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    1. Dawnshard - By Brandon Sanderson - Discussion

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Spoiler warning for Dawnshard and previous Stormlight Archive books (Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, Edgedancer, & Oathbringer).

      I'd seen mentions of the sleepless and Dawnshards when browsing the Arcanum and so was primarily hoping to learn more about these in this book. But in a short period of time I was surprised with how attached I grew to Rysn! In particular at the end of the book when the captain appreciates Rysn's role as Rebsk and allow here to steer the ship (showing their trust) for a few minutes, I let out an audible cheer. (Also when I noticed that she gained perfect pitch and perfect color recognition) Rysn and Vstim's interludes in the previous stormlight books were some of my favourite interludes and I'm so glad that we got to see more of them here.

      The other thing I was surprised by was the set up for the two Winderunners swearing their third ideal here. Lopen says quite clearly that the third ideal is saying that you will protect even those you hate. And then a few chapters later we see Huio swear the third ideal in order to protect Lopen. I honestly thought this was just going to be played off as a joke since they have a fair bit of banter early in the book. But I was heart warmed to see that realisation that Lopen has that his jokes and teasing hurt people, and him swearing his own version of the ideal to protect other people from himself. It reminded me of some of the similar (but not same) character development moments we get with Wayne in Mistborn.

      I'd love to hear what other people who read this book thought about it as well. Once I can get my hands on Yumi and the Nightmare Painter in paperback form, I hope to discuss that too with all you Cosmerenauts!

      22 votes
    2. Edgedancer - By Brandon Sanderson - Discussion

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Edgedancer (a stormlight archives novella) came out a few years ago, but since there's little Cosmere discussion in Tildes and I just finished reading it a few days ago, I figured it would be worth posting my thoughts on this. The only book of relevance to this which I haven't read is Dawnshard, so please mark any discussion about that with spoilers.

      I've seen a lot of complaints about Lift on reddit, and I can see where people are coming from. But I always liked the way Lift think and is written. I feel like Lift's stories would make great bed time stories because of how sweetly they end. In the first interlude where Lift appears, the people of Azir are having trouble picking a "king" because they keep getting assassinated. Lift's involvement solves this problem that we're introduced to at the start of the story. And now in Edgedancer, Nalan is still hunting down budding Radiants because he doesn't believe that the Everstorm has really come back. But at the end of the story Lift swears the third ideal "I will listen to those who have been ignored" and shows Nalan the truth. Which feels like a very fairy tale ending, compared to them getting involved in some epic battle. I honestly expected Szeth to intervene and team up with Lift against Nalan.

      The moment at the end where she hugs Nalan to comfort him as he's crying was touching. It got me crying! I didn't expect to feel any sympathy for Nalan, but at the end it feels like a fog is lifting off of him and he's been in a haze this whole time. Which I suppose is true of all the Heralds at this point.

      I kept trying to guess who the Radiant in Yeddaw was. Of course it had to be a minor character that we've already seen. So I was thinking it would be that guard we met earlier, since they mentioned trading to get some spheres with stormlight so that she can read. I thought this was a lie, with the real reason being using the stormlight to practice some surgebinding. The other candidate was the old man, but that turned out to be a very interesting misdirect that I'm hoping to learn more about in Dawnshard. (The actual radiant was the woman at the orphanage)

      The description of the city of Yeddaw was very interesting and new. I wish there was more art to go along with the descriptions, but I feel like I don't really understand the layout of the city. I feel like it would be dark all the time (except noon) if it was carved into the ground like I imagined. Also I wonder if there's more to the story than it just being created with loaned out shardblades. We know that the total number of shardblades in Roshar is very small. Even assuming something like 5 shardblades that were loaned out, how is it possible to create a whole city with that in a reasonable amount of time. Feels like it would take many decades.

      20 votes
    3. What LitRPG Series do you recommend?

      I read through He Who Fights with Monsters and it was not only my first read into the genre, so far it's been my favorite. I've come to absolutely love the characters, especially the protagonist,...

      I read through He Who Fights with Monsters and it was not only my first read into the genre, so far it's been my favorite. I've come to absolutely love the characters, especially the protagonist, and the humor. Interesting and likeable characters are what makes or breaks a book for me.

