Ameritrash, Literature, and You!

Have you read the books/stories that brought us these excellent Ameritrash games?

A Game Of Thrones
Arkham Horror
Dune
Fury Of Dracula
War Of The Ring

What AT games did I miss here? Probably a whole bunch, but these were the only ones that came to mind.

I've read a bunch of Lovecraft and will be re-reading some of his stuff soon. I've also read the first three Dune books and Bram Stoker's Dracula. I've only read The Hobbit and nothing else by Tolkien. I tried reading Fellowship and couldn't slog through it, but I might give it another shot someday. I have the first Game Of Thrones book and will read that hopefully this year.

I've read Dracula, Lord of the Rings, Dune, and a lot of Lovecraft stuff. I started Game of Thrones but stopped for whatever reason and haven't picked it back up yet...I need to.


All of that stuff is required reading, you ask me.

I have read all that you listed but the Game of Thrones series. I am holding out until it is finished. Almost nothing irritates me more than having to wait for an author to put the last book of a series out. When it finally comes out 3 years later, I have to re-read the whole series to refresh on all of the details. That happened to me with the Wheel of Time series. I got through the last book and then he died. Now I have been waiting for a proxy writer to finish the book......all I can see is red.

I've always heard the Wheel of Time is a complete and utter waste. Generally, I find that a series that goes on forever is never worth the time.

I got really bored reading the Incarnations of Immortality series. I didn't finish the Dark Tower series.

It just seems that these series start off with a great idea and then drag that idea on as long as possible.

Mad Dog wrote:

Have you read the books/stories that brought us these excellent Ameritrash games?

A Game Of Thrones
Arkham Horror
Dune
Fury Of Dracula
War Of The Ring

I've read all of these, though only the first three books for Dune. Lovecraft is a bit of an acquired taste, but I really enjoy his writing in moderate doses. For it's time, Dracula was an amazing book, and still holds up okay, except that the heroes are painfully goody-goody. I read and enjoyed Tolkien when I was young, but would hate to read Lord of the Rings again, with all those long passages of meal descriptions and elven poetry. Dune was another book that was amazing at the time it came out, but I never really enjoyed it that much. The clash of ideas and the fresh concepts are good, but the relative lack of action and cerebral pacing make it a bit of a chore to read.

Of all these books, that Game of Thrones series is my absolute favorite. I've been a big fan of Martin since I first read Fevre Dream about 20 years ago, and the AGoT series will either be remembered as his masterpiece or his Waterloo, depending on whether he finishes it all before he dies. Great characters, interesting setting, and an incredibly ambitious plot that interweaves all these characters, showing us an entire world at war from a dozen different vantage points. If somebody wants to wait and see if Martin finishes it all, that's understandable, but the first four books have been outstanding so far.

As for Jordan's Waste of Time series... I suffered through the first book and then gave up, apparently missing nothing worth the trouble. I don't usually enjoy reading the adventures of foolish people, and Jordan's young heroes were unusually stupid.

I loved the Dark Tower series but the ending was completely ant-climactic.

I have read all of the above except the Game of Thrones books. My wife started them and quit partway through the second one because there were just way too many characters, names, nicknames, and other such crap to keep track of. She has a much higher tolerance for that sort of thing than I do, so I never even tried. AGOT is the only game on the list I haven't played either.

Lovecraft is by far my favorite. I find the feeling of cosmic hopelessness oddly stress relieving.

On a side note, a non-gamer friend of mine recommended I read the pillars of the earth book by ken follete, and guess what? It was more boring than playing the board game.

hancock.tom wrote:

On a side note, a non-gamer friend of mine recommended I read the pillars of the earth book by ken follete, and guess what? It was more boring than playing the board game.

IMPOSSIBLE

A Game Of Thrones

Best books I have ever read. If only he'd finish the thing.

Arkham Horror

Listened to some of the stories on Audio. The phrasing is great, and I like the writing in small doses, but all the stroies seem to be very similar and nothing much ever happens. Listened to A Shadow over Insmuth (or however you spell it) and I have to say I don't see what the big deal about the story is. It was kind of boring.

Dune

Read the first 2/3rds and then stopped - first book ever I think that I never finished reading. I just couldn't connect to the characters.

Fury Of Dracula

Yes, a bit dated but otherwise pretty good.

War Of The Ring

Overrated.

Million Dollar Mimring wrote:

I've always heard the Wheel of Time is a complete and utter waste. Generally, I find that a series that goes on forever is never worth the time.

Well, it is now that the author has croaked before finishing the last book. That was 12 one-thousand page books worth of time wasted.

I got really bored reading the Incarnations of Immortality series. I didn't finish the Dark Tower series.

Anthony writes decent popcorn fiction as long as the primary characters are male. He's even worse than Jordan at writing for female characters. The top 4 Incarnations books are the male ones.

Other AT lit suggestions:

Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar saga...particularly the first few.
And I'll second the Story of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) series. Even if you stop after book three it's well worth it. Here's hoping HBO makes it a series.

Some of the Lovecraft short stories. Nice!

War Of The Ring. Twice, and a lot of referencing. Good read, classic.

I really like Incarnations of Immortality. War bored me (don't know how that's possible) but Time, Death, and especially Satan were all great reads.

"...And Eternity" was interesting but does sort of go off the rails.

Come on man, CONAN? SOLOMON KANE? Hello? Robert E. Howard is probably THE Ameritrash writer, even though I like Lovecraft better on points.

I tried GAME OF THRONES once and I hated it. I'm going to give it another chance, I don't like his writing style at all but the story and characters might be enough to carry me through it, if I can get past the first book.

Never, ever, under any circumstance read any DUNE book not written by FRANK Herbert. DUNE is probably the best SF serial ever written, and I'd rank the first book as probably my favorite SF novel of all time. The characters are a little distant, but I think that kind of works on an atmospheric level- particularly later in the cycle.

DRACULA is a masterpiece...almost. The first third (basically a detailed account of a real estate sale gone horribly awry), Dracula's cruise on the DEMETER, and the wind up to the end are as good as it gets. All the drawing room/parlour talk drags and I hate that Quincey Morris dies. Come on, a vampire hunting Texan? That's awesome.

I hate that Quincey Morris dies.

ZOMG SPOILER TAGS YOU SUMBITCH

Good call about Conan. Mustn't have thought of it because I haven't seen the game yet. I don't recall reading any of the books, but I have read some of the Dark Horse comics.

I love Quincey "Undead Pest" Morris from FoD.

Sadly, Dracula is the only book on the AT list I've read and studied. Lovecraft's themes are very interesting, but his writing style can be a little cumbersome. I have a much easier time reading Poe.