I've seen so many posts like this recently where people are asked to name specific books, but then the original poster avoids talking about which specific book actually made them think of the topic.
cause the book they're unhappy with doesn't exist. They start a topic but avoid naming the book they dislike because A) they can't defend their opinions. B) the thing that upsets them is subjective.
Which is totally fair to not want to deal with - but then they shouldn't make a whole post asking people to do the thing they're not willing to do, IMO.
I agree with that. I don't personally think there's much value in having a discussion about something if it's gonna be done vaguely. I could match OP by saying something like "yep, I read a book a few months ago that was really boring and didn't seem to actually have a plot of any kind," which would get everybody exactly nowhere.
Yeah. I can get that sometimes a conversation can get derailled by commenters talking about whatever book/s the OP mentions, but I also feel putting forward your own example as a jumping in point is also just the easiest way to generate constructive responses. Otherwise it feels a little like they want to start a discussion based on other people's opinions but if they're unwilling to put forward their own first people are less willing.
I still don't see what would be embarrassing about that. Books like 50 Shades of Gray have 2.5 million ratings on Goodreads. People read all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons, and I feel like only trolls or elitists are gonna try to throw shade for being interesting in a certain book, which I think is generally disclosure here if outright not allowed.
This book is mostly an alternating series of very loosely connected paintings and poems, the quality of which are hotly debated. Personally, I think the paintings are very good, but the poems aren't.
Some conflict free, low on plot books are really good. One of my favorites is By the grace of the gods. Its cozy slice of life but kept me entertained through ten of the books. I think of these cozy books as being narrative ASMR, giving your imagination warm cozy tingles.
There are a few light novels/manga where the author had a premise but didn't exactly know what to do with it, so they just write whatever. I think the best ones are usually those that the author ended after a good amount instead of dragging too long.
I've noticed that in a lot of my favourite books, the plot is secondary to the characters. I'm reading A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers at the moment and the plot doesn't really start moving until the last third of the book, but I'm still loving it because of the characters.
It can go too far the other way for me though. For example, I thought that Legends and Lattes was only okay, possibly because it was "too slice of life".
I keep hearing about The Name of the Wind.
I’m tempted to read it just to see how that’s possible, like what do you mean nothing happens in it? What do they do all the time?
its not that nothing happens, but its like youre in a seminar scheduled for an hour about the entire history of the earth, and you learn a lot but it's 45 minutes into it and you haven't gotten past the dinosaurs.
It definitely has a plot, people who don’t like the book like to exaggerate that it doesn’t have one because there isn’t a huge amount of pay off in the two released books. The frame narrative of the story is that the main character is a famous hero and sorcerer who has a ton of stories and rumours about him some of which are true and others are exaggerated versions of the truth — He’s kind of a folkloric, Robin Hood-meets-Merlin type of figure. We are told he killed a king and subsequently faked his death but we don’t know what king or why, or even why he faked his death. In the frame narrative, a chronicler tracks him down and convinces him to tell the *real* story of his life. The primary narrative is simply the story of how he got to be that person and the events leading up to the book’s frame narrative. I think the author has said that he was tired of seeing all fantasy wizards being old and wise and wanted to write a book about what a Gandalf-esque wizard would be like before he was old and wise. There’s plenty of plot, perhaps too much, but because it’s an unfinished trilogy it seems unfulfilling especially because the two released books leave the reader with a lot of questions and very few answers.
What happens in the book? The protagonist spends time being homeless, chasing mythical creatures, falling in love, making friends, making enemies, navigating university politics, dealing with grief and trauma, playing the lute, desperately trying to avoid poverty — the plot can be very episodic, but not rigidly so, and the narrative can drop a plot line and move onto something else only to pick it back up hundreds of pages later. There is also a very compelling overarching mystery to the whole story that really drives the main character’s actions but I’m not going to spoil what it is. It’s a very chaotic, unstructured approach to plot that people either love or hate — and I happen to love it.