      I'm waiting on the next book to release, and in the mean time I've tried reading some others, but I've disliked what I've read so far. I read through the first three and a half books of Defiance of the Fall, but not only is the main character just hands down boring and contradictory, it's made worse by the fact that I don't believe the author is a very good writer. The amount of times a character has "snorted" and "rolled their eyes" is honestly a bad running joke.

      After this I tried reading the Iron Druid Chronicles. It's not a LitRPG book, just a fantasy novel that takes place in modern times, but the author spent very little time on anything but the major plot points. Everything happens in such rapid succession that there's no depth given to the characters. I don't think it's poorly written, I just think it's just written for a different kind of reader. The books are also incredibly short for me, and I finished the first three in just a few days.

      I'm halfway through the first book of The Primal Hunter now, and the writing is far better than Defiance of the Fall, the protagonist much better written, except I'm not sure I like him all that much. Very much the "I'm quiet, smart, and better than everyone" kind of attitude you'd get out of the know it all in high school, except supposedly this guy is a grown adult.

      I've read all of these through Kindle Unlimited and they were all suggested to me by the app itself. I've only recently picked up reading again since dropping Reddit altogether, so I'm not super well versed into the best ways of finding new series to read.

      17 votes
    4. Short(er) easy reading fantasy series that isn't YA or Discworld

      Been reading a lot of Malazan BotF and while I love it, I'm looking for something breezier to read for a bit. Preferably something with under 5 PoV characters, 150-300 pages, a mostly linear plot...

      Been reading a lot of Malazan BotF and while I love it, I'm looking for something breezier to read for a bit. Preferably something with under 5 PoV characters, 150-300 pages, a mostly linear plot and that doesn't take 100+ pages just to get my bearings on the world. If it's got humor or a bit of mystery too it, all the better.

      29 votes
    5. Commercial uses of bendalloy and cadmium mistings (inspired by Brandon Sanderson's 'The Lost Metal')

      Edit: Some context if you're unfamiliar with mistborn: A bend alloy misting (slider) can create a bubble where time moves faster. A cadmium misting (pulser) can create a bubble where time moves...

      Edit: Some context if you're unfamiliar with mistborn: A bend alloy misting (slider) can create a bubble where time moves faster. A cadmium misting (pulser) can create a bubble where time moves slower. These bubbles can't be moved, unless they're on an object of significant mass that is already moving, like a train. The civilisation in The Lost Metal is roughly in the industrial age.

      I was reading "The Lost Metal" and the newspaper ad after chapter 2 mentions hiring bend alloy mistings for a fast food restaurant. And I was thinking of more commercially profitable uses. Because fast food, wouldn't (I think) have sufficient margin to support consumption of bend alloy which is supposed to be expensive. So here are some ideas I had:

      • One idea I had was a CEO using a bend alloy misting to give them more hours in a day. Time for CEOs is already at a premium so giving them more I think would be economically worth it, but I don't know if they have anyone comparable to that in mistborn era 2.
      • I also think this would work for lawyers. I'm not sure how much a lawyer in Elendel gets paid but we do know they exist. In the real world sometimes lawyer bill for more than 24 hours a day (illegally)! But imagine if a lawyer could do that legitimately now. Maybe even 48 hours in a day!
      • An idea I had for cadmium mistings was to speed up travel. Maybe for rich people you could use a slider to get up time so that their train journey appears to them to go by really fast. But that might be counteracted by their circadian rhythm getting messed up.

      The following links contain some discussion on the usage of bend alloy and cadmium for commercial uses.
      https://www.reddit.com/r/Cosmere/comments/ajdsjh/practical_usage_of_powers/

      Some ideas mentioned there include using a slider in the waiting room of a hospital, or to preserve food, or to reduce the amount of food needed to support a siege, or to reduce the amount of supplies needed for Interstellar travel.

      What are some other ideas you have for how a pulser or slider could be used during that time period in a profitable manner?
      If you find other discussion online about these powers, please link them here.

      23 votes
    6. Suggestions for fantasy that feels truly different

      I'm currently reading The Priory of the Orange Tree, and really enjoying it, but I've got to confess I'm a bit disappointed by how predictable the world is. There's an obvious pseudo-medieval...

