My name’s Joe and I wrote some books. Yesterday I published the final instalment in my Age of Madness trilogy - The Wisdom of Crowds.
I’m posting now so that people can leave me some questions, or upvote the questions they’d like me to answer, and I have been told to return at 9.30pm BST (4.30pm EST) to begin answering them. On past experience that might take a while, so I’ll start with the top rated and work my way through for an hour or two, then return during the coming days to try and get through some more.
As ever, I reserve the right to lie, dissemble, or avoid the question entirely.
And we have some questions to say the least, so I shall GET GOING….
UPDATE: Midnight right now so I shall stop for the time being, but I’ll stop back in over the next day or two to try and answer some more. Sweet dreams, all…
UPDATE: I’ve answered a load more in the morning, but holy cow there are still a lot more. I’ll try to come back …
Steven Erikson here. Fantasy author, Malazan books, etc. Yeah, I know, I’m signed in as Steve Lundin. That’s the problem with pen-names. I will be here to respond to your questions and comments most of today, with a few breaks thrown in to reassemble my sanity. Anyway, coffee is at hand, I’m almost awake, so let’s get started, shall we? Oh, and please no spoilers regards The God is Not Willing.
For those of you who have had to wait a year for this book I provide a brief note to Book 1, Prince of Fools, so that your memories may be refreshed and I can avoid the exquisite pain of having to have characters tell each other things they already know for your benefit.
Mark Lawrence, The Liar’s Key, page ii
I find it incredibly helpful. I don’t always go straight through to book 2 when I finish book 1. Plus his stated reason is amusing. I don’t notice many authors adding in exposition – usually I’m just a little lost because maybe I forgot who is who and what they were doing.
It’s easy to skip if you don’t need it.
Thoughts?
Just finished a novel for the first time on my own accord. I read the first novel of the Song of Ice and Fire series, Game of Thrones.
I really enjoyed it despite how long it took me to read and I’ve already started the second and I’m already a quarter through.
Just wanted to share and say that I’m glad to be opened to this hobby (activity, I don’t know).
Abbreviating “The Wheel of Time” to TWOT. Looks like it ways twat and I can’t take any of it seriously. WoT works and is recognizable and abbreviations don’t need to retain the articles.
Edit: I made this post in jest. I saw it in a comment earlier today and it made me laugh. I can’t remember the post but think it was a recommendation one and someone recommended it. I see it often enough on Reddit and on other platforms, though WoT is obviously the frequent one. Here is one example on the WoT subreddit I remember giggling at a few months back https://www.reddit.com/r/WoT/comments/o5wdxv/how_to_jump_back_into_twot/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Edit again: Here is the one I saw scrolling through today that made me laugh and prompted this post https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/pkegg8/the_wheel_of_time_plot_problems_and_what_can_i/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
I finished this last night, and whew, what an odyssey this book is.
Andy Weir’s writing style is actually perfectly suited for this kind of storytelling - the stakes are high (like, existentially high), but it never gets overbearingly foreboding or oppressive, and the light and breezy way with which his characters approach situations helps keep the book palatable even in situations where the tension is ramped up.
As far as speculative science fiction goes, I love where PHM goes - in terms of both, answers to questions about our past (where did we come from, why did we develop intelligence, and so on) to our future (will we ever encounter intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, how will we communicate with it, do we have a future off this planet?). As far as pure storytelling goes, it takes some unexpected swerves that lead to some engaging and extremely satisfying payoffs and developments later.
Obviously by definition, this book is substantially less grounded (and …
I’ve read the book multiple times and, while it doesn’t stand out to me as anything exceptionally masterful or brilliant, overall it doesn’t seem like a bad book.
However, it seems to be a running joke/theme in multiple pieces of media (The Good Place is one that comes to mind) that this book in particular is “trashy literature” and poorly written. The Da Vinci Code appears to often find itself the scapegoat for jokes involving “insert popular but badly written book here”.
I’m not here to defend it with my dying breath, just super curious as to what its flaws are since they seem very obvious to everyone else. What makes this book so “bad”?
EDIT: the general consensus seems to be that it’s less that the book itself is flaming garbage and more that it’s average/subpar but somehow managed to gain massive sales and popularity, hence the general disdain for it. I can agree with that sentiment and am thankful that I …
My mom read this to me for the first time when I was about 9 and, as you might imagine, I was a blubbering mess. I read it again at 18, by myself this time, thinking that surely it wasn’t as sad as I remembered. I was shattered. Now, as a parent myself, I just finished reading this to my daughter. I knew what was coming; I was mentally prepared and emotionally fortified…little good it did me. I don’t know if I’m becoming more sentimental as I grow older or if it’s the fact that we have two dogs, but there were times in the final two chapters of this book where I couldn’t see for the tears nor speak from the racking sobs that overcame me. To be honest, hours later I’m still feeling pretty raw. Somehow, this book has gotten stronger for me with age. Has anyone else had a similar experience with this or any other book?
I first read this book when I was in my teenage years. Though I understood the main plot points and the aim of the author, I didn’t really know the implications of the situation of Algernon.
Now, I am a research scientist and I work extensively with mice. I re-read flowers for Algernon after what seemed like an eternity. But this time, the whole thing was in a brand new light to me. I always had a research subject as opposed to an animal approach to mice, but now it hit me differently. I am little more empathetic towards them, more careful and more attentive.
TL;DR - Flowers for Algernon hits different now that I work extensively with mice.
I am referring to a book or series that deals with complicated and deep themes like meaning/philosophy of life, metaphysics, god/religion/theology (without being dismissive), eschatology, existential/ nihilistic dread, man’s search for meaning in the vast emptiness of space, etc… Basically, I am asking about a “Brothers Karamazov” in space. I feel like scifi is one of the best genres to tackle and deal with these complex topics. What have you guys read that falls into these categories?
Edit: Wow! Thanks for all the responses, everyone! I already ordered two books and I am sure I will keep coming back to this great list for more. Please keep them coming!
The point of this is simply to give some love to the truly lesser-known novels that you really enjoyed and wish more people knew about, and the Goodreads threshold is just the best objective way I can think of to measure it. To make it interesting, please include with your recommendation how many Goodreads ratings it has. Bonus points for books with under 500 ratings!
Edit: You guys rock, so many cool suggestions and I haven’t heard of a single one. Just what I was hoping!
John Leavitt’s space opera setting has humanity content with a few star systems. It’s a refreshing idea to me after reading so many works with human expansionism as the goal. Are there any works out there with a similar setup of mankind as a relatively (and happily) small fish in a big pond?
Thanks for your time!
Anyone know of science fiction or fantasy books where values and philosophical and religious ideas are explored, or even just stories where goodness has depth and beauty, and wins in the end? I liked Susan Quinn’s Singularity series, especially the last book, though something with more about nature would be nice too.
Just finished The Neanderthal Parallax and my god, my god. The first book was pretty good, the second book was questionable but ok, the last book hybrids was atrociously bad, maybe the biggest dip I’ve read. The first book was like a solid 8, the second was 6 last was a 1.5.
It is probably the most likely outcome that the quality goes down with more sequels. It makes the franchise that rises in quality all the more extraordinary.