/lit/ - Literature

>>873196

I do love the "thanks for the awesome cover art" bit in the Editors' intro.

It's not out in the UK yet but I hope if / when it gets published here they sure do get a new cover. It's so awful for what's a collection of stories by such a great bunch of fantasy authors.

So, fantasy fans, this collection - Swords & Dark Magic - anyone else picked it up?

Crappy pic related - despite shitty cover art and title, the contents looks pretty awesome. Got my copy today and will probably get round to reading it next week.

Looks great: new Elric, Black Company and Abercrombie shorts are what I'm most looking forward to. And you guys?

>>870031

Uh huh. Really narrowing it down there.

>>867315
>Any ideas?

Well, what are you interested in?

>>869830
>The Winter Market

Awesome short story.

Iain M. Banks is better.

Fucking naturalists suck.

>>867978

Oh, god, I didn't write this. I just have fun with it as a kid and thought it might be enjoyable to try out here. But if there are no takers I shall leave it. Did no one else enjoy these "follow your own path" fantasy books as a kid?

Jiggling the coins in your hand you think of the possible rewards which may await you just for returning a hammer to the village of dwarfs. You decide to try to find the hammer in Darkwood Forest; it has been weeks since you last good battle, and, what is more, you are likely to be well paid for this one. Whistling merrily you head off south at a good pace to meet this man, Yaztromo.

Your walk to Yaztromo's takes a little over half a day, and you arrive at his stone tower home dirty and hungry. A large brass bell and gong hang from the stone archway. As you ring the bell a shiver runs down your spine and your realise that the loud 'bong' invades a deep silence, which you had not noticed before.

A small wooden slot in the door slides open and two eyes appear to examine you. “Well, who are you?” demands a grumpy voice through the hole.

You answer that you are an adventurer in search of the master mage, Yaztromo, intending to purchase magical items from him to combat the creatures of Darkwood Forest.

“Oh! Well in that case you had better come up! I am Yaztromo.” He turns slowly and climbs the stone stairs.

Will you:

Follow him up the stairs?
Draw your sword and attack him?

You are an adventurer, a sword for hire, and have been roaming the northern borderlands of your kingdom. Having always spurned the dullness of village life you now wander the lands in search of wealth and danger. The world holds no fears for you as you are a skilful warrior, well practised in the art of slaying evil men and beasts with your trusty sword.

Whilst awaking at your camp one morning you hear the loud crack of a twig breaking under a clumsy foot. Then you hear a groan, followed by the dull thud of a body falling to the ground. You slowly advance over to the bush where the noise is coming from and carefully pull back the branches.

You look down to see a little old man with a great bushy beard, his face contorted with pain. The dwarf is delirious from poisoned tipped bolts lodged in his stomach. His eyes half close and the pain seems to ease a little and as the delirium subsides he speaks in a low whisper:

“Help us, friend... take the hammer to Gillibran... only the hammer will unite our people against the trolls... We were on our way to Darkwood in search of the hammer... ambushed by the little people... others killed... the map in my pouch will take you to the home of Yaztromo, the master mage of these parts... he has great magics for sale to protect you against the creatures of Darkwood... take my gold... I beg you to find the hammer and take it to Gillibran, my Lord of Stonebridge... you will be well rewarded...”

The dwarf opens his mouth to start another sentence but nothing comes out except his last dying breath. You reach over to the still body of the dwarf and remove the pouch from the leather belt around his waist. Inside you find 30 gold pieces.

Born in THE 1984, yo'

oldie and master race here

>>856899

Fucking Salmond! Fucking SNP! FFFFFF!!!!

(Londonfag here)

>>856134

I don't know about this. I used to be like that but eventually I reached a point where I came to the conclusion it wasn't worth slogging through a book I plainly wasn't enjoying, no matter how many award winning authors and esteemed publications praised it.

Don't give up after ten pages, but if you're half way through and it's still not enjoyable then I would say give it a rest.

From comments on article:

>reading War and Peace
>make sure you get a good translation
>I'm using the Constance Garnett version

mfw.jpg

>>853913

DRFP

I read it a few years ago and I enjoyed it quite a lot. It's a long work so some parts of it are more exciting than others. I think it's definitely worth a read if you're interested.

Yeah, I use LibraryThing and it's good. Allows you ISBN input, as you want, but not the virtual bookshelves (though I'm not sure anywhere lets you do that).

>>853138

Basically I thought it was boring, largely because Murakami doesn't write good lead characters that aren't essentially 30-something male slackers.

I applaud him for trying something different with KOTS, I just don't think he was successful, personally.

One of his that I hated.

I don't think we can do a single British list without it being massive, can we?

Surely it's better to maybe do separate 19th and then a 20th century fiction lists, then maybe a non-fiction / philosophy + history one?

What's anon's thoughts?

>>852490

Well, I was thinking about this and the likes of Turgenev, who tends to get overlooked in many circles because, no matter how well he wrote, his stories are pretty straight forward.

Dostoevsky gets a lot of love, especially here, but I think he's pretty bad if you consider him as a novelist. He should have just written treatises.

That's sort of why I wanted to get opinions on this.

The best writers are those who write beautiful prose and don't require academic explanation.

Agree, /lit/?

>>849456

Well just the religious books and stuff like SIASL which has its own religious connotations.

Not trying to make an exact science out of this!

>>849412

Late teen or early twenties guy who has faith but tries not to dwell on it.