/lit/ - Literature

Dawnshard was a lot of fun
Dragonrider Rysn bearing the Will of God is pretty based.

Any other good modern horror books? The only one ive truly liked so far is The Fisherman.

What are some fantasy books that are like Phantasies and King of Elfland's Daughter?

>>16732339
I guess it's setting her up as one of the MC for part 2 of the SA

How is it so damn good you guys?

What's up with Sanderson and why is he so divisive here?

>>16732552
He's bottom of the barrel processed fast food, so the redditors here love it.

>>16732552
He writes poplit. Basically the Danielle Steel of fantasy

>>16732552
Writes aggressively average lowest common denominator stuff. So of course, if you cast a wide enough net, you'll catch a lot fish, even if they are some of the dumbest fish.

>>16732563
Recall, like 5 years ago
people would unironically(genuinely), recommend and praise Stormlight Archive here, back then

BRANDOOM SANDERSTROM

Just about finished the trilogy.

1st was great 5/5
2nd was good but plot was not great so 4/5
3rd is pretty aids. Can't tell if I'm just sick of the series but it's gotten repetitive and unexciting.

Opinions?

>>16732200
I like the main instalments (regardless of how poplit they are) but read Edgedancer and it was honestly the worst book I've read in many years. Is Dawnshard any better?

>>16732640
What's so aggressively average lowest common denominator about his stuff ?

>>16732650
You think redditors haven't been swarming this site long before that? That place practically started out as 4chan lite.

>>16732674
Yeah, it's a trend. Captivating first book, decent rebound in the next one, and then its all downhill. The series gets very repetitive. At the end of it I was sick of the characters, the world, the story, etc...

>>16732689
What isn't?
The prose is pedestrian. He tells more than he shows, so even the slowest idiot can follow along. It's crazy more people don't feel insulted by how much he delivers exposition in such a condescending manner, like he thinks all his readers are 10 year olds, and not very bright ones at that.
The characters are very simple and safe, with clear and obvious overly planned out character arcs from the start. He also makes it abundantly clear exactly what they feel, with zero room for inference or allowing actions to speak for them.
The themes are all the same, extremely palatable and simple ones with nothing in the way of nuance or complexity beyond what your average person would find inoffensive.
The dialogue is stilted and wooden at best. Dreadfully unfunny and unnatural at worst. But he knows the kids love them MCU style quips, so he forces them in anyway.
The action is just horribly written, with overly long mechanical descriptions devoid of any sense of tension or speed. But anime is hot, so you gotta appeal to that audience too.
His magic systems suck ass. Just attach some power delivery system to some generic superpowers and you're done. I guess using metal was kind of novel, but even then the core premise of using a specific consumable for specific powers has been done plenty of times before. Using the oldest magic power source ever, bottled lightning? Wow, oh, and here come the generic super powers again...
I guess his worldbuilding is fine, but a world dominated by one weather phenomenon isn't particularly interesting or unique either.

It's all just so soulless and methodically planned to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible.

>>16732795
>11 posters
>16 replies
>projecting this hard
Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

>>16732827
>>projecting this hard
Don't use multi-syllabic words if you don't know what they mean. Seriously, what the fuck do you even think poster and reply count has to do with listing criticisms?

>>16732751
Fitz tries to do something, gets captured, nearly dies then deus ex machina's an escape

Rinse and repeat 500x

There's only so many descriptions of how unwell he is or how much he cares about his gf I can handle

Are the other Elderling trilogies worth?

>>16732795
Plots are pretty fucking predictable too. Really unsubtle plot hook setups and the like. Pretty rare to read someone who engages in so much foreshadowing (if you can really call it that) but does it so poorly.

>>16732650
There's something off about your post. Can't put my finger on it.

>>16732700
I'll bet most anons on any board are redditors and always have been.

Which is the weakest out of all of Gene's works? Operation ARES excluded, since he disavowed it himself.

>>16732552
He's a natural mid-lister who became a giant so he attracts seething rage. A lot of his stuff is good genre fiction, some is ass.

>>16732958
>always
Kinda hard when plebbit wasn't a thing yet. I also doubt it's a majority, maybe apart from /pol/.

>>16732552
He unironically writes his stories like they're shonen manga, complete with random power ups for main characters and an ever escalating power scale of villains.
If you're into that kind of stuff, that's fine. But because he's such a prolific writer at this point and is essentially the face for Fantasy, whether you bitter chuds admit it or not, he's having a negative effect on the genre as a whole.
Not only that, but by and large his characters fall under 2 categories - quick and witty with a dark secret, or hardened and bitter with a dark secret. There's rarely any nuance, it's all very surface level, and as someone pointed out in the last thread you can quite literally take random dialog blurbs out from any of the main characters of any of his books, throw them in a pot, pick one at random, and likely won't be able to tell who it came from, or even what series it came from, or even what gender the person speaking is.

I'll admit he has some neat ideas and his overall plots are entertaining enough. But it's the epitome of all flash and no substance. There's nothing to be gained on a reread, there's no overwhelming amazing passages that will stand the tests of time, there's no real moral or point to any of his stories. He just wants to write about badass characters doing badass shit with badass magic in a badass setting.

>>16732552
See >>16730227

>>16733393
I agree Sanderson isn't a good example. Thing is, Stormlight Archive is doing more good than bad right now. He's talking about mental health, introducing new lore, neat ideas and evolving his scenes.
He's still bad at dialogues, but if anyone try to follow his footsteps, they're gonna get beaten by him! He's doing already a lot of things and surpassing his limits with a great book. No one can attempt to copy his style without dooming themselves to repeat the same shit over and over!

It's exactly because he's such a creative and hard worker guy, not because of his raw skills, that he's forcing the Fiction World to change. Now, as with every change, there is a price. And I don't believe we can say what price is that, only that anyone who follow his example will doom themselves.

>>16732674

First trilogy is meh. Second one is the greatest fantasy trilogy I've ever read. And I've read a lot. Third one is great, if you're bored with it, then you're clearly overreading.

>>16733572
This post has the uncanny feeling of having been ripped from somewhere else.

>>16733572
This feels like a reddit copy pasta, but I'll take the bait.

>Thing is, Stormlight Archive is doing more good than bad right now. He's talking about mental health, introducing new lore, neat ideas and evolving his scenes.
Glad to know you haven't read anything else because this sure is a dumb fucking statement regarding written works in general.

>No one can attempt to copy his style without dooming themselves to repeat the same shit over and over!
Thousands of creative arts students turn in better written, half-attempts at a story for their degrees. I guarantee you Brdaron

>It's exactly because he's such a creative and hard worker guy, not because of his raw skills, that he's forcing the Fiction World to change.
No. This is ignorant to a level where you are purposefully being dense.
It's social media advertising forcing the average person to see his stuff, and constantly be bashed over the head to read his work.
Also, I don't mean to be that guy, but the Mormon connection should always be called into question regarding shit like this. Mormon's have their foot in the door because everyone has the mentality of 'Gotta help out the church first, fuck everyone else!'.

Sandrones really need to read another series.

>>16733629
>I guarantee you Brdaron
Thanks chon.

I guarantee you Brdanon wouldn't be able to determine a master in Written arts attempting to emulate his "style" versus a middle school creative-writing class student trying their best to be like their hero.
He writes like a robot, and makes errors no author should if they want to be take seriously.

>>16733583
I'm on 3rd book in the first trilogy, not 3rd trilogy

Ok i'll take ur word for it and plough through trilogy 1 book 3 to get to the second trilogy

>>16732200

9 more days till the Rhytm of War greatness, my Sanderbros.