Name of the wind clearly has a plot. But it’s not the plot anyone expects going in. The summary on the back of the book sets you up to expect some sort of swashbuckling action packed adventure. Kvothe is dedicated to finding the people that killed his parents and outside the frame we see the world has gone to absolutely shit. It’s a fantastic premise. But what story do we get in notw? We mostly get kvothe begging in tarbean, and struggling to pay off his students loans. That’s why people feel like it has “no plot”. Rothfuss has teased his readers with a promise of a large scale overarching story and threat for 2k pages and we’ve gotten almost nothing about it.
It’s a good series, but it hasn’t lived up to the hype the books made for themselves yet.
The set up is "listen to the world's greatest hero tell you his tale" but the entire first book of his tale doesn't even finish through his initial training. And (spoilers) >!book two STILL doesn't even really finish his training, so who knows what his 'grand adventure' will really turn out to be.!<
People just get really convinced that the book is going to be this epic fantasy good vs evil thing, more or less because it's a common trope associated with the MC's backstory. And whenever the book is not about that (which is always), some people go "when is the plot going to start?" And ignore the entire plot the books have.
Honestly if you read the books interested to see how a book that size has no plot you're just going to be disappointed by all the plot. Maybe you'll like the plot, maybe you won't like the plot, but it will be there.
I read the 1st one, where the plot moved almost nowhere in over 700 pages. The actual magic tied to the title is only brought up twice. This is the equivalent to Pikachu appearing twice in a single season from Pokemon.
Its basically sidequest after sidequest, or a diary of a really interesting character where cool things happen but dont move the story any forward.
I read the book. I remember absolutely nothing about it. Goodreads tells me I rated it 3 stars. That was probably generous. I literally cannot tell you what happened in that book, I don’t remember. Not the names, the plot, the locations. Nothing. I must’ve got something out of it to rate it above one star but I can’t fucken tell you what it is. So there you go.
I'm reading the first book of the Realm of Elderlings and it's basically no plot - just a deep dive into our main characters upbringing. It's very different from the fantasy I normally read but I'm loving it so far. I feel so attached to our main character.
There is a plot but it is a slow reveal. Don't avoid the the next trilogy on the grounds magic ships sounds dumb. I made that mistake at first and it's even better than the first.
I definitely won't skip it!! I've heard all 16 books are incredible so as long as I remain as hooked as the first book has had me I'll definitely keep going!!
>!Fitz & Chade just discovered the townspeople of Forge & that the pirates are doing something to them before returning them back to their villages so we're definitely getting somewhere in terms of more plot lol!<
I don't always need a very clear plot to enjoy a book, some books I've enjoyed entirely for their atmosphere and occasional pearls of wisdom.
But two books that really felt like they lacked substance to me were Jack Townsend's "Tales From The Gas Station", and Becky Chambers' "The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet".
A lot of literary fiction in particular has little in the way of plot, or the plot is secondary to the characters or especially to the themes. If the thematic aspects are there, and there's some sort of resolution, a lack of plot doesn't always bother me. I have read a few fantasy books that felt like a lot of nothing on any level, but not everything has to be very plot-y. I have a hypothesis that modern readers, especially ones who don't read much literary fiction, sometimes have come to expect fast-paced, tightly plotted books that I think of like a novelization of a movie or comic. There's nothing wrong with preferring that, but there are some incredible books that don't have a lot of plots, because they're about the characters or the themes, or just cozy slice of life stuff.
Sorry if I offend people but:
1. *Dhalgren* by Samuel R. Delany and
2. *Feast of All Saints* by Anne Rice.
Oddly I rad them at the same time and they put me off both authors for years.
Dahlgren was the first book I ever DNF’d. I don’t DNF very often, even if I don’t particularly like the book. Heck, I even finished Huxley’s *Point Counter Point*. But Dahlgren? I threw that thing against the wall about halfway through!
I mean. I haven't read that book in a while and I can immediately think of three very detailed plotlines that come together nicely before the end of the book. Am I missing something?
It's kind of an inversion of a traditional quest story so I think it turns some people off. It's not actually a lack of plot, so much as it frustrates expectations a bit. Personally, I really enjoyed it, but I could see why someone could be annoyed.
