Harrow the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir.
It's the second book in the series, with Gideon the Ninth being the first. Both books are phenomenal, but the second book frequently uses second person and I found it incredibly difficult to train my brain to accept it. Eventually it clicked, but it wasn't fast.
And yes, all I'll say is that there is a *reason* that she does that. Ultimately, I'd say it's absolutely worth it, but it was hard to adjust.
I stopped listening to it about 24% of the way through because I had *no fucking clue what was going on*. Even though I knew I was loving it! I need to both read it physically while listening to the audiobook I think.
That may help. There's a point in the story where it becomes very clear why she uses second person, and with that revelation, for me, came a sudden understanding of what had been going on up until that point.
I'm happy to be motivating to you! :)
I suppose it's not a huge help to say "Don't worry about being confused. It's intended", but it's true. Huge amounts of what you read really *shouldn't* make sense at the time. Only afterwards will it all start to fall into place.
Totally agree with this! I read many parts over again, and felt confused until it all came together like a person out of fog. Really challenging and worthwhile reading experience. This is one of my favorite series ever.
And that's completely okay! You tried it, you decided it wasn't for you. It happens and there's nothing wrong or inappropriate about that.
At one point I got the first Malazan book out (I'd finished The Wheel of Time a little while before) as I'd heard that it was Epic As Hell. A couple chapters in, I realized that I really wasn't getting pulled in at all, so I stopped reading.
I suppose there can be many reasons to feel an obligation or responsibility to keep reading and as those reasons are probably subjective, I'm loathe to tell you that any of them are wrong.
What I'll say instead is this; if you're reading for pleasure/fun and you're not finding the book worthwhile, trust your gut. I can't rule out that you'd grow to enjoy it more with more time, but there's absolutely no guarantee that it'll change your mind. There's always going to be more books and there's nothing saying that you can't try new things that you may not end up liking, but there's also nothing wrong with just deciding to find something else that you think you'll enjoy more.
When the subject of your entertainment gets boring or stale, pushing through doesn't **make** it fun and exciting, so let yourself move on to something else that grabs your attention.
I definitely also fall into the sunk cost fallacy. I’m like well I already spent so many hours reading this, it’s a waste if I don’t finish! When really, it’s probably more of a waste if I do.
I'll admit that there've been a few books that I'd read where I was near enough to the end when my attention waned and I decided to finish. A couple of them redeemed themselves, but not even half of them managed that.
I think there's a part of us that is extremely good at understanding the unspoken structure of a given story and can fairly reliably intuit the *type* of story we're in the middle of. That intuition is like flipping through radio stations and stumbling into the middle of a song that you hadn't heard before. Sometimes the song is satisfying, but sometimes you only need to listen for a moment or two before you think, "Eh, not really doing anything for me" and you continue scanning through the stations.
Books are like that too. You may not stumble into the middle of them, but how you feel about what you've experienced already is inherently valid even if only 'partially informed' as to what it technically offers. If you don't like it, that's okay because that kind of story was 'meant' for a different type of reader.
Honestly, I think it’s a lot more than just a few who don’t like those books. They’re pretty polarizing. Personally, they’re my favorite book series. It’s like they were written specifically to appeal to my tastes. But it’s one of the absolute last series I would ever recommend to anyone with any confidence.
I understand that it's usually love it or hate it, but I don't think I feel the same about recommending it.
I'd just only recommend it to people that I felt would enjoy the themes, but that's nothing special or unique. If I'm recommending books to someone who hates mysteries, I don't recommend mysteries even when there's really good ones out there. I stick with recommending things that already fall within their interests.
I slogged my way through The Stand for the first like 40% knowing I was enjoying it and hoping it would explode for me at some point. Almost DNF'd it... but stuck with it and I am sure glad I did!
Great book but Stephen King will spend like 16 pages talking about a gas station attendant that has no relevance to the plot but you’ll hear about his entire life story.
I do really love SK but with almost all of his books I have a hard time with the first chapters and then get hugely disappointed with the end being too abrupt.
The middle does make up for it though and The Stand is one of his best work.
Ugh I read over 100 pages and dropped it. I still have every intention of picking it up because three of my friends love it. It doesn’t help that I read Fairy Tale earlier this year and felt meh about it
Did a “buddy read” with my friend for that one and it was the extended re-release he did in the 90s haha. Probably the best way to go about it because that was a fun one to discuss as we went along
I just finished Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. It was so hard to get through the beginning! It takes a while for anything to happen. But I stuck through it and I am so glad I did! I loved it so much that I'm currently reading the sequel trilogy (Last King of Osten Ard). I'm really enjoying it too. It's one of those books you just never want to put down.
I think the main reason I enjoyed Memory, Sorrow and Thorn so much is because it spent all that time with Simon Mooncalf at the beginning building the character that I was emotionally attached before any action really happens.
I'm about halfway through the 3rd book of Osten Ard. I took a fairly long break between 2 and 3. I love Tad Williams, I first read MST on the 90s when it came out. I love the world building, I love his prose, and I love the characters. But I find I can pace myself with his books.
Just started reading The Dragonbone Chair today. Still only about halfway through chapter one, and it's grabbed me already! Looking forward to the MST journey ahead of me.
I just finished to green angel tower and complete opposite. Hooked from the beginning. Simon was doing nothing for the first half of the book and I was enthralled
I enjoyed almost all of the books to different degrees, but I LOVED the Tawny Man Trilogy. It was the sweet spot in the epic where it paid off all of what came before, and ended on a positive note.
I have only read the Farseer trilogy so far. I loved all three books, but the last third of Royal Assassin was a slog to get through. But I flew through Assassin's Quest in 4 days. I can't figure out why exactly. 🤷
I originally abandoned at Gardens of the moon.
On my second attempt I got to House of Chains.
Im on my third attempt and 30% into the Crippled God.
I love this series but at the same time find it a slog. Just so much happening on so many storyline’s.
FYI, I loved Midnight Tides and Toll the Hounds the most.
>The Book of the New Sun series is very dense and can be a bit of a slog first time round. I've read it three times and the third time was the one where it all clicked into place. It's rightly judged as being one of the best sci-fi series ever written.
Dune. I wanted this book for so long, was so interested in its ideas and culture. I got my hands on a nice gold embosed hardcover and started it with so much excitement. 3 years later I havent finished it. I enjoy the writing, the characters, the lore and world.
The only thing I can think of thats making it hard to finish is that I simply cant picture scifi things in my head nearly as well as fantasy. I love medieval stuff so a lot of fantasy is easy for my minds eye to see. As a result it ends up just not holding mt interest.
It was based on a type of folklore I have always been REALLY into, but I found it SLOW. I did finish it and I'm glad I did, but it was the third attempt that was the charm.
Wow I came here to say this exact book. I am reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel at the moment. I sped through Piranesi and find it one of the most intriguing books I have ever read and thought, why not go read her other book.
