SMBC Comics Forum

Ha, tell me about it, it made my head explode, which certainly hinders my typing ability I can tell you that. I work around it though.

mountainmage wrote:I'm such a big LoTR fan that I'm reading the history of middle earth as well.

Currently, I'm on number 5. Also, I've read the Hobbit, the Silmarillion, and The Children of Húrin.

Thanks for the reminder. I'm pretty sure my Dad has Hurin and I've been looking for stuff to read. I'll have to grab it on Easter if not earlier. He was a pretty big Tolkien and Lewis fan in his day. We had Similarion at one point, but I've been unable to find it. I haven't read The Hobbit in quite some time, and unfortunately we only have a graphic novel type version, which isn't the same, in my opinion.
As for CS Lewis, I finished the Narnia series this past fall, and I just didn't really care for it. I like the religious allegory in LOTR, but Lewis really beats you over the head with it. Its really too obvious. Probably because it is meant for a younger audience. It just didn't hold up for me.
That said, I found Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet series on our shelf, which I plan on reading soon. More sci-fi, I believe, but I'm going to give them a shot.

Yeah, I agree with you on CS Lewis. I read it when I was about 11 years old, so I had a rather impressionable mind, but reading the last book made the penny drop on just how blatantly strong the religious allegory was throughout the entire series (I somehow managed to avoid recognising it until that point). So I finished The Chronicles of Narnia with a pretty strong disliking of the series I loved when I first got into it, but I'd finished it, and I guess the first few books were pretty interesting, so that disliking has waned over time and I quite enjoyed the two movies that were released.

Well I read the first book as a kid, and didn't pick up on any of the religious allegory. Probably because I'm Jewish, and didn't really think about the Christian-ness of it.

I actually read and in general enjoyed the Narnia books. I thought they were well written and kind of fun. Admittedly there was a lot of Christian morality lessons and religious allegory, some of which actually did irk me a little bit, but for the most part I did enjoy the series. Not so much for it's underlying messages or anything like that, but just as a simple adventure story. That being said I hated the first book. I thought it was dull as dirt.

I have read over The Dark Tower series twice now, both with the ending that shall not be mentioned - you all know why. I absolutely loved it the first time, and was able to pick up sooo much more the second time

I am currently starting up the Song of Ice and Fire series by Martin, but cannot find a good Audiobook version of the first one (I do audio book because it cures the 'wandering eye' disorder, and forces you to take in every single part of the book, also my eyes dry out and I am forced to stop reading after about 15 min... it sucks, but you get over it)

smiley_cow wrote:I actually read and in general enjoyed the Narnia books. I thought they were well written and kind of fun. Admittedly there was a lot of Christian morality lessons and religious allegory, some of which actually did irk me a little bit, but for the most part I did enjoy the series. Not so much for it's underlying messages or anything like that, but just as a simple adventure story. That being said I hated the first book. I thought it was dull as dirt.

True. I didn't care for Horse and His Boy either. My favourite book of the series is Dawn Treader, which is supposed to be the next movie.

Lethal Interjection wrote:

smiley_cow wrote:I actually read and in general enjoyed the Narnia books. I thought they were well written and kind of fun. Admittedly there was a lot of Christian morality lessons and religious allegory, some of which actually did irk me a little bit, but for the most part I did enjoy the series. Not so much for it's underlying messages or anything like that, but just as a simple adventure story. That being said I hated the first book. I thought it was dull as dirt.

True. I didn't care for Horse and His Boy either. My favourite book of the series is Dawn Treader, which is supposed to be the next movie.

I'm concerned. I don't see that book translating very will to film. The last half of the book was like... all imagery and symbolism.

It might be okay. Here is my take on cinematizing the series:

For the Magicians Nephew they'd have to find a way to really fluff up the plot to make it feature length. Actually, if they were to do it, I'd like to see them cut out a large amount of Last Battle, and make them together as one film.
Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian would and did make fine movies.
The Horse and His Boy would be dreadfully boring, and frankly, I didn't like the book, so I'm not sure they could redeem it into a movie.
The Voyage of Dawn Treader would require a good director and script, and if they can make it work, it could be fantastic. However, if they follow the same exact style as the previous two movies, it will not work well.
The Silver Chair would also make a fine movie, as it has a succinct enough plot and is interesting.
The Last Battle is about 50% conclusion to the series, and mostly unnecessary, so, as I said, I'd like to see them cut Magicians Nephew and Last Battle into one movie.

I don't know where this association comes from, but all this talk about Narnia is making me want to pick up the Wrinkle in Time series again. Weird.

Has anyone else here ever read "The Last Unicorn" by Peter S. Beagle? This should be under my earlier post under favourite fantasy books, because this might be my all time favourite, but for some reason it just slipped my mind until recently.

I was just reminded in another thread that I had recently finished Children of Hurin.
Terrible. The protagonist was completely unsympathetic. I had no real interest running through the whole story because I just didn't like him.

Lethal Interjection wrote:I was just reminded in another thread that I had recently finished Children of Hurin.
Terrible. The protagonist was completely unsympathetic. I had no real interest running through the whole story because I just didn't like him.

You actually managed to finish that? I have only made it halfway. Has to be my least fave Tolkien book.

The ending was the only thing half-way interesting. And even then it was only because it was blantantly a Greek tragedy ending. Almost Oedipal in a way.

Aww...I really liked it. It was just...epic. I can't describe it any other way, because that's just Tolkien's style.