/lit/ - Literature

So did we manage to runoff birdboi? It's good to know writefags know they're not wanted.

If god didn't intend for us to read litRPG's, why did he create them?

>>12685636
you're not wanted here

>shitty random op image

Y-you're an optimate right anon?

>>12685650
>op image is random
>doesn't open and read
>can't read
>is on the /lit/ board

>>12685623
>Should I bother giving them a chance if I think Elric is the worst fantasy I've ever read?
Yeah,Moorcock Scifi is pretty good,fair warning tho,The Cornelius novels are New Wave and it's filled with GRI,if you are /pol/ you are definitely gonna hate them

should I continue The Expanse after Cibola Burn? the characters are pretty weak compared to the previous novels and I don't find the alien and extra-solar shit to be that compelling.
>you shouldn't have started the series
yeah yeah

Is this series even better than Throne of Glass?

hurry up weekly reading anon

>>12685701
Not /pol/ enough to even know what GRI is, so that's not an issue. I'll give them a fair chance then, thanks!

>>12685806
> is eating food better than eating shit?
I don't know anon, what do you think?

I'm just waiting for Sword and Sorcery to make a resurgence.

>>12685827
Wait,are we talking about eating Sarah Maas Ass?

>>12685858
No.

>>12685855
Not likely to happen.

>>12685855
Alas, Howard is gone

>>12685626
Up to what year does the Hugo award/nominees for best novel hold meaning?

>>12686117
You've mistaken the word "meaning" to be "things I like".

>>12685824
>even know what GRI is
>doesn't know the holy trinity

just finished the Witcher saga. LoTL was a bit disappointing. do you guys recommend other sagas with the vibe of the last wish? feel like it was the best stuff he wrote.

>>12686145
I thought there was some controversy over the award a few years ago in which two different groups were pushing authors for political reasons, rather than best novel?

>>12686117
None in recent memory that's for sure.

>>12686117
I'd say up to 2000 from a quick glance at the winners for novels.

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

Destroying my goodreads challenge pace by reading long books I actually enjoy :(

>>12686220
The year the sad puppies losers tried to vote rig is one of the strongest sets of nominees in recent memory lol since they just kicked out the public vote and handpicked them

That meant they got to put Three Body Problem on the list and it ended up winning.

The vote sabotaging only really fucked up smaller categories which they just didn't run that year.

>>12686305
along with the rest of us

>>12686295
>>12686117
>Dune
>Ender's Game
The Hugos have always been total shit but anyway thank god for bib collage downloads

>>12686305
It's putting me off going back to Worm lol

btw when does that pick up I'm getting bored of "I like these guys and have a crush on one but want to betray them" with the initial bunch she hooks up with

>>12686320
>Sad Puppies followed the rules
>ZOMG THEY VOTE RIGGED IT
lol fuck off. The Hugos had been garbage for years before that.

Thoughts on Rhaego possibly being alive? I know there's a very slim chance of him being totally dead but we never really did see his corpse other than what Maz Durr described him as looking monstrous.

>>12686349
>>>/pol/
Don't you have Dread Ilk books to read?

>>12686295
The weakest Hugo period is actually the earlier years, they overlooked so many good books for mainstream shit

>>12686364
Not him but that's a yikes from me ma'am

>>12686381
>yikes
>>>/r/edhit

>>12686398
>asking people to go back to /pol/
>and I'm reddit
Yeah no, you're in the wrong site yourself

Rec me some anime books

>>12686356
even if he were alive, he's the son of a defeated Khal and some kind half-lizard hybrid thing to boot. whoever became Khal from the original Khalasar would have given him to the dogs even if Daenerys had birthed him normally. not really a lot of potential there.

>>12686295
>Ender's Game
Based
>Speaker for the Dead
Wtf were they thinking

>>12686419
Anime as in animéesque

>>12686295
Where are the Chuck Tingle books?

>>12686364
>tips pussyhat

I'm on the angry puppies train

>>12686419
You mean besides Will Wight and Sanderson?

>>12686349
What bullshit are you gonna spout next, that Gamergate was about ethics in game journalism?

>>12686472
>wrongthink about my view of history!
Kys

>>12686472
>bringing up GamerGate
lol Jesus Christ. Fuck off already. Seriously. You've shit up the thread enough.

>>12686472
You sound like a cunt

>>12686478
>>12686481
>>12686495
Nice try, snowflakes. Maybe try not getting so triggered.

>>12686508
Wojakedit.png

>>12686508
>Same fagging this hard

>>12686419
Sanderson. Litrpgs in general.

Any isekai or similar where the rate of improvement isn't stupid and the mc isn't some kinda solitary entity that doesn't need to interact worth society at all?

>>12686481
>>12686472
>>12686508
Holy fuck, shut the fuck up,

Props to whoever was shilling Daevabad, I like it a lot. How many years do I have to wait now to see how it ends?

>>12686840
Fuck off already, cunt.

>>12686840
>>12686847
Both of you can suck my fucking dick.

>>12686421

I have no idea if him being half lizard is true or if it was just the witch spouting nonsense. Maybe she mistook it for greyscale and that's what he actually died of? Wouldn't make sense now that I think about it considering there would've been a contamination within the camp afterwards.

>>12686409
>pol is welcomed anywhere other than pol
kys. no one loves you. not even your mom.

>>12686453
>A pussyhat is a pink, knitted hat created in large numbers by thousands of participants involved with the United States 2017 Women's March.
???

>>12685626
>all species have been "uplifted" to intelligence by other intelligent species
>humanity is not found in the galactic library, confusing aliens as to how they are intelligent
>humanity is divided on the idea of whether we evolved intelligence on our own, or if our uplifting patreons haven't been discovered yet
>there is life on the sun that might relate to the previous points, and the crew has to make a trip to check it out

It's pretty fun desu. The best book is apparently the second of the series, and that's pretty much the main reason I started this.