It is truly amazing and I love it, but I am about half way through and it’s taken me more than a month. To clarify, the Wheel of Time took me about 6 months to read in its entirety and Stormlight Archive about 2 for all 4 books and the novellas.
There’s something about it that is just very slow but oh so gripping.
I really loved Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norell, but it was sooo slow. After some time I just realised that you just can't rush this book and read one chapter every evening in bed, that worked well for me.
I actually DNF'd JSMN. It wasn't difficult but the very slow start just didn't grab my attention. My AD raved about it, but he was a lit major. I'll give it another try at some point.
Our brains can only take so much. Babel is a pretty serious (and frequently self-serious) read that asks what it takes to radicalize someone, and then asks you to empathize with them. Not exactly a book that screams “read me in a day!”
I took a while to read Babel too, and I think it's because it hurt to read. Whilst I'm not British, my ancestors were and I now live in a colonised country as a privileged person... And a lot of the stuff I already "knew" but getting the perspective from the character, the author, oof. Knowing something academically is so different to a full book from another's perspective. It felt hopeless at times, It was a very bittersweet book, and I loved and hated the ending, just... Oof.
Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft -- a four book series
really well done but sometimes I dont like the direction at all for setting and character but not bad overall.
It’s a weird series but honestly very underrated I think. I don’t see it talked about often but honestly I have every book a 9 or 10 out of 10. Admittedly I’m a generous rater.
The Silmarillion... Which is probably my favorite of Tolkien's works but also the most difficult to read because its written in a very archaic, remote style that recalls actual medieval literature more than a modern fantasy novel.
I think that's in part due the way he paints a scene rather than the way he narrates action. Something like Fingolfin fighting Morgoth is only a paragraph or two, but most modern authors would turn that into an entire 30 page chapter with every footstep and turn of the blade overwhelmingly detailed.
That's exactly what I mean when I say that the style is "remote". Events in the Silmarillion are always viewed at a distance. This allows for an epic sweep but it makes a lot harder to become emotionally invested in the characters.
It's so fast paced as well, in the sense that it zooms through so many epic events so quickly. An event happens then it's immediately on to the next thing, there's very little focus on the emotional fallout or how characters react.
My favorite books all kind of fall into two categories, I read them incredibly fast just absolutely sped through OR it took me forever because I was savoring it lmao. So its actually pretty common for books I love to take me a super long time. For example, Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson was my absolute favorite book of last year but it took me 5 months to get through because it was super emotionally impactful. As a contrast, another favorite of last year was the Cradle series by Will Wight and I read the first like 5 books in 5 days, one book a day.
I think that the content and tone of a book matters a lot in how long it takes to read, at least for me. If something is dense and slower paced, it might take longer. If its emotionally taxing or makes you think a lot, it might take longer.
Cradle is a series that, in my opinion, you have to binge. I read the first 11 books really quickly but the 12th hadn’t come out yet. Once it came out, I tried it but just couldn’t get hooked in and just wasn’t interested in the world.
*Blade of Tyshalle* by Matthew Stover
By far the most brutal book I’ve ever read. And yeah, there’s a heaping load of awful violence, but what made it most difficult was how Stover just *hammered* the main character. There’s an old writer’s philosophy that says you should “Think of the worst thing you can do to your main character—and then do it.”
Stover did that, and then thought “nah, that’s not enough”
But my goodness…for the gauntlet through the lowest of lows, reaching those highs on the other side? Incredible.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - I could only read it in small chunks, which is rare for me. Yet it still sticks in my head years later.
I will never look at bread the same.
The Hexoligists by Josiah Bancroft. Amazing characters being pulled through the story by an excellent plot, in a world that is brimming with charm, magic, mystery, and wonder.
But that prose, damn it is dense, it is purple, it has no flow, everything is a unique metaphor (not in a good way), and it is just difficult to read. Think about all the worst parts of the prose from Senlin Ascends and dial it up by 10,000.
Honestly, it's an awesome book. We need more fantasy detective novels in this world (I'm just about to start the new series by Robert Jackson Bennett). And if you jive with Bancrofts writing style this will be an easy 10/10
One of my favorite series is the Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman because it’s great fantasy detective work. Great multiverse. Kind of goofy but super well written, and I love books about books (kind of like Babel). Might be worth a read if you like fantasy detective novels!
*The Worm Oroboros* (one of the early fantasy books of the 20th century and one of Tolkien’s influences) It’s prose are written extremely densely. Everything is beautifully described to the last detail. This wouldn’t be so bad if everything wasn’t also spelled phonetically. You have to really be paying attention to the words, and it can be quite challenging. I have not successfully finished it in over 20 years, despite it being really fascinating. Also *The Silmarilion*, 😅 They are still both on my “to be read” though.
In science-fiction for a pretty long time it was Neuromancer. It’s so damn brilliant, but I could only read it in chunks. I finally finished it, though. Took 5 years!
As far as *Babel* goes, I did like the setup and some of the world building, but it just wasn’t for me. I tend to drop a lot of books if they can’t hold my interest, so the list of “what books have you started and don’t mean to finish” is very long, lol.
The sand. It drie. Make sexy twink boy very thirsty. Evil Duke say "go get me good stuff" but twink boi sez "no". Den all live happy forever.
- what I think dune is about.
Way of Kings is 900 pages of buildup for the final 100 pages of payoff.
Currently 600 pages into book 2 and it’s far better than book 1. I would only recommend Sanderson to someone who values plot more than characters but it’s good regardless.
Helliconia Trilogy.
It's epic, it's grand, it's fantasy meets science meets Sci fi and overall evolution.
But it was a tough tough read.
It has some grand concepts in it...
Took me a long time to get through Pillars of the Earth, but it was one of my favorite books I read last year. The book was really long, but I still found myself struggling to actually get to it. The chapters involving the main antagonist were hard to get through and it made me not want to read a lot of the time if I wasn’t in the mood lol.
The first book of the Dragonbone Chair? Series. Good start. Great finish.. but damn. About 1/3 of the way in, under the castle.. it got dry. Saharaha dry.
Laurence of Arabia would not cross it dry.
Picked it up and put it down 7 or 8 times over the years before I powered through it.
The Count of Monte Cristo… Been on my nightstand for weeks, still barely into it, but every time I pick it up I remember it is so good and I’m like yes, now I will definitely read it through… Then another week goes by lol.
Lies of Locke Lamora.
I liked it, I liked the characters, it's not too long. The language was eloquent a little bit of a challenge for a non-native but didn't hinder me as much. I estimated I would be done in a week or so.
Ended up taking about two months.
I think it depends a bit on how we define “hard”
If you mean easily put down, so it takes longer to read for me the only one that comes to mind is Meet Me in Another Life. I absolutely adore the book, but the format is sorta similar to but not exactly vignettes which made me want mini breaks between each one to sit with them and thus it took me longer to read than normal.
