Star Wars, specifically the universe created by the EU from 1991 to 1999. It was a wide open wild west of ideas. The details of the clone wars hadn’t been established, Anakin Skywalker as the chosen one didn’t exist, and there was just such a massive variety of content.
This, though I’d even be willing to stretch it a few years later.
You get everything from people analyzing the gritty details of the technology of the setting, to the classic wild adventure romps, to wacky mystic stuff. It brought us incredible stuff like the original Battlefront II’s portrayal of clones, Jango and Boba Fett being further fleshed out, Shatterpoint being basically Space Vietnam, and more.
I cut off at 1999 because that’s when The Phantom Menace came out. I still enjoy what that following era of the EU became, but TPM completely transformed the shape of the Star Wars EU. While the pre- and post- TPM EU is still officially the same continuity, the texture was so changed that you can easily treat them as two different visions of Star Wars.
Oh yeah, I totally understood why you chose to cut it off there. I’m just okay with a few more years of subsequent content.
I appreciate that following of EU as well, which actually lasted longer the “old” era, with the new spanning from 1999 to 2014. It’s still good, just different.
Iain M. Banks’s Culture series—the prototypical example of “fully-automated luxury gay space communism”.
Man I’m on Use of Weapons now and I fuckin love it. I want drug glands, sex change viruses, and drone friends! And I really want to play Azad…
This is the best answer because all of these other fictional places can be replicated with 100% accuracy using Culture tech.
Star Trek’s depiction of the late-24th century. The height of the Federation, with nearly-ubiquitous post-scarcity democratic socialism, where anyone can do what they want, unburdened by having to work just to survive. But if you do work, you have the freedom to pursue anything, anywhere.
Unfortunately, our direction at the moment is taking us ever closer to being the Borg.
I love the Expanse. I think it is a very realistic depiction of the future 400 years from now on the path we are on. The power struggles between the Earth and Mars and the Belters caught in the cross fire who are barely considered human. Everything is run ny corporations that only care about profits and will grind down anything that is in the path.
Though it’s definitely more fantasy, I love the Borderlands universe for the same reason. Musk is basically Handsome Jack without the charm.
I really like the world of Horizon zero dawn and forbidden west. All the ruins from buildings we can recognize (and some we cannot) are really cool. I also like how humanity had to start again without all the knowledge that was lost in the Apollo purge and how they had to adapt to a world shaped by the AI called Gaia and her robots.
Ankh-Morpork.
Mostly, I presume, because I don’t live there, and can safely experience it through the pages of a book, which are thankfully unsuited to transmit the sense of smell and, while still able to cut, are less likely to kill me than a dagger or any of the other deadly instruments one is likely to encounter there.
The rest of the Disc can be quite enjoyable too.
Came here to say Discworld. But I wouldn’t want to live in the city any more than I do here.
The Cosmere
Different worlds with hard-ish magic systems that are different. Yet each is a manifestation of the same underlying forces/rules across the Cosmere.
Whether it’s Stormlight, Ferruchemy, Metallurgy, etc. they’re all aspects of investiture.
Which means you get unique stories and challenges in the worlds but you also get the occasional cross of characters with one set of magic in another world of the Cosmere that has another.
And my personal favorite in the Cosmere is the Wax and Wayne series of Mistborn (books 3-7) where you have metal based magic in a Wild West like setting. So people who can manipulate metal using bullets from pistols in unique ways. Imagine all those fantasy novels with wizards… but centuries later as technology advances to the age of steam engine and firearms.
An excerpt from one of those books
Smoke curled in the air over the bandit boss’s pistol.
“Oh . . .” Wayne said softly. “You just made a bad mistake, mate. A very bad mistake.”
The boss turned away from the body, holstering his gun. “Fine,” he yelled, walking toward the door. “You can have some fun, boys. Burn it out of your blood quickly and meet me outside. Let’s—”
Everything froze. People stopped in place. The curling smoke hung motionless. Voices quieted. Whimpering halted. In a circle around Waxillium’s table, the air rippled just faintly.
Wayne stood up, shouldering his dueling canes, inspecting the room. He was placing each and every one of the bandits, Waxillium knew. Judging distances, preparing himself.
“As soon as I drop the bubble,” Wayne said, “this place is going to erupt like an ammunition store in a volcano.”
Waxillium calmly reached into his jacket and slid a hidden pistol from beneath his arm. He set it on the table. His twitch had vanished.
“Well?” Wayne asked.
“That’s a terrible metaphor. How would an ammunition store get into a volcano?”
“I don’t know. Look, are you going to fight or not?”
“I’ve tried waiting,” Waxillium said. “I gave them a chance to leave. I tried giving this up.”
“You gave it a good show, Wax.” He grimaced. “Too good a show.”
Waxillium rested his hand on the pistol. Then he picked it up. “So be it.” With his other hand, he poured out his entire pouch of steel into his wine cup, then downed it.
Wayne grinned. “You owe me a pint for lying to me, by the way.”
“Lying?”
“You said you hadn’t brought a gun.”
“I didn’t bring a gun,” Waxillium said, reaching to the small of his back and sliding a second pistol out. “You know me better than that, Wayne. I never go anywhere with only one. How much bendalloy do you have?”
“Not as much as I’d like. The stuff’s damn expensive here in town. I’ve got maybe enough for five minutes’ extra time. My metalminds are pretty much full, though. Spent a good two weeks sick in bed after you left.” That would give Wayne some healing power, should he get shot.
Waxillium took a deep breath; the coldness inside him melted away and became a flame as he burned steel that pinpointed each and every source of metal in the room.
For anybody interested in starting with a book that is in the Cosmere “Mistborn: The Final Empire” is a great starting point.
