/lit/ - Literature

danke herr sandersohn

>>15079624
Sword of Shannara is also lowkey post-apocalypse. I kind of liked how they emphasized that in the now very canceled TV adaptation (RIP).

The urban fantasy "prequels" with a modern setting weren't that great. There was a lot of wasted potential in the apocalypse plot.

>>15079722
Psytrance is decent music with a shitty fanbase

>>15079646
It's not just that the first book is "confusing". It's that the series from that point onward is so self-indulgent it quickly loses its charm. Steve Erikson gets so wrapped up in bizarre worldbuilding minutiae that he almost entirely loses the plot. He'll finish a section of the book on a character talking about some historical artifact that never comes up again.

Give me fantasy where the protagonist isn't a onions filled cuck. No multiple pov's either, I hate how common it is. Stories where the main character has a winners mindset etc. He doesn't need to be a chad or in anyway perfect, I prefer characters who have flaws. I just want to read about a person who values himself more than others, who has selfish desires, unlike most retards that fill this genre.

>>15080053
>winners mindset
Meaning deluded characters, or?

>>15080053
Go read some Malus Darkblade.

I know they're not well-received here but I like Stormlight Archive and Gentleman Bastards because of the world building.

Any lesser-known good world building recs?

These covers look so sick. Has anyone read it?

Will anything ever beat The Lord of the Rings?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_DmnnD6evE

>>15080395
Stormlight was by far the most popular series in these threads just a couple years ago. People still like it, they just don't want to be outed for having the "wrong" opinion

>>15080489
Literally no one likes Sanderson here. No one.

>>15080520
Mistborn was one of the first recommendations voted into the fantasy section of the /lit/ wiki.

Shouldn't Legolas and Gimli already be knowledgeable about each other already in fellowship since they both are the children of important characters in their own kingdoms that share borders and exchange trade?

>>15079747
What's the longest book you have read?

I'm trying to decide on an audible title.

Is Red Rising any good? What's a good science fiction book to read?

Just read Do androids dream of electric sheep? by PKD and really enjoyed it. What else should I read check out. I have literally read nothing else of science fiction, except Roadside Picnic.
The VALIS triology sounded interesting, but is it any good? I find theology and gnosticism interesting so shouldn't be boring to me.

>>15080489
that's cause the third book was way worse than the first two

>>15079747
Either that chair has a ladder in the back of it or you have to use a crane to sit in it.

So I'm about 25% through this book and so far I definitely prefer the movie. I feel like any supposedly perceived "depth" the novel has and the movie lacks is unnecessary or ultimately trips up the narrative through awkward implementation. Maybe it's because I actually served in the military, or maybe it's because I read The Black Company before this, but this book is just not very good to me. It's extremely corny to the point it almost reads like a comic book. I'm asking, in all seriousness is it worth powering through a few more hours and finishing it or does it just stay this schlocky?

sanderson is a hack

>>15080665
I read it a million years ago but I really don't think you're going to get any surprises or an epiphany. Heinlein is old school af. Even his '80s books felt like they were from the '70s or '60s.

>>15080749
Thanks anon. I guess the epiphany here is there is still a market for this stuff.

>>15079747
writing some elmore leonard meets late poor man's cormac mccarthy short stories in a high fantasy setting to send to a friend, is there anything out there already like this? I'm maybe three chapters in and solid enough on my plot I think I could finally read some other similar works and figure out what makes mine distinct.
Thanks brehs

I've finished reading ball lightning and the three body problem.
I didn't find them to be masterpieces.
They were interesting, sure, if only to see how a non-western guy would write SF, but I certainly didn't find them to be as good as /lit/ and /sffg/ makes them out to be.
Mostly the characters range from boring to insufferable, especially the women, who are all potted flowers. How am I supposed to be invested in caring about the girl from the last 3body book when she's both despicable and also completely passive ? Has anyone else been let down by the serie ?

>>15080527
Mistborn was too YA for my taste but I didn't mind Stormlight.

>>15080851
I think they are definitely overhyped. Still, some of the more imaginative recent sci fi, and a big subject of conversation among normies.

>>15080802
And Starship was still early in his career before he inserted his head into his ass. I read all his major novels and some of the minor ones in high school. I liked them then, same with Piers Anthony. I was an idiot in high school.

>>15080395
There's Malazan and Discworld, but they're not lesser-known. Or you could try Senlin Ascends for a self-published breakout hit, if you want good world building.

>>15080053
Hunter's Run

>>15080602
I do not get that feeling at all.

>>15080564
I do not recommend it, others might, but it's too YA dystopia for me. Try Hyperion or Revelation Space.

>>15080242
I wouldn't mind reading about a delusional character, but what I meant by a winners mindset, is more like the willingness to seize the opportunities one is given. Perhaps a bit too broad though. The important thing is that he doesn't place others above himself. That doesn't mean he's evil, merely human.

>>15080395
If you don't mind YA, Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom gets really in depth on its world's economic system including agriculture, trade routes, and the underground smuggling economy. One of the fictional countries having money as a literal religion was a nice touch.

>>15080419
I've read it, it's kinda slice of lifey.

Dying Earth vs Dune, which should I read next?

>>15081816
If you read a big book last dying earth if not dune
also bear in mind that dune ends incredibly abruptly so if you're not ready to read the sequel right away it might not be an ideal situation

>>15081926
Gonna do Dying Earth then, don't really want to jump into a multi book sequence.

>>15081039
>I do not get that feeling at all.
really? did you not think the book dragged on for way, way too long and that he was retreading character development that the characters already went through in the previous books?

>>15080569
If you want some insane deep shit to read because you’ve done a lot of acid

>>15079747
>Bought a bunch of Bakker
What am I in for bros?

>>15080550
Wandering Inn and it was utter shit.

>>15080053
Try Monument by Ian Graham.
I don't know if it's a winner's mindset but it's always been on my mind due to how wholly self-serving the MC is.

To the anon who subscribed to e william brown, please rip and zip what he posted to mega?

>>15082658
Prince of Nothing? A lot of florid prose, but the series is good overall. I rather like Bakker's humorless tone, it's a nice contrast to the dry sarcasm of the Plebbit generation.

