A reader commented: Yup. If Netflix is that lacking in employees who understand their own viewers, they should call me. I'm more than willing to, for just their median salary, put in a couple of...
A reader commented:
It's shocking to me that Netflix doesn't know the answer to this question when everyone asked about it says the same thing
Yup. If Netflix is that lacking in employees who understand their own viewers, they should call me. I'm more than willing to, for just their median salary, put in a couple of hours of work per month summarizing relevant comments. I guarantee I'll do a better job, or their money back.
Between Game of Thrones, The Witcher, Dexter, and The Name of the Wind (to name a few), I have basically sworn off of starting series or books until I can independently verify that the thing I'm...
Between Game of Thrones, The Witcher, Dexter, and The Name of the Wind (to name a few), I have basically sworn off of starting series or books until I can independently verify that the thing I'm about to start 1) is completed (or at the very least, the sub-series or first arc is completed in the cases of very large "world building" type of series) and 2) the finale is rated by viewers or readers at least as high as the rest of the series. This chart popped up on Reddit many years ago and I've been meaning to look at the repo and apply it to more recently created tv series. The only thing I don't really keep this rule with is podcasts (shoutouts to Limetown, Malevolent, The Magnus Archives, and Old Gods of Appalachia).
Maybe it's because I've been reading less of straightforward fantasy trilogies, but it feels like stories such as Kingkiller, A Song of Ice and Fire or Locke Lamora were more of an unfortunate...
or books
Maybe it's because I've been reading less of straightforward fantasy trilogies, but it feels like stories such as Kingkiller, A Song of Ice and Fire or Locke Lamora were more of an unfortunate period. Perhaps it's because publishers themselves got wiser and more cautious? The authors I've been reading more recently seem to all have been much more reliable, releasing their stories at a good pace without compromising quality too much.
That said, I can't fault TV shows for having weaker endings than beginnings. It just seems overwhelmingly common in serial tales - I gather endings are much harder to write than beginnings (they're certainly harder for me to write as well). I'll take a reasonably satisfying and dignified ending over none at all.
It's interesting because I mostly no longer have this issue in part by diversifying my reading. Idk that there's a causal reason why those two things correlate but they have. I've also gotten used...
It's interesting because I mostly no longer have this issue in part by diversifying my reading. Idk that there's a causal reason why those two things correlate but they have. I've also gotten used to serial fiction.
But also I'm in the Locked Tomb fandom - I love the books, I read the subreddit still, I peek at Tumblr occasionally. And Tamsyn Muir has been struggling with her mental health and life things and just.... No one is pissed at her? There isn't that entitlement in the community. We love the books we got and we hope we get it Alecto but they're just so much fun to reread. (And if folks do pop up who just seem bitter they're discouraged from hanging around).
The author of He Who Fights With Monsters literally nearly died of illness and had to take a few attempts to restart his writing schedule. And I just didn't see that toxicity there either. (Again occasional folks maybe but I rarely saw it )
I don't really care what Rothfuss or Martin do anymore and haven't for a while. I think Rothfuss's other actions make him detestable, but I don't think either of them owe me a book nor do I hang any hopes on that happening. I wouldn't read them if they did.
It's so much better feeling this way, and idk if I've just learned to let go and move on, or if I've found healthier communities than, say, the ASOIAF ones online, but it makes just a huge difference. Plus expanding the authors I read means theres literally an unreadable amount of good books out there, far fewer written by entitled dudes who desperately need an editor (or anyone) to hold them accountable. All of which to say, there is hope out there and reading on going series can still be fun with the right community/attitude.
Yeah.... you can say that again. That said, I probably would finish reading the series if the finales were ever released. I'm interested in your recommendations since you seem to have good taste....
I don't really care what Rothfuss or Martin do anymore and haven't for a while.
Yeah.... you can say that again. That said, I probably would finish reading the series if the finales were ever released.
Plus expanding the authors I read means theres literally an unreadable amount of good books out there
I'm interested in your recommendations since you seem to have good taste. I recently read the first three Farseer books and am also on the third book of the first Stormlight Archive arc.
Speaking of authors who produce content on a reliable basis...... It's one of the reasons Sanderson is my favorite author. But also Stormlight is a really great series.
and am also on the third book of the first Stormlight Archive arc
Speaking of authors who produce content on a reliable basis......
It's one of the reasons Sanderson is my favorite author. But also Stormlight is a really great series.
Seriously. Even when there’s a break of a few years in the ‘main’ series, he still releases one-off secret projects, some of which have been among my favorites. Plus his communication with his...
Seriously. Even when there’s a break of a few years in the ‘main’ series, he still releases one-off secret projects, some of which have been among my favorites. Plus his communication with his readers is fantastic.
So I read most of Farseer but didn't really enjoy it. I really hit a wall with "horrible things happen to people over and over again" that Hobb does. That said in a similar vein, I do enjoy a few...
So I read most of Farseer but didn't really enjoy it. I really hit a wall with "horrible things happen to people over and over again" that Hobb does.
That said in a similar vein, I do enjoy a few of Mark Lawrence's series, both Red Sister and Daughter of Crows start different series in different worlds where young girls go to murder school/convent. And besides this thematic pattern (idk if he has a thing for this trope but it seems like it) they're different but in a way that rhymes if that makes any sense. Red Sister follows magic assassin nuns on a planet slowly dying to an ice age. Daughter of Crows follows perspectives both of an old woman who is clearly more than it appears and a child who has been turned/sacrificed/given to the Furies, where 100 girls start, and only 3 may graduate (as entities of necromantic vengeance.)
I adore The Locked Tomb series. You could read Gideon the Ninth and never read the rest but every book is packed with references and hints about what is going on in the bigger world, but each is told from the perspective of the character who knows the least about what is going on and, idk it just works. Gideon is a snarky jock with a sword and if that's off putting I swear there is depth in these books. But the tone is a turnoff for some folks.
On a gentler side - I love the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers - it's an anthology so a character or two carries over but not the whole group. I think she realizes alien cultures in space - even two different major human types of cultures in the larger galaxy - so well. These don't feel like humans in funny makeup to me. These make me feel happy, and occasionally sad in a slow achy way. Often because I wish the world would be better. The first is The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and it may be my fav.
The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin is the first in a series about people who can control earth magic, but are feared and hated. You follow three people, experiencing being an orogene in different stages of life.
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (book two just came out) is about a retired pirate captain, who is pressed back into adventure when her daughter is threatened. So she's got to get the crew back together for one last job. But this is very 12th century Arabian Nights inspired alternate fantastical history, where you are dealing with djinn, trying not to sin too much and go find ancient forbidden artifacts. It's so nice to have an older protagonist IMO.
Arkady Martine writes a space empire of Byzantine Aztecs from.he perspectives of the "yokel" ambassador who's been tagged to replace her murdered? predecessor, while being dropped straight into politics. A Memory Called Empire is the first! Also featuring poetry competitions for status.
And Ancillary Justice is the first in a trilogy set in the world of the Imperial Radch a society where there's just one social gender - everyone is "she" regardless of sex, which is mostly irrelevant in the Radch - but the MC is a single surviving portion of an ship AI who is on a mission. Space tech lets the AIs inhabit/overwrite the bodies of "ancillaries" and something happened to the ship that Breq was.
This world has since expanded with more books and some really interesting looks at aliens as well as other human cultures (not everyone is in the Radch, and it's an empire, so many are who don't want to be).
I’ve been sharing your book reccs with my partner this evening and WOW you’ve got some great picks! I can second most of these, and the rest are now at the top of my TBR. I recently read Fifth...
I’ve been sharing your book reccs with my partner this evening and WOW you’ve got some great picks! I can second most of these, and the rest are now at the top of my TBR.
I recently read Fifth Season on her recommendation and adored it (I think we chatted about this in a different thread?) I also enjoyed the first couple Wayfarers books. I wasn’t in the right headspace for these when I tried reading them the first time but I might be now. (My current read is Monk and Robot and it’s just hitting right.) I can’t say enough good things about the Locked Tomb books! I grabbed the first one in an airport bookstore because the review on the front was funny and intriguing. I read the first book in practically one sitting, and then literally read Harrow and Nona in one sitting back to back as I smoked a brisket.
Someone dropped off Ancillary Justice in our Little Free Library the other day. My partner already grabbed it, so I think that’s next.
I love Monk and Robot! Wayfarers can vary, I think the 1st and 4th are my favs but still all of them are good. I'm glad you like them! I do highly recommend a reread of TLT, I have highlighted the...
I love Monk and Robot! Wayfarers can vary, I think the 1st and 4th are my favs but still all of them are good. I'm glad you like them!
I do highly recommend a reread of TLT, I have highlighted the kindle versions in different colors depending on if it's making a clever reference or a clue to the tomb, etc. there's a lot there! (This may just be an excuse to reread myself, or listen to Moira Quirk do the audiobook.) (◕ᴗ◕✿)
Have you read Metal From Heaven, Fae? It's a debut so it has a lot of super rough edges but I really really loved it and I think we have similar tastes just based on this list, it's a bit like TLT...
