u/Fun-Sell3030

^ BOTNS - Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe. Possible spoilers ahead.

Hello, first time reader halfway through Shadow of the Torturer. I was drawn to this series through a recommendation on the sub singing its praise.

Initial thoughts so far are: it’s been a deceptively straightforward story and beautifully written. It presents to us a world as seen through the subjective lens of the narrator, and there definitely is depth to it, though I can’t lay my finger on it yet. I enjoy how Wolfe conveys to the reader nuggets of the world’s rich lore through brief descriptions, passing mentions, and never gives away too much. There are gaps, it’s not a 1:1 retelling, not everything is said and I very much enjoy that.

So far it very much feels like it’s setting up a lot of things, which brings me to my point:

Going in I knew that this series takes on pretty epic proportions (as Severian himself alludes to), the narrator is deemed unreliable, there’s many ways one can interpret it and, most importantly, it awards rereads. Things happen down the line that change everything - I am curious what other readers found that point to be?

This is not intended as a “should I keep reading” post, I simply browsed a bit about what people said, and a lot of it has been vague. I’m not asking for straight up spoilers, but I’m curious what book introduces (or begins to introduce) us to more information which allows reinterpretation of the previous events. Is the discussion around it connected to direct revelations within the series, or is a lot of it generated by readers in hindsight?

Hello, I am struggling a bit with the inbuilt dictionary and search engine of my kobo Clara BW. It will often show different words than I marked, or redirect me to pages referencing not the word I looked up (Wikipedia).

For reference I’m currently reading Book of the New Sun and there’s a bunch of terminology that’s not available.

I was also disappointed not to find an inbuilt Polish-English dictionary and had to download a different one off the web, though it’s not very good either…

I’m hoping people can share some resources, or a tried dictionary I could download in the inbuilt one’s stead? Other than that I’m pretty happy with my kobo.

Thank you.

Hello, I’m not a history nut and I mourn the fact. I’d like to start somewhere and since I have plans to visit Egypt and see some of the historical sites there I thought to prepare a bit with some reading.

I’m looking for books which are well regarded academically (factually sound), and not too dense if possible (the information is conveyed in a way that’s not a chore to read and provides more of a wide overview for a layman before going into details). Mostly interested in the early sociopolitical structure, military conflicts, and religion.

I’m also partial to learning about the development of early society and of written language specifically (interested both in published books and essays.)

. I’ll be going through Luxor and seeing Karnak and the Valley of Kings amongst other locations if that helps.

Again, beginner friendly is helpful as I don’t have a strong reading base at all, and having things over explained or provided more context would be beneficial. Thank you

Hello,

For the sake of bursting my bubble a bit, I’m looking for classics taking place in Egypt or written by Egyptian authors. I’m primarily interested in, but not limited to, books from female authors as well.

Both prose and poetry is welcome, and I’d appreciate recommendations on specific translations alongside titles.

Which classics have you read and are able to recommend?

Thank you

I have RS on my TBR however I’ve been told there’s a bunch of short stories that would be worth reading beforehand, to expand the setting and get a taste for his writing.

Now I’m not a completionist I’m just interested in the best, or most important ones. I initially got into Reynolds because of Zima Blue and I really enjoyed his writing, ideas, philosophy then - but I found out that RS is his debut and the quality is deemed worse than his later books, understandably. I just want to whet my appetite. What would be recommended to read? I’m only interested in select short stories, not whole books as Ive already got RS on my shelf and am committed to start there with the series.

Aside from the Ihibitor Sequence short stories I’m interested in other unrelated short stories by him. I’m thinking Aquila Rift.. but what else?

Hello, I am in a serious reading slump due to anxiety, I have low energy and it’s impacting my ability to focus. However I miss reading, I want to escape into a book.

Please read to the end as I go into specifics, I would really appreciate if people provided a quick summary or explanation for why they recommend a certain title, thank you.

Great prose is very important to me and my immersion hinges on the author’s writing style.

