Hey, everyone!
If you’re at all familiar with cultivation fantasy or progression fantasy, you’ve probably heard of Cradle. (If you’re not familiar with those things, think fantasy novels similar to Chinese martial arts films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or inspired by anime series like Dragon Ball.)
Cradle is arguably the single most successful example of progression fantasy subgenre in the western market, and today, the author is making a huge step by launching a Kickstarter to get an animated series made out of his novels.
Animated series are incredibly expensive to make and a ton of work, but he’s put together an awesome team for it. If you’re an existing fan of Cradle, or just interested in seeing what a progression fantasy animation Kickstarter looks like, take a look here!
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TLDR available down below. So here’s the thing. During the lockdown, I was listening to one Coldplay song in which there’s a line ‘wheel breaks the butterfly’. English is not my first language so I thought it’s a phrase that I didn’t know and googled it. What Google showed me was one of the greatest series of fantasy books 14 books long and one of the greatest etc.
I bought the book on Kindle, read a few pages, and forgot about it. Fast forward, Amazon decided to make it into series, i remembered the unread book and went back(before series came out). I liked the series so far (on the 4th book). It’s incredibly descriptive and repititive in some sense but I loved the world and that everything had some kinda well laid rules. (Sorry Harry Potter and stupid quidditch). I read fast and just skim through extra boring details like cloaks’ embroidery and skirts colours. LOTR’s resemblance is there but I haven’t read the books …
For example, I can see it’s a very creative series but I just can’t take the teenage edgelady dialogue in Gideon the Ninth. Have tried in vain because everyone here loves it so much, have DNF three times. I’ll keep trying.
I mean the moments that uplift you as you read them. There might be a dark situation, there might be an unhappy ending, but these are the moments that make you feel warmth in the cold. Or those times when the good guys finally win that makes you want to cheer. Or the quiet, simple act of kindness that sticks with you years after you read it.
I see that people are interested in finding the most sexy Fantasy, but I almost think it’s a real skill these days to not write any sort of sexuality into a story, just focusing on the quest/whatever. Of course the common olde trope is to save the princess or damsel, and they fall in love, and in current times much more raunchy renditions seem popular.
Anyways, what Fantasy can you think of that doesn’t have sexuality involved?
I’ve traditionally read more “standard” fantasy, things like the Belgariad, Kingkiller Chronicles, Riyeria Revelations, Malazan Book of the Fallen, etc., but recently realized that I’ve been in the mood for some fantasy that has some more focus on a romance, ideally a bit more along the “fun” spectrum as well. Preferably not too “young adult-y”, but I don’t mind a bit of the “anime-ish” feeling to the romance (“she punched you because she secretly likes you bro”).
So, male lead character, preferably single POV, and a focus on a romance with the main character that has payoff, e.g. if it’s a trilogy, sometime in the second book the guy and girl “get together” so we still have a book and a half of seeing and enjoying them as a couple. Don’t care either way regarding “steamy-ness” as long as the characters are actually in a relationship. If the author wants them to fuck on …
Today, I received a book I ordered online while my friend was over. While I was ripping open the pacakage, she noticed my visible disappointment.
I told her that the book looked used. Generally, I don’t mind buying second-hand books, but I bought this expecting it to be brand new. The sides and corners of the cover are peeled and some, broken. The cover also has some traces of ink.
She then told me that someone must’ve bought it, read it, then returned it. That it’s normal and that she has always done that since amazon lets you return books for free within 15 days, and other places, such as local bookstores, within 7.
I was both surprised and appalled. She must’ve noticed. She frantically tried to explain herself. The economy, the prices, etc…
Personally, I found her actions wrong and tried explaining to her the losses the publishers and the bookstores face because of this, instead she got mad at me, accused me of hinting that she was a thief, told me …
I got a Kindle a few months ago, and I had the kindle unlimited but I’m a picky reader so I ended up buying a lot of books, one or two I found to be super boring, another one I purchased I realized I read and remember it quiet vividly. I was starting to feel a little defeated bc I’m a fast reader, so it could easily be $10 a day for me.
