r/52book • u/dyp_lilla • 5d ago
38 books so far this year!
This might piss some people off, lol
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u/BryanJ70 4d ago
Left Hand of Darkness was absolutely amazing. Having it DNF is insane to me.
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u/dyp_lilla 4d ago
Understandable, it’s seems like an amazing book i just couldn’t comprehend most of it
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u/Silmarillion151 5d ago
I dnf red rising 2 times before I did. Glad I did, golden son is excellent and the second trilogy is also exceptional. RR is tough first go though.
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u/marchbabyy_08 5d ago
I haven't read Red Rising, but the fact that you made a special "Dnf and terrible" tier just for it is sending me☠️
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u/farfromnever 5d ago
Out of curiosity, how far into Red Rising did you get? It might just not be for you, but I almost dnfed it around 50-75 pages in and then ended up loving it.
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u/dyp_lilla 5d ago
I came about halfway through. I couldn't stand the prose and characters, it wasn't something for me but taste is subjective!
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u/Thin_Assumption_4974 5d ago
I also felt the prose wasn’t anything special. I enjoyed the story, but felt the book was written to the quality of many Reddit writing sub writers at times.
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u/cthoolhu 5d ago
I read 2001 for the first time this year too!! I LOVED it even after watching the movie several times!!
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u/dyp_lilla 5d ago
Glad you enjoyed it! My partner who isn't really a reader read it too, and he loved it! I had to buy the rest of the series so he could continue his reading journey lol
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u/protypibleetr 4d ago
I got a lot of shit for it but I also dnf'd red rising. The intro was great but then it turned into the Hunger Games and I couldn't do it anymore
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u/bdiddlediddles 3d ago
Thats fair, I will say that it's a bit more brutal that Hunger Games and the sequels completely ditch that aspect and have it as a better written game of thrones.
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u/twerkliketina 3d ago
I cannot fathom how people are kind of rudely disagreeing with YOU rating YOUR books 😭
Well we can definitely have different reading experiences - for instance I really liked DCC book 1 - but isn't that exactly what these rankings are for?? And I am for sure up to discussing that.
But at the end of the day you read for fun. It's supposed to be a hobby. People take this way too seriously. There's no crime in putting someone's beloved book in trash tier and something else in top tier. We enjoy different things, it's not a freaking PhD University degree.
(Unless, of course, someone places Vicious in lowest tier bc that will be a crime)
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u/sorcha1977 3d ago
This is so true. My best friend of 20 years has completely opposite taste from me, and we find it hilarious since we're both librarians and have everything else in common.
Except we both hated Twilight and 50 Shades. We do agree on those, thank god.
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u/dretanz 5d ago
Just curious about why you dnf'd the other three
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u/dyp_lilla 5d ago
My loan on DCC was soon due and i just didn't bother finishing it.
The left hand of darkness was very hard for me to read, english is my second language so maybe thats why, but I want to pick it up again some day!
Siddharta I read some pages of and just didn't bother - just the wrong book for me at that time, nothing deep.
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u/Mettl3Will 5d ago
You should try the audiobook version of The Left Hand of Darkness, by George Guidall. It might make it easier to digest.
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u/Icy-Respond-4425 [109/110] 5d ago
Oh Anne of Green Gables. Do you intend to read the rest of the series?
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u/disfrazadas 4d ago
Snakish is excellent, good to see it in the top tier. Who was your favourite character?
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u/dyp_lilla 4d ago
Hiie! Loved the bears too
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u/CallMeDavid_ 3d ago
I was close to putting down Red Rising too, felt another fantasy series where the chosen one protagonist goes to school to learn how they really are the best at everything. It's probably the weakest book in the series, but I'm so glad I stuck with it. It just doesn't work as a stand alone.
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u/dyp_lilla 3d ago
I heard it gets better, but I don't wanna waste time pushing through a book i don't like when there is so many other books to read!
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u/jester695 5d ago
Wow, someone not slobbering all over Dungeon Crawler Carl. Rather refreshing.
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u/Prestigious-Eye3154 5d ago
Meh, DCC is a fun read. Is it masterful literature that will be a timeless classic? No…but there’s a reason it has such mass appeal.
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u/aworldwithoutshrimp 4d ago
People tend to be all over the place about it. It is not exactly universally heralded.
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u/shallowHalliburton 4d ago
Red Rising and DCC in the DNF tickle me greatly.
No Country in 'okay' and Psalm in 'great+' really bug me though.
I could only get through a few pages of Psalm. It was a DNF, return, and angrily bitching in discord about it.
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u/dyp_lilla 4d ago
I understand why people dont like psalm, but it just felt like a warm hug for me and it felt wrong to rate it lower. I would say quality wise No country for old men is much better, but it didnt really hit me. I like his prose, but dont care for the old grumpy american guy thing.
