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Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books You Enjoy?

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Wahlquistj
(@wahlquistj)
Posts: 67
Bronze Star Member
 

Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are my favorite story-crafters. Pratchett holds a mirror to human nature, Gaiman holds a mirror to human souls.

I highly recommend Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo as an illustration of a complex story done right.

Everyone knows Brandon Sanderson is the master of magic systems, but his ensemble development is also on point.

Mary Robinette Kowal doesn’t shy away from relatable, wholesome characters and does a delightful job gilding a romantic world with a hint of magic.

V33- SF
V38- SHM, HM
V39- HM,R
V40- Q3 pending

 
Posted : August 2, 2022 12:50 am
James (Ease), Writhmic, storysinger and 1 people reacted
James (Ease)
(@ease)
Posts: 469
Gold Star Member
 

I really enjoyed Nevernight by Jay Kristoff - it's always neat to have a little girl murderer as the MC. I'm also looking forward to reading Gideon the Ninth. I normally consume my fiction via audiobook because I drive a lot, but the narrator for Gideon just isn't doing it for me.

VOL 40 2nd Quarter: Third Place ("Ashes to Ashes, Blood to Carbonfiber")
Past submissions: R - HM - HM - HM - HM - HM - SHM - SHM
www.jd-writes.com

 
Posted : September 20, 2022 10:59 am
Writhmic
(@writhmic)
Posts: 95
Silver Member
 

I agree, Nevernight was a pretty good book. I particularly enjoyed the first book over the later ones, though.

I really loved Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber, though. The world-building was just so well done Inlove  

V39: -- / SHM / SHM / RWC
V40: HM / SHM / SHM / SHM
V41: P / WIP / -- / --

 
Posted : September 20, 2022 1:22 pm
James (Ease)
(@ease)
Posts: 469
Gold Star Member
 

I'm currently listening to Neuromancer. It is brilliant, but peaks in its first line (The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”). There are some spots afterward that echo the first line's brilliance, and I understand a novel couldn't maintain that ... not sure about the right term, 'good purpleness'? ... without being an epic poem, but just a comment I had. I also think it'd be better read than listened to, as there's quite a lot of fictional terms and names in there that would be more easily comprehended (at least for me) if I had seen them spelled out.

It is wonderful though, and I'm not surprised that my last story ended up with a cyberpunk setting.

VOL 40 2nd Quarter: Third Place ("Ashes to Ashes, Blood to Carbonfiber")
Past submissions: R - HM - HM - HM - HM - HM - SHM - SHM
www.jd-writes.com

 
Posted : November 3, 2022 5:09 am
(@aivanther)
Posts: 37
Bronze Star Member
 

I just finished Thud! by Terry Pratchett.  Commander Vimes is probably my favorite character.  He's a deeply flawed man, with his strong prejudices, but he's going to see that justice is done, no matter if it he hs to swallow his prejudices, damn it!  Also I think it's the only time I had tears in my eye at a fictional character reading a preschool book.

 

I also finished up Spellbound by Larry Correia (simlutaneous reading with above).  Man, I think this Grimnoir series is his best work I've read so far, and it's my first time reading a "Dieselpunk" setting.  You can tell he's done some real deep research on the time period, as he references and/or works in real people, and it seems to be thoughtfully done in altering their character to fit the 1930s with magic.

Vol 37 Q4-SHM
Vol 38 Q1-HM Q2-DNP Q3-DNP Q4-HM
Vol 39 Q1-HM Q2-HM Q3- DNP Q4- HM
Vol 40 Q1- DNP Q2- HM Q3- Subbed

 
Posted : November 7, 2022 12:17 pm
(@aivanther)
Posts: 37
Bronze Star Member
 
Posted by: @ease

I also think it'd be better read than listened to, as there's quite a lot of fictional terms and names in there that would be more easily comprehended (at least for me) if I had seen them spelled out.

It is wonderful though, and I'm not surprised that my last story ended up with a cyberpunk setting.

