The Dark Mythology discussion

I think most people are familiar with the Day Watch series?
Day Watch, Night Watch, Twilight Watch and, just released, Last Watch!
Has anyone read Last Watch yet?
I just found out about and am broke as usual. so I want to know about it.

This series is special to me. I found out about it way, way back when it was a rumor still in Russia. I waited years for an English release. I even though about learning Russian just for these books!

So...anyone read Last Watch?

I have only read the first two books yet and really liked both of them. Unfortunately, I have not yet managed to read the other books in the series, though they are already sitting on my shelf *sigh*. But I can only guess they will be as good as the previous titles.

Did you see the movies? There are two of them, both based on the first book. They are also great, but easier to understand if you have already read the book.

So are these any good? I've downloaded and seen two of the movies, they didn't seem to horrible. Not read or heard anything about the book series though. How much does the movie deviate from the books?

I haven't read any of the books yet, but I thought that Dnevnoy dozor (Day Watch) was based off Day Watch. Both movies are good and show that Hollywood doesn't have an exclusive on adrenaline movies.
Unfortunately it seems that Twilight/Dusk Watch may never happen. Timur Bekmambetov was hired by Fox to direct it in english, but apparently Wanted took it's place. Wanted the movie was visually impressive, but Hollywood can't seem to handle villains as protagonists, so the story was basically neutered. I highly recommend Mark Millar's graphic novel Wanted the movie is based on, though.

The movies are really good, they have a very individual fresh look which makes them stand out from the usual hollywood stuff. E.g. the actors are not some styled beauties but real characters (but not bad-looking either), and the setting is not too polished with a dirty realistic touch (hard to describe, but you will know what I mean). And the special effects are really good in this one.

The first movie is based on book one, part one (book one has three parts).

The second movie is based on the rest of book one, which was very confusing as the movie was titled after the second book. I wonder what the (hopefully coming soon) next movie based on book two will be titled...

I'll have to check out the Wanted graphic novel, I'm also going to give this 'watch' series a look. Just put in an order for some more books and it's on the list. Hopefully I find it as entertaining as everyone else has.

The Night Watch series is fantastic and yes, the next movie may never happen. I was shocked to see a 4th book!
I first heard of the series while in college and it took so very long to get out of Russia, much less to the US.

The films are pretty close to the books as the author has a strong influence on the films (as it should be). But by keeping that tight of control makes the big studios reluctant to fund them. The studios like nothing better than to take a great story and totally ruin it by rewriting it via the "Hollywood" way.

So I was also shocked to see the second film come out, but was ecstatic that it did! They had a bit more funding and were able to throw in some cool FX.

Day Watch has been nominated as the Best International Film by Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA. (the Saturn Awards)

No matter what though, you really should read the books before watching the films. There is so much in the book that is impossible to portray in film.

Also, Day Watch did much better in the Box Office than Night Watch. Night Watch grossed about $32 million worldwide, while Day Watch made $32 million in the USA alone!

Not a record breaker by any means but it does speak well for a 3rd film if they can get it together.

Wanted as a film is passable. Wanted as a comic/graphic novel is fantastic and must be read. In the GN you'll see what Wanted is REALLY about and how poorly the film portrays that.

I'll secure a copy of Wanted to read, the movie wasn't bad, but I had no history until the movie with the story. One I would like to see as a movie is Grendel: War Child, I think that would be an excellent movie.

Oh yeah! But it would be a hard film to cast I think. Although, the War Child is a big ole bad ass and there are many who could pull that off1 -grin-
Grendel-Prime who saves the prince (and thereby the world) and then disappears off into the wastelands.

Primary cast. Who could play who in a film?

Jupiter - Orion 1 son, the prince heir
Grendel-Prime - The paladin. A solar-powered cyborg built to protect Jupiter
Laurel Kennedy - Orion's wife, the current Regent and mother to Jupiter and Crystal
Crystal - Daughter of Laurel Kennedy
Azif a-Barouk - Rebel leader
Pellon Cross - Ancient foe of Orion
Susan Veraghen - Grendel guard and Crystals lover
Abner Heath - Minister to Laurel Kennedy

Definitley wouldn't be easy as a live action, but a high quality animation [ie- Beowulf:] would do better justice to the story. It's kinda like Dredd in the fact that the characters would be difficult to cast and do appropriate justice.

