• Alendi@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I can’t get enough of these in the literal sense that I barely find them:

    -Children and YA books in which parents and adults stop being just an annoyance and start helping the protagonists (without replacing them even though they are more experienced). E.g. Elatsoe

    -Convincing others to help not through violence (in the more general sense) but through compassion. E.g. the way everyone helps Grogu in the Mandalorian or Piccard in Star Trek: Piccard.

    -The feeling of hope in the world, that you don’t need to do everything yourself because there are other good actors in the world. E.g. Animorphs and The Lord of the Rings.

    • Eq0@literature.cafe
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      1 year ago

      In the same sense: books for adults with kids that are actually kids, not mini-adults, not incredibly smart, not wallpaper, but real kids of any age. I don’t think I can remember the last time I read something like this. E.g. ‘Do not let me go‘ by Kazuo Ishiguro

    • RandomDent@literature.cafe
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      1 year ago

      Doctor Who is good for the second one too, that’s basically the Doctor’s whole deal that they never carry a weapon and just try to talk their way through everything. Although they will fuck someone up if they get pushed too far lol.

      • Alendi@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I didn’t get yet to see Doctor Who! This could be a good excuse to give it a try. Where do you recommend to start?

        • RandomDent@literature.cafe
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          1 year ago

          For the show, the beginning of the 2005 revival is probably a good place to start! The first couple of seasons are probably a bit dated now but still good, and they treat it as kind of a soft reboot because it had had been off the air for ~15 years at that point so it’s designed for new viewers to drop in without having to know all the backstory and stuff.

          As for the books I have no idea lol. There are quite a lot of those IIRC.

        • gabereal@literature.cafe
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          1 year ago

          Replying to a 19-day-old comment is totally the thing to do, right? /s

          Anyway, I always tell people, when they express an interest in Doctor Who, to watch the episode ‘Blink’. It’s a litmus test: if you don’t like the episode, you won’t like Doctor Who; if you do like it, you will enjoy Doctor Who at least a little.

          Another commenter mentioned the soft reboot of the show, ‘Blink’ is an episode that comes after the soft reboot, so it is more accessible than older Doctor Who episodes (although I personally love Pertwee episodes, but that’s a whole comment thread in itself). Blink introduces a new character and a new bad guy, so the viewer is introduced to both the Doctor and the bad guy just as the new character is. The Doctor himself isn’t on screen much either; most of the story focuses on this new character. She has to solve something of a mystery while staying ahead of a bad guy that she doesn’t even realize exists (so there is some suspense, too).

          Like I said, if you bounce off this episode, you won’t much like any other episodes. It’s a really handy way of seeing if Doctor Who is right for you.

  • violet@literature.cafe
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    1 year ago

    Remote island (or any isolated places) murder mysteries.

    Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None is my #1 most reread book, haha.

    • Papercrane@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Have you read the moai island puzzle by Alice arisugawa? Fits your trope perfectly and even tho the English translation was wonky sometimes, I thought it was a good book

    • Absurdist
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      1 year ago

      Try “The Decagon House Murders” by Yukito Ayatsuji - lots of similarities to “And then there were none”

      • violet@literature.cafe
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        1 year ago

        Oh, he’s the original writer one of my favorite anime of all time (Another)! I’ll def check it out, thank you for the recommendation!

  • Nkiru Anaya
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    1 year ago

    I like time travel, if that’s a trope. I’m always looking for a new take on it as many different stories using it have already been told.

    • Peafield @programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      Have you read Recursion by Blake Crouch? That was the most interesting to take on time travel I’ve read in a while.

      • Nkiru Anaya
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        1 year ago

        No I haven’t, but it looks good. I have read The Wayward Pines Trilogy and Dark Matter, both by Crouch. I liked the Pines. Dark Matter was okay.

        Thanks for the tip.

      • Nkiru Anaya
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        1 year ago

        I recently finished Station Eleven and honestly thought it was a bit boring. After that read I was put off of that author. Is Sea of Tranquility on par with Station Eleven? Should I reconsider?

        • TimTheEnchanter@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          Ooh yeah, if you didn’t enjoy Station Eleven, then you probably wouldn’t enjoy Sea of Tranquility. It’s not exactly the same, but it’s close in terms of style and structure.

  • Bo7a@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Anything where the protagonist gets to build a new world in a virtual environment, or significantly modify themselves by using virtual environments. Examples: “Fall, or Dodge in Hell - By Neal Stephenson” and “Accelerando - by Charles Stross”

    spoiler

    Dodge in Hell - where he is uploaded into a host system that has only a very basic physics model and nothing else. He gets to create the world by experiencing it, and remembering what things ‘feel’ like. Such as inventing gravity by watching a leaf fall to the ground and it feeling right.

  • Dagwood222
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    1 year ago

    [off topic?]

    There are a few series that I can read over and over. Nero Wolfe by Rex Stout. Travis McGee by John D. MacDonald, and Easy Rawlins by Walter Mosley spring to mind.

    Mosley’s books are outliers, because Easy changes with time. McGee and Wolfe remain perfect examples of the sort of life most of us dream about.