>>15082658
Boring philosophical discussions with a small dose of pervy shit

>>15080550
not sff but the count of monte cristo rules despite being so long
same goes for what I've read from the four classic chinese novels

>>15082658
B-B-B-BLACK DEMON SEED NIBBA

It's pretty good, but Scotty's style really does not work for describing some of the gruesome stuff in the story. The only time I laughed in the entire series was when one guy is explaining how he rekt this army of nordic barbarian types, and explains that he knew they really, really hated fags, so he had his men sodomize like 10,000 prisoners of war in front of them on the battlefield, resulting in them flipping their shit and launching a suicidal assault right into a trap.

The guy he explains this to then flips out and assfucks him as revenge. I was reading this shit on the bus home from the uni and I was laughing so hard the driver yelled at me to shut up or get off at the next stop. I had to get off and wait half an hour for the next bus because I could not stop.

>>15080053
lies of locke lamora. Just a dude and his bios stealing money

>>15080053
The Book of the New Sun

>>15080851
Read the dark forest. I found it to be a lot better than three body problem

How is the Spellmonger series? Would it be a good mindless audiobook to listen to while at work?

Bros...

I finally got around to reading The Witcher Saga, at this point I'm near the beginning of The Lady of the Lake.

The first few books were really enjoyable to read, and it was doubly nice seeing that the retarded nonsensical storytelling method of having two different characters at two different points in time with their stories progressing at two different rates without indicating that to the audience, along with the more glaring plot holes and characters that made no sense were all just inventions of the showrunners and not in the books. Vilgefortz and a whole squad of mages don't look like feckless bitches in the books either; the season finale of the show made mages look fucking pathetic.

That wasn't really the point of my post though. The last two books just seem much worse than the others. There's so much empty fluff of characters you don't know being interviewed by other characters you don't know about events that happened in the past, then flashback bits of the actual events happening. Sometimes in the flashbacks they flashback to another time. It just seems like a series of disjointed events that would have been better as a collection of short stories than a book. I'm losing my desire to actually see the series through, and it also reminds me of the retarded style of storytelling that the first season of the show employed.

Did any of you like the way the last two books were written?

>>15082950
I was thinking of suggesting the Lies of Locke Lamora or The Kingkiller Chronicle, but both main characters despite mostly being devil-may-care self-interested bastards they're both also simps. Also The Kingkiller Chornicle will never be finished so there's that too...

>>15080564
The first few books are a little YA, but I still enjoyed them immensely. The 4th and 5th books are hardcore and I thought the best in the series.

>>15080569
bump!

>>15081943
I started reading Dying Earth right after Book of the New Sun and it hasn't held my interest as well. I really like the strange setting and the mildly interconnected tales are certainly interesting, they each leave me wanting to know more rather than moving on to the next one.

I have no taste and I must read. Give me a comfy book with no real literary value

I want to read a fictional book where the main character is abducted by aliens (preferably in the traditional sense: UFOs) and taken to experience an interstellar society. Not a documentary in which the author claims it happened to him.

Or alternately, a fictional book where either in the beginning or prologue: aliens have destroyed or incinerated Earth, forcing remaining humans to live in the shadows somewhere. Something similar to pic related.

I know there has to be something like these out there, please help me out.

Are the Vampire Hunter D books any good?

>>15083142
That is literally Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

>>15083123
Not necessarily of no real literary value as it created many of the tropes of its genre but Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar series is max comfy imo, and it's not like some long epic either, the books are all self contained.

>>15083151
Is that satire?

>>15083170
Thank you, kind soul.

>>15083173
It is irreverent comedy

>>15082810
Fuck E William Brown and fuck you beggar.

>>15083183
Okay. I'll put it on a list which I hope grows. Thanks.

>>15083170
100% this. If you can find the novel about them it's worth it too.

>>15080053
Read David Gemmell.

>>15083123
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab.

Author is obviously a fan of the early Pirates of the Caribbean movies and David Tennant-Matt Smith era Doctor Who. The series reads like those two pop culture franchises had a lovechild, with a tragic anime villain story arc shoehorned in for the main baddy.

>>15083123
Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny

>>15080053
Quillifer

What did you guys think of the BBC His Dark Materials adaptation? I didn't like how they made Mrs. Coulter seem emotionally disturbed.

>>15083558
It was okay, the forced diversity was pretty jarring though.

>>15082776
I listened to that on audiobook. It was so cringey that it was painful just to listen to. I can't imagine actually reading that garbage.

>>15083934
You weren't a fan of this bloke? I thought he was the best part of the scenes that were different from the books. Made the series work as its own thing.

>>15082658
The biggest Gary Stu in modern fantasy.
Also semen.

>>15084187
Literally demon semen.

>>15082810
no.

>>15080569
Ubik

Kaladin is for Syl, Jasnah is trash

>>15084353
>Jasnah is trash
>not wanting cougar pussy

>>15080053
The Eyes of the Overworld and Cugel's Saga is perfect for you.

>>15080053

Try The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever.

>>15080569

The Hyperion Cantos
The Foundation series
Neuromancer
Stranger in a Strange Land
Starship Troopers
Ender's Game and the Shadow series are enjoyable YA sci fi. Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind are geared more for adults but at least read Ender's Game before them, the Shadow quintet could be skipped if you don't care for YA stuff.

>>15084385
t. Shallan

>>15079747
I'm looking for some fast paced action-heavy sci fi or fantasy. Any recommendations? Preferably something more recent.

I'm trying to write a novel that's highlander in space and I want a good example.

The fat man is never going to release TWOW, is he? I think I'm finally giving up hope

>>15080053
A will eternal. It's a xianxia but the MC's primary goal is to live forever. And he's a greedy and shameless bastard. With a large ego. (The author puts sins to his characters and the MC's is pride if I remember well)

There are some moments in which he relapses but they are not invasive.

I'm working on a new sci-fi idea that's set in a future when advanced quantum computing has become the dominant world technology. Does anyone know any worthwhile sci-fi that deals with quantum computing/similar concepts I could look into?

>>15084940
who and what

>>15084989
George Ronald Reuel Martin, the Winds of Winter
Seriously how much would it cost him to just update his fans on why it's taken him a decade to not finish a single book? All he does is blog about the Giants and fucking Wild Cards

>>15085036
Wait, his fucking name is Reuel?

Where do I download good quality audio books? I have a lot of time to spare on the trainer.

>>15080489
>People still like it
Considering the thread wide disappointment after Oatbringer dropped I'm not so sure.