Attention grabbing from the first pages (if it has a slow beginning unless I know there’s a really cool trope later in the book it’ll be hard for me to keep on with it. I don’t mind slight spoilers for that reason.)

I need strong characters, not just trope cardboard cutouts, but someone I can care about/get into the head of. Slow burn would be great.

I really do not care for traditional romance but I love it when characters in a book are well crafted with a good dynamic going on, I am happy making my own interpretations. I think I prefer that over explicit romance and whatnot, that sort of side plot tends to heavily disappoint me.

Tragic characters who suffer. Who are maybe morally gray. Who are complex and broken in some way, I think I’d like that.

What else? I have a soft spot for cool AI or non-human characters. Interesting aliens. Cosmic horror-esque. Not a deal breaker if the book does not include em.

Here’s what I’ve loved:

Look to Windward (the rich exploration of grief, the Minds, not shying away from heavier themes. Bank’s prose is excellent at times, his books are close to 10/10 for me, usually only fall short of it in little bits but I ultimately judge them positively. LTW, and specifically the conversation with the Hub and ending were amazing to me.)

Left Hand of Darkness (gorgeous prose, the relationship of Genly Ai and Estraven. The humanity in it, rich characters, extremely immersive)

Enders game and speaker for the dead (childhood book which I’ve reread countless times. It’s action packed, covertly philosophical, with great aliens; I love Ender in Speaker … as well. I love his relationship to the queen.

I liked Murderbot at one point and while it’s probably not my cup of tea now, the mix of a cynical main character, interesting premise (I love characters who are secretly awful and conceal things from the reader - I believe unreliable is the word), easy to read style got me out of a reading slump at the time. I am not interested in reading more from Martha Wells however or “cozy” fantasy.

Short stories:
Most recently really enjoyed “Learning to be Me” by Greg Egan, it was exactly the kind of awe inspiring short story that makes me excited about sci fi. Read a few more from him and I really enjoy the way his mind works. I’m considering Diaspora but it seems too dense for me right now.

Also loved “Zima Blue”, the philosophy of it and slow unveiling of mystery- I also love the ending. “nine Bilion names of god” for the cosmic horror. “Stories of your life” - gorgeous prose and premise, heart wrenching.

Currently reading Aniara by Martinson and it’s different, depressing and very beautiful. I only mourn that I have to read a translation.

I guess I want to be both drawn in, emotionally destroyed, just read something of good quality with characters who are built from the ground up to be interesting and worth getting invested in. Both literary, hard sci fi (again, if it’s not too dense or at least makes it easy to get invested in before dropping some crazy lore nukes), and sci fi that’s just a backdrop for wider themes, exploring the human experience, etc.

I own some books that I haven’t touched yet for fear of starting the wrong title and abandoning it:
Revelation space
Dawn by Octavia Butler
Diaspora
Embassytown by Meville
Surface Detail (I like Banks but it takes a while for me to get into it sometimes. I love when Minds are at the forefront)
Dark Intelligence (cool evil AI I’ve heard)
Slow Gods (actually started this one but I’m really not feeling it)
Cats cradle
Noumenon by Marina Lostetter
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
Blindsight
Book of the new sun
Light by Harrison

If you see a book you would’ve recommended on this list please let me know!

Please don’t recommend:
Your own novels, don’t advertise to me, I’ll report it
Cozy scifi
Red Rising or anything of similar style and quality
Hyperion
Children of Time
Culture series (on it)
Ursula LeGuin (on it, read most of her bibliography)
Ancillary justice
Project Hail Mary

If you took the time to read and comment you have my deep gratitude. I’m really at a loss right now

Hello, I browse this sub from time to time and find that there’s a lot of the same books being recommended over and over again (which is fair: they’re oftentimes the introduction to reading classic literature for a lot of people, the source of inspiration for many of the works to follow which can enrich further reading, etc. - I get it.) however, it also makes me bounce off of them a bit since I like to get to things on my own time. I had an idea of creating a thread where people can share the more niche works, and it’s all gathered in one place for ease.

