What are you reading in 2023?

[Eyes of Nine]

Some good scores at the local Planned Parenthood annual book sale!

Skipped Edge of the Empire RPG for $10

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Although some aspects of Fairy Tale frustrated me, I'd definitely love to see him try something like ASoI&F, where all the depressing backstories would fit like a spiked gauntlet.

I think that could work. It'd be a weird alternate universe where GoT was based on a Stephen King series, but I suspect that the show wouldn't have outpaced the books.

One of these days I need to get to The Eyes of the Dragon.

 

[dragoner]

I'm reading Cherryh's Hellburner, its ok, not really her best.

 

[Richards]

So I finished The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton. Three mysteries. One that I liked, one that I think display's a naive view of human nature on Niven's part, and one that is not so much hard science fiction as confusing science fiction. I also thought his villains gave up way too easy. I think those cases are going to be hard to prove in court.

I'm just starting up "Flatlander" by Larry Niven, the collected tales of Gil "The Arm" Hamilton, containing "Death by Ecstasy," "The Defenseless Dead," "ARM," "Patchwork Girl," and "The Woman in Del Ray Crater." I know I've read some of them many years ago ("Patchwork Girl" is the only one I can swear to), but the back blurb says this contains a never-before-published (in 1995) story - probably the last one. I remember thinking Gil's telekinetic powers were the likely source of the "telekinetic arm" mental mutation in the original "Gamma World" game.

Johnathan

 

[overgeeked]

The original book is always…always better than the movie, the manga, the anime, the novelty tie-in clothing line, and the coffee cup…but maybe not the flamethrower.

Case in point. Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation. I came across the anime, watched a few episodes…and it was good. Tracked down the manga and read a few volumes…and it was better. Then I tracked down the original light novel series and am reading those…and they are way, way better than either adaptation.

 

[Ryujin]

The original book is always…always better than the movie, the manga, the anime, the novelty tie-in clothing line, and the coffee cup…but maybe not the flamethrower.

Case in point. Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation. I came across the anime, watched a few episodes…and it was good. Tracked down the manga and read a few volumes…and it was better. Then I tracked down the original light novel series and am reading those…and they are way, way better than either adaptation.

The more that something is left to your own interpretation, the better it tends to be for you.

 

[overgeeked]

The more that something is left to your own interpretation, the better it tends to be for you.

Absolutely. There’s also a lot cut from the various adaptations. You get more focus on characters’ motivations, internal monologs, more depth generally, and the occasional well-placed lore dump.

By the way, if only people would understand the sentence you wrote in the context of gaming, too.

 

[Alzrius]

Case in point. Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation. I came across the anime, watched a few episodes…and it was good. Tracked down the manga and read a few volumes…and it was better. Then I tracked down the original light novel series and am reading those…and they are way, way better than either adaptation.

Totally concur; I read the series years ago, and it's better than the anime we're getting now. I'm just surprised that it took this long for them to make anime of it; waiting until several years after the entire thing is done strikes me as atypical.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I'm going to go the other way (and I think this is actually more controversial, on the whole) sometimes adaptations improve on the original work. Very little I've read suggests that the comic version of The Boys is actually better than the TV show in any substantial way.

 

[Deset Gled]

Gearing up to Halloween, I bought and started reading Wet Market by Aron Beauregard. It's certainly not for the faint at heart, but not as extreme as the internet led me to believe.

I'm going to go the other way (and I think this is actually more controversial, on the whole) sometimes adaptations improve on the original work. Very little I've read suggests that the comic version of The Boys is actually better than the TV show in any substantial way.

My go-to example for this is "Who Goes There?", adapted into "The Thing from Another World", remade as "The Thing". A good story, improved with each version. The prequel wasn't great, but not as bad as its reputation.