Whether or not you enjoy books like ACOTAR, banning them state-wide is not the answer.
Questions to historians and everyone who has spent significant time studying history: what elements from Medieval Europe are rarely represented well in fantasy works? Anything from warfare, social culture, religion, royal courts and more.
While fantasy doesn’t have to line up with reality, I feel that fantasy writers often base their ideas off assumptions on how pre-modern societies worked through pop-culture osmosis and the common sense “everyone knows things were like that back then”. Things like projecting victorian and modern-day gender roles onto pseudo-medieval settings and exaggerating how bad it was for women bother me especially.
Studying real history can only improve your worldbuilding. There is a lot of interesting ideas you can draw from learning about cultural exchange, social attitudes and forms of government from real pre-modern cultures.
I’m really looking for a series that I could spend hours trawling through it’s Wiki after finishing the series as I did as soon as I was done with LOTR and ASOIAF; I’m semi-convinced that the one’s already listed are the only ones that offer such a scope in worldbuilding and lore. Nothing else feels as complete, consistent and meticulous.
I often hear people here describing books that I have read as having bad prose and I just never pick up on that when reading these books. I have never read a book and thought it had bad prose. I am not saying that I dont see a difference between the prose in books, I do notice that some are more artful or flowery or uncenventional etc in comparison to simpler ones but I have never read a book and disliked the prose because it was bad. I have disliked what others described as good prose though due to it being too much mental effort to read it.
I love a good magic system, so now I’m wondering what some unique ones around the world of fiction are. Pls give the series and a general overview. Feel free to go into excruciating detail if you please!
Regardless of the quality the content (or if you’ve even read it), what is the best title for a book you’ve ever seen? Optional: explain why.
Mine is “The Son of Summer Stars” - the book was published in the late ‘90s, so long before the current trend of star-related titles in YA fantasy/sci-fi, so it struck me as unique and evocative at the time. It was the third in a trilogy, and I read the entire trilogy just to see why it was titled that way (funny enough, the other two were far superior story-wise).
I am at Chapter 13. I cannot take it anymore, I need to write this out, and hope someone will agree. Freaking god the writing. Hacking is written in the most sweat, edgy, Hollywood smelling way. Ugh. Both Zade and Daya just whip out their device, use the IP address, type some more, and boom the government’s secrets are out and the dark web is right there. For heaven’s sake, if the writer wanted to make it such a reoccuring theme, they could have at least done some research! This is like having a doctor protagonist, and then writing it off every time like “he did some sewing and sterilizing and then the patient was all healed”. Also Daya and Addie in general are so cringe. They talk and behave like 8th graders. At one point of the book I actually laughed and thought “how is Adeline not a kid?” because it is so damned childish. Calling each other “b!tch” and “baby” then laughing at it. The joke about how Daya said “d!ck …
Can pick and choose any popular fantasy or non popular fantasy. Song of Ice and Fire? They go 7000+ years. Lord of the rings, thousands of years.
It seems very common to have a medieval setting that never advances even though they should.
It always feels weird to hear people talk about things literal thousands of years ago..and its the same exact kind of setting as the current day..never changing.
Why is this so popular.
I am struggling to find something to dig my teeth into lately and wondering what great books or series I may have missed.
As we all know, recommending to read “Blindsight” here is so common it is a shared joke. Personally, having skimmed some spoiler-free summaries I was very put off by the frequent mention of “vampires”. It made me think it would be something silly like “Twilight” or something.
But comments about its thought-provoking questions about consciousness broke me down, and I just read it. It is indeed a great read, and very thought-provoking. And no, the vampires weren’t a silly plot point.
It truly is one of the best “First Contact” books I’ve read and one of the best studies of “the alien”. Thanks to all who keep recommending it.
Like it says on the tin, I’d like if you good people could suggest me some space operas that aren’t the ones everybody suggests. So no:
• Dune • Foundation/Empire • Expanse • Culture • Hyperion Cantos • Star Wars • Star Trek • 40K
Show me what you’ve got. Thanks!
EDIT: Wow, y’all really came in with guns blazing
Any good series or books ? or at least by an not transfobic author.
I recently had a surgery done and have plenty of time on my hands. So I decided to pick up the Expanse. I had read the first book Leviathan Wakes last year and while I enjoyed it, I wasn’t much in awe of it either and boy was I wrong to put it off. After devouring the second book Caliban’s War within 3 days, I am currently on the third book Abaddon’s gate and I just can’t stop. So if anyone had been sitting on it like me or has been thinking about starting it, please do yourself a favour and do it. It’s mind-blowing. If there are any other sci-fi series in the same vein, I would love to hear some recommendations.
P.S. If you love Mass Effect games, the Expanse absolutely takes care of that itch.
I was just reminiscing on some older comedies and realized one of my favorite comedians hasn’t been around for a while. So I did a quick google search and found out my boy took a (5 year??) and managed to keep it quiet.
This dude reminded me of my love for the Muppets when I forgot it existed, just wanted to share this with his other fans.
https://variety.com/2023/tv/features/jason-segel-shrinking-career-himym-1235632336/
(I know the article is a year old but he had some insightful thoughts about acting and writing some cinephiles might enjoy).
Jason Segel appreciation thread?
Edit: I am not from Jason Segel’s rep agency and apparently I got my years wrong for his inactive time as an actor.