Even though spiritual care was present with us in the room, the patient’s wife turns to me and asks if I would lead a prayer as her husband was dying. Initially stunned, but for only a brief second, I laced my fingers, bowed my head, and said “May he shelter in the palm of the creator’s hand and may the last embrace of the mother welcome him home.” The wife cried and seemed genuinely appreciative.
Maybe I’m just naïve, but I’m pretty shocked that the Hugos/Astounding Awards were so blatantly rigged this year (I’m sure it’s a barn fire among those actually involved in the process, but I haven’t heard much from the rest of us normal readers).
I’ve seen a lot of people saying that they don’t care about book awards anyway, but regardless of whether you personally care about awards, the Hugos are pretty clearly the biggest, most well-known award in science fiction and fantasy. Presumably it boosts books sales, brings recognition, leads to bigger future book deals, etc. At least, I always see “Hugo Award Winner” stamped pretty prominently on the covers of the winners, so it must have some real-world impact. And this year’s awards, at least, have been pretty clearly tainted.
I’ve just been learning about this as I’ve been reading what has become public over the past couple of days, so forgive me if I’m missing or misunderstanding anything, but this is what I’ve gathered so far …
I’ve been on this sub for a while, and one thing I’ve noticed is that people tend to struggle giving recommendations when the OP clearly specifies that they don’t want to read books with sexual assault or rape in them. I’ve decided to make a post about some things I think would help people when making recommendations. Starting with the obvious:
Read the entire recommendation request. Often times there’s something else the original posts request is asking for and a disclaimer line at the bottom that specifies no sexual assault. People frequently don’t see the disclaimer or only read the title. If you can read all 1,746,560 words in A Song of Ice and Fire or all 3,325,000 words in Malazan Book of the Fallen, you can read an entire reddit post. Please do so.
No matter how well a book fits the other parts of the request, if it contains graphic on …
I used to consider myself a big fan of his work. Damn, I’d still say that Way of Kings was the greatest reading experience I ever read. However, it seems that with every book I read from his body of work, the more his flaws become apparent. The plot is usually interesting and the end usually awaits with some great twists and turn of events; but the road to the end becomes less enjoyable because he reuses his formula over and over again. It’s the same shallow characters and dialogue each and every time. I can predict the course of a dialogue after a brief exchange most of the time because it’s full of cliches and predictable little jokes. I read Mistborn, SA until Oathbringer, lesser known books like Elantris, Steelheart, Skyward or Rithmatist and I am getting closer to the point where I have to say that it’s probably not worth it anymore. The latest books I read were the very disappointing mistborn era 2 (book 1&2) and I am currently 70% done with Warbreaker which is my least …
So I was reading Way Of Kings and realized that every time I read a scene involving Dalinar, Sadeas and the politics between high princes I found myself expecting the worst possible tragedy, the death of a main character etc. I am not finished the book, so if that is indeed coming I’m sure some of you will laugh at this. But I can’t help but feel like a red wedding every time things get tense lol. Thanks George.
You know, that one thing common in a lot of fantasy works that makes you roll your eyes? Something that annoys you for a specific reason? Sound off in the comments with the specific reason (other than just being cliche, please).
One thing I could live without is how certain fantasy civilizations can go hundreds or thousands of years with no meaningful advancements in technology or civilization. No factories, no paved roads, no printing presses… I honestly prefer stuff like Legend of Korra that tend to avert this.
Update: Let’s try to focus on stuff specific to fantasy. There can be some overlap with other genres, but let’s try to keep it centered on fantasy.
Maybe a hot take, maybe just a rant, but I see many Tiktokers and Goodreads reviewers point fingers real fast when it comes to this situation in particular.
Characters can be nasty, ignorant, and morally corrupt. The thing is, one should question why did the author portray them this way, whats the bigger picture instead of rapidly condeming the person behind the pen.
There are times when yes, a character is a vessel for an author’s views, but most often, it is not.
A common misconception is that the main character should be likeable for the reader to empathize with them; no, one can dislike them all throughout the novel. It is not a rule that they have to act or think ethically.