      I'm currently reading The Priory of the Orange Tree, and really enjoying it, but I've got to confess I'm a bit disappointed by how predictable the world is. There's an obvious pseudo-medieval European culture, a vaguely Eastern culture of respect and honour, a wise Southern Arabic-flavoured culture, and so on.

      It's making me long for some fantasy that feels genuinely different - as far away as possible from this vision of monotheistic courts, swordsman's honour and mysterious wisdom from far away. Something that feels refreshing in trying to portray a world that I have never seen before.

      I recently read C.T. Rwizi's Scarlet Odyssey series, and while that definitely involves analogues to a lot of our cultures, it was told from an African perspective, which was very refreshing. So I'd welcome suggestions for fantasy books that approach the typical enemies from a perspective that I don't often see as an English-speaking European reader. But is there much in the way of fantasy that truly tries to explore places and people that are completely out there and away from any of our experiences?

      67 votes
    7. Looking for audiobook ideas that have TV/movies released

      Hey folks! I’m looking for some audiobook ideas (preferably fantasy and science-fiction). I want them to have a TV series or Movie about them though I could watch before listening to them. All...

      Hey folks! I’m looking for some audiobook ideas (preferably fantasy and science-fiction). I want them to have a TV series or Movie about them though I could watch before listening to them.

      All ideas welcome!

      14 votes
    8. What's your favorite scene in Tolkien's Legendarium? (Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Silmarillion, etc...)

      Edit: I love the films too, but I'm really looking for examples in the text, even if the adaptation does the scene justice, I'm interested in how Tolkien himself wrote it. I'm on a bit of a JRR...

      Edit: I love the films too, but I'm really looking for examples in the text, even if the adaptation does the scene justice, I'm interested in how Tolkien himself wrote it.

      I'm on a bit of a JRR Tolkien kick recently and revisiting some of my favorite bits from the books. One thing I really appreciate about Tolkien's writing is the outright poetry of some of the paragraphs and lines. I think the only "wordsmith" who appeals this much to me is Cormac McCarthy (and to some extent GRR Martin) -- but for very different reasons. Anyways, I'll share my favorite section from the Legendarium.

      Théoden's charge at Minas Tirith - The Return of the King

      To set the stage, the Rohirrim have navigated to Minas Tirith and are greeted by a dying besieged city steeped in darkess and fire. Upon seeing this, we get this line about Théoden:

      But the king sat upon Snowmane, motionless, gazing upon the agony of Minas Tirith, as if stricken suddenly by anguish, or by dread. He seemed to shrink down, cowed by age.

      Merry utterly loses hope at seeing the city and the reaction of the king. Then as all hope seems lost, we get one of the best sections in the whole trilogy:

      At that sound the bent shape of the king sprang suddenly erect. Tall and proud he seemed again; and rising in his stirrups he cried in a loud voice, more clear than any there had ever heard a mortal man achieve before:

      Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!
      Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!
      spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,
      a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
      Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

      With that he seized a great horn from Guthláf his banner-bearer, and he blew such a blast upon it that it burst asunder. And straightway all the horns in the host were lifted up in music, and the blowing of the horns of Rohan in that hour was like a storm upon the plain and a thunder in the mountains.

      Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

      Suddenly the king cried to Snowmane and the horse sprang away. Behind him his banner blew in the wind, white horse upon a field of green, but he outpaced it. After him thundered the knights of his house, but he was ever before them. Éomer rode there, the white horsetail on his helm floating in his speed, and the front of the first éored roared like a breaker foaming to the shore, but Théoden could not be overtaken. Fey he seemed, or the battle-fury of his fathers ran like new fire in his veins, and he was borne up on Snowmane like a god of old, even as Oromë the Great in the battle of the Valar when the world was young. His golden shield was uncovered, and lo! it shone like an image of the Sun, and the grass flamed into green about the white feet of his steed. For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them. And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City.

