/lit/ - Literature

100 years of Solitude might not exactly be fantasy but its a lot better than Lord of the Rings

Gormenghast

>>10868644
>my rose tinted glasses feel GOOD and I REFUSE to take them off
Nice thread OP

>>10868644
Start with victorian depictions of religion.

This is where most fantasy comes from and holds some of the first originals of fantasy produced for 'entertainment' and not actual depictions of which is holy.

>>10868687
You're not wrong. This was more of a desperate cry for help on my part disguised by smugness - I've been desperately craving some epic fantasy for a while and I can only reread The Silmarillion so many times. I decided I trusted /lit/ more than the shills i'd get from a Google search.

>>10868652
It's not really fair to say one of the best works in the western canon is better than that children's book. Plenty of things are better than LotR, that's not the question.

>>10868715
Well ill tell you Malazan and you can take it or you can leave it

>>10868715
Try Elric of Melnibone or Book of the New Sun. They're not as good as Lord of the Rings but they get recommended here quite often when talking about fantasy books.

>>10868644
okay so what's the deal with the crowder meme? It is meant to be funny or is it a sneer?

I think it's pretty funny; do liberals use it to make fun of him?
Is it only a proto-meme?

>>10868743
It's a meme for anyone to use but when liberals use it it's not funny and annoying.

>>10868748
liberals trying to make memes like the right does is akin to DC trying to make movies like Marvel does

>>10868693
This.


Dantes inforno is a great comedy that should not be attatched to actual religion.
He self inserted to make this obvious.

>>10868644
Hyperion Cantos

The Cosmere as a whole by Brandon Sanderson. All of LotR takes place on the land known as middle earth, a single planet. All of Sanderson's books take place in the same UNIVERSE, on each PLANET a totally new magic system exists. Some characters have developed the ability to "world-hop" resulting in cameos that span galaxies. Stormlight Archive for example is by itself a contender for the next big epic fantasy with its magnificent world building.

>>10868644
Nothing's better, but Gormenghast, Gene Wolfe's books, George MacDonald, and jonathan strange and mr norrell are all pretty good

BotNS is better written, though I admit Tolkein struck something purer in LotR.

>>10868644
I think the main reason for this is that he was one of the founding cornerstones of fantasy, and also that he had a major scholarly background in terms of knowledge of European myths and also languages.

You just need someone as rigorous to come along, with a half good sense of writing ability and a big imagination.

>>10868644
To start with fantasy is a shit genre. That said, given the limitations of the genre, this wasn't awful.

>>10868715
Way of Kings

>>10868888
quads confirm! based! save mistborn for last and stormlight for first, because stormlight is great and mistborn fucking sucks

>>10868644
John Crowley -- Little, Big or The Solitudes
Mervyn Peake -- Titus Groan
George MacDonald -- Lilith or At the Back of the North Wind
William Morris -- The Well at the World's End

>>10869222
and trips confirm sanderson yet again! very nice

Mythago Wood
Anything by Gene Wolfe
Mists of Avalon
The Broken Sword

>>10869222
>>10868888
Trips and quads for The Way of Kings. Found your book op

>>10868644

lord of the rings is literally just a ripoff of der ring des nibelungen

>>10869250
Little, Big
Declare
Evangeline Waltons Mabinogion

>>10868644
This will sound pleb as fuck but I unironically think the belgariad series is better than Lotr

>thread full of Sanderfag shills trying to bring misery upon OP
did you honestly not read OP's earlier post?
>"I decided I trusted /lit/ more than the shills i'd get from a Google search."
have some respect, guys, please

>>10868715
Lmao kid people here get their taste from goodreads recommendations and quick google searches. Just like /mu/, /lit/ is not as patrician as it thinks it is. Just look at the faggot who recommended the way of kings.

>>10868644
Yeah, I mean the guy invented fucking languages and he hadn't even finish his folklore by the time he died. Hard to beat that.

The only sff to surpass Tolkien

>>10869579
Oh my god this series is fucking awful. What did you like about it?

>>10868644
Is this the defining meme of 2018?

>>10868731
>Elric of Melnibone
Don't read this OP. It's pulpy boring trash. Botns is good.

Patrick Rothfuss's Name Of The Wind easily trumps LoTR, in prose, depth, meta-layers, themes, enjoyability, etc

>>10869690
you mean the cuck book? I'll pass!

>>10868644
Alan Garner?
But what counts as fantasy? A Christmas Carol? Gogol? Le Peau de Chagrin? Rabelais?

wot is better than lotr don’t (you) me

>>10870283
Wot is good, if you can get through the slump in the middle

>>10868644
I dunno if I consider it better, but the Kingkiller chronicles is worth it.