>>15084940
If corona force him to stay at home long enough he might actually do it.

>>15085072
Oathbringer kind of sucked, but I thought Dalinar's arc in it was good enough to justify continuing the read. Some of his flashback scenes were great.

Shallan and Jasnah are massive weak links. Making Amaram into a thirsty beta who just wanted a crumb of Jasnah pussy was retarded. I would have gone the exact opposite way, and given Jasnah a character flaw besides "is a huge bitch" by having her actually like him and refuse to believe his treachery. As it stands her character is insufferable.

Also, killing Sadeas at the end of Words of Radiance was a bad call. All throughout Oathbringer I was thinking "wow I really wish Sadeas was still alive, these villains all fucking suck."

50 page fight scenes are not interesting unless it's Dalinar playing Dynasty Warriors 10 years ago.
I do not care about Kaladin's race-traitor cringefest white guilt (Khaki Guilt?) bullshit, fuck Parshmen and fuck Parshendi.

I woke up my wife laughing when Moash killed the Prince halfway through him becoming a Windrunner.

Sanderson can't write witty humor, but his attempts are charming.

6/10, please God, just go back to the formula Sanderson.

>>15085128
The only bad thing about Amaram was how out of focus he was for most of the book, he should have had POV chapters with odium going full redpill on him about how the Heralds fucked off so that it would destroy Amaram's faith, followed by him completely losing his shit and turning to odium only as a way of escaping the pain
He'd be a more explicit foil to Dalinar that way too

>>15085164
I just felt like the character became "younger" over the space between the two books, where he went from having a much more mature and calculating voice to being a juvenile gullible bitch.

I agree that they should've put more effort into developing Amaram but this is a Sanderson problem in general, his villains almost never get enough development, they all feel kind of cardboard cut-out.

>hating based amaram when he's the only character so far to call out (((Thaylenah))) for what it is
never trust the eyebrows

>>15085085
We're getting more Wild Cards and you're going to like it

>>15085207
Mercantile liberal scum. They're like the Dutch except somehow more loathsome.

>>15085128
>Kaladin turns into a self-hating white liberal and goes on lengthy diatribes about how awful treating literal non-sentient space niggers badly was awful

The Vengeance Pact did nothing wrong. If they had just fucking exterminated the Parshendi none of this Odium shit would be happening.

How long before Roshar completely goes to shit and 90% of humanity is wiped out like in the previous Desolations?

>>15085213
>Wild Cards

Keep reading

>>15080851
Dark Forest is a lot, lot better. 3BP and Ball Lightning are some of his earlier work and the characters are basically blank. Essentially no different to what Clarke did in his work to be fair, prioritising ideas over narrative, but I think come the modern day we can expect both

>>15080000
this. it's a lot of intriguing world building and a shitty overarching plot which really doesnt go anywhere. the ending, DoD and TCG, was so horrible i couldn't believe that was what he was going for after all that buildup. toll the hounds was the only book of the series worth the time for me, but he could easily have set that up in a book or two, which could've been a passable story. the somewhat lengthy part about karsa orlong in HoC was also enjoyable, but ultimately pointless. i regret spending so much time on this series. i repeatedly asked those who recommended it whether it was worth it. erikson is deliberately being 'confusing' and withholding, which is fine if he has something to make it wortwhile. but he didn't. i tried a couplr of crimson guard books by esslemont as well, but they were even worse

>>15084588

The first three books of Rice Edgar Burroughs' Barsoom saga

>>15084985
>new sci-fi idea
>when advanced quantum computing has become the dominant world technology
>new idea
Read more new fag. Literally every scifi that isn't masturbatory hard scifi uses quantum computing for the last few decades. How do you expect them to travel through space with anti gravity and hibernation systems.

>>15085128
>>15082903
Geesh. I knew it was a front. /pol/ just wants a black gf but are too embarrassed to say it.
I bet they sneak around with black chicks and read black female ya protagonist books.

>>15080053
what you’re looking for the broken empire, anything else these faggots are telling you is wiggity wiggity wack

>>15080053

>>15088888
Life is suffering.
Nothing new has been released that is nice.
All authors are too scared having existential crisis about corona chan to publish anything.

whoever made this one is a dummy the spines on his 50s pulp trash have been annihilated by all the people I've shown it to

>>15086051
One of the worst books I ever got baited into reading desu. Almost as bad as Brent Weeks. Pure reddit.

>>15086701
By read, do you mean the first chapter before you dropped the book.

>>15083187
Thanks fren. Your constant hate since last year made me try the book. I skipped all the smut scene as was suggested and thoroughly enjoyed myself. You just netted Brown a new fan. Continue crying and sending more fans his way.

>>15086809
By read I mean the first book, and 30% of the second. I do not know why I continued, some sort of masochism must have inspired me.
That book has literally no redeeming qualities at all, nothing new to offer...

An anon wanted to know about tight pussy last thread. Here.

>>15086881
Any series that goes on too long will drop.
I sure the two new Dresden Files dropping this year will be utter shit.
The demon accords series is shit.
Anita Blake is shit.
Stormlight turned to shit last book.
Asoiaf turned to shit (not that it's going to continue).
Gentlemen bastards turned to shit.
Rothfuss is shit.

>>15086701
Nah he’s definitely worse that Weeks.

>>15080053
If you want fantasy, go with the Drenai saga or with Conan from Robert Howard.

HOWEVER, i also have chad sci-fi for you.

In no specific order:
>Undying Mercenaries
>Old man's war
>Starship troopers
>Everything from Daniel Suarez

Plain fiction:
>Jack Reacher

>>15080053
Also fucking pic related. The chadest of fantasy along with Conan and Drenai.

This 2nd Gentleman Bastards book is so boring. I really liked the first one, but this one feels like Lynch just wanted to show off his knowledge of boats so he pushed a stupid pirate plot.

Is the Spellmonger series worth reading? I am hesitant to start a long series.

what am i expecting

>>15086701
>Weeks
Quick rundown, why is this guy bad? I heard lightbringer was supposed to be all right

>>15080851
The chapters wherein the military leaders are discussing how to intercept Judgement Day was awesome

>There were no beds, just one thin blanket per bridgeman. One had to choose whether to use it for cushioning or warmth. You could freeze or you could ache. Th ose were a bridgeman’s options, though several of the bridgemen had found a third use for the blankets. They wrapped them around their heads, as if to block out sight, sound, and smell. To hide from the world.
Sanderson can't wri-

is starship troopers worth reading?

