EDIT: Please stop sending me antagonistic DMs. If you have something to say, you can say it here where everyone can see you. I’ve had to block several people already. Grow up.
A female character is a character that is female. The “character” part should be more important than the “female” descriptor in regards to their place in the fictional story. If an author is consistently writing them with a sexist lens or a shallow manner, or not making the effort to create nuanced female characters on the same level of the males, then maybe we should stop saying “they don’t write female characters well” as a minor criticism but rather “this author doesn’t write characters well” as a major criticism, because after all, the female characters… are characters, just like the males. They are people the author created, people inhabiting the story. Females are 50% of the human race and if an author is consistently choosing to …
Dark is Netflix’s first original German series and a masterpiece in almost every respect. The plotting is incredibly tight and masterfully done in this dark sci-fi show, the characters are all fully realized and impeccably cast, and the music and atmosphere are just sublime.
Going into as few spoilers as possible, the series kicks off when a series of missing children cases in the small German town of Winden in 2019 starts to unravel a huge web of intrigue, lies, deceit, and secrets. There’s a ton of characters but all of them matter and connect in ways you wouldn’t even expect while remaining consistent until the end, all without having twist upon twist thrown at you just for the sake of twists. >!And it’s legitimately the best plotted story about time travel that I’ve ever had the pleasure to experience, with every character across the many times cast so well that you would have sworn they were played by the exact same actors at different points in …
Sony Pictures has acquired screen rights to N.K. Jemisin’s multi-award-winning Broken Earth trilogy after a fierce bidding war. Sony paid seven figures for the rights to the three books and will apparently be adapting them as a movie series, to be distributed by subsidiary TriStar Pictures (TriStar has not worked in television, yet). Jemisin will adapt the novels herself.
Each of the three books in the series - *The Fifth Season* (2015), *The Obelisk Gate* (2016) and *The Stone Sky* (2017) - won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, making Jemisin the first author to win Best Novel for three years in a row and for every instalment of a series.
The trilogy has sold over a million copies to date and propelled Jemisin to new levels of fame and success.
My wife and I have recently made a deal with each other. We would each read the other’s favorite series so that we could discuss and share about them. This means I’m reading A Court of Thorns and Roses and she’s reading Mistborn.
Since we’ve done this and have been discussing it with others, there have been tons of “those books are for women” type comments towards me. My wife’s mother even said “you’re going to turn him into a girl” to her (side note, the hilarity of that statement is still amusing both of us) and that she shouldn’t be “making me” read a “girl’s book”.
While I don’t think I’m really the target audience for ACOTAR, I still think it’s a good story with some cool elements and I’ve stayed up way too late reading them a few nights. I also like being able to enjoy something that my wife loves so much. I just find it so funny and a bit strange that people …
Kate Elliott is, in my opinion, one of the most criminally underappreciated writers in SFF. Black Wolves probably ranks in my Top 5 Favorite Epic Fantasies of the 2010s, and I’ve been reading Crown of Stars (partly to console myself after Black Wolves’ sequel was axed) with the utmost pleasure. Even The Spiritwalker Trilogy, while I had some issues with the romantic plot (>!no woman should ever live Happily Ever After with a man who has tried to murder her!<), is among my favorites.
But I believe that of all I’ve read of her work, the one I admire most is an essay entitled “Writing Women Characters as Human Beings”: https://www.tor.com/2015/03/04/writing-women-characters-as-human-beings/
While the essay makes quite a few strong points, the one I can’t get out of my head, as one of the most practical pieces of advice that too many people consistently fail to follow, is, “Get rid of … the idea of an unknowable Other with a …
I’m sure this has been discussed before, but I have to get it off my chest. I am reading through the Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series for the first time (I’ve read the first one before, but I never followed through with the whole series), and I am finding it very difficult to read at times because of the “smaller” technology Asimov describes. When I read things like the characters still using some kind of film or generally using tech that is not “digital” in nature, I start having thoughts of disappointment that the author didn’t have more foresight into what technology would be today. I know that’s not fair, but the feeling is there nonetheless.
I am a big Dune fan, and there was a time that I didn’t have that issue with Herbert. That’s because I started reading his novels a lot earlier before some of the more modern digital tech was invented. But as I have reread the Dune series recently, I find myself more bothered …
Goodreads feels so old & outdated & like it has not been updated in years imo. The reviews are so biased sometimes & I can NOT stand the stupid use of gifs in them. I basically just use it to track what ive read & what i want to read. It sucks because Ive used it for so long & i dont know of any other sites like it. What are your thoughts on goodreads & do you have any recommendations for better book sites to log reading/do bookish things?
