/lit/ - Literature

first for sanderfag a hack

Is Tychon expanded on more in Urth of the New Sun? I'm still not sure whether or not that whole section of BotNS really happened or if it was something Sev was making up after the fact.

Damn, Doors of Stone is gonna be so good. I can't wait. But I fear it's gonna come out in like 2021.

>>10497425
>not born early enough to explore the earth
>not born late enough to explore Doors of Stone
Feels good man.

So wtf happened in echopraxia?

Why was he even there in the first place?
Why did he kill the vampire?
Did she make him do it?
What was her goal?
Did the bicamerals predict/want the outcome?

>>10495737
I don't get it. Please explain?

>>10497099
Hard to find on the internet. Harder to know if it's worth it and not just trash, at least we can tell in a glance if it's written in english.

>>10497425
The title is actually a metaphor for the doors of your crypt. It'll only be published in the afterlife.

I'm almost done with a high-fantasy manuscript. Should I self-publish or try to get it published traditionally? I've heard the latter is kind of soul-crushing.

Ok, here goes nothing.

E-book: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1059
Audio: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8968

I picked this story based on its length (140 pages), because it's easy to get for free and because how bad can it possibly be? Next time around we'll go full democracy and most likely read some cat girl porn.

The deadline is based on the amount of pages, I feel like 50 pages/week is a reasonable amount that won't really intrude on whatever you people do on an average day.

>>10497680
Who know? Lots of people seem successful starting things off as a webnovel and then after building enough attention self publishing or attracting a publisher. I imagine it's a lot easier getting published if you already have a fanbase.
Your best option is to find some way of doing both. Trying to get something published won't be so arduous if you've already got your own thing going on.

>>10497680
What do you realistically have to lose by submitting it to agents? Free time?

>>10497817
>cat girl porn.
*ears twitch* muurrh?

>>10497941
one or more of them might think it's so bad that they track me down by my return address and come laugh at me in real life.

>>10497898
Self-publish/web-publishing the first novel and then seeking a publisher for the next ones is a common path.
Self-publishing and then trying to get a publisher for the same novel is a no-go, since publishers typically don't want to spend money on marketing a book a bunch of people have already bought.

Webnovels are novels too

/sffg/ think this villain concept can be done without it coming off as preachy?

>guy is a tobacco dealer in pressed suit whose face is obscured by the smoke of a strange indian pipe
>offers a weeks supply free to struggling smoke shop owners as a sign of goodwill
>customers report a feeling of profound insight and inspiration that dissipates at the edge of epiphany
>When they see their profits, the vendors pony up to prices that seem far more than fair
>As he leaves, they're too busy to notice the money turning to ashes in his hands
>Only once the shop keeps and customers become dependent does the smoke man make his demands, acts even hardened criminals wouldn't dare commit
>distrubing rights, human sacrifice, and ritual cannibalism in the name of a god far more ancient than he is
>those who try to kill him end up as human-shaped smudges of ash on the wall
>and then those smudges start walking

>>10498125
scp tier story.
go write an entry about smoke guy.

>>10498097
And you get your chance to kneecap them and thus create a sensationalist media coverage about yourself and your novel that finds you a publisher.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

>>10498374

>>10498374
I think this is the more important question

>>10498374

>>10497817
I support this idea and will read it.

Nael, age 6, plagiarized Steven Erikson's "Memories of Ice" to write his popular poem "The Tiger"
Naek, age 6, is confirmed fellow.genrefag

>>10497425
>Doors of Stone
>get released
You must give up all hope friend
Youll be happier for it

I'm having a breakdown, why does everything have to start so fucking boring?
>The Thousand Names

Our regimen sucks our odds suck everything is a mess I'm being bullied oh look a square and giant shotgun

>Malazan

Gruntled - amused - grantled - amused - gruntled.

You grill know or names, and our names are Names woooah.

>divinity:original sin 2 (because it's the same shit)

You can't cast magic even though you can now work on that escape plan for the next 12 hours

At least with Malazan i'm only at the beginning, with Shadow Campaigns I'm still waiting for that magic moment of getting bought in seven hours in.

Guy Gavriel Kay
Where should i start?

>>10497817
>that cover
Isn't that a Frankenstein cover?

>>10497817
sweet. ill be reading it.

>>10499162
>look it up
>it actually is
To be precise one of them is flipped.

>pretend to be a retarded man so the andy will let you into the apartment where you plan on killing his wife and then him
ice cold deckard
that's the way it is in this bitch of a world

>>10497475
I finished Echopraxia last night and man, it had decent bits but it wasn't as good as Blindsight by any means. Like you asked, there were a lot of unanswered questions and it felt like whenever questions were about to be answered or there were interesting interactions (Bruks and Valerie talking by the campfire, Bruks talking to his wife in Heaven, etc.), it was disrupted for PLOT reasons.
Not a big fan.

I've got a question for you guys. What do you like to see in your protagonists? Or what would you like more of?
As far as YA goes, I wish kids were punished more for their choices. I think most of us can look back at some terrible decisions that made us feel horrible and people that used us and deceived us, but YA does a very bad job of passing on stuff like that to a new generation.
When it concerns most books, I wish more of them had characters that had people that were outcasts for good reason, not "omg because his people are mean : (" Drizzt tier stories. I think Martin did a good job with Tyrion in that way, because he's an actual little shit, and the same could be said for Glokta from Blade Itself since he's basically a Punished Chad. But there's so little of that. Never mind actual monsters as characters that have to live within their own world, like a story from Gollum's perspective or a WoD nossie.
Lastly, it'd be nice to have some readable female protagonists. It's incredible how shit most of them are, regardless of whether it's women or men writing them. 90% of the time it's into-the-trash tier.

>>10498994
tigana

To the a on that wanted a book about fuckinb an AI : Otherlife Awakenings

Has anyone read The Order of the Sanguines series? Any good?

>>10500195
Okay.

>>10499749
> I think Martin did a good job with Tyrion in that way
he's an outcast because he's a dwarf, only his father has a real reason to dislike him
>90% of the time it's into-the-trash tier.
name 5 good female characters

>>10500457
>he's an outcast because he's a dwarf
Wrong.
>only his father has a real reason to dislike him
Wrong again.
>name 5 good female characters
I can't but I'm going to allow the possibility that they do exist. I guess Cersei and Brienne in ASoIaF are alright.

>>10497475
Well, in my opinion...
Bruks was half scared half washed up so he was hiding in the desert. To what degree the Bicamerals manipulated this is up to you.
I think that by the time "he" killed the vampire,
Portia was essentially controlling him. Or he's paranoid baseline
Perhaps, the sentiment from Valerie (why can't we get along) is likely to spoken to Portia within Bruks head, and it's exactly the kind of mindless chatter which Rorschach/Portia hate so perhaps thats when it decided to kill her.
Her goal was to interpret Portia. Who knows if she did or not.
The bicamerals did, and we willing to sacrifice themselves.
There are some bigger questions on Echo out there that even I don't have an answer for.

>>10499668
>>10497475
I'm sad you guys didn't like it. All I can recommend it letting it settle for a bit then re-read it. Echopraxia is easily the more difficult of the Firefall duet, but my god it's got a lot more going on, and I personally think it's a lot more thematically interesting and ultimately the better book.

>>10497817
Can I nominate Lord of Light for another one of these? The downside might be that people have already read it, but it's pretty short and really good. It's pretty easily readable online, though I don't think there's an audiobook.

