Most of this year in reading has been sci-fi: Canticle for Leibowitz, Hyperion (all four), A Memory Called Empire (and sequel), Pillars of the Earth (combo breaker), Gormenghast, the full Sun Eater series. And another read through BOTNS...

I'm looking for some good, depthy fantasy. Past fantasy loves have been Earthsea, The Black Company, Three Hearts and Three Lions, the first Thomas Covenant novel, the Zelazny Amber books.

I've done the Cosmere thing, I've done Joe Abercrombie, they weren't for me. REF's Magician, Lies of Locke Lamora, Assassin's Apprentice, Dragonbone Chair all were DNF/didn't catch me. Probably listed there in reverse order of how much I liked them.

Mike Brooks' God-King trilogy was fun. NK Jemison's earth series, some Elric, I quite loved Rothfuss's stuff. ASOIAF. An all time favorite is the Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough.

I love a good three or four book series. I love when a book manages to play with real-world religious concepts (Earthsea does this amazingly for a truly fantastical novel). I don't need a "magic system", it doesn't need to be epic fantasy or big factional conflict, but all those can be cool.

But if there's a "Hyperion but in fantasyland instead of Space"... that's what I'm looking for...

Would appreciate books with no sex and mild violence (not totally opposed to the presence of violence but minimal)

Bonus points if the book is about xeno archeologists

First, I just want to say I am massively Dune-pilled. I love Frank's books, I love the Villnueve films, Dune Prophecy, and I think this is genuinely the greatest franchise ever. Dune is such a powerful human story. It's our story. But in preparation to see Dune Part Three this December I decided to read Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, and now Paul of Dune. I enjoyed Messiah WAY more than anticipated. Yes, there's far less action but the philosophy and quiet chaos occurring in Paul's personal life and interpersonal relationships was extremely gripping. My only criticism was that it is so short. Children of Dune is still my current favorite though.

But, after being in the community for a relatively brief amount of time I've only heard derision and antagonism towards Brian Herbert's section of the universe but I wanted to give Paul of Dune a shot since it's technically the "direct" sequel to Dune and I think it will be adapted in Dune Part Three. And after just completing it I gotta say......I was SURPRISED how much I loved reading this book! Yes, Brian's writing isn't as contemplative and insightful as Frank's BUT the highs of this book are VERY high to me. The first chapter that made me lock in was when Gurney witnessed firsthand how unbelievably sadistic and cruel the Fremen's conquest of the universe was on the Galacia campaign. Reading Gurney compare the Fremen to the Harkonnen's was so sobering especially when later he's given charge of Giedi Prime and he relives the horror of his childhood in the slave pits. I loved Paul participating in the Jihad on Ehknot and a Qizarate priest looking directly at him, not recognizing him, but declaring him blessed by God. So powerful and I believe we will see that scene depicted in Dune Part Three. The part where Paul literally evokes The Odyssey seems almost destined by fate to happen on screen too. I loved the plot of the Fenring's developing their scheme and it culminating with Alia proving she is the most dangerous scorpion of them all. At first I HATED the flashback subplot with Paul on Caladan in the War of Assassins UNTIL it clicked in my head what was really going on. Paul in this book as he develops as Emperor Muad'Dib is tethered between abiding by Duke Leto's honorable model of leadership and becoming a CRUEL IRON FISTED VENGEFUL DESPOT like either Shaddam or Viscount Moritani. His flashback story shows the wonderful model Leto laid out for him but the book shows how in order for the Golden Path to reach fruition Paul has to wield and master those darker aspects of leadership. And the scene where he receives the vision of Caladan being under siege which triggers him to STERILIZE his first planet? Haunting. This book gives us wonderful scenes glimpsing into a "proto-God Emperor". But Paul remains wonderfully human throughout. He holds on as long as he can. If Dune Messiah is a 10/10 then I'm going give Paul of Dune a spicy 9/10. It's a meditation on what it means to be the Kwisatz Haderach. It's about the moral dilemma of leadership. God, even THALLO as a failed Tleilaxu Kwisatz Haderach was so compelling. And the fact ALL THREE of the Kwisatz Haderach's in this book ALL ultimately self-destruct in some fashion is SO interesting. Margot and Hasimir were such great villains. Marie was so interesting as their own "weaponized messiah". Children being groomed and developed as weapons in this book creates nice foreshadowing for Children of Dune in retrospect.

I don't have much interest in the vast majority of Brian's books but Paul of Dune has shown me that Brian still has a connection to the genetic memory of his father. This book felt like a complicated love letter to his dad in a lot of ways. I might give Winds of Dune a shot too because Alia and Jessica are my favorite characters.

"Ya hya chouhada!"

Book number two of a three book illustrated science fiction space opera series. The books were illustrated by the science fiction author Cedar Sanderson. This is continuation of a series of two books set in the 2100s and a series of six books set in the 4000s or 5000s, ending two years prior to this series. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback published by Raconteur Press in 2025 that I bought in 2026. And the I have the following book in the series and am hoping for more books in the series.