For me this has happened with Steinbeck. Years ago I read The Grapes of Wrath, the Pearl, and The Old Man and the Sea, and loved them.
Recently I read East of Eden and now finishing Of Mice and Men, with both leaving me disappointed.
Somehow I know that it’s not Steinbeck, it’s me of course. Usually when I don’t get or appreciate a book that by all rightsI think I should, I’ll go back and reread it at some point. That may happen here.
But it’s annoying when we find that what we once saw as profound or significant seems to vanish. At first I thought maybe I’d somehow grown beyond Steinbeck. Now it feels more like I’ve turned a corner where I shouldn’t have.
Can anyone else relate?
Edit: Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea. My mistake.
I was talking with my in laws yesterday and my fil was telling me about his mother. She was an avid reader, and would buy books constantly, mostly on discount or at yard sales because she was frugal. And then he told me something so shocking I still haven’t recovered; instead of using bookmarks, she would rip out the page she was on. I’ve never heard of anybody doing something so crazy like that! I had to share because I can’t stop thinking about it 🥲
This is the second Pratchett book I’ve read (the first being The Color of Magic) and I am absolutely in love. The humor is playful without being really crude or overly reductive and the characters are astounding. The entire watch is such a lovable gaggle of misfits with Carrot (easily my favorite) to add a wonderful contrary flavor. I’m going to be reading more of Pratchett, but if anyone like me held off reading his works for whatever reason I implore you to get started reading immediately!
I like Pump Six by Paolo Bacigalupi, where the infrastructure was built so well that it outlives the intelligence required to repair it.
Damn. She is just very good at what she does. There doesn’t seem to be an extra word in the entire book. It’s just so succinct and honest. What an excellent book.
I liked the story. It was clearly an homage to Dick and his shifting realties. She even worked some figurines in there! (he seems to be infatuated with figurines IMHO, and objects in general in his work)
Anyway, I really liked it, and i really like her writing style. I was not a fan of the dispossessed, but i really enjoyed this and the left hand of darkness. I guess i need to move on to her other works.
Maybe I’ll re-read the dispossessed. I was 19 when i read it and thought it overly political Maybe i was the overly political one and should try again.
TLDR: Concept A+; Execution B-; Science, B+; Social Science, F. Some ideas how it could be better at the bottom.
If you enjoyed the book, my point isn’t to make you enjoy it less. I don’t actually know what my point is, in all candor. I’ve seen this book recommended a bunch and decided to check it out. I think I’ve read one or two of his other novels, can’t remember which. After finishing Aurora, I read several threads on it before I posted, just to see if my issues were already covered. First some things I liked:
-I’m 100% on board for the ‘we only get one planet’ ethos.
-I liked Ship as the narrator. If the story had ended with Ship, I think it would have been about 50% better. But still, tragically, not workable for reasons below.
-The space sciencey-stuff. I have no special expertise to assess his science – orbital mechanics, spaceship technology, that sort of thing. But it seemed solid and plausible.
-He points out the …
Can anyone please recommend me a novel/short-stories collection that blends sci-fi and folklore/fairytale. Something like Ken Liu’s Good Hunting or Xia Jia’s A hundred Ghost parade.
I’ve realised I really like AI characters, I don’t really know why. Perhaps you can suggest why if I name my favourites? 1. Ship from Aurora (Kim Stanley Robinson) is someone (thing) I miss, I think I would have got on well with it. 2. Hub from Look to Windward (Iain M. Banks) from the Culture (I suspect Culture suggestions will swamp this thread if it picks up), who again feels someone you could have a fun night on the beer while talking to about deep stuff and 3. maybe Robot from Bright Morning Star (Simon Morden) as a recent one. I’m sure I’ll think of more soon. So… suggestions?
Edit: As soon as I post I think of ‘Justice of Toren’ from Ancillary series (Anne Leckie) who I miss and I hope is happy wherever it is.
Edit: May be interesting to state why you like an AI character too
In every single movie of series, there is a horrible ratio between action scene volume and conversation volume. Everytime, I need to up the volume so I can at least understand what’s being said in a convesation before being blasted away by a sudden action scene, forcing me to quickly lower it again. Am the only one struggling with this?