/lit/ - Literature

sandafagg a hagg

>>15610070
>What is your favorite book with a female protagonist?
Emily was a genuinely well written female character honestly, really felt like a woman of her time thrown into a situation she was unprepared for and had to adapt or die instead of "I'm not like other girls, I'm so ahead of my time!" shit.

any good books about the colonization of an alien planet?
preferably something that details the mundane aspects like finding water and farming

>>15610070
>What is your favorite book with a female protagonist?
Through the Looking Glass

Can someone recommend some good books set inside a jungle? Sci-fi or fantasy are both good.

>>15610377
The Jungle is Neutral by F. Spencer Chapman.

>>15610387
>Non-fiction about a British soldier in Malay
Well that was unexpected, but it looks pretty neat.

I'm trying to improve my writing, /lit/, so I need to study some good writers.

I'm looking for fantasy/sci-fi authors who lean closer to Hemingway than anything purple-leaning. Able to deliver solid descriptions without clogging up the page with dense paragraphs of the vistas. Capable of delivering blow-by-blows and compelling action sequences.

Any examples? Don't say Sanderson or I'll call my dad who mods for /lit/ and he'll ban you.

>>15610070
worm
shame about the cringe fanbase

Okay, I'm giving this character one more go to see if I can make her work

Instead of what she was before, shes now a Kyle with the gender flipped, complete with the popped-collar polo, copious amounts of axe body spray, and constant dismissal and objectification of the opposite sex

>>15610717
Worm is bad completely independent of the cringe fanbase.

The best thing you can say about Worm is that it's a promising first draft for a story that will, because if its own success, never exist.

>>15610908
Nah. I love the main character and the main group, the setting is retarded (superheroes are cringe) but wildbow crafted a depressing atmosphere that complemented taylor really well. The fanbase is cringe because they got it totally wrong about everything, they think the main character is a bad ass and constantly get her personality and motivations wrong, think what made the book great was the retarded setting and """world building"", etc. It's great because it's about Taylor, and she's a great character.

>>15610960
How do you think wildbow fumbled so hard in getting that across his main fans are autistic powerfantasy slavering mouthbreathers?

>That epiphany in the dragonmount
>I've been waiting for this.
>too bad it takes too long to reach this part

>>>15610753
If you’re telling me that saying “avoid LoTR, Dying Earth, and Conan” isn’t a troll message, then your tastes are shit buddy.

Any recommendations for human-alien diplomacy? The bureaucracy in Old Man's War was my shit to the Nth degree. I've read CJ cherryh's foreigner series as well but I need more!

>>15611000
He's a bit autistic too desu. He also enabled them. It was obvious if you read the comments the people he was getting to read his book were 15 yr olds that never read a book in their lives. He should have placed some ads in more literary sites to get the right audience. He wanted the webnovel people, but he got the lighnovel ones, if you know what i'm talking about.

>>15610478
>Don't say Sanderson or I'll call my dad who mods for /lit
That means you're underage b&, and we can report your ass

>>15610790
You forgot the energy drink of choice (most likely a monster).

>>15611031
>I luv LoTR, Dying Earth, and Conan
>there is no way someone would have a negative experience than me and find all those books utter shit
>he must be trolling, if I liked something that means it's good and everyone will like it
Fuck off. When you read 2k books and experienced a diverse plethora of the genre, come back and we can talk.

Discuss

>>15611296
Everyone loves large chests is fetish trash and you should feel bad for having it in that picture.

>>15611296
Literally all trash.

>>15611194
Nobody in this thread has read over 2k books. Stop posting and go back to whatever social-aggregate you spawned from, newfag trash.

>>15611296
Handful of good with a lot of bad

>>15611462
>I haven't read 500 books, there is no way you read 2k books
>you must be a newfag, even though the chart we are discussing is older than my stay on /lit/
Kys you non reading cunt

>>15610070
is that a new thread i see...
Fuck E William Brown
Fuck dark elves
Fuck cucks
Fuck explainable magic
Fuck magical engineering

>>15611194
Okay, so you just have garbage fucking opinions. Gotcha chief.

>>15611194
So you've read something like 52 books a year for over thirty years?

>>15610070
>not linking previous thread

>>15611194
What books do you like

Bruskis , i've read the first book of dresden files i didn't expect much but goddamn the shit is so comfy !
the audiobook made it only better and better
i will read the whole series !

>>15610478
K.J Parker, his writing is both very utilitarian but extremely good and drawing you in, giving you a great feel for his characters. Currently reading Sharps, it's excellent so far, his standalones are all great. Haven't delved into the trilogies yet.

>>15611040
Zelazny's 'This Immortal' is almost hilarious in how accurately alien diplomacy would actually go, lots of points where human stubborness and whatnot are made painfully clear. Solid read, short.

>>15610070
The last one I read was The Sword of Winter, by Marta Randall. I enjoyed it a lot, despite it not being what I expected. I thought I was about to read sword & sorcery, but it was more of a crime/mystery in a sword & sorcery setting. Well written, I liked the setting a lot as well in the extreme cold weather and the characterisation was good.

