Great! Someone else suggested Southern Reach but hadn't actually read Our Wives, so I'm so glad someone who has read both agrees because I immediately put Annihilation on hold from the library!

No J. G. Ballard?

Faulkner should be read aloud. And it's best when read in a genteel Southern accent (think Kevin Spacy in "Midnight in The Garden of Good and Evil.")

I remember reading somewhere the Faulkner was extremely particular about word choice and phrasing. Every sentence is a complete thought- a statement, if you will. There's a part of "Go Down Moses" where the narrator repeatedly says "And McCaslin" - if you don't say that out loud, ponderously, you miss the impact altogether.

Faulkner's writing makes you imagine the author himself reading the book aloud to you, even when you're doing the reading. Or at least, that's been my experience.

Ahh okay, I can see that. It's actually in first person, from Miri's perspective, but there isn't a chance for "I" yet because she's describing what Leah is saying and doing here at the beginning. Alternating chapters are from Leah's perspective in the submarine.

I don't have my copy next to me, but I think the first line is italicized and it's supposed to be something Leah just said.... I think "unstill" is also italicized to show that it's the word Leah says.

There is no wrong way to read and enjoy a book. It sounds like you found something that works for you.

Yes it's quite short! The audiobook took me about 6 hours to listen to at 1.5 speed. That's actually a lot slower than I usually listen to audiobooks but I wanted to savor every moment of this one.

I put this on hold from my library immediately after finishing Our Wives.

I'm so sorry your birthday sucked! If you get it, I really hope you enjoy it!

It does feel very "cosmic horror" in that sublime sense of "unknowability" at the bottom of the sea....

The PTSD isn't overt, but it definitely feels like an allegory because Leah experienced this traumatic event and she can't go back to her normal life, and no one in her normal life can understand what she experienced.

You may not be aware, but most e-readers show an estimate for how long it takes to finish a book. My kobo is showing me an estimate of 40 hours to finish The Count of Monte Cristo from page 1.

The fact that Hannibal Rising came after the fact makes this lack of consistency more unforgivable, not less.

The fact that Red Dragon (and the other books) existed, and presented a fleshed out profile of Hannibal should have been taken into account when writing Hannibal Rising.

I hope you enjoy!

I just picked up The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi which also released today by /u/sachakraborty and am super excited to get started on reading it

You are the first one here to think so, so thank you for the answer. You should not feel discouraged from writing because of it. It could be used for the benefit of yours (you know generating names and tasks like that) but I don’t think that those chats could come up with original ideas using imagination. I hope not, don’t know how these works or gonna work in the future but if it should happened we would be living the scariest sci-fi ever.

The subtitle "One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer" didn't clue you in that it would include a memoir aspect?

I'm currently reading "Call of Cthulhu and other weird stories", a collection of some of his work; "Cool Air" among them. I just finished that one last night, loved it!

I did not say I’m worried about writers being replaced, I just asked on peoples opinions if that could even ever happened. I’m not part of copywriting subs so I just asked here and bunch of people kindly answered me. Only thing boring here is you and your zero value answer.

Maybe start with some novellas to get a feel of what you enjoy. If you love it great. If you hate it at least you didn’t waste much time. I’ll recommend some shorter books for you.

Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. There are four books total and each one is roughly 200 pages or less. It’s about a cyborg that acts as security for humans and ends up hacking itself to have free will.

Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo. A cleric goes around the country recording history from oral stories.

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. An area known as Area X is said to be a pristine habitat, but there are mysterious happenings effecting the people who venture in the area.

Comfort Me with Apples by Catherynne Valente.

Maybe even try audiobooks. Some books I feel are better if they’re listened to. Good luck finding something you like.

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Zastrozzi. Knowing my dad walked out on us when I was younger, I love what he does to his dad. Plus it’s a fun read.

Yeah, I kinda see where your intentions are. I’m definitely gonna try that 😁😁

That was also my first thought. Even when the AI “read” all the world literature I can’t imagine some set of data to come up with deep world-building, authentic characters and their connections just by kind of mixing them together.

But that’s the thing. People are complex. You cannot look at another person and really know who they are or what is going on in their mind. There are people who act happy and nice and one day commit suicide. The human mind is complex and our interactions, motivations ideas that come along with that are complex. I think he writes characters at more extremes to represent ideas more than purely real people because it allows you to see what motivates people. It gives a different perspective by him writing like that. It makes you think outside the box.

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman. I haven’t read it myself but I’ve heard people mention it.

I loved loved LOVED Dark Matter. Absolutely mind-bending!

That’s good point, thanks.