/lit/ - Literature

>>16246600
where my /saberhagen/ syndicate at?

>>16246600
LotR gets a vote. I'd also like to nominate Liveship Traders if that's how it works. You really should use Google docs.

>>16246614
So a post like this would count as a vote for LOTR and a nomination for Liveship Traders, yes.

An anon in the last thread mentioned that people were resistant to using their personal emails on something 4chan-related last time around. If I were to make it so that anyone could edit it would become a free-for-all on Google Docs, so I might as well just make it a free-for-all here.

>>16246600
Stories of your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang

Wait, so you want people to vote only 1? H-how is this thing even supposed to work?

Nominate:
Book of the New Sun (definite vote if it's 1 per user)
Lyonesse series
The Books of Babel

>>16246600
I don't understand your chart. It's called "Top 20 books 2019" yet none of the books were published in 2019. So really it's just a top 20 book list and you're just revising it each year, there's no reason to bill the year in the title of the chart, you can just put "updated for 2020" in the subtitle or in the corner.

>>16246684
I don't think that's anon's chart, just what he's using as a base for his idea.

Anyone else think fall of Hyperion is even better than the first book?

Also can someone recommend me something that has the same aura of mystery and horror? I really enjoyed the trip

>>16246692
Regardless, I don't like top 20 lists where you only get one vote. There should be ranked choice, it shows what really has the widest appeal. If people get one vote then it is much easier to rig and becomes a contest for pushing undesirable books off the list. If you let people vote for 20 books that they like, you get a much more accurate picture of what this community is like.

>>16246705
I agree FPTP is a sucky system though how would you recommend we implement anything much more complet than this?

Also no clue why you're replying to me since I'm not the anon who's organizing this

>>16246664
What I was thinking of doing was having it so that each individual reply to the OP would be a single nomination. So if you want to nominate more than one book or series, just make more than one reply. This would basically count as the first vote. And then, people who would also nominate that series can just reply to that post, or as many as they want at a time, and each reply for each series/book will count as one additional vote. Does that make sense?

>>16246723
If anyone is familar with how /mu/ puts together their charts most of the time, that's exactly what I have in mind here. Although I understand /sffg/ is a lot slower and less populated than /mu/

>>16246712
You replied so I replied. It's called conversation. And you can do a simple ranked choice easily enough in google forms, though I don't believe this will weight responses for you, you'll have to do it manually since you're just using a multiple choice grid for it. If you want to break it up you can do it in blocks of 5 like this.

You can sample for nominations using other methods but once you have your set list of candidates you can use this.

>>16246770
That doesn't work well because it's too much effort to add new series all the time and people aren't going to go back to change their answers for other books.

Nobody is ever going to agree. Make your cute little list and we'll put it on the fridge

>>16246770
> You replied so I replied. It's called conversation
And I have no issue with that. I just think your recommendations would be more effective if they were made to the person organizing this rather than to a random anon.

> Google forms
Does Google forms actually keep track of the person's email? becauuse if not then it's great.

One way we could use it is to just have one Form with one (or more) open fields for people to input the series, pick from those the ones with most votes and from there do your idea of having people rank each presented series.

>>16246775
If it's too much to actually get people's input then don't bother asking for input and just make the chart yourself. Given how basic this general is you can probably guess most of the top 20 anyway.

>>16246791
You've misunderstood me.
It's not a one time only thing.
People could have to be checking back all the time on the form to see what was added recently and the person in charge would have to be constantly updating it. If it got up to tons books, that format wouldn't scale well.

who /qualtrics/ here

Already this has fallen prey to the same problem that yearly /lit/ overall books have. It wasn't thought out beforehand and is rather slapdash in general and just think it's going to all work out without putting any effort into it. No organization and no operationalization.

>>16246770
>>16246790
And yes, someone would have to sift through the data to pick the most selected books, but with 30~ responses like we'll probably get it won't be that big of a deal

Hell, I could even go through the data if the anon who's currently working on it actually goes through with this idea

>>16246790
You can set the form to collect email addresses, but the option is turned off by default. Limiting responses requires a sign in though, so you'll have to decide if you want to restrict it to people who have gmail accounts (which lets face it is most people anymore so it's more about whoever is too paranoid to sign in).

As for collecting the initial list of nominations, you could do it manually by asking votes on /sffg/, generating the largest possible list, then doing a checklist form to winnow it down.

>>16246600
The Last Centurion by John Ringo, published 2008
>"Bandit Six", the book's protagonist, discusses his adventures following a withdrawal from the Middle East by U.S. forces in a time of chaos and disease. He commands a Stryker company that is left behind in Iran to guard a U.S. military equipment depot after a worldwide outbreak of mutated bird flu. He and his company repeat the journey of the Ten Thousand to return home, where he assists in agricultural recovery efforts and leads a military operation to regain control of a major American city.

Its almost prophetic work of fiction

>mutated bird flu breaking out in 2019 in China, goes global pandemic.. causing people to drown in their own fluids.
>international, domestic travel shut down, quarantines.
>social distancing, people trying to use dust filter masks to protect themselves from infection etc..
>talk about problems with pandemic preparedness, vaccines, receptor site mutations, antiviral drugs, prophylactic drugs, protecting the economy vs. stopping the virus..
>riots
>shooting rioters in self-defense against being shot at gets you charged with crimes
>media gets everything wrong, importance of personal responsibility

>>16246813
There's no need to sift through any data with a few spreadsheet functions.

