Reading Sci-Fi as an antidepressant & anti-anxiety tool (i.e. The Stormlight Archives)

[Mumbutterfly]

Does anyone on here do this, as well? Would love to discuss favorite authors and/or books. I’ve been a book lover for almost 60 years. It has always been my favorite activity (besides interacting with my kids).

About ten years ago, I found an e library and haven’t been to a ‘real’ one or read a ‘real’ book since. They have thousands of e books and audio books available. I know I sound like an advertisement but I don’t just love reading, I devour books at an almost alarming rate and therefore can’t buy every book I want to read. Most of them I only read once but some are favorites and are worth re-reading.

I’m a huge fan of Harry Potter and have lost count of how many times I’ve read that series. I loved the humanity and real life struggles he and the other characters had. Their world of magic made it a very fun story but having magic didn’t solve all their problems.

Last year, my son introduced me to Brandon Sanderson’s books and I fell in love with them. They have characters who struggle with very basic human psychological issues. Their access to magic doesn’t solve their real life problems, either.

The Stormlight Archives is the absolute best series I’ve ever read. My favorite character is Kaladin who struggles with life long depression.

[fauxartist]

I do, and always have loved Sci-Fi in every aspect. I love Larry Niven, Arthur C. Clark, Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Alan Dean Foster, etc.

[Mumbutterfly in reply to fauxartist]

Thanks for the list Would you tell me a little about one or more of them and/or why you like them?

[fauxartist in reply to Mumbutterfly]

I like this crowd because like those before them like H.G. Wells... they were based on the science of the future... based of ideas many of which came to fruition in this day and age.

Philip K. Dick wrote the book:'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'...which was used to base the script for 'Blade Runner'... my all-time favorite AI book and film, he also wrote: 'The Minority Report'. Arthur C. Clark of course '2001 a Space Odyssey'...etc. Asimov wrote: 'Foundation', etc. Larry Niven wrote; 'Ringworld'. Alan Dean Foster wrote: 'Alien'.

[Mumbutterfly in reply to fauxartist]

Thank you for taking the time to do this. I appreciate it

[fauxartist in reply to Mumbutterfly]

I'm glad to meet a fellow Sci-fi friend , it's so fun to travel where no one has gone before yet in books, and it's a glimpse of things to come.

[Mumbutterfly in reply to fauxartist]

I get to talk with my adult sons about books but that’s it in my physical world. It’s great to see there are people on here who enjoy it. I’m looking forward to talking with people about and getting/giving support through struggles that we have. I like that we can talk about whatever is on our minds on here, the good, the bad, and the ugly.I looked up those authors and the only one I’ve read is Alan Dean and that was his StarWars book‘Splinter of the Mind’s Eye’. I found a time line/ list of books by different authors who have written stories that take place before, during, or after the original movies. It’s very outdated now that the third trilogy has come out. I started reading through it 8years ago and am still working on it in between other books. I’ve gotten hooked on audiobooks since I can listen to them while I’m driving or doing other things and not many of those have been put in audio form. It keeps my mind from spinning through a million things or getting stuck on a downward spiral.

[fauxartist in reply to Mumbutterfly]

I love the audio books when I'm painting... your head just goes off into another world, pardon the pun....

[Blueruth]

I bet you would like the Sara lyons flemmings series called all the stars in the sky. I’m into podcasts but not really fiction podcasts. Currently I am reading clean air by Sarah Blake which is a climate change sci fi. In that world plants have taken over the planet since we did such a good job of polluting. the air is poison with pollen. But everything is green!

[Mumbutterfly in reply to Blueruth]

Thanks for your input

[RupertBrown]

Ok so my reply is eerily similar to fauxartist's lol. Pretty much the same list as far as scifi goes! For fantasy, I also gravitate towards the classics. Tolkien is probably my favorite. Also the Dragonlance series is great. I cannot over-recommend Fritz Leiber's Fafrhd and the Grey Mouser books though. He has a gift for language that is almost unparalleled, but more reader-friendly than Tolkien. He started writing these short stories in the 1930's and, at times, it does show. Particularly with regards to how his female characters are presented. In spite of that they are some of the best fantasy stories ever written. They can be tricky to find but more than worth it. Any fan of the genre owes it to themselves to track these down!