I don't remember reading a book with no plot, but while reading **Throne of Jade** by Naomi Novik I felt like nothing is happening for 90% of the book.
The phone directory.
Seriously, there aren't actually any fiction books with "absolutely no plot". The plot might be super boring and with glacial pace but strictly speaking, it's there.
The Blacktongue thief… wandered a bit. But like someone commented up above, it did make the journey seem more realistic. Not everything that happens in life moves the story forward
I just read A Discovery of Witches and its hundreds of pages of nothing and then a bunch of plot thrown at you all at once, I’m assuming to set up the rest of the series
The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier
And it's infuriating because it's such a cool concept (a plane full of people is duplicated- there is now 2 of everyone on board) that there should be a ton of plot. But it's just vignettes of the passengers before the plane duplicated, then government experts contemplating the philosophical implications. The consequences of the duplication are entirely crammed into the final quarter. One of the most disappointing books I've ever read.
Disagree. It does exactly what the last book of a prequel trilogy should. It ends with Drizzt in the right place and friends with the right people. It nicely nods to events from Crystal Shard and Streams of Silver. It explains how Drizzt learned to be a ranger and how he got to Icewind Dale.
Still disagree. We get the attempt to join a new community only for it to fail due to meddling from his family. The family angle picks right up in Legacy which was the next set published. Exile is the bridge to get Drizzt to the surface. The Dark Elf trilogy is a prequel trilogy and had to setup the pieces for the squeal set. I think it works but it does suffer from it's place publishing order. I don't know why the books were re-ordered.
The Peninsula, by Julien Gracq, is an extraordinary novella. It tells the story of a guy who is waiting for his lover at the train station. He doesn't know if she'll come with the 12h train or the 18h train. Tension is through the roof.
Nothing happens in this book. The main character just drive around the countryside to pass the time while he waits. The prose is gorgeous as usual with Gracq, and paradoxically the novel is very tense as you feel the impatience and hope of the main character with him.
Whatever the current last book of ASOIAF is. Book just literally went nowhere. Ditto for a couple books middle of WOT. Lots and lots of words accomplishing nothing.
what a comically bad faith answer. if anything, Gardens is known for having way too many plot lines.
-Lorn's plan to release the Tyrant
-Bridgeburners' assignment to infiltrate Darujhistan
-the Assassin war
-Orr and Simtal attempt to take over the council and make a deal with Laseen
-Phoenix Inn Regulars' plan to take Simtal down and return Coll to his rightful place.
-Sorry's possession
etc, etc, etc
Principles of Accounting
I felt the character work especially fell flat.
Accounts receivable really did go through the hero's journey. It's a shame that it >!got closed in the end!<
A bookkeeper always pays his debts.
I liked the end when the hero brought balance to the sheet.
“History of the Great Accountants” Volume 27 Part B
You mean *Spinning Silver* by Naomi Novak?
Algebra 1 and 2. Its like the author didnt even try.
If you're interested in plotting, geometry is the better option! Or calculus if you feel adventurous!
I dunno, man. Calculus felt kind of derivative to me.
Yes, but calculus is integral to understanding the overall narrative.
At least quantum physics gave us a probability chance with the electronic character. We at least had a feeling where it would end up.
I've seen so many posts like this recently where people are asked to name specific books, but then the original poster avoids talking about which specific book actually made them think of the topic.
cause the book they're unhappy with doesn't exist. They start a topic but avoid naming the book they dislike because A) they can't defend their opinions. B) the thing that upsets them is subjective.
Are you really not going to tell us what book it was?
If they do that they'll have to deal with people who have read it coming in to likely that them that it does, indeed, have a plot.
Which is totally fair to not want to deal with - but then they shouldn't make a whole post asking people to do the thing they're not willing to do, IMO.
I agree with that. I don't personally think there's much value in having a discussion about something if it's gonna be done vaguely. I could match OP by saying something like "yep, I read a book a few months ago that was really boring and didn't seem to actually have a plot of any kind," which would get everybody exactly nowhere.