>>12686117
Scalzi's "Redshirts" winning in 2013 was the definitive end of the Hugo Awards as even attempting to signify quality.

>the Fifth Head of Cerebrus
So who was in the wrong, the abos or the humans

>>12687013
the abos.
humanity fuck yea

>what are you reading?
Toll the Hounds. I have come to enjoy it although only being ~30% through. Refreshing myself of the characters involved and their importance from previous books through the Malazan wiki has helped a lot, not to mention the superb writing.
>what are you waiting to be released?
Every Cosmere, third Prefect book, lots of shit
>how many books in your backlog?
Too many--20 or so on my Kindle right now

So regarding Kafka on the Shore. What do you think Johnnie Walker and Sanders were supposed to be? I think they could've been the personification of Fate like in Greek plays but I also think they might've been aliens. It seems like Murakami was rolling with the alien idea then abandoned it completely halfway through the novel since outlining the entire book as a Greek tragedy.

>>12687088
>Johnnie Walker was the devil

>>12687102

He's not really clear either on what he wanted to do once he finally collected all those souls. I guess that's one way you could look at it. They could be God and the Devil, or two rival alien factions or something.

>>12687013
abos for sure. never trust a shapeshifter

Any sci fi or fantasy where the heroine gets a (you) ?

Monthly reading anon probably sniffing coke off some hooker's ass atm. That why he can't ask the fucking questions.

Ia the witcher series REALLY all that slavic inspired? I read the first book and played the game for ps4 and there isnt much there. just dark fantasy really with witches, vampires, and werewolves.

>>12687276
I'm not sure what you mean by that.

>>12687319
Thanks

>>12687318
Well yeah, Vampires come from Eastern European folklore and werewolves were widespread in Slavic/Germanic/Norse lore. (IIRC one of the first historic "accounts" of a werewolf was a Italian bishop writing a letter and gossiping about how he'd heard the Bulgarian king's son uses magic to turn himself into a wolf)

>>12686356
It'd be a neat twist if Fake Aegon was Rhaego, via Illyrio's conspiracy with Varys.

Most action packed testosterone fueled balls to the walls fuck yeah get it book go

>>12687954
Market Forces by Richard Morgan. Or pretty much anything he's wrote.

>the ship finally gets started only for them to be forcibly split up.

What a fucking cocktease.

>>12686419
Malazan gets pretty anime whenever ascendants are involved.

>>12687013

Took me long enough to find someone talking about it. IMO the abos were in the wrong, not because of "racism" and my love of humanity, but because they never really seemed to even try to communicate in any way other than malice.

Unless I misunderstood the stories you have abos killing and experimenting on humans, replacing and tricking humans, etc. All throughout.

>>12688114
I sided with Number Five but his father was as creepy as a fuck (made more sinister by the fact that it seemed to be something of a perpetuating murder cycle. )

The shit that the boy pulled in the third novella was also really creepy.

>>12688131

I got the impression, and you can correct me if I am wrong here, that the boy never died. The boy was an Abo (couldn't use the weapon correctly, do precise hand movements) and killed the man and replaced him, then...I guess forgot it happened?

I think I got too in my own head about some parts of it, but that was my takeaway. Thoughts?

>>12686948

Agreed. No idea how that book could possibly win any award. Scalzi is a hack.

>>12688155
Yeah he explicitly said that he couldn't do precise hand movements which is the major hint (although the ability to shapeshift and do all their cool tricks seems way better than fine motor movement).

>>12688163

I had trouble understanding why certain actions were taken...character motivations I guess. The scientist in the 3rd story, for instance, knew all these things about the abos, like the hand movement stuff, but he didn't become suspicious that the boy fit the bill on 100% all of them and, instead, just followed the kid out into the wilderness alone anyway.

Why would he do this? I just don't understand. Same with 5 in the first story, a bit. Like, why did he just continue getting experimented on? The big reveal (like the teacher being a robot, for instance) literally only worked because it was written text. After that reveal, my only thought was "how did he not put this together himself, considering from his perspective (as a character in the book) he *sees the guy as a robot*"

Shit like that was plaguing my readthrough of it, not that I was trying to nitpick or whatever. I just couldn't really see why a lot of the characters would do what they were doing.

Ironically the clone father was the only one with a good motivation and explanation for his actions in the entire first story.

I will omit the second story, with the Shadow Children, because it felt pretty solid throughout.

any of you guys read/submit to apex magazine?

>>12688200
He knew the teacher was a robot, what's important about the revelation is what type of robot (a digital copy of his great-grandfather).

How could he not let himself continue to be experimented on? What choices did he have? By the time he realizes what it's costing him he's already lost months of memories.

>>12688200
>The scientist in the 3rd story, for instance, knew all these things about the abos, like the hand movement stuff, but he didn't become suspicious that the boy fit the bill on 100% all of them and, instead, just followed the kid out into the wilderness alone anyway.

The scientist says that he means no harm to the kid so I doubt he considers the kid as a source of harm. Moreover I felt that the abos are actually a pretty welcoming race of people but there is clearly a point of conflict and difference between them:

>During the interview with the boy he says he would not kill the Free People but when he sees the boy's uncircumcised penis he says that he would shoot them where they stand if they had come from him.
>The boy closes his eyes when shooting. The boy is upset by the felicidal intentions and later it is said during the account that the narrator killed the cat. The narrator also kills all manner of dangerous beasts.
>At the end of the account the narrator says that he does not like to kill large beasts and demonstrates empathy for his cat and the cat's agony.
I'm pretty sure that had he not conducted offenses that the boy saw as monstrous, the boy would not have killed him. Probably he killed the cat bringing about his own death

As for the experiments >>12688238 there wasn't shit he could do. He might also fear that the authorities would pry into his history and identify that he wasn't human

>>12688262
>had come from him.
Had come from where he had come from

As for the second novella maybe it's just my fanfic brain thinking but I highly suspect that this is the sort of story where they change the setting but the characters stay the same
Sandwalker ?= Number Five ?????<= (clone?) VRT
Eastwind ?= Marsch
Seven Girls Waiting ?= The girl that the boy lies with

>>12686117
The various SFF awards have *always* been rigged author popularity contests. Just go and actually read the old winners and nominees and you'll find some spectacular trash that was nominated and won awards just because the author got into the "in crowd" back in the 60s or whenever. Only difference is now social media throws back the curtain on how the sausage is made.

