I was looking forward to Legend of the Seeker for quite some time. The idea of the first novel in the Sword of Truth series being made into a mini-series made me deliriously happy. Wizard’s First Rule is a wonderful book and I thought it would be perfect for a mini-series because the plots in any book in the series are intricate enough to lend to a long, over-arching story line.
Unfortunately, Legend of the Seeker was even more loosely based on Wizard’s First Rule than the Eragon movie was based on Paolini’s book. For those of you who didn’t get to compare the movie Eragon to the book Eragon, let’s just say that the only thing they really got from the book was a boy named Eragon, and a blue dragon.
The thing that bothers me the most is that they didn’t just leave out plot points (like in, say, Harry Potter movies) but that they changed them dramatically. The relationships between people in the book were totally perverted and didn’t resemble the book at all.
Now, here’s where I ruin the plot points!
In Legend of the Seeker, Zed is this strange wizard that saved Richard because of a prophecy that the Seeker would kill Darken Rahl. First of all, in the books Zed is Richard’s grandfather! He and Richard are friends, not strangers. Also, they talk about the boundary having been in place for centuries. Centuries! In the books, Zed is the one who MADE the boundaries! Since Zed’s still alive, I think it’s safe to say that the boundaries haven’t been there for centuries. Then, a guard who dies in the the book magically survives a fall off a cliff and goes on to murder George Cypher, when in the book he was killed by Darken Rahl, who used his entrails to search for Richard. In the series, I guess they just disemboweled him for the fun of it. Next, Kahlan actually walks up to Zed and is like, “Hey, wizard, show me to the Seeker.” Now, I could be fuzzy on this, but if I’m not Kahlan only knew she was looking for a wizard, but she didn’t realize it was Zed until later. Lastly, the show has this “ceremony” where Richard is named the Seeker that really, really pisses me off. In the book they were like, “Yeah, so, the sword is yours. Take it.” And that’s it!
End of Spoilers
All in all, Legend of the Seeker makes me want to go cry into my pillow like a little girl. I can’t believe Terry Goodkind let them do this to his story. I may still watch the series in the vain hope that the Sword of Truth Universe will suddenly right itself, but if you remain unsullied by Legend of the Seeker then just stick to the books and avoid the show like the plague.
Posted by: Grand High Poobah
Filed under: Rants, Media on November 18th, 2008 | No Comments »
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Moving Pictures is one of the funniest books in the Discworld series. It was a little unexpected to me, because a lot of it is straight parody rather than the more inventive, fresh material I’ve grown accustomed to, but that makes it no less interesting to read. This book made me laugh out loud, and that earned my some very strange looks when I was reading in public. Unfortunately, the jokes were, as usual a little too complicated to explain in a few words. The best option would be to just hand someone the book. There is, however, something hilarious in the way Pratchett depicts Holy Wood, the birthplace and moving pictures.
I can’t wait to get the next book in the series.
Posted by: Grand High Poobah
Filed under: Uncategorized on November 1st, 2008 | No Comments »
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Pyramids is interesting addition to the Discworld series. As seems to happen in many of the books, it involves the wonderful city of Ankh-Morpork, but only as it relates to Pteppic’s training the Assassin’s Guild after leaving his home country (which is much like Egypt, only weirder) to get an education worthy of a prince.
Pteppic enjoys his time in Ankh-Morpork, but realizes that something has gone amiss at home when greenery suddenly starts springing up in his footsteps and sunrise depends on Pteppic (Or Teppic, once he leaves home…) making it happen.
Once he arrives home, Pteppic finds that he’s been spoiled by the “luxuries” of Ankh-Morpork and he has some very different ideas about how his homeland should be run. He is, however, overruled by older traditions and must turn to his training from the Assassin’s Guild to preserve both his country and the fabric of reality.
Posted by: Grand High Poobah
Filed under: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Series on October 24th, 2008 | No Comments »
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Here is a list of books that are now available in the bookstores for this month! Some were available toward the end of last month and I’m sure there are more to come, but hopefully there’s something on this short list that you’d be interested in!
The Rogue Hunter, by Lynsay Sands
Paperback Edition of An Ice Cold Grave, by Charlaine Harris
Imaginary Friends, an anthology with Anne Bishop!
Brisingr, by Christopher Paolini
The Living Dead, and anthology with Laurell K. Hamilton, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, et al.
Happy reading!
Posted by: Grand High Poobah
Filed under: Recently Published on October 11th, 2008 | No Comments »
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I’ve been reading Sherlock Holmes stories lately, and I’ve discovered many things I never knew! So I thought I’d share with the rest of the world…there will be more to come later on, I’m sure.
1) Sherlock Holmes is a professional student.
–He never attained a degree, despite spending much of his time at a university studying a wide range of subjects.
2) Sherlock Holmes is a crackhead. He shoots up with morphine and cocaine.
–He claims his mind requires stimulation and activity so when cases are few and far between he shoots up with one of the two drugs about three times a day.
3) Sherlock Holmes is arrogant. Very, very arrogant.
–Not only does he mock Scotland Yard, but he’s very brusque and can be very arrogant about his knowledge and abilities. Especially when dealing with Dr. Watson, who is very annoyed with him.
4) Sherlock Holmes was not happy about Dr. Watson’s marriage.
–He didn’t find the bride objectionable, but he seems to think that love and romance are damaging to the intellect. Plus, he lost his roomie.
5) Sherlock Holmes admires a woman, but not in the way we might think.
–He likes her because she outsmarted him and escaped London before he could finish up the case! After this, he ceased making snarky comments about the female intellect. To top things off, she’s married!
