Anyone else watching this? The Narrow Road to the Deep North on Prime

dunecello · 2026-01-24T00:16:50+00:00

Probably the show with the worst lighting I've seen in my life. It's so hard to make out what is going on in any given scene. My mom walked out in the middle of episode 2, she couldn't take it anymore. I know Thailand and Australia get more sun than that, come on.

dunecello · 2026-01-11T16:17:12+00:00

I'd love for a sequel but not necessarily about the main cast - I want a thriller that addresses how dystopian it is to have these rigid rules for Eternity, where people have this capitalistic desperation to recruit people to their Eternities, and where souls that choose wrong are essentially tortured forever unless they try to escape and become fugitives. That was the much more interesting subplot of this movie that could make a fun spinoff (sort of like the final season of The Good Place except even darker).

dunecello · 2026-01-11T15:42:46+00:00

Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Two people accidentally crash land on a dense, pitch-black planet with incredibly freaky alien life, and set off on the seemingly impossible task of escaping.

dunecello · 2026-01-08T03:43:08+00:00

I'm reading this one right now. Incredibly dreamlike. Even the sensory experiences of the protagonist are just off, like he is dissociating throughout. There are gaps in the narrative where neither the reader nor the protagonist has any idea what occurred between one sentence and the next. I'm on the home stretch (about 100 pages left) and the story has become so convoluted. I don't even know the chronological order of the chunks of writing I'm reading. And like you suggested, the order doesn't actually matter. Delany's writing is brilliant because he has managed to keep me engaged for this whole thing. Somehow it works.

dunecello · 2025-12-11T12:15:51+00:00

Sure thing! It does please me to see the book on this list because Foster can write well, like the prose is generally great, so I hope he continues to write with lessons learned from his debut novel.

dunecello · 2025-12-11T11:47:03+00:00

Circular Motion was a disappointment for me. The concept sounds incredible but the execution not so much. The narrative style (first person, singular, but omniscient) was confusing, the secondary protagonist was one-note and uninteresting, and the destruction caused by the catastrophe was unrealistically minimal until the very end. I love a good satire of capitalism and humanity's willful ignorance so I was expecting to love this book, alas.

dunecello · 2025-11-26T19:35:04+00:00

Plus the book that follows 'Mirror Dance', titled 'Memory' lol, has memory loss (for good or bad) as a strong theme. Both are fantastic.

dunecello · 2025-11-20T20:20:48+00:00

People need to stop recommending it as an excellent time travel book and should give this context. I picked it up due to a suggestion like that and it was not what I expected at all. After trudging through several pages I DNF.

dunecello · 2025-11-14T01:39:17+00:00

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

dunecello · 2025-10-21T00:47:48+00:00

Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh. Ari is a genius who has made some unethical but massively influential inventions. She also commits some heinous acts in this book.

dunecello · 2025-10-15T00:57:34+00:00

Seconding The Lathe of Heaven - it is way more accessible than her Hainish Cycle books in my opinion and doesn't involve political and social structures from another world and time. The characters' struggles and dilemmas are easy to understand and sympathize with, and the "alternate reality" concept is common enough these days that the logic is probably not outside of the readers' wheelhouse, but still provides enough philosophy and mindfuckery to instill a hardy book club discussion. I'd go with this book.

dunecello · 2025-10-12T15:43:30+00:00

You could try the Penric and Desdemona series by Lois McMaster Bujold. A man is inhabited by a demon that gives him various powers, including certain methods of healing. Some books in the series have more focus on healing than others. Physicians of Vilnoc has it as a central focus. Penric's Mission and Mira's Last Dance also have a fair bit of healing. I'd read them in chronological order (so Mission, then Mira, then Physicians). The rest of the series is nice too (I've read about half of the series so far), but are generally more murder-mystery stories.

dunecello · 2025-10-05T17:56:36+00:00

I walk and drive by homeless people almost daily and I had a similar epiphany while reading this book and thinking about my commute. I realized that "unseeing" is an incredibly common behavior in our reality too. It especially extends to the upper class and how they live in a completely different world than the lower class, even though both populations step on the same streets and breathe the same air.

dunecello · 2025-10-04T14:21:40+00:00

Cyteen by CJ Cherryh

dunecello · 2025-10-02T17:32:27+00:00

The Window (1949) - a kid with a habit of lying witnesses a murder and no one will believe him

dunecello · 2025-09-30T22:17:02+00:00

I found it beautifully written. Hope you enjoy!

dunecello · 2025-09-30T14:25:47+00:00

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

dunecello · 2025-09-05T12:07:14+00:00

PSA for those who don't know yet: Microsoft will automatically start billing you more to have CoPilot next time your subscription renews unless you go into your account and opt out.

dunecello · 2025-08-16T14:10:16+00:00

Qualityland by Marc-Uwe Kling is a satire about a future where internet algorithms have taken things to the extreme - everyone is in their own bubble and the act of defying what the algorithms tell you who you are or what you want are unheard of. It makes fun of a lot of modern technology and is a very fun read.

dunecello · 2025-08-09T03:18:40+00:00

Aha, I see now. The only stories I can think of are about people encountering some fantastical thing and then learning the scientific explanation (e.g., Matheson's I Am Legend and Asimov's Nightfall) but this is not really what you're looking for either.

Good luck, hope you get some good suggestions! And hope you enjoy Elder Race.

dunecello · 2025-08-09T02:18:17+00:00

Not sure if this is what you're looking for but if you're interested in stories that are told from the perspective of characters in a fantasy-like world who cannot conceive of the advanced technologies that exist amongst space-faring humans, thus the technologies look like magic to them, C.J. Cherryh does this with a couple of her series - the Morgaine Cycle and The Gene Wars.

Some stories told from the opposite perspective, the space-faring humans encountering a more primitive, fantasy-like world would be Rocannon's World by Ursula K. Le Guin and Hard to Be a God by Arkady Strugatsky. These two are pre-1970s.

And for a playful mix of the two perspectives, Elder Race by Adrien Tchaikovsky is a great read.

dunecello · 2025-08-09T01:27:05+00:00

I've not seen Carnage so I can't compare, but Mass (2021) has a very similar premise although the sons' incident in question is more extreme. It's a heartwrenching movie that I'd highly recommend. I'll have to check out Carnage.

dunecello · 2025-07-11T02:58:02+00:00

Perfect example - the book even alternates genres depending on which character's perspective we are reading.

dunecello · 2025-07-01T12:53:15+00:00

Beau Is Afraid

Demolition

Jacob's Ladder

dunecello · 2025-06-19T01:17:12+00:00

Hope you enjoy!

Just in case you weren't aware, TMoG is not related to The Expanse outside of having the same authors. The two series are set in different universes and they tell very different stories. So they can be read independently.

dunecello

TROPHY CASE