/lit/ - Literature

Download: http://b-ok.cc/book/878958/0c476b

>>12386564
Rule 63 teenage Mao Zedong is my waifu.

>>12386564

Going to go easy mode and say the Culture. Enough comfy while there's the opportunity to opt into risky/exploration stuff if you want to.

Fantasy would probably be D&D since I just really like that your faith in a god is rewarded in tangible means, and that I do get to pick my afterlife.

On another note, I trolled through the SF & Fantasy Masterworks series and saw a lot of stuff that doesn't get talked about much. Anyone have a gem from there?

>>12386568
The author really really hates the Japanese.

>>12386751
Would be based if not also a gook.

i ran out of things to add to my epub folder

sanderfag a hack

dead general

Anyone reading this shit? I love it!
Just sticking to the ebook releases though, I prefer to read it that way.

What's your favourite character?
Is it true Fizzy gets her own spinoff series down the line?
Do you think Boxxy's transformation to a Changeling made the series lose some of it's flavour, or a setup for new opportunities?

>>12387030
>new opportunities
this. i mean nothing really changed. hes still mostly either a box, the cat girl or sandman.
the kid apprentice has a lot of potential. getting shitfaced with that vampire chick was also fun.
author had to dial down on the gore and sex though because of reddit. then again kora did impregnate a goddess and has 3 half demon half god kids. i feel like speculating about opportunities is kinda stupid with this series since the god of chaos can just intervene at any convinient moment to remove plot holes, introduce plot holes or make everything happen trough boxxys agent of chaos skill.
i am looking forward to the weeding though. and the inevitable moment when the elf chick finds out who her wife really is.

>new opportunities
this. i mean nothing really changed. hes still mostly either a box, the cat girl or sandman.
the kid apprentice has a lot of potential. getting shitfaced with that vampire chick was also fun.
author had to dial down on the gore and sex though because of reddit. then again kora did impregnate a goddess and has 3 half demon half god kids. i feel like speculating about opportunities is kinda stupid with this series since the god of chaos can just intervene at any convinient moment to remove plot holes, introduce plot holes or make everything happen trough boxxys agent of chaos skill.
i am looking forward to the weeding though. and the inevitable moment when the elf chick finds out who her wife really is.

>>12387047
oh yeah I feel you're far ahead of me. Appreciate the spoiler tags.
I don't actually mind the toned down sex. Like that one scene where it's just 3 pages demon futa sex, but in the ebook, he replaced it with a fun customer support scene. I don't read this to fap, really, so I don't mind.
Don't know how much violence was replaced though.

>>12386567
>Error: Duplicate file exists. here.
Wew lad

Anyway, 3 weeks to go, have you started yet? I can now confirm that the download I've been posting actually works, cheers!

>>12387060
>Like that one scene where it's just 3 pages demon futa sex, but in the ebook, he replaced it with a fun customer support scene. I don't read this to fap, really, so I don't mind.
its not really about that or fapping. it kinda diminishes the whole character if he acted a certain way for a huge part of the story and then suddenly does not.
the customer services thing is actually a good example of how it should be done. it gets toned down to a degree at some point that they both look like saints. its weird and doesnt fit with the established characters.
i dont mean he should write out discriptive scenes that span an entire chapter but the implication of something happening should be there.
you should read the webnovel. its like 3 books ahead.

>>12387062
Already finished it, but I'll save my opinion until the end of the month.

>>12386568
Seems interesting, but I'm not sure how I feel about the "teenage girl is secret badass" thing. I'm seeing it a lot recently and I don't think it's done well the majority of the time, but I'm happy to be proven wrong here. I was actually planning a book with a young female protagonist, so maybe I'm just annoyed everyone else is doing ahead of me and ruining the market.

Started reading The Black Company. Absolutely loving it. Croaker's jaded but not soulless voice is perfect.

Does Cadsuane get put in her place at any point in this series?

>>12387047
>author had to dial down on the gore and sex though because of reddit.
Wait, are you saying they read a book, said it was good, then en masse, demanded future installations have less gore and sex?

Nobody bitches about Preacher having plenty of gore and sex (thank God), so why do they care if some random online serial does?

>>12387111
thats pretty much what happened. people felt it didnt feel right that a monster would do monstrous things and wanted him to act more human. at some point the author made a whole thing about him apologizing to the gnome for raping her.

>read Way of Kings
>pretty good
>suddenly Kaladin starts dancing with his spear like a chump
eh...I don't know if I could continue now

>>12387121
Plenty of gory, violent, overtly sexual things exist and nobody pressures the creator into changing it. How is this any different?

I mean, shit, this was on AMC:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xABw3cXVjkM

>>12387132
everybody loves large chests entered the pop culture domain. people into that shit are outraged at pretty much everything. that and reddit. mostly really reddit.
the corrupt everything they latch onto.

>>12386581
It's not really an underappreciated gem, but more people need to read The Broken Sword. It's fantastic

>>12387030
Welcome to the fold brother.

Just finished The Book of the New Sun, I loved the first four books, but what the fuck is up with The Urth of the New Sun? It was like reading a fucking fever dream.

Anyway do I read Long Sun or Short Sun next?

Redpill me on Endymion. I liked Hyperion and even Fall, although it was getting a bit wacky. Is Endymion and Rise good? I’ve seen them shit upon in the archives but are they really that bad?

>>12387110
Hardly. She's exiled for a while while Rand is in his edgelord phase but is later forgiven and thanked. She does at least start to respect Rand after a while.

>>12387411
Long Sun first.

>>12387444
Look at the lasr thread.

>>12387444
Yes,Endymion is Batman Dark Knight Rises levels of autism,basically the whole book feels like the plane scene.

