Hello everyone.
I am interested in stories about wizardry and magic that:
I do not intend to find something that meets all these, but give you a sense of what I have in mind.
I am tired of stories treating magic so lightly. For me, magic should be something mysterious, dreadful and obscure; something to be studied thoroughly and carefully and that entails high risk, as the magic users are meddling with reality.
Thank you in advance :)
EDIT: Thank you everyone for the insane amount of recommendations! Posting a list for everyone’s …
I only just saw a BBC interview with him where he says his fantasy and sci-fi recommendations are anything by Raymond E. Feist, David Gemmel and Brandon Sanderson. I’ve read all of Sanderson but nothing by the other two. Any recommendations where to start? Which series or stand alone by each author is a good place for me to start? which will give me the best example of their style etc. Thanks.
Hi there! I, like everyone in here, love fantasy, and it has always meant a lot to me from childhood to now. One of the main attractions for me as a kid, when it came to fantasy was the often beautiful, colorful and detailed covers of the books. A lot of books still have FANTASTIC cover art like Sanderson’s Stormlight or Erikson’s Malazan. However, in my opinion, covers are slowly becoming less and less magical and fantastical.
I’m probably in the minority when I say that I really love and prefer the OG Wheel Of Time, corny, 90’s fantasy art covers. There is something about those vivid colors and bright titles that makes the book look gorgeous. However, a lot of those classic fantasy books are getting reprinted with new covers. An example of this would be Kristen Britain’s Green Rider series.
​
Now I MAJORLY prefer the original one. Even though it has that “corny/campy” …
“On the tenth or eleventh of each month a book goes to backers, we will put the audiobooks up for sale. They will be on several services, but I recommend the two I mentioned above. Spotify and Speechify.
The books will not be on Audible for the foreseeable future.
This is a dangerous move on my part. I don’t want to make an enemy of Amazon (who owns Audible). I like the people at Audible, and had several meetings with them this year.
But Audible has grown to a place where it’s very bad for authors. It’s a good company doing bad things.
Again, this is dangerous to say, and I don’t want to make anyone feel guilty. I have an Audible account, and a subscription! It’s how my dyslexic son reads most of the books he reads. Audible did some great things for books, notably spearheading the audio revolution, which brought audiobooks down to a reasonable price. I like that part a lot.
However, they treat authors very poorly. Particularly indie authors. The deal Audible demands of …
I have seen it on Reddit.
I have seen it on Tik Tok.
People are literally bullying people for reading 100+ books. I understand it might sound unlikely, but some people eat, breathe, and shit books. I wish I could do it, I can’t. Who cares if the books they read were novellas, smut, audiobooks, or romance. Reading is reading. A book is a book.
We should be celebrating that reading is growing more in popularity instead of dogpilling on people who read “too much.”
Whether you read 10, 20, 50, 70, 100, or 300 books don’t matter. The most important thing is that you enjoyed yourself and did something you love!
EDIT
Some clarifications :
I have NOT read 100 books this year, but I have read hundred of books in my lifetime.
I consider audiobooks as books and count them as such. Especially for people like myself who easily have eyestrain related to a health problem.
I like tracking my readings for myself and I find that Goodreads and StoryGraph are amazing …
The Harry Potter series has broken multiple record and is among the most sold books of all time. The 7th book sold ~15 million in 24 hrs. It seems that Harry Potter is a once in a generational series and may never be replicated. But do you think its possible that another series may appear, appealing to both ends of the age demographic, and become a global phenomenon?
1993: Nightside the Long Sun
“I am no god, sir, merely the monitor of this terminal. What may I do to serve you, sir? Would you care to critique your digitally enhanced image? … May I show you what it is I do, sir? What I do most frequently, I should say. Observe.”
The monitor’s floating face vanished, replaced by the image of a remarkably handsome man in black. Although the tunic of the man in the glass was torn and white gauze showed beneath it, Silk did not recognize this man as himself until he moved and saw the image move with him.
“Is that…?” He leaned closer. “No. But…”
“Thank you, sir,” his image said, and bowed. “Only a first attempt, although I think it a rather successful one. I shall do better next time.”
“Take it away, please. I am already too much given to vanity, believe me.”
What were your favourite Science Fiction novels published this year? Has it been a good year for SF?
I really enjoyed Revelation Space. Have read practically everything by Reynolds. I have tried many many other writers but nothing clicks. I am specifically looking Space Opera. Apart from this genre I love Stanislaw Lem, PKD and LeGuin. But I like a good space opera between more “difficult” works.
So I read Cherryh’s 40k on Gehenna, and true to the name, it was rather bleak. Everything just went wrong all the time until it ended.
Good book sure, but I’m interested in reading something in the same vein (new colony, limited resources, a well thought out plan for how to proceed with the colony.) Without the colony crashing and burning over and over.
More man vs. environment, but with man actually winning. Progressing from temporary shelter to basic accomodations, then to permanent installations. Surviving then thriving.
Some politics, but more of a triumph of science sort of thing. Knowledge and planning overcoming a harsh new world full of possibilities. Aliens are a take it or leave it, but no “colonizers show the savage alien masses the future.”
Anyone know where to start? A good audiobook is a huge benefit. It’s pretty specific as a genre/story idea to ask for, but I’m hoping someone has some recommendations.
Hi all, I’m looking for a novel/story with AI as a central part of the plot - that feature any of the following elements:
As AI developments continue in the actual world, I am more interested in these themes. Let me know!
If you’ve seen a movie at an AMC Theater anytime in the last year and half you know what I’m talking about. I’ve seen it so many times now and it gets dumber with each viewing. Her accent goes in and out, her saying “going to places we’ve never been before” as it shows a scene from Jurassic World. The whole thing is so schlocky and I’m over it.
EDIT: I must’ve been under a rock because I haven’t seen any of the parodies until now and I’m so glad so many of you have shared them! Thank you!
He has a better mix of dramas and fun films. Over stallones mostly fun/action catalouge. Arnold also has better films overall and more iconic scenes. Arnold was also able to keep himself relavant longer even going on to being a governor and returning to movies like he never left. I think arnold out did his rival in every shape and form.
Also most of arnolds characters would beat stallones.
Edit: after all this comments i surmise…..Arnold still better lol. Honestly he may have had the best action career of all time.
Enjoy this video. https://youtu.be/pDxn0Xfqkgw