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Looking for fictional books (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 3 months ago by UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works to c/books@lemmy.ml

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I've recently gotten into reading. I realised how much I love fiction, and a couple of tropes. So I'm here asking maybe some of you know any books that have them.

I love it when the story focuses more on world building rather than character. The theory crafting I can do in my head, or just before I sleep, is priceless.

Here I'll contradict myself by saying a character development related point, but the more important one. I'd like to read more works that show some mysterious big-bad first as a rivalry, later as a friend. They soften up with the MC and we they become friends or allies or whatever. We get to see a BBEG of sorts's friendly and weak side. I get that it's a bit childish, but I lost my mind of how cool of a character they made the first time I read it. Now, it was in a manga, so I'd love to read an example that made this best or first.

Thank you in advance, even if you just name some genres or authors.

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[–] hotsox@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I recommend Locked Tomb series. It has both of youre asking for. Also, such badass protagnist and overall great writing.

[–] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I looked it up the the first this I saw was "Doctor Sex". Peak fiction. Anyways, do I read the "half" books (The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex, As Yet Unsent, The Unwanted Guest)?

[–] hotsox@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm sorry maybe you found the wrong series. I'm talking about series with the books-Gideon The Ninth, Harrow The Ninth and Nona The Ninth. Its written by Tamsyn Muir

[–] hotsox@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Holy shit. I just looked up what you're talking about. I didnt even read those. Those are some random side stories. Start with Gideon The Ninth. Excuse me while I read Doctor Sex now :D

[–] hotsox@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 months ago

PPS, Dr Sex sounds much more scandalous than it is. Its actually Dr Sextus and I dont think he's ever called Dr Sex in the mainstream books iirc. But Muir is the Mother of Memes so I won't say it's beneath her to call him that.

[–] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

Alright, will do. I have already started Mortal Engines, but this is def 2nd, the covers and titles are way too cool and edgy for me not too read it while im still a teen. Ods are that you'll finish this sooner than I'll finish a quartet so if you remember I'd love to hear an updated "what to start with" or if these extra stories are any good.

Thanks for recommending them tho.

[–] CaptainBlagbird@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

The Silmarilion

[–] CaptainBlagbird@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

The Discworld series has nice world building, however the individual books focus on different characters for telling a story and getting to know that world.

[–] CheeryLBottom@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I'm partial to Ankh-Morpork and the City Watch for some reason ;)

[–] JowlesMcGee@fedia.io 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If anyone is interested in Discworld for world building, then I'd recommend skipping the first few books. They were written before Terry Pratchett had a good grasp on the world and the characters. They can be worth coming back to later, but I definitely recommend not starting with them. "Wyrd Sisters" and "Guards! Guards!" are pretty good entry points.

[–] bramkaandorp@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

I would even go further back, and recommend Equal Rites.

[–] theRealBassist@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Dungeon Crawler Carl and The Bobiverse are both amazing series that are worth a glance at.

[–] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

These are probably not what I'm looking for. But now I know where that one wierd first person rogue like came from. Thanks!

[–] amzd@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Read the Wheel of Time, talk to you in 3 years

[–] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I think I heard the name once, but I don't know anything about it. Why? what

[–] JowlesMcGee@fedia.io 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Not the same guy, but I started reading it a few weeks ago and just finished the fourth book last night. It does a pretty good job at both world building and character development in my opinion (though it really shines across books). In my opinion, the first book does a good job of introducing new elements of the setting at a good pace, and uses it's characters who know little of the world to impart how special/rare some of the things are.

[–] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Still donno why be said see you in 3 years. Is it that long?

[–] JowlesMcGee@fedia.io -1 points 3 months ago

Oh, yeah, they have a reputation for being long. There are 14 books total I believe, and each is pretty long.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wheel_of_Time

That said, I was able to read the first the books with an average speed of a book a week (though I spent a lot of the weekends to do so), so I wouldn't say they're crazy huge books.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

First in a series called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.

A young boy named Daniel is taken by his bookstore-owning father to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.