>>12386564
>Which scifi universe do you want to live in?
Heinlein Universe
>Why?
So i can fuck my family members
>Which fantasy universe do you want to live in?
Forgotten Realms
>Why?
Same reason as above

>>12387582
>So i can fuck my family members
my sister thighs just popped out of nowhere in my mind

>>12387569
>the whole book feels like the greatest movie scene ever filmed
Sold.

recommend me a scifi with academy arc

>>12386581
A Case of Conscience by James Blish and The Mabinogion by Evangeline Walton are pretty good

>>12387586
degenerate

Just finished the second Dune book, enjoyed it less than the first. Should I keep going?

>>12387126
What?

>>12387586
Based and thighpilled

>>12387615
>>12387606
nothing beats a 17 yo sister athlete thighs

>>12387601
i found this https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24004387-qualify

>>12387609
Might as well continue to God Emperor now that you've read the second.

need an epub reader on pc that doesn't suck

>>12387658
>Gwen Lark is known as a klutz and a nerd. While she's a hotshot in classics, history, science, and languages, the closest she's come to sports is a backyard pool and a skateboard.
>This time she is in over her head, and in for a fight of her life, against impossible odds and world-class competition--including Logan Sangre, the most amazing guy in her school, the one she's been crushing on, and who doesn't seem to know she exists.

Bloody hell...

The author of Shadow Stars claims his shit is all in the same universe at different points in time yet he already has another space series involving humanity becoming a galactic empire--whereas in this current series, humanity accidentally magic through a portal to an alt universe which is the only way they have held their own against the three main space factions currently monitoring them. I wonder how it'll tie up, I dunno y'all.

Two of my online buddies are getting into cosmere everything now.

HOW FUCKING HYPE IS MIDNIGHT TIDES GOING TO BE ONCE SHIT GOES DOWN HOLY FUCK SOMETHING NEEDS TO HAPPEN ALREADY

>>12387690
I use SumatraPDF. If you're on Windows 10 try opening them in Edge, the built in reader is fairly minimalist but unironically good.

>>12387741
i know about microsoft edge built in reader but im using linux, also i just found readium chrome app, it's pretty comfy so far

>>12387690
The e-book reader for Calibre. Unfortunately it doesn't have its own download so you gotta download all of Calibre to use it, but it's great.

>>12387411
I've been reluctant to read Urth since the ending of Citadel was just so perfect somehow

>>12387705
>Logan Sangre
KEK

>>12387705
lmao i didn't read the synopsis

>>12387797
>tfw I've postponed Urth for so long that I think I'll reread BotNS before I read Urth

>>12387748
yo if you are still there im also a gnu+linux guy.
i use lector. its free and open source and should be in any software repo. its qt based and and written mostly in python. it looks fantastic and has both a library function and several settings for reading.
https://github.com/BasioMeusPuga/Lector

>>12387861
captcha ate my pic

>>12387208

I'll definitely give it a shot. Poul Anderson is one of those authors who I consider underrated despite the attention they do get.


>>12387604

I'm incredibly down to read any science fiction involving Jesuits. For some reason Catholics and First Contacts really resonate with me.

>>12387875
>>12387861
nice, the only missing feature for now is the 2 page reading layout

>>12387444
See >>12383537

>>12387444
NANOMACHINES, SON

Just read first chapter of A Scanner Darkly last night. Put me in a real weird dark vibe before bed. This one might be too weird for me but I already bought it so I'll try and stick it through.

Will 2019 be the year The Doors of Stone comes out, bros?

>>12387952
> Poul Anderson

I enjoyed his stories in the Man-Kzin wars. Yes, I know, cats-in-space, but damned enjoyable as lighter fare.

Any sci-fi where humans are the most powerful species and aliens fear them?

>>12388070
Only if Trump is impeached

>>12388133

I've thought of a concept for a while about humanity finding out that they were some biological weapon created by aliens as a way to terraform different planets but we grew too powerful and ended up in our current position. No idea if the concept has been done before but I like the idea humanity is a living weapon that aliens lost control of centuries ago and this is why they never bothered to contact us again.

>>12388149
>>12388070
Why does he hate Trump so much bros?

>>12388198
I think that's the backstory for Master of Orion 3

>>12388198
I have an idea where humans turn out to be unusually aggressive and violent compared to other species and while we have the best weapons and soldiers others shun us out of fear but when shit hits the fan they need our help

The Land
>>12387685
this, children is a slog sometime but god emperor is a must read just because it's so fucking bizarre.

>esoteric blurb on website
>it's actually an incredibly straightforward story with simple subtext
every time lol

(feel like I'm cheating my books read this year total by accidentally reading a novella)

>>12386581
Thomas the Rhymer slaps

>>12388301
Also I just looked at the sequels and they're all fucking prequels except for one which is just about a dead character.

No thanks

>Brandon Sanderson

>Yeah, at this signing, someone earlier had me sign their Life Before Death tattoo, that they were gonna get the signature tattooed. It's on Twitter.
>Someone brought a really strange thing through Idaho Falls. It was something like a muffler, something like that. No, it was the bumper that ripped off their car.
>I have had requests to sign inappropriate parts of bodies, and I have refused that one.
Stop asking Brandon to sign your dick, faggots.

>>12388410
You can't make me

>>12388264
>>12388198
>>12388133

there's an entire 4chan writefag genre about this. "Humanity Fuck Yeah" or some shit. Probably find some examples under that tag at least. It's like babbies first deconstruction, it's not all that great an idea.

>>12388225
He's not a racist sexist homophobe.

>>12387030
I disliked the changeling arcs, the cat girl nonsense is going no where and wont shut up about lesbian civil liberties.

>>12386564
That question always trips me up because none of the cool settings are ones in which I could also survive.
I suppose a chinese wuxia world.

>>12387444
Is Endymion and Rise good?
They were pretty underwhelming and felt unnecessary. I agree with >>12383537 that Hyperion and The Fall together make a good and satisfactory stand-alone.