>>16246600
what's the point of voting on what books we like best every year?
like most of the OP chart came out before 2000.

>>16246815
There isn't an initial list of nominations. It's all ongoing. There won't be any winnowing down.

>>16246813
You can dump responses into a google spreadsheet and collate it with a function, no need to do it by hand.

>>16246821
People like doing it. It's been done since 2014 or something for books in general on /lit/. It's all very silly but it's something people apparently enjoy messing with.

>>16246821
The list serves to rank the quality of the userbase, not the books

Spreadsheets are exclusively for people who are autistic and have no place with anyone else. Stop suggesting they be used.

>>16246819
>>16246826
You're assuming that either people won't fuck up when writing the names of the books and will always use the same standards for the name (i.e 1st books vs Series name), or that I'm capable of writing a function that accounts for people not writing the name properly.

So yeah, functions can be used but manual cleanup is required to be sure everything lines up correctly

>>16246614
+1 LOTR
>>16246664
+1 for Book of the New Sun specifically

>>16246600
Nominating Malazan Book of the Fallen

This shit isn't rocket science. If you think something belongs on the chart, vote for it.

Is Black Prism/Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks based or cringe?

>>16246843
Just use Unique() and pick a standard.

>writer spends an inordinate amount of time explaining how things look
Goddamn is that annoying. I love Wagner, but he's spent more time on this story I'm reading explaining how homes and objects look than on building up a proper horror atmosphere.
>an entire paragraph detailing how a fireplace mantle looks which will play zero role in the story
WHY? I understand it's meant to be a nice-looking mantle, but why in the fuck would ANY reader care what it actually looks like? Especially since it doesn't matter at all.

>>16246881
Different people enjoy different stuff.
I hope one day you understand this.

>>1624687
That brings up a problem when tallying how many responses we have for each entry, since we will be ignoring a few.

But now that I think about it that wouldn't really be an issue, since this open ended poll would be just to select the books for which people will vote on another poll, so tallying is useless.

>>16246843
If like the other anon said the expected responses are less than 50 then there's really no need to overthink it. You can do all the collation manually in notepad or a google sheet if you're feeling nerdy and probably not even bother with google forms.

That said I still think it's a waste of time unless people can vote for multiple series, especially with this few responses spread across this many books. And if you're going to let people vote for multiple books you'd have to keep a very close eye on the IP count of the thread to make sure no book got more votes than there are total IPs, and that the number of voting-posts is also not heavily disproportionate to the number of IPs.

>>16246868
It's maxes out both attributes.

>>16246890
Voter manipulation is irrelevant. It's just for fun anyway. There's no need to be so serious about it.

>>16246883
Or it's an excuse to pad out the story; which is something Wagner did. But for a short story? Ridiculous.

>>16246838
This is a science fiction general on an anime imageboard, why would you expect us to not be a bunch of lonely autists?

>>16246936
You only like to think you're the majority, but that hasn't been the case for years now.

>>16246920
I pity the fool who can't accept others.

>>16246859
I wish I had as much hope you do for people.

>>16246600
>>16246614
>>16246636
>>16246640
>>16246818
>>16246859

>>16246956
Yikes

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

>>16247012
Unfortunate.

>>16247009
Yikes!

>>16246920
>pad out the story
Are you trying to speedrun books? Take some time to smell the roses

Why do female authors love dragons so much?

Are they just the fantasy version of dogs?

>>16247048
They want to fuck them.

>>16246600
Nominating Realm of the Elderlings if we’re counting a series of series, otherwise Liveship Traders.

>>16247045
>not listening to audiobooks on 2x speed
There's not enough time in life to do otherwise. Sometimes I count reading book summaries as having read the entire book.
But, best of all are the nonfiction book summaries written by experts and then individually sold. They read the book for you and then present to you an executive summary in a couple pages of it all its insight. What a distilled experience!

>>16247050
Who wouldn't?

>>16247079
different anon but I couldn't fathom even listening to an abridged version of an audiobook, nevermind at double speed

>>16246640
That's just a collection of content from prior sources.

>>16247095
Next you are going to tell me you never skip entire chapters in books and skip over reading paragraphs constantly while reading!

>>16247109
I sometimes find myself skipping backwards to re-listen to parts as is

>>16246600
>spacing between the nominations.
Looks bad.

LOTR: 2 votes

Redwall: 1 vote

Stormlight Archive: 1 vote

Prince of Nothing: 1 vote

LOTR: 2 votes
Redwall: 1 vote
Stormlight Archive: 1 vote
Prince of Nothing: 1 vote

2 Votes: LOTR
1 Vote: Redwall, Stormlight Archive, Prince of Nothing

There are various other ways to do it.

>>16247115
That's a sign that you aren't that interested in it.

>>16247131
well, no, its just the reality of multitasking, right now I am watching a youtube video, a movie and browsing here

>>16246600
An Archdemon's Dilemma - How to Love Your Slave Elf Bride

>>16247168
wew, now that's a consoomer

>>16247168
Ah, thanks for describing how ADD feels.

>>16247168
Multitasking doesn't exist.

>>16247188
exactly, thats why I have to rewind if I feel like I missed something important

>>16246600
An attempt was made.

Imagine not reading every post in every thread.

>>16247179 2 liv iz 2 consoom.

>play dnd
>>dude I don't need to know what the room looks like lets just roll initiative and get this dungeon over with

>>16247128
Good call. Noted.

