/lit/ - Literature

First for Dying Inside

JAN 2021
MELISSA ALBERT - Tales from the Hinterland
KEVIN J. ANDERSON - Vengewar
PIERS ANTHONY - Skeleton Key
L.X. BECKETT - Dealbreaker
OCTAVIA E. BUTLER - Collected Stories
KRISTIN CASHORE - Winterkeep
MIKE CHEN - We Could Be Heroes
STEPHEN DEAS - The Moonsteel Crown
KEVIN HEARNE - A Question of Navigation
DAVE HUTCHINSON - Europe at Midnight
ALAYA DAWN JOHNSON - Reconstruction
STINA LEICHT - Persephone Station
NICK MAMATAS - The Planetbreaker’s Son
SEANAN MCGUIRE - Across the Green Grass Fields
NNEDI OKORAFOR - Remote Control
TIM PRATT - Doors of Sleep
BENJAMIN ROSENBAUM - The Unraveling
SAMANTHA SHANNON - The Mask Falling
ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY - The Expert System’s Champion
ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY - Bear Head
JANEEN WEBB - The Gold-Jade Dragon
LIZ WILLIAMS - Blackthorn Winter

For more details and the next 6 months or so: http://locusmag.com/forthcomingbooks/
It may be more useful to scroll down until you see US FORTHCOMING BOOKS (alphabetical by author) and check from there.

>>17178864
Dying Inside (Robert Silverberg) excerpt

I loved her and I think she loved me. I haven’t had much love in my life. That isn’t intended as a grab for your pity, just as a simple statement of fact, objective and cool. The nature of my condition diminishes my capacity to love and be loved. A man in my circumstances, wide open to everyone’s innermost thoughts, really isn’t going to experience a great deal of love. He is poor at giving love because he doesn’t much trust his fellow human beings: he knows too many of their dirty little secrets, and that kills his feelings for them. Unable to give, he cannot get. His soul, hardened by isolation and ungivingness, becomes inaccessible, and so it is not easy for others to love him. The loop closes upon itself and he is trapped within.

What's your favorite sci-fi mystery novel?

Vote at:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/150493.Sci_fi_Mystery_Books

the flavorsanon book is 7/8 of the way finished and I still don't have even one of the sequels planned out.

I want to hang

>>17178879
Any of those going to be good?

>>17178909

>>17179093
what do you think

>>17179083
didn't it take you four years to figure out the plot of the first one? maybe you just suck

>>17178840
the potter books had too many good characters to pick, so I'm going to have to choose Harry Dresden

>>17179390
you're a fucking faggot

>>17178999
Not voting on the meme website but Childhood's End.

>>17179416
and you're a sad little boy in a fat man's body

>Protagonist turns out to be an eldritch abomination
How many stories have this?

>new new york

>>17179428
The one you haven't gotten around to writing.

>>17178840
gandalf still mogs

Fantasy authors should be banned from writing about sex. Unconvincingly trying to insert your shitty fetish into the middle of the plot is not and never will be okay.

>>17179439
Good idea, I should write it.

>>17178840
> Drusas Cuckamian, the only Wizard in the Three Seas.

>There's a part in The Histories where Herodotus says the Ethiopians have black semen

bakkerbros?

>>17178879
>Piers Anthony
topkek

>>17179444
>Piers Anthony again

Finished Rhythm of War last night, Navani leaving the note to call Raboniel a hero was a bit much.

>>17179587
she wanted to fuck her, it makes sense

>>17179576
>Piers Anthony
You wish you'd still be able to write novels at 86 years old.

>>17179428
off the top of my head cthulhu armageddon. funnily enough also the only kinda good book i have read recently with a black protagonist.
its basically a typcal apocalypse wasteland book but with lovecraft sprinkled on top and the protag turns out to be an eldritch abomination.
on a side note there is love-crafted which is the story about a little girl that summons a familiar to get into magic school said familiar is an eldritch horror in the form of a little girl with tentacles sprouting from her back.

>>17179661
Nice and aww. It's weird when Eldritch plays cute but I love it, like that human eating elder cat idea last thread.

In /sffg/'s opinion, is it worth it to read independent authors' work in the genre? Specifically for improvement in my own writing, obviously you can read whatever the fuck for pleasure. I sometimes wonder is seeing contemporaries and learning from their mistakes is time wasted that could be used reading more foundational books written by the masters of the genre.