>>12388198
That's literally the Earth from Marvel,in marvel comics humanity is just a Kree experiment,but the Eternals kinda save us from them and let us free to do whatever we want.

>>12388133
The Damned Trilogy by Alan Dean Foster

To the guy who recommended Zelazny's Lord of Light (>>>12385453), it's alright so far.
More of a mix with Long Sun than pure TBoNS though.

Modern sci fi is pure trash.

>friend recommends me this puerile superhero college story
>downloda the audiobook and listen to it at work
>it's bland anime with archetypal characters and a predictable story
>entire plot is college drama feat superheroes
>dogshit prose where characters "quip" and "retort"
>listen to all 26 hours and enjoy it
What the fuck is wrong with me? All my instincts tell me this is fucking garbage, but I'm already on book 2.

TBotNS question: Why does Severian constantly go on and on about women? I didn't mind at first but it just gets obsessive.

I just picked up Last Wish, Blood of Elves and Sword of Destiny
what am I in for?

>>12389587
>already picked up books
>asks about them after the fact
Please stop spamming the general.

>>12389279
modern sci fi is action/thriller/adventure/military fiction with varying degrees of science fiction mixed in. Older sci fi is what people usually refer to hard scifi, often just incoherent ramblings of some pseudo scientist turned writer.

>>12389695
>Older SciFi is (...) hard scifi, often just incoherent ramblings of some pseudo scientist turned writer.
Wrong

>>12389740
how so?

>>12387084
It isn't that bad. She's a bit Mary Sue-ish at the beginning but she has her powers for a reasons. And she's a cunt and not in the typical YA kind of way.

>>12389769
Frankly, it all depends on what period of SciFi you refer to as "older SciFi", but the whole selling point of Hard SciFi is to be coherent and grounded in actual scientific theory or proven knowledge.
Early and proto scifi did not really try to provide a solid explanation for technology, rather it was more descriptive and didn't bother with "realism".

>>12387219
House of Blades doesn't look too bad. How is it?

>>12389575
Short answer, Severian is a tool and an autist.

>>12389349
>What the fuck is wrong with me?
You have shit taste, it happens.

>>12389804
grounded in actual scientific theory can be and mean pretty much anything, thats why some (most?) hard scifi feels more like fantasy than science fiction.

Anyone here take fish oil? Does it help with reading concentration?

>>12389906
I prefer snake oil desu

>>12388823
I'd read any other Simmons book before the sequels

>>12389815
Anime to the max.

>the the vast majority of famous works of fantasy literature are YA and either take place on earth or have a main character who came from earth

Why do fantasy writers even bother writing anything other than low-fantasy YA?

Science Fiction and Fantasy should be two separate generals.

>>12390075
>this again
Make the sci fi general then, we'll wait.

>>12387733
What Midnight tides?

>>12390075
Hard Sci Fi and Science Fantasy should be two separate generals

>>12390075
<thing I like> and <thing you like> should be two separate generals.

>>12389815
Wight basically just writes shonen anime plots as fantasy stories but it works pretty well.

I legitimately enjoyed his trilogy more than Sanderson trying something similar with Stormlight.

>>12389804
>but the whole selling point of Hard SciFi is to be coherent and grounded in actual scientific theory or proven knowledge
no it fucking isn't, the appeal was exploring big ideas and "what if" scenarios. As opposed to y'know adventure stories about space wars or space pirates

Trying to turn hard-scifi into plausible fake science is a recent trend used to defend some utterly turgid books that have nothing else going for them.

>>12390177
that's is correct

>>12390177
Yes, that is correct.

>>12390206
>20,000 leagues under the sea? Imagine thinking an underwater boat could ever happen. Boats float on the waves. They don't swim with the fish! It's absurd!

>>12389815
His cradle series is better

>>12387084
>so maybe I'm just annoyed everyone else is doing ahead of me and ruining the market.
Don’t worry, nobody was ever going to buy your shitty book anyways fuck head

Read Accelerando recently. Despite the author forcing his femdom/genderbending fetishes down my throat, it was quite enjoyable. Some of it also felt like the author was just jerking off about how much science/sci-fi shit he knew about, but it was easy to put that aside and focus on the story as a whole. The ending was pretty neat.

>>12386564
What are some good scifi books set in the near future that extrapolate current day geopolitics? e.g. a story about interstellar colonization and conflict between the US, EU, China, Russia. Something with a "realistic" feel like The Expanse.

>>12389279
Based and redpilled

>>12389815
It's ok but as someone already pointed out, the authors other series Cradle is far better. I dropped it halfway through the second book though as the plot got very tedious.
House of Blades is like an anime and Cradle is inspired by Chinese wuxia novels. Both are YA.

>>12390055
Passion versus kikery. Most "good" fantasy novels these days are basically just written by people who like the genre.

Only market-tapping cucks like Sanderson, Rothfuss, and GRUM get pieces of the pie.

FUCK OFF HOLDEN YOU DUMB PIECE OF SHIT GODDAMNIT

>>12390594
Disarm this *grabs dick*

>>12390416
The Luna books are near future climate change inspired push by the rich to inhabit the moon (because space travel isn't advanced enough to go further) and the plot is your classic corporations become like monarchies shtick.

It's a bit more fantastical than expanse in tone since the computers in it are close to magic but its pretty close to what you want.

Why aren’t you reading _Worth the Candle_ yet, /lit/? It’s an ongoing fantasy novel in the growing genre of rational fiction by renowned author Alexander Wales, and it is absolutely amazing. It tells the story of Juniper Smith, a not-so-ordinary high-school student who suddenly finds himself whisked away to the magical land of Aerb for no apparent reason and imbued with extraordinary powers patterned after RPG abilities.

