/lit/ - Literature

>>11841996

Why haven't you read it?

A best

>>11842009
Because I'm still reading Titus Groan.

>>11841996
>Enchanted forest edition

>>11841996
>find book that has an interesting premise
>add to list
>go to twitter to see if author is a raging cultural marxist.
>He's not but he tweets 10 times a day every day and his tweets make me hate him.
>delete from list
Why do all modern fantasy authors seem to do this?

>>11842056
They do not realize that Twitter is a bastion of hatred and discord.

>>11842009
Because there's a negress on the cover.

>>11842009
>Another thing that affected her writing process was the backlashing against the black characters in the film The Hunger Games.
>Adeyemi drew inspiration from Yoruba culture and Western fantasy fiction like Harry Potter and Avatar: The Last Airbender and from both West African mythology and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Beyond cringe.

I'll be gone for a couple of threads but I'll be back in a week to organize the discussion and selection of the next book. Cheers.

>fucking Steerpike

>>11842056
>author tweets fuck drumph
>drop any notions of reading their work
>go to amazon and give one star review

>>11842052
>Bob the deaf dwarf rested a moment on the banks of the sylvan stream. Startled by an ominous gurgling sound, he scanned the opposite bank but discovered only a solitary kingfisher alighted on a twig, swallowing his catch. Enlightenment struck Bob; once again his erroneously placed ear trumpet had amplified his eructations.

>>11841996
Some older threads
>>11820289
>>11804852
>>11795540
>>11780409
>>11763531

>>11841996
Older threads:
>>11820289
>>11804852
>>11795540
>>11780409

>>11841996
Literal Enchanted Forest Chronicles

>>11842093
>Adeyemi has said she wanted to write a fantasy novel set in West Africa so that "a little Black girl [could] pick up my book one day and see herself as the star...I want her to know that she’s beautiful and she matters and she can have a crazy, magical adventure even if an ignorant part of the world tells her she can never be Hermione Granger.

>>11842118
>even if an ignorant part of the world tells her she can never be Hermione Granger.
READ
ANOTHER
BOOK

/tg/ here. Any novels about ascending to a higher plane of consciousness along with drugs and orgies and that sort of thing?

>>11842155
Not SF&F but The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley is great.

>>11842118
>>11842133

What is the existential value of expressing one's identity as a black woman through pop culture?

>>11842168
Well I'm sure the book received a ton of endless praise and glowing reviews based solely on the fact it was written by a black woman so there's that.

>>11842056
There's a toxic be-your-own-brand meme going around, where everybody thinks they need to become a self-promoting public personality with that human connection to their public to get any kind of readership. This may be true, but it doesn't make everybody fit for it.

>>11842155
Elric maybe?

>>11842182
There's nothing wrong at all with creating your own brand through twitter or whatever. It's when you're an frothing lunatic who spews nothing but hatred and conspiracy theories that it becomes an issue.

Wow. I stopped making threads and been away for a month and this general is flushed completely down the shitter.

Why aren't yall reporting the spammers and avatarfaggers?

>>11842199
Waifufags need to go first.

>>11842109
I dislike this sort of naming scheme

>>11840055
There's also the compressed air rifles used early in Napoleonic Wars period, the Powder Mage series has them show up since the titular mages can ignite gunpowder at a distance.

But really one of the main complaints I see is that guns make killing "too easy" for fantasy, which is silly when you've got wizards essentially functioning as human artillery. No, the real reason fantasy authors hate guns is because their precious Duke deStu (while you were threshing wheat he mastered /the blade/) can now get shot off his mighty steed by unwashed levy infantry.

>>11842215

>>11841996
So Starship Troopers (the book, of course) isn't really all that much of a science fiction novel, is it? I'm like halfway through, and it's pretty obviously just Heinlein's ideal government, with a few neat scifi concepts thrown in for good measure.

>>11842155
Dune. At some points. It's really dense.

>>11842118
whats wrong with that?

>>11842198
90% of the twitter so called brands are leftist clones of each other with snarky gay shit in their handle like "Sentence cuddler. Diction doer. Syntax yenta. Author of The Passage trilogy, among other word-things." It's an orgy of narcissistic virtue signaling that produces nothing of value.

>>11842327
nobody tells little niggers they can't be hermoine granger

>>11842330
>It's an orgy of narcissistic virtue signaling that produces nothing of value.
That's twitter in general though.

>>11841938
dont listen to this idiot
seveneves sucked

>>11842330
Passage trilogy is pretty good desu. That's why personal interaction needs to be avoided.

>>11842399
Is the little girl in it black?

>>11842394
t.bh the only Stephenson i've liked was Cryptonomicon, and even then that was partially because I'm interested in the topics he infodumped on in that one

>>11842412
I don't remember but I I'm pretty sure it has a magical negro in it

>>11842422
It's about to be a series on Fox

>>11842439
At least we know it will be cancelled after the first season.

FANTASYFAGS FUCK OFF

>>11841996
Can I get some pretty quotes with an enchanted forest description?

>>11842893
>The temple was rising out of its foundations. Their campfire billowed and grew to life, laughing. The branches and roots sharpened and whipped viciously. Blood climbed up the walls. Black stars coalesced within the dark crimson.

>Then the temple itself sprouted red eyes and turned to look at the beasts of the land. The venerable trees twisted and shrieked, their branches flailing at the birds; blood and fire burst out of doors and windows; earth and stone sprung to life underneath them; dark spread like a plague and the very stars blinked out, and the course was made clear to even the dullest beast. Some men running around were the least of their problems right now.

Wait, that's not pretty.

>>11842118
I think black people are a generally inferior subspecies of humanity and I don't think there is anything whatsoever wrong with either that statement or the philosophy behind it.

>>11842946
I'm neither agreeing nor disagreeing with you, but I would like to discuss fantasy and science fiction and as such wish you would take this line of conversation back to /pol/ where it belongs.

>>11842155
Dune

>>11842941
It's pretty scary. Got any more?

>>11842288
>First mention of a powered exoskeleton
>Detailed description of orbit-to-surface deployment & return mechanics
>Accurately emphasizes decentralization and mobility over protection in future warfare, and correctly notes that this will make human factors more important not less.

?

>>11842155
I’ve never heard of a book like this.
But if you haven’t read these, they’re related
Illuminatus trilogy - Wilson & Shea
Ecstasy Club - Rushkoff
Zod Wallop
Island - Huxley

Back In the ‘60s they were reading
Stranger in a Strange Land
Childhood’s End

.

>>11841996
>Enchanted forest
That's a swamp though

>>11842998
Could be just flooding after a lot of rain.

>>11842288
SST is mostly politics, yes. The MI infantry armor is probably the most "science fiction" part of the book since most of the predicted equipment is carried today, aside from some things like it being a sealed suit of armor or tactical nuke launchers.

>Heinlein's ideal government

Heinlein steered far more to the left in his other works though. SST is more "the Soviet Union as designed by a Libertarian"

>>11842968
>First mention of a powered exoskeleton

The Lensman series had armored space suits that boosted the user's strength IIRC.

