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Honored Contributor
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Registered: ‎03-12-2010

@gardenman , 

 

Hope you saw my little edit explaining better why I'm interested to know more from you in particular.  Sorry you didn't like the series better.

 

There's just the one book.  Outside of that and the plotted-but-unwritten sequel the two authors have had separate careers that overlap in some ways.  Both men quite the characters IRL.  They became close and decided to do this together.  

 

Gaiman didn't even want to do it once Pratchett died but it was a dying promise to his beloved co-author (see above posts about hat & scarf) and since Gaiman has been unhappy with many adaptions and what people have done to his scripts, he insisted on creative control.

 

(He's written several for "Doctor Who" and don't even ask him about "Nightmare in Silver" -- he's proud of that amazing sequence where Matt Smith plays chess with hi but whatever else went on is part of why he now insists on creative control.)

 

Spoiler
Adam didn't know he redesigned the hellhound, he hadn't come into his powers quite yet and was just being a typical boy on his birthday wanting a dog.  The whole nature vs. nurture thing.  But because of his true identity the hellhound had no choice but to obey.

 

I'm glad I asked because you explained you weren't talking about Aziraphale and Crowley nor Tennant and Sheen. 

 

Crowley and Aziraphale are two of my favorite characters in any book and now on screen, so when I thought you were calling them idiots I was definitely confused -- and now I realize defensive, and overprotective of them.  

 

The Four Horsemen, that's a big complaint from diehard fans of the book because a subplot of that was cut, one of the bigger cuts.  It was hilarious but maybe too dependent on prose to work on screen.  Lots of great stuff was cut and the end was changed for screen.  I'm okay because Gaiman.

 

Thanks, G-man!   

 

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Registered: ‎03-09-2010

@LoriLori 

 

I just went back and read your edit. Oddly enough, I don't read a lot of satire. Most of my reading, what reading I do these days, is nonfiction, biographies, thrillers, and the classics. Sadly, when I have time to read, I tend to write instead. Then I reread what I wrote and reread what I wrote and reread what I wrote and reread what I wrote...such is the life of a writer. I've reread my latest ("The Living Library") about twenty times now and it was just written two weeks ago. (Or so.) Thankfully it's a short story so it's only about an hour long read. (Though after my latest reread, I may add onto it a bit more.) There's always that challenge of getting something to feel just right when you write it. Word choice, pacing, just enough description but not too much, and more can drive you slightly insane writing. Odd things tend to haunt you.

 

RIght now the choice between "will" and "would" in a sentence is driving me slightly insane. My heroine Diana, working with King Arthur had removed the door to the library's office to try and find a key to unlock the front door only to come up empty. She tells Arthur, "We probably should replace that office door. The librarian would be a bit confused to find it off the hinges in the morning." "Would" seems right grammatically, but "will" seems to sound better. Both "will" and "would" are auxuliary modal verbs and both could be right or wrong in this case. Which to use, which to use? The librarian will be confused, but only if the door is still off the hinges. She would be confused if it was off the hinges. I still think "would" is right, but I still like the sound of "will." Ugh!

 

Looking around my maze of book shelves I can't really find a satirical novel. I'm guessing Shakespeare's "A Comedy of Errors" would be the last purely satirical work I've read. I tend to reread that every few years. "Live From Lincoln Center" did a pretty fabulous version of it featuring the Flying Karamazov Brothers quite a while back. If you ever stumble upon that you might want to give it a watch.

 

The authors on my bookselves are Frederick Forsythe (his "The Day of the Jackal" is still arguably the best thriller I've ever read, I reread that regularly.) Tom Clancy, John Grisham, Michael Crichton, James Herriott, JK Rowling, Richard Rhodes, Tracy Kidder, Desmond Morris and more fill out my hardbacks. I have somewhere around 500 bound books. I have over 1,000 e-books from all kinds of authors, mostly unknown authors I met through the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. There's likely a few satirical novels in there. Aha! Let me update that satirical novel list. Craig Chambers, a writer friend of mine wrote a somewhat satirical novel about the court system (he's a lawyer in Colorado) called "F*** You Your Honor." I've read that in about three different versions as I was one of his beta readers. I still think it works better as a romantic comedy than a courthouse satire, but that's just me. He's got me lined up to read three short stories he's working on now about Margaret Thatcher's Britain that he expects to have done in the fall.