Sounds like just another LitRPG Isekai (Portal Fantasy) story, right? Well, sure, but only in the same sense that _Worm_ is just another superhero story.With God-tier worldbuilding, incredibly strong characterization, and a level of intelligence unparalleled by anything but the hardest of science fiction, it is the best novel I have read in years.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11478249/chapters/25740126

>>12390728
>high school student
>Worm
>Isekai
>world building
I know you're probably just shitposting, but, man, that's a lot of red flags.

>>12390728
Fuck off Alexander you dopey twat, nobody fucking cares about your shitty web novel.

>>12390752
Will you read my web novel when I start writing one, anon-kun?

Questioner
>Where do you lie on the "BrandoSando" versus "Branderson"?
Brandon Sanderson
>I would probably go "Branderson", but I don't mind either of them.
Questioner
>Because I'm firmly in the BrandoSando camp.
Brandon Sanderson
>BrandoSando? What about "BrandySandy"? I get that one too. No one goes with the cool ones. Oh, the "Sandman". I'm not cool enough.

>>12390742
>I know you're probably just shitposting
Nope, I'm 100% serious.
>that's a lot of red flags
I know, but trust me, it's really good. It's like he deliberately set out to write a story with all the possible red flags (did I mention that it's partly autobiographical, being based on the author's younger teenage self, so it counts as a self-insert as well?) but he still managed to make it great.

>>12390752
lol I'm not Alexander Wales you fag.

>>12390768
No, all webnovels are written by degenerates for other degenerates, wouldn't be caught dead reading one.

>>12390728
>>12390889
>>12390768

Post stuff to try before I buy. I joined a private tracker and I'm looking for books.

>>12390983
at least narrow it down a bit

I loved the broken empire, should I just start reading red sister or wait when holy sister is released?

Also audiobooks are pretty enjoyable, any good recs?

Anyone mind if I shill my friend's book?

>>12390983
just go to #ebooks

>>12391010
>I loved the broken empire, should I just start reading red sister or wait when holy sister is released?
Honest to god truth, that's the most retarded thing I've ever read on this general and I've been here for years.
As for audiobooks, I'm not big on them but of the few that I've tried I really liked Tigana narrated by Simon Vance.

>>12391064
Grammar? Lack of sleep, its 0520 here.
Or you think the books sucked? Oh well
But the question regarding red sister is mostly if the books are viewed as good

>>12390992
Oh. Fantasy novels.

>>12391117
Broken Empire is one of the worst series I've ever read and yes I forced myself to finish it to see how bad it can get
Red Sister is ok but I didn't understand why you asked if you should or shouldn't read the series before it's finished, something which depends entirely on you.
>But the question regarding red sister is mostly if the books are viewed as good
Red Sister is ok, meme lawrence's best book by far, Grey Sister sucks though.

The second trilogy in the broken empire world is actually really fucking good, shame everyone missed it because of the edgelord books

>>12391127
The Name of the Wind
Prince of Thorns
Eragon
The Blade Itself
The Fifth Season

>>12391211
Don't shit on the newfags, anon.

>>12391127
Book of the New Sun and Lud-in-the-Mist were two things that I read recently and that were quite good.

>>12391220
are the latro in the mist novels pretty good? i loved book of the new sun but i thought the wizard knight was boring as hell. is it more like botns or wk?

>>12390949
Okay, I have to admit that image is actually pretty funny.

But, for the record, I'm not the third anon you listed.

Is listening to audiobooks "cheating"?

>>12391268
I haven't read the last part of the Latro series, but it's definitely more like Book of the New Sun.
You should brush up your Heterodotus and knowledge of Greek myths if you want to get more out of it.

>>12391328
you can't cheat at entertainment

>>12391473
>reading for entertainment

>>12391497
what else are you getting out of fantasy and scifi?

>>12388337

Oh man, I love that old British/Celtic style of faeries as this unearthly shit that don't play by the rules.

>>12391013
Only if there are catwomen.

>>12391013
Only if there are cute moms

>>12390416
you need more quotation marks around realistic when talking about the expanse.

Are there any fantasy novels similar to Huckleberry Finn in feel and thematics?

>>12390889
If I was named after wales I’d deny it too.

>>12391865
lord of light

>>12385453
>>12389254
>>12392451
Could this be the birth of an epic new meme?

>>12390775
>try calling him Branderson to degrade him
>he's already in on the joke
>feelsbadman.jpg

>>12392459
I hope not, Lord of Light is shit

just finished reading red rising, you guys didn't tell me it was this good and not a dumb YA novel

>>12392744
/sffg/ never recommends popular books unless they were written before they were born.

>>12392459
All of the memes spammed here are actually quality. Except for that one guy.

>>12391170
I thought Red Queen’s War was pretty great desu.

Any SF recs which focus on clones and cloning?

>>12389695
You are very stupid and don't know anything about the history of science fiction.

>>12392810
the island.
the movie also pretty good.

>>12392459
Lord of light was memed years ago, new friend.
I even have it in many of my charts. That shill is just mad no one talks about the book. That is why he tripped last thread and started spewing stuff about it's the best and no one talks of it.

>>12392845
>the movie also pretty good
that's a YIKES from me dog

>>12392810
go watch Moon

>>12392845
Thanks!

Who is it by? There's a lot of books out there called The Island.

>>12392897
It's been sat on my hard drive for years, unwatched. Had no idea it was about cloning.

>What we're writing next year(And most of these are already up in early chapter format on Patreon):
>Zombie Apocalypse (Tentatively named The Farm)
>Paranormal Urban(Tentatively named Swing Shift)
>Dungeon Deposed 2 & 3
>Fostering Faust 2 & 3
>Space Opera
>Science-Fiction

>Release Dates:
>SSOSH3 Audiobook- 01/29/19
>Fostering Faust 2- 02/01/19

If fostering Faust is February, when is the audiobook?

