Curious about which fantasy worlds have the most coherent and comprehensive world building, one where the religion/economy/geopolitics/technology/magic/cultures/cuisines/languages etc all have depth and are internally consistent.
I see your pristine shelves filled with gorgeous collector’s editions. I too have drooled over posts filled with rows and rows of aesthetically stunning books. Your Le Guin omnibuses and marbled Sanderson masterpieces. I have dropped way too much money on 2nd edition Lord of the Rings boxed sets and when the new Malazan editions come out soon, I’ll shell out the dough for them.
But where are all my real ones at?
There’s something about fantasy in particular that makes me want to see shitty, pulpy, broken-spined monsters. I want a book that I feel like I could find at a bus stop. I want a copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that looks like a 4th grader brought it to school for 3 months in their JanSport. Am I alone in this? Does anyone else find immense comfort in the accessible, approachable ease of mass market books?
I don’t know why I’m milk-crating about this. But I was looking at my modest collection with deep love a moment ago. When I was a kid I didn’t worry about …
Homer, Vergil, Milton, Spenser. Shak’s plays are full of fantasy/supernatural elements, Beowulf, Malory and so on. Blake certainly is a “fantasy” writer. You can think of many other examples.
Edit - would also be nice if you added the number of books in the series!
You know, you start a book, it is generic, you already “knows” the story, but still you keep reading
Hey all! I was watching this video from Bookborn recently and while she hit on a lot of good points, I feel like she somewhat missed the mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov7rDyXW2Iw&t=409s&pp=ygUVYm9va2Jvcm4gbWFnaWMgc3lzdGVt
The video basically argues a point that I’ve seen here on r/fantasy a lot, which is that the term “magic system” is exhausting because it implies that all magic exists in a “system” and that not all magic needs to be that way; some magic is just magic, other magic is systematic. I decided to make this post responding to this idea because it is a regular part of our discourse here on the sub, and I feel like the conversations often miss one of the most important points to consider.
I actually agree with her on general principle: we don’t need every magic system to be a Brandon Sanderson/Brent Weeks/Brian McClellan/Robert Jordan esque hard magic system. It is good to also have magic in books that is less focused on …
So spoilers for a children’s mystery novel series from like (holy shit I just looked this up and the first book is from the 1920s with the sequals spanning from 1948-1996s)
What’s my point?
My point in it’s entirety is it is strange how the Box car kids started out as a decent stand alone novel about 4 orphans who decided to run away rather than live with this evil grandfather. The first book is all about the children figuring things out and trying to hide, only to end with the evil grandfather being a good loving guy who they all agree to live with.
A normal novel by all means, and seemingly meant to be a stand alone (might explain the 20 year gap between book 1 and book 2).
Then the sequels are all pseudo mystery novels where the kids are working together to solve problems.
It’s a totally different series, just with the pre-established characters. And if you were anything like me growing up, you never questioned the huge tonal shift. The box car Children …
I’m reading Watership Down for the first time. It’s incredible. But when I talk to friends about what I’m reading, I’m like, “It’s about rabbits. No, not like actual rabbits, like a story about fictional rabbits. No, not fantasy, they only do rabbit stuff, no magic. Well, I guess they can talk to each other which isn’t very rabbit-like and there’s also a sort of common tongue between species– by I mean it’s kind of for kids not like for kids, you know? It’s a very mature rabbit epic for adults too.”
How would you sell this book in way that people won’t think it’s a dumb book about rabbits?
As a woman, a black person, and someone from a ‘3rd world’ country, I have lost count of all the offensive things I have hard to ignore while reading older books and having to discount them as being a product of their times. What things in our current 21st century books do you think future readers in 100+ years will find offensive or cave-man-ish?
It’s a raw and brutal account of colonial Belgium in the Congo around the early 20th century. It is shockingly relevant to today because of Leopold’s sinister misinformation campaigns in controlling the narrative for his greedy and murderous enterprises. The rape of the Congo, much like many colonial endeavors, shaped history and lives with us today. Colonialism fueled the beast of Industrialization at the cost of millions of “non-civilized” people. It’s an amazing read, full of primary documentation and rich characterization. I learned so much and highly recommend. Lastly, it is the perfect companion to Joseph Conrad’s “The Heart of Darkness” who is mentioned frequently throughout the book.