Do you guys dnf books? I was on a good streak, reading Zelaznys books. But then a friend recommended me The Master and the Margarita, and everybody seems to like it, so why not? Fucking hell anons, I'm at 50% and I could not care less about it, my will to read it is non-existent. Sometimes a chapter is great and I gain momentum, but then a boring one comes along. I don't know what to do, I hate to drop books, but I could be reading something that I actually enjoy instead. Then I go and check sites like goodreads to see if anyone feels like I do, it's 5 stars everywhere. AHHHHHHHH

>>15088015
I really didn't like The Master and Margarita. Had to read it as a school assignment, but it was 5/10 at best. Never returned to this book since then.
And that had been the original version — if you're reading a translation it's probably worse.

>>15080851
I couldn't read past the kindle sample, either the translator did a piss poor job or the chinese language is the worst language to ever be created

>>15088101
Yes, it is a translation by Burgin and O'Conner. Do you think it may be because of that? I've read several Russian books, all of them in English and enjoyed all of them. Maybe I ought to try the Pevear and Volokohnsky version.
But at least it's a relief to see that you also didn't like it. Although it's probably one of the most loved books in Russia, no?

>>15087925
Read and make your own opinion.

>>15087610
If you have to ask, don't read it. All you have to do is read book one and see if you want to continue.

Why is most xianxia absolute garbage? Is it the translation? It's very rare for me to read something that I definitely think I can write better than but these are usually the exception

>>15089631
written by soulless humanoids for soulless humanoids.

>>15080569
VALIS is the best thing he ever wrote from a literature appreciation perspective so it's a little weird reading the other two books after.

Thoughts on book of the new sun?

>>15089816
You won't enjoy it unless you are the type that likes to treat conjecture as fact. Most of the extreme praise it gets is near baseless rationalization.

>>15089868
>Most of the extreme praise it gets is near baseless rationalization
That's most literature

>>15080452
Only the Silmarillion came close

>>15089816
Started reading it yesterday. 55 pages in and it's already comfy as fuck.

>>15089816
just finished Urth today.
I honestly don't get the hype about botns. it was a comfy read and the prose is nice, but people here treat it like it's on a whole other tier compared to other books.
solid book, can recommend it without a doubt, but personally I liked Hyperion or Dune (the first book of the series, respectively) more.

>>15089816
It's overrated. People think it's SO DEEP because it has an unreliable narrator who is a secret sociopath.

>>15087964
You just gave an example supporting that point, congratulations.

>>15087925
"Bad" is subjective. People who dislike him dislike him because he's the kind of author who obviously has very little social contact with other people or understanding of social dynamics. That reflects in how his characters behave and interact.

>>15089927
>>15089816
I'm at claw of the conciliator right now and even though I really enjoyed book 1 and what I read of book 2 so far, I feel I'm missing out on the subtlety of a lot of the scenes. What does the dream of Triskele and Master Malrubius mean when he was with Baldanders and the Professor? also what about the the jungle scene with Agia and the people in the jungle hut or the green man at the festival telling him his prophecy?

Tomorrow will be a year since his passing, I read The Wizard-Knight when he was alive and now I'm reading Book of the New Sun and man, I wish I got around to this sooner

Also, Severian's dream of a boy with a sword fighting a wooden man, that's Sev fighting Baldanders isn't it? A bit obvious when the chapter that introduces a giant has a vision of someone fighting a giant

>>15089816
>Thoughts on book of the new sun?
I'm fed up of reading posts and comments about it for 4 of the 7 years I was in sffg.

>>15090204
You're going to have to deal with it forever

>>15080665
>I definitely prefer the movie
The movie is fun but I'll never understand people who say this.

>>15090230
Naw. I can filter it if I want.

>>15090204
Generals should always favor the newfags or they become bitchy and incestuous.

>>15087925
Lightbringer ended with a LITERAL deus ex machina. Don't read it if you have any self respect at all

>>15087925
It was until he climbed up his own ass again. He reached higher with this series but of course he just ended up becoming himself.

>>15080053
my diary, not desu

I don't know what madness overcame me, but in my boredom I decided to read something from a noname author. The first book was cliche and sloppy, but interesting enough that I kept going. The second book was shit, but mostly inoffensive shit. I already came this far, so I kept going. The final two books then devolved into senseless and graphic torture-rape-murder porn, and the story progressed so slowly I was beginning to wonder how it would be resolved. Then I reached the final chapter and it wasn't. In four books the protagonist achieved nothing of what he set out to do. But then 10 pages before the end the main villain walks in, offers him three colored ending buttons and I shit you not even plays a holographic cutscene for each, and it's over. It's left to the reader to decide which ending was chosen.

I swear, never in my life have I felt so trolled by a book.

I'm in the mood for a good sci-fi, are there any you anons found that explored clash of civilisations in a unique way? The distance between worlds is bound to cause deep rifts in thinking, but in a lot of works and all these differences don't really drive the plot and instead are pretty shallow

Keep in mind, this is off the back of watching The Expanse, and that series is the opposite of hopeful; got me thinking about
>authoritarian regimes that are deeply petrified of space terrorism
>gene editing embraced on some planets but shunned elsewhere
>Planetary feudal estates
>The weird but familiar things that might lurk out there (the worlds might be different but all the physics is the same like)

>>15091722
Anon I think you just described the Mass Effect trilogy

>>15091783
Never played them, but I have heard enough that I can see the parallels. Oh god, what the fuck am I doing with my life.

/sffg/, can I get some input on a writing thing?

my characters were put on trial for crimes they committed accidentally, and testified against by the grizzled, bitter captain of the guard. They would have been executed but a scheming local lord offered to let the characters go, give them provisions and provide a ranger who will aid them in their quest as long as they do him a favor when they get to where they're going. the characters accept (though they still have a strong dislike of the local lord) and are told to meet their assistant a few miles from the city

That ranger turns out to be the captain of the guard who tried them, and he's still pissed at them for skirting the law (admittedly, the accidental crimes were pretty severe). As it happens, his approach to body guarding is to toughen them up so they don't need protection, which he does by ambushing the party and lecturing them on their poor combat skills


I'm worrying this scene makes him too unlikable, to the extent that the characters might just fuck right off without him, but I'm not sure how to fix it

>>15091841
Unless you're going for a sillier tone that just comes across as dumb and not endearing. I honestly don't know how to write characterization well in a way that isn't just mimicking how people actually act

>>15091841
Delay the ambush. Let them travel together for a while, and leave it to a later event to push him over the line and orchestrate the ambush.