I agree, I listened to it a few years ago and felt like I missed some of the flavor of things by the audio. 

 

That said, I also agree it was wonderful.  It also cool to see how it set up so much of what we now think of as standard cyberpunk fair.

Vol 37 Q4-SHM
Vol 38 Q1-HM Q2-DNP Q3-DNP Q4-HM
Vol 39 Q1-HM Q2-HM Q3- DNP Q4- HM
Vol 40 Q1- DNP Q2- HM Q3- Subbed

 
Posted : November 7, 2022 12:19 pm
James (Ease) reacted
Spencer_S
(@spencer_s)
Posts: 153
Silver Member
 

My favorite books over the last few years have been Brian McClellan's Powder Mage series, both the original three and the latest trilogy. I love flintlock fantasy. My all-time favorite was the Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks - what a ride that one was! Currently getting back into Brandon Sanderson's work.

“Stories are the collective wisdom of everyone who has ever lived. Your job as a storyteller is not simply to entertain. Nor is it to be noticed for the way your turn a phrase. You have a very important job—one of the most important. Your job is to let people know that everyone shares their feelings—and that these feelings bind us. Your job is a healing art, and like all healers, you have a responsibility. Let people know they are not alone. You must make people understand that we are all the same.”
Brian McDonald
2022: Second Place Winner V39 Q1
2021: HM, HM, SHM
2020: R
2019: SHM, R
2018: HM
2017: HM

 
Posted : November 24, 2022 9:04 am
(@ellisael)
Posts: 32
Advanced Member
 

I really really enjoyed reading sci fi more when i was not trying to write them too. But my fave just has always remained Octavia Butler. Her very conceptualization of what sci fi means still gets me! I would suggest you begin, if you  haven't read her before, with Parable of the Sower

 
Posted : February 27, 2023 7:38 am
(@ellisael)
Posts: 32
Advanced Member
 

I really really enjoyed reading sci fi more when i was not trying to write them too. But my fave just has always remained Octavia Butler. Her very conceptualization of what sci fi means still gets me! I would suggest you begin, if you  haven't read her before, with Parable of the Sower

 
Posted : February 27, 2023 7:38 am
MountainSpud reacted
MountainSpud
(@jeschleicher)
Posts: 304
Silver Star Member
 

Posted by: @ellisael

my fave just has always remained Octavia Butler. 

Hear, hear! Her Parable books are masterful. & Blood Child, my goodness, she must have dropped the mic after writing that short story. Should have at least. 

 

V40: Q1 3rd Place Winner
V39: SHM, HM, HM, HM
V38: HM, SHM, HM, HM
V37: R, R, HM, HM
V36: R

 
Posted : February 27, 2023 1:40 pm
James (Ease)
(@ease)
Posts: 469
Gold Star Member
 

Posted by: @spencer_s

 My all-time favorite was the Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks - what a ride that one was! 

I freaking loved that trilogy! Would definitely be my favorite if not for Robin Hobb and David Farland.

I was incredibly disappointed by Brent's newer series. It was great, but nothing compared to the Night Angel trilogy.

 

Octavia Butler

I took Wild Seed out at the library at the same time as half a dozen other books, and it got recalled before I'd got more than a dozen pages in.  smash  

Need to try again soon!

 

VOL 40 2nd Quarter: Third Place ("Ashes to Ashes, Blood to Carbonfiber")
Past submissions: R - HM - HM - HM - HM - HM - SHM - SHM
www.jd-writes.com

 
Posted : February 27, 2023 3:00 pm
Spencer_S reacted
Spencer_S
(@spencer_s)
Posts: 153
Silver Member
 

@ease I felt the same way about Weeks's next series. After reading the Night Angel, I was hyped for his new books, so I bought all of the hardcovers and abstained from reading any of them until I had most of them gathered. But when I read the first few chapters of the first book, I was extremely disappointed. I had trouble believing it was the same author at first. It just felt wrong. Did you finish the series? Does it get better? Because I absolutely hated the protagonist and had no sense of emotional investment in any of the characters. I'll give it another shot eventually, but I'm reading Sanderson's books, and he has never disappointed me. Either way, Weeks did an amazing job with the Night Angel trilogy, so it set a very high bar. I hear he's writing a new sequel for it actually, so hopefully that one does it justice.