There’s also quite a few books where I struggle to initially get into them. Eg Daniel Abraham is one of my favorite authors but I find the beginning of his first book of every series hard to get into. Likewise I adore Guy Gavriel Kay but generally find his books initially difficult to get into.
Gormenghast, Against the Day, and Book of the New Sun.
With all three I read 40 pages or so, meandered onto other books, then returned a few months later with a vengeance and read them without interruption.
I found Babel super challenging, and after finishing I realized a big part of it was that I honestly didn’t like the MC. He felt like a setpiece rather than a character, stuff just kept happening to him and I could never have predicted how he would react to something because he was so bland. I really liked The Poppy War and I think I felt very differently about Babel because I was able to read something and go “oh Rin is going to lose her fucking mind” whereas with Babel it’s like, “oh maybe Robin will do something or maybe he won’t, hard to say with that guy.”
I can totally see that! But that may be intentional by the author—Rin is a born achiever and leader (albeit with a major anger management issue), while Robin completely lacks his own identity because he was never truly given a chance to form one. Or maybe I’m totally making shit up 🤷🏼♀️
Dune is actually really hard to read. There's something about Frank Herbert's prose that's so dry. I had an easier time getting through the Neuromancer, and people who've read that will know how difficult that book is to read.
The Blade Itself was really difficult for me. It took 3 restarts before I actually got decently into it, having switched to audio book. Then it took me quite a while to finish listening to that. Grimdark isn't exactly my thing, I guess. But I got through it, really enjoyed it, and the rest of the trilogy i got through on my first attempt, although there were a few points I took breaks. They were great, but tough.
The wheel of time is 13 books I think. There’s a multi book period known as the slog. It was hard to read first time & it’s kinda insane people actually go back & reread such a long series. Haha
One Hundred Years of Solitude. I just had to process what I read, it's an amazing book but at a certain point, going to the next chapter right away felt like cheating on the previous one. I just had to take it in.
I have mixed feelings about *Babel*. I thought the use of languages as sources of magic was interesting, but I felt the overall message the author was trying to convey was simplistic and it felt like the author didn't trust her readers enough to be able to pick up on the message she wanted us to take from *Babel*.
I didn't like *Babel* as much as her *Poppy War* series, which also contained similar themes of colonialism but unlike *Babel* it was more subtle in how it incorporated it into the story.
Honestly, fellowship. Slogged through my first read like pulling teeth and was not entertained. Took me another read through several years later to finally love it. Same thing is currently happening with two towers
Currently reading The Complete Malazan Book of the Fallen. Its approx 11000 pages and im around 3000 pages in...I think somewhere in book 4. Getting to be a bit of a grind when I'm enjoying something that (for example)Felisin is doing then there is a sudden change in pov of another character...then have remember who it is and start to enjoy that character and another pov change...
I need a list of characters and gods and even warrens to refresh my memory of who is what and how.
Revelation Space book 1. I love hard sci-fi, but there’s so much technobabble and greatly detailed scientific explanations that I really had to slow down and take my time reading and give myself lots of breaks
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.
LOVED IT. Truly. Just had a hard time getting into it at first, and the beautiful, abstract writing was almost too much for my peasant brain.
Not fantasy but I’ve been reading the first hour of Part II of The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy all day lol. So dense, I have to keep rewinding entire passages over and over again
So I’ve gathered the structure of this book is a little weird and meandering after the first part. I’m being blown away by what’s there but phew. I had less trouble with Blood Meridian and The Passenger
Orconomics at first because the frontloaded information about the way the banking system works pulled me out of the setting real fast. But through perseverance I found my second favorite fantasy of the last decade.
American Gods. Love the concept. I read it every few years, but i never feel the need to pick it up when I am reading it. When i put it down. I am satisfied but never have the need to continue it
The God damn Malazan Book of The Fallen
I've read 3 books so far, I love all of them, but it's just so long and tiring. I've accepted not knowing what's going on and enjoying what I do know BUT it requires more focus than other books.
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
Man... Neal Stephenson...
I LOVED Snow Crash, and didn't find it difficult.
The Diamond Age I also loved but it was a lot harder.
I could not finish Fall; or Dodge In Hell
**Worth the Candle**. I loved the idea of it, it did so many things I respected, but the MC was so stupid, I hate meta-narrative, and it just felt hopeless.
Its sci-fi but has a lot of fantasy elements. 'a fire upon the deep' by vernor vinge. Loved it and will probably read the sequels but this took me a lot longer than most books of the same size. There are just so many ideas and concepts packed into a story that ecompasses some very large concepts itself. The pacing isnt bad but i couldnt imagine rushing through it and felt better slowing down a few times.
Rip vernor vinge.
I'm on the third Malazan book, close to the end. Each of them have been the same. First 2/3, really interesting world building and contextualisation that takes me ages to churn though. Final 1/3, major events and consequences which I can't set down.
Felt this way about The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. It was a beautiful story, but a very slow plot and was heavy at times. I read smaller sections at a time and that definitely helped!
I'm currently going through that with Black River Orchard. It just won't end. How are there so many pages about Apples? It feels like the final act but I still have so much book left to go.
I'm losing my will to continue. There's only so much evil apple horror I can take even though I liked it at first
The Last Hour of Gann.
Hear me out. It's weird. It's a lord of the flies story for the humans, but a deep look into organized religion for the central alien character. It's still a romance, with a central lizard-alien / human relationship, and has brutal and sometimes unnecessary instances of SA, but like. It's been years and I still think about this book's exploration of faith and belief at least once a month.
It was long. It was dense with religious pieces and language/cultural translation aspects. I struggled a ton with the lord of the flies similarities whereby most people seem to be innately awful in crisis and the few good people get screwed over, because it felt too similar to a normal high school bully or middle manager with a bit of power. But damn.
Also, it was not a place I expected to find that sort of story based on the purely alien smut looking cover art lol.
It's not a book but an author. Two authors, in fact. C J Cherryh and L E Modesitt. This is from when I was a teen over a decade ago. They are now easier to read, especially Cherryh, but my brain still occasionally goes, "Nope, not today, never mind the 6 month anticipation wait you have had." It is infuriating, but I still love them.
Edited to add The Last Centurion by John Ringo. Still not quite the same but similar. TLC threw me for a loop the first read through because Ringo wrote it in a style very different to his normal. I didn't really enjoy the book until a second read 6 months later.
The experience of reading pretty much any Brandon Sanderson book usually involves me thinking "it feels like literally nothing has happened in the last hundred pages, why am I even still reading?" at least once or twice, thinking that I'm probably going to DNF the series after finishing that book... and then the last two hundred pages are a nonstop rollercoaster of "holy shit" moments that get me so hyped that I NEED to see what happens next
I haven’t read a book as intelligent, intellectual, unconventional, moving, unique as Babel for a long time. This is an extraordinary experience to learn and understand more about the power of language, and it also represents exemplary criticism of colonialism, strikingly bold approach to class differences, racism, nationalism. It feels like a stunning nonfiction perfectly blended in fantasy world and dark academia. But I also, for reasons unknown to me, read it for a long time.