>>15091841
let them fuck off, surely they cannot stop him from following? they don't sound like particularly capable bunch from your post

>>15091937
If letting him tag along was part of the deal then breaking it two hours after shaking on it would be a very unwise idea.

>>15088292
Yeah, it's pretty popular. But, IMHO, to like it you need one of the following:

1. Be religious. It's basically a "take that" to atheists, this strokes some people just right.
2. Never see a better book. It can be interesting if you've never met the tropes it uses. But if you can compare the execution to other takes on this, it really falls short.

Both of these mostly apply to old people, who were starved for better books and had a backlash against USSR pushing atheism, often in pretty dumb ways.

3. Be easily influenced by those that genuinely like it. "I mean, my grandparents think this is the best thing since sliced bread, so I'm probably missing something, it can't be that this book just aged that badly!"

>>15080818
don't think I've come across anything with the flavor you're describing. But if it's anywhere it will be in grimdark magazine

Any good examples of non-western fantasy

>>15092227
Anime, sort by popular.

>>15092227
The source material for several fantasy anime are novels you can find in translation:
>Guin Saga
>Heroic Legend of Arslan
>Moribito
>Spice and Wolf

If you’re counting Chinese wuxia and xinxia, some of Jin Yong’s novels have fantasy elements

>>15092236
I'm more interested for academic reasons, it seems like traditional high fantasy is a very western thing so I'm curious if any autists elsewhere read a translation of some popular fantasy novel and decided to make there own

>>15092236
>>15092252
>Non-western
>Immediately assumes anime

>>15090037
Maybe you’re just an illiterate faggot

>>15090063
I cannot answer either of those questions without ruining literally everything

>>15091047
>ended up becoming himself
What does this mean? I've never read night angel either because I heard book three was a fuckup but I don't know why it got universally panned

>>15092315
Because from a western frame of reference, the immediate examples are going to be Japanese media. If there is a Japanese fantasy novel or series that westerners know about, it is probably because it had a manga or anime iteration at some point.

Outside of that, you could say The Buried Giant, but it's written by a Japanese man who spent most of his life in the UK and is writing about British cultural ideas in a proto-British setting.

>>15092277
Xianxia? For a certain definition of "good", but that genre fits your request of "non-western high fantasy".
A lot of cultural connotations are lost in translation though. You need a translator that really understands both languages and cultures.

>>15092227
Prince of Ayodhya series is a retelling of the Ramayana in the style of a multi-volume high fantasy saga.

>>15090016
Because science fiction with actual prose is fucking rare. People jerk off how great botns is but never give credit to how great a writer Wolfe is

>>15092227
depends on where you define western really because there's not a huge market for spec fic translation outside of chinese scifi (in a boom after three body problem).
most examples I can think of consist of authors who moved to the us or uk at a relatively young age, Suyi Davies Okungbowa is the one guy I can immediately think of who at least didn't move until his 20's.
It's not technically non-western but Marlon James' book is the best african setting fantasy novel I can think of immediately

>>15091722
>>15091835
>anon got trolled by an author named BEERS.
Whew.

>>15087964
What the fuck, why is cushioning different from staying warm? Did they get beds? When sleeping on the ground, biggest heat loss is through the ground, not through the air.

I'm re-reading Wizard/Knight. It's my 3rd book after not reading for a couple of years. Could someone please recommend any mid length (500 pages) fantasy? I'm tired of the antiheroes, the One bullshit, the unimaginative band of rogues with manga tier plots.

For the other 2, I went through my probably-bad-books-because-sffg-talked-about-them backlog and picked up 2 at random
>The Kings of the Wyld
reddit tier trash
>The Rage of the Dragons
original lore with a bunch of tropes and shit ripped off from other well known books

The list features other probably mediocre shit like Black Sun Rising, Heroes Die, The Iron King, YAhannes Cabal Necromancer, Sword in the Storm, some shit by GGK. Sampled a few pages and I do not feel like reading any of them.

>>15092585
Heroes Die is nice, even though MC's devotion is rather childish. I still haven't seen this exact setting in any other book, so that is a plus. The novel is not deep at all, but it's fun to read, one of my favorites.

>>15086001
>I've got a new idea
>I've
You should read more broski.

Any reason to read Asimov's Robot Series in order? I'm starting at robots of dawn and can tell there's prequels but exposition is good enough so far

>>15092694
On that one I'm hesitant for 3 reasons. Author wrote some Star Wars novel. It's the first of a series. Lastly, I read the synopsis and it looked like golden age SF wackiness meets Westworld, so I didn't feel particularly interested.
I think some anon recommended it to me because it had some cool sword or sword fights. If it has a tiny bit of dumb and fun self awareness like Snow Crash, I might try it.

I also have a bunch of classics to read (Lord Dunsany stuff, Worm Ouroboros, Conan, that Barsoom guy) but I need to build some endurance by reading semi decent plebby shit or I'll get bored and shoot myself.

>>15083142
>destroyed or incinerated Earth

Assault Troopers (Extinction Wars) (Volume 1)

has an oldish vibe like 50-60 scifi

>>15080452
Is there a single fantasy world that feels more authentic than Middle Earth?

Is the new cradle book out yet?

>>15092905
Roshar has extremely autistically detailed worldbuilding

>>15092905
Dune?

>>15087554
You're not supposed to read the second book

>>15093010
No. Author injured himself, which delayed his ninja and pirates book, which will delay his cradle book. Look for it to come out closer to the end of the year.

>>15079747
Has anyone read Jamie Metzel? What's the prose like in 'Eternal Sonata' or 'Genesis Code'?

>>15089876
Not necessarily. Some authors are notably well read and classically trained so allusions/metaphors/parallelism/etc. is far more likely and not people teaching.

>>15093964
*reaching

>>15093338
Can't be that hard to write a cradle book god damn

who here like physical books but has a hard time dealing with their size and heft?

>>15092787
>I also have a bunch of classics to read
You dislike GGK so I would advise against reading any work of quality.

>>15092098
You know, I honestly think it's the second point. And that is also messing with my head, because I should be liking this book, I have always been a sucker for satire. I would probably enjoyed it more if I had read it before. But hey, I haven't given up yet, still going.

>>15088015
Just today I decided to dnf the first Night Angel book by Brent Weeks, I got half the way through. I managed to get through both Lynch and Lawrence but holy mother of retarded plotting and latticework, cringeworthy worldbuilding, this series doesn't even come close to readable.
I do feel bad about not finishing the book.

>>15094115
Weeks is really this much of a hack? Starting to feel like I dodged a bullet

>>15090016
For science fiction, botns is very well-written. I will expand this by saying a lot of sci-fi is "written to be understood", that is to say, the author want to transmit their ideas to the reader with as much clarity as possible (not unlike how actual scientific material is written). Botns gets easy points in the sci-fi community for writing in a more occluded fashion akin to non-sci-fi books.

>>15089927
This is many weeks away but post-Botns definitely try Book of the Long Sun. I really love Botns but Long Sun has much more concentrated locations and a tighter-knit cast which elevates it to peak comfy in my opinion.

>>15090072
Yes, I remember seeing his death on /sffg/ and only having the vaguest idea of who he was. One year on and I buy his stuff in bulk whenever I can, such a talented geezer

sanderson is a hack

>>15094402
Lift became awesome

>>15092905
yes, middle earth makes like zero sense geopolitically

>>15094293
It's pretty bad
>the plot seems to be very simple but it's presented in a confusing way
>central characters behave inconsistently
>battles read like sub-par manga (this is not an abstract comparison, there have at least a dozen h-hayai moments so far)
>the romance is retarded, makes Sabetha from Gentleman Bastards look like waifu material
It's like a bad Sanderson book but even then you know the pay off will probably be worth it.
Maybe he got better with Lightbringer. I won't be sticking around to find out.

>>15094870
You won't get no TIGHT PUSSY™ in a Sanderson book

>>15080569
I prefer Radio Free Albemuth to VALIS personally, but I find the extreme end of Dick's schizo prose less to my taste anyway so it's all subjective.

>>15094870
Lightbringer is not better and there's yet another case of an edgy rare black magic that absorbs everything it touches
Weeks is a hack, he's almost as bad as the best xianxia writers

>>15095012
We're getting there, Sanderson should have had his morals corrupted enough by the time we get to stormlight 5-6

>reading The Forever War
>after a whole bunch of years of relativity related fuckery the main character return to Earth the year 2023
>1/3 of the Earths population are homosexuals
lmao

>>15094108
Well, at least now you know that a native Russian speaker can totally understand you not liking this.

>>15095073
Wait, what?
I need to check my paper copy.
It's a translation, might've been censored.

>>15095106
>>15095106
They are told about it when they are briefed on the changes on Earth after they return to Stargate.

>>15079747
Am I too pleb for this series? My best friend has been telling me to read it, and I finished Nine Princes, and it just seems like stuff keeps happening without the reader actually learning anything. Do we get more info on the world/any real characterization for the protag in the following books?

>What's the thing you're most excited about doing for Stormlight 4?
>I've got a really cool thing set up for Wit's epilogue that I've been planning to do for a long time. So the Wit soliloquy at the end is going to be a little extra special.
What are we getting?

>>15095292
see >>15094402

>>15095106
it's a pretty huge subplot so there would've had to be pretty big changes in translation for you to not notice it

>>15092428
How much curry did you have today? 7?

>>15094103
>GGK is so good
>look at this retelling of history with glimpses of something unnatural
>call it fantasy when it's historical fiction
Fuck you.

>>15092728
And you should learn to read on the whole.
Either that or get your eyes checked, faggot.

>>15095326
>>15095135
Brain fart. Got confused, thought about The End of Eternity.

>readlets who enjoy chinkshit is calling out Brent Weeks

>>15095429
>implying I read chinkshit

When are we getting the next loli space marine princess?

>>15093265
bullshit. The world has no history except Delinar and Ehlokar's conquest and the visions he has. Middle Earth has a detailed history that is much more authentic.

>>15095375
I'm an anglo whitebread, but all of my Sinhalese friends tell me I'm an honorary Sri Lankan so make of that what you will.

To answer your question, it's not a real meal until it has curry on every square inch.

>>15094322
Are the other books good/better? I read BotNS and while it wasn't really bad, it just didn't really stand out either. But I guess considering what's out there, not bad is for the most part as good as it gets, especially with the downward spiral of quality the genre seems stuck in.

>>15095259
>Am I too pleb for this series?
No, it's just not that great and highly overrated.

Could y'all hit me up with some good Cyberpunk books, but more modern?
The older ones just made predictions on a future world with future tech but are decades behind reality.
Now we are at the beginning stages starting to actually live it with the internet taking up most of many peoples lives, Virtual Reality starting to accelerate in popularity and capabilities, a global plague with police and military everywhere controlling all movement and drones with speakers going up and down streets giving orders and demanding compliance, it's making me much more interested in the genre

>>15090072
As someone who just heard about him a month ago I'm really happy I found him. His work lives up to a lot of the praise. (Still on Shadow of the Torturer though so we'll see.)

>>15095589
Long Sun is really good. It's very standalone to New Sun and tells a much tighter, more classical action-adventure plot (but still in Wolfe's style). It's got slightly less weirdness than New Sun, but still lots of mystery.

I'm just finishing Short Sun, and it's a lot more like New Sun. Very weird and wacky, and it alludes to the rest of the Solar Cycle. I think if you liked New Sun and want the series to wrap up go ahead and read these books too, but they're not eye-opening.

>>15095788
The first half of Accelerado is good modern cyberpunk (get's a bit more sci-fi after the 50% mark).
It's not the main theme of the books but Watt's Blindopraxia books are set in a very rough & ready Cyberpunk universe. If you want a military-focused story from this world, you can try his short story ZeroS: https://www.tor.com/2017/10/11/reprints-zeros-peter-watts/ inb4 "blindsight shill"

Just finished Dune and really liked it, could someone recommend me some *fantasy* books like it? (Not too big on sci-fi). Also, will I like Malazan if I liked Dune but did not like wot? (Mainly cause of the terrible characters and YA feel)

Does anyone here know where I can find full fantasy cover art?
I love Michael Whelan, Luis Royo, Darrell K. Sweet, Frank Frazetta etc but finding full versions of the cover art is difficult.

