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Someone said in a podcast I'm only half listening to about Netflix collapsing.
"The problem with television is there's too much of it."
That made me realize that I have absolutely no idea what's on TV any more.
I don't even really remember when I stopped watching.
I get my video entertainment from downloads YouTube and Prime mostly and not anything that's regularly scheduled where I can't pause or rewind.
There could be lots of content that I'd enjoy, I just don't go any place where I'd hear about it any more.
I noticed the same personal trend with science fiction.
After a bad run of books I'd paid for, but didn't enjoy, I started waiting on friend's recommendations... which were few and far between already.
Pretty soon I wasn't reading much. Especially when I got a couple of authors writing in worlds I enjoyed but stopped telling the story of the characters and started experimenting in new ways to tell the story...
Steven Brust, I am looking at you!
I've got a couple of books that are unread, but purchased because I'm going to finish the series... someday.
And Brust comes up again here. The clock is ticking, Steve, you going to live long enough to finish the story? Especially since you've wasted several books on asides that don't advance the plot or complete the narrative.
Brust is doing better than G.R.R Martin here (thankfully I never started reading Game of Thrones) in that he's healthier, younger and does appear to still be writing.
Wow, I had no idea Steven Brust was still writing... I have several of the earlier books in the Taltos series but apparently lost interest/track of it once I returned from exile and was a broke college student... I seem to remember the series going in directions I was less interested in which probably explained my lack of interest... But since they're still coming out (apparently one next year?), are they OK/worth picking up to at least catch up? Have to agree on the GoT stuff, I read them for a bit but every character that I had any interest in died so again just stopped caring/reading... The show was "OK" until the last season that seemed like they lost trac of time/budget and had to throw it all together badly to finish by the deadline... Meh...
ReplyDeleteI haven't read the last two Taltos books even though I own them. Up to that point I was liking them. Even the re-write of The Three Musketeers prequel.
DeleteI mostly read Kindle Unlimited these days - thousands of books for a monthly payment, I browse and sometimes find great new series, sometimes I stop after a bit and never return to that author.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about series that have been hanging fire for too long. I loved Scott Lynch's first two Gentleman Bastard stories, thought the third one (which came out after many, many delays) was okay...and have been waiting for the fourth one since about 2013 or so. I heard him say at a Worldcon (I think this was Kansas City) that the fourth one, The Thorn of Emberlain, was done and ready to go. He's announced that again on his blog. But devil a cheep have I seen about it ever getting published.
ReplyDeleteDavid Gerrold looked me in the eye and lied to me at ICon one year about the next Chtorr book. He said it was complete and ready to go...and, again, years and years later, I haven't seen it. I'm getting really annoyed at both Lynch and Gerrold. Lynch is known to have bad brain-chemistry problems that make him horribly depressive, but if the damn book's done, how hard is it to get it to the publishers? Gerrold doesn't even have that excuse.
By the end of the last published Chtorr book I was getting fed up with it. When he didn't publish the next one on time I didn't even care.
DeletePersonally I don't think he has even a vague idea about where that story ends except with the Chtorr taking over.
Two authors writing series that I absolutely recommend are Mackey Chandler and Jerry Boyd. Boyd's series is Bob and Niki's Saucer Repair and Chandler has two, the April series and Family Law Series. Both have large casts of engaging characters and not a hint of leftism anywhere.
ReplyDelete