StametsOften...
BonusNah, I have to settle for sex instead. :'(
ORbituaryThe Baroque Cycle by Neal Stevenson did that for me. 2700+ pages and it felt like I needed more
Eq0Okay, this seems like a book recommendation ;) Stevenson’s books are very different, how would you describe these ones?
Historical science fiction. Oh, and there'll be familiar names if you read Cryptonomicon.
Loose prequel to Cryptinomicon based in the Golden Era of Europe. Starts after Cromwell’s death and ends in the 1700s. Spans the globe, piracy, science, alchemy, politics, intrigue, fighting… It’s all there. And done with historical accuracy despite the fictional nature.
You don’t have to read Cryptinomicon first, but I recommend it.
I've never been as angry as when I got to the end of the first book and found that the bastard had hidden the glossary!
The sheer number of people and events…
Some people have to wear leather collars or dye their hair or get facial tattoos to proclaim themselves.
I tell people I like a 1,200 page comedy novel about the founding of the english banking system.
GNU Terry Pratchett
BlackmistI’ve barely read any books since he died tbh.
TJA!You are missing out. There is so much greatness out there
Maybe try some sex instead
https://bookshop.org/beta-search?keywords=tanith+lee
Tanith Lee. British writer of the same time and mindset. The first book listed "Night's Master" is set in the time when the world was still flat. A mighty demon prince spends the daylight hours in his underworld kingdom, and spends his nights tormenting and/or seducing humans.
Try Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It’s a wonderful story and has an underlying sense of humor in the way that Pratchett’s books did.
ookGreatest Nut Ultimately?
tostimanGiant Nosy Neighbor?
Or as I’ve recently come to calling it, GNU + Terry Pratchett
MinnesotaGoddamGNU STP
This is how I feel about playing Outer Wilds.
I came to the comments just to say this. I’m glad I’m not the only one
Fffffuuuuuu you both beat me to it. I try to get others to play it so I can live vicariously through their amazement! Bought it on Steam for a gaming buddy and for my brother on Switch.
I need to play this. I get the same feelings with RPGs or really good open world games. Would love to add another to the list
MasterThat is outer worlds. Op said outer wilds. You are going to be disappointed (or maybe happy) if you pick up one thinking its the other lol.
jballsDid you play with a mouse and keyboard? I started it on my PC and it said it needed a controller. So instead I switched to my Steam Deck, but I felt like the small screen wasn’t doing it justice, so I stopped.
Been meaning to pick it back up again.
Controller all the way.
I think it’s mostly the zero-G and ship controls where it matters.
Honestly you can play it with keyboard and mouse no problem. Don’t let it prevent you from playing!
Coming from someone who primarily games on Mouse/Keyboard, controller just feels better, but Mouse/Keyboard shouldn’t ruin the experience at all.
That was playing red dead redemption 2 for me
potoo22Dungeon Crawler Carl for all you video game nerds. Listen to the audiobook.
I’m lying. I’ve reread it multiple times and picked up new things each run.
Treating DCC like NetHack, I can dig it.
You can enjoy the rereads while knowing that the first read is a unique experience!
Literally just finished my first re-read last night.
jawa22Easily my favorite thing I’ve ever read.
The problem with DCC is the next book isn’t written yet :(
So you get that prolonged feeling with each new book. Same with he who fights monsters- another decent LitRPG series.
I’ve been loving the series, just working my way through the last book now, and already getting the feeling in the OP from seeing that there’s not that much book left anymore :(
I somehow at the same time feel that it has no right being this good, but also enjoy it a ton. It’s a weird feeling but I’ll take it - it really appeals to my taste.
There’s Cradle too, not as “video gamey” but it’s a very easy read, almost feels like a shonen manga/anime.
AlmaccaI started reading this series on your recommendation, and fuck you. I usually read to go to sleep, and it’s so entertaining that it’s keeping me awake all night, and I’m exhausted.
WahotsAny interesting sci Fi or magic/fantasy books that did this to you? I’m looking for something new!
Definitely The Expanse series if you haven’t read it already. I loved so many of the charcters, a bit sad to not be reading about them anymore.
May I present to you the next series James S. A. Corey are writing? The Captive’s War!
I’ve enjoyed the book and novella published so far, and definitely sated that itch I had after finishing the Expanse. :)
Awesome, thanks!
Oh yes, I have! Good choice :)
I have this a lot, but the most it has happend was about 10 years ago with the webserial worm ( parahumans.wordpress.com ), I read it so much. I read it before work, I read it during lunch, I read it when I got home, I went to sleep late etc. etc.