I'm writing here because I think this is most appropriate. I remember a photo from here, that compared epic fantasies, there was lotr I think and asoiaf, and how theyre all straightforward, and then another book series that had a great number of books and all of them went in a very convoluted order. Do you happen to know which book series I'm talking about?

>>10497339
lol no.

You do learn more in Long and Short Sun, though.

>>10500526
I don't know the specific chart you're talking about but I'm almost certain the convoluted series is Malazan.

>>10500503
>Can I nominate Lord of Light for another one of these?
300 pages is longer than I envisioned but after this first round I'm not going to play dictator any more so if more people want to read it I don't see why not.

>>10500563
It is! This is the photo I was talking about, thank you

>>10500580
Dictators get things done.

What exactly were Heinlein's political beliefs? I've read Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and I'm impressed by how radically different the philosophies he preaches in each one are.

>>10500713
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

>>10500713
That The Government (nor anyone else) shall not meddle if you want to fuck your friend/cousin/sister/mother/whomever. That's probably the most important part.

I need 2 book reccomendations.
1 that is similar to legend of galatic heroes.
1 that is pure geopolitical autism, doesnt matter the setting.

>>10499162
>>10499336
Well the picture is a famous one of Byron, so technically you're all fags

>>10498994
Lions of Tigana if you wish to see what makes him so great.
Fionavar Tapestry if you want more of the traditional fantasy elements.

>>10500868
The Traitor Baru Cormorant -- geopolitics and economics in a fantasy world. I'm reading this at the moment and it's quite clever

new video is up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dI1HjBa9Os

as far as you tube chanels about books and writing goes his videos are good

>>10500885
It's a great image desu, so I'm fine with being a fag.

>>10500987
I find he injects his own personal beliefs into his videos too much.

Dont you fuckers ever forget who's the king round these parts

>>10501027
>friend starting reading Hyperion
>says he's loving it
>randomly stops reading it after Kassad's tale
>no updates since
how the fuck do people actually watch Netflix over reading? It's pathetic

Just realized how much I hate ASOIF today and binned my copy of the book. Was thinking of reading Malazan instead. Should I or is it too similar?

>>10501022
I agree, it has a great sense of both adventurism and silent contemplation. If that combination piques your interest I'd recommend reading about Byron's life.

>>10501043
Which book? We will probably never get TWoW anyway.

Try The Wheel of Time.

>>10501053
A storm of swords. It's not really this book specifically that's the problem as much as it is the series overall not appealing to me. Grrm only kept me reading for 3000 pages because he's a master of blueballing. That southpark episode with the whole "the pizza will be here soon" bit was 100% accurate of his writting.

>>10501075
Yeah, that is the problem with GRRM. Stick to the TV series of GoT, at least that will have a proper ending and we will get to see it.

There is one more book after TWoW, A Dream of Spring. He doesn't have enough life left in him to finish that book so unless you have already read all of the current books it isn't worth doing so.

>>10501043
Why do you hate it? It might be that you hate epic fantasy, and if that is the case reading Malazan (or WoT) is the last thing you should do.

>>10501088
>There is one more book after
At least. I'm doubtful he won't end up writing at least one more book after aDoS.

>>10501154
I just checked on goodreads and there is one more book after aDoS. According to Goodreads TWoW is 2020, aDoS 2021 and the untitled book 2022. So we are still 2 years away from TWoW and there are bound to be even more delays between the last two books. And this is assuming he isn't dead by then.

>>10501168
>and the untitled book 2022
I don't think GRRM himself has confirmed there'll be a 8th book, however. I think he's still aiming for the 7th to be the last one. I think he'll fail ending it by then, and it seems like I'm not alone in that.

>>10501168
>>10501204
i mean, sanderson has probably already started writing the drafts for the end of asoiaf right?

>>10501047
Why do you elitist asshole fags always come in here and try to subvert/convert sffg users to your shit books? We don't want fucking poems. Fuck off.

>>10501233
you soyboys were told already that gurm has a will. when he dead, no one finishes his book.

>>10501260
>soyboys
Stop trying to fit in by posting shitty forced memes.

>>10501245
>We don't want fucking poems. Fuck off.
On the contrary, I appreciated anons post and have already been thinking about getting more into Byron. It's absolutely possible to like both SFF and elitistic pseud shit.

>>10501305
You need to leave.

>>10501309
Que sera sera mein friendo.

>>10501309
Nah.

Anyone else read Count to Infinity yet? Way better than the last two. My favorite part was when he picks up a galaxy as a shield and a supermassive black hole as a spear and Sora Iro Days starts playing.

Now that the dust has settled.

How good was it?

>>10501506
Not good at all. His worst entry to the Stormlight Archive by far.

>>10501517
this isnt a good sign for someone about to go pick up the first book here in a couple minutes

>>10501524
The 1st 2 books are fantastic. This is the Wheel of Time all over again. Stretching a series with 10 books backfires eventually.

>>10501517
Like why do people like you keep hating on Sanderson? What part didn't you exactly like?

>>10501535
Not him, but I stopped reading The Way of Kings in the first sentence of the prologue when it introduced a character named "Szeth".

>>10501612
>not dropping it in the prelude

>>10501623
Coincidentally, I also stopped reading The Name of the Wind once it introduced a character named "Kvothe".

>>10497283
I'm trying to find a new series to read, I liked the following pretty well, would anyone care to give any recommendations?

Gaunts Ghosts
Undying Mercenaries
First Law Trilogy
The Black Company
Flashman Papers
Sharpe

>>10501684
Cryptonomicon, especially the Shaftoe parts.

>>10501692
Looks like it focuses on technical stuff a lot, not generally into that honestly.

Is this a good book? I don't overtly love sci-fi but I heard this is one of the better series.

any suggestions for fantasy/scifi that focuses more on a strange world than the character interaction?
I'm looking for inspiration of strange things to put into a game that's basically a 3d clone of Yume Nikki

so basically I'm looking for odd events, creatures, architecture, whatever. As long as it's a strange and unique world that is getting explored.

>>10501803
Never heard of it.

>>10500713
Societies where every individual is a "full" member. His books explore this in different ways. Or so I think from reading them.

has Gene Wolfe ever written a bad book

>>10501803
>is this a good book
Depends on what you like. It's quite a demanding read compared to your average SFF book.

>>10501803
It's good if you leave aside the fact that the character behaves like a robot.

>>10501893
If you mean this robot

>>10501903
>>10501893
>mfw good writers can't write good main characters and bad writers can

>>10501535
Go read the previous thread. Ctrl+F oathbringer.

>>10500471
I (>>10497475) liked it. I think it was probably better than the first one.

>>10501893
>>10501934
absolute brainlets

>>10501903
>>10501893
Can you two pls elaborate without major spoilers? I was going to read the series but you two gave me doubts.

Feel sorry for any poor sod who can't read this

>>10502055
the first one can't understand the subtleties of the narration
read it now and without spoilers pussy

>>10500471
I wouldn't say I disliked it but again, was subpar compared to Blindsight. I don't really get the POINT of Echopraxia. Nothing really occurs that alters the narrative presented in Echopraxia (I could be wrong, I'm a year+ and many books in between my Blindsight read), and I didn't understand the point of many elements, like why was Portia present/even a thing?/what were the Bicamerals up to? (they were nice ideas and I wish we had seen/interacted with more of them)/why was Moore presented as Siri's dad even though nothing really happens regarding that other than Moore trying to get signals from Theseus and being obsessed like any parent would?/etc. Lots of unanswered questions.