      This might be my favorite bit in all of LOTR because we see good king Théoden shed all his fears and doubts and actualize into the man he was meant to be. And to be compared to the Valar Oromë to boot! Wow. I am also a total sucker for any moment in the trilogy when a deed or character gets compared to events or characters of the First Age. Anytime that happens, you know it's a big deal since the First Age was so much "larger than life" than the events of the Third Age. Tolkien does a similar thing when Sam faces off Shelob noting that not even Túrin or Beren with any craft of the elves could have injured her -- yet Sam stood his ground, nonetheless.

      I am not a Tolkien scholar, but I know Tolkien was incredibly steeped in medieval and ancient literature (I mean, he was a Professor of English literature) so I know his heart was really in old mythologies in Germanic or Norse traditions (for example Túrin Turambar's story is directly inspired by the Finnish tale of Kullervo, or how almost word-for-word bits of The Wanderer poem end up in Rohan's culture and song). Because of his Christian faith though, I suspect he had qualms with the often-brutal mortality of those tales and the cultures which produced them. This section with Théoden charging bravely against hopelessness and despair I think represents the "merger" of all the positive qualities he found in heroes like Beowulf with his more temperate worldview. It's an idealization of the heroic good-pagan Germanic king.

      47 votes
    9. I love fantasy books with quality plot, character development and well written romantic content - These are my favorites

      Reddit refugee here, I've been posting my book reviews on /r/Fantasy for years and figured some of you all would be interested in a best of list. My full list of all book reviews can be found...

      Reddit refugee here, I've been posting my book reviews on /r/Fantasy for years and figured some of you all would be interested in a best of list. My full list of all book reviews can be found here, but most of the links are broken right now because the Fantasy subreddit is still private. Still, perhaps the titles, authors and keywords are helpful.

      What I enjoy

      A brief list of things I care about in books, to help you jugde whether your taste overlaps:

      • a good balance of romance and plot, where there is prominent romance but never feels like the story is just about that
      • quality prose and dialogue
      • believable relationship development, including romantic tension and explicit payoff for it
      • high stakes drama, be it interpersonal, warfare, duels, court politics or heists
      • LBGTQ+ main characters and queer romance

      Note that these aren't the only qualities of the books listed below, just generally what I look for. I'll also gladly take recommendations for fantasy books that fit these criteria if you have any!

      Books

      Kushiel's Legacy by Jacqueline Carey

      A divinely blessed masochistic courtesan and spy uncovers conspiracies against the crown of fantasy France. This series is probably my absolute favorite for how it combines intrigue, romance, kink and action, all with excellent prose and characterization. It has deliciously horny worldbuilding and ends up telling an epic fantasy story with an incredibly unique protagonist.

      Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco

      A recent addition to my absolute favorites. The author described the book as "vampire couple finds himbo in the trash and takes him in". If you're not sold on that, imagine a vibe like Netflix Castlevania and The Witcher - vampire hunter who's highly competent but looked down upon, vampire science, undead threat, dark gothic kind of setting, sprinkled with some "who's the real monster actually?" philosophy.

      A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

      A Dowry of Blood is about healing from abusive relationships through murder. It's also walks an excellent line between being sexy and horrible. It tells the story of Dracula's "brides", and the beautifully messed up relationship the four of them have.

      Note: this one can't be described as having a "romantic subplot", since that implies some sort of happy ending. You know, because of the murder. (that's not a spoiler, it's revealed on page one)

      A Charm of Magpies by KJ Charles

      A disgraced nobleman returns to England years after escaping his father and finds himself and his family estate haunted. He hires a magician - who happens to bear his family a grudge. The Magpie series is fast paced, highly entertaining, well written, and plays with some delicious power dynamics between its initially hostile and soon reluctantly mutually attracted main characters.

      Folk of the Air by Holly Black

      The only YA series on this list, Folk of the Air holds a special place in my heart for its delicious fairy court politicking and for not pulling its punches. The titular Cruel Prince is a wonderfully hateable love interest, and even though I feel a few years too old to properly enjoy this series, the stabby and vicious dynamics between the two leads is just wonderful.

      Nightrunner by Lynn Flewelling

      A young man gets innocently imprisoned and receives unexpected help from his cellmate: a spy, rogue, thief and nobleman. The latter offers him a way out and an apprenticeship, which leads to well... spying and thievery, but also sinister necromantic plots against the throne. The highlight of this series is the ongoing relationship development between its leads. Book 1-2 are fantastic, book 4-5 are really weird, but the whole series remains a favorite despite some strange choices.