>>12688162
It was laser targeted to appeal to nerd sensibilities, Coroy Doctorow Ready Player One Nerd Glurge.

>>12688289
The characters all share similar backgrounds but I wouldn't say they're the same. Number Five and VRT are similar in that Number Five is the fifth generation (I think) of the man inside M.Million and VRT is the fifth generation from Sandwalker after he becomes Eastwind. VRT becomes Marsch in the end. M.Million probably suffered a similar fate to Sandwalker/Eastwind, where one identity/being subsumed another, and that's why he conducts generational experiments to discover himself.

>>12688354
>where one identity/being subsumed another
I've read many books where an identity is subsumed but usually the delineation between the dominant and subdued personality is much more clear.

In these novellas, it seems that the resultant identity seems frighteningly blurred. I don't think that they fully comprehend who they are (even taking novella 3 into account with the unreliable narrator who is trying to pass off a cover story -- it's clearly the boy's cat in earlier accounts and later it becomes his cat). I guess that plays into the idea of the humans not being sure where the Abos have gone but I can't help but wonder, during the takeover, if it is a bit like committing suicide on both the part of the individual being subsumed and the one doing the subsuming.

>>12687276
Eon

Is it possible to write a book in a fantasy setting that's just about adventure without it being just regarded as YA drivel?

>>12686825

John Carter

>>12688553
Is it possible? Yes.
Will you write it? No.

>>12688553
The two key things that differentiate YA from other types of adventure novels are the age and the experiential journey of the protagonist. YA protagonists are always just a few years older than their target audience, but never older than their early twenties. And their character arc more closely resembles the coming-of-age of a bildungsroman than the standard Campbellian model. Just make your character an older person who isn't achieving his formative life experiences as part of his journey, and you'll have a standard adventure novel.

Since we're talking about writing, I want to pen some trash military sci-fi and stick it on Amazon to try and make a few bob. Is it required that my character be a paragon of virtue from a libertarian utopia? Or will that outrage my readers and earn me 1-star reviews?

Since we're talking about writing, I want to pen some trash military sci-fi and stick it on Amazon to try and make a few bob. Is it required that my character be a paragon of virtue from a libertarian utopia? Or will deviating from that formula outrage my readers and earn me 1-star reviews?

>>12688694
It doesn't matter. What matters if that you're able and willing to crank out one of these bad boys ever 30-45 days.

>>12688694
you can write whatever you want.
you dont have to worry about virtue signaling as an indie author. that is reserved for big publisher backed authors or those that are often in the media.

>>12688684
You'll be getting 1 star reviews no matter what you do. The trick is to either make your character a complete degenerate OR an sjw dream so you can at least corner one market.

>>12688694
First you might want to work on hiding your disdain for your audience before you start writing.

Daily reminder that the last book was the best novel of 2018.

>>12688721
I disdain libertarians, not readers of military sci-fi. It's just a shame that the latter is almost solely populated by the former.

>>12688694
I've noticed a lot of the younger/"new" milSF authors tend to be more left leaning in general.

I've only read the first one but the Poor Man's Fight series by Eliott Kay is (IIRC) about this guy from a Catholic space colony that got co-opted during it's founding by Libertarians who saddled it with some thing where if you don't get a good "education score" after college you get hit with a huge amount of student debt, so he ends up having to join the military.

Marko Kloos is one of the more successful indie ones authors right now and the protag in the Frontlines series is a self-described "welfare rat" and the corrupt and decaying capitalist government in North America gets overthrown halfway through the series, and at which point the humans start actually reversing their losses against the lankies.

Myke Cole is a interesting example because his books are stupid macho-man bullshit but he's like the polar opposite of John Ringo IRL.

>>12688787
I think it's hilarious that the main libertarian SF/F book award, the Prometheus Award, was awarded to Ken MacLeod three times. (For those unaware, MacLeod is loudly socialist)

>>12688833
Though the times he's won, the books have had strong libertarian themes (alongside other sociophilosophic slants.)

Fifth Head of Cerberus
I don't think I get it. Especially no the second story.
The other two make sense on their own, but I don't see how they're supposed to relate beyond obviously being set in the same world and that they briefly met.

DISCUSSION TIME!

>Did you like the book?
>What was your favourite sub story?
>What did Wolfe mean by this?
>Where they all aliens?
>Who/what was Cerberus?

I'm so sorry I'm late, I had to feed the cat/was drunk/busy helping old ladies over the street/etc.

Reply to this post with nominations for next months reading.

>>12689099
>What did Wolfe mean by this?
I'm >>12689087 so I don't know. I guess something about identity being a potentially weird and complex thing that we assume is obvious.
>What was your favourite sub story?
I liked 3 more than 1, and have no idea what to make of 2. Overall it was okay but I'm not really a fan.
>Where they all aliens?
No. It seems VRT was and he learned to write (badly), but the lack of manual dexterity seems to pose obvious problems for the Veil hypothesis.

anyone got a link to an epub/pdf of The Second Collected Tales of Bauchelain & Korbal Broach?

anyone got a link to an epub of Vanguard by Jack Campbell?

>>12689196
I do.

>>12689196
It's on mobilism

>>12689174
>the lack of manual dexterity seems to pose obvious problems for the Veil hypothesis
I'd say generations of practice could account for that.

