/lit/ - Literature

>>11884513
First for fuck rothfuss

How come Japanese do fantasy/scifi better than westerners?

third for your favorite self-published fantasy heartbreaker actually sucks

fourth for fuck the bad cover spam fag?

>>11884531
No they don't, have you ever watched an anime in your life? They're all terrible cringe fests.

So, which book ended up winning the monthly reading poll?

>>11884531
Nips don't even write books they just do manga and childrens light novels

>>11881636
>Whiny little beta-boy 'heroes'
This sounds like this fag lurks on /pol/.

>>11884597
Even in the realm of comics, they still out do westerners.

>>11884614
Based /pol/ living in this bugman's head rent-free kek

When does the second mistborn book get good?

>>11884671
oh boy, you dunnit now

>>11884531
name one (1) besides LotGH and MSZG

>>11884513
>Erebor "The Lonely Mountain" that close to Mirkwood while the great lake is so much further out
Was this a post-Hobbit retcon? Seem to recall Erebor being about as far out, but just as far

>>11884671
>mistborn
>good
there's like one interesting moment in book 2 and it's overshadowed by the book's utter lack of ideas otherwise

>>11884733
fuck i meant
>but just as far north*

What makes more sense to write if my end goal is to be remembered?

>mild, artsy magical realism
>4 book ya urban fantasy series

>>11884761
something good lol

>>11884733
>>11884755
Nice catch, ya it's one of the Hobbit movie posters.

>>11884761
Neither of those will be memorable. But the YA series will probably be more marketable of the two.

Write something good first, then worry about being remembered.

cant wait for stormlight 4

>>11884795
Why, are you out of toilet paper?

>>11884800
i still have plenty of wolfe books to spare

When are we getting tight pussy part 2?

>>11884788
well I was going by the description in the book but I found the original map from the Hobbit. I imagined the lake was much further south but I guess now that I see this it wouldn't make sense since they specifically had to use a far north route on Beorn's advice. But still, much closer to the forest and to each other than the OP image for the movie suggests

>>11884792
>>11884770

It occurs to me that I don't really know whether either of these ideas are good. I do however think that the YA has potential to be entertaining provided I can figure shit out... which I've been trying to do for three years now

>>11884761
>mild, artsy magical realism
you're like, many many years too late for this to be adventurous or memorable
>4 book ya urban fantasy series
this is in fact the least memorable thing you could possibly write

>>11884795
>he's almost finished the second before the first one's released

wonder what the secret project he's working on now is

>>11884820
Oh never mind. I'm getting that massive sea to the southeast confused with the long lake in the OP image, so I'm completely wrong

>>11884795
>he's almost finished the second Skyward book before the first one's released

wonder what the secret project he's working on now is

>>11884808
>i still have plenty of wolfe books
Doubt(x), someone with your taste having wolfe books is like a donkey having a smart phone. You likely don't and wouldn't know what to do with it even if by some miracle you did.

>>11884825
>this is in fact the least memorable thing you could possibly write

I could write a gritty multi-pov epic fantasy series set in a world similar to europe at some point between the dark ages and the end of the rennaissance with a name along the lines of Throne of Ashes or Blade of Thorns

but no. Instead I'm thinking of a gritty multi-pov epic fantasy series set in a world similar to the emerald city from the wizard of oz

>>11884841
>You likely don't and wouldn't know what to do with it even if by some miracle you did.
i just told you i wipe my ass with them, are you slow?

>>11884870
>are you slow

No, I'm not part of the "I can't wait for stormlight 4" crowd

>tfw there's Native American Sword & Sorcery novels but can't find them online anywhere

>>11884902
>native american
>sword and sorcery
what an unholy amalgam, yikes

>>11884911
How so?

>>11884902
more like hatchet and shamanism

>>11884938
TOMAHAWK

Is there any good fantasy/scifi focused blog with writing tips and other stuff? All the ones I find are full of the samey generic advices written by people with a very shallow knowledge of the genre who keep talking about the same books in every post and full of cringeworthy politics.

>>11884902
i think that's what clan of the cave bear is, but written for middle-aged women who masturbate too much

>>11884954
i used to listen to the uh, Writing Excuses podcast, which is a bunch of genre writers who I don't at all like but are popular and who are at least functioning craftsmen with better work ethics than myself
i hate podcasts but it's tolerable since it's 15 minutes

>>11884954
seconding this. I need to find information on writing a wonderland-like setting

>>11884795
Cant wait for stormlight 5 :)

>>11884982
that too

>>11884911
Nah it sounds cool even if you don't go for a pure fantasy setting. Around the years 700-900 the continent underwent apocalyptic drought conditions which caused the collapse of the North American mound builder cultures. So a period of tremendous upheaval and collapse

And then in the South there's the "evil empire" Aztecs (well Toltecs rather, Aztecs were later), and in the northeast you've got pale barbarian adventurers with iron. The only concession you really have to make is there were no horses for speedy travel, and extremely primitive metalworking, a copper hatchet or small sword, or a iron meteorite some Eskimo's found on the ice and worked into a knife would be about the extent of it.

Likewise the late bronze age collapse in the Mediterranean would be a great setting for "sandal and sorcery" style stuff. Maybe a more Mad Max style setup with rampaging hordes of chariot gangs.

>>11884795
>>11884982
Unironically looking forward to the Eshonai flashbacks.

>>11884902
Those niggers couldn’t even make armor

>>11885090
Armor is for pussy ass faggots.