      Rook & Rose by M.a. Carrick

      A skilled con artist, a masked vigilante that challenges aristocrats to duels, and a dashing crime lord turned nobleman. The Rook & Rose series shines in its rich worldbuilding and prose, but especially in its handling of its main characters' multiple secrets, cons and identities. And especially shines when those schemes start crumbling down and some of the secrets become unveiled.

      If the third book in the trilogy sticks the landing later this year, this series will firmly establish itself among my all time favorites.

      The Stariel Quartet by AJ Lancaster

      Years after leaving her family, a young woman returns home for her father's funeral and soon needs to deal with a magical estate that has a mind of its own, and discover that there may be more magic in the world around her than she's realized. The Stariel series is cozy and home-y in many ways, but doesn't shy away from tension either, and I find myself still in love with the main characters even long after finishing the series. I also really enjoyed the spinoff, A Rake of His Own recently!

      Harrow Faire by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

      Most of the books on here are fantasy with romance, while this one sits more firmly in the capital R Romance genre. But it is dark romance ("villain gets the girl"), and features an absolutely unhinged love interest, a lot of murder, and an evil circus. The series isn't without flaws (some of the side characters get a bit too much page for
      how flat they are, and the pacing is a tiny bit uneven in parts), but I blasted through all five (short) books in a week because I had so much fun with it.

      The Last Binding by Freya Marske

      This series takes place in an early 20th century England where a secret magical society exists in parallel to the world 'as we know it'. There's even a bit of magical British bureaucracy that reminded me of aspects of the Harry Potter books, though the series have little in common otherwise.
      Every book in this trilogy follows the same overarching plot, but features a different pairing of main characters and romantic leads. It's queer, fun and fast-paced, though sometimes a bit on the fluffy and romancey side for my taste.


      That's just a brief selection of favorites, I highly recommend heading over to the reddit post (I should back that up at some point with Reddit's future being a bit shaky rn) to find more titles.

      Thank you for reading! There's lots more to say on each of theses books of course, but I didn't want this to get way too long.
      Let me know if you found this interesting, if you have similar books you'd recommend to me, or just share if you also enjoyed any of these books. This is my first post on Tildes and I'm happy to meet new fellow readers :)

      69 votes
    10. Tress and the Emerald Sea - By Brandon Sanderson - Discussion

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Just finished this book this morning and wanted to do my usual jump to reddit to read what others have said/are saying about it. But as I have decided to leave reddit indefinitely, I have come here!

      Have you read this book? What did you think of it? Any Cosmerenauts on Tilde yet that are anxious to discuss the implications of the book?

      Personally, I enjoyed the book, but found it very quick and convenient in terms of plot and structure. It bothered me a tiny bit, at first, until I read the postscript and saw that he was going for a "Princess Bride" structure, and suddenly the whole book reframed itself in my mind. It wasn't convenient, it was a bedtime story. Every chapter being 3-5 pages, and being a non-stop string of events, that was its strength now.

      From a cosmere perspective, it's interesting that this book is obviously very late future compared to most cosmere books. I'm not wise enough to know exactly where, but the mention of Spaceships landing on planets indicate we're not in Kansas any more.

      Few small glimpses into Hoid, which was interesting, if nothing revelatory.

      How did you all feel?

      29 votes
    11. [SOLVED] Have synopsis, need help identifying book title please

      Kids or younger reader book. Fantasy genre. In this book world weather can be controlled by sorcerers, and especially powerful sorcerers can summon dragons. When the sorcerers die the dragons...

      Kids or younger reader book. Fantasy genre.

      In this book world weather can be controlled by sorcerers, and especially powerful sorcerers can summon dragons. When the sorcerers die the dragons vanish, except in the case of the most powerful sorcerers where their dragon is buried with them. The villain wanted the scales of the blue dragon that belonged to a sorcerer. There were also weather spells that were too destructive and were trapped, including the scarlet snow that made people fall asleep. The villain was holding the main character's parents hostage. The main character can summon a dragon. The main character is going to school to become a meteorologist

      Other key words that may or may not be the same story -- Yeti, ball lightning, jar, lab, gardening supply shop

      11 votes
    12. A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland

      Preface: I usually post my book reviews on /r/Fantasy. With reddit's future being uncertain right now I figured I'd experiment with posting on here, let me know if you're interested in future...