I just finished this and enjoyed it way more than I was expecting. Does anyone know of any other similar works? Or have any recommendations? The SCP stuff is interesting but I’d rather be able to read it in book form.
I’m looking for some books where transhumanism, the augmentation of people to become something more/better than human is depicted in a mostly positive manner.
I’m not picky on the method, whether Cyberpunk body alterations, genetic alteration, or even something more fantasy based.
Generally when such elements are introduced, they are depicted very negatively, either making people inhuman, soulless, or outright homicidally insane as an allegory for why going away from nature and relying too much on technology is wrong or immoral, or as a way for technology to outright replace us.
I’d like to read books with much more positive takes on the subject, with particular focus on POV characters (preferably very few/one POV) who have enhanced/esoteric senses, enhanced strength/reflexes/bodily control/lifespan, and potentially multiple thoughtstreams, and how that might change society or war.
“Perilous Waif” by E William Brown and to a lesser extent, the …
I have gotten back into sci fi this year and had an excellent 6 months so far. Going to post my list of what I’ve read so far and hopefully people will give suggestions for the last half of the year.
Iain m banks - Matter. Culture #8
William Gibson - Burning chrome
Samuel Delaney - Babel 17
Terry Pratchett - Moving pictures. Discworld #10
Iain m banks - Surface detail. Culture #9
Isaac Asimov - Through a glass, clearly
Terry Pratchett - Reaper Man. Discworld #11
Iain m banks - The hydrogen sonata. Culture #10
Neal Stephenson - The Diamond age
Alastair Reynolds - Revelation space. Rev space #1
Alastair Reynolds - Chasm city. Rev space #0.5
Alastair Reynolds - Redemption arc. Rev space #2
Alastair Reynolds - Absolution gap. Rev space #3
Alastair Reynolds - Diamond dogs/turquoise days
Alastair Reynolds - Galactic north
Neal Stephenson - Snow crash
Neal Stephenson - The big U
Cormac McCarthy - The road
Joe Haldeman - The forever war
Douglas Adams - Hitchhikers …
I want to attract the die hard sf readers. As well as There is no Antimemetics Division, I’d like to include some classics from my era, which was the 60s and 70s. Maybe Mote in God’s Eye, Dancers at the End of Time, and Roadmarks, by Zelazny. What do you think of these? And what others should i add?
We already have PK Dick and Cixin Liu, so not them.
Edit to say what I ended up getting:
Star Maker; Roadmarks; Dancers at the End of Time: Best of Cordwainer Smith (includes his superb Shayol story); the James Tiptree collection that includes ‘Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death’; and Rendezvous with Rama
Thanks heaps for your help, everyone! I’m hoping I’ll be able to do this again soon!
Have recently ventured into SF and so far have completed reading the Three Body Problem trilogy and Guin’s Lathe of Heaven. While Liu’s work was engaging, I now want to explore more short format works. I also liked that Lathe of Heaven dealt with something as mundane as sleep, relative to the setting of say space. Open to recommendations!
Hello fellow Space squids , im new here and I want help regarding new series to read , books related to Sci fi space navy fleets or warships , I’m also a H0rney warShip geek ,love warships classes and battles but also people emotions politics etc and alien world’s planets species and thinkings too ,but smooth and simple might be helpful maybe bit moderny and normal day to day like , not ultra quantum slip space nuclear wormhole positron etc but maybe lasegun , mass driver , jump , gate , simple , For reference ,
Books i read , re-read and liked
Lost fleet series all books (Jack campbell) Legacy fleet 1-9 (Nick webb) Pax Humana trilogy - Earth dawning trilogy - Honour Harrington 1-14 (David weber) Thrawn all books (Timothy Zahn) Black fleet 1-9 (Joshua dalzelle) Omega force 1-14 - Terran scout fleet 1-5 - Expanse all (James S A corey) Enders game 1 only (Orson scott)
Books i started but stopped reading for reasons but liked
Rise of republic 1-2 ( James rosone) Ark Royal …