>>11885054
Naw native Americans are boring

>>11885090
the majority of European levy infantry only had leather armor and padded coats.

>>11885120
medieval low fantasy sucks too whats your point

Looks like we're reading Sword in the Storm (no, not A Storm of Swords) by David Gemmell.

Dang, last thread was fast. Less than 20 hours since I posted the poll.

>>11885369
It was a great poll and I had no trouble with any of the winners.

>>11885369
Does this work as a stand alone? I've no interest in getting into a 4 part series.

>>11885377
Yes.

>>11885377
The main enemy are set up in the first book and only arrive in the second so you should probably read the both the first and second book. The last two books are set much later in time and are less connected to the first two so you don't need to read them if you don't want to.

I'm getting into some classic fantasy, currently reading Conan. What are some other must-reads? I've done Tolkien and have The Worm Ouroboros on my list.

It's the future and the world is fucked up by desertification and storms. Most people live in or around mega-cities, the concept of nations have mostly broken down as many can't support populations anymore. Many cities as we'd know them today are abandoned or ruined.
There's a space habitat in orbit that got fully-automated luxury gay space communism going on, and it works. Anyone can move there, but you have to make your way to the space-port and apply for entry to the AI that runs the place.
There are a few smaller space stations that are privately owned.
Asteroid mining is a thing.
Minor biological and robotic augments are a thing.

What do you do? How do you live your life?

>>11884531

name 5 Japanese SFF heavy novels not written by Murakami and aren't magical realism books

>>11885399
Elric.

>>11885399
The Hobbit
Narnia
Alice in Wonderland
Gormenghast
Elric
Fafhrd and Gray Mouser
The Broken Sword
Earthsea

>>11885409
>>11885410
Thanks guys.

>>11885400
>communism works
Anon, I know this is science fiction, but you have to maintain at least a bit of a suspension of disbelief.

>>11885400
I drop out midway through an unremarkable higher education program for financial reasons, struggling with mental illness that society seems unwilling or unable to assist with. I am unable to access any space stations for a mix of reasons, some to do with qualification and others to do with money. The only jobs I am able to do are menial service-industry wageslavery, I spend my free time reading and writing in a mostly-futile effort at self-improvement. Time bleeds away from me, the wasted days become wasted years. I explore psychedelic drugs, fringe communities, writing poetry. In the end, I wait for something to change and die uneventfully after it doesn't.

>>11885399
Lord Dunsany if you want some REALLY classic fantasy.

>>11885425
Fuck off faggot

>>11885400
Treasure Hunter in the old cities

>>11885438
Fuck off, commiecuck.

>>11885120
>leather armor
You mean gambesons. Leather armor is a meme, I believe. Though leather is of course a component in armor.

>>11885461
No

>>11885461
I will not

>>11885369
have we just gotten rid of the 250 page limit? i actually preferred the shorter books. now i cant really keep up with these

>>11885400
i post on space 4chan all day

>>11885506
>have we just gotten rid of the 250 page limit?
I removed the limit when I decided that we'll read one book each month regardless of length. I included the length of the books in the poll post so people could make an informed decision. I personally agree with you but 12 people voted for a longer book so it's fine by me. And Gormenghast was worth it desu.

>>11885369
I actually like the look of this one, how many pages is it total?

>>11885399
You might also want to check out the "Dying Earth" series by jack Vance. Technically it may be science fiction because it is set in the far far future by the author but it really is fantasy in all but name.

>>11885570
About 450 pages.

Pic related has convinced me that "edgy" fantasy can actually be great. It helps that the stories are basically horror stories (the short stories anyways) in a S&S setting.

>>11885656
How does one get into this series anon? I’ve missed Conan, and reading the stories again doesn’t hold the same magic. Same quality? (Possibly better?)

>>11885852
Kane is basically like an immortal and villainous version of Conan. And start with the short stories with Death Angel's Shadow and Night Winds. I haven't read the full length novels yet but apparently they're pretty average compared to the short stories which are great. And I would definitely say these stories are AT LEAST on par with Howard's Conan stories, but they have a stronger horror streak running through them.

This is literally 10/10.

Looking for any fantasy books with a lot of wandering around. Ideally not just walking toward a goal like LOTR though

>>11885975
>>11885964

>>11885975
A lot of Moorcock should scratch that itch.

>>11885656
God this look good.

>cover blurb mentions someoned suicide

Now that's grim dark 'n edgy.

>>11885582
Alright, It'll be a stretch to finish it in time.

Just re-watched stranger things and I'm really in the mood for something which oozes immersing.

>>11885983
y'know what despite being a dirty leftist I've never actually read any Le Guin

>>11886022
first 3 earthsea books and left hand of darkness are essentials

Do people cursed to live forever like Cain defy entropy? Like, will they still be whole and moving when all otger energy has dispersed?

>>11886177
No, in that universe the planet is only 6000 years old and entropy doesn't exist.

>>11886208
Yeah but I said LIKE cain, not jecessarily that specific setting.

>>11886254
Entropy doesn't and can't exist in ANY universe in which someone can live forever.

>>11886274
But is there ever such a thing as "live forever"? Is it not just a thing people say, that someone's going to live so long that it's easier to just say it's "forever" and leave it be?

I can't think of a single setting or story that's ever dealt with such impossibly long time spans where this would actually become a question to be answered.

I missed out so many threads and their recommendations. So many threads to read through and so many threads unaccounted for in the archives. Ugh

>>11886282
Are you sure they don't actually live forever in a world that simply lacks entrophy?