I really want to go through the postscript and read up on some of the empirical articles, especially about the brain being a receiver for consciousness, and about religion as an adaptive system. Also I was laffin when Watts ripped into invisible sky fairies.

What do I read if I want something like Bakker?

>first thing I think of are spren

>>10501635
Was he a bird

>>10501684
Aubrey-Maturin series

>>10501809
help me out friends!

an example of something I've already read that sort of falls into the category of what I'm looking for are the first few Xanth novels
the majority of the plots are just a group of characters making their way through a land full of strange things and figuring out how to bypass a series of obstacles

>>10502688
Carnivores of Light and Darkness perhaps?

>>10501684
>Undying Mercenaries

Marko Kloos, I think his stuff is better than Larson's.

>Sharpe

Shadow Campaigns and the Powder Mage series.

Glen Cook also did a late middle ages/early modern fantasy series. Basically the main character is a not-Ottoman soldier who kills a demon with the first easily portable cannon, his king sends him to pose as a mercenary and spy on not-Rome, but the demons aren't done with him and he ends up involved with a ancient cabal of wizards and in far more important things than the wars of men. It's pretty good but the publisher canceled the last book so the 3rd and 4th are more rushed to finish the series.

David Drake's RCN series is basically >>10502612 but in space.

why did severian give the green man half the whetstone?

also
>above ground
I kek'd

So I just finished Dune and was reading that it has like a trillion sequels. I'm kind of split on the book... the world building of the brutal desert environment, palace intrigue stuff and the fat gay pedophile villain were great, but the mystical shit (Paul seeing different futures through the mind's eye, his mom stressing out about her witch stuff) made me space out.

Is it worth reading any of the sequels?

>>10502688
It's mostly just one guy (who's a fucking asshole), but the Dying Earth books.

i'm really fucking mad there's a fourth one coming

Is there such a thing as a romance novel in a fantasy setting?
It doesn't have to be JUST about romance I guess, but a story in which romance is a very important element of the plot.

>>10503128
Maybe urban fantasy will be your cup of tea.

>>10503128
No such thing, and never the twain shall meet
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_2?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A13922577011%2Ck%3Afantasy+romance

>>10503128
its actually very hard to recommend because in most fantasy most boils down to being erotica or downright smut.
theres a bunch of things that have romance and fantasy. unfortunatly if you google for that most stuff you will find is smut romance written by women for women.
however theres a few nice things i can recommmend. for example codex alera which has romance building up slowly for multiple characters.
if you dont mind stuff like harems or poligamy then there are much much more options though. for example theres days of future past by jon stryvant which features a 3 way relationship and eventual 3 way marriage.
otherlife awakenings as mentioned >>10500238
which actually features a bunch of girls falling for mc one of which is an ai and they then just go with the flow.
theres a bunch of works with traditional one on one romance but they are really not that common mainly because the romance in those only get a passing mention every once in a while. if you are okay with harem or polygamy then theres a metric shit ton though.
try looking here for something youll like:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/88988.Harem_or_polygamy_fiction#35073163
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/114486.Male_Lead_with_Multiple_Lover#35073163
and if you do not mind erotica:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/110080.Erotica_for_Men

In Oathbringer, what exactly did Renarin betrayal lead to? Sure, he has seen waht he was not supposed to but did his actions lead to something bad? Especially bad enough to justify execution? Jasnah is pragmatical but there really was no great benefit from killing him. Anderson set the whole situation up as a turning point and even though it was for me it felt hollow because there was no real conflict to the decision.

>>10503196
It shows us that not all the corrupted spren are evil.

>>10503128
check out graceling. underrated fantasy novel imo

>>10502996
>Is it worth reading any of the sequels?
Fror you, I don't think so. If you really like Dune reading Messiah is worth it and if you really like Dune+Messiah also reading Children+God Emperor is worth it.

So /sffg/, I've read Elric of melnibonè up the book 3 and it was shit. Is there any fantasy which is actually good (besides Tolkien)? How's Lyonesse?

>>10503128
There's a lot but most of it is either Princess Perfect mooning over Prince Squarejaw, or poorly written "she lost herself in thorvald's galloping abs" and brorotica like >>10503195 is talking about. You can mostly rule out YA stuff entirely too because it's almost always the most trite teen romance stuff ever.

That said.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant has a good romance plot in it.

Generally people here tend to recommend the Kushiel series for fantasy romance.

Goblin Moon by Teresa Edgerton is essentially a Regency period novel in fantasyland.

The Vorkosigan saga is space opera but has a lot of romance in it. Shards of Honor and Barrayar for example are mostly about two older military officers meeting while on opposite sides of a war and a relationship and romance developing between them. LMMB is a great author so I'm sure her fantasy stuff has well written romance in it too.

(Planetary romance, btw, is actually just stuff like Barsoom and Leigh Brackett's stuff.)

>>10503215
Lyonesse is way better than Elric, which is basically the 1960s version of edgy pulp.

>>10502945
so the green man could break his shackles

anyone got https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31845246-the-rabbit-great-and-terrible ?
its been released on the 28th just after christmas but i cant for the life of me find it on mobilism or in the usual places on irc.
>>10503195
try waldo rabbit. the first two books where great. it features a dark mage who cant cast dark magic and is instead a light mage. it also features a succubus who falls in love with him but she has morals and is chaste. also a submissive ogre who likes spankings.
over the course of the books waldo also slowly falls in love with the succubus. its more of a whacky adventures kinda thing rather than traditional fantasy. book 3 was supposed to come out 2 years ago but the author wasnt satisfied with it so went back to redoing parts and editing it but its released now.

you lads read the Death of Doctor Island?
that ending was fucked

>>10503250
meant to quote
>>10503128

there any editions of the Book of the New Sun that aren't total shit?
it's only been a year and I already want to read it again

>>10503258
What's wrong with pic related?

>>10503252
Yeah, that's my favorite of the Island/Death/Doctor stories.

>>10503271
the paperbacks were an attempt of the publishers to sabotage Gene's writing career

>>10503287
>that fucking Terminus Est
I'm mad.

I want to write a 3 part fantasy cycle. I want it to be colorful and whimsical but somewhat serious as opposed to a children's fairy tale. The characters and story I would like to be as original as possible, but the world I would like to create would intentionally rely heavily on common fanstasy tropes. There's a reason why such tropes came to be in the first place. European folklore would be a major influence of course. In the end I would like to write a fantasy cycle that I myself would like to read.

>>10503300
got the diagnosis yet?

>>10503300

Then do it, faggot.

>>10503195
>in most fantasy most boils down to being erotica or downright smut.

Yeah, I don't mind smut but not really what I'm looking for.
Thanks for the suggestions though, Codex Alera sounds like it could be a fun read.

>>10503181
kek
I mean, I know it exists, I just figured I'd ask this thread for specific recommendations.

>>10503162
Never read any Urban Fantasy, what's a good one to start with?

>>10503210
An ex-girlfriend once recommended me that book.
I'm skeptical about YA but the premise sounded kinda cool desu, if you are being serious then I might as well check it out.

>>10503229
>Princess Perfect mooning over Prince Squarejaw

kek yeah, that is exactly why I asked here, Google gave me those types of books almost exclusively.
Thank you too for the suggestions friend, Kushiel sounds interesting and apparently Goblin Moon has romance and alchemy, another topic that I like.

