I started Throne of Glass a few weeks ago and DNF’d Queen of Shadows at around 300-400 pages in and this post will explain why (or maybe not. I tend to word vomit while my mind jumps around, so try to stick with me).

Before I start ranting I want to clarify I am an avid—and decently read—fantasy enjoyer. Ive read Erikson, Abercrombie, Nemisin, GRRM, Tolkien, Hobb, Sanderson, Lynch, and many more. My favorite series are Gentleman Bastards, The Ill-Made Knight, and Farseer. I am not saying that I am some higher power when it comes to reviewing fantasy, but I have a really solid base to go off of.

Let’s begin.

Sara Maas writes the first two books in a very simplified, utilitarian prose very similar to Brandon Sanderson. So why does her writing fail where his succeeds?

Structure.

There is no structure in these books. There is no steady build to rising action, because the main plot is constantly being sidelined for a romance plot. This happens in every single book. She does not know …

My god, what an incredible trilogy.

Since forever, ASOIAF has always been my favourite series. It just has everything I absolutely love about fantasy. The multi POVS, the battles, the politics, the characters, the villains etc.

I’ve just finished Ship of Destiny and I’m feeling those highs again, if not more so. I don’t think I’ve read more satisfying character arcs. The people in this series feel like genuine people, with real problems and fears. The growth. The GROWTH. I cannot put into words how good this was.

I really loved Farseer, but this was just even better and I’m legitimately heartbroken that this story has come to an end. I love Fitz, and am excited to follow him again, but there was just something magical about this trilogy in particular, something that I’ve really only felt when I read ASOIAF ages ago.

Just so so good.

I kinda tired of most fantasy books I get having extremely young protagonists. Coming of age stories have it’s merit, but I am not so young myself anymore and I got bored of reading about the adventures of 20-years olds. Can someone recommend me good fantasy books where the main characters are in their 40-ths or 50-ths? Men or women, I don’t care. I’d also really prefer if they actually feel mature and expirienced and don’t act like teenagers in older bodies.

I really like Terry Pratchett books, because he wrote about the characters of all ages extremely well. But the most books that got advertised to me this days feel more like young adult stuff.

I know this isn’t a rare sentiment but VE Schwab’s books often have a great premise then fail to deliver on execution. I first learnt about her during the YA fantasy heydays of Booktube. Someone recommended Vicious as X-Men meets Flat liners. I enjoyed it, especially the rivalry between Eli and Victor. However, there are some choices made that left me scratching my head like Serena’s power not having an off button. After that I tried to read A Darker Shade of Magic and Lila Bird’s not like other girls energy and the plot being all over the place made me DNF it. I tried to read Vengeful and Marcella was another NLOG character. I was also very bored by any plot that didn’t involve Eli and Victor. By that point I realised while I do want to enjoy Schwab’s books, she’s just not for me. Then came 2021. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue took over the zeitgeist. A friend convinced me to read it because they said Addie wasn’t like Schwab’s …

The First Law is obviously one of the most popular recommendations on this subreddit, so I was really excited to start this series.

I don’t think any of the series I’ve read before have been described as “grimdark” other than perhaps ASOIAF, but many fantasy worlds nonetheless feature extraordinary violence and evil. In that sense is partially perhaps that skulls are caved in more often than not, but moreso, our erstwhile protagonists think and behave in very unheroic ways. Of course, Glokta is ostensibly a villain, Ferro is almost feral, and Jezal is obviously flawed, but Logen’s troubled-past-killer-turned-apolitical-wanderer attitude generally actually quite aligns with more optimistic works like Rurouni Kenshin. We do have some small moments that veer darker for sure, such as >!Logen’s crew killing the captured boy soldier!<. The one thing that shocked me in terms of its darkness happened toward the end of the book - >!Major West …

I have been reading Vorkosigan saga since last year - instead of binging through it, I have been reading a book, parking the series and coming back to it after some break, because I wanted to stretch this out. For those who don’t know Vorkosigan saga is the story of Miles Vorkosigan, a man born incredibly weak and very deformed, but makes up for it with his incredible charisma, wit and forward momentum.

The first book, warrior’s apprentice, was one of the most enjoyable sci-fi books I have read, because it is just a non stop fast paced adventure, with Miles being hyper and barreling through any and every obstacle infront of him, like an avalanche gahtering momentum ever step of the way. It is full of action, space ships and fights and what not, and it set the tone for the subsequent books for me.

