I have discussed nostalgic books with many of my coworkers. Everyone loves Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, even Ranger’s Apprentice. But not a single person has even heard of Redwall. I’m crestfallen. I discovered those books in sixth grade and have collected almost all of them over the years. Am I by myself in a big abbey full of wonderfully narrated feasts?
Whenever you go to a book page on Goodreads they’ll list a ‘Readers also enjoyed’ section underneath. That whole section seems to be very far away from a recommendation system because the compared books can be very different to the one you’re looking at. If I’m reading ASOIAF I wouldn’t want a recommendation for Harry Potter, and I don’t need a recommendations for Books 3 and 4 if I haven’t even received the first.
I just don’t understand how a popular website can be so bad at recommending other books. You’re probably just better off spending more time and searching reddit instead.
The only other experience I have with a good recommendation system is the one MyAnimeList provides; it does it exactly what it needs to. For each show, there’s a recommended tab giving a list of other shows that ranked by up votes and a quick description of why you’d like them. Why don’t more sites try to copy this?
I’m wanting dreamlike fantasy adventure movies with amazing music and incredible set design and effects! Doesn’t have to have puppets but wouldn’t mind either way.
What is the most unique fantasy novel you’ve ever read? What’s makes it so unique and different from the other fantasy novels? Is it the well constructed plot or the well-written characters?
I was recently reading a romantasy and the author referred to a kiss as a “Pash”. Right away I knew they were Australian.
Another author was writing about a magic battle which occurs in Wisconsin and they referred to the open space as a paddock rather than a field. I know Americans use the word paddock, but not nearly as much as english/canadian/australians. Sure enough, the writer wasn’t American, but very passionate about moving there!
I love finding these small quirks of personal identities and personalities in books, especially because we are all united under the world of fantasy.
Have you ever found little quirks in language or understanding which tells you about the author outside of their fantasy realm? I’d love to hear about it (and read some recommendations!)
So, every time I’m on vacation I just read.
I ate through a real shitton of young adult and coming of age stories and now I’m nearly left with nothing…
I’m just somewhat sick of everything going ‘well’ for the main cast, no impactful deaths or betrayals, no politics involved, wars with just up to 10k men on each side and no gut wrenching, intense romance. And so goddamn small worlds if it’s pure fantasy.
If it’s a fantasy scifi mix, ok. There are whole planets involved.
But there are only Red Rising and Sun Eater that perfected this.
I’d expect a world with magic to have somewhat advanced agriculture and improved logistical infrastructure to support millions of people.
But I just somehow can’t read Malazan or The Age of Madness. I get angry if I have to wait multiple chapters for the story of my favourite character to continue. If it even continues.
And the 9k army size of the Icanus Trilogy made me sad. No wonder, the map …
I used to view audiobooks as a ‘lazy’ way to read book content, and viewed physical book reading as the only proper way to read a story. With that said, I still prefer to physically read a book over listening to audiobooks. Now in my 30’s with a busy life and endless responsibilities, listening to audiobooks around the house has saved me so much sit-down reading time while still being able to consume books while I’m doing chores around the house. I’m pretty much exclusively listening to audiobooks these days. Is it a compromise? Yes. It is also pretty enjoyable when you have a good voice actor reading the books as it creates more immersion.
As of now, I am doing through the Dune series pretty much exclusively via audiobooks. And next will probably be the Harry Potter series. With how busy I’ve been, I probably got through one book every 3-5 months, and now I’m getting through a book every 1-2 months while just listening to audiobooks while …
I am so over these overhyped, over rated books written by authors who simply cannot write continuously getting praise and being “best sellers” over actually good reads that never get the same spotlight.
I’m talking about the Colleen Hoovers and Taylor Jenkins Reids that write on a third grade reading level with predicable plots, badly written characters, who tell you their opinion and spoon feed you the story to get you to the point.
It’s just so frustrating not only to have to be disappointed by these books after falling for the hype and reading them, but to see people eating it up time and time again.
And I guess it makes sense, considering the audience these books are written over.
I understand this is extremely pretentious and condescending of me. I wholeheartedly agree. I’m just so frustrated by this recurring trend and just don’t understand how these authors keep getting published.
Opinions are subjective. But good writing isn’t.
Ready to get receive a lot of hate on this …
Some backstory: I haven’t read a book in a few years and I kept being told to read this book series. I found it for crazy cheap on thrift books so I got the first three books in the series along with some other books. Finding myself with some free time I sat down and read the first book in one sitting. Y’all. What a fucking rollercoaster. It was impossible to put down. This might be my new favorite book depending how the next ones go. The overarching themes that coalesce in a beautiful satisfying ending is just so well done. I’m not even mad about the unanswered questions it was just so damn good and pleasant to read. I can’t wait to read the next one. No spoilers for the upcoming books please
I want to start by saying that there’s nothing wrong with using a first-person POV as a writing device. Books where having a very limited POV is essential to the story benefit immensely from first-person POV. Those books I’m alright with. But I’ve found that the older I’ve become, the less patience I have coming across this writing device, even if it’s used well. And most of the time, I find that it’s used when it isn’t necessary, and the story would be the same or even improve if the writer had used a third person POV. I find first-person too intimate, too “putting myself in the shoes” of the POV character, that it puts me off, as I’m not someone who likes to keep a distance between me and the fiction I read. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one, no?