>>10503250
A chaste succubus huh? Sounds goofy enough to be fun, thanks for the recommendation m8

>>10503300
To expand on this, I feel as though many fantasy authors focus too much on "doing something new" as far as setting is concerned. I'm not interested in doing that, I'm interested in originality as far as story and characters are concerned, but set in a colorful stereotypical fantasy setting with dragons, elves, magic and so on.

10501684
Lock Lamora

>>10503318

“What I really want to make is fan fiction.”

>>10503300
>>10503318
I don't know if you've noticed, but so far you haven't actually mentioned a premise, setting, or really any ideas or concepts at all. In fact, you haven't actually said anything.

>>10503329
That's because I haven't really fleshed any ideas out yet. I've come up with an origin for vampires, a giant white eagle that's rumored to only be legend, and a nation of elves who "have no king but are a republic". That's about it.

>>10503258
i have pic related and i havent found anything wrong with it.
unless there are problems im not aware of

>>10503337
Then what exactly did you hope to accomplish by posting?

>>10503351
To hopefully garner advice from someone who knows more about the book writing process than me maybe?

>>10503356
You were unsuccessful.

>>10503356
just give it up now, it's bound to be below eragon-tier
you don't have the ability, intelligence or knowledge to write anything but a 4chan post

>>10503317
>Never read any Urban Fantasy, what's a good one to start with?
dresden files probably.
it starts of slow but after the second book you cant put it down because the world is well crafted.
special mention to the audiobooks. theyre read by james marsters who played spike in buffy the vampire hunter and does an excellent job voice-acting. it actually features romance. specifically theres 2 love interests but theres no polygamy or shit going on.

>>10500468
>Wrong.
Why do you think he's a witty, bitter little piece of shit? That's because he was ridiculed for his size in the first place. It's a positive feedback loop but the starting point is his height.

>I can't but I'm going to allow the possibility that they do exist. I guess Cersei and Brienne in ASoIaF are alright.
MIsoginy aside, it's hard to write a good female character because you have to justify her actions on an emotional level, which is harder to do than using logics only. I've found that most authors use too much logic and rationalization for their characters, males included, and not enough irratrional behavior.

>>10501027
People are bread by current media to have ADHD ant can't stay focused on something for more than 30sec unless something unexpected happens or there's some kind of immediate reward. Forget about making them read.

>>10503416
Meant for >>10501039

I'm around ~100 pages into Neuromancer and I'm really struggling.
I have a general idea what's going on but the prose is so dense with jargon and moves at such a lightning pace that the specifics of the plot elude me.
I really can't decide if I should continue or just give up. At this point I have no idea where this story is headed.

>>10502071
I'm glad my shilling has had any effect. I wish it would get a translation any time soon, but I guess it's considered too risky/niche.

>>10503128
Try the Symphony of Ages series from Haydon. I dropped it in the middle of the third book because it became unbearable to me but the first book is worth a read and I'm sure it's what you're looking for.

>>10503320
That's a lot of Lock Lamoras

>>10503446
it's not hard to understand, you're just slow
Case is hackerman with a ragtag team of misfits employed by a mysterious entity to the ends of performing certain objectives, that's all you need to know for now

>>10503469
Major spoilers: it fucking sucks.

>>10503514
yeah maybe it fucking sucks but it is THE cyberpunk novel
the AI plot wasn't bad, certainly not for it's time

>>10503515
Cyberpunk is a complete shit literary subgenre except for Chiba City Blues and Altered Carbon.

cyberpunk sucks because its predicated on decades old shitty sci-fi tropes that no longer look plausible at all

Same as sci-fi books writing about white phenotypes still existing in the future.

>>10503521
is Dick cyberpunk?
video games do it better

>>10503528
do you really want to read sci-fi about niggers and chinks

>>10503528
Or black ones for that matter.

>>10503529
Anime does it well, vidya is shit.

>>10503571
Deus Ex and System Shock are good
cyberpunk anime is good but Lain is as deep as it gets

>>10503535
Blacks and Chinamen do. Also, suck a dick.

>>10503577
maybe niggers should write their own sci-fi like the chinks do, did you ever think about that tyrone

>>10503582
...what?

>>10503582
Why should they when it's so easy to shame other writers into doing it for them? They'll even give you a worthless Hugo for it.

>>10503615
The fuck are you on about?

>>10503196
She might have thought he was feeding information to the enemy.

>>10503234
What's its GRI rating? Asking for a friend.

>>10503391
>dresden files
Not him, but I tried it and didn't like it too much. Any other options (please don't say the gaygicians)?

>>10503614
>>10503620
you playing dumb or are you atually retarded?

>>10503645
Rivers of London, as long as you don't chimp out at the sight of a black main character.

What is with the link between cyberpunk and awkward sex scenes.
Sometimes I wish books did have age ratings.

Wonder how chapter 10 of Altered Carbon is going to go down in the Netflix series.

>>10503716
It's Netflix so they can get away with some T&A. I don't recall anything specifically in the scene would make it stick out from any other Netflix sex scene.

>>10503718
There's a bit of an important conversation in the middle of it so it can't just be skipped over, but I guess it isn't really that big of deal these days, with streaming anyway.

I just hate the fact that I can't just go about recommending this stuff to anyone once I realize there's straight up porn in it. Makes it impossible to watch with other people too.

>>10503768
They can move the dialog to other scenes. From what I've seen of the netflix preview, they aren't maintaining it 100% like the book. At least some parts of what were there I don't remember reading about.

>>10503128
>>10503317
You can try some of these degenerate books,mlike good intentions, daniel black, wild waste, or other life. (stay away from imajica and steel remains)

>>10503801
I don't remember Imajica being GRI. I was a while since I read it, though.

What is the oldest SFF book you've read?

Seems like this is /r/fantasy's new favorite fantasy book.

Is it good?

>>10503854
The First and Last Men. 1930.

>>10503792
I'm currently reading AC, they seem to have moved up the hiring of Kovacs to only a day after the murder, for one.

>>10503854
Probably something by Jules Verne.

>>10503215
Robert E Howard's Conan stories are unironically great
tolkien has never been bettered though imho

>>10503632
5/10 in terms of what's there, 2/10 in terms of how much of it there is.

>>10503854
H,G. Wells' best books were written in the mid 1890s and he ought to be read by anybody interested in science fiction. They're usually novella length and still hold up well, particularly The Time Machine.

>>10503854
The Bible
Other than that, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

>>10503890
Agree on everything. The Time Machine is amazing, of all Wells stories I've read only The First Men in the Moon have suffered noticeably by its outdated science.

Would /sffg/ be interested in a recommendation list of good sci-fi and fantasy audio dramas?

Would anybody be bothered if I added smaller sections for "weird" fiction and horror at the bottom?

>>10503854
Frankenstein. 1818. Arguably the first work of science fiction at all, and almost certainly the first sci-fi novel.

Also one of my top five books of all time.

>>10503858
I've seen a couple of people on Goodreads reading it, looks memey to me.

>>10503965
As opposed to simple audio books? Yea, I'm tentatively interested

>>10503317
> Never read any Urban Fantasy, what's a good one to start with?

Depends what you're after, action, violence, magic, romance etc, and if you care if the MC is male or female.

The Hollows Series by Kim Harrison is great.

Other stuff that comes to mind this instant ...
Anita Blake was very good before the author went crazy and turned the series into pure smut. Anything by Ilona Andrews.

>>10501305
Frankenstein itself is full of references to Milton and numerous other "literary" figures.