Have you read Metal From Heaven, Fae? It's a debut so it has a lot of super rough edges but I really really loved it and I think we have similar tastes just based on this list, it's a bit like TLT or A Memory Called Empire. Communist swashbuckling lesbian political intrigue, that kind of thing. Really rich prose, a bit miserable but in an ultimately cathartic way.
The Gormenghast novels are also excellent fantasy-adjacent classics that inspired a lot of these books.
I've heard good, vague things about Ancillary Justice but this is the first time I've actually heard the premise, which sounds a bit The Left Hand of Darkness, so I'll probably pick it up next time I see it.
I have not read Metal from Heaven but it's going on my list! I love reading more queer fic. I never could get into Gormenghast. It is vaguely on my list to try again in the future. Ancillary is...
I have not read Metal from Heaven but it's going on my list! I love reading more queer fic.
I never could get into Gormenghast. It is vaguely on my list to try again in the future.
Ancillary is more active, more "adventure" or "action" than Left Hand. Breq is not an anthropologist, but she is having to navigate a galactic empire alone and without easy access to her repository of cultural context. And she misses her captain, and her ship body (and all her ancillaries). As a note, Leckie has said, I believe, that written today she'd probably have made the Radchaai use "they" or a neopronoun, but personally I like the way the use of "she" throws you. In Translation State some of those themes go deeper with a mix of aliens in it.
Also Murderbot if you haven't read it! It just wants to watch media, not kill the humans. Mostly.
Also Octavia Butler! Parable is popular for reasons right now but I love her Xenogenesis series. It's a story about aliens saving humanity from ourselves, or a story about colonization and collaboration. Or both.
If you'd like a better pitch on any of these, let me know, I could probably write a better one and not just a vibes based "I love this book"
I'm not sure what you mean about an unfortunate period - does this mean the writers don't have publishing support for future books? I don't know much about the writing or publishing industry, only...
I'm not sure what you mean about an unfortunate period - does this mean the writers don't have publishing support for future books? I don't know much about the writing or publishing industry, only the stories themselves and discourse around them.
I think that's the nice thing about the graph I posted. I'm fine with a finale that's only slightly worse than its own average rating. But some of them seem to go so far off-base that it's not even worth starting.
I mean those high profile disappointments haven't been reoccuring. Of course sometimes writers still can't finish their stories for one reason or another, but for the most part, successful...
I mean those high profile disappointments haven't been reoccuring. Of course sometimes writers still can't finish their stories for one reason or another, but for the most part, successful mainstream writers seem to be keeping up with their successful mainstream writing.
Cancellations is a big part of it. I'm still quite annoyed that they cancelled Lockwood & Co. after just the first season when it had a good viewer reception. And the book series it was based off...
Cancellations is a big part of it. I'm still quite annoyed that they cancelled Lockwood & Co. after just the first season when it had a good viewer reception. And the book series it was based off (of which I am a fan) was already complete, so no chance of a Game of Thrones fiasco there! They could perhaps have gotten through the remaining books in two more seasons or so. Why should I get invested if they're going to rug pull? I'd much rather them just not have bothered.
The other thing is the idea of optimizing for "second screen viewing". This offends me deeply. Maybe I'm just older and out of touch, but if I'm going to bother to sit down to watch a show, I'm going to watch (and if someone else doesn't want to pay full attention, that's on them), and I prefer a show that's clever itself and doesn't insult my intelligence. Half the fun is paying attention to clues and guessing! (And if the show is really good, rewatching for clues in earlier episodes that are recontextualized by later episodes.)
A reader commented:
Yup. If Netflix is that lacking in employees who understand their own viewers, they should call me. I'm more than willing to, for just their median salary, put in a couple of hours of work per month summarizing relevant comments. I guarantee I'll do a better job, or their money back.
Between Game of Thrones, The Witcher, Dexter, and The Name of the Wind (to name a few), I have basically sworn off of starting series or books until I can independently verify that the thing I'm about to start 1) is completed (or at the very least, the sub-series or first arc is completed in the cases of very large "world building" type of series) and 2) the finale is rated by viewers or readers at least as high as the rest of the series. This chart popped up on Reddit many years ago and I've been meaning to look at the repo and apply it to more recently created tv series. The only thing I don't really keep this rule with is podcasts (shoutouts to Limetown, Malevolent, The Magnus Archives, and Old Gods of Appalachia).