That's a good idea. Filming it in a style like Beowulf would enable them to do quite a bit.
I've been a Grendel fanatic ever since it first came out and War Child is one of the better stories. the entire mythos is fascinating though.

I was putzing around and just discovered another author (from Seattle no less) that I want to read. He himself is pretty...um...interesting too. Check this out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._H._Pu...

What caught my attention is his book The Fungal Stain and Other Dreams.
With a title like that, I HAVE to see if the stories live up to it. He is supposedly a Lovecraft influenced writer and I am ALWAYS interested in those stories.

Cool. Let us know how you like it. If it's as good as the previous books.

Oh yeah. I will be VERY interested in what you might find out about Pugmire. That guy looks to be quite interesting. I know I want to read his stories, but, as usual, can't find them over here in this overgrown farm town.

Cool. I need to get the series again. I loaned the books out and never got them back. I like to get people into books, but I sure wish they would return them once in a while! At $7 -$8 a book for paperback, it gets costly to replace them all the time. Ya know?

I was just talking to someone else about a fantasy series that the same thing happened to. Only it has at least 10 books in it. Thankfully, many older series are collected in omnibus' these days.

Of course, the Black Jewels is up to 7 books now isn't it? That would cost nearly $140 to replace both series in new books!

Anyone else think the price of books has gotten WAY out of hand?
They keep giving out the excuse that the cost of paper has gone up. BULL! It's gone up some yes, but not to the extent to justify raising the cost of books so much in the past few years. I'm a graphic designer and know a little about paper costs. I would rather some honesty for a change and have them tell us that they are simply greedy!
The sad thing is that much of the price increase doesn't make it to the authors either. Most of it is right to the publishers coffer.

Okay. I had better stop ranting. My blood pressure is getting up there! -grin-

Back to the subject. I appreciate a good, simple and clean story. I think it's harder to write a story like that in many ways. To trim the fat and keep the flow going with out ruining the story or losing the reader is WORK!

I could buy the price of books on paper if they actually used good paper, but they use the yellow/grey faded crap and charge me 7-14 $ for a paperback. And Brett, you are right, the authors; who deserve the extra cash, get shafted out of the deal. One reason my small publishing purchase binge has been worth it, good HC, good paper quality, and most of all, damn good stories.

I'm a little OCD with quality, one thing I cannot stand is MMPB that have heavy creases on the spine! And some authors I reserve for HB only [Barker, Williams:] if possible. Books are my primary entertainment, next to online activities, so instead of some 60-80$ a month for TV, I spend that, on average, on books. And don't forget VJ, Ebay is a great resource for good quality HB too. That is where I got all my Clive Barker 1st printings collection from.

not really, I only buy one pair of shoes every 3-5 years or so.

Abebooks is a great site, but sometimes the mainstream auction sites will surprise you. But in the end, I purchase from whoever, wherever will give me the best quality/price.

yes, I top out at 13. If I buy name brand crap like Reebok [size 15:] or nike [size 14:], they just get bigger.

my son is one year last Sunday, he is already in a size 5 [don't know if that is large or not:]. I'm prepared for the expenses, would rather spend the money on books though.

well, I'm 6'5" and my son is already in my two year old cloths that my mom kept for me. Oh well, at least he's not Bakanoff short [wifes maiden name:].

I did, but she's abandoned the family so I haven't spoken with her in a few years [not for lack of trying though:]. Our family is a bunch of giants, only thing short is our wifes and for some reason we all have short women complexes!

no, he needs a little brother.

hi everybody!! im new here. i just joined this group cuz i saw that Dracula was on its book list. im about half way through it now

Welcome, how are you enjoying Dracula?

very good. im where Lucy just "died" i havent got any farther.

Hello friends,

Sorry for being gone so long. I'm sure you all pined for my brilliant repartee. Yeah right. Never even noticed did ya! -grin-

I had an incident with icy stairs and was laid up for a few weeks. Literally. Then my computer AND internet provider both decided to be nasty. Suicide for the computer and general untrustworthyness for for the provider.

Finally fixed the computer but have random internet at best. Talk about ticking me off! I hate being told there is nothing wrong when it's quite obvious there is.

Anyway, I'll be trying to catch up by reading a months worth of posts for all the groups.
One good thing is that I have been reading a LOT.

Jake's Wake by Joe Skipp & Cody Goodfellow is excellent. I like it a lot.

Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry. Read it twice in a row!

Infected & Contagious by Scott Sigler. Scary sci-fi/horror.