(pic unrelated)

>>17179715
I think it can help because it's easier to see the faults and understand what they look like as a reader. On the other hand it's mostly a waste of time

>>17178879
>DAVE HUTCHINSON - Europe at Midnight
This has been out for five years already, along with many sequels. I liked it, and not only because the main character is from a slightly fictionalized version of my home country.

> The living shall not haunt the dead.
Bakkerbros, what did he mean by this?

Any particular atmospheres from either genre that you absolutely love? I'm personally a fan of Nasu's optimistic nihilist setting. The older = better meme is terribad but the overall atmosphere is perfect. From Tsuki, Fate, and to Kara.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx130_hgNZ8&ab_channel=NightmareVortex
can't wait for it

>>17179695
>It's weird when Eldritch plays cute
you dont even know. its a one off novel thats complete originally written as a webnovel on royalroad where users got to vote what happened next. the whole thing has a yotsubato vibe to it and its designed to be cute on purpose.
read it. its competently written and cute.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/29669/love-crafted

>>17179729
It says it's being published in the US for the first time.

>>17179812
my little eldritch god can't be this cute

>>17179833
That's an anime.

>>17179083
>the flavorsanon book
Are you talking about yourself in the 3rd person?

>>17179869
Yes, and that's just one of many of their names.

>>17179587
Saved her life, unironically honored her beyond previous human measure. It fits.

>>17179770
I don't know how you can praise the atmosphere of the original game and then say you like that trailer. The beginning makes you think there's going to be some similarity, but everything else about it shows how it's a recreation of the game to pander to Fate gacha and anime fans. Shiki looks like a faggot now and watching him and Arcueid jumping around fighting in a Ufotable animation with some shitty j-pop song playing in the background makes me want to puke. Type-moon is just another soulless company now.

>>17179923
not him, true, they did make him look like that

>>17179770
Sorry, I thought you posted the trailer video, so when I said "the beginning makes you think there's going to be some similarity" I was referring to the beginning of the trailer. You just posted the shitty OP that plays afterward, though, so there's nothing good about it at all.

What are the best Arthurian novels?

>>17179957
The Warlord Chronicles

>>17179957
that pedo woman wrote some from the pov of morgane/a not sure if good or not

>>17179970
decent

>>17179957
none really they all have to le subert your expectations and change all the characters

>>17179970
Fuck off Appl

>>17179869
I'm calling it that because I forgot what you guys referred to it as and I'm not to about to say the actual title here since I still have a slight hope it might actually get published one day yeah, right

>>17179871
it's my only name here. I might have had others but this is the one that stuck

>>17179715
To improve in anything you must watch the master at work and learn from your mistakes

>>17179715
When you learn a skill you start by copying more experienced people. For writing this usually means imitating authors you like. Some people take this to its most literal extreme and copy verbatim the texts of authors they want to emulate to get the experience of writing like them. Others follow more loosely, writing stories that closely resemble their model's, with similar settings, plots, and characters, and trying to capture the same emotional impact, the same feeling that the model author's story did, using their own words.

When you do this, you realize in concrete terms the limitations of your abilities. It's no longer hypothetical, you've committed your ideas to words. This makes you experience the frustration of communicating through text. You understand much better how the author accomplished what they accomplished by having tried to do the same thing yourself.

>"Doesn't it make you wonder about your own sexual identity, not to mention your sanity, that the two women you love are, respectively, a virtual woman existing only in the transient ansible connections between computers and a woman whose soul is in fact that of a man who is the husband of your mother?"
Orson Scott Card asking the deep questions.

Fantasy and its ideas have all been used over and over again. They are all true to the genre and true to the stories and Brandon Sanderson is truly indicative of how you can write like a classic fantasy author and be one of the best authors that is still alive.

His prose is not the best, but I made a comment comparing his proses simplicity to that of David Gemmell's, he is able to pack a punch in one sentence where an author like Rothuss would write a paragraph.

His character work is amazing. Kaladin, Vin, and Wax and Wayne are some of the strongest characters I have seen written. They all have a distinct voice and are all super well written, Kaladin's struggles with depression is some of the best character work I have seen.

His world building is amazing and shows how far fantasy has come from its mainly Tolkien-esque world. They are stunning in size and even when the land mass isn't the largest, he does an amazing job at making it feel bigger.

His works can be a bit slower but the payoff is always the best it can be with scenes that are so stunningly fast that they never fail to entertain.

A lot of his characters are iconic with how they are written. There are few if any bland characters in his works and there are several charming main characters in each of his stories.