>>16247210
I just want this to go as well as it can. We're off to a good start.

>>16246818
>The Last Centurion by John Ringo

Sounds interesting. Will read.

>>16247209
That's a horrible analogy and you should feel bad for having typed it.

>>16247222
>skips chapters of a novel because it's 'not relevant'
It's a great analogy you're just mad it btf out of you

>>16247226
I don't argue with those who think they win arguments by decree.

>>16247237
I don't care who you argue with

>>16247237
>>16247240
You fags need to shut up and kiss already.

>>16247240
I care less than you care.

>>16247245
You down for a threesome?

It's Redwall but in Shawshank

>>16246700
No, only you think that.

>>16246600
Discord: https://discord.gg/KWPCM7m

We're reading the First Law series:
aug 30th- sept 3rd: Red Country
4th-6th: Sharp Ends
7th-12th: A Little Hatred
15th-20th: The Trouble With Peace

Ginger finally straightened, stretched cozily from her cramped position. “Mmm,” she purred; then: “Lord, what is that dog chewing on so! We didn’t have more than a plate of scraps for him after dinner.”
“Maybe Dan caught himself a rabbit. He’s always hunting.”
“Oh! Go see! He killed a mother rabbit last week, and I know her babies all starved.”
“Dan probably saw that they didn’t.” Brandon rose to go look. “What you got there, boy?”
Ginger saw him stiffen abruptly. “Oh, no! Not another mamma bunny!”
She darted past Brandon’s arm before he could stop her.
Dan thumped his tail foolishly and returned her stare. Between his paws was a child’s arm.

Damn...

>>16247317

>>16247326
Karl Edward Wagner continues on

>>16247063
I already did it faggot

>>16247379
>thinking people read the thread
lol

>Finally, Szeth raised his Blade over his head, looking down at the king.
>"What are you?" the man whispered, eyes watering with pain.
>"Death," Szeth said, then drove his Blade point-first through the man's face and into the rock below.

>>16247387
Sanderson can't keep getting away with it!

>>16247251
What does this even mean?

>>16246609
Extinct like a sabertooth.

>>16247485
Redwall but the prison in Green Mile

>>16246803
No one should be.

>>16247505
Anthropomorphic mice in prison?

>>16247514
Yea, and the one guy that kept Mr Jingles is the Willard of the story

>>16247514
>Anthropomorphic mice in prison?
There must be dozens of hentai about his.

>>16247569
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stay_Up_Late

>>16247368
Yep. Just finished .220 Swift and it was good. Though I didn't understand all that stuff about the albino possibly being a hitman.

Why don't people here like Sanderson?

>>16247615
Why should we?

Why shouldn't you?

>>16247615
We do though.

This thread was made way too early. The other thread is still on page 8.

>>16246818
I'm gonna look into this. Might read it

>>16247615
>>16243546

>>16246600
Give me fantasy with the most flowery prose ever.

So flowery that it could trigger my allergies.

>>16246614
>LotR
It's the wen on the arse of fantasy literature

>>16247664
Jabberwocky - Lewis Carroll

>>16247624
Why should we?

>>16246600
>no military sci-fi on the chart
Why?
There's plenty of great ones
Starship Troopers
The Forever War
I'm nominating the best though, Armor (pic related)

>>16246614
I'll give Lord of the Rings a vote too

>>16247706
Because it's a bad chart in general.

>>16247707
because /sffg/ is a bad general

>>16247733
because /lit/ is a bad board.

>>16247734
because 4chan is a bad site.

The Rage of Dragons, The Burning #1 - Evan Winter (2019)
The author's parents are from Guyana, he was born in England, he lived for some years of his childhood in Zambia, and now lives in Canada. This is supposed to be a Xhosa inspired African secondary world fantasy novel with bronze age technology, so a few thousand years ago, though he admits he didn't do much research. I can't say whether that's true or not, because I wouldn't know. There's also magic, but I wasn't particularly interested in it. This was originally a self-published novel and I think that comes through clearly in a lot of ways. A considerable number of Xhosa words are used, though some editions supposedly have a glossary. I'm undecided whether they added flavor or were just an annoyance, though I lean towards the former. I would have preferred in there was more consistency in its usage though. I didn't do particularly well in my attempt to imagine every character as black because it turned out that I didn't have enough visual material to work from to form exemplars and had to fall back to prototypes, specific characters I was familiar with. This is a power fantasy novel with a protagonist who uses the power of determination to accomplish his goal. The results of his training were far more than I thought they ought to have been. Arguably it's also wish-fulfillment. The protagonist core motivation is revenge, which he would have you believe is more important than literally anything else, and he goes far in convincing everyone that's true. The content is almost entirely fighting and training, as the protagonist is interested in little else. The protagonist was particularly disagreeable to me, so that was a problem. Most of other characters were fine. Overall, I found it to be consistently meh and I don't plan on reading the second book, but it may still happen sometime in the future if I have the proper motivation to do so. The rating may seem a bit high considering what I've written, but I didn't feel right to have it lower, so it isn't. Those I read it with have significantly lowered its average among /sffg/ members.
Rating: 3/5

>>16247761
>This is a power fantasy novel with a protagonist who uses the power of anime and friendship to accomplish his goal.
ftfy

>>16247761
Read Imaro, and other books by the same writer, if you want GOOD African fantasy.

>>16247798
You've been posting about it for a long while and I looked at it a long while ago.

