/lit/ - Literature

Please jerk off BEFORE making a thread.

>>11866687
Why, when you could jerk off to the WORST WAIFU?

Ah, finally.

Now, is this truly the power of Gene "What's impossible is to keep my Catholicism out of my writing" Wolfe?

>>11866677
I WANT SO BADLY TO FUCK HER FROM BEHIND FUCK

>>11866700
Please jerk off BEFORE making a post.

>>11866706
Fucking Puritanical fuck, I'll jerk off whenever I want to

>>11866677
Ah, I was wondering where the special ed section of lit disappeared off to.

>>11866717
This is the containment thread for all the retards. You have no reason to be surprised.

>>11866694
I will take his superbly written Catholicism over the badly written intersectional feminism or some such shit any time of the day.

>>11866687
Please stop being so low test.

>>11866700
Calm down anon.

>>11866717
So what made you leave the pretentious section and come slumming here? They throw you out or something?

Soulcatcher a headless shit

>>11866728
The hot part of the OP pic isn't the latex, it's the shape of her butt and her corset, and the hair and eyes. In fact the bodysuit is just getting in the way of her tits and ass (the essence of Woman)

muscular women wielding giant swords

>>11866728
I can't wait for you to write a fantasy novel and try to shill it here so that we can tell you too to fuck off with it.

>>11866728
>superbly written Catholicism

So intentionally writing bad and then going "no guys it's a TRANSLATION" to impress literary critics is "superb" now?

>>11866677
>>11866728
I approve of the ease-of-access zips.

>>11866738
>the shape of her butt and her corset

Would you even have perceived that without the specular highlights and dilatation in outline? Not to mention, it presents the outline independent of connotations of naked tits and ass, or bikini-clad tits and ass, or whatever boring context is the alternative.

>In fact the bodysuit is just getting in the way of her tits and ass (the essence of Woman)

ugh

>>11866782
she has a NICE set of assets, I think I would notice them no matter what

>>11866782

delineation

embarrassing

>>11866743
I am a consumer not a producer anon, I don't think I have it in me to write a novel. And if I did it would not be a fantasy novel and I would certainly pretend to have never heard of this place. Being a part of a alt-right Russian Nazi basket weaving forum would negatively impact the sales numbers.

>>11866750
Yes. He pulls it off superbly. I can't think of a lot of authors who would be able to pull something like that.

>>11866793
>sales numbers
As if any one of us could ever sell a copy to anyone.

>>11866738
Latex is there to accentuate those qualities.

>>11866781
You can't get the suit on without them. I think in some cases you actually need another person on hand to get it on (that's beside the lubing).

>>11866738
butts primed for probing

>>11866800
Didn't that annoying furry actually got published? And got some people to buy his novel?

Has there been anything worthwhile released this year

>>11866808
Self-publishing doesn't count.

>>11866817
There hasn't been anything worthwhile in ten years

>>11866801
Like I said the latex doesn’t accentuate anything, it’s like a muslim woman wearing a veil. It’s just there to hide her sex parts. Without it she’d look like a fucking fertility goddess. I want to worship her milk...

>>11866818
That is still far, far more than I or you have done. He might go on to better things. JK Rowling, for all her stupidity lately, submitted 'Arry Potter to 17 publishers before the novel got picked up. Right now, movies based on her work is what's keeping WB above the water.

>>11866822
>ten years
Why only ten? Why not go for fifty?

finally got a release date
>October 2

>>11866850
>Why not go for fifty?
We got a few good ones in the nineties.

>>11866871
And they were?

>>11866851
Nice, I was just complaining about that the other day. And now that I have a job I can actually buy it.

>>11866876
ASOIAF didn't go down the shitter until with Feast.

I ruined some poor woman's day on reddit today. There was thread about CS Lewis and I posted a comment on how shitty it was to have all the children in the Narnia books die in a train wreck at the end of the last book. Apparently her mom had read her the books many times when she was still a child but had always left out that part because she absolutely couldnt remember it. All she remembered was that her mom used to cry towards the end. When I quoted the relevant paragraph where Aslan explicitly states what has happened she wrote it left her shaken and crying, lol

>>11866845
>I want to worship her milk
Jesus Crist calm down

>>11866986
You have helped her shed away illusions and lies of childhood, and she'll be better off in the long run. Don't feel bad.

>>11866677
>What is more futuristic than hot babes clad in latex?
Detachable tit prosthetics that can sense touch in the detached state.

>>11866986
You shouldn't feel bad about saying mean things to lesser beings such as women. If she's a good girl she knows she had it coming, and probably enjoyed it.

>there are people who exist that defend denna
She's a literal fucking whore and Kvothe is a bitch for obsessing over her even in the present when he had girls who were prettier and more importantly had self respect pining after him.

It's cool because the 1000 years of dark age is not so much "ALAS, WE ARE BARBARIANS NOW" but rather a gradual change characterized by specific socioeconomic markers such as: the lack of trained nuclear engineers, the predominance of independent feudal kingdoms, and even scarcity of organic tobacco.

That being said, I don't know how I'm supposed to take this world seriously when its governing equations are focused primarily on things other than boybands.
Even in its heydey nobody in the Empire plays any instrument, listens to music, awknowledges the existence of any performing art, participates in any sport, exercises at all, and in fact the entire universe is just a homogeneous mass of sweaty men. [to their credit some of them do post-ironically pray to space Jesus.]

It's true that humans were all stupider in the 1950s, but Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who snuffed it in 1930) managed to create a varied and comparatively diverse cast of individuals, all of whom were petty theives motivated by greed.
Keith Laumer, contemporary sci-fi author, likewise constructed narratives on a planetary scale, but the recycled neo-Grecian pederasty created stronger characters.

Verdict: Issac Asimov, hack writer extraordinaire. [zero Skiing Barbies out of four.]

>>11867060
Defending or accusing Denna, or Kvothe for that matter, is kind of like saying one particular piece of corn in the great big steaming pile of turd is a good corn or bad corn. It kind of feels like there's no point.

We here on /sffg/ tend to instead focus on the asshole that produced the turd: Patrick Rothfuss himself.