>>15611466
Name the good ones.

>reading Fantasy
>come across a word I don't know
>Kindle doesn't know it either
>"it must be made up"
>it's not made up

why am I retarded?

>>15612727
>why am I retarded?
Contagion from the newfag earlier who expected anyone to believe he's read 2k books.

>>15611296
There are still books on here that aren't self-published

>>15612727
>reading fantasy
>look up what a "cubit" actually means
>playing trivial pursuit like 3 hours later
>"how long is a cubit"
I felt so smart

>>15611678
I've been reading for fun for 20 years. I finish more than a hundred books a year. Do the math.

>>15612162
Better hurry! New book out next month, then another 2 months after that.

So lately I've been reading some of the Gotrek and Felix novels by William King. I am only passingly familiar with Warhammer (by that I mean I know it exists, and that's about it), but I picked some of these up because eh, I was bored, why not?
The premise starts out simple. Felix, the initially somewhat foppish human, gets his bacon saved by Gotrek after engaging in some ill-advised political activism. Gotrek is a Slayer, a Dwarf sworn to seek death in unequal combat against the forces of evil to atone for a sin. After Gotrek bails him out, he and Felix go on a bender and Felix, being a wannabe Poet, makes an Oath to Gotrek to record his doom and make an epic of it. This is complicated by the fact that Gotrek is a four foot Terminator and has legitimate issues finding anything even capable of killing him.

The editions I'm reading are omnibuses, so there's multiple full books and short stories all packed together, some by different authors.
All in all, I like it. It's not perfect by any means, and the pacing is often an issue with sections seeming to drag, but despite that it's kept me reading though close to 2,000 pages now. There's something to be said for just executing a cliche well, and this series generally does.

>>15613283
Surprisingly good for Black Library. Probably the only well written novels in the whole library. (yes, Eisenhorn is badly written and boring. People only like it because they like 40k)

>>15612838
You're the newfag if you feel 2k books means shit. Sebastian who used to post in lit probably has 5k books by now. That autist used to pull 600 books a year.

>>15613247
If you know it's over 100 per year, you must have been keeping track in some way. So, provie it.

>>15612727
I regularly google words from books and I’m a native english speaker

>>15613346
That's because there many more words in English that aren't in active use than are. The vast majority of words are rarely used at most.

guess the book (incidentally one of the only parts of the book that I found cool and interesting)

>>15613309
I don't have to prove shit to you, and I don't care if you believe me or not. I didn't put my goodreads in your shit group for a reason.

>>15613372
Dragon safari. When the steam boat had to pass the electrified fence.

>>15613383
How you were reading so many books per year before ebooks were common?

>>15613411
Audiobooks were around before ebooks anon.... It's not just paper and electronic, there is audio too.

>>15613452
Well, yes, if you have an audiobook going on in the background all day every day, that is certainly an easy way to do so.
I was expecting "Libraries exist".

>>15613283
The final novel in the series is absolutely incredible so it's worth hanging on for that

>>15613247
Impressive dedication, what stuff have you been reading?

>>15613372
Three body problem.

>>15613452
>audiobooks aren't electronic
Reveal your secrets, ye Library of Flesh.

>>15613346
I'm always worried about googling a word, and it just spoiling an entire book for me.

>>15613928
That's entirely irrational, but you already know that.

>>15613943
It's not irrational.
I've been burned by it before, especially with TV shows.
I'll googled a character, and it will tell me exactly when they die.

>>15613981
There is a difference between an unknown word and a Name

>>15610070
JonathanMoeller writes good strong female characters. His Cloak games and Ghosts series have female main protagonists who are well written. His stories are very pulp, but fun.

>>15613370
What kind of pseud author would use words that arent normally used?

>>15612727
I get happy when this happens, it isn't often I get to learn new words anymore,
and I love expanding my vocabulary
Like finding a little gem

>>15613928
i only google english words though, not words specifically from the world

>>15613247
What do you read? Surely can't be all fiction because there isn't so much fiction worth reading.

>>15613460
>I was expecting "Libraries exist
That too, but you got a lot of broken series from them. Starting from book 5 because the library doesn't have book 1-4, pages torn out of the books, etc.

>>15613863
>>audiobooks aren't electronic
They used to be magnetic (not digital electronic like ebooks are, which is what I was getting at, and you know it) and vinyl too.

>>15614264
>>15613383

Hi, not sure if this has been recommended before but I have just finished book 1 and it's really good.

>>15614291
i'm gonna get bored one day pirate it and get mad at just how bad it is despite all this shilling

>>15614283
That reminds me of this from my childhood.

>>15613622
Genre trash. Fed up of the classics, so I read self published shit to see how they break the mold from books of old.
Lots of people nowadays are trying to stay away from the tropes that were over used back in the day, an ancient evil awakes, farmboy is the chosen one, find the lost princess, etc. They just think of something and write it. You do end up with utter trash sometimes though.

>>15614100
Gene Wolfe, Roger Z, etc.

>>15614302
I pirated the first book but I purchased second and third (e)books. Next time I log onto amazon I will pay for the first book.