>>12689233
got it, thanks my man.

Dune fags, where do I start and which books are worth reading and which one should I skip?

>>12689484
>where do I start
Fifth book obviously.
Retard.

>>12689484

Dune then work it out from there. Do Herbert fans consider Idaho to be the "Samwise" of the franchise?

>>12689484
In my experience it was

>Read first book
>Read second book
>Consider reading third book
>Don't

Common consensus is after 4 or 5 it becomes not worth it even slightly tier

>>12687841
Is Twilight also slavic inspired

I want some sci-fi recommendations so I don't get salty from trying random books. I'm looking for one of two things.
I want to read some urban-focuses sci-fi, but I don't want it to be about shock value. No
>BRUUHHH, SHE HAS RETRACTABLE BLADES FOR FINGERNAILS DID YOU SEE SHIT
I don't mind the ideas behind it all being wacky and outlandish, I just don't want it to be presented in this too-cool-for-school kinda way.
What I'd truly want though is a story that's just about a group of people and a ship, where they're going to different planets and stuff. An adventure. More like Star Wars/Mass Effect/Star Trek, less like the Expanse. It can be sci-fantasy a la Numenera or Star Wars, I truly don't care. I just want it to be comfy and primarily about the characters and locations.

>>12687841
That's not true at all. Vampires were never defined in eastern Europe before the Western influence, there were just a bunch of different shit. Vampires as they are today are 100% a Western and pop culture invention. Same for werewolves. There are plenty of werewolves in eastern Europe, they're just different from the modern interpretation. Where I'm from werewolves were supposed to be creatures that only transformed during an eclipse, and then they would eat the Sun and the Moon. Nothing about them preying on humans.
>>12689539
Twilight is the opposite in every way. For example, most "vampires" (since they weren't called that historically) were spirits that only came out at night. There wasn't anything about them being asleep or walking among humans. They were tormented spirits that came out of the grave at night, shapeshifting and tormenting the living. But they definitely weren't "conscious" in the Kindred sense of vampiric beings.

>>12689497
Duncan is the secret protagonist of the Dune series. The entire story is about him.

>>12689613
Have you tried Altered Carbon and its sequels? No space ship, but each book sees the protagonist on a new planet (and in a new body) as people in that universe prefer to just upload/download their minds rather than actually travel. The first one is basically a Phillip Marlowe detective story set on cyberpunk Earth, the second is a bit more of an Indiana Jones trip, and I haven't read any after that since the writing style grates on me. But you might like it.

>>12689683
I've seen the Netflix trailers for it. Will the show give me a good idea of what it's like or is it a terrible adaptation?

>>12689663
The books by Brian Herbert don't count and should be removed from existence.

>>12689687
It's a very good adaptation if not completely faithful to the novel.

>>12689687
>>12689690
It's a great adaptation, it changes things from the book but for the better sometimes. Looks gorgeous too but, the writing goes downhill after a point, the plot holes will start pissing you off. Id's still watch the second season though if it comes out.

>>12689099
I nominate City by Clifford D Simak again.
or Tales of Pirx the Pilot by Lem.

Didn't really like the book, but it's just a personal thing with not liking stuff that's purposefully written to be all philosophical and confusing.

>>12689687
A terrible adaptation considering it completely changes the relationship between the protagonist and main antagonist.

>>12689690
>>12689704
>>12689783
Alright, well, sounds like I'll have to start the book first and then try a first episode to see how it compares. Final question: Do any of you know any books that really just jack off to spaceships?

>>12689484
The first book, then the porn game, then the second and third, finishing with God Emperor of Dune.

>>12689803
There's the entire genre of military sci-fi that feature nothing but space ship battles.

>>12689822
Do we have a list of books from that? I don't really know anything besides the 40k books I've read (which weren't that great on prose).

>>12689829
It's not a genre I read a lot of. Only ones that come to mind are the books by Joshua Dalzelle and Christopher Nuttall. If some want to trash pulp fiction then the Galaxy Unknown series.

>>12689829
It's not a genre I read a lot of. Only ones that come to mind are the books by Joshua Dalzelle and Christopher Nuttall. If you want some trash pulp fiction then the Galaxy Unknown series.

>>12685626
/sffg/ do you think that new wave sci-fi helped improve the genre from the golden age, or hurt it?

>>12685636
Fuck you ill make /birdboi/ generals if you dont watch your tongue

>>12689929
I'm not fully familiar with the terms but if you're refer to more literary and explorative works succeeding the early pulp movement, absolutely.

>>12689969
It wasn't just a change from pulp, it was a change from hard sci-fi to a softer sci-fi

>>12689818
Who's the milker?

>>12690030
Jessica, your mother in the game/book

>>12690018
But wasn't it, at least in part, because the main draw of the books moved away from masturbation over gadgets and technology to idea/concept based masturbation?

>>12685855
gib me some s&s to read

>>12689099
I really liked it. I read it as a breather between Vol 1 and 2 of BOTNS, so it was good to get some other perspective on Wolfe's usual themes.

The 2nd was my favourite, I really liked the mystery of the Shadow Children and Abo relationship.

As to what the relevance of Cerberus is and what Wolfe meant, I'm not so sure. It's hard to put something coherent together on a first reading. They weren't all aliens, but the line is blurry, especially after generations of cross-breeding.

>>12686876
All three books are pretty different, but worth reading.

>mfw that pun in the third book

>>12689099
In Other Worlds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Other_Worlds

>>12687048
I persist that Malazan is infinitely better on your second read. So much is established in GotM that you'll understand in retrospective or if you really pay attention along the way. GotM is also the biggest brick wall for new reads because it does not ease you in at all.

>>12688752

stop

>>12689484

Avoid everything by his son, the trivial order is the best one

Dune aside what other Frank Herbert book do you think deserves more recognition? I'm making my way through Hellstorm's Hive at the moment, very pulpy but has some weird concepts.