>>11886274
What if there's entropy but they just defy natural law?

>>11886337
>>11886345
We don't know, one way or the other. Few fantasy ever deals in longer timespans than millennia, few scifi in longer than millions of years - and it would take trillions before entropy might start to slow things down.

>>11885975
Search for literal grains of sand in a desert, about 1000 pages in the first printing.

>>11886345
>build galactic scale supercomputer
>everything has stopped moving so nothing can ever break it
>load up humanity and a universe simulator
>use immortal as power source
>plug in immortal with a neural uplink so he doesn't have to suffer alone
>really low energy for a galaxy scale computer, but the slow processing is completely unobservable from within the simulation
This is how we escape the heat death, we just need to find a vampire or something.

About a hundred pages in. Pleasantly surprised so far. Does it stay that good?

>>11886414
Yes it does, gets even better towards the end actually. Ravencry is not as good though, I suggest stopping after book 1, Blackwing works well enough as a standalone.

>>11885369
>15 fucking dollars
Mobilism it is

>>11886445
Gemmell's long dead, so you don't even have to feel bad about it anon.

>>11886454
Kindles ereader is much better than moon+reader though

>>11886458
I don't own a kindle but I've been told you can add your files through email or something, is that false?

>>11886465
No that's true. But I'm using my phone, and I can't make that work with the app. Sadly my kindle died after drinking too much.

>>11884982
>flashback
This is the one Sanderson series I was interested in dammit.

>>11885120
>leather armour
lmao

>>11885369
>'You have not asked me here to talk,' he said, his voice deep and powerful. 'You have asked me here to die. Come then, traitors. I am here. And I am alone.'

shitsabouttogodown.jpg

Has anyone else started reading Sword in the Storm?

>>11886578
>Has anyone else started reading Sword in the Storm?
Not yet. My library doesn't have it, so I'll need to download it on the computer, and I've been delaying it because I vastly prefer physical copies.

>>11886578
I just did bb.

>>11886454
Stella deserves the money desu, she helps new writers a shitload with stuff like the david gemmel awards

On a scale from 1 to 10 how autistic is it too be bothered by crows being used as villains or ill omens? They're such based birds.

>>11886649
10/10 since crows have been classed as ill omens throughout history.

Poor Ruathain
Poor stupid Meria

how common are villains supposedly based on Trump?

Im surprised I haven't seen one yet

>>11886710
It's hard to write something more evil than the reality.

>>11886710
what's the bad thing they're going to be doing? banishing people from their territory?

>>11886710
More /co/ than /lit/, but president Robert L. Booth was pretty much designed after Trump.

>>11886716
Egomaniacal populist with low iq(I feel even mamy of his supporters would concede that)? Trump himself is a stereotype so you can't parody him without being distastefully on the nose

>>11886710
No one would find the character believable.

>>11886727
his IQ is higher than yours desu, problem is egomaniacal populist does not necessarily mean evil at all, there are a lot of good characters who are like that.

>>11886710
President Gentle from IJ reminded me a bit of Trump desu.

I can't recall anyone else but it shouldn't be that hard to find any. Trump is a bit of like satire or a stereotype come true.

>>11886710
Can't happen in fantasy really, since literally what fantasy uses elections. Nobody writes Sci-fi.

>>11886736
Sure. And that's why I'm saying that even his supporters would probably concede those qualities. And while it doesn't mean trump is a villain, it's easy to build a villain around those qualities

>>11886668
Meria is the biggest fucking bitch in the entire series desu

>>11886783
I'm not very far desu
Just got very touched by their break up for some reason, so far not really hating her at all

baka Connovar is already getting cucked by that whore Arian

>>11886177
This concept is central to the elves in LotR. They live eternally in a world fated to age and decay, and lose its original beauty. In LotR, the basic philosophical argument seems to be that all which is eternal fades from human grasp, and the only remnant light is thus to be found within man in the form of renewing hope despite the dark. The pilgrimage that elves make (seen at points in LotR) is a pilgrimage to their transcendence from middle earth - I am not certain of this, but I believe they are attempting to reach Aman, the blessed realm that was severed from Middle Earth following the events of the second age.

>>11886783
>>11886796
I'll say this much, Gemmell really fucking improved on how he handled characters by the time he wrote Rigante compared to how shit of a writer he was when he wrote Legend in 85. All the characters are actually moulded and their personalities drastically changed as a result of big events that affect their life.

And Meria(or even Arian) are text books examples of how well he handles this. In short Meria is going to take you for a ride as the story progresses.

>>11886849
How many writers actually visibly improve on the last leg of their career?

Are any of the sequels to Rendezvous with Rama good?

Books about summoning unholy beings?

>>11884982
Aaand dropped.

>>11886887
Bartimaeus (It's YA but reaaaally good YA)

>>11886491
what's wrong with flashbacks

>>11886887
Wizard of Earthsea does out spectacularly well

>>11886736
>his IQ is higher than yours desu

he thought archival footage of missile launches was an actual live attack.

is it too cliche for a sci-fi planet to be mostly desert?

>>11886903
There are no bad cliches anon, just badly done ones. Worry about if it works or not.

>>11885465
>>11885500
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dmu-7sddik

>>11886899
He also can't stop winning.

>>11886804
Anon do you ever worry that the 4chan zeitgeist might be inhibiting your ability to enjoy literature?

