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YAOI_GOD t1_jcli9u2 wrote

Ted Chiang - Stories of Your Life

It's far from my most hated book, but I viscerally remember the moment I wanted to fling it across the room - I was already hating the story "Seventy-Two Letters," a bad Victorian steampunk pastiche with cartoonishly English names and dialogue, and Chiang wrote that a character "raised his eyebrows." (The horror!)

I had been previously traumatized by a friend's recommendation of Brandon Sanderson's The Final Empire, in which Mr. Sando raises a character's (primarily Kelsier's) eyebrows literally every ten pages because he is either unable to write engaging dialogue and character interactions, or because he must write so quickly to meet his readers' insatiable appetites that he cannot slow down to do so. The intrusion of Sandersonian prose in a collection that was supposed to represent the artistic potential in contemporary SFF enraged me, and though I suppressed the urge to fling the book (it was borrowed from an alleged friend), I put it down in disbelief and, later that night after finishing the collection, composed a tweet thread recounting my harrowing experience.

anyway I'm done taking book reccs from my friends or primarily sff readers cause it ain't working out. peace be upon y'all

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UnfallenAdventure OP t1_jclld8a wrote

Funny enough, I'm currently reading a Brandon Sanderson book. I don't hate it, but it's not the greatest sci-fi I've read, and certainly not the best YA. It's the Skyward series- and while I prefer adult books these days, it's nice to have an easy YA read.

I would say it follows unsurprising patterns- girl is special. Girl is angry at bad guys. Girl realizes the bad guys aren't really the bad guys- instead it's the government. Girl get friends to try to take down government with special abilities. So, not terrible- just nothing surprising yet. But if you're right about his other book- I think I'll keep it on my list of books to avoid.

(Although, I am on Skyward book two of three- I can't be sure if there's a twist or anything interesting. But one thing I am sure of is that those covers are really pretty- and the only reason I bought them in the first place)

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YAOI_GOD t1_jclpknf wrote

loll don't take my word on it I'm hoity toitier than a lot of folks and everyone values different things in their reading. if you're in the market for some easy to read fantasy entertainment you'll probably get along with his books well enough and he's competent enough. just not my market

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