The Magicians was kind of all over the place as a series of books. But the world-building was genuinely really good, and it was darker and grittier than these sorts of books usually are.
The TV show was substantially different and arguably better, especially in bringing the characters to life. It was good, but not great, overall, but the high points were really, really good.
Soā¦ all you Murderbot fans ready for this?
Hell yeah. Though I only watched the trailer with the sound off, so I mostly was noticing Skarsgard appearing to have adopted a permanent confused look for Murderbot.
I clicked on the trailer when my wife was watching and she said āwe are NOT watching something called Murderbot!ā I told her it was a comedyā¦ then she watched the trailer and saidā¦ āokay, we can watch that, I thought it was going to be horror!ā
Iām surprised with how lighthearted theyāre making it. Itās definitely funny, but more dry, or at least thatās how I read it
Agreed. The humor is wry in a social commentary way, but the themes though are pretty serious. But maybe it will darken a little further into the series if they get there.
I am also a little colored by reading the Ancillary Justice series right afterwards, which is similar in the āhumanoid robot has funny internal commentaryā way but is a degree darker.
Oh and in other book thoughts:
Books Iām starting to get into:
Books I have my eye on:
Wait, Murderbot is a comedy? 
Ooh, thank you for this.
Building my TBR pile for the summer when I will have time. Babel is definitely in it.
And now scrolling back up the thread for more recs, I find Quasarās Will of the Many. I was a little offput by the reviews on Will of the Many, but with Quasarās recs?
I can see that. The books are definitely darkly funny in a āreader laughs at the charactersā kind of way.
I just finished War of the Noobs
English teacher/sci-fi guy? Seven Eves by Neal Stephenson, A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. Thoseāll keep you busy.
Best PI series? Lawrence Blockās Matt Scudder series. Just the best there is.
Best historical fiction? Hillary Mantelās Thomas Cromwell trilogy - amazing writing. And, of course, Patrick OāBrianās incredible Aubrey-Mauterin series beginning with Master and Commander.
Finally, Iām in the middle of the 1,000 page+ second volume of Robert Caroās LBJ series. Eye-opening to say the least. He pulls no punches even slightly - I had no idea.
My pitch would be:
A Fire Upon the Deep was beautifully written and the world-building was top-notch. A guy loaned me his copy in 1999 and we lost touch, but I still intend to return it one day.
Seveneves was a little meh, imo. The first 2/3 was fun and zips along, and really should have been its own book because it tells a complete story. Then the final 1/3 is basically unnecessarily detailed world-building and exposition with virtually no story. It should have been chopped up and sprinkled into a follow-up trilogy.
Yeah, I agree about Seven Eves - but that first 2/3 was pretty great.
Praying Caro lives long enough to finish the LBJ series.
Anybody who wants to read a completely addictive crime series should try āRichard Starkā/Donald Westlakeās novels about the professional thief Parker. The first book. THE HUNTER, was filmed as POINT BLANK and remade as PAYBACK with Mel Gibson.
There was also a string of fantastic graphic-novel adaptations by the late genius Darwyn Cooke.
Knowing nothing this sounds like Fletch by the great writer that resided in Pulaski Tennessee, Mr McDonald
Imagine something like Terminator 2, but instead of Arnold, the role of the Terminator is played by Marvin the Paranoid Android from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Edit: Haney, I obviously donāt know you, but based on your posts, I think you would really enjoy the books.
Great, thanks for the recs!
havenāt read the first two.
On Block, I will revisit. I devoured his āburglar whoā¦ā series and loved them, but did not love the Scudder novel I picked up 30 (damn, 40? I am old) years ago. Worth a revisit.
Iāve started the first Cromwell book, but got derailed by an avalanche of essays and didnāt go back ā on the summer list.
You are not the first to recommend the Master and Commander series, Iāll put it in the stack.
Random recommendation if youāre looking for light and quick: the Rivers of London series by Aaronovitch, or something like that.
@Sim - I will check out the Stark/Westlake series!
@dfresh - if you like the Fletch stuff, you would probably love Lawrence Blockās āBurglarā series ā¦ the titles all start āThe Burglar whoā¦ā
Thanks for the rec. I need to chip away at my unread stack!
Fun fact you can also wear the book as a hatā¦