Maybe it's because I've been reading less of straightforward fantasy trilogies, but it feels like stories such as Kingkiller, A Song of Ice and Fire or Locke Lamora were more of an unfortunate period. Perhaps it's because publishers themselves got wiser and more cautious? The authors I've been reading more recently seem to all have been much more reliable, releasing their stories at a good pace without compromising quality too much.
That said, I can't fault TV shows for having weaker endings than beginnings. It just seems overwhelmingly common in serial tales - I gather endings are much harder to write than beginnings (they're certainly harder for me to write as well). I'll take a reasonably satisfying and dignified ending over none at all.
It's interesting because I mostly no longer have this issue in part by diversifying my reading. Idk that there's a causal reason why those two things correlate but they have. I've also gotten used to serial fiction.
But also I'm in the Locked Tomb fandom - I love the books, I read the subreddit still, I peek at Tumblr occasionally. And Tamsyn Muir has been struggling with her mental health and life things and just.... No one is pissed at her? There isn't that entitlement in the community. We love the books we got and we hope we get it Alecto but they're just so much fun to reread. (And if folks do pop up who just seem bitter they're discouraged from hanging around).
The author of He Who Fights With Monsters literally nearly died of illness and had to take a few attempts to restart his writing schedule. And I just didn't see that toxicity there either. (Again occasional folks maybe but I rarely saw it )
I don't really care what Rothfuss or Martin do anymore and haven't for a while. I think Rothfuss's other actions make him detestable, but I don't think either of them owe me a book nor do I hang any hopes on that happening. I wouldn't read them if they did.
It's so much better feeling this way, and idk if I've just learned to let go and move on, or if I've found healthier communities than, say, the ASOIAF ones online, but it makes just a huge difference. Plus expanding the authors I read means theres literally an unreadable amount of good books out there, far fewer written by entitled dudes who desperately need an editor (or anyone) to hold them accountable. All of which to say, there is hope out there and reading on going series can still be fun with the right community/attitude.
Yeah.... you can say that again. That said, I probably would finish reading the series if the finales were ever released.
I'm interested in your recommendations since you seem to have good taste. I recently read the first three Farseer books and am also on the third book of the first Stormlight Archive arc.
Speaking of authors who produce content on a reliable basis......
It's one of the reasons Sanderson is my favorite author. But also Stormlight is a really great series.
Seriously. Even when there’s a break of a few years in the ‘main’ series, he still releases one-off secret projects, some of which have been among my favorites. Plus his communication with his readers is fantastic.
So I read most of Farseer but didn't really enjoy it. I really hit a wall with "horrible things happen to people over and over again" that Hobb does.
That said in a similar vein, I do enjoy a few of Mark Lawrence's series, both Red Sister and Daughter of Crows start different series in different worlds where young girls go to murder school/convent. And besides this thematic pattern (idk if he has a thing for this trope but it seems like it) they're different but in a way that rhymes if that makes any sense. Red Sister follows magic assassin nuns on a planet slowly dying to an ice age. Daughter of Crows follows perspectives both of an old woman who is clearly more than it appears and a child who has been turned/sacrificed/given to the Furies, where 100 girls start, and only 3 may graduate (as entities of necromantic vengeance.)
I adore The Locked Tomb series. You could read Gideon the Ninth and never read the rest but every book is packed with references and hints about what is going on in the bigger world, but each is told from the perspective of the character who knows the least about what is going on and, idk it just works. Gideon is a snarky jock with a sword and if that's off putting I swear there is depth in these books. But the tone is a turnoff for some folks.
On a gentler side - I love the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers - it's an anthology so a character or two carries over but not the whole group. I think she realizes alien cultures in space - even two different major human types of cultures in the larger galaxy - so well. These don't feel like humans in funny makeup to me. These make me feel happy, and occasionally sad in a slow achy way. Often because I wish the world would be better. The first is The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and it may be my fav.
The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin is the first in a series about people who can control earth magic, but are feared and hated. You follow three people, experiencing being an orogene in different stages of life.
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (book two just came out) is about a retired pirate captain, who is pressed back into adventure when her daughter is threatened. So she's got to get the crew back together for one last job. But this is very 12th century Arabian Nights inspired alternate fantastical history, where you are dealing with djinn, trying not to sin too much and go find ancient forbidden artifacts. It's so nice to have an older protagonist IMO.
Arkady Martine writes a space empire of Byzantine Aztecs from.he perspectives of the "yokel" ambassador who's been tagged to replace her murdered? predecessor, while being dropped straight into politics. A Memory Called Empire is the first! Also featuring poetry competitions for status.
