I avoided your colossal series for so long, because so many things put me off: the medieval setting, animal companions, weird names based on virtues, the overly cliché fantasy titles, the cover art. Then one day I was in the mood for a comfort read, something familiar and easily digestible. My eyes fell on a copy of Assassin’s Apprentice. I thought it might be a nice, light, palate cleanser.
Yeah, I was an idiot.
A week later, I finished Assassin’s Quest, and that bittersweet emptiness that only comes after finishing a life-changing book hit me with full force. Coming out of a state of complete and utter immersion like that left me feeling apathetic and paralyzed. Goddamn, Ms Hobb, you are good. I had almost forgotten what character development felt like, and now I can never go back. Also, Regal can just go eat a bag of toenail clippings.
I was aching to read about the rest of Fitz’s adventures, but reined myself in and moved on to the Liveship Traders. I’m …
I remember George R. R. Martin saying he created Catelyn Tully because he noticed that if the characters in most fantasy stories weren’t complete orphans their mothers were dead or absent. He didn’t want to follow that cliché and he made a strong mother character that has a prominent role in the story.
Then I noticed that he was right: in most cases the mother is not present in the story. She is either dead before the story starts or dies before the second act. In best case she is kidnapped (Percy Jackson uses this) and the hero has to save her. And in a rare case the mother doesn’t care about her child and abandons her/him (Once Upon a Time loves parental abandonment trope very much). Other than that when the hero speaks of her/his parents, she/he mostly talks about the dad and the dad often plays an important role in the story. The mum is rarely mentioned.
Why does this happen? Do fantasy writers actually dislike mother characters?
Upd: and in the ratest case the …
I was looking for a series similar to The Gentleman Bastard Sequence and some thread in this subreddit mentioned Malazan (I can’t exactly remember how I stumbled upon this series, I’m fuckin drained right now) so after acquiring all ten books, I thought I was ready.
Spoiler alert, I wasn’t.
Prologue alone took me more than 30 minutes to get through, and after that I thought “Finally, Chapter 1 is where I’ll understand the story.” Except IT WASN’T, cause Chapter 1 bombarded you with characters, places, magic system, war and as if that wasn’t enough, the conversations doesn’t even make sense! All throughout the book every time there are people talking, I feel like I was standing between the characters, clueless and trying to figure out what they were saying. I mean, is this some kind of inside joke? Include me in the fookin conversation, damnit!
Early in Chapter 1 we are introduced to this magic called Warren. I thought, hmm, what …
Not only did I finish it, but I finished it in a winter storm.. at 3 o’clock in the morning. With no power.
So there was no screaming at my fellow bookish fiends, or this sub — couldn’t even scream into a pillow because I didn’t want to wake my family. My only choice was to die internally.
I know that I’m late, but.. phew.
Update: Watchin’ Charly. See you in a bit.
Recent posts have been discussing the “war” between libraries and publishers. From very high prices to only licensing a certian number of ebooks to the library, the wait time for many ebooks is becoming very high. Could be months for newer and popular titles. Especially since the pandemic started.
If publishers think these practices are going to make people buy instead of borrowing books, I think they are wrong.
I use the library mainly because, and I think many people will agree with me, is that I can’t afford to buy ebooks. Sure I might buy one or two ebooks occasionally. But for avid readers, many of them can’t afford buying 50 - 100 ebooks a year. If they have to wait 6 months for an ebook, they might start looking into piracy.
To be clear, I don’t support book piracy. I just want to know what do you think.
Edit: I am not asking for unlimited loans using one digital copy of an ebook. All I am asking is fair pricing for the ebooks bought by the …
I’m not exactly sure why I’m posting this but I needed to get this off my chest. I’m SO glad I decided to actually start reading, even though I’m in my mid-twenties (despite what my username suggests lol).
I’ve just finished this amazing book called “Dark Matter” (well, at least I think it was amazing) and I can’t help but think of all the material I missed out on as a kid and teen.
So far my goal for the year is 12 books (as opposed to zero per year) and I’m already 4 books in. 😁
I’m going to be starting The Hobbit, followed by the Lord Of The Rings and then maybe read the first Dune book. I’m also reading, along with my fictional book of choice, non-fiction to scratch my itch to learn about various subjects.
Seriously, it’s like a whole new world just opened up. My boring, depressing life just got a whole lot brighter. 😎
Sorry if this post is a little aimless. I’m just so excited to read.
Is there …
Recommend it to me, yo
It certainly left a mark. I love how she is not afraid, whatsoever, to deal straightforwardly with hard topics and not shy away. I legit felt uncomfortable reading certain sections and that right there is a sign that she was doing something right.
The overall behavior patterns of the humans was the only thing I thought was a little off the mark. It was a bit too targeted or staged. I think the theming was on point (100%!) but something about the characters behavior did not ring true to me (aside from Lilith, I think that the main protagonist was very believable).
I already ordered the entire Xenogenesis series. The story certainly interests me and I will be reading more of her work.
Hello everyone, I’m searching for a short story where an alien race finds humanity at its early stages and deems them too dangerous to be left alone. So they send a projectile that continues to gain speed as it approaches earth. it starts with something along the lines of “The flaw was not in our design”. I have been searching online and I can’t seem to find it
Thanks in advance
… and it is basically the origin story for a Caesar’s Legion style authoritarian quasi state. The birth of a post-apocalyptic ISIS. I thought it was fascinating. Terrible in pretty much all respects, but it’s been weeks, I’ve read several better books since then, and I’m still thinking about it, so thanks, I guess.
Hopefully these posts are allowed? I have a long distance commute and remember seeing and ad for a new book about a society in the distant future that has lost track of the date. It had a tag line something like “In a future where the date doesnt matter/been forgotten…” does this ring a bell for anyone? Been a few years now, I’m thinking this was sometime between 2010-2015 but not positive.
A few days ago, I made a post asking you fine folks for your recommendations for the most epic Sci-fi books you know. And boy did you deliver. So grateful was I that it seemed a shame to let the list just Sit there where it’d likely be forgotten.
So I made a list. The third column is the number of times within the post it was recommended. I spent a little time hunting down the year of publication for each book and whether it was part of a series or not, and if so, how many books were in the series (we all like epic, but not everyone has the time for a 24 book series, lol!)
Anyways, I hope someone gets some use out of this besides me. cheers!
EDIT: I must evidently make some corrections! Thank you all genuinely for pointing out the mistakes! I want this to be a quality list
I’ll keep the document published and the corrections should show up as I make them. Because of this, I suggest bookmarking the page instead of downloading it, but feel free to do both!
Also, if you …