>>11867060
Those "people" are usually females who see Denna's behavior in themselves or whiteknights who think a female can do no wrong. Though like another poster said, the real crux of the issue is the ginger fat fuck himself for writing these characters.

>>11867060
>giving a fuck about kingkiller

>>11867008
Kinky.

Anyone know of some post apocalyptic fiction in the same vein as Earth Abides, The Death of Grass, or I am Legend?

>>11866694
Why would he keep it out of his writing in the first place?

>>11867170
Station Eleven maybe? Not as violent as those three you listed tho.

>>11867174
Because he might understand to keep his beliefs out of his stories, or at least low-key, like Tolkien did?

>>11867185
We can't all walk over eggshells because you get triggered so easily.

>>11867184
That looks really interesting. I'll read it. Of the three I listed Earth Abides is by far my favorite so I don't need a lot of violence.

>>11867193
A good writer knows to not shove his beliefs down the reader's throat.

>>11867185
That's not an answer to why he would do it. And if you think Tolkien is low key you are retarded.

>>11867206
He's pretty low-key if you compare him to C.S. Lewis.

>>11867199
Plenty of superb authors do it. You should be able to remember a dozen from the top of your head.

>>11867199
I think you should move on anon. Maybe try some of the new crop of Hugo winners. Those guys (well mostly girls) keep their beliefs completely out of their writing. Not like Gene Wolfe who slaps you over the face with his giant literary dick the moment you open one of his books.

>>11867198
Hope you enjoy it. There is also The Windup Girl, which is a post apocalyptic novel, among many other things.

>>11867215
Sure, because Lewis wrote for children and made it a metaphor they can understand. Tolkien simply molded his writing in line with his beliefs, where it all flows from them, but it's not a metaphor about Christianity.

>>11867234
Ánd then Wolfe just slams his beliefs down on the paper like it was his giant pulsing dick.

>>11867174
you didnt read the text in the image, did you

>>11867170
here, a zip file with more than 80 scifi books about any conceivable sort of apocalypse. Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang or A Canticle for Leibowitz or Damantion Alley or Lucifer's Hammer are other great classics. One of my favourites is "Swan Song" by Robert McCammon though. It is everything that King's "The Stand" wasnt.

>>11867284
oops forgot the link

https://rapidgator net/file/78603e25d76a809f9c2027b3efa6a633/Apocalypses.7z.html

>cleared my list of stuff I wanted to read
>nothing in the new releases has jumped out at me for a couple of months

This is why I don't get 100-150 books per year people, I can keep the pace fine but I can't find that many books that hook me

>>11867291
You ever seen people add like a hundred books at once on Goodreads? I have no fucking clue what's the point of that.

>>11867299
Maybe literary e-peen contest?

>>11867198
>I don't need a lot of violence.
try where late the sweet birds sang

>>11867299
tbf I'm probably gonna do that
I update like once per year when I'm desperate for something to read. Might do it now actually

>>11867053
>You shouldn't feel bad about saying mean things to lesser beings such as women
What are you doing here if you're not a woman? Men don't read recreationally

>>11866851
>e-book
Is this series/author worth it?

>>11867328
I'm trying to get laid, of course. Don't you just want to jump at my dick now that I've established myself as a charmingly misogynistic chad?

>>11867334
Jokes on you, I don't leave my apartment.

>>11867328
>What are you doing here if you're not a woman?
A-are there WOMEN in /lit/?!?!

what happens if u try and fart in one of those suits
also read any interesting mindfuck scifi recently?

>>11867347
>A-are there WOMEN in /lit/?!?!
Anon... there are no women on Internet.

Can anyone suggest similar protagonists? I'd prefer someone who isn't swooned over by every female character.

Whenever I write a sci-fi/fantasy story I'm showing to other people, I make most of the characters women/minorities and the women more competent/intelligent than the men to compensate for the main character being a white guy.

What is a good order to read the Conan stories? I tend to go with publication order for long series.

>>11867369
Publication order works fine.

>>11867367
Wow those white guys are really overpowered.

>>11867366
I've never read this book, is it good?

>>11867347
There are ONLY women on lit, stop falseflagging

>>11867352
What if you need to use the bathroom?

>>11867394
Judging by the cover, it's a yet another "White edgy guy with magic sword having adventures".

I wouldn't hold my breath for anything good.

>>11867402
If it's all the same to you I'd rather get an opinion from somebody that actually knows what they're talking about.

>put what I've read this year and the end of last year into goodreads
>first book recommended is Name of the Wind

Help, I've been owned!

>>11867394
Well the MC is the biggest Gary Stu of any protagonist I've ever read if that is your kind of thing. The author literally designed the character to be as over powered, desirable and genius-level intellect as possible.

>>11867426
Okay that doesn't really tell me anything though. What's his occupation? What's the plot of the book?

>>11867366
I read like 40 pages two years ago and didn't bother with any more.

IIRC someone in this thread said it was very sloppily edited (it's a self-pub)

>>11867429
I can't say too much without spoilers but it starts out as a kid growing up isolated from the world who is trained from birth to fight. Stuff happens and he finds himself alone in the rest of the world and goes exploring.

>>11867400
you just undo the flaps and pee or poo
but if you fart you're releasing gas into what looks to be something that isn't porous so im curious what happens

>>11867437
My but that does sound awfully generic. Maybe try Raymond E. Feist's new series? It's called King of Ashes, about a young prince raised in secret who holds godlike powers capable of destroying everything.

>>11867437
lol that's just Blood Song with wandering instead of going straight to war

>>11867434

I noticed no glaring issues when I read it which was only a couple of weeks ago.

>>11867447
>>11867453
Yeah, it's generic as fuck. It's trash but kind of fun trash but I heard it tanks after the first two books. The kind of series KU was made for.

>>11867467
Why would you write such generic trash for more than one book?

>>11867000
Just imagine her lactating inside that suit and filling it up with MILK!

>>11867474
>Why would you write such generic trash for more than one book?