>>15614350
You do commendable work in promoting your preferred book.

>>15614392
Thank You.

>>15614291
That cover is pretty bad.
It makes it look like a Percy Jackson book or something.

>>15614291
I looked at the preview. Seems terrible for me. As far as I could tell, it seems extremely generic with standard tropes and written at a very low reading level.

>>15614425
That's probably intentional.

>>15614434
Unless you have a backlog, just give it a try. Read half of the first book, I you find after first half you aren't interested then just drop it.

>>15614493
I do have a backlog and no, I won't.

>>15614527
Alright then, suit yourself.

>four novels in the book are in chronological order
>introduction tells you to read them in order of publication
based introduction order dabbing on publishing company

>>15614302
>not picking up and reading an entire series for two characters
OUT!

I read a short story once, about a man visiting another planet and finding out they were visited by Jesus. He goes to another planet, and they were visited too. He goes chasing Jesus around the cosmos, always just missing him.

I can't remember who wrote it, or its title.

Help

>>15615637
>See this
>First thing that popped into my mind
>Why the fuck does he have vaginas in his palms
>Oh wait that's Jesus, he was crucified

>>15615697
At last, the veil is parted and I truly understand.

discuss

>>15615523
Who are the two characters? The goddamn cat and the incest boy?
I wish my 1000 year old granny offered her cunny to me in exchange for the world.

>>15615637
1. Jesus is black (no pasty white is surviving in the desert).
2. He was the Jesus that he was chasing all the time.
3. Those stigmata looks so hot. I wanna impregnate them.

>>15615697
I don't think he was actually crucified. I think that was just Bible glamour. Its conflicting but most historians seem to agree that he was impaled. So literally a kike on a pike.

>>15615918
Not even worth 10 talents. Worthless whore.

>>15615922
The goddamn cat and Arrogan (pic related)

>>15615982
Well one is gone and the other is some alien house sized transforming cat that has a sweet tooth for fresh eggs and fairy meat.

>>15614291
>tfw have to wait year end for book two

>>15615918
Akka did nothing wrong. He didn’t deserve any of this.

>>15610070
Is there really any point inn reading fantasy once you've completed Dune?

>>15616013
I know. I finished the series last month.

>REEEEEEEEEEEEE
Why is there so much cuck shit in fantasy? Every god damn time I start enjoying a series, the author has to insert some cuck shit into it.

>>15616343
>cuck shit in fantasy
Mainstream fantasy is aimed at the "nerd" audience.
They all look like pic related.

>>15616343
That's... disconcerting.

>>15616590
A man's bike is sacred. Disgusting, vile basedboys.

Anyone know any good merfolk/mermaid fantasy series or stand alone?

>>15616924
Nah it's all fapbait.

>>15616590
>>15616899
Seriously, all this cuck shit is getting old now.

>>15616924
>The Mermaid's Tale
There's the orc girl one where she investigates a mermaid murder. It was pretty enjoyable from what I remember.

>>15617233
This seems promising, thanks anon. I'm definitely checking it out.

>>15617183
Oh come on that's some Olympic level of mental gymnastics.
What if the author is just that good at characterization? Don't tell me there is actually some sort of justification for that cuckoldry?

>>15616343
Why are you lying lol, I've read that book and she doesn't sleep with anyone else

>got a couple of sequels that I know I will enjoy
>have been putting them off for months to try new stuff that I might enjoy
>forget about them
I keep doing this lol

>>15615637
Ray Bradbury's " The Man", from "The Illustrated Man"

>>15616343
>>15617183
Why is this shit so common? Are people really enjoying this kind of thing?

What do you guys use for discovery? The charts are good for classics and such but what about the more and more recent stuff? I'm using Goodreads lists but I'm honest to god having better luck with fucking TVtropes for finding stuff then with them.

>>15614291
Fuck off, shill.

>>15617348
What? She sleeps with the Professor's son. Multiple times while our MC is crying to himself trying to tell himself it doesn't matter. Hell, in one instance Spar is literally crying over finally making it, and Cari's upstairs fucking her bf. Literally straight cuckhold stuff.

>>15617505
I honestly have no fucking idea why. Honestly think that a lot of these authors are cucks. Hell, I think the author of the Gutter Prayer worked for WOTC or Paizo, which would explain why he likes inserting this cuck shit into it. Good lord, what is up with this degeneracy? Rob J Hayes does the same shit with his pirate self insert trying to cuck the MC and then having the pirate self insert fuck the MC's childhood bully. Shit is fucked. I bet he's going to hook the bully up with our MC too. It's literally all cuckholds down here.

>>15617348
Here's another passage where they start fucking. At least the chad she's banging is pretty much just using her and chokes her out while also rejecting her for more post-sex sex. The guy seems pretty disgusted by her roastie behavior.

>>15617525
Trawling through Amazon's new releases. See what's popular and read the blurb.

>>15614291
Fuck off, shill.

>>15616343
>>15617183
>>15617573
>>15617650
You seem upset anon. That's teach you about reading publishing house authors. Self published is the way to go. If a self pubbed author pulled that shit they would be pounced upon. Like Blaise Corvin and that delvers llc shit.

