My name is Jim Butcher, the author of the Dresden Files, the Codex Alera, the Cinder Spires, and a Spider-Man book for Marvel!

My latest Dresden book, Twelve Months, comes out this Tuesday! Ask me anything!

****************************************

Okay, my laptop is running out of power and I have a couple of written interviews to get done before I knock off for the day!

Thank you so much for your questions and your time today! I know I couldn’t get to all of them, and if I missed you, I hope you’ll come back for more next time around! For the folks planning on being at my signings, I look forward to seeing you in the next couple of weeks!

Jim

I profoundly dislike stories that take place in deserts or sandy cities for some reason. To the point I actually try to avoid reading any middle eastern-inspired fantasy because I just don’t like the setting. Started reading Deadhouse Gates, the second Malazan book, and man, while I’m liking the characters, the change of continent was not it for me.

Do you have an irk with a particular setting when reading a book?

I just finished re-listening to The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.

This series was recommended to me by a coworker many, many moons ago—back when I was a young(er) man newly released into adulthood, reading novels, and, frankly, an actual moron.

That first book lit the fuse. It sparked a love of fantasy and kicked off an adventure that’s carried me through some truly terrible life lessons alongside moments of absolute, incandescent beauty. Right now, I’m firmly in the former camp, and winter has never really been my favorite liquid in a tea-shaped vessel.

So I went back to my “happy place”—you know, the Adam Sandler-with-a-golf-club kind—where you fend off grief and rage by focusing on something sharp, funny, and alive. For me, that meant returning to Locke.

I’m making this post for two reasons.

First: if you’ve been on the fence about this series, or if it’s been sitting on your list while you tell yourself “soon”—stop.
Stop what you’re doing and read this damn book. Read …

Hey guys,

The fantasy genre seems to have veered pretty hard into action (LitRPGs) and romance (Romantasy). I would say that even popular ‘regular’ fantasy, like Abercrombie or Sanderson, doesn’t have much to really SAY beyond the stories they’re trying to tell. Even when attempted, I think they’re either beating you over the head with it, or offer little nuance and depth.

Now that isn’t necessarily bad. I enjoy a Marvel movie here and there too, but it would be pretty disappointing if all cinema was different flavors of Marvel films. And lately fantasy has been feeling exactly like that to me, and it has become stale.

So I wanted to ask, are there any newer fantasy books that actually explore deep themes, whether psychological, political or philosophical, and do it well? Tolkien did it, Lewis did it, Le Guin did it, Gene Wolfe did it, but I struggle to name any modern authors that have done it at that level.

I’ve not read Robin Hobb or Sun …

I haven’t read any fantasy books with an unattractive female main character. I have read a few with unattractive main male character though(Light bringer, first law).

So I would love some recommendations! It’s fine even if it’s not the main character but at least a somewhat important character. Romance also isn’t necessary, but I would like it. As a below average looking woman I would love to read about female characters who aren’t attractive.

So I recently joined a local bookclub, mainly to chat about books and also get given different genres to try out that I’d never choose normally.

It’s been awesome so far, but the one thing that really stood out was the extreme gender imbalance.

I kinda expected there to be more females than males, but out of 42 current members 40 are female. A 20:1 split is far more extreme than I expected.

Is this normal in general? Or just a local quirk or something? 🙂

The Arkansas Board of Corrections approved the change, which a Department of Corrections spokesperson said takes effect on Feb. 1. Prison officials said the restriction was needed in order to tamp down on contraband being smuggled into prisons.

Critics say such restrictions, however, severely limit access for people in prison to reading materials since the offerings in prison libraries and on prison-issued tablets can be limited or outdated.

The issue of sending books to inmates came up for me once or twice when I was a used book seller. The person wanting to have a book sent to an inmate needed to come to me, the bookseller, to send the book from my store, along with assurances that it didn’t contain contraband.

ETA: wow, thanks to all the contributors here! Searching the phrase “books to prisoners” may be able to get you into contact with a local non profit organization which will likely be up on the latest rules in your state.

In other news, happy 150th …

“I would hate that,” Martin says [of giving up on the series]. “It would feel like a total failure to me. I want to finish.”

He also says that he has about 1,100 pages done and is constantly re-writing; that nobody will finish the books for him if they are unfinished upon his death; and that he is working on Dunk and Egg as well. “There’s supposed to be another Fire and Blood book, too. I do think if I can just get some of these other things off my back, I could finish The Winds of Winter pretty soon. It’s been made clear to me that Winds is the priority, but … I don’t know. Sometimes I’m not in the mood for that… I’m so far behind on everything.”

