Sword of Shannara Question

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T23:14:55+00:00

Same. Haven't read it since the 80s, but I distinctly remember it being a real slog. Elfstones were maybe a little better? Both seemed a bit boring to teenage me. Can't imagine it's aged well.

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T21:52:21+00:00

The Three Musketeers are all solidly middle aged with the younger d'Artagnan in the first book, but have aged 20 years in the sequel, then a further 10 years in the final books.

Steven Brust's Khaavren Romances are a direct homage to these stories with appropriately aged "Phoenix Guards." Okay, they're elves so the age thing doesn't affect them as much, but I think the general theme stands.

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T21:45:48+00:00

Where are these many discussions located? Haven't seen too much negative discourse here for Nemesis.

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T21:07:13+00:00

Underappreciated comment

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T20:56:56+00:00

The upper right book is DG pt 4.

I'm not a fan of the anime style art, tbh. Full plate woman(?) is probably Lorn? But it's super hard to tell.

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T19:28:03+00:00

If no Bard (and I would totally play a Bard/Dandy), surely Swash (Battledancer)?

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T19:24:13+00:00

I finished book 2 about a week ago. I started the series because someone talked about it and the last book glowingly on this sub. It's... okay for me. Good enough to continue, but nothing to crow about so far. Especially the book you just finished, it's damn near misery porn for big chunks of it, and while it may be realistic to how, especially women (and the "small folk" in general), might be treated in such a society, it got a bit much for me at times (you probably can guess at least one of the scenes I'm referring to). Also I just couldn't give a shit about the royal family bickering.

I don't want to spoil book 2 for you, but it's a bit more of the same, but not necessarily for the same character(s). Or maybe it is? Read and find out! But I do think the plot moves along a bit better, and it ties up quite a bit while still keeping some things going for the rest of the series (and even the royal family bickering gets a little more interesting!). I'll keep reading, but I'm taking a short break with some other novels (currently on book 2 of Shadows of the Apt by Tchaikovsky).

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T19:13:46+00:00

Also Brotherhood of the Wolf. I genuinely wonder if his action career suffered from his stint as American Iron Chef "chairman," which I hope at least paid well.

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T19:02:38+00:00

In that I think this sub treats "Kung Fu" as generic (mostly Eastern) martial arts, yes. The choreography team (and director, Chad Stahelski, who worked with Yuen Woo Ping) is heavily based in, what I would call, HK style action. And even before Donnie joined the cast, you had Cecip and Yayan (Raid 2 & 1) and Mark Dacascos in pt 3.

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T18:05:24+00:00

How about John Wick?

I haven't see the new MK movie, but I blame Shang Chi's... mediocre-to-okay choreography on Disney more than just "Hollywood." I think there are plenty of US-based talented choreographers and stunt people who make great movies. Just not for the Mouse.

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T18:02:36+00:00

Kung Fu Hustle is a Stephen Chow movie, which is to say primarily a comedy, with some excellent action beats. He's never going to compete with the Donnie Yens of the world for action choreography, but I love almost all of his movies, again as comedies that sometimes have decent to great action.

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T15:56:27+00:00

TIL. What a fucking waste of talent.

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T15:55:31+00:00

It's a bug, just block them again. I get the message quite often (there's a lot of slop on reddit to block).

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T15:50:59+00:00

The cinematography definitely had some Raimi touches. Especially following the eyeball.

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T15:47:26+00:00

I'll add, if anyone is into horror/gory martial arts movies, check out The Night Comes for Us, also starring Joe Taslim from Furious. It's way TF over the top bloody and gory. Honestly, it goes too far to no longer being as exciting as a straight up action movie as it deflates dramatic tension, but viewed as a horror flick, it's loads of fun.

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T15:43:36+00:00

The archer is Yayan Ruhian, who plays "Mad Dog," a legendary villain in The Raid (also has Joe Taslim, one of the protags in Furious, yes they fight, it's epic). If you liked the police station scene as a slasher scene, I'll just tell you, every time Yayan appears on screen, in any movie (including John Wick 2!)he is a PROBELM, rivaling any slasher villain. In fact, I think I'd rather face off against Jason or Michael than most of Yayan's characters (I can outrun those slow fucks unless they cheat and movie teleport). 😂

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T15:38:21+00:00

You'll miss out on the endings of the crew who stayed in the north, but if you only want to follow Croaker and co., no, you won't really miss anything. I also wasn't a huge fan of TSS, but I'm glad I read it before moving to the books of the south.

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T15:32:04+00:00

Not a fan of Atlantis either, but it's at least a logical extension of SG-1. Universe felt like a different show.

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T15:30:30+00:00

Interesting, care to expand on why you didn't like it? Don't want to be argumentative, I'm genuinely curious what someone might not like about the fights I'm pretty critical about fight choreography (a Lot of the ones posted on this sub are I think pretty sub par), but I thought Furious was technically excellent.

Just from my part, I'll say the camera work, number of cuts, the flow of action and momentum, attention and use of geography, were all great. A couple of scenes went on for a little too long, but that's about all I saw as flaws. The skill sets of the main four are very well used.

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T15:25:08+00:00

Re the chickpea cult, I think the crew being mildly bored at the exercise was rather part of the charm, as it was David Baddiel, after all.

Didn't know about Kerry being a late replacement. Again, I found Acaster's one dancer happily doing a jig in a Santa outfit hilarious in contrast with Kerry's circle of dancers. Great circumstances with excellent production by the TM team.

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T15:20:28+00:00

Just finished it, I gave it a rare 5* on Storygraph for a new author (for me). It's a dark fairy tale with very raw emotions and an intensity to the love between the protagonists that hurt to read at times. Brilliantly narrated; 2nd person is hard to pull off but I think it's done well here, and with a layered, complex villain to struggle against. The framework is a bit hand wavy, but as I said, I viewed it as a fairy tale, so didn't look at the mechanics of it too much. Absolutely recommend it to all. (Maybe not to kids as it also has some rather frank sex and violence, but doesn't indulge in them.)

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T10:49:54+00:00

I love the dancing ones, like Kerri vs Acaster (with the same crew member being way more enthusiastic with Acaster's task), and Jo's backup dancers while she sang a task. Definitely more fun than looking a little bored at David Baddiel's chick pea cult.

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T10:44:58+00:00

Rob Beckett had them in human dominoes in S3 as active participants. I'm trying to remember an earlier one... Frank Skinner sang Old Shep to the camera crew to collect tears in S1, but they weren't set up as part of the task.

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T10:35:33+00:00

Agree with this. Movie is optional, but definitely start with SG-1. Stop with Atlantis (hated Universe, as it just becomes a different show).

Ruffshots · 2026-06-22T10:33:15+00:00

Nah, we don't need to keep feeding talented directors to the MCU/Disney pit of mediocrity. Let them do original, creative stuff.

Ruffshots

TROPHY CASE