RIP David Eddings

[crazy canuck]

The Lord of the Rings isnt dense.  To be dense, meaning would have to be packed into every sentence and paragraph making it difficult to immediately fully understand  without at least some contemplation.

The piece Grumbler posted some time ago was dense.  The Lord of the Rings is just long but the sentence structure and the prose is pretty easy even if just skimming the words.

Eddings' books were good mind candy.  Short easy straight forward stories that could be read in an afternoon.  For what they were I enjoyed them.

[Neil]

He was a good entry-level fantasy author.  LOTR, while great, is too dense for most junior-high kids.

Quite understandable.  I was too old for the Ender or Diskworld books when they came out as well, but the fact that I didn't care for them doesn't mean that they were not good.

OtOH, I read the Lord of the Rings in the summer between my fourth and fifth grade school years, so I may not be a typical reader, either. 

See, everyone is different in that respect.  When I was little I would read all sorts of classical literature, but as soon as the hobbits started singing in LOTR I just couldn't keep going.  I was in my teens before I went back and finished it.

[Neil]

Heh.  The Belgariad adn the Elenium are decent fantasy.  He goes off the rails when he blatantly and unapologetically re-writes them over again, several times in the case of the Belgariad.  The later books, like the Elder Gods were terrible.

The Elenium is also the Belgariad re-written.  In fact, when he writes the Malloreon, he even writes the repetitive storyline into the story.  And then he writes the Elenium and Tamuli as prequels to his first two series.

[grumbler]

The piece Grumbler posted some time ago was dense. 

Which piece was that (just curious)?  Something I wrote, or something I just quoted?

[grumbler]

See, everyone is different in that respect.  When I was little I would read all sorts of classical literature, but as soon as the hobbits started singing in LOTR I just couldn't keep going.  I was in my teens before I went back and finished it.

I think it wasn't until maybe my third read-through of LotR that I actually read, vice simply skipping, the songs! 

You have to actually say them aloud to really appreciate them, and then you discover that they are actually pretty good.

[Berkut]

I've probably read the LotR ten times, but I don't think I've *ever* read every single word. There are entire paragraphs (not to mention the songs) that get blazed right through...

[Barrister]

See, everyone is different in that respect.  When I was little I would read all sorts of classical literature, but as soon as the hobbits started singing in LOTR I just couldn't keep going.  I was in my teens before I went back and finished it.

I think it wasn't until maybe my third read-through of LotR that I actually read, vice simply skipping, the songs! 

You have to actually say them aloud to really appreciate them, and then you discover that they are actually pretty good.

To this day I skip the songs and poems...

[The Brain]

I read everything in LOTR the first time, never considered not doing it. My cock is pretty big.

[crazy canuck]

The piece Grumbler posted some time ago was dense. 

Which piece was that (just curious)?  Something I wrote, or something I just quoted?

http://languish.org/forums/index.php?topic=414.0


A thread that shows how good Languish can be.

[crazy canuck]

My cock is pretty big.

If we reduce that by the usual internet exaggeration factor of 10 then.....

[grumbler]

http://languish.org/forums/index.php?topic=414.0

A thread that shows how good Languish can be.

Ah.  Thanks for the cite.  I agree that the poem is incredbly densely written, which is one of its charms.

Jabberwocky is another dense poem.  In that case, though, the words don't just seem to be made up! 

[The Brain]

My cock is pretty big.

If we reduce that by the usual internet exaggeration factor of 10 then.....

My cock is tiny.

[garbon]

I only care about your e-peen.

[PDH]

You have to actually say them aloud to really appreciate them, and then you discover that they are actually pretty good.

And that is when you realize they are actually songs...

[Legbiter]

I only read his first book (a direct ripoff of Lord of the Rings), but it sounds like he lived long and prospered.  RIP

He was a good entry-level fantasy author.  LOTR, while great, is too dense for most junior-high kids.

Yep.

His books about Sparhawk saving princess Ehlana from her crystal sphere while later boinking her constituted as great literature for this 13 year old at the time.

He's second only to Leisure Suit Larry 1 in teaching me the finer points of the English language. 

Ken sent me.