>>12392897
Anyone who uses this "yikes" meme is a thot bitch. Seeing that in all my years, I've only seen bitches who were trying to be mean use it.

>>12392924
if stephanie savannah does the audiobook again probably in the following month. it took about a month or so for the first. im really looking forwad to the farm. also i heard rumors that the space opera is gonna be a continuation of runners story but this time with the space ship making contact with the remnants of human civilisation as such the story is supposed to take place in the real world. its probably not gonna be from runners perspective though. possible it could be one of the crew that was woken up or someone from the humans hiding from the omega.

Should I read Grey Sister? I thought Red Sister was kinda okay, but nothing too special.

>>12392969
it's trash

>>12392981
How come?

>>12392969
>female protagonist

>>12392982
almost nothing happens
think middle book syndrome but 10x worse

>>12392982
>Mark Lawrence

>>12387219
What the hell? No Joseph Anderson?

>>12390728
I'd rather read A Practical Guide to Evil, but that went to shit in book 4. Still probably better that your crap.

>>12387219
>self published
I respect the independence and trying to get your book out but also who are these people

so is this just banter or did he really do that
because if he did i will just skim this shit

>>12391170
the last book was really making up for previous books

>>12393058
this looks like a mixture of rothfuss and fate stay night

>>12393058
This looks terrible and my standards couldnt be any worse

>>12392924
Where is cultivating chaos 2?

>>12393006
>Joseph Anderson
Literally who?

>>12393042
Read and find out. Some of the best books in the trash pile of ideology that is Amazon kindle.

>>12393270
matched with blaise corwins release schedule. also not part of the runnerverse. im pretty sure its gonna be late this year or even next year.

>>12393058
He was trying to get a rise out of him. If you have to fight someone, you want them emotionally riled up so they make mistakes.
Just drop the fucking book if you don't like it.

>>12392924
I think this author has a submissive, and anger fetish.
Everybook (except otherlife, maybe) he has angry protagonist, and all of his books have a guy who has women walk in and organize and run his household.

>>12393292
>matched with blaise corwins release schedule
Blaise Corwin is a pandering cuck. After reading a book with him dedicating pages upon pages to a fucking mental tranny, who at the end adds absolutely nothing to the story, while we know nothing about the characters he already has there, I promised not to read anything else by him ever. Fucking hack.

>>12392810
Cyteen :3

>>12393282
Guy that makes analysis videos about video games on Youtube. Previously he wrote self-published fantasy and sci-fi.

>>12391199
truth.

>>12393537
>video games
>>>/v/

>>12393540
Somehow I doubt it.

>>12392969
Read Hawk Queen by David Gemmell instead.

>>12393544
>acting like /sffg/ isn't the /v/ of /lit/

>>12393568
>talking about video games and /soc/ on the fucking literature board
You /v/ermin try to cause ruination wherever you go, and try to bring everything you encounter to your infantile level.

Any epic/high fantasy books that do not have a political leftist agenda? Something older, I would assume, just looking for recommendations.

>>12393611
Look for books written by people who aren't Americans.

>>12393614
Any nations you would recommend? I was thinking about this as well, it's just a question of country and translation quality.

>>12393611
>>12393620
Tolkien is all you'll need

>>12393568
sff is one of the only /lit/ threads where people talk about books they've actually read lol

So I guess that does make it an outlier

>>12393611
Read the elric books

>>12393644
Thanks for this, gonna pick one of Moorcock's books in the library today.

>>12393611
>check the general fantasy chart in the OP
>not a single epic fantasy series with a political leftist agenda
?

>>12393684
they're using leftist to mean like anything not trad conservative i.e. female characters having agency and action roles

>>12393611
Robert E. Howard

>>12393684
Anytime you see the word "leftist" just know it's pol, and you can ignore.

>>12393750
>ignore people that are interested in politics and reading
How to spot brainlet that's not interest in intellectual conversation

>>12393750
desu I wouldn't mind more leftist fantasy

too many fucking books where the protag is either royalty, secret royalty or defending royalty. And royalty was the most fucking boring aspect of medieval life

>>12393763
>intellectual conversation
>remotely possible without establishing terms and stances
A waste of time and any semblance of it on /lit/ is just mud slinging the opponent into submission

>>12393766
A leftist fantasy would be being rich while poor people get Muslim'd and black'd.

>>12393724
What? No.
Just don't want the main character to be LGBT :)

>>12393684
Because leftism is itself a fantasy

>>12393611
Masters of Rome

>>12393058
Source? Just asking for a friend. haha

>>12392764
And that's a good thing

>>12393940
ayyy

>>12390416
Warhammer 40k

I have literally never read any Science Fiction.
I like the premise of Hyperion and Tales of the Dying Earth. Which of those is a better introduction to the genre?

>>12395119
Neither,read The Stars My Destination

I had meant to make them an Edenic place,
but since we left the one we had destroyed
our only home became the night of space
where no god heard us in the endless void.

The firmament’s eternal mystery
and wondrous physics of the constellations
are law, but they are not the gospel truth.
Compassion flourishes at life’s foundations.

We crashed into the Law’s precise command,
and found our empty death in Mima’s dens.
The god whom we had hoped for to the end
sat wounded and profaned in Doric glens.

Any good books about thieves/assassins?

I just realized every time I come across these words on the description, I drop it right away. They tend to be excessively grimderp. And when not grimderp, just completely derp. It's so formulaic I just can't read them anymore.
>poor orphan boy
>steals to survive
>has to pay toll to gang leaders
>grimderpiness happens
>finds mentor
>instant badass
It's all so tiresome.

>>12395119
How well read are you otherwise?

>>12395207
I read some Greeks and some Shakespeare in college but it would feel very pretentious to say I am well read to be honest.

>>12395291
It sounds like you're literate, I'd say start with Hyperion. Dying Earth is a good read but for someone looking for an introduction to sci-fi I don't think it's the right book. If you do read Dying Earth you should follow it up with BotNS.