>>12689647
True for the most part. Eastern European vampires were closer to ghouls aka ravenous corpses brought back to unlife due to unresolved matters or slights, who would then prey on living relatives and enemies. Romantic and "humanizing" aspects were added later.

>>12690410
I said nothing about GotM, what. I actually didn't have an issue with GotM but I read the first four books years back and started Midnight Tides in January. TtH is also the longest fucking book for some reason.

>>12686419
hot mom fantasy adventures

>>12690154
The hour of the dragon by robert e howard

>>12690439
ur a pleb

>>12685855
Elric of Melnibone

>>12689099
>>Where they all aliens?
I doubt there's a difference after one generation. Which might or might not be what Wolfe meant.

I'm going to nominate The Iron Dream again, if that's fine.

>>12689818
Based

>>12689818
What other books do you think would make good porn games?

>>12689929
The New Wave was the best age of scifi desu

>>12689484

>>12690578
Wheel of Time unironically

>>12690154
The Tritonian Ring

>>12689929
It succeeded in improving the literary quality of SF writing, but at the cost of lowering the hardness of the genre overall. I don't think it was worth it in the long run.

>>12690521
The Iron Dream is not very good. Spinrad doesn't try hard enough to make the concept interesting. Just read the Wikipedia synopsis.

>>12690450
>Tfw the author dedicated the first book to his mom
Absolute madman

>>12690578
Any books with hot moms deserve a porn game

>>12690521
>again, if that's fine
I've been thinking about moderating the nominees harder. Less known authors seem to have a hard time competing against the big names and while I personally don't mind reading more Dick, for example, it's unfortunate if interesting works don't stand a chance simply because people don't recognize the name of the author. Since we've never read anything by Norman Spinrad before it's not a problem, but I might purge some famous authors, that we've already read several times and/or recently, from the nominations as long as the remaining list contain enough interesting books.

>>12690578
An Elric of Melnibone porn game where he cries all the time and doesn't fuck anyone.

>>12690450
>hot mom fantasy adventures
Is this real? If so, is that the title? I can't find anything.

>>12689099
>nominate
Space Viking by H Beam Piper
I find it to be underrated and enjoyed it's discussion of the rise and fall of civilizations along with it's space monarchies

>>12690578
harry potter seems a popular choice

>>12687048
Tried reading Malazan, lad, I couldn't get all the way through House of Chains

Something about Erikson's writing style bores me half to death, I can't quite put my finger on it, and it seems to get worse for me as the series goes on.

Such a shame, as I thought Deadhouse Gates was pretty rad, but there we go.
Does it get better after House of Chains?

>>12690686
Tsuujou Kougeki ga Zentai Kougeki de 2-kai Kougeki no Okaasan wa Suki desu ka?

Pochi is a mircale worker. Are Naru Mono is her best work though.

>>12690674
That'd be better than the books where everyone wants to fuck him immediately upon seeing him and the only ally he gets is an ugly sumbitch so he doesn't threaten Elric sexually.

>>12690686
It's called Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?

Is pic related worth reading until the end?

I've heard it's one of the classics; but I'm midway through The Dragon Reborn and it's starting to drag for me

>>12686295
Damn I never even heard of the winners post 2002

>>12690861
forgot pic

>>12690450
>that part when she thinks her son is about to have his way with her and she stops resisting and tells him to turn off the lights first
I know they'll never fuck in the books, but I can't wait for the doujins once the anime airs.

>>12690861
Honestly stop now if you can't get past book 4 as that's one of the better ones. It's obviously not the series for you.

Halfway through reading this. Pretty edgy, but it's full blown horror in a fantasy setting instead of try-hard grimderp so it's a much funner read.

>>12690816

If you weren't a fan of House of Chains you probably won't enjoy the rest of the series, better to just remember the parts you did enjoy instead of trying to push through.

>>12690942
Noted. Think I'll just get back to the Broken Empire trilogy, I'm enjoying that a fair bit. First fantasy series to hook me for a long while.

>>12690861
What the other anon said. 3-6 are the good books in the series, they're going to drag even more after that.

>>12690410
>GotM is also the biggest brick wall for new reads because it does not ease you in at all.
You mean just straight up poorly written. It really shows it was someone's first book in the worst ways possible.

>>12687318
A bit but it's not THE main theme of the series. It's more of a circumstance of the auhtor's culture influencing his writing. Like not!Poland being invaded by not!German empire.

>>12690970
>>12690932
Damn, that's a shame. I like Jordan's prose quite a bit, which can be a rare deal in genre fiction. He writes with quite a bit of grace; I feel he just drags things out far longer than he ought to.

>>12687318
Keep in mind that English translation is dry and generic as fuck. Read it in ANY other language if you can.

>>12690154
Robert E. Howard: Conan, Kull, Bran Mak Morn, Solomon Kane
Fritz Leiber: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
C.L. Moore: Black God's kiss
Michael Moorcock: Elric, Corum
Karl Edward Wagner: Kane, Conan and Bran Mark Morn pastiches
John C. Hocking: Conan and the Emerald Lotus
David Gemmell: Drenai series
Michael Shea: Nifft the Lean

>>12690976
I don't know. There's nothing really WRONG with the book. It simply wants to cover way too much for the first book of an epic spanning ten books without side stories.

Are the Witcher books worth a read? I'm picking up Wild Hunt once I'm done with Uni for the year, I was wondering if it was worth reading Sapkowski's stuff

>>12690662
High iq post

>>12691022
Not really,but if you really like the vidya give them a shot

>>12690998
> I feel he just drags things out far longer than he ought to.
You've seen nothing yet. Books 1-7 are fast compared to the few after that.