>>15095855
You won't like the first book in Malazan but the second book will probably be more up your alley. Deserts and vistas but plenty of weirdness as well.

>>15095259
Yes. It's one of my favorite series. You should finish at least the Corwin part. The first 5 books.

>>15094103
I can only judge GGK by Tigana and the guy represents everything that's wrong with modern Reddit authors still sucking on Tolkien's teat when it comes to character dynamics.
For lack of taste or experience some people seem to have been blown away by his okay prose as if he were John Keats incarnate. An atrocious crime against people has been committed and the dialog barely manages to capture it.

So yeah, I'm gonna stay well clear of what faggots like you consider "quality". Thank you.

>>15095454
We have loli space marine princess?

the asks for recs so he can spend 8 hours sperging out at them guy is somehow worse than all the writefags

The Dune movie looks like shit

>>15090072
3 or 4 years before his death I wanted to write him a fan letter just to express my love and admiration. I didn't know what to write and some time passed until I came upon a short story by Roberto Bolaño where 2 guys discuss a weird Bolaño version of BotNS which I found pretty funny. I thought I'd mail him a translated copy which he might read and get a chuckle out of, but my procrastinating self kept putting it on hold forever and now he's dead.

>>15094054
How are you even alive?

>>15080665
People appreciate Starship Troopers for three reasons
>its political critique of American foreign policy in the 1950s and how it ties in to the political theory of the world re: who should have political franchise
>the full character arc that Rico undergoes re: becoming a soldier and in so doing, becoming a man in his own eyes and the eyes of his father
>the brief descriptions of future combat that feel like 1991 Gulf War bombing footage predicted 40 years prior

>>15084940
This is why I continue to have nothing but respect for my man Robert Jordan. Absolutely cranked out 4.5 million words of beautiful fantasy and even in his "slow phase" was releasing a book every two years. RIP to a real one.

George is in a rough spot because the TV show beat him to the punch and was so disappointing that basically killed all the cultural energy that was driving interest in the series. So either we wait another few years and maybe he releases the next book and it could just basically be the shitty TV ending with better dialogue, or he radically changes the ending which could be seen as caving to fan pressure. It's a lose-lose My money is on him never finishing and not giving a fuck, though.

>>15094054
I only read mass markets and they're the perfect size

Can we all agree that Starship Troopers are a worse Forever War and that Forever War is a worse Armor?

>>15095087
That much is true! And what do you recommend that is translated and less known from Russia? I've read some of Tolstoi, Dostoievski, Turgenev and Lermontov. I also have Arkady Strugastsky on my to read list.
I've seen Terra Nostra mentioned here a few times. Have you read it?

>>15096307
Armor is the weakest of the 3.

I just read the first book of Vance's Dying Earth, was nice, sort of like Dunsany meets Bradbury.
Not sure what I'm going to read next, don't feel like continuing with Dying Earth right now since I want something a little more filled out.

>>15096307
Forever War is the only one of the 3 that has any value and armor's the worst

>>15095914
I don't like Tigana either. You don't have to call me a faggot just because I fucked your dad. Call me daddy

>>15094054
>>15096251
MMPBs are fuckin hot, I love the form factor, and the denser the text, the better. The American single-volume MMPBs of Stormlight are pure sex.

>>15096307
Forever War >>> Armor > ST

>>15096926
Shit opinion
Forever war>ST>>>>>Armor

>>15080665
I love this book. The movie is just a meme.

>>15095948
Cool contrarian opinion. It's by the same director as Sicario (the first one, not the fuckawful sequel) and Blade Runner 2049. Both of which were appropriately deep.

>>15084187
Kellhus isn't a Gary Stu, he's a creepy sociopath who treats everyone like garbage. The entire second trilogy is about how much of a scumbag he is.

>>15096251
I can tuck them into a large pocket on the go. That's what I like about them.

>>15094314
I like this feeling of being teased. Any other sci fan in the same vein?

Also I just finished Citadel, should I read Urth as well or have I read enough?

>>15095862
I don't know about the rest, but Michael Whelan has full prints of everything he's ever painted for sale on his website.

>>15096766
>>15096926
>>15096954
Unironically ST>Armor>FW

>Butlerian Jihad

>>15095948
>Liet Kynes is a woman
I wouldn't even care much about him being black but why the fuck a woman? Did they forget that the character is supposed to be Chani's father?

>>15095948
T. /tv/

>>15097307
Literally doesn't matter. Liet is a plot device.

>>15086881
what is TSIS?

>>15095259
The first book is very action movie. The rest of the series goes into Corwin's back story, his relationships with his brothers and sisters, and the origins of Amber and the Pattern etc

>>15095855
Malazan has the absolute shittiest names in fiction.

>>15097342
I wonder if they will let Kynes die in the same way in the film as in the book.

>>15097724
I like how even in a death scene the hallucination of the dying character's father still rags on and on about systems and ecology and shit. Frank just couldn't help himself. I wonder how much Kim Stanley Robinson read into it and decided to stretch it out over 1000 pages.

>>15095922
>>15095429
I need to know more.

About to start this, did I make the right choice? It is either this, Spin by Robert Charles Wilson or the Firefall series.

>>15092432
>>15090016
>>15094314
>well written
>mixes up who and whom

Wolfe is a hack.

>>15098140
>doesn’t post actual examples
Ok retard

>>15098163
Thankfully there's one that comes to mind near the end, but the entire BotNS was full of mistakes and an absolute butchering of commas(or lack thereof) and em dashes. Pseud-tier writing.

CotA: 37: last paragraph
>Agia, whom I might have loved, has chosen instead to become a female Vodalus

>>15098097
Just finished blindsight, haven't read the second yet but I'd really reccomend it.

>>15087610
Spellmonger was hard for me to get through. I never got past the first book. The 1st person perspective and neckbeardness of the writing made it hard to get into. Reminds me too much of D&D.

>>15097983
They may be talking about some book by E. Wlliam Brown, but I'm not 100% sure.

>>15085053
audio book bay dot nl

it's the absolute best, all 1 word obvs

>>15097831
>Kim Stanley Robinson
Nothing constructive really to add but KSR is a fucking retard and Aurora is one of the dumbest books I've ever read.

