Yeah, I had just finished the first book and I have no plans to continue the series.
I am surprised how much praise this series gets on here which was the reason I read it. There is little creativity or fantasy in the book. There is no world building. Because the writer just took a piece of history and changed the names. History? Chinese history. Culture? Just regular Chinese culture and norms with the added twist of typical Chinese mythology.
Unless you are uneducated in Chinese history, or Chinese cultureor didn’t watch kung fun panda, then I guess this would be nice fantasy book.
And although the book is somewhat dark, I would say it is a Young adults book. I liked the fast paced. Overall 2⁄5.
Wow - how did it take me this long to discover The Black Company? I just finished the eponymous first volume and I LOVED it. Fantastic characters, wonderfully written with a world and a plot that unfold very organically as we witness the inner thoughts of the Annalist.
Starting the next volume tonight - if it’s half as good as the first volume I shall be a happy man. So many books ahead of me too! Isn’t it great when you hit a rich vein and know there are joys ahead?!
(Edit for typo)
The ending of the GoT show and the lack of ending for the book series have left a gaping hole in my life. Is there anything that is similar to this book series that is finished or being written by an author who will finish the series near guaranteed?
Main notes I’m looking to be hit are medieval style, political intrigue, woven plotlines, magic but not an overreliance on it.
Thanks in advance!
Just finished re-reading Name of the Wind after probably 6-7 years. First time I read it, his prose hooked me and didn’t really think too much on the somewhat thin plot. Then I read Wise Man’s Fear and was…underwhelmed. For reasons that have been beaten to death across the fantasy community.
After my re-read of NoW, the thin plot was way more apparent to me than the first time. I’ve been pondering what went wrong here for a bit now, and I think I see it.
Patrick should have set this series up like a slice of life, not an epic. He promises some epic story of Kvothe the Kingkiller, and then proceeds to give us semi-random adventures. It’s like watching episodes 3-19 of a Supernatural season (no plot but fun nonetheless). Which would have been perfectly FINE if Kvothe was just re-living the good ole days. It feels like Pat tried to fit a square slice of life peg into a round epic fantasy hole.
I’m completely unsurprised at why he hasn’t released book 3 and is instead publishing yet …
What the title says.
I have two.
When I was a kid my favourite series in the world was Dragonriders of Pern, largely because of cool female characters I could identify with. But reading madame McCaffrey now, she sure had some strong opinions on sexually active women, gender roles, age gap romances and homosexuality, huh? And when you read Dragonsdawn and count how often the word “ethnic” is used, another word comes to mind: yikes. However I do appreciate her stuff as a piece of history, she was after all the first woman to win a Hugo and Nebula. I guess her and Ursula LeGuin represent a generation of women born in mid to late 1920’s with vastly different perspectives. They experienced so much and ended up at basically the polar opposites of the spectrum. Fascinating.
The second are David and Leigh Eddings. Here, it’s not so much that I mind the context. The novels are simplistic and naive, full of worn out tropes and stereotypes, but generally harmless. Elenium and Tamuli is a bit …
I’ve used to read on and off in the past. Lately I started feeling bad because of all the scrolling and YouTube videos scrambling my brain right before going to sleep so I figured I’d start reading daily again. First it was a bit of a struggle to build the habit but since then I’ve managed to convince my spouse as well to do the same and read instead of fidgeting on the phone in bed. We’ve noticed that both of us generally fall asleep faster and have a better quality of sleep since.
Being an aspiring writer, we had a conversation about books today. He is not a reader. He never has been. He found it difficult to read the packaging of a microwavable snack. And he reckons that he knows most adult men don’t read.
He remarked, because I want to be a horror author, that only kids would read horror (teenagers), and not any adults because he believes that horror would be too immature for adults.
So, are you an adult male, and do you read books? If so, how many per month?
I like my books on the shelf, I will never not buy printed books. I will make room for them. I also like ebooks not just for vacation but for the simple fact that you can look up something real quick. Whenever you get into a Dune discussion or a Lord of the Ring discussion, it’s just so much easier to open the ebook on the computer, CTRL-F it and find the passage.
But I don’t really like the concept of double-dipping, especially when the printed book is almost always more expensive than the ebook variety.
