**I’m being a pretentious twat and I want a decently written fantasy or sci fi novel with some intelligent writing and decent characters**
I have only reread a great number of books and I’m out of touch with current ones.
**I dare you to suggest to me a good one. If you think you got something great… ignore the rest and pop it in. But I’m a bit tricky. If you give me terrible plot and worldbuilding I may just destroy you in chat. Read more for a little info on what I’m looking for…**
(This is coming from a guy who thinks the jedi are religious zealots who did horrible things to maintain power. Let’s face it, choosing to shove your antiquated ideologies down children’s throats is more akin to brainwashing than training. Killing someone in a bar and saying “Jedi business” and people ignoring it means… you’re pretty freaking violent, you kill those who disagree with you).
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I would prefer a novel built upon motives where the characters motivations are not black and white. For instance, in Dune, though there is a main protagonist, all of the characters are varying shades of evil and manipulative others in order to survive. (no one is the “good guy” everyone “wants something”).
OR give me a single fantasy book where the big bad does something other than freaking sit there and wait to be conquered. Give me a villain who’s actually intelligent or more than a 2 dimensional idiot.
ex. Matrix Reloaded…
The Merovingian: “Oh, yes. It is true. The Keymaker. Of course. But this is not a reason. This is not a “why”. The Keymaker himself – his very nature is a means. It is not an end. And so to look for him is to be looking for a means to do… what?”
Villains need power for a reason. Getting more power is not a reason, it’s not a why. Power is a means… to an end.
I also hate a villain who sits around waiting to be destroyed. No person, in their whole life, got to the top of the pile… and then sat there waiting to be destroyed. If they know you are a threat… they are actively going to try and kill you. Not just leave you on your merry way.
I want a man with a plan. Same with the protagonist. If they are meandering, complaining shits… I’m gonna hate em.
“Answer the call to action MF!”
(yes, Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion was one of the most whiny, bitchy, annoying, worthless protagonists I’ve ever seen everyone else eventually got it together… except him).
“You waste time hemming and hawing and someone else is gonna make that choice for you. Except you won’t know it, until you feel that bolt between your eyes.” – IT (2017)
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Please do not give me Harry Potter or something similar as an answer unless you’re being funny. (At which, I will say, haha, very funny. You got me)
(The worldbuilding in that book was utter trash. There was almost no continuity, the villain had no purpose to his existence, the hero was an idiot and relied on deus ex machina to win(Everything), the worlds economy made zero sense, and for some reason there’s a “government” that does… what, exactly?)
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**I know, I know. I’m being a jerk. But I still throw the gauntlet regardless.**
**Is there any discerning reader out there who accepts the challenge. Do you know a good writer, do they have interesting philosophies? Did they create an interesting world? Cool characters with fun motivations? … or do writers not make good stories anymore.**
I’m actually kind of begging. I don’t want to read a terrible book. But my critiques have started to screw me over and I’m having a hard time accepting bad media.
I feel like the guy in ratatouille “If I don’t like the food, I spit it out.”
I don’t mind reading classic literature but I’m wondering if there’s any new authors with skill out there? (I used to read a lot, if you give me something old, I may have already read it).
by Travelinjack01
5 Comments
– Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio (+sequels)
– The Will of the Many by James Islington
– A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (+sequel)
– The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
Have you ever read Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint? It is a post-apocalyptic fantasy novel, and it has an incredibly complex plot alongside a well crafted cast of unique and compelling characters.
The plot on the surface is very simple; our normal *world* gets transmigrated into the novel the Mc was reading, and the characters struggle to survive as they attempt to reach the end of the scenarios together.
Scenarios are quests, and they are what this apocalypse is built upon. They wildly range from surviving hordes of monsters to killing other people, and these scenarios are issued by Dokkaebi, who stream the tragedy of the apocalypse to beings called Constellations. Constellations are essentially gods, and they can be historical figures to mythology to everything in between.
I could probably stay here for hours going on about the worldbuilding, but I’ll just say this: it is amazing. ORV, at its core, is a meta narrative about how stories affect our lives. The Constellations are essentially us, the readers, while Dokkaebi are the writers/streamers. Throughout the series stories are important in a litteral sense: stories are a source of power, and characters get stronger when they accumulate more. It’s from this one idea that the entire worldbuilding is based on. It is a perfect example of a world being built deep instead of wide, and it is frankly fantastic.