      Preface: I usually post my book reviews on /r/Fantasy. With reddit's future being uncertain right now I figured I'd experiment with posting on here, let me know if you're interested in future reviews. I should add that this probably isn't my most interesting book review ever, it just happens to be my latest read.
      Please feel free to let me know if you'd like to see more fantasy book reviews in the future, I am new to Tildes.

      Recommended if you like: ottoman empire inspired setting, royalty/bodyguard romance, MC with anxiety, queernorm setting, low-magic setting, m/m romance, homoerotically washing each others' hair, royal palace slice of life, fake-dating (sort of), gay yearning


      Blurb

      Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, finds himself at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court—the body-father of the queen's new child—in an altercation which results in his humiliation.

      To prove his loyalty to the queen, his sister, Kadou takes responsibility for the investigation of a break-in at one of their guilds, with the help of his newly appointed bodyguard, the coldly handsome Evemer, who seems to tolerate him at best. In Arasht, where princes can touch-taste precious metals with their fingers and myth runs side by side with history, counterfeiting is heresy, and the conspiracy they discover could cripple the kingdom’s financial standing and bring about its ruin.


      Review

      • This book starts out by throwing you in the middle of a handful of political machinations already underway - the inciting incidents have basically already happened off-screen beforehand. That is fine, but don't expect massive developments on these plots or new plot points to really matter. The book basically goes "this is the political background for this story" and then takes its time for the rest of the book to focus on the romance.
      • I should find this book too fluffy and romancey for my taste but I couldn't help but loving it. Some of it is really dumb, it's transparently obvious that the narrative only exists to facilitate a lot of gay yearning, but I also found myself very much enjoying all that gay yearning.
      • I feel like I logically shouldn't have enjoyed this so much, because the worldbuilding is negligible, the magic (touch-tasting, i.e. sensing the origins or compositions of metals) is an afterthought for most of the time, and the plot constantly takes breaks for everyone to talk about their feelings a lot. But somehow, I was totally here for all that and was sad when it was over.
      • There were various aspects I found a bit grating, from some very obviously contrived setups to make the two leads have to get closer (or make drastic choices that bind them together) to some of the side characters sounding rather anachronistically sassy, to just how often the plot takes a break for people to talk about their feelings. I can list a ton of things this book does "wrong", but none of them actually managed to tip the scale away from me being into it, don't ask me why. Maybe I was just in the right mood for it.
      • The setting is very queernormative and progressive in other ways, while maintaining a historical veneer in terms of technology and (for the most part) style. The use of neopronouns for some side characters caught me a bit off guard in the audio narration, but it's done with such a complete nonchalance that I assume many queer readers will find refreshing.
      • The main character has anxiety and panic attacks (without quite having the language to articulate what he suffers from, and equating it with cowardice), and I thought that topic was treated pretty well. Then again, everyone that matters is super supportive and understanding the whole time, so it doesn't really serve as a source of conflict for longer.
      • I've said that action often takes a backseat to the romance, but I found the action that was there pretty good.

      Discussion

      This contains significant spoilers, read at your own risk
      • I went from writing "No COME ON you are not seriously getting fake married now right 😂" to "ok that they now can’t fuck because it‘d consummate the marriage and take the option of annulment from them is delicious and hilarious" into my review notes within minutes. That development and the ensuing conflicted tention was fun.
      • For the longest time, I thought Lt. Armidan (sp?) who had the counterfeit coins in their (jer?) office was the same character as Melek (sp?) the guard/Kahia (sorry if I am butchering the spelling of everything, I listened to the audiobook), and was confused why they'd trust that person again.
      • I wrote down a dozen things that I found annoying or dumb but just as many things that I found adorable, hilarious, wonderfully fitting or hot.

      In conclusion: I really liked this, but I completely understand anyone who didn't. The only previous Rowland book I'd read is A Conspiracy of Truths (link to my review), where I had the opposite experience: I found it well crafted but didn't enjoy it all that much. This one just happened to vibe more with me.

