Two questions:
1. Should I read the Wheel of Time series?
2. Will I be able to finish it before George R.R. Martin releases The Winds of Winter?
(Semi-related: Jeff VanderMeer's unsettling Southern Reach Trilogy was my favorite read of 2019; I would highly recommend it, along with the movie Annihilation, to anyone. Very, very disquieting. In a good way.)
@callahad the Southern Reach Trilogy is so good, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I personally was never able to get into the Wheel of Time books, but I have a lot of friends that enjoyed them quite a bit, so if you're into high fantasy (as an adult, I'm not, so that might be why they never stuck the landing for me), they might be worth a shot!
@hafnia Have you seen the film? Very significant departures from the Trilogy, but exceptional in its own right. If I recall correctly, the director read the first book, once, many months before he wrote the screenplay, and didn't consult it at all during the process. So it's a really bizarre synthesis. But beautiful. And terrifying.
@callahad I have not! It's on my "I'll get around to this eventually" list (I have a hard time sitting through full movies). I'll have to make a point to watch it. :)
@hafnia let me know if you do! I rarely have such a strong reaction to a film, but it really stuck with me. Just visually stunning to see inside Area X.
What was your favorite read of the recent past, as someone who also liked Southern Reach?
@callahad oh gosh, that's a bit of a loaded question as thanks to winter depression I've mostly been reading (terrible) romance novels.
stuff I've read recently that I liked a lot (that was not a terrible romance novel): Autonomous, by Annalee Newitz, Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen, and the Wayfarers Trilogy by Becky Chambers. Autonomous is about the logical end of late-stage capitalism as it relates to big pharma; the Chen novel is about time travel, and Wayfarers is fluffy spacetravel.
@hafnia all of those sound lovely, thank you! I'm all about fluffy spacetravel whenever I'm traveling, so doubly excited to check out Wayfarers!