Was anyone else turned on while reading WOT when Nynaeve basically does BDSM on Moghidien while rand was chasing rahvin around?

>>11842327
Nobody’s telling little niggers they can’t be hermoine

>>11843193
The irony being she's probably one of those MUH CULTURAL APPROPRIATION dingbats.

did Baldanders really fuck baby giants

>>11843180
I never got the BDSM vibes until I heard about them on here. I feel kind of stupid.

>>11843223
Not vibes, she literally ties Moghidien up using her own weaves and spanks her in the middle of the hall. Her face is drenched in tears and she's sniffing and going into hysterics.I feel like the a'dam really adds to it because you know what she's feeling too. It didn't say it in the book, but I like to imagine her skirt was off and she was getting her bare ass switched.

Fantasy/Science Fiction needs more catgirls to be honest.

>>11843497
Everything does, sadly. I glimpsed a likely cover the other day that I need extract and consume. Luck is usually terrible though.

>Day came pale from the East. As the light grew it filtered through the yellow leaves of the mallorn, and it seemed to the hobbits that the early sun of a cool summer’s morning was shining. Pale-blue sky peeped among the moving branches. Looking through an opening on the south side of the flet Frodo saw all the valley of the Silverlode lying like a sea of fallow gold tossing gently in the breeze.

>>11842893
>>11843575 (missed the quote)
>So Mazirian entered the forest of fable. On all sides mossy boles twisted up to support the high panoply of leaves. At intervals shafts of sunshine drifted through to lay carmine blots on the turf. In the shade long-stemmed flowers and fragile fungi sprang from the humus; in this ebbing hour of Earth nature was mild and relaxed. . . .
>Trees towered to either side and the long sundown rays steeped one side in blood, left the other deep in black shadow. So deep was the shade that Mazirian did not see the creature seated on a fallen tree; and he sensed it only as it prepared to leap on his back.

>He stood on the bank of a limpid pool. Blue flowers grew, about his ankles and at his back reared a grove of tall blue-green trees, the leaves blurring on high into mist. Was Embelyon of Earth? The trees were Earth-like, the flowers were of familiar form, the air was of the same texture . . . But there was an odd lack to this land and it was difficult to determine. Perhaps it came of the horizon's curious vagueness, perhaps from the blurring quality of the air, lucent and uncertain as water. Most strange, however, was the sky, a mesh of vast ripples and cross-ripples, and these refracted a thousand shafts of colored light, rays which in mid-air wove wondrous laces, rainbow nets, in all the jewel hues. So as Turjan watched, there swept over him beams of claret, topaz, rich violet, radiant green. He now perceived that the colors of the flowers and the trees were but fleeting functions of the sky, for now the flowers were of salmon tint, and the trees a dreaming purple. The flowers deepened to copper, then with a suffusion of crimson, warmed through maroon to scarlet, and the trees had become sea-blue.

>>11842893
>“Two roads lead from Lyonesse Town,” said Ehirme. . . .
>To the left you fare north and join the Old Street which runs beside the Forest of Tantrevalles where the fairies live. Two roads pass through the forest, north to south and east to west.”
>“Tell what happens where they meet!” Suldrun already knew but she enjoyed the zest of Ehirme’s descriptions.
>Ehirme warned her: “I’ve never fared so far, you understand! But what grandfather says is this: in the old times the crossroads would move about, because the place was enchanted and never knew peace. This might be well enough for the traveler, because, after all, he would put one foot ahead of him and then the other and the road would at last be won, and the traveler none the wiser that he had seen twice as much forest as he had bargained for. The most troubled were the folk who sold their goods each year at the Goblin Fair, and where was that but at the crossroads! The folk for the fair were most put out, because the fair should be at the crossroads on Midsummer Night, but when they arrived at the crossroads it had shifted two miles and a half, and nowhere a fair to be seen.
>“About this time the magicians vied in awful conflict. Murgen proved the strongest and defeated Twitten, whose father was a halfling, his mother a bald priestess at Kai Kang, under the Atlas Mountains. What to do with the defeated magician, who seethed with evil and hate? Murgen rolled him up and forged him into a stout iron post, ten foot long and thick as my leg. Then Murgen took this enchanted post to the crossroads and waited till it shifted to the proper place, then he drove the iron post down deep in the center, fixing the crossroads so it no longer could move, and all the folk at the Goblin Fair were glad, and spoke well of Murgen.”
>“Tell about Goblin Fair!”
>“Well then, it’s the place and time when the halflings and men can meet and none will harm the other, so long as he stays polite. The folk set up booths and sell all manner of fine things: cobweb cloth and wine of violets in silver bottles, books of fairy-skein, written with words that you can’t get out of your head once they’re in. You’ll see all kinds of halflings: fairies and goblins, trolls and merrihews, and even an odd falloy, though they show themselves seldom, out of shyness, despite being the most beautiful of all. You’ll hear songs and music and much chinking of fairy-gold, which they squeeze from buttercups. Oh they’re a rare folk, the fairies!”

>>11842998
Technically yes.
>>11843004
>lily pads
I picked it because I enjoyed wondering what the little girl was doing there and what she was thinking about the chapel. After that, nothing would do but that I think of a filename. So, swamp or no, it's the Sepulchre of the Forest Steeping and you'll just have to live with the confused nomenclature.

What are some good fabtasy books that habe awesome swamp lands like in OP's pic-related?

What's the bowsette of fantasy novels?

I've greatly enjoyed Dune series and BotNS and I've read through both several times. I'm mainly into rambly pseudo philosophical wall o' texts which is why I also liked Bakker.
What else should I read?

>>11844321
>I'm mainly into rambly pseudo philosophical wall o' texts
Malazan

Spooky season is coming up, is there a good Fantasy book centered around witches, ghouls, vampires and whatnot?
Not all of them in the same book of course.

>>11844337
Already started it but it reads like fanfiction. Does the writing get better?

>>11844361
I'm not a fan of Malazan, but yes the writing does get better. I can't speak for anything else getting better though, but you are a Bakkerfag so it's not like that sorta stuff matters to you anyways :3

>>11842056
Don't read contemporary writers unless they're over 70 right now.

>>11844321
Atlas Shrugged.

>>11844345
Carpe Jugulum.

>>11844375
*snap*

>>11844484
Does this gen approve of Pratchett? I'm a curious newfag.

>>11844567
He isn't brought up too often, but he's definitely fantasy and we rarely have anything bad to say about him.

Just about anything from Mort to Night Watch is gold.

>>11844567
He's one of the few authors almost no one, even here, have anything bad to say against. That said, he's not discussed much.

>>11844571
>>11844579
>can't shit-talk an author
>so he won't be discussed at all
This is too fucking true.

>>11843583
Pretty good

>>11844567
Always worth a read.

>>11844361
Single pov is ALWAYS better, and multiple pov authots should be slaughtered.

