/lit/ - Literature

What should I read next, girls?

sanderfag a hack

webnovels and litrpgs are NOT novels

>>10550877
this but the opposite

>>10550877
i dont mind "litrpgs" if the actual lit rpgs elements are light.
for example fuck the land. that shit is horrible and really detracts from the whole experience.
but for example super sales on super heroes or alpha world are great. but seriously fuck the land. couldnt even get through the third chapter of the first book. that shit is horrible.

>>10550748
what ARE some good isekai books? Are there any that aren't anime garbage?

>>10550790
Book of Tongues by Gemma Files
MMMMMMMMboy!

>>10550896
daniel black if you dont mind GRI. also has magical engineering.
dark lord by ed greenwood if you can stomach a bleak world that has absolutely nothing god ever happening in it. also theres the bathrobe knight but that is the cliche guy gets trapped in a videogame thing going for it. its pretty great though.

>>10550790
>This will never work out, I mean, how will it even fit?

>>10550904
I'll def. check out 1 and 3. They look like a fun time, but I'm a pussy when it comes to bleak shit, unfortunately. I physically can't finish a book if it's too depressing.

>>10550790
Shades of Grey, Jasper Fforde

>>10550994
sequel never

>>10550994
is that swan humongous or is the guy tiny?

>>10551025
Swans are pretty big normally.

>download a billion science fiction and fantasy books
>can't get motivated to read any of them
I think the problem is I get stuck on wanting to read a super specific thing and can't ever find it exactly the way I'd like it to be so I put off reading anything until I no longer want to read that super specific thing.

Thank you and God bless America.

>>10551025
>>10551071
>I think the problem is I get stuck on wanting to read a super specific thing and can't ever find it exactly the way I'd like it to be so I put off reading anything until I no longer want to read that super specific thing.
dude, i have this same problem it's a real nightmare. I've got a couple hundred books and nothing to read. It has to have the right plot, the right tone, the right prose, the right characters... in the end, I somehow end up just reading fanfiction I have the same problem with movies and tv shows. Even if I WANT to read it- like, there's a sequel to a book I fucking adored, I still just... don't read it.

I just bought The Eye of the World. What am I in for?

>>10550748
What is some other good anime-core like sanderson and will wight stuff?

>>10551121

WoT is comfy as fuck to me.

You will either love it or hate it

Give me a nice smooth short Fantasy story, can even be a trilogy. Generic Fantasy is fine, something enjoyable

>>10550790
Bride of the Man-Horse.

>>10551201
I can only think of YA fantasy novels that I loved as a kid.
Anne McCaffrey's Pern series, of course.
The Wanderer by Bruce Coville,
The Immortals series by Tamora Pierce
Dealing with Dragons series by Patricia Wrede
Narnia (Voyage of the Dawn Treader was my favorite)
Xanth series by Piers Anthony

Huh. I really did stop reading straight fantasy when I was 16 or 17. weird. I never noticed.

>>10551250
source?

>>10550896
Wizard Knight.
Guardians of the Flame.
Chronicles of Narnia.
The Practice Effect.
Dark Lord of Derkholm.
Everworld.

>>10551268
Curse Blood - v1 c1 [batoto].zip-img000069.jpg

>>10551254
Yeah YA is about what I'm looking for. Thanks for the recs, dood

>>10551287
>spoiler
This guy has good taste and you should listen to him.

>>10551296
wew oops.

>>10551250
mmmmm, saucy

>>10551298
>Yeah YA is about what I'm looking for.
In that case
>>10551254
>Dealing with Dragons series by Patricia Wrede
>>10551287
>Dark Lord of Derkholm.
Seconding these

>>10551250
Wait a minute... This joker has six legs!

>>10551007
His atrocious official website still cites 2016 as the release date, in a 2016 interview he said :
>I like this book, but it has had disappointingly low sales - although things are picking up now. I'm planning on writing a sequel as the bokk after the book after the book I'm working on now, so maybe 2019. Sorry. I tried to clone myself, but all he did was argue and now I have to keep him in the basement.
It might come out eventually. I've read five Thursday Next books of his in the meantime, which were OK if a little hectic.

>>10551025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXc07xDtqkw

>>10551347
I AM A MAN-HORSE NOW

>>10551353
AND YOU'RE A RHINOCEROS!

>>10551198
Codex Alera

>>10551201
Read all of Thune's Vision. Absolutely amazing short stories.

>>10550877

litrpgs are literal trash, but still waiting on recs for good webnovels

Can someone recommend me one of the following if you've read any of these? I dont know which book to pick out of this list

>The Eye of the World: Book One of The Wheel of Time
>Sabriel
>Ascension: The Trysmoon Saga, Book 1
>Age of Myth: Book One of The Legends of the First Empire
>Red Sister: First Book of the Ancestor

>tfw 4 hour late
POSTAN

>>10550748
>what novels are you expecting to be released this year?
None, more or less. I try to read at least some contemporary sff so I guess I'll have to pick something up. Or maybe I'll just read Oathbringer and count that as 2018.
>how many are you expecting to read?
40-50 based on last years number and my current reading pace.
>which series will you drop in 2018?
In an ideal world ASoIaF, hopefully Kingkiller but most likely nothing because I'm a filthy completionist.

>>10551514
Sabriel. Unless you want to waste 4 months on epic fantasy, in that case WoT.

>>10550748
>what novels are you expected to be released?
i have no idea. theres no time for contemporary sffg when theres such a big backlog
>how many are you expecting to read
none
>which series will you drop?
the dark tower series

Webnovels are novels too

>>10551397
re:write is the evangelion of webnovels
https://whocaresnovels.com/about/

>>10550896
also this >>10551715 , kinda

>>10550748
>what novels are you expecting to be released this year?
Elysium Fire, out in a week, will probably have read within a month.

>>10551793
pic related

>>10550375
>>10550245
It is a gimmick. Drop it.
He continues to cry about "'m a leper" all fucking book. If I could sacrifice my dog to kill the anon who recommended me that book years ago I would.
And i love my dog.

>>10550748
>>what novels are you expecting to be released this year?
Iron Gold, though I guess it's out. Not nearly as much anticipation as Morning Star had.

