tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post3882587156792743964..comments2024-03-27T19:07:19.133-04:00Comments on The Silver Key: Magic Kingdom for Sale: Sold. A reviewBrian Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05563309422791320114noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post-83917898715920845252012-04-20T14:06:05.964-04:002012-04-20T14:06:05.964-04:00Hi Gary, there are obviously many folks who enjoy ...Hi Gary, there are obviously many folks who enjoy the book, and that's okay. Art is subjective. I know many people who despise The Lord of the Rings, and I happen to disagree strongly, but I realize that not everyone likes the same things as me.<br /><br />I found <i>Magic Kingdom For Sale: Sold</i> absolutely dreadful, for all the reasons described above. You like it. And there's not much more to say than that (unless you care to elaborate why you like it).<br /><br />As Pipple said it might make for a good movie though, who knows?Brian Murphyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05563309422791320114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post-42790548176394227742012-04-20T12:40:26.562-04:002012-04-20T12:40:26.562-04:00It really is a badly written book but... It would ...It really is a badly written book but... It would make a great movie. And let's face it, movies don't necessarily need to follow the exact storyline. Plus, A movie has its own language. <br />The problem I found with this book wasn't the story, per se, it was the actually writing. It was how bad the writer wrote a sentence and formed a visual. It reminded me of the stories I wrote in Grade 11 when I thought I knew I could write. Self indulgent. Clumsy. <br />This reminds me of another book that I disliked. The Forests of the Heart by Charles de Lint. Horribly written novel. Just ugly... but damn I wish they made it in to a movie. I would just feel bad for those people that would like the film who went to find the original story and had to trudge through bad prose.<br />Anyway- that's my two cents.pipple mongolehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08872561591062326971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post-17520756859047907852012-04-20T12:00:53.335-04:002012-04-20T12:00:53.335-04:00why is it so bad that they are making a movie abou...why is it so bad that they are making a movie about it? i personally thought that the book was a good read, not some "muck from the bottom of the proverbial barrel".Gary Baconnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post-41578334983624993002010-03-30T19:37:00.089-04:002010-03-30T19:37:00.089-04:00Hi James, stop now and save yourself the agony. It...Hi James, stop now and save yourself the agony. It really is an awful book. There's so much more in the wide world to read than <i>Magic Kingdom for Sale</i>.<br /><br />I hadn't heard that it's being made into a movie but man, if true, that's scraping some serious muck from the bottom of the proverbial barrel.Brian Murphyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05563309422791320114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post-25740161220851456102010-03-29T17:47:31.459-04:002010-03-29T17:47:31.459-04:00Your review made me feel less alone in the world, ...Your review made me feel less alone in the world, Brain.<br />Being not a big fantasy fan, but a fan of good books, I picked this up recently to finally give it a go. Seen it on many friends' shelves, heard it was being made into a film more than a few times so I figured it was one of the good ones.<br />I haven't gotten more than 50 pages into this and I started to question my own idea what a good story was. <br />I had just finished 3 great novels -fast- in a row over a holiday, an Elmore Leonard, a Zane Grey and a James Morrow and was pretty excited to get into this one and now I feel really cheated.<br />I would hate to offend anyone out there who loves this book- I know certain writing styles speak to different people but...<br />It was like it was written by my when I was just out of high school- I agree he knows how to string a sentence together, he goes through the motions of the proper length of a paragraph and he has characters and they say things but he spends so much time awkwardly describing their inner thoughts instead of showing us who they are that I can only get through a few pages at a time.<br />Should I go on? <br />I will feel like I gave up but there are so many great great, well-written novels out there I would hate to waste this time reading a book that is sub-par.<br />What do you think?<br /><br />Thanks<br />Jamespipple mongolehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08872561591062326971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post-67298210715054642822008-10-07T22:04:00.000-04:002008-10-07T22:04:00.000-04:00Hi Lewis, thanks for stopping by.I'm glad you like...Hi Lewis, thanks for stopping by.<BR/><BR/>I'm glad you liked <I>Magic Kingdom</I>, but I'm afraid that I just don't have much good to say about it. I didn't find it offensive, but it didn't engage me at all, and I didn't find Ben Holiday very likeable. If you liked the setup of a modern character entering a fantasy world, I'd recommend Poul Anderson's <I>Three Hearts and Three Lions</I>, which did this far better, in my opinion.