I need books to have a sense of humour. It doesn't need to be a comedy but if NK Jamison can write something as soul wrenching as the Broken earth series and make me laugh, there's no excuse. I also like it when queer people exist in a story/world. It doens't need to be central or anything but the world is more interesting with queer folk around. Romances subplots where it's pretty much "oh they're hot" do not interest me. I do realize that people hook up due to this response, but if a romance is taking up pages space then I expect there to be a realtionship and attraction that goes beyond "oh dang you sexy."
I am also sick of rape used as a way to establish that someone is the bad guy. If an author has to resort to playing the "oh and he's a sexual predator to!" card to establish their villain is soooo evil, I probably don't want to read their work.
Some books I've enjoyed recently and why I think I enjoyed them.
The tainted cup by Bennet – Fantastic characters, fun cast, lots of humour, and very cool worldbuilding. Queer characters also a plus.
The Dark Profit Saga by Zachiery Pike – Is satire that both makes fun of fantasy but also draws some uncomfotable parrels between the nastiness done for profit in the setting and the real world. Characters are all awesome and play on some tropes that I adore. Has an awesome bromance between a guy who won't talk and a guy that doesn't stop talking. 😛 Also the best fantasy saitre I've read that wasn't written by Terry Pratchett. Also made me laugh so hard I cried, and then made me just straight up sob at parts.
Schoolmance Trio by Naomi Novik – Great take on the magic school, played with tropes like prophecy. Great characters, had a true slow burn romance. Also had some non-standard romance which I also love. Also made me laugh a lot. Also love love love the friendships and that a core themes was about over coming class barriers.(I also enjoyed Uprooted, spinning silver and to a lesser degrees the dragon books)
The John Dies at the end series – The humour is stupid, the characters are numpties but I relate hard to some of the real world stuff also who doens't want to see some numpties try their best and become slightly better over time. The end of What the hell did I just read : A cosmic horror novel actually helped me get over my shit and talk to a doctor to start actually treating my depression instead of just…wallowing in it.
I did read the sci-fi by the same guy and it didn't jive as well. I didn't hate it but I didn't get excited for the sequal.
I adore Terry Pratchett. He makes me think and feel my feelings. I was going to list my favorites series within discworld but realized I was just listing all of them.
The Murderbot diares – There fun, fantastically written action and I love the mc. Also play with identity/philosophy in a way I found really neat.
Area X by Jeff VanderMeer -Weird stuff being weird and getting weirder.
The southern ladies guide to killing Vampires – This book made me laugh and cry. The characters felt so real and relateable despite the fact that they were so very different from me. The villain was terrifying by largely not depending on being a supernatural creature to get what he wanted. It is very much a spiritual successor to Dracula. Parts of this book made me feel sick with anxiety and the ending made me so freaking emotional. .
I'll stop the world – I don't normally like Teen mcs but these guys won my heart. The author captures the angst of a super angsty(and with good reason) teen without just making me annoyed. Also had a lot of queer stuff that wasn't like OH LOOK WE HAVE QUEERS but it was just yup queer people exists here.
The house by the Cerluean sea – It made me laugh, made me cry, was so wholesome. Also featured a delightful slow burn romance that starts as a friendship built on talking philosphy and drinking tea.
Second hand curses – I am a sucker for things where the idea of a narrative/stories having power is there. It's part of why I love the witches series from Terry Pratchett.
Will save Galaxy for food and the rest of the trio- One of the best uses of alternative swearing, goofy plots and playing with tropes in a delightful way.
Ancillary justice – Another Sci-fi work that does interesting things with pov and ideas around identity. Also Brek was one of the few vengeance driven characters I really found compelling.
Broken Earth by N K Jamison – Story made me cry laugh, and hot damn this series made me understand
Some trends you might have noticed – Stuff being interesting with idenity always gets my interest.
Books/authors I'm not interested in
Sanderson – I've read five of his books, which is more tries then I've given any other author. His writing doesn't jive. I know he's written a ton of books but there are so many other authors out there. I can go on at length about particular faults in the books I did read but to be succinct – His characters don't engage me, the sheer number of villains that are sexual predators is off putting and I honestly don't find his world building or plots fun.(Which may have more to do with the fact that I don't care about anyone in the world the anything else.)
Wheel of time – I read much of it as a teen and I could barely get through it then and I was far less picky back then.
Sword of truth – Just no. It's like wheel of time but worse in every conceivable way. (unless you have a bdsm kink then you might enjoy some parts a great deal)
Game of Thrones – I am sick of reading rape and sexual abuse so I'm not touching this series. Also tried to read the start of the first one and just not interested in that writing. Plus he hasn't really finished them.
Tomas Covenant – MC commits rape in early chapter and thought about how it made him feel like a man. I don't want to spend time in that headspace no thank you.
Brent Weeks – Read the Night Angel sereis, and it had the same issue as Sanderson with the wierd "Every villain is a sexual predator" thing as well as an added "Every female is either an evil slut, forced to become a sex worker or a virgin".A significant amount of book 2 was how both the love interestet and the mc hadn't had sex, weren't having sex for entirely stupid reasons. It was so freaking bad. Not trusting this author again. Also waaaay to many important things happened due to chance.
Curse of Chalion – The writing was gorgeous but the plot felt like it was from the 1st draft of something and the characters felt like they were just built out of steortypes. Plus the fact that 90% of the men in the book were either evil, stupid or both, was just cringy. Also for a book that was otherwise lacking in any kind of steamy content it brought of sex and sex workers A LOT.
So TLDR – I like books with compelling characters, humour, queer characters are a plus, the power of friendship, and cool magic is a plus, and I want as little sexism as possible and sexual assault is right out. Also prefer shorter series with no more then 4 povs.
I also don't mind if it's MG.
by Kylin_VDM