Cant wait to read another good 1k pages of badass characters in power armor swinging bigass swords around and doing cool shit.

>>16733629
>the mormon connection should always be called into question regarding shit like this. Mormons have their foot in the door because everyone has the mentality of 'gotta help out the church first, fuck everyone else!'
Is this true? Are Mormons the kikes of white people?

BRANDANCE SANDERSONG

I only consume sandershit in audiobook form while commuting because I have better things to spend my actual reading time on. guess I'm waiting a year for dawnshard

Whats the ideal number of books in a series before it becomes too self-indulgent

>>16733922
one

I'm still looking for a good space fantasy novel series. Something like LOTR but in a space setting.

I like funny skelletons, skelleton armies, talking skelletons, etc.

Book recs for that?

Bonus if it's not Medieval, Renaissance or Bronze Age fantasy.

Any recommendations for something like Lucifer's hammer except less shlocky and more bleak?
I found the road to be a bore.

>>16733922
three within a self-contained story, 5 within a world, unless the first trilogy was a once in a decade story.

reposting, check your butthurt in at the door before replying

whats the best short story anthology for fantasy, not sci fi
mature shit that deals with death and has stakes and is NOT written for women

Any good stuff where a bunch of kids are forced conscripted to war?

Any good stuff where a guy that remembers real good are retelling the story of how he became the ruler of the planet?

>>16734118
How Long 'til Black Future Month?

>>16733629
being mormon is based

>>16732200
In one setting I'm working on, reality itself is unfixed, a bit like clay that wasn’t fired properly, stable at first glance, but when my equivalent of mages uses their powers, or during certain natural events, and/or in regions where there are few sentient beings to observe and perceive their surroundings, things can drastically change and flux, though intelligent beings are hard to permanently alter.

One religion I was thinking of for the setting believes that the state of the world is because God is asleep, and they are God’s dreams, or at least what he subconsciously created via his dreams, there might be some debate on that. But I was thinking of a greater divide, one between two factions with different ways of handing this. One wishes to keep God asleep using prayers that are basically divine lullabies, offerings, etc., believing that the world will end if God wakes, while the other wishes to awaken God with their louder prayers and actions, and that they will be rewarded by surviving the awakening if they do.

I was also thinking of a faith(s) that believes that the gods abandoned the world during its creation, due to the local Original Sin or some outside factor, and they have to either somehow call the gods back or complete their work in their stead.

I am thinking of at least one or two more religions and/or splinter sects for the setting, what do you think of what I already have, and what do you think would be best for the religion(s) I want to round it off with? My best idea is a cult or something that believes that humanity was once advanced, but devastated the world in their arrogance, and that the unstable reality of the world is the fault of their ancestors. Also, please note that no one in the setting will have any idea which, if any, is the truth, and even I am unsure right now, if I even decide to choose at all. Any ideas would be much appreciated, please, especially regarding names for these religions.

>>16734467
Ok, so what's the story about?

>>16734509
based

>>16732502
Probably not an MC but she'll certainly be a key player.

>>16732795
Wow, never have I read so many words that mean absolutely nothing when you think about them for more than 2 seconds.

>>16734594
>me on the sandermere

>>16734467
IM WOOOOOORLDBUILDING

>>16732795
I remember the action being pretty epic, for example the final fight in the way of kings, all his books have le epic chills climaxes whcih is bbbbbased

>>16734065
Discworld's Death series follows Death, and he's a skellington

And I haven't read it, but Gideon the Ninth is supposedly about necromancers

>magic systems

what happened to that link in the sticky where the guy would rate all of the authors

>>16732674
3rd book ended absolutely retardedly and left my with a sour taste I couldn't wash out iirc

>>16732650
going to try it soon for myself, can't trust anyone's opinion around here

>>16732369
Ship of Fools is fun SF horror, just don't think about it too hard. Blindsight and Peter Watts in general is more brainy SF horror. "Let the Right One In" is a vampire book with a lot more personal and mundane horror.

>>16732369
>The Fisherman
I read this a few years back and I just couldn't get into it

wow this thread is dogshit

recommend me a space opera with lots of strategy and elegant prose

>>16734838
Welcome to /lit/!

>>16734854
write it yourself

>>16734858
Damn I have some catching up to do

>>16734862
my brain is too small

I'm looking for a new fantasy series, anyone read something good lately?

>>16734892

>>16732795
>I guess his worldbuilding is fine, but a world dominated by one weather phenomenon isn't particularly interesting or unique either.
Most of the criticisms here are pretty generic in their nature and so overly simplistic that its laughable, but even beyond that, this one just means that you either didn't pay any sort of attention or didn't read.
Roshar is far more than just 'a planet dominated by one weather phenomenon'. Sure, you can simplify it that way, but to ignore the absurd amount of originality within it is disingenuous. From the sea-like life to how humanity interacts with the Highstorms, to societal structures around the world, to even how themagic system synnergizes with the world itself, mingling with every aspect of life to points even the reader is unaware of. I don't think there's anything else quite like Roshar in fantasy, and ignoring that is stupid. You can dislike the characters, the 'simplistic themes' (Which include some of the best representation of mental health and overall psychology in Fantasy I've seen) or the magic system, but to say Roshar isn't 'interesting or unique' is fucking retarded.

>>16732795
Red Letter Media made a Simi argument regarding why Titanic waa so successful. If the average iq is 100 then thats who you need to appeal to to get the most fans

the man in the mirror isn't real, bros

>>16734892
Most recent thing I've given a shot was Jade City/War
Fun story about Yakuza like families in "It's literally just japan but with a different name in a different world" at war with each other. And they use Jade to get generic-style superpowers (Superstrenght, superspeed, super-senses, generic long-distance punches, healing,) but the magic could kind of be taken out of the story and it'd be basically the same, just replace Jade with some other super-exclusive resource that only the Yakuza families have control over.
The characters are all kind of shitty people, save for the gay one (of course) but also extremely likable so it feels justified when they do fucked up shit.
They can be a bit heavy to read at times and the pacing can be all over the place, particularly in the second book when you sometimes get year-long timeskips with barely any warning, but overall, pretty fun, looking forward to the last book of the trilogy.

>>16734892
Fire and sword. It was pretty ok dark fantasy but without the rape rape rape of most grimdark. Not perfect, but it was good enough for me to read the whole series.

>>16732650
it's because everyone here is a contrarian.

Why is Adrian Tchaikovsky's work so overlooked? I've only ever seen him get recognition from Children of Time, which is great, but books like Guns of the Dawn, Cage of Souls, Dogs of War and Children of Ruin are all completely disregarded. He's definitely one of the most active sci fi/fantasy writers around. Several 500+ page books each year.

>>16735066
Logic is simple:
Reddit like = Anon dislike

>>16735066
Surely contrarians would like Sanderson. All the Sanderson haters are over on reddit posting lists of all the books featuring interqueer racemixed orphans written by immigrants raised by single mothers.

>>16732650
The only reason I found out about ASOIAF, WoK and Kingkiller Chronicles was due to this board and this dates to more than 5 years ago.
ASOIAF was okay but didn't know it was still going when I first got it (ADWD wasn't even out then). The other two ended up being mediocre and forgettable.

People still shat on all of them from time to time. Thank God I never fell for the Wheel of Time meme.

>>16735131
>Thank God I never fell for the Wheel of Time meme.
You've missed out.

>>16735135
Its teen fiction bruh

>>16735154
Yes and it's extremely fun.
If you seriously can't enjoy something purely because you don't fall directly into its target demographic, then I feel bad for you. I recently re-read the entire Deltora Quest series and enjoyed it immensely despite it being childrens books.

