Bedrockgames
I post in the voice of Christopher Walken
The book and movie for Enemy Mine were both wonderful
Overrated/Underrated Geek Media
- Thread starter Mercurius
- Start date
The book and movie for Enemy Mine were both wonderful
The full collection, The Enemy Papers, is also awesome.
Willie the Duck
Hero
<quotes cut to cover singular topics>
*based on being an 80s toy-commercial tv show, not based on the talent behind it
**as many as ought to know about it
*western audience of young boomer to young millennials who would have been watching tv in the 90s that... etc. etc. etc. (whatever the actual demographics are, you know what I'm getting at).
Anyways, that's a bunch of theorizing about the boundaries of the question. Trying to match how others are using it (what isn't good that lots of people say is; what is good that not enough people say is), I will nominate:
Overrated: the sci fi work of Larry Niven. Not as popular as he was in the 70s and 80s, but still pretty universally acclaimed when brought up*. Here my main complaint is repetition. I enjoyed the first of his works I read (The Mote in God's Eye), but each subsequent book I read I saw the same characters (with different names) going through the same dynamics, setting up the same man-of-action vs women/intellectuals within group conflict surrounded by a different interesting sci-fi set piece. *keeping politics and personal foibles out of the discussion.
Underrated: This breaks my personal interpretation of the rules, since most people who know of them do like them*. However, I think The Chronicles of Prydain are really solid young adult literature that deserve both more praise and attention, and recognition as one of the first and more influential post-Tolkien fantasy series that helped define the field in the 60s. There's no denying that Alexander saw the Hobbit/LotR come out and said, 'this is the template I should follow,' but he already had the seed of his story from being stationed in Wales during WWII, and that gives his tale a uniqueness that other immediate-Tolkien-followers lacked. They are interesting novels worthy of sharing with your kids.
*minus those who only know the Disney movie and dislike it.
This is why I think thread like this need more first post defining of terms. To me, under/over-rated suggest what those that know a thing think of the thing. If more people should know about the thing, that would be a thread about what would be more popular. Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future is a prime example -- nearly everyone who still knows about the thing seem to agree that it's wildly better than it need to (or had any right to*) be. Based on my interpretation, this falls into correctly rated. But if not-known-by-enough**-people falls into underrated, than it decidedly is underrated.
*based on being an 80s toy-commercial tv show, not based on the talent behind it
**as many as ought to know about it
This is another 'what are the definitions?' situation. To my mind, Babylon 5 and Deep Space 9 are both over-rated by geek culture because -- well, how could they not be? Nothing that is merely great television could live up to the online geek consensus surrounding these shows. Most non-universal cancer cures or lesser forms of world peace would be over-rated if they had the same general perception as these two shows have with online geek culture*.
*western audience of young boomer to young millennials who would have been watching tv in the 90s that... etc. etc. etc. (whatever the actual demographics are, you know what I'm getting at).
Anyways, that's a bunch of theorizing about the boundaries of the question. Trying to match how others are using it (what isn't good that lots of people say is; what is good that not enough people say is), I will nominate:
Overrated: the sci fi work of Larry Niven. Not as popular as he was in the 70s and 80s, but still pretty universally acclaimed when brought up*. Here my main complaint is repetition. I enjoyed the first of his works I read (The Mote in God's Eye), but each subsequent book I read I saw the same characters (with different names) going through the same dynamics, setting up the same man-of-action vs women/intellectuals within group conflict surrounded by a different interesting sci-fi set piece. *keeping politics and personal foibles out of the discussion.
Underrated: This breaks my personal interpretation of the rules, since most people who know of them do like them*. However, I think The Chronicles of Prydain are really solid young adult literature that deserve both more praise and attention, and recognition as one of the first and more influential post-Tolkien fantasy series that helped define the field in the 60s. There's no denying that Alexander saw the Hobbit/LotR come out and said, 'this is the template I should follow,' but he already had the seed of his story from being stationed in Wales during WWII, and that gives his tale a uniqueness that other immediate-Tolkien-followers lacked. They are interesting novels worthy of sharing with your kids.
*minus those who only know the Disney movie and dislike it.
Bedrockgames
I post in the voice of Christopher Walken
I've only read the Enemy Mine Novella. Is there more material ?
Yes, quite a bit. The Enemy Papers includes an expanded version of Longyear's original novella, as well as the sequels - The Tomorrow Testament and The Last Enemy. It also has extensive excerpts from the Talman (the Drac's holy text), and a bunch of discussion from the author on the writing, the movies, the Drac language, and so on.
Overrated: The three body problem. Both book and TV show. It was recommended to me by a colleague on account of being hard SF, but whenever they try to talk science all I can hear is “the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs”.
Underrated: Man of Steel, but I’ve never been into Superman comics, so I get why people who were feel that the movie did Superman dirty.
Bonus Underrated: Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton, but mostly just because I don’t get why it wasn’t translated in my native language for more 20 years while all his other books were translated within a couple fo years (probably some rights issue, but still it’s puzzling).
Underrated: Man of Steel, but I’ve never been into Superman comics, so I get why people who were feel that the movie did Superman dirty.
Bonus Underrated: Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton, but mostly just because I don’t get why it wasn’t translated in my native language for more 20 years while all his other books were translated within a couple fo years (probably some rights issue, but still it’s puzzling).
Bedrockgames
I post in the voice of Christopher Walken
wanted to love this book but could simply not get into it
Mercurius
Legend
Agreed. I'd add "Ryan Reynolds." He's funny(ish) and talented at what he does, but a little bit goes a long way, and we never get just a little Ryan Reynolds.
I pushed to the beginning of book two, but couldn’t go further.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
I wasn’t part of geek culture in those days. I formed my opinion of those shows on my own.
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