>>10550877
didn't gaiman publish some book as a webnovel first

There's no reasonable argument against them being novels, hell a lot of books used to be published in parts when magazines were at their peak

>>10551514
Red Sister is good, Sabriel is nice for YA, I don't like WoT it's too slow and generic

Can't recall anything about the others

This is what I like.

>>10551820
Do not listen to this utterly tasteless individual.

>>10551595
This is nice. I approve.

>>10551514
>The Eye of the World: Book One of The Wheel of Time
>Sabriel
These are good

>>10550904
When is Daniel Black 4, Wild Wastes 3, and Super Sales 2&3 coming out?????????
RRRRRRREEEEE

>>10551514
Recommend sabriel and trysmoon saga.
Sabriel is ya and trysmoon is mature.

>Wot is shit
>Sullivan should have stopped with the Riyria books, the females in age of myth(specifically book 2) are annoying boarding on cringe inducing
>Lawrence should have stopped with the broken empire trilogy, red queen was utter shit, and red sister is looking untrustworthy

>>10550748
Why is this so much better than A Song of Ice and Fire?

>>10552017
>tell guy the truth
>memeer who doesn't read just wants lulz and to be contrary

>>10551946
This is for you then. Enjoy <3

>>10551392
Not on bibliotik or mobilism :-(

>>10552317
If there aren't space Romans I don't care.
Not entirely true, VY Canis Majoris goes supernova in Count to Infinity and that was pretty cool.

Is it possible for fantasy to also be scary? Scary by modern standards. Lovecraft doesn't really scare me. It showcases the fear of the unknown, but the unknown isn't as scary as it used to be. We're too used to "dragons," as in, "unimaginable power encapsulated in an unreal creature." That "dawning sense of helplessness," or dread, that stuff like King horror novels rely on, just doesn't translate very well to fantasy, I think - we as readers know too much. I don't know, I don't see it working, but I haven't read much modern fantasy that tries to scare. (The last I can remember is fuckin' Goosebumps as a kid.) What do you think? Have you read any fantasy that scared you?

>>10551121
Pure kino

>>10552436
Hull zero three
Let the right one in
The strain by del toro
Mutation by Robin cook

Any fantasy about Mesopotamia or a world themed around Mesopotamian mythology?

We really need a list for Amazoncore fant/sf. I don't even know how to go about searching decent-seeming titles through there.

>>10552545
There's a fair bit of historical fiction with Gilgamesh the King being the obvious one. Between the Rivers is fantasy with a mesopotamia standin and finally bakker clearly copied a load of shit from mesopotamia for his books but they're marmite at best and it's more fringe there.

>>10551121
Something that feels a lot like Lord of the Rings up until the last chapter.

>>10552487
These all sound like hot garbage, except for maybe Let The Right One In, but that one still sounds like it only has a 50% shot of being not garbage.) Seems less scary and more just "uncomfortable" based on reviews, though. Care to defend any of them?

r8 my planned Sanderson read order

>>10552487
>Eldritch Palmer
So does this guy actually act like Palmer Eldritch or is he just named for no other purpose other than a spontaneous PKD reference or what.

>>10552300
Fewer POV characters and much comfier.

>>10552317
This would be even cooler if it was up to date and had the stars that are bigger than Canis Majoris. Also that quasar that's like 30 times the size of Pluto's orbit.

>>10553038
What do the Astronomical Units mean?

>>10553215
the (AU) means they are included in the Arcanum Unbounded book, a collection of short stories and novellas.

>>10553038
Sanderson is garbage. Don't let these jerks meme you into wasting your time.

>>10553224
I see. Every day you learn something new.

>>10553226
Is there any specific reason why you think he's garbage?

What would you recommend I read instead?

>>10553232
You have to decide for yourself if you like it or not, and many people obviously do. Don't let some Negative Nancy ruin things for you.

>>10553235
That's the plan, I've heard great things about Sanderson, but there also seems to be some people who really dislike him, I'm just curious why that is.

>>10553241
All the criticisms I remember are "muh anime battles" and "it's badly written" which amounts to absolutely nothing.

Hello, /SFFG/. I may have already bounced this idea around in a similar thread, but I've been away. I would just like some general feedback on a concept I'm thinking about.

The premise is that in a Victorian setting there is a translator who goes on an expedition with a Dr. Livingston type to a part of the world that has suddenly become volcanic. The translator and a member of a kind of Pinkerton agency are the only survivors of an ambush and they have to escape with their lives back to civilization.

Has anyone else read and enjoyed this?

I got the third book the other day, but I'd completely forgotten the plot, so I'm starting again from the first book.

>>10553259
Yes, you've got the set-up. And then what happens? How does the protagonist being a translator factor into anything?

>>10553251
There are two types of writers, broadly speaking. The plot over prose people and the prose over plot people.

In the first category, fit writers like Zahn, Sanderson and PKD.
In the second category, fit writers like Vance, Wolfe and CAS.

Very few writers are capable of blending both, but I feel that authors like GGK and Dan Simmons fit into that category.

>>10553271
>Dan Simmons
I've been disappointed too many times.

>>10553278
>Aeneas and Raul Endymion
I don't understand why anyone would turn their work into a fanfiction parody, but there you go. I feel so bad for de Soya, he was the only decent character in that entire shithole.

>>10553289
*Aenea

>>10553271
>Dan Simmons
>blending plot and prose better than Vance, Wolfe and Clark Ashbro
He doesn't even have better prose than Dick, just a wider vocabulary. You are rating him far, far, far too highly.

>>10553268

Kind of like Flashman, the scoundrel-y translator convinces the rougher guy to trust him even as they get bounced from place to place all in the name of a geological report. They have a bunch of misadventures and then get inadvertently deported back to where they needed to go all along. There's cultural and religious differences, and also moral shit and whorehouses. It's supposed to be light but also kind of grim in terms of like, the main society is probably on the verge of economic collapse, all these guys do is for nothing. Maybe the resolution is that these guys do black comedy Lethal Weapon things around a kind of ecological catastrophic world that would be our late Industrial age because they can't do anything else?

