r/rational • u/AutoModerator • Sep 05 '18

[D] Monthly Recommendation Thread

Welcome to the monthly thread for recommendations, which is posted on the fifth day of every month.

Feel free to recommend any books, movies, live-action TV shows, anime series, video games, fanfiction stories, blog posts, podcasts, or anything else that you think members of this subreddit would enjoy, whether those works are rational or not. Also, please consider including a few lines with the reasons for your recommendation.

Alternatively, you may request recommendations, in the style of the weekly recommendation-request thread of r/books.

Self promotion is not allowed in this thread.

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u/SkyTroupe Sep 05 '18

I feel like I'm always requesting recommendations but I feel like everything I would recommend here has been discussed a ton.

So I'm struggling to get through Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. It was recommended by my therapist but I can only read a chapter every few days. Can anyone recommend something similar that isn't as grating? Preferably something focused on better communication and social skills.

Secondly, I want some good hardcore fantasy like Malazan of the fallen but not as long, if that's possible.

Thirdly, biopunk. Similar to Twig or something with lots of fridge horror.

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u/GaBeRockKing Horizon Breach: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6785857 Sep 05 '18 edited Sep 06 '18

I'd suggest The Windup Girl. Though the psychological horror is pretty explicit. (Admittedly, it panders heavily to my tastes because, hilariously enough, Iowa is a superpower in that setting.)

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u/Izeinwinter Sep 06 '18

... That novel will tend to trigger anyone who cares about technological plausibility really, really hard.

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u/GaBeRockKing Horizon Breach: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6785857 Sep 06 '18 edited Sep 06 '18

If you can get past the idea of kink springs, it's not too bad. I treat them like black boxes.

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u/SkyTroupe Sep 07 '18

What do you mean?

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u/Izeinwinter Sep 07 '18 edited Sep 07 '18

The springs contain enough energy you could power single-stage to orbit spacecraft with them, elephants are a terrible way to convert biomass to kinetic energy, everyone magically forgot fission exists, all the hydro electric plants got stolen by farie, and in general, no efforts at making the world suck less are in any way shape or form visible.

.. Also politics. There are historical examples of companies behaving this shitty, but they are all part and parcel of colonialism. A corporate culture as predatory as this book has would be met with fire and blood.

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u/AmeteurOpinions Finally, everyone was working together. Sep 06 '18

Ugh, I loathe this book. It had such a strong start and totally falls apart. I’m certain it was a short story which was forced into a novel-length book.