Brown William E a fuck

>>15617728
Kek, I just looked that author up. That's pretty fucking funny that he lost a lot of readers over the gay character. Now if only we got some pushback on cuck shit.

>>15617671
this is just incoherent yer da rambling lol

>>15617806
It may be incoherent rambling, but it's enough to scare me off reading it. Don't really want to read a YAAAS QUEEEN SLAY story about some mary sue lesbo dunking on fools.

browsing through goodreads and I'm gonna read this solely because of the dumb cover

>>15618001
lol Brin must be the god of weird covers

>>15617769
He doesn't understand that it wasn't the gay character that was the problem, fags in fantasy has been a thing since before he was born. It's the fact that he gave that drag queen a soap box to stand on, and more backstory than the female main pov. He also sprang it out of no where and did forced it down our throats. The people in that world has hundreds of years of a way of life, and in comes the tranny drag queen and we must all now respect "her" because "she" is a person? If the faggot wasn't so flamboyant when people are on the run and trying to hide we would have accepted it, but you chose the loudest faggot to come and fag shit up.

>>15618076
>He also sprang it out of no where
yeah that's how introducing new characters works you utter loon

>>15618086
They usually mesh with the story. When the faggot came it was so disjointed. The whole story became out of whack.

>>15614100
It's inevitable if you read older books.... I mean you DO NOT only read comtemporay stuff do you?

>>15611531
based and agreedpilled

>>15617525
Personally I'm just starting so the classics are enough.
I mean the classic authors, if you read something you like the author is likely to have made something else you like.
Frankly I was put off form reading in my teens thanks to trying the "new" stuff even though I loved it when I was younger and I just got into it again thanks to the classics.

so fucking bizarre to me that YA-tier trash is shilled on here constantly

god, I am going to have to censor this book so heavily before I can publish it. It's too cartoony to be literally anything but middlegrade

>>15618602
Why? For the same reason most of my adult friends tell me to watch YouTube videos about topics they could easily read a book on and get 10 times the information.

It's the infantilization of modern society, and it's just getting worse.

>>15618602
To be fair that mainly because most fantasy that comes out these days is YA-tier trash

kellhus is a terrible, boring character

Such rape. Much boner. Wow.

>https://youtu.be/5y1_x7IuCC8
What does /sffg/ think about Graphic Audio Productions.

>>15611194
You are the one who off needs to fuck.

>failed to force myself through Mistborn trilogy because sterile writing style and dropped it at the third book
>loved the Lightbringer series for its near first person PoV, but the last two books sucked and killed it for me
>loved The First Law trilogy for its pessimistic view and general lack of filter when it came to dialogue
>read A Little Hatred, undecided on reading the standalones

Should I read them? Alternatively, what else is out there that's most like Lightbringer or TFL?

>>15620237
Why do you only read garbage?

>>15620242
Because I love reading about shitty people in shitty worlds doing shitty things to one another.

>>15610325
kim stanley robinson Mars trilogy

where do i start?

>>15620237
people like first person pov? i can't handle it at all

>>15618602
Do you mean blatant self promotion or anons just recommending crap?

>>15620753
It's not first person. Thought isn't italicized and there's no thought tags. Loads of lines where words like I or me are used instead of he/she.

>>15620872
Self promoting is understandable, not good, mind you, but I understand it. The amount of crap recommend however is baffling, especially seeing all the anons claiming they "read 2k book easily".

>>15620077
>he is exposing my shit books I shill to people, knowing they are utter shit
>better cover my tracks
>You are the one who off needs to fuck.

was Gene Wolfe a bad idea to begin with for Fantasy?
It's so dense, that I am re-re-reading everything, and still confused.

I am dumb as a brick.

>>15620237
Tight pussy gang.

>>15617573
>>15617650
Never understood the point of this. Isn't the point of a love interest to root for that character to end up with the main character? Why would you dedicate chapters to said love interest getting railed by other guys while the protagonist copes with it? Though I guess this is what appeals to the modern fantasy reader. They do like Denna after all.

>>15622151
Book of the new sun is so full of deliberate vaguery that there were genuine errors in the transcription that went unnoticed for years

>>15622151
Nah if an author cant get their ideas across clearly they have failed.

>>15618001
>an encouraging tale

>>15621492
>claiming they "read 2k book easily".
You again? You still haven't fucked off?
>easily
Did I say it was easy? It took me more than a decade of reading to reach that. If you stopped watching your Japanese cartoons and playing gayms you too can reach that amount. I have people in my friends list with 1000+ books, 3000+ books, I even have someone with 5k books. Just because you can't do something doesn't mean others can't. You autistic piece of shit. Neck yourself and don't spread your stupid to a new generation.

>>15622169
>They do like Denna after all.
Who likes denna? Everyone I know hates her.

>>15622198
>Who likes denna?
You'd be surprised. Also Rothfuss himself sees her as a hero and was genuinely confused when he found that people despised her. Naturally he resorted to the "you're just being sexist" defense.