>>16735164
It's not enriching in any way. I'm finishing Eye of the World and it has zero substance.

>>16735164
If Wheel of Time is anything, it isn't fun, unless you think it's fun to read thousand of pages about women bitching about men and talking about spanking while travelling very slowly to a random point in the world.

>>16735184
Read the Great Hunt, great cunt. Books 2 and 3 are classics, and they're what make people take the autistic dip and read all 97 books.
>>16735209
there's a point where hyperbole just becomes obnoxious, my man. The skirt-straightening, braid-pulling shit only becomes Jordan's hilarious meme-crutch during the slump of the series. Like books 7-9. Just before the fucker kicked the bucket.

And also, I'm not trying to give the WoT any ups. I think it's ultimately a waste of time, but I also hate reductive faggots and people who take a taste and don't put the drink down.

>>16734088
Blindopraxia

>>16735254
It shouldn't take over 1000 pages to get good lol the whole series is drawn out

>>16735278
yeah, no shit. It's a very cumbersome fantasy epic. You have to play by its rules. The slow burn, and watching Rand (the only character whose actual *character* gets any real respect and loving attention from Jordan, besides maybe Mat) become something so twisted is pretty fucking awesome. I could go on and on about Rand's character, but I won't. You pretty much have to read it for him.
The fact that it is so confidently drawn out and honestly, meticulously plotted is why Wheel of Time both deserves respect and still has discussion like this today.

>>16732200
Robert E Howard is a dry writer imo. Is there any other S&S writers worth my time?

>>16735298
It's easy to meticulously draw out your plot when you stretch it out with literally thousands of mentions of ladies spanking, getting spanked, threatening to spank someone, remembering the time they got spanked, remembered how another lady used to spank them in a particular way, talking about how spanking affected their opinion, wondering why things can't be fixed by spanking anymore, spanking anyway, ganging up on one girl to spank her each in turn, getting all spanked together, thinking very hard about wanting to spank someone, talking about spanking with other ladies, and so on. It's a wonder any woman in these books can sit down at all.

>>16735309
Lmao. It is literally thousands. That shit is painful, but it's true.
I just want a female mage to spank me raw anon

>>16735305
Fuck out of here.

>>16735375
Does it get better after the autistic fictional essay, "The Hyborian Age"?

>>16735664
>he didn't enjoy the Hyborian age

>excited to read a book in a series that won't be finished for decades

>>16733922
The first Amber series was 5 books but they were only 200ish pages each so ...

>>16734166
ender's game

>>16734950
Hardly surprising, his face looks like a mask with no one behind it.

Started reading Ted Chiang's "Stories of Your Life and Others." After the anon posted Exhalation the other day. Pretty nice so far, just finished Division by Zero which I think was better than Tower of Babylon and Understand. Understand was just fucking silly, especially with the 1000000 IQ "duel" at the end. Tower was neat overall but didn't give me much to linger on, but Division by Zero hit me in a few ways. Good stuff.

The Expanse is mega over rated.

>>16735309
Based and spank pilled

>>16734934
I'd say Mike's assessment is off the mark. To capture the most audience you don't make your movie for the average person, you make it for the well below average without making it unpalatable for everyone else.

>>16735831
Show or books?

>>16735895
what board are we on retard?

>>16735066
no we're not

>>16734118
Boku no Pico

>>16734891
Then watch animu, brainlets tend to enoy ones called LoGH and Gundumb

Extremely disappointing. Turned into a standard oblivious descendants of ancient spacefaring mankind story. I initially thought the author was going for a simulation angle when the "possessed" villagers started talking in binary and computer lingo in their trance and given how bizarre the planet and its creatures were. I just assumed the tainted undesirables were infected code that the system wanted to purge by branding and exiling them into the wilderness, but nah.

>>16736148
>LoGH
is based

>>16736172
ok, brainlet

>>16736182
yare yare

what's a good fantasy book for a brainlet who hasn't read a book front to back in almost 2 decades

>>16736246
Harry Potter.

Do people really have panic attacks from remembering that they had a break-up?

>reading fantasy for 'enrichment'
This is my popcorn

>>16736291
Sometimes I feel serious dread or anxiety. I've never had a panic attack at all. Is that what a character had? Maybe they're prone to panic attacks.

>>16736305
who are you quoting

>>16736307
Guy walks down the street, thinks about this 'jenny' he was with and cheated on him, and starts doing breath excersizes to offset his own hyperventilating. I am some what surprised people have such a low tolerance to panic attacks.

>ctrl f 'enrich'

>>16736318
>>16735184

>>16736246
Ender's Game

hey /sffg/ what's a book you don't think enough people here have read ?

>>16736522
The Penric novellas by Lois McMaster Bujold. They're great and also short.

>>16736522
Dune Messiah, and then much later Heretics.
I really wish Papa Frank had access to a computer back in the day.

You guys weren't kidding about WoT book 7 being dull

>>16734917
We get it, you don't read anything else but Sandershit. It's always so embarrassing how you fags out yourselves when you seriously think this shit stands out in originality. You'd have to have done nothing but read Tolkien and DND ripoffs to genuinely think this is unique and original.

>>16732650
I still recommend the series, just because it's a good vertical slice of what popular fantasy is like right now. I just also recommend Bakker and Erickson because they're actually good.

>>16737253
Another anon said that the Shardblades are just Keyblades from Kingdom Hearts and it's honestly kept me awake since last night.
It's amazing that the KH analogies don't end at the weapons, it feels like Way of Kings was meant to be read like a silent text rpg with squeaky ui sounds.

Bros, so I've been out of fantasy reading for like two years now, but for the last few days I've been giving a re-read to The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear and they're still as good as I remember.

Made me think about what's up with book 3. Last I remember Rothfuss was complaining about Trump. Now that le Drumpf is kill, maybe there could be some progress?

Then I found this. Appearently that nigga hasn't even written shit since 2014.
https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2020/07/patrick-rothfusss-editor-confirms-she.html?m=1

What's the local take on this?

>>16734755
There's nothing inherently wrong with having a magic system such that the magic in the story isn't just one deus-ex-machina after another, you just have to use a light touch. Part of why Sanderson has fans is that a lot of his audience are the sort of people who watched Naruto, and thus they're there in large part to see these extended fights where the autistic rules of the magic systems are used in creative ways.

Personally I think it's gay, I prefer magic to be as alien and unpredictable to the reader as it is to the characters in the book, who don't know what magic's rules are (if it even has any) and who see it as... Well, magic. That said, some people like it, so it has its place.

Here are my thoughts on DawnShard

Lopen and friends=comfy

Rysn = Sanderson trying too hard once again to make a female character people actually like. Rysn being a crippled female POC-kin grrrrrrl trader with at least two "power to the character" scenes in the book who magically becomes incredibly important to the future books/lore really made me fucking think.
Swears to not bond a spren but I guarantee this is a setup later in the series

Cord = Wants to fight against the darkness in the world because her father will not. Blatantly a future Radiant.

The negotiation at the end is retarded. The Sleepless most likely have a way to rip the DawnShard out of Rysn but instead we have them roll right over.

Aimia is confirmed by Nakli to have had weather manipulation devices that stabilized the region. The Sleepless are literally ancient aliens from another world in the universe so it wouldnt be far fetched to assume they turned some of the devices back on, leading to the weather over Akinah.

Reference to Warbreaker at the end is nice.
I give this book 3.5 meatballs out of 5

I sure hope that Rhythm of War is better than this.

>>16734917
I like Sanderson and I agree that Roshar is pretty cool in principle.