      9 votes
    13. Any other ASOIAF fans here?

      Title, basically. The A Song of Ice and Fire subreddit has seemingly gone indefinitely private, so I was wondering if any other ASOIAF fans migrated here during or after the blackout. I definitely...

      Title, basically. The A Song of Ice and Fire subreddit has seemingly gone indefinitely private, so I was wondering if any other ASOIAF fans migrated here during or after the blackout. I definitely miss all the crazy theories we could read on there (I cannot believe D+D=T, the most legendary ASOIAF theory, may become lost forever if the subreddit never opens again, truly a loss of a masterpiece.)

      Since it was still pretty active despite the book series being rather dormant, I wondered if any other fans came over here and wanted to chat about it. Just crazy theories, favourite characters, that sort of thing.

      20 votes
    14. Low stakes fantasy recommendation

      I read "Legends and Lattes" recently and liked the premise of the entire book. Does anyone know any other books that have a laid back and chill adventure story with little to no violence, gore,...

      I read "Legends and Lattes" recently and liked the premise of the entire book. Does anyone know any other books that have a laid back and chill adventure story with little to no violence, gore, and stuff like that?

      Thanks in advance.

      33 votes
    15. Is Tolkien's prose really that bad?

      Recently I was reading through a discussion on Reddit in which Tolkien's writing and prose were quite heavily criticised. Prior to this I'd never seen much criticism surrounding his writing and so...

      Recently I was reading through a discussion on Reddit in which Tolkien's writing and prose were quite heavily criticised. Prior to this I'd never seen much criticism surrounding his writing and so I was wondering what the general consensus here is.

      The first time I read through The Lord of the Rings, I found myself getting bored of all the songs and the poems and the large stretches between any action, I felt that the pacing was far too slow and I found that I had to force myself to struggle through the book to get to the exciting parts that I had seen so many times in the films. Upon reading through The Lord of the Rings again recently my experience has been completely different and I've fallen in love with his long and detailed descriptions of nature, and the slower pacing.

      Has anyone else experienced something similar when reading his works? Are there more valid criticisms of his prose that extend beyond a craving for the same high-octane action of the films?

      13 votes
    16. What's the next big fantasy series?

      I missed the Witcher, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones boats-- what's the next big fantasy series that's starting right now? Like one book's been recently released and it was a shock how good it...

      I missed the Witcher, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones boats-- what's the next big fantasy series that's starting right now? Like one book's been recently released and it was a shock how good it was, and all of its readers want more?

      I want to hop on a train that'll take me into a fantasy land when the getting's good.

      29 votes
    17. China Miéville

      Is anyone here familiar with his work? Perhaps you could recommend a starting point for someone more inclined towards exploring darker urban / sociopolitical realist "fantasy"; not so interested...

      Is anyone here familiar with his work? Perhaps you could recommend a starting point for someone more inclined towards exploring darker urban / sociopolitical realist "fantasy"; not so interested in escapism for the sake of escapism. LeGuin over Tolkien, etc.

      10 votes
    18. Noticing sources from Information Theory in Le Guin's "soft" fantasy

      Ursula K. Le Guin was my favourite SciFi & Fantasy writer. Her passing earlier in the year was a great loss. I'm reading her scifi-fantasy book Always Coming Home (1985), a compilation of...

      Ursula K. Le Guin was my favourite SciFi & Fantasy writer. Her passing earlier in the year was a great loss.

      I'm reading her scifi-fantasy book Always Coming Home (1985), a compilation of "in-universe" codices and oral traditions as seen by an anthropologist. Her works were usually put in the "soft scifi" bin, as opposed to the "harder" genre. What caught my attention was a passage from the book, as appeared in an oral narrative (p. 161):

      There are records of the red brick people in the Memory of the Exchange, of course, but I don't think many people have ever looked at them. They would be hard to make sense of. The City mind [a vast autonomous network of computers] thinks that sense has been made if a writing is read, if a message is transmitted, but we don't think that way.