>>10553232
maybe i was exaggerating when i said he's garbage. i'll be honest and say that i haven't read much fantasy except tolkien, wolfe, and some grrm (which i didn't like). his writing never comes close to any of those three, and it makes me wonder why he got so popular in the first place.

the prologue for the way of kings was so cheesy and stupid that i couldn't finish the rest of the book. the part that really got to me was when some guards ask the dude who is anime running along the walls if he's a man or a god or some shit, and he responds with "i'm... sorry" before he slices them up with his "shardblade."

if the prologue is at all indicative of what's in the real meat of the books then sanderson is not worth the time.

>>10553310
Well that seems alright. I like a good picaresque.

>>10553317
I see.

I'm going to give it a shot anyway and see how I like it, I don't think I really mind if it's a bit cheesy or "anime".

>>10553260
I liked the series a lot. Interesting plots, well written characters, and the books themselves were consistently good through the series and there was a good finite ending.

Just finished the final Robin Hobb trilogy. Bretty gud. I never really grasped what she was going for with the Fool dynamic, but all told she kept it interesting throughout. Marathoned it all in the last ~6 months or so, which I assume probably made for a shallower experience than reading it over the 20 years she wrote it.

Anyone read it over a longer duration?

>>10553410
I haven't read any of that stuff but my journeys through fantasy series will land me there soon, what should I expect?

Any good fantasy/horror with a good sense of humor?

I'm reading the new John Dies At The End book and despite all efforts to stretch out the experience I'm going to be done soon enough

alternatively, is there anything like Worm that isn't Wardens?

Did I fall for a meme or is it as good as everyone says it is?

>>10553241
>I'm just curious why that is
He's basically the definition of a genre writer, his writing is really average and personally I find his autistic magic systems and worldbuilding would fit way better in a role playing rule book than in an actual book. And while there's really nothing wrong with reading a book or two by such an author people get memed into reading 10 and then they continue with 15 more because they're not worthless and muh shared universe. Read Warbreaker and Emperor's Soul if you want to read some Sanderson, out of what I've read they're his best works and they're self contained enough.

>>10553444
> I find his autistic magic systems and worldbuilding would fit way better in a role playing rule book than in an actual book
Is Brandon Sanderson the Yoshirio Togashi of literature?

>>10553414
I would say the strengths are:
-character development. No bullshit 1d characters. No bullshit evil for no reason. Attempts are made at providing motivation/justification for behaviors of all characters good or bad.
-consistent entertainment pacing(e.g. no bullshit clifhanger into boring PoV whiplash)
-a little bit of anime, but she seems to have a made a conscious effort to tone it back for us sensitive westerners
-plot managed to avoid relying on insane amounts of chained coincidences

Weakness is probably:
-The setting isn't built up as well as some others.
-also character development. It's a little repetitive sometimes.
-Some plot is unfortunately brittle in the final trilogy. e.g. If this one minor event hadn't happened, entire subplots wouldn't exist.

>>10553464
>-a little bit of anime
I own hundreds of volumes of manga and I have no idea what that means.

>>10553474
oh come on, what are you doing here

anime is cheap devices to keep a lackluster plot going: power creep, muh power of the spirit, fight for my friends, the heart, love triangles

Like mayonnaise, anime can be good until you notice you're consuming it at which point it may very well ruin the dish.

>>10553487
>what are you doing here
Looking for more books to read, what else?

>>10553487
You say all of this as though it doesn't apply to books as well.

>>10553500
no. click your back links amigo

>>10553038
You could push up Emperor's Soul to #1, and I think you should read Allomancer Jak one book later.

>>10553423
Pic related.

>>10553425
I don't know what you mean by "everyone" -- it is overrated in some circles -- but it's good.

>>10551105
You are afflicted by the unironically crippling problem of not being able to shut down your critical mind because deep down you're convinced you should not. But you should.
What you're describing is an early symptom of becoming a cynical piece of shit who can't enjoy anything in life and who has hated his life ever since the end of his blessed early years, as he remembers them.And who will die alone because he can't enjoy anyone for long either and nobody wants to be around him for long anyway.
Yeah that's future you, so you better start consciously changing your mindset now.

>>10553457
>Is Brandon Sanderson the Yoshirio Togashi of literature?
I have literally no idea. He's like the Blink-182 of fantasy.

>>10551121
The Eye of the World and the next 2 books are very good. Then it becomes imply good for a while, Then you reach the low point of the series before it becomes pretty good again, a little before the Sanderson part, which is at best adequate.

>>10553457
Yes and no. He tries to subvert it but Togashi mixes genres better and unlike Togashi Sanderson actually writes shit rather than going on hiatus.

>>10553758
> and unlike Togashi Sanderson actually writes shit rather than going on hiatus
Why must you hurt me like this. I'll take a prolific discount Togashi gladly though.

>it’s an Alastair Reynolds doesn’t know the difference between clips and magazines episode

>>10553769
Sanderson's also way more shounen and by the book than Togashi who likes to directly subvert tropes.

>>10553019
>Care to defend any of them?
No. Read them or not. I don't give a shit.

>>10553260
>tfw no undercover agent giving up the pusseh to the barbarian

>>10553038
This may help.

>>10553271
>R&M
>Simmons being a good author
Consider killing yourself any time, faggot. Y'all kids seem to get into some crazy shit when I go to bed.

>>10553457
No because Sanderson actually puts out content instead of playing DQ for ten hours a day and complaining about his back.

>>10553294
People also rate wolfe far too highly.

>>10553425
>everyone
It isn't called the three meme problem for no reason.
What you see are fellow china meme pushing the book to quicken the inevitable fall of the west.

>>10552327
Buy the ebook off Amazon. It's cheap and you really won't regret it. Thune's Vision has some of the best short fantasy and sci-fi stories I've read ever and all from the same writer. It's a shame no one knows who is he, but I guess that's because he exclusively only writes short fiction for now.

>>10552436
>Is it possible for fantasy to also be scary?
Sword and Sorcery was basically fantasy + horror. Or at least a strong strain of horror running through it.

>>10552303
I'm sure it is the truth from a certain perspective, but your developmentally stunted insight isn't necessarily useful to everyone else ;)

>>10553425
Obama loved this series
how do you all feel about it now?

>>10554187
Then obviously they're not worth bothering with

>>10554335
Yeah, but does it scare you?

