Fantasy/Sci-fi Book recommendations revisited

1teaminlondon said:
I just finished Artemis, into the water, and my absolute darling

Each one lies a top goodreads genre rankings from last year

Artemis was a fun read but ultimately forgettable. Kinda feels like a YA book looking back at it (from the guy who wrote the Martian)

I thought into the water and my absolute darling were incredible tho. The writing of into the water was so swift and absorbing, the central mystery and characters played off each other as good as anything I've read or seen. Felt like it had no fat, no line or action wasted

My absolute darling blew me away. The central character dynamic was captivating to the extreme, and I've never read writing that was so dense (had to go back on a section 2-3 times more than i could count) that still flowed so well and was so evocative

I totally disagree that u need to find a niche to write. I mean sure if you're trying to pay the bills that would make sense, but good writing, good story, good characters trumps all
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OK - so I'm not sure if u are trolling here.

I read the books.

Into the Water - not bad. But hold on, It features the murder of a 14 yr old girl drowned as a witch b/c she was fucking a 30 odd yr old dude. OK, I can get past some old witch trials. Then the main plot involves a 30 yr old teacher fucking his 15 yr old student hmmmmm.
Still - not too bad overall 3/5 stars

Then I get started on My Absolute Darling......

The first few pages seem to struggle to describe everything in raw detail & it feels a bit try hard, it's tough going but nevertheless I persist.
Within 25 pages there is a 14 yr old girl being fucked by her father (which appears to be a regular thing) ....WTF? This shit is really quite disturbing, I'll stick with it b/c good books are supposed to challenge people but when it goes into detail about it, that seems a bridge too far to me.(and I'm running low on fapping material)

Why am I not surprised this sort of shit comes recommended by TW?
I'm still not sure if I was just snared in an elaborate literary troll.
 
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i mentioned the writing in absolute darling is dense, but the book (and turtle) absolutely captivated me. i could not stop rooting for the protagonist and waiting for the payoff/resolution to her drama. the way she processes her trauma, the dynamic between her family, how she navigates her world, i loved it. the book is intense. there is a particular section where i had to physically put the shit down and stop reading like one page at a time. for me that's what makes the book so amazing, not only the way it navigates that intensity but how it plays off it with sections of light, of wonder, of humanity. it's not torture porn or watch the virtuous peasants get stomped infinitely like i see in so many stories. it's extreme light and extreme dark captured through a truly fucked up & distorted prism of intense love

the teacher/student thing from into the water was a sub-plot at best, and was maybe 5-10% of the entire story.

and for reference, since february i've read (in addition to those 3) -

martian chronicles
tokyo ghost (comic)
little fires everywhere
pachinko
my documents
the art of not giving a fuck
the immortalists
 
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The last one reads like Vacuum Diagrams, but I really enjoyed it, maybe more so than the first one. I also slogged through the second one.
 
dotting thread for reference. I audio-book on my commute. Have so far gone through Discworld, Wheel of Time (which I never finihed actually reading), and Feist's books (ditto, never finished them).

Feel like I should check out Lovecraft's stuff to get the proper version of it all.. any 'classics' out there though that I really have to get hold of though?
 
MC Hamster said:
dotting thread for reference. I audio-book on my commute. Have so far gone through Discworld, Wheel of Time (which I never finihed actually reading), and Feist's books (ditto, never finished them).

Feel like I should check out Lovecraft's stuff to get the proper version of it all.. any 'classics' out there though that I really have to get hold of though?
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Check out the 2 videos i posted above. the video mentions numerous of the old scifi books that started the whole thing. Most of the books, i have never read and i feel kind of like left out for not reading them.

In the 2nd video, he talks about how politics (jewish communists but he doesn't mention them being jewish) moved into the scifi realm and began to corner the market for what was and what wasn't considered/published scifi.

I read a great article yesterday about the self-publishing craze that happened a few years ago. 2018 Book Industry Predictions: Are Indie Authors Losing their Independence? Its a long article but very important, at least for me because i have discovered so many really good unknown, self-published scifi writers since 08 and now with Kindle Unlimited, many, if not most of these writers, are not making enough money to keep writing.

I am glad i canceled my kindle unlimited subscription about 6 months ago. I would rather buy books from these unknown writers and give them what they deserve, rather than give more to Amazon.
 
Tic said:
The 50 Best Fantasy Books of the 21st Century (So Far) :: Books :: Lists :: fantasy books :: Page 1 :: Paste

Have read some, but not most of these books...

Not sure if they are in any particular rank, but #1 is a fucking great series.
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this list seems off. I havent seen like 90% of these books in the bookstore and mistborn is in the top 10. They list brent weeks assassin creed rip off book as #20 yet nothing of his books where he actually comes up with something original ..

Ive never heard of book #1 but it sounds interesting, ill check it out.
 
christ dude if you haven't read name of the wind you need to read it. now.
2nd book is a bit of a letdown in what is supposed to be a "trilogy" as there is little plot advancement.
take note: author is a neckbeard, overweight faggot that is now developing a tv show or someshit and will probably never finish the series
 
Ixiterra said:
christ dude if you haven't read name of the wind you need to read it. now.
2nd book is a bit of a letdown in what is supposed to be a "trilogy" as there is little plot advancement.
take note: author is a neckbeard, overweight faggot that is now developing a tv show or someshit and will probably never finish the series
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Indeed. Name of the Wind is fantastic.

I am on the Sanderson series now, which is also quite good, if not excellent.
 
I'm reading "The Shadow of the Wind" right now, not scifi/fantasy but vey captivating. Actually a little bit fantasy, it's got some spooky overtones.

Also I must congratulate TW on a perfect score of kiddy diddling tales.

After reading "Into the Water" and "My Absolute Darling" I then read "The Nix" which was recommended in this or another thread. It also contains content relating to 11 yr old boys being abused by a teacher and having sex with each other. WTF TW? GG

That aside, The Nix is a great read.
 
if you liked the Malazan Book of the Fallen series (and associated books within the setting) then you may be interested in the series that basically inspired the military elements > Glen Cook's The Black Company. It's not top tier but it is entertaining. I liked Cook's other series too, Dread Empire and Instrumentalities of the Night. And if you haven't read Malazan, do it. It's great.

As far as that list goes I guess I am missing out on things. I would have thought that at least one of Scott R Bakker's Second Apocalypse books would have been on it, too.
 
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