Currently having another good read but so far I really enjoyed Coraline. I only watched the movie and sort of felt a connection to it as a child. First I thought the book would be worse because Wybie is missing but honestly I didn’t miss him for a second. The book gives such an in depth look on all the characters, especially the other father. It was written very well and I would read it again, which I usually never do since I believe that there are way too many unread books out there. Coraline is more than just a fantasy horror book. It is a story about being brave when you feel incredibly scared. It is a story about neglect and manipulation. It is so much more than I thought it would be. Really really enjoyed it!
I’m a Sucker for horror. My first foray into reading started with Stephen King’s Needful Things and since then, I’ve kept up with his books.
Now that I’m starting to branch out, getting into fantasy as well as sci-fi, I realize that some of the sci-fi books can at times read like a hopeless horror book. Recursion amd Dark Matter are just two of the recent books that fall into sci-horror category.
What would be some of your suggestions? What sci-fi book you read that almost felt like a horror book?
Pretty self-explanatory.
While I have read a fair share of horror and fantasy, sci-fi is still an uncharted territory for me.
So, what are some of the sci-fi books you read that stayed with you long after you read them?
Edit - Wow! So many great suggestions. I don’t think I’ll be able to churn through them in a year or two from now, but I’ll give it a shot, starting with most up voted posts.
I kind of stumbled onto 2312 earlier this year, and since then I’ve inhaled Ministry for the Future, Mars Trilogy, and Shaman.
I just can’t get enough of this guy. I listened to his interview on the Ezra Klein podcast and of course finding out that Ursula K Le Guin was his teacher in college and mentor, and that he’s close friends with Buddhist scholar/ Beat poet/ environmentalist Gary Snyder made perfect sense to me. I’m also a West Coast hippie/activist/leftist which probably helps me connect to his work.
I’ve been going for hikes with a new sense of reverence, looking at rocks and mountains with more curiosity, and just feeling this intense hunger and intellectual curiosity about the world around me. I feel like the unifying energy in his books is this love of science, reverence for nature, leftist politics, and desire for a better world (plus lots of horniness, and loving Switzerland). I often have the feeling where my inner monologue starts to …
Looking for books, preferably a series, that feels sort of like Star Trek TNG where you get to know the crew really well because a large portion of it takes place in close quarters on the ship (edit: or station).
I want the ship to become familiar to me just like the Enterprise became familiar to some of us, with a lot of Aaron Sorkin-esque walk-and-talks between crew going down hallways or hanging out in the main decks or whatever their equivalent of Ten Forward is.
Beyond that, I’m totally cool with violence and political intrigue, so if it has those as well it’d be an added bonus.
Already on Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers all day, so anything besides that? Thanks!
I have been seriously enjoying newer space opera and am hoping this sub can help me with some recommendations for new (to me!) authors.
A few I’ve enjoyed: - The Expanse (James SA Corey) - White Space (Elizabeth Bear) - The Final Architecture (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - Arcana Imperii, starts with Artifact Space (Miles Cameron) - Palladium Wars (Marko Kloos)
I’ve read and did not enjoy the recent books by Gareth Powell and Becky Chambers.
Any recs?
It was about a man who opened a letter, or got a phone call that forced him to go somewhere. There he got further instructions. This happened repeatedly, and he entered different worlds, his body changing. Eventually he touches another creature. He is then free and is told he was a piece in a game, and he is now free to find his way home if he can.
It was most likely in F&SF, possibly Analog.
I still remember the plot, it was such a good story.
I didn’t really live through the 90’s and I know consent isn’t some modern invintention or something, but I didn’t really have high hopes for Austin. I’ve just been so badly burned by creepy old anime i was a little hesitant about him being a pervy main character in raunchy comedy that saterizes the bond movies, which have always had rather dubious problems with consent. To my surprise though, Austin is legitimately repsectful, there are sometimes when he goes too far and he can be rather pushy, but he honestly has a better grasp on consent than most men in my family. He doesn’t sleep with a girl while she’s drunk, he doesn’t call her baby once she asks him to stop (except for that one slip up), he’s always very clear with his intentions, and he never really gets mad if a woman just isn’t into him.
He’s still a horny perv and like i said, there are some moments that go a liiiitle too far, but wow, Austin should be the …
Prime example is how Logan Paul reacted to Oppenheimer. “They’re just talking.” No shit, what did you think; That building the atomic bomb was gonna be more like a James Bond movie? Read a history book. And anyway, it’s a film about maybe the most significant event in human history. I heard someone describe living in the post atomic world as if everyone had a gun constantly aimed at their head for the rest of eternity. So subject matter so serious deserves a lot more weight than “They’re just talking.”
Anyway, what are some trash movie takes you guys have heard?
My go-to example is Law Abiding Citizen. I love the movie for its action sequences and just the general tone of the film.
Spoilers
But Gerard Butler’s whole point he was trying to get across was how the justice system was broken. And that you have to take matters into your own hands if you want justice.
Meanwhile, Jamie Foxx (as a lawyer) is trying to be a servant of the system and show Gerard that his way is the wrong way and that he will receive his own comeuppance from the system he hates if he continues this way.
But at the end of the film, Jamie not only breaks the law to beat Gerard, but he also receives a reward for it in the form of more time with his family.
Which just proves Gerard’s point that the system is broken, and the only way to get stuff done is to break the law. And Jamie’s point is completely abandoned.
The opening sequence of a movie sets the tone and grabs the audience’s attention. For me, the opening sequence of Inglourious Basterds is on a whole different level. The build-up, the suspense, and the exceptional acting are simply top-notch. It completely captivated me, and I didn’t even care how the rest of the movie would be because that opening sequence was enough to sell me on it. Tarantino’s signature style shines through, making it his greatest opening sequence in my opinion. What’s yours?