>>10554423
Fine, Obama is a decent guy. If it was Trump then it would have been a different story.

>>10554331
Alright, mister. I spent a whopping THREE American fun bills on this anthology so it better be good!

>>10554423
>implying I'd let the fact that someone else like/dislike a book change my opinion on the book

>>10554355
>not appreciating someone saying "I'm a leper" and "don't touch me" ad infinitum throughout a book is clearly the signs of a developmentally stunted insight
>defending a book because you read it when you were a kid isn't a stunted insight though
Hmm. Okay then.

>>10554239
Wherever you rate Wolfe he's about a hundred times the author Simmons is.

>>10554331
I wasn't impressed with Gift of the Ob-men. It felt like a mechanical imitation of the old stories. Do you know what I'm talking about?

>>10554437
Is it possible for a book to scare you? I've never read anything that managed to pull it off, but it's not like I've been looking for it.

>>10553271
Weird Tales were onto a winning thing when they had both Clarke Ashton Smith and Lovecraft writing short stories for them, with HPL's plotting prowess (all of this steady foreshadowing and buildup towards a conclusion, through arrangements of fictional rumours, local lore and testimonies, is deftly done) and the prose-craftmanship and worldbuilding of CAS, with a lot of revising and rewriting. They very well embody the two polar opposites of a plot writer and a pure stylist.

>>10554486
upload it so the rest of us can enjoy it

>>10554629
>mfw I'm extremely curious about a lot of indie SFF but I don't have money
>mfw I read more mainstream stuff because that actually gets pirated

>>10554629
I have no idea how to rip/crack ebooks.
>>10554641
Same.

Well, speaking of Amazoncore, I can recommend the Sword of Bayne trilogy. It is a short journey and if you don't like the entirety of the first book then you probably shouldn't continue. It goes in a completely unexpected direction. Also it is free!

https://www.amazon.com/Baynes-Climb-Sword-Ursian-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B0049H94XE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1516294516&sr=8-2&keywords=sword+of+bayne

>A #1 Best Seller in Amazon's Epic Fantasy!

>**Updated! Now professionally edited**

>Raised and trained in seclusion at a secret fortress on the edge of the northern wilds of the Kingdom of Ashai, a young warrior called Rezkin is unexpectedly thrust into the outworld when a terrible battle destroys all that he knows. With no understanding of his life’s purpose and armed with masterful weapons mysteriously bestowed upon him by a dead king, Rezkin must travel across Ashai to find the one man who may hold the clues to his very existence.

>Determined to adhere to his last orders, Rezkin extends his protection to an unlikely assortment of individuals he meets along the way, often leading to humorous and poignant incidents.

>As if pursuing an elite warrior across a kingdom, figuring out who he is and why everyone he knows is dead, and attempting to find these so-called friends and protect them is not enough, strange things are happening in the kingdom. New dangers begin to arise that threaten not only Rezkin and his friends, but possibly everyone in Ashai.

o i am laffin

>>10554842
>Ashai
Stealing from GoT.

>>10554527
>defending a book because you read it when you were a kid isn't a stunted insight though
I know this is one of your favorite memes (you bring it up often enough), and I did read plenty of dubious material as a youngster, but rest assured I read TC for the first time in 2017.

>>10554842
ive actually read kings dark tidings.
the way hes sheltered from the world and how he begins to interact with people is actually fucking hilarious. i had many of feeling ashamed on his behalf because of how oblivious he is to the outside world.

>>10555006
many moments*

>>10554441
Nice try, Barack.

>>10555006
is that a rec, or not?

>>10555050
its alright if you have nothing to read.
the audiobook is decent.
its not "GREAT" however.
just alright.
the story is predictable and cliche but the characters and the situations coupled with the mcs obliviousness to pretty much fucking everything make it a fun read.

>>10555006
>fish out of water bullshit is "hilarious"
you don't consume much media, do you

Can someone please rank PKD's greatest works for me? I got Ubik and another called Valis or something from the library, and I'd like to know if they're good ones, and which ones I should get after if I like these.

>>10555062
actually yeah i havent watched tv in over 15 years.
i dont go to the cinema either. its really just vidya and books for me.

>>10554842
why does the cover look hilariously camp? I thought we were past that

>>10554239
What is going on in this pic?

>>10555141
me having sexual relations with ur mum

>>10555064
Ubiq and VASLIS are both excellent.
Three Stigmata is also good, but that's all of his I've read which is worth recommendation. Try his shorter work if you're into that as it's consistently pretty excellent also.

>>10555064
Valis as a trilogy is pretty good. He gets into his gnostic/mystic exploration which is intriguing if you're into that sort of thing. He considered that collection to be an exegesis of which he ultimately concludes a meta-conspiracy that time halted when Christ was executed. So we've been spinning our wheels for 2000 years. I'm sure there's more to it but I read it while working night shifts in a psychiatric hospital so it was quite an intriguing read

Is this the right thread to post my story idea, and then you guys laugh at it and rip it to shreds?

>>10555229
Why not both?

>>10555229
>>10555259
Oh, read that as "or will you guys", never mind carry on.

>>10555064
You know, for someone who wrote over thirty books its kind of sad that the people who hang around this general only seems to have read Valis and Ubik. That being said A Maze of Death and Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said are my favorites from him.

>>10555207
>>10555221
>>10555278
thanks

>>10555229
i mean, is it a good idea
just don't have bad ideas
yoi'll be fine

>>10555259
Okay.
The main plot revolves around a lesser God telling a young peasant hunter (female) to visit the five human kings of the region, and complete a challenge/favor for them in order to unite their armies and rebuke an attack from war-cultist elves (and at the same time kill the leading elf warlord that is currently being influenced by malevolent spirits).
She'd go around, collect a party of tagalongs, and have to complete the tasks of the five kingdoms.
It'd be a pretty low/medium magic level, pretty normal contact from a pantheon of Gods, of which she'd get the most conversation/contact with.
I can get into the meat and potatoes of the party and faction descriptions if anyone is interested, but I figured I'd leave it out of the initial dump.
I got the general idea from reading some old fairy tales, and started running with that. Currently have the title penciled in as, "The Five Trials of Juliet LaRoche"

>>10555324
>LaRoche

>>10555331
It was the first thing that came to me, is there something silly about it?