That said, why is it that every single fucking person who talks about this series positively talks about mental health issues? This is seriously like the 20th time I've heard it, a bunch of fags on youtube brought it up, two reviewers I read brought it up, and then everyone who praises it since like last week brought it up.

This was not something people really said before. Have I just not gotten far enough into the new one to see this yet? Like, if you want a story about mental illness, read Bakker. Cnaiur is literally the best character in the series and the entire point of him is that he's two cards short of a tile grout vacation. THAT is mental illness. Shallan being baby's first schizophrenic and Kalladin being me as everyone imagines themselves at edgy 16 do not compare.

>>16737466
It's interesting so far, but I find myself continually sighing whenever new fucking characters are introduced.

>>16737350
Kaladin is literally Rikku.

>>16737466
Everyone on Roshar is an ancient alien from another world. Probably some Ashyn, probably wherever else, I forget the specifics.

Why is he so based, /sffg/brohs? What's your favourite work of his?

>>16737530
It's just virtue signaling. Liking books because of all the cool anime action isn't worth a lot of points, so reddit looks for other things.

>>16737464
The fuck are you on about? It's been a decade since I've read Naruto but the magic system were always very loosely defined. One Piece has more hardcoded rules.

>>16737466
>Reference to Warbreaker at the end is nice.
What was it? Must've missed it.

>>16737544
holy shit you're right

>>16737544
One r, Rikku is the science-aryan girl from FFX who everyone wanted to fuck.
That said holy fucking shit.

>>16737638
Well I'm more speaking about the first few arcs which is all I watched with my son, but generally speaking every "ability" in Naruto, and the abilities which define each character, have pretty clear-cut abilities. Naruto can do the shadow clone shit, Shikiwhatever can control people if he can get to their shadow, etc. And the question was always, how are they going to use this to defeat the villain of the week?

I'll admit that it's probably not the best example but it's a better match than say, DBZ which is literally just "your number is bigger so I'm going to yell and then my number is bigger" instead of there ever being anything tactical.

I guess a better example would be Jojo, where each Stand has a really specific set of abilities.

>>16737561
I'm convinced that it was the right decision to go through this series via audiobook. Michael Kramer can make anything sound good, having to read all this italics shit makes me want to kill myself with one of those lids from the peel-off tins of kippers. Not sure how I'd do it, maybe cut my wrists.

>>16737729
The italics are mega faggotry, which is why I went audio for the last two books. However each time I go through these threads I doubt my decision in ever reading a book from Sanderson.

>>16734594
>>16734917
>zero arguments why they're wrong
>just buzzwords and butthurt
Just the average sandershill coping again. Imagine how fucking stupid you need to be to unironically write something like this:
>criticisms here are pretty generic in their nature and so overly simplistic that its laughable
The irony of posting something this laughably vague, generic and just brain dead simplistic is just too much. Might as well have gone full dated meme lord and said the criticisms were "shallow and pedantic".

>>16737530
Because everyone who is reading that swill is a basket case

>>16736522
I feel a lot of Wolfe's oeuvre is unread by most since they just read BotNS and 5th Head, maybe dive into Latro or the rest of the Solar Cycle, but don't touch the rest.

Are there any good podcasts covering sci-fi and fantasy (or any genre, really) literature that aren't run by Reddit "men" or airheaded feminists with severe vocal fry? I just want something interesting to listen to on my way to work when I'm between audiobooks or waiting for the next episode of 372 Pages.

>>16737836
>372 Pages
>look it up
>Conor Lastowka and Michael J. Nelson are reading books they're pretty sure they're going to hate. Read along with us for a podcast book clubs of Ready Player One, Armada, The Eye of Argon, Dan Brown, and more!
>complaining about reddit
Hm.

>>16737850
>he doesn't know about 372
You ignorant nigger

>>16737645
"Rysn's eyes flicked to a purple hordeling hiding on the wall, near where it met the ceiling. Strange, how she saw the contrast of shadows much more starkly now.And . . . why did Drlwan's voice sound more musical?"

She is at the Third Heightening at least.

>>16737870
Good catch. Makes sense, considering that dawnshards seems very similar to breaths. Wonder if like breaths they are part of something's soul.

>>16737645
"Rysn's eyes flicked to a purple hordeling hiding on the wall, near where it met the ceiling. Strange, how she saw the contrast of shadows much more starkly now. And . . . why did Drlwan's voice sound more musical?"

Her Breath got a boost so she can perceive colors and sounds better.

>>16737746
I think it's important, he's kind of the bronze standard of mass-produced genre fiction fantasy these days. Not great, but certainly not terrible.

>>16732552
It's mostly just because of the obnoxious fanboys that won't shut the fuck up about him. They keep pushing his schlock as the best modern fantasy, masterfully told stories, and all kinds of other stupid shit. They constantly get triggered by the slightest criticism, which the idiots invite by using all the hyperbole. You know, standard redditors that can't just say they like something, but need to pass off their basic bitch tastes as something more objectively correct and weighty.

It's starting to get even more annoying than the Malazan fanboys used to be, because Sanderson fanboys are just as deluded in thinking they're reading some truly deep and complex shit, but are reading something that's way dumber and just poorly written chaff. You'll get the occasional dimwit insisting this isn't the case and his fans just want some simple entertainment and are aware of this, but you can always tell they're full of shit (and that they know it too) because of how defensive they get.

>>16737544
Holy fuck. I should have seen this, how didn't I see this?
The pieces are finally aligning, soon people will see the fatfuck as a hack soon enough.

>>16732552
Just going to say that >>16738090
captured my opinion pretty well. As >>16733393
said his books are very simple stuff which leads to a large fandom of dumb people who are very obnoxious and loud. His books are easy to get into and entertaining for the average reader but by no means they are a work of art or deep.

>>16738021
And how do I escape the bubble of pop fantasy literature?

>>16733583
You’ve obviously never read second apocalypse.

Also how can you say your favorite anything was written by a woman

I never have nor will read shit by a woman

>>16732339
is that what happens? sounds nice. might read it then. The preview chapters up to this point for rhythm of war have been a fucking snooze fest.

from what the early reviews are telling me it lacks the giant Sanderson battle at the end like most of the other books and the old characters basically take a back seat during the second half of the book as we make way for new parshendi characters that pop out of nowhere. everything just feels like set up for the fifth book is another thing that keeps being said.

Fuck it. I think I might be done with this ride.

>>16734892
I can’t believe some faggot told you to read some oriental shit, bro just read Bakker wtf. But don’t if you still want to read other shit that’s cool. Nvm don’t listen to me aaaargghh idiot idiot idiot

>>16735164
Wheel of time is not enjoyable for anyone who’s actually done some shit in their lives ; see: me.

The only irl people who’ve read WoT and claim to love it are faggots while I’m an actual stud. I read the first book only.
Studs and chads don’t read that shit.

>>16736450
This, read Asoiaf, Enders game quadology, Broken empire series, blade itself books, prince of fools books, ughhhh read some other shit oh yeah read Anthony Ryan blood song (just the first) then read some other shit idk then when you’re done reading everything (also don’t forget lotr and solar cycle) read bakker then you’re done

>>16736246
See>>16738207

>>16737912
Breaths are innate Investiture.

>>16732200
I've yet to read a single one of Brando Sando's works, even though mistborn is lying on the book pile for the coming winter. Nevertheless I enjoy his "lessons" on youtube about creative writing. He seems like a cool guy to grab a beer with. The advice ranges from useful and applicable to hollow and trivial. He at least admits that he had luck and success "cannot be predicted" in this field.