>>11886903
Not cliche, but I personally find it unappealing.

>>11886903
You better have a damn good explanation for the biosphere, namely where is oxygen coming from.

>>11886937
Why? No other scifi setting ever bothers.

>>11885112
Native americans can be interesting if you can catch their lore from someone who isn't fucking with you, and if you don't buy into the retarded modern day view of them basically being a bunch of peace loving hippies in the past.

>>11886927
What, I'm enjoying to so far, that doesn't change the fact that the MC got cucked in the first few chapters tho.

>>11886937
who said anything about oxygen?

>'All skills have to be learned, boy. Any man – like any dog – can rut without instruction. But if you love your wife you will want to bring her pleasure too. Eriatha can teach you how. Then you won't have to blunder around your own bedchamber on your wedding night.'
>'You could teach me,' said Conn. Ruathain's laughter rang out.
>'No, Conn, I could tell you. Eriatha will teach you.'
>With calm severity Conn reaffirmed "You shall teach me"
>Thus Conn became The Big Man

>>11886959
But it isn't the focus or what's important. The focus is arian's tragedy, not conn's prestige, they're not even married yet

>>11885463
>You mean gambesons.

Buff coats? Yes, but there's no historic record of them showing up until the 13th century or so, aside from some scraps of leather clothing found in viking graves. Scandinavian scholars believe it's likely they just fought in their regular clothing.

Until the late middle ages, metal armor was mainly the realm of the wealthy and professional soldiers.

What makes the Harry Potter books so bland and insipid? Is it because they just lead the reader from point a to point b without provoking any kind of thought from its audience, or taking any kind of risks? Just what is it that separated something like Harry Potter from something like Lord of the Rings? I know Tolkien was much more of an autist, and put way more work into his worldbuilding than Rowling. But besides that, what makes LotR be seen as having more literary substance than Harry Potter, which is often regarded as 'literary junk food'?

>>11886998
Pretty much the same as everything Sanderson's done: it's all so easily digestible and inoffensive, something everyone reading it can agree with and find some level of shallow entertainment from. In order to be popular, a work will have to be bland and insipid - else it will lose most of the readers who find it too hard or provocative to enjoy.

>>11886998
I'm not quite as fond of Tolkien as maybe I should be but one thing I have to give him is his movie adaptations weren't the dullest franchise in the history of movie franchises. Seriously each episode following the boy wizard and his pals from Hogwarts Academy as they fight assorted villains has been indistinguishable from the others. Aside from the gloomy imagery, the series’ only consistency has been its lack of excitement and ineffective use of special effects, all to make magic unmagical, to make action seem inert.

Perhaps the die was cast when Rowling vetoed the idea of Spielberg directing the series; she made sure the series would never be mistaken for a work of art that meant anything to anybody, just ridiculously profitable cross-promotion for her books. The Harry Potter series might be anti-Christian (or not), but it’s certainly the anti-James Bond series in its refusal of wonder, beauty and excitement. No one wants to face that fact. Now, thankfully, they no longer have to.

>a-at least the books were good though
"No!"
The writing is dreadful; the book was terrible. As I read, I noticed that every time a character went for a walk, the author wrote instead that the character "stretched his legs."

I began marking on the back of an envelope every time that phrase was repeated. I stopped only after I had marked the envelope several dozen times. I was incredulous. Rowling's mind is so governed by cliches and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing. Later I read a lavish, loving review of Harry Potter by the same Stephen King. He wrote something to the effect of, "If these kids are reading Harry Potter at 11 or 12, then when they get older they will go on to read Stephen King." And he was quite right. He was not being ironic. When you read "Harry Potter" you are, in fact, trained to read Stephen King.

>>11886998
Harry potter is fine YA honestly. But while hp attempts to be famous five with magic and some long running character arcs and drama, lotr is more about lore building and integrating folk mythology into a greater epic in a sort of modernised format. they're just different works, one is more challenging, you can't break that down very easily. After all, this description could hold true for two other works while the more challenging and less challenging works are reversed, it's all about what you do with it.

>>11887059
>"If these kids are reading Harry Potter at 11 or 12, then when they get older they will go on to read Stephen King."
Oof, really? I thought he was self aware enough to realize that he belongs to the entry level. I can't even imagine such a sad concept as an avid reader GROWING UP to enjoy Stephen King. Even in my early teen years I knew he was a guilty pleasure.

>>11886998
I think the Hobbit/LotR gets a lot of credit just for being extremely original and influential.

>>11887065
>>11887031
how do I make a provocative fantasy book?

>>11887088
I think that's bs. While I don't even like lotr I can recognize the abnormal amount of work put into it. The writing style is dry as shit, but the world is fleshed out in a way that might be completely unique to it. The hobbit is good childrens fantasy, not very similar to lotr. It certainly was innovative too though.

Can jack vance's "Dying Earth" cycle be regarded as fantasy even though it is technically science fiction, since everything is supposed to take place in the far far future?

>>11887098
>how do I make a provocative fantasy book?
Write about darkskinned races and women and make them inferior to the white male protagonist. People will be flipping their shit.

>>11887125
It's both. It was written back in the day when the two were not separated at all. Don't try to bind books of the time into one genre - you will fail.

>>11887128
>Write about darkskinned races and women and make them inferior to the white male protagonist. People will be flipping their shit.
not provocative like that. I mean thought provoking. I was already gonna have a dark skinned race in my world though. But I wouldn't touch on prejudice. They'd just be there, you know.