>>10555324
sounds like it would sell as YA
just be sure to write it as such

>>10555336
>Juliet
>LaRoche
if you cant see it i cant help you.

>>10555342
Would YA be okay with a topless swordfight and probably one or two "implied" sex scenes?
I never really read books like those, so I'm not sure where the lines are drawn. I'm not a lofty or good writer, so I'm sure I'd fall down into that range of quality either way.
>>10555360
Please don't bully, anon.

Are these worth reading?

>>10555395
meh
if you are bored and theres nothing else worth reading maybe.

>>10555380
no
take out the creepy sex stuff and just write your story without it

>>10555483
Don't worry, I'm holding the creepy sex stuff for my next book. This would just be pure and consensual hand holding with the means for procreation.

>>10555395
steer away from the second unless you love Jews

>>10555506
fade to black and sexual innuendos/flirting are fine for YA.
doing two pages of describing the consistency of semen and why a women enjoys gargling it is a no go though for YA.

>>10552300
Because it has an actual ending

>>10555506
well strike the "topless swordfight" too because that sounds stupid anyways
and also creepy

>what novels are you expecting to be released this year?
The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Watts is coming out on June 12th. It's not Firefall #3 but it's still Watts.

>>10551793
>>10551802
Is Prefect good? Reynolds has been hit or miss for me.

>>10555623
You may think it's stupid, but emancipated duels were a very real thing.

>>10551840
I'm a few chapters in. The Darrow stuff is fun but I'm not sure how I feel about the other characters

Opinions on this? I was really excited for it. I enjoyed the first two books a lot, but I'm sort of struggling with finishing this one. I have 200 pages to go. I think Shallan is just getting more and more awful. The magic system is uninteresting, and lots of things seem to exist just for convenience more than anything else. Long distance communication? Spanreed. Traveling? Lashings; you can now fly. Starga-... I mean, Oathgates. Random visions that lol btw u can giv other ppl visions too lol isnt that kool

The world feels so boring and predictable. Shallan fucking took a BOLT TO THE FUCKING FOREHEAD AND DIDN'T DIE BECAUSE LOL STORMLIGHT! That was bullshit. You don't need to George Martin it up, but goddamn, none of the main characters are *ever* in real danger.

>>10555064
Three Stigmata is amazing.
Ubik and Do Androids are great.
Maze of Death is good.
A Scanner Darkly is alright.

I've only read these 5.

>>10555680
They were real and they were stupid. At least put them in sports bras.

>>10555706
No clue but I'm sure reddit has the answer

>>10555380
Don't listen to the other anon, both topless dueling and one or two implied sex scenes would fit perfectly in YA.

>>10555697
I'm close to halfway. Lysander is a boss and Volga is mai waifu but hardboiled cyberpunk fag is boring and red Rwanda is even worse. It's all worth it for the action scenes though.

>>10555706
>stargates
>not waygates
Also I like to think that Shallan going nuts was because the Stormlight couldn't quite fix her frontal lobe up the way it was before.

>>10555573
what's wrong with jews my man?

>>10555774

You're giving Sanderson too much credit

>>10555787
It's my fanon and I will stick to it.

>>10555774
That would be a neat theory. Her going nuts is intentional but I doubt that's the reason why. :-(

>>10555278
im literally going to read a maze of death now, thanks

Do the Earthsea trilogy books still hold up? I haven't read them in probably 20 years, but I'm feeling nostalgic.

>>10555625
I read it a while ago, but I liked it.

>>10555706
Book three is my favorite of the series. It's better than book two in every way. I read all three back to back to back. Maybe you read book two while back and are misremembering its quality.

What novel most encapsulates this image?

>>10555064
cicero is considered a philosopher??

>>10555797
Where in relation to Elantris is the chasm

I know it wouldn't be on the pre-Reod map

>>10555857
The first three books do, but when I get to Tehanu I start losing interest.

>>10555064
Here you go (in order of my favourites)
1. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
2. Ubik
I think that 3S and Ubik should be read together. Prepare for a massive mindfuck.
3. A Maze of Death
Man the fucking ending. This one is slightly weak at the start, but the Building and the tenches on Delmak-O are very Strugatsky brothers if you get what I mean.
4. A Man in a High Castle -> more social scifi. But I enjoyed it very much.
5. Flow My Tears, the Policeman said
It was enjoyable, but I feel completely overrated and felt completely different in tone (celebs, sex, glamour) to the other PKDs.
6. VALIS -> a bit crazy, but also autobiographical. VALIS is a bit fucking weird, especially because some of the people seem to have inspired characters from his other books, like potmaker-chan. I liked PKD's philosophical interludes, but it's quite sf lite
7. DADOES and Martian Timeslip
Currently reading non Dick stuff but Minority Report (the book) was a total mindfuck.
1-4 had the biggest punchline ending. Same with Martian TS but I didn't like the characters as much. These five are the most worth investing in, in my opinion.

The rest are all being conserved.
---
Currently reading Revelation Space by Reynolds where author-kun doesn't really seem to understand human beans and almost everyone appears to be a cold and somewhat emotionless sociopath.

>>10553317

>the prologue for the way of kings was so cheesy and stupid

It is but so far all of fantasy and sci-fi that i've read (which evidently isn't a whole lot) has a "put tons of strange stuff down that reader will understand later" syndrome, it's just that with anderson there is a shitton of books planned so there is a shitton of stuff to put down. Personally I almost dropped it at prologue as well but as it turns out all of the stuff that you've described is pretty grounded i.e. has a believable basis from it. Fights often do feel very anime but in all honesty is it so horrible? Anime usually gets things right, it's cliches work so using them makes sense.

O MY ALPHA LEVEL RECORDING

>>10556233
>It was enjoyable, but I feel completely overrated
By what fucking measure is Flow my Tears overrated? It's barely even rated compared to his more well known works like Man in the High Castle and Androids, much less overrated. Just goes to show how meaningless that term is.