>>15622195
KEK, are you actually trying to be an elitist because you read some books? for fucks sake mate.
I'm not even the other original anon but I found your attempts to make yourself an authority simply by volume read pathetic.
>Fuck off. When you read 2k books and experienced a diverse plethora of the genre, come back and we can talk.
Can you really not see how pathetically you grasp at the fact you have read as substitute for intelligence?
If you dislike a book that i fine, try to argue why next time instead of just doing the literary equivalent
>lol yeah Mario is shit I don't have to explain myself. I got 10000 hours on dota 2, I'm a true gamer, get on my level scrub, then we will talk.

If you think about how many posts I've read I've probably already read more so far than some of those renaissance guys who'd read every book ever published

>>15622250
> for fucks sake mate.

based pragmatic aussie

>>15622185
There lies the great divide between those who want books to be puzzles and those who want want books to be transparent with their content.

What are the best space operas to start with?

Recommendations for sci-fi published by a woman? I've only read Atwood and Le Guin so far

>>15622381
The Voroksigan saga.

I like Skyrim, rec a book.
>inb4 arrow to the knee

>>15622381
Bujold for Space Opera, Cherryh for both harder scifi and anthropological scifi (it takes a while to get used to her style), Butler for everything

Hao Jingfang and Arkady Martine if you want something from this year.

where do I start?

>>15622562
malazan or gene wolfe

>>15622484
>>15622403
Thanks so much! I've taken note of all of them and will check them out.

>>15615918
TRUTH SHINES!!

I loved the books. The first book of the second series was pretty bad AFAIK. And the sex stuff was stupid, but whatever, grimdark I guess...

If you like history and you like philosophy and you like grimdark you should read these books.

>>15617806
He is correct though. While I did enjoy book 3, it wasn't as good books 1 and 2.
We will see what happens with book 4. Will Manning go full sjw or is he going to drop it.

>>15617906
Books 1 and 2 have none of it, and to be fair book 3 isn't bad at all, the aforementioned character is not that important and hopefully won't even appear in book 4.

>>15617650
Is this really the love interest or is she some random slut? I don't understand why the protagonist doesn't just move on instead of chasing after a woman who cucks him. I remember being put off by Memory, Sorrow and Thorn because of this exact plot line. Main heroine gives her virginity to and fucks some other guy and then brags about it to the protagonist saying how good it was. She was doing this in order to force him to move on from her but of course he didn't and they end up married.

>>15622403
For me it's Mirror Dance and Captain Vorpatril's Alliance because Ivan is such a lovable doofus

>>15623074
1. she's the primary protagonist, that poster is being very disingenuous about that.
2. they're platonic friends as far as she knows
3. the guy has a plague where his entire body calcifies and it spreads by skin to skin contact.

It's not cuckshit so much as someone struggling to accept the realities of their circumstances. A reader without 4chan brain wouldn't even think of any possible other interpretation.

>>15623332
>A reader without 4chan brain
I wish I could go back to a time where I enjoyed things, instead of rolling my eyes at every 'pozzed' rep and cuck shit.

>>15610070
Without spoiling anything what would you say are the strengths and weaknesses of the Gaunt's Ghosts 40k book series?

I just bought the omnibus and read the first two short stories and the first novel and I found it all a bit contrived.
Does it get better? The series is quite long so I wouldn't want to embark on something I'd realize wasn't all that good by the halfway mark, but at the same time I wouldn't want to quit too early and miss out on something special.

>>15623074
what's wrong with female characters having sex with someone who isn't the protagonist? if you want to self insert then read one of those shitty japanese light novels where every woman in the story is protagonistsexual.

You now remember Harlan groping Connie Willis and then getting angry she refused his apology afterwards.

>>15623351
>a bit contrived.
dunno what you mean by this but all of 40k is pretty contrived because of the very nature of the setting

>>15617183
This is what you get for reading mainstream fantasy.

>>15622185
>t. midwit

What's the intelligentsia's thoughts on audio books? Looking to try something new

>>15612727
>reading Book of the New Sun
>calls horses "destriers"
>think it's just a made up name for a horse due to context clues
>it's real
I felt like such a brainlet.

>>15614100
I have that problem when I'm writing fantasy. I feel pretentious when I use the EXACT term for describing architecture, because most people aren't going to know what the fuck I'm talking about without looking it up.

>>15624068
>>15624068

dude, destriers are THE defacto horse of high fantasy

Should i read it or is bullshit?

>>15624147

not read it myself, but why don't you read the first 100 pages and found out?

>>15624229
Time and a stand by list

>>15610070
>What is your favorite book with a female protagonist?
Black Magician Trilogy, going off how many times I've reread it. I'm a sucker for magic school settings. A shame the sequel series was shit.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/922495-patrick?shelf=read

>literally 99% comics and books aimed at a mostly younger audience
why are so many fantasy/sci-fi authors today like this

>>15624365
Why are you obsessing over what a pretentious failed author reads? I could understand if you were e-stalking somebody actually relevant who has published something in the last 10 years, but why Rothfuss? Rothfuss burned himself out a decade ago, just leave him to wallow in increasing obscurity.

