Books like The Time of Contempt — picked by fans

In my view, a great murder mystery should have a lot of possibilities, and science fiction just adds deeper layers of intrigue, and this is what The City and The City has in spades – literal layers and intrigue.

Here, two cities exist in the same place, yet the citizens of each one must ignore the citizens of the other. It is a crime to notice the citizens of the other city. When a murder occurs and our detective investigates, he only has jurisdiction in one city.

But what really blew my mind about this book was that, though it is science fiction, there is no physical or scientific reason that the cities are separate and occupy the same place. The division is only in the minds of the inhabitants!

A gifted artist, a man who could have had it all, Caravaggio's ego (and more than likely more than a little alcohol) took ahold of his life far too often and led him into a world of debauchery and violence.

His use of darkness and light to exemplify specific scenes, his use of common folk to represent historical and mythological figures, all of it I appreciate. But he died too young in mysterious circumstances, most likely due to a wound he had received during a fight. He could have done so much more if he had lived, and he could have done so much more if he had lived a life less full of conflict he too often brought upon himself. But then he wouldn't have been true to himself and wouldn't have been the artist he had been.

I picked up The Last Wish after playing the Witcher games and listening to the soundtrack, but what surprised me is how funny it is.

Yes, it is epic fantasy in every sense of the word, but Geralt’s dry humor cuts through the blood and curses, and his conversations with Dandelion had me laughing out loud. What makes it great, though, is how Sapkowski flips fairy tales upside-down, twisting familiar stories into something darker and sharper.

I enjoyed the way morality blurs—there are monsters, sure, but the humans are often MUCH worse. It’s a book that asks hard questions about society under the guise of swords and spells.

I was always on the lookout for new fantasy books when I was younger, and found this in the library one day. So glad I did!

I know it’s a familiar theme to have a young person coming of age and being super powerful, but it’s a good theme, and done brilliantly in Magician.

I appreciate it when authors don’t waffle too much, keep things to the point, and let their characters breathe in an interesting world. Krondor is certainly an interesting world, and I ended up loving quite a few of the books in this series. 

For millennia, we’ve heard the stories in Greek mythology about gods who come down to earth to rape women (Zeus got around), women as seductive sirens who lure sailors to their doom, or goddesses and mortal women alike being exiled.

Because of that, I was intrigued to read this book, a retelling of the familiar narrative, but from the perspective of a woman. I found this book to be very empowering.

I identified with the main character, a woman named Circe (in actuality a goddess) who is exiled because of her powers of witchcraft. However, in her exile, she finds that leaning into her power without the judgment of others makes her stronger.

I loved reading classic Greek mythology, complete with all the familiar characters, told from a woman’s perspective.

I read this trilogy in 1998 when I had just finished high school.

Even then, I understood the book presented Frodo as the main hero, but I was always aware that without Sam, Frodo couldn't go far. He was just a gardener in the beginning, but when the books were over, he proved himself and even became the mayor of the Shire.

Seeing a regular guy carrying the main hero on his shoulders is something else. The decisions he made and his forcing himself to do more transformed him into a natural hero and a leader.

One of the classic novels about monsters having internal lives. Grendel doesn’t even survive the first half of the Beowulf poem.

But what was his life like? This creature who went into rages over music and merriment? This outsider who clearly had no one to commune with? Where there could just be pathos, Gardner injects surprising dorkiness and humor that further round out Grendel’s existence. And there’s a huge bonus in the poem’s dragon also showing up as an utter weirdo neighbor.

Everybody talks about the shock value of this series, but they forget that these books have the greatest and most realistic character developments of all time.

Sansa, Daenerys, and Jon Snow are the most obvious ones, but I chose Jaime because I can relate to him the most. Sometimes everything goes your way, and you feel invincible. But remembering the fall of Jaime keeps my feet on the ground.

I had similar experiences several times when I acted like a jerk because of my job titles before reading his story. Now I never get ahead of myself. 

The character development is phenomenal.

Read this as part of an ongoing process where I am working through my late brother's favorite books. This was one I picked up last month and I was not disappointed. There is a bit of a personal attachment to this book, but the book does quite well without that aspect. The genre blend is kind of jarring at times (mostly in the beginning), but once you accept that this is a universe where damned near anything goes, there are no problems.