>>16247788
Not really. It's more videogames probably overall despite me post about being like a light novel. Also, what friendship? It's mostly unrequited from Tau's end.

>>16247756
Why

>>16246600
Malazan series not being on this list is a crime

>>16246600
BOTNS was so overrated

>>16247842
>yet another person who didn't read the thread

>>16247706
Armor is the shit.

>mfw Felix goes all out at the end

>>16247842
>>16247848
Make your own chart, faggots, no one will ever agree on anything.

>>16247824
because internet is a bad decision.

>>16247842
What blows me away is Erikson writing ten books in almost just as many years with page counts ranging from 700 to 1200.

>>16247864
tldr

>>16247869
Ah so it's not this site that's bad it's all sites

>>16247879
because people is a bad existence.

>>16246600
Sexiled - My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mythical Sorceress!

>>16247888
depe

>135 posts
>previous thread is on page 9

>>16248117
>chart idiot wants to make a shitty chart nobody gives a shit about so he hijacks the new thread.

>>16246600
Throne of Glass series.

>>16246600
lotr
anyway, is the chronicles of amber good?

What are the best totally-not-viking novels in fantasy genre?

>>16245325
>No Game No Life (banned in various countries for being too pedo)
In which book does pedo shit happen, I've watched the series and it didn't seem more pedo than other nipshit.
>>16245570
Chinks are such bugmen.

>>16247317
Are you falseflagging discord trannies or are they really this pathetic?

>>16248823
No, no, they really are that pathetic. The last book they read was written by a nigger and the one before that was about lesbian necromancers (yes really). It's only fitting that they moved onto memecrombie.

>>16246600
I nominate that you fuck e william brown.

>>16248823
>>16248846
It's like you guys really hate reading.

>>16248908
We really hate discord, not reading.

>>16249045
You're calling people pathetic for reading books.

>>16249087
not him but, shut the fuck up tranny

>>16246818
Just picked it up and blitzed through it, I usually hate when authors tell a story by telling two other stories that have nearly nothing to do with the actual plot at play but holy shit am I loving The Last Centurion, sure, the Author likes his author tracts but the rest of the book is just that fucking good where it completely eclipses the generic “insert political beliefs”

>>16248908
I don't like bad books.
Simple as.

>>16249310
if you're in market for more reading I can heartily recommended his other works as well

I just finished Star Maker and kinda liked it
are there similar books? I'm thinking Diaspora

>>16246600
I nominate Dune for getting the fuck off the list

>>16249562
Why other than being a contrarian

>>16249599
Because the prose was piles within piles within piles of shit

>>16249607
I said without being a contrarian

>>16249609
so educated opinion is that Dune's prose was good?

>>16249624
>educated opinion
>Because the prose was piles within piles within piles of shit
Choose one

>>16249635
It's just a yes or no question. Does Dune have good prose?

>>16249652
Yes

>>16249676
Could you point to a passage that was well written?

>>16249685
Can you point out where your subjective claims become objective fact?

>>16249698
Yeah, pretty much the whole book.

>>16249713
>Yeah, pretty much the whole book.

>>16249720
You're welcome to post some examples of good prose from Dune if you'd like.
You can always just ignore this post too, since the thread is based on opinion. No need to get too worked up over someone not sucking Dune's dick for the thousandth time.

>>16249732
> to post some examples of good prose from Dune if you'd like.
But why would I waste my time when I've already ascertained that I'm not dealing with someone capable of separating objectivity and subjectivity?

>>16249741
I clearly gave an opinion, if you don't want to engage with it then why would you waste your time giving me a (You) to argue anyway you dumb cunt

>>16249761
>I clearly gave an opinion
>Can you point out where your subjective claims become objective fact?
>Yeah, pretty much the whole book.
your last (you)

>>16249767
>your last (you)
Thank fuck for that.
Anyway, as I was saying >>16246600, please remove Dune from the list on account of being a few hundred pages of absolutely rank prose. Cheers.

>>16246600
>Blindsight
That's a complicated choice.
I'm fascinated by the concept of a work comprising a total deconstruction and dissolution of itself and Blindsight has to be the closest thing that I've ever seen to a work that does that.
tl;dr it's hooked itself into my mind to get me to bring it up out of nowhere just for the purpose of saying that I hate it **could I salvage this post by asking: Any recommendations for books exploring similar themes in which it's clear to tell that the author is exploring these themes deliberately and you're not left just having to assume that the author is only pretending to be a giant hack?**

Please keep Dune on the list >>16246600

>>16249784
House of Leaves

>>16246600
Nominating Book of the New Sun

>>16246600
>sandershit

>>16249791
Naw, House of Leaves works with contradiction in the ontology of its narrative, but it doesn't put forth a narrative revolving around themes that in turn are put forth solely for the sake of having the narrative itself contradict and ultimately dissolve those themes the way Blindsight does. Of course, that reading of Blindsight depends on the assumption that Peter Watts really was only just pretending to be a giant hack, so that's going back to the issue of the intentionality that I'm hoping to be able to find in other works after having failed to find it in Blindsight.

>>16249791
>>16249872
Given the mention of House of Leaves, though, maybe Daddy Borges would have written something along these lines at least at one point. Go figure when I count him as my favorite author but I haven't really read that much of his bibliography overall.

>>16247100
Any collection is fine by me, but Stories of Your Life has a better selection than Exhalation, in my opinion.

