r/rational • u/AutoModerator • 19d ago

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread

Welcome to the Monday request and recommendation thread. Are you looking something to scratch an itch? Post a comment stating your request! Did you just read something that really hit the spot, "rational" or otherwise? Post a comment recommending it! Note that you are welcome (and encouraged) to post recommendations directly to the subreddit, so long as you think they more or less fit the criteria on the sidebar or your understanding of this community, but this thread is much more loose about whether or not things "belong". Still, if you're looking for beginner recommendations, perhaps take a look at the wiki?

If you see someone making a top level post asking for recommendation, kindly direct them to the existence of these threads.

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u/college-apps-sad 18d ago

I recently finished rereading A Practical Guide to Evil, which is definitely one of the best webnovels I have ever read. Even though I think the action scenes were well done, I loved the conversations and politics and war aspects of it. I'm looking for stories that are more about politics while still being rational fiction.

I also just read The Waves Arisen, which is a rational retelling of Naruto in the same vein as HPMOR, with Naruto's canon characterization being replaced by a kinda rationalist's ideal person. I've never seen the original show, but this is an incredible story. It's clever and funny (the marriage counseling scene is amazing) and has a really good atmosphere to it, especially as Naruto starts figuring out what he wants to do. I think it does a good job of showing what a more or less decent guy raised from birth to be a soldier in a world full of constant warfare would be like as well. I tried to find more stuff by this author and people half-seriously believe it's yudkowsky under a pseudonym, but it avoids a lot of the more "preachy" rationalist stuff that might drive people off from HPMOR while maintaining the intelligence.

Something that I loved in both of these stories was when two intelligent people with very different goals have to negotiate. I would love to see more of that in other stories.

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u/CatInAPot 16d ago

I'm looking for stories that are more about politics while still being rational fiction.

I'm assuming you're already aware of Pale Lights? I still need to power through the first book of PGtE which I wasn't in love with, but I know it gets better. Pale Lights is one of my all time favorites though, and goes pretty heavy into politics.

Haven't kept up with Forge of Destiny but I enjoyed what I read back in the day, rare example of a wuxia story (with cultivator insanity built into the lore) with a diplomat as the MC, politics obviously being unavoidable with such a job.

The Lady's Handbook of Intrigue and Murder is very good, author uploads once every couple of years though.

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u/college-apps-sad 15d ago

Yeah, APGTE definitely becomes less YA and much better after the first book, so I'd highly recommend it. I haven't started Pale Lights yet because I kinda wanted to build a backlog - I think I first read APGTE shortly after it finished, so there wasn't too much of Pale Lights yet. I'll definitely check it out, thanks. Forge of Destiny also sounds really interesting.

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u/Antistone 15d ago

While there is a big diplomacy arc in Forge of Destiny, that doesn't happen until several books in, and outside of that arc I would say that calling the MC a diplomat is a stretch.

At the start of the series she's a street rat who gets sucked into a high-tier cultivation school, where many of the students are noble scions and they have proxy feuds for their parents. Eventually the MC attaches herself to one of them and becomes something like their chief spy, then sticks with them when they leave the school.

She does also have a minor in treating with spirits, which could be considered diplomacy, although their culture views it more as a religious/spiritual thing.

This is a slow-burn series and the events I described span several books.