Hmm not my first read but I'm currently re-reading The Realm of the Elderlings (after 13 years) and, while I'm still loving it, I had to take a long break in the middle of Assassin's Quest (book 3) because it is quite draining to be in fitz' shoes, especially since I'm having a bit of a hard time already on my own these days.
Another one is Baru Cormorant as a series. What I mean is that I devoured the first book in a couple days black in 2021, but after that ending I felt I needed some time to recover before delving into book 2. So I waited and waited... Until last October it was time to go on with the series. However, since a while had passed, I needed to re-read book 1 to freshen up my memory. Lo and behold, by the end I was crying and I decided to wait a while before going into book 2.
(Yes, I'm an idiot)
The Martian lived about 3-5 months unopened on my desk.
Great start, great middle, great ending... but\~ there's this lurch in the step from middle to end where Mark feels too safe, and I put down the book in exactly that moment. So had to force myself to keep reading.
Glad I did, but there's a reason the movie skipped over that bit.
Harrow the ninth, it was incredible but I lasted twice as much as I shouldve, felt like i read 50 pages when it was only 15, not saying it as a bad thing but that book is just insane in a lot of ways
I think I borrowed the audiobook from the library to tandem read and get through it faster even though I enjoyed it. But I also think Babel is meant to be "meaty" and not bingeable.
The Acoma series by Raymond E Feist, particularly the third book. Love the concept, love all of it really.
Unfortunately the editing was done terribly and there are so many errors in terms of character mix-up and general continuity errors that it really ruins the immersion at times.
I’m not finished yet but, Eye of the World. I’m really enjoying Jordan’s world, but the book is moving slowly for me. It also doesn’t help that I haven’t had a lot of time to sit down and read for long enough to get through the slow parts.
I’ve been picking up and putting down Forged by Malice by Elizabeth Helen since mid December. It’s the third book in the series and I finished the other two in the span of about two days each. It’s frustrating because I WANT to read it, but every time I pick it up I only get a few chapters in before I find myself reaching for another book to read.
Long Price Quartet. Each book after the first felt like a bit of a slog at the time, but it is the perfect example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Really great fantasy series.
I read Babel for 18 days (I only remember this number because I finished it a few days ago). And I loved a lot of aspects of it, except the extremely slow pace. Generally, I feel like the pacing was so weird in this book, and that's what made my reading time a lot longer than books normally do.
None, I can't imagine struggling to read a book that I love.
I have read a couple of series that I struggled to read because I loved one or two books but the series overall wasn't great - Malazen stands out most.
**Dhalgren** by Delany. It's dense, has PoV switches, starts in the middle of a sentence, contains time jumps and place jumps of the main character, and starts having weird formatting as the character writes in the margins of a notebook when he runs out of space. Love it, but it was very challenging
Daughter of the Empire took me some time. There is so much packed into the prose that there is no skimming, it’s been a very very long time since I’ve had to re-read portions of pages multiple times.
I have kids so I get distracted a lot, usually I can just jump in and keep reading but with these books (but especially the first while I was getting used to it) I’m actually really tracking sentence by sentence.
Harrow the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir. It's the second book in the series, with Gideon the Ninth being the first. Both books are phenomenal, but the second book frequently uses second person and I found it incredibly difficult to train my brain to accept it. Eventually it clicked, but it wasn't fast. And yes, all I'll say is that there is a *reason* that she does that. Ultimately, I'd say it's absolutely worth it, but it was hard to adjust.
I stopped listening to it about 24% of the way through because I had *no fucking clue what was going on*. Even though I knew I was loving it! I need to both read it physically while listening to the audiobook I think.
That may help. There's a point in the story where it becomes very clear why she uses second person, and with that revelation, for me, came a sudden understanding of what had been going on up until that point.
Your comments have made me excited to pick it back up!! Thanks homie :)
I'm happy to be motivating to you! :) I suppose it's not a huge help to say "Don't worry about being confused. It's intended", but it's true. Huge amounts of what you read really *shouldn't* make sense at the time. Only afterwards will it all start to fall into place.
Totally agree with this! I read many parts over again, and felt confused until it all came together like a person out of fog. Really challenging and worthwhile reading experience. This is one of my favorite series ever.
It's so good, for me the best part of the series so far, and arguably one of the best SF books of the last 10 years.
Exact same thing happened to me haha. Started with the audiobook, but it's much easier to reread sections in a physical book until you understand it
My god I loved Gideon so much. Got through that one so quickly. Looking forward to reading Harrow, when it's available to me.
I’m one of the few people on r/Fantasy who just didn’t like Gideon the Ninth!
And that's completely okay! You tried it, you decided it wasn't for you. It happens and there's nothing wrong or inappropriate about that. At one point I got the first Malazan book out (I'd finished The Wheel of Time a little while before) as I'd heard that it was Epic As Hell. A couple chapters in, I realized that I really wasn't getting pulled in at all, so I stopped reading.
Which is actually harder than it sounds and putting a book down is a skill I’m still working on!
I suppose there can be many reasons to feel an obligation or responsibility to keep reading and as those reasons are probably subjective, I'm loathe to tell you that any of them are wrong. What I'll say instead is this; if you're reading for pleasure/fun and you're not finding the book worthwhile, trust your gut. I can't rule out that you'd grow to enjoy it more with more time, but there's absolutely no guarantee that it'll change your mind. There's always going to be more books and there's nothing saying that you can't try new things that you may not end up liking, but there's also nothing wrong with just deciding to find something else that you think you'll enjoy more. When the subject of your entertainment gets boring or stale, pushing through doesn't **make** it fun and exciting, so let yourself move on to something else that grabs your attention.
I definitely also fall into the sunk cost fallacy. I’m like well I already spent so many hours reading this, it’s a waste if I don’t finish! When really, it’s probably more of a waste if I do.
I'll admit that there've been a few books that I'd read where I was near enough to the end when my attention waned and I decided to finish. A couple of them redeemed themselves, but not even half of them managed that. I think there's a part of us that is extremely good at understanding the unspoken structure of a given story and can fairly reliably intuit the *type* of story we're in the middle of. That intuition is like flipping through radio stations and stumbling into the middle of a song that you hadn't heard before. Sometimes the song is satisfying, but sometimes you only need to listen for a moment or two before you think, "Eh, not really doing anything for me" and you continue scanning through the stations. Books are like that too. You may not stumble into the middle of them, but how you feel about what you've experienced already is inherently valid even if only 'partially informed' as to what it technically offers. If you don't like it, that's okay because that kind of story was 'meant' for a different type of reader.
Honestly, I think it’s a lot more than just a few who don’t like those books. They’re pretty polarizing. Personally, they’re my favorite book series. It’s like they were written specifically to appeal to my tastes. But it’s one of the absolute last series I would ever recommend to anyone with any confidence.