There is a large number of author who write women dreadfully. Some male authors depict female characters as sexualized, unrealistic beings who are mere accessories that meet the desires of these authors.
An egregious example is Murakami:
“Scattered amongst the “normal” parts of 1Q84 are overly-detailed descriptions of female adolescent body parts. One of the main characters, Fuka-Eri, is described as a 17-year-old girl with “large and perfectly ripe breasts.” The novel, often from the male protagonist, Tengo’s, point of view, continues to objectify Fuka-Eri through it all––specifically, her chest as she’s sleeping, walking into a cafe, or simply breathing.” - https://arcadiaquill.com/19620/opinion/haruki-murakamis-objectification-of-women/
Another is Terry Goodkind:
“Just to give you a taste of what to expect: In book 1 of his most famous series, “The sword of Truth”, he introduces an entire warrior cult that is just straight up magical women in full leather BDSM gear with several …
I read “Uprooted” by Naomi Novik, and didn’t like it much. The main character THOROUGHLY described each new outfit she would accidentally conjure for herself with magic, and reveled in the experience of wearing plain “homespun” dresses.
I don’t know how many times I had to read “homespun,” but now every time I read “homespun” I get war flashbacks. I’m currently reading a book that now has made me read “homespun” four times. I’m glad I like the book, because that’s almost too many “homespuns” to read.
So, any similar experiences?
Edit: “Homespun” is used 15 times in the book.
Tl;dr version: multiple books, including Babel were deemed “ineligible” with no cause given. And the statistics behind the votes, especially considering how it took much longer for the data to come out, seems to be extremely fishy.
That’s the best site I’ve found so far doing a deep dive of the data and why folks are mad. And it is easy to see why.
Recently, I read a book and went to Goodreads to check reviews, but most of them were complaints about unlikeable characters. This mystery/thriller book involved four murders, and none of them would have occurred if any of the victims weren’t unlikable and loathsome individuals. I feel like this is one of the most common complaints about books in general — characters being unlikeable and unrelatable.
I understand the frustration with unlikeable characters if they were intended to be likeable but were poorly written. Many books have characters meant to be likeable or neutral but end up being total a-holes (for instance, Pedro in “Like Water for Chocolate” is an utterly despicable person, which doesn’t make sense in the context of the story, yet I didn’t see many readers noticing that at all). However, the main point of many books is to have unlikeable characters. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be conflict, and the plot would be incredibly dull and …
That perfect series with no let downs, something so difficult to find lmao. I know that Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo is not only a duology, and has had its praises sung by most people by now… but dammit. It’s just that good, both books, all throughout. What’s a series that was able to maintain its winning streak in your eyes, or did it even become better overtime?
The Hugo nomination voting stats were finally released, and Babel, as expected had more than enough votes to be nominated… yet mysteriously was declared “ineligible”. Anyone know what’s going on here? Some other suspicious results too…
https://www.thehugoawards.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2023-Hugo-Award-Stats-Final.pdf
tl;dr: do other people find this extremely normal type of post strange?
I joined this sub awhile back and I am always struck about how frequently people come on here asking for extremely specific recommendations for a plotline or premise.
I get that people are different and I wouldn’t want to discourage anybody, for any reason, from picking up and reading an actual book in 2024.
I’m one of those Gene Wolfe freaks, an author who is famously cross-genre, books seem entirely different if you read them more than once, filled with hints and puzzles and crap. So obviously I want my mind blown or at least expanded when I read a book. But I actually saw Wolfe give a talk at a con in the mid-00s and he gets up on stage, and basically denounced himself. He said, “If you are an SF writer, you are writing *genre*. People pick up your books because they them to be specific things. Give the reader what they want to read.”
So it’s valid to want to find a space opera …
This has been on my “to-read” shelf for years now, and I finally decided 2024 was going to be the year I sat down and read the trilogy. This book took me just over three weeks to read. It’s challenging but rewarding.