>>10556174

>>10556528
FMT was much more political and I feel that it was designed to have more of a demographic appeal with the celeb theme and the spoonfeeding nature of the epilogue which somewhat undermined the ending. There were some great emotionally charged scenes and other scenes that seemed very heavy handed. I also felt that certain plotlines, which I expected to be covered later, were not mentioned again (although this is not altogether uncommon with PKD).

>DADOES
DADOES is DADOES, it's not possible to read without already knowing all the spoilers so one cannot actually estimate whether or not this book is worthy of the fame/praise attached to it. Plus, it went onto influence a whole bunch of other sff works which reuse its ideas. However, it's probably my least favourite Dick.

>MitHC
I think the biggest letdown of the book was the wandering nature of the plot, but it still had very memorable characters like Tagomi and more of the world seemed fleshed out. Reiss reading The Grasshopper Lies Heavy and being constantly interrupted was also quite amusing.

All good books, but all books with varying levels of appeal.

>Arda mentioned as one of Earth's names in Foundation and Earth

>let_me_go_I_must_let_them_know_I_understood_that_reference.jpg

>>10556660
But my point wasn't about the quality of the books. But more that its popularty as a whole compared to the rest of his works. While not completely lost to the tides of time like his 50's work seems to be in the public conscious it's yet to have its dumbed down adaptation like the two I mentioned for example. In this thread though I'm almost certain that 80% of FMTs mention are my posts, at least it feels that way.

Also I take offence because the term "overrated" is the single most worthless critique in existence because it says nothing about the work itself and instead focusing on the fanbase and whether or not some arbitrary number of people liked it. At best it's a more dickish way to say it's popular. At worst it's a way to present yourself as too cool for school "I'm hip and I know better". I just hate it and it makes my autism boil over. The three are fine books though, though Androids less so than the other two.

>>10556727
>Also I take offence because the term "overrated" is the single most worthless critique in existence because it says nothing about the work itself and instead focusing on the fanbase and whether or not some arbitrary number of people liked it. At best it's a more dickish way to say it's popular. At worst it's a way to present yourself as too cool for school "I'm hip and I know better". I just hate it and it makes my autism boil over.
Well, I can't fault that.

>>10552545
dude, have you read Snow Crash?

>>10556138
>What novel most encapsulates this image?
Anime.

>>10555797
I don't remember any of this shit after reading Elantris. I just remember leapers in a city sitting around.

>>10555769
Oh right, I forgot this came out. How many characters are LGBTQFABBQ and how obnoxious are they about it, the author was saying some shit about adding main character ones.

>>10557014
The viewpoint for the Shadowrun sections was the lover of that one Gray that helped out Darrow in the last book, but he's not that obnoxious about it. The female characters with Skrillex haircuts are more annoying but they're all in the background. The entire first half of the book has been better for this stuff than the first three chapters alone of Sins of Empire.

I will of course amend this if it gets unbearable in the second half.

Any good fantasy / sci-fi with middle eastern / arabic theme? Other than Dune. Gimme all you got.

>main character is called Kilcannon
>book is good
wtf

>>10557051

Dune Messiah

>>10557051
The Fractal Prince.

>>10557082
Are you just a retard or did these threads get populated with 95 percent millenial solution? I didn't post for about a year, they used to be good.

>>10557090
Sounds like shit but I will give it a try, thanks

>>10557095
They were good until you showed up, jerk.

>>10551250
>>>/mlp/

I’m going to fucking hang myself before I’m done with this and I blame you(plural).

>>10557051

The Dread Empire prequel series by Glen Cook (two books) is about the rise of El Murid, a supporting character in the main series:
>The holy wars had begun, his family was slaughtered by bandits. He was abandoned to die in the desert – but he survived, with the help of his god, and became El Murid, the Disciple. Against him rides Haroun ben Yousif, High Prince of sorcery. Their war will soak the desert with magic, and with blood.

Glen Cook's Instrumentalities of the Night series also involves a soldier from a sort of Mamluk soldier getting sent by not-Saladin to spy in Italy and then getting caught up in a bunch of stuff in a sort of pseudo late-crusades period Europe. There's some stuff set in the desert.

Not exactly a Arabian Nights setting but the City of Stairs series is set several hundred years after Fantasy India figured out how to kill the gods of their oppressors, and then beat the everloving shit out of Fantasy Russia.

>>10557051
>a sea of cunny
Too bad I can't sample every single one of them

>Iron Gold
>my honor remains

>>10557374
What is this bollocks?

>>10557673
Aside from true?

>>10557734
Did YOU write it?

>>10557737
yes, obviously, because nobody cool or famous could have an opinion that self-evidently wrong.

>>10554441
>obama is a decent guy
>implying politicians aren't by default, subhuman, and that obama wasn't just as imperialistic, corp-serving, and murderous as his predecessor (both of which far exceed trump as being cunts)

>>10551287
they are all children's book

>>10556124


Very likely

Is this series going to be as pretentious as I think it is or is it good?

>>10557899
what do you think
>At age 42, Wright converted from atheism to Christianity, citing a profound religious experience with visions of the "Virgin Mary, her son, and His Father, not to mention various other spirits and ghosts over a period of several days", and stating that prayers he made were answered.[8] In 2008, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church, of which he approvingly said: "If Vulcans had a church, they'd be Catholics."

>>10557907
Well now I'm just confused.

>>10557911
It's as pro-religion as Clarke is anti-religion, but this gets some anons butthurt so they post that pic of him tipping a fedora and that quote about Catholic Vulcans every time he gets brought up.

It's going to be pretentious in a lot of ways and not as good as it could have been but it's very good and it's different. It's basically about this Texan gunslinger trying to rescue the princess of Monaco from his former best friend, a wicked Spanish don, except it takes them billions of years and by the end they're throwing galaxies at each other.

>>10557959
That sounds like some excellent pulp desu

>>10555706
>Shallan fucking took a BOLT TO THE FUCKING FOREHEAD AND DIDN'T DIE BECAUSE LOL STORMLIGHT! That was bullshit.

This is a problem with your own paradigm. The entire premise is that there's a spiritual, cognitive, and physical realm. That's what all of the events and powers in the story are based on. Her physical form got damaged-- so what? The series previously established the cognitive and spiritual realms. Why should the physical realm hold any special precedence? You're imposing some bizarre scientific materialism onto a fantasy story that has no obligation to play by the rules you've been indoctrinated into believing.

