Harry Potter has always existed peripherally in my mind. I never caught up with the hype as a kid and as an adult, the fans soured me on it with how overly maudlin they were about both the series and Jk Rowling as a person. But ever since Rowling came out as TERF, there seems to have been a huge reactionary push to either see Harry Potter as the most intricately written piece of modern literature and if you criticize it, you’re wrong and only criticizing it because you’re bitter about Rowling. Or it’s a humungous piece of shit and you’re a piece of shit for liking them.
Starting a few months back, I decided to finally read all seven books. And….they’re fine. But that’s just it; they’re just fine. They aren’t dogshit but I genuinely do not understand the insane amount of hype that these books generated. Especially the sheer amount of adults that act like this is the only book series aimed at children that has dipped into dark …
I’m about halfway through Foundryside and absolutely loving it. But everyone says “scrum” or “scrumming” every other word and it makes me die a little bit inside every time haha. The author says what the etymology of the word is (extremely minor spoilers: >!sailor slang for anal sex!<), which is nice, but I would still much rather everyone just say fuck. The characters say other real swears like “shit” – even irl religion based ones like “hell” and “damn” (“Holy hell, that’s scrumming awful” being the phrase that inspired this post lmao) – so why come up with a replacement just for “fuck”?? The book is full of sex and gore so it’s not like it’s trying to be appropriate for teenagers or anything.
I don’t mind fake swears in YA, if the characters are supposed to be more high-class and prissy, or if the fake swears are used alongside real ones to denote …
I really like fantasy books so when my dad asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I gave him a list of three books I wanted, all of which were high fantasy.
He looked them all up and told me that I shouldn’t read fantasy anymore because it was too childish and that a big part of growing up was reading romance or action books.
I don’t know how to tell him that fantasy really isn’t childish.
It may be anything at all. A mixture of things too, such as space beach fantasy. I don’t know what that is but I’ve never seen it, and it could be cool.
This book will always be on top of my other reads. My favorite part comes around Chapter 5. Here, Watts explained that the pursuit of security is in itself insecurity. I agree when he said that in a world where everything is forever changing and nothing is permanent, there is no point in pursuing safety. It’s like wanting to have food to eat everyday knowing that no food lasts forever.
If you haven’t read this yet, I highly suggest that you do especially if you’re the type to overthink things.
Favorite quote: You want to be happy, to forget yourself, and yet the more you try to forget yourself, the more you remember the self you want to forget. You want to escape from pain, but the more you struggle to escape, the more you inflame the agony. You are afraid and want to be brave, but the effort to be brave is fear trying to run away from itself.
It’s amazing how a 100-paged book could contain so much wisdom.
Will definitely read this again.
[EDIT] Didn’t expect the post to …
I just finished this book and it left me absolutely speechless. It’s a beautifully unflinching look at all the blatantly racist and imperial policies that the American government has done their best to bury. From the overt and explicitly racist policies of early America to the subjugation of overseas territories in the 1800s and the post WWII policies of eschewing territory for individual for military bases it paints a picture of American expansionism that is all too often brushed under the rug.
Edit, because I forgot about how bad the Reddit comment section gets
1: As some people have already pointed this is not just some “hur dur, America bad” book. It is nothing but an objective presentation of facts, for both what the USA has done and what the people they colonized did. Those facts just happen to speak for themselves and are frankly pretty damning.
2: Many people have pointed out that they were taught a lot of the things presented in this book or were otherwise already aware. …
I’m currently reading a book on the history of England called Foundation by Peter Ackroyd. I’m not British myself, but the history of the Isles has nonetheless always interested me to a degree. I’m now at the point where the Anglo-Saxons and British natives have intermingled and become a unified culture of sorts. And already I’ve forgotten about the figures during the time of the Roman occupation and all the battles that took place. It just went in one ear and out the other seemingly.
And I’m just wondering if any of you have experienced this.
honestly… the only one to really get to me was his short story “Survivor Type” about the guy exporting drugs who’s plane goes down, gets stranded on an island and he eats himself. all narrated in his POV. “Tastes just like lady fingers” at the end got me like wtf, but honestly one of his best works even for not being like a legit full book.
Just read a tweet from cstross. Appears that Greg experienced a series of strokes, and will be taken off of life support very soon. A sad loss. One of the first sf authors that I read.
Good article on Octavia E Butler in a non-science fiction magazine.
Like it says, I’m looking for sci-fi books with a whodunnit murder mystery. Whatcha got?
TL;DR I’m looking for some hard science fiction that is fun and happy and will make me smile.
I read and watch a lot of SF, especially hard SF and cyberpunk. My favorite authors are Greg Egan and William Gibson (and Terry Pratchett), to give you an idea.
I’ve been working my way through Alastair Reynolds’ short story collection Beyond the Aquila Rift, which is fantastic, but after Diamond Dogs I feel drained and disturbed. I’ve realized just how dark, depressing, and generally screwed up my tastes usually run and am coming up blank. I want to read something more fun, happy light, uplifting.
I love hard SF, which I define as a story which could not exist without (preferably speculative) science and technology, including detailed discussions/descriptions of said science/technology, that is plausible, accurate, and agreement with reality. I can devour long, well written, novels though do have a preference for longer short stories and novellas.
I’d …
Read Red Mars in 2017, then for some reason decided to go back and read everything Kim Stanley Robinson wrote in publication order (I was on a kick doing things like that), and thus finally got to Green Mars and Blue Mars this year.
Found the trilogy to be very enjoyable in the big picture. The scope and detail of the world(s) he imagines are amazing. I’m a fan of the game Terraforming Mars, and various story elements that appear in the game lended a familiarity to the novels.
But the science. Detailed in a way that did not contribute to the story at times. Combine that with most of the action (at least in Blue Mars) happening between chapters, I can see why some are not fans.
Side note: The Wild Shore, Icehenge and Red Mars were my favorites in my early KSR read. I found The Memory of Whiteness almost unreadable. I have several other of his novels but at a glance, they all seem in the Mars vein. Anyone have recommendations for his works after Blue Mars?
I’ve been meaning to try House of Suns for ages now after seeing it pop up so frequently in recommendation threads for far future galactic empire type sci-fi. My first impression of Reynolds pretty lackluster though, I tried Revelation Space a few years ago and slogged through the first like fifty or so pages before bailing. His vast scientific knowledge (I believe he has a PHD in astrophysics or something along those lines) was definitely there but the characterization, dialogue and plotting all fell completely flat for me. I wasn’t even remotely immersed in any of it. It was clear to me then that he was much more of a scientist than a writer. Is House of Suns an improvement at all?
I’ve had the exact same problem with Peter Hamilton, the science is there but that’s it, that’s the extent of his talent in my eyes. I want someone who has a passion for science but at the same time actually has legitimate writing talent like Roger Zelazny, Dan Simmons, Frank Herbert, James SA Corey, …