>>11844955
This post wasn't supposed to be a response to anyone. Yikes!

>>11844955
If single pov would always be the best, then isn't first-person the logical conclusion of that? Is first-person always the best way to tell stories?

>>11844101
Brienne

>>11844974
No I don't see how that follows.

>>11844896
It's much better to just pick 5 random Discworld books and read them. Only an autist would read dozens of books in chronological order when they're all stand alone novels anyway.

>>11844955
The opposite of this is true.

Hey guys I've been reading from the trash can of ideology- I mean fantasy. I need recs.
I've ran out of interesting books to read. I've fallen to obscure / not much talked about books for sustenance.
Please rec fantasy books where magic is used to build things
Please rec scifi books where advanced tech is used to build stuff (no using of tech to examine what it means to be human please).

>>11844896
I've read all of them growing up, friend. Established they earn extra re-reading value with time recently. Lots of shit I missed out on as a teen the first time around and I still seem to derive plenty of delight from his prose alone despite being largely familiar with the premise.

>>11845181
I feel you. I think I've read virtually all of them twice at least.

>>11844321
Too Like the Lightning - Ada Palmer
The Thing Itself - Adam Roberts.

>>11844567
Any author with Terry in their name is a shit writer. That is a fact.

Wtf happen? Last month you were doing a thread a day. I had to drop out because it was sanic fast.
Now I'm back and it crawling?

>>11845664
It was all you.

>>11845152

>>11844567
Pratchett's great. But I think we just assume that everyone here's already read everything that matters from Discworld.

>>11845664
We learned to not take baits and fill threads with bullshit non-literary arguments.

>>11845769
>We learned

Can anyone recommend a decent pulp novella?

>>11841996
>tfw reverend insanity is crawling along at two chapters a day.

Is there a way to write a book set in a cyberpunk future without it being a miserable dehumanised dystopia?

A lot of science fiction gets around this by skipping a few centuries and alluding to the bad old days before AI was banned or the Federation was formed. Then they get to have normal humans walking around with clunky scanners in their hands, or getting into honest-to-god swordfights. I'm nostalgic for the days when the distant future was full of dials and buttons.

Is there a realistic scenario where society remains functional, where relations between humans are still recognisable and unmediated by tech?

>>11844512
Yikes Tony easy on the deer

>>11845916
>Is there a realistic scenario where society remains functional, where relations between humans are still recognisable and unmediated by tech?
Not really. We basically live this scenario in our present day already.

>>11845930
It's relatively manageable now. I'm just thinking of people walking around in public wearing VR gear, or AI controlled surveillance.

>>11845916
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs
This seems plausible within a generation.

>>11845862
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1) is pulp sf

>>11845916
Sure, why not? Just write it.

>>11845945
>It's relatively manageable now. I'm just thinking of people walking around in public wearing VR gear, or AI controlled surveillance.
you havent been to yurop recently i see.
minus the VR thing. britain for example is basically a big brother state on steroids.

>forced to take vacation earlier for business reason
>boss asks me if it interferes with my plans
>say, just off-handedly mention I planned on trying NaNoWriMo
>now boss+1(who was also in the room) wants to read my story after vacation

I'm fucked, aren't I? I got half a page of a shitty MMO Isekai with barely any grasps on the characters. Boss+1 is an old dude who has never played a video game, boss legitimately likes Sword Art Online.

>>11846080
He might just want to know if you'll follow through on your chosen goal rather than GAF about what you're writing.

>>11845862
>Can anyone recommend a decent pulp novella?
not really a novella but i did enjoy hard luck hank a lot.
its basically HULK IN SPESS but humorous with a lot of misadventures. expect ayys mob bosses, corrupt officials, mutants sexy women that either want to kill or use mc while still somehow falling for him and lots and lots of action.

>Finished the second draft of my first fantasy novel
>its so horrible I legitimately don't want to try to get it published

damn...

>>11845916
cyberpunk is by definition oppressed by the loss of privacy, the tyranny of capitalism without restrictions, and the dehumanization of AI

you can focus on cyberpunk tech without those elements, but then you don't have cyberpunk anymore. that's not a bad thing mind you: Dennou Coil was amazing without all that

>>11846147
Don't even bother trying to get your first novel out there: it'll invariably be terrible. Just keep writing new ones until eventually you'll get one that you would actually like to throw out there.

For me it was number seven, I think.

>>11846079
I'm less worried about incompetent bobbies and more worried about surveillance AI that can accurately scan your biometrics in any public place, track you (and millions of others) from an orbiting satellite, cross reference them with your records and entire internet history, and make predictions about your future behaviour in real time.

>>11846268
So China then.

>>11846011
I think so too. What I wonder is if there will be a reaction against it. VR/internet addiction could be the new drug panic.

>>11846061
I'd have to persuade myself it's possible, first.

>>11846147
Another reason to get around to watching that... It's been like a decade.

It's ironic that I'm feeding surveillance AI by posting here. Or maybe just horrifying.

>>11845706
>frank herbert
Sorry I swore off anything by that author.

>>11846089
Huh, you're probably right. I'll probably just hand in some generic scenes and use it as an exercise in setting atmosphere.

>>11846272
China isn't being predictive so much as indiscriminate. Was 10% of Xinjiang's population really on the brink of armed rebellion? There was the smallest chance, so they rounded them up. That's not much different than Stalinism, even if cameras are involved now.

From a personal perspective, I find being individually targeted much more nightmarish.

>>11846252
it feels so shitty thought for all that effort to be for nothing

>>11844101
Dresden Files. it was also a trashy one-off joke that struck such a huge cord with readers that it suddenly become a dominant force in its own subgenre

>>11846418
>it feels so shitty thought for all that effort to be for nothing
But it wasn't for nothing: it was necessary practice and training, learning to be better and improving your skills, even growing as a person. You won't be able to run a marathon after a lifetime of sitting in front of a computer, but even going around the block once is a great start.

Everything you write will be better than the last. Every time you will run a little bit farther. So long as you don't give up, it's never for naught, and one day you will be a published novelist and it will all be worth it!

And then it'll all be buried under piles upon piles of complete drek and hardly no one will ever read it, but try not to think about that part too hard.

>>11846427
honestly, when you say it like that it sounds like bad advice rather than harsh but useful advice.

my book is trash, but only things I try to publish have a shot. it seems smarter to publish whatever I can rather only what I truly believe is my best work

>>11846490
>my book is trash, but only things I try to publish have a shot.
But you should only try to publish things that aren't trash. We have enough trash floating around as it is.

Trust me - keep writing, and eventually you'll do something that you're legitimately proud of. THEN you can start thinking about publishing it.

>>11846297
>What I wonder is if there will be a reaction against it.
These guys don't seem to mind. I doubt we're gonna kick up much fuss either.
/pol/ thinks we can change it but as things stand it would take a regressive movement without a scarcity disaster to prompt it, which limits the number of spontaneous partisans to a manageable number for the elite.