By tradition, first time visitors are allowed to select one book for which they will become a lifetime guardian.

Daniel chooses "Shadow of the Wind" by Julian Carax and quickly becomes enthralled by it. As he tries to find out more about the book and the author, he finds that someone is systematically collecting all of Carax's works and burning them.

[–] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'll leave the thrillers for my dad. Still, I feel the love in this reply, so I'm sorry. I don't think I'll be reading this.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Not really a thriller, more of a mystery + a love story. It's a fantastic read. Especially considering it was translated from Spanish.

[–] theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If you like world building then check out Brandon Sanderson and his cosmere related books. They all play out within the same cosmere and all build upon that same world with different stories. I started with Mistborn and think that is still my favourite but it is a hard decision as there is a lot of good books / series.

You could also try Stephen Kings - The Dark Tower and then go down the rabbit hole of a plethora of other books that all happen within the same world and have various different connections to The Dark Tower books and midworld.

N.K Jemison - The Broken Earth trilogy was pretty decent in terms of building the world it was set in and I think is pretty highly regarded for that element.

If you want a bit of space operas then I think Simon R Greens - Deathstalker books are really great and build a whole quirky universe for itself.

Maybe check a few of those out :)

[–] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Cosmere feels like it focuses on politics. If I'm right I'd rather not read it. I'm not even interested in real life politics.

I heard a buch of praise for Stephen King and someone else also said the dark tower. I think I'll give it a shot.

Couldn't find a wrong word for The Fifth Season, it got on my list.

I don't think Deathstalker is for me.

Still, thanks! I'm probably set for a long while.

[+] L3dpen@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

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[–] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I thirst for befriending "bad" guys, so you sold me. Rest of the text was wasted /j. I won't even read reviews, I trust you stranger.

[+] L3dpen@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

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[–] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Well, just finished reading the first book. I took my sweet time lol. If I have to give a one sentance review I'd say that "I'd like to like it". The ending was very good, and I'm looking forward for their andventures. However all of part one and the first half of part two were spiteful.

The main characters survived everything with plot armor, they all should have died. >!When they got thrown off a multi story moving city, soft ground is a bullshit excuse, there weren't even injured. Later Kate asked the antagonist about his secret evil plans, and were just sent away, Tom got "killed". You could argue they just got lucky or "you wouldn't be reading about them if nothing extraordinary happened". But you can't even argue that a terminator just shut down, it's batteries emptied, JUST when it was about to kill Hester. And Tom was praised, he got bitch slapped, and almost died!!< I also feel like the charscter development was a little bumpy, but it's talking about scenarios that I never faced before or ever thought about, so instead of criticising it maybe I should learn from it? Still, at the end characters started dropping like flies, it was supposed to be emotinal, but because of the above mentioned reasons it didn't feel impactful. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. The writer wrapped things up so well, that I'm looking forward of the next piece.

Long wall of text over. I was expecting some high fantasy sort, with the bbeg criteria, but I didn't know that a post-post-apocalyptic world goes this hard. While none of my negatives have any weight if you factor in the fact that this is probably a kid's book.

Shaw reminds me of Silksong...

[–] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Hello, it's me again. With a book club-like update. Just finished the 2nd book, Predator's Gold. However I'll just say it straight on, it was bad. The plot armor driven plot didn't subside. I remember you saying that you liked the 2nd least, so I guess.. same. I honestly don't feel like reading the next two.

I don't think I'll over-analyze this one, but I'll just say that it was so uninteresting and boring that I've put off the last chapters for days, read them one by one. And the big drop at the end, the climax, was, again, complete nonsense. >!Tom survived getting shot point blank in the chest. The stalker 2.0 got autobalanced (tf2 reference) in the middle of killing the MCs. Hester did something so unreasonable that it is in no way justifiable as a tantrum. One of the most feared predator cities just killed themselves. And the drop of Hester being pregnant is irritating, very "book end" of it, but also let's think about it. For the 2nd half of the book they weren't even close to each other, except for when They came back from the "prison" and when Tom was dying. So there are two options: Hester had intercourse with a dying(unconscious) guy (peak fiction?), or they tried for baby when they were speeding back to the city, when it was clearly uncomfortable for the both of them. I won't read back, but IIRC they were both filled with guilt and barely talked. Or did they have fun in the early chapters? In that case, good to know a city can move half a world's length within a couple of months (before pregnancy is noticeable or a hindrance)! !<

I'll think this is the end of my journey with this one, overall it wasn't bad, I'm just disappointed a bit. And definitely not interested enough to continue. However, if you say that the next two books are good (AKA way better), I can imagine myself reading them and writing up the first two as setup.