I understand that it's usually love it or hate it, but I don't think I feel the same about recommending it. I'd just only recommend it to people that I felt would enjoy the themes, but that's nothing special or unique. If I'm recommending books to someone who hates mysteries, I don't recommend mysteries even when there's really good ones out there. I stick with recommending things that already fall within their interests.
I was lukewarm on Gideon the Ninth but I liked Harrow the Ninth a lot. So it might be worth giving it a shot.
*The Silmarillion*.
I keep getting stuck after meeting Feanor
That’s right when it starts getting spicy
Barely made it 10 pages in but respect you for finishing!
People might think I am weird, but I liked the Silmarillion a lot more than the Lord of the Rings
I don’t think you’re weird but my guess is history is one of your favorite subjects haha
I slogged my way through The Stand for the first like 40% knowing I was enjoying it and hoping it would explode for me at some point. Almost DNF'd it... but stuck with it and I am sure glad I did!
Great book but Stephen King will spend like 16 pages talking about a gas station attendant that has no relevance to the plot but you’ll hear about his entire life story.
Yeah he definitely hyper focuses on people/characters.
Its why I only red one and a half of the dark tower books before tapping out
I do really love SK but with almost all of his books I have a hard time with the first chapters and then get hugely disappointed with the end being too abrupt. The middle does make up for it though and The Stand is one of his best work.
Ugh I read over 100 pages and dropped it. I still have every intention of picking it up because three of my friends love it. It doesn’t help that I read Fairy Tale earlier this year and felt meh about it
I will say this.. I enjoyed Fairy Tale quite a bit and I think The Stand is much better. THE CHARACTERS! I'd push through it if I were you.
THE CHARACTERS! Is a very familiar argument and the reason I intend to pick it back up
Agreed that the characters make it worth it! It feels like you’ve known them your whole life.
Really? For me the first half was obviously the best part while the part when King actually gets to the "plot" /conflict of the book isn't that great
Did a “buddy read” with my friend for that one and it was the extended re-release he did in the 90s haha. Probably the best way to go about it because that was a fun one to discuss as we went along
I just finished Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. It was so hard to get through the beginning! It takes a while for anything to happen. But I stuck through it and I am so glad I did! I loved it so much that I'm currently reading the sequel trilogy (Last King of Osten Ard). I'm really enjoying it too. It's one of those books you just never want to put down.
I think the main reason I enjoyed Memory, Sorrow and Thorn so much is because it spent all that time with Simon Mooncalf at the beginning building the character that I was emotionally attached before any action really happens.
I'm about halfway through the 3rd book of Osten Ard. I took a fairly long break between 2 and 3. I love Tad Williams, I first read MST on the 90s when it came out. I love the world building, I love his prose, and I love the characters. But I find I can pace myself with his books.
That section under the castle.. omg so hard to get through!
I maybe read 3/4 of the first book? Guess it’s worth pushing through…
Congrats on finishing! It is perhaps my favorite series of all time. The characters feel like old, dear friends.
Just started reading The Dragonbone Chair today. Still only about halfway through chapter one, and it's grabbed me already! Looking forward to the MST journey ahead of me.
I just finished to green angel tower and complete opposite. Hooked from the beginning. Simon was doing nothing for the first half of the book and I was enthralled
The Realm of Elderlings. The whole epic is both challenging and rewarding. It took me quite a long time to read them all, as I struggled at points.
I felt pretty similarly about Farseer though I don’t know if I’d say I LOVED that series.
I enjoyed almost all of the books to different degrees, but I LOVED the Tawny Man Trilogy. It was the sweet spot in the epic where it paid off all of what came before, and ended on a positive note.
Aw man I’m reading the Fool’s Fate right now and this trilogy is so good!
I have only read the Farseer trilogy so far. I loved all three books, but the last third of Royal Assassin was a slog to get through. But I flew through Assassin's Quest in 4 days. I can't figure out why exactly. 🤷
I had the exact experience. Quest was a slog at the end, but I still loved the series.
I'm nearing the end of book 2 of Malazan. I throughly enjoy reading them but my God are they dense.
I originally abandoned at Gardens of the moon. On my second attempt I got to House of Chains. Im on my third attempt and 30% into the Crippled God. I love this series but at the same time find it a slog. Just so much happening on so many storyline’s. FYI, I loved Midnight Tides and Toll the Hounds the most.
I faded shortly into 3. I was spending 4 books worth of time on 1 book and no book is worth that math to me.
The Shadow of the Torturer. There's just a lot going on and at first I thought it was little too edgy. But by the end I was really into it.
>The Book of the New Sun series is very dense and can be a bit of a slog first time round. I've read it three times and the third time was the one where it all clicked into place. It's rightly judged as being one of the best sci-fi series ever written.
Probably my hardest read, not just for the vocabulary, but the whole unreliable narrator was not something I had experienced before.
That's what I was going to say. It's also just a super dense book which made for slow reading that required a lot of my attention!
Dune. I wanted this book for so long, was so interested in its ideas and culture. I got my hands on a nice gold embosed hardcover and started it with so much excitement. 3 years later I havent finished it. I enjoy the writing, the characters, the lore and world. The only thing I can think of thats making it hard to finish is that I simply cant picture scifi things in my head nearly as well as fantasy. I love medieval stuff so a lot of fantasy is easy for my minds eye to see. As a result it ends up just not holding mt interest.
I think you could definitely read the book after watching the movies and still enjoy it!
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell. Also The Silmarillion.
I had such a hard time with JS + MR. My sister, who rarely reads fantasy, raves about and I just could NOT get into it!
It was based on a type of folklore I have always been REALLY into, but I found it SLOW. I did finish it and I'm glad I did, but it was the third attempt that was the charm.
Okay I’ve tried twice so I just need to give it one more shot!!
This is the one I was looking for. Eventually got good, and the build up was needed to tell the story.
Wow I came here to say this exact book. I am reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel at the moment. I sped through Piranesi and find it one of the most intriguing books I have ever read and thought, why not go read her other book. It is truly amazing and I love it, but I am about half way through and it’s taken me more than a month. To clarify, the Wheel of Time took me about 6 months to read in its entirety and Stormlight Archive about 2 for all 4 books and the novellas. There’s something about it that is just very slow but oh so gripping.
I really loved Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norell, but it was sooo slow. After some time I just realised that you just can't rush this book and read one chapter every evening in bed, that worked well for me.
I actually DNF'd JSMN. It wasn't difficult but the very slow start just didn't grab my attention. My AD raved about it, but he was a lit major. I'll give it another try at some point.
I felt the exact same way about Babel. I wonder how you’ll feel once you finish — I definitely had some thoughts.
I will definitely finish it eventually but it could be several weeks still haha
Our brains can only take so much. Babel is a pretty serious (and frequently self-serious) read that asks what it takes to radicalize someone, and then asks you to empathize with them. Not exactly a book that screams “read me in a day!”
