Asking for recommendations of books or series of books from the genres fantasy & scifi mostly that are sort of escapist and nice/fun to read.

I use audiobooks for my sleep as audh and have listened to the Discworld novels for that for some time now, but I can't really handle the individual angle and especially the way he writes about womens bodies anymore. Also this is my third round of it unless I find an alternative. Last night got to the point in Unseen Academicals where he felt the need to make sure every reader knows that nobody, absolutely nobody found the fat girl attractive & I just can't do this to myself anymore.

And the same goes for reading other fiction. I have read my Steinbecks and Asimovs long ago, have read most of Stephen King even though he is vey much ultralib, but I love horror. Tolkien, scifi classics, horror classics and such I have all read, but am struggling to find modern fiction that is written from a leftist pov even a little.

Any recommendations on this and on the night-night audiobook series would be so so welcome.

  • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    11 months ago

    The Culture Series by Ian M. Banks? Kim Stanley Robinson's stuff, maybe? I've only read a couple of KSR tho.

    Edit: Eh, prolly not all that lighthearted now that I think about it.😅

    • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      11 months ago

      Also, I think Pratchett gets better as he gets older... my favorite series by him was actually his Tifanny aching series. But I totally get it.

      • NoLeftLeftWhereILive [none/use name, she/her]
        ·
        11 months ago

        Tiffany is probably my favourite as well. I also really like the Moist Von Lipwig books, they are just good fun. He also feels like a neurodivergent character to me, misfit and needs to have his brain go brr.

        But yeah, need me a break from them still. They are obviosly going to feature a very individualistic worldview and am currently just a bit tired of all that.

    • NoLeftLeftWhereILive [none/use name, she/her]
      ·
      11 months ago

      The Culture was amazing, I could take that on the night night list. It's scifi so it's my kind of lighthearted. Been so long since I read it too that all I really remember is how much I loved it. His other books were amazing too, including the non scifi stuff, The Wasp Factory is quite the book, but definitely not lighthearted.

      Kim Stanley Robinson I will definitely look up. Thank you.

      • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
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        11 months ago

        Welcome! Hmm, have you tried LeGuin? I've only read her Hainish cycle, but I hear Earthsea is pretty good too.

          • cynesthesia
            ·
            11 months ago

            deleted by creator

            • NoLeftLeftWhereILive [none/use name, she/her]
              ·
              11 months ago

              Oh I love these recommendatios, thank you. Looks like I can get The daughter of Doctor Moreau from my local library and Perdido Street Station is there too, just have to wait a bit for it.

          • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
            ·
            11 months ago

            Welcome. I found the latter half of the Hainish Cycle to be a dramatic improvement over the first few, but your mileage may vary. I'll get around to Earthsea myself, one of these days. Those Becky Chambers books sound pretty good too though.😅

    • Beaver [he/him]
      ·
      11 months ago

      The Player of Games is fairly lighthearted, and a good intro to the series. Others... not so much.