It's very popular on the kindle store for a self published book. $$

>>11867474
you make money from sequels, captive audience and all that

Modern publishing and self-publishing has killed the standalone

>>11867485
Why would something so generic be so popular? Doesn't the greater public want to challenge themselves and look for something new and exciting rather than the same old over and over again? Is it not the point of fantasy to seek the fantastic, rather than the well-known, the mundane?

>>11867474
Every Fantasy is a series these days. I can't even think of a single standalone fantasy novel written recently.

Anyone read Vorkosigan? I stopped reading during Cetaganda and I was wondering if it is one of the weaker books or if I just got distracted.

>>11867507
To Ride Hell's Chasm is the last pure fantasy standalone I read and that's like 16 years old now. There's also The Scar but everything Mieville wrote is kinda connected.

Oh and Sharps by KJ Parker was standalone too and that's 2012

What is a good fantasy with well-handled racism and dark themes?

I am not looking for some edgelord fanfic, I am looking for a "mature" and gritty fantasy.

>>11867587
Anyone that would write fantasy either doesn't hold the maturity to address such issues in a non-edgy way, or simply doesn't care and is more about all the adventure and good times.

Elric and Corum might both fit the bill, though racism isn't really a central theme in either.

>>11867331
it's really good for a self-published book

>>11867617
That doesn't say a whole lot, though.

>>11866851
Is Crimson Queen the one with the bard god guy who forgot all of his memories and had them turn into some sort of bomb when they were unlocked can't remember if I finished it or not

>>11867633
yes

>>11867636
Cheers, that was good enough to bother with the sequel

I have a fucking terrible memory for books once I finish them, but I can recall it all fine once I start reading the book or a sequel again

>>11867369

Rob E Howard got some great ideas about Satan-worshiping lesbian vampire sluts from his pen pals right before he snuffed it, and his early work can seem a little academic after you experience all the carnal sin.

>>11867170

Has anybody read this book?

>>11867706
I did. I was on a zombie binge a few weeks ago.
What do you want to know?

>>11867717
I remember your binge. The only thing I remember is that you weren't very impressed by anything, which going by that logic would lead me to believe that you didn't think this book was all that good either.

Am I correct or did I make a leap of logic at some point?

>>11867493
only in genre fiction desu, but genre fiction is the shit that's designed to turn profit

>>11867746
Outside of genre fiction you're selling to schools or bookclubs desu

>>11867722
While I wasn't impressed by the dozen or so books I tried, it was not because I am some smug, pretentious asshole (If I was I wouldn't have been reading those books in the first place) but because they really weren't all that impressive. I think I gave good reasons why those books were anything but impressive.
Surprisingly Hell Divers are not bad. The premise is certainly interesting and the writing is okay. It's fast paced and actioney, with HALO jumps and fighting zombie-ish monsters in irradiated ruins.
Now if you really want a well written post-apocalyptic novel I would recommend the Silo series by Hugh Howey.

>>11867717

Nicholas Sansbury Smith is a pacing maniac. I really wanted to dislike the series because the prose was very accessible and the setpieces were unoriginal, but I couldn't stop reading the first piece of shit book. The action was superlative and the pacing is really well executed. It's definitely influenced my writing. Besides being something that I want to get better at (writing action scenes that flow) it's also made me more aware of it in other books. I was reading Takeshi Kovacs II & III at the same time and he's a bit of a fruitcake in comparison.

... sets up these awesome original setpieces for like 10 chapters and then the climax is like "fuck you!" "no, fuck you!!" until one of them gets close enough for the intense kissing I mean the knife kill

>>11867717

so I guess I just wanted to know if people have read the same terrible books

>>11867857
>>11867706

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1926188840

From now on I'm imaging that the poster who hates Jemisin and this goodreads reviewer are the same person

>>11867831
Wat?

>>11867857
>>11867886
Damn the series took a turn for the worse. The first book was okay.

>>11867894
I think I'm going to follow this person.

>>11867894
You can't just discard valid criticism of Jemsin, namely her being a black woman with the chip on her shoulder the size of Texas like that.
The bad writing, the shitty characters, her novels reading like badly written fan fiction by a sex starved middle aged woman - all of that are the symptoms of her butthurt over the fact that she is black.

>>11867943
> Full This Overhyped Piece of Fish is One of the Most Overhyped Pieces of Fish I Have Read in a Loooong Time So Let's Get Trollin' Trolls I'm Ready for You Crappy Non Review (TOPoFiOotMOPoFIHRiaLTSLGTTIRfYCNR™) to come.

good post

>>11867949
Don't forget to subscribe!

>>11867922
>the series

Takeshi Kovacs went to shit, in that it got more self-aware and he sort of became a ridiculous parody.

It's sort of like the universe was only supposed to hold together long enough for the first story, not to mention the 200 yr time jumps in between. But the setpieces and settings got even better in II and III.

Hell Divers, meanwhile, definitely improves in later books. it starts out with minimal set of elements (the ship, the sirens, the Wal-Mart) and each book adds new elements while the characters and world are developed. It seems very much written with the overarching world building in mind.

How is Hamilton's new Salvation book?

>>11868238
If it’s anything like the Night’s Dawn trilogy it sucks because those books suck

>>11867894
this review is so godawful that it would make me want to inverse it and read the book - but the person that wrote it probably also has strong opinions on fanfiction
seems like the kind of trash who gets mad about trash

Has anyone here read any of Greg Egan's work? I just finished reading Diaspora and Permutation City and thought they were both fantastic.

>>11867894
that site has to be like 90% women

>>11867587
Based baru cormorant is deals with colonialism surprisingly well for being fantasy. Its also definitely one of the best modern series in my opinion (although thats not a super high bar). Pretty sure the second book is coming out in a month or two.

>>11867625
I read it a few weeks ago and I'd say it's a very typical "kid from a fishing town is actually The Hero" type of story. Normally I hate this kind of Mercedies Lackey/R.A. Salvatore crap but I found Crimson Queen to actually be entertaining and very readable, I think largely because the kid isn't the only viewpoint character. I'd recommend it, probably one of the better self-published books out there and I'm actually kinda surprised the guy hasn't gotten picked up by a publisher for the second one.

