What are you reading in 2024?

[nyvinter]

We might read very different forms of fantasy, but I've not seen the kind of books A Song of Ice and Fire are to be the dominant type of fantasy for at least a decade. (And even then it was more Abercombe/Lynch rather than GRRM.)

And sure, Brandon Sanderson broke some kind of Kickstarter record, but it's also quite easy to find fantasy of very different subgenres too.

I did try and see what Bantam who publishes Martin has done lately and their website is horrible. But I did see that this or next year they're publishing Samantha Sotto Yambao's Water Moon "Pitched as » Erin Morgenstern meets Studio Ghibli « and follows 'a woman who inherits a pawnshop in Tokyo where you can sell your regrets.'" And that's going straight to my to buy list.

 

[Parmandur]

We might read very different forms of fantasy, but I've not seen the kind of books A Song of Ice and Fire are to be the dominant type of fantasy for at least a decade. (And even then it was more Abercombe/Lynch rather than GRRM.)

And sure, Brandon Sanderson broke some kind of Kickstarter record, but it's also quite easy to find fantasy of very different subgenres too.

I did try and see what Bantam who publishes Martin has done lately and their website is horrible. But I did see that this or next year they're publishing Samantha Sotto Yambao's Water Moon "Pitched as » Erin Morgenstern meets Studio Ghibli « and follows 'a woman who inherits a pawnshop in Tokyo where you can sell your regrets.'" And that's going straight to my to buy list.

Yeah, honestly walking around Barnes & Noble last week drove home how diverse and original the Sci-Fi/Fantasy scene is right now, more than at any earlier point in my life.

Sanderson didn't break a record, he broke the record for the biggest Kickstarter, of any sort, period. And the delivery was good!

 

[MNblockhead]

For Kobo devices, I really recommend getting the KoboTouchExtended Calibre plugin. It converts epub to a version (kepub) optimized for Kobo devices when you transfer the files. It's a lot of difference in speed for font size changes and a slight speed increse for page turning.

But yeah. Kobo uses normal epub format which isn't even close to being as locked down as Kindle's. And Kobo's site have a download epub for each book you own, so you can use almost any ebook reader. I think. Kindle's might need some work, don't know because I've never owned one of those.

Yeah, I kinda regret, not going the epub route years ago. It was just that the e-readers at the time were not as good as there are now and I don't like reading novels on my laptop or a tablet. The Amazon Kindle was the first electronic device I enjoyed reading on and now I'm kinda locked in. Well, not really. I realize that I can just buy new books on a new device and access my years of Kindle books from the web, desktop, or smart phone apps. But it is convenient having everything in one place. Given how rarely I go back to old e-books, it is probably silly, but psychologically it is difficult to make the switch. When my current Kindle Oasis dies or becomes very outdated, I do plan to switch to an e-reader that supports more open file formats and files that I can store on storage spaces I control. I've never had an issue with Amazon changing or removing my books, but I hate that they could.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

We might read very different forms of fantasy, but I've not seen the kind of books A Song of Ice and Fire are to be the dominant type of fantasy for at least a decade. (And even then it was more Abercombe/Lynch rather than GRRM.)

And sure, Brandon Sanderson broke some kind of Kickstarter record, but it's also quite easy to find fantasy of very different subgenres too.

I did try and see what Bantam who publishes Martin has done lately and their website is horrible. But I did see that this or next year they're publishing Samantha Sotto Yambao's Water Moon "Pitched as » Erin Morgenstern meets Studio Ghibli « and follows 'a woman who inherits a pawnshop in Tokyo where you can sell your regrets.'" And that's going straight to my to buy list.

I think GRRM's issues (and the final few seasons of Game of Thrones) have started to break the spell. I'm starting to see a lot of books written by non-traditional (not straight American white dudes, in other words), which is really broadening things out dramatically. I'm reading fantasy novels about a real-world Indian Ocean pirate queen and steampunk 20th century detective novel set in a jinn-laden Cairo this year, for instance.

 

[nyvinter]

I think Game of Thrones are two things: the books and the tv-show and they both cast very different shadow over fantasy. The books I think lost their influence quite early, there were other movements that picked up: the grimdark action ones for example. Sanderson is one of the few that still does epic door-stopper fantasy tomes and makes it work — he's hit-or-miss for me, but there's no way to ignore that he has lots of fans who love his work. Currently I can't see a big trendsetter and I love that. Gideon the Ninth was huge but idiosyncratic enough that it didn't get many copycats.

Whereas the tv-show is still looming over all non-book fantasy stuff, and gosh, I wish it weren't.

steampunk 20th century detective novel set in a jinn-laden Cairo this year, for instance.

P. Djèlí Clark is good, I need to read the novel and not just the short stories. We might not read so differnt books after all.

R. F. Kuang, C.L. Clark, and Fonda Lee has had great books the last few years. And T. Kingfishers gory Paladin romance novels too.

 

[overgeeked]

I'm reading fantasy novels about a real-world Indian Ocean pirate queen

Oh, cool. Spill. What is this?

steampunk 20th century detective novel set in a jinn-laden Cairo this year, for instance.

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3XQBGPS/

I'm wrong. I mentally conflated her with a real-life pirate queen. This is about a strictly fictional one.

 

[Parmandur]

Reading Brandon Sanderson's short story collection, Arcanum Unbounded: so far read the Eleventh Metal, Mistborn Secret Hiatory (which connects a lot of the dots between the Mistborn series, Elamtris, and the Stormlight Archives), and Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell (excellent shirt story, earns it's over thw top title).

 

[Mercurius]

Digging deep into the Le Guin bibliography and reading some of the ones I skipped over. Right now, the first Hainish novel (and her first published novel), Rocannon's World.

 

[wicked cool]

Duncton wood-water ship down but moles is the closest I can describe. Enjoying so far