>>10503975
Yeah. Stuff like radio plays and so on.

More "written for audio" than adaptations, but there'll probably be some famous adaptations like War of the Worlds in there too.

Is there a bigger meme than female authors?

>>10503965
Post it

>>10503982
I don't have any experience with that. Might be cool.
>>10503986
Not in this timeline

>>10503965
I'm definitely interested.

>>10503988
>Post it
I'll need to make it first. Just wanted to know if there was interest before I bothered.

>>10504002
Ok

>>10503986
Killing of characters for shock value (GRRM, Terry Brooks), muh edge for the sake of edge (GRRM, Mark Lawrence, Stephen R. Donaldson), muh worldbuilding/muh magic system (Sanderson), muh epic fantasy (GRRM, Jordan, Erikson, Sanderson). I would also like to complain about quirky modern fantasy like All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders but that's the only one I've read and while I feel like there is such a trend I can't really name any books so maybe it's just spooks.

Honestly, Rothfuss have probably hurt fantasy and sci-fi more by himself than all female authors combined.

>>10504035
>Rothfuss have probably hurt fantasy and sci-fi more by himself than all female authors combined.

Le shit? How does that even work? Noone in the bussiness is anywhere close to Rothfuss.

>>10504040
Maybe it's not actually his fault but I associate narcissism, superiority complex, immaturity, endless blogging and arguing about politics instead of writing with Rothfuss. Things I feel have gotten more common lately.

>>10504040
>>10504056
Also, every aspiring writer nowadays seem to take inspiration from Rothfuss (and Sanderson) thus starting out working on an epic tome of worldbuilding and editing work scheduled for release 2030 or later.

>>10504006
Here's a list to tide you over. As a note, The Red Panda and Black Jack Justice are both inspired by classic radio dramas and so can be a bit cheesy. Black Jack Justice also draws on hard boiled a bit, and that kind of balances it out, but The Red Panda may not be to everybody's taste.

If I had to recommend to people who haven't listened to radio dramas before, I'd suggest Welcome to Nightvale (probably the most popular podcast ever, though often it's just one person talking and so not all that representative of the genre), The Orphans, or Black Jack Justice. Or some of the Doctor Who audio adventures if you're a fan of the show, classic or modern.

Sci-Fi
>The Orphans
>Sayer
>Wasteland Radio
>Edict Zero - FIS
>Hadron Gospel Hour
>The Fourth Ambit
>ars PARADOXICA

Fantasy
>Second Shift
>Synesthesia Theatre (anthology; really runs the gamut of speculative fiction)

Strange/Paranormal
>Welcome to Nightvale
>The Black Tapes
>Uncanny County

Mystery
>Black Jack Justice

Western
>Pleasure Town
>Wynabego Warrior: The Tale of John Waynnabe

Superhero
>The Red Panda
>The Bright Sessions

Horror
>Archive 81
>Small Town Horror
>Scotch
>The Call of Cthulhu Mystery Program
>Campfire Radio Theater

Officially Licensed
>The Doctor Who Audio Adventures

Fan Works
>Ghostbusters: Resurrection

>>10504080
Thanks, i'll check some of these out.

>>10504080
Strikes me as Tumblr: The List.

>>10504086
Why are you trying so hard to fit i? Are you from reddit?

>>10504086
I got a good chunk of this from other people's recommendations lists and then listened to them, so they in turn may have gotten them from Tumblr?

What are some you enjoyed personally? I'll give them a listen.

>>10502996

>>10503858
I don't know but its theme song is great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmq7RZOdCmY

>>10503854
The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, a Cornish Man, by Robert Paltock. 1751. It's a rambling story about a guy that gets shipwrecked and finds a winged waifu and starts a family.

>>10504080
I seem to recall the audio drama of Tiger, Tiger being pretty good. I recommend against The Dispossessed, though, one episode in and there's FTL travel for some reason, the Urrasti are united under one government, and Shevek's math actually leads to A SUPERWEAPON instead of the ansible.

Who here likes William Morris?

>>10502055
Sev (the narrator) claims to have a perfect memory and is writing his own story as if (almost) all of his behavior was perfectly rational
He becomes less autistic as the story goes on, though

On the subject of radio dramas, I think I'm going to write an audio drama fan-series that takes Animorphs and streamlines it some.

>>10501987
Ah sorry friend, I go rabid defending Watts sometimes

>>10502146
I think if you read BS then Echo in conjunction you'll see a few more parallels.
Portia was essentially an extension of Rorschach meant to disable Icarus, the space station that fuels Earth.
The Bicamerals are pretty opaque but I think they ultimately got their way: they wanted Bruks back in the desert to discover their "clue" (the poem in their fluorescent protein). Beyond this I have no clue,
and yeah I wish there was more of them too.
I have too much to say on Moore's role, I just deleted like 200 words that were a mess. I'll come back later.

>>10503064
Oh fuck first the big blindsight reply now this
it needs a fourth one, desperately. Battle literally concluded nothing and just sort of just awkwardly extended the tension from Surrenders. I think Palmer's fucked herself a bit at this point and I think the final novel's either going to be complete arse, or she'll somehow redeem it and return with a vengence

>>10503858
It's the fantasy version of Lethal Weapon, full of 'I'm too old for this shit' and 'look at these young idiots, back in our days...' Tons of cop-outs, cheap plot devices, hit-and-miss humor and a barely fleshed out world. 5435423 different fantasy creatures which sound interesting, they're mere name-drops though and never really receive any detail whatsoever.

It's an okay read if you want something easy, lighthearted and potentially funny.

>>10504353
That's a really good idea and you need to give me a way to keep in touch.

>>10504648
Give me an email address and I'll send you a message when I have a web page or blog or something set up.

I'd do it now but I'm at work and then I'm going from here directly to a birthday party.

>>10504673
hqoz1@slipry.net

Midway through this and it's fantastic. I'll admit his prose and style are nothing out of this world, but the level of realism achieved and the insights provided into a hypothetical contact are really fucking good.

>>10500713

After reading Farnham's Freehold I decided that he was an edgy meme-contrarian who didn't actually believe anything at all and probably wrote all his stories as fap-fic first (nudism, wife-swapping, interracial, and incest being his fetishes of choice) and then toned them down for publishing.

Not want it to sound too /r/, but I'd like to identify a sf short I've read a long time ago in a compilation.
The story was about someone coming to visit Earth, that has became a sort of market of everything people desired, the MC saw stall for shooting people, one for taking part in one of permanent wars raging and then decided to go to one that sold love. He got a date of his life, but the next day saw his girl with someone else, made a scene and the story ended with mc going through with the range stall guy's proposition and telling him to line up some on the range.
Its probably one of the really popular authors.

>>10501245

Literary genre fic is best genre fic, autismo. Most of my favorite fantasy books have lots of poems in them.

>>10501879

definitely, probably several, but it is possible that he simply never published them

What a pleasant Surprise this was. It was quite of a challenge since I'm not a native English speaker and I'll probably have to read it again to understand some of the nuances of his writting.

Never had I ever read such beautiful prose in English. This is not a fantasy book, it's beyond that. Remove the fantasy aspect and You'd still have a good book. Probably because the elements of fantasy are somewhat low

At last! I think is my breakthrough from reading fantasy books.
I don't know what to read thoughSuggestions?

>>10505280
>Suggestions?
Some would unironically tell you to simply read it again. I'd probably let it sink in for a while, then read: New Sun -> Urth -> Long Sun -> Short Sun
You can also read Urth last. If you want more Wolfe Latro in the Mist is great.