>>11867587
Seconding the other anons Traitor Baru Cormorant rec. Exactly what you're looking for.

It's also one of those rare books that you know will have a twist ending which you can see coming from a mile away if you're not stupid but still manages to blow your mind.

What's missing from nearly all cyberpunk (that I'm familiar with) is people constantly complaining about their society's status quo.

They all have some kind of hypercommercial degenerated society and everyone in it just ignores it and pretends like it's totally normal. At most there is some super woke and redpilled character who tells it like it is (pic related) but everyone else is just... sheeple, I guess?

I mean I guess that's supposed to be the authors' message but that's not at all how it works in real life. We arguably already live in a cyberpunk society by 80s standards (minus super advanced tech like AI and full body cyborgs) but we still get thinkpieces, viral videos, newspaper cartoons and family reunion rants every single day about how modern society is hyperconnected, hyperconsumerist, isolated atomic individualist, kids today with their phones etc. etc.

Some of those hot takes are wrong, some are missing the bigger picture, some might even be totally right and relevant, but in any case the fact remains that people never shut up about this stuff. We are aware of the (valid or not) criticisms of our society and we get to hear them a lot. If cyberpunk literature seeks to be realistic (and much of it does, even when it's super exaggerated), it should reflect that.

>>11867291
>This is why I don't get 100-150 books per year people, I can keep the pace fine but I can't find that many books that hook me
I don't know what you mean. I start a book and finish it. Hook not necessary. I enjoy reading for itself.

>>11867062
Well there are some details that mention culture (I think the young prince goes hunts the only piece of alien fauna in the entire series as a hobby, also F&E has a futuristic musical instrument as a plot device) but I get what you mean and I mostly agree.

I guess it's better to see it as a story told from galaxy-eye's view. He's telling the drama of thousand of colonized planets over hundreds of years within fewer than 700 pages. He wasn't trying to do Middle Earth in Space, just to tell a rather simple story on a very, very macro scale. Although this doesn't change the fact that it's not as believable or engaging as it could've been, I guess.

Have you read the other two books in the trilogy? I think they're much better than the first one (although the problem you mentioned is not totally absent).

Also has anyone told you you write like The Last Psychiatrist?

>>11868730
It's not like society has had time to fully degenerate yet. Plenty of people are still around who remember life before the internet or even computers.

>>11867170
The Road

>>11868840
>It's not like society has had time to fully degenerate yet.
Degeneracy is cyclical. The Roman Empire was completely degenerate right before it collapsed for example.

>>11868900
I didn't mean generally degenerate. I'm talking specifically about the transformation to a fully cyberpunk society.

>reading a book that got digitised in the 90's
>contains a little uploaders note about why they liked the book

cute :3

>>11868730
>I mean I guess that's supposed to be the authors' message but that's not at all how it works in real life.
It was how it worked back when most cyberpunk was written, because cyberpunk as a genre predates the advent of social media. They couldn't predict how social media would change the free flow of information and opinions, including social and political commentary. The result of an increasingly information-based society has led to a wider social consciousness rather than a reduction of it as they originally envisioned.

>>11868900
The "collapse" of the western Roman empire is generally agreed to have happened in 476 when Odoacer overthrew Romulus Augustulus and declared himself King of Italy, but Odoacer represented himself as being a patron of the Eastern Roman emperor Zeno, issued coinage in the name of Julius Nepos (technically the actual Western emperor, who ruled only in Albania and Croatia) and had the support of the senate.

>>11868900
The degeneracy you speak of was rampant in the Roman Empire since before it took that name for itself. The senate and patrician class were infamously corrupt and decadent for centuries, which was part of the impetus for Julius Caesar's coup back in the waning days of the Republic. His magnanimity toward the poverty stricken plebs is what made him so popular, and why the Senate conspired to murder him. A dictator they could handle, he'd die eventually then business would continue as usual, but somebody who threatened to upend the social order that had prevailed for generations? He had to die fast.

Great books with female protagonists?

>inb4 flood of triggered incelfags

>>11869082
>inb4 flood of triggered incelfags
Do you have to be such a gaping pussy? I mean jesus just ask your question.

>>11869082
The Diamond Age
Count Zero (after Neuromancer)
Hild
The Night Circus
The Night Watch - Sean Stewart
Pollen - Jeff Noon (not sure if this can be read as a stand alone)
Sewer, Gas and Electric
Synners

I've only read a two chapters of Station Eleven (multiple povs) but it looks promising and has gotten good reviews.

>>11869218
I just started reading the Diamond Age.

So far not as gripping as Snow Crash, but i'll let it unfold more considering i'm only a quarter through the book.

>>11867522
>Anyone read Vorkosigan?
Sure I love that series. Cetaganda is one of th best books in the series although the plots and ntrigues can be a bit much if you are not into that sort of thing. Power through mate, one of the latest book, Captain Vorpatrils Alliance, is even better than Cetaganda, so quality doesnt go down as with other series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikANY3Zg8Qk&index=48&list=PLMsyVJx5lBzjAwuXP8tsdR1qHt7HIq8-6

>>11869662
You're going to feel sooooo smart when you figure out those fairytale parts are actually about programming. Neal must be the smartest living author except maybe for Richard Dawkins

>>11869082
Shards of Honor and Barrayar by Bujold (they're basically the first and second halves of same story)

Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh.

Adelle Mundy in the RCN series by David Drake, basically it's a Aubrey-Maturin style space opera and the "Maturin" is a depressed librarian who's also good at shooting people.

Anti-recommendation: Honor Harrington, probably the ur-Mary Sue of military scifi.

>>11869679
Cetaganda isn't one of my top books in the series more because the characters don't have a lot of agency. Miles and Ivan are guests in the capital of a (nominally) hostile foreign power and spend a lot of time sitting around waiting for the situation to develop to the point where they can do something. Stuff picks up a bit when the Haut ladies get involved and are able to open doors for them, but even then it's more of a "the ambassador's wife put in a word for you" thing.

Cryoburn was the same to a lesser extent. I think maybe it would have worked better if it had primarily focused on Roic doing cop stuff and the kid instead.