>>10868644
most other things people are suggesting is unironically horrible disgusting trash (hyperion, elric, and asoiaf). try worm ouroborus, its the only thing that pops into my mind that can even approach Tolkien

book of the new sun is good but both nothing like tolkien and not on the same level as him either. or maybe just try good singles like the broken sword

>>10868644
Nothing will surpass LotR

that being said try the shadow & claw by gene wolfe or whatever that series is called. I've yet to read it myself

>>10868755
So shitty washed out predictable memes filled with pretentious jokes?

>>10868755
Anarchist memes are the only true memes
>Inb4 how is this at all political
You just don't get it.

>>10868644
Robert E. Howard is a fine constestant to the throne

What was Boromir supposed to represent? Most of the narrative unfolds fairly conventionally, with the forces of good overcoming the forces of evil. Most of the characters, while well-written and engaging, are also very clearly morally aligned. Boromir is an exception to all of this. He's a very conflicted individual and ends up being killed. I feel like it's meant to say something.

>>10871275
I think Tolkien just wanted to show to corrosive effect of the ring on lesser mortals (thereby justifying the fellowship not following frodo) and ended up writing a well rounded character by mistake

>>10868755

>akin to DC trying to make movies like Marvel does

So, what liberals are doing is akin to creating undying kino of unending brilliance, technically achieved, kino in an almost Joycean dialogue with the western literary and philosophical canon that came before it, inspired in a degree that it would make an atheist reconsider if only he could see the radiance of Snyderkino, whereas the right are creating fast-food garbage of no enduring merit, that is actively ruining western culture and will hopefully be forgotten by history as it has been forgotten by God?

>>10868722
it's not a children's book

>>10868652
It is fantasy. Magical Realism is a spook.

>>10868779
>Dante
>Victorian

Prince of Nothing

Fuck lit is GAY

>>10871328
fantasy is a spook

>>10869639
You may be the wrongest person ever to exist.

>>10869579
jack vance wrote fantasy? what the fuck?

>>10871328
>no swords
>no dragons
>no hobbits

gey

>>10869250
>Anything by Gene Wolfe
Basically this

>>10870751
>always shill worm ouroboros whenever i have the chance
>no anons ever reply or seem interested

>>10873326
fine, what is it?

>>10873326
>The Worm Ouroboros is a heroic high fantasy novel by English writer Eric Rücker Eddison, first published in 1922. The book describes the protracted war between the domineering King Gorice of Witchland and the Lords of Demonland in an imaginary world that appears mainly medieval and partly reminiscent of Norse sagas

>The Worm Ouroboros is often compared with J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (which it predates by 32 years). Tolkien read The Worm Ouroboros, and praised it in print.

>Also, while The Lord of the Rings is written mostly in modern English, Eddison wrote The Worm Ouroboros largely in sixteenth-century English, making use of his experience translating Norse sagas and reading medieval and Renaissance poetry; a nearly unique approach among popular fantasy novels

>The tale's morality has also been described as uncommon in modern fantasy; in particular, it differs sharply from Tolkien's heroism of the common man in a fight against evil and C. S. Lewis's Christian allegory. The Demon lords hold to the Old Norse warrior ethic of loyalty and glory. The leaders of Witchland are regarded as noble and worthy opponents; in the final chapter, Goldry Bluszco compares them very favorably with the "uncivil races" of Impland.

>“But because day at her dawning hours hath so bewitched me, must I yet love her when glutted with triumph she settles to garish noon? . . . Who dares call me turncoat, who do but follow now as I have followed this rare wisdom all my days: to love the sunrise and the sundown and the morning and the evening star.”

>>10873741
heh oops. meant to reply to >>10873588

>>10873741
Too bad you didn’t read it or else you could've told us this yourself

>>10873773
what a weird thing to say and yes i did read it

Brian Catling - The Vorrh
Mervyn Peake - Titus Groan
Kazuo Ishiguro - The Buried Giant
Brian McNaughton - The Throne of Bones

These are four that I read and enjoyed immensely. Bear in mind that I am not a fan of contemporary genre fiction and based my recommendations on the following criteria: atmosphere, strangeness, strength of prose.

>>10868644
Little, big by Crowley

>>10873741
Eddison's later trilogy is subtler and in some ways more accomplished, but just as pure story, the Worm is hands down one of the best things I've ever read, and yeah, I'd agree LotR doesn't hold a candle to it.

It's high, high fantasy, that elevates violence and boyhood hijinks to an art form – bants and swagger and derring-do and dark magic, sacking castles, burning ships, throwing garbage at parley parties, climbing mountains, goring manticores, sleeping with ancient spirits, riding pegasi. Totally wild.