>reading for november
>H.G. Wells - The Time Machine
Catching up with some classics. I've only known the movie adaptions so far.
>Cixin Liu - Death's End
Kinda felt like The Dark Forest could've been an already satisfying finish to the series, if a bit rushed. A friend of mine recommends Death's End as the best of the trilogy so I will see about that. I enjoy Liu's ideas so far even if here and there they get a little scrambled and at times feel out of place. He makes up for it with, in my opinion, a congenial protagonist and some nice science/history pandering. Also Da Shi.

Oh boy. Oooooh boy. I just started Endymion. And everything was going well. Until it was said that this 27 yo old man is going to fuck some 11 year old in the future. And she knows it, and hinted as much. This suddenly got into creepy pedo vibes. Fully with an analogy to a man having fallen in love with his niece. And the book drawing parallels to the main character and the girl being the uncle and niece figures fated to fall in love.

Just what the fuck is going on in Dan Simmon's mind when he wrote this? And Why did he foreshadow events so far? Now I have to consider this weird sexual tension between a grown man an a child. And he's trying to write this little girl as being "different" than other girls. More intelligent, and more mature than her years. Essentially trying to make this relationship ok because she's precocious.(I fucking hate that word. Precocious. Yuck)

Goddammit, I hate this.

ive just finished the bobiverse book 1.
I was bored through all the book, then interested for 2 chapters then realised those were the hooks to make me read the second book as the book ended without any resolution. You get 2/5 for that.

>>16738320
NANOMACHINES, SON

>>16738320
b-b-based

>>16738320
Also, I forgot to bring this up before. But I was just reminded, because it came up again.
I noticed this trend with Dan Simmons. He doesn't describe characters in much physical detail. He really just gives the reader a rough sketch in appearance. Usually focusing on the peculiarities of the person. Like focusing on someone's particularly short stature, or long gangly legs. That kind of thing. Unique aspects. For the more alien beings, he'll focus on their wings or fur. Stuff that really stands out.

So here's the funny part: He points out a character being black in the same manner. Like, he doesn't give them any other descriptors. It'll just be "He was a black man." Or "She was a black woman". As if that's as out-there as someone having butterfly wings.

>>16738320
You’re a faggot that shits cool it’s weird that you think it’s weird just be chill about it wtf like bro honestly like I’m reading 120 of sodom and I’m just chilling bro that shit doesn’t even phase me. Are you some faggot boomer? Some weak zoomer? Who are you? How can a thing like this effect you? Nah , not me not ever listen man it goes like this check it, basically you’re being a really huge faggot rn (and trust you me I know your post is bait I know the by ways I know the truth of this) and you need to chill tf out so go look at yourself man idk bro just fuck bro jesus

>>16738383
Wow, that's not copypasta? You actually wrote that? Funnily enough when I searched it on google, the top result is youtube of a clip from idiocracy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_obeR1OIm8

Your post is idiocracy tier stupid.

>>16738365
Kek, never noticed.

>>16738427
That was the point I imagine.

>>16735069
Currently reading Cage of Souls, about 3/5's done with it. Children of Time was cool for its concept, but I'm not going to read the sequel. Maybe it has to do with the writing. I think he's a perfectly competent writer but not particularly memorable. The prose is too dense and it has too many hints at what will happen in the future, or the past, or who will he meet, that there's so very little air flowing through it. This handholding is supposed to be clever story telling, but when it drags for 580 pages I'd like to toss the book into a pond. The wry humor just doesn't cut it for me, or maybe it does because I had a chuckle or two, but it's hit and mostly miss. Both the Archivist (?) from Children and Stefan Advani are somewhat similar and even though they try to be charming (out of convenience), it feels like they're trying too hard to fit in or fighting their environment and being displeased by them. Nothing goes their way, which makes it predictable and thrillless. Stefan is a little too much of everything, and compounded with the ever expanding world setting (which is interesting, though not a fan of jungle settings), it's just too much information. More so when every other character seems pretty unidimensional. I'm not a fan of physical descriptions of characters, and this book has one for everyone. I'd rather he left room for some air or ambiguity. Every occupation seems so rigid and clichéd as well. The academy chapters were kinda cringe to read. Cool students who knew their stuff, and just did shit all the while doing this other thing and that, always cool but predictable, effortless, always getting along, having civil discussions; pretentious and not even in a fun way. "Oh, I just know what should be done"... It read more like a shitty take on The Secret History or some heist ensemble from a movie.
Another similar character from memory would be Senlin from the Babel series. He too is an intellectual, incompetent for physical efforts, outwardly dull but actually charming and you discover different layers to his personality. He can be a bit too much as well, but you know what to expect from him on one level or another because he feels like a person you already know, how he feels about decisions, how they weigh on him. And the narrator (3PP omniscient) knows more about pacing and humor, ends up being actually surprising, compared to the ones in any of the two books by Tchaikovsky I've read. Three books (and a series) written full of irony, and only one is actually funny.

I might read that Blood and Guns or whatever is called, just to get a taste of his fantasy stuff.

>>16732552
What this guy said. >>16733096
Going in blind in regards to his faults, I enjoyed quite a bit of his work. He's really good at setting up interesting premises that often follow some nice beats with decent page turners. His magic systems are also very detailed with some good internal logic. But once you notice his flaws it's hard to look past them.
His female characters are shit 99% of the time, he always falls back on "end of the world" stakes which is boring and needlessly convoluted and there's generally too much pointless filler "world building" that fucks the pacing.

>>16738521
Well then they will feel nice and validated.

>>16738545
>he always falls back on "end of the world" stakes
Not really. Only on his two largest-scale stories.

>>16732200
Book of the Long Sun can get slow but has moments of such sheer brilliance they surpass BotNS at times. Exodus especially is incredible, what a fucking ride this is.

>>16738569
Fair enough, I had those in mind.

What the fuck is litrpg and why is it everywhere now? I'm looking at the audible sale right now, and 90 percent of their sff selection is that or smut, and the last 10 percent is ya.

I'm on chapter 6 of latro. i'd give it a 7/10 so far. its comfy and atmospheric but a lot of it feels dependent on whether you can pick up on all the references. if you want to jerk off over fantasy in ancient greece, this is a good one, but there isnt a whole lot going on other than "well today I woke up and did a thing with a greek deity in a greek landmark with a greek object/person". feels rather formulaic but still fun

>>16738187
lmao, fuck outta here
studs on /sffg/
you've got me rollin

>>16737438
he's never coming out with book 3

>>16738595
because gamerautism

I know you guys like chink fantasy, go read The Sword of Kaigen and tell me if it's good.

>>16738525
I think Guns of the Dawn is a truly excellent book, but it's barely fantasy. More like the Vietnam War set in Regency England, with a couple of wizards to stand in as flamethrowers

Is this true?

>>16738705
>Lyft summoned her awesomeness

>>16738705
I prefer my wits commonly blunt

>>16738689
Eh, I got that rec from this general and it looked promising. So, it's like flintstock low fantasy in some exotic jungle-like place? I might read it just to check how he writes female MCs.
Do you know if he has any other more trad fantasy worth reading? I checked and there's a 10+ book series that looked like fantasy, but I'm not up for long series tbqh.

Speaking of flintlock, how is McClellan doing? Still Sanderson-lite or has he grown into his own a bit?

Reading this thread and all the valid criticisms of big fantasy writers like Sanderson and Robin Hobb, I realize that every single fantasy writer, no matter how much I enjoy their style or even devour an entire trilogy because its so much fun (like Abercrombie's First Law trilogy), after a certain number of books you can dissect and predict everyone's style, especially for more commercial style writers like Joe Abercrombie with his stupid fucking intentional twists like oooh nobody will expect this!

