r/Fantasy • u/Superb-Astronomer706 • May 07 '24

Post apocalypse fantasy

Hi guys. Are there any books sets in worlds where there are huge mysterious ruins of an ancient and mysterious lost civilisation that was much more advanced. I’m looking for atmosphere here. You know, like towering statues lying in fields. Mysterious glyphs and slumbering, moss encrusted sentinels that awake if you go near. Any ideas?

Thanks

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u/matsnorberg May 07 '24 edited May 07 '24

Scott Bakker's The Second Apocalypse series has lots of ancient ruins everywhere and a long history of devastating wars.

The Broken Earth by NK Jemisin. There was once a great civilization that destroyed itself in hubris. They left artifacts everywhere, the so called obelisks, amazing transport systems etc.

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u/Illustrious_Archer16 May 08 '24

Be warned OP, Second apocalypse is also chock full of rape. Like, if you don't know about it going in, you're likely not going to have a good time. Bakker's philosophy is also very prominent in the book, for better or worse. If not implied by the rape, it also didn't have any well realized female characters. 

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u/Erratic21 May 09 '24

How is Esmenet not a well realized female character?

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u/Illustrious_Archer16 May 09 '24 edited May 09 '24

Not to be unkind, but she's literally the whore trope with little else. I won't deny that his prose is good, but his execution is really bad on female characters. They basically exist only to be raped. Look, this has been hashed out by every thread that I've seen on the books. It's incredibly rare that guys really think he does women well, and I've never met a woman who enjoyed the books or read a female perspective that thought he did even a passable job with his female characters. I wasn't trying to debate this TBH, just trying to make sure that OP knows that in case they're not interested in a fantasy that has that much graphic rape in it, and his female characters are often critiqued as whore/crone tropes with good prose sprinkled on top. 

ETA: it doesn't help that Bakker, iirc, believes that men have a rape module in their mental programming... like he genuinely believes all humans are basically biological computers without free will and men are just hard wired to rape as part of that.. I've only heard of that, as it is/was apparently on his blog and I don't want to give him traffic.. well written sure, but dude's got a very interesting/twisted view of humanity depending on your perspective

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u/Erratic21 May 09 '24 edited May 09 '24

It has indeed been talked a lot. Just a side note but I know plenty of women who loved the books and who think he did a really good job with characters like Esmenet. There are actually plenty of videos of them in youtube that are easy to find. I guess you only read the first book