Greatest Science Fiction Novel Tournament: Week 42, Final Round
The last round of voting takes place here. Which will it be: The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress or Dune?
4 replies on “Greatest Science Fiction Novel Tournament: Week 42, Final Round”
I’m not surprised by the finalists. Of the two I’ve only actually read Dune. However, I’m pulling for the other because while Dune has a reasonably solid story, I found the writing style to be only barely readable. (Gasp! Heresy!) On the other hand, I really ought to get my act together and read some of Heinlein’s work.
Third-person omniscient is not for everyone, especially modern readers that have grown accustomed to third-person limited and first-person POVs.
I, too, need to read more Heinlein. All I’ve done is Starship Troopers.
Ya know, I’ve read a fair bit of Heinlein and, while he penned some classics, a little of Heinlein goes a long way, especially when one gets to the later works.
YLYMV
It wasn’t actually the third person omniscient that was the problem for me. It was the many instances of merging of unattributed throughts from one character with unattributed dialogue from another character into the same paragraph. That is, Dune was just a bit too terse. A few extra words here or there would have eliminated most of my issues. When I was reading Dune, I was thrown completely out of the story many times in order to work out proper attributions in those mixed paragraphs.
To be fair, Herbert’s writing improved significantly in later volumes and the overall story deserves the accolades it gets.
I’m not surprised by the finalists. Of the two I’ve only actually read Dune. However, I’m pulling for the other because while Dune has a reasonably solid story, I found the writing style to be only barely readable. (Gasp! Heresy!) On the other hand, I really ought to get my act together and read some of Heinlein’s work.
Third-person omniscient is not for everyone, especially modern readers that have grown accustomed to third-person limited and first-person POVs.
I, too, need to read more Heinlein. All I’ve done is Starship Troopers.
Ya know, I’ve read a fair bit of Heinlein and, while he penned some classics, a little of Heinlein goes a long way, especially when one gets to the later works.
YLYMV
It wasn’t actually the third person omniscient that was the problem for me. It was the many instances of merging of unattributed throughts from one character with unattributed dialogue from another character into the same paragraph. That is, Dune was just a bit too terse. A few extra words here or there would have eliminated most of my issues. When I was reading Dune, I was thrown completely out of the story many times in order to work out proper attributions in those mixed paragraphs.
To be fair, Herbert’s writing improved significantly in later volumes and the overall story deserves the accolades it gets.