>>11887098
Don't. Get really bored, let inspiration come to you and write until you find something that feels raw and true and stick with it until it's good. Don't be concerned with whether it's provocative, because the value of a provocative work is the authenticity that comes from not caring if it appeals to everyone. If you care so much that it has to be provocative, you're just mirroring the dumbing down of people that so desperately try to avoid it.

>>11887113
I don't think it's dry. I think a lot of writers are really forced sappy compared to it though.

>>11887145
I just don't want it to be void of substance and looked down upon like most people do with HP.

>>11887156
>like most people do with HP
Anon, most people still love Harry Potter. We are a vanishing minority. That's the true tragedy of it.

>>11887150
Well I do think it's dry. So much of it is just inconsequential recorsing of time passed.

>>11887137
>I wouldn't touch on prejudice.
oh now THAT will get the riled up! positively devilish my fellow man

>>11887156
It won't be void of substance. What's important is finding that truly resonates with you, something that feels sincere and powerful. You can build meaning out of that in revision and editing, but it kinda have to be build and flow naturally from a that source,if you just have some statements and concepts you want to express and you build a story around it to facilitate that I'd consider that forced junk. Also I'm on a phone and slightly tipsy so I can't really write properly, sorry if this is all word salad that no one else can connect with

>>11887165
I know but there's something empty about it. Maybe it's the fact that it was stretched out to 7 books, and kind fo had an episodic kind of structure. It seems very basic.

>>11887059
This is too long to be pasta right?
I mean no one here can be that much of a pretentious poofter?

>>11887198
it's a pasta my friend. Originated here, but became popular on /tv/ as well.

>>11887200
Oh thank you.

Imagine being named after a bird flying over water, and your half brother is named after magical sword splitting lightning.

>>11887209
Brutal mogging.

>>11887188
Problem is, that's what J.K. Rowling felt about Harry Potter too. It resonated with her.

>>11886941
>Why? No other scifi setting ever bothers.
And that's why they will be forgotten.

>>11886941
>who said anything about oxygen?
You can't have a desert without oxygen. Without oxygen everything that makes the desert is missing.

>>11887218
I doubt that, I don't get that vibe. But if she did she must be happy with her work on some level. You wouldn't come to the same sort of work since you find that to be junk.

Is braefar a trap?

Hating on books written for 11 year olds because they're intellectually unfulfilling

>>11887239
Of course not.

>>11887245
that's a puffy vulva

>>11887251
Maybe too puffy.

>>11887239
where did you get that from?

>>11887244
Just because it's for children doesn't mean it has to be bad.

>>11887244
but GoT is just as intellectually unfulfilling.

>>11887259
Puny and short, fair skin that never callouses, angry because oniichan doesn't give him attention, master of bow but can't wield a sword.

>>11887262
Harry potter is one of the less awful megapopular children's novels

>>11887281
heh, you're right, he IS a trap actually but not in the way you think.

>>11887233
Fucking sandworms
I ain't gotta explain shit

>>11887281
>master of bow but can't wield a sword
Sounds fishy. If you can pull a bow you can swing a sharp metal stick.

>>11887245
L O N D O N
O
N
D
O
N

>>11887289
Oh so braefar is a tomboy?

Oh nvm.
>'What have I said?' asked Govannan. 'Was it anything but the truth? Look at him. He looks like a girl, and his poor little hand is bleeding.'
100% confirmed trap

>>11886898
I've read that one. I didn't particularly like the narrative, it felt distant, like someone telling about something they heard of instead of what they saw. Are all of her books like that?

>>11886895
Will check out, but I am a little guarded.

>>11887293
Hunting bow I assume.
And idk, there's a lot of physicality to a swordfight. Swinging one is easy, but doing it with totally unhindered takes a good body

Alright lads, list me your favorite mires, swamps, bogs, forests, and other generally murky environments in Fantasy /lit/.

Which one reigns supreme?

>>11886410
This reminds me of The Last Question by Isaac Asimov

>>11887335
Can't beat the classics.

>>11887236
Nayrt but I have to say that the first books felt more genuine to me. That's when she instilled a sense of wonder to the reader about this new and magical world where everything had some quirks. After she'd done the basic worldbuilding it turned into more of a drama series.

>>11885432
Go to bed Houellebecq.

Holy moly sits is a comfy book.

I'm gonna read Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan, I've only read Axiomatic by him and I liked it. Word is this one really needs a solid physics background to even appreciate it, is it true?

>>11887292
>I ain't gotta explain shit
Not even "nanomachines son" type of explanation?

>>11887329
Bows in general require a lot of strength. He would certainly be physically able to fight with a sword.

>>11887300
I think the technical term is tomgirl.

>>11887408
I thought anon was implying he had a cunny

>>11885369

Fuck it, I'm joining you guys.

>>11887417
Don't, you'll become a gay

>>11887416
Well anon was, unsurprisingly, wrong.

>>11887426
>reading 250+ pages monthly makes you gay
Makes sense in a twisted kind of way.

is there any good scifi where the protag is a space pirate or bounty hunter

they're both common tropes but mainly for side characters

>>11885112
Well, if you go back a thousand years or so you can just make shit up thats sounds cool. Exactly like Howard.

>>11887471
Within reason: big advanced civilizations would have showed up in modern archeological records.

>>11886868
No

As a general rule, anything Clarke co-authored with Gentry Lee is bad and anything with Baxter is good.

>>11887489
Does he actually co-write them, or just lease out his name?

