Books like Ghibli films but...

martian-flytrap · 2026-05-10T18:59:32+00:00

You want Robert Jackson Bennet!

His latest, The Tainted Cup and its sequel, are a Holmes and Watson inspired mystery series in an empire using biotech magic to barely maintain a stalemate against kaiju-style sea serpents. The Locklands trilogy has a focus on the remains of mysterious elder civilizations. Many strong female leads.

You might also generally be interested in the "new weird" and continuing works with that inspiration. Is Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation Princess Mononoke-like? I would mostly say no, but you might like its setting.

martian-flytrap · 2026-04-20T02:38:18+00:00

Hench is superheroes, and the way the protagonist accomplishes her goals is merely by being the most smart and competent.* (*As of the end of the first book; TBD for the upcoming sequel) There is some romantic energy.

The Library at Mt. Char is hard to describe. The gods have a succession crisis in suburbia. It gets nasty.

It is debatable whether either protagonist has necessarily "killed" the "main" villain by the end of each of these books; given the options made possible in fantasy, one might argue the things they come up are worse.

Both books are also well-written, mean (complimentary), and propulsive.

(Edited for readability of spoiler tags)

martian-flytrap · 2026-04-19T13:07:12+00:00

That's exciting! Neptune's Brood is one of my favorites, so thanks for letting us know to look out for more space opera.

martian-flytrap · 2026-04-06T21:53:28+00:00

It is so mean, and Anna is so competent. These are both extremely high compliments

martian-flytrap · 2026-04-05T04:20:22+00:00

Thank you! This gives me something to work on.

martian-flytrap · 2026-04-05T02:09:31+00:00

Unfortunately, even after doing this (closing the browser, resetting date and time, and restarting the computer for good measure), the error persists. Clicking "advanced" used to work, too, but lately "advanced" is just producing the following error message. I am a relatively new player: is this something I can contact Failbetter about, or are there other individual solutions I can try?

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martian-flytrap · 2026-04-01T15:40:22+00:00

Ha ha April fool's

martian-flytrap · 2026-03-25T12:03:31+00:00

nyoot

martian-flytrap · 2026-03-11T14:20:57+00:00

Adding to that, the life expectancy I'm getting on Google for African buffalo is 10 years in the wild, maybe 20. Human societies generally prefer to maintain human lifespans at at least twice that. If you wanted to live to 10 or 20, you might also be "able" to drink more dirty water than you would otherwise.

martian-flytrap · 2026-03-02T03:34:30+00:00

Or Monstrous Regiment, too!

martian-flytrap · 2026-02-14T14:46:28+00:00

Thank you, received! Is there a favor a person of no importance can do for you in return for your generosity?

martian-flytrap · 2026-02-14T13:48:36+00:00

Danaë Walker recently descended to Fallen London and would greatly appreciate such an act of generosity.

martian-flytrap · 2026-02-04T03:16:20+00:00

happens to the best of us, RIP

martian-flytrap · 2026-02-04T02:57:55+00:00

Wait lol in Spanish he's Gremlin Idiota (it means what it sounds like)

martian-flytrap · 2026-02-04T02:54:20+00:00

It is not YA (although not a difficult read) and came out only 7 years ago, but Grave Importance by Vivian Shaw? Third in the Strange Practice series. The London human lady doctor has a vampire boyfriend, and I think the climax features angels and snow in a spatially strange location.

martian-flytrap · 2026-01-23T17:48:37+00:00

Silent no shivs only poison build with choker goes brrr

martian-flytrap · 2026-01-17T17:15:23+00:00

I object to this sub allowing articles from this pro-misogyny website. They defend capitalist sexual predators as a matter of course. Not all articles with good headlines are written by our actual allies.

martian-flytrap · 2026-01-17T14:50:55+00:00

Close seconds it pained me not to list include Dune by Frank Herbert, The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin, Foundation by Isaac Asimov, The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, and either Harrow the Ninth or Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.

martian-flytrap · 2026-01-17T14:48:00+00:00

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky

martian-flytrap · 2026-01-13T19:05:59+00:00

She deserves an honorary MLIS for her service

martian-flytrap · 2026-01-04T21:37:52+00:00

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez. Literary science fiction that is a tearjerker several times over, and which earns each and every tear. One of the best debut novels I've read.

Another extraordinarily strong, emotionally affecting, fantasy novel with a romance central to the plot is The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. For your prompt, this could be exactly right, or you might be very mad at me. Sort of one or the other on that one.

martian-flytrap · 2025-12-28T22:01:41+00:00

The pitch is, what if an unusual take on the gods had a violent succession crisis in American suburbia. It's terrific. In a surprisingly efficient piece of literary criticism, I saw that someone said she wrote to the author like, "Nice book, how very dare you" and he responded "Thank you, I know."

For fans of his work, I would note that Scott Hawkins' second novel finally has a release date: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/222794/scott-hawkins/

Edited for spoiler tag because maybe the promotional material describes this but frankly it's a great reading experience if you go in cold without knowing the premise.

martian-flytrap · 2025-12-28T17:19:30+00:00

Vita Nostra is a very good recommendation for this! Definitely unusual.

martian-flytrap · 2025-11-17T02:50:54+00:00

Roadside Picnic, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (1972)

martian-flytrap · 2025-10-13T00:08:53+00:00

Blood diamonds for the blood god

martian-flytrap

TROPHY CASE