Hey, r/fantasy. I’ve been coming to this sub-reddit for a long time to look up what people are recommending to each other or find books that I’d like to read. I was just wondering today how many black folks we have on this subreddit who love reading fantasy. I feel the fantasy genre in English has white folks comprise the majority of its readership, which of course is not a bad thing, but it does make me curious about coming across others from the black community.
I got hooked when, in fifth grade, I borrowed the Lord of the Rings from a friend. I loved reading books back then, but I had read nothing like it before. Since then I’ve read a whole bunch of fantasy works, though A Song of Ice and Fire and Book of the New Sun are definite standouts. (Edit: Also, China Mieville)
I’d love to know what got you started on the fantasy genre, and what some of your favorite works are.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE my fantasy novels, and believe me I’ve plowed through a lot of the classics, old and new. I don’t mind a super male-dominated plot line like in Tolkien’s universe or Rothfuss’s, but can’t a girl get a novel these days with more than just one of the two fantasy tropes; subservient sidekick or Boobily McBooberson?
I was told Wheel of Time wrote women well, but it just writes OF women well. There’s no feeling to the book as if he’s writing from a perspective I can relate to. Is WoK any better??
I know there are book trilogies that peak at one book and fail at the others; the Hunger Games, the Poppy War, Shadow and Bone. There are some book trilogies that manage to be great from start to finish. For me its the Infernal Devices, the Broken Earth, and the Nevernight Chronicle. Name a fantasy book trilogy perfect from start to finish.
Building off the “worst fathers” post, who are the absolute best fathers in fantasy? I think positive role models are so lovely and healthy to read about, and they can be quite rare.
The first one who comes to mind for me is Michael Carpenter in The Dresden Files.
I’m sorry but I don’t think I’ve ever read a book so freaking absurd. Not a surprise that the book aged like milk cause the hero and heroine (Hank & Dagny) are so freaking great in everything they do, and the rest of the mankind is so dumb and pathetic. The thing is that Hank and Dagny don’t even have a journey of growth which led them to their greatness. They are just born extraordinary, superhuman beings.
But unarguably, the worst thing about this book is that there’s a chapter called Moratorium on Brains, in which a train which is packed with passengers crashes and they all die, and Rand basically goes into detail about each dead passenger’s personal ideology and beliefs and uses their philosophy (which is different from her philosophy of utter selfishness and greed) to justify their death.
Like, that is so f**ked up on so many levels that I don’t even know what to say.
I would say, I would have liked Dagny as a character if she had a …
I’ve seen lots of people on reddit (and similar places like news.ycombinator.com) rave about how much they love the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy (The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End). It’s quite popular here. I too have read it and I loved it. Especially The Dark Forest.
I love how the story is entirely oriented around big ideas, with an engineer-y semi-hard-sci-fi flavor, even if the characters were frankly 2D (Wang Miao) or just plain weird (Luo Ji). Others have issues with the prose or pacing or plot structure. That’s fine, these books aren’t for everyone. I understand that for lots of people, those things are dealbreakers, but not for me.
However, one thing I’ve seen a few times is that it’s “not real hard sci-fi” or “only enjoyable to people who have never read real sci-fi before.” (I get that these explore made-up science but I’m OK with that, I like the grounded feeling of …
I’m looking for something dark and disturbing that will really mess with my head. Some books I’ve read that I’ve really loved are:
Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion - never could get through Endymion though
I have no mouth and I must scream - this is what got me into the rabbit hole of disturbing sci fi
Diamond dogs - Allistair Reynolds
The metamorphosis of prime intellect
Would love any recommendations! The more twisted the better but obviously not just for shock value, it still should tell a great story.
I am reading A Deepness in the Sky for the first time, and when I reached the first chapter on the “spiders” I realized that I had read a short story set in the same world and time period, with the same characters. No emergents or other space-based elements.
This post several years ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/m40k50/a_deepness_in_the_sky_i_think_im_losing_my_mind/
discussed the same, concluding that the OP (an account now deleted) was losing it. In case they still lurk, I just wanted to shout into the void that they are not crazy, or maybe we both are.
Basically what it says on the title. A book or series written/published in the 2020s where biology is the main thing and is well-researched/informed. Bonus if the author is biologist, but doesn’t have to be. Like to have interesting or well-written female characters.
Thank you in advance!
I’m feeling very discontentedly with the world and life lately, and a little angsty, to say the least.
Recently I absolutely adored the Book of the New Sun. 10⁄10, amazing books, I fully intend to reread. I then went on to read Roadside Picnic, which was solid, but left me wanting a bit more. Currently I’m very slowly progressing through Lord of Light, but it hasn’t hooked me yet.
I loved the depth of the world in BotNS and how it keeps the reader guessing and untangling and discovering again and again. I loved the breadth of characters and how they all remained relevant in interesting ways later on. I liked the dark fantasy aspect, as I love Elden Ring/Dark Souls.
However, I’m looking for something a bit more dark and depressing. Not everything needs a good ending, and I’m also looking to embrace the angst and discontent a bit.
Any books come to mind??
I’ve always been a fan of stories about modern people ending up in the future for example Futurama, Bobiverse, Farscape(ish), or that one episode of TNG with the cryogenically frozen people from the 80s. Does anyone know of any other books or series that explores this theme?
The amount of people I’ve seen calling it bad because THEY wouldn’t have done what Rhaenyra or Alicent did is astounding.
They legitimately can’t understand that a character with an entirely different life and relationship to the other characters would have different motivations than they do. Like no empathy at all to see the situation from their side.
“Why wouldn’t Alicent capture Rhaenyra?”
Uhhhh because she just found out she started a war by misunderstanding her dead husband? Pretty obvious?
“Why wouldn’t Alicent have her captured immediately?”
Because she’s shocked her childhood best friend and now rival appeared next to her, and since it’s her childhood best friend would obviously listen to what she had to say first? Did these people grow up with 0 friends?
I know this is probably just going to get downvoted to hell and that’s fine but seriously online discourse about shows these days is so taken over by people with awful media literacy that don’t understand the people …
Most egregious cases where a clearly aged actor plays a teenager
We all know that Hollywood has a tendency to cast older actors in teenage roles. But what’s the most egregious example of this?
(I think the grammar of the title is wrong. Sorry 😞)
I was thinking about this today - what movie(s) have gone from “man this is really good” to “wtf am I watching?” in record time?
Some movies start off really strong and go on for a while, but then, usually halfway through Act 2, the quality of the writing just plummets, and then you’re left with a mess. An example of that would be League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
But has a movie ever gone from good to bad in minutes? Maybe the first Suicide Squad?