u/IdaSukiShwan

I'm not looking for some kind of textbook history of the British conquest of India, or even British rule of India. I have read and heard enough about that. I want to read personal writings, memoirs, short stories, or real historical records written by people who lived at that time, which can give me a flavour for what that period of time was like when the colonial powers ruled over India. What the gora sahibs were like, what the royal families and princely states were like, how an average person felt about the British Raj.

I want to read about how these people from different walks of life: soldiers and peasantry and upperclassmen had come to accept these foreign rulers, and how the interactions between the whites and the locals went. Not just about the conflicts and the injustices, of which there are many, but about the daily lives of the people who lived here at that time, both from the perspective of the colonizers and of the Indians.

Any recommendations?

Is it just me? I enjoyed the humour, I liked the subdued and minimal worldbuilding, I really liked the cast of characters. But the writing itself, I really don't know what it was. The sentence structure, the prose just didn't "flow" in a natural way. Many times I felt like I wasn't reading sentences but disjointed phrases loosely connected together with commas and semicolons. I have read a lot of fantasy and science fiction, even those with very heavy technical jargon. With no other book have I ever felt the need to go back and re-read almost every other sentence because I couldn't get it on the first read through.

Now I know a lot of this has got to do with the very unique (and honestly, enjoyable) voice of the titular character, Gideon. The dialogue between characters was great, but everything that was not dialogue, everything that was just Gideon narrating to the reader, felt like a completely unreadable mess. And it was surprising to me because I had quite a lot of people recommended this book as "light reading" for beginners into fantasy, but it wasn't light for me at all. It felt like I was fighting against the writing half of the time, trying to figure out which part was important and what exactly Gideon was trying to convey through like 5 layers of humour and by the time I reached the end of the sentence through so many comedic detours and random tangents and disjointed phrases, I struggled to remember where the story was and what I was even reading about.

Is it just me? Did I just happen to read the book when my ADHD was especially bad, or what?

hmu if you have it

I'm looking for fantasy recommendations, preferably multi-book series, with big and expansive worlds with many moving pieces, multiple subplots and multiple protagonists and supporting characters each with their own character arcs going on. I want to see something that not only juggles many themes and subplots but is also able to neatly tie it all down and conclude it masterfully in its ending, in a way that:-

a. No character seems forgotten about or diminished.

b. No subplot is abandoned or hastily wrapped up.

c. Every theme that was introduced feels addressed and concluded in the end.

In short, I want to experience an ending that provides full returns on my investment in its characters and its plot and subplots, and doesn't feel half-assed or rushed or poorly executed.

Which fantasy series had the most satisfying and comprehensive endings according to you?