I’d love to find out hidden gems that you don’t see recommended often - maybe a book you love or was foundational to you and your love for reading in some way.

I speak English and Polish, if you’re recommending a classic originally written in another language I’d also appreciate information about which translation you went with.

I don’t want to sway the recommendations one way or another by listing my likes and dislikes, I would like to just immerse myself in what other people enjoy if only to see for myself. I’d love it if people, while recommending titles, also explained why they enjoyed it, when they read it, how it impacted them, things like that.

Thanks you reading.

I think SF truly shines in short form; I love a punchy ending, mind bending ideas, beautiful prose. I include some of my favourite short stories down below, I’m curious about what people consider the strongest works within the short story medium of SF.

So, I’m looking for recommendations :)

(I just got an e-reader and it’s opened up a lot of possibilities for me; not having to look for entire short story collections to purchase (although I still might) and getting a mix of amazing, mediocre and bad. Now I can just track down the specific title without having to bog through stories where the payoff just isn’t worth the time it took to read it).

Some of my favs (although I’m open to just about anything):

>7 bilion names of god (great ending, cosmic horror-esque)
>The Last Question, Bicentennial man, Reason, etc. (Philosophical)
>They’re made out of meat (short and fun)
>Cyberiad, Lem (fun and witty)
>Ted Chiang (Story of your life, tower of Babylon) - gut punch, gorgeous, need more from him
>Learning to be me (Most recently, loved the ideas and the in depth exploration of the topic)
>Zima blue (loved the episode and the story)

I’m interested in just about anything people consider attention grabbing, life changing, things that got you in the genre, etc. :)

Writing this after an encounter with Poppy War that left me feeling disappointed.

I’d like to find something with extremely competent characters who act like people with believable motivations and a conviction and have a lot of character development throughout the series. I don’t want caricatures or “tropes”, and because I’ve burnt myself with some titles people insisted weren’t YA, I’d prefer to read about older characters. People who communicate diplomatically in wartime, strategists, stories with no caricature low-stakes “villains” with no complexity or secret assassin plot lines, I’m sort of over it…

I’d like something that talks of strategy, is engaging and features a cast I could root for and is just consistently well written and plotted. Would love a morally gray main character, and possibly not a book that’s very dense with a multitude of different POVs (looking at you R.R.Martin, just not what I wanna read at the moment).

I am a bit LeGuin reader and good prose is very important to me; books that fall into the “literary”bracket, with symbolism and underlying themes.

Characters that are as interesting and distinct (like in the Witcher)

Really don’t care for romance in general but if it’s good then I’ll bite.

Leaning towards fantasy, as I’ve read a bunch within the sci fi genre and am sort of worried people might recommend books I’ve read already.

Please don’t recommend:
Robin Hobb
Witcher
Wizard of Earthsea
Pratchett
Game of Thrones
Name of the wind
Blade itself
Red rising

Thank you for taking the time to read and comment if you do, I appreciate it.

Writing this after an encounter with Poppy War that left me feeling disappointed.

I’d like to find something with extremely competent characters who act like people with believable motivations and a conviction and have a lot of character development throughout the series. I don’t want caricatures or “tropes”, and because I’ve burnt myself with some titles people insisted weren’t YA, I’d prefer to read about older characters. People who communicate diplomatically in wartime, strategists, stories with no caricature low-stakes “villains” with no complexity or secret assassin plot lines, I’m sort of over it…

I’d like something that talks of strategy, is engaging and features a cast I could root for and is just consistently well written and plotted. Would love a morally gray main character, and possibly not a book that’s very dense with a multitude of different POVs (looking at you R.R.Martin, just not what I wanna read at the moment).

I am a bit LeGuin reader and good prose is very important to me; books that fall into the “literary”bracket, with symbolism and underlying themes.

Characters that are as interesting and distinct (like in the Witcher)

Really don’t care for romance in general but if it’s good then I’ll bite.