But yeah I'd agree at least skim Cetaganda or just read a summary, and then move on to the rest of the series, there's some real top-notch stuff after it.

>A Brightness Long Ago Hardcover – May 14, 2019
A standalone prequel to Guy's previous Children of Earth and Sky, A Brightness Long Ago offers compelling drama and moving reflections on the nature of memory, the choices we make in life, and the role played by the turning of Fortune's wheel.

>>11869851
I mean how do you know how compelling or moving it is if it's not even out yet?

>>11869868
Kay's books are always compelling.
He is the best in genre alongside with Tad Williams and Robin Hobb.

>>11869873
> Tad Williams
Also:
>Yesterday, Tad Williams shared the new cover art for the upcoming Osten Ard novel, Empire of Grass, book two in THE LAST KING OF OSTEN ARD trilogy

>>11869873
> Tad Williams
> Why write a 200 word passage when 5000 will work instead.
I like him but good god does he need an good editor with a delete button.

>>11867474
It's not a very satirated market and many people like it, if you want to be clinical about it.

Does this series get any better?

>>11869932
No.

>>11868730
Much of the cyberpunk I've read doesn't elaborate on how (dis)content society is. It is apparent in Transmetropolitan because it's an anthology series that is minutely interested in what a lot of other novels gloss over

>>11869898
>god does he need an good editor with a delete button
Truer word have never been spoken. I compulsively finish almost every book and every series I start and I really came to rue this when I started the Shadowmarch series. Never before in my life has getting through a book or series felt so much like a chore. All those fucking gods, with different fucking names in every fucking language, and all the constantly changing stories about them. And it all turned out to be important long after I had taken to skipping those parts. Fuck.

>>11868730
Personally, I think this type of character would only really serve to be "realistic" rather than adding anything to the stories they're involved with, first of all.
Secondly, a lot of stories are mainly concerned with cynics. There are very few "sheeple" characters in cyberpunk, partially because the genre doesn't actually have a concept of dystopia that requires most people to be drones and partially because cyberpunk stories are focused on people whose actions are important and wouldn't count as everymen in either case. I think everybody goes into cyberpunk expecting to read something like They Live or Brave New World where their protagonist is a charismatic revolutionary and most of the side characters are worthless buffoons that provide nothing other than contrast. That would be drivel. More cyberpunk stories present nearly every character as a self-centered misanthrope. My favorite, Islands in the Net, is about a group of people who perfectly mirrors the NYT thinkpiece writers of the world with their grand ideas about how to whittle away at the world's problems by eating local produce. A lot of them treat news and the like as being more propagandic than they really are, but that shouldn't be taken to imply that it's propaganda that everyone believes blindly.
On a tangent, what cyberpunk have you read so far?

>>11870048
>On a tangent, what cyberpunk have you read so far?
not that much lol
Neuromancer, Burning Chrome, Transmetropolitan; currently reading Snow Crash, started Akira once but haven't finished it, although I'm planning to. Don't know if DADoES and Babel-17 count as cyberpunk, although I like them anyway.

>>11870085
Burning Chrome is my favorite out of those. Snow Crash is something you can't take as true cyberpunk; the entire novel is based on the subservience of the literary culture of cyberpunk after it developed pop-culture cliches. I prefer Cryptonomicon, which isn't sci-fi but it is cyberpunk by virtue of its ideas. It's a long read, though. Really, cyberpunk is more understandable as a genre once you start reading some of the less popular works, like Frontera, Islands in the Net, Synners, and City Come A Walkin'. Then you realize the modern popular conception of the genre is a visual fad no deeper than zombie lit or steampunk and the actual ideas are what define its classics.

>>11870006
> And it all turned out to be important long after I had taken to skipping those parts.
That's what's great about Tad Williams. Every small detail will bang in the end.

>>11870094
What makes you classify Island in the Net as cyberpunk? What makes any work classify as cyberpunk for that matter? I never really cared about grouping SF by subgenres since there aren't that many books to choose from overall.

>>11870196
For me, it's not about the trappings of the content or the worldbuilding. I just think of cyberpunk as a network of authors that were connected by philosophy back in the day, and to a lesser extent those who were inspired by that network to create similar works.

>>11869898
protip: avoid Abercrombie

>>11870450
Avoid anyone that's written more than three books of the same continuous story.

>>11870465
Avoid anyone who can't tell a story within 1200 pages.

>>11870490
If it doesn't fit a slip note, it's not worth wasting your time in.

>>11870495
1200 pages is around the maximum length of a single very long novel. That's a reasonable standard.

>>11870500
For comparison, a three volume work could very well be over 3,000 pages in length. That's three times as long as the Lord of the Rings. There isn't any work of fiction that long that's worth reading.

>>11870507
>There isn't any work of fiction that long that's worth reading.
Other than Proust

>>11870465
>>11870490
>>11870500

>>>/co/
>>>/a/

>>11870517
>Stop discussing scifi and fantasy unless you like my 12,000 page autistic trash series
I'll pass

>>11870517
best comics I've ever read were way over 3000 pages long lol

>>11870517
>>11870571
I've watched some really great anime with over 3000 episodes.

>>11870574
>Islands in the Net,

I've written some really great short stories with over 3000 words

>>11870500
But i love long books!

>>11870635
Shitty books but I do like that cover, the title ain't half bad either.

>>11866677
>Writes one of the books that elevates his entire genre
>Can never quite follow it up

Is he the Nas of sci-fi?

>>11870635
Since we were broaching the subject of anime for a moment here, you know how a lot of manga adaptations are filled with padding and absolutely everything is stretched to take as long as humanly possible, just to make sure they won't catch up with the source material? Remember how fucking annoyed you used to be with that shit, even if the anime is otherwise pretty good, probably wondering why you don't read the much better paced manga this whole time?

That's kinda like long ten-book doorstoppers versus shorter self-contained novels. Even if the former could have something worthwhile in it, something you might actually like, it's simply not worth the time investment and the frustration and the boredom.

Should I read?

I've been told it's got a really hard magic system which piques my interest.

