By a cool professor, obviously. I'm not literally looking for text books on fictional settings… that said, I would be willing to try one if you think it's particularly engaging. Anyway:
Frequently, I find that the details of the world get lost as the story progresses. That's understandable, but I'm really into the most minute details you can imagine. I like to know how the setting's fantastical traits affect everyday life, how buildings look, how people dress. Heck, I wouldn't complain about knowing the dietary requirements of fictional creatures. A good story and interesting writing are an obvious plus.
Books that have done this for me:
The Stormlight Archives books. Less so Mistborn, though I prefer it narratively. The detailed and frankly excessive explanations of wine culture and the overview of how storm shelters are built along with their cultural implications had me pumping my fist in excitement.
Dune, but only the first one. And, uh, really only the first half of the first one. Things kinda stopped making sense for me after that, and I can't even begin to picture what the civilization talked about in Frank's later books look like. I did not read his son's, so no opinion there.
The Three Body Problem. But… also only the first one. I'm not big on extremely hand wavey "science" stuff – as you might imagine – and after the first book it feels like the author let the broader concepts take the wheel. My opinion, of course.
The Lord of the Rings and friends: while I would have enjoyed a little bit more of a broader view of the setting in the trilogy and its prequel, the detail that's there is incredible. Especially a big fan of the clearly well considered (if fantastical) diets of our stout little friends.
Operation Hail Mary: almost plausible science! Societal ramifications! Actual descriptions of things in space and hypothetical technology!
Things that failed for me:
A Song of Ice and Fire. I hate to say it, because I wanted to love this. The level of writing detail is insane, but also a bit nonsense in many cases. And that would be okay, except that it's unfortunately nonsense in areas I know pretty well. The armor and weapon descriptions vary from amazing (Tywin's armor and certain swords) to really… just… not good (any description of a footsoldier's equipment). I enjoyed the details of how the society works when we got them, but I found most of it lacking for my tastes. I would have also appreciated some more social history. Also just not a fan of that much sexual and often very abusive content, but that's an aside.
The series previously mentioned that disappointed after the first book, of course. Hopefully I touched enough on what I liked that you can intuit what I didn't like about the sequels.
Thank you! This is my first post here, so let me know if I could improve it with an edit or repost.
by throbaway42069
1 Comment
Operation hail mary was incredible. I listened to that book 3 times in a week… love science. I’m just commenting to see what someone else recommends lol