What to Read Next? - This Immortal or Lord of the Rings

[Arnox]

Some quick background. I love Zelazny, generally. His magnum opus, The Chronicles of Amber, is one of my all-time favorite series', and he's done some other pretty good works such as Lord of Light, and also, some great short stories such as "Frost & Fire". At the moment, I haven't read This Immortal, but I want to remedy that sometime. The only problem with Zelazny, perhaps, is that his main characters very often seem very similar. Nevertheless, I find that archetype pretty entertaining at least.

And now, to Lord of the Rings. I've read Lord of the Rings before. Really liked it. It's a thic boi though, so it's been an age since I've last read it. I want to remedy that as well. LotR has this... Mythic timelessness to it that I can't describe. It's something that I feel no other fantasy series before or since has ever really captured. Or at least, not fully anyway. The Chronicles of Amber may be an all-time favorite of mine, but that's much more a balls-to-the-wall guns-blazing (tee-hee) epic of epicly epic proportions. But LotR isn't like that. LotR is a beautiful vista. An intricate ancient gorgeous tapestry telling a tale that always resonates, no matter what era it is told in.

 

[Battousai]

LoTR is a great read when you look back at it, since I read it in high school for the first time. However as good as the main story is it is incredibly bloated in some sections with Tolkien's poems and songs that he loved composing and using his mastery of language as the philologist he was by trade. I mean I went to check, the complete story has 61 poems overall and the first book has 22 of those lol, a few are indeed very well known like "The Road Goes Ever On and On" but the rest of it feels just like filler that Tolkien inserted because he wanted to publish his poetry and you have to get over a wall of text to get back to the main plot.

 

[Arnox]

LoTR is a great read when you look back at it, since I read it in high school for the first time. However as good as the main story is it is incredibly bloated in some sections with Tolkien's poems and songs that he loved composing and using his mastery of language as the philologist he was by trade. I mean I went to check, the complete story has 61 poems overall and the first book has 22 of those lol, a few are indeed very well known like "The Road Goes Ever On and On" but the rest of it feels just like filler that Tolkien inserted because he wanted to publish his poetry and you have to get over a wall of text to get back to the main plot.

I agree, but in fairness, the poems are super easy to skip over and you don't really lose any important information by doing so. I like to read a few of them as I'm reading LotR as well. I feel they do at least immerse me more in the world. Nevertheless though, yeah, I don't generally have a lot of patience for poems either, especially when I think the story would be a lot better served if Tolkien would just explain something normally instead of converting it into some silly poem. The Oliphant poem comes to mind for example. I really don't think fantasy elephants deserved an entire poem.

 

[Battousai]

The Oliphant poem comes to mind for example. I really don't think fantasy elephants deserved an entire poem.

https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Oliphaunt_(poem)

here you get to read it again in all its glory.

 

[Ogoid]

Me, I'd say go with Zelazny. Even though I've yet to read anything of his (he's one of those names in my list I never seem to get around to) and in my experience Tolkien always holds up, I tend to favor new stuff over re-reads.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Definitely read My Immortal. Seems right up your alley.

 

[Arnox]

Definitely read My Immortal. Seems right up your alley.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Immortal_(fan_fiction)

My Immortal is a Harry Potter-based fan fiction serially published on FanFiction.net between 2006 and 2007. Though notable for its convoluted narrative and constant digressions, the story largely centers on a non-canonical female vampire character named "Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way" (not family of Gerard Way) and her relationships with the characters of the Harry Potter series, particularly her romantic relationship with Draco Malfoy, culminating in her travelling back in time to defeat the main antagonist of the series, Lord Voldemort.

 

[Battousai]

My brother in christ what the hell is that "novel"? Fan fiction writers have some of the wildest imagination you have ever seen in this world, its a shame they put it to use in either convoluted non sensical stories or straight up porn fan fics.

 

[Arnox]

My brother in christ what the hell is that "novel"? Fan fiction writers have some of the wildest imagination you have ever seen in this world, its a shame they put it to use in either convoluted non sensical stories or straight up porn fan fics.

On The Way to Greatness is pretty good.

 

[gaijinkaiju]

those both sound boring, how about lolita instead?

its a shame they put it to use in either convoluted non sensical stories or straight up porn fan fics.

you say that like it's a bad thing

 

[Ogoid]

those both sound boring, how about lolita instead?

I'm more partial to Invitation to a Beheading, as far as Nabokov goes.