Proud moment for me:
I made it through the second of 8 absolutely delightful, engaging, and extremely PLEASURABLE novels in a series about a topic I love.
But the first book ended POORLY... because they knew that fans like me would be the second. It’s like it LITERALLY had zero ending. Meaning there was this absurd violation of novelistic structure.
And the second cemented my creeping suspicion that this all... all all all... was trifling crap. It’s like porn for people who like fast talking smart alecks, snide, sarcastic, and battle after battle after battle.
One amazingly engaging battle after another. So enjoyable. Exactly what I love.
Except that there's zero heart, soul, message... oh... it takes a head nod in the direction of what is noble and how should people behave...
But at the end of the day...
Lovely useless battles of stupid.
So... I did not buy the third.
I'm done.
Victory.
I’m not going to mention the name of the series because I don’t want to get into it with fans who are fine reading the same book 8 times:
Hero and partner in exotic setting fight stuff until they live or die.
That’s the book.
Sirens of Titan made me weep for three hours. This is what I expect a novel to do. Moby Dick changed the way I examine culture and society. Emma taught me to be expect the unexpected. Valuable books do valuable work. Entertaining books entertain. I get it. I consider the elevation of my human experience more valuable than being entertained for five hours. Thoughts?
Well… it’s tough: it does give me pleasure in the moment… but I fear after eight… I may have regret.
First, I fully support the, “not all books are for all people and spend what little time we all have focusing on that which brings you joy in a rewarding sense.
That said, if it is DCC, you’re not seeing the heart or soul in the first couple except in brief instances I think on purpose. You really start getting it in 3 on, because the first 2 are purely survival mode for Carl and Donut. Once you progress deeper in the dungeon, the machinations of the outside universe seeps in a bit more and provides a foil for Carl, et al. to react to and in cases interact with beyond just the next dungeon battle. (Also MD has said it will be 10 books total (9 stories with the last one split in 2 volumes)).
The floors do also seem to be inspired by different types of games.
Floor 1–2: Basic Old School Dungeon Crawl Floor 3: Dungeons and Dragons/RPG Floor 4: Rogue-like Games Floor 5: MMO Game Floor 6: Battle Royal (maybe?) Floor 7: Maze/Puzzle Floor 8: Pokémon/Collectible Card Game Floor 9: Real Time Strategy/Management SIM
I’ve only read the first book - I am interested in the larger universe - but they’ll obviously have to get out of the dungeon first. We’ll see!
I’m reading Dune Messiah right now — gotta get ready for the movie in December.
Where do you think your regret would come from?
Realizing that the series offers no soul nourishing sustenance.
What sustenance nourishes the soul? All learnings? Would you not say pleasure/joy nourishes the soul as well even if nothing new is learned?
It's the difference between eating sugar and eating fruit.
Both have their place!
Yes. What has no place is snobbery over what form of entertainment people take on. There is, short of causing harm, no such thing as BadWrongFun™.
I think the book series I am abandoning gives pleasure but no joy.
I will share with you that Anna Kerinina has these scenes with these Bohemians… and those scenes gave me joy — because they we both pleasurable and nourishing… I had no idea what a Bohemian meal might have looked like before a read it. Anyway… ultimately to each his own… but I really do hope I can resist the rest of this series.