>>11886903
Yes. Three of the most popular SF settings ever (Barsoom, Dune, Star Wars) use desert planets extensively. You should probably avoid it unless you really know what you're doing.

>>11887408
This fag doesn't know about Dune

>>11884531
The only shit in science fiction that the Japanese do better than westerners is cyberpunk and hard sci-fi slice of life, all else is pure shiiit (and much of the latter is too).

>>11887484
We're talking about Tomahawks-and-Medicine here. Brave-errant employed by doddering chief of near-collapse mound-builder kingdom. Roving bands of proto-Apaches (rip off McCarthy for description). Tripping balls on the endless plains. Dark magic and cruel emperors in the South, blood-crusted pyramids rearing up out of the jungle.

>>11887503
Probably the latter, especially for the Rama sequels given Lee is a nobody and it doesn't sound much like him.

Baxter was well-established when he collaborated with Clarke, at worst it was a publicity stunt for them both.

>>11887562
meant for >>11887498

>>11885952
This was literally 6/10. The way he writes the city is the sole draw, and he's really good at that, but everything fits together the way it only does in pop fiction and only a couple of characters really went beyond their stereotypes in any case.

>>11887541
What Japanese cyberpunk do your recommend?

>>11887562
Light of Other Days was good

>>11887596
literally everything by shirow obviously
eden: it's an endless world
bubblegum crisis
tsutomi nihei's stuff if you have autism
Something that I noticed is that the japanese are almost uniformly terrible at writing characters that aren't reaaally superficial (if they're trying for realism), don't have constant manic squeals of emotion or are living memes, though that may be just my skewed perception of japanese media.

>>11887601
Yeah.

As far as Baxter/Clarke, Wire Continuum preceded Light of Other Days and Time Odyssey came after. These show a definite pattern of inspiring each other in sequence. And Time Odyssey looks unfinished since Clarke died, though financial considerations probably explain that somewhat. I think it was a legit collaboration.

>>11887622
So by cyberpunk you actually mean fucking mang/a/.

>>11887701
Japanese prose almost never translates

>>11887701
I mean, cyberpunk has always been a pretty visual subgenre. And Hiroki Endo's Eden is indeed god-tier, though aside from the GitS anime I don't know anything about his other stuff. Bubblegum Crisis looks like trash but that's just a snap judgment.

>>11886633
Sanderson won Gemmell Awards. Fuck the Gemmell Awards.

I enjoy Sanderson's books

>>11887729
if you liked gits try akira if you havent seen it. its a must see and one of the pioneers of the genre.
give bubblegum crisis a try. its been a while but i remember it fondly. on a sidenote if you are fine with biopunk try watching genocyber. its fantastic. its very dark and brutal though. basically it ties gene editing and biomechanoids into indian mythology. its pretty good.

>>11886578
I've read it probably 10 times years ago. Gemmell was my gateway into fantasy and Sword in the Storm was the book that popped my cherry. It's different from other Gemmell books in that he spends a lot of time on "family" stuff which makes you care about the characters a bit more even though there's less action and adventure.

>>11886941
Dune certainly did

>>11887484
Tell that to Atlantis.

>>11887125
It's called SCIENCE FANTASY.

>>11887765
I've seen Akira. I don't think it's aged that well, but it's still good and a huge influence.

>Genocyber
A single-volume unfinished manga? The anime looks edgy as hell though, I might have to pirate that.

>>11887447
There's a standalone novel in the Galaxy's Edge series about a bounty hunter.

>>11887785
So did Barsoom

>>11887797
>A single-volume unfinished manga? The anime looks edgy as hell though, I might have to pirate that.
https://www1.9anime.to/watch/genocyber.o6r5/kkv5ov

watch it it is very edgy and dark but it is very well executed. the sound-design and music alone are phenomenal.

>>11887729
>always
desu i disagree with this, I think its visual cues were developed after its literary themes and the evolution of cyberpunk into a visual marketing scheme is the cause of the decline in its thematic density. Also, the best /a/ cyberpunk material is Psycho-Pass.

>>11887808
>streaming
alright son you're gonna have to stop right there

>>11887810
I mean, best for memes sure....
the first series wasn't bad, but they seem intent on raping the franchise into the ground so I've lost interest

>>11887826
select openload and download the source file.

>>11887838
anon you're doing this on purpose aren't you

>>11887829
desu all anime spinoffs are cash grabs basically, though I guess stand alone complex had some good moments

>>11887129
>>11887789

OMG I am so SORRY I asked! SORRY SORRY SORRY!!!

>>11887917
Shut up.

>>11887810
>I think its visual cues were developed after its literary themes

It's more accurate to say that cyberpunk drew on existing literary themes when it formed, from e.g. Alfred Bester or PKD. Blade Runner was released in 1982, the same year as Gibson published Burning Chrome and _two years_ before he published Neuromancer. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? the novel, is recognizably not cyberpunk the way that Blade Runner the movie is. Not *just* because of the visual but also because of subtle differences in themes: for instance in PKD's novel the city is depopulated, in Blade Runner it's overpopulated.

>>11887762
Big same desu

Fuck Moash

>>11886594
>on my computer
Unless you have very poor eyesight or a tiny phone, consider reading on your phone when you have to go digital. Eyes just aren't suited to flickering across such a wide screen so often, and not using the entire screen is sorta distracting.

Braefar should just transition.

>>11887762
Lol gay

>>11888068
t. Autismo

>>11887967
No.

