I saw this elsewhere, so not my idea, but I thought it would be fun to do here!

I think Fourth Wing by Naomi Novik would be fun. Or for something more wacky, The Hunger Games by Douglas Adams. ​​

Something I’ve started noticing in fantasy is how many cities technically have thousands of years of history, but still feel like they spawned five minutes before the protagonist walked through the gate. You get an ancient palace, a thieves’ district, three taverns and maybe a statue of some dead king. People are supposedly born there, work there, complain about taxes, raise kids, get old, have local grudges and weird traditions, but none of that really exists unless the plot needs it. I love the opposite. Cities where you get the feeling everyone already had plans that morning before the hero showed up. Maybe there’s a festival nobody bothers explaining because every local obviously knows it. A neighborhood has an insulting nickname from some event 80 years ago. Shopkeepers argue about a bridge renovation. People care about things that have absolutely nothing to do with the coming apocalypse. Discworld does this really well for me, especially Ankh Morpork. I could …

Starting book 2, Royal Assassin, and everyone is terrible and getting worse. Everyone talks over, past, and around each other to the point where I don’t understand how the kingdom has functioned as long as it has. This series so far contains some of my least favorite tropes, but done so well I can’t stop reading. Highly recommend if you enjoy banging your head against a brick wall until you’re as dumb as Fitz.

Update: Chade is the biggest, stupidest idiot out of all of them, it’s no wonder his apprentice is a big, stupid idiot.

Elisabeth Wheatley, a pretty well-known YouTuber and self-published fantasy author has had a change of heart regarding the steamy aspects of her books. She explains in her video that now that she’s a mother, she doesn’t feel that smut suits her anymore, though you should hear her own reasoning yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYD-EYEATEI&t=8s

I don’t have a real dog in this race. I was looking forward to reading her viking books because they sounded cool, and I don’t even really care whether sex in a book is explicit or fade-to-black. But I think the fact that she’s making the original versions of her book unavailable after the 1st of September to be pretty shady. People who already own the digital versions of the book can keep theirs, which is good. But if you have a strong preference for sexy books, or if you disapprove of censorship and want the authentic version, you’ve gotta buy it now. Right now!

You’ve got 80-hours to buy …

In a different post here which I’m not going to link, as I really would prefer not to make this another circle-jerk about that particular alleged plagiarism, it became clear to me that a lot of commenters do not understand what plagiarism is.

The thing is, ideas are not protected by copyright, and plot points are ideas. That means copying plot points is not plagiarism. I could write a novel about sparkling vampires that fall in love with a plain girl, and I would not be guilty of plagiarism. In that hypothetical novel, there could be a bunch of plot elements reminiscent of Twilight and it would still not be plagiarism.

What’s protected is the expression, not the ideas. So I could have the same premise, the same tropes, the same character archetypes, the same story beats, the same type of setting, and it still wouldn’t be plagiarism.

What is protected is the actual wording, and the unique creative execution. So if I take paragraphs and descriptions from Twilight, …

I’m looking specifically for fantasy, not necessarily gritty or dark, in which magic is regularly used by its PoV characters but is either dangerous to its user and/or takes a toll on the physical/mental health of its user. Therefore, magic isn’t seen a skeleton key for every obstacle the character faces but a costly tool requiring consideration before its use.

I’ve included some examples from previous reading and some non-examples which come close in some respects to what I desire, but fail to meet some crucial descriptor.

Examples: Farseer Trilogy >!(Skill is addictive and can lead to other addictions in order to fuel its prolonged use. Antagonistic skilled agents can attempt to drain a user if they overexpose themselves.)!<

A Wizard of Earthsea >!(Sparrowhawk’s hubris in overusing his power leads him for most of the book to live in fear of its consequences.)!<

The First Law Trilogy >!(until a certain point Bayaz appears to be physically …

It is remarkable to me that conservative groups not only want to censor books in public schools in Texas but also in public libraries.

I’m an old bloke who’s been reading SciFi for over 50 years now.

The ‘big thank you’ is to all you lovely redditors who put me on to Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series. I’m now on Ancillary Mercy and loving everything about the series so far. Cheers m’dears.

I recently read this short story collection by the Korean author Kim Choyeop. I didn’t have any high hopes going into it, but I found it to be such a nice and refreshing read.

I’ve been a long-time science fiction reader, but I can’t say that I have read any female sci-fi authors other than Ursula Le Guin. Many sci-fi stories I’ve read have really good female characters, but this is the first time that I truly felt like I recognize the female side of myself in a sci-fi story. Kim Choyeop’s female characters think about their relationships with their mothers and grandmothers (which is so important for Asian women), about how they connect to themselves and others, about their roles in the society - and all presented in a very soft and nuanced way.

These stories don’t have spectacular, flashy sci-fi concepts or action scenes, don’t have deep mysteries or haunting horrors. Each story has maybe just a little bit of sci-fi concept behind it, but …

or other forms of media, since this is a rare topic

Every time I read a science fiction novel, I realize more and more how much I love works with deeply developed, psychologically complex characters. Who are your favorite characters in science fiction literature, the ones you consider the most deeply written and psychologically explored, and the ones you’ve empathized with or truly felt you understood?

I’m looking for some great space opera recommendations and I’d love to hear what your personal top 5 is.

Edit: Honestly, there seems to be a bit of confusion about what exactly counts as space opera, and what does and doesn’t fall under the genre. From my perspective, and based on what I enjoy, space opera is science fiction on a more galactic scale, featuring various civilizations, races, and species across the galaxy that interact with one another in some way. Whether it’s a standalone book or a series doesn’t matter to me.

I’m currently reading the first Bobiverse book by Dennis E. Taylor, and I’m fascinated and disappointed at the same time. The concept is very interesting: the protagonist is a von Neumann probe (a self replicating spacecraft) controlled by the consciousness of a former human, and whenever a new probe is manufactured, that consciousness is copied into it as well. I also find it interesting how the body is no longer a human body, but instead the consciousness extends itself across the spaceship and all its machines, sensors and drones.

Unfortunately these concepts are only explored very superficially and underdeveloped. you rarely get the feeling of the mind actually being extended, instead, he mostly just describes one event after another. The clones only scratch the surface of interesting constellations and philosophical questions.

The book has other major shortcomings and is written rather amateurish. For example: extraterrestrial lifeforms are always very similar to Earth’s …

In the court documents, obtained by Variety, Salkin alleges that she pitched her own sprawling Western drama, “Sovereign Nation,” to Sheridan’s management company, Elevate Entertainment, in 2016, only to be told: “Taylor thanks you very much for your interest. Unfortunately, he’s unavailable for TV projects.” The suit then claims that “Yellowstone” was greenlit at Paramount “within months” of her rejection.

“Sheridan, however, was not ‘unavailable for TV projects,’” the suit reads, “Instead, he and others used Salkin’s copyrighted works to develop Yellowstone. On June 20, 2018, Paramount Network aired its first episode.”

The lawsuit lists several “specific expressive choices” that “Yellowstone” allegedly lifted from Salkin’s “Sovereign Nation.” Those elements, the suit states, include “a tribal casino functioning as the institutional center of political and development power; a signature confrontation staged in the tribal chairman’s casino office over expansion beyond reservation …