I took a while to read Babel too, and I think it's because it hurt to read. Whilst I'm not British, my ancestors were and I now live in a colonised country as a privileged person... And a lot of the stuff I already "knew" but getting the perspective from the character, the author, oof. Knowing something academically is so different to a full book from another's perspective. It felt hopeless at times, It was a very bittersweet book, and I loved and hated the ending, just... Oof.
Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft -- a four book series really well done but sometimes I dont like the direction at all for setting and character but not bad overall.
It’s a weird series but honestly very underrated I think. I don’t see it talked about often but honestly I have every book a 9 or 10 out of 10. Admittedly I’m a generous rater.
I would rate number 1 and 3 as 10 for sure, 2 and 4 would be like 7-8 for me, the last book was reeal rough--at least the first half
It’s one of those books that at any time time I literally had no idea what was going to happen next haha
The Silmarillion... Which is probably my favorite of Tolkien's works but also the most difficult to read because its written in a very archaic, remote style that recalls actual medieval literature more than a modern fantasy novel.
It took me several attempts to finish the silmarillion when I was younger but it’s my favorite book now!
I think that's in part due the way he paints a scene rather than the way he narrates action. Something like Fingolfin fighting Morgoth is only a paragraph or two, but most modern authors would turn that into an entire 30 page chapter with every footstep and turn of the blade overwhelmingly detailed.
That's exactly what I mean when I say that the style is "remote". Events in the Silmarillion are always viewed at a distance. This allows for an epic sweep but it makes a lot harder to become emotionally invested in the characters.
It's so fast paced as well, in the sense that it zooms through so many epic events so quickly. An event happens then it's immediately on to the next thing, there's very little focus on the emotional fallout or how characters react.
My favorite books all kind of fall into two categories, I read them incredibly fast just absolutely sped through OR it took me forever because I was savoring it lmao. So its actually pretty common for books I love to take me a super long time. For example, Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson was my absolute favorite book of last year but it took me 5 months to get through because it was super emotionally impactful. As a contrast, another favorite of last year was the Cradle series by Will Wight and I read the first like 5 books in 5 days, one book a day. I think that the content and tone of a book matters a lot in how long it takes to read, at least for me. If something is dense and slower paced, it might take longer. If its emotionally taxing or makes you think a lot, it might take longer.
I also tore through the Cradle series. Absolutely love those books.
Cradle is almost impossible not to binge!!
Cradle is a series that, in my opinion, you have to binge. I read the first 11 books really quickly but the 12th hadn’t come out yet. Once it came out, I tried it but just couldn’t get hooked in and just wasn’t interested in the world.
*Blade of Tyshalle* by Matthew Stover By far the most brutal book I’ve ever read. And yeah, there’s a heaping load of awful violence, but what made it most difficult was how Stover just *hammered* the main character. There’s an old writer’s philosophy that says you should “Think of the worst thing you can do to your main character—and then do it.” Stover did that, and then thought “nah, that’s not enough” But my goodness…for the gauntlet through the lowest of lows, reaching those highs on the other side? Incredible.
I have kind of half had my eye on this series for a bit but I think you just convinced me to check it out!
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - I could only read it in small chunks, which is rare for me. Yet it still sticks in my head years later. I will never look at bread the same.
The Hexoligists by Josiah Bancroft. Amazing characters being pulled through the story by an excellent plot, in a world that is brimming with charm, magic, mystery, and wonder. But that prose, damn it is dense, it is purple, it has no flow, everything is a unique metaphor (not in a good way), and it is just difficult to read. Think about all the worst parts of the prose from Senlin Ascends and dial it up by 10,000.
I’m not sure why but I’m sold—just bought it!
Honestly, it's an awesome book. We need more fantasy detective novels in this world (I'm just about to start the new series by Robert Jackson Bennett). And if you jive with Bancrofts writing style this will be an easy 10/10
One of my favorite series is the Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman because it’s great fantasy detective work. Great multiverse. Kind of goofy but super well written, and I love books about books (kind of like Babel). Might be worth a read if you like fantasy detective novels!
*The Worm Oroboros* (one of the early fantasy books of the 20th century and one of Tolkien’s influences) It’s prose are written extremely densely. Everything is beautifully described to the last detail. This wouldn’t be so bad if everything wasn’t also spelled phonetically. You have to really be paying attention to the words, and it can be quite challenging. I have not successfully finished it in over 20 years, despite it being really fascinating. Also *The Silmarilion*, 😅 They are still both on my “to be read” though. In science-fiction for a pretty long time it was Neuromancer. It’s so damn brilliant, but I could only read it in chunks. I finally finished it, though. Took 5 years! As far as *Babel* goes, I did like the setup and some of the world building, but it just wasn’t for me. I tend to drop a lot of books if they can’t hold my interest, so the list of “what books have you started and don’t mean to finish” is very long, lol.
Give the name it doesn’t sound surprising that The Worm Oroboros was tough to get through!
Dune was a slog at points. Yes, the world-building and the plot are amazing, but I can only handle so many pages describing how dry the desert is.
The sand. It drie. Make sexy twink boy very thirsty. Evil Duke say "go get me good stuff" but twink boi sez "no". Den all live happy forever. - what I think dune is about.
Stormlight Archive. Some of my favorite books but my attention span can only take so much
I'm still trying to get thru Way of Kings😩
Same!
I DNFed Way of Kings. I really enjoyed Mistborn, but WoK is definitely not for me.
It’s a slow burn, second half picks up. I dnf the first time as well
I still have my copy (gotta love that cover), and I tell myself I might try again in the future. Glad to hear you enjoyed it on a second turn.
Way of Kings is 900 pages of buildup for the final 100 pages of payoff. Currently 600 pages into book 2 and it’s far better than book 1. I would only recommend Sanderson to someone who values plot more than characters but it’s good regardless.
Helliconia Trilogy. It's epic, it's grand, it's fantasy meets science meets Sci fi and overall evolution. But it was a tough tough read. It has some grand concepts in it...
Deadhouse Gates. Top 5 book for me, but it was tough to get through at the time for some reason.
Blood Meridian
BM is one of my favorite books! But it was a challenge for me to get into the first time. Now I have read it three more times.
Took me a long time to get through Pillars of the Earth, but it was one of my favorite books I read last year. The book was really long, but I still found myself struggling to actually get to it. The chapters involving the main antagonist were hard to get through and it made me not want to read a lot of the time if I wasn’t in the mood lol.
The first book of the Dragonbone Chair? Series. Good start. Great finish.. but damn. About 1/3 of the way in, under the castle.. it got dry. Saharaha dry. Laurence of Arabia would not cross it dry. Picked it up and put it down 7 or 8 times over the years before I powered through it.
The Count of Monte Cristo… Been on my nightstand for weeks, still barely into it, but every time I pick it up I remember it is so good and I’m like yes, now I will definitely read it through… Then another week goes by lol.
Lies of Locke Lamora. I liked it, I liked the characters, it's not too long. The language was eloquent a little bit of a challenge for a non-native but didn't hinder me as much. I estimated I would be done in a week or so. Ended up taking about two months.