>>10558247
It's directly inspired by Skylark of Space and the Lensman series.

>>10554423
Well, I voted for him twice, and Hillary, also I loved this series. Before you REEEEE!!!!! out at me, I've been here since /new/ and Trumptards are more annoying than flat-earthers and furries combined

>>10558281
B-but the God Emperor though! He's not even overweight or anything guise!

>>10553067

I haven't read Palmer Eldritch, but Eldritch Palmer is basically just the evil old rich man trying to prolong his life by means of a dark bargain trope.

>>10558281
I voted for Trump twice (primaries) and I liked TBP, and I've been here since before Geass Sundays, and I don't care who likes what I like because I'm not an insecure faggot.

>>10553317

I've read more fantasy than you but am also astounded by how much lower the bar is, on average, than it ought to be. I'm reading the Powder Mage right now and the characters are unlikeable, the plot is predictable, the prose is tolerable at best, and I don't care about "magic systems", but for some reason I'm still reading this schlock, I guess it's a similar effect to the pull of certain bad tv shows which I acknowledge are trash but watch anyway.

>>10558281
>>10558342

I voted for him once missed the primary and have no interest in TBP because everyone in here makes it sound unbearably autistic and I'm not big on scifi anyway

>>10558296

He is, but he's not obese. Dr. Admiral was able to get that much out, amidst the barrage of CNN questions about the Presidential Colonoscopy. He was also literally and officially certified with a 30/30 score on the GBT (Good Brain Test), deal w/it

>>10558342
>>10558365
good goyim

Finished Iron Gold. Still that strange combination of clunky YA prose and poetic dialogue. He has to be doing it on purpose. The Red Rwanda viewpoint feels shoehorned in there but isn't too bad, and Lysander more than makes up for it. There's romance here, the old kind, honor and adventure.

>>10558332
Thanks anon-sama.

Show me some kino fantasy covers.

>>10557465
I like Glen Cook through Black Company so I might try this. Even though I hated his India parables in BC.

>>10558664
>dat cover
Nothing lasts forever, soon Klapistan will look like those entry pillars.

>>10557465
The fat fool in dread empire reminds me of krupper from Malazan.

>>10557673
I’m taking a class on Russian Sci-Fi; this is from one of the readings.

>>10558417
seems like i'll be taking a pass, unless there's some gri involved?

>>10558417
Are you the same person who praised age of myth and age of swords?
I must understand when you say the PC pandering was "that bad".

>>10558664
Fuck off with image spam, this is a discussion thread. Go make a thread about fucking covers, don't spam here.

>>10558664
Holy shit. I have a book on mythology with that exact image on the cover

Can anybody recommend some funny fantasy books/series

It would be greatly appreciated

>>10558941
Wouldn't surprise me, the artist's speciality seems to be medieval style stuff and he has that picture being used on like 5 different books

http://www.john-howe.com/portfolio/gallery/details.php?image_id=45&sessionid=efakle4nj8p2c2qqk74etu86l6

>>10558948
my series

>>10558948
this guys >>10558977 series

>>10558977

Great recommendations thanks

>>10551071
>>10551105
>tfw have been looking for something similar to The Eye of the World and Cugel's Saga for over a year to no avail

What are some good middle grade fantasy for an adult to read?

>>10558992
phantom tollbooth

>>10558952
HUH! Well, the book I've got is Fantasy Encyclopedia and I remember being more enchanted by the cover than anything inside.

>>10558901
Fuck off.

>>10558989
>wot
Kys

Welp. Thune's Vision was a disappointment. It only had 4 stories and a novella, I believe, which was to be expected for a ~140pg collection. However, they were all fantasy with the exception of the story about the primitive who accidentally gets on the spaceship and hurls himself into the Sun, that ended up being a neat story. I did like the whole of The Challenger's Garland as well. The novella was waaay too long for a typical "downtrodden MC becomes powerful, gets cocky, dies story" especially since his death was foreshadowed for so long.

I did not think this collection to be anything special.

>>10558899
>Are you the same person who praised age of myth and age of swords?
No.

>>10558992
Diana Wynne Jones.

>>10557051

>>10554423
I wasn't a huge fan of Obama but I'd probably take his advice on a book recommendation.

>>10555064
Of the ones I've read:

Top Tier:
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
VALIS
The Divine Invasion

Good Tier:
The Man in the High Castle
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Ubik
A Scanner Darkly
Later Short Stories

OK Tier:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Early Short Stories

AVOID Tier:
The Unteleported Man/Lies, Inc

>>10557899
It's both pretty pretentious and pretty good. The first book is the worst of the series IMO so if you even sort of like it then keep going.

>>10558247
It is.

>>10558989
>The Wheel of Time
Try Malazan, Amber, or Memory/Sorrow/Thorn.

>Cugel the Clever
Have you read the Rhialto stories? They get shit on a bit but I liked them.

>>10559050
>I did not think this collection to be anything special.

>>10550748
I haven't read any other sanderson.
How bad is the Stormlight Archive going to get?
Apparently the next book focuses on eshonai and shallan

Have anyone finished Iron Gold yet?
Worth it?

>>10559386
The focus goes like this
1. Kaladin
2. Shallan
3. Dalinar
4. Eshonai
5. Szeth

I don't know why people are complaining. Oathbringer was easily better than WoR.

>>10559254
First one was fun enough, guess I'll keep going.

I know I'm going to get shit on for this, ('cause I'm a writing newbie,) but would anyone mind giving me their thoughts regarding the plot of a short story I'm writing? It's a sword & sorcery romp about a young barbarian.

>protag is captured on a pirate slaver ship.
>The ship becomes stranded on a deserted island not far from the mainland.
>The pirates aboard the ship begin searching the island.
>protag sees the pirates fighting with natives with a tied girl lying nearby
>protag saves the girl, who tells him about a nearby shelter
>They go to the shelter which is actually a temple
>The temple belongs to the mistress of the natives
>The mistress informs them of a storm coming that will destroy the entire island
>protag goes to leave, but is stopped by the girl as she informs him of treasure on the island
>They argue over whether they should take the time to get the treasure, or whether they should just leave
>The girl acts as if she agrees with protag, but secretly leads him to the native’s village
>She betrays him and locks him in their settlement where he must fight and escape
>Eventually he’s free and catches up with her at the makeshift port made by last surviving pirates
>in trying to flee, she spills all of the treasure she stole at the native's settlement
>Eventually protag catches up to her and ties her up
>They find a small boat in time for the storm to come
>They row away as the island is ripped to shreds by a supernatural storm
>Protag informs her that he’s sailing back to the mainland and jokes that he’s going to sell her into slavery (But lets her go when they get to dry land)

Any advice or thoughts?