>>16246600

>>16246600

Here is an update with the tally so far:

LOTR: 7
Book of the New Sun: 3
Malazan Book of the Fallen: 3
Liveship Traders: 2
Stories of your Life and Others: 2
The Last Centurion: 2
Redwall: 1
Stormlight Archive: 1
Prince of Nothing: 1
Realm of the Elderlings: 1
Armor: 1
Throne of Glass: 1
Dune: 1

Although there has been some confusion about the rules, I've tried to count everything that seems like a genuine nomination or vote. I did originally account for people responding to nominations for conversational purposes, so not all replies have been treated as votes. Going forward, if you want you reply to count as a vote or votes for other books/series that have been nominated in a given post, please just use this format:

">>16249827
+1"

Thanks.

>>16249902
Nobody cares about your chart

>>16249902
When did /sffg/ become so pleb and cringe? People used to have some taste here.

>>1624660
>>16249902
I assume I can only vote for one?
Anyway nominating Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination.
In between Malazan and Prince of Nothing with my vote, but I think I'm gonna have to go with the latter.

>science fiction
George R. Stewart - Earth Abides (1949)
John Wyndham - The Day of the Triffids (1951)
Walter M. Miller - A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959)
Clifford D. Simak - Way Station (1963)
John Brunner - Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
Stanislaw Lem - His Master's Voice (1968)
Strugatsky brothers - Roadside Picnic (1972)
Ursula K. Le Guin - The Dispossessed (1974)
Cordwainer Smith - Norstrilia (1975)
Gene Wolfe - The Book of the New Sun (1983)
Greg Egan - Permutation City (1994)
Neal Stephenson - Anathem (2008)
China Mieville - Embassytown (2011)

>fantasy
E.R. Eddison - The Worm Ouroboros (1922)
Lord Dunsany - The King of Elfland's Daughter (1924)
Hope Mirrlees - Lud-In-The-Mist (1926)
Mervyn Peake - The Gormenghast Trilogy (1946)
Poul Anderson - The Broken Sword (1954)
John Crowley - Little, Big (1981)
Alasdair Gray - Lanark (1981)
Jack Vance - Lyonesse Trilogy (1983)
Tim Powers - The Anubis Gates (1983)
Guy Gavriel Kay - Tigana (1990)

>>16249976
Just one nomination per post, but you can vote for as many that have already been nominated as you want. I'll go ahead and put you down for voting for both Malazan and Prince of Nothing since both have been nominated already. Might seem like a weird technicality but this is just to keep people from doing shit like this >>16249987

>>16249987
>Earth Abides
Thank you for reminding me

>>16249996
Seconding Prince of Nothing

Any books were females try to be strong and independent but get bad endings? Like the witcher?

>>16250411
My sister

>>16246600
Gay list is gay

>>16250544
why don't you put forth some challengers?

*buggers you*

Another vote for malazan

>>16248145
based.
+1 for Throne of Glass

From Page 8 we come

>>16248145
>>16250703
Bitches, leave.

This chart faggotry bullshit killed the thread.

>>16251202
>it's just for fun bro
>don't take it so seriously bro
This is why you organize. Do it properly or don't bother. this community is basically dead anyway, making the chart is just so a namefag can get attention.

What do ya'll prefer?

>Reading a series back to back
or
>Reading something else between books

>>16246600
>>16248145
Voting for throne of glass by Sarah J Maas.

>>16251139
>being this retarded
Have you even read the books? Just try one before you dismiss them. The publisher picked questionable covers but the books themselves are the pinnacle of modern fantasy.

>book of the new sun
i thought you had to be over 18 to post here?

>>16251553
>but the books themselves are the pinnacle of modern fantasy.
lol and you think that's an endorsement?
BITCHES
LEAVE

>>16251593
Return to your containment board: >>>/lgbt/

>>16246600
I dunno if you can nominate several books, if not then sorry, only count the first one pls.

Gateway by Frederik Pohl
Unsong
Childhood's End
The Northern Caves
The Stars My Destination
Foundation and Empire
The Man in the High Castle

+1 for LotR and Dune.

>>16251504
Depends on the series, if it's fat and bloated (wheel of time), I would most certainly not want to read them in one go, it would be far too much of the same thing
But if the series has better pacing, are shorter, or don't really have books as episodes, but as a whole
I really want to read everything at once, not "get out of it", until I'm done

Quick question. Have the pessimistic posters ever contributed anything to the thread? Seems weird they'd be fixated on its quality.

>>16251453
I AM STILL ALIVE, BUT IT'S HOPELESS I START TO NOTICE.....

>>16247317
RED COUNTRY, PART I

https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2019/09/updated-timeline-and-map-from-joe.html
Mmmm, chronology.

> Shy
I don't like that there's a Shylo and a Shy, but oh well.
Shy says "Lamb" is 25 year older than her. I'm all but certain he's Logen, but it could be a misdirect, but I don't think so. Logen was 30-35 or so in the trilogy, and this is 13 years later, so 43-48 or so, which probably makes her probably 18-early 20s. "Young-ish" as she says.

THE FIRST SIGNS OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION!
Needle press and printing press.

Is Sworbreck meant to be Abercrombie commentating on himself?
> Enough to fill twenty volumes!’
> ‘Three will be more than adequate—’
The original trilogy being the three. Then various other comments.

Time to for the UNION to MANIFEST DESTINY!
The year may be 590, but that's only 1 digit off from the 49ers.