I've read trilogies from Sanderson and Hobb, Abercrombie, and various fantasy series like Black Company Chronicles, I enjoyed many stuff from fantasy but eventually there is a point of diminishing returns, even if it happens like after 10 books like it did with Sanderson.

The most interesting writer in fantasy to me remains Terry Pratchett, and I haven't had anyone close to him in terms of quality of writing and getting emotions out of me. Most books are hilarious, written to be entertaining, and very memorable, not just in worldbuilding like Sanderson would be but in so many other ways as well. He's the only writer where I found myself saving Kindle notes to get to re-experience later because they were so hilarious or so wonderful.

Is there anyone in the same tier as Pratchett? Doesn't have to be comedic.

>Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.

>>16738705
He sly

>>16738834
Definitely sly.

>>16738320
this reminds me of when I started reading Mediations by one of the great roman emperor and this nigga writes about the way his slave boys look at him sensually or some shit, oooff

I enjoyed hyperion but I think I'll skip on the sequels

>>16738134
Simple: start reading older stuff or stuff that is talked about less. You'll find something neat eventually. Try Lord of Light by Zelazny, that's a nice one.

>>16737791
I've heard his short stories are good. Which collections would you recommend?

>>16738705
>'Storm them,' cursed Scorpis under his breath, the host of infidel aliens now visible over the horizon. *They will march the eight hundred yards and lay siege to our most illustrious Gener Ikh City*, thought Scorpis. Outwardly, he called his aid to hand him the appealingly ornate brass spyglass with studded power storm-stones, to better espy the leading group.
>To his dismay, the enemy came well prepared to storm the walls. There was no leading group with tall banners of radiant figures, their leaders riding, framed by drawn patterns of intricate design on the canvas, colored blue, white and rust red. No, this scene had only been true in his dream, or perhaps a vision of a different time. Scorpis observed the dust clouds parting to show a tall structure. *A bridge,* mused Overlord Scorpis, *why a bridge of all siege constructs.*

People pay brisk money for this crap.

>>16738854
You sly, whiteboy!

>>16736305
Good science fiction can have interesting concepts and creative ideas. Idk I was hoping Wheel of Time would have interesting ideas regarding the whole wheel concept.

>>16738923
as someone who read the first 2 stormlight archive books, I enjoy the high fantasy world sanderson built and this paragraph is fine to me and even makes me want to chec kout the book, its his dialogue that someone pointed out correctly that is the same everyone is a witty little bastard and Im sick of them, that or they are emo and dont want to speak

>>16738805
Yeah, there are two fronts being fight in the way that the MC is involved in, and she gets sent to the swamp one. Lots of focus on the horrors of war, but all written in a very Austen style. Again, I think it's excellent, it's just very low fantasy.
In general I think he likes to write subversive fantasy, his trad stuff is only so so for me. I thought Spiderlight was alright. He's also got a stone age Injun fantasy series that I couldn't get into but others might like better for its unorthodox setting.

>feelio dealio when you've been on /lit/ long enough to go from Sandofan to jaded over his complete negligence over his meta
who //lit/ on day one/ here

>>16738962
Oh come one, anon. 'Gener Ikh City'.

>>16738821
CS Lewis remains great and wrote more SFF than Narnia.

>>16732674
I thought the concept was wasted. A royal family whose bastards are turned into assassins was a great idea but really underused. The magic and shit was interesting enough, the villain was trash, and the romance was borderline cuck smut by the end. Prose was great though and I liked most of the cast.

I'm going to reread these books.
How many times do you get to read about Canadian lumberjack space Hitler?

>>16738909
All of them.

>>16739089
Sick. I'll order a few after I'm done with my current batch.

is The General by sterling and drake good, or is it a bunch of basedboy schlock like some people say? I heart the characters go out of their way a lot to knock capitalism and religion and shit

>>16737861
>recount what happened
>WOW IT'S SO SHIT
Just watch Nostalgia Critic or some shit you megafaggot.

>>16739010
>save the eagle from that wack-ass crystal prison, yo

>>16739100
Sterling inserts cuck fetishism into everything he writes, so I'd guess the some people are right.

>>16739133
give an example.....

>>16739139
>woke in the Museum of the Soviet Triumph in Space to the sounds of Romanenko and the KGB man's wife. They were going at it again behind the screen at the aft end of the Salyut, restraining straps and padded hull creaking and thudding rhythmically. Hooves in the snow. [...] When he emerged, he found that the adulterers had finished. Romanenko was adjusting his clothing. The political officer's wife, Valentina, had ripped the sleeves from her brown coverall; her white arms were sheened with the sweat of their exertion. Her ash-blond hair rippled in the breeze from a ventilator. Her eyes were purest cornflower blue, set a little too closely together, and they held a look half-apologetic, half-conspiratorial

>>16739163
so this is intended to be some "heh, those kgb sure are cucks" shit right? still cringe

>>16739171
Maybe, but then there's more of it at the start of The Difference Engine and a very recent short story that got linked to here had it, too.

>>16739133
>>16739163
>>16739178
Wait, ignore these posts. I actually looked up The General and it's by S.M Stirling, not Bruce Sterling.

Reading Memories of ice at the moment and I am enjoying it. What I dislike however are the increasing number of characters. I believe they have a part to play but I still feel like the first 3 books were just a buildup that eventually kills 90% of those characters.

>>16738994
ok I will admit its fucking stupid and I just chose to read it as anything but "generic city", would be surprised if he didnt crowdsource this like he did names of characters or some shit

>>16738997
Thanks, I will check him out, I only ever read Mere Christianity a bit before check out from CS Lewis

>>16738821
well I never read terry pratchet before, where do you think I should start

>>16739186
LMAO based brainlet

downloaded a lot of norman spinrad today. it sounds fun i'm looking forward to it. i also got the riverworld series and the cornelius quartet.

>>16739218
Till We Have Faces is my favorite book, period, so I consider that a good starting place

>>16739229
Discworld books, start with the Rincewind ones I guess

to be completely honest discworld is just a LOT of stories set in the same fantasy world, and you can just pick up and read one of the most highly acclaimed ones, Men at Arms, but I guess the Rincewind books -about a wizard that's shit at magic- are the greatest introduction since they were the first ones if I remember right


I think I followed a Discworld reading guide from /lit/ when I got into discworld and it doesnt necessarily give an order, more like a sorting

here you go, I found it, I started with the Rincewind books so Colour of Magic is probably the best book to start with

I really envy you

>>16739229
Not that anon, but I think Going Postal is his best book, and the Watch books are his best informal series

>>16739268
Personally, I don't feel like the Rincewind books have aged all that well. They're very much a parody of a particular style of fantasy that just isn't in vogue anymore

>>16739236
It's not my fault, that guy misspelled Stirling and I'm always itching to jump on that faggot Bruce for being a cuck.

>>16739268
sorry, I meant to say Guards! Guards! is the most highly acclaimed book I remember

I think its my favorite from all the discworld books

as you will discover, the best thing about Discworld is the city of Ankh Morpork and everything that happens in it, I havent read ALL of the discworld books but I probably should

I want to warn you that quality CAN be hit or miss and you might love the Watch books and the Death books and the Rincewind books and hate the Witches books like I did, or maybe the opposite


there's so much great stuff in discworld, Death is one of them (death the character is hilarious)

>>16739280
Yeah I agree, I think I consider Guards! Guards! and Mort to be the top Discworld books personally

>>16739287
>“I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?"
>Death thought about it.
>CATS, he said eventually. CATS ARE NICE.
gb2reddit

>>16738653
Bro I’m a fucking stud show some fucking respect where yo live live nigga

Finally found a Dawnshard thread in /wsr/

>>16739305
I'm not going to deny that Pratchett was obviously a huge influence on the kind of people who developed Reddit's culture, but it doesn't diminish how good his writing is.