Please don’t recommend:
Robin Hobb
Witcher
Wizard of Earthsea
Pratchett
Game of Thrones
Name of the wind
Blade itself

Thank you for taking the time to read and comment if you do, I appreciate it.

The list is as follows:
Light by Harrison
BOTNS gene Wolfe
Vonnegut - cats cradle and breakfast of champions
Octavia butler - dawn and parable of the sower
Philip dick the man in the high castle
Greg Egan - diaspora, axiomatic (short story collection)
Leguin birthday of the world and other stories
Revelation space by Reynolds
Surface detail by Ian Banks
Slow Gods by Claire North
Embassytown by China Mieville
Noumenon by Marina Lostetter
Dark Intelligence by Neil Asher

If you’re seeing a book thats a favourite of yours, or just one you’ve recommended in this sub recently, chances are I got it on your recommendation.

I am considering my reading order for the summer - which work well as companion novels, or which ones provide an interesting palette cleanser, chaser, etc. After denser reads.

I’ll be reading Axiomatic and Birthday of the world alongside the other novels.

Would love to hear people’s opinions of these books, a reading order recommendation would be very appreciated.

Please use spoilers: add > !And ! < before and after the text you wanna cover, just without the spaces after the exclamation mark. >!Like so!<

Thanks!

I am hoping asking for recommendations is okay :) I could not find a devoted subreddit. If not I’m sorry to clog up new posts.

I want to read Seamus Heaney, for my first read I’m choosing between:

Wintering Out
Station Island
New Selected Poems 1988-2013
Electric Light

And I would really love to hear people’s opinions. I initially became interested in him (and in actually approaching poetry, as it was quite intimidating to get into for me) because of an artist I enjoy (the Irish songwriter Hozier) and this author came recommended.

I’ve only read a little bit, a small collection from T.S.Elliot, Sappho (translated by Anne Carson), Walt Whitman, selected Beat poetry - and then I browse this sub frequently :) aside from Seamus, I’m definitely not against hearing what else people are reading right now. Thank you.

I’m having the worst day and I want to watch something horribly sad. I want to wallow in my own misery. dealing with mental health, themes of hopelessness, nihilism, difficult familial relationships.

Similar to Melancholia.

Not gruesome, just sad. No hopeful ones either. Good acting with believable portrayals of depression or anxiety or other mental health disorders.

Thank you.

I'm making my way through campaign 4, started off very invested in the Soldiers, but gradually lost interest by the end episodes. I was happy to watch the summary and move on (great idea on their part) to Seekers. Absolutely loved Seekers from beginning to end, just amazing roleplay all around. I really enjoy Julien, but also Occtis and Thaisha grew on me. Lots of PC drama by the end of it, but it had a lot of poignant and emotional moments.

Starting Schemers - absolutely loving Azune and the amazing roleplay. However im on episode 20 and im starting to zone out a bit, not really connecting with the plot as much.

Does the plot speed up soon? Or do I just have too much going on in order to immerse myself in the roleplay as it is?

I also wanted to check in with other watchers and see what people's current favourite tables, moments, and characters are :)

"Again love, the limb-loosener, rattles me

bittersweet,

irresistible,

a crawling beast."

I'm looking for recommendations of books, poetry, collections of letters, essays I can read over the summer, about women and love.

Something rich with metaphors and deeply affecting. Literary, beautiful prose.

Anything work that made you feel this way?

I'm new here, I don't know pretty much any of the titles and books that are being posted here. All I know is that I liked Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer which someone classified as "weird lit" and that sparked my interest.

So I guess I'm browsing - I'd like to read something unobvious, with a twinge of cosmic horror, good prose and a strong style.

What could I try?

Thanks in advance :)

Edit: I seem to have already read a few of the authors people are recommending! So I'm adding them:

Lem - Solaris, Invincible

Strugatsky bros - Roadside Picnic

Books I already own a copy of/planning to read but would still definitely hear people out about if only to chat:

Blindsight, Watts

Embassytown, Melville

Light, Harrison