As as expected of Cosca, he lost it all again and continues on with his ways. One would think they'd have a better choice than him, but seems he works well enough for their purposes I suppose.

Each man seems to think he's the best man in the company.

> He's my wife.
What a joke she (Crying Rock) made!

Seems there are various spoilers for the previous "stand alone" books.

Previous characters mentioned (Seems reading these in short order helps in remembering)
Lamb (Logen), Glama Golden (seems he recovered well over the years), Scale & Calder (as oxen), Nicomo Cosca (40 now apparently), Friendly, Sazine (long dead), Pike (formerly known as Salem Rews), Lorsen (Oh the whimsey of fate that Pike, his former prisoner, is now his literal Superior.), Brint (In every book except BSC, he gets around, as to be expected of Bayaz's back-up in case Jezal didn't work out), Shivers, and I think that's all of them. More than I expected.

>>16249136
Why are you here if you think reading is for trannies?

>>16248145
+1 for ToG. Can confirm, books are truly underrated.

Reminder: Read more fantasy, sci-fi, and horror that has shit like pic related.

>>16252154
What about Cthulu but Redwall

>>16252154
That makes me think of Annihilation by VanderMeer.

>>16246600

>want to try my hand at writing a fantasy short story
>live in a part of the country that is mostly farmland
>not that much experience being outdoors in dense forest areas
>plus the fucking lockdown we are currently in

I mean I don't really have to go full Tolkien on this one but how do you write about this stuff when you don't that much first hand experience?
It's not like I've never been in a damn forest, plenty of times between family vacations and school trips, I guess, but not for anything longer than a couple of days and never that far away from populated areas.

>>16252241
watch drone footage from amateur youtubers. EDM optional

>>16252249
>optional
EDM mandatory.

>>16251691
They don't want things to get better. They just want to bitch.

>>16252241
I guess you just can't write a story until you have at least a Master's in forestry.

>>16252300
admiteddly, its mostly me having trouble visualizing the spaces the characters are moving in, and how to describe them

>>16252241
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq54xLahoiA

You have the entire fuckin internet at your disposal, man. This was the first video I found typing "hours of walking around in a forest" on youtube, I'm sure you could find something better with a smidgen of effort. If you're that starved for references for your imagination then this is the very least you can do.

>>16251504
If I really like what I'm reading why would I stop reading it to read something else? I only take breaks if I'd rather be doing something else, which means the series isn't that gripping.

>>16252490
Hey I live near there

Never read much SciFi outside of a few Warhammer novels, doing my due diligence.
A Canticle for Leibowitz is on its way, god bless abebooks. What else should I pick up?

>>16246818
Is Dogzard next?

>>16253030
An e-reader to save your wallet.

>>16253030
You have to meh ones and two good ones in that pic (dune is overrated and if you disagree you have no taste). Why not go for the classics if you really haven't read anything? Dying Earth by jack vance and the robot series by assimov for sci fi and go for LOTR and the black company for fantasy.

>>16253150
I really love the atmosphere and general vibe of Dune, though I agree it's not the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Which other one would you say is meh? The only two of the pile I've really started see Ringworld and Rama, the prior is really interesting and the world building seems great, only little weirded out by Louis fucking the great great granddaughter of his ex girlfriend who looks just like her

/sffg/, I think I just did one of the stupidest thing I've done in years

I got done writing a romantic scene and got curious to look up the childhood crush who inspired her on facebook to find she's
>exactly as cute as I remember her
>still in my city
>taken

I also grabbed a pan that had been in a 425º oven moments later but I think the first one was stupider

>>16253208
>taken

>>16253141
>using an e-reader
oof
>>16253030
Is ringworld any good?

>>16253208
No doubt you're stupid enough to think this means you got KEKED by her.

>>16253208
Just astral fuck her and get it over with

>>16253289
I was, years ago. I had a mental breakdown in college over it. It resulted in a complete breakdown of my personality. I went through the kind of incel phase most people here on 4chan never get past. I did get past it eventually, after years of misery, suicidal self-hatred, the complete destruction of many of my social connections. Eventually though I did recover, though I never really ended up dating again after all that, partially because I'm not really dtf, partially because I remembered how fucked up wanting someone made me and partially because I was still hung up on her after all these years.

I don't blame her for not being interested. Hell, I never should have blamed anybody, I'm just not her type. Plus, in retrospect I'm like 70% certain she's not even into guys.

still, this is exactly the kind of thing I never should have even thought to do.

>>16253189
It's the ring world, while its perfectly fine as a one off piece, you have read the other, often better, earlier Larry riven works you can see it's a rehash of concept with the "big world" sprinkled in.
But as I said is ok as a stand alone. The sequels get exponentially worse and can easily "taint" the original if you bother to read them.

what is the sffg consensus on the Culture Series by Iain M. Banks

>>16253561
You don't actually want a consensus and you wouldn't believe it either way.

>>16253379
You've probably wrote enough posts on here about yourself to compile a autobiographical novella.

>>16253585
I think you know I am looking for anyone’s thoughts on the series

>>16253653
Search in the archive linked in the OP for more info. Use search terms such as culture Iain banks not necessarily all of them.

"The Culture series or Culture cycle refers to a series of novels and short fiction written by Scottish author Iain Banks. The stories center around the Culture, a post-scarcity semi-anarchist utopia consisting of various humanoid races and managed by very advanced artificial intelligence.