Now we come to A Civil Campaign. This is like the 7th or 8th book in Miles story. It has no action, no space fights, Miles is not hyper in the slightest. Practically every …

I know everyone and their mother has talked about this but I sincerely feel that we have in the US at least, experienced the death of the third place, and for me no other place is as emblematic as B&N. I still enjoy going there (as I do other bookstores) but unlike in my childhood, bookstores have really lost their magic and I never spend more than an hour in one nowadays. I’m not sure if this is an attempt to compete with places with Amazon, but bookstores now, just like coffee shops, seem incentivized to get you in and out as fast as possible. This doesn’t make any sense since I think the one advantage bookstores offer is a place to physically enjoy books and be in a community of readers.

1. No more comfortable seating. I know B&N employees have explained that this is for hygenic reasons but even small independent bookstores don’t even offer a single place to sit. I’m sorry, but there is nothing relaxing about having to literally stand or crouch to take …

I saw plenty of discussion about the characters and plot of this series, but not really much at all about how it’s written. Does it get any better?

Let me first preface this: I’m a snob. I can’t help it. Whenever I develop an interest, I devour whatever the snobbiest, most pretentious stuff available even if the hobby doesn’t typically lend itself to snobbery. Pro wrestling, comic books, sci-fi, sitcoms, etc. I’ve been savoring Gene Wolfe’s Solar Cycle over the course of several years because I don’t want it to be done. Even a snob like myself sometimes gets a craving for pablum, if only to pad out my enjoyment of the good stuff. I’m in the middle of Long Sun right now and want to let it sit and read something light during my break. Dungeon Crawler Carl caught my eye mostly by being on the recommended shelf at a bookstore but also because I’ve never read or even really heard of LitRPG.

I’m about 75 pages in. I went in …

The first time the Shrike appears in Hyperion it does almost nothing. It’s just there with four arms, blades where fingers should be, eyes like blood rubies, moving in ways that don’t connect between moments without explanation and motivation you can parse, it just exists and people die and that’s all you get and it works completely.

The Shrike in the first book is terrifying because Simmons commits to never letting you understand it and it doesn’t want anything you can name. It doesn’t communicate. It doesn’t have a plan you can follow. The Tree of Thorns exists and people are on it and the Shrike puts them there and the why is just absent. Your brain keeps reaching for a framework and finding nothing and that nothing is where the horror lives.

But then Fall of Hyperion starts explaining things. The Shrike has an origin and a purpose. It’s connected to the TechnoCore in ways that make structural sense within the plot and with every …

I grew up watching and loving films like The Matrix. It was so original to my eyes (and obviously so exciting). Being a computer scientist just enhanced my experience of watching that film later on. The world we live in today is no different - agents everywhere, controlled by AI, devolving human minds day by day. Neuromancer set out to portray today’s world 40 years ago. The main characters had selfish motivations, all driven by AI’s commands and barely got of the trap. And this choice of living in illusion (artificial construct) vs reality was even shown in Inception too (with Cobb and his wife). Great minds do think alike (or are probably inspired by each other).

I know some people don’t rate this book very highly now (Don’t want to imagine what people will think of The Matrix in a few decades time), but imagine writing this in early 80s with just some shards of tech at your disposal and nothing but visions of the future and power of your writing. Salute to …

I got it for £3 - you’ve gotta love a bargain. I’ve read a handful of these stories before in other collections but damn I couldn’t resist this quality roster.

Who are some of your favourites featured here? Any stories in particular that catch your eye or that you’ve previously enjoyed and found memorable?

I am very much looking forward to jumping in.

Over the past few months, I’ve seen recommendations for this book practically everywhere, it’s like the Baader phenomenon, and I want to share my thoughts specifically on the first hundred pages, because I almost put it down twice, and it seems to me that no one warns you about that

The opening is just a lot and I don’t mean that in a bad way now but at the time I was genuinely confused about what kind of book I was even reading, like there are these children on a medieval planet with dog creatures and then there’s this whole galactic usenet thing and then there’s cosmic horror that apparently threatens all higher intelligence in the universe and I kept waiting for these threads to connect in a way that felt earned and for the first chunk of the book they just kind of don’t and I remeber texting a friend who recommended it like “is this actually going somewhere” and he just said “keep reading” which is the most annoying thing you can say …