As the title suggests what scenes or world building concepts in any fantasy book or series are to you seriously messed up?

For me it was probably in James Clemen’s Godslayer series where gods lived among humans and were essentially catered to their every needs, including the extraction of their every type of bodily parts and fluids as they had special properties. So hair, finger and toe nails, saliva, sweat, cum, piss and shit etc and were basically exotic goods with their own economy.

I can’t recall what unique property each one had when used, either consumed or smeared (yes people would smear themselves in god shit to become special in someway) but it was pretty disgusting.

I’m only 24, but I’m already sick and tired of reading 17 year old after 18 year old after 19 year old after 20 year old with the odd 22 year old thrown into the mix. I’m starting to crave truly adult characters in my SFF. Any recs?

Some stuff along these lines I’ve liked: - Mistborn Era 2 by Brandon Sanderson - Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames - A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher - Swordheart by T. Kingfisher - The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee (my GOAT) - Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel - Dandelion Dynasty by Ken Liu (currently mid book 2) - Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan - Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb - The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty - First Law by Joe Abercrombie - Lady Astronaut by Mary Robinette Kowal - The Sword of Kaigen by ML Wang

I know the title seems silly, but I’m struggling to find adult fantasy novels that have adult characters that actually FEEL like adults, and not overgrown teenagers. I want characters who are mature, everyone isn’t constantly and unnecessarily snarky and witty, or act incredibly flustered or immature and flip floppy when it comes to romance - they are believable characters for their age. I’m asking this because I’ve ran into too many “adult” fantasy books that receive raving reviews for their characters only to read it and discover it’s YA in disguise. This is not a hate thread against YA, it’s just a matter of preference.

I liked ASOIAF which fit what I was looking for in adult characters, but Stormlight Archives was problematic for similar reasons I mentioned. I would appreciate some good book suggestions!

Note: I’m not only looking for grimdark books. Mature doesn’t always mean “dark”. Just adult fantasy books where adults read like their age, whether they’re mature or not. I …

Just an amazing moment that made you super hyped or that completely turned the current story on its head.

And please remember to spoiler tag for new readers.

I’m thinking of things like Persepolis Rising (Expanse #7) >!The return of the “bullet” from book 4!< That sent chills down my spine and you knew you were in the endgame now.

Disquiet Gods (Sun Eater #6) >!Calen Harendotes being Kharn Sagara. I was waiting several books for him make a return and this did not disappoint. I probably screamed while reading that!<

Reaper (Cradle #10) We all know what this is. >!“Authorization zero zero eight.. Ozriel”!<

Words of Radiance (Stormlight #2) >!Kaladin jumping into the arena!

For me, I remember first reading of the >!sudden arrival of the trollocs!< in the first Wheel of Time book. I was enjoying the chill farm-boy life of >!Rand and his chums!<, then boom. I literally sat up and had to take a second to reread what had happened.

What about you? What scenes in novels/stories made you sit up and say: “Huh?!” (in the best possible way)?

I’ll start

“She would jump if x said frog”

from the wheel of time, means that she would fall over backwards to obey the command of “x”

I notice that I read books from the library a lot more often than the books I buy. This is mainly because library books have due dates, which make me want to read them quickly. On the other hand, the books I buy can sit on my shelf for a long time since there’s no rush to read them. I estimate that I usually read 52 books in a year. 80 percent of the books I finish come from the library, and the other 20% come from my purchases. If only my purchased books had similar things like due dates, I’m pretty sure I would read them more, and maybe I could push my goal to read 70 books a year.

Do you also find that library due dates help you read more quickly?

Since it came out, I had no interest in reading The Satanic Verses. I figured it would be dry, boring, not my style, and i was 1000% wrong. I regret not reading this years ago, I feel like an idiot for not reading this sooner. This book is so witty, interesting, funny, well paced, it is, what I consider, Literature, with a capital L. Rushdie has such an incredible way with words, I love his writing style. He is the definition of wordsmith. It seems light and breezy even when it’s covering a heady topic, and making some great observations and points. I had to look up some things (which i actually enjoy, i learn so much) to understand the cultural meaning, and I’m sure there were some jokes in there i didn’t get, but wow, what a wonderful book. About good and evil, about cultural identity, about assimilating, and fitting in, and so much.

Point is, if you haven’t read this, and you’re on the fence, READ IT. I love this book and it makes me want …

Picked up “Across the Sand” by Hugh Howey at the library the other day. I enjoyed his Silo series so I grabbed it knowing nothing about it. The jacket didn’t give me any indication it was the sequel to another book called “Sand” – it wasn’t until I was skimming the acknowledgements at the end that I realized this was book 2. I enjoyed the characters and story enough to continue to the end, even though while reading I felt a bit dumb for not really understanding or being able to visualize this world they live in.

Any other experiences like this? (Also, if anyone has read Sand and Across the Sand – should I now go back and read Sand?)

Thought people might be interested in their picks. Usually New Scientist is paywalled, but at least at the moment the article seems to be free.

Some expected titles, some I haven’t heard of so I’ll check them out.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2433037-our-writers-pick-their-favourite-science-fiction-books-of-all-time/

Here the full list of six nominees, along with a quick review of each, what kind of reader I think will like it, who will hate it, and then ranked ‘em all (which is obviously subjective, caveats caveats, ok here we go!):

• 6 - The Witch King by Martha Wells
  • A book about demons who live under the earth and inhabit human bodies, and a young man who was murdered and is brought back by a mage trying to put his magical abilities to use. Unfortunately it is pretty convoluted, it’s hard to understand the character’s motivations, and it’s got a lot of other issues too.
  • You’ll like it if you really, really love Martha Wells and wanna read everything she writes
  • You won’t like it if you are looking for an engrossing fantasy book, or something like Murder Bot
• 5 - The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
  • An urban fantasy set in a reimagined India / Sri Lanka about a young man who’s mother is training him to kill his father, who is a prophet with the power to distort time and …