I want to see what people on Lemmy are reading. Can be unique in terms of lore, concept or even the cover. Mine are invisible monsters, battle royale and horrorstor. What about yours?
I want to see what people on Lemmy are reading. Can be unique in terms of lore, concept or even the cover. Mine are invisible monsters, battle royale and horrorstor. What about yours?
Children of Time was an interesting concept that I thought came together well. It’s a science fiction book with a split narrative where one half is about science experiments on a distant planet, and the other is about a colony ship that is searching for a new home. Because of the vastness of space, there are long stretches of time that are covered (I believe the book ultimately takes place over a thousand years). The two narratives overlap at different points.
Dungeon Crawler Carl may have one of the weirdest and fun plots I’ve read in a while. A guy named Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat named Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk are given the opportunity to be on the galaxy’s favorite game show. The show is very similar to an RPG with fighting monsters, level ups, rare items, etc. Also, due to unfortunate timing, Carl is participating in the game without wearing any pants.
I came to Children of Time via the path: A Fire upon the Deep -> A Deepness in the Sky -> Children of Time, which makes some kind of sense. The former two are by Vernor Vinge.
A Deepness in the Sky has some very obvious similarities - vast stretches of time, a specific kind of alien being, and certain kinds of encounters with them.
I read it first and I think I enjoyed it more, although both were very good. One weird little niggle I had with Children of Time was using the same name for characters across different generations. There was some in-text justification for it that I don’t remember and didn’t convince me.
Yeah, that name thing threw me for a loop for a while. The explanation was that >!memories are passed down through generations, so they kept names as well since they are kind of a continuation of the same person!<. I also read the second book, Children of Ruin, and it also plays around with similar names for different reasons. If the trend continues, I expect similar on the other books in the series.
I’ll need to read the other books you mentioned. They sound interesting! I’ve come to enjoy the books I’ve read with people living through long stretches of time. It’s a completely different genre, but Circe by Madeline Miller also deals with this.
I thought though that the original justification for the name re-use was not that? Maybe I have forgotten something though. But as I remember it the thing you’re referring to wasn’t actually mentioned at all until after the first name re-use so it would’ve been difficult to use it as a reason.
Children of Ruin is also a good read, and the stuff about language there was also reminiscent of some elements in A Deepness in the Sky.
One thing I found unsettling (and not necessarily in a positive way) in these books is how things were going to shit on some of these ships. I found it unnerving for some reason…
Thanks.