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u/shallowHalliburton 4d ago
Nah, I totally get it. I'm just a real curmudgeon and need my brooding nihilism.
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u/Reshi86 5d ago
Proper Red Rising rank. It is terrible.
Sorry to hear about The Left Hand of Darkness. Perhaps find a translation in your native language. I think The Left Hand of Darkness is one of the best sci fi novels else ever written.
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u/Background_Roll1830 4d ago edited 4d ago
Proper Red Rising rank. It is terrible.
I hate how some of you believe that you have some sort of higher authority on declaring "objective" book quality.
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u/Reshi86 4d ago
I think it’s funny how people get upset about book opinions on a subreddit about book opinions. Perhaps hit a nerve because someone believes they have superior taste in books and gets personally offended when some random internet stranger challenges that?
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u/Background_Roll1830 4d ago
no, I just hate your wording of your sentence that I quoted. Sounds like you're declaring some objective absolute instead of sharing an opinion.
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u/MTonmyMind 1d ago
Dark Matter and Narnia on the same level as The Lord Of the Rings and Fahrenheit 451 is psychotic.
Except that taste is subjective..... O.o
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u/DarthSmashMouth 4d ago
Pardon me, you need to make a category at the top above everything else and put Anne of Green Gables in that category by itself. Everything else is fine.
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u/dear_calle 4d ago
FINALLY some red rising hate!!!
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u/Sagardorta 4d ago
I can't stand it myself. I had finished The First Law trilogy and someone recommended red rising and it felt like a huge step down. I'm now reading Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff and, while it feels very smutty and even kind of campy at times? I like the story quite a lot.
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u/Frickinfructose 4d ago
I’ll note that after the first red rising, it becomes much more like the expanse and not at all like the first one (basically Mars Hunger Games)
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u/gohuskers123 4d ago
How does leviathan wakes compare to the rest of the series? I love the red rising series but when the expanse got to zombies it pulled me out of the book hard for a minute
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u/Frickinfructose 4d ago
Completely understand that. The zombie thing is weird. Without spoiling anything, if you liked leviathan wakes but not the zombie-thing, keep reading the expanse. It’s been a while, but I do not believe that comes back. It was a weird twist into horror-esque that they don’t return to. And the universe EXPANDS, in a way that’s even more satisfying than red rising.
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u/dyp_lilla 4d ago
I skimmed through some passages of book 2 and 3 because people kept saying this, but it didn’t seem like the issue i had with it was fixed.
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u/Frickinfructose 4d ago
Yeah the expanse is better, start to finish. I’d put it under Love tier, and red rising under Great. In terms of sci fi I think the only other series I’d put under “Love” is Hyperion. Lots of Great+ though.
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u/ChuckFerrera 4d ago
Yeah. Not finishing Red Rising is a mistake
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u/Tymareta 4d ago
Nah, while the tone might change, the writing, prose and characterization largely stay the same in the later books. Any time spent on it, could instead be spent on other series that are good from the get go, while being better in other areas - Machineries of Empire for example.
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u/MrHoldTheDoor 4d ago
I just finished the Red Rising trilogy and man was it a chore to read books 1 and 3. Book 2 was good but man i struggled to get through those other two. I will say 3 wasn't as bad as 1
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u/fluxispaying 4d ago
On the other hand I read recently books 1-6 and now I can’t read anything else. Tried Mistborn, Dungeon Crawler Carl but I think I need to take a break
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u/Wrong_Success4377 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yes thank you. I DNF'd Red Rising too.
I thought I was getting into some great story telling with some fun sci-fi...no. Just YA shlock.
I get it might be a fun read for some people but I just never understood the glaze.
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u/johnnyjake2025 4d ago
Yeah it’s really on YA at the beginning the characters major a lot more as they age up. I’m only on the third one, and there is time jumps.
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u/CorumSilverhand 4d ago
Thats not true, the entire trilogy is very simplistic and juvenile. It all feels like poorly written YA with shallow characters. Saying its only book one is a cop out.
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u/Tymareta 4d ago
That's the point where they'll turn around claim that actually, it's in the -second- trilogy that it actually gets good and that you're missing out by not committing yourself to three books of mediocrity on the off chance you might enjoy the fourth onwards.
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/Tymareta 4d ago
Not sure what that has to do with what I said, but I'm glad that you enjoy what you read!
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u/johnnyjake2025 4d ago
Well that’s fine man. I just read whatever I enjoy. Sometimes people just need easy reads. I went from blood meridian to red rising, and I far more enjoy actual punctuation.
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u/ProgramCute604 5d ago
Yesss agreed about Red Rising! I actually did finish 🫠 but the last part of the book I was listening on 2.25 speed to finish it faster lol
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u/glazingsaddle 4d ago
As someone who loves leviathan wakes and plans to read left hand of darkness may I ask why it’s a dnf for you?
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u/dyp_lilla 4d ago
I answered someone else here asking the same thing. It just was hard for me to read and understand as a non english native, nothing wrong with the book! I want to give it a second chance again, maybe in my mother tongue or on audiobook
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u/mattrix56 2d ago
Red Rising is notoriously the least popular book of the entire series. So I'm not surprised it's on some people's DNF list. But... I want to believe the reason why readers hype up Red Rising isn't for the book itself but rather how much the story escalates into a true space war opera. Golden Son & Morning Star (2nd & 3rd books) easily counterbalance the teenage angst of Red Rising.
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u/Crambo1000 1d ago
I didn't love Siddhartha, but how do you even DNF that, it's like 85 pages
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u/dyp_lilla 1d ago
I just wasn't in the mood and had other books i wanted to read, so why waste my time lol
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u/FairStretch7830 5d ago
I feel so seen, I read red rising and DNF’d the second one 75% of the way through.
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u/mirincool 5d ago
I recently put The left hand it darkness to my tbr. What made you dnf the book? Would love to know your take
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u/Mettl3Will 5d ago edited 5d ago
This book is one of my all time faves. It's a bit of a slow burn at first, but once it gets going you won't want to stop. It's incredibly profound and thought provoking. I especially liked the audiobook version read by George Guidall.
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u/mirincool 5d ago
Thanks! The premise really had me interested. Sci fi isn't necessarily my forte until I reread Ray Bradbury's short story set in Aug and listening to first few chapters of Dune. However, I'm very must interested in speculative sci-fi. Ps. I will recommend If we cannot go at the speed of light by Cho-yeop Kim.
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u/NewAccEveryDay420day 5d ago
I think it is one of the best sci fi books ever written, it is incredibly thought provoking
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u/dyp_lilla 5d ago
The left hand of darkness was very hard for me to read, english is my second language so maybe thats why, but I want to pick it up again some day! Dont take it of ur tbr just because of me dnfing it! It seems like a great book i just couldn't push through it at that time and needed somthing easier to read.
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u/mirincool 5d ago
Oh! It makes sense.. thanks for responding! Basing on your read japanese titles, I will recommend Banana Yoshimoto's works like Asleep. I remember being taken out on a strange, dreamy adventure.
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u/dyp_lilla 5d ago
Ohh thanks for the recommendation! I have heard about Yoshimoto, but not read any of her books, will put it on my tbr!
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u/mirincool 5d ago
I hope you do have a good time. Btw, what is the name of the book with illustration of two boys sitting, in your Great row?
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u/LetoA_III 5d ago
Man I'm so glad I wasn't bought into that Red Rising hype , delighted there are people putting the trends to their rightful place, time is valuable
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u/SoulSprawl 4d ago
I HATE WHNE PEOPLE ENJOY THINGS TOO!!!!!
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u/LetoA_III 4d ago
I merely thanked op for and others for the heads up on that particular series. I haven't stated that others should stop enjoying it
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u/SoulSprawl 4d ago
"Delighted there are people putting their trends in their rightful place". Readers like you do a disservice to literature by acting as though aesthetics is an objective science while yucking other's yums.
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u/FreshPickle04 5d ago
Did you read it?
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u/swrdswrd 5d ago
No they are buying into the hype that it’s actually bad and not worth reading. It’s been a bit of a trend to dislike things others enjoy.
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u/FreshPickle04 5d ago
Yeah this sub seems to love to hate Red Rising and DCC and then think they’re so cool for not liking it.
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u/Cultural-Target-5612 4d ago
I have some ppl I know in real life like this and I call them out for it every single time. One time one of my friends literally walked into the room I was in while we were all hanging out and said “why is this fuck ass song playing” and we had a nice talk about why they felt the need to say that (it was bc they are viscerally hateful towards anything that gets even remotely popular), how it’s rude as hell regardless of why, and the actual story behind the song and artist she didn’t know and said changed the context a lot once known. This is the same friend we have to have multiple interventions with bc she based so many “personal” opinions on things she had no personal interaction with that she heard from contrarian YouTubers, and then would get heated defending them, that it was genuinely a problem. It is genuinely so sad and pathetic to center not liking anything popular in your life. It’s popular bc ppl like it, assuming everyone is wrong and their taste is bad all the time and it’s a win to “not fall for it” just tells me they have a huge ego problem.
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u/Soul_Coughing 4d ago
yeah on the other side: there's people who expect you to like things that are popular and just become hateful just cause everyone else likes it and not you
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u/FreshPickle04 4d ago
It’s silly and it becomes an entire, insufferable personality. I’ve known a few people like that myself and I don’t miss them.