I got a library card with my county, they didn’t have a lot of options, so I got one with the neighboring county too. Lots more books, crazy wait times. So I got another library card with DC bc I’m right on the outskirts and qualify for the free card. It feels like every book I’ve ever wanted is suddenly at my fingertips. I got books 1-4 of a series I really want to get into for 21 days, on top of another book I started reading yesterday. I feel…like I won the lottery. This is insane.
I have tried, tried SO HARD, to enjoy these books but I just can’t. For me it felt like Sarah J Mass has a huge problem with telling and not showing. In Throne of Glass the heroine is introduced as the world’s number 1 assassin, no one is better at killing than this 19 year old, she’s a total badass and pretty damn sexy to boot. But we’re not really given any context as to how she became this badass, then she spends half the book worrying about what dresses she’ll be wearing and doing no actual killing. She’s in a competition to the death and is more worried about the hunky guard and what he’s up to rather than, I dunno, surviving?! Couldn’t stand it.
My friend kind of half spoilt some of the surprises in the later books to try and convince me it got better, but without spoiling anything they just made me think it was a bad soap opera but in armor.
So then I was told with confidence to try ACOTAR, as this series was more …
Ready your whip-hounds, detectives! The hype train is leaving the station!
This book was fantastic and really left me craving more. I particularly liked how embued it was with political philosophy which was very well executed, so was looking for more with similar themes.
I also liked the philosophy of language so fiction recommendations with the same ideas being explored would be great.
-Edit-
There’s a ridiculous amount of great suggestions here. Exactly what I wanted so thank you. It will be a long time till I run out of things to read.
I’m looking for books that propose mindblowing ideas about universe or anything else in existence, could be just life on earth, i just want it to be really creative. Maybe something like an idea about why humans will lose their brain capacity and stop advancing technologically from the year 2100 and makes it perfectly logical. I just want something really creative and thought provoking. A great example for this is “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” series.
I’d really appreciate your help so please share your recommendations.
Can anyone recommend some really good space operas? I love expansive, mind-bending books. My favorite scifi is the Culture series, but I also love John Scalzi books, the Red Rising series, and the occasional starwars book.
Thank you in advance for your recommendations!
I’ve read a lot of this type of story, but always looking for more! Especially involving megastructures, or spooky exploration of some abandoned ruins, etc. Some favorite examples would be the Revelation Space series (alien artifacts are few and far between, very weird, very enigmatic, and often signify a greater threat), A Fire Upon the Deep (humanity meddling in lost super-civilizations it doesn’t understand and unleashing an ancient evil), Marrow (giant lost megastructure of an alien ship that hides a secret), or BLAME! (wandering through the halls of a dangerous and foreboding structure that never seems to end, searching for the key to survival).
I’ve read the Rama series, Gateway series, everything A. Reynolds has ever written, almost everything by Banks, Vernor Vinge. Certainly something I’m forgetting. Bonus points if it has an eerie or even horror vibe. “Dilation Sleep” or “Nightingale” by Reynolds would be a good example of …
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/terry-pratchetts-discworld-harpercollins-books
Redeemable on kobo, not sure about DRM
39 books, 35 Disc World books.
The runner up is Newhart with 25 nominations.
It seems Emmys decided to forego rewarding this series due to how many awards Breaking Bad had already gotten
There was never a time he was good or funny. I am liberal, have seen Anthony Jeselnik in concert and love South Park, and still can’t sit through any of Bill Maher. Did not like him when he was more “liberal” or whatever he is now. He says things shock comedians say, except without the “funny” part (comparing handicapped kids to animals…though that was long ago, he hasn’t changed much.) Never thought he was insightful either, he just thought he was “holier than thou” whatever he thought.
Bonus points for non-horror movies.
There’s two really good ones in the first Jurassic Park. I think the best is Newman’s death scene. The building of tension as he tries to escape in the rain is great. You can tell he is screwed from the get go, but it still manages to keep you on the edge of your seat. And the payoff with the frilled dinosaur is excellent.
Also, the lawyer hiding in the bathroom from the T-Rex, lol.
I’m just sitting down to watch Prometheus again and the opening itself just feels like it’s a million miles away from where Alien began. I know there was space jockey stuff in that film but one is a survival horror and the other starts out as this mythical religious scientific journey.
Another that springs to mind is Highlander. Immortal warriors fighting through time with swords….. oh yeah they’re aliens