They do not need to be read in order and, while there are some interconnections, they are minor. "

Image is from the /sffg/ goodreads group which is currently at 242 members.

There only seems to be a single review for one of the books written by the /sffg/ members. If you want full length reviews, you'll have to look elsewhere.

>>16246868
Absolute cringe

>>16247664
The Fionavar Tapestry

>>16247798
>african
>fantasy

>>16246600
Nominating powder mage trilogy

>>16246600
Add Cradle series

>>16246600
Curse of chalion

>>16246600
The coldfire trilogy

I want to read some more Ursula le Guin. I read the first Earthsea a few years ago and liked it, but I'm not sure whether to read the next with my rusty memory or to read The Dispossessed instead. Which has the better writing style and most organic prose?

>>16246600
Abhorsen series

>>16253946
They are entirely different from each other.

>>16253946
>>/lit/?task=search2&ghost=&search_text=guin&search_tripcode=sffg

>>16246600
I am reading the black company and in one chapter The Lady says
>I never done this
What does she mean? Kissing? Cuddling? Sex? I am so confused

>>16254047
Anon, ambiguity is intentional. It's whatever you want to believe it to be. There isn't a right or wrong answer.

>>16254061
Yes but Croaker seems to know what she implied and that bothers me, if its gonna be a mistery at least let it be for the both of us

>They is four things that can destroy the earth, he said. Women, whiskey, money, and niggers.

>>16253985
Just shut down /sffg/ now

>>16254047
For future reference, quoting one line among hundreds of thousands of lines, specially with no context, is not a great way of asking a question. Don't assume everyone has some book as fresh in their memories as you.
I read The Black Company 2 or 3 years ago and I have no idea what you're talking about. From what I remember, Lady was a virgin, her marriage not consummated, just some wacky magical way to keep her in check. The Dominator had other fucktoys.

>>16254238
That doesn't seem possible.

>>16253977
So which is the one I'm looking for?

Chartvoting, trannycalling and fuck x posting are all the same cancer. If you want a better sffg, keep it to a minimum or find a better way to tally/nominate stuff.
Bonus points for actual discussion of books, but who am I kidding.

>>16254297
The Dispossessed is an ideological novel about anarchism.
Earthsea is a young adult magic school.
Figure it out yourself.

>>16254304
>implying anyone cares about "actual discussion" of books.
It's always failed when I've tried. There's various reasons for that.

>People this mad that one or two weeks of chart voting
>Like it's going to stop their bitching about bashing female authors
>Like it's going to stop their shitty writing questions
>Like it's going to stop their mono-genre is best genre attitude

Makes no sense shutting down sffg when the problem isn't chart voting.

>>16246600
Vote for Dune (collective if possible, if not, just the first)
Also, I'd unvote Stormlight Archive.

>>16248145
+1 Throne of Glass

>>16248145
+1 for Throne of Glass

>>16249872
The Mistborn series does this as a twist ending. Turns out all the deux ex machina coincidences, bullshit plot armor, and generic chosen one prophesy shit was all a con, in reality a bunch of cultists were using their magical powers to alter the historical record, brainwash people to follow their script, and secretly aiding the "hero" the whole time.
I still don't know what he was going for, almost convinced me to drop the book I hated it so much, and then the ending is almost literally "I was only PRETENDING to be retarded!" and I don't know if that's supposed to redeem it or make me hate it even more.

Finished Perdido Street Station. Really slow start. Annoying prose that's so densely descriptive a few times it's actually good. It wouldn't get published or praised otherwise. The dialogue and vocabulary, world building wise, was atrocious. Chymicals, Perrickish, head-legs, handlingers. The stupid street names, god dammit.
And there's such a weird mixture of styles. The Weaver thing, Yag's monologues (pretty great arc overall, if you forget the slow shift to a a more fluent cityspeak), the odd PoV. The whole math/programming bullshit near the end almost ruined it.
I thought it tried being so dense, plus original, in details it was kinda overwhelming because it's all contained in a little nothing of an adventure (sort of).

I was about to discard Mieville until I read he really liked Gene Wolfe. I guess I might check some of his shorter novels (there's no way I'm reading 800 pages of weird SF as written by communist Dickens) but I'm in no hurry to do so.

>>16246600
>blindsight
get this garbage of the chart

>>16248145
Why not, crap like Way of Kings is up there too.

>>16246600
This list isn't contrarian enough for a /lit/ top 20

Anyone here read Symphony of Ages?
I started it in high school and just picked it back up when I found out the conclusion trilogy got released. I really enjoyed it, especially the last book which felt so disconnected from the previous stuff. I liked the romance, as much as I read reviews talking about how mary sue/gary stu they are. They're fantasy heroes so I don't give a damn that they're overpowered as fuck by the end.
Anything else similar?

>>16247706
Halo is alright too, if ur interested in military sci-fi.

>>16247706
I'm currently reading Armor. Oh my fuck, can we just all agree to remove the Jack Crow bits?

>>16246600
This little book deserves way more love. Has anyone read it?

>>16249087
Yes, you are pathetic if you lack the brain cells to distinguish between worthwhile and awful literature. The shit you read isn't even bad in an authentic, self-aware way. It's just awful books for awful people.

>>16255630
hahaha retard

Just started out the Wheel of Time. Been having a blast so far. Didn't expect it to be so fast-paced and wacky.