>>16738878
It might not be bad moving forward. The weird relationship only became apparent in the last chapter I finished. And I'm only about 25% through. So idk, maybe the author will finesse this in a way that makes it not creepy.

>>16734800
I read Blindsight and started on Echopraxia. They were alright, but it wasn't exactly the type of horror I was looking for. I always enjoyed Stephen King type horror.

>>16739268
updated guide, not that reading order matters that much
wholesome books

>>16738168
Based schizo

>>16736159
So just because it didn't go the simulation route, all the stuff you mentioned, which sounds like stuff you enjoyed while reading through it, ultimately leaves you unsatisfied and disappointed?

>>16739442
Well there's a lot of Stephen King, and his son Joe Hill also writes horror (I haven't read him). I can rec Library at Mount Char.

>>16738340
Kek

>>16738976
>his complete negligence over his meta
Explain.

>>16738962
>everyone is a witty little bastard
Why is this bad writing instead of indicative of decent world building? You're being hyperbolic, but most Vorin characters (particularly the women) do a lot of catty verbal sparring BECAUSE IT'S LITERALLY SPELLED OUT AS INHERENT TO THEIR CULTURE. You don't have to like it, but it's like getting through a book on renaissance paintings and bitching about all the christfaggotry you had to endure. If you didn't know what you were getting into, you're not paying attention.

Just started this, what am I in for?

>>16738320
>>16738365
wtf, I love Simmons now

>>16738595
litrpg is basically an even gayer DnD

I read the first chapter of The Kingkiller series last night. I'm looking forward to it, since Patrick Rothfuss seems to have high acclaim around here.

The first book is called The Name of The Wind, by the way, for anybody who is interested.

>>16739985
>cuckmonologue.jpg

>>16738595
Start with the Russians

>>16739985
>faggot detected

>>16733393
He also likes to talk about white privilege and always makes comments like "but I'm just a white dude". Very cringe, he's a typical burgercuck.

>>16739536
Also still recommending "Let the right one in", small town horror.

>>16739995
>>16740071

:rolleyes emoji:

any good stuff for a matrix like feel?

>>16740115
Patrick Rothfuss is even the cuck in his self-insert power fantasy. Lmao.

>>16739995
>>16740071
Stop replying to the most low-effort bait. You're just enabling shitposting with your retardation.

Didn't Brandon Sanderson coach the Crows?

>>16740131
Wasn't bait - I just got the book recently from a recommended thread on here you fucking artard.

>>16740122
What does any of that have to do with whether or not it's a good book? You sound like a super insecure secret faggot yourself.

>>16740120

Echopraxia

>>16740178
I didn't finish this, after being only moderately entertained by Blindsight. Idc if spoilers, does it wind up being some Matrix-like reveal by the end?

>>16740176
I said that I don't want to read his cuckolding fantasies. Why does that make you so mad? Lmao.

>>16740207
That's not what you said LMAO WOW EPIC TROLL LULZ XD

>>16740193

Nah it's just a bunch of relatively fresh ideas crammed into a futurist roadtrip. If you're not into Peter Watts there's nothing extra waiting at the end for you.

>>16740218
Seethe.

>>16740234
Typical stupid response from a typically stupid faggot.

>>16738525
His prose is definitely overly dense and technical. You can tell he goes out of his way to use the most obscure and archaic vocabulary available, and he never holds the reader's hand when delving into fields of science. Children of Ruin is very good, but also painful to read. The uplifted octopuses hurt my brain with their way of communicating. His greatest strength is world building. His characters and dialogue are often subpar.

My favorite sci fi work by Tchaikovsky is Dogs of War, which has a sequel coming in January that I'm looking forward to.

>>16733922
5 as a rule of thumb, but plenty of series are more than done by the time they reach the end of the second or third book.

>>16733943
You're literally describing the best speculative fiction books ever. Hyperion and fall of Hyperion

>>16740776

yeahno. hyperion is trash.

>>16738705
>Ben Aaronovitch
The author of a British urban fantasy series with a black protagonist. Fucking half the first book is him describing the science of how his world's magic works. It's the book that made me realize that explaining the rules is fucking retarded because no one gives a fuck when it doesn't apply or mean anything anywhere else and when it doesn't even affect the narrative.

The only way I could respect his opinion less would be if the MC was gay or a woman. Though I take the last part back. The October Daye series is my guilty pleasure.

>>16736522
Gateway

>>16733943

>Shardblades are Keyblades
>Kaldin is Riku
>Voidbringers are Heartless
>Shallan is basically a shitty Kairi, she even has the same hair colour

>>16738281
He's mormon, broski. No beer for him.

>>16740874
Based

>>16739440
>>16738878
Update. It's getting more creepy, not less.

>>16740819
wtf, I'm a catholic now

>>16741230
Wow. Thanks for the update! What next, are you gonna tell us every time you take a crap, you dumb attentionwhore? No one cares about your mouthbreather-tier reactions, nigga. >>>>>/normiebook/

>>16741421
Fuck off retard let the autist talk about books.

>>16741642
Then the retard should actually talk about the book not some stupid shit his twitter-tier feelings were hurt by.

All "worldbuilders" should be genocided, nobody gives a fuck about your ebin races and magic system or your 2321321321 words of ebin notes of history when you have 0 character, 0 plot, and 0 pages of story written

>>16741842
Whoa, we got a contrarian over here

>>16741842
You say that now but just wait until my novel with societies based on gay, bondage, and incest. (Sorry, there's no rape. Everyone's horny and willing.)

>>16741868
How is it contrarian when that's in agreement amongst a lot of the sffg posters?
Your reddit is showing and it's cringe.

Can we add this to the 'I haven't taste her mouth' or whatever that Rothfuss cringeshit was.

This reads like someone read an out of context tidbit on IFLScience or some shit.

Lads... just started listening to Sanderson's Graphic Audio (audiobooks) and they're pretty amazing, production is awesome. I think I prefer this over reading his books.

>>16741958
amazing, dropping the R-word just like that, like cuckwork, a meme machine

>>16742114
"and there was only one life wasn't allowed to take- his own"

im fucking done already

if i have to make the next thread i'm using this as the op image

>>16742114
This writing feels distractingly bad lads, even with all the sound effects and top notch voice acting, does it get better? (stormlight archives book 1) it started off decent, but quickly devolved

>>16742111

I wanna read warhammer 40k
Where to I start

>>16742302
Don't.

>Woah! Szeth breathes and he can flip gravity! Sanderson's a genius!
>heh, sorry buddy; you're a Slytherin to my Griffindor.
>Tolkien's old hat! I'm all for that sweet-sweet Gaiman!
>Kvothe is my spirit animal, thank you Rothfuss for such an interesting character!

>>16742271
>Top notch voice acting
If you're talking about the Graphic Audio version, then sure with Kaladin and Dalinar - everyone else sounds like animu background voice bits. I couldn't bring myself to read more of that mess, so I took the same route and listened to it. Got through two chapters before putting it on 1.3x speed just to get it over and done with.
Shallan's voice actor in particular. She either sucks or just doesn't care. It doesn't help that it's on top of already bad writing. She sounds so detached, and I guarantee she would've asked the AP "Did he actually write this shit? By golly no one talks like this."

