Recently listened to the audiobook for Good Omens, after having it recommended to me a hundred times. This was a Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman collaboration—two authors whose works (from the ones I’ve tried, at least) have always fallen either a little or very flat for me. The first few scenes of Good Omens really won me over. It was surprisingly witty and clever, and made some fun observations about society and religion and whatnot. Reminded me of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in a way (not as funny as that IMO, but that’s a high bar). The main demon and angel characters were charming, and bounced off each other well in their conversations. Their shared desire to delay the rapture as best they could was an excellent premise.
Sadly, that was only about 10-15% of the book. The rest of it was completely boring to me, which is impressive when it’s a story that’s supposedly about the impending apocalypse. Most of the book follows a whole bunch of characters who are not nearly as funny or interesting as the first two. Felt like over half the book was devoted to the joke of “what if the antichrist was just a regular elementary schoolboy who had long banal childrens’ conversations with other kids?” Other scenes devoted to characters like a witch and witch-hunter or the four horsemen of the apocalypse are marginally more interesting (in that they do things), but lack the chemistry or wit of those opening scenes with the Earth-loving demon and angel.
Maybe a case where I’d enjoy the TV show a lot more?
Kind of interested in seeing whether genre crosses over between literature and games for people here (and movies to an extent, but that’s a different topic).
I love scifi books, and I love scifi settings in (video) games. But on the other hand, I love playing games in the horror genre, but I hardly ever find horror literature that I can engage with to a similar degree, it just leaves me fairly cold.
I don’t read much at this age, but I actually just finished Jurassic Park. I watched the movie last year and so my friend got me the 2 books for Christmas
On my end, I think traditional fantasy (say, medieval-ish stuff) always finds a home in me, be this games or books. I’m not too sure I do like sci-fi gaming; I love sci-fi reading, though. And I also had a spell of horror books, but I’ve never managed to end a horror game either. To be completely honest though, I think I like gaming more on the gameplay aspect than on their story aspects, so if the world makes sense, I kind of like.
I’m pretty sure I’d like dystopic/holocaust games as well, even though I’ve never finished one.
Reading through the Agent Pendergast series. Novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Absolute nonsense, but so much fun. Like action B-movies with science and horror bits. Tropy, but always with a twist and a tweak here and there to keep it fresh. Currently on book number 9 and still amused and entertained.
This also means that I have already read more books this year than in the whole of last year. Glad to be reading regularly again.