Digging into Book Selections on Blaugust Day 4
Okay, so yesterday (on Blaugust Day 3), I asked AI to help me with my Blaugust/Summer/Fall reading and gave it a list of (if I counted correctly) 37 books and book series. Actually, one was an author, so I don’t think AI gave Brandon Sanderson much of a chance since I was asking about books and series. Today, on Blaugust Day 4, I will take a look at the results and see if I can set up my reading plans.
Results from yesterday: 4 AI, seven selections each, 28 votes
4 Dune
3 Project Hail Mary
3 Carrie
2 The Name of the Wind
2 Murderbot Diaries
2 The Three-Body Problem
2 Interview with the Vampire
2 The Wheel of Time
2 The Expanse
2 Lies of Locke Lamora
1 14
1 The Rook
1 The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
1 Dungeon Crawler Carl
14 recommendations.
So we effectively eliminated 23 possibilities, but did not get anything completely definitive. And I did not expect that the 4 AIs would make the same suggestions. But now that I have 14 choices, I think we can repeat the process and see what results we get, and if we end up with seven books to read. Actually, I’ll “cheat” a little and take out the titles that more than half the AIs agree on —Dune, Project Hail Mary, and Carrie.
So here’s my new prompt…BTW, after looking at things, I took horror out of the question since Carrie covers that
I have the following books and series to read and want to include a diverse mix of fantasy, scifi, long series, and standalone.
These are the titles:
The Name of the Wind
Murderbot Diaries
The Three-Body Problem
Interview with the Vampire
The Wheel of Time
The Expanse
Lies of Locke Lamora
14
The Rook
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Dungeon Crawler Carl
I’d like to read 4 of these with a good coverage of categories. Please pick four for me.
Here’s Claude.ai
The Name of the Wind – Epic fantasy standalone (though it’s technically book 1 of a trilogy, it works well on its own since the series isn’t complete)
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August – Science fiction standalone with a unique time loop premise
The Expanse – Long science fiction series (9 books) that’s space opera at its finest
The Wheel of Time – Epic fantasy series (14 books) – the granddaddy of long fantasy series
Here’s Perplexity
To achieve a diverse mix of fantasy, science fiction, long series, and standalone novels, these four picks from your list provide strong coverage across categories:
- The Name of the Wind — Fantasy, the acclaimed opener to a long-running series, with intricate world-building and a unique magic system.wikipedia+2
- The Three-Body Problem — Science fiction, an award-winning international bestseller and the start of an ambitious trilogy exploring first contact and physics.wikipedia
- The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August — Science fiction, standalone, featuring time travel and philosophical themes.
- Lies of Locke Lamora — Fantasy, standalone-friendly (first in a series but works well on its own), focusing on heists and found family dynamics in a Venetian-inspired city.wikipedia
ChatGPT gives us
✅ 1. The Lies of Locke Lamora – Fantasy / Heist / Gritty Fun
✅ 2. The Three-Body Problem – Sci-Fi / Hard Science / Existential
✅ 3. Interview with the Vampire – Gothic / Horror / Classic
✅ 4. Dungeon Crawler Carl – LitRPG / Satirical Sci-Fi-Fantasy / Action
Here’s Grok
To give you a diverse mix of fantasy, sci-fi, long series, and standalone novels, I’ve analyzed your list and selected four titles that balance these categories while offering variety in tone, style, and scope. Here’s the selection:
- The Name of the Wind (Fantasy, Long Series)
- The Three-Body Problem (Sci-Fi, Long Series)
- The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (Sci-Fi, Standalone)
- Lies of Locke Lamora (Fantasy, Standalone/Series)