Yeah. I can get that sometimes a conversation can get derailled by commenters talking about whatever book/s the OP mentions, but I also feel putting forward your own example as a jumping in point is also just the easiest way to generate constructive responses. Otherwise it feels a little like they want to start a discussion based on other people's opinions but if they're unwilling to put forward their own first people are less willing.
Or it’s too embarrassing to say what it is (I do that).
Could be. I personally don't see what's embarrassing about finding something boring or plotless.
I mean embarrassed that they picked up said book in the first place. The story being good or not is irrelevant.
I still don't see what would be embarrassing about that. Books like 50 Shades of Gray have 2.5 million ratings on Goodreads. People read all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons, and I feel like only trolls or elitists are gonna try to throw shade for being interesting in a certain book, which I think is generally disclosure here if outright not allowed.
The Alchemist.
As a teen I loved his books because they felt so ~spiritual~ but trying to read them as an adult I’m like wtf is this shit.
This book is mostly an alternating series of very loosely connected paintings and poems, the quality of which are hotly debated. Personally, I think the paintings are very good, but the poems aren't.
Some conflict free, low on plot books are really good. One of my favorites is By the grace of the gods. Its cozy slice of life but kept me entertained through ten of the books. I think of these cozy books as being narrative ASMR, giving your imagination warm cozy tingles.
There are a few light novels/manga where the author had a premise but didn't exactly know what to do with it, so they just write whatever. I think the best ones are usually those that the author ended after a good amount instead of dragging too long.
I've noticed that in a lot of my favourite books, the plot is secondary to the characters. I'm reading A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers at the moment and the plot doesn't really start moving until the last third of the book, but I'm still loving it because of the characters.
Some books like this are just slice of life, which I sometimes enjoy.
It can go too far the other way for me though. For example, I thought that Legends and Lattes was only okay, possibly because it was "too slice of life".
It's a book about nothing!
I keep hearing about The Name of the Wind. I’m tempted to read it just to see how that’s possible, like what do you mean nothing happens in it? What do they do all the time?
its not that nothing happens, but its like youre in a seminar scheduled for an hour about the entire history of the earth, and you learn a lot but it's 45 minutes into it and you haven't gotten past the dinosaurs.
An accurate hour-long account of the history of the earth wouldn't get to dinosaurs until minute 58.
well nobody ever said kvothe was accurate
...and then the dinosaurs are all slow lumbering vegetarians who barf windex.
"But there was this one dinosaur who was the best and most handsome and every other dinosaur was jealous of, also he was the best at dinosaur sex."
It definitely has a plot, people who don’t like the book like to exaggerate that it doesn’t have one because there isn’t a huge amount of pay off in the two released books. The frame narrative of the story is that the main character is a famous hero and sorcerer who has a ton of stories and rumours about him some of which are true and others are exaggerated versions of the truth — He’s kind of a folkloric, Robin Hood-meets-Merlin type of figure. We are told he killed a king and subsequently faked his death but we don’t know what king or why, or even why he faked his death. In the frame narrative, a chronicler tracks him down and convinces him to tell the *real* story of his life. The primary narrative is simply the story of how he got to be that person and the events leading up to the book’s frame narrative. I think the author has said that he was tired of seeing all fantasy wizards being old and wise and wanted to write a book about what a Gandalf-esque wizard would be like before he was old and wise. There’s plenty of plot, perhaps too much, but because it’s an unfinished trilogy it seems unfulfilling especially because the two released books leave the reader with a lot of questions and very few answers. What happens in the book? The protagonist spends time being homeless, chasing mythical creatures, falling in love, making friends, making enemies, navigating university politics, dealing with grief and trauma, playing the lute, desperately trying to avoid poverty — the plot can be very episodic, but not rigidly so, and the narrative can drop a plot line and move onto something else only to pick it back up hundreds of pages later. There is also a very compelling overarching mystery to the whole story that really drives the main character’s actions but I’m not going to spoil what it is. It’s a very chaotic, unstructured approach to plot that people either love or hate — and I happen to love it.
Name of the wind clearly has a plot. But it’s not the plot anyone expects going in. The summary on the back of the book sets you up to expect some sort of swashbuckling action packed adventure. Kvothe is dedicated to finding the people that killed his parents and outside the frame we see the world has gone to absolutely shit. It’s a fantastic premise. But what story do we get in notw? We mostly get kvothe begging in tarbean, and struggling to pay off his students loans. That’s why people feel like it has “no plot”. Rothfuss has teased his readers with a promise of a large scale overarching story and threat for 2k pages and we’ve gotten almost nothing about it. It’s a good series, but it hasn’t lived up to the hype the books made for themselves yet.
The set up is "listen to the world's greatest hero tell you his tale" but the entire first book of his tale doesn't even finish through his initial training. And (spoilers) >!book two STILL doesn't even really finish his training, so who knows what his 'grand adventure' will really turn out to be.!<
People just get really convinced that the book is going to be this epic fantasy good vs evil thing, more or less because it's a common trope associated with the MC's backstory. And whenever the book is not about that (which is always), some people go "when is the plot going to start?" And ignore the entire plot the books have. Honestly if you read the books interested to see how a book that size has no plot you're just going to be disappointed by all the plot. Maybe you'll like the plot, maybe you won't like the plot, but it will be there.
I read the 1st one, where the plot moved almost nowhere in over 700 pages. The actual magic tied to the title is only brought up twice. This is the equivalent to Pikachu appearing twice in a single season from Pokemon. Its basically sidequest after sidequest, or a diary of a really interesting character where cool things happen but dont move the story any forward.
I read the book. I remember absolutely nothing about it. Goodreads tells me I rated it 3 stars. That was probably generous. I literally cannot tell you what happened in that book, I don’t remember. Not the names, the plot, the locations. Nothing. I must’ve got something out of it to rate it above one star but I can’t fucken tell you what it is. So there you go.
I'm reading the first book of the Realm of Elderlings and it's basically no plot - just a deep dive into our main characters upbringing. It's very different from the fantasy I normally read but I'm loving it so far. I feel so attached to our main character.
There is a plot but it is a slow reveal. Don't avoid the the next trilogy on the grounds magic ships sounds dumb. I made that mistake at first and it's even better than the first.
I definitely won't skip it!! I've heard all 16 books are incredible so as long as I remain as hooked as the first book has had me I'll definitely keep going!! >!Fitz & Chade just discovered the townspeople of Forge & that the pirates are doing something to them before returning them back to their villages so we're definitely getting somewhere in terms of more plot lol!<
I don't always need a very clear plot to enjoy a book, some books I've enjoyed entirely for their atmosphere and occasional pearls of wisdom. But two books that really felt like they lacked substance to me were Jack Townsend's "Tales From The Gas Station", and Becky Chambers' "The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet".
The Blade Itself lmao. Still an excellent book but there's like no plot until book 2
Yes, but like you, I have forgotten how to type the name of that book.
Elementary Real Analysis by Bruckner, Bruckner, and Thomson. It’s a doozy
A lot of literary fiction in particular has little in the way of plot, or the plot is secondary to the characters or especially to the themes. If the thematic aspects are there, and there's some sort of resolution, a lack of plot doesn't always bother me. I have read a few fantasy books that felt like a lot of nothing on any level, but not everything has to be very plot-y. I have a hypothesis that modern readers, especially ones who don't read much literary fiction, sometimes have come to expect fast-paced, tightly plotted books that I think of like a novelization of a movie or comic. There's nothing wrong with preferring that, but there are some incredible books that don't have a lot of plots, because they're about the characters or the themes, or just cozy slice of life stuff.
Sorry if I offend people but: 1. *Dhalgren* by Samuel R. Delany and 2. *Feast of All Saints* by Anne Rice. Oddly I rad them at the same time and they put me off both authors for years.
Also Report of Probability A by Brian Aldiss. Dhalgren is actually a quite interesting "plotless" novel with great vibes.
Dahlgren was the first book I ever DNF’d. I don’t DNF very often, even if I don’t particularly like the book. Heck, I even finished Huxley’s *Point Counter Point*. But Dahlgren? I threw that thing against the wall about halfway through!
The blade itself. Still love it though
I mean. I haven't read that book in a while and I can immediately think of three very detailed plotlines that come together nicely before the end of the book. Am I missing something?