The main draw of the book is the unbelievable amount of research that shows on every page. Kim Stanley Robinson is a man who knows Mars intimately. I have been fascinated by the idea of terraforming Mars for a long time, and this book is extremely realistic in the way it suggests what a real human terraforming effort on Mars might look like.
I went into this book expecting something fairly dry with flat characters who spent the whole time talking numbers and physical processes. I did not expect the book to start with >!a description of two murders, and then go back to explain the reasons for those murders, in a sort of One Hundred Years of Solitude-esque fashion.!<
What took me by surprise was how political the story is, right from its second …
I recently finished a complete read through of every word of the Vorkosigan Saga (by which I mean Grover Gardner read them all to me), mostly for the second time, though in a few cases for the first. I read them in order of internal chronology (100% the way to do it), with the exception of reading Falling Free and Dreamweaver’s Dilemma last.
Having just read it all, I am prepared to say that it is hands down my favorite sci-fi series of all time, and I wanted to share my loose rankings. Broadly, I think every entry in the series fits into one of three tiers: quite good (this is the lowest they go), excellent, and masterpiece. Within tiers, stories are listed in order of internal chronology, not ranked.
Masterpiece Tier:
“Aftermaths” (generally published as an epilogue to Shards of Honor, but originally written as a standalone story)
Barryar
The Borders of Infinity
Mirror Dance
Memory
A Civil Campaign
Excellent Tier:
Falling Free
Shards of Honor
The …
With the recent dustup over Hugo controversy, I have been seeing a lot of misinformation as to what the awards actually are and felt it was also worth discussing why they have been historically considered the most prestigious award in SF/F.
It is true that the Hugos are a fan-run, fan-voted award. If anyone feels that the winners or nominees do not reflect their personal taste in books, then that person is one hundred percent correct and valid in their opinion. When we say that the Hugos are a fan award what we mean is this: The Hugos are administered and voted on by the members of Worldcon in the year that vote takes place. (These members are also part of the World Science Fiction Society, WSFS for short, but I will use the term “Worldcon” throughout this post for simplicity’s sake.)
Worldcon is the oldest and largest science fiction convention in the world. It is dwarfed in scope by most comic cons, anime cons, and even Brandon Sanderson’s recent Dragonsteel Con. In short, Worldcon …
I know the movie has been out for ages, but hey.
Everybody is all about how feminist it is and all, but I think it holds such a powerful message for men. It’s Ken, he’s all about desperately wanting Barbie’s validation all the time but then develops so much and becomes ‘kenough’, as in, enough without female validation. He’s got self-worth in himself, not just because a woman gave it to him.
I love this story arc, what do you guys think about it? Do you know other movies that explore this topic?
I’ve noticed every documentary Netflix produces has the same look and feel, particularly the ones about sport. They always include;
Typically begins with a sequence in the future then we build to where it left off.
Shot of the chair where the person will be interviewed empty. This is then accompanied by a shot of the subject being interviewed walking up to said chair and sitting down. Sometimes it shows them just sitting there saying nothing, trying to capture candid moments.
Action shots of the sport brought to an abrupt stop which is followed by a bass drop.
The voice over quotes over the action are always the same. “you either sink, or you swim”, “There’s only 1 winner”, “the stakes can’t be higher”, “If you want something bad enough, you’ll find a way” etc.
The quick quotes of the people actually on screen are also similar. A quick shot of the interviewee followed by something like “I have a target …
The 2004 Van Helsing movie was the best thing since sliced bread in my household and I was under the genuine impression (at the time I was like 8) that this movie had been a smashing success around the world and that it was just one of those iconic and treasured movies that everyone was surely talking about. Like me and my sisters sat down and watched that movie probably ten times when the DVD came out.
And then I grew up and found out the movie was a flop, critics trashed it and most people never saw it.
I still love it but I know it wasn’t the huge hit my kid brain just assumed it was.
Did you have a movie like this?
Edit:
The big ones seem to be:
Small Soldiers
Labyrinth
Fivel Goes West
Legend
The Iron Giant
Was rewatching The Other Guys and I’m always impressed by how many good running gags they’re able to fit into a 100 minute movie.
Ones I was able to pick out: