/lit/ - Literature

thank you for being you

Anything good with milfs, mommies, milkies, boobs, asian women, barbarian muscle girls, etc?

LotM bros I can't take it. The english translation is pretty damn fast, but still feels so slow subjectively. I have no interest in learning chinese, and machine translation would ruin the story for me. Seems like the best way to experience it as an english only is to wait until there's an accumulation of 20+ chapters before reading them all at once.

>>14494890
>implying you have the patience for that
If you did, you wouldn't have started reading it in the first place.

>>14494896
I waited until 40 chapter backlog, but I burned through them in less than a day, and now the slow drip is killing me. Just have to let it go, sort of forget about the story for a month.

>>14494902
laughs in waiting for grrm

>>14494890
lotm?

Read Vance

alright i adjusted this one and fixed some mistakes

>>14495097
This is a good chart.

I'd suggest adding Awake in the Night Land (Night Land stories by John C. Wright) and Eumeswil by Ernst Junger

>>14495097
An excellent chart for a most excellent subgenre

to whomever recommended the inverted world last week, thank you, i just finished it the other day. great and very creative story. and thank you for warning us to watch out for spoilers. i looked it up on good reads and wiki and it's shocking how much spoilers are in the short descriptions there.

>>14495097
saved. can't recommend the night land enough. i've read the night land: a story retold though, so i can only speak to its quality

i'm at 33k words on my fantasy novel, finished the first act and the inciting events and the raising of the stakes, but the middle chunk with the main characters just adventuring around is such a chore. really, i think i'd hate it less if i didn't feel the autistic need to represent the passage of time and the amounts of time it'd realistically take a bunch of street urchins to walk across a country while hunted by vampires and other monsters.

if i don't finish it sooni think it really might kill me, /lit/

>>14495201
just do a time skip.

>>14495097
I'd consider H.G Wells The Time Machine the earliest significant Dying Earth story, or at least an important precursor.

>>14494824
>Would people in a post-apocalypse still enjoy post-apocalyptic works of fiction
Does a pending ww3 have you shook?
No people in a post apocalyptic world would not read post apocalyptic novels, unless they are reading it for tips on survival like Lucifer's Hammer.
They will occupy their time escaping with fantasy, or maybe technical or diy books. They 1wouldn't want dreary shit to read while in a shit situation. That would be like egging someone on to kill themselves when they are already feeling extremely suicidal, they will just an hero.

>>14495097
Now only if you read good books we could have used you to make more charts
>enjoying Vance

>>14494944
Learning of the Mother

>>14495455

>>14495679
How reddite of you.

>>14495443
in the post apocalypse people would kill for cereal boxes intact enough to read. if the only thing surviving is post apoc fiction then that's what they'll read all day erry day.

>>14495201
>but the middle chunk with the main characters just adventuring around is such a chore.

Go camping and hiking. Experience traversing the wilderness and write down both what you liked and didn't like about the experience, take not of how you feel, small moments that make it worth it. Then, when you have done this, distil it for your narrative.

>>14495455
>>14495797
Vance has been one of the favorite authors of this general for years, you dumb fuck newfag. Stop feeling the need to call Patrician readers whose taste is too exquisite for you reddit because you need to cope with your newfaggotry.

Also see this for another example of patrician taste
>>14495128

>>14494824

>>14494857
my diary desu

>>14495906
I love Vance myself, but that creeper memeanon's taste has always been bad.

>>14495097
publishing date of Long Sun and Short Sun is wrong. order of Short sun is backwards

>>14495906
people in this general read fucking sanderson and scalzi, being a "favorite author" doesn't his books good

>>14496424
Are Long/Short even dying earth?

>>14496437
Books don't have to be good to be good.

>>14496464
I mean New Sun isn't really dying earth after a certain point. Urth certainly isn't, even though it's a continuation of the same story. Long/Short are post-dying earth; I'd include them as they're both continuations of New Sun, but one entry for the entire series would be more appropriate

did any of you end up reading Ice? how was it?

>>14496641
I didn't personally read it but this got a chuckle out of me.

Genuine question by the way but why do a lot of authors, both male and female, start off their respective series with fair depictions of men and women/ heterosexuals and homosexuals as being intrinsically equal but in later books usually choose to portray the later groups as better people morally and intellectually? For clarity I don't mind strong and capable characters irrespective of the gender or sexual preferences but I've started to feel as if a lot of writers don't do the same

>>14496748
because they're fishing for hugos

>>14496748
I think that happens when the author spends more and more time in progressive circles throughout the years.

Neckbeards can't write women or fags for shit, so it usually feels more like pandering than representation or flavor.

>>14496464
The Whorl in Long/Short Sun is dying although in Short Sun it's revealed that the damage is reparable.

>>14496641
3 marked it as read in the group.
1: 5 star
1: 1 star
1: 3 star

The 5 star read it in March 2018.
4 marked it as to-read during the monthly reading time.
1 marked it as "dropped" before the monthly reading.

>>14497654
What is this "group"?

I read Snow Crash years ago, I think I liked it. I just finished Anathem and I really enjoyed it. What do I read next by Neal Stephenson? Sevenevenevenses?

>>14497736
Read the OP

>>14496424
fuck. the more i add, the more mistakes show up. maybe i should just delete long sun and short sun

>>14495097
You could add those shitty D&D Dark Sun novels (never read them) plus John C Wright's Awake in the Night Land and that other guy's The Night Land Retold.

>>14497787
Did you really make another /sffg/ discord after the last one died?

>>14497765
Diamond Age is alright

>>14497808
all of the solar cycle books should just be one entry as it's one story

>>14497812
>You could add those shitty D&D Dark Sun novels (never read them) plus John C Wright's Awake in the Night Land and that other guy's The Night Land Retold.
/sffg/ is 90% pulp already, please no

>>14497821
The night land shit is probably worth putting on there at least.

>>14497821
yeah, the original. no fanfiction

>>14497840
>>14497849

>>14495201
Read Anatomy of a Story

>>14497812
Me? No. I was referring the goodreads group, obviously.

>>14497765
Stylewise Seveneves is closer to Anathem, but Diamond Age is one of his best works and it's not that long. Cryptonomicon/Baroque Cycle is core modern Stephenson but a huge time investment (worth it imo); if you're a real fan you'll move on to his thrillers but I haven't committed that far yet.

are Wheel of Time and Game of Thrones worth reading?

>>14495906
>Vance has been one of the favorite authors of this general for years, you dumb fuck newfag
>a few fags forcing Vance for years
>always called them out for dying earth being complete shit for 5 years
>he never saw it
>calls me a newfag
Okay shit taste, newfag sama. Hope your efforts at fitting in works out.

>>14498277
Simple answer, no.

>>14498277
Only if you enjoy them.

>>14498277
They are among the most liked books by users of this thread.

>>14497765
Seveneves has some cool ideas but it is several hundred pages too long and the latter half of the book (which is more of an epilogue) gets real dumb real quick and doesn't have a conclusive ending

Crypto is also really fucking long but it is at least entertaining throughout

>start reading Dune
>shield fight kicks in
>the author goes out of his way to explain how this shit works
>it makes no sense at all
>the whole thing is extremely bad and it takes too long to get it over
>suddenly I can't get this shit seriously anymore
Nigga, if you want feudalism in space just say that swords look cool and call it a day. Like, wtf

>>14498313
I don't recall, do armies use the shields too? Because it seems like an extremely poor idea to have a shield like that always on when a long range laser would somehow turn you into a fusion bomb.

>>14498408
It turns the laser projector into a bomb too but then suicidal fanatics are very common in the setting

>>14498422
>It turns the laser projector into a bomb too
Oh right. I think I forgot because it doesn't make any fucking sense. Even in this ridiculous premise you'd just stick single use lasers in missile warheads (which by the way might be the most IRL realistic way to make a compact high powered laser, using an explosively pumped flux compression generator for power)

>hard sci-fi complaining about science fantasy books
yawn

>>14498440
Footfall was so good

>>14498461
>Footfall
Haven't read that. What's it like?

/sffg/: unknown number of lurkers, current user count on all of 4chan is 207,141 according to the homepage. /lit/ specifics stats on the archive are dead. Probably around 1,000 monthly lurkers, but that's just a made up number.
/sffg/ posters: probably a few 100 monthly posters, at most, based on poster counts of threads that last a few days.
/sffg/ goodreads: 60
/sffg/ discord that I saw looking in the archive: 42
/sffg/ club/group reading discord: 30
There may be others.

>>14494824
>tfw your work is finally coming together
Writing a scifi as a side project and it feels great to see your characters finally come to life on the page. Just finished the first few chapters and after multiple attempts at getting it just right, it feels great to return to the work and be happy with it.
We're all gonna make it anons

>>14495097
Why does Shadow of the Torturer have a good reputation? I am struggling to make my way through it at this point. Random non-sensical crap keeps happening to him with no rhyme or reason and i'm only halfway through. The response online is always just "you don't get it" from what I can google, so what am I and others not getting?

>>14498277
Short answer: If you think you'd enjoy them then you probably will
Long answer: I'll get Eye of the World out of the way as it's the only WoT book I've read so far; it's pretty good but filled with a noticeable amount of padding. As for ASoIaF, of which I've read all the books in the series (minus the spin-offs) I can only say I was young when I read them and they where the first real "adult" books I was allowed to read. While I enjoyed them at the time, in hindsight they are a bit simplistic plot-wise and while Martin FatFuck can write some interesting characters he often chooses to instead focus on the far less enjoyable ones. I would only recommend them to someone just starting to take reading as a serious pastime, but I thinks it's highly unfair to judge people based on their choice of books since reading is so subjective and personal an experience, so if you want to read them do, and damn anyone who says you mustn't

>>14498758
You'll feel differently in tomorrow's diary entry.

>>14498809
Don't spoil whitepills, the more people on this fucking site who actually do something with themselves the better

>>14498831 Nah.

*saves fantasy*

>>14498781
Try to approach it as a historical account. Some events are 'pointless', while others are apart of a much larger story, or become of significance later

>>14486815
>>14493548
In case you were wondering, I just bought your book mate. I'll try to finish what I'm reading atm before it arrives but either way I'll start it as soon as it arrives

>>14498781
have you read pomo before?
You need to read it as a fantasy take on that, don't expect everything to make sense until you reread it a few times.
I'm not as high on it as the majority but there is some truly brilliant writing within it, the obvious thing to point to is the short story telling contest in the hospital. If you get to that point of BOTNS and don't think it's good I think you'll never like it

rereading black company and it's kinda amazing how Cook keeps the pacing fast by just consigning what would be 6 chapters of story in another novel to a single line

What is some good pre-Tolkien fantasy? I already know about Mervyn Peake, Lord Dunsany, and George MacDonald - any other good ones?

>>14499032
Thank you very much! Really appreciate it. Looking forward to more feedback too - I've started on writing book 2 and I'm really excited to do some fun stuff with it.

>>14499126
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23596.Tales_Before_Tolkien
Open the preview and look at the table of contents.

What is some good pre-Tolkien fantasy? I already know about Mervyn Peake, Lord Dunsany, and George MacDonald - any other good ones?

>>14499150
Thanks man

>>14498781
because it (the entire solar cycle) is one of the best works of speculative fiction ever written, if not the best. almost nothing in this book is random; the book requires you to engage with it critically for it to be rewarding. for example, the picture that Severian encounters in Ultan's library depicting the warrior among the wasteland. if you're half paying attention, you'll understand what the picture actually depicts. past that, you'll see the significance of Severian thinking the picture belongs in a forest, and how that relates to other mentions of the color green earlier in the book. I think this scene is where most (pulp) readers realize there is something more going on in the text, but they'll miss the significance of the forest/green until the next read through

most of wolfe's work is a puzzle for the reader to put together - obviously not everyone enjoys that, and it's fine if you don't

>>14499170
>puzzle for the reader to put together
So basically Finnegans Wake, except much simpler.

>>14499098
oh boy you'll love revelation space, character development, deaths, and major events take place offscreen.

>>14499157
William Morris, Clark Ashton Smith and Eric Rucker Eddison

>>14495201
>>14498758
based
keep at it

>>14497765
Check out Cryptonomicon. It's pure Stephenson autism and I loved it.

>>14496748
what books do you read that have homosexuals in them?

>>14498877
>struggles to contain her awesomeness

>>14499132
Why did you name your main character Jack Swallow?

Shot in the dark but does anyone know any info about the next dungeon Lord book Google isn't helping

>>14499380
thank you

>>14499556
More likely to get a response there, if you haven't already tried.
https://www.reddit.com/r/litrpg/

>>14499578
Thanks

>>14499529
"The song of the male barn swallow is a cheerful warble, often ending with su-seer with the second note higher than the first but falling in pitch."

pls get your mind out of the gutter my coomer friend

>>14499626
That isn't why it was asked.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Sparrow
Captain Jack Sparrow is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Pirates of the Caribbean film series.

>>14499657
Oh. I kind of forgot those movies existed because I think Johnny Depp is a horrible hack. I assure you the characters are nothing like each other.

E William Brown is a hack who will never release the next Daniel Black book.

So, I read The Forever War. Later I found out that it was a critique of Starship Troopers written by a Vietnam vet. I was under the impression that Starship Troopers was satirical to begin with since I've only seen the movie discussed, but while doing that read that Verhoeven deliberately fucked up the movie adaptation and made it a Robocop-style satire because of how much he hated the book. If I very strongly liked both of those works which take the absolute piss of Starship Troopers, is it still worthwhile to read the original?

>>14499903
Read it just for the context, also consider Armor.

>>14499903
It's not that long and it's popular. It's too preachy for my tastes though.

>>14498476
Been a while since I’ve read it, but it’s an alien invasion story. The aliens come in, destroy all earth’s satellites, destroy cities and military forces by dropping space rocks, and mount a ground pacification invasion.

Humans eventually build a spaceship in secret to take out the alien ship. It launches into space by basically setting off nukes underneath itself.

Any cool time travel or parallel universe books that don't involve racism?

>>14499960
See, how is that interesting in any way? Was the description of the explosions enthralling? WTF is so interesting about a book with such a simple plot. I doubt the characterizations are very deep.

>>14500086
That's a very, very broad category anon.

>>14500108
I figured the racism thing narrowed it down by a lot lol, but how about something like 11/22/63 but actually good. I didn't realize the parallel universe thing was common. Do you have any you personally reccomend as your favorites in the categories?

>>14500118
Well as for "mucking about in the past to improve the present" scifi, I could recommend Asimov's The End of Eternity if you're down with his general style.

>>14496641
I read it. Really hard to define book, wouldn't really call it sci-fi. The themes reminded me of books by PKD and Gene Wolfe, while the writing and plot seemed quite unique. I'm glad I read it, and intend to read Asylum Piece by the same author, but I can see why it wasn't well received here.

>>14498277
ASOIAF is unfinished and WoT is bordering on unfinished as well. Neither is worth the time at the moment, but if you're going to read one I'd say read ASOIAF.

>>14500176
Wheel of Time was finished in 2013.

>>14499184
>So basically Finnegans Wake
Not really. But it have been compared to and called the Ulysseus of genre fiction, which isn't entirely unfair to either work.

>>14499913
>WHAT PRICE IMPREGNABLE ARMOR AGAINST AN IMPLACABLE FOE
Wat

>>14500187
Not really, the difference between Jordan and Sanderson is jarring enough that I would still consider the original work unfinished. The story is completed.

>>14500219
>at the moment
>implying at some future moment Wheel of Time will be worth it with the original author being dead
Does not compute

>>14500239
At the moment obviously refer to ASOIAF which still have a minuscule chance of being completed. Learn to reading comprehension before you start computing text.

>>14500262
The usage of "neither" means both. Learn to English.

>>14500086
The Time Machine by HG Wells

>literally on the first page of this book
>Rin crossed her arms tightly across her chest

So this is the power of woman, minority, 20 year old writer.
What the fuck is this shit? I understand the decision to publish this kind of writer even if their prose is not up to standards, but did they give so little fucks about this book as to not even assign it an editor?

>>14500431
genre fiction consumers have no standards and apply no criticism, why should publishers?

>>14500431
keep reading, on page 30 she crosses her arms loosely across her back so it makes sense

>>14500437
BotNS tier references.

>>14500385
Garbage

>>14500431
When the protaginist starting burning herself to stay awake and medically castrated herself to stop having periods I dropped it

>>14500367
Exactly. Fucks sake. Use reading comprehension to understand what words or clauses neither is connecting instead of autistically implying implications and implying that that in turn invalidates the phrase.

>>14499489
your diary desu

>>14500480
ok morlock

>>14500484
That's wrong though.
Example:
Neither George or Robert have any money at the moment
One would obviously think that both John and Dave are without money.
However, John still can make money, but Dave can't because he's dead so saying "at the moment" is rather stupid when including both.
You should have just went all the way in the first and said that Wheel of Time will never be worth reading because the original work wasn't finished by the original author.

>>14500496
gotem

>>14500538
Rather stupid is not the same as wrong.
>You should have just went all the way
Well, I wasn't aware that a turbo autist is lurking. If I knew I would have spelled it out for you're sake.

What are some books that deal with cryptocurrency?

I have a question about Worth the Candle. I'm in the middle part where the party is using the time chamber, and I have to say, what the fuck Fenn, I didn't expect her to be this much of a damaged goods. Between that and Joon being a fucking pussy, I really want to just drop this series altogether. So, my question is, is Joon going to be a pussy for the rest of the series or will he "toughen up" so to speak?

>>14501143
everyone is miserable forever.
drop it now.

>>14500106
It's a hard scifi autist. They are the ones killing /killed scifi. They like the novels because it's scientifically correct and doable.
Anytime you see someone ranting about ftl or "it breaks immersion" when talking about scifi, just know they are hard autist fags getting upset because a science FICTION author uses concepts that might not agree with our understanding of science at the moment. They get triggered because people aren't using physics.

>>14500538
>Neither George or Robert have any money at the moment
achtually it's: Neither George nor Robert have any money at the moment

Also I had a esl that wanted to fit in so bad, he called me an esl when I used you're, and he was like hahha newfag no English it's your. I then watched the entire general take him down.

>>14500106
The aliens are elephantlike and are psychologically wired to surrender completely when bested, they genocide any town they conquer with any kind of guerrilla activity. We catch their spaceship on one of the Voyager probes and prepare a welcome for it, they smash it and take hostages and a US congressman finds a crazy waifu on board their ship.

The explosions are pretty good, there's a scene where the jumbo bases in the Midwest get nuked and one where a submarine rides out an asteroid tsunami, lots of vignettes of various actions around the world. The characters aren't the best but they're not Asimov, there's a violent legless cosmonaut, an enviromentalist who turns a reporter into fertilizer, a big hairy biker crossing the country while they're dropping rocks on dams and the woman he rescues, sort of... I guess Clancy-quality? Yeah, that's a good comparison, there's always a lot going on.

>>14501131
Accelerando

>>14501131
neptune's brood has finance in an interstellar slower than light society

>>14499903
Starship Troopers is a great book.

>>14501143
There are some chad parts later on and I think that the story is going towards a big character moment of some sort.

We are a week into 2020. What's the first book you completed in 2020?

>>14499913
Armor is my most favourite military scifi

If you don't read female authors you are LITERALLY murdering them.

>>14501843
this is what incels believe women believe

>>14501869
This is what women believe incels believe women believe

>>14501664
Unsouled

>>14501664
It was The Municipalists but I hated it so much I finished The Witches of Wenshar too and told Goodreads I read that first.
My first book that I started and finished this year will either be Curse of Chalion or Black Company

>>14500086
Could you perhaps list a few that DO involve racism? Because I'm seriously drawing a blank.

>>14501664
The Eye of the World, it was shit
>>14502080
The Year of the Quiet Sun

listening to audiobooks of The Chronicles of the Exile, done with when the heaven's fall. Though I missed few things, what ultimately happened to the spider lady prophet that was "helping the necromancer with the book?

Also is there real continuity in the trilogy or is it just set in same world? The synopsis of 2 other books would suggest, that there's no continuity for the characters - or the even the gods really, just that they exist in the same world. If that's the same, I don't know if they're worth the read since the first book didn't really come out as excellent.

>>14501664
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, not sff, memoir of a crematorist, recommended by booktube waifu Kat. good breezy read, gave me some things to think about.

first started and finished this year will be Station Eleven, literary post-apocalyptic. it's comfy, makes me want to read more literary stuff. i know about BotNS, tried it and gave up, was not very comfy desu.

>>14501664
Dear Cyborgs 3/5
Empire V 3/5 and a plus because I am intrigued by the author and can't believe this book exists
The Dying Earth (re-read) 5/5
The Maker of Universes (dropped after <50%) 1.5/5

Short stories:

The Lifecycle of Software Objects 2.5/5
Nine Hundred Grandmothers 4-/5
Six Fingers of Time 5/5

>>14501664
>sci fi action thriller
>good unpredictable plot, good characters which grow with the plot
>ok ending
I enjoyed it very much. It's been a long time since i've read a relatively new scifi book.

>>14499903
Yes it's worth it. I enjoyed the movie long before reading the book which discusses politics and government at great lengths in addition to the combat. It's opening chapter alone is worth a read if you like military sci-fi.
Once you read it definitely read >>14499913 after.

>>14501664
The puppet masters. Only Heinlein book I've read besides starship troopers.
Really liked it. Movie wasn't half bad either, though not as good as the book.

>>14501843

If she hasn't been dead for at least 30 years she isn't worth reading

there are no exceptional female writers of speculative fiction
even people like le guin would have been forgotten as better than average authors

How do you fill a book with a sense of wonder and magic, /lit/?

>>14503081
Erase your memory and become a kid again because at this point you have read everything and anything new is just a rearrangement or slight twist on something you have already read.

>>14503081
Consider that in Harry Potter the explanation for magic stops at its execution. Compare this to other less successful magic systems that autistically try to justify every thing with demonology or artifice. It has to be a certain amount of nonsense to feel magical. This is where that sense comes from.

>>14494824
Is it wrong to write fantasy with a moral, even if it's more complicated than in most fables? The first stories in existence probably had morals.
But I'm not looking to make people know this basic stuff like "stealing is bad" and "respecting the gods is good". I'm trying to explore a little philosophy, a little politics. I'm looking for limits in this.

>>14503124
Lol Harry Potter is such a joke to general magick.
Imagine pretending magic can be something that you can teach to people to control. Lol.

>>14501664
The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth
by Roger Zelazny
A nice collection of retro sci-fi. The story with the two ponderous kings was stupid fun, as was the one with the "sculptor." Some other more serious or emotional gems too.

>>14494824
Will the future of scifi be made up of Indians/Chinese?

>>14503223
>Imagine pretending magic can be something that you can teach to people to control. Lol.
Like how people thought magic worked in medieval times in real life, or how certain less civilized communities still think it works?

>>14503383
Don't talk shit about magick or I will destroy you with my quantum powers.

>>14498282
>newfag sama
not him but kill yourself unironically

>>14499913
This looks cool

>>14503081
Have wonder and magic in your life - fill yourself with nature - read a lot of poetry

>>14503216
It's not wrong but it is unpopular.

>>14503844
>unpopular
>almost all the most popular fantasy write with a moral
Yeah, no.

>>14503924
I mean for writers, not for readers.

Any sci-fi books where the main character isn't a goody goody retard that gets betrayed constantly like some kind of fucking retard?

>>14504087
Santiago?

>>14501664
cugel's saga, good shit

>>14503081
Never explain how stuff works.

>>14502513
>The Dying Earth
>(re-read) 5/5
ahh. So you're the boomer autist that's been pushing this shit.

>>14503575

>>14504425
fuck off, dying earth is based. what are you reading?

>>14504425
Just so

>>14504476
Not the same fucking shit book over and over again.
Dying Earth was a 1.5 When I read it. Two at most.

Friends and family are simply those who are more willing to be abused compared to random strangers. We're all friends here.

does magical realism count

>>14501664
Foundation and Empire

>>14504087
Not quite but: Gateway

>have This Immortal on my Kindle
>give it a shot
>cover of This Immortal
>the book is actually Dune
what the actual FUCK
What's worse is that I was a few pages in so either I didn't notice or I decided to read Dune but I have too much of a backlog to fuck with Dune now and not enough interest/

>>14504600
Why would you use that as your image?

>>14503095
>>14503124
>>14503834
>>14504412
Thanks, lads. I like how you think

>>14504425
until you like it scum

>>14504642
Did Mistborn pioneer litRPG? Slap some levels and numbers on that bad boy and you're good to go. Hell, there's some Investiture conversion book that is supposed to release soon.

Stephen King once wrote that nightmares exist outside of logic and there's little fun to be had in explanations. They're antithetical to the poetry of fear.

>>14504666
No, it did not.

>>14504653
>pretend you like this shit with us or you will never fit i
Never will like such utter shit. kys

>>14504683
WHY would you hate The Dying Earth?

>>14504923
I don't hate it, I hate you fags for pushing it. It's dated, boring and shit.

just finished reading the first elric novella and thought it was nothing special. kind of lame actually. was it really that revolutionary when it came out?

>>14494824
group read is all 3 nominated stories, paper menagerie, neon heart murders, shadow over insmouth, in that order. files uploaded to the mega

>>14505403
>dated
That was something I really appreciated, it was so "dated", it was pretty novel experience for me, alien
Not talking about the setting, but the writing structure

>>14504683
yet you wont recommend a single book. just here to shitpost. okay

>>14504683
Yeah like, is these are bad?
What is good?
What's the connecting factor? Some old, some new, some shlock, some classics
These seems like books recommended here at one point, picked at random

>>14505598
The setting wasn't the problem, not even the prose, it was the story and the way it was told and progressed. I read many an old book that is still enjoyable today, dying earth is not one of them.

>>14505650
I recommended hundreds of books over my decade of use on lit. I can't leave, plz halp

>>14505706
>What's the connecting factor
They are all shit.

>>14505744
i dare you to name one book you think is good

>>14505714
>prose
I'm just impressed how Jack Vance couldn't go through a single page without using the name of the main character - Cugel, 12 times to point at the subject of actions

I can't write at all myself, but I can recognise the overuse of names like that

I was looking at random books and the one I looked at immediately started with a character named "Jthkyklakno".

>>14505752
Really want to know what you consider to be good. When you claim such a wide variety of books to be shit

>>14503078
Ada Palmer

"Trope" I hate:
Fantastic or even just foreign names are such a chore to keep straight, my brain is not programmed for them, and learning new word that don't even have a hint of meaning or being pointed in context is hard
Please keep them simple

>>14505793
It's John Smiths and Jane Does all the way down for you then.

Any decent sci-fi or fantasy by the japanese or other asian country that isnt that from Ted Chiang or Cixin Liu?

>>14505829
Ted Chiang and Ken Liu are both American.
There's a considerable amount of Japanese, Chinese, and other Asian fantasy and sci-fi translated, and I don't mean light novels.

>>14505841
>be me
>born in the niggerest part of kenya
>my language is tongue clicks
>run around in grass clothes hunting monkeys with spear
>one day go to germany for refugee money
>they give me citizenship
>I am now german
I am not kenyan anon I am german!

>>14505841
Thats even worse. I dont want another book from a western perspective, or a Americanized asian one. Something translated from Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, anywhere in Asia. To see how they do things. Particularly fantasy since I have a small list of Sci-fi already.

>>14505852
It's your own problem if you are unable to separate nationality and ethnicity.

>>14501664
Children of Dune. I know you guys say that the next one is the one to read, but this feels like a good place to stop. I had to NOPE when I got to the armor.

>>14505893
it's not that we can't, it's that we shouldn't

>>14505915
You should read God Emperor just to see where that whole sandtrout armor thing goes, because it goes somewhere special.

>>14505893
The best of good goys

>>14505920
It's not that you can't hack tripcodes, it's that you shouldn't.

>>14505841
>considerable amount
Such as?

I’m writing a fantasy novel that takes place in an alternate world but is most similar to our late 90’s early 2000’s. The main characters are all in college. They obviously are gonna joke around and stuff, but I was wondering what’s a word I can use that means the same as “meme”.

I obviously can’t use the word “meme”, but it’s important for the world building and for the characters to feel real that they share “memes” amongst each other of the world. Any ideas?

>>14505991
Xianxia

>>14506089
Maybe something disease related, because memes spread like diseases?

>>14506095
Xianxia is censored CCP compliant 1000000000000000 page garbage or american sex wank. No thanks. >>14506089

>>14506089
Image Macro, the original term before meme got used.

>>14506089
You don't have to have a word. People were doing so for millennia before "meme" was coined in 1976. Either that or make one up in the story itself and explore that.

>>14506089
We used to call those "in jokes".

Mike Resnick has died.

https://twitter.com/LaResnick/status/1215214564914143232?s=20

>>14506458
Shame. I remember liking that series of novels he wrote that were basically just extended allegories for African post-colonial states as applied to alien worlds.

>>14506458
literally who?

>>14506089
>I’m writing a fantasy novel
>some retarded idea
Jesus, where do all you idiots come from?

>>14506509
Resnick was nominated for 37 Hugo Awards—a record for writers—and won five times. Except for 1999 and 2003, he had received at least one nomination every year from 1989 through 2012; then, after dropping off the ballot for 2 years, he was nominated again in 2015.

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

>>14506089
Do what all scifi writers do, make a word up! Although it will probably fall short and be annoyingly translucent, at least you tried. How about staler instead of meme, stalers instead of memes, ya know? Like the joke is pasted around so much it's gone stale? Get it, stalers?!?!hahaha

>>14504683
This feels like you made a list to piss off as many people as possible. Nice work.

>>14505793
Honestly this is one of the things that makes it hard for me to get into fantasy, all the Ch'gar'no and Mhitnnz type names

>>14506555
I hate fantasy, and other than the staple dragons, magic, and knights stuff, which to me is lame and boring, I can't stand there made up names. Why do you need to put apostrophes in the middle of every pronoun? Also why do you need to build complex and convoluted, faction based plots where everyone and their crew has stupid unpronounceable names?

>>14506580
What do you think about sci-fi and their made up names and everything else you said.

did anybody read this?

>coming of age story
>13-year-old MC spends most of the story developing both a relationship with a Manic Pixie Dream Girl a year younger than him and a festering inferiority complex
>It's only as they're about to go swimming in a lake and she takes all her clothes off without even seeming to comprehend the impropriety that he realizes he's a revolting piece of shit who's been trying to date an autist with the mentality of a child for the last few hundred pages

Is there any way to have them end up together anyway without the MC seeming like a scumbag? Having him wait for her seems too much like child grooming, but the alternative – the realization that he's underestimating her mental capacity to feed his own self-loathing – seems really hard to convey in an epiphany

>>14506674
Yes, it's been discussed a few times.

>>14495097
What exactly is /dyingearth/? Like the parameters? Is stuff like Clarke's novel Song's of Distant Earth count because it's about an off world colony seeded by an Earth evacuation ship? Or The Very Last Day of a Good Woman by Ellison where the main character knows the world will end and desperately tries to lose his virginity in the short time before the end?

>>14506672
I'm an oldhead when it comes to scifi so I speak for modern stuff, but in the old days they didn't make up names that couldn't be sounded out. Zanthor, Rexlin, Albor, shit like that, not Gks'trfor or other such nonsense.

>>14506715
I can't*

>>14506697
the setting being earth in the (usually) distant future. wherein humans are experiencing their last days due to death of the sun or climate change or whatever else

>>14506688
I don't know why this is in a scifi thread but whatever. Here's some ideas.
>MC himself is brain damaged and since the story is told from his perspective the read doesn't find out til the end that he and she are actually on the same level mentally
>MC falls in love with tard, gets a guilt c ok complex and has back alley doctor preform a risk brain op to make him an autist
>MC is actually the autist and doesn't realize that love interest is more or less his handler
>MC agrees to take part in an experimental drug test, meets love interest thro said test, falls in love and later finds out he was part of the control group

>>14506688
>13 and 12
>child grooming
It doesn't work that way.
Also clearly the MC is a self-insert for your own misogyny.

>>14506840
>Also clearly the MC is a self-insert for your own misogyny.
self insert this
\*unzips dick\*

>>14506688
The entire premise of this post is fucking retarded for the simple reason that females generally develop secondary sex characteristics between 1 and 3 years earlier than males depending on environmental factors. The female character in question should be more developed than the male character, not less.
Sounds like you were projecting your own self loathing than anything else.

>>14506674
> first book of a trilogy
why would you read this before the whole trilogy is out. why would authors debut with a trilogy

>>14507187
Because publishers decide, not the author.

>>14505768
Why? So you can
>implying that's good
No matter what I say you are planning to say it's shit because you want revenge for your shit book. Neck yourself

>>14506509
>>14506458
Never read anything by him.

>>14506688
>seems too much like child grooming
Nothing wrong with that. We've been doing it for thousands of years, and we haven't stopped.
We have this mold and we will force the child through until they fit.

>>14503078
Le Guin is a prose master you fucking faggot. The fact you felt the need to single her out is proof she could write circles around most men.

>>14507649
more like until we fit, amirite

>>14506532
What's his best/most well known work?

>>14507684
yes, most men, as in the best female spec fiction writer still isn't as good as the best male writers.
and then you get to the rest of them

>>14507588
If you don't read there are plenty of other threads on /lit/

Abaddon's Gate is such a shit book lads

Raced through Expanse 1 and 2 because they were fun rides and the cardboard cut-out character weren't that important. Seems like with the 3rd book they felt they needed to prove themselves by making it a character driven novel and it fails miserably with that awful basic bitch priest and daddy's lil monster.

Please tell me the series gets better again after this one.

>>14508085
>telling the guy who literally reads more than you that he doesn't read
The library at mount char

>>14507211
This is how you get worthless sequels because the author wants to write something else.

>>14506513
why does it sound so bad? I'm actually curious. I don't see that many fantasy stories taking place in a time period like that unless it's urban fantasy

>>14495455
You stupid cuck newfag learn to read

>>14508494
>I don't see that many fantasy stories taking place in a time period like that unless it's urban fantasy
Read more

>>14508522
I can read, and you putting Vance on a chart that encourages people to read means you're shit.

>tfw literally just the same faggot disliking Vance for years implies that it's only a few shills who have pushed him.
I bet you dislike Dunsany and Peake as well, you subhuman filth

>>14508598
>>tfw literally just the same faggot disliking Vance for years implies that it's only a few shills who have pushed him
I thought the vance hater was cuck newfag who only started the general last week, and this general has always loved Vance and never talked bad about him? What is it really?

>>14508558
then what makes the setting bad?

>>14508619
I assumed there was a new moron because your autism had a somewhat different flavor this time but apparently we are just stuck with you still.
Also
>I thought the vance hater was cuck newfag who only started the general last week, and this general has always loved Vance and never talked bad about him?
Literally never said most of this

>>14508643
>but apparently we are just stuck with you still.
I can't let you run rampant, foistering your shit tastes onto unsuspecting newfrens.

>>14508694
This is not taste desu. This is simply just the ability to appreciate artistic and literary depth. The mere fact that you would say "taste" in this context displays that you only look for meaningless entertainment in fantasy. Disgusting.
Sanderson, Jordan, and Lawrence are probably much more your alley

>>14508728
WoT is shit, Sanderson is following in Jordan's footsteps so I had to drop him. And the only goodish series Lawrence wrote was thorns trilogy, and everything after was worse than what came before.
>artistic and literary depth
What the actual fuck. Does this look like outer lit to you? You come in the fucking genre fiction general and start spouting "philosophical meanings" and "artistic values" and "literary depth"? Seriously? kys. You're probably that outer lit fuck from years ago that made it your mission to subvert sffg to "literary fiction". Because you saw we actually read and outer lit was nothing but memes.
You're also probably the fuck who shills those old fiction book, and cries about how everything new is bad. Seriously kys.

>>14507900
Kirinyaga and Santiago

>>14508763
>fantasy must be shallow entertainment
Out of every person I have interacted with in the past few months, I hate you the most. The sheer stupidity of that post, once again, shatters any belief in humanity I had building up since the last shattering. Literature can have various purposes, and your complete disregard for it as a tool of conveying philosophical ideas, or highlighting the human condition, or creating artistically pleasing patterns is beyond silly. It actively damages society, pushing it towards tolerance of life based on pure escapism.
"But given that the pleasure of fantasy is supposed to be in its limitless creativity, why not try to come up with some different themes, as well as unconventional monsters? Why not use fantasy to challenge social and aesthetic lies?

Thankfully, the alternative tradition of fantasy has never died. And it's getting stronger. Chris Wooding, Michael Swanwick, Mary Gentle, Paul di Filippo, Jeff VanderMeer, and many others, are all producing works based on fantasy's radicalism. Where traditional fantasy has been rural and bucolic, this is often urban, and frequently brutal. Characters are more than cardboard cutouts, and they're not defined by race or sex. Things are gritty and tricky, just as in real life. This is fantasy not as comfort-food, but as challenge."

I don't even visit /outerlit/, I come here only for /sffg/, you dumb fuck. I am 99% sure I read more than you, and your presumption that if I enjoy literary depth I must not read is groundless idiocy. Also, fuck off with another one of your moronic presumptions about me disliking contemporary literature. Like 50% of my favorite authors are still alive, both /sffg/, and literary fiction.
There's nothing to be proud about "actually reading" Harry Potter, Twilight, and enjoying Prince of Edge. It's like being proud of watching kid cartoons.

Reconsider your life.

>>14508763
>What the actual fuck. Does this look like outer lit to you? You come in the fucking genre fiction general and start spouting "philosophical meanings" and "artistic values" and "literary depth"? Seriously? kys. You're probably that outer lit fuck from years ago that made it your mission to subvert sffg to "literary fiction". Because you saw we actually read and outer lit was nothing but memes.
you say this as if /sffg/ isn't the /lit/ containment thread for people with adolescent reading levels

This was a good catgirl book anon, thank you.

>>14508873
>believing in humanity
Don't you know we need to be eradicated?

>>14509018
My belief in humanity oscillates between complete disgust and admiration for a select few.
No matter how disgusting some of the people on online discussion networks are, I ultimately end my day by reading books by (mostly) very intelligent and talented people who would scoff at these retards as much as I do.

>>14508494
Why would any one want to read about a couple of early 00s college kids talking about memes? Sounds like some generic YA shit.

>>14495216
That's possibly my favourite novella (would it be considered a novella?) of all time.

>>14508873
>3 fucking paragraphs of nothing but air and pretentious prose
Jesus fuck.
>Chris Wooding
>good
>placing him as a paragon of modern fantasy
Now I know you're taking the piss.

You say you don't visit outer lit, and you enjoy modern fantasy, but your post is just wafting pretentious smug pseudo intellectual fumes. You going on about "literary value" and "literature" in the general that was created to distance ourselves from that shit is laughable. We are in here because we are fed up of philosophical empty meanings, and people (like yourself) bashing us for enjoying fun things. Outer lit looked down on us for not enjoying what they did. Now you're coming you in here the same way. We are in here for fun and escapism, how dare you try to bring your real life shit and philosofag ideas up in here.
>Out of every person I have interacted with in the past few months
So not only are you a 4+4chan philososhit refugee, you are also a newfag. Take your shit to the philosofag board >>>/his/ fucking fed up of you pretentious fags touting your nose in the air at us.

>>14509129
there are tons of places to discuss pulp trash fantasy, why not go to reddit or something

>>14509129
>ignores everything I said
>just calls me pretentious, smug, and pseudo-intellectual instead of refuting anything I said
>proceeds to complaint about "being sick of bashing" while LITERALLY FUCKING BEING THE ONE WHO STARTED BASHING ONE OF THE MOST RESPECTED AND INFLUENTIAL AUTHORS IN THE HISTORY OF THE GENRE

>general that was created to distance ourselves from that shit
Yeah, that's exactly why Borges used to be a meme, Bulgakov is in old charts, and Wolfe is the most discussed author.

You clearly have issues. Visit a psychiatrist, for god's sake. Your shit isn't needed here. You made like 6 assumptions about me, and literally every one of them was wrong. Why? Because you feel like I must fit your archetype of "insufferable, illiterate outerlit pseud" and will, in your head, change everything I say, to fit your stupid narrative. In fact, what you are doing is the traditional /pol/ maneuver of calling someone a jew, or a nigger, or a tranny, with little to no evidence.

>We are in here for fun and escapism
No "we" are not. There are hundreds of anons here, and no one elected you to be the voice of the general.

Also, see
>>14509168

>>14507099
that's a law of averages rather that a universal fact. most of it is up to individual variance, but in this case, its semi-justified by the fact that the setting the story takes place in is a post apocalyptic area and malnutrition is common

Ive been thinking this over and I think the best option is to just give her more agency which I should have done in the first place. make it clear that a lot of her childlike behavior is made by choice, not ignorance

Im finally done! Sanderson wrapped it well I think but fumbled with the Shenchan at the end. Like they can just continue enslaving channellers? Are they just going back to seanchan? who the fuck knows!

>>14509340
Mat was supposed to get his own spin off series before Jordan died. About him and tuon going back and reconquering her homeland.

>>14508232
4 is pretty weak but we get some interesting clues about the setting. Books 5 and 6 are good. 7 starts off repetitive but becomes fun in the second half. Haven't read 8 yet.

This book was fun *shrug*

>>14509360
Mat was the best character in all of this, just a regular guy that was trapped in an impossible situation. Perrin is a close second but after he meets his wife it ruins everything.

>>14509501
Did you finish the series, redditor? Better get back to work.

looking for a scifi novel that give the feels similar to star citizen game
any suggestions?

>>14509501
>>14509340
Check out invisible dragon by Duichidak

>>14509516
Based redditscreecher

>>14508643
>we

>>14509586
Doesn't exist? The Prefect 3 is mine.

>>14509606
I’m not the one using *emotes* like this is a gaia online furry rp

>>14509494
i stopped reading after book 2 because of the repetitiveness. made the right choice if there's still more repetition in later books.

>>14495829
That is true, but that comes down to reductionism, if they happened upon a library and could only trek a dozen books with them, none of them would be grimdark stuff

>>14509617
An observation, not an opinion

>>14509623
But this *is* a gaia online furry rp

>>14509649
Why would they even know how to read?

Hey. I don't mean to troll or anything. I'm not a regular on this thread since I don't read that much science fiction.

I've recently read Blindsight and I'm amazed how much people consider intelligence (as in problem solving ability) as a direct consequence of consciousness or a form of sentience.

What are some other hard sf books that will let me mentally coom like this ? Already started Three Body Problem since I searched the archives for mentions of Blindsight or Peter Watts.

>>14509168
>>14509204
Because I was here first faggots. I literally kept the general alive until it could sustain itself. You newfags aren't gonna come up in here and displace me. Why don't you go back to 4x2chan or rebbit.

>>14509849
>Because I was here first faggots
I literally came to this general the day it was created

>>14509867
And I was lurking in lit years before this general was created. It's why I tried so hard to make the general work, because I knew what a baron place it was for genre fiction. I literally made the general for years, we have a new slave now, but I was the previous thread slave.
Too bad the archives were damaged a few years ago, all my years on /lit/ is gone.

I greatly enjoyed Don't Bite The Sun while I read it, is the sequel worthwhile?

>>14509892
Please understand that I have literally no reason to believe what you are saying. Your words are meaningless.
Anyway, the only ways you can argue seem to be calling someone a pseud and ignoring their arguments all together. Someone is saying that fantasy doesn't have to be comforting to be good? I WAS HERE FIRST FAGGOT SHUT THE FUCK UP JEW THIS GENERAL IS PULP ONLY AND HAS ALWAYS BEEN SO (completely ignoring the fact that there used to be way more discussions about literary works before)
As such, I will now ignore you.

>>14509204
>and no one elected you to be the voice of the
No one selected you to be the voice either. Don't talk shit about praising Vance when you are speaking for yourself.

>>14509782

>>14509921
>jew
Where did I say that? I said you were a religious cuck refugee from hate chan, didn't say anything about jews.
I will also ignore you, unless you question my Vance bashing when I feel you fags have gotten too uppity again.

>>14509586
You'll have to explain what that is, this isn't /v/. We don't have that particular shared experience for you to draw upon.

sheesh calm down kevin

>>14508970
You're welcome.

>Too bad the archives were damaged a few years ago, all my years on /lit/ is gone.
What? Looks like the earliest thread on warosu at a quick look is this one from Mar 10 2010.
>>/lit/thread/S407872
/lit/ was created from /r9k/ on Jan 25 2010.
As far as I've seen it's mostly all there. Certainly my posts from the early years are there anyway, which is easy for to check since I all I have to do is look at my tripcodes from the time.

>>14510285
Vince, stop using that powerword.

>>14510449
There was a problem with hosting or some shit a few years ago with one of the large archivers, a bunch of shit was lost. Some people had personal archives they could have used but a bunch didn't.

>>14510503
Tons of archives have died over the years. I remember using green oval before warosu. Tons will continue to die and many are currently dying. They are expensive to host. Most of the boards are mostly archived though.

new thread after I see about some stuff, probably

>>14507187
because the fantasy genre has memed trilogies ever since Tolkien even though LOTR being a trilogy wasn't actually what Tolkien wanted, also you make more money writing three 400 page books than one 1200 page book

>>14510583
Books were also more often serialized back in magazines as well.

>>14510555
i think while we're doing short stories at least it's not worth putting titles in the op, we only need the mega.

>>14510670
reeeeeeeeeee

>>14494824
honestly i want to go back to novels
yeah that's an issue, only thing you might know is the author's reputation
we might skip voting if there are so few nominations again, and the total page count stays small

NEW THREAD
>>14510855
NEW THREAD