>>11887125
I wonder what Vance thought of the question.
The elite are technicians, scheming and backstabbing for the leftover technologies while the scientists long ago left for the stars, masters in dimension. The disinterested masses are content to preserve arbitrary tradition when bald banditry isn't politic. Taken in total with what he later describes as the Gaean Reach, where humanity has ejaculated into the galaxy in irregular spurts, these remaining are dregs without the virility to conceive their own destinies in a limitless cornucopia of planets.
Is fantasy the dearth of science; the afterbirth of unique adventure?
He just wanted to see his name in print and I'm a pseud, cake-walking on the boards of this Georgian plantation manorhouse.

>>11887214
Should have stabilized the video around her breastworks, IMO.

I'm sick and tired of reading all these depressing/grimdark shit.

Give me a book wich is both funny and clever like Necromancer or Mr Norrel/Jonathan Strange.

>>11888151
Everybody Loves Large Chests

>>11888151
Tried the Murderbot stories yet?

Has CAS's Zothique stories been collected in an ebook that isn't in Spanish?

>>11888151
The Flying Sorcerers by Larry Niven and david Gerrold. Quite likely the funniest science fiction book there is. And it teaches you more about human nature and economics than any two semesters at university.

>>11888158
>>11888170
>>11888193

Alright i'll give these a try. Thank you sirs.

>>11888151
We tend to assume that everyone here has already read Discworld, but it never hurts to be sure. It'll be right up your alley.

What's the weirdest fucking sci-fi you've ever read?

>>11888275
I don't read about fucking. I try to keep porn and plot separate.

>>11888005
Blade Runner's Los Angeles isn't entirely overpopulated, though-- The entire climax of the film takes place in an abandoned area, for example. to me, the difference is that in Androids, relatively few are left behind as society goes offworld, and in BR, most are left behind
Really, I think Blade Runner only represents the 'aesthetic' of the city in cyberpunk, and obviously lacks the visual languages of body-modification, cyberspace, the vestiges of 'punk' that are thrown in as an afterthought. Syd Mead's visual language is coopted by the late comers to the genre, but simultaneously confined to "worldbuilding" and "atmosphere". Its endurance isn't due to its typicality of the visual themes of cyberpunk, but simply due to its being designed better than the rest of the genre's forays into visual art. On the merits of its script alone, it's apparent that Blade Runner isn't cyberpunk by subcultural association or by mentality, but belongs more to the cyberpunk-adjacent dystopian fiction category that Androids itself belongs to.

>>11888279
Shut up asshole.

>>11888279
That sounds retarded. How would porn even work without good story?

>>11888275
Early John Shirley, easily. Before he cashed out he was the most insane guy writing science fiction.
Greg Egan deserves a mention too, especially the short Learning to be Me and Permutation City.
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem gets points for confronting the reader and characters with unadultered weirdness, though its themes themselves are less bizarre than you might be looking for.

>>11888323
What is some essential John Schirly?

>>11888351
City Come A Walkin' is probably his most famous work. I recently read through Heatseeker and every story in it is gold desu.

Halfway through sword in the storm. I'm hooked uwu

Where should I start with Cherryh

>>11888498
kesrith

>>11884513
>tfw I could only read old fantasy stuff without dropping the books but now I have nothing else to read
Modern fantasy novels are just so bad

just opened my first book, where should i start?

>>11884597
What's wrong with pulp?

>>11888562
I can't imagine you to have read literally every old fantasy book there is to read. Keep looking.

>>11884671
Sanderson is a hack. If you like his stuff it's fine but if you don't you shouldn't bother because every single book he shits out if the exact same shit

>>11884795
>Way of Kings
>standard sanderson with some actual improvement
>Words of Radiance
>a huge step down
>Oathbringer
>Trash
Yeah no fuck that

>>11884982
>Sanderson is fa-

>>11888620
Why is Oathbringer trash?

>>11888582
Tell me how Warbreaker was like The Final Empire

Tell me how Words of Radiance was like Elantris

It's been over a year since I last came to /sffg/. It's so different now what happened?

Age of Assassins feels kinda like a dumb person copying Hobb, the protag even outright fucking tells the reader when he makes a bad decision because subtext is clearly too hard

>>11888672
unironically reddit. /sffg/ has people who ask about famous pastas and get surprised at "racism"

>>11888682
Racism is for faggots

I only read hard scifi, none of that science fantasy bollocks

>>11884982
>over 400,000 words

>>11888731
there's a smash bros fanfic with like 10 million

>>11888120
I wouldn't discount deep, or at least non-superficial, readings of Vance. The Rhialto stories make it very clear that the "enlightened" inhabitants of the Dying Earth are a bunch of lazy shitheads (and you can see the beginnings of this in the first stories with Guyal), and the Gaean Reach setting clearly shows he thought frontiers and exploration important to prevent stagnation (while being less extremist about this than Heinlein).

>>11888745

>>11888731
Epic Fantasy dawg

>>11888761
how do they explore post-apocalyptic themes with hooves and no hands

>>11888761
/)

>>11884513
How come I never see a mention of Honorverse in any of these listing, even though much ligher book series like the Old Man's War or Enders Game hang there?

>>11886491
Ddi you not read Oathbringer?

>>11888778
Dunno, I gather the "series' is mainly about rape though. because bronies.

