conputer dipshithaha it is *not* The Three-Body Problem, which I also did not like, but thanks for reminding me the first 1/4 of The Dark Forest is probably the worst writing I have ever read
https://hachyderm.io/@charliepark@xoxo.zone/109643238519230785
Charlie Park (@[email protected])
@[email protected] I know you aren’t going to name it, so I’m just going to assume it was The Three-Body Problem.
my tweets while reading The Three-Body Problem and The Dark Forest are pretty funny. I was mad. “it has the emotional depth of a table of nutrition facts”
“there’s a waifu-based sequence in the second book that may be the most horrendous piece of writing I’ve ever read, and most incredibly, it is intended as a commentary on the essence of great literature” #books #scifi
https://twitter.com/davidcrespo/status/1127016167451889664
Mark Ashton@davidcrespo The waifu bit was truly awful. I still enjoyed the books a lot 😆
Mike Perham@davidcrespo I had a similar take. It has an amazing idea or two at the core but it's really the sci-fi equivalent of The DaVinci Code in terms of writing quality.
🆃🆁🆄🅽🅳🅻🅴🆂@davidcrespo I've read all three books and I wholeheartedly agree with you. They're still good. The sequence in (I think) The Dark Forest where higher dimensions are described is absolutely astonishing.
Luke Kanies@davidcrespo oh god thank you. I thought I was the only person who did not like those books
Waldo Jaquith@davidcrespo I'm on Team Three-Body Problem Sucked
Alien BOB@davidcrespo without any reference as to what counts as 'bad' there's no way you're going to get a relevant answer.
Also, 'very short novel'? That does not exist unless you call it 'short story'.
Also, 'very short novel'? That does not exist unless you call it 'short story'.
@alien can't name the book while being this mean to it
@davidcrespo I hope 125 pages is short? Try The God Engines by @scalzi - it is tantalizing.
Matilda
Nathan Lowell (he/him) 📎@owlislost @davidcrespo @bookstodon
I've got a lot of great *stories* I could recommend, but great *prose*?
Not so much.
Not that I haven't read any. I probably have. It's just that IDGAF about the prose itself.
For me, good prose can't save a bad story and bad prose can't sink a great one.
JMO. YMMV.
@owlislost @davidcrespo @bookstodon
Although I'm forced to admit that really bad prose can make a great story unrecognizable.
I tend not to get past the samples on those so I never find out. 🤪
Nick Radford 
@davidcrespo I recently read Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky and enjoyed it. A sci-fi / fantasy told from the alternating perspectives of a technologically advanced human anthropologist and a princess of the society he was sent to observe.
joehumphrey🏴☠️The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I read it in one sitting while on a trip and it honestly changed my whole perspective on writing fiction. It's highly disturbing, but its writing is so sparse and its words are so carefully chosen that it blew my mind how it conveyed such powerful images and feelings with almost no fluff.
I will second The Road, and it's fairly short (at 287 pages) but it is harrowing, especially as a parent.
Phil GreerCan you define very short?
@pgreer ideally like 100 pages but I'm getting recs for 200 pages that I will totally be looking at
Stewart Russell@davidcrespo The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien
Buffy Leigh@davidcrespo Denis Johnson's Train Dreams, perhaps?
Luis Villa@davidcrespo I just stumbled across (thanks, public domain day!), found shockingly modern, and devoured this 1927 Pulitzer Prize winner: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/thornton-wilder/the-bridge-of-san-luis-rey
Charlie Park@davidcrespo I know you aren’t going to name it, so I’m just going to assume it was The Three-Body Problem.
@charliepark haha that one is popular enough for me to say it is a) not it, and b) I didn't like it, but it wasn't as bad as book 2, which is probably the worst book I've ever read
@davidcrespo Woof. Well, my condolences, and good luck on finding a good palate cleanser.
Carleigh Baker@davidcrespo From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjón is my favorite short novel. It's very strange and beautiful. Gorgeous prose and superb translation. Humour in unexpected places. I re-read it every winter.
Tero Ykspetäjä@davidcrespo For beautiful sf prose I’d recommend This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone or pretty much anything by Cat Valente, for example The Past is Red.
@davidcrespo I think the Murderbot books by Martha Wells qualify?
I loved them for how they were written more than what they were about. But I can’t honestly promise it was the prose, vs e.g., how the main character is written through
Either way you should read them though. :)
The Essence of Woerm Sin@lkanies @davidcrespo I was hesitating to suggest them for much the same reason - I *adore* them, but I don’t know if they would qualify as great prose. (Or really what would, tbh)
D. Schmudde@davidcrespo A palette cleanser, perhaps? I feel the same way after I read Robert Heinlein. Here are three digestible books:
- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19635587-dept-of-speculation: short, American-style prose.
- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13778819-london-s-overthrow: more poetic, dystopian style
- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61049.Autobiography_of_Red: most obtuse, but profound.
@schmudde very cool, thank you!
bkrazzledazzle@davidcrespo I really liked Piranesi and it was a quick read.
@bkrazzledazzle oh yes, I *loved* Piranesi
technical debt jubilee@davidcrespo Ted Chiang, Ursula K. LeGuin, Kim Stanley Robinson, Ray Bradbury, these are all good examples of literary SF with good prose. I'll just suggest Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang, a collection of short stories.
Glen Dudek@davidcrespo I found the writing in "The Curse of Chalion" by Lois McMaster Bujold so beautiful I often stopped to reread a sentence just because it was so beautifully worded. YMMV, it may be the emotional impact rather than the linguistic perfection that I adore.
Morgan Grubb@davidcrespo Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds.