14 KiB
Recommendations please
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Author: u/user19911506 *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/8n9f1b/recommendations_please/
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Score: 8
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Created: 2018-05-30T15:20:27
Post:
I had just read the recently released Mother of learning chapter and fet little sad thinking it is in the final arc and will end in the near future.I feel MOL is one of the better works of fiction which includes both published and non published in the last few years, yes it does not dive into human nature and get philosophical of why we do things which lot of good published books like three body problem, foundation series etc do.It is very entertaining and very very addictive. So to prepare myself for the eventual ending , I would like to start a new adventure like mother of learning.
The books I have read with time loops and enjoyed
Fifteen lives of Harry August
Replay
Dark Matter
Nantucket series (not time restart but a varient of time manipulation)
Web fiction I like
Practical guide to Evil
Unsong ( was very interesting, great storytelling)
Worm
Savage divinity
HPMOR
Pokémon origin of species
Fiction I tried but gave up
Worth a candle ( not really into mmorpg setting now)
God's of bastards (got too meandering at some point)
I really like MOL and hence tried some Chinese and Japanese web novels which deal with the hero working hard to get power but was not able to get into them either due to poor writing or long plots or irrationality.
I am looking for preferably new book and not a fanfic as of now, but if you feel something is good please share
Comments:
u/neondragonfire [+8] (16 hours later)
For long stories that were difficult to put down for me (but without timeloops) I will mention The Wandering Inn and Dungeon Keeper Ami.
For stuff with timeloops I mostly have fanfiction. There is Hard Reset. Twilight Sparkle is trapped in a time loop that resets upon her death, and needs to figure out how to save the world. In the process of which she becomes utterly badass. And also dies. A lot. One of the sequels, Hard Reset 2: Reset Harder, which has multiple timelooping characters in different loops at the same time. Basically, only the person who actually triggers a reset gets to remember the loop. Which leads to interesting tactical problems when facing another timelooping opponent, and information problems when working with another timelooper. After all, you never share a memory of any of the time loops, so how can you trust each other and work together? Unfortunately it's unfinished and abandoned, but still worth a read despite that.
And then there are The Infinite Loops. Which is less of a story rather than a collection of scenes loosely connected by story lines. Timeloops galore for a variety of different canons. Mostly within their own universes, but there are crossover loops where they get stuck in different universes and/or meet people from different universes. Then most characters eventually learn how to create subspace pockets where they can store items in order to take them with them between loops. And the loops don't stop, so it leads to characters with millennia of experience and equipment from a wide range of fictional universes... needless to say they tend to end up hilariously overpowered.
u/GlueBoy [+6] anti-skub (10 hours later)
If you want an addictive adventure type of novel with a smart protagonist, I recommend The Vorkosigan Saga. It's a series about a hyper intelligent guy with severe physical limitations, and how he uses his cleverness to get around those limitations. If you read HPMOR, you'll have seen several quotes from these novels, a particularly good one is: "The key of strategy is not to choose a path to victory, but to choose so that all paths lead to a victory."
You should start with The Warrior's Apprentice. It's not the first novel (chronologically), but it is the first novel with Miles Vorkosigan as the main character. After that read The Vor Game, and if you're hooked follow the chronological order. Skip the short/side stories and the prequel books until later, IMO.
u/None [+1] (a day later)
[deleted]
u/GlueBoy [+3] anti-skub (a day later)
Yeah, I can see why. Shards of Honor is not the greatest opener, particularly if you don't also read the sequel, Barrayar. It feels incomplete. In my opinion they're really two parts of a single novel, and should be read that way, back to back.
edit: You should probably go straight to Brother in Arms from The Vor Game, actually. Cetaganda is kind of like a "filler episode" and Ethan of Athos is a side story. Interesting (with the right context), but not relevant to the main plotline.
u/the_terran [+4] (an hour later)
Have you tried anything from qntm? Fine Structure and Ra are the longest and the most well known but I like his other writing as well. Check out Ed Stories particularly for time travel stuff. He also writes on SCP.
u/causalchain [+3] (17 hours later)
I just read Ed stories now, and while the science is clearly magic (unrealistic), the story was a blast to read. At the beginning it appears like a confusing attempt at wish-fulfilment, but as the story progresses the quality picks up and it retroactively smooths over the bumps. Far from rationalist, but it clearly doesn't try to be and it is quite fun and interesting regardless. Thanks for the recommendation.
u/Amonwilde [+5] (an hour later)
Time Braid is a fancfic but may otherwise fit your specifications. If you haven't read it, All You Need Is Kill is a time loop narrative, they recently made a big-budget movie out of it.
u/thrawnca [+4] Carbon-based biped (16 hours later)
Note that Time Braid is rather NSFW.
u/user19911506 [+3] (2 hours later)
Wasn't Edge if tomorrow based on it ?
u/Rouninscholar [+4] (3 hours later)
Yes, The book is obviously much better.
u/Amonwilde [+1] (4 hours later)
That's the one. Couldn't remember the name.
u/Oaden [+1] (18 hours later)
Yes, There's a manga and a movie based on the light novel.