So I just tore through pretty much everything Gaiman has ever written, most rereading, some stuff for the first time. Can anyone give me some authors with a similar style? The content matters less to me than the style but I always appreciate his brand of modern fantasy.

>>10559405
I have. It's worth it.

Literally every problem in the book is the result of Darrow's hubris in the prologue.

Volga>>>>>>MILF Mustang>Ronna>Appolonius>Seraphina>Cyra=Min-Min>Sophocles>>Holiday>Sophocles' stool sample>>>>Lyria

HBO's making a movie adaptation of Farenheit 451... with Michael B Jordan as the MC...

>>10558365
>literally one pound away from being clinically obese

You do realize that as the doc is a serving military officer, the president can order him to lie?

>>10558664

>>10558948
>>10558986

Pratchet gets shit on a lot and I've only read the Moist von Lipwig books, but I liked those. The Black Company books also have a good sense of humor (or at least one that I enjoy) sprinkled amidst a narrative that is not comedy-centric. I guess it constitutes comic relief.

>>10558899
>>10559152

I was really disappointed to hear that the female characters ruined LotE because the sample chapter (male characters only) had kind of sold me on it.

>>10560732
How the fuck did people get away with drawing shit like this and claiming they were heterosexual?

>>10560809
The human body as art has always been a thing. Sexualization is your problem. Stop knowing other men.

>>10560809
>1970s
>no out artists
come on now

>>10560035

How long do you envision it? My first concern would be pacing, with the amount you have outlined you could end up either above 20,000 words or with something that feels too rushed. You have to expand on many of those bullet points a fair deal (at least a page or two) to avoid seeming rushed, I think. It really just depends on how you implement this outline, nothing leaps out as awful or ingenious, it has the potential to go either way. I would think either characterization (particularly a charismatic MC) and/or interesting setting would be the key ways to make it stand out and not just be generic fanfic-tier stuff

>>10560826
>stretching out in an explicitly female pose, accentuating long, svelte legs
>those calfs
>pants are ripped to shit
>shirt isn't
>that fucking loincloth looking piece
>thighs spread
>leaning on the sword
if you're going to make an argument, how about you try not being retarded first.

>>10560831
point.

what are you guys going to read this weekend?

>>10560809
Because they were women/drawing for women. Chicks used to dig this.

>>10560835
Thank you for your time and consideration, anon. I appreciate it.

I was thinking around 15,000 words or so, but there really is no limit. I'm mostly writing this piece as an exercise to get back in the swing of things, considering I haven't written anything other than a shitpost in years. I'm not afraid to make it drawn out if I need to, so long as I actually stick to it and finish it.

Just as you've suggested, I was kind of banking on my protagonist and setting being interesting enough to make this piece worthwhile. I spent a lot of time worldbuilding and fleshing out an interesting "not-hyboria" that I wanted to write some stories in, and my main goal for this story is to flesh out a character that I've been thinking about since I was a kid. I have a sort of Conan "clone" that I've daydreamed about and wrote stories about since I was a kid, I'm going to write him in as the protag and build on him as I go.

If this story turns out to be a success, I will just take to writing a series of short stories about him as a hobby. (I might upload them to something like Fictionpress or make a small site dedicated his stories.)

WHEN??????

>>10561450
wild wastes 3 is coming somewhere in august.
super sales 2 is already out. 3 is coming in december. new daniel black probably two years from now.

>>10561450
Well since WW & SS are by the same author so expect a long wait. Think he said WW3 was next and expected Sep 2018.

As for next Daniel Blake (Thrall) it's being written but going slowly and he's already done a big rewrite. So again probably late this year.

>>10561450
This looks like LN tier.

>>10561504
More like LitErotica tier.

>>10561450
william does works 3 months per novel. in a recent blogpost and stream he mentioned hes doing a new two new series. one is called dungeon deposed which is coming soon apparently. after that its a thing under the working title "woman collector" which is under randi darren then it goes onto wild wastes 3 and then super sales 3.
keep in mind he works 3 months per book and he streams almost all his writing on twitch and posts that stuff for his patreons.

>>10561498
>>10561499
FUCK

>>10561504
daniel black is empire building with magical engineering and some erotica.
wild wastes is erotica where a guy goes around fucking monster girls and taking them as wives.
super sales is basically just a super hero book. what makes it unique is the anti-hero angle that is actually quite believable and the first audiobook is so fantastically narrated that it puts million dollar voice acting to shame.

>>10561526
>magical engineering
Need more books like this desu

>>10561450
i can shit on a piece of paper and send it to you, if you want

Made this early so we don't 404 when nobody makes the new thread
Thread dies in 9 posts

New Thread
>>10561509
>>10561509
>>10561509

>>10561514
oh yeah more sad news.
jeff hays which had done all the narration for williams non erotica (otherlife 1-3, ss 1) bailed after working out a schedule with william. if you liked the audiobook this might be a dealbreaker for you. he handed the rights to podium and they got nick podehl to do the narration for ss 2 and 3.

>>10561556
even after the thread hits autosage it still has to hit page 10, retard

>>10561562
I won't be close to a PC for the next couple hours.
I don't feel like coming on and seeing the thread on page 10 and no replacement.
My autism doesn't allow me to let a thread die without a link to the new one.

>>10561557
FUCK JEFF FAGS

>>10561601
did i miss something?
when did people start hating on jeff?

>>10561608
See >>10561557

>>10561647
oh yeah thats understandable.
i dont get why he bailed on william though.
i mean supersales sold so well that william decided to become a fulltime writer because of it.

>>10561660
Does anyone know why Jeff dodged?
Is it because his parents found out he was reading porn for a living?