For me, the first time this happened was with The Royal Assassin Saga from Robin Hobb, and then Metro 2033.
This year, it’s The Witcher saga… (I can’t move on) I love all those introspective books with thoughtful heroes trying to make sense of the world they are forced to evolve into.
Do you have any other book like that?
- “The Neverending Story” by Michael Ende as a kid
- “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien as a teen
- “The Realm of the Elderlings” by Robin Hobb
- “The Ea Cycle” by David Zindell
- “The Manifold Trilogy” by Stephen Baxter
These books’ worlds absorbed me so completely in the most positive way!
Though I must admit I’m a fan of rereading anyway. Don’t know how many unknown books I skipped for a reread of know ones. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Malazan Book of the Fallen was like this for me. Great worldbuilding. Big ideas and loads of characters. Lots of obscure detail, all the way down to potsherds and verdigris.
When I finished, I had a powerful impulse to reread the series immediately after finishing it.
I binged books 1 through 4 absolutely loved them. Then book 5 happened and I forced my way through it. And now starting Bonehunters, no energy to go on. I just needed a break is Midnight Tides exhausting for everyone? I was so thrown off with a whole book being a flashback.
Steven Erikson makes a lot of bold choices throughout the series that go beyond plot structure and character deaths. If you don’t like something about any particular book, it will probably be absent in the next book.
There are several times where (after 1000+ pages of build-up) he shifts to an entirely different set of characters on a different continent. You get thrown into the deep end and have to start over with no immediate clues about where you are, when you are, who the people are, and what it has to do with what you read before. A book or two later threads start to intersect.
A later book has Kruppe as the narrator, which is fantastic if you love Kruppe as much as Kruppe loves Kruppe.
Most of Brandon Sanderson’s newer books make me feel like that.
The Night’s Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton.
The Expanse made other sci-fi seem like fanfic
The Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy ruined sci-fi for me for a while. In a good way.
Man really? Theres like 1 good book in there out of the three. And its the second half of book 2 combines with the first half of book 3
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. It’s so much better than any of this other writing that it’s actually upsetting. But that series stuck with me for a long time.
Someday I hope to make it past the first book. I have read almost every King novel leading up to The Dark Tower series but I couldn’t get through The Gunslinger and I couldn’t say exactly why, it just didn’t grab my attention like his other works.
I didn’t even know there were Metro 2033 books! I’ll have to read them.
They are super cool!
I finished the first one and am halfway through 2034. Do you happen to know how old Hunter is? Also, thank you for the recommendation!
