The Phantom Tollbooth

It’s an amazing book, but no one would consider it a masterpiece.

Villains by Necessity by Eve Forward. After the ultimate triumph of good over evil, a group of villains save the world from good. It’s a total inversion of the standard fantasy trope. Highly recommend it for any fantasy fan, doubly so for Dragonlance fans.

Sword of change series, I hold it dear but it has it’s issues.

We are Legion (We are Bob). It’s probably the most fun I’ve had reading science fiction. It’s not a masterpiece, but damn is it entertaining! The whole series is pretty great, and there’s another book coming any month now.

My favorite book is The Golden Ass by Apuleius, it’s not qualified as a masterpiece but it is one I guess.

I absolutely loved the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. I cannot explain how great my disappointment with the Eragon movie was after how fantastic I thought the books were.

I loved the Black Jewels books even though I don’t think they are good. The worldbuilding was vivid.

Kind of feel that way about all the Brandon Sanderson books. I can’t say they are good but good to read just because you do drop right into those worlds.

Oh man, that’s a lot of what I read.

Maybe the ‘My Teacher Is An Alien’ series by Bruce Coville, the ‘Blood Oath’ series by Christopher Farnsworth, and the Serpentwar Series by Raymond Feist.

I’m a big fan of all the David Endings series…

Just fun fantasy novels.

Lucky Wander Boy.

Great book, but the “ritual” scene bars it from ever being a masterpiece.

Oh sweet I get to vent about The August Few: Amygdala by Sam Fennah.

So Sam is primarily a youtuber, he makes animations with these very unique and somewhat disturbing characters and over time he made a bit of a narrative using them, eventually he made it into a 1000 page book. As one might expect looking at his animations this book is very weird, it’s got some extremely interesting and alien worldbuilding which challenges the reader a lot. As a piece of art this book is incredibly effective in that it makes the reader reflect on it’s far reaching themes, but as a book I really kinda hate it.

At the core of the book is the question of what the ideal society is, but only one option is ever really presented, what I can only describe as anarcho-dawinism. When one character opposes this state and proposes the possibility of a kinder and more inclusive society she is betrayed, hung from a balcony over a crowd, she orgasms while choking to death, and “When the body was lowered, it was groped, defiled, spat upon, split.” This is not presented as a bad thing, simply as the people rejecting her idea, the language used is very “marketplace of ideas.”

At the start of the book Sam tries to disavow himself of what he wrote in an author’s note, part of which reads: “The views of the characters are not the views of the author. This book is not a promotion of ideas, but an exploration of ideas.” Sam did not need to make the characters orgasm when they died, he did not need to make them reproduce via necrophilic rape, he did not need to make every characters a literal baby eating cannibal, and he did not need to present social-darwinism as an ideal society, but he did, he choose to write these things.

I hate this book, I read it over a year ago and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, it is a great piece of art.

I liked the Dresden Files. Just campy magic gumshoe stuff.

Also a fan of Lamb and Blood Sucking Fiends. Good reads, but not any big huge life shaking moments like other books. But I remember loving the style.

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

george rr martin’s wildcard series

its actually written by many authors so the quality/styles fluctuate. no real ending either as its more an episodic alternate reality. feels like its missing cohesion.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind. I read it years ago and still remember how gripping it was, not sure how well the movie has aged, but it was a fantastic book.