>>16255669
Seethe more, tranny

>>16255673
>fast-paced and wacky
i quit after ~200 of their walking and complaining
"UH UH SO EXHAUSTED" "OH LOOK A HAUNTED CITY LETS GO DO SOMETHING RETARDED"

>>16255673
>fast-paced
Enjoy this while it lasts. The pace continually slows until it basically stops, then it picks up again right before the end.

>>16254997
Brainlet detected

>>16246600
did /v/ make this chart

it fucking sucks

>>16255722
what part except the monster was good again?
Everything else is trash. Terrible character abysmal MC, shitty space vampire, retarded underling philosophy.

>>16246600
Your chart has already been trolled.
You have rebbitors putting shit like lotr and Sarah maas ass' throne of glass. There was an anon who read through throne of glass and gave detailed reviews, it's shit.
Dune is also a bloated dated mess. It's great to read it to see how things evolved, but it's dated shit now.

>>16255743
Just admit Watts is too cerebral for you

>>16255780
epic trole have an upvote sir

>>16253286
>not using an ereader
>consooming bulky books only at home, if you're traveling you have to take your streamer trunk with you onto the bus
>being redshit and saying oof
>not an heroing
>being a luddite and hating advancing technology for reading
>responding to this post with yikes, like a true piece of shit rebbitor. Kys

>>16254047
>What does she mean? Kissing? Cuddling? Sex?
Yes.

>>16255722
>vampires in space

>>16255613
That book was misery incarnate.

>>16254047
I took it to mean physical intimacy with someone she didn't loathe and/or wasn't looking to use for personal gain.

Some people don't get it even after all these years.

LADY
IS
A
LYING
WHORE

Soulcatcher a waifu

>>16255717
Ah well. Great Hunt was nice, too. Even if the Shadow's choice of weapon for the big sky battle was kind of odd

>>16255707
SAME

Ada Palmer - Too Like the Lightning

Can anyone recommend this shit? Premise seems cool and I live the cover.

>>16255613
Shit, I remember crying at the end of it.

>>16256027
>I live the cover
like

Ignore the scholastic sticker and recommendation for children and do yourself a favor and read this.

>>16255951
Soulcatcher is the whore. You even catch something from all those men she was with.

5/5, best fantasy book written in the last decade

>>16256044
How old are you be honest

>>16256109
Nearly 30. I will admit to you the dialogue is childish, but that's because the characters are children. I read this as a kid and hated it, revisited it as an adult and it's got a whole new feel. Really awesome book.

How are they so good?
What the fuck were they thinking going against the Moranth?

>>16256116
I appreciate the sincere post

post comfy/feel good books

>>16255817
I just think books are better experienced when physically in your hand, removed from all possible distractions.

>>16251854
I was interested in this book but it ultimately fell flat for me. I particularly didn't care much about 2 of the main characters so it just felt like an average western. Fun at times but imo by far his weakest book. Still, the conclusion of the story was very nice, and it includes 2 of the most metal scenes he's written.

>Tanigawa finished a new Haruhi book before grrm finished The Winds of Winter

>>16255673
Have fun anon. It was a long and comfy journey for me

>>16256188
But it's just an anthology of 3 stories, only one of them is new.

>>16256211
Usually /a/ would bring this up but I only found about 4 posts in a >3000 page sticky discussing that. Sad.

>>16246636
Just use https://www.strawpoll.me/..
Guards against duplicates based on IP, so no login required. Easier to game, but a good middle ground imo.

Any sci-fi books about big ass wars and ships?

Bad decisions will continue to be made.

>>16249685
The entirety of the first baron harkonnen scene.

>>16256140

>>16253561
I read the first and didn't care for it. Off-putting in a way that was not provocative but merely ugly.

>>16253561
I really liked player of games rest was shit imo

>>16254983
Read The City and The City. It's tight where Perdido is a sloppy mess.

>>16254983
I liked Kraken.

What is /sffg/s opinion on The Laundry Files?
I think the ones with Bob are pretty fun.

Page 8

>>16253286
Yes ringworld is good. It's a cool space adventure book. Louis wu and speaker to animals are still 2 of my favorite characters

>>16255602
Jack crow is annoying compared to Felix but don't worry you get more Felix before the end and it's worth the wait

>>16256123

>>16256173
What distractions, you ignorant piece of shit.

>>16256173
The ereaders are physically in your hands.
Do you print out 4chan posts before reading them?

Page 10
Sffg is kill

>>16257181
Then start a new one my man of color.

>>16257136
Stop getting so defensive.
Scientific studies have been done on this. They suggest that people who read with a physical book are more likely to remember what they read.
They found that people who take notes pen on paper are more likely to remember it than people who take them on the computer.

>>16257201
lmao post links of the retention study.
If it's the same study from a few years ago, that reached those same conclusions, I remember it was carried out with less than 50 CHILDREN using tablets, not e-readers, with no follow ups.

Retention is different from distractions. You open an ebook, you read it just like any other book. From left to right, you switch pages, you go back, you check an instant dictionary, and the book could've cost you literally nothing.

>>16256984
Just got to that point, he's currently dick deep in ants.
Why the fuck is nathan such a pussy?

>>16257318
well can you understand someone having a preference for physical media?

>>16256027
I haven't read it, but people who like "rational fiction" in my blog feed seem to like it a lot

>>16249685
>I am steward of this land
>I am steward of this sand

Unironically beautiful. My favorite chapter probably

>>16256027
It's great.