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Sep. 24th, 2011 06:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darchildreFor the past several days, I have been listening to Unseen Academicals as my in-the-car audio book. About which, three things:
1) I really need to just resign myself to the fact that I never actually like new Discworld books the first time I read them. This is irritating, as one cannot skip ahead to the second reading during the first time, but it nearly almost happens. I did not like Thud the first time. I thought Going Postal was really boring the first time. I hated Fifth Elephant the first time and I walked away from the first read-through of Night Watch (Night Watch!) mostly thinking, "Meh." And yet, they always improve on the second read-through or the first time through on audiobook. Unseen Academicals is probably never going to be in my top ten list, but it's much better this time.
2) Although I like Nigel Planer, I am much more fond of Stephen Briggs as a reader of Discworld audiobooks, if only because his women consistently sound like women rather than men with a head cold, and because he never forgets which voice he's given to which character. (There's an extended sequence in the audiobook of Men at Arms* where Mr Planer has switched the voices for Detritus and Cuddy and it is terribly distracting every time.) There is one weird thing about his readings, though, and that is the fact that Drumknott has one voice in the Moist von Lipwig books and another voice in every other book he appears in. It's bizarre and rather sad, as I much prefer the voice from the Moist books.
3) Listening to Vetinari-heavy books while rewatching Farscape does weird and stupid things to my brain and, mostly, I find myself wanting the story in which he and Scorpius either a) take over the world (which would take them all of five minutes), b) destroy each other completely, or c) both, possibly at the same time. That is ridiculous but would also be amazing.
*This is not about Unseen Academicals and is instead about Men at Arms but I think that I've figured out why I've never really warmed up to Angua, no matter how hard I try. It is because I have never quite gotten over the scene where Vimes is dead drunk and she goes snooping through his stuff, finds his notebook, and thinks that he's been spending all his money on booze and seamstresses. That scene makes me terribly angry at her and without it, I think I would be inclined to find her a much more tolerable character. (Though the repeated instances of:
Angua: Carrot, I wish you would sometimes be mean and small, like a normal person.
Carrot, several scenes later: I am saying something mean and/or small.
Angua: I am now very angry at you!
are terribly irritating as well.)
1) I really need to just resign myself to the fact that I never actually like new Discworld books the first time I read them. This is irritating, as one cannot skip ahead to the second reading during the first time, but it nearly almost happens. I did not like Thud the first time. I thought Going Postal was really boring the first time. I hated Fifth Elephant the first time and I walked away from the first read-through of Night Watch (Night Watch!) mostly thinking, "Meh." And yet, they always improve on the second read-through or the first time through on audiobook. Unseen Academicals is probably never going to be in my top ten list, but it's much better this time.
2) Although I like Nigel Planer, I am much more fond of Stephen Briggs as a reader of Discworld audiobooks, if only because his women consistently sound like women rather than men with a head cold, and because he never forgets which voice he's given to which character. (There's an extended sequence in the audiobook of Men at Arms* where Mr Planer has switched the voices for Detritus and Cuddy and it is terribly distracting every time.) There is one weird thing about his readings, though, and that is the fact that Drumknott has one voice in the Moist von Lipwig books and another voice in every other book he appears in. It's bizarre and rather sad, as I much prefer the voice from the Moist books.
3) Listening to Vetinari-heavy books while rewatching Farscape does weird and stupid things to my brain and, mostly, I find myself wanting the story in which he and Scorpius either a) take over the world (which would take them all of five minutes), b) destroy each other completely, or c) both, possibly at the same time. That is ridiculous but would also be amazing.
*This is not about Unseen Academicals and is instead about Men at Arms but I think that I've figured out why I've never really warmed up to Angua, no matter how hard I try. It is because I have never quite gotten over the scene where Vimes is dead drunk and she goes snooping through his stuff, finds his notebook, and thinks that he's been spending all his money on booze and seamstresses. That scene makes me terribly angry at her and without it, I think I would be inclined to find her a much more tolerable character. (Though the repeated instances of:
Angua: Carrot, I wish you would sometimes be mean and small, like a normal person.
Carrot, several scenes later: I am saying something mean and/or small.
Angua: I am now very angry at you!
are terribly irritating as well.)