>>10505319
What about non SFF Authors? That's what I am aiming for the moment. We are limited to a handful of really good writers like Wolfe on SFF.

Fellas I want your thoughts on a quick book idea i thought of today called Cycle

Book idea:
- humans (intelligent life) are determined to go in a cycle of technology forever
- "End of the first great cycle"
- at the end of a cycle people crave to live naturally, THE MACHINE STOPS, UNABOMBER, LUDDITES and civilization and the earth is sacrifice
- people begin again, maybe somewhat different due to actions in the previous cycle?
- civilizations could be different, order may be somewhat different
- playing with sequences out of order, skipping through cycles, big reveal (is the cycle itself revealed at the end, rather than at the beginning to explain the book)
- some philosophizing, some sci-fi fantasy and some interpersonal relationship accross time
- interwoven with discussion between characters on the subject of technology, singularity and destruction
- alternating chapters/sections set with people who either crave something technology would give them, or crave the life they have (presumably) lost due to technology making the world easier etc.
- MORAL AMBIGUITY?

all sounds a bit trite to me, unless it were presented in a special way?

>>10505342
Eh, Borges, Kafka or Woolf maybe? Ask outer /lit/, it's their area.

>>10505280
>Suggestions?
Start with the Greeks

>>10497425
It's weird that none of the responses were angry patrick rothfuss detractors

>>10505593
No one was going to take the bait.

>>10505593
Sorry I've been busy
Rothfuss is shit though

>>10505604
I like him

Is there any other way to justify having a bunch of kids with powers in the same place without it being a school/orphanage for metahumans?

I feel like that's the point when a story becomes unsalvagable

>>10505618
Maybe they're trapped in some wierd old guys sex dungeon. Kind of like a Fritzl situation?

>>10505611
I enjoyed Slow Regard of Silent Things for being a sort of "anti-adventure" where little or nothing actually happens, but the atmosphere and internal life of the character is vivid. His other stuff seems fairly boilerplate by comparison unfortunately.

>>10505618
orphanage or institution for handling kids with super powers makes sense though? you'd need an institution if that was ever the case

>>10500713
"Libertarian" about sums it up. Notice that even in Starship Troopers the "fascist" (it's not) government refuses to resort to conscription even in the face of an existential threat.

>>10505660
it's such a fucking dead horse though

Nothing with that shit has been halfway acceptable since harry potter, and the only version I saw with the potential to be good ended up fucking it up so much I gave up on it. I'm looking at you trigger

Granted, I probably wandered into that shit ass-backwards just by saying "kids with powers" but I dunno.

Maybe it could work as a decon/reconstruction, but I'd need to change everything about the story I'm writing which I really don't fucking want to when I have a more original idea I could do instead

>>10503854
Journey to the Center of the Earth, from 1864. If that doesn't count, From Earth to the Moon (1865). Both by Jules Verne.

>>10505708
could do mental ward, prison, josef fritzl basement, any thinkable location if you're willing to make the location the catalyst for powers

>>10505618
Maybe have them abducted from their normal surroundings and plunked in some location, then make who or what did that the main mystery? Sort of like The Prisoner with multiple people

Why did every YA fantasy novel I read as a kid have someone getting hypnotized? I'm reading back through summaries of shit like Harry Potter, Charlie Bone, and it's there in all of them. It gave me a fuckin' fetish and I blame these authors. Were they into it, too, or just using a lazy plot device? Rowling's description of it was good enough that I'm almost convinced she was.

>>10505745
>Charlie Bone
oh man I can't help you but holy shit what a great series

tho I know the pain of knowing which childhood books induced your fetish. I'm way into transformation and man there's this book I had about a girl turning into a tree and wooooweeee that made my weewee weird.

>>10505708
In modern societies, children are warehoused in schools or daycares/orphanages whether they have powers or not, so to avoid those settings you either need to set your story in a different society (either invented, historical, or non-Western) or have them living outside of society. Avoid the post-apocalypse though, that's another cliche.

You could have your kids with powers be part of a non-Western clan/family based structure. Imagine your super-powered kid growing up in Afghanistan (or a non-real world equivalent) inside a walled compound populated entirely by his extended family.

Or they could be living in some sort of analogue to those sex offender colonies that pop up because the people living in them aren't allowed to be within 1000 feet of children. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Tuttle_Causeway_sex_offender_colony).). Maybe the kids try to form their own orphanage because they're tired of living in a homeless colony but all the other rejects of society keep molesting them.

That said, "kids with powers" is the real dead horse here.

>>10505618
>They're just there, with powers, trying badly to hide them.
>They have powers, adults have powers, everyone has powers.
>Most of the kids with powers are actually space gods staying incognito from Zeus while fighting each other.
>It's a containment facility aliens built to study human psi powers and make sure they can keep humanity conquered.
>They were all gathered there by a kid with telepathy/dream powers.
>Part of the price of having powers is you enter fugue states where you run away and hitchhike to that area. If you go too far you black out and wake up on the same park bench.
>the metahuman school was flamethrowered by the government and the kids have powers because they're possessed by metahuman ghosts
lrn2brainstorm

>>10505756
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Tuttle_Causeway_sex_offender_colony
holy crap that's the most cyberpunk thing ever

>>10505715
>>10505741
>>10505756
>>10505759

I'm not asking for a plot, I have my own. I just want a justification for why the characters are gathered together and "powers attract each other" still seems to be lacking something


Fuck it, I'm really going to have to do the boarding school thing aren't I.

Maybe I'll have to find my own twist on it that isn't generic shit

>>10505816
maybe they're in a prison/asylum because the government has superpower detectors

>>10505816
>not asking for a plot point
>just asking for a plot point
Why do you do this?

>>10505816
maybe the powers are hereditary and they're part of a big family living on a ranch

>>10505816
>I just want a justification
there are a lot of kids in one place and the place just happens to give them powers. does that not fit?

>>10505816
an alien stone hits a jake paul concert

>>10505816
I'm not going to read everything leading to this post. But if you can't even imagine this simple thing you're doomed to be a pleb. Just stop writing.

>>10505816
>>10505831
Something like this. Maybe they're cave kids from some secluded place that developed shit and the adults were killed when they were discovered by the outside world, the kids were taken as slaves or research subjects or whatever.

>>10505816
if this happened irl, wouldnt you want to be around other people experiencing the same thing? if it's dangerous then surely it would help to have others assist you

How much of this do you reckon was actually written by Del Toro?

>>10503356
>>10503337
>>10503318
>>10503300

I agree that the desperate emphasis on originality for originality's sake is by now both grating and ossified. I also have less interest in originality of setting than quality of story and prose. But there are a lot of readers who desire the exact opposite, and that is why the principle remains in use.

That all said, you say you want to focus on plot and characters rather than setting, but your current roster of ideas are all about setting. Plot out a story and it will suggest characters to operate within it (unless you have an epiphany for a character of such striking interest that he suggests a narrative constructed around him), and make this outline something that would be worth reading even if it were set in the most mundane and dull of times and places, and then once that skeleton is in place, fit it into the mold of a traditional European fantasy setting. This process of fitting your rough narrative into a generic setting will by necessity deform that setting around it, and the result will likely feel far more original than the sum of its parts, provided the narrative itself is actually worth telling.