>>11842266
Promise of Blood- for all its faults- did do a nice job of balancing technology and magic. The Thousand Names also manages to bring in flintlocks and magic together, but magic is pretty sparse and largely overpowered in that series.

>No, the real reason fantasy authors hate guns is because their precious Duke deStu (while you were threshing wheat he mastered /the blade/) can now get shot off his mighty steed by unwashed levy infantry.
Which is pretty stupid when you consider most of these books still feature bowmen who can do the same damn thing. That being said I can see a lot of writers leaving it out as including guns usually carries a certain level of industrialization and technology writers don’t want to have.

On the other side of things you had Glenn Cook introduce a gun analogue about 3/4s into the Black Company series.

>>11842155
God Emperor of Dune

>>11845862
>Can anyone recommend a decent pulp novella?
Check out Barry Reese.

>>11846147
>the tyranny of capitalism without restrictions
lol you mean Switzerland?

>>11846741
shit like this makes me want to become a vegan.

>>11847085
y

>>11847107
meat and milk is probably diseased and unhealthy

>>11847116
Now this is hardly relevant to this thread but both are healthy, just not the enormous amounts the average first world country inhabitant consume. If you have an otherwise diverse diet you're probably better of without milk desu.

To make things OT, is there any vegan related SF&F?

>>11847116
>meat and milk is probably diseased and unhealthy
You really have to be bonkers to post something like this.

>>11847189
>vegan
There are so many dystopian novels.

>>11847251
>There are so many dystopian novels
With actual (willing or forced) vegans?

>>11847189
>is there any vegan related SF&F?
I actually read a short story by Pamela Sargent (as I read her Wikipedia entry now I realize that she's literlly made to trigger people) about how people suddenly could hear animals thoughts and how this lead to vegetarianism and chaos in almost all aspects of society related to animals. However it end with people going back to eating meat, trying their best to rationalize the whole thing. Now that I think about it the whole thing is probably commentary on slavery.

>>11847266
I was thinking more about the similarity of themes.
I would take the oppressive, crushing, cyberpunk dystopia over the vegan one every time.

>>11847307
Let them eat burger

>>11847313
kek

Shouldn't there be way more Grand kids in the Amber royal family given how often the princes spend fucking around in Shadow realms?

>>11847322
They all use protection.

>>11847189
I watched a tv show about time travellers who were all vegan because we nuked the cows or something. Most of them end up really enjoying meat.

>>11847313
Fuck yeah.
Plus you get your reason for the uprising and the eventual overthrow of the surveillance state - lack of good steaks.

>>11847322
Maybe those guys lie a lot?

>>11847322
Weren't they sterile once past the nearest shadows to Amber/Chaos? I have a vague memory of this but it may have been from the Merlin books if not outright nonsense.

What are the top 5 things you would need to consider if you were designing a space ship intended to be stranded in the middle of deep space for hundreds of years

>>11847375
Oxygen
Food
Water
Gravity
Repair

>>11847357
Corwin and Benedict both knock up women in Avalon, and Brand had a son somewhere in shadow too I think.

I just bought this. Did I make a mistake?

>>11847375
Stranded implies it was never meant to spend all those hundred of years in deep space, right? So no solar radiation, no handy sources of material... that means it has to be fuck huge, for all the shit it has to support.
Extremely efficient and closed biosphere (which is a tall order). Massive amounts of reactants (hydrogen, oxygen, nuclear material, whatever else you need). But then if you have all that you can affect repairs and get the Hell out of there.
Or you could go the minimalist route and just cram everyone into cryopods/stasis with redundant systems out of wazoo.

>>11847433
All of these titles are blending together.

>>11847433
maybe, I read it a few years ago and remember absolutely nothing

>>11847405
Brand's son was with some witch--Merlin's BFF and archenemy. IIRC, there was some twisted logic about the witch's shadow lair being some node of power because of its proximity to Amber.
Benedict hooked up with some ultrasuccubus from Chaos on the tainted road that Corwin's curse/Merlin's blood opened.
I don't remember Corwin having another kid other than Merlin; if so, you've got me there and I'm out of rationales for what is probably a figment of my imagination anyways.

>>11847433
>generic fantasy by literally who
If you're that easily entertained, you may as well do as you please

>>11847448
I was talking about Dara, but she said she was the first of her family to be human.

>>11847442
>Stranded implies it was never meant to spend all those hundred of years in deep space, right?
To a degree, the person who led the design and construction is a touch insane and was able to put in a certain level of self-sustainability because they intended to get the ship stranded but it was not specifically made for it.
>So no solar radiation, no handy sources of material... that means it has to be fuck huge, for all the shit it has to support.
Being fuckhuge would be part of the draw and allow the story to take part in a variety of environments without being too silly. Something such as a larger amount of space dedicated to a church/auditorium like a cruise ship would have.
>Extremely efficient and closed biosphere (which is a tall order).
I imagine an amount of algae/self sustaining food type and I'm not sure how exactly I would be able to handle water without resorting to some kind of dune-like recycling worship.
>But then if you have all that you can affect repairs and get the Hell out of there.
Repairs are being worked on but as time goes on and the problem goes unsolved the people who know the most about the systems would die off and it would become more and more difficult to get back to even it's least damaged state.

>>11847433
>da norf
>a wolf
Yes.

>>11847448
Oh right, Merlin is Random's son with the Rebma blind chick. Right? Now I'm confused as to what Corwin's son was called, through Dara.
>>11847457
Yeah, she was strongly Chaos because her succumom was.

>>11847442
>>11847445
So far it's reading just like John Gwynne's Malice. Which isn't necessarily bad but I just finished Gwynne's books a few months ago.

>>11847455
what do you recommend then besides the memes malazn and botns?

>>11847469
Isn't that the one were the protagonist is a fag pedo?

>>11847468
Random's son is Martin.

>>11847485
Not at all. You're thinking of this

>>11847490
My man! Thanks.
I'm gonna scan around the bit where Luke is explaining his pedigree to Merlin and see if there's mention of the Amber birds&bees.
Otherwise yeah, there'd be endless Amberite squibs running around ganking Shadow normies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphans_of_the_Sky
>The gigantic, cylindrical generation ship Vanguard, originally destined for "Far Centaurus", is cruising without guidance through the interstellar medium as a result of a long-ago mutiny that killed most of the officers. Over time, the descendants of the surviving loyal crew have forgotten the purpose and nature of their ship and lapsed into a pre-technological culture marked by superstition. They come to believe the "Ship" is the entire universe, so that "To move the ship" is considered an oxymoron, and references to the Ship's "voyage" are interpreted as religious metaphor. They are ruled by an oligarchy of "officers" and "scientists". Most crew members are simple illiterate farmers, seldom or never venturing to the "upper decks" where the "muties" (an abbreviation of "mutants" or "mutineers") dwell. Among the crew, all identifiable mutants are killed at birth.
God dammit

/SFFG/ is the only place on /lit/ where people actually read. Prove me wrong.