Posted by: Grand High Poobah
Filed under: Classics, Discussion on October 11th, 2008 | 2 Comments »
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After I had finished reading A River Runs Through It, I was informed that it had actually been made into a movie quite some time back. Now, at first I had no interest in seeing it because I thought there was no way that the movie could be as accurate to the book as it should be. Typically, that wouldn’t bother me much with any other book because most of my other books are works of fiction. Seeing, however, that this particular book was based on real-life events I am inclined to be much more exacting. I was told that it was well worth seeing, though, and with my doubts somewhat put to rest I rented the movie this weekend.
There are a few particulars which weren’t in the book, but I believe most of the details were garnered from Norman Maclean’s life and the movie was delightfully accurate to the book in almost every respect.
I was quite pleased with the result, though I must say I was not too impressed with the cast. Surely, many people would love to castigate me for that, but the fact is there was only one actor in the movie that I liked and that was Tom Skerritt. All in all, I think that it is well worth watching just as the book is well worth reading, though I wouldn’t recommend substituting one for the other in any circumstance because there are enough discrepancies to make a difference.
As a final note: if you go out to rent A River Runs Through It at Blockbuster or some similar business, get yourself a comedy to go after it because it’s a sad story. Also, stock up on popcorn. Popcorn goes with everything.
Posted by: Grand High Poobah
Filed under: Non-Fiction, Media on October 7th, 2008 | 8 Comments »
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Recently, I read about “spots of time” in A River Runs Through It, by Norman Maclean. His description really hit a note in me and I was fortunate enough to be able to write about it for class, which naturally made me want to write even more about it since it had such resonance with me. He talks about how poets use the phrase “spots of time” but only fisherman really experience that sensation of having eternity compressed into one single moment. He uses this more specifically in reference to losing a big fish. This made perfect sense to me on many different levels.
The first level is that I have often gone fishing - though not fly fishing -perhaps not so much after I got to college, but for many spring breaks and summer sessions I was out on a river or a lake, living in a cabin, a tent, or just driving out every morning and fishing most of the day away. So I know what it is to lose a big fish. Read more »
Posted by: Grand High Poobah
Filed under: Non-Fiction, Discussion on October 1st, 2008 | No Comments »
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The Exeter book is a rock-awesome compilation of manuscripts in Old English, listing such gems as The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Ruin, The Husband’s Message, The Wife’s Lament, and a number of tricky riddles. Having spent some time reading each of these things, I feel that I can safely assess them. My conclusions are not of a scholarly nature, though.
I just think they’re plain AWESOME. There was a big discussion the other day over the applicability of both the comitatus ethic, and/or monastic lifestyle in each of these works (particularly in The Wander and The Seafarer) and I have to say, it was really interesting to me to see how deep such short works of literature can be when you let yourself question the values of the writer, the narrator, and society both then and now.
Hence, they are gems.
It’s a shame that people then (and some people now) didn’t (don’t) pay much attention to the care of our works of literature. My great hope is the fact that with modern-day publication our works will be preserved because the sheer number of books in circulation ensures that the careless people will not be able to entirely destroy what we have. Though I will admit some Fahrenheit 451-ish fears.
It’s fortunate for us that works such as these survived not only the tumultuous times in which they were created, but also the carelessness of scholars and the many disasters that have destroyed portions of the same works. (Much of the Exeter book was damaged in a fire.)
Thank God for the printing presses, eh?
Posted by: Grand High Poobah
Filed under: Discussion on September 26th, 2008 | No Comments »
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I recently finished reading this book, about two weeks before we’re supposed to finish it for my Intro. to Non-Fiction class. This book was a difficult read for me on a couple levels. Grealy’s books recounts events that happened during and after her diagnosis and treatment for a cancer (Ewing’s sarcoma) that had been found in her jaw as a young child. Grealy had to go through surgery to get rid of the tumor, which involved removing almost half of her lower right jaw bone. This left her face “disfigured” in the eyes of many people, including Grealy herself. So, she has to learn to deal with the aftermath of the surgery: more surgeries to try and “fix” her face (most of which failed because skin that has been exposed to radiation does not take well to grafts, etc), chemotherapy, radiation treatments and the inevitable sickness that followed the radical chemo treatments at the time. She also has to face the world knowing that she is now “ugly” in the eyes of many people. Read more »
Posted by: Grand High Poobah
Filed under: Non-Fiction on September 16th, 2008 | No Comments »
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I’ve been reading quite a few short stories lately and I have to say that they are enjoyable. Short stories are something that I think the general populace undervalues. Sure, we’ve all read them in high school or junior high. We’ve slogged through The Tell-Tale Heart, A Rose for Emily, Barn Burning, and others for class. We’ve even written papers or given presentations over them. Desperate for a grade, we’ve pleaded with our brains to find out what exactly it means.
Then, when class ends; when we’ve passed the test or chucked the paper onto the teacher’s desk, we wipe it from our minds with a certain amount of relief.
So when was the last time you read a short story for fun?
If the answer is never, I understand completely. However, now that I’ve been doing it for class I find that there are some quite enjoyable short stories out there. If you like to read, then you realize that sometimes you just don’t seem to have the time for a whole book even if you desperately want to read something that suits the way you feel that day, or that will pick you up a bit. On that premise, I offer a suggestion: find a book of short stories. Personally, I like Edgar Allen Poe, but to be fair most of his poems and short stories are melancholy. So have a look around at the book store, or online. It turns out that many authors compose short stories. It’s just sort of difficult to find them if you don’t know where to look.
Check out the bookstore, and if you’re really gung-ho about it, you can check out the local college bookstore for it. After all, that’s where I’m getting most of my short story reading material.
I don’t plan on selling that book back, either. I’m having way too much fun.
Posted by: Grand High Poobah
Filed under: Story Time on August 28th, 2008 | No Comments »
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(3 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)