Shallan Davar is another one of my favourite characters (highey I have a huge thing for her even though shes fictional) and he is able to get you attatched to a lot of the other characters he writes.

The way he writes right scenes never fails to keep my attention to the page for they are truly stunning and are some of the best in the genre. They are blisteringly fast and are incredibly entertaining.

The cosmere is truly something that I think will be remembered throughout history, as will Sanderson himself.

>>17180810
lol didn't read

>>17180810
I know this is bait, but I do think Kaladin is a lot more distinct compared to his other characters.

>>17179957
Mary Stewart's are good.

>>17181048
I unironically enjoy Wax and Wayne's buddy-cop shenanigans.

Is wheel of time well written, might read the first book idk

>>17179970
They are shit, berncuck cornball cant write

>>17181251
>Is wheel of time well written
>page count: 11,898
No

Started reading Gardens of the Moon, on page 25 and its already very interesting.

When will I reach the point where I don’t understand what’s going on?

ok im sick of this someone please help me
ages ago i read this book about an eco-commie utopia where people lived in these huge skyscrapers and the rest of the world was like, native forest and stuff. drugs were legal and there were things like genetic engineered animals and stuff, and im pretty sure the book ended with a doomsday weapon that first destroyed everything on the earth and then repopulated it with trees and stuff
i cannot remember the name of the book and i am desperate to find it

>>17181276
ur just a genius bro, it makes sense after page 100 with darujihistan entry so if you already got it ur fine, just make sure you read pre chapter poems and pay attention

>>17180810
it's true he can really pack a punch, in the most recent book for example the bit where kaladin goes sicko mode after teft dies and kills the pursuer was pretty epic

>>17181251
Wheel of Time slows to a glacial speed in the middle. You'll either bore yourself to tears by dragging yourself through, or you'll drop it and feel bad. Either way, not worth it.

>>17181308
There are people who skip pre chapter tidbits?

does anyone actually like jasnah

>Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Does anyone else think this when they see sandershit names posted?
>Jasnah, Shallan, Navani
Come on, man!

>>17181467
I don't dislike her. I think her character suffers because she's being held purposely aloof to remain mysterious for her book in the back half. But the bits of action she saw in RoW were entertaining enough.

>>17181480
fantasy names be like that

>>17181480
>fantasy place has fantasy names
no way

>>17181512
Sanderson doesn't define Fantasy, he's a vague parody of it.

>>17181530
what are you even trying to say here

This question isn't worth its own thread so I might as well ask here: are there any websites where you can anonymously put up stories online? I recently wrote a genre story that's halfway shitty and just fun enough to not want it to moulder in my computer anymore.

Thread topic answer: Phillip from Magic 2.0. He isn't powerful but he's a passive agressive but very resourceful computer programmer that can hack the universe.

>>17181506
>>17181512
>Ikurei Conphas
>Feyd’Rautha Harkonnen
fantasy names don’t have to be (and shouldn’t be) generic and lame. Sanderson’s are peak cliché, pure cringe.

>>17179957
Wolfe's Wizard Knight series are a little whacky at time but pretty Arthurian, mixed with some other high fantasy elements.

>>17178999
Fifth Head of Cerberus

>>17179444
Book of the New Sun is literally about a big buff dude shagging his way across South America and it works our fine

Ad hoc realisation every reply is about wolfe

>>17181307
The Drowned World?

>>17181251
no

>>17181480
>>17181506
>>17181512
>>17181697
Poorly constructed names in fantasy are one of the things that most easily break my suspension of disbelief. I don't know how to define it exactly, but some authors seem to be able to create names that have a sense of verisimilitude, and others can only make names that make me think "the writer just pulled this out of his ass" every time I see it.

>>17182247
It's consistency. When you have multiple characters supposedly from the same culture, who have names that obviously aren't rooted in the same language, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

>>17182247
Like, to use the other anon's example -- Feyd’Rautha Harkonnen -- I can read that and it feels real to me. When I see "Szeth-son-son-Vallano" I just want to close the book.

>>17182267
Szeth has one of the most cringe names in fantasy. Most of Sanderson's other names are fine though.

>>17182300
Stormlight Archive is still disgusting simply because it's literally just Kingdom Hearts with the names changed.

>>17182258
>>17182300
I think consistency has something to do with it, but it's not the whole story. I have a red flag go up when an author starts using consonant or vowel combinations that he knows the reader can't really know to pronounce. I know he just thought it looked cool and that they don't have some kind of lexical basis behind them.

books about dopplegangers? I just read Tales of Earthsea and it was pretty good

>>17180728
>>17180810
mormons. not even once.