>>11845423
I've been interested in reading this but it seems like it'd be too far left for me.

>>11847465
You are walking on a tight rope here. Too advanced, something magitech like matter converters (synthesizing water for example) and you have a get out of jail card. Not advanced enough and everyone dies of thirst.
You could play with the scales a bit. The ship was designed for thousands (which includes the volatile's, the power source, it's volume and so on) but after the incident there are only hundreds left. You end up with an ocean of water, ready to be cracked into hydrogen and oxygen, with an order of magnitude less users.
As for the biosphere you could have some sort of relaxation area made up of flora (extremely efficient black pigment) that was let to run wild. Maybe add some fauna later on, courtesy of your unhinged character.
As for repairs, you can't have any loss of knowledge there. Everything has to function to keep them alive and only one non-functional component is needed to kill them all. You could solve that by having the repairs done. They are moving but getting anywhere is going to take centuries.

>>11847570
Thanks for the response,
>The ship was designed for thousands (which includes the volatile's, the power source, it's volume and so on) but after the incident there are only hundreds left. You end up with an ocean of water, ready to be cracked into hydrogen and oxygen, with an order of magnitude less users.
Yea a shortage of food despite an abundance of water would still cause a slow dying off which would result in that glut of water.
>As for the biosphere you could have some sort of relaxation area made up of flora (extremely efficient black pigment) that was let to run wild. Maybe add some fauna later on, courtesy of your unhinged character.
A biosphere in the ship would be an interesting plot point, someone would need to have been the financier and main driver of it who must be some sort of important player.
>As for repairs, you can't have any loss of knowledge there. Everything has to function to keep them alive and only one non-functional component is needed to kill them all. You could solve that by having the repairs done. They are moving but getting anywhere is going to take centuries.
They way I wanted to try and handle the preservation of knowledge is for the ship to at some point undergo a critical computer malfunction that resets all digital data leaving the physical manuals as the last information. These would be seen with an utmost importance.
The engine that gets them in to the deep space would normally rely on solar energy to recharge over a period of years, but due to the lack of starlight coming their way the time to recharge through solar alone is hundreds of years while still needing to power the life support systems. All the while attempts are being made to fix the onboard engine that would speed the process

Crap, I just realized my novel doesn't have any consistent message it's trying convey. It's just a scrambled mix of anti-colonialism and the question of personhood turned on its head.

Literally none of this has to do with the food porn I originally built the story around

>>11847526
I'd disagree on that front. Plenty of people on /lit/ read, but /sffg/ is the one place here where people truly enjoy reading for the story's sake

>>11847375
don't have the ship depend on solar power. It's deeply unrealistic unless the ship is always in orbit around a bright star.

Space has a bounty of hydrogen, oxygen and methane. Those are ideal sources of chemical energy, and hydrogen and oxygen provide a water source as well, while methane provides CO2 to feed plants.

As for the information issue, having the hard drives wiped would kind of be certain death since your ship is going to rely on 3d printers to produce replacement parts, and 3d printers need 3d models of the parts

>>11847643
Anon I gotta go. I'll reply tomorrow.

/SFFG/ recommend me more books like pic related.

>>11847727
>anti-colonialism
Dropped

Just finished pic related. Are the sequels worth a read?

How do you make a good villain?

>>11847927
Based them off Hillary Clinton.

>>11847526
Nah, it's the only place on /lit/ where people don't read, or claim to read, things for status. People here read for pleasure.

>>11847469
I picked that book up a while ago but couldn't get into it. I felt like the author tipped his world building hand too early and I was bored of it before I got halfway done with Malice.

>>11847433
>from the author who watched Game of Thrones on HBO

>imagining characters as famous actors
Anyone else do this? Currently reading a new heroic fantasy novel and I can't help but imagine the protag as Gerard Butler. Probably doesn't help one of his movies was on TV earlier.

>>11847974
Okay, I think I've got a villain idea. Lets see if this is better than this shitty bait


>"These are the finest sweet and savory pastries in Her Majesty's Marraketch," the man said proudly, "and to think that just ten years ago their meat pies were full of dog."
>"Olson's the name; Lieutenant Olson Maddox, of the Crown Intelligence Service. My job is simple: keep an eye on the colonies, look for cracks in the rails, and tail anyone I see that might try to derail the train to civilization. It's not an easy job, but it's a satisfying one, and we get to eat cake on the queen's dime"

>>11848220
When I was a kid I did the same thing with cartoon characters

>>11847893
Probably. I'm more a fan of his short stories though.

>>11847893
Did you like it? If yes, then the answer is a firm maybe. I might even suggest trying one of his other series, like the Bridge, and see how you like the change. If not, you can always come back to the Count and Mona as a consolation prize although nothing approaches Chiba again.

Have anyone read William Gibson's Count Zero? What was going on in the Matrix after the incident in Neuromancer? How did Josef died, did he got incinerated in the Matrix? I didn't quite understand it

>>11848269
The AIs penetrate Virek's firewalled personal cyberspace park and kill him. IIRC, his body was already unconscious on life support due to advanced age. For reasons, the AIs take the form of Haitian voodoo gods. For reasons, they prevent Virek from attaining immortality.

>>11848418
Is Mona Lisa Overdrive's good as Count Zero? Or should move on to Burning Chrome or Snow Crash?

>>11842155
I've heard Vurt is like that.

>>11848439
I'd say MLO and "Count Zero" are equivalent quality, sure. I didn't like them very much though so my opinion may be biased. I reckon Count is the faster paced of the two and therefore more interesting if only because it's more jumbled.

>>11848450
Thanks fàm

>>11848456
You're welcome.

>>11848418
Did Marly spoke with one of the AI's when she was visiting the old guy?

>>11842094
Flay was a good and true man. Also you could tell that the trilogy was setting up for a quadrilogy with gormenghast and the nameless city going to war.
>Also... fuck Keda that skank

>>11843180
Didn't get that sexual vibe from it. Not like it was written that way or implied, it seemed from the author.
Are you sure you didn't touch your dick while reading it and inferred?

>>11847893
If you really liked Neuromancer, then probably. If you thought it was meh or disliked it, then avoid them.

>>11847764
Watchmen (the comic by Alan Moore)
The Dune series up to God-Emperor
The House on the Borderlands

What's the coolest fantasy novel?

>>11848501
I don't think so; I assume you mean when she met him in his parkspace early on? I may be misremembering but he had his own limited AI in the form of a young boy. I frankly don't remember the showdown at the end except that the AI gain access to the park and flatline him. I know Bobby was running cyberspace on his deck but I can't remember if that was into the park with Marly along or something to do with the ambush gang.