[fauxartist in reply to RupertBrown]

Great minds think alike my friend, funny... I didn't read and rarely do really others comments, I usually just comment to the person's post unless I know the person commenting. I'll have to read yours Rupert.

How's the painting going... I started sketching out the next adventure because I usually start a new painting before I finish the previous one, or ones. It keeps the flow going.

[RupertBrown in reply to fauxartist]

Hey, I didn't know you were a scifi buff! I actually just finished Niven's Ringworld a few weeks ago. Absolutely loved the concept of the Pupeteer race! The painting is going well. I redid the pc I posted earlier and am more pleased with it. Did a companion pc that came out okay, but not as good. I've started doing deciduous tree studies, focusing on my color mixing, (an area in which I'm wildly inconsistent!). I'm hoping to get a few hours in on Sunday. What is your next pc?

[fauxartist in reply to RupertBrown]

Awesome Autumn colors in the leaves...

I am actually working on two projects... one is the 4th in the series of "Greek Icon" paintings I'm doing for a friend, and I am also going to be taking a long time on a collage, mixed media project using Mulberry paper, alcohol inks, and the Pro. Windsor Newton acrylics which are very rich in color...along with some various clear mediums to add more depth.... It's going to be another of the Peruvian Symbolic paintings I love to do because of the variety of color and the fact that this series is very quasi cubist.

[RupertBrown in reply to fauxartist]

Spunds very nice. I don't have any good acrylics, I was using them just to paint rocks so I bought the cheapest student grade ones I could lol. I work at an art store so I have to be careful. It is all too easy to lose control and buy half the store. I have so many supplies I've bought and never used!

[fauxartist in reply to RupertBrown]

It's pretty amazing really... I never in my life thought I'd paint with acrylics because they look so plastic and 2 dimensional...fakish... but these high quality ones are expensive, but go a long way and are surprisingly rich in color. I can also as I was saying, get that depths using clear mediums mixed with color, that you get with oils. I only ever painting with oils until now.

Yes... I think some of the Ringworld series would not be too translatable in film today, even with the advanced CGI...so as far as the books go... they are just a cool read. Another really great series co-written by Paul Preuss and A.C. Clark is called: 'Venus Prime'...it's a 6 book series that is really good.

[RupertBrown in reply to fauxartist]

I will have to look into that, I'm an Arthur C. Clark fan as well, (Childhood's End is my favorite).

[fauxartist in reply to RupertBrown]

It's online as a digital release now.

[Midori]

Try Terry Pratchett, his Discworld books are laugh out loud fun! Fantasy rather than Sci-fi, but they deal with real world issues, from an alternative slant. Lots of puns and silliness as well. How can it be otherwise with a flat planet carried on the backs of four elephants who ride on the back of a gigantic turtle swimming through space?

I love sci fi too, but mainly the older ones rather than the new ones.

Cheers, Midori

[Tea-minus99 in reply to Midori]

I adore Terry Pratchett - especially the books about Death (the character for those unfamiliar haha). So funny!!

[Mumbutterfly in reply to Midori]

Thank you I love authors with a good sense of humor which is one reason I love the Stormlight Archives and other things by Brandon Sanderson. It helps to read things that make us smile or even lol, when life can be so hard sometimes. I’ll look him up in the e library.

[RupertBrown in reply to Midori]

Love Pratchett, though I only read the first few books. I have on DVD a movie called the Hogfather, based on his books, I believe. It's fantastic, my wife and I try to watch it every year for xmas, but it's kind of long and we don't always have the time.

[Midori in reply to RupertBrown]

Hogfather is great both as book or DVD!

[designguy]

I love sci-fi, one of my favorite movies is the first Alien movie, i remember seeing it in the theater and it scared the crap out of me and the crowd. Right now i'm enjoying watching the old classic sci-fi movies from the 50's and 60's on youtube and also tubi.tv. I love the optimism and naivete of some of them and even their special effects. When I freeze the image of some of them I can actually see the wires holding the space ship models - LOL. A number of the movies were based on the unknown effects of nuclear radiation at the time, especially the Japanese ones since it was only a few years after the tragedies of WW2. It's definitely nostalgic for me.