[+] L3dpen@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

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[–] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I’m really sorry to have put you through that D=

haha, don't be :D I'm happy that I met this world. It's just not that good.

I don't have a favorite book. I'm very new to reading books. 21st century childhood got to me as well. But I'm enjoying it so far. Might even me a better form of media than series. While I'm also not native, and for whatever reason I don't read in my mother tongue, but english. For that reason I struggle with vocabulary. One good thing I can definitely say about Mortal Engines is that the language is simple, I barely had to look stuff up.

I can tell you manga or smth tho.

[+] L3dpen@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

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[–] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Well, I'd give a 99% that you're going to find it cringe, but I made this post about The Skeleton Soldier Failed to Defend the Dungeon. It had that absolutely amazing character 180° plot twist, and even if everything else is very poorly written, that singular character is awesome.

The way I actually got into reading is a bit embarassing, only two of my friends know of it. But the watered down version is that after years of everyone around me watching anime I also caved in, tried it, and I very much enjoyed one. Because it was (and still is) unfinished I decided to read the light novels about it and realised how awesome reading is. My familiy nagged me about reading, and I did some back in the day, can't even remember how old I was (single digit for sure), however school started and I was forced to read some of the worst pieces of word combinations that ever hit my ear, long and boring too. I'm not kidding when I say one of these mandatory reads made me hate women for a while. Thankfully I forgot all of it, like a trauma, all I remember is that it was hell reading that (actually couldn't even read it, I listened to it.) Anyways, even if it's cringy and a bit wierd, I'm still happy about it. I get to enjoy this hidden gem of media, and I'm loving it. So I'm searching for new experiences. This post backlogged me for a year at least.

I'm writing this omw home on a bus, if there are typos; sry :p

[+] L3dpen@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

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[–] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You can color me surprised. I'm not really into this sort of progression because it's almost always lazy. But I feel like Skeleton Solder did an above average job. But I do have to admit, that most of the mangas that I like are like this. I have no idea why, I refuse to believe a leveling system is good writing.

I love you're comparison to fast food! Fits so well. As I said, for me reading a "normal" book takes energy and effort, I need to learn new words to even understand the scenery. Don't get me wrong, I do want to extend my vocabulary and I also enjoy it. But it is nice to immerse myself into something for hours easily, and for that I do need myself some fast food from time-to-time. Anyways I just said (in 3 lines) that don't feel bad for recommending (I enjoyed Mortal Engines as well, but not enough to finish it, and the characters actively annoyed me), I'll probably want to search for these sooner or later and now I don't need to find a site.

Reading your other comment: Oh I feel bad for you already. If Christina's fall got you idk how you'll l handle S3's ending. But I won't say a word more. Please update me on how heartbroken you are.. O-or because you knew what was going to happen because almost all of these stories are the same, and you said you've read them a bunch.

Other thing that interests me is, and I know this might be reaching, it's okay if you wouldn't want to answer, is how old are you? You said "used to be" does that mean I've struck some nostalgia in you?

Is there space for one more paragraph? Do you use ebook readers? I mean like a device with an eink screen. I'd like to buy one soon but I have no idea what to look for in them.

[–] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Best I could do was to bookmark your comment. If I remember I will, but for obv reasons I can't make promises.

[–] Vendetta9076@sh.itjust.works -1 points 3 months ago

The Expanse by James SA Corey does a fantastic job of world building as well as character building. I highly highly recommend them. That and/or Dune.