>>16742302
Other than >>16742305
Start with Horus (Rising or False Gods, can't remember which came first.) and if you hate it, then stop.
They aren't exactly award winning novels. They're definitely 40k faithful though.

>>16738320
Bitch you always complain

rec me a space opera with elegant prose and well thought out strategy

Is John Gwynne a good writer? Thinking about starting "The Fallen and the Faithful"

>>16734892
red rising was pretty exciting.
trash, but exciting

why is wizard knight considered good?
It's just
>HE DID THIS
>AND THEN THAT
>AND THEN THIS
>NO TIME TO EXPLAIN
>HERE IS THE EXPLAINATION
>BUT THEN HE DID THIS
It's like a WoW raid with no bosses, just endless halls of trash mobs.

>>16738821
Idk, after endlessly reading pratchett as a teenager I can kind of guess the jokes. A lot of them can be 'oh lawdy this wacky character is so wacky', especially on the worse books. Definitely depends on the book.

>>16734917
Is this pasta, or bait?

>>16739641
I have noticed lately that many modern fantasy have lots of 'witty' characters. It's like all the characters is the one smirking kid in class

>>16742602
lmao i kinda feel this way about latro
>so i woke up and this thing happened
>everybody freaked out
>it was kinda cool i guess, idk tho

>>16742302
eisenhorn or gaunts ghosts

>>16742111
t. seething incel

>>16738821
prachett is reddit

>>16742111
Kek
However, my autism demands to comment that if you divide a finite object infinitely you do get an infinitely small object.

>>16742653
Rothfuss is an incel.
He writes sex positivity in a way that almost admits he's an orbirter.

>>16735919
I don't know, I've hidden the address bar on my browser.
Show or book?

>>16732383
The High House

>>16732795
>He tells more than he shows
Nah, it's the opposite, he has his characters pantomime emotion so you can follow along without him breaking the dreaded show-tell taboo when he could just say "Paldin was sad."

>>16738821
I find Pratchett's earlier plots remain fresh on a reread, but the lesser characters are often tiresome and one note. This is particularly acute in his later work where you see the entire scope of a character in their introduction and there's minimal room for surprise

>>16742772
His later work is inferior in general, when modernity stops being a Lovecraftian horror and becomes something good that Vetimary Sue can force on the public.

>>16742602
Never gonna make it

>>16742479
Boku no Poor Little Phoneposting Rec Beggar and 10 Horny Tentacled Xenos

>>16742897
honest question,
am I missing the point of it all?
It just seems like a loosely explained adventure,
I understand the appeal of creating the world in your mind and just following along, but my mind creates worlds so effortlessly that it's just not interesting enough.
please tell me how retarded I am so I can fix myself thanks.

>>16742980
I'm 80% convinced people shill BotNS purely because it's a meme.

>>16742111
bruh

>>16738821
Read Bakker. He's the absolute polar opposite of Pratchett and the Second Apocalypse series is basically like being trepanned by Immanuel Kant while on a facetime call with Robert E. Howard.

>>16742987
>the only winning move is not to read
I will stop punishing myself.

>>16734892
Chateau Cascade was probably the best "indie" fantasy I've read all year.

>chemo starts tomorrow
>trying to hunt down a book I can read
>head over to goodreads to look at their recs

>every highly rated fantasy book from the last few years seems to be getting good reviews based solely on the fact that it had a gay or non binary character

I just want muh escapism, not a political soap box.

>>16743185
Too bad bigot, eat the bugs.

>>16743185
The great thing is that you can look further back than 5 years for books now. I'd recommend looking at something like whatshouldIreadnext or bookslikethisone (copy paste into google, you'll see them immediately.)

If you a more general recommendation of straight cheese, I'd recommend having a gander at the Old school Sword and Sorcery, Golden Age sci-fi and fatnasty smut fiction.

>>16742980
>I understand the appeal of creating the world in your mind and just following along
...and then making it real by dying irl? I don't think the book makes sense if you discard the frame.

>>16743185
forget the chemo and spare yourself this horrible world.

I'm gonna read Bakker's The Darkness That Comes Before. What to expect of it?

>>16743295
A book like a pizza cutter, all edge, no point.

>>16743185
I recommend Way of Kings by Sanderson, you will have a high fantasy world and game of thrones politics

is Metro 2033 considered fantasy?

>>16743309
Do you want to know how we know you've never read anything other than those piece of shit books Sandrone?

any edgy books about an evil main character that does cool stuff?

>>16743414
cool stuff like being a vampire or being a warlord or something like that

>>16743414
prince of nothing
prince of thorns
kane by karl edward wagner

>>16743295
an amazing book with top tier dense prose, some philosophy stuff, weird names and edgy stuff that is mostly not cringe

>>16743349
no thanks

>>16743414
>>16743420
hmm maybe try Black Company Chronicles, it's about a mercenary company in a fantasy setting and there are a lot of bad guys fighting even more evil guys

or First Law Trilogy where one of the main points of view is that of an old torturer extracting information from victims, he's pretty evil

Nani...

>>16743295
Black cum and a lot of cuckolding

Start the new thread before I piss myself!

>>16743446
>>16743457
Prince of thorns, Black Company and First Law Trilogy are what I was looking for, thank you so much.

>>16743295
a world that smells of balls, that what bakker himself said

Has anyone read the Sharing Knife series by Lois Mcmaster Bujold? I'm thinking of diving in because she's a generally good author, but the synopsis makes me a bit leery.

>>16743337
Don't know, but it's good and you should read it.

>>16743541
>the Sharing Knife
>And Fawn - she's adorable, cheerful, industrious, sweet, resilient, essentially flawless, and utterly uninteresting. In other words: hello, Mary Sue! I think I first suspected that she was a Mary Sue when, in the first couple of pages, I was told that she has long, lovely, bouncing curls even though she has been living rough. I have curly hair. Trust me when I tell you that after a few nights of sleeping in haystacks and a few days of hard travel, it would be a giant matted mess attractive only to birds seeking a nesting spot. Only Mary Sues have hair that stays gorgeous under such circumstances. But, look, I'm not just judging her on the hair. Fawn has so many other traits (Industry despite major illness! Open-mindedness despite being raised in an utterly closed-minded culture! Cheerful acceptance of everything! Adored by all who meet her!) that make her Mary Sue that I'm saddened that Bujold, who has created fabulous characters, wrote her.
How bad can it be, when even the goodplebs are shitting on it?

>>16743554
goodplebs shitting on it is honestly a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

>>16743295
The Nonmen are supposed to be mysterious and creepy, but are in fact the only legitimately hilarious thing in the series.

>>16743543
I bought it, will read it soon after I finish the messiah of dune.

>>16743414

Blood Meridian

any books with a fat ass world? I want a beautiful world full of nice nature, trees, mountains, waterfalls and nice gardens

It's come to me that there are at least two kinds of adventure story. The first is the kind that takes after LOTR which follows some hero and their band on some journey that is significant in some way yet still achievable by humble means. The second, is about a bigger production, an expedition planned and undertaken, representing the collective efforts of some larger group. I greatly prefer the second, but I can only name movies (Disney's Atlantis), shows (Star Trek), and fanfiction (Friendship: Beyond Equestria). Does /sffg/ have any recs so I can stop being a pleb?

>>16743185
wizard of earthsea is a comfy read

>>16732200
Finished Black Company. Started Count Zero (having read Neuromancer in 2012/13). I'm enjoying it thus far, though the writing style is definitely different.

>>16742302
Gaunt's Ghosts or Space Wolf.

>>16743414
>any edgy books about an evil main character that does cool stuff?

Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series

>>16739305
Good a reason to live as any, really. A whole lot less contrived than most.