>>10874456
>>10873741
its the only book other than don quixote that i cried to at the end. don quixote doesnt count though because sir vantes cheated and tossed in a cheap shot right at the end of what i thought was just a wacky comedy of misfits knights

>tfw i will never die a warriors death but instead grow old and die in peaceful boredom

>>10868888
Lol. This is the stupid shit that fantasy readers think makes a book better. It has a bigger world!!!! So much worldbuildng!!!! Grow up.

>>10868888
this doesnt sound like a good reason to read a book. also youre just describing magic the gathering planes and planeswalkers

>>10873785
I mean you could have summarized it yourself instead of just lazily copy pasting wikipedia

>>10869669
Elric is awesome though. Not particularly good prose, but highly imaginative.

Dune is better than LOTR desu

try terry goodkind op you'll be probably think it's bad at first but just read every single thing he's written and then you'll like it probably i swear

Alright, Discworld's real focus is on comedy rather than fantasy, though the comedy sometimes comes from fantasy tropes. But I will still say: if you haven't read Terry Pratchett. He was the first author whose works I found particularly funny. You can read the books in any order - I first read the "Guards! Guards!" and the following series.

Also despite not focusing on fantasy, I think Pratchett's world is still, in all it's comicality, pretty well though out.

>>10874456
I think LotR is better, but the Worm is marvelous. The wrestling scene was when I knew it was something excellent

David Gemmell
Joe Abercrombie

>>10870751
Thisssssss

I'm reading Mistress of Mistresses now and loving it.

>Must the Gods make haste, for Whom no night cometh?

>>10875573
I miss Pratchett senpai :(

>>10875792
>Mistress of Mistresses
I've always liked Zimiamvia more than Worm Ouroboros but that could just be nostalgia and I read it first, still a pretty good introduction to Eddison regardless.

>>10876196
How would you compare Eddison to Tolkien?

>>10868644

>>10868743
>I want to know if I'm allowed to laugh, please tell me if this is compatible with my politics

>>10868644
If you're talking about the fantasy genre proper, that's absolutely correct. Absolutely. All other high/epic fantasy is simply derived from Tolkien.

>>10876558
When a quote intended to sell a book contains an expression of insecurity, you know you're dealing with a toxic genre.

>>10873325
Fuck yeah dude, ever read the wizard knight?

>>10868644
ITT: utter simps

>>10868888
This post is reddit

>>10877482
yeah only complete autists get thru the drag of a first book

first it was a tabletop game then a movie script that he eventually lazily translated into a book

it's shit

>>10868888

I've read 7 Sanderson books, including Oathbringer and the others, and while they're largely entertaining they're definitely nothing *more* than entertaining. There are lots of other books with better worldbuilding, and the stuff you mention with plane hopping and shit is just juvenile.

>>10869690

You're trying too hard, gotta be more subtle. This isn't /b/

Karl Edward Wagner

>>10868644
Why don't you read sci-fi instead, OP?

>>10868743
>what's the deal with the crowder meme
Crowder would put up signs like "there are only two genders change my mind" and then argue with random people in the street for hours, he got a few of them to become uncucked however most of them remained libtard. Why did he do that? Because conservatives can no longer debate with liberals in a civilized manner in universities without some kind of organized attack from antifa larpers or without having their entire event canceled by the college staff, so they might as well argue unannounced in the street with randos like ancient Greek philosophers.

>>10877054
If that is the Arthurian one then yes it's great.

amazing series , i wish they would continue the comic adaption

Conan and Berserk

>>10868644

Speaking of Tolkien, what else should I read besides The Hobbit and LotR? I'm going through LotR now, but I'm interested in The Silmarillion afterwards.

Has anyone read The Child of Hurin or Beren and Luthien? My library has them and I was wondering if they're worth a read.

Berserk

>>10880266
>The Child of Hurin or Beren and Luthien
They are both standalone stories so you can read then whenever.

>>10870283
Dropped Wheel of Time after 200 pages. Laughably boring read

>>10868722
>story is well over 1000 pages long
>children's book

>>10876196
Yeah I still need to finish but so far a would say I like Mistress even more than Worm, and I'm looking forward to the others.

Despite how a lot of reviews describe the morality of Worm, it is pretty cut and dry. The Demons are the good guys and the Witches are the bad guys. (The Witches are also more interesting as characters, imo). But so far at least Mistress is not like that at all. Obviously we're supposed to be on Lessingham's side, but otherwise there's nothing black and white about it.

>>10880795
worm has the most brainlet reviews iv ever seen of a book. maybe only reviews of starship troopers comes close

its basically just
>omg toxic masculinity

>>10880686
you made the right choice

>>10868888
>magic system

>>10880268
This. Based.

>>10880817
Yeah most of the reviews for it are pretty gay

>>10880758
>brainlet child detected