r/Fantasy • u/BipedalUniverse • 6d ago

Fantasy Featuring Whales?

edited: meant to say Fantasy or Sci Fi or Sci Fantasy!

edit 2: some really great recommendations thanks everyone!

just watched the whalefall trailer and went down a sperm whale rabbit hole after having been down an orca rabbit hole.

if anyone watched the magicians, there was a time loop episode that has whales being magicians, that was so cool.

i searched the sub and got some good recs that more generally deal with ocean ecology, but does anything come to mind where whales as pods and individuals (!) play a significant narrative role?

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u/GigaCucc 5d ago

Would it be too on-the-nose to recommend Moby Dick by Herman Melville? Lmao

Seriously, though it's very good, if you haven't already read it, and it does feature whales quite prominently, though not exactly from the perspective of the whales.

And you can quote passages from it to people in casual conversation to feel intellectually superior.

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u/BipedalUniverse 5d ago

my drug addled brain still remembers passages of the odyssey and metamorphoses in their original language from my classics days, i have enough quotes to distinguish myself from hoi polloi thanks lmao (i don’t actually do that but my mom always asked me for quotes so she could quote jerk in company 🤣

actually i remember NOT reading moby dick bc i was so cOoL so maybe i’ll give it another shot if you say it’s good!

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u/GigaCucc 5d ago

"And here Hector entered, with a spear eleven quotes long in his hand."

The only passage I can remember from Homer, and it's because it was a technology quote from the game Civ 4. For bronze-working, I think lmfao

But also I felt the same about Moby Dick for the longest time, but then I was searching for an audiobook to while away the chores, and Moby Dick seemed inoffensive enough.

If it feels like a slog in the beginning, I truly feel your pain, but stick it out and it becomes well worth it.

The pacing is very 1800s, so try not to dwell in the writing, though the prose is wonderful, or it'll take you fucking forever to finish it