Around 15 mins, Lisa wonders why the publisher apparently did not provide Phillip Pullman with constructive criticism about the problems with The Secret Commonwealth. I don't know if it is what happened in this case, but I understand that if an author has been very successful and the publisher has earned a lot of money from sales of their books, that the publisher's priority becomes to avoid upsetting their star author. If the author's latest manuscript is disappointing they are reluctant to tell them so. Instead, they rely on the author's name and reputation to sell the work irrespective of merit. It has been suggested that this explains why John Le Carre was allowed to keep churning out mediocre new novels for years after he last wrote any even arguably good ones.
I first discovered Catch 22 from the 1970s movie. I still love this movie. Only recently, I listened to the audio book version of the original. The only thing I had a problem with (though I understand it) is the terrible misogyny expressed by so many characters. I put this down to the times and how the military make sure to encourage prostitution for soldiers in any war -- no matter what army they are in. To get an idea behind the exaggerated antics of Milo Minderbinder, read 'Trading with the Enemy' by Charles Higham. Multiple US companies traded with German firms throughout the war.
i’m reading the book currently after seeing both the new Dune 1 & 2 movies out and i can whole heartedly say if i hadn’t seen the movies, i would not be able to follow along in the book at all!! even still i’m re-reading multiple pages to grasp what frank is trying to say/ translate in his special way of writing. thanks for this!
Spoilers in this comment - I love Lisa Jewell and have read 5 of her books, but this one I wasn't crazy about. I hated seeing an innocent man run through the ringer. I don't mind the fact that there are twists and turns. You are right, the book wasn't unique. I hated the ending also. And frankly, I didn't understand why Saffyre would suddenly befriend Ronan's ex-lover, Alicia. I really liked the fact that Owen decided to go back to his job and the training and the fact that he made up with his Dad and decided to work hard to get a new life. The fact that he realized he was leading a "loser" lifestyle that made him suspicious as being a weird enough guy that he would be seen as an incel guy. I loved that he changed his life. I've only read 5 of Lisa's books, but I really enjoyed Family Upstairs and Family Remains - they are best read together, one right after the other. Otherwise, the first book sort of leaves you left hanging.
Truth be told i finished the book yesterday,it is my first actual book i have read excluding some online books,and after i finished it i found out about the terminology that was at the back so i just read the entire book with actually knowing what most of the stuff was and it was still so fun to read and guess the re read would be even better 😂😂
almost all of these "plot holes" aren't really plot holes though, and even still all of them are explained in the series, most of them are explained in that same book.
I was fortunate to have read the first 2 books in “The Book of the New Sun” series before reading Dune. This trained my brain to deal with complex concepts in sci-fantasy, in turn making Dune a really enjoyable experience the first time around. Definitely looking forward to reading it again.
Tip #4 is the one that helped me tremendously! If you're copy of Dune doesn't have the appendixes or doesn't have the terminology, Google it and keep that tab open at all times. Refer to it immediately when you come across a new term. This will save you time and frustration because you will know what is going on and you will enjoy the read because you will be enlightened by the purpose and depth.
Even dialogues are smart spiritual adavaita zen u name it …it literally explores determinism how even if we see something coming we still have to go through it just like movie arrival ..very similiar
I had a similar experience reading the speak trilogy by William Gibson. You’re thrown head first into this world with little explanation, and slowly it all begins to make sense. Hopefully it will be as rewarding to read dune as it was for me reading neuromancer
Ik im crazy for leaving a comment on a relatively small video from 3 years ago but I gotta give my review of this review. For starters your circular conversation example isn't actually an example of circular conversation, it's just a frustrating thing that happened but it wasn't circular like any of the jokes from the book. The book is hilarious and circular logic is essentially the main point of the book. Catch 22 is circular logic and it's funny because the idea of circular logic is absurd. The characters exhibiting circular logic in the book are also portrayed as being absurd and the jokes are laugh out loud funny in many instances. Also I disagree with the characters being hard to keep track of as the author will often mention their defining traits immediately after having them in any scene. You always know it's Joe because he's acting sporadic and you always know it's Natley because he will mention his whore gf. I got way more complaints but I can't type them all out rn. Please just read this book I'm begging yall it's amazing. Also no hate to the videos creator everyone is entitled to their opinions, hell I got more unpopular media takes then this.
I've read the first two books (Dune and Dune Messiah) in 1 and a half weeks! Never been so gripped by a book before! Decided to take a break from reading ahead to gather my thoughts...definitely will read through to the end of the saga!
