Well, after having the book on my “want to read” list for years, I was about 250 pages in when I made the mistake of Googling Marion Zimmer Bradley.

That ends that effort.

What a horrible human being.

*Ladyhawke* is that rare 80s genre movie that you can show anyone – and by anyone I also mean your kids – without wondering why you liked it at the time. No racist, sexist or homophobic material to speak of. Remarkably literate and clever dialogue. A story that feels so much like an adaptation of an old tale that you can’t believe it was written from scratch. Broderick being funny and touching. Hauer being badass and smouldering. Pfeiffer being the goddess she sometimes is. And a marvellously disheveled Leo McKern between *Rumpole* episodes.

I acknowledge that the soundtrack is not for everyone, but I put it to you that the problem with the score is not so much the style of the music as the fact that it’s really quite pedestrian on its own terms. Yes, it’s pretty basic synth-based 80s prog, but that’s what it would be regardless of context. In any case it is not awful enough to detract from my overall enjoyment.

It’s not exactly a thrill a …

I would preface this by saying that I am born and raised Chinese and I do not hate The Poppy War. I have mixed feelings with it, yes. But this is not really a rant or negative review, but more of a question to spark discussion.

So, as you might know, The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang heavily drew inspiration from Chinese culture as well as the Sino-Japanese War. The worldbuilding was so greatly influenced by real world that you can practically call Nikan the ‘fantasy China’ and Mugen ‘fantasy Japan’ and you would barely see the difference if you would just swap the names. (I do, in fact, dislike the way Kuang named the provinces. Imagine coming from the Rat Province? Or the Dog Province? What an awful choice of names.) I have other problems with the book such as the depiction of indigenous Taiwanese people (the Speerlies) but that’s besides the point of this post.

One of the most impactful scenes in the book was the massacre of Golyn Niis, which is basically …

Robert Jordan. IYKYK. For me, the worst offender that has gotten to the point of tearing me out of the story every time I hear it (which is to say, often) is “abruptly.” Help, I don’t want to be like this!

What’s a character who you disliked so much that it actually ruined an otherwise good book for you?

Hello everyone!

So, four years ago I made a post on here ranting about why it’s so hard to find books with well written female protagonists WITHOUT romance. I was a teenager, frustrated, and honest just very sick of every single “tough badass girl” character being derailed by a love interest halfway through the plot.

Well I’m older now! I’ve read a LOT more books, written a few of my own, and I thought it would be fun to revisit that post and reflect on how I feel now.

Here’s what hasn’t changed:

• I still think romance is way too overused, especially in YA and fantasy books with female leads

• I still cringe when a girls whole arc gets hijacked by some guy who literally wasnt even necessary to the plot

• And I still want stories where women are allowed to be ambitious, complex, and even morally gray without being softened or “redeemed” by a romantic subplot

But here’s what I’ve realized:

A lot of these female characters aren’t written for women. They’re written under the male …

I’m a huge RF kuang fan. I’m Asian American and I feel like the books she puts out have such a distinct lense that really represents Asian as well as Asian diasporic history, perspectives, and experiences. However, lately I’m seeing a huge uptick in criticism about her that I hadn’t seen before? People seem to gripe that she’s too heavy handed on themes of racism or seems to intellectualize things too much. Im just confused by where there was once a lot of praise for her books, people have suddenly turned a corner to only feel like her writing is not good. What’s going on here?

Put me in the I love it camp.

I had been avoiding it because of the “Vampire” issue and it’s reputation as difficult to read. But I was hooked right away. I typically confine my reading to an hour before bed, but this had me reading in the middle of the night, in the afternoon, whenever I had a moment,I could not put it down.

Loved the unreliable narrator, the divergent humans, even the vampire worked. The incomprehensible alien was cool, not a human in a rubber suit.

Had a funny “meta” moment, didn’t recognize a word, so I clicked on it, in Kindle, to see what it was, go back to the book and turn the page and the protagonist is clicking on the ships computer to look up the word. Thought that was a cool, unintentionally, inclusionary moment.

Look forward to reading it again in a few years.

The title is perhaps a little inaccurate but I wasn’t sure how else to phrase it. But let me give an example: I was a big believer in getting off-planet. Not that I was in a “let Earth burn” mindset or anything, but I was wildly optimistic about becoming multi-planetary and space-faring. Then I read Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson almost a decade ago and that made me really appreciate what the real magnitude of an effort like that would be and made me appreciate Earth so much more. I do still think that humans will advance more and even colonise other planets (Coincidentally, I am actually reading Red Mars by KSR right now and it’s brilliant!) and I am definitely still pro-space exploration but it is a little tempered by the idea that conservation of Earth itself should be the biggest priority of all.

Another similar example is Permutation City by Greg Egan. I used to believe in digital immortality (though not anytime soon I suppose) through mind uploads. I …

What are your favorite SF books of all time? I’m not asking about what you think are the consensus best or the most influential. I’m curious what people’s actual most enjoyed books are. Hopefully I’ll learn about some overlooked books I’ve never heard of.

For my list I’m going to cheat slightly. If I view something as a single concise story that was largely plotted and/or written at once, but was split up for publishing or workload reasons, then I will count that as a single work. As an example, I think The Lord of The Rings fits into that category. However, despite being in the same universe, I don’t include The Hobbit as part of LOTR because 1) the author didn’t intend for The Hobbit to be thought of as a volume of LOTR and 2) the tone is somewhat different.

But please do not feel like you have to use those rules. Apply your own rules and logic as to what is a book/work.

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1) The Book of The New Sun by Gene Wolfe: This is my favorite fiction, of any genre. There really isn’t a …

I’m working my way through the least bit of Gene Wolfe BOTNS, finished Fifth Head Of Cerberus and will read any new sun sequels, just discovered Paul Park, I love Viriconium and The Etched City, so anything with that kind of dreamy strange vibe - Gormenghast was great also. Also love steerswoman series, if that helps. And…City Of Saints and Madmen, and Bas-lag series.

(Sorry, I’m writing this in a rush, I don’t have home internet or any data so I’m “borrowing” some random WiFi to post this.)

Thankyou for any help!

Edit: forgot to mention, just bought Lord Valentine’s castle cause that seems really dreamy and “lost in setting” so hopefully that’s good!

Edit: thanks for all your recommendations! I’ve downloaded this thread for offline reading so I can write down everything and find the books when I can. Cheers

I know it can be a rather cliche Science Fiction trope but I’m really craving a science fiction plot where there is some sort of deeper history or reason for humanity.

Either classic stuff where humanity has been seeded by ancient races, or they’ve had previous forgotten history in space that’s been suppressed etc.

If anyone had any recommendations that would be great thank you!

It’s an actual science question about something that comes up in scifi.

When a writer says something is above or below the ecliptic, what do they mean?