I see so many series recommendations here, that are accompanied with:
“Try ______ series again, it picks up in the 4th book”
“Push through the first 3 books of _______, if you don’t like it, put it down”
“Those 4 books of ________ are the slog, but the rest of it is amazing”
or even “The first 800 pages are very slow and nothing happens, but the last 100 pages are amazing”
Is it just me or do none of these statements work in the series’ favour? Don’t get me wrong, I get it in cases like Dark Tower where the first book is pretty much a short prologue, but the 500+ page books that are poorly written or where nothing happens just make no sense. Are people actually expected to sit for hours and hours on end not enjoying entire books just so that they can get context to following books they can enjoy?
Don’t get me wrong, buildup is important. I get that. But is boring buildup or bad writing often excused for …
The archetype and probably still the best are obviously the Rohirrim arriving at Helms Deep in The Two Towers or at Gondor in The Return of the King. Another top tier example in my opinion is “On your left” from Avengers Endgame.
What are some of the best or your personal favorites? Books, movies, shows, any media.
Whether it’s awful cliches, outdated views or just plain bad writing. I want to know, to jumpstart this conversation I will start.
The worst one I’ve ever read is The Fifth sorcerous by Robert Newcomb. That book to me is just an awful parody with zero likable characters and repetives descriptions of facial expressions.
For a bit of a challenge you can’t say sword of truth characters
I love fantasy books, and I love smut. I much prefer it to be placed within a good story, although I realize I have to meter my expectations while searching for smut. What would be a good series to look for that might hit the spot I’m looking for?
Also, inb4 “A Song of Ice and Fire!” That’s not really what I’m talking about. All of the sexual aspects of that series are pretty nondescript and honestly few and far between (unlike what I’ve seen of the show lol). I’m looking for more smutty than that.
Thanks! Sorry if you all hate me for this.
I once heard ASOIAF described like that and realized it was why I love the series.
Does anyone know other series with the same description?
This isn’t even an attack on JK Rowling. It’s just looking back on it, there are a lot of deeply flawed characters in HP. And I’m mainly thinking of the adults.
Snape is the obvious one, even if he’s technically on the good side. But James Potter was also an arrogant bully, just a charismatic and intelligent one.
Lupin was my favorite DADA teacher and top 5 characters overall, but his struggles in the later books leading him to almost abandon his wife and child due to his insecurity really rubbed me the wrong way. Of course Harry knocked some sense into him, and he did go back and tend to his family, but it permanently left a bad taste in my mouth.
Sirius was cool as hell, and was a very loving uncle/godfather to Harry. But he also mistreated Kreacher which partly led to his demise. I guess the “norm” in the wizard world was that house elves were practically slaves so it was considered “normal behavior”, but his brother Regulus was able to overcome that pretty well.
Dumbledore’s …
I’m 29 and grew up at that sweet spot where I was in high school when Twilight was massive. Everyone was reading The Hunger Games, and as a teen I was exposed to all of the biggest YA books: City of Bones, The Maze Runner, Clockwork Angel, Divergent, The Fault in our Stars.
I haven’t read any YA in years but I’ve always kept my eye on it, and recently I’ve had the itch to dive back in. Seeing books like Divine Rivals, Gallant, Firekeeper’s Daughter, The Inheritance Games, etc, I’m wondering how they’d match up to the YA from when I was a teen.
For those of you who never really stopped reading YA, how do the big hitters today compare to 10-15 years ago?
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When someone reads a book (or plays a game, watches a movie, etc) they inevitably have some first impression: the book is an allegory for X, the moral of the story is Y, character Z is a hero, etc. When they read the book a second time, or just think about it more deeply, they might realize that the text contains elements that contradict their first impression. Maybe the allegory doesn’t quite fit. Maybe there’s a subplot that seems to conflict with the overarching moral. Maybe the heroic character turns out to be a bit more morally grey than they first realized. What should the reader do?
I think the answer is obvious: you revise your first impression. If the book doesn’t work as a simple allegory for X, then maybe the book isn’t an allegory for X after all! Maybe the moral isn’t Y. Etc.
But what a lot of people do, and this drives me absolutely fucking nuts, is they say something like “Wow, this allegory about X doesn’t work. The author …
I’ve seen a lot of people recommend “Old Man’s War” by Scalzi, so maybe I should have started there, but I decided to go with something that didn’t have a buttload of sequels.
I have to say, I wasn’t very impressed with his writing. Big turn offs were
Is all his stuff like this?
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Cross Posted from /r/Books:
I would like to recommend Spin by Robert Charles Wilson as a good science fiction book for the non-science fiction fan.
The premise of Spin is one night, three childhood friends are watching the night sky and the stars disappear. The Earth had become encapsulated inside the barrier known as the Spin. It’s soon discovered for every second on earth, three years happen outside the Spin barrier. Yet despite the obvious alien mega-structure there is no inkling of first contact with an alien species. Only the mystery of the identity of the “hypothetical controlling intelligence” that is behind the Spin. Meanwhile, Scientists are able to observe the sun aging into a red giant that will expand until it eventually envelopes the Earth within thirty years.
The premise is an ambitious science fiction concept. The obvious metaphor intended by the author for Spin is climate change but in the post-pandemic era the fictional society’s reaction will feel all too familiar. …
I was watching the classic Star Trek TOS episode, “The Way to Eden” and I thought it might be fun to read a novel about Space Hippies. I have found a couple. Can anyone think of more Space Hippie books?
Biting the Sun duet - Tanith Lee. Don’t Bite the Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine. Space Hippies on a far-future planet search for meaning and eventually establish a commune in the desert.
Child of Fortune - Norman Spinrad. Spoiled Space Hippie girl wanders the galaxy experiencing sex, drugs and assorted Hippie activities on many worlds.
I seem to recall another Space Hippie book about an alien visiting Haight-Ashbury in 1967, but I forget the author and title. Maybe someone else remembers?
Are there any more Space Hippie books you can think of? Maybe a story of a male Space Hippie to balance all the female Space Hippies I have found?
I find the idea of Cosmic Voids absolutely interesting. I feel like the concept and the idea of voids have the potential towards some interesting and wild scientific speculation. The largest ones have a diameter of 30-300 million light years. Imagine being stuck in one, or being stuck on the boundary and thinking there is nothing more to the universe, or imagining cosmic fairing cultures treating them as religious/spiritual significance. Etc.
Are there any books that deal with the concept? I see that Peter F Hamilton has a trilogy but he seems to use the term void in a different sense than it is defined in cosmology.
I’ve just finished Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove.
Now I’d like to try more alternative history.
What are everyone’s recommendations?
I’m an absolute sucker for this plot device and it never gets old for me. I’m wondering if there are any other good sci-fi or sci-fi horror books? I’m thinking along the lines of movies like ‘Alien’. ‘Sunshine’. ‘Event Horizon’ etc. I’ve read ‘Sphere’ (not a big fan of Crichton, though) and a great graphic novel called Sanctum by Christophe Bec. Anything else I should give a shot?
For me it’s Arrested Development, when it’s clear that Lucille has been using Buster’s prosthetic…recreationally…in the bedroom. He had just cleaned it in the dishwasher, and he gives it a sniff and says “I’m gonna run this through again on Pots and Pans.” Absolutely filthy and completely fine to put on prime time tv.