George R.R. Martin has penned many a powerful line. This one from Tyrion to Jon in AGOT book 1 always resonated with me from the first time I read it, then when it appeared in the show. A lesson in pride and humility.
I was never the popular kid, never amazing at anything, shy, timid, anxious. Very cautious in everything I did out of fear of drawing attention. This quote always reminded me to not let my perceived weaknesses be what defined me.
I wish I could meet George some day, shake his hand and tell him how impactful his story was to me personally. I can confidently say ASOIAF and GoT kept me going during the darkest times of my life.
I know he’s heard it a million times from fans, but I truly believe his magnum opus saved me.
Mine has to be a Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas
I actively hate this book and will actively take a stand against it.
I don’t know why but I can’t get one particular line from A Dance with Dragons out of my head, when Maester Aemon is dying…
“Egg, I dreamed I was old”
Beautiful
For those unfamiliar, Gideon the Ninth is a book ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶l̶e̶s̶b̶i̶a̶n̶ ̶n̶e̶c̶r̶o̶m̶a̶n̶c̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶s̶p̶a̶c̶e̶
Gideon the Ninth is a book about ̶n̶e̶c̶r̶o̶m̶a̶n̶c̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶w̶h̶o̶ ̶h̶a̶p̶p̶e̶n̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶l̶e̶s̶b̶i̶a̶n̶,̶ ̶w̶h̶o̶ ̶h̶a̶p̶p̶e̶n̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶s̶p̶a̶c̶e̶
If I had to try to summarize Gideon the Ninth, I would say it’s about a group of rival necromancers and their warriors competing to see which pairing can rise above the others, all while unraveling the increasingly deadly mysteries surrounding the contest, their houses, and their relationships.
Some of said necromancers are lesbians. All of said necromancers are in space.
I can understand why this book is frequently mentioned on this subreddit. I can also understand why those mentions are either extremely positive or extremely negative. This book is chock-full of voice, told from the perspective of a irreverent meathead of a warrior named Gideon the Ninth as she’s forced to work alongside …
I wore a beanie at work and would have an earbud in so I could listen to my books all night and wouldn’t get caught. Started listening to the Locke Lamora books. I get to the “Nice bird, asshole” part and I busted out laughing so hard that my coworkers gave me a strange look (they obviously didn’t know I had an earbud in). Has there been a moment in a book that made you literally lol?
Saw this article. A bit unexpected in a good way!
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As this example makes clear, Daunt started giving more power to the stores. But publishers complained bitterly. They now had to make more sales calls, and convince local bookbuyers—and that’s hard work. Even worse, when a new book doesn’t live up to expectations, the local workers see this immediately. Books are expected to appeal to readers—and just convincing a head buyer at headquarters was no longer enough.
Daunt also refused to dumb-down the store offerings. The key challenge, he claimed was to “create an environment that’s intellectually satisfying—and not in a snobbish way, but in the sense of feeding your mind.”
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EDIT: Barnes & Noble.
I started dreading the ending ever since Algernon started acting weird. Charlie’s accepting what was going to happen to him in the form of the letter to professor Nemur followed by his gradual degradation was pretty heart wrenching to read. But I absolutely lost it and when Joe and Gimpy defended him in the bakery again. And everything after that only made me cry harder.
Here are some of my highlights from the book.
April 3-Finished Robinson Crusoe. I want to find out more about him but Miss Kinnian says thats all there is. WHY.
I passed your floor on the way up, and now I’m passing it on the way down, and I don’t think I’ll be taking this elevator again. So let’s just say good-bye.
But I can’t afford to spend my time with anyone-there’s only enough left for myself.
Please… please… dont let me forget how to reed and rite…
P.S. please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard.
If the book cover doesn’t capture my eye, I’m probably never going to open it or pick it up. For instance, if the book has an image of the characters on it, it ruins my chance to make up what I think they look like or if the cover gives too much away, I lose interest. I love covers that give off a mysterious vibe. My brain gets excited by that. This may be a huge flaw of mine that I try to correct but it just happens sometimes. I’m sure I’m not alone in this.
Edit: I also can’t stand when a book is made into a film and then they put the film poster as the cover art for the book it’s based on. Drives me nuts.
Wow. Im completely blown away. I cant say I’ve read a ton of sci Fi however this felt like the most thought out and poetically written story I’ve ever read. It has all the fundamental, maybe even quintessential science fiction tropes but the twist he puts on them make it the most fascinating premise for a story I’ve come across: a colonial ship leaving a dystopian earth towards a terraformed planet, a semi mad scientist, an alien race of hyper intelligent spiders evolved from a nano virus, and the juxtaposition of these beings to that of the centuries old-human pilgrims that seek to occupy their planet. All culminating in a beautiful ending of a comradeship between the two.
Tchaikovsky’s eloquent portrayal from the perspective of the spider race and the thoughtfulness to adhere to the arachnid biology was another detail that made this such an enjoyable read
Anyways, highly recommend if you haven’t read it
I can’t fully explain why, but when I see a series has 10 or so books in it I find myself disinterested. I think part of it for me is the question of “is it progressing or spinning its’ wheels?” Is there an end in sight? Is the story something that can keep finding new elements?”
It’s a silly thought, for the most part, as usually a series gets those numbers by finding new elements to include - though some certainly are formulaic and work within that formula.
I have read a couple John Scalzi books, and when I saw ‘Old Man’s War’ had like 10 books, I thought ‘Just how old is this man!?’
I read Expeditionary Force, and generally liked it, except I didn’t find Skippy improved as a character enough by the end (I don’t need him to completely change who he is, but the attitude towards humans got on my nerves. I get he is nigh-omnipotent, but his experience during the novel should have changed his views on …
I’ve always had a thing for Post-Apocalyptic novels and am always on the hunt for new ones.
I’m not talking about zombie or walking dead type books. The closest I come to that genre is Richard Matheson’s classic I Am Legend.
Plague, nuclear holocaust, environmental disaster, rampant AI, and any other type work for me. One of my favorites is an older book from 1949 - Earth Abides by George R. Stewart.
What are your suggestions to add to this reading list?
I will read almost any sci-fi book about linguistics and language in general, please recommend me some.
Providence by Max Barry is a book that I have not seen much excitement about, but it is awesome. The pace and language is very much like Andy Weir, the aliens and worldbuilding is much like Larry Niven.
Humanity is at war with the Salamanders, 6 legged aliens that spit micro black holes at you. The plot is about a sentient AI warship tasked with hunting down and destroying Salamanders. Along for the ride is a token crew of 4 who have no idea what the ship is doing or why it does it (the ship does not communicate with them). They are basically along to provide a human presence for the folks back home. The world-building is great and the aliens fascinating. I definitely recommend giving this a go, it’s a pretty quick read
I was really into the movie Searching (2018), starring John Cho. I analyzed all the Easter eggs the creators hid throughout the movie, and posted about them on /r/movies and /r/moviedetails. (Some examples, if you’re curious: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9)
The writer/producer of the movie, /u/sevohanian, is very active on reddit and started replying to my posts - acknowledging my more obscure finds, validating or rejecting my off-the-wall theories, and hinting at additional details I’d missed. It was really cool to have such direct access to a real filmmaker.
Two years later, Sev and his team started production on a sequel to Searching. He asked if it’d be OK to use my Reddit username as an Easter egg in the new movie, as an homage to all the analysis I’d done. I said hell yes!
Now fast forward to last week. The sequel, called Missing, is about to release. Sev contacts me again, and invites me to the red carpet premiere! I fly out to LA, get to hang out with the entire creative team - …