OK, as a counter to my post about something you wanted to like but couldn’t get in to, what is something that you love and want to introduce to more people? (I nicknamed trying to get more people into your fandom as “fanpushing” a while back, hence the title)
For me, it’s the comic Saga. I love all the world building and the art, and how it’s continually setting up everything, but still manages to make we scream, “NO!” at everything happening because I’m so emotionally involved. I love the characters, the background, the invented languages (there’s a major one that is based on Esperanto), the tragedy of the star-crossed lovers and how things keep going even when that story meets its tragic ending because life goes on. It’s one of those gritty, crap sack world SF stories that focuses on the humanity (for lack of a better word) of the people in the world.
I allways promote Stanisław Lem, mainly Solaris.
Quick explanation: small group of scientists trying to study a possibly-intelligent ocean (called Solaris).
Why I like it: the worldbuilding is done by providing basic facts about Solaris, plus a lot of Solaristic theories, which creates space for your imagination and new theories. The interactions between humans are realistic and have meaningful dynamics. Every character has their unique perspective and I find it worthy of re-reading from that perspective. And it’s also quite short.
I’ve also read some other Lem’s books, but while they aren’t bad, I don’t find them as excellent as Solaris, maybe with exception of Fables for Robots, The Cyberiad and Memairs found in a Bathtub.
I love Cyberiad, but it’s written in a totally different register from Solaris. Both are amazing works, but it boggles my mind that they were written by the same person.