If you don't have a story to tell then why even bother setting out on this path in the first place? Most good plots have focused either on one event of particular importance, or on the adventures of a hero. In the former, the event is the focus and the characters are or become defined by their actions in relation to it, in the latter, the hero is the focus and he defines everything with which he interacts. If you feel short of ideas for a plot, do what all the great writers of history have done and scour history and myth for inspiration. You will inevitably come across a character or event (or both, and perhaps several of both) which speak to you, and which feel as though they have been overlooked by other story-tellers or at least have been forgotten by readers in aggregate. Your work initially becomes unique because your conglomerations of plagiarisms form a whole that is different than any other writer's conglomeration, because you did not choose the exact same inspirations and did not combine them in the same way. If you're lucky, your work will take off and begin to develop a life of its own and lead you down paths you couldn't have imagined at the start.

To sum up, if plot is more important to you than setting, begin with plot and worry about setting later. What is the purpose of your elf republic? If you don't even know, then that idea is itself a kind of originality of setting for its own sake. If the focus of your plot is political intrigue and infighting within a decaying elvish republic beset on all sides by barbaric and monstrous enemies, then it serves a purpose for the plot. But if it is just a background entity, then how does its being a republic, or elvish, have anything to do with your characters, if you even have any in mind yet?

What sci-fi and fantasy from when you were younger affected your taste to the greatest extent going forward?

I'll start with my own:
>I read Animorphs as a kid and to this day I'm a sucker for stories about groups of emotionally damaged people struggling through life and trying not to hurt each other too badly, often sort of becoming like a family in the process.

>My favorite fantasy and sci-fi stories that I read in 2017 respectively are the Magicians Trilogy and Vurt, and I've watched all of BoJack Horseman that's out so far at least three times.

Considering trying some video reviews, since there seems to be very few good ones on youtube and figure I might as well see if I'm any good at it. I'm thinking of taking a cue from RedLetterMedia's Half in the Bag series and trying to do reviews of (probably recent) books people are mildly interested in but don't really care enough to read. Hoping that forcing myself to read some books for this helps push my reading speed up a bit. Any suggestions for books that sound like they fit the bill?

>>10506549
Oathbringer of course

>>10506549
memepalmer

what is some fantasy about cute fembois

Question: When did the lovecraft fandom get big enough for lovecraft-themed cafes to be a thing?

I kinda want to use one as the setting for my cosmic horror story

>>10503528
>We will all be one race, the human race

Lol

>>10503854

The Illiad

>>10506570
I'm going to stay away from Sanderson, at least at first, again on the same grounds that RLM stays away from certain types of films. It's just not for me, and nitpicking the technical problems and bad dialogue in his stuff isn't going to be entertaining. Maybe if my reading speed improves, I might jump on them at least a bit close to release and try to find something to say about them.

>>10506597
Sorry I got no idea which one you're referring to with this. I'm not hugely up to date on recent releases, if it's one of those.

>>10506712
>what should I review
>no not that one everyone talks about
How about you just pick something you want to talk about? Maybe you'll get us to read it.

If not, just do Cold Allies by Patricia Anthony.

>>10505593

he is beneath my criticism desu

>>10506735
I am above it

>>10506724
I mean, Sanderson also doesn't exactly fot my initial criteria of "books people are interested in but not enough to read," either. Plenty of people already watch it.

>>10506742
Read it. Sorry, I've got a fevah

>>10506742

You're having trouble because it's a difficult criteria. You could just keep track of which books you see people say "should I bother reading this?" about itt and how often each is mentioned, then you have a list to work from

>>10506750
anon I hope you get better :(.
Fevers really suck!

>>10506763
Not a bad idea.

Anything similar to hyperion or demon princes?
Multi-world somewhat believable space sci-fi without a lot of fantasy elements?

Anyone read Dark Matter?

>>10506847
no and I seriously doubt you have either. hell, I'm not even sure you CAN read dark matter

>>10502895
>David Drake's RCN series is basically >>10502612 (You) but in space.

No it is not and I hate this often repeated comment. O'Brien is a fantastic writer, Drake is a mediocrity who borrows from him. That doesn't make it equivalent "in space".

>>10497475

ECHOPRAXIA SPOILERS:

ALSO USELESS ANSWERS

>Why was he even there in the first place?
Honestly can't fucking remember why he in particular, but he was there to carry portia. They needed a baseline human for whatever fucking reason, I don't remember. And also, to be a rare normal ass dude protagonist in a Peter Watts narrative.

>Why did he kill the vampire?
Vampire knew it was gonna be killed, can't remember why. Also, essentially, portia killed the vampire.

>Did she make him do it?
Yeah, maybe. Fuck, can't remember.

>What was her goal?
To ensure vampires survive in the coming upheaval. To try and integrate with portia as best she knew how.

>Did the bicamerals predict/want the outcome?
Yes. In Portia, they saw a means to unravel the universe and integrate consciousness directly into the essence of everything, so to say. In other words, to merge with God.

>>10506866

Yeah I can and I did. And it wasn't nearly as hard as you imply.

>>10500471
>I think that by the time "he" killed the vampire, Portia was essentially controlling him. Or he's paranoid baseline
It's actually pretty clear that Portia was controlling him at that point.

>why was Portia present/even a thing?
Transmitted through the beam thing by Rorschach. Icarus, was it? Designed to basically fuck up the source of the nuisance (ship and crew in Blindsight) launched at Rorschach. Thing is a lot like the (expanse spoilers) protomolecule in Expanse, in that it kind of does its own thing on the fly, with the difference being that portia is not pre-programmed to do anything.

>what were the Bicamerals up to?
Extending their consciousness. In portia, they recognized a potentially vastly superior interface than the one they were already hooked in, if only they found a way to tame it. I suppose that's why they used the protagonist as a carrier, him being a baseline human and therefore a pure specimen to experiment with.

>why was Moore presented as Siri's dad even though nothing really happens regarding that other than Moore trying to get signals from Theseus and being obsessed like any parent would?
He simply is Siri's dad. If you want more info, Watts wrote a short story about him in particular. It's a prequel to Echopraxia.

>>10498125
>guy is a tobacco dealer in pressed suit whose face is obscured by the smoke of a strange indian pipe

Like, fucking how. He has to stop smoking at some point, somebody will see his face eventually. Also, what kind of fucking tobacco is he smoking for his face to be obscured at any point?

>offers a weeks supply free to struggling smoke shop owners as a sign of goodwill
Ok, sounds fair. Is it fair? I don't know, but it sounds fair. Sounds smart even, could be a smart thing to do.

>customers report a feeling of profound insight and inspiration that dissipates at the edge of epiphany
Woah, that's not really tobacco, is it?

>When they see their profits, the vendors pony up to prices that seem far more than fair
Sounds cheap, cool.

>As he leaves, they're too busy to notice the money turning to ashes in his hands
Wait, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

>Only once the shop keeps and customers become dependent does the smoke man make his demands, acts even hardened criminals wouldn't dare commit
Woah, this got really dark fast.

>distrubing rights, human sacrifice, and ritual cannibalism in the name of a god far more ancient than he is
Rights to disturb who? Is he proclaiming these rights? Nobody has to listen to him, right? Who does he want people to disturb? Maybe it would make more sense to order people to do it rather than give them right to do so.

>those who try to kill him end up as human-shaped smudges of ash on the wall
What if there is no wall?

>and then those smudges start walking
Where?

>>10502587
this game b gud?

>>10499749
>I've got a question for you guys. What do you like to see in your protagonists? Or what would you like more of?
Protagonists, I'd be fine with more of them, sure. Good way of pushing a narrative forward.