It’d be really cool if a printed book would contain a free digital copy as well just like DVDs used to have a download code for a digital (i.e. medium-less) copy of the same movie.
(No spoilers. Keeping this vague on purpose.)
I basically devoured this 620 page book in less than 4 days haha. I finished it about 2 hours ago and ever since then I’ve just been stewing in it all. I’m completely blown away and in love with this book. I’m late to the party (32F) because in school we read Of Mice & Men instead of Grapes of Wrath. But I finished East of Eden earlier this year (another incredible read) and promised myself I’d tackle Grapes. I’m so glad I did.
So many times I found myself laughing out loud and smiling at Ma’s aphorisms. And by about the halfway point, I grew to love and admire her, along with the rest of the Joad family, each in their own way. I couldn’t help hungrily turning pages, half excited, half fearful of what good fortune or devastating setback may await them. I don’t cry easy but my eyes welled up a bit in the final 15 pages. The last scene must be one of the most haunting, profound endings …
Conceptually it’s interesting. I love hard sci-fi like this, particularly first contact sci-fi. But man oh man, I kind of can’t stand Andy Weir’s writing style? It’s full of weird Reddit-esque humour and stuff pulled right out of a Marvel movie. It’s making it a little difficult to take seriously and get invested in.
Anyone else have this problem with Weir’s work? I often see his stuff praised highly on this site but it’s not doing it for me.
Any other similar first-contact novels with slightly more … adult … prose?
Just wanted to thank everyone on this subreddit for all of the awesome book recommendations. I am a long time lurker and this subreddit is one of the best communities to lurk on.
I used to hate reading when I was younger and could never see myself having it as a hobby. It was only when I got really into the sci-fi /dystopian video game and movie genre that I realised how most of it is inspired by printSF. Begrudgingly, I decided to start reading and began with Dune (obviously). It was a great book to springboard off and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
This subreddit is so welcoming of people’s requests for recommendations. It’s been super easy for me to find and refine what kind of SF I enjoy reading because of all of the open and friendly discussions. So yeah, I just want to thank everyone for contributing to this awesome community!
The books I have read so far are:
I love books about people living through history - the Vampire Chronicles got weird, but the books about ancient vampires from Rome living through to the modern era were amazing.
Same goes for The Boat Of A Million Years. The whole premise is a select group of people with a gene for immortality, living through time.
Does anyone know of any other books with this premise? Starships welcome, magic slightly less so.
Thanks!
Just saw a post about anthologies, decided to check out Gardner’s Wikipedia page. Today, July 23, would have been his birthday. Thank you for your work, Mr Dozois
I just finished Neuromancer and really enjoyed the excellent prose and Gibson’s ability to immerse me in a very lived-in world that captured many aspects of what has become our own. I like all kinds of sci-fi, but really appreciated the artistic bent of this novel. Beyond the sequels in the trilogy, what are other suggestions for similar works?
My rating: 4.6 Stars
I’m on the hunt for an underrated sci-fi book that scratches the ‘Bobiverse’ itch and isn’t just ‘Project Hail Mary’.
I picked up the books because someone in my previous post suggested I read this one next. This review focuses on the first book because I didn’t want to have any spoilers
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Book cover for Heirs of Earth & Orphans of Earth
Echoes of Earth is the first book of a science fiction trilogy co-written by Sean Williams and Shane Dix. There’s also Orphans of Earth and Heirs of Earth (photo’d).
**SUMMARY:**
The first book introduces a bunch of awesome concepts like engrams, which are electronic copies of human minds that are sent out into space to explore the galaxy. The main character, is sent out on a survey vessel that discovers artifacts left by an alien race. The book opens a ton of philosophical questions about identity - which might be my favourite part.
I liked this book because it had an intriguing premise, a …
The inspiration for this question is the movie WALL-E.
!The score swells with the final words of “It Only Takes a Moment,” the camera pulls back showing the former occupants of the Axiom exploring their new home under the direction of Captain McCrea, and we the audience feel a surge of joy and hope for them and a recovering planet Earth… Okay great, but those humans are all excited thinking they’re going to grow “pizza plants;” they have no idea the life of hardship they’re entering into.!<