Comments on: In Which I Finally Read The Dark Is Rising

By: Cliff

Cliff — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:16:45 +0000

When have the British ever loudly kicked ass?
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Let's see...
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CS Lewis included some ass-whoopings.
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Tolkien.
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China Mieville regularly features asses getting whooped.
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Michael Moorcock.
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Alastair Reynolds.
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But you're absolutely right about the WoT series getting overly clinical.

By: strawmn

strawmn — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:59:15 +0000

@Kemper,
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Ahhh, but that's why I liked The Dark Is Rising. It was nice and quietly mythical. Very British. When have the British ever loudly kicked ass? (Waterloo excepted. Maybe).
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And am I the only one who thought that the Wheel of Time kinda got overly clinical as the series went on? As I recall, pages were spent discussing the strength of different protaginists . "And x was the strongest user of Power in ALL HISTORY. Except for Y. Y was like, 5% stronger. Maybe 6.5%, if she'd had a protein shake."

By: Cliff

Cliff — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:24:28 +0000

I liked the books, especially all the imagery out of Britain's mythical past.
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I couldn't help but feel there was a distinct lack of ass-kicking throughout the series, though.
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Bear in mind, I'd read the first five Wheel of Time books by the time I read these in middle school, so I was well acquainted with people getting their sh*t ruined with swords and magic.

By: Kemper

Kemper — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:50:35 +0000

@ dennitzio - Yes, he sleeps. And that's just more wasted time that could have been spent watching BSG and Lost.

By: dennitzio

dennitzio — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:34:18 +0000

Wow, this movie did not do well with the Critics. "Director David L. Cunningham's proffered chills are strictly of the lightweight variety: a menacing flock of ravens, a slimy skein of snakes and a couple of mall security yobs too fat or stupid to overpower even a spindly teenager." says Bruce Demara of the
Toronto Star.
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I think what's more impressive is that between your novel writing, marketing your book, reviewing and writing for Time, spending time with kid and wife, playing endless videogames, and blogging for us poor saps you still have time to read a very long and dare I say "boring" book? Do you sleep?

By: anon76

anon76 — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:03:22 +0000

I can't speak to how TDiR effects your nerd cred from experience- my guess is that it's not quite the universal knock that your indifference towards BSG represents. I did however have a similar experience in my own youth reading Nikolai Tolstoy's "The Coming of the King". I was a huge Arthurian nerd at ~12 years old, so I muscled my way through it, but damned if I knew what the hell I was reading about.

By: Church

Church — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:07:20 +0000

OK, now you're just mocking us...

By: tereglith

tereglith — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:42:03 +0000

This was one of the series that my English Teacher dad had be read when I was eight or nine. I thought I understood it, but I don't actually remember anything from it, just five years later. The whole series is sitting in my room next to all those other books that ought to re-read now that I can actually understand them. But what am I doing instead? Re-reading Harry Potter for the fifth (on average. It varies for each book) time.

By: kmallon2002

kmallon2002 — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:40:13 +0000

Skip the movie - it totally sucked, but do read the other books. Especially Greenwitch and Over Sea, Under Stone.