The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread Book • Page 111

Starting this today @a_cuppa_joe!

 

Awesome! Can't wait to hear what you think of it!

 

@Garrett @Vivatoto The Garden Knight

It's a start, anyway!

 

yesssssss

 

Finished The Book That Broke The World today. Excellent entry in this series but good lord I need diagram of some stuff in the book.

 

Going through the Herculean task of The Way of Kings. I read it when it came out but forgot wayyyy too much of it to keep up starting the second book, so re-reading so I can pick up Words of Radiance

 

Yesss, looove it. I need to write a review for book 1, been a bit crazy here recently, but I haven’t forgotten!

 

So I am finally starting my reread of Ryan Cahills The Bound and the Broken and then it’s onto Stormlight again. Maybe a few others in between but I cannot wait!

 

I just read The Fall last week. Very interested to see where it goes from there.

 

should I start this??? I'm right in between reads and I'm ready for a series again

 

Yes

 

I can't trust a Rangers fan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but ok fine

 

Ryan Cahill’s stuff is amazing. Do it dude

 

I re-read it this morning. It's good, I will say it could have been better but the writing definitely grows from here.

What tvck said. One of my favourite ongoing series.

You can trust a Celtic fan though. Read it!!

Here for the praise!! I'm re-reading the series before a potential beta read soon

 

still have to read the ice but had a blast with cahill. the fall/of fire and blood are enjoyable but derivative but the series gets better and better each book/novella and of war and ruin was an excellent ride

 

I'm doing a chronological re-read so did The Fall last night and then The Ice this morning and they're so dramatically different. Of War and Ruin is outstanding.

 

I definitely felt like The Fall had a loooooooot of Wheel of Time influence. I instantly loved it for all the obvious reasons, though. But who hasn’t overly derived early on in their writing only to go on and break into themselves?

I’ve got a few other books on my list to tackle before them, but I’m diving in this summer.

 

The Apocalypse Will Be Televised: Revealing Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman - Reactor

 

Alright so I finished Disquiet Gods and I think I'd put Demon In White slightly ahead at this time, as a lot of the events in this book are trippy, weird, fantastical, and I think need further explanation. I don't want to say that nothing outright doesn't make sense, but there are some things that aren't fleshed out enough or explained for my liking yet. I enjoy both fantasy and sci fi, but this started as sci-fi, so the fantasy elements need to fit within the world and the reasoning / laws established so I hope the last book adds the context for some of the events we've just had.

However, one thing that's bumming me out, is a few things I read about the author. Apparently he is / was a fan of Jordan Peterson, and so there have been a few accusations and interpretations of some right wing politics injected into the book, and thinking back there are a few passages that make me nervous about that (some that could be read as transphobia).

I love this series overall, so much so that I was considering getting a tattoo added to my arm that's going to be all fantasy / sci fi themed (so far just Robin Hobb) but now I'm wary about who I'm supporting.

Anyway... yea, great entry in the series and I'll have to mull over and do some research on the rest.

EDIT - Going to read Children of Time next as I'm still in the sci-fi mood.

 

That tracks, since he also shit on the Last Jedi for “ruining” Luke and the Jedi.

 

That's a debate I'll stay out of except for this - I'm not a huge star wars fan, but I think fan entitlement is real and an issue in multiple industries, but there's a lot of people who weren't happy with star wars with reasons along those vague lines, and as long as it's respectful and doesn't go after the creators personally, that doesn't bother me. Disagree or agree, there's nothing wrong with not liking a character act. It's all about how it's expressed so I don't know the context here. A shout out to a right wing grifter who is openly and overtly on the wrong side of social issues, is a little bit more of a red flag.

 

I mean, I find there is a lot of overlap with people who like Jordan Peterson and that particular brand of right wing worldview and people who dislike Last Jedi for the specific reason that it “ruined” Luke Skywalker. It’s not a perfect circle, but Venn diagram is pretty close.

One is obviously more of an overt red flag to be sure. But having read one interview with this guy I can pretty much tell you what brand of right winger he is. Or, at least, was in 2018 when the interview took place.

 

I've talked to Ruocchio a lot on discord, and I don't think he would be that overt in his writing, but that's just from what I know about him and how he's interacted with the public. Him being mega opinionated about entertainment (he literally doesn't like most things lol) is the main thing that annoys me about him, but he's never once made any kind of comment about right wing talking points, that I've seen at least. He's been super welcoming and accepting of people and their opinions. I at least never felt like anything in the book was throwing right wing talking points at me, and I'm pretty sensitive to that stuff. Even the super almost religious stuff.

 

I missed the Jordan Peterson reference / homage whatever you want to call it, till it was pointed out, and with that in mind, it made me reconsider just a few minor parts. The first being chapter 20 of Howling Dark where Hadrian visits Vorgosos and there is talk of all the 'medical' procedures that people can get done that the Chantry doesn't allow and it references gender / gender reassignment in a way, that if reading into it, could hint at possible author beliefs vs character beliefs. The second is that Hadrian refers to women characters with a 'my woman', 'their woman', vocab a lot, which even before the Peterson thing was always sort of cringey to me. I think for the most part, the female characters are written well, with their own agency and motivations, and aren't just 'main male character motivation fodder', but a few things like that have jumped out to me in which I think he could do better.

I am on Discord as well and shared these thoughts there and it's led to a pretty positive discussion in which Jenna (his wife) actually responded. I am in no way 'off' the series, and I also don't want to led this thread astray into a discussion on morality and what authors are okay / not okay etc (especially with modern values applied to sci fi / fantasy authors of old - we could go off on a real tangent).

 

Jenna is great and is really involved, so I'm glad it was a positive discussion. I think he's a really kind man and he hasn't really done anything to make me think otherwise at this point, nor have I noticed anything like you've pointed out or seen interviews where these things have been discussed (not saying they don't exist). It's hard to remember he was really young when he released EoS and probably started doing interviews. If anything he's a huge nerd who's mega opinionated, sometimes to a detriment lol. It's obviously not my place to deter people from feeling how they want to feel, I just felt like I've seen quite a bit of harsh criticism of him on places like Reddit because there's a bit of a hive-mind group of people who believe he's a plagiarist (which is insane), so I tend to take what they say with a grain of salt. Unfortunately I know people who liked Jordan Peterson prior to his descent into whatever he is now, so I understand people's reluctance for anyone who has past favorable opinions of him.