/lit/ - Literature

>>22950805
>Beloved, Pride and Prejudice, Lispector, LeGuin
It's shit
>>22950814
Fuck you tranny

I don't have a favorite book, but if I was forced to choose one, I would agree that it's Androids. PKD is my favorite writer of all time.
Check out the rest of PKD's catalog. I recommend his short story collections, as well as the novels The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch and Ubik.
Other favorite "weird fiction" authors include H.P. Lovecraft, Harlan Ellison, and Kurt Vonnegut.
"The Lathe Of Heaven" by Ursula K. LeGuin was the most PKD book I've ever read that wasn't actually written by PKD.
Finally, "The Laundry Files" by Charles Stross is my new favorite series. The premise is that technology can now perform the sort of interdimensional transport that used to be the purview of deranged cultists making blood sacrifices under full moons, so now there are government agencies tasked with keeping reality from coming apart.
My effortpost is done. Hope you found it useful.

Luckily Storygraph did all the work for me. It was going to be a nightmare putting my 2023 reads into a chart on my own.

Top reads:
>The Wounded Land by Stephen R. Donaldson
>The Fifth Head of Cerberus, Return to the Whorl, and The Knight by Gene Wolfe
>The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
>Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover
>'Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis
>The Green Mile by Stephen King

Weirdly I dnf'd White Gold Wielder even though book 1 was the best book I read last year. Couldn't pinpoint exactly why.

>>22888914
they just hate earthsea because the mc has olive skin, if he was white bakkerfag would be posting "first for LeGuin"

>>22844035
>Charlotte bronte
>Jean Rhys
>Ursula LeGuin

Wrong again roastie

>>22773959
Earth Sea by LeGuin. Chicks dig it.

>>22774108
You used to be able to use them as a decent rec list, but after the sad puppies thing they went hard on the woke stuff out of spite and now it's mostly just all bad. Whole AAA publishing industry really. I've just completely stopped even looking at books written by women who got picked up after 2010, the miss rate is like 95%. It sucks, we used to get writers like Leguin and Bujold, and now we just get Jemisin and Maas

>>22699303
Only LeGuin I've read were two short stories. One about an alien insect species that lives a parasitic relationship to humans, which is a super subtle metaphor for colonialism. "What if colonizers were like giant evil spiders that hatch their eggs into the colonized.. Woah"
The other "The Ones Who Stay in Fight" is a faggoty response to the story "The Ones Who Walk Away". And it's basic message is it's okay for the group/collective to kill an individual if he disagrees with the group.
Every single story I've read by her is super heavy handedly political, and not in any interesting way. Shite author

>>22667824
In terms of defining ages I'd give a short answer of Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein for the midcentury card, Harlan Ellison especially as a GRRM analogue for his work in anthologies ringing in the new wave, and LeGuin for providing the cancerous seed which chokes us all to this day.

The only thing wrong with Sanderson is his writing is all plot and no meaning. Some people want that.

>>22657006
You're missing out. Specifically about LeGuin. She picked up where Arthur C Clarke left off.

>>22644828
Steven Erikson
Stephen R Donaldson
Mervyn Peak
Jany Wurtz
Ursula LeGuin
Jack Vance
Robert E Howard
Fritz Lieber
HP Lovecraft
Mary Shelley
Robin Hobb
Matthew Stover
Greg Keyes/J Gregory Keyes

>>22631348
PKD and Leguin are quite popular among literary circles

>>22538812
It is like that. Fantasy works today are too much inspired by the fantasy genre itself and D&D now, and come from people who have little experience in life except the enjoyment of escapism. Authors churn out meaningless secondary worlds that use the fantastical elements as a crutch because they lack substance and depth. Meanwhile, the authors believe that world building techniques and gimmicks are a defining marker of a successful fantasy author. The most enduringly successful and influential fantasy - classic and modern - is almost always conspicuously inspired by other domains. You see in Tolkien, Martin and LeGuin a familiarity with stuff like mythology, history, philosophy, anthropology. Their experience in life or in their profession also shines through. When someone with no interest in the world or experience in life tries to write about another world, it is practically inevitable that it will be shallow and cringe.

I hope 22540827 makes it to next edition's pasta. Zelazny wrote a book with Dick which is a bigger claim to anything than what that radfem LeGuin thinks of someone.

>>22540827
They are a classic. LeGuin liked Zelazny, I think.

>The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K LeGuin
>Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover
>The Green Mile by Stephen King
I rated all of them 5/5 stars.

>>22527105
Hmm, maybe Always Coming Home by Leguin and The Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter. one is post-post-apocalyptic with people living like Native Americans in regrown California woods and the other one is post-cyberpunk and features some incredibly futuristic tech. The main character is a reporter that "broadcasts" all their senses to people streaming the sense into their brains at home. it's a political thriller in a crazy and relatively accurate/possible

No...no one will ever top our Lord and Savior Philip K. Dick.
Though "The Lathe Of Heaven" by Ursula K. LeGuin was nearly as weird, as was "The Ritual Of Infinity" by Michael Moorcock.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin is a nice read.

>>22435545
If you want LeGuin taking a slightly more cynical look at the left in the vein of what an eternal revolution would actually look at, go for Dispossessed. If you want a refreshing dip into thrilling tales, go Conan.

The Left Hand of Darkness was both a genesis and a damnation of modern science fiction. It's one of the kickstarters of modern reflection on social mores and realities via a fantastical premise, but it also shows how possible it is to have a feminist work with actual characterization and plot. Say what you will about the intentions and ideologies, Estraven and Ai are well written, interesting characters and we see how the concepts at play mold both those within the strange society and without.

There's not that many that rise to the level of PKD.
"The Lathe Of Heaven" by Ursula K. LeGuin and "The Rituals Of Infinity" by Michael Moorcock were at least in the ballpark.

>>22408626
Don't think I've seen anything against LeGuin, which is odd since she was a woman and quite left leaning

>>22407296
I don't like LeGuin's fantasy. Her SF is much better.

>>22405888
SF/FA authors I shelved this year because they are bad or boring:

Avram Davidson - Infuriating style, difficult to parse, constipated. Uses archaic/uncommon words to poor effect, they just clog up his narrative.

Karl Edward Wagner - Bought his rare and out-of-print (but reportedly much-loved) Kane series. It sucks. Reads like wish fulfillment. Main hero is 'morally grey' in the make of Moorecock, but Wagner can't really write. Why would I root for some 'antihero' thief and thug? You aint Fritz Leiber.

Ursula K Leguin - Tried Earthsea but got frustrated that the stakes seem so low (because its YA fiction). I need more danger, sex, and trauma. I'll probably still read this one in full some day. She is a much more capable writer than the other two above.