Does Herbert get an editor after Dune?

I'm not sure if I can be bothered to continue with the series if he doesn't. Stilted writing is one thing but the needless repetition of stuff like a page after it last got mentioned is agony to read through.

What's the shittiest shonen-esque fantasy book you've ever read, /lit/? Overpowered self inserts, bullshit power ups, illogical harem etc

>>15100027
Master of Sorrows was atrocious, bit harder to remember after that as I usually don't finish books I hate.
Remember Night Angel being bad once the antagonist is reintroduced and I'd say King's Dark Tidings but that's hilarious if you read it as something where the author is in on the overpowered mc joke

>>15080053
see
>>15082958
You'll need to learn how to read first. And i don't mean pronounce words.

>>15080665
Yeah, you're in the minority there. The book is a well-written, easy-to-read work by a cracked genius. Heinlein was so far fricking right he was on his own planet, though his ideas played into the nationalism sweeping the 50's in the US.

The black company is kinda schlocky too, but more in a YA way.

>>15100027
>Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn
>Mistborn trilogy
>Stormlight Archive
>Wheel of Time
>Eragon

>>15100383
If Sanderson's mediocrity passes for absolute worst I'd add name of the wind

Is there any xianxia/not-litrpg progression stuff that's actually worth reading?
I've read the 3 most popular english language authors in the subgenre (Will Wight and Sarah Lin were good reads, Tao Wong wasn't) and I'm wondering if there's actually anything else worth digging into once I've finished Lin's longer novel.
I like the basic magic/power system and how it theoretically allows for a lot of variety but the ones I've read all go in a pretty vanilla direction with it either doing typical power ups like wight or just staying in the early stages of the system as the other two do.

>>15098097
Absolutely riveting read, would reccomend

>>15098097
All three of those are well regarded series so there isn't a "right" choice per se.

Reminder to /sffg/ not to read anything that's published by Tor Books.

Have a nice day.

>>15100739
yiiiiiiikes

W H E N
H
E
N

>>15097259
The Light Brigade is better than any of them.

Vastly better.

>>15100792
hilarious how this book zoomed martin on the cover design

>>15100739
Sad Puppy supporter detected

>>15098313
That’s not wrong though dumbass

>>15098313
>provides a dumb example
>complains about punctuation lmao
High school tier literary criticism.

>>15100522
I got like 4 pages into Zi Tian Ji after someone mentioned it here before despairing at the translation.
More the awful prose than the translation itself, just too bad to continue. The only wuxia translator I've read who is good enough to put up with is the guy who did A Will Eternal, for anyone else not matter what qualities the work did have in chinese they're absolutely lost with the shitty amateur translation.

>>15092748
The prequel book is just okay. Feel free to try there, the first proper book to make Hardin mysterious or some other book.

>Daniel the Black
More like Daniel the Cuck, am I right guys?

>>15092748
You shouldn't read Asimov at all. He was a creepy predator who hugged women and grabbed their butts without their consent. Really nasty guy.

I read First and Only from WH40K, first book i read set in the universe apart from random bits of lore. I think it was pretty well paced and there was pretty much always something engaging going on, lots of cool military action and world building of different regiments and such with interesting stuff setting them apart.

Characters were likeable and for the most part fleshed out enough to care a little about the Ghosts. I can see myself returning to this series however I think for my next dive into 40K I might grab a Space Marine novel or the first one of Eisenhorn.

>>15101163
More importantly, his writing sucks.

>>15100739
Problematic~

>>15095399
lol filtered

any scifi or fantasy recommendations for a weeb who likes light novels?

I've read and enjoyed neuromancer, dune, revelation space, the stand, ender's game, red mars, and hyperion (in terms of western sci-fi and fantasy). Any recommendations to expand my tastes a little more?

thanks for the recommendations in the past boys

>>15101252
Prattchet's Discworld for entertaining fantasy satire

>>15101252

Six of Crows
Gideon the Ninth

Looking for books like Gormenghast. Not Mieville though, he's a twat.

>>15101252
childhood's end
the end of eternity
i, robot
martian chronicles

>>15100383
Twinborn Chronicles. You get really tired reading about how ultra powerful the MC and the demon guy are.

>>15100027
Name of the Wind

>>15100027
Red Rising. It's SF though.

>>15101529
Appalling

The most generic, dad-tier shit imaginable.

>4 years since I found this thread
>soon I will actually have read most of the entry level sffg-core
feels_good_man.jpg

>>15102505
>4 years
>still reading entry level

>>15102545
I don't spend all my time reading /sffg/-core desu

I believe I'm going to start reading the Wheel of Time series. Wish me luck anons.

>>15102613
>Wheel of Time
More like Waste of Time.

>>15100522
reverend insanity is fantastic

Is there any slice of life fantasy or SF? Something comfy with minimal conflicts?
Every book I pick up seems to be about impending doom, a savior, and a series of events conveniently laid out which make you wonder how the fuck did that civilization live if everything goes to shit a couple hundred pages into a book.

Something like A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich or YKK. I don't know if it exists. I remember some anon wanted to write some pastoral slice of life fantasy some time ago but nothing came out of it probably.

>>15102684
Try this series
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36216959-quantum-space

>>15102684
Little, Big

>>15102684
make a new thread and I'll tell you :)

>>15102697
Thanks but the GR synopsis points to
>the page-turning pace of Da Vinci Code
>with impacts not only to the missing astronauts, but to the entire human race.
so I don't think it really fits the kind of slow pace "boring" stuff with cute/funny characters I was looking for.
>>15102714
Read it a long time ago. I don't remember it building a lot of tension so it's comfy in that sense, but didn't the whole fairies or conclave of spirits thing face annihilation unless the guy met the girl or something?

NEW THREAD >>15102765

>>15102622
Why would you say that and create doubts in my mind.

>>15102825
>Why would you say that and create doubts in my mind.
Because while the early books and parts of the middle ones are quite good the series as a whole is mediocre, basically uncompleted and long as fuck.

hi guise whats a good fantasy book thats ~200 pages long

>>15102878
is roger zelazny good?

>>15102893
He's my favorite author

>>15102895
what's your favorite work of his? lord of light and this immortal seem good

>>15102900
Lord of Light. Then the first Amber series

>>15102914
thanks!!

>>15102917
If you like short stories he has lots of good ones too