 

Back to "Good Omens," yeah I thought the two lead characters were fine, but those overseeing them were either written or cast as being a bit thick-headed and dense. The somewhat quick and easy deaths of the four horsemen just seemed a bit absurd. And i really think the hellhound could have played a bigger role. He's a terrier for God's sake. Bite someone! Anyone! Terriers that aren't hellhounds do it all the time. If you've got a terrier that's a hellhound it should be biting someone. It wasn't a bad series, but it just didn't grab me. I may enjoy it more on a second viewing, but I suspect the many, many flashbacks of the two main characters interacting previously would just seem more tedious on a second viewing. 

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!
Honored Contributor
Posts: 12,110
Registered: ‎03-12-2010

@gardenman , thanks.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 12,110
Registered: ‎03-12-2010

@teganslaw wrote:

I didn't sign up for Amazon Prime, after all. I read Good Omens, and found the book OK, but wasn't that enthused about it to see the series. I much prefer Pratchett's Discworld novels. After reading reviews, both good and bad, I have a feeling that I might not have missed that much. 

 

Anyway, I'm glad that the series has met expectations for some. 


 

@teganslaw   Point taken.  I wish I'd started years ago with Discworld.  So many books I can't possibly.  But I want to read a few, the basics (on the Book Forum however long ago you recommended where to start and I can't find it so if you wouldn't mind...TIA) and then the witches ones.

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@LoriLori wrote:

@gardenman wrote:

I finished it yesterday and I found it a bit more "Meh," than the rest of you. It wasn't bad, but it never really captured me. The leaders of both the dark and light were portrayed as idiots. The heckhound (got to be careful of the censors around here) never really did anything other than get swatted by a cat. The seemingly endless flashbacks to earlier times when the two lead characters had interacted were a bit overdone to me. It was more just "okay" for me than good or great. 


 

@gardenman   

 

it's based on  a complex book and so some who haven't read it pick up on the series more easily than others.  Much was cut, some was added (like the scenes throughout history of the two nemeses on earth who over time became BFFs).

 

I don't know if you're familiar with the work of Gaiman or Pratchett.  I don't know what you read at all.  I have long wished you'd share that with all of us on the What Are You Reading thread and maybe Goodreads....  

 

(ETA:  ...and I'm interested because I read the first book you published and that you write across genres.  And because your satire here on your BB thread has always been so hilarious, and on the few occasions you've blessed us with it on Survivor threads, and Good Omens is, among other things, satire.)

 

Anyway it's just not your idea of fun or your sense of humor. It's got plenty of bad reviews along with the glowing ones.  It's been called stupid and worse.  This stuck out to me in your comments:

 

When you said Aziraphale and Crowley are "portrayed as idiots," what did you  mean?  Writing, acting or both? "Idiots" in what way?

 

Also just fyi, you said the hellhound "never really did anything other than get swatted by a cat." 

 

Spoiler
That was the point.The creature was sent to him by those below according to prophecy. 

But with Adam unaware of his identity or powers, when he described the dog he wanted the hellhound was forced to shrink, under protest., the red gleam of its eyes fading.  Adam went on and the hound had to shrink even more, red eyes now gone, until it was reduced to a cute little goggie swatted by the cat.  Oh, the shame for the proud hound of hell!

 

Did you at least squee when the kid said "Ex-ter-min-ATE?"


@LoriLori 

 

Oh, I know I did! lol 

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Posts: 6,501
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@LoriLori wrote:

@teganslaw wrote:

I didn't sign up for Amazon Prime, after all. I read Good Omens, and found the book OK, but wasn't that enthused about it to see the series. I much prefer Pratchett's Discworld novels. After reading reviews, both good and bad, I have a feeling that I might not have missed that much. 

 

Anyway, I'm glad that the series has met expectations for some. 


 

@teganslaw   Point taken.  I wish I'd started years ago with Discworld.  So many books I can't possibly.  But I want to read a few, the basics (on the Book Forum however long ago you recommended where to start and I can't find it so if you wouldn't mind...TIA) and then the witches ones.


@ Lori Lori Small Gods is a good book to start the Discworld novels. It shows examples of Pratchett's humor and style of writing.

 

The first book involving the "City Watch" is Guards, Guards.

 

The Witches start with Equal Rites.

 

Mort starts the ones with the character of Death.

 

Depending on which characters you want to try first, any of these are good starts. If still undecided, I would suggest Small Gods.

"The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog."

Mark Twain
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Registered: ‎03-12-2010

@willdob3 wrote:

@LoriLori wrote:

Did you at least squee when the kid said "Ex-ter-min-ATE?"


@LoriLori 

 

Oh, I know I did! lol 


 

@willdob3 

 

I enjoyed this little video a lot and hope you do too.

 

https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/06/05/good-omens-cast-respond-to-ign-comments