Much appreciated.
Bookmarked again, higher in the stack in a folder titled "NEXT UP" with only ~200 entries
Worm is written in an incredibly gripping style (as befits a serialized work) and my first frantic read through I definitely missed many subtleties and examples of brilliant writing. I'd always wanted to reread it, but wasn't up for committing to the 1.5 million words a second time. The story is so gripping though, that I ended up binging the podcast because even their recaps were so compelling I couldn't stop.
If you want to have a vicarious book club, and really examine a work in depth, check it out. (They also have an ongoing podcast discussing Stephen King's The Dark Tower series with a similar level of analysis and detail. An excellent way of examining good writing.)
It's much more involving, much harder to write, and much less common in genre fiction. But when it's done well it's a whole other level of writing.
- the Ender's Game Series
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (a fan fiction by Eliezer Yudkowsky)
Anyone else have recommendations?
Without disagreeing - "simplistic" has a couple of facets and some are bad while others can be good.
Inspector Javert of Les Mis was not a simple character, but it is difficult to draw out why not. He is certainly very memorable, but also made up of simple perspectives and motivations.
In basically all of the James Bond movies, the villains want revenge and/or world domination.
In contrast, in Worm [1] you spend some time with the antagonists (and a lot of side characters), and get a much better appreciation of their feelings and motivations. Sometimes you even feel sympathy for very messed-up characters to the degree that it creeps you out. (Fun fact: there's even a chapter from the perspective of a dog. Brilliant! :D)
[1] https://parahumans.wordpress.com/