Books

I have never actually seen anyone ever mention Lucky Wander Boy. Great book. Weird, but great.

The first one that came to mind is Lord Gamma, a German SF/F novel published in 2000. I read it when it came out and still think about it sometimes. It currently stands at 22 ratings and 3 reviews in Goodreads.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4772194-lord-gamma

probably some random person's book of poetry

I read a lot of old scifi anthologies, a lot barely have a handful of reviews. Example, my last one. It’s edited by Asimov, and at the time he was one of the leading authors. So they’re popular, just old so not anymore?

I enjoy the pacing, I can usually end a story in my reading window as I would say on average they are around 40 pages. So a 30 minute commitment. But some do go up to over a hundred pages, some are even just a hundred words.

I'll go with The Magician's Tale by the author whose nom de plume is David Hunt. It has 20 reviews on storygraph. Kay Farrow is a colorblind art photographer working on a 'streets of San Francisco' series when one of her subjects misses an appointment due to being dead and dismembered -- in a manner reminiscent of the serial killer her cop dad caught years earlier, shortly before he took early retirement from the force. Dad doesn't want to talk about that, so Kay investigates other leads, talks to other prostitutes, a helpful homeless guy, the titular Magician, the victim's mysterious sister, and works out his background and why he got murdered.

I'm sure I've read more obscure stuff, but this is one I'd recommend. Not to everyone since the subject matter is quite dark and sexual, but I thought it was well written.

I enjoyed Blackthorn Winter by Douglas Wilson. It's a pirate story, but it has political undertones and takes an interesting stance on piracy itself as a concept. It has plenty of adventure and action, but also presents some things to think about. I won't spoil anything more, and it's pretty obscure too. It's written for kids but I enjoyed reading it both when I was a kid and re-reading a couple months ago.