As for the characters, I have to say they are not lacking either! The Mc alone is a delight in a frustrating way: he’s a total rat bastard and is incredibly smart and incredibly stupid at the same time. He’s a mortally grey, unreliable narrorator and has one of my favorite character arcs of all time. However, ORV excels at making sure the world does not revolve around the Mc.
The major and supporting cast are given their own arcs, with their own motivatios and goals. These characters feel like real people, and the way they react to the apocalypse reflects that. They are not perfect, and they are desprate, and this creates plenty or morally grey characters. In fact, there are so many morally grey characters that it makes good and evil characters stand out in unique ways. Characters having their own motivations creates interesting character conflicts, and there is not a single character in this novel that I can not understand or sympathize with, even the villains.
There are multiple villians and antagonists in the novel, and each and every one of them fit with either the theme or narrative of the story. I really can not go into all the villians without giving out some major spoilers, but let me reassure you; they are not the type of villians that sit around and watch things crumble around them. They take an active role in the story, even in scenarios where the characters are more worried about disasters and monsters.
The one thing thay may be a hang up for you is that there is currently only a fan translation of the novel. (Which is available for free in the Omniscient Reader subreddit) The translation is good, but it’s not great. The only offical translation of ORV is actually for the manwha that got adapted into a webtoon. The webtoon is very loyal to the novel, and a revised verson to the current fan translation. So if you want a very good translation and don’t mind a visual medium then that’s what I’d recommend. Hopefully you didn’t mind my rambling lol
I quite liked “The Priory of the Orange Tree” and thought the plot and world building held up quite well. It does a good job mixing political intrigue with the classical fantasy stakes, as well as intertwining the small character specific issues with the overhead plot and issue. The magic system was deliberately sparse, but well designed and mysterious, and I like the inspiration behind the two sides of the plot (eastern Vs western culture/aesthetics). This was the author’s first epic fantasy, but she clearly did her research.
Maybe of Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. The King/Villain has motives some people may agree with. He’s like a kilmonger/Thanos type character. The main protagonist has doubts about her mission to bring back magic. But the heroes are pretty much good guys which the only reason I finished. I don’t like morally grey characters as my protagonists.
Dude you really know what you are looking for xD.
So let me try to give some suggestions ^^
Maybe you have already read ‘the rage of dragons’ by Evan winter, but if you haven’t here we go.
The author takes a generic story theme ‘low born boy to hero’ but twists it. The whole story twists and turns around what rage and the want for revenge can make a human do. It shows how it shape’s and slowly even partly destroys our mc.
(Shortly to the zero to hero. It was refreshing to see a mc actually needing to work to become better and win. + he needed time to get better not the wishi washi ohh hey I inherited power XY now I’m f*** strong for no apparent reason.)
To the world building, it is established in the beginning that the nation has been at war (as actually the invaders not the defenders what I found interesting)for a long time, this way society has also build itself around it making social structure be build around it.
I also loved that this way neither the side our mc is on nor the opposing side is shown as completely evil or completely good.
An interesting twist to all of this is we have a third side , to which we know for now only that it is evil and distractive in the form of ‘demons’. (Though I feel we will learn more about them in the third book)
(And one last point for me. It is war. War isn’t safe , you don’t have plot armor. So yes your friends can die and you can get irreversibly hurt. Yes that is in option, it gave the complete story stakes.
What I feel a lot of story’s are lacking are those stakes. After all why should I fear the great villain or any kind of disaster if I have already learned that our mc and party just gonna be fine probably even save the day without casualties? Sure tell me the bbeg killed 1000x innocent but we haven’t seen anything from it. We only heard of it so why fear them? This book actually depicted what happened to the war zones and the people who where dragged into it. Making it all so you can grab it in a way (I don’t speak English as my mother language so I miss a few words and ways of saying things sorry..) and you actually fear for characters , or that they might not make it timely to rescue a village under attack. So that they find only the remains and grotesquely butchered remains of the citizens. That’s what I call stakes.)
Hope I did this wonderful two books I have read until now justice ^^” and maybe found an interesting book for you to read. Hf