      Here we're called to notice the information vs. meaning distinction, for which a lot has been said and will be said. It was striking to me how the definition of "sense" according to the "City mind" closely paralleled the concept of information in Claude E. Shannon's seminal paper, A Mathematical Theory of Communication (PDF link). There, "information" simply meant what was transmitted between a sender and a receiver. It gave rise to a consistent definition of the amount of information based on the Shannon entropy.

      However, we implicitly feel that this concept of information isn't encompassing enough to include meaning -- a vague term, but one we feel to be important. It seems that meaning enters information only as we (or someone) interpret it. In the words of computer scientist Melanie A. Mitchell, "meaning" seems to have an evolutionary value (Complexity: a Guided Tour, 2009). I feel that we could as well say, meaning may be bonded to the bodily and messy reality where flesh and blood living is at stake.

      Returning to the passage in the novel, for me it was read as a rare spark of "hard" science in Le Guin's scifi works. Was it possible that she actually read into the information theory for inspiration? I don't know. But it appears to have captured the tension in the "ever-thorny issue" of meaning vs. information. For the computers, "sense" follows the information-theory concept of information; but for the human people in the story, it "would be hard to make sense of" the information in that way.

      Do you have similar "aha" moments, where you find a insightful moment of grasping an important "hard-science" idea while immersed in a "soft" scifi/fantasy work?

      Or, we can talk about anything vaguely connected to this post :) Let me know.

      10 votes
    19. Any Rothfuss Fans in the House?

      Just finished The Wise Man's Fear, and I'm blown away by the massive amounts of world building interspersed by hella awkward sex scenes. Anyone else eagerly awaiting the next Kingkiller Chronicle...

      Just finished The Wise Man's Fear, and I'm blown away by the massive amounts of world building interspersed by hella awkward sex scenes. Anyone else eagerly awaiting the next Kingkiller Chronicle addition?

      9 votes
    20. Any predictions for The Winds of Winter?

      Not the release date (last intel: not in 2018, that's all we know), but the content. What's going to happen? Who's going to die? Here are my brief guesses for some of the main characters: Jon:...

      Not the release date (last intel: not in 2018, that's all we know), but the content. What's going to happen? Who's going to die? Here are my brief guesses for some of the main characters:

      Jon: Inhabits Ghost for a while after his human body's death (like Varamyr in the ADWD prologue), then gets resurrected by Melisandre. GRRM has said he always found it cheap that Gandalf returned hardly the worse for wear in LOTR, so I'm interested to see how Jon's different. In the show he seems slightly more carpe-diem, but it also seems like the show has mostly forgotten about it.

      Stannis: Takes Winterfell (look up the Night Lamp theory if you're not familiar with it) from the Freys and Boltons, and holds onto it against an eventual siege by the Others.

      Bran: The show has probably disproven this, but I still think he becomes a prisoner of the Others next to his uncle Benjen, because the Others can't kill a Stark for some reason.

      Sansa: I think Harry the Heir turns out to be a nightmare, but Sansa learns to deal with him and use the power of the Vale to help the Starks in their fight to retake Winterfell.

      Arya: I think she comes back to Winterfell and gives the gift of mercy to her mother, after seeing what she's become.

      Daenerys: I think she'll have a longer experience taking over the Dothraki than in the show, and she'll fly west across Essos, laying waste to the free cities and setting the slaves free. In Westeros it will be completely unclear to everyone whether she's mad or not.

      Tyrion: I think he will continue to fall into moral decay and after becoming a close advisor to Dany will encourage her "fire and blood" side. (Especially since she's his aunt!)

      Theon: Something about "what is dead may never die, but rises again harder and stronger" makes me think he's coming back as a wight.

      Victarion: Blows the horn and dies from it.

      Cersei: I think Jaime will kill her, and fairly early on. I think Aegon will have the role she had in the most recent seasons of the show.

      Jaime: I think he survives the confrontation with Lady Stoneheart and, disillusioned with both her and Cersei, leaves high society to lead the Brotherhood Without Banners.

      Brienne: Someone has to die with Lady Stoneheart, right?

      Aegon: I think he successfully conquers King's Landing. He'll eventually die by foolhardiness, but probably not for a while.

      What do you all think? Anyone I'm forgetting?

      9 votes