I know it’ll probably never be finished, and I’ve read all the horror stories about Rothfuss, but I finally gave Name Of The Wind a shot after so many recommendations as I had to see what the hype was for myself.

I’ve never rolled my eyes more, never audibly exclaimed vicarious embarrassment at a book more, never hated a character more than reading about Kvothe. He’s such a white knight, holier than thou, self-righteous, pompous neckbeard. Even in the last pages the book, I’m inclined to put it down mid-chapter and write this.

Here is the passage that ignited this rant — Kvothe speaking of seeing Denna with countless other men and still perpetually putting himself in the friend zone, as he had all book, after ample opportunity and encouragement from Denna:

*It was a game of sorts. He would invite me to sit, and I would buy him a drink. The three of us would talk, and his eyes would slowly grow dark as he watched her smile toward me. His mouth would narrow as he listened to the …

Am ı missing something?

It’s so popular and loved but it felt sooo cheesy? How is the curse of Amarantha is exactly written for Feyre? Mortal girl who hates faes, kills one of them and then falls for one of them?

If that so, why all of them was mean to her for killing that wolf ? SHE WAS FILLING THAT STUPID PROPHECY ?? Be nice to her and make her fall in love to you easily?

Why would Lucien sends her alone to the Woods and don’t care if she dies- isn’t she your only CHANCE??

I don’t know if i should give another chance ? What am i missing that millions of people found it amazing

I’ve been wondering something that’s been bugging me for a while.

In real-world history, religion was everywhere. It shaped politics, daily life, war, morality, family structure. The average person believed what the temple or church told them. People were deeply religious not just out of fear, but because that was the framework they had to understand life, death, suffering, fate, and community.

But in so much fantasy fiction, religion is weirdly absent or superficial. Sure, there are gods, temples, and clerics, but they often feel like background dressing. You rarely see characters who actually live their faith, pray, do rituals, avoid taboos, or fear divine punishment. Despite the fact that gods are often literally real and active in these worlds. And somehow, even in worlds where deities walk the earth, there are still atheists or characters who just… don’t care.

For the most part, characters just go about their lives as if the divine is either irrelevant or optional …

I read Blood of the Old Kings late last year, solid book and I’m excited for the sequel. But man, the depiction of magic is outright depressing.

The land is ruled by a totalitarian empire, and the empire runs on magic like how our society runs on electricity. But the source of magic is dead witches and wizards. All children are screened for magical aptitude. If you’re magical, you get sent to a magic academy. But you don’t learn any spells (learning spells is in fact illegal), the entire purpose of the academy is to maximize your magical potential so that when you die the empire can extract as much magical energy from your body as possible. The empire pays you a pension for life after graduating based on how useful your dead body will be to them. The lowest might power street lights or appliances, the highest will power entire cities and military facilities.

Any other stories have a similarly grim depiction of magic?

I brought the quotes/receipts.

I’ll say it with my chest: most of the criticism and general discourse on the Kingkiller series are so lost from the point of the story and what the narrative is doing, that its like both sides (those criticizing and those defending it) have completely lost the plot.

No, the point is NOT him being an unreliable narrator. “He’s just exaggerating bro. Waiting on the third book to prove he’s just a liar.”

Do you know how weird a place for a book series to be that both the criticism and the defenses people regularly hash out over it are on a different planet from what’s actually going on with a book series? It’s like a strange liminal joke. The joke is stuck between two worlds. And both the worlds are on a different planet from the story.

Look, I get its all good fun laughing and shooting the shit on the internet. But sometimes I think about the common fantasy discourse about Kingkiller, then I think of the common …

This is a common complaint I hear is fantasy literature and I am curious to hear what people’s examples are.

What was a book that had interesting ideas but was hampered by bad writing?

Lavonnia Moore, a 45-year-old library manager, had worked at the Pierce County Library in Blackshear, Georgia, for 15 years. She was ultimately let go when a Christian extremist group filed a complaint to the library after Moore approved the display of a children’s book about a transgender boy.