Edge takes some liberties to make it Hollywood approved though, such as making John Cage a cowardly asshole instead of a highschool student and the Iron Bitch someone that actually looks like she could eat you for breakfast.
u/SimoneNonvelodico [+1] Dai-Gurren Brigade (a day later)
u/butt-the-antagonist [+1] (4 days later)
John Cage wasn't brave from the start in the book -- there was a similar (if somewhat abbreviated) character arc. That said, the movie did lose almost everything that made the book compelling
u/thrawnca [+3] Carbon-based biped (16 hours later)
Not sure that I can help; I haven't read the majority of that list, and Worm I just didn't enjoy (read about half, it wasn't becoming more enjoyable, gave up).
u/alexanderwales has written a lot of good stuff IMO, but you didn't like WtC, so...maybe not your thing?
If you haven't already, it's worth taking a look at the recursive HPMoR fanfics. My personal favorites are Following the Phoenix and Significant Digits, but you quite possibly have different tastes, so...maybe Draco Malfoy and the Practice of Rationality?
Oh, and since the stories you like seem a bit darker than mine - Harry Potter and the Wastelands of Time was a somewhat interesting time loop.
u/crnislshr [+2] (18 hours later)
If you like MOL, you should try other novels about gifted and diligent students:
- "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
- The Good Student by mooderino.
- And
hence tried some Chinese and Japanese web novels which deal with the hero working hard to get power but was not able to get into them either due to poor writing or long plots or irrationality
Still try Way of Choices. It have long plot, but still it have plot, and it isn't dumb. It's the only Chinese webnovel worth reading, I think.
u/user19911506 [+1] (18 hours later)
Read and loved NOTW , tired of waiting for the third book , how would you rate Way of choices compared to MOL
u/crnislshr [+2] (19 hours later)
A bit lower. Usual Chinese problems with pace and a bit of harem and pathos.
But I can compare it with "Savage Divinity". "Way of choices" is a more deep and scheming (like Practical Guide to Evil) and less wish-fullfillment, but "Savage Divinity" is more... western-like.Some quotes about meaning of the novel name.
Chen Changsheng serenely gazed at that star, feeling extremely comfortable, as if that star was his Fated Star.
The star was peaceful and healthy, overflowing with life, constantly spreading pure and bright rays of light, and not like it was about to be extinguished at all.
He suddenly realized something.
Even if he really was going to die in five years, that star would yet continue to shine.
This fact gave him some comfort, but afterwards, it caused him even more disappointment and grief.
In the surrounding space of this red star, there were countless other stars.
He stared at those stars and realized that those stars which hung in the night sky also stared coldly and peacefully back at him. In other words, they were staring at that small red star that belonged to him.
He suddenly began to feel disturbed, and an extremely strong feeling of fear grew within him. It was just like when he had seen those portraits within the Pavilion of Ascending Mist. He always felt that the people within the portraits stared back at him.
Those people were already dead, but it seemed as if they were still alive.
These stars could not speak, but they seemed to want to tell him something.
(...)
Changing fate required one to change the position or brightness of one's Fated Star. Thus, changing the person's position and role within the mortal world, and so.... the positions were related.
If it was impossible to change the brightness or position of one's Fated Star, then to change the brightness or positions of the surrounding stars could also create a similar effect. The logic was the same. If you wanted to change your fate, you had to first change the fate of other people in your life. The closer the relationship between you and these people, the greater the change in fate you would experience.
Such as father and son.
Such as brothers.
Such as a lord and his subjects.
This truth was very cold and harsh.
Chen Changsheng could not confirm whether the images he had seen were illusions or truly history. For the whole night, his body had been drenched in sweat before being dried off. As a result, he felt very cold when he woke up.
If those bloody, yet cold images were indeed the true face of history, then were the two great lords of Zhou really such cold-blooded people? Was it really worth it to pay such a large price like performing terrifying acts to change fate? Immediately afterwards, he thought of the Divine Empress. If she was the third person who succeeded in changing fate, then how great of a price did she pay?
Were those bloody and cruel rumors that had long been circulated among the people true? Was her firstborn son from all those years ago really poisoned to death by the previous queen's assassins or was he truly killed by the Divine Empress herself according to the rumors? Most of her children had never lived past the age of six. Was it really because the imperial palace's environment was too dangerous at that time, or were the children some type of offering? Were they an offering to the stars?
(...)
Standing on the high platform in front of the Pavilion of Ascending Mist, he glanced at the morning sun, which had just risen above the horizon. Then, he looked over at the capital, which was being slowly awakened by the morning sun. The countless streets and alleyways seemed to be like the lines of a chessboard, and the countless rivers and water canals seemed like wires, which had been dropped on the board. The countless markets were like an infinite amount of squares, and countless people lived inside the countless residences located within these squares.
To change his own fate by changing the fate of others; could such a thing really be done? Even if those streets and alleyways became decadent...even if those residences fell into ruins...even if millions of people became homeless...even if there were endless wars and major floods....Did he still have to do it?
He remembered the last sentence in Wang Zhice's diary again--There is no such thing as Fate, but only choices.
u/Xtraordinaire [+1] Team Glimglam (a day later)
Since there's already a My Little Pony fanfic thrown in, what the hell, there are more.
There's a whole series of fics connected to Friendship is Optimal. The premise is simple: tasked with creating an MLP-themed MMO, a game studio creates a superintelligent AI that takes over the world. Its goal is to satisfy human values through friendship, and ponies. Only a cursory knowledge of MLP canon is needed. There are some great spin-offs.
Broken Symmetry is a great story on time travel. Hard RT, some RST. However, some knowledge on MLP is probably in order.