When it was done I had forgotten what to do with my time, I wound up re-reading it again but slower at a few chapters a day rather than turning myself into a gremlin for maximal reading efficiency.
If you want a summary, it’s a superhero story, which usually really isn’t for me, but something about the tone of the writing and the way the world worked in this one made it work.
Powers are incredibly varied, but the strongest characters are the ones who know how to use their powers well, the protagonist exemplifies this, where she doesn’t get a cool flashy power but she figures out how to use it so well and adapt to each situation that she becomes terrifying.
I also liked the charactersation of the heroes and the villains, where the heroes are somewhat vain and egotistical which means they do good things when the cameras are rolling rather than being “morally good”. the villains are mostly just people on the edges of society for a mix of reasons which means they do what they want, but I think since then “The Boys” has also done something similar so the effect may be lessened.
Curious if anyone else on Lemmy has wound up reading it.
Worm was definitely like that for me. I was reading it at work (we monitored stuff and responded if needed, so I had a lot of free time if things weren’t happening), and it really sucked me in. I didn’t get into his later work, maybe because of burnout.
I think the characterizations of the superpowered folks were great, but they did suffer a little bit from flanderization. It’s to be expected when the author is literally handling hundreds of different characters. The plot overall was just so good though.
Apparently this was not the first serial he tried to write in this universe, which is why so many of the side characters are so fleshed out.
I remember enjoying the interlude with battery a lot.
Did you find anything else that you enjoyed in a similar way?
Same here! I stumbled onto Worm a few years ago and read it way too quickly. I taught myself some (very basic) editing skills, corrected a few typos and paid ~300 bucks to get the whole story printed out on paper so my wife would read it as well.
I would add that despite being a story with superpowers, it is very much a story about people, and not about powers. You progressively discover the rules of a world that make perfect sense in retrospect, the stakes scale up really well and I found the ending to be a culmination unlike anything I have read.
Exactly! find it so hard to describe though, over the course of reading the thing Taylor changes so much, the world changes so much and your understanding of the world gets so much deeper.
This makes it very hard to explain the later acts or why they were good though.
Have you read anything else that hooked you in a similar way?
I don’t think anything hooked me quite like Worm! I completely agree with Taylor evolving a lot throughout the story, and I feel the whole scope of the story gets so much larger, in such a satisfying way.
I read a few arcs of the Worm sequel, Ward, but it didn’t really click for me. From the same author, I found Twig to be really interesting. It takes place in a very different setting and has a darker tone, but I feel some of the narrative techniques are the same as in Worm. For example, the characters know more of the world than the reader does, who gets to discover it piece by piece, and the characters themselves are the important part, not whatever magic or science powers the world. The scale and stakes do not explode like Worms’ do, but the story definitely does not stay stale either.
To me very personally, Ward felt a bit like “more Worm but not quite”. I didn’t really want more Worm. Twig felt like a new, very different story, in a somewhat similar style. It didn’t hook me like Worm did, but it scratched a similar itch of discovering an atypical world, with its rules, characters and unreliable narrators.
Programmer BelchThe Red Rising trilogy left me with this feeling. I loved the terraformation zones descriptions and how the technology is described and implemented.
The story takes lots of twists and turns, kept me glued to the books.
DominusOfMegadeusI think I read that there’s a fourth one
In the author’s wikipedia it just shows another series I haven’t read called Iron Gold
Came here to preach for the red rising. Awesome series.
Saving for later when I forget all about this. Why is there no remindme function on Lemmy?
RmDebArc_5You can use this mastodon Remind me bot, works with Lemmy. Or use piefed
Remind Me (@[email protected])
2.78K Posts, 2 Following, 570 Followers · Use me to send you reminders about toots! E.g., "@remindme 1 day", "@remindme 1 week", or "@remindme 12h" You can also use ISO-8601 date times! E.g., "@remindme 2025-03-15", "@remindme 2025-04-20T12:53-02:00" If you'd like the reminders to be sent via dm (instead of publicly), add "dm" or "pm" (case-insensitive) to the message. For example, "@remindme dm 1 day" Created by @[email protected]
Oooh, if you like space operas, you might really like the Hyperion Cantos series.
Thank you, I’ll keep these in mind!
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
Nearly all of the culture books! The very first scene of the very first book, Consider Phlebas, just sets the bar so high (and is only one scene). It outdoes entire other works of horror in just half a chapter… and then the actual action starts.
Great book as well. Of all the sci-fi universes, The Culture is the one I want to live in the most.
The wheel of time series is the best out there.
And it just keeps going. There’s so much, and so much of it ties back and stays relevant to the end.