“Stories are the collective wisdom of everyone who has ever lived. Your job as a storyteller is not simply to entertain. Nor is it to be noticed for the way your turn a phrase. You have a very important job—one of the most important. Your job is to let people know that everyone shares their feelings—and that these feelings bind us. Your job is a healing art, and like all healers, you have a responsibility. Let people know they are not alone. You must make people understand that we are all the same.”
Brian McDonald
2022: Second Place Winner V39 Q1
2021: HM, HM, SHM
2020: R
2019: SHM, R
2018: HM
2017: HM

 
Posted : February 28, 2023 10:20 am
James (Ease) reacted
MountainSpud
(@jeschleicher)
Posts: 304
Silver Star Member
 

Posted by: @ease

I took Wild Seed out at the library at the same time as half a dozen other books, and it got recalled before I'd got more than a dozen pages in.   

Need to try again soon!

 

& you won't be disappointed. & Orson Scott Card agrees, or so I suspect as he uses Wild Seed as an example on how to masterfully start a novel in one of his books on craft. 

 

V40: Q1 3rd Place Winner
V39: SHM, HM, HM, HM
V38: HM, SHM, HM, HM
V37: R, R, HM, HM
V36: R

 
Posted : February 28, 2023 12:43 pm
James (Ease)
(@ease)
Posts: 469
Gold Star Member
 

@spencer_s - I think I read the first two books, and it did slowly get better, but not enough that I'll read it before a long list of other to-read books. I also heard he was returning to the world of the Night Angel. I'm looking forward to it, but with some reservation. I'm considering this is lesson to myself about maintaining quality between books/stories!

Posted by: @jeschleicher

 & you won't be disappointed. & Orson Scott Card agrees, or so I suspect as he uses Wild Seed as an example on how to masterfully start a novel in one of his books on craft. 

 

That's exactly why I picked that particular novel! Characters and Viewpoint (or was it How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, whichever) is great!

 

VOL 40 2nd Quarter: Third Place ("Ashes to Ashes, Blood to Carbonfiber")
Past submissions: R - HM - HM - HM - HM - HM - SHM - SHM
www.jd-writes.com

 
Posted : March 1, 2023 4:12 am
(@demiusbroth)
Posts: 2
New Member
 

Posted by: @markwilx

An unusual book I stumbled across that I really enjoyed is, "The Carpet Makers," by Andreas Eschbach.  He's a German author, and this book was translated to English.  It is not a very long read, and I found it to be very clever.  It is a collection of vignettes across a galactic empire, which are seeming unrelated.  When you get to the end of the book, you see how they are all tied together.  It is one I've really remembered.

I like stores told as collections of vignettes over a long span of time.  Usually great things happen over years, woven in a complex story of interrelated events, not in an afternoon (as seemingly "Star Wars, A New Hope" does).  I wrote my first novel (unpublished) this way, but all the vignettes follow the same small group of characters.  Eschbach had different characters in each of his.  Each was its own story that didn't make a whole lot of sense on its own.

Anyway, that's my recommendation for a story you may not have heard a lot about.

Mark

"The Carpet Makers" sounds like a fascinating discovery! I appreciate the unique storytelling approach of interconnected vignettes, providing a mosaic view of a galactic empire. It's intriguing how seemingly unrelated stories converge, creating a tapestry of interconnected events. Your preference for narratives unfolding over time aligns with my own love for the depth and complexity such stories offer. I'll definitely add "The Carpet Makers" to my reading list it seems like a gem that deserves more recognition. Thanks for sharing this hidden literary treasure.

 

 
Posted : February 4, 2024 9:49 am
Peter Spasov reacted
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