<BR/><BR/>I read <I>A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court</I> once, about 15 years go, for college, and I don't remember it too well so it's likely I missed the reference there.Brian Murphyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05563309422791320114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post-36861639702676014052008-10-07T14:49:00.000-04:002008-10-07T14:49:00.000-04:00I needed something to divert me on a five and a ha...I needed something to divert me on a five and a half hour drive, so I purchased this book as a bargain-bin audiobook.<BR/><BR/>I didn't dislike it as much as all of you seem to have done. Maybe the audio format of the story and the fact that I expected very little helped. <BR/><BR/>I've read the Sword of Shannara trilogy, Scions of Shannara, Genesis of Shannara - to me this book seemed like Brooks' most original work since the original Sword of Shannara piece. Shannara pigeon-holed Terry Brooks like Frank Hebert and Dune; this is a nice change. <BR/><BR/>By the way - speaking of the "Arthurian trope," you may not have realized that - just as SoS was a foil to Lord of the Rings - this book was clearly designed after Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain. Maybe that will give you a little bit of grace for the innocent little tome.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post-64489080830254182522008-07-11T12:50:00.000-04:002008-07-11T12:50:00.000-04:00So I guess you won't be reading the sequels to Mag...So I guess you won't be reading the sequels to Magic Kingdom then? ;P<BR/><BR/>I always found the main character of this book to be way too childish at times to be a man in his 40's. And the little green fairy girl, whatever the hell she was, ugh... don't get me started on her. So annoying.<BR/><BR/>- MatthewAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post-13074734257091857392008-07-09T15:55:00.000-04:002008-07-09T15:55:00.000-04:00MaxThanks for the welcome back, and yes, you prett...<B>Max</B><BR/><BR/>Thanks for the welcome back, and yes, you pretty much nailed it. I finished this on my week off and wished that I had read something else. Ah well...<BR/><BR/><B>Falze</B><BR/><BR/>Yes, this appears to be a bad case of mis-marketing, although as I said I'm not even sure that Brooks intended <B>Magic Kingdom</B> as adolescent fiction--it is, after all, about middle-age crisis (to a degree) and tells the story of a 40-year-old lawyer trying to find meaning in his life. Except it doesn't accomplish that goal, either.<BR/><BR/>Don't worry, I still have the Shannara books on my shelves. I'm not throwing them out and I may try to read them again someday. But <B>Magic Kingdom</B> certainly left a sour taste in my mouth.Brian Murphyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05563309422791320114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post-35537209539915863112008-07-09T10:16:00.000-04:002008-07-09T10:16:00.000-04:00This simply is not adult fiction and should not be...This simply is not adult fiction and should not be marketed as such. It is 2 dimensional pap with an animated suit of armor or something, if I recall correctly. And, no, it's not even good adolescent fantasy. Compared to Harry Potter, The Dark Is Rising, etc. this is a waste of paper and ink - even though I read it young I still thought it stunk - and agree that it felt like the whole 'world' was about the size of my neighborhood, if that.<BR/><BR/>That said - go back to Shannara. It's still good. And, like McKeirnan, what started out for an aspiring writer as a Tolkien-derived grasping at fantasy has become an independent, developed world with interesting characters (actually, what Brooks has wrought is better than McKiernan's world). True, things got hairy for a while - Sword was good, Elfstones was pretty good with a neat, massive (yes, Minas Tirith-like) battle at the end, Wishsong made me think, "Well, that's the end of Brooks. Boy did THAT suck!" Some time passed and then he started putting out some actual decent books set in this world at different times. It's not super awesome can't-put-it-down, but I like what he's putting out now and they don't feel derivative - no more so than anyone else after the masterpiece has already been written by someone else. Give it a shot. You don't need to reread the original 3 to read the newer books, either. There's nothing disgraceful about authors writing adult and juvenile fiction - Piers Anthony and Robert Heinlein spring immediately to mind. Unfortunately, especially with Heinlein, they don't market the juvenile stuff AS juvenile, either, which is an insult to the reader and the writer.<BR/><BR/>If only you'd asked before listening to this book - I'd've told you it was written for someone 1/3 our age ;DFalzehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13481333222029372752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post-79089034582370077522008-07-08T23:18:00.000-04:002008-07-08T23:18:00.000-04:00Welcome back. Do I sense the bitterness of a man ...Welcome back. Do I sense the bitterness of a man who spent his vacation reading a book he hated? Sometimes it's tricky to pack to right reading material, or so I find.<BR/><BR/>Amusingly, I didn't realize that I had read this book till midway through your fifth paragraph, and the rest of the details you described barely tickle my memory. "I remember reading that," is all that I can say about it though; I can't even muster the faintest praise to bother damning it.Maxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07615194097431562045noreply@blogger.com