>>11847771
Fuck off faggot

>>11847433
>The First Part of the Wolf of the North trilogy
>It has been generations since the Northlands have seen a hero worthy of the title. Many have made the claim, but few have lived to defend it. Timid, weak, and bullied, Wulfric is as unlikely a candidate as there could be.
>A chance encounter with an ancient and mysterious object awakens a latent gift, and Wulfric’s life changes course. Against a backdrop of war, tragedy, and an enemy whose hatred for him knows no bounds, Wulfric will be forged from a young boy, into the Wolf of the North. This is his tale.
I actually burst out into laughter the second I read "Wulfric." This is a parody book, right? There's no way someone could unironically write something this ungodly generic.

Is there any sci-fi books out there that are like Saya no Uta? Actual books that aren't manga or the like.

>>11849190
>he doesn't know 'Wulfric' is a legitimate historical name

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wulfric

>>11849271
And that's somehow supposed to make it any less lazy? It's pretty obvious that the author put like three seconds of thought into naming the character.

>>11844101
Booette

What was the name of that website for people to post trashy litrpg? Something road?

>>11848816
If you want straight up edge it'll probably be The Witcher, apparently Geralt's far more darker in the books

>>11849420
He's out of character in the first short story. That one feels really juvenile, he kills some guys for no reason. In later short stories and books his temperament is similar to the game. He's a big softie trying to hide his faggotry behind the hard guy shtick and sarcasm.

>>11849420
>>11849644
I honestly didn’t think he was that edgy in the first book, but I’ve admittedly never played the games.

If it’s straight up edge you want, you’d be hard pressed to beat Prince of Thorns.

>>11845152
Can I bet some recs please.

>>11848947
t. Pajeet

>>11849278
You were shown as an idiot. Stop trying to save face

>>11850260
Hello, Duncan. Your story is shit and you should quit trying to justify your shitty generic writing. Sincerely, all of the Internet.

>>11850263
Wow very original and not lazy at all insult. Well done

>>11850352
>very original
More original than your entire book, that's for sure.

Zelazny is so refreshing compared to most other fantasy writers, his books are constantly moving forward without the 200 or so pages of padding that became so common with the fantasy boom.

>>11850447
Honestly, I can't even begin to understand why anyone would bother with Malazan or Sanderson or shit. Why waste so much time - months, years! - with so many books, full of dull meandering meaningless bullshit, when you can get something better in a neat package that can be finished over a weekend?

>>11850463
I don't mind longer stuff but I've stopped reading Way of Kings because I forgot like 80% of what happened in the second book before the third came out.

>>11850463
>years

>>11849256
Maybe you will enjoy the short story Nightingale in Galactic North by Alistair Reynolds and I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Ellison.

Love reading the new releases and seeing all these dogshit descriptions of urban fantasy
>Things are not okay. In the aftermath of Amandine’s latest betrayal, October “Toby” Daye’s fragile self-made family is on the verge of coming apart at the seams. Jazz can’t sleep, Sylvester doesn’t want to see her, and worst of all, Tybalt has withdrawn from her entirely, retreating into the Court of Cats as he tries to recover from his abduction. Toby is floundering, unable to help the people she loves most heal. She needs a distraction. She needs a quest. What she doesn’t need is the abduction of her estranged human daughter, Gillian. What she doesn’t need is to be accused of kidnapping her own child by her ex-boyfriend and his new wife, who seems to be harboring secrets of her own. There’s no question of whether she’ll take the case. The only question is whether she’s emotionally prepared to survive it. Signs of Faerie’s involvement are everywhere, and it’s going to take all Toby’s nerve and all her allies to get her through this web of old secrets, older hatreds, and new deceits. If she can’t find Gillian before time runs out, her own child will pay the price. One question remains: Who in Faerie remembered Gillian existed? And what do they stand to gain? No matter how this ends, Toby’s life will never be the same.


people read this lol

Received Bunnyanon's book today (cheers fella), I'll get to it after I polish off my current read. Last fantasy book I read was The Warded Man (pretty poor), so it'll be interesting to compare.

>>11850559
>What she doesn’t need is to be accused of kidnapping her own child by her ex-boyfriend and his new wife, who seems to be harboring secrets of her own.
Written by a democrat, guaranteed

>>11850581
probably but tbf that's classic right wing divorced dad panic with the genders swapped

>>11850581
Why do you think political party matters in the fucking fantasy thread? Politics is a two headed coin. They're the same shit.

>>11850595
>>11850673
I read it less as dad-panic and more as "her ex-boyfriend and his new wife kidnapped the kid and are accusing the mom of it to distract from their own crimes"
It's classic leftist projection
>Politics is a two headed coin. They're the same shit.
lolno

>>11850447
It's amazing how much world building he can do it a few hundred pages compared to the likes of Sanderson, Jordan or Eriksen.

>>11847322
There's a reason amber has so many minor nobles.
There's also a reason that fairy tales (which are all just different shadows) have protagonists: those exceptionally strong are almost always far amberites.

>it's a chapter following a female trying to succeed at something with an in-universe male bias
Fucking kill me. How is this so universal, I have literally read more fantasy books with this as the focus of a female characters arc than I've read fantasy books containing dragons. Stop. If you're going to make a female pov then own it, a woman doing something conventionally masculine doesn't make them a good or "strong" character by default.

>>11850829
To be honest, I still find this preferable over the woman just being automatically as good and as accepted as men, and no one thinking it weird for her to be there. At least your scenario could make for good drama and character motivation and something to struggle for.

>>11848816
Vurt

>>11847764
Camp Concentration
True Names - Vinge

>>11850839
How about making a female character that isn't defined by being un-feminine? As if the only valid way of writing a woman is as a pseudoman

>throwaway line about a character shagging his sister-wife all day until she begs for quarter

what does sffg think of minor villains whose humanity is left ambiguous? like, you could easily argue that this noble is a vampire, or you could just say he's just a psycho prettyboy who maintained his youthful appearance by avoiding sun damage to his skin

>>11851239
I'm writing a story with literally that: a fantasy!Russian nobleman, possibly vampire, allying himself with the main characters for his own inscrutable purposes, and in the ending charging forward on a black horse, wielding a black sword, to save their lives from the actual main villain.

Nobody likes him, they're all suspicious of him, but right now he's more useful alive than dead.

So, all in all, I like the ambiguity. I feel that it's often good to leave things open for interpretation and to give the reader something to wonder.

>>11851239
I think it's much more fun to write a character who has mental illness but doesn't know it

>>11851239
I like a few of them here and there, adds mystery. Probably better with lesser known supernatural critters because

A) the more known the creature, the more likely readers are to think your characters are stupid for not noticing.
B) It's nice learning about a new myth when you come across some weird fan theory about that strange guy who shows up in three chapters.

>>11850685
No one cares
>>>/pol/

>>11851358
Thanks for responding I hope you're looking forward to Trump2020-24

>>11851358
I do

>>11850811
The Amberites have echoes in shadow. When Corwin was first found amnesiac in shadow Earth, his siblings weren't sure it was him or his echo.
Corwin also assumes Ganelon is an echo of the Ganelon he remembered from Avalon.
You're probably right about the nobles, though. I remember them being explained somewhere though, maybe while Corwin was in the dungeon and that guy was visiting him.

