I read Martin McInnes’s In Ascension recently. What I loved about it is that it felt both intimate and sweeping. Intimate in the sense of going deep into the protagonist’s thoughts and feelings; sweeping in the nature of the things she thinks and does. Discovering and investigating things beyond all human knowledge, monologuing about the cyclic nature of life… The former keeps it grounded, the latter makes it exciting.
Another book that made me feel a similar way is Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation, although it’s a very different kind of awe. Being a horror book and all.
What are other books that can make me feel that way again?
Kingkiller chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss. Its a trilogy that only has 2 books, so beware. The way he writes about music, Kvothes time in Tarbean and earlier in the forrest is extremely intimate.
Rothfus took a lot of ideas from Wheel of Time for book two. So, if you want more of the Adem, you can get your fill with the Aiel in WoT. But it’s a colossal 14 book series that tends to wander at times. I still loved it though, despite Jordan’s tendency to describe the stitching on a woman’s dress for 5 pages. It is probably the most epic series I’ve ever read.
Moreso the “in universe” novella “The Slow Regard of Silent Things”