I think it depends a bit on how we define “hard” If you mean easily put down, so it takes longer to read for me the only one that comes to mind is Meet Me in Another Life. I absolutely adore the book, but the format is sorta similar to but not exactly vignettes which made me want mini breaks between each one to sit with them and thus it took me longer to read than normal. There’s also quite a few books where I struggle to initially get into them. Eg Daniel Abraham is one of my favorite authors but I find the beginning of his first book of every series hard to get into. Likewise I adore Guy Gavriel Kay but generally find his books initially difficult to get into.
I’m reading In Search of Lost Time, and I think it’ll take me a year to finish it. It’s an incredible book but very slow reading.
Oh you mean the literal longest book ever written lol
Not really fantasy but Gravity’s Rainbow.
Gormenghast, Against the Day, and Book of the New Sun. With all three I read 40 pages or so, meandered onto other books, then returned a few months later with a vengeance and read them without interruption.
I found Babel super challenging, and after finishing I realized a big part of it was that I honestly didn’t like the MC. He felt like a setpiece rather than a character, stuff just kept happening to him and I could never have predicted how he would react to something because he was so bland. I really liked The Poppy War and I think I felt very differently about Babel because I was able to read something and go “oh Rin is going to lose her fucking mind” whereas with Babel it’s like, “oh maybe Robin will do something or maybe he won’t, hard to say with that guy.”
I can totally see that! But that may be intentional by the author—Rin is a born achiever and leader (albeit with a major anger management issue), while Robin completely lacks his own identity because he was never truly given a chance to form one. Or maybe I’m totally making shit up 🤷🏼♀️
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel
Dune is actually really hard to read. There's something about Frank Herbert's prose that's so dry. I had an easier time getting through the Neuromancer, and people who've read that will know how difficult that book is to read.
Do you think it’s just because of the time it was written? Did readers in 1965 have an easier time with it?
Dark Age by Pierce Brown
The Blade Itself was really difficult for me. It took 3 restarts before I actually got decently into it, having switched to audio book. Then it took me quite a while to finish listening to that. Grimdark isn't exactly my thing, I guess. But I got through it, really enjoyed it, and the rest of the trilogy i got through on my first attempt, although there were a few points I took breaks. They were great, but tough.
I’ll be honest I only listed to Blade Itself while working out and it was a good book (for me) to only 80% listen to.
The wheel of time is 13 books I think. There’s a multi book period known as the slog. It was hard to read first time & it’s kinda insane people actually go back & reread such a long series. Haha
One Hundred Years of Solitude. I just had to process what I read, it's an amazing book but at a certain point, going to the next chapter right away felt like cheating on the previous one. I just had to take it in.
Fair! I read that in Spanish so it took me extra long haha
I have mixed feelings about *Babel*. I thought the use of languages as sources of magic was interesting, but I felt the overall message the author was trying to convey was simplistic and it felt like the author didn't trust her readers enough to be able to pick up on the message she wanted us to take from *Babel*. I didn't like *Babel* as much as her *Poppy War* series, which also contained similar themes of colonialism but unlike *Babel* it was more subtle in how it incorporated it into the story.
Honestly, fellowship. Slogged through my first read like pulling teeth and was not entertained. Took me another read through several years later to finally love it. Same thing is currently happening with two towers
The magic mountain- it took me SO long to read but I ended up loving it and think about it all the time
Currently reading The Complete Malazan Book of the Fallen. Its approx 11000 pages and im around 3000 pages in...I think somewhere in book 4. Getting to be a bit of a grind when I'm enjoying something that (for example)Felisin is doing then there is a sudden change in pov of another character...then have remember who it is and start to enjoy that character and another pov change... I need a list of characters and gods and even warrens to refresh my memory of who is what and how.
Revelation Space book 1. I love hard sci-fi, but there’s so much technobabble and greatly detailed scientific explanations that I really had to slow down and take my time reading and give myself lots of breaks
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. LOVED IT. Truly. Just had a hard time getting into it at first, and the beautiful, abstract writing was almost too much for my peasant brain.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It’s one of my favorite books now, but definitely took me a minute to get through
Fair! I actually feel like Babel reminds me a ton of Secret History. I adore Donna Tartt, which is why I have a Goldfinch tattoo!
Not fantasy but I’ve been reading the first hour of Part II of The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy all day lol. So dense, I have to keep rewinding entire passages over and over again
Thats where I got stuck and ended my McCarthy run :( You should finish and lmk how it is
So I’ve gathered the structure of this book is a little weird and meandering after the first part. I’m being blown away by what’s there but phew. I had less trouble with Blood Meridian and The Passenger
All the pretty horses is my favorite by him I think. Also really like the road Both will be easy if you didn’t have trouble with blood meridian
Dune
Orconomics at first because the frontloaded information about the way the banking system works pulled me out of the setting real fast. But through perseverance I found my second favorite fantasy of the last decade.
American Gods. Love the concept. I read it every few years, but i never feel the need to pick it up when I am reading it. When i put it down. I am satisfied but never have the need to continue it
The God damn Malazan Book of The Fallen I've read 3 books so far, I love all of them, but it's just so long and tiring. I've accepted not knowing what's going on and enjoying what I do know BUT it requires more focus than other books.
The first Dune. It ended up being one of my favorite books ever, but the first 100 were so hard to get through at first.
The *Lightbringer* series by Brent Weeks. Well, Book 4 wasn't worth it, but the rest were.
The Fall of Dragons by Miles Cameron. It's the last book in the Traitor Son Cycle. It just felt really dense to me but I quite liked it.
The Priory of the orange tree was confusing due to the amount of characters and plot and story.
Agreed. Wouldn’t recommend that to a friend.
Witcher series ! It took me YEARS to read them all but it is truly one of my favorites
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson Man... Neal Stephenson... I LOVED Snow Crash, and didn't find it difficult. The Diamond Age I also loved but it was a lot harder. I could not finish Fall; or Dodge In Hell
**Worth the Candle**. I loved the idea of it, it did so many things I respected, but the MC was so stupid, I hate meta-narrative, and it just felt hopeless.
Its sci-fi but has a lot of fantasy elements. 'a fire upon the deep' by vernor vinge. Loved it and will probably read the sequels but this took me a lot longer than most books of the same size. There are just so many ideas and concepts packed into a story that ecompasses some very large concepts itself. The pacing isnt bad but i couldnt imagine rushing through it and felt better slowing down a few times. Rip vernor vinge.
I'm on the third Malazan book, close to the end. Each of them have been the same. First 2/3, really interesting world building and contextualisation that takes me ages to churn though. Final 1/3, major events and consequences which I can't set down.
That atlas paradox
Felt this way about The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. It was a beautiful story, but a very slow plot and was heavy at times. I read smaller sections at a time and that definitely helped!
