Welcome to the 📖 Legion Book Club 📖

  • 12
    Replies
  • 124
    views
  • ZaidH's Avatar
    Level 23
    @CandelaSynth The synopsis of Star Maker sounds similar to the Three Body Problem series (no sci-fi list is complete without that masterpiece 😁), where characters mainly serve to introduce grand ideas. Is it right to assume that Star Maker is like that?

    And no, I haven't seen Del Toro's take on Pinocchio 😯 Does it lean more into horror, or is it as bleak as the book?

    @DoctorEldritch I'm caught in this cycle of seeing all the Discworld praise -> getting excited -> feeling confused by varying opinions on the best starting point -> giving up on reading it 😅 What would you recommend as a good starting point for Discworld?

    Oh wow, so happy to see the Arab world in a fantasy setting! I’m curious about the magic system the author created 🧐

    Kurt Vonnegut seems like an author perfectly suited to your tastes! His books, like Slaughterhouse-Five and The Sirens of Titan, are packed with humor and a good mix of fantasy and sci-fi. Have you read any of his works? The only Russian book I've read is The Brothers Karamazov. It had its funny moments, but I definitely felt like I missed some cultural nuances 😅.
    Last edited by ZaidH; 18 Hours Ago at 17:16.
  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @DoctorEldritch I'm caught in this cycle of seeing all the Discworld praise -> getting excited -> feeling confused by varying opinions on the best starting point -> giving up on reading it 😅 What would you recommend as a good starting point for Discworld?

    I know what you mean 😅 It can be a bit overwhelming. Personally, I'd suggest reading the novels in chronological order while keeping in mind that there are several intertwined sub-series. When I was reading it, I was using this visual guide that I can recommend:

    Name:  Discworld_ReadingGuide_Infographic_EpicReads.jpg
Views: 4
Size:  96.2 KB

    So you start with The Color of Magic and then move to The Light Fantastic and then Equal Rites and so on, but you can always see what theme novel you are reading, and "starting points" for each theme series are indicated, too. You have Wizards that first focus on the adventures of a wizard Rincewind, but then evolve into stories about the wizarding staff of the Unseen University. Witches is about Granny Weatherwax, and so forth.

    Maybe the magic system in Daevabad will be more familiar to you. It has djinns, ifrits, and so on. The author is known to do folklore research for her books; she talks about it on her site, too. Fun fact: she is now working on a new trilogy set in the 12th-century Indian Ocean about pirates, the first book is already out. So if you like, you can play Majima Pirate and read about pirates at the same time 😉

    I have not read Kurt Vonnegut, I am afraid. Somehow most of the books I read are from the 80s onwards, Kurt Vonnegut debuted in the 50s. I'll give him a try.

    The Brothers Karamazov is Dostoevsky, it is very heavy. We read it in school (which, personally, I do not entirely agree with, I think you need to be further in life to fully appreciate it, like the second course in Uni, but that may be just me). And yeah, it has cultural nuances that may be easily lost, Dostoevsky in particular is known for them.
  • CandelaSynth's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @ZaidH

    yeah, I haven´t watched the 3 body problem but it fits the description. And yeah, as the title suggests it´s all about the universe and creation, it´s huge in terms of ideas, hehe. Remember that it was written in 1937, so many people consider it the first SciFi book (at least in Western literature).
    And I truly recommend Del Toro version of Pinocchio, it isn´t horror as such but it´s dark, and probably more aligned with the original book ideas (I´ve never read it btw, should I?)ç
    Regarding Discworld (big fan here too), I´ve just started with the first book: The colour of Magic