So I got into reading heavily a few years ago and since then I've read ~200 books based on reddit recommendations. I'm mostly into Sci fi and fantasy but enjoy general fiction as well. I very much like philosophical, deep stories, especially with religious\spiritual\psychological themes or general existential questions. Also, the darker the better. Basically a good book, to me, is a book that introduces into my head thoughts I never had before, or challenges me with new ideas or ways of seeing the world and people. Lately, however, I feel like nothing impresses me anymore, it either feels generic, or just "been there read that".
My favorites:
- Second Apocalypse by Scott Bakker
- Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
- Hyperion by Dan Simmons
- Blindsight by Peter Watts
- Valis by Philip K Dick
- Diaspora by Greg Egan
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- Solyaris by Stanislam Lem
- 3 Body problem Trilogy by Liu Cixin
I would really love to get some recommendations from people who also read (and enjoyed) these books, since they are so unique I feel like only someone who read them will understand what I'm looking for.
I probably already read most of the recommendations I will be given, but maybe something new that I missed will come up!
Here are frequent recommendations that I actually did not like that much.
- Gormenghast – Sure the prose is great but prose for me is secondary and I didn't feel like there was anything else here.
- Ursula le Guin – I read a bunch, The Dispossessed was really great, the rest were okay+.
- China Mieville – I read perdido and the scar. Kind of like Gormenhast , in that they are very imaginative and well written but almost feel like Chat GPT was prompted for a string of events to form a plot, but no convincing emotional or philosophical punch behind them.
- Malazan – If I wanted to invest my time in reading history books I would just read real history books. I need more depth in characters personally.
No offense to anyone who likes these, I can definitely appreciate the works, just not what I am looking for.
Thanks in advance if you read this and suggest some recommendations.
by IsBenAlsoTaken