In regards to plot hole 1, it was strongly suggested Spensa didn't want her family knowing that she was living in a cage and not being fed/housed like the rest of the cadets. Rig could have tried to sneak her food without people knowing, but when others did that she didn't really want it because of her concern for them getting in trouble. For plot hole 4 I think it has something to do with politics talked about in regards to killing humans and their fear of humans. For Plot hole 5 it was mentioned earlier in the book that there are multiple undergound colonies. I assumed that meant there were evacuating to another colony or a space they had set up before hand in case of evacuations, like our world equivalent would be bunkers. Plot hole 7, he says that he was created without the capability to control certain things beyond diagnostics which included flying and weapons. Though I agree this is a thing that makes more sense from a story building point then a realistic one. Just trying to help not be combative. The rest I totally agree with. Especially the slug! I also felt the characters dialogue was over the top a lot, especially in the beginning. I think this was one of Sanderson's weaker books, don't get the hype. If you're willing to try his other work and like fantasy I'd recommend Mistborn.
The . moment you discover this video was made by a .moe-ron is when it lets slip that this is an opinion of an audiobook. That's right. This idiot HEARD Catch-22 but did not READ it. The brutally honest truth is that we are in a Ritalin-deprived Age of Attention Deficence where literature is consumed and judged by people whose only claim to arbitration is the ability to mount a RU-vid channel. What is this idiot's credentials? Why should anyone trust it over anything else? We don't know. Has this thing studied literature? Is this thing widely read? Or widely heard? No idea. Has is ever heard Faulkner? Shakespeare? Chaucer? Has it got a college degree? In anything? No. That requires reading and comic books don't count. Neither do "graphic novels." Or hand puppets. You can put anything in these comments because it cannot read. It can only be read TO. This thing should stick to the visual arts and I .mean cartoons, not paintings or sculpture. The brutally honest truth is that this thing should stick to trailers about movies about hobbits and children who are wizards. And Stephen King.
Hi Lisa! I loved watching your review! (I didn't even realize you had a RU-vid channel, as we've just been Goodreads friends for a while, but you definitely earned a new subscriber today!) ♥
Something that helped me a lot is, that after the first two chapters, (yep i was lost too 😅) i have read the back section of it. It was a much easier read after that, and now i just love it!
As I posted on Goodreads, great review. Thank you for sharing so much of you.I have added this book to my list. I look forward to spending some time with Michael J Fox, through the words that he has chosen to share in his book.
Btw half of the words used in the book are not made up they’re in arabic and some of them taken from islamic concepts but the majority of meanings are in fact not accurate and some straight up have a completely different meaning
Watching this as follow 'Lisa of Troy's written reviews on Goodreads. 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' began as a radio series here in Britain that exploded in popularity in a way that radio series almost never do. The author Douglas Adams (no longer with us) was reportedly so bad at writing to deadlines that he only finished the script for the last episode shortly before it was due to be broadcast. It then became a book and was remade as a TV series although just before digital special effects came in, so as a science fiction show set in space
Appreciate the discussion and the criticism of this novel. Everyone seems to gush over it and I never connected with the book and couldn't figure out why.
I must be the only person who wasn't lost or confused on page one. Lol. I understood it immediately, and it's become one of my, if not favorite, book. I'll probably reread this book a few times. Its great.
You're spot on with so much of this, but I have to say: the Tube is also known as "the underground," fwiw. Also, since you apparently also listened to the book, I wish you'd mentioned the overly melodramatic, oh-so-grating voice of NELLA. God, I couldn't stand it.
The suggestion of leveraging the audiobook while reading Dune was absolutely brilliant. I was about 60 pages into reading, and was struggling. I stumbled upon this video, and took that suggestion. I started the book completely over, and pairing the audiobook with the book has made the book much more digestible. Thank you.
My tip: If you're in or near the autistic spectrum, this book is going to annoy the crap out of you with characters deriving deep meaning from subtle inflections and micro-expressions so that you're always going, "Oh come on, now! That's ridiculous." There's also explicit and implicit ableism, which is irritating in its own right. That's leaving out the intrinsic sexism of the books, with its Male Savior premise. However, even with these caveats, I liked the books well enough to read the first three books of the series, only giving up partway through 'God Emperor of Dune'. So I'm considering re-reading at least 'Dune', to see if I get more out of it from a more mature perspective, as I was in my early teens when I originally read them.
I found it excruciatingly difficult to read with its lack of focus, circular dialogue and cartoonish characters. The final third made me realise why it's considered a great book, but ultimately I found it incredibly repetitive and flabby. I thought Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five was a similarly bleakly humorous take on the same themes, but incisive and lean.
i felt this way with soiaf. the thousands of characters with difficult names made it unnesesarily complex. Dune, however, really clicked for me.great read
To add to point 4, she had "Bachelor Alf" refer to her shoes as sneakers - any half decent editor should know that we would call them trainers in British English. And a lot of British slang is all about shortening words and phrases, no way would anyone's nickname be as convoluted as Bachelor Alf. Quibbles aside, I was really disappointed by this book too. I think it could've been more interesting with Nella's backstory being shown and not told, completely cutting out Caroline's stuff (maybe have it as a brief intro and conclusion?), and focusing more on the actual lost apothecary in the past. The whole story could've been really interesting if it had tighter editing, some scenes were a real slog.
