Mine is the wings of fire series, it is a “kids” novel (think like warrior cats age range)
But Tui T sutherland is so good at writing characters and introducing and describing worlds and characters that i reread it every so often. Like, she managed to write a book from the pov of a mind reader and it works.
Every book is from a different character’s pov and each character feels wholly unique.
The main issue with the series is that the plot is kinda average at best, the characters really carry the story.
The Phantom Tollbooth
It’s an amazing book, but no one would consider it a masterpiece.
I absolutely consider Phantom Tollbooth a masterpiece. There’s nothing else like it, and it has extraordinary persistence.
Sword of change series, I hold it dear but it has it’s issues.
Fun fact! Erin Hunter is a pseudonym for a collective of authors including Tui Sutherland! She wrote Wings of Fire after she stopped writing/editing Erin Hunter books. I found out while I was working in an elementary school library.
Not my favorite, but I recently finished the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas. Nothing in them is original, and she heavily borrows from folk tales and mythology, but she makes it very satisfying. She’s REALLY good at knowing what her audience wants, imo, so it was fun to read.
The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb. Not a masterpiece but my favorite novel, second to She Comes Undone also by him.
Oh sweet I get to vent about The August Few: Amygdala by Sam Fennah.
So Sam is primarily a youtuber, he makes animations with these very unique and somewhat disturbing characters and over time he made a bit of a narrative using them, eventually he made it into a 1000 page book. As one might expect looking at his animations this book is very weird, it’s got some extremely interesting and alien worldbuilding which challenges the reader a lot. As a piece of art this book is incredibly effective in that it makes the reader reflect on it’s far reaching themes, but as a book I really kinda hate it.
At the core of the book is the question of what the ideal society is, but only one option is ever really presented, what I can only describe as anarcho-dawinism. When one character opposes this state and proposes the possibility of a kinder and more inclusive society she is betrayed, hung from a balcony over a crowd, she orgasms while choking to death, and “When the body was lowered, it was groped, defiled, spat upon, split.” This is not presented as a bad thing, simply as the people rejecting her idea, the language used is very “marketplace of ideas.”
At the start of the book Sam tries to disavow himself of what he wrote in an author’s note, part of which reads: “The views of the characters are not the views of the author. This book is not a promotion of ideas, but an exploration of ideas.” Sam did not need to make the characters orgasm when they died, he did not need to make them reproduce via necrophilic rape, he did not need to make every characters a literal baby eating cannibal, and he did not need to present social-darwinism as an ideal society, but he did, he choose to write these things.
I hate this book, I read it over a year ago and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, it is a great piece of art.
Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
I absolutely loved the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. I cannot explain how great my disappointment with the Eragon movie was after how fantastic I thought the books were.
Lucky Wander Boy.
Great book, but the “ritual” scene bars it from ever being a masterpiece.
I loved the Black Jewels books even though I don’t think they are good. The worldbuilding was vivid.
Kind of feel that way about all the Brandon Sanderson books. I can’t say they are good but good to read just because you do drop right into those worlds.
I liked the Dresden Files. Just campy magic gumshoe stuff.
Also a fan of Lamb and Blood Sucking Fiends. Good reads, but not any big huge life shaking moments like other books. But I remember loving the style.
I was going to offer another Jim Butcher series, the Codex Alera. It’s a hack-and-slash mix of Roman fantasy and Pokemon. Fantastic stuff.
Oh man, that’s a lot of what I read.
Maybe the ‘My Teacher Is An Alien’ series by Bruce Coville, the ‘Blood Oath’ series by Christopher Farnsworth, and the Serpentwar Series by Raymond Feist.
Bruce Coville is such an incredibly fun read for young Sci-Fi fans. I flipped through some of the Aliens Ate My Homework series recently now that I’m older and it’s still a great time. Coville really did well at writing in a way that makes it understandable and enjoyable for kids without dumbing down ideas that would help spark the imagination and garner understanding for more advanced works.
I should flip back through the My Teacher is an Alien series too at some point. I’m pretty sure I at least still have a copy of My Teacher Flunked the Planet here somewhere.
george rr martin’s wildcard series
its actually written by many authors so the quality/styles fluctuate. no real ending either as its more an episodic alternate reality. feels like its missing cohesion.
We are Legion (We are Bob). It’s probably the most fun I’ve had reading science fiction. It’s not a masterpiece, but damn is it entertaining! The whole series is pretty great, and there’s another book coming any month now.
In a similar vein I’m really enjoying the Murderbot series by Martha Wells. It has a similar feel and it has an addictive action pace with snippets of deadpan humor and wit. If it was a movie it would be a popcorn muncher.
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll check that out after I finish A Little Bit of Hatred.
I just found this can be downloaded from archive.org. Does anyone know whether this is legal / OK? https://archive.org/details/taylor-dennis-e-bobiverse-1-we-are-legion/Taylor_Dennis_E_-_Bobiverse_1_-_We_Are_Legion
I have no idea. Sorry. But if you can’t afford to buy the book in a better format, then just read it from there! I don’t think Dennis will miss nine dollars or whatever the book costs.
I love this series as well. Definitely not a masterpiece, but it is great sci fi.
The Harry Potter main series, for which I have a major case of nostalgia. I’ll happily and accurately slag JKR off for being a dimwit with terribly stupid opinions, who would need to be both smarter and more committed to make her “make it up as you go along” worldbuilding make any sort of sense at all. Which, bluntly, it doesn’t.
But considering how much of a turnip she is, parts of her worldbuilding is strangely compelling while others fail basic self-consistency.
If you really think about those books as a grown up some of the plot holes are big enough to drive a goddam truck through.
As a kid having their first experience of a magical universe though they were goddam incredible
If you enjoyed HP, you might like the Tapestry series by Henry Neff.
Excellent story with some similar themes, and even better, he’s a genuinely good person.
I was thinking about this. JKR is really a terrible writer. All of the later ret-conning to fix the plot holes is worse than just letting the plot holes lie. (like breaking all the time turners so they don’t get used again).
But it is amazing how captivating these books are inspite of the fact of how poor they are. It’s an imaginative world with exceptionally clear flaws, but one I want to revisit regularly.
But fuck JKR and her shitty politics.
Edit: maybe it’s not technically ret-conning. But the whole two book gap or whatever is just so lazy.
The Redemption of Althalus. Genre - fantasy. I don’t know why it holds such a dear place in my heart, though I read it the first time as a kid.
OMG I read that also as a kid and I loved it! I don’t even remember a lot from it but you just opened some memories I’ve totally forgotten.
