Board 8 > Top 35 Stories in Fiction

(+) Yeah! (+)

only 14 and you can skip one!*

*just read chapter summaries online
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I follow GRRMs not-a-blog weekly and keep up with the general happenings on r/asoiaf - probably the best hub for that kind of news.

If TWOW was released next year I wouldnt be surprised. 2021 at the latest. His pace is a joke, for sure, but the world crafted is so damn rich, the moment I read A Game of Thrones Ive never lost interest in the series.

Ive always heard great things about WoT but never gave it a look. On top of the sheer amount of books in the series, Id heard RJ writes weak female characters which kinda put me off. And Im not a fan of Mistborn (stopped after book 1) so Im not sure how much Id get out of Sanderson either.

Breaking Bad is my favorite TV drama, possibly my favorite TV show outright. Watched the whole series, then rewatched it a month after it wrapped up with my girlfriend. Ive never seen her react so strongly to any form of media.

KP, have you read The Witcher series? Im halfway through and its pretty good.
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MichelBollinger posted...

They're so good. I mean I love the anime, just watched it again recently, but it's such an unbelievably small piece of the overall narrative.

Yep, the anime only covers the first three books, and the 12th one is coming out in English next month. I just started book 7 the other day.
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Anagram posted...

15 books jesus

I've been thinking about that series for a while, but that's a lot to get into.

meh, not like it's Index with 22 volumes. And then 23 volumes in the sequel series. and i dunno how many one off side story volumes. and a third novel series starting next year that will probably also go on for 20+ more volumes. not to mention all the manga spinoffs. and novel spinoffs of the manga spinoffs.

>_>
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Yeah but all the Wheel of Time books are 700+ pages.

I enjoyed the series as it was going on, and it definitely took up a lot of my time, of which I had far too much growing up, so I appreciate it. The idea of going back though... Those were some dense tomes. I haven't thought about that series in a while, but it does have some nostalgic appeal.
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Sceptilesolar posted...

Yeah but all the Wheel of Time books are 700+ pages.

I enjoyed the series as it was going on, and it definitely took up a lot of my time, of which I had far too much growing up, so I appreciate it. The idea of going back though... Those were some dense tomes. I haven't thought about that series in a while, but it does have some nostalgic appeal.

i thought someone was talking about Baccano, not wot.
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Light Novels are something I go back to every now and then. I'll check out Baccano's next time I do.

I tried getting into the Witcher game series several times and it never clicked for me. Are the books better/worse?

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I love the Haruhi Suzumiya light novels. I've read all ten books twice, and it makes me sad we aren't getting more of them.

If you want something a bit more light and fun, the My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong as Usual series is really good, too. It's just a slice of life, but the characterization is excellent. I also love books written in first person, which is probably why I'm a big fan of both of those series.

I tried reading Toradora since I enjoyed the anime, but either the story isn't well written or the translation just sucks because I didn't enjoy it.

I've also read fan translations of Hyouka because that's all there is, but I also love mystery novels and it's basically a slice of life mystery series.
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i don't think i'd have the time to read WOT since i'm usually trying to churn so many other books. i might read around 10K pages in a year, so it'd be difficult to allocate 100% of them to one series. i guess if the books were good enough they could increase that 10Kish pages.
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KamikazePotato posted...

Light Novels are something I go back to every now and then. I'll check out Baccano's next time I do.

I tried getting into the Witcher game series several times and it never clicked for me. Are the books better/worse?

Story and characterization-wise, better.
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Aww hell yes Wheel of Time

Ive read four books and @Vengeful_KBM has read five. @Eddv is our dealer.

Such a friggin well-realized universe. The worldbuilding is just insane. Its inspirational.

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Wheel of Time is the best. It's my favorite thing. I read the series probably 5 or 6 times overall (starting around the time book 9 came out). Haven't reread it since Memory of Light's release, but it was my favorite book in the series, and a good contender for my favorite book period.
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Mac Arrowny posted...

Wheel of Time is the best. It's my favorite thing. I read the series probably 5 or 6 times overall (starting around the time book 9 came out). Haven't reread it since Memory of Light's release, but it was my favorite book in the series, and a good contender for my favorite book period.

You keep gettin' cooler, Mac.

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Peridiam posted...

Id heard RJ writes weak female characters which kinda put me off.

This is kind of an up-and-down thing. He has some stereotypes he uses frequently. There's a lot of skirt-smoothing and braid-tugging and a few other signature moves of some of the main female characters. Plus there's a ton of gender-based jokes about how men don't understand women and women can't figure out men. But beyond that, yes, there are some very significant female characters and some of them have development that rivals the main trio of boys the series is supposed to revolve around.

It's worth noting that due to the worldbuilding, there are only female magic users in the world up until about halfway through the series, and they are a firmly entrenched part of the world's politics. One could argue that they are the most powerful entity in the land, and that a ruler of any nation needs to treat them like, at the very least, a foreign dignitary, if not their superior. The most central nation on the continent is also strictly ruled by a queen. The desert warriors in the east also have an entire caste of female fighters any of whom could kick the ass of any dude from the main continent.
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also Min exists and she rocks
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The complaint I hear regarding gender in The Wheel of Time is that the minor female characters of political importance (of which there are a fair number) often feel like copy-pastes of the same character.