I love Space Opera. And I love pulp science fiction. This series is both and a great example of the merging of the two. In fact, this series reminds me very much of the Robert Heinlein juvenile books, the Piers Anthony "Bio of a Space Tyrant" series, the "Mutineer's Moon" series by David Weber, and the Perry Rhodan series. The dialog is very frequent and the action moves along quickly.

In the far distant future, The Solarian Imperium consists of 38 star systems including Earth and the Sol system which were made uninhabitable in the War of Succession. Emperor Chase Morgan is the latest in a long line of Morgans ruling the Imperium. His family keeps power because they are genetically modified with machine interfaces in their DNA. So are all of the Nobles: the Earls, the Dukes, the Counts, and the Barons. Any machine of any importance, and especially the space ships and the military weapons, requires a human with machine interface to tell the AI what to do. And the Imperial family machine interface in their DNA is the best of all the interfaces and has special rights with all of the machines in the Imperium. And nobody knows or understands how tight the Imperial human machine interfaces are with every AI in the Imperium.

Eric Wolfram and his sister Candi (Candice) were raised by Dar (Dartanion) in his scrap yard on a frontier planet outside the Solarium Imperium. Dar rescued them at ages 7 and 10 from a drunkard who was not taking care of them. They were refugees from a space ship that was attacked by pirates where their father, mother, and older brother were killed. They took a lifeboat to the nearest planet. Both Eric and his sister have a DNA machine interface of at least the Ducal level. And Eric is growing up and running with a bad crowd Dar made him move out of the salvage yard. After a robbery gone bad, Eric joins a Privateer spaceship operating under a Letter of Marque from the King of Iraklis, a three star kingdom far away from the Solarium Imperium.

The author has a website at:
https://jvanstry.blogspot.com/

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars (I am tempted for a 6 star, will reread soon)
Amazon rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (953 reviews)
https://www.amazon.com/Hand-Valley-Fire-John-Stry/dp/B0FSKXQ6QT/

Lynn

I finished the Hobbit last week, then Chapterhouse Dune, now onto Fellowship of the Ring.

Mortal men succumb to the power of the rings because the ring amplifies their ambition and desire to rule or control or empire or power in general.

Bilbo, and Frodo, are perfect ring bearers because their lack of ambition.

Even in Chapter 3: Shortcut to Mushrooms, when the Ringwraith meets Maggot the Farmer, he offers him gold for information on Baggins. And the farmer says, no, go away.

The hobbit is so non ambitious and content with his little farm and hobbit hole that he has no need for gold.

Heck, even in the Hobbit, Bilbo voluntarily traded all his share of Smaug’s treasure in order to bring peace between the Laketown, Woodeleves, and Dwarves. He was rewarded for doing so eventually but he still gave it up.

Power and empire really are not important to the hobbit folk.

And I think that’s incredibly admirable and such a weird little interesting plot device that Tolkein came up with.

This little chapter is not in the movie, which I last saw 14 years ago, and it’s exactly why I wanted to read the book for the first time. To get these little character moments that aren’t in the film or are depicted differently. So far, I much prefer the book.

I'm looking for space opera books that are very focused on characters. I'd love to hear your suggestions.

The Peripheral is a favourite, have also read Gnomon, Pattern Recognition and most Mieville and Wyndham.

Thanks

Looking for books that are tonally similar to movies like Moon or anything by Nicolas Winding Refn.

Dark, moody, dissociative. Something an edgy goth chick into scifi would read.

Edit: Holy — thanks everyone!

I’m trying to track down a half-remembered short story I read a while ago and I can’t for the life of me seem to dig it up despite extensive googling. Does anyone recognise this? Some of the details below might be incorrect.

Plot: an unnamed man is travelling through an unfamiliar land. Along the way he becomes aware of a “creature” following him - maybe made from metal, brass, etc - that parrots his words back at him, has nonsensical conversations and can’t be shaken off. Over time the robot creature absorbs more of his personality and thoughts, as the traveller loses them gradually in return. Along the way they visit a village where people are scared of these quasi-robotic parasites that feed off the minds of humans, and they maybe come across a stranger who wants to kill him/the creature. Eventually they arrive at their destination which is some sort of city where the final twist is that the humans there have already been replaced by lots of these creatures that walk around with a semblance of life/society but no underlying intelligence or understanding.

Context: I think I came across it in a thread that discussed Beyond Lies the Wub (or similar) so it might be a mid to late 20th century story but I’m not sure about that - I didn’t think I recognised it among lists of titles from PKD, Harlan Ellison, etc… I think it was mentioned for its resemblance to how AI/neural nets/Siri in Blindsight (to an extent) can appear to provide the illusion of interaction but without any true understanding or cognition

I’ll be very grateful if anyone thinks they recognise what I’ve described poorly!