[Blueruth in reply to designguy]

I saw alien in school when it got to vhs. That was weird. It still scares me 😱

[Mumbutterfly in reply to Blueruth]

It came out after my kids were born and I didn’t have the time or opportunity to see them. My daughter in law is very into them and has some very creepy statues in her Alien Den. I’ve decided I can get by just fine without ever having seen the movies. I like intense but not creepy super scary, lol. Stuff like that gets in my head and of course ends up being one of the things my terrible memory doesn’t erase.

[Blueruth in reply to Mumbutterfly]

Last blood bath horror movie I saw was called hostel and I must have been in a weird place. I have no interest in another. But I do like well done movies. I like characters. Alien the character was interesting as was ripley. The build up was excellent. Especially the scene where she is trying to leave and get the cat. Either you are rooting for saving the cat or you are like “leave the dang cat!” I was the former.

[designguy in reply to Blueruth]

I think the Alien movies went down hill after the first one starting with the one directed by James Cameron, it was pretty stupid and started the gratuitous violence trend and the later "alien" movies are a total unwatchable joke to me.

[Blueruth in reply to designguy]

for sure. I did watch the alien predator series but I don't even remember the plots. The first one holds up well.

[Mumbutterfly in reply to designguy]

My reply to your post is down below. I didn’t put it in the right box. I’m technologically challenged, lol.

[Blueruth in reply to Mumbutterfly]

As someone who has studied user experience I can confidently say it isn’t you. But you did get it right.

[Tea-minus99]

I love sci-fi! I’ve read quite a bit but my favorite is Iain M Banks Culture series. It’s all very futuristic stuff, post scarcity- post everything society. Each book follows a series of characters based in different points in time in the same universe. I find it very human, so hopeful, tragic and beautiful all at the same time. Plus one of the books has my favorite quote of all time: “All you ever were was a little bit of the universe, thinking to itself.” I also love Glasshouse by Charles Stross. Similar futuristic vibe exploring what defines humanity etc etc. Really cool. Hope you find lots of good reading!

[Mumbutterfly in reply to Tea-minus99]

Thank you for the recommendations I really like that quote. Things like that are in the Stormlight Archives. There’s also a lot about the things we struggle with in life along our human journey. My favorite quote about that is, ‘The most important step a man can take is the next one. The first step in a new journey is important but the most important thing is always taking the next step.’

[Tea-minus99 in reply to Mumbutterfly]

I love that! I’ll have to check out that series.

[Mumbutterfly]

Thank you for sharing My daughter in law is very into Alien and collects all kinds of stuff from the series. She has statues from about three feet to very small, a spacesuit and boots like the heroine wore and everything in between. They have an entire room full of those and call it the Alien Den, lol. My son likes stuff like that too and also many of the older things you talked about. He would check out books from the school library when he was in his younger elementary years about anything like those things and from that era. There were things in my life during childhood that kept me from enjoying anything too scary. Godzilla didn’t bother me but King Kong left me afraid to look out my window at night for the rest of my younger years, lol.

I think that’s why I like stories about other worlds, especially Brandon Sanderson’s. It’s completely sci-fi but with real people dealing with real life issues. His understanding of human nature is very encouraging with ‘magical’ systems thrown in to make the stories interesting. He also throws in a lot of comic relief that makes me smile and even lol and that’s important when life is hard.

[designguy]

A number of years ago I saw a Hollywood special effects show at a museum in Seattle. They had one of the life-size alien creatures in it along with items from Blade Runner and other movies, it was really interesting.

I think the Alien movies started going downhill after the first one and the later ones are just a lame excuse for gratuitous violence but the first one was like Hitchcock does sci-fi and had some plausibility and new concepts at the time. I thought Ridley Scott the director was a genius but I found out later that the the actual reason it was so good is that it was made on a very limited budget at the time so they had to imply so much because they didn't have the budget to show and do everything they wanted and he definitely isn't a genius as evidence of his later movies proves.