>>15624147
> Hugo Award winner Kameron Hurley
red flag

>>15624068
Was this the first fantasy book you ever read? Like >>15624107 said destriers are basically a fantasy cliche since the 80s.

>>15622151
Wolfe is wanked off endlessly in these threads because it is "literary" fantasy with lovingly crafted prose you don't normally see in the genre. The type of people who like it don't typically like or appreciate fantasy. Lots of Wolfe fans in these threads proudly admit they read basically nothing else and just reread his books every year.

>>15624431
the light brigade is great

>>15624147
It's a tranny. Avoid.

>>15622250
>readlet strawmanning with poor analogies
typical non reading scum

What should I read in order to get better at worldbuilding and create universes that are cohesive, interesting and logical? Everything I write feels gay and stupid like me.

>>15622151

I find Glen Cook more mentally taxing

>>15624547

what world's are you building anon?

I'd read some Robert Forward books

>>15624548
How? Most of his writing is very direct and simple. Or are you talking about the Instrumentalities series? Cause that was kinda taxing to read but not because of the prose.

>>15624547
Unfortunately reading won't help you improve world building. Unlike writing ability, world building isn't really a skill you get better at by practice, it's mostly tied to innate creativity and imagination. If you have shit imagination there's nothing you can do to improve it. Maybe take a lot of LSD? I dunno.

Black Company makes better use of an unreliable narrator than botns lol

Considering a lot of these threads just devolve into cuck-calling, could we get a 'cuck-tier recommendation chart' make up, for the people who like that sort of thing?

>>15624655
Just go to goodreads and pick anything at the top of any fantasy list if you want cuckshit, cuckold.

>>15624439
I'm not sure how, but that was my first exposure to it. I've read a lot of classics, but can't recall destrier being used before.

>>15624578
>Unfortunately reading won't help you improve world building
That's not true at all. Reading gives you inspiration.

>>15624956
Inspiration doesn't matter if you're not naturally creative. You can't teach creativity.

>>15624812
Now those are some overly broad and baseless generalizations.

>>15624547
>>>/tg/73179119

>>15625037
Isn't that general only for role play games? I've looked there before but it's all focused on meta gamey stuff.

>>15625015
Of course you can, you dolt.
It comes more naturally to different people, but you can still teach it to someone who doesn't have it.

>>15625037
That dark lizard does look cool and edgy.

>>15625064
>Of course you can, you dolt.
No you can't. If you could teach creativity then art schools would be churning out geniuses at extremely high rates. Creativity cannot be taught, only skill can be taught.

>>15625044
When asking advice, you could just omit what the setting is for, just lightly infer it's for a story-heavy rpg, just don't mention any specifics..

>>15625064
Not him but you really can't teach creativity. You can nurture it though, that's why they have art classes and music classes in elementary school. Kids that young typically can't make any real worthwhile art, but the point is to find people with that innate talent and nurture it.

>>15625078
I still find it counter productive. The resources there teach you to build worlds from a game perspective, prioritizing elements essential to player experience and scenario building. Yes you can extrapolate some of it for general storytelling purposes but you risk corrupting your ideas with game shit.

>>15624459
You're a Sanderfag are you not?

>>15625096
Also, it's usually just cookie cutter
>faction x are the Aztecs but they suck each other's cocks and the cum gives them berserker rage
>faction z is elves but not gay or edgy so they're nothing like elves more like the medieval Welsh fighting Norman conquest and they're hermaphrodites

Hardly the stuff of literary legend

>>15625131
I'm not really interested in "literary legend" just realizing my own ideas in a world that feels "lived in", and that doesn't include building cultures who erect massive tombs for adventurers to explore.

>>15625145
Honestly go with Robert E Howard. He made his cultures both alien and familiar and he's so far removed from modern fantasy he comes off as slightly bizarre.

>>15624147
It's got tranny bullshit.

>>15625261
Hot tranny, or preachy tranny?

>>15624355
Surprisingly fun series, got one fag character that's awful but he's minor.

>>15625267
There is no such thing as the former...but the latter in this case.

>>15625285
Ella Hollywood is hot tranny.

>>15625287
Quit being such a fag

>>15625287
No he is most certainly not.

>>15625319
It's not fag if you are attracted to things that look feminine, I don't wanna touch their dick.

>>15625399
>It's not fag if you are attracted to things that look feminine, I don't wanna touch their dick.
Oh boy here we go. Another fag in denial.

>>15625271
Yeah I mostly skim his chapters when I reread, since he ends up not really being relevant to the core story after a while. On the whole it's a pretty well written boarding school story.

>>15625418
I'm not attracted to men.

>>15625458
>I'm not attracted to men.
HAHAHAHAHAHA
I am actually really laughing out loud.

>>15622151
I forgot the reason why I put it down, but it being an exhausting read is probably one of them. I might pick it up again, but damn it was dull. I believe I stopped reading right after his meeting with Dr. Talos.

>>15610070
>it's a Miles Vorkosigan has sex with an 8 foot tall amazon woman episode

Jej, this is fucking great

>>15625471
They look like females, you idiot. At least the good ones. A lot look like men with wigs, which is nasty.