Finished the 2nd Mistborn book today. Pretty good, but I’m not dying to continue. Should I?
Personally I loved it but if you’ve finished 2 of them and it’s not resonating with you I won’t push you to read something you’re not enjoying.
I will say that I listened to them and maybe an audiobook will be more enjoyable.
But if you want to try something else in the Cosmere with a different flavor you could try one of these and not have any huge spoilers to the overall story (kind of like watching Ant-man or Black panther in the cinematic universe before any of the other films.)
Tress of the Emerald Sea (more adventure/fantasy, less magical heist and the consequences of that)
Warbreaker (more of a mystery/intrigue)
Yumi and the Nightmare painter (not sure how to describe it but people from 2 different worlds experiencing the other and learning to work with and support the others challenges, etc). This way you can see if it might just be the Mistborn era 1 books or maybe he’s not your cup of tea. I will say that Era 2 is (like I mentioned) very different in tone, etc. same world but centuries later.
If you don’t mind me asking what kind, if any, of fantasy books do you like?
I’ll keep rolling. Don’t dislike it enough to quit, but if something else comes along I’ll put it down for now. Dropped out after book 2 for a Stephen King collection I didn’t know existed. Started book 3 today.
I’m far more into science fiction than fantasy, but the original 6 Dragonlance books are my favorites. Characters you care about and seem real are essential, which I why I love King so much.
For example, I like Eland a great deal, but rolled my eyes when he magically became Mistborn. Sazed has really shaped up nicely as well. But Vin (FFS, couldn’t even remember her name, had to search) I can’t relate to. You mean this 18-yo girl out her whuppin’ ass and stacking bodies and she has zero PTSD or anything?! It’s like she has no feelings.
I should probably note that Dune is my favorite sci-fy/fantasy novel. Love me some world building.
If you like Sazed there’s some interesting twists coming for him.
For Vin you come to realize she’s less of a hero and more a pawn in various groups using her winning the genetic lottery.
Now… if you like characters that struggle with trauma. Way of Kings has a very troubled protagonist.
But yeah. As for sci-fi (especially ones that can span years) you might like Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space series.
Any good sci-fi suggestions?
In FFXI, at around level 20, you have to walk from your starter city to the main capital city, Jueno. It takes a couple of hours your first time, because all of the monsters are level 40+, and you have almost no chance of surviving an encounter,. You have to cross several very large maps in the process, usually alone or with a friend at around a similar level, and there is a lot of sneaking around you have to do in order to avoid detection. I always liked this part of the game because of the challenge it presented. When you arrive in Jueno, you finally get your chocobo license and never have to walk across those maps again, unless you really wanted to.
The updated version of the game doesn’t require traveling like this anymore. I think you can just take an airship or teleport there somehow now, but I still take the long way for nostalgia whenever creating a new character.
My favorite is Middle Earth, but my 2nd choice would be the Dresden Files. Everything from Chicago to the Feywild to Vampire parties to the realms of the dead.
Dungeon-diving and katabasis in general. Roguelikes are clutch for this reason, but it’s also why I fell in love with the Elder Scrolls franchise, especially Morrowind; and why Fallout 3 was the best one — crawling through the DC Metro. And why the World Adventures expansion to Sims 3 blew me away. Obviously Terraria, Minecraft, and Core Keeper are all favorites as well.
In literature, myths like Orpheus and Eurydice or the tale of Persephone and Demeter hold a special place. Jules Verne rocked it with Journey to the Center of the Earth but also 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. Conan Doyle is known best for Sherlock Holmes but his “The Lost World” is my favorite. And yes, I’m reading Dungeon Crawler Carl right now and it’s as good as advertised.
For movies, ones based on the above books are great. The Core kinda sucked, though.
As a kid I loved the realm of Dinotopia. Something about the art style fascinated me as a youngster
Gurney is a master of his craft, I couldn’t blame you for liking his art. I like it too
World of Darkness, although my only experience with it is Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines. It’s so atmospheric though, I’m so sad there’s nothing else like it. Rules are well defined, whole masquerade thing feels quite logic, characters are believable, structure of clans/families/groups and their rivalry and world views is interesting, it’s also close to our real world, but mystical… I just love it.
I liked reading all those books! Never got to play in World of Darkness though. Unless you count Exalted as part of it.
Which I did. I know they changed the lore to unconnect the two settings but I liked they were connected.
Oh wait no! I played one session of Werewolf. I was a hacker wolf. I had a hacker spirit.
Pretty sure there’s a werewolf and magic ttrpg set in the same universe with similar play rules
I’m aware of Werewolf PC game, which is kind of pretty bad :-(
Sadly I have nobody to play TTRPG with.
Shadowrun. It’s horrific and dehumanizing and dated. But it’s perfect.
Skies of Arcadia.
For one thing, the entire setting is just a bunch of floating islands, and I love that trope.
For another, there’s 6 moons, each with elemental powers. The land under each moon is affected by these powers, making the land under the red moon a scorching desert, and the land under the green moon a thick jungle.
Then there’s the subtle mysteries. There’s an iron star in the atmosphere, which is a satalite but everyone forgot what it’s called. There’s a black moonstone, but no black moon to go with it. There’s a looper of every moon colour, but there’s also a black looper that only shows up once you defeat the main villain.
I think, most of all, I love the tone. Pirates fight an evil empire, and a heroic, upbeat attitude is never punished.
This is one of my favourites.
Academy City (Magical Index) It’s set a bit into the future with elaborate world building. Most people have esper abilities or are capable of learning magic. The characters are well thought out. Ironically the least impressive character is the main character.
I’d love to be one of the other characters and get to live and explore that world.