>>12687048
If you like Malazan, you should check out the band Caladan Brood

>>12690998
If you're saying this now, you'll never survive books 7 - 10, holy shit is it bloated.

>>12689099
what the fuck now you post it!
>did you like it
yeah but it wasnt the greatest. those 2nd and 3rd novellas were kind of a drag
>favorite sub story
the first one
>were they all aliens
the doctor from the first one is aboriginal. the protagonist of the 2nd is aboriginal as well as the boy(he cant use weapons or tools) and by the end the guy (the aboriginal boy transforms into the guy. notice his inability to write very well because of a "hand injury". the boy basically assumed his identity). so technically everyone else besides the shapeshifting aboriginals is an alien if you think about it.>>12689174 maybe that helped
>who was cerberus
the statue, but also the leading members of the house. the father, aunt, his brother, him, and his clone son right? his clone son would represent the "fifth head of cerberus"

i nominate the first black company book by glen cook, because ive been needing to read that

This may be a bit of an irrelevant question, but if I'm interested in steampunk stories and Jules Verne specifically (haven't read him at all), where do I start and where do I finish? Or would the best approach be to go through his stuff chronologically? As for other steampunk stories, any recommendations? Compilations of short stories work as well. I'm mainly interested in the world-building process, relevant tech and a bit less in the characters, but stories with memorable personages are also appreciated.

Rec me some 80s fantasy books,i realized that i didn't really read much from that decade

Give me your kinoest powerfantasy fantasy where the hero starts out weak (and not just in a relative sense, he/she has to be commoner-tier or a child at the beginning)

Why does /lit/ have a hateboner for Sanderson? His books seem to be aimed at younger audiences, so what's the deal?

>>12691799
WoT obviously
>start off as a peasant from the ass end of nowhere
>wind up with the ability to warp reality just by thinking about it

>>12691883
Anything else? I'm taking a break from that since it kept beating me over the head with how dreary and dead the world is.

>>12691893
Listen, cunt. The plants are yellow and stunted. All me to describe them to you in graphic detail.

>>12690861
>>12690867
It is one of the classics, generally the first epic anyone getting into fantasy reads (or at least it used to be, before Game of Thrones). That doesn't mean that it's a good series however.

>>12691904
No, give me more reqs I know you're holding out on me

>>12691883
>Why does /lit/ have a hateboner for Sanderson?
Read one of his books and you've read them all. He's got the literary equivalent of sameface syndrome, and it's not a particularly interesting face either.

>>12691883
They get shilled here and most other places, so obviously they're gobna be called out for their autism tier dialogue and repetitive plots and systems.

>>12691799
Throne of Glass.

>>12691964
>>12691954
I see. I'm only familiar with Mistborn and I didn't think it was anything special, but not awful.

>>12689099
>drunk/busy helping old ladies over the street
How wet were their walls? I heard they get lubrication problems the older they get.

>>12690941
Throne of bones? Is that by vox day?

/sffg/, does this sound like an absolutely hopeless food situation to live off of?

>the edible things that exist in large enough quantities to be a reliable source of calories are butter, seaweed, cocoa powder, martini mix, squid ink, and as a last resort, disgustingly cockroaches
>besides this, there's a still available to extract water from the martini mix through reverse-distillation

>>12685626

What do you guys think of war hammer 40k universe?

is ther anything that can even compare to the world building and the range of stories that can be told?

>>12692191
I really appreciate the depth of the worldbuilding down to the little biological alien details on all the races. I just wish there weren't so many fanbois who don't seem to understand that the imperium is supposed to the kind of horrendous shitshow that no society should ever remotely attempt to emulate

>>12692204

Ive noticed the same thing but I thought it was just me

even after reading some of the books I wondered why people ever thought emulating it unironically is a good thing

the world building is really good and I think that might be what caused it

>>12692140
Different Throne of Bones. This one is by Brian McNaughton and is a collection of horror fantasy stories.

>>12692074
Based gilf poster. However, since almost everything I write here is an artistic work of fiction or falsehood, I cannot answer your question.

>>12692204
>>12692305
>I just wish there weren't so many fanbois who don't seem to understand
40k's universe is ironic, and so are most fanbois. I don't think I've ever met a single person who *actually* thinks the Imperium is a good society.
W40K fans are just a bunch of ironic LARPers, and that's what makes it fun (Imperiumfags just being space deus vult larpers)

>>12691799
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D52X58Y/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

>>12692399
It seems awfully suspicious to me that most of the people I see discussing 40k these days continue to express the same views even when they're not talking about warhammer.

When are we as a society finally going to admit that irony is a paper-thin excuse? Do you think it's coincidence that people with depression also tend to be the most likely to make ironic suicide jokes?

The entire point of irony isn't that you're joking about something you don't remotely agree with. That's satire, and the 40k fanboys aren't being satirical. Irony is just taking something you already approve of and then exaggerating it to the point of ridiculousness.

They might not believe we should have a god-emperor with a suit of golden power armor and an army of nazi supermen with organ grafts and chainswords, but the fact that they're able to praise it ironically shows that at the very least the real world equivalents of the things they see in the imperium appeal to them

>>12692508
lol why does it trigger you so much?

>>12692535

>>12692535
how do you want your tendies sweetie?

Thoughts on neuromancer?

>>12692565
>>12692570
WHY does it trigger you, samefag?

>>12692598
*cringe*

>>12692617
Why does it trigger you? Answer please. Are you gay?

>>12692169
Don't forget rocks.

>>12692627
That was a different project anon. And besides, we've been over this. You're not actually eating the rocks in real life, you're just using them as a heat source.

I chose these ingredients specifically because they're otherwise useless together without an extensive knowledge of food-related chemistry, but with that knowledge, you can theoretically make a decent variety of dairy products, baked goods, jellies and "shellfish" dishes.

They wouldn't exactly be prize-winning meals, but they give me an opportunity to show off my MC's ingenuity.