>>12395446
Thanks for the input m8, I've been meaning to check out Book of the New Sun as well, I thought it was closer to Fantasy than Sci Fi though.

>>12395128
This sounds interesting too, thanks for the suggestion.

>>12395180
No it’s a worn out concept. Same thing with rangers

I need something to read

>>12390949
I just read this image and realised what it was saying. I thought you just screen capped for that incognito meme.

>>12395843
My diary desu

>>12395843
Aniara >>12395153

>>12395719
I thought so. Well, it's not like I liked thieves anyway.

>>12390416
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

>>12396046
>>/vr/

>>12395180
You want to know, how I know, that you are specifically shitting on the Night Angel Trilogy?

>>12395180
Recently read foundryside and liked it. Worth a try if you aren't an autist who gets upset about female protagonists

could this work?

>breaking bad meets name of the wind
>setting is real-world rather than fantasy-world
>mc who wanted to be harry potter instead slowly becomes voldemort

>>12395180
The Gentlemen Bastard series. The first book is legitimately good. The second is not so good. The third is so-so.

>>12396878
No

>>12396917
just hear me out

>mc grew up reading the [insert popular boy-wizard series here] books and enrolled in a college of witchcraft and wizardry
>however, magic is harder than he expected and he quickly loses his scholarship
>struggling to pay tuition, he gets money from loansharks who threaten to break his legs if he can't pay them back
>now he has to sell stimulant potions he made in the alchemy lab to pay back the loansharks
>only problem is his customers OD and revive as zombies under his control
>while this is going on, he's failing classes and has to resort to summoning demons to tutor him
>demons demand blood sacrifices
>etc.
>shit continues to spiral out of control until the MC is a lich with an untold number of murders on his hands

>>12397072
why do I care about the mc? he sounds like an asshole with no redeeming qualities.

>>12395119
if you want something that's actually fantasy, dying earth, if you want actual science fiction, hyperion

>>12397086
That's because all I've said so far is a summarized series of disasters.

honestly anon, the entire point of writing a book is to make you empathize with the MC, which should be pretty easy for most millennials who also grew up on harry potter and struggled with student loans and all-nighters

>>12397127
>empathize with the MC
no thanks, just make the mc a full blown villain

I'm running out of amazon trash to read. Please rec me some that are good.

>>12397213
seconded. the anti-hero route seems a lot more conducive to what you're trying to do with the narrative

Is there any fantasy that has managed to perfectly unify all the major mythologies?

Like, I know you can unify greek, norse and hindu if you say that Uranus's dick became Ymir and the three hekatonkheires became brahma, vishnu and shiva, and I'm pretty sure there's some overlap between greek and egyptian, I just don't remember what that overlap is

>>12397235
>>12397213
disagreeing. You need to be able to empathize in the beginning before slowly stripping that away until you're eventually left with a villain. That's how tragedy works

>>12397228
I.... know where that is from...

>>12388264
So its an analogy for the USA? It certainly sounds like it.

Anybody know or is a spanish to english book translator here? I feel that if I dont translate my post-apocalyptic book into english, nobody will ever read it (at least not in substantial numbers that will allow me to live from this).

I think I could try translating myself, but I think it would be better to have a native speaker as translator or at least, editor.

>>12397397
What is the pay?

>>12397410
10 mcdonalds burguers or a bucket of fish heads.

I have no idea. How much would anyone charge for a 600 page book?

>>12397431
How many words?
And yeah, a native English speaker would be desirable.

Tbh, if I were rich and I was in your position, I'd consider paying a Nipponese to translate it into JP and try to sell it as a web novel or whatever kind of scifi sells there.

>>12397490
>paying a Nipponese to translate it into JP and try to sell it as a web novel or whatever kind of scifi sells there.
Instead of english? Or as an extra? And why?

>>12397501
As an extra.
Why? Because they read any sort of fucking trash with a decent cover art, that's why.
There's a couple of Japanese SF authors that made it and got published in the US and France.

Forget that I mentioned it though. Translators are probably very expensive.

>>12386564
walls work

>>12397523
Sounds legit. Thanks for the advice.

How much do you think an "intermediate" translator would charge for 163,000 words?

>>12396878
>>12397072
Thank you reddit, Very Cool!

>>12391268
>i loved book of the new sun but i thought the wizard knight was boring as hell
... how
i get not liking jotunland in the wizard but the other 3/4 of it were great

What's the best speculative scifi out there? I enjoyed Blindsight and Rainbow's end. I know Echopraxia is out there but I can't bring myself to read it. I also liked the first half of Permutation City. The newer the book the better I'd wager.

>>12397726
>scifi
>the newer the book the better I'd wager.

I just finished the first Gormenghast book and I'm not really feeling it a whole lot.

The setting feels a bit too desolate, like theres this entire castle but each character feels like a void with itself and ocasionally interacts superficially with one of the other characters and so little seems to happen, I cant put my finger on it. The writing is good but so far I dont get it all too much.

Does it get better on the following books?

>>12397733
SPECULATIVE niggy, the future will never be a cluttered cyberpunk shithole so fuck off with that 80s jetsonian bullshit

>>12394603
The second book of the Red Rising series I believe.

>>12397774
>the future will never be a cluttered cyberpunk shithole

>>12397740
>fell for the Peake meme

How different is the Blade Runner book from the film? Is it worth checking out?

>>12398007
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is very, very different from Blade Runner. Give it a read.

>>12397726
Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars
>>12395843
Masters of Rome

>>12398085
>Red Mars opens with a tragic murder, an event that becomes the focal point for the surviving characters and the turning point in a long intrigue that pits idealistic Mars colonists against a desperately OVERPOPULATED Earth

But overpopulation is a meme, should I disregard this series?