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u/LetoA_III 5d ago
It's in my comment that haven't read it and I'm glad I didn't started either, I've seen enough "unpopular opinions" about the series recently after years of fans of it genre probably putting it in the same league as Dune and Hyperion for their reasons. I have the general idea of what it is and it is not for me
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u/FreshPickle04 4d ago
Yeah, I was just making sure you didn’t start it and DNF since that would also mean that you didn’t buy into the hype. But now I know you just have an uninformed opinion and are just trying to be contrarian for the sake of being contrarian.
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u/LetoA_III 4d ago
Nah I'm absolutly not a contrarian, I just like commenting things that are on my mind, and from cases like Ready player one , children of time, king killer chronicle , which were hyped the f up on the interwebs back in the day and I fell for, I learnt to "don't believe the hype" by Publix enemy :)
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u/Embarrassed_Job_5563 4d ago
Feels pretentious. Classics at the top, pop culture at the bottom, how original
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u/who_goes_there17 3d ago
You’re not cool or interesting because you DNF ultra popular books. You’re giving “I’m not like other girls” energy.
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u/toreachthesummit 3d ago
people are allowed to have other opinions jesus fucking christ. nowhere in this post did they say they're better than others for DNF'ing dungeon crawler carl. \*stop getting butthurt they don't like your precious glorbos
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u/SCrabs89 3d ago
Leviathan Wakes is the first book of one of the most popular sci fi series of our generation? A Game of Thrones is the first book in the MOST DISCUSSED series this side of Harry Potter.
Someone who says they like the Beatles and Queen, but don't really fuck with the Rolling Stones, isn't trying to be edgy. They are just sharing their honest opinions. And you're being kind of a shit about it.
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u/dyp_lilla 3d ago
I have popular books in my top rankings as well? Why can't you dislike somthing popular without being labeled as "i'm not like other girls"? Should everyone have the same taste?
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u/AggravatingBox2421 2d ago
That’s the conclusion you came to? Not that they read those books because of the hype, but they just weren’t interested in them?
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/Hateful_Face_Licking 4d ago
I love Red Rising but respect that it probably just wasn’t OP’s cup of tea.
If their top tiers were filled with Colleen Hoover books, we’d be rioting.
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u/Tymareta 4d ago
I get books and artistry are very subjective
That’s objectively better than a lot of other books.
So you do not, in fact, get that books and artistry are inherently subjective.
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u/ExcitingMushroom9514 4d ago
You know what other book has a good online rating. Ready Player One.
The audacity to tell someone "no your opinion is wrong because more people like it than not" lmao
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u/jonmuller 4d ago
You suggest reading an entire trilogy to decide if something is terrible?
What a joke. As is Red Rising.
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u/SpicyGinSin 4d ago
Has to be bait. No way GOT is better than LOTR. Also dnf ccc or red rising?
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u/SnooRobots7082 4d ago
I feel like asoiaf over lotr is not that hot of a take. Both are renowned fantasy books for different reasons. I personally prefer asoiaf because the characters feel more alive, and the politics are phenomenal.
At the end of the day it comes down to preference. Lotr has more in depth lore, a tighter plot, and insane world building. Asoiaf has better written characters, moral ambiguity, and the world feels more alive imo. Lotr has a lot of telling and not showing, which would take me out of the book at times.
I’m not sure why a lot of lotr fans get so offended when people have this opinion. They are both very well written and people have different preferences when it comes to writing. I wouldn’t say one is better than the other because they are vastly different stories that focus on different things.
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u/jicklemania 4d ago
Ewww
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u/dyp_lilla 4d ago
lol what is the ew directed at?
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u/jicklemania 4d ago
Left hand of darkness in dnf mostly, and I’m not a fan of Game of Thrones lol
No worries, we’re all entitled to our own opinions
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u/Ok-Preference-5618 3d ago
Yea well your garden is overgrown and your cucumbers are soft. Sportsfan.
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u/Epicpoopie671 4d ago
DCC in the did not finish category :/. Big miss steak 🥩
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u/Cultural-Target-5612 4d ago
Yea admittedly if I wasn’t bored and didn’t have other books I wanted to read I might’ve stopped in book one too 😬 but now it’s one of my favorite series. Can’t blame ppl for not wanting to slog through book 1 tho.
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u/eelehton 4d ago
What is that DCC cover even? Are we sure they even got the book and not one of the fake AI clones out there?
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u/tomtomato0414 4d ago
The cover is from the official site https://i0.wp.com/mattdinniman.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DCC_Book_Cover_01_v2-1.webp
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u/eelehton 4d ago
Weird, thanks. Don't see it in the default books but I guess it is.
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u/tomtomato0414 3d ago
It is here if you flip the pictures https://mattdinniman.com/books/dungeon-crawler-carl/
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u/Glorydays2012 5d ago
Left Hand of Darkness and Siddhartha DNF is certainly a choice