I haven't even read a single word of the ASOIF but I keep watching Alt Shift Xs videos so I can get into the lore and theories

Just finished this book, I liked most of it, but no one seems to recommend the others. Should I read on or just look at plot summaries on the net?

>>12692816
Read Fall of Hyperion, then stop. Fall provides a nice symmetry and finishes off the story started in Hyperion, even if it does sort of ruin the Shrike. It's worth reading it just to complete the story.

>>12692399
>I don't think I've ever met a single person who *actually* thinks the Imperium is a good society.
Spend more time on /tg/.

>>12692508
>tau sympathizers actually believe this.

>>12692581
I liked the world, and the first half is good. Wasn't a fan once they get to the space station. If you want to read a cyber punk book, go for it

>>12686508
Are you a tranny? Honest question

>>12692891
the tau may be fascist, classicst zealots with a goal of of intergalactic domination, but the same can be said for every other civilization in the setting. at the very least the tau are perfectly okay with not committing genocide against every other species, and unlike humans they havent dug themselves into a technological dead end

>>12686295
>the last three years
what happened?

>>12691003
>Kull
Speaking of which, is that movie with Kevin Sorbo really that bad?

>>12692074
>heard they get lubrication problems the older they get.
Just use your tongue breh

Why do I care about most of the subplots in each Malazan? Although right now I'm nearly halfway through TtH and I'm excited to see the remaining marines fucking up the people who ambushed them, absolutely destroying their anal cavities. I wanna see my boy Cutter fuck the shit out of Apsalar already. I wanna see Kallor get fucked up by literally anybody. I wanna see Seerdomin become the new vengeful Itkovian and I want to see more of Itkovian being the best character in the series. I like Barathol and Mappo. Iskarel chapters are like Kate episodes in LOST.

>>12693201
Yes.

>>12690861
>>12690867
nope

>>12690578
Magic's Pawn

>>12690587
>it's worth struggling through children
I found Messiah to be a much harder read. In fact I quite enjoyed Children, especially once Leto goes nuclear.

>>12691799
Unironically Jon Snow.
>is widely derided as a bastard
>others think he's an arrogant brat
>takes a massive beating from everyone to realize there are bigger things than your heritage issues
>will probably save the world

>>12693500
Really? Messiah is by far the shortest of the books.

That being said, I disagree with the chart that the only reason to read Children is to set up God-Emperor. Children explains pretty much all the remaining mysteries of the Dune/sandworm ecology, which I remember being curious about.

Really, in the context of the series it demystifies Paul's story and experiences before setting you up for Leto's transhuman storyline -- diminishing the former to make the latter seem that more monumental by comparison.

>>12693650
Messiah is short but it's fucking boring.

Why are there so many mommyfags in these threads?

>>12693669
It's the current fad paraphilia on 4chan, displacing footfags. It's preferable to incest, farting, and cross-dressing faggots, I guess, so enjoy it while it lasts.

>>12690861
>>12690867
The Great Hunt is the best book in the series. It's all downhill after that.

>“I have nothing else to do anyway, might as well beat up a kid.” Li Qiye smiled
chink novels are based

>>12690587
Theres this guy on youtube, JoeGoes, he is fucking great, visits places and cons and events and interviews everyone, and he went to a con where Brian was shilling his Dune book and it always reminds me of this pic and you guys when I watch it

Is A Land Fit for Heroes good? Looking for something mature.

>>12693980
Post the vid.

>>12693982
Its pretty good. However there is a lot of graphic gay sex in there, and some people find it offputting. Plus a lot of using rape as a weapon.

why shouldn't I read the sequels to Blood Song?

>>12694061
Lackluster secondary perspectives, main character loses focus. Strong independent womyn. Really, reading every new PoV chapter felt like a chore, and the payoff is not worth it.

What is the official /sffg/ opinion on pic related.
Just finished reading it and thought it was pretty good but not amazing like some people had described it to me.

Glokta was generally my favourite POV but the other main characters were pretty decent too.

>>12694026
Rape is a weapon. You mentally destroy your foes with it.

>>12694061
No one is stopping faggot. Do et.

>>12692191
It's fantastic and fairly underrated in literary circles.

>>12694073
>i drive a hard bargain

>>12694074
Sure. Im just saying why some people would find the series off putting.

>>12694061
biggest case of should have been an open ended stand alone novel ever.

Just awful, adds in three new POVs and one of those being a completely new character who is even more of a mary sue than Vaelin himself. After about a month of practice with the sword and bow she is a master of both and kills about gagillion enemy soldiers in battle.

Only chapters i remotely enjoyed apart from Vaelins were the princesses but I've forgotten her name.

The end result is that the sequels are predictable, boring and really drag out with a very rushed and poorly explained ending. They are a far cry from the comfy read that the first book was.

>>12694026
Alright thanks. Guess I'll just have to start reading it to see if I like it.

Any other recommendations for series on the darker side?

>>12694104
damn he's starting another series following Vaelin this year, the absolute madman.

Just started reading Cradle. It's exactly just like chinkshit. What the fuck

>>12694157
its basically xanxia
but written by a white guy

>>12694178
Traveler's gate was anime as fuck but I managed to tolerate it. I don't think I can do the same this time around.

>>12694185
the first book starts slow but it picks up when
a character named eithan gets invovled in the second book.
it wont get better if you dislike chinkshit though. it gets maximum chinkshit.
theres no rape though and the book really isnt graphic at all. id say its aimed at YA without being written like the typical YA.

>>12694157
>he fell for the litRPG meme

>>12694201
its not a litrpg.

>>12694198
Do you think well ever see eithan not be a smug cunt?

>>12694213
5th and 6th books he was actually humble on occasions.
plus i don't think he is smug in a bad way.

>>12694222
Oh hes great. A smug, lovable cunt.