>>11850355
I didn't write the book. Got anything else?

>>11847727
>don't have the ship depend on solar power. It's deeply unrealistic unless the ship is always in orbit around a bright star.
The intention of the ship would be to go straight from system to system and was never intended to be in deep space, however the onboard generator is capable of shortening the recharge time but requires repair
>Space has a bounty of hydrogen, oxygen and methane.
Would a ship be able to capture that in significant amounts from space?
>having the hard drives wiped would kind of be certain death since your ship is going to rely on 3d printers to produce replacement parts, and 3d printers need 3d models of the parts
I'm planning a technology level similar to the first moon landing, but throw in a FTL jump drive

why is my book-pirating site filled with gay erotica

>>11851701
some faggot started to post a bunch of faggot books recently. It's one person

>>11851101
Can a female character be feminine in a fantasy story without becoming completely useless?

>>11851767
For all its faults, ASOIAF does this fine.

>>11851772
Well ASOIAF is better than 99% of fantashit

>>11851701

Name of the site ?

>>11845152
Superluminary by John C. Wright.

>>11848418
>For reasons, the AIs take the form of Haitian voodoo gods.
>Always knew Baron Samedi as a Bond villain
>It's actually part of an ancient voodoo mythology

Fantasy that doesn't take place in a Medieval setting?

>>11851990
A whole lot of Moorcock's work doesn't.

>>11851990
I want fantasy set somewhere between fall of rome/dark ages and high middle ages.

>>11851990
Six Expressions of Death
>>11852004
Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell (though the "fantasy" is left up to the reader to decide if it's real or not)

>>11852068
>Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell (though the "fantasy" is left up to the reader to decide if it's real or not)
I'll check it out. Though I wish there was setting like that but were mages are varied in power, most are fairly weak but useful in battle and select few go beyond that, but no more than demi gods.

Damn the second Crimson Queen book is still delayed due to the cover art?

>>11852004
David Gemmell's Drenai stuff maybe? From what I've read of it he seems to really like the whole "the corrupt Old Empire crumbles as New Heroes rise to lead against A Big Threat"

>>11852004
Lord of the Rings

>>11852179
Duh.
>>11852163
>David Gemmell's Drenai stuff maybe?
Will check it out, don't have to be heroic fantasy.

>>11843273

i wouldn't be surprised if that was his intent. after all, this is the author who's projecting himself into the story and fantasizing about having three hot chicks be in love with him and have them all be mostly okay with it.

Help me into contemporary fantasy. I like:
> Dunsany
> Gormenghast
> The Worm Ourobouros
> REH, CAS and other Weird Tales authors

And Tolkien is okay I guess. But I have a hankering to read something written in the last ~30 years. Preferably last 20. Can you help a brother out? It has to be something that can stack up to the above, and it should be genre fantasy.

>>11852267
Wheel of Time

>>11852267
I don't think there is such a thing, especially not in relation to anything you like. There's very little in terms of "Weird Tales" nowadays, just epic fantasy with elves and orcs and shit, and dark low-fantasy ASOIAF clones with poorly written politics.

ASOIAF is okay, I guess. At least the first three books. Other than that, there's really not much going on.

>>11852267
Check out Schuyler Hernstrom's stuff. Heavily influenced by the classics like REH and Vance.

>>11852277
>There's very little in terms of "Weird Tales" nowadays, just epic fantasy with elves and orcs and shit, and dark low-fantasy ASOIAF clones with poorly written politics.
It doesn't need to be sword and sorcery per se. If there's interesting work being done in another genre, I want to hear about it.

>>11852289
>Schuyler Hernstrom
Better than nothing. I'll check it out.

>>11852267
I'm reading The Knight by Gene Wolfe right now, it was released in I think 2004, and it's the comfiest fantasy I've ever read. Only like 30% of the way through the first book (there are two books,) but it's great. Not as good as BotNS, but it's better than Worm, and it's straight up Elder Scrolls tier in terms of being "genre fantasy."

Can someone recommend some dark fantasy that borders with horror

>>11852524
Clark Ashton Smith, perhaps?

>>11845862
>Can anyone recommend a decent pulp novella?
Martians, Go Home and What Mad Universe by Fredric Brown are both good short SF novels.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13325792-martians-go-home
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22698832-what-mad-universe

would it be extremely unbelievable for the british empire to have a non-white intelligence agent prior to WWII? I was thinking it would make sense since white spies would be conspicuous if the local population isn't white, but I'm not sure if most people would find that unrealistic

>>11852805
The British had plenty of non-white personnel. It was the Americans that were the racist ones.

I remember a story of some Amerimutts in Britain trying to start some shit at some black soldiers and getting their shit beaten in for it.

You'll be fine.

>>11852805
Man Othello is one of the most famous stories written, I think you'll be fine talking about black britbongs

I'm about to start the Black Company. If I got memed someone will have to pay.

>black bongs
disgusting desu

>>11852820
You got memed.

I'm so very sorry.

>>11852810
>>11852812

actually, I was thinking of him being chinese or half-chinese.

I thought that since one of my main characters is a (half) chinese girl disguising herself as a white girl, it might be an interesting plot twist and parallel if the villain was doing the exact same thing

Is there a fantasy /lit/ equivalent for this? Not the concept of mushi itself, but the overall feeling of comfiness and slow pace, the applied ideas of mono no aware and iyashikei, the respect for life and the impermanence of it. I'd throw Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou and Aria in as well.

Is Little, Big similar? From the synopsis it seems likely, since the protagonist also travels from place to place like Ginko, and I read the story also has a very slow pace.

>>11842288
Heinlein's Space Cadet is more of a sci-fi novel than Starship Troopers, and I'm sure more people are politically closer to Verhoeven anyhow.

>>11850559
>female authors

>>11852843
Male authors are just as terrible in this context.

>>11852825
That does sound interesting.

>>11852810
The eternal angolo strikes again.

>>11852810
The state of yuropeons.

What is the literary equivalent of 2006 Prey? By equivilent I mean creepy mysterious bio-ship full of creepy crawlers and whacked out physics etc.

>>11851780
piratedgayerotica.com

There was this sci go novel I thumbed through in the store years ago that had something to do with a WWI soldier in the trenches and portals and aliens and eldritch horrors or some shit..

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

>>11852972
Might be something from Charles Stross' The Laundry Files series, though I've never read any of it myself.

>>11851767
Sure. Women and femininity is generally better than men and masculinity

>>11851775
It doesn't though. "Woah she wants to play with the swords what a cool girl!" "Oh no this girl wants to do embroidery and is sentimental, what a buffoon"

>>11853007

>>11853014
*blocks ur path*

>>11842118
Nothing wrong with that. Good on that author for helping to create the world she wants to live in. Another good fantasy book set in africa is wizard of the crow

>>11853026
That's irrelevant. He's still fucking up elsewhere in the boom. No one said that women that don't defy gender roles are rare. But it's very rare that there isn't an arc about a woman defying gender roles in fantasy. Not all rocks are flint, but there's flint in every beach, ya dig? It's tired and obnoxious and seems to carry the message that a woman is somehow more valuable if she is less conventionally woman. Yet there are almost 0 femboy character arcs

>>11853017
T. Self deprecating woman

>Read Tolkien
>get lost when he goes into detail about the geography

I dont know if its the language barrier or if Im just me being a brainlet

>>11853132
You're following along with the map, right?

