(upbeat music) - There we go. Are you a fantasy guy, Jesse? - Yeah, yeah I am. - Do you read fantasy books? - I read a lot of science fiction right now. - Oh, I see. I feel like I should be more into fantasy. And I've read some, like the classics, but I think I should be a huge fantasy fan just given my demographics.

It's like a semi-nerdy, computer science, whatever, guy who reads a lot. And I don't know, I lose steam. But I've read the classics. I've done "The Lord of the Rings." I'm doing Ursula Gwynn's "Earthsea Cycle." Oh, I'm reading at least the first one. Just why not? I like "Name of the Wind." So I like Brandon Sanderson's book.

I mean, man, it's long. But I like that. But I've tried a lot of other things that I've just, I don't know, I can't get in. I tried Robert Jordan. - How is "Lord of the Rings?" - I reread that again at some point, and it's cool. It's written in a mythological meter, if that makes sense, right?

So he writes it almost like you're reading, because he's an expert in Old English, like it's mythological, where now things are more boldly expository. Like I'm the third-person observer just explaining everything that's happening. But this had a more, especially the first "Lord of the Rings" book, I don't know, there's more of like a mythological, than I remembered, meter to it.

The language is a little chewy. It kind of sets the scene, and it's not all just pure action, and sometimes the description feels more mythological than modern, just objective description of what's happening. So it's a very impressive, very impressive book. - Did you like the movies? - I kind of get bored in the movies.

I don't know, did you like them? - I did, yeah. - Yeah. I just, that's my memory. I re-watched some of them recently. It's my memory in the theater was getting a little, a little antsy. Here's my, okay, here's the "Lord of the Rings" question about the movies. Because I don't know, no one else seems to agree with this.

But to me, and this is probably unavoidable because of budgets, the world seems so uninhabited. It's all just empty fields and mountains, and then they'll eventually come to like a city with a king, but it'll be 70 people in the middle, like a giant empty field or this or that.

It just feels like there's no people in that world. And so is that supposed to be because after ancient warfare, it's like largely depopulated or it's just a very sparsely populated country, but nowhere in the "Lord of the Rings" universe, in the visual movie universe, you ever have this feel of like medieval England or something where there's big cities and villages and stuff.

It's just, everything is so empty. Was it that way in the books? - I'm trying to remember. Yeah, I don't know. I don't remember. It's a good question. I mean, I think the, I read a book about "Lord of the Rings." This part, a couple of years ago, I read a book about the making of the movies.

That was actually kind of an interesting book. Like what, everything that went through, like the movie rights and how Peter Jackson got them and how they filmed it and where they found it. Like to me, that was actually more interesting. And I think the reality is like, they can't afford to, you can't make medieval England.

It's just too many people. So it's easier for it to be sparsely populated. - Yeah. - But let's add this to our list of directions for us not to go with this podcast. Next two, we had from last week, becoming like a hardcore sports talk radio show, but the premise is I know nothing about sports, but I'm very enthusiastic about it.

And like Pat McAfee, we're a tank top and stand up and yell, I know nothing about sports. And then two, let's not become a like hardcore fantasy discussion podcast. This is gonna be a lot of like, I don't know. I didn't like it. I didn't read it. I don't know.

Those are on the list. Our list is growing, Jesse. Our list of things we should not try to discuss on this show is growing, growing with each week. Fantasy book reviews with Cal and Jesse. Like, I don't know. Seems kind of nerdy. What's next? We out of here in like a crisp five minutes.

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