Post by Ktstar on May 31, 2005 20:14:43 GMT -5
Sorry if there's already been a poll like this, but I wondered what other people thought.
My opinion is in the review I wrote for Amazon.com (I said four stars, but I think I should have said three.)
A bit confused... May 30, 2005
Reviewer: Ktstar (BC, Canada)
As soon as I heard of this book, I wanted to read it. I love Lord of the Rings, both the books and the movies--so of course I would read a book written by a LotR actor. Especially one with a title taken right from the story.
However, now I feel that perhaps the title was not the best for this book. Instead of the memoirs of making the movie as I had expected, I opened the book to find the memoirs of Sean Astin's career. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Still, the cover and title of the book is misleading.
For me, the main problem of this book is the writing style. There are so many things that can be hard to understand that I, a normally fast reader, only reached 100 pages of the 300-page work.
The other thing that annoyed me was the writing itself. Some things I had problems with were the frequent less-than-polite words, the truthful but yet harsh depictions of other people in the business, and the frequent off-topic-ness. Sean frequently begins on a topic (such as filming), then immediately goes off on something else, only coming back to the original subject paragraphs later. As some other reviewers noted, occasionaly Sean seems to be whining, going on endlessly about his problems and failures.
Still, I wouldn't necessarily call this book "bad". At times it can be fascinating, telling about some true-to-life problems of actors and a few interesting tidbits from behind the scenes of LotR (though not much that people who have seen the Extended Editions won't know). Sean puts in a good effort and effectively tells readers of his life.
Though the title is deceiving, it is also somewhat correct--for this book is, essentially, an actor's tale.
What do you people think?
My opinion is in the review I wrote for Amazon.com (I said four stars, but I think I should have said three.)
A bit confused... May 30, 2005
Reviewer: Ktstar (BC, Canada)
As soon as I heard of this book, I wanted to read it. I love Lord of the Rings, both the books and the movies--so of course I would read a book written by a LotR actor. Especially one with a title taken right from the story.
However, now I feel that perhaps the title was not the best for this book. Instead of the memoirs of making the movie as I had expected, I opened the book to find the memoirs of Sean Astin's career. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Still, the cover and title of the book is misleading.
For me, the main problem of this book is the writing style. There are so many things that can be hard to understand that I, a normally fast reader, only reached 100 pages of the 300-page work.
The other thing that annoyed me was the writing itself. Some things I had problems with were the frequent less-than-polite words, the truthful but yet harsh depictions of other people in the business, and the frequent off-topic-ness. Sean frequently begins on a topic (such as filming), then immediately goes off on something else, only coming back to the original subject paragraphs later. As some other reviewers noted, occasionaly Sean seems to be whining, going on endlessly about his problems and failures.
Still, I wouldn't necessarily call this book "bad". At times it can be fascinating, telling about some true-to-life problems of actors and a few interesting tidbits from behind the scenes of LotR (though not much that people who have seen the Extended Editions won't know). Sean puts in a good effort and effectively tells readers of his life.
Though the title is deceiving, it is also somewhat correct--for this book is, essentially, an actor's tale.
What do you people think?