>>12397740
Book 2 is a bit more energetic. Book 3 is just bizarre and unnecessary if you can live with the wrap up at the end of 2,

>>12397774
Cyberpunk was never good or even intended to be speculative.

>>12398155
Well regardless of weather they were trying to be speculative it obviously didn't pan out. That's why I'm skeptical of older books trying to be speculative, I'd imagine they're more likely to be wrong or to buy too much into some bs hype at the time it was written.

>>12398169
Usually when one talks about speculative scifi, they aren't asking "what will society be like in the future?", but "how would X affect a society?". Generally these read the same now as they did then.

>>12398148
>But overpopulation is a meme, should I disregard this series?
What difference does that make?

>>12398194
The author concerns himself with meme ideas, that will impact worldbuilding. How long into the book till some fag says "We need another plague to save the planet" or some stupid shit like that.

go fuck yourselves

>>12398189
But they do usually answer the first question through worldbuilding, I liked blindsight and rainbow's end and I thought they both had a decent idea. I hope Vinge shits out another novel before he croaks.

>>12398169
The problem with most science fiction (and most predictions of future technology in general) is a fundamental misconception of how technology works which leads to the belief that it is exponential. It's not, it's sigmoid. Technology exploits pre-existing physical phenomena. Physical phenomena arise from the interactions of the four fundamental forces and there is a hard limit on how many different interactions exist, of which a much smaller amount of phenomena are actually at temperatures and velocities that we could actually exploit.

>>12398209
>worldbuilding
>>12398217
>worldbuilding
Begone, Fantasy thot!

How much of a dirty pleb am I for reading, and somewhat liking this?

>>12398313
The fuck is that? Is Tortellini writing new shit now?

>>12398317
Just three longish short stories, but the first one had some little teasing references for a Book 5 (Murtagh in a pub dealing with shady characters, some witch woman called Bachel who might be a new threat), and apparently he's working on an SF book also... God help us.

>>12398345
>toblerone doing sci-fi
uh oh

>>12390416

Seveneves

>>12397726
>>12397774
>>12398169
>>12398209
I'm begging you,please go back to /v/

>>12389587
A lot of high fantasy with some edgy cat-eyed-fellow

>>12398648
>edgy
Isn't book Geralt an even bigger softie than the one in the games?

>>12395680
>I thought it was closer to Fantasy than Sci Fi though
Yeah kinda. Same goes for Dying Earth however, they're both very special in the same kind of way.

>>12395180
>>12396905
The first one also work as a standalone, so there's no point in reading further.

Should I go for it?

I need something new to blow my mind with new concepts like The Quantum Thief series. Getting a bit tired of formulaic fantasy and sci-fi. I love things that just push the boundaries of what I thought possible. Any good hints?

>>12398939
No, they're shit. Long and pointless, the first book is basically an exposition dump and the writing itself does not make up for it.

anybody read a head full of ghosts

>>12398939
Read the amazon sample and see if you can get into the writing. If yes, it's worth and one of the better fantasy series.

>>12398939
Yeah it's fun.

>>12399121
downvoted for having shit taste fellow redditor

Here's what I read recently:

>The Winter of the Witch by Arden Katherine Arden (Russian alt history/fairy tale/magical realism/otome)
This is the final in a trilogy and luckily the author doesn't shit the bed a lot like most authors and the quality is maintained generally throughout although it does kinda reuse some of the ideas from the second book. Book 1 is low stakes alt hist, Book 2 has more action and Book 3 invokes a lot more magic.

Third book is not as good as the second book and the pacing is a bit off but if you enjoy the genre it's definitely worth a read because it has nice prose and nice characterisation.

>The Rise of Ransom City by Felix Gilman (American alt history/a little bit of supernatural fantasy/Western)
The Half-Made World has a very unique setting and worldbuilding featuring the conflict between the supernatural forces of the Gun and Line. Unfortunately, the protagonists of that book have a greatly reduced appearance in this one although Ransom and his Process is quite intriguing. Certainly, this book is not a bad book, in some ways it is more creative than the first one, although some aspects of the setting are far more down to earth which annoyed me and although the plot twists were enjoyable I saw them all coming. Anyway, I enjoyed it.

>The Alchemy Wars Trilogy by Ian Tregillis (European alt history/robots)
I admit I started reading this series because I am a shallow person who saw the word geas and like Code Geass. What I got was alt history Europe with a very beautiful prose and excellent worldbuilding. Main character was sort of lacking, two of the characters were pretty sociopathic like characters in a series by Alistair Reynolds. The author also has a somewhat cynical view of humanity. I enjoyed the fact that the author put the freed robots in conflict with the humans by the end as it did seem that that particular point was somewhat absent from Murderbot (which I also enjoyed). However, the ending of this trilogy and the Horologists turned out to be pretty goddamn disappointing. I tend to like priests in numerous pieces of scifi like in Dan Simmons' Endymion and Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow/Children of God so I was really pissed when the faggot of an author killed Visser sama off he was a fucking based character up until that point. But I guess anyone remotely familar with /m/ animu/mango or books could see it from a mile away.

>>12399189
>Children of the Nameless (fantasy) and Skyward (scifi/space opera) by Brandon Sanderson
In case /sffg/ is wondering, Skyward has a good tinge of existential horror in it and some interesting plot points so it's worth interesting if you have literal nothing else to read. The cast sports a wise-cracking ship M-bot which was kind of like a PG version of Martha Wells' Murderbot. It's better than his other YAs but the ending reveal was irredeemable and shit. It's also a bit like Ender's Game which I hated.

Children of the Nameless which was apparently some kind of MTG short was pretty good but the dialogue felt off and it ended in a deus ex machina. I enjoyed Mr Lord of the Manor.