>>15625064
>Of course you can, you dolt.

I wish you could, but there's a reason why the best artists are made and don't have to necessarily be taught (ideally they should and were taught, but I'm sure you're getting what I'm saying).

>>15625570
Was he up to the task?

>>15625573
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Please don't embarrass yourself any more.

>read xianxia for two months because I was getting slightly burnt out on spec fic
>come back to it two months later and still can't find much I want to read
guess I finally gotta go through the backlog

>>15620237
If you're after misery read Bas Lag.

>>15625584
She was a virgin and everything, he was. What a series this turned up to be, oh my fuck.

Is there any other comic scifi like stainless steel rat where the comedy is just focused on being funny rather than being wry or over the top silly?
I've been reading the John Dortmunder books and they're so fucking good at the heist/comedy mashup that I got Rat flashbacks but I've never found anything else like it.

>>15625678
I suppose Cugel is the closest to SSR.

>>15625678
>where the comedy is just focused on being funny rather than being wry or over the top silly?
didn't articulate that well, what I mean is that the protag is both competent and fairly believable as a person with the comedy primarily coming from the situations they're forced into
>>15625704
I've been meaning to get around to Vance forever so this might finally push me into it.

>>15625725
There's always Flashman.

>>15622381
Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series

What are some fiction books about Medieval politics and conspiracies. I love characters who plot, backstab etc.

>>15625647
Bujold is great, she's a dirty old woman writing her own fetishes, but he taste is so impeccable that it appeals to men just as much as it does women.

Started book 2 of Galdalara Cycle. pretty good action-adventure Isekai with a vague Saharan/middle-eastern vibe, replete with psychic cats.

>>15618602
Have you ever read Sleator? It's actually good sci-fi YA

How do you create a fictional faction/culture/race? Do you build from an aesthetic? an ideology? a form of political organization? a defining skill or superpower? a cliche? a location?

>>15627043
I've found most authors use historical polities.

>>15627049
See I hate that. It feels like a cheap lazy analogy.

>>15627061
Its really about implementation. If an author is skilled then their derivative creations take on a life of their own. If not, the yeah, cheap and lazy.

Jesus, I can't believe I'm still struggling to write this girl. I needed to bring dancing of some kind back in because I completely forgot about the rotation theme. Everything about writing her is an uphill battle but now I can't remove her without the whole cast collapsing

>>15627043
you start from what matters to you and then use the snowflake method. Avatar for example started with two pieces: the elements and a pan-asian. setting. From there they built outward. Fire is seen as aggressive, so right off the bat they're antagonist material and designed around violent imperialism. They draw on southeast asia with its showy and dynamic art styles because it fits a flame's nature and the heat is intense. In contrast air is always seen as the weakest and thus most peaceful element. From peace they jump to buddhism, and base the air temples on nepal and tibet, lands best known for being conquered. That makes them the first target, and a way to illustrate the fire nation's evil. Earth in is seen big, strong and stable. An obstacle for the fire nation. The image fits the beaurocratic view of ancient china and its teracotta warriors, so they draw from that aesthetically. Finally, water is dynamic, it slips out of the way. The water nation is on the fringes, just the north and south poles where nobody bothers to go. Tibet is taken and mongolia and russia don't have the image they're looking for, so cross the bering strait and you have the inuit whose people are likewise out of the way and whose sense of aesthetics doesn't conflict with the asian setting. Now you have details. build around those

>>15627298
>They draw on southeast asia with its showy and dynamic art styles because it fits a flame's nature and the heat is intense
not really. fire nation is japan.

they should have gone with southeast asia for water to keep the asian thing going, it was always jarring to me how they went with inuits(and even worse the secret og firebenders being mayaincatecs)

river/swampy/beachy people would be a lot more interesting than fucking eskimos anyway

I’m not sure if this is relevant, but what is the consensus for Michael Moorcock here? And what do you guys consider his best book or character that he wrote?

>>15627359
their clothing and armor is actually heavily inspired by thailand and cambodia. You are correct that the swampbenders are inspired by the vietnamese wetlands (as well as gulf coast creoles because it was too funny not to make them rednecks), but like the sand benders they're pretty much national non-entities.

>>15621492
I'm quite convinced 2k-san has never read anything longer than the instructions on his schizo meds

look what arrived lads

Is the juice worth the squeeze?

>>15627953
Yes

>>15627359
>fire nation is japan.
Fire Nation's clothing indicates China. Then again I know next to nothing about Avatar so take my observation with a grain of salt.

>>15627989
creators confirmed fire nation is mainly based on japan but they are far from 1:1 adaptations

>>15627989
>>15628014
btw here's some early concept art of fire nation soldiers

>>15622169
I hate this fucking book

>>15624547
Malazan book of the fallen
this is a joke dont do this

>>15628091
is it actually a good read tho?

>>15627953
I want an actual physical copy of this for no reason other than it would be absurd trying to actually read a heavy ass fucking book

>>15628093
Yeah, just really fucking long though, but ultimately worth it.