Largely another check-in on things we already know, as far as ASOIAF is concerned; but people interested in the ongoing shows will find some interesting tidbits.

Very shocking news, can’t believe it.

I’ve read a lot of SciFi books over the years and I’ve of all the modern SciFi (last 30 years) I’d say the first three books of the Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, are the best I’ve read, especially book three. Simply great books. Three great books that do what SciFi should which is push our thinking and imagination.

Thank you to whomever made a comment in 2025 recommending this series to someone else and I happened to catch it. Thank you.

The BookGraph is an interactive network map that is built in real time (almost) using your comments. Contribute by leaving a comment with your top five science fiction books of all time in the correct format and come back in 20-30 minutes to see your place in the interactive map. You can think of the BookGraph as a community preference map, you can use it to look for titles and authors that have been enjoyed by members of the community with similar tastes to yours.

https://bookgraph.shinyapps.io/printSF_all_time_2026_ed/
(if you’re feeling brave you can try out the new features like user clustering and sortable rankings in the unstable version )

Your five votes need to be at the top of your first comment and follow the format “Book Title by Author’s Name”, with each vote on a new line. Only the first 5 lines are read, and only the first comment for each person is checked for votes. That means you’re perfectly able to stick around and comment after you have voted without …

I may have gone a bit overboard with book buying.

After a few big hauls I now own a lot of science fiction mostly stuff from the 1950s through the early 1990s.

I love collecting and I love reading, but at this point I’m basically standing in front of my shelves without an idea where to go from here.

So I’m looking for recommendations from you all. I’m especially interested in niche picks, overlooked gems, or just books you personally love from that era. Hard SF, New Wave, weird stuff, forgotten classics, Soviet SF, space opera i’m open to all.

If there’s a specific book you’re curious about, feel free to ask and I’ll check if I’ve got it. And if people are interested, I can also post shelf pics or photos of specific covers.

EDIT: Sorry I may have been exaggerating, let’s say there are around 5-6000 books I assume. Sorry for maybe giving fales hopes. I will post some pictures later, sadly it’s not that orgnanized yet and the books are all German translations. Most of …

I just finished “Blindsight” by Peter Watts. This seemingly unremarkable passage from “Blindsight” keeps nagging at me. It may actually be incredibly revealing…

“I tried to brake. My stupid useless legs kicked against vacuum, obeying some ancient brain stem override from a time when all monsters were earth-bound, but by the time I remembered to use my trigger finger the lab-hab was already looming before me.”

The central question of the book, “What is consciousness good for?” is never really answered. And the obvious theme is that consciousness is a liability. The more self-aware each actor is, the less agency they have — the less rapidly they can react to situations, the less brainpower they can bring to bear on complex problems.

This passage seems to suggest a more subtle differentiation between the self-aware consciousness (ego/superego) that we humans experience and a less-self-aware form of human consciousness (ego death), …

Hey all, been growing a bit weary of the usual space operatic warfare that permeates a lot of science fiction over the years. You know the type, big space navies battling it out in orbit, flinging autocannons, missiles, lasers and what have you at each other. I’m looking for more imaginative approaches to warfare amongst the stars.

I love our Moon. Just looking at it, my mind is filled with possibilities. I think near-future or (relatively) low-tech books are probably closer to what I am imagining. I am not looking for books that are merely set on the Moon, but rather for stories that interact with it in meaningful ways.

Thanks!

Hey reddit. I’m Sam Raimi. You might know me as the director (and sometimes writer) of The Evil Dead Trilogy, the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man Trilogy, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Drag Me To Hell, Darkman, A Simple Plan, For the Love of the Game, The Gift, and other things. I’ve also produced and/or acted in a few things!

I’m here today to answer your questions.

My new film, SEND HELP, is out in theaters January 30 via 20th Century Studios. It stars Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien. More info:

Synopsis:

Two colleagues become stranded on a deserted island, the only survivors of a plane crash. On the island, they must overcome past grievances and work together to survive, but ultimately, it’s an unsettling, darkly humorous battle of wills and wits to make it out alive. 

SEND HELP is directed by genre-bending visionary Sam Raimi and stars Oscar-nominee Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien. The film is produced by Raimi and Zainab Azizi, …