The Buried Giant
The Buried Giant begins as a couple set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen in years.
Stats for nerds
11recommend
19mentions
18people
2015–2026years
58% recommend16% neutral26% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Funny timing, I was just thinking about this over dinner while scrolling the wiki list on [clarke / seiun / nebula] awards for the thousandth time.
> [Post-sci-fi is] free to allow the science fictional elements of their stories develop slowly, to emerge only in the latter half of the text, or to remain an isolated thread in a larger tapestry, all of which are anathema to genre-machine publishing, which generally wants its spaceships front-and-centre early on, to reassure readers they’re getting what they paid for.
This has always bugged me. There's often an interesting synopsis like (below), but the actual story begins with ~200 pages of backstories. And altogether the actual problem / developments / solution could probably be detailed in a tenth of the page count after subtracting all the character drama.
> "When a signal is discovered that seems to come from far beyond our solar system [...] What follows is an eye-opening journey out to the stars to the most awesome encounter in human history"
But this synopsis is actually from a well known 80s novel [0] so I don't think this slow-burn type of writing has become any more or less common with post scifi. To be clear, I don't have a problem with character-focused stories (I've read a ton!), I just wish they were advertised that way.
At this point I'm finding new / unusual stuff to read by looking for the least liked books whenever recommendations come up. Anyways rant over. On a more positive note, the author's post has put of new names / titles on my reading list. I think my next read will probably be something by Ishiguro:
> [The Buried Giant] follows an elderly Briton couple, Axl and Beatrice, living in a fictional post-Arthurian England in which no-one is able to retain long-term memories. The couple have dim memories of having had a son, and they decide to travel to a neighbouring village to seek him out.
- . Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. Urban fantasy with a great audiobook narrator (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith). Harry Potter meets Sherlock Holmes. Loved the computer history and London Library parts in False Value.
. Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones. Found the first book in a local phonebox library. Especially liked the probability computer in Conrad’s Fate.
. Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. Recommended by a barber after I mentioned the cartoon "Scavengers Reign". Annihilation is well worth reading.
. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. Novel about memory, forgetting.
. Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman. Short novel imagining Einstein's dreams whilst he worked on his relativity theory.
- Here they are for easier reference:
* Worlds To Get Lost In
- The Imperial Radch Trilogy https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/ann-leckie/the-impe...
- The Dead Djinn Universe (series) https://publishing.tor.com/amasterofdjinn-dbtmp1230658/97812...
- The Age of Madness Trilogy https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/joe-abercrombie/a-l...
- The Green Bone Saga https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/fonda-lee/jade-city...
- The Expanse (series) https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/james-s-a-corey/lev...
- The Daevabad Trilogy https://www.harpervoyagerbooks.com/book/9780062678126/the-ci...
- Teixcalaan (series) https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250186430
- The Thessaly Trilogy https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250811837
- Shades of Magic Trilogy https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765376466
- The Divine Cities Trilogy https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/228171/city-of-stai...
- The Wormwood Trilogy https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/tade-thompson/rosew...
- Black Sun (series) https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Black-Sun/Rebecca-Roa...
* Words To Get Lost In
- Piranesi https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/piranesi-9781635575637
- Circe https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/madeline-miller/circe/978...
- Mexican Gothic https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/577068/mexican-goth...
- The Paper Menagerie And Other Stories https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Paper-Menagerie-a...
- Spinning Silver https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554775/spinning-sil...
- Exhalation: Stories https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/538034/exhalation-b...
- Olondria (series) https://smallbeerpress.com/books/2013/04/30/a-stranger-in-ol...
- Her Body And Other Parties: Stories https://graywolfpress.org/books/her-body-and-other-parties
- The Buried Giant https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/85613/the-buried-gi...
- Radiance https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765335302
* Will Take You On A Journey
- The Changeling https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/234343/the-changeli...
- Wayfarers (series) https://www.harpervoyagerbooks.com/book/9780062444134/the-lo...
- Binti (series) https://publishing.tor.com/binti-nnediokorafor/9781250203427...
- Lady Astronaut (series) https://us.macmillan.com/series/ladyastronaut/
- Children of Time (duology) https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/adrian-tchaikovsky/chil...
- Wayward Children (series) https://us.macmillan.com/series/waywardchildren/
- The Space Between Worlds https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/610612/the-space-be...
* Will Mess With Your Head
- Black Leopard, Red Wolf https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/561305/black-leopar...
- Southern Reach (series) https://us.macmillan.com/series/thesouthernreachtrilogy/
- The Echo Wife https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250174666
- The Locked Tomb (series) https://publishing.tor.com/gideontheninth-dbtmp1127517/97812...
- Remembrance of Earth's Past (series) https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765382030
- Machineries of Empire (series) https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Ninefox-Gambit/Yoon-H...
* Will Mess With Your Heart
- The Broken Earth (series) https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/n-k-jemisin/the-fif...
- Station Eleven https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/239452/station-elev...
- This Is How You Lose the Time War https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/This-Is-How-You-Lose-...
- The Poppy War Trilogy https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-poppy-war-r-f-kua...
- The Masquerade (series) https://us.macmillan.com/series/themasquerade
- An Unkindness of Ghosts http://www.akashicbooks.com/catalog/an-unkindness-of-ghosts/
- The Bird King https://groveatlantic.com/book/the-bird-king/
- American War https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/543957/american-war...
- Riot Baby https://publishing.tor.com/riotbaby-dbtmp1144773/97812502147...
- On Fragile Waves https://www.workman.com/products/on-fragile-waves#:~:text=On...
* Will Make You Feel Good
- The Goblin Emperor https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765365682
- Murderbot (series) https://publishing.tor.com/themurderbotdiaries-marthawells/9...
- The Interdependency (series) https://us.macmillan.com/series/theinterdependency/
- The Martian https://www.broadwaybooks.net/book/9780553418026
- Sorcerer to the Crown/The True Queen https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/761/a-sorcerer-to-...
- I've only read "The Buried Giant", but can strongly recommend it. Beautiful, and sad, dreamy, poetic and fable-like.
- I‘m a huge fan of Ishiguro. I find it fascinating that through most if his books he stays very close to his main themes – memory, introspection, self-deception – while playing with and exploring various different genres: historical, dystopia, detective, fantasy... The Buried Giant for example is a quite unsual fantasy novel, one that really moved me.
- Kazuo Ishiguro - The Buried Giant