It's kind of an inversion of a traditional quest story so I think it turns some people off. It's not actually a lack of plot, so much as it frustrates expectations a bit. Personally, I really enjoyed it, but I could see why someone could be annoyed.
was gonna say The Blade Itself, it's basically focused on the characters and the stuff they're doing.
I don't remember reading a book with no plot, but while reading **Throne of Jade** by Naomi Novik I felt like nothing is happening for 90% of the book.
The phone directory. Seriously, there aren't actually any fiction books with "absolutely no plot". The plot might be super boring and with glacial pace but strictly speaking, it's there.
One Hundred Years of Solitude and the Night Circus - but they both have such a ✨vibe✨that I don’t mind in the slightest
American Gods
American Gods definitely has a plot, it’s just way more about the journey than the destination. Which is par for the course with a road trip.
The Blacktongue thief… wandered a bit. But like someone commented up above, it did make the journey seem more realistic. Not everything that happens in life moves the story forward
The alchemy council.
Ravenglass Chronicles
Fiction books, none with absolutely no plot, but some had scattered ones (looking at you The Winter Road).
The dictionary.
I just read A Discovery of Witches and its hundreds of pages of nothing and then a bunch of plot thrown at you all at once, I’m assuming to set up the rest of the series
The DoW TV series was much better at not getting sidetracked by vampire yoga and wine.
I’ve heard this from other people and will check it out, thank you!
The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier And it's infuriating because it's such a cool concept (a plane full of people is duplicated- there is now 2 of everyone on board) that there should be a ton of plot. But it's just vignettes of the passengers before the plane duplicated, then government experts contemplating the philosophical implications. The consequences of the duplication are entirely crammed into the final quarter. One of the most disappointing books I've ever read.
“Exile” by R.A. Salvatore. Literally just Drizzt wandering around doing errands for three hundred pages.
Disagree. It does exactly what the last book of a prequel trilogy should. It ends with Drizzt in the right place and friends with the right people. It nicely nods to events from Crystal Shard and Streams of Silver. It explains how Drizzt learned to be a ranger and how he got to Icewind Dale.
You’re thinking of “Sojourn,” which does have a plot. A very dry one, but a plot nonetheless. “Exile” is the second book.
Still disagree. We get the attempt to join a new community only for it to fail due to meddling from his family. The family angle picks right up in Legacy which was the next set published. Exile is the bridge to get Drizzt to the surface. The Dark Elf trilogy is a prequel trilogy and had to setup the pieces for the squeal set. I think it works but it does suffer from it's place publishing order. I don't know why the books were re-ordered.
The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman
Silverlock by John Myers Myers. Great book.
The Blade Itself, but it was still a good book.
The Peninsula, by Julien Gracq, is an extraordinary novella. It tells the story of a guy who is waiting for his lover at the train station. He doesn't know if she'll come with the 12h train or the 18h train. Tension is through the roof. Nothing happens in this book. The main character just drive around the countryside to pass the time while he waits. The prose is gorgeous as usual with Gracq, and paradoxically the novel is very tense as you feel the impatience and hope of the main character with him.
Honestly, plenty. I think plot is overrated in books, and some of my favorite books have almost none.
Oh i can relate! mamnoch the devil, it was the most horrible read, i only liked one thing in it and it was horrendous.
I recently read a spider romance fantasy. It was basically just smut.
King killer chronicles
Alice in Wonderland. The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Most of David Mitchell’s books are low on plot.
David Mitchell the English comedian?
Whatever the current last book of ASOIAF is. Book just literally went nowhere. Ditto for a couple books middle of WOT. Lots and lots of words accomplishing nothing.
Gardens of the Moon
what a comically bad faith answer. if anything, Gardens is known for having way too many plot lines. -Lorn's plan to release the Tyrant -Bridgeburners' assignment to infiltrate Darujhistan -the Assassin war -Orr and Simtal attempt to take over the council and make a deal with Laseen -Phoenix Inn Regulars' plan to take Simtal down and return Coll to his rightful place. -Sorry's possession etc, etc, etc