>>11888793
Honestly, as a former fan of the series, it's not very good. The first couple books are good and were notable being one of the first "modern" military scifi series to feature a woman as a senior officer. But the series begins to decline in quality around book 5-6. Honor rapidly becomes a full-on Mary Sue to the point where "she's really good because of practice" gets retconned into her actually being genetically engineered to be the perfect human. The two-dimensional characters are either pure-white goody-twoshoes or eeeeeeevile, and any who stand against Honor inevitably meet their downfall. The mildly psionic treecats become full on sapient aliens who were just concealing their power levels. And the fleet engagements grow to a size where Weber's writing skill can't handle them effectively. (Look up the "David Weber orders a Pizza" spoof to see what I mean. It's all just cold descriptions of "missile pods fired XYZ missiles into QERT fleet ships which suffered JKL casualties in the first barrage, over and over again)

I wish I remembered how I assembled a concept into a plot the first time around. I don't know how to do it anymore

>>11888854
What's your premise?

>>11888854
Just write the scenes and watch for the thread to emerge

>>11888048
oh he does

>>11888756
Vance also seemed to think we would make single jumps away from origin and then stagnate in terms of a given planetary population. In "Guyal of Sfere", "Clarges", "The Dragon Masters", "The Miracle Workers" and "The Last Castle", interstellar travel has been all but forgotten and is only re-energized by deprivation or fluke.

Just self-pubbed on KDP. Did a 5 day free giveaway the day after publication and got 71 downloads. About how many reviews can I expect within a month? Also, how bad is 71 downloads for a first-timer?

Just finished sits, enjoyed it.

How's the rest of the series, should I bother? Connovar's pov seems to be done, is it worth picking up the second book?

>>11888950
Do some promotion

>>11888290
The point was that Blade Runner is actually an early example of cyberpunk, and that early example was both primarily aesthetic and hugely influential. It would be like if a literary movement were inspired by a painter. Later cyberpunk works couldn't/didn't discard this visual aesthetic when they were elaborating on other themes. Not just blade runner either, but comics like the Akira manga (1982) and Judge Dredd (1981). The genre never "transcended" is aesthetic.

>>11888672
A year's a long time senpai. Tastes change, people change.

>>11888959
How? I put it up on around 27 sites that promote free books, for three out of the five days of the free giveaway. I actually got the lowest number of downloads during those days.

>>11888996
have you tried shilling reddit?Their tbrinder reviews get a lot of views

>>11888885
It's that dumb wandering chef idea I pitched here not too long ago.

I know this segment of the story starts with the main characters arriving in the near east and has to involve an ambiguously human colonial governor depriving the locals of water, but basically everything else is up in the air.

I'm starting to have second thoughts about this story. The subway ride to another universe might be a better story to go with but I'm having the same problem there

>>11888927
you're probably right. I just wish I had a better idea of what I was walking into

>>11888682
I too want reddit to leave but I know it's not happening.

>>11888956
The second book follows Conn's son and ties up all the loose ends from the first so yes it's worth reading. The last two books take place centuries later and aren't necessary to read if all you're interested in is the first two books' storyline, but they're still good.

NEW THREAD AHOY!!

>>11889011
>>11889011
>>11889011
>>11889011
>>11889011
>>11889011

>>11889012
Ya cunt, I'm here and I ain't leaving.
Fuck your racism, fuck your misogyny,fuck your contrarianism. It's time for a new order up in here. It's time you fucked off if you don't like the way of things here now.

>>11888996
You have to put in effort senpai
How am I supposed to read your shit unless you shove it in my face?

>>11889028

>>11889037
I thought the "attract don't ask" model of marketing made a lot of sense.

I'll try doing more self-promotion. Hopefully, my free days running out isn't the end of the world.

>>11889005
>subway ride to another universe

Dark tower called, he said "do it, faggot."

>>11887169
that would be because tolkien was trying to affect the style of mythology, hence the biblical, impersonal tone

>>11888498
What do you want to get out of her?

>>11888842
Interesting. I guess I look at the series differently since to me it has only improved with time. The first 3-4 books felt like they follow the same pattern, after which the series started improving. Though I do admit that many of his characters tend to be quite black and white. It's the worldbuilding that hooked me to the series and I think it's only gotten better with the two supplementary series on the side, especially (kinda oddly) when Honor himself is on the sidelines and the world just happens. Though there's plenty of "this could have been written better" -stuff in there. The Honor-Hamish -romance for example was pure cringe and one of those "where the fuck did this come from/what the fuck is going on" -moments, along with the obviously pasted on oh so sexual content in the Zilwicki/Cachat -spinoff.

I agree with what you said about the fleet engagements. It's like he paid careful attention to the first ten major battles or so and then went "well you've seen this thing before, this is the casualty list" and back to world building. Of the treecats and genetic trickery: I like the treecats, even if they are a bit silly. I mean we still have indigenuos tribes in bumfuck middle of nowhere, who've kept/stayed away from the modern world. Maybe the 'cats saw the first humans and decided that on the whole they want fucking nothing to do with the strange hairless bipeds with not enough hands? The genetic engineering too makes sense to me, apart from the scrags. Those were kinda stupid and luckily went away fast. I never got the impression that Honor is good because of her genetic heritage, just that it gives her a leg-up in physical activities. The rest is (supposedly) hard work, autism and sacrificing her social life for her career (come on, a woman at 50 and being that inexperienced?)

Is it bad that I liked the spoof? I guess I'm just gay for the way he writes. ...yeah I sound like a fanboy defending his idol. Fuck.

Picture related, I preordered that.