Can't really see protagonists in books, you can only read about them. If I do see them, I don't know what I'd like to see in them, it depends on the protagonist. Humans and humanoids usually have internal organs and bones, etc.

>As far as YA goes, I wish kids were punished more for their choices. I think most of us can look back at some terrible decisions that made us feel horrible and people that used us and deceived us, but YA does a very bad job of passing on stuff like that to a new generation.
Yeah, well, it does a good job of making money. If by "YA", you mean "young adult", that genre revolves around presenting power fantasies to kids, or "young adults" or whatever. Also, you can't really punish kids in there stories, it's all fiction and make-believe. People see through it, they know it's not real. You can have characters experience horrid stuff, but it really is just a story. Could be interesting as make-believe though.

>>10499749
>When it concerns most books, I wish more of them had characters that had people that were outcasts for good reason, not "omg because his people are mean : (" Drizzt tier stories. I think Martin did a good job with Tyrion in that way, because he's an actual little shit, and the same could be said for Glokta from Blade Itself since he's basically a Punished Chad. But there's so little of that. Never mind actual monsters as characters that have to live within their own world, like a story from Gollum's perspective or a WoD nossie.

ok

>Lastly, it'd be nice to have some readable female protagonists. It's incredible how shit most of them are, regardless of whether it's women or men writing them. 90% of the time it's into-the-trash tier.
alright, sounds like a good idea

>>10506993

>we will never have a Forever War adaptation for the silver screen

>>10507036
>showing a brown, queer, globalist future as dystopian
It's just too bad.

>>10500526
no

>>10500588
oh, there it is

>>10500868
can't help you


>>10501390
no

>>10501506
the book in your picture? I didn't read it. I mean, I read the title, it's "oathbringer". I don't know how good it is. Or was.

That's what you mean, right?

>>10501684
I'll think about it and get back to you.

>>10501809
Stars Are Legion features a sort of a strange world, even if it is somewhat derivative in my opinion. I say "opinion" because from my point of reference, it seems derivative of certain things, but I can't know if the author was inspired by them. Also, the world is really only interesting on a surface level, the novel unfortunately doesn't really have a good reason for all that shit to be there. But I can tell you're looking for "woah weird", so you can start there.

>>10502071
Man, you're one of those pricks who think French is "sophisticated" and you're looking for every excuse to snap pictures with your boytoy phone. Even worse if you're actually French - hey French people, you're poop. Put that shit on your instagram. "Gagner la guerre" sounds like something a faggot would say, FYI.

You're very proud of that desk, but really it looks like a laminate cover on top of a mass of glue and sawdust.

Oh you fucking faggot, look at how you arranged that crap for a fancy photo.

You know, normies don't actually do this. They snap photos and just openly brag about what they intend to brag about and that's it. They don't try to be fancy on anonymous image boards that revolve mostly around shitting on normies and pretending to be smarter than everyone else.

Can you even read French?

Who the fuck says "sod". Or "poor sod". Are you trying to sound like a sophisticated British "bloke" while taking pictures of a French book?

>>10502688
hmm, interesting

>>10502895
cool

>>10503128
Kingkiller Chronicle

>>10507001
haha

Can anyone recommend a 3+ faction space opera that ends with a stalemate and is also still satisfying ? I can't really imagine what that would look like

is Gene Wolfe actually senile? makes me sad thinking about it and his association with Gaiman

>>10507214
I figured Gaiman is the kind of guy who'd associate with anyone and put a quote on any book. Kind of like Stephen King.

>>10506742
If you want to be successful you should focus on books people HAVE read, and look to have their opinions about validated.

>>10507231
fucking King defaced my Conan collection

>>10507231
I can’t help but laugh everytime I see a Gaiman blurb on the back of a book. Either we have the exact same taste or he’s written more blurbs than actual lines in books

>>10507233
No no no, you want to review stuff that's widely disliked so you can attract crowds of haters and generate controversy. Or attack popular franchises and authors.

Any good pulp scifi series that are in the public domain?

>>10507349
Lensman and John Carter, at least.

>>10507233
>>10507288
I'm thinking I might just do Lord of Light and BotNS since they're the last two I've read and I think they're good for comparison. Start with some dinosaur and then move on to some new stuff.

In the end, the secret to getting a bunch of kids with mystical powers together wasn't putting them in a school for magic. It aging them up and having some of them work at a occult-themed bar while others are regulars that show up to paranormal events there on.

>>10507365
Good idea. Start with the obscure classics. That way you'll be credible when you rip Sanderson a new one.

>>10498933
He eases up on the grunted and growled stuff after the first book fortunately. I also noted that he used the phrase “grizzled veteran” multiple times

Neil Asher
Rudy Rucker

Got any good similar types of books/authors????

>>10507036
>Channing Tatum has signed on to star as William Mandella
Might still happen. Seems it was put on hold to make Passengers, but that's already made, so...

>>10507713
From what I've read of Asher, you might want to consider Alastair Reynolds, a standalone like Chasm City or some of his shorter fiction for a taste. His Revelation Space universe has several books, though not nearly as much as Asher has in his Polity universe.
Or maybe the Culture books, Payer of games for example.

Up to book 8 of Malazan
I hate deserts and never want to hear of them again
Hellian a cute

Does We by Zamyatin get better in the second half? It's been pretty unexciting so far and I'm not sure I care enough to pay attention to the rest of the book.

Is there any fantasy that uses actual historical fantasy? I.e. fantasy stories set on earth during actual past events, involving historically accurate magic. I'm kind of sick of authors using made up shitty "magic systems" while ignoring the thousands of years of incredibly detailed, complicated, and highly diverse forms of magic used in actual history. We've got reading the stars to predict the future, binding demons with word mazes, chemically refining the souls of metals, speaking to the elemental components of the physical world, stepping into other planes to alter the machinery of reality, etc... and yet no one uses any of it!
Is it just that no one knows anything anymore? It's not exactly hard to find information about most things, and you'd think that people who spend all their time reading stories about wizards and elves and dragons would be interested in their far more complex and interesting real world counterparts.

>>10507964
>I.e. fantasy stories set on earth during actual past events
Latro in the Mist.for sure
>involving historically accurate magic
Not so much of that, admittedly, which seems to be what you're mainly looking for.

>>10507713
Neal Stephenson
Vernor Vinge

>>10506932
there's a passage which discusses how Portia is a tool of Rorschach, just for a different environment. I think the protomolecule allusion is a little weak, but I see where you're coming from.

You analysis of the Bicams is pretty watertight,
but it still fails to explain why they all died,
unless then intended for Valerie to die also and have another Bicam chapter pick Bruks up.

>>10507883
It's pretty constant throughout. It's short enough that you might as well finish it, I think general boredom of the entire novel is kind of its point.

>>10507594
Sauce on the image?
Animu Colombo style adaptation of Asimov sounds fun.

>>10508417
https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=15810897

>>10506549
>recent books people are mildly interested in but don't really care enough to read
Bear and the Nightingale

New Thread
>>10508558
>>10508558
>>10508558

>>10501245
>>10501245
I specifically felt the need to avoid prescribing Byron's poetry; I merely recommended for Anon to read ABOUT HIS LIFE, as this was really the most relevant part of Byron to our discussion.

To that poster, I would recommend reading Byron's poetry if the aspects of his life that we discussed appeal to you.

>>10501047
>>10501022
Also read about the Byronic Hero