And Ancillary Justice is the first in a trilogy set in the world of the Imperial Radch a society where there's just one social gender - everyone is "she" regardless of sex, which is mostly irrelevant in the Radch - but the MC is a single surviving portion of an ship AI who is on a mission. Space tech lets the AIs inhabit/overwrite the bodies of "ancillaries" and something happened to the ship that Breq was.
This world has since expanded with more books and some really interesting looks at aliens as well as other human cultures (not everyone is in the Radch, and it's an empire, so many are who don't want to be).
I’ve been sharing your book reccs with my partner this evening and WOW you’ve got some great picks! I can second most of these, and the rest are now at the top of my TBR.
I recently read Fifth Season on her recommendation and adored it (I think we chatted about this in a different thread?) I also enjoyed the first couple Wayfarers books. I wasn’t in the right headspace for these when I tried reading them the first time but I might be now. (My current read is Monk and Robot and it’s just hitting right.) I can’t say enough good things about the Locked Tomb books! I grabbed the first one in an airport bookstore because the review on the front was funny and intriguing. I read the first book in practically one sitting, and then literally read Harrow and Nona in one sitting back to back as I smoked a brisket.
Someone dropped off Ancillary Justice in our Little Free Library the other day. My partner already grabbed it, so I think that’s next.
I love Monk and Robot! Wayfarers can vary, I think the 1st and 4th are my favs but still all of them are good. I'm glad you like them!
I do highly recommend a reread of TLT, I have highlighted the kindle versions in different colors depending on if it's making a clever reference or a clue to the tomb, etc. there's a lot there! (This may just be an excuse to reread myself, or listen to Moira Quirk do the audiobook.) (◕ᴗ◕✿)
Have you read Metal From Heaven, Fae? It's a debut so it has a lot of super rough edges but I really really loved it and I think we have similar tastes just based on this list, it's a bit like TLT or A Memory Called Empire. Communist swashbuckling lesbian political intrigue, that kind of thing. Really rich prose, a bit miserable but in an ultimately cathartic way.
The Gormenghast novels are also excellent fantasy-adjacent classics that inspired a lot of these books.
I've heard good, vague things about Ancillary Justice but this is the first time I've actually heard the premise, which sounds a bit The Left Hand of Darkness, so I'll probably pick it up next time I see it.
I have not read Metal from Heaven but it's going on my list! I love reading more queer fic.
I never could get into Gormenghast. It is vaguely on my list to try again in the future.
Ancillary is more active, more "adventure" or "action" than Left Hand. Breq is not an anthropologist, but she is having to navigate a galactic empire alone and without easy access to her repository of cultural context. And she misses her captain, and her ship body (and all her ancillaries). As a note, Leckie has said, I believe, that written today she'd probably have made the Radchaai use "they" or a neopronoun, but personally I like the way the use of "she" throws you. In Translation State some of those themes go deeper with a mix of aliens in it.
Also Murderbot if you haven't read it! It just wants to watch media, not kill the humans. Mostly.
Also Octavia Butler! Parable is popular for reasons right now but I love her Xenogenesis series. It's a story about aliens saving humanity from ourselves, or a story about colonization and collaboration. Or both.
If you'd like a better pitch on any of these, let me know, I could probably write a better one and not just a vibes based "I love this book"
I'm not sure what you mean about an unfortunate period - does this mean the writers don't have publishing support for future books? I don't know much about the writing or publishing industry, only the stories themselves and discourse around them.
I think that's the nice thing about the graph I posted. I'm fine with a finale that's only slightly worse than its own average rating. But some of them seem to go so far off-base that it's not even worth starting.
I mean those high profile disappointments haven't been reoccuring. Of course sometimes writers still can't finish their stories for one reason or another, but for the most part, successful mainstream writers seem to be keeping up with their successful mainstream writing.
Huh, Trek Enterprise, TNG, and Firefly are all in the reds .... How much were people hyped to begin with?
Cancellations is a big part of it. I'm still quite annoyed that they cancelled Lockwood & Co. after just the first season when it had a good viewer reception. And the book series it was based off (of which I am a fan) was already complete, so no chance of a Game of Thrones fiasco there! They could perhaps have gotten through the remaining books in two more seasons or so. Why should I get invested if they're going to rug pull? I'd much rather them just not have bothered.
The other thing is the idea of optimizing for "second screen viewing". This offends me deeply. Maybe I'm just older and out of touch, but if I'm going to bother to sit down to watch a show, I'm going to watch (and if someone else doesn't want to pay full attention, that's on them), and I prefer a show that's clever itself and doesn't insult my intelligence. Half the fun is paying attention to clues and guessing! (And if the show is really good, rewatching for clues in earlier episodes that are recontextualized by later episodes.)