I think the complaint is overblown but I do agree with it on some level. ("Copy-paste" is of course an exaggeration but there are similarities.)

The main female characters are mostly very good imo.
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What's a manhwa

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Corrik7 posted...

What's a manhwa

Korean comics
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Oh ok thanks. Never heard of that before.

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Other than Aviendha yeah.


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The main thing about women in WoT isn't that there isn't well written or strong women, it's that there's a pervasive gender bias between men and women in how they view eachother

The men are basically always acting like a husband who's afraid of being in the doghouse with his nagging wife. Like "ugh women, can't live with em, lets get out of here and figure out what to do before they start giving us chores"

Meanwhile, the women are always acting like their idiot husband won't be able to put his shoes on without them. Like "ugh men, they'll never be able to figure this out, we'll just have to do it ourselves"

Then they'll both tackle the problem. Neither side is actually incompetent.

It can be grating but it never really bothered me. IMO, it's a really good example of how people can view the same situation entirely differently. I think it had a good impact on me as a teenager when I first read these - I could see that objectively both sides were seeing things "wrong" but also I could see why they seeing them that way. It was coloured by their own perspective and life experiences.

One thing the Wheel of Time DOES NOT DO is portray women as simpering damsels that need men to solve their problems for them.
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I always will remember my first time reading WoT for how after a few books I became more paranoid about Dark Friends and was always worried about who was secretly bad.

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I liked Aviendha :(

Best ones are Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne though. Siuan also great but I am not 100% sure if she makes the cut to be considered a major character? She is close.
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CoolCly posted...

Then they'll both tackle the problem. Neither side is actually incompetent.

Honestly, most of the Aes Sedai (main cast aside) seem pretty incompetent, and they're the most important organization in Wheel of Time Land and 100% female

Overall you're correct though

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I really don't like Elayne. She's basically the only main cast member that I don't.

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I also like Aviendha.

More than Egwene and Elayne honestly.

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I didn't especially like Egwene until a specific thing happens in the middle of the series and then after that I really liked her.
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CoolCly posted...

The main thing about women in WoT isn't that there isn't well written or strong women, it's that there's a pervasive gender bias between men and women in how they view eachother

The men are basically always acting like a husband who's afraid of being in the doghouse with his nagging wife. Like "ugh women, can't live with em, lets get out of here and figure out what to do before they start giving us chores"

Meanwhile, the women are always acting like their idiot husband won't be able to put his shoes on without them. Like "ugh men, they'll never be able to figure this out, we'll just have to do it ourselves"

Then they'll both tackle the problem. Neither side is actually incompetent.

It can be grating but it never really bothered me. IMO, it's a really good example of how people can view the same situation entirely differently. I think it had a good impact on me as a teenager when I first read these - I could see that objectively both sides were seeing things "wrong" but also I could see why they seeing them that way. It was coloured by their own perspective and life experiences.

One thing the Wheel of Time DOES NOT DO is portray women as simpering damsels that need men to solve their problems for them.

and then there's Faile
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I just think she never advances beyond her annoying "You don't understand me" noble savage archetype and in general yhe series wouldn't miss her.

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Faile has the misfortune of getting caught up in the worst storyline in the series for like 3-4 books straight.

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Yeah Faile before and after that isnt bad. But man that storyline is awful

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I think the storyline would be fine if shortened but yeah it is straight up the most uncomfortable Jordan made me. I understand why he included it but I will never abandon my position that Rolan and his ilk who traded (or tried to trade in Roland specific case) protection for sex or the promise of maybe one day sex is basically just as despicable as the actual rapists there.

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well her frustration with Perrin not following the exact cultural norms of her country that she didn't even tell him about for a couple of books was also uh
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CoolCly posted...

The main thing about women in WoT isn't that there isn't well written or strong women, it's that there's a pervasive gender bias between men and women in how they view eachother

The men are basically always acting like a husband who's afraid of being in the doghouse with his nagging wife. Like "ugh women, can't live with em, lets get out of here and figure out what to do before they start giving us chores"

Meanwhile, the women are always acting like their idiot husband won't be able to put his shoes on without them. Like "ugh men, they'll never be able to figure this out, we'll just have to do it ourselves"

Then they'll both tackle the problem. Neither side is actually incompetent.

It can be grating but it never really bothered me. IMO, it's a really good example of how people can view the same situation entirely differently. I think it had a good impact on me as a teenager when I first read these - I could see that objectively both sides were seeing things "wrong" but also I could see why they seeing them that way. It was coloured by their own perspective and life experiences.

One thing the Wheel of Time DOES NOT DO is portray women as simpering damsels that need men to solve their problems for them.

Good post. 100% agreed.

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There are multiple ways to not be able to write women. Like there's the classic way you might think of based on outdated stereotypes or gender norms, but there's also the Stephen Moffat "all my female characters have the same snarky clever badass personality" which initially looks super empowering or w/e but then falls apart when you realize they're all the same

I'll give this one last bump. Thanks a lot to everyone who participated! The discussions were fun and I got some recommendations to look at.

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pyresword posted...

I didn't especially like Egwene until a specific thing happens in the middle of the series and then after that I really liked her.

I just don't like Egwene's name. No matter how I pronounce it, it sounds stupid.
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I'm really pleasantly surprised to see that, yes, both Pluto and Monster made the cut.
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