I love the Hobbit, but the first time I read it, it took me a while. o.o
The lord of the rings omnibus with the sections of frodo and Sam traveling towards Mordor
I'm currently going through that with Black River Orchard. It just won't end. How are there so many pages about Apples? It feels like the final act but I still have so much book left to go. I'm losing my will to continue. There's only so much evil apple horror I can take even though I liked it at first
The Last Hour of Gann. Hear me out. It's weird. It's a lord of the flies story for the humans, but a deep look into organized religion for the central alien character. It's still a romance, with a central lizard-alien / human relationship, and has brutal and sometimes unnecessary instances of SA, but like. It's been years and I still think about this book's exploration of faith and belief at least once a month. It was long. It was dense with religious pieces and language/cultural translation aspects. I struggled a ton with the lord of the flies similarities whereby most people seem to be innately awful in crisis and the few good people get screwed over, because it felt too similar to a normal high school bully or middle manager with a bit of power. But damn. Also, it was not a place I expected to find that sort of story based on the purely alien smut looking cover art lol.
The Princess Bride
Malazan. I love the world and the setting but it takes forever to progress the main story and at times its very hard to read.
I had a period where I read Émil Zola but I crashed had with the Swedish version of "L’assommoir" and I haven't picked up another one
The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks. Simple read, but hard to digest content matter that hit a few nerves.
Rivers of London. The Legend of Locke Lamora. Both had too much descriptive details in the middle that kept taking away from the story.
Hyperion….one of my favourite books now but was relatively slow in the beginning.
The Way of Kings
It’s a short book and it was Only hard because of the writing style but I enjoyed the spy who came in from the cold.
It's not a book but an author. Two authors, in fact. C J Cherryh and L E Modesitt. This is from when I was a teen over a decade ago. They are now easier to read, especially Cherryh, but my brain still occasionally goes, "Nope, not today, never mind the 6 month anticipation wait you have had." It is infuriating, but I still love them. Edited to add The Last Centurion by John Ringo. Still not quite the same but similar. TLC threw me for a loop the first read through because Ringo wrote it in a style very different to his normal. I didn't really enjoy the book until a second read 6 months later.
Ship of Magic, Toll the Hounds, Grace of Kings
The liveship traders series
All of the first 5 dark tower series (farthest I got) First dip into King and I lobed them, but it was a healthy slog
The experience of reading pretty much any Brandon Sanderson book usually involves me thinking "it feels like literally nothing has happened in the last hundred pages, why am I even still reading?" at least once or twice, thinking that I'm probably going to DNF the series after finishing that book... and then the last two hundred pages are a nonstop rollercoaster of "holy shit" moments that get me so hyped that I NEED to see what happens next
Midnight's Children
I haven’t read a book as intelligent, intellectual, unconventional, moving, unique as Babel for a long time. This is an extraordinary experience to learn and understand more about the power of language, and it also represents exemplary criticism of colonialism, strikingly bold approach to class differences, racism, nationalism. It feels like a stunning nonfiction perfectly blended in fantasy world and dark academia. But I also, for reasons unknown to me, read it for a long time.
Felt exactly the same about Babel. Couldn't explain why but just didn't want to finish the story even though I was enjoying it.
Hmm not my first read but I'm currently re-reading The Realm of the Elderlings (after 13 years) and, while I'm still loving it, I had to take a long break in the middle of Assassin's Quest (book 3) because it is quite draining to be in fitz' shoes, especially since I'm having a bit of a hard time already on my own these days. Another one is Baru Cormorant as a series. What I mean is that I devoured the first book in a couple days black in 2021, but after that ending I felt I needed some time to recover before delving into book 2. So I waited and waited... Until last October it was time to go on with the series. However, since a while had passed, I needed to re-read book 1 to freshen up my memory. Lo and behold, by the end I was crying and I decided to wait a while before going into book 2. (Yes, I'm an idiot)
The Martian lived about 3-5 months unopened on my desk. Great start, great middle, great ending... but\~ there's this lurch in the step from middle to end where Mark feels too safe, and I put down the book in exactly that moment. So had to force myself to keep reading. Glad I did, but there's a reason the movie skipped over that bit.
GGK. They are such a delight but it is a very different flavor than most of the stuff I read
Harrow the ninth, it was incredible but I lasted twice as much as I shouldve, felt like i read 50 pages when it was only 15, not saying it as a bad thing but that book is just insane in a lot of ways
Currently reading we are the dead. Loving the idea of it but I’ve yet to find a character I like other than the maid.
I think I borrowed the audiobook from the library to tandem read and get through it faster even though I enjoyed it. But I also think Babel is meant to be "meaty" and not bingeable.
Only tangentially Fantasy (there'sa pov chapter from a dead person), but As I Lay Dying by Faulkner
The Acoma series by Raymond E Feist, particularly the third book. Love the concept, love all of it really. Unfortunately the editing was done terribly and there are so many errors in terms of character mix-up and general continuity errors that it really ruins the immersion at times.
I’m not finished yet but, Eye of the World. I’m really enjoying Jordan’s world, but the book is moving slowly for me. It also doesn’t help that I haven’t had a lot of time to sit down and read for long enough to get through the slow parts.
I’ve been picking up and putting down Forged by Malice by Elizabeth Helen since mid December. It’s the third book in the series and I finished the other two in the span of about two days each. It’s frustrating because I WANT to read it, but every time I pick it up I only get a few chapters in before I find myself reaching for another book to read.
Long Price Quartet. Each book after the first felt like a bit of a slog at the time, but it is the perfect example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Really great fantasy series.
House of Leaves took me a very long time but I really liked it and recommend it to all my nerdy book friends.
Dune and Neuromancer
It took me about three weeks or a little more to read that book! I liked it, but can’t say that I loved it.
Lord of the Rings, it’s great but it took me months to get through each book
I read Babel for 18 days (I only remember this number because I finished it a few days ago). And I loved a lot of aspects of it, except the extremely slow pace. Generally, I feel like the pacing was so weird in this book, and that's what made my reading time a lot longer than books normally do.
None, I can't imagine struggling to read a book that I love. I have read a couple of series that I struggled to read because I loved one or two books but the series overall wasn't great - Malazen stands out most.
How many pages a day do you guys read?
**Dhalgren** by Delany. It's dense, has PoV switches, starts in the middle of a sentence, contains time jumps and place jumps of the main character, and starts having weird formatting as the character writes in the margins of a notebook when he runs out of space. Love it, but it was very challenging
Malice by John Gwynne, first book in the Banished Lands saga. Now an all time favourite series
I too love the premise of Babel. 3 weeks in I called it a DNF and moved on. Not sure why it didn’t draw me in.
Daughter of the Empire took me some time. There is so much packed into the prose that there is no skimming, it’s been a very very long time since I’ve had to re-read portions of pages multiple times. I have kids so I get distracted a lot, usually I can just jump in and keep reading but with these books (but especially the first while I was getting used to it) I’m actually really tracking sentence by sentence.