But it's also been recommended to me by a weeb who told me "It's just like an anime!" so there's that.

>>11870962
It has probably the most uninspired name I've ever seen. Can't imagine the book itself to be much better.

>>11870085
Dont miss Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams.

>>11870134
I will admit the ending with the cataclysmic battle and the god coming awake in the cave under the ocean was pretty based. But the road that led to this could have been at least one whole book shorter.

>>11870962
Assume everyone is pansexual, so you don't get shocked afterwards and "people" here call you a bigot if you complain (speaking from experience)

>>11870962
its basically a litrpg where the numbers dont appear at first because they are being invented later on.
the story is pretty basic though. halfway through the first book mc turns into a flaming homosexual without any warning what so ever despite previous hints to the contrary.
its not bad per se but its not good either.
its written by an ex blizzard guy so you can imagine what its like.
read it if you are bored and got nothing else to read otherwise you can skip it. delvers llc is basically the same story only better written.

>>11866694
There’s a great reason that’s in there - idnn and the small able were also the sex cells - go plant a seed! You have to wait for the slack of the ride- oh white doves filled up the cave - damn I doubled in size when I caught her now I can’t find her oh I can’t breathe quick fire aelf give me blood / oxygen.

>>11866706
I want to bear your children anon

>>11871096
Tide*

>>11868730
>>11868840
>>11868931
>>11869984
>>11870048
What do you think about Cyberpunk With Chinese Characteristics guys?

>>11871164
All cyberpunk is already Chinese.

>missed 3 threads
what did i miss

>>11871292
Waifus, shilling, and musclegirls. Nothing of consequence.

>>11871296
are there any good scifi mentioned?

>character picks up *mysterious thing*
>decides to wear it
>starts acting weird but nobody in book addresses them wearing *mysterious thing* for six chapters

I love 90's fantasy so much

>>11871332
There's barely any good sci-fi that's been written in decades. It's like all the great authors stopped writing it.

>>11871348
Iain M. Banks was kind of ok

>>11871292
furry shiller got his feelings hurt and finally said he would stop with his faggotry, haven't seen him around for a bit now so that's the good news.

musclefags still around and are as annoying as ever, one of them even made this thread and further besmirched the good name of /sffg/ in lit yet again with the pic in the op so there's that.

>>11871364
Agreed, one of the few

>love triangle starts forming
And dropped. I really wish these authors would realize that there's no such thing as a good love triangle.

>>11871404
>Keda, Rantel, Braigon

*brings anime into your genre but in a good way*

You guys know any good horror books? Maybe not just horror but really unsettling stuff as well? I read I Have No Mouth recently and now I'm in the mood for more.

>>11871411
Is that your example of a good love triangle? If so my fucking sides.

>>11871419
>in a good way

>>11871419
>anime
>in a good way
I don't think even Tolkien could ever have combined these two terms and have it make sense.

>>11871404
Everyone knows a love QUADRANGLE is the only right way to do it. RIP woke RobertJ

>finally checked out the later books of the sword of truth series
Goodkind is one kinky fucker. Female lead gets like 50 rape attempts on her every buck. Then there's the magic rape involving her, and then the fake NTR chapter. I knew Goodkind has a massive hard on for Ayn Rand, but nobody told me about his degenerate fetishes he crams into these books.

>>11871419
stunning, strong, and brave

If you can't finish your story within at most 3 books you shouldn't write it at all. Screw all these 4+ book series.

>>11871516
Yes, we already came to agreement about that. No one in their right mind would argue.

>>11871465
That wasn't a quadrangle, it was a simple harem.

>>11871547
>NO

They were well written strong independent wemen.
And every child knows queens can't be in a harem you donkey.

>>11869932
It gets decently wild. If you don't like it already you're not going to get anything out of the rest, but The Dark Forest is really the jewel in the crown.

>>11870697
I guess you have never read the followups.

>>11871516
BotNS was basically 5 books, although at this point it's sold as 3

>>11871624
Exactly

Imagine sucking on some teenage barbarian tiddies

>>11871707
Imagine either going out there to get a date and suck a real woman's tiddies, or stop playing pretend and dreaming for what you can never have.

>>11871721
>real woman's tiddies
Gross

>>11871427
Pls recommend me something
I want to fill up my October with this stuff.

>>11871740
We have very little truly unsettling stuff.

>>11871516
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire had 6 volumes.

>>11871721
why do you have to remind me
i came here to escape from all that

Post hidden gems

>>11871427
>>11871740
das kapital, it'll curl your hair.

But more seriously I've had good experiences with the Best Horror Of The Year anthologies edited by Ellen Datlow.

>>11871809
Ooh thank you
Any recommended years?

>>11871821
Volumes 3, 4, 5 are pretty great, 8 and 9 were kinda middling but still had a few good stories in each, haven't read 10 yet. Of course like Comedy, horror is very subjective so YMMV and all.

You also might try "Night and Demons" by David Drake if you've ever read anything by him and like his style, it's a collection of the older horror and fantasy short stories he wrote before switching to mainly Scifi writing.

>>11869082
The big time

Anyone got any recs on 30s/40s sci fi? Looking for something to contrast the post-WW2 stuff with.

>>11870094
Finally someone that knows more about cyberpunk than Blade Runner, Neuronancer and Alerted Carbon. There was an Anon here who claimed it was better as a visual style, who obviously hadn't done much reading. (I don't agree about Snow Crash. I consider it an evolution into satire of pop culture. Then Vurt as another break through. But I see your point.)

>>11872011
Cyberpunk is better as a visual style, as evidenced by a mountain of visual material.

Imagine sucking on some teenage cyberpunk tiddies

>>11871164
Are the Chinese the new Jews for your worldwiew?

>>11872040
But even in cyberpunk you still wouldn't leave your basement.

>>11871516
Amber disproves your theory

>>11872025
Anon, these pictures you keep posting from latex fetish websites are not cyberpunk.

>>11872053
f-fuck you...

>>11870697
He's incredible with short stories.