According to Moore, the display (entitled “Color Our World”) included the book When Aidan Became a Brother (by trans male author Kyle Lukoff), a story about a family accepting a trans child named Aiden while also preparing for the birth of Aiden’s sibling. Library volunteers created the display as a part of a regional-wide summer theme featuring books that celebrate diversity.

“I simply supported community involvement, just as I have for other volunteer-led displays. That’s what librarians do — we create space for everybody… I did not tell the parents and children what they could or could not add to the display, just as I do not tell them what they can or cannot read,” she wrote in a …

These are some of my favorite recent books that I never see anybody discussing on here! I demand more people read them!

Stone by Adam Roberts (2002)

Roberts is an underrated hard sf guy with a deep catalog. This book takes place in an interstellar utopian society where nanomachines keep everyone healthy forever. The protagonist has committed the rare crime of murder and a prison inside a star has been built just for him and his nanomachines removed. One day, he wakes up with a voice in his head telling him how to escape. A fascinating exploration of post-scarcity and criminality. If you only read one of these books, read this one.

Semiosis by Sue Burke (2018)

Human settlers land on a harsh planet and discover a plant that apparently has some cognitive capacity. Over generations, the plant is cultivated and integrated into their society. The plant is also a narrator in some chapters, which I love. Burke is very talented at writing the persepective of a plant intelligence that is …

Today I learned that terraforming was coined by the science fiction writer Jack Williamson in a 1942 short story. Terraforming is such a familiar word for me as I often love reading about the topic in terms of actually doing it someday.

What’s remarkable is that this tale really wasn’t about terraforming at ALL. It was a story about mining antimatter (contraterene) from asteroids and the terraforming was just a throw-away detail that was merely fodder for the plot. Little did he know; Williamson coined a word that would become commonly used in sci-fi for hundreds of stories up until now.

For those who like to read (as do I); have you heard any interesting terms in newer sci-fi books that nobody knows about or pays attention to now; but may become part of the zeitgeist in 15-20 years? This is basically the futurism of science fiction that I am proposing.

It should be from fiction from 2019 to now-the current present. Books are preferred but comics and movies are fine as …

I was so excited about Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer but I don’t know if it was me expecting something more like Roadside picnic or something more surreal but I didn’t enjoy it.

I’m sorry if you enjoyed it and I didn’t but it’s my opinion. If you did like it what did you like it about it and if you didn’t what did you dislike.

And what other books were you disappointed by?

“Advanced” and “civilizations” can be quite broadly defined for this discussion, as power comes in many forms and not all “alien organizations” fit neatly into the idea of a Terran civilization.

The Lost Fleet is a military hard sci-fi story, written by former Naval Officer John G. Hemry (under the pen name Jack Campbell.)

You can tell as you read it just how much Hemry’s naval experience feeds in to his writing, which is to its credit. Space combat is treated as Naval Warfare, but with consideration for the laws of physics. Spacecraft travels at relativistic speeds (usually around 0.1c cruising speed, or higher situationally), which has massive impacts on how combat is done. Weapons targeting and operation is performed by ship-based AI, as the speed of combat is imperceptible to human operators. Not to mention relativistic distortion, and ship to ship communications lagging, with the distances between vessels being comparable to the distance between planets in our solar system.

There is some hand-waveyness to some minor scientific elements. Ship-based gravity and heat radiation are never explained. And relativistic velocities not immediately turning the ships interior …

I came across this very good podcast episode, in which Kim Stanley Robinson discusses his relationship with Le Guin (he was her student, long-time correspondent and friend), and her work:

https://tinhouse.com/podcast/crafting-with-ursula-kim-stanley-robinson-on-ambiguous-utopias/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtwEtlo0Ddc

He recalls going to watch the original “Star Wars” with her, his long car rides with her, gets teary-eyed reminiscing about their final meeting, and his fondness for “Searoad”, a Le Guin book I’d never heard about and now want to read.

If anyone’s interested, I’ve included some links to the podcast, but I’m sure it’s available on other pod sites as well.