Castaways by Brian Keene. Keene is ALWAYS good.

The Tunnels & Boneyard by Michelle Gagnon. More of a thriller, but excellent nonetheless.

Fall of Cthulhu graphic novels #1, 2 & 3. Yum!

The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff. College horror.

Border Land by SK Epperson. Another cautionary tale proving that what goes around, comes around.

Plus several science fiction, fantasy and mystery novels.

How about everyone else? What have you read lately that left an impression, good or bad?

Welcome back, figured you were reading all those comics. I'm still slowly reading. My poor boy as been through the sick mill this last week or two. Hard to read when your boy is throwing up all the time. I'm a book lover but a clean freak before that, so reading has been slow.

Ewwww! Sorry to hear your son is ill. that is no fun at all. I hope he feels better soon.

I HAVE been reading the comics too. For a while it was all I could read using my laptop since I couldn't get up easily and could NOT sit in a chair in front of my desktop.
So you have been a life saver actually. I love my books, but I can't live without my comics either!

Charles de Lint is a GREAT fantasy author! I think his Newford books are amoung his best work. They are a loose series of novels and stories about a town called Newford. It would be quite the interesting place to live.

His work isn't really dark or horror. Just very good fantasy. He also writes some young adult/juvenile stories.

The Mystery of Grace is more of a Fantasy Romance novel BTW.
He DID write 3 darker novels a while back under an alias. They are being re-released under his real name and are well worth reading. A little press release-

"In the early 1990s, Charles de Lint wrote and published three dark fantasy novels under the pen name "Samuel M. Key." Now, beginning with Angel of Darkness and From a Whisper to a Scream and concluding with I'll Be Watching You, Orb presents them for the first time under de Lint's own name."

Also, just for the sake of trivia, his full name is-

Charles Henri Diederick Hoefsmit de Lint.

How would you like having to write that back in school when they made you write your full name all the time!?

Pretty cool when you happen onto a book that just hits the perfect spot.

It was like that when I read Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis. The dark humor was just what I needed at the time.

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke for science fiction.

Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings for fantasy.

Shadow Out of Time by HP Lovecraft for horror.

These books will always be special because they are not only very good, but they were perfect for me at the time.

You won't find them new under Key. That was a while back and is why they are being re-released under his real name.

Orb released them in 2002, 2003, 2004 as over-sized paperbacks. I "think" they may be releasing them again but am not sure. I'll let you know.

They are easy to find online at Amazon.

Holy crap, there are TWO MORE?!? That's fantastic!

I started reading Nightwatch and for some reason I couldn't focus on it and put it down. Might pick it up though. It just seemed slow to me.....maybe because I was reading it while being somewhat distracted by 4th hour teachers lecture.

um a really good series is the house of night series, Marked, then Betrayed, then Chosen, then Untamed, and then Hunted. so ya they are like uber good

they are written by kristen and P.C. cast and I dont know what MD stands for so ya

And they r about vampires

Mongoose Dog = MD

Oh teehee i should have guessed that but you can call me Anna that is my name I just like the saying can I be a mongoose dog so ya

I love them soo much and I cant wait for the last one!!

it was scary cuz i was reading at night when Prof. Nolan was like you know (I dont want to spoil it) but it was at night and I couldn't fall asleep

(I was in like 5th grade then so I was really young)

i havent read Graceling

Oh my gosh I love the dark is rising series they are so fantastic, and I love them so much

I think they are better than harry potter!

Not sure I would agree that the Riddlemaster books are BETTER than the Earthsea books, they're quite a bit different. But I agree they are very very good indeed, and have a place on my "reread regularly" list :) You might also check out Sylvia Louise Engdahl's books: Enchantress from the Stars (nowhere near as cheesy as the title might make it sound LOL!) and The Far Side of Evil; she's also got a trilogy that starts with This Star Shall Abide. They have quite a bit to do with the relationship between myth, religion, and history.

Absolutely agree with that! Even LeGuin didn't like the TV version :)

I love earsala K. LeGuin she is such a good writer

have any of you guys read the garth nix series

Sabreil Lerial and Abhorsen? they are so good

I have heard of those, are they good so far

another series is the midnighter series by scott westerfeild (they are so good)

Charles de Lint is always cool. Also Neil Gaiman is another good author. Though YA urban fantasy, I like Melissa Marr's fairy series--Wicked Lovely,Ink Exchange, and reading Fragile Eternity now.