>>11872025
Have you read Rucker, Shirley, Cadigan, or Bethke? Sterling actually foresaw this in the '80s, that people would latch onto the surfaces instead of understanding the ideas

>>11871164
I would only really be interested in reading a Chinese person's take for that, though maybe someone like Ian McDonald who researches everything ridiculously intensely would get halfway there.

>>11872056
Fine. Here's Motoko.
The visual representation of cyberpunk had a far more lasting impact on the masses than the literary works. The image of the razor nailed girl with a mohawk was far more enduring than the novel about her.

>>11872085
>Sterling actually foresaw this in the '80s, that people would latch onto the surfaces instead of und
I don't think the Sterling was the only one who pointed out the race to the bottom in almost any medium. Plus cyberpunk was not exactly all that deep in the first place.

>>11872077
Don't get mad at me. You would probably be wasting away, shitting in a plastic bag, while neurally hooked up to some WoW clone permanently.

>>11872025
You're just a steampunk faggot who played more video games.

>>11872011
Honestly I don't hate Snow Crash, but to me its status as the cyberpunk novel you read after Neuromancer is a bit unwarranted and very misleading to the nature of cyberpunk lit. It does its own thing, and it's kinda separate for that.

>>11872108
>Here's Motoko.
Post Alita.

>>11872085
I've talked to some of those people in pop-culture journalism sites that write thinkpieces about cyberpunk, and they haven't read any of these. The genre is lost to time, replaced by a bunch of LED lighting strips and a mockery of punk DIYness. Which is how it always had to be.

What's everyone reading?

I'm reading a Stephen King short story. And it's kind of goofy as a period piece and an ad for Kindle products. It's titled UR.

>>11872140
I finished Titus Groan for the monthly reading a few days back, and liked it enough to keep on going with Gormenghast. So far it's been good.

>>11872114
Here you go.

>>11872110
Wow rude.

>>11872140
My entire stack is relevant to sffg. Just finished heatseeker and war porn.

>>11872153
same

>>11872170
>Actually reading from doorstoppers in 2018
Do you hate trees anon?

>>11872203
I read from physical books in order to step away from my default reading habits that I've developed reading on the computer. Lets me slow down and go beyond the text. My default is reading ebooks pirated by Russians who pretend to benevolently spread knowledge while tearing down educational institutions for their own gain.

>>11872203
yes

>>11872140
Just started The Witcher series. Hasn't grabbed me yet, but I haven't given up hope.

>>11872140
Just finished the latest book of The Elven, which probably now one heard about here. Set out to write stuff today, picked up at page 50 or so to refresh my German, read all 500 or so remainig pages.
It was kinda weird, the pacing ramped up a lot in the second half and required you to be more familiar with the older books than those did.

It's midnight and I still haven't written a single word yet.

>Multiple blogs shitposts per day
>Moth & Cobweb stalled, no print edition of second volume
>Superluminary sucked
>Somewhither unfinished

Is he finally finished?

>>11872316
Have you tried fapping?
Slapping the monkey?
Polishing the rocket?
To clear your mind?

>>11872335
Masturbation does the opposite of clearing your mind.

>>11872340
Well your literary no-fap isn't exactly helping, is it?

Is there any halfway decent gothic SF out there that's not 40k shit?

>>11872335
If I tried that I probably would just imagine a way too elaborate porno, but in English. Kinda the whole point of this is to regain some skills in my native language.

>>11866851
What the hell happened to the crimson queen cover art? It looks like total shit now

>>11872503
the author had some issues with the new cover
apparently it got done really late and delayed the book for several months

>>11868402
It is and the other 10% are nu-males

>>11871419
>shoehorns fags, trannys, and sex that doesn't advance the story into your fantasy
The Hugo awards are truly dead.

>>11870697
>Writes one of the books that elevates his entire genre
Why are you of this opinion? Genuinely curious. (I also like "Neuromancer".)

>>11868730
The NPCs in cyberpunk generally are described as bored and apathetic, which corresponds well with our Now. The plethora of hot takes doesn't really affect them or rather they probably just don't seem the point in going hmm like thinkingsmiley.jpg. Besides, if you're writing a story about your digital outlaw PC, does it really do anything for the story to point out that the NPCs know what your PC does but just aren't capable of doing anything with that knowledge--unlike your PC? I suppose you could throw in an NPC doing a barrel roll for accuracy...

>>11872140
Started like 5 books today to see what they were like:
Luck in the shadows has been fun so far, the author deciding to just dedicated a chapter to a Farce was fun. Unfortunately it suffers from the super obvious cause of problems not being identified by the characters for ages problem that plagues fantasy.

Age of Assassins seemed alright but it annoyed me when it took pains to explain that the main character made the wrong decision and would suffer for it. So I'll pick it up again later.

Read like 10 pages each of Sun Sword, Half Drowned King and Steerswoman. Each seemed interesting enough to continue with, HDK especially seemed to hit on all sorts of things I like so I'll probably read that one first; Sun Sword is lowest on the list just because it had like 20 fucking pages of title explanations and character names before the book started.

Also got Guns of Avalon ready to read at some point so I might go for that next as well.

>>11866677
god l wish that were me

>>11872552
a litRPG book won a hugo?

>tfw reading LOTR for the first time
>already skimming through paragraphs in the first two chapters
Doesn't help I've seen the movies a hundred times by now, but I couldn't give less of a fuck about hobbits.

Which edition of Dune is better?

Paperback:
https://www.bookdepository.com/Great-Dune-Trilogy-Frank-Herbert/9780575070707

Hardback:
https://www.bookdepository.com/Great-Dune-Trilogy-Frank-Herbert/9781473224469

>>11872773
I've read both and the ebook as well, didn't notice much of a difference anon.

>>11872737
I think the hobbits are the best part. I frequently read the first few chapters, then just pick up the Scouring of the Shire.

>>11872517
yeah but the crimson queen one looks like this now for some reason.

I'm on the fourth book of count to a trillion series and I don't know why I do this to myself. Great premises awful awful execution.

>>11872680
worse, an angry black female author

>>11872834
>>11872334

>>11869876
I was wondering when book 2 was coming out.