>The Prefect Dreyfus Emergency series by Alistair Reynolds (mystery/existential horror)
Alistair Reynolds returns with another delightfully original take on the Revelation Space verse. It's better if you read those books first to get insight on some of the plot reveals but they would probably work nicely on standalone too. Reynolds appears to have dialled down on how casually sociopathic he makes literally everyone in his books (which was funny, but kind of not in the mainline Revelation Space books when even the dolphin was a fucking psychopath) but it does come up in a few places, although not nearly enough to make anyone unlikeable and most of his protagonists make morally sound decisions most of the time.

Although clearly Reynolds senpai still doesn't really hold back with the side characters as in the second book someone is nailed alive to a ship while still being alive and in the first one I continue to be surprised by the amazingly creative and horrific ways of dying.

The plot and the characters are very enjoyable and I particularly enjoyed the personnages of Dreyfus, Aumonier, Garlin (I admired how cancerously he acted towards all the other characters without me hating him, based character and blessed character) and based Demikhov.

Also the second book was on a smaller scale and the plot was less world ending but the spectacular ending gave me the shivers, just as the fantastic first book was mindblowing.

>>12399193
>Johannes Cabal series by Jonathan L. Howard (occult fantasy with a necromancer MC/european alt history/black humour)
The first book is by far one of the most dangerously inventive and enjoyable books that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I think that I have heard this book being mentioned on /sffg/ before and therefore must commend that anon's taste. The main character Johannes Cabal is described as sociopathic but ironically has more moral qualms than any Alistair Reynolds character despite being soulless and being a sociopathic. He is definitely a based badass, husbando material, fucking hilarious by turns and dangerously chuuni (sometimes). The author has a habit of invigorating every character with likeability. I especially enjoyed Leonie and Horst which is ironic as I usually hate protagonists.

In a way, there is a bit of a quality drop between the books in terms of the plotting but the series never loses its invigorating charm, creativity or the quality of the characterisation. The book can best be described as a cross between Good Omens, Arthur Conan Doyle (ironic that Johannes is most similar to BBC's Sherlock while the writing style is distinctly ACDC in the second and part of the fifth book) and Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus series. Plus more than a little bit Lovecraftian.

On top of the lovely characterisation, it has some of the most rambunctious prose I've seen.

>>12398939
I liked it.

>>12399189
>>The Rise of Ransom City by Felix Gilman (American alt history/a little bit of supernatural fantasy/Western)
Have you read Thunderer? If not I'd recommend it, I liked it better than The Half-Made World.

>>12399226
I definitely will now. Finding good books is pretty hard.

>>12392969
I've wanted to get into these but their openings are always so long and info dumpy.

>>12398939
First book has pacing issues and is literally a drawn out classic adventure with nice prose, second book doesn't deliver on the promises of the first. Ending of the third book is GOAT.

>>12399189
>The Winter of the Witch
How good is the second book compared to the first? I've only read The Bear and the Nightingale and planed to stop there but I might reconsider.

Are there any more slutty pond demons?

>>12392969
Nope.
I thought Red Sister was ok too but Grey Sister sucks ass, skip it.

>>12393566
Imagine seriously recommending a book in which the female mc is literally the town bicycle.

>>12399280
Second is better than the first but third is in between the first two, in my opinion. As for the sex content I recall that it definitely ramped up in the second in the MC but in general I'm a fairly oblivious autist.

>>12399280
*
First does work as an ending point though.

>>12399297
>>12399312
>First does work as an ending point though
Yeah it does. The reason I stopped where I did is that I felt like the first book walked a thin line in regards to Vasya becoming a YA tier protagonist (muh powerful horse, snow demon lover, gurl power etc) and the description of the sequels made it sound like the series would cross that line.

>>12398952
Anyone?

>>12399407
Try China Mieville's books. Love them or hate them, they're definitely very creative and completely unlike any trad sff works. "New weird" is the word used to classify the subgenre he writes in.
The City and the City is my favorite.

>>12399431
>"New weird" is the word used to classify the subgenre he writes in.

Definitely one of the Redditest subgenres along with Lovercraftian anything.

>>12399353
In that case I'd probably end on the first one especially if you have lots of other books to read.

>>12399453
>especially if you have lots of other books to read
Well, I try to keep my backlog under a 100 books long...

>>12398696
If you are satisfied with that ending, then by all means. I've already read it, and the ending of the first book ruined it for me. The second book wasn't any better either.

>>12399538
It depends on how many of those books are even good. I usually kill 99% of anything in a TBR. Bad summary kills like 95% of it, but then good books slink by with shit sunmaries and great plots which I miss out on if I don't see another anon enjoy it, so sometimes being a complete impulsefag isn't a good idea.

>>12387219
Are the murderbot diaries actually good who just a tumblr/reddit meme shit thing?

>>12388264
I always figured Humans are the mercenaries of the universe. Highly adaptable to technology, highly aggressive, and love wealth. The rest of the universe doesn't want to talk to us since there is already too many humans out there from rebellious abductees.

>>12390416
The moon is a harsh mistress. But dial back the computers to when IBM was king.

>>12399876
The first novella is decent and there are some good moments across the other 3 novellas but overall it's pretty shit after the first one. The premise had a lot of potential but the execution is totally dogshit.
You can always read them decide as they're all only around ~30k words each.
Wouldn't recommend buying them though, Tor's prices are outrageous and not worth it.

>>12395180
Read Brent Weeks I see...

>just finished Eyes of the Overworld

lmao fucking Cugel can't get a break

>>12392969
Red Sister
>Hmm alright, promising and looking forward to the next
Grey Sister
>BLEEGGHHH WHAT THE VOMIT FUCK

>>12393644
I'm reading the first one right now. Really fun read, fast paced too.

My friend has finally pestered me enough to start this series. What am I in for? I only read the prologue so far.

When do I start reading the Kharkanas trilogy in Malazan? Before or after?

im the slave now
>>12400368
>>12400368