood of patriots.") In later novels, Dracula interacts with other literary characters including Sherlock Holmes and Merlin.
His success with this series was such that he was hired to write the novelization of the movie, Bram Stoker's Dracula.|||Quote:
FRED SABERHAGEN's Vampire stuff is good.
.
The Dracula Tape, is the story of Bram Stoker's Dracula told from Dracula's point of view, in this version, Dracula survives the best efforts of Harker, Van Helsing and company, who are portrayed largely as bungling fools, Van Helsing in particular as a fraud and heretic, and Dracula while alive as a violent and mean-tempered but nonetheless Orthodox Christian who fought the encroach of the Ottoman Turkish Empire into Europe. ("There is not an ounce of soil here which has not been enriched by the blood of patriots.") In later novels, Dracula interacts with other literary characters including Sherlock Holmes and Merlin.
His success with this series was such that he was hired to write the novelization of the movie, Bram Stoker's Dracula.
I feel he did a good job with the movie script but I found The Dracula Tape to be ridiculous and off-kilter. If you are going to twist a perspective on someone else's work, you should at least be true to the work (such as the quote you cited which was actually written by Bram Stoker, as dialogue from Dracula himself). In fact, all of that stuff about the Ottoman empire was in the original Dracula, given as a speech from Dracula to Harker. Instead of saying "I" did this, however, he made reference to his family over the generations.|||Um. OK.
Just a suggestion.|||Quote:
Um. OK.
Just a suggestion.
Didn't mean any offense, just discussing.
No comments:
Post a Comment