askchapo

I just finished The Murders in the Rue Morgue, and now I'm reading The Mystery of Marie Rogêt. I don't know if you can call stories about crime "politically agnostic", but they're short and not theory at least. I've been getting more in to mystery fiction lately, I've always liked mysteries in other mediums but never really branched out towards them in books before.

By the way, does anyone here use BookWyrm?

Tyll - Daniel Kehlmann

its about a Jester in the 30 years war .. ,

will recomend it forever..

Buddy got me a compilation of Murakami short stories (Men w/out Women), after we both very much liked the film adaptation of Drive my Car. Never read him (other than another short, Barn Burning); he's good!

Darcy Coates is my current comfy author, nothing fancy just good slop. She has some haunted house books, haunted space ship books, haunted underwater sub books. Very nice stuff.

I read Children of Time recently, really liked it. I don't dislike sci-fi but there's so much of it out there that it has to be really interesting and unique to catch my attention; usually I just read the plot synopsis of books that I'm vaguely curious about but don't want to put in the effort to read (I did that with the Three Body Problem for example). So Children of Time's storyline of gradual yet rapid evolution of jumping spiders and how their civilization would be influenced by their anatomies and the species around them was something I hadn't even heard of before and I was very curious. Unfortunately I found the sequel to go in directions that I dislike (namely, horror elements) so I stopped reading halfway through the second book, and the third book wouldn't have done much for me either based on the summary I found. I understand why the author didn't want to extensively detail the evolution of another species (this time, octopi) but I'm still disappointed that he didn't because it was my favourite part of the first book.

I also liked the Foundation series for that same theme of development and evolution over a very long period of time. Now that I think about it actually, it might have been a factor in turning me into an ML, "psychohistory" is remarkably similar to historical materialism with a lot of the more difficult philosophy trimmed away. It probably also helped turn me into a fatalist. Hitchhiker's Guide is also a classic that I enjoyed but the sci-fi in there feels more of a device to help the comedy (which I have no complaints about!). I also liked Ringworld but I feel no compulsion to read the sequels.

On the fantasy side of things, I like The Inheritance Cycle a lot; the author has recently returned to the series as of 2023, with more books planned. It's not even an amazingly creative world or anything, it's just a series I read during my childhood and so I have fond memories of it. It does have my all-time favourite magic system too.

The Name of the Wind is an incredibly well-written fantasy book!

I wouldn't call it "apolitical," but it's not theory- Chaos by Tom O'Neill

I enjoyed Trust by Hernan Diaz. It's kind of hard to describe, but it's a novel set in the gilded age. It's told in a really neat way through letters and a book within the book.

I also liked The 7 and 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. It's a weird murder mystery with time travel elements.

Reading what I just wrote makes me think I'm bad at describing books because I probably wouldn't read them based on that.

The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. The premise according to NATOpedia:

The Amber stories take place in two contrasting "true" worlds, Amber and Chaos, and in shadow worlds (Shadows) that lie between the two. These shadows, including Earth, are parallel worlds that exist in — and were created from — the tension between the opposing magical forces of Amber and Chaos. The Courts of Chaos are situated at the very edge of an abyss. Members of the royal family of Amber, after walking in a Pattern that is central to Amber, can travel freely through the Shadows. While traveling (shifting) between Shadows, they can alter reality or create a new reality by choosing which elements of which Shadows to keep or add, and which to subtract. Nobles of the Courts of Chaos who have traversed the Logrus are similarly able to travel through Shadows.

I'm reading old science fantasy book series "the book of the new sun", by Gene Wolf. It is quite good, wildly random in the way plot progresses. I'd say it's a series of things that prevent the main character from ever getting anywhere. Currently on book 2 claw of the conciliator.

K J Parker is someone I discovered a few years ago. He writes this sort of non-magical fantasy, all set in various time periods throughout his made up world.

The first trilogy of his I listened to is the siege series, starting with 16 Ways To Defend A Walled City. I'm currently listening to the Saveus Corax series. The books all tend to place the main character in some sort of political quandary that they have to navigate themselves out of using their guile and wit. And they are usually not the best suited people for the leadership roles they end up fulfilling, yet they always find success.

The series has a sort of dry humour to it, and while everything has almost a one-to-one parallel with our world's history, the biggest difference is that the races are reversed, with the major Roman/European empires being comprised of black people and white people being referred to as milk faces in one book.

I really enjoy them and I think K J Parker is alright.

Also his pen name, K J Parker, was chosen because it is the name of a pen.

I just burned through the preview for The Quiet Damage, the new book about qanon, but it’s not on libgen and I don’t want to pay for it

It had annoying lib takes but I still couldn’t put it down.

I'm reading Jaynes Bicameral Mind which is interesting, before that I read Beloved beasts about the history of conservationism. I want to read the Cyberiad and Paradise Lost when I get around to it.