I could use a laugh.
It’s been brought up before how the fantasy genre can sometimes have an issue of men writing women poorly (although I don’t think it’s the only genre guilty of this). This stereotype is often parodied, but what are some memorable examples from actual books of this happening? As in, a male writer paying gratuitous attention to describing the bodies of his female characters?
Personally, I’ve been lucky/careful in choosing what I read, so thankfully I don’t think I’ve come across much of this as an adult reader. I definitely can recall reading some cringey stuff as a teen in the 90’s though. Do you think the situation has improved over time?
Edit: I’m talking about things beyond Jordan’s braid-tugging, which, while eyeroll-inducing, is relatively tame.
There are a lot of fun series going on right now but not much in the same scale as things like ASoIaF, Malazan, Stormlight, Wheel of Time etc. Seems like we’re living in the time of trilogies or in general just slightly “less ambitious” fantasy.
Do you know of any upcoming doorstoppers by either promising new authors or perhaps by well known ones trying to do their magnum opus.
Xiran Jay Zhao called out an unamed* debut author on twitter for review bombing other debut authors. And you know they shouldn’t have to. Why doesn’t Goodreads have software which flags accounts which give a bunch of one star reviews. These are unpublished books too, so it should be even easier to spot. Anyway these are the books which were review bombed, so if you are scouting for your TBR have a look to see if any catch your eye.
Kamilah Cole - So Let Them Burn
Bethany Baptiste - The Poisons We Drink
Molly X Chang - To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods
Frances White - Voyage of the Damned
KM Enright - Mistress of Lies
*There is hill near where I live called Corrin it refers to the cairn on top of it, which are a pile of rocks, we shouldn’t throw rocks at other people. The Irish for Kate is Cáit which is pronounced a lot like caught. Just two random facts, totally random.
For those unaware, Defamiliarization “refers to the literary device whereby language is used in such a way that ordinary and familiar objects are made to look different.”
Gideon the Ninth has elements of this, such as describing ‘a big rectangular hole in the ground, covered in green slime and a strange metal ladder leading into the hole’ (a pool covered in algae)
Wheel of Time has a few small references of this, as does A Princes Errand, however they aren’t really at the forefront of the story.
I believe The Book of the New Sun has some elements, but its on my list, and I haven’t read it yet - Are there any other Modern Fantasy that use the concept well?
I genuinely ask - I am not a snob by any means, but of all the modern fantasy authors, I cannot think of a single one who would have courses devoted to them like Lewis and Tolkien do.
What about you?
I noticed this today when I went to read a synopsis of The Nightingale, I thought “oh so many people love this book, why haven’t I checked it out yet?” and then I saw it takes place during the second world war.
Apparently WWII books are an automatic skip for me these days. Not that there aren’t some amazing stories set during that time, there’s just such an oversaturation in books and movies that I find myself wholly uninterested in another WWII story.
Another automatic no for me is any fantasy that has a title like “The Spear of Dreams and Destiny” or some such… you know the type. Again just too oversaturated for me.
So I’m wondering, what are some other red-flags that make you readers bypass a title??
I went to Barnes & Noble today and paid $94 for 3 books. I didn’t think much of it until I got home and told my husband that I paid almost $100 for THREE books!!!
I told him there’s probably something else I could have done with those $94. I know I could have bought used books, but I went to B&N after such a long time today, it made me happy to buy them.
But then I realized how ridiculous those prices are now. Not very long ago new books were on average $15 each and now they’ve doubled!
Why are they so expensive now?
ETA: Thank you so much to everyone who commented. I’m a new mom so I unfortunately can’t get through all of the comments as I was not expecting this post to blow up as much as it did. 😅 I’m really glad that this topic sparked as much discussion.
One of my gfs was complaining about how much books cost (there was a post on here the other day that blew up about this too), so I brought up going to the library. And she looked at me like I was crazy.
It’s surprising because everyone complains about the cost of books, yet libraries are filled with free resources. It makes me wonder, are libraries just not on people’s radar anymore? I’m curious - do you use your local library, or have they become sort of a forgotten option?
So I’m currently reading Descending Twilight. I’ve had this book for 16 years, a memento from the last family vacation before my sister passed away. It’s a self-published novel that was sold in the campground resort gift shop, written by a staff member of the resort we used to go to. I remember buying it, and the cashier told me I should go have him sign it at the welcome center guard booth. He was so grateful, he even signed it with a really beautiful message.
Despite keeping this book with me through numerous moves and all of life’s rollercoaster, I only ever read the first chapter of it before. Well, until this week.
I was looking up the author right before I read it this month. I discovered that he passed away in October of this year. His viewing was actually on my birthday, which is ironic. But there are no reviews of his book anywhere online! Not Amazon. Not Goodreads. Nothing. I keep thinking he died thinking no one ever read it. So I’m going to …
Everyone raves about how beautiful of a book it is, and it lived up to the hype. It was a stone cold masterpiece. But no one warned me about that ending.
SPOILERS:
The visuals alone are terrifying: Amaranta Ursula dead on the table from childbirth. Her incest baby with a pig’s tail is being eaten alive by fire ants. Aurelino paralyzed to do anything as he finally translates the prophesy that predicted his fate 100 years earlier. And a family wiped from existence with one fell swoop.
“The first of the line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by the ants.” Goodness Gabriel. Thanks for making me the latest victim of the insomnia plague.
Am I the only one who felt like this book waited until the last 5 pages to reveal that it was a horror novel all along?
Two years ago, I wrote a piece trying to use 50 years of science-fiction & fantasy awards data to determine some of the greatest novels since 1970. It was a fun exercise applying data science (comparing books across time, weighting novels, etc.) to my favorite hobby– reading science fiction. There’s a lot you can dive into there if interested in SFF across the ages and methodology.
Each year I try and write an update based on the latest round of awards; here’s the results from 2022, and alas I’ve wrapped up the latest for 2023!
The article has a bunch more detail (and graphics that don’t share well on reddit, so I use Medium), but here’s a quick version:
The top 5 books of the 2023 award season:
Honorable mentions: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel …
Looking for speculative fiction or alternate history that explores how North America would have developed if it wasn’t colonized by Europeans. Thanks in advance!
Here’s the list I found somewhere and saved. Going to go thru the list next year to pick up the ones I haven’t yet read (marked with *). Feel free to add to the list!
*Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
*Dune by Frank Herbert
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
*Foundation by Isaac Asimov
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide by Douglas Adams
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
*Hyperion by Dan Simmons
*Ringworld by Larry Niven
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Children of Men by PD James
*Red …
I have a thing for stories in which audience-insert protagonists explore abandoned alien structures and piece together their purpose or history. Rendezvous with Rama or the Heechee saga, to name a few obvious classics. Ringworld to a lesser extend.
This preference extends to non-print and non-scifi - say, Walking Sim video games a la Dear Esther and their atmosphere.
I think you get the vibe I’m after :-).
Do any of you have favorite stories or recommendations in this vein?
Hello, I’m looking for a read to carry me through to the new year and I’m in the mood for something dark and atmospheric. Blindsight and Perdido Street Station and two examples of the kind of vibe I’m thinking of. Any suggestions? I’m thinking of giving Peter Fehervari’s Dark Coil Warhammer 40k novels a look.
Example being Tom Sizemore’s line in Saving Private Ryan
“Someday we might look back on this and decide that saving Private Ryan was one decent thing we were able to pull out of this whole godawful shitty mess”
My vote would go to 2016’s Suicide Squad.
“what are we, some kinda suicide squad?”
Perfectly shoehorned in. 10⁄10 egregiousness