>>11853132
Tolkien really likes his world building, readability be damned

>>11853132
>or if its just me being a brainlet
well that answers it

>>11853135
yeah, but it sometimes happens with more specific details, like how the side of mountain or a hill changes as they go on

>>11852831
Idk but I can tell you Little, Big is slow, has great prose, and is comfy af

>>11851990
Vurt
Last Call
Zod Wallop

>>11853132
If its the geography of Beleriand then no worries, it all ends up at the bottom of the ocean anyway.

>>11853146
Give me single pov fantasy that starts early in the characters life. I like it when I can go through a characters life, rather than being inserted into a relatively short eventful period of a pre-established cast

>>11853155
Shit, wasn't meant to be a reply

>>11853155
Belgariad?

>>11853163
I'll look into it. Thanks anon.

Is "The Emperor's Blades" worth reading?

>>11853172
No

>>11853178
Oh. Why not?

What kinds of premises and tropes do agents and the big publishing houses consider marketable to the wider fantasy genre market? What kinds would they consider unmarketable?

Any fantasy novels with cute traps that unwillingly have to live as women? Thanks in advance

>>11852805
Check out "Kim" by Rudyard Kipling. There's a character in there who will give you some guidance on your British spymaster villain. It's also the best thing I've read in the last two years.

>>11853186
Because I said so.

>>11853191
>What kinds of premises and tropes do agents and the big publishing houses consider marketable to the wider fantasy genre market?
Epic fantasy and make it as 'woke' as possible.

>What kinds would they consider unmarketable?
The opposite of what I just suggested.

>>11841996
Does litRPG count as Fantasy? Reading the Land, and the constant reference to stats gets a little jarring...

>>11853191
>marketable
Fortnite novels
>not marketable
Bowsette fanfic

>>11853155
Seconding Belgariad
the Prydain chronicles are the shining best of YA

I haven’t read these but I think they fit
Once and future king
Magician: apprentice - feist
Dragonbone Chair

>>11853225
The stats-to-story ratio just grows and grows as you go on. But then I finished the last one and it was shit, yet I'm jonesing for the sequel because he didn't give the xp for the final battle. He says it will be out by year end. Maybe reason will have returned by then.

Anyway, the Land was okay but I liked Mahanenko better.

>>11853217
>Epic fantasy
Check

>and make it as 'woke' as possible.
Shit. My MS isn't woke in the slightest. Is it still publishable, assuming writing quality's on point, or will I have to indie publish?

>>11853132
>>11853143
Earlier in the thread when anon was asking for examples of enchanted forests, I thought LotR would be ideal because there's the Old Forest, Fangorn and Lorien to choose from and even Ithilien. However as I was picking through looking for a suitable passage to quote, I found that he did describe the terrain incrementally and often foreshadowed it with exposition from the characters, like Legolas talking up Lothlorien before they ever see a mallorn so by the time they get there, the scene is already partly sketched.

>>11853263
That depends: Are you a straight white man? If so you better re-write it to make it as 'woke' as possible. If you're not a straight white man then you could earn 'woke' points on twitter instead of having to change your story to make it more 'woke.'

>>11853275
Too bad it's unwoke to the core. It would be less work to write an entirely new MS, set in an entirely new universe, made specifically to appease them. I don't have the stomach for the amount of onions I'd have to consume to accomplish such a feat. Plus, I don't even use Twitter.

So, it's hopeless?

>>11853304
>So, it's hopeless?
No. There's plenty of un-woke fantasy and sci-fi coming out; just not from any of the traditional or major publishers.

>>11853314
But if the traditional publishers won't publish it, who will?

>>11853324
Indie publishers? Yourself? I'm not an expert on how to get your shit published. I just know what the major publishers want and don't want.

>>11853186
I read about half of the first book then dropped it because I thought it was pretty boring; especially given the premise.

>>11853344
Yeah, I figured. I hear being traditionally published isn't all it's cracked up to be, anyway. Looks like it's indie publishing for me, boyos.

Any tips on getting decent cover art?

>>11853372
>Any tips on getting decent cover art?
Try to get in contact with Brian Niemeier. He's on twitter and has his own site and is self-published I believe. His books have great covers and I'm sure he'll answer other questions as well about being an indie writer.

>>11853420
Hi Bri.

>>11853420
Ok. Thanks, anon.

>>11853172
>female special forces

>>11853304
Could always do a Mark Lawrence and just go pure edge.

>>11851106
You can't post something like that without telling us what it is.

>>11852277
>There's very little in terms of "Weird Tales" nowadays
>teleports behind your genre

>>11853055
>It's tired and obnoxious and seems to carry the message that a woman is somehow more valuable if she is less conventionally woman.
That's how it is in a feminist world.

>>11852805
Are you retarded? How do you thinking spying works?

>>11852972
the opening to introduction of a character is similar, but the rest of it doesn't continue like that; Tad Williams Otherland

so, dumb question that's probably going to trigger a shitstorm for no reason:

What mythical creature seems the most likely to stroll into an indian restaurant disguised as a human and demand a cheeseburger?

I swear to god I have a good reason for asking that.

>>11854191
a satyress,

Why is it that teenagers in YA novels and assorted shonenshit are always highschool-aged rather than college students?

College students are still not adults but they have all the freedom of adults, and it completely make sense for them to be having coming of age arcs, fighting in wars, or going to oddly specific career schools

>>11854301
Uhhhhh because YA novels are targeted at teenagers so it makes sense for the characters to be the same age?

>>11853155
Assassin apprentice by robin hobb. Felt like 75% of the book was just leading up to him being a teen.

>>11853172
Yes it was very good.

Where does the science fiction concept of a "hive mind" or "gestalt conciousness" originate from /lit/?

>>11854349
ants probably. They're famous for the intelligence of their hivemind and most hive mind creatures are in some way insectoid.

Even those tyranids are hexapods with exoskeletons

>>11854191
>>11854191
Proabaly not " Indian" per se, but I immediately thought Penanggalan

>>11854301
Raising the age leads to more adult themes. It's R-rated vs PG/PG-13. College students are realistically going to swear, hook up, and party which parents don't want their kids reading about.

Lots of sff is wish fulfillment. Teens like think they're smarter/more capable than adults so YA caters to this.

>>11854349
Clarke's Childhood's End (1953) probably helped popularize the idea.

>>11852946

fuck you

>>11852972
Hyperion

New thread folks!
>>11854958
>>11854958
>>11854958
>>11854958

>>11854301
lol