>>15614969
How did you like them anon?

>>15625287
I like Luna Love and Daisy Taylor as well

>>15626751
Haven't read many. Coincidentally this one's got a small conspiracy going on. >>15612196

>>15627558
Nice, I'd been reading 1 short story by him nightly for a while. You can read them online if you want more

>>15624355
That series was absolute garbage to me. It was forced, had nonsensical moralfaggotry, and was way too long for the events that unfold.

I guess it reads well, though, since I somehow finished the 3 books...

>>15626779
The same novella has a hermaphrodite getting it on with a 4 armed violin player. Vorkosigan really should have an honorary GRI badge.

reading sufficiently advanced magic and this would be at least 10% better if the half-sister character was a romantic interest

>>15627989
The earth nation with their brainwashing if their citizen is clearly china.

>>15629210
>absolutely retarded premise
>correct conclusion

I don't know what to make of this.

>>15617769
That's funny. I guess that's why he is writing literal young adult shit now.

>>15625105
I'm a fantasy fan. You don't even read.

>>15629173
think I'm gonna drop this, it started off with an interesting (albeit ripped from anime) concept but it's turning into a really slow paced magic school novel with the added frustration of a protagonist who won't actually use their own magic.

>>15625678
Comedy is hard to do, it appeals to some, not others. There is the sorta dark mage, and the bedtime crimes by Fforde, but I'm getting pretentious vibes from your post, so you might not like it.

>>15629639
>>15629173
it's pretty bad imo, the protagonist is written to be autistic or schizoid but the author never actually tells you that in the text so you're just left reading a bunch of dumb decisions and social interactions

>>15628435
Shit nigga I haven't started on that shit yet it's long as fuck I need to work up to it I've only been reading shorter books these last few weeks.

>>15610070
>What is your favorite book with a female protagonist?
Sabriel

Don't know if this is the right place since it's a chinknovel but any of you read Lord of the Mysteries? I've heard it's good but I don't really enjoy reading stuff online as oppose to a physical book

>>15629772
I convert all the webnovels I read into epubs

>female author

is it still worth a read?

>>15612727
>>15624068
BotNS is great for this

>He mispronounced quite common words: urticate, salpinx, bordereau.

>>15629585
That doesn't answer my question.

What is the definitive '/sffg/ babbys first Fantasy or Science Fiction book'?

A good starting point for someone who has a passing interest, but doesn't want to be bogged down with remembering 1000 characters or learning the entire history of the worlds political system.

>>15630008
Earthsea probably

>>15630008
try harry potter

>>15630349
no just no
>>15630008
Read the forever war. It's simply great, and a very easy read.

What the fuck is a Space Opera?
Like a soap opera, in space?

>>15630386
medieval politics and wars and all the intrigue and political backstabbing.
but in space and with advanced technology.

>>15630386
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpaceOpera

>>15630402
>medieval politics and wars and all the intrigue and political backstabbing.
not necessarily

>>15630485
>not necessarily
true. but thats what space operas boil down to 90% of the time.

>>15630386
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Dh5QoXv2c

>>15630485
> which was originally a derogatory term, following "horse opera" (cheap westerns) and "Soap Opera" (so named because soap operas began as hour-long ads for soap)

Who in the ever loving fuck was watching an hour long advertisement?

>>15630505
>Who in the ever loving fuck was watching an hour long advertisement?
Youtube is a thing you know.

>>15629799
Maybe? I like bakers, hard but honest work and the smell early in the morning is nice

>>15629917
It does. What do you read? Without listing all the regurgitated books you see every thread.

>>15630008
>>15630349
Harry Potter is a great gateway into fantasy.
There is also The Abhorsen Trilogy, His Dark Materials, Artemis Fowl, Septimus Heap, Percy Jackson(before it was pozzed), etc

>>15630365
>no just no
It's supposed to be babby's first, just because a jaded old cracked soul like yourself didn't like it doesn't mean that it isn't a great easily digested work that gets people interested in reading more books.

>>15630676
Aren't they all for kids though?

>>15630843
>Aren't they all for kids though?
Yes, but can also be enjoyed by adults. They don't preach shit to you.
Also the anon asked for "babby's first"

new bit: guy who moans that a childrens book is "pozzed"

>>15630987
Well the author did make a long standing character gay out of no where because he had to pander to the faggots.

>>15630987
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is fascist propaganda

>>15631265
Excellent

>>15630654
No, fuck you, do you read Sanderson or not?

>>15631341
No, fuck you. What do you read?

>>15631355
Kadare, Borges, Buzzati and Calvino, of the things not usually present here.

i'm not like other girls, I read lit 201

>>15631385
All of those have been mentioned in this thread, so they are present here.

>>15630502
All the money in the world.
Cast at the top of their game and some of them Hollywood magnets like Bruce Willis.
Fucking Moebious of all people taking point on deisgn.
After all that and that tard Luc Besson shats out The Fifth Element.
What a disappointment that was.

>>15631385
>trying to pretend your eltist

New Thread
>>15632247
>>15632247
>>15632247

Need some reading for a week or two, is this series any good?