>>11870094
>>11871021

>Burning Chrome is my favorite out of those
Me too. Hinterlands is probably my favorite sf short story overall.
Thanks for the recs, I might check them out.

Has /sffg/ come up with a magic system?

I have

>>11873092
Yes, the more constipated you are the more magic power you have. If you need to take a massive shit you hold it in and channel that need into magical properties.

>>11872334
That is what happens when brainlets convert. An actual good writer would use his newfound religious/philosophical outlook to inspire his works, rather than just using it to tip his now catholic fedora.

>>11872978
Hinterlands is good. The Gernsback Continuum is important as a thesis statement for Gibson's vision of cyberpunk, to the point where I routinely tell people "If your definition of cyberpunk doesn't include Gernsback Continuum, it's not a definition of cyberpunk". My favorite stories are Fragments of a Hologram Rose, Hinterlands, and New Rose Hotel. The Belonging Kind is great too, and it's a great way to see if you're into the kind of trans-conceptual mindfuck that John Shirley loves to put you through.

>>11873092
i've come up with a magic system that explains nothing about magic itself but serves to bare the psychological wounds of its practitioners to the reader, but i've never managed to write complete works of fantasy

>>11873127
converts are always retarded tbf, they only latch on to the parts of their new religion that give them personal validation

I'm about a fifth of the way through The Well Of Ascension and I have to ask: why the fuck did sanderson use alloys instead of just touching on all the pure metals? It pisses me off that pewter and duraluminum are allomantic metals but silver, mercury, lead, arsenic, graphite, and bisumth aren't


>>11873092
I made up a system based on the four fundamental forces of quantum physics. It's one of the few things that's gotten better the more I've thought about it

>>11868391
I'm ready Permutation City, it's the only Egan I've read and I fuckin love it. How does Diaspora compare?

>>11872773
I like the paperback cover more than that hardback, I generally like the older editions artwork more than newer reprints tho.

Monthly reading anon hasn't been around and Oct 2nd is the deadline, so if I sleep before next thread it would be cool if the discussion pic was used for it.

>>11868391
I read those same books, and possibly/probably recommended them to you if you got the rec here. I have a collection of his short stories, Axiomatic, on my list but haven't read it.

Yeah, they're both really incredible.

>>11873172
With a gun to my head I think Permutation City is slightly better but Diaspora is definitely great and basically on the same level as PC.

>>11872203
oh no you don't, we don't want tree anon back

>>11868391
Just Permutation City and some of his short work, like Learning To Be Me. Permutation City is one of the most impressive pieces of sci-fi I've read in a long time. It explains its concepts in a way that makes them hit far harder when they're actually realized.

>>11873127
Awake in the Night Land was really good, I would go so far as to call it a modern fantasy classic.
Count to a Trillion had a great concept and acceptable execution (contra >>11872834 imo).
The Green Knight's Squire was a little silly but quite well done.
Iron Chamber of Memory had a great concept and pretty good execution vastly helped by Wright letting his cheesecake impulses go all out to write probably the best fantasy enchantress character in decades (not that that's saying too much).

However, he has at least three major unfinished projects right now, and his last release, Superluminary, read like a B-side of his already flawed Count to a Trillion books.

>>11873294
The way that Permutation City uses emulations/uploads to bait you into accepting its actual central concept before you know what's really going on is absolutely incredible.

>>11873330
Learning to be Me does that too, the conceptual side of his writing is so dense but it's presented so subtly and artfully that it's entirely natural

>>11871348
the three body trilogy was good.

>>11873092

I came up with a psionics system a while back

>there are 4 background psionic fields in the setting that are affected by the thoughts of intelligent creatures, but most animals are better at tapping into it than humans are
>psions are usually only proficient in one field, and even then can only perform a single trick, but those that practice can slowly accumulate new tricks by taking powers from others
>The Warp is tied to space, time, mass and energy. Warpshapers can see through time and space, rewind injuries, conjure portals, and change which direction is down
>The Vore is tied to hunger, tranformation and decay. Voreshapers can smell through illusions, produce healing food, create zombies with their bites and even control fire
>The Spark is tied to storms, technology, magnetism and light. Sparkshapers may be able to mentally connect to cameras or microphones, conjure up storms or build supercomputers.
>The Chrome is tied to color, creativity, strength and bindings. Users can break limits, bring paintings to life, and punch away whole city blocks

>>11872140
getting through the mistborn series for the first time. It's good

>>11873159
Sanderson writes magic systems solely to leave himself a set of plot elements that he can turn back to later. It basically guarantees that the climax will end up being comprised solely of chekov's guns related to the magic system.

>>11873321
>acceptable execution
Every book is the contrary of "show don't tell"
Montrose instead of doing things he just tell other races (and the reader) what he did instead of doing anything. One entire book is just him talking in the same place (the tomb). Just telling us about the adventures everyone had. I just wish they'd do something.

>>11873207
got it. pretty excited for this desu

Where the fuck is Lev Grossman's new book?

>>11872773
Those are both pretty good covers.

>>11873092
>running the point of magic by putting it into an autistic "system" instead of portraying it as vague and unpredictable with only slight hints connecting certain thing
ISHYGDDT

new thread
>>11873696

Was anyone else disappointed by Neuromancer?
I remember not being too impressed when I started reading it, and only got around to finishing it several years later.
It was merely OK to me, and every other cyberpunk novel (or novel with cyberpunk elements) I've read was more enjoyable to me.
Neuromancer was my first introduction to the genre, so I did get to experience Gibson as the originator for what that's worth.

I remember just thinking that a lot of the cyberpunk tropes were stupid, and not consistent with how computers have evolved in our world. But of course, cyberpunk isn't hard sci-fi, and over time I've realized that its more enjoyable if I just go along with it.

>>11873705
Yeah, I usually just treat the technology as semi-allegorical, talking about our relationship with technology rather than predicting anything. I like Neuromancer but I greatly prefer Gibson's short stories and I'm more into Shirley and Sterling by a pretty wide margin.

>>11872839
Oh those are the worst.

Imagine sucking on some teenage witch titties