Dunno if we’re still doing scifi recs and I have absolutely no idea about audiobooks. But Vernor Vinge is good. I understand that an audiobook of A Fire Upon the Deep exists. I would imagine that there is then probably also an audiobook of the sequel, A Deepness in the Sky. I particularly liked those. Also seconding everything @Musarex said about Neal Stephenson’s Anathem, though I’m having trouble just quoting the post. Not so interested in his historical fiction stuff. Loved this one. I had a total blast.
afutd will stay with me forever. Some books build goddamn core memories. And Fraa jad basically is my dad...
Have you read Children of the Sky? It's a direct sequel to AFUTD and it some really cool worldbuilding regarding the Tines.
I JUST finished the lady's guide to petticoats and piracy and FUCK DAMN I quite like it??? it's, DAMN! but I would recommend reading its previous book (the gentleman's guide to vice and virtue) first!!!!
I've always wanted to read Children of the Sky, but it remains resolutely unavailable in this country.
Do you like the Cthulu Mythos? Do you like diverse casts with found-family storylines, overcoming mundane but horrible adversity, facing horrorterrors and clever worldbuilding? Then please please read or listen to the Innsmouth Legacy series by Ruthanna Emrys! I really enjoy the audiobooks - which are only for Winter Tide and Deep Roots, because the Litany of Earth is maybe ten pages long - and the person who reads them, Gabra Zackman, is so good at doing the voices I can tell which character they're reading from the next room over, even when I can't make out the words themselves. Winter Tide blew my mind when I first heard it - it's EXACTLY what I've always wanted from Lovecraftian fiction, and I just Can't recommend these enough, seriously. Please join me in this tiny fandom, its so lovely.
Anyone have any recs for romance books for people who hate romance? I've been told I'm judging the genre unfairly and I want to see if it's true.
What secondary genre sounds the most interesting to you? Mysteries, spy thrillers, fantasy epic quests...?
@ChelG The God Eaters by @jacktrash (available to read online for free here) is both a romance and an action/adventure fantasy western. It's Excellent, also.
Fantasy and horror are my faves, and I need leads who don't act like dicks to each other and things to actually happen beyond them dancing around each other. Also, no drawing out of easily solvable problems.
To address these concerns - while there's a certain amount of dickishness for a bit, they work past it and get together long before the end. The plot is fast-paced and the problems are dealt with is a way and at a pace that feels real. Also the magic system is So Good, I love it.
The Oceana series on AO3 is a bit long, but I remember really enjoying it; the romance takes a bit of a backseat to the plot, but it's still very much there. Pulling towards published works to pay for, the Elemental Masters series by Mercedes Lackey is a good historical fantasy series with a variety of approaches to romance between the leads; all of the plots are loosely based on the structure of a given fairy tale, but often enough of their own original thing that it's more of a fun easter egg than necessarily a feature.
So, having read a bunch of these and having one of them still on my bookshelf even after the general purges that happened to my 14-year-old book collection, I would like to add the caveat that Mercedes Lackey has very much built a career out of writing exactly what Mercedes Lackey felt like writing at the second she was writing and not worrying about much else, which, from what I know of Chel's media tastes, I suspect they are likely find frustrating. I don't particularly read romance (though I was shocked as a teenager by how much I loved Pride and Prejudice), but I know Unpretty has a lot of romance recs in her book recs tag and this thread, especially a lot of ones that aren't m/f and are by POC writers. She's a fantastic writer, so I'm inclined to give her taste some weight, though I doubt it's the same as yours. There are also a couple of romance publishers in the thread I linked talking about their search systems, if/when you have a sense of what you want to look for or avoid. [Edit on 9/17/2023 was to fix the tag link]
Gonna poke my nose in and rec The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater O: Most people know her more for the Raven Cycle bit rather than this little YA standalone but I really liked it! Which is impressive given that it contains two things that usually put me off immediately- first person perspective (which it takes a book I really like to make me look past, like the Inheritance Trilogy by NK Jemisen, also another recommendation, or The Name of the Wind) and a romance- a het romance, even. I wouldn't call it a romance book, but it does CONTAIN romance between the leads, but I honestly think it worked fine and didn't detract from the main plot of a deadly race with capall uisce or 'water horses', large horses that live in the ocean most of the time, are mostly carnivorous and can and do kill people dead when they can. It also has a neurodivergent secondary character so that's nice owob
the Matthew Swift novels (A Madness Of Angels, The Midnight Mayor, The Neon Court, and the Minority Council) by Kate Griffin are all really very excellent. they're in first person, but alternate between "we" and "i" when referring to the narrator, for plot reasons. if you like urban magic (lamppost dryads, curses sent through email, at one point the narrator invokes the terms and conditions of an oyster card to act as a ward), a narrator who Didn't Want To Be Dragged Into This But It Was Inevitable, and a very distinctive narrative style, i'd recommend it. it doesn't contain any real romance to speak of; there aren't a lot of recurring characters from novel to novel, except for matthew swift himself. if you don't like novels where nearly every named character dies in usually gruesome ways, i'd avoid it. as for possible triggers, there's no sexual assault, but there's generally a lot of gore and death; in book three there's several instances of Spoiler: gore, eye horror people's eyes being burned out, reduced to black jelly and bleeding down their faces and book four's main plotline is about a drug industry; there's a short scene where Spoiler: non-consensual drugging and the effects thereof matthew swift loses control of his body due to a drug injected against his will and watches the blue electric angels which possess him torture a man while he begs them to stop inside of his head, to no avail. here are some quotes, in no particular order:
Looking for book recs and was pointed here. Gonna ask for some semi-specific recs here, ok if nothing comes to mind, figured I'd just try my luck. 1) I haven't read much of any good gay fiction focused in a fantasy or sci-fi setting. Anyone have any in mind? 2) Any stories that have a good abuse narrative (axis of abuse isn't super important, can be familial, peer, spousal, etc). My one requisite is the person dealing with abuse isn't killed.
Her shit's kind of dark as fuck but Caitlín Kiernan has a collection of sci-fi short stories called A is for Alien that are gay as fuck. A lot of the stories. Some of them also have trans vibes. Which makes sense given that she's a trans lesbian.
For number one, I absolutely love the Kria series by Megan Derr. Technically romance but definitely the most Epic Fantasy of her series, with lots of War Between Nations and fantasy politics to chew on. Bone Dance by Emma Bull is a really great cyberpunk novel with a queer focus. Edit: also Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner! Mannerpunk, not technically fantasy (fantasy-esque setting but no magic if that's a deal breaker) but absolutely a delightful book and very gay.