Im hooked on zipperhead light novel garbage. Please /sffg/ I need a good hot blooded western fantasy to cleanse my palate

>>12694230
sword of truth.
if you like bdsm nuns torturing the mc and his love interest then you will have all the hot blood from your brain to where it can have more fun.

>>12694235
BDSM torture nun was the best character. Loved the world building in the first book but couldn't get through the second
The struggles of M Y W I F E and are we the baddies just droned on too long before development happened

>>12692994
Not committing genocide against every other species is a bad fcking choice in the 40k universe, and in any universe in general.

Tau are weak fishheads designed to attract the söoyboy oikophobic demographic.

>>12693201
It's terrible, like they took everything good about Conan and downgraded it
>Dino de Laurentiis' daughter
>Jerry Goldsmith's son
>token hot Asian looking chick
>dimestore Arnold

>>12694073
The edgiest piece of shit out there outside fucking [insert Western feudal title] of Thorns

>>12692191
It was a better setting before they started writing a lot of novels. Probably because whenever they flesh anything out it becomes more sensible and coherent. Particularly with most of the characters being far too much like reasonable 20th century guys rather than 41st millennium religious zealouts.
That said they still do a better job of making warp shit magical than most fantasy stories seem to.

I want to read the witcher books. Is the writing as bad as I imagine it to be?

>>12694419
Yes

>>12694419
If you read a lot of fantasy it's tolerable, but it's a long way from good

>>12694419
yes. only the side stories are really any good.
belive it or not the games are much better written than the books.
and the author has had nothing to do with the games at all.

>>12694420
How bad is it? To give you an idea, I can stomach Moorcock's prose.

>>12694419
The translation is shit, but it's a masterpiece in its original Polish.

fuck, at some point in the past year I forgot how to fucking write. This entire scene is terrible

>>12694419
aren't the games based on the books rather than the other way around? I would have thought the writing would be decent

>>12691799
Unironically Neville Longbottom.

Dude started off as the kid whose own grandmother threw him out a window because she thought he was useless, and ended up leading an underground resistance, survived both repeated torture and being set on fire without cracking, likely killed dozens wizards with just some fireworks, a bridge and a cart of potted plants, insulted a lich at wand-point and destroyed his last fucking horcrux.

>>12692508
>Irony is just taking something you already approve of and then exaggerating it to the point of ridiculousness.
no, that's not what irony is.

>>12693558
bran and dany too. but then again it's one of the most common tropes in all of fantasy fic.

>>12694073
i like abercrombie's books. the blade itself is generally agreed to be the weakest in the series and it gets better from there, so if you thought it was pretty good it's probably worth continuing for you.

I have a very strange dream. I'm considering writing a short story about it. I will greentext the dream.
>only half asleep, curled on my bed in the fetal position looking across my room to a red light on my desk
>brain starts falling asleep so I begin hallucinating as the dream and reality sort of meld together
>feel like I am on a great vast wall, thousands of feet high
>my body is curled up sheltered in a crack of the wall
>three others are there with me
>it's my turn to rest for months, curled up in the crevice
>far in the distance there is a small red glow that shifts and morphs with time
>we have a little outcropping from the wall made of decaying concrete and rebar
>chained to this is a pod
>the pod is lighter than air and floats pulling itself towards the red light
>we draw it in occasionally and open it up, it uses the light to make food somehow
>we switch between hibernating in the crevice and tending to the food pod
>someone suddenly appears from higher on the wall, climbing down
>disturbs us
>tries to break our food maker away from the wall
>I begin freaking out because we'll starve without it
>I wake up

Think I should?

>>12694525
stealing this idea
thanks

is the novel Annihilation any good? i enjoyed the film

>>12694529
Sure, you'd probably do it more justice than I would.

>>12694537
It's a trilogy, and yes, I fucking loved it
Just know going in that it's not the film
The film had to make a lot of changes to make it a suitable Hollywood production, things that they never could have done in the film happen in the books
I absolutely loved them

>>12694073
The sassy bitch girl calling everyone pinkskin and the romance arc muddling through both sucked.

>>12691799
Riftwar

>>12694537
It's okay. It's just Roadside Picnic written for millennials.

>>12694478
>harry potter

>>12694478
>aren't the games based on the books rather than the other way around
loosely on historical events and the characters.
major historical events happened in the game and the big characters match the backstories from the books. otherwise the games are completely original in their story.

>>12690578

Late-stage Heinlein is basically just a series of self-insert Libertarian Timtraveling incest harem fantasies, could make for decent VN fodder.

What are some great revenge story lines? Does Heroes Die fit?

>>12694716
>tfw no mom gf

>>12694623
>t. a fucking pink

>>12694073
Literally an exposition dump to set up later books. Entirely superfluous as a book.

>>12692191
Saint Celestine is best girl.

>>12694073
Haven't read it but generally see Abercrombie get a lot of stick around here for being a grim derp hack so I've avoided his books as I've had enough grim derp to last me a life time after reading meme Lawrence.

>>12694716
>Timtraveling incest harem fantasies
What are the titles?

>>12695137
I haven't read lotr or vance, but I generally see them get a lot of stick around here for being boring slog so I've avoided their books as I've had enough uninteresting slogs to last me a life time after reading meme Gormenghast.

>>12695117
Im not pink im snow white desu.

>>12695423
Keep it clean anon, nobody wants to know about your dwarf gangbang fetish.

>>12689099

Nominating The Algebraist, by Iain Banks. If not that then West of January by Dave Duncan.

>>12695137
>Abercrombie get a lot of stick around here for being a grim derp hack
It's well deserved, He can't write so he resorts to "subverting tropes" in edgy ways just to provide shock value. I have nothing against Grimdark genre, but authors like Abercmbie and Lawrence seems to equate Grimdark with being edgy.

NEW BREAD
>>12695667
>>12695667
>>12695667