>>17182349
Here's another good woman from Children of the Mind:
>Her body was a woman’s body. And where did the choice of loves come from, if not the body? Was there something male or female in the aiúa? Before it became master of flesh and bone, was it manly or womanly? ... Nonsense. Ender’s aiúa could be a woman, could love like a woman as easily as it now loved, in a man’s body and in a man’s ways, Miro’s own mother.

>>17182394
For clarification if you haven't read in the series for enough: aiua means something like a person's soul, to put it simply.

>>17179428
Dune

>Protagonist is adopted as a child by a family of eldritch abominations trying to become respectable members of society
How many books have this?

>>17181307
Oryx and Crake? Also made me think of the visual novel Rewrite for some reason.

>>17182320
Explain.

>>17182559
None. Go read faraway paladin again

>>17182267
Szeth-son-son-Vallano doesn't feel real but Jack Jackson Jr. does?

Any good recs about Evil Wizards?

>>17182911
evil is subjective, but wizards do tend to be assholes in the Witcher series

for me witcher was the easiest series to read, so interesting, probably took me only 3 weeks

>>17182559
sounds like a cringe "le subverts your expectations epic premise" story

Some anon mentioned Blindsight in the previous thread so I binged it, it was good.
Not a fan of the thargoids but Keeton's introspectives and other philosophical wankery were great.

>>17182995
Faces in the wall remind me of Bec.

>>17179419
double based

>>17179428
Lovecraft's The Outsider

>>17182958
How's this then?
>The protagonist is adopted as a child by a family of eldritch abominations who are trying to become respectable members of society BUT they're actually doing it in order to make humans trust them so that they can help their masters destroy humanity BUT they actually like humanity are trying to foil their masters' plans from the inside BUT the protagonist they adopted (that they think is human) is also an eldritch abomination who was sent as a secret spy to make sure they fulfill their original mission

>>17182954
I want flat out just bad, evil wizards, no moral grey zones or just being an asshole. EVIL!

>>17183056
>beings that are by definition outside of humanity's comprehension
>fraternizing and humanizing among humans
nah

>>17182995
>pic
I hate when this happens.

>>17183071
Saya no Uta is about this and is able to portray in a believable way, albeit on a smaller scale than the stupid shit I was talking about.

>>17183096
Your original idea sounds like it'd make for a good comedy though

>>17183056
better

>>17181276
Congratulations, you're not averse to using context clues and aren't discouraged immediately when an author introduces a new word or concept with out deviating from the narrative to explain it in depth.

>>17183188
based

>>17183188
So all those comments on Malazan being hard to understand were made by people with room temperature IQ?

>>17183289
there's no book in existence, certainly not in genre fiction, that wasn't written with the explicit purpose of being understood by wide swathes of people
so yes, if you hear someone call a book hard or incomprehensible, they're the retard not the book

>>17183323
>there's no book in existence ... that wasn't written with the explicit purpose of being understood by wide swathes of people
Are you sure?

>>17178840
>Who is your favorite wizard in literature?
Iucounu the Laughing Magician

I finally finished Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlmann after getting it recommended by an anon here about two months ago.
Here is a small overview with my impressions. I won't spoil anything, but if you prefer to go in completely blind like me, I can say it is really, really good and I can wholeheartedly
recommend it.

>The characters
The book has 3 main characters. Thomas, a greying man and former knight turned brigand. Père Matthieu, an alcoholic priest a few years older than him. Delphine, a little girl who claims to be instructed by angels only she can see and hear. Out of those three Thomas is the protagonist with the most spotlight, but all three characters are really fleshed-out and compelling with trials and tribulations. I like it when you can't break characters down to "He's the good guy". Additionally to them, there is a vast and varied cast of side characters they meet along the way, human and supernatural. None of them stay too long, but they leave a lasting impression nontheless.
>The story and setting
The premise is, that during 14th century France, while the plague is killing most of the population and the rest is being terrorized by twisted creatures of hell, our party is travelling from the Normandy, way up in the North, down to Avignon, way down in the South, so Delphine can fulfill her destiny. The journey there is one that mostly falls under the Dark Fantasy/Low Fantasy genre mixed with horror elements. So you don't got elves, dwarfes or dragons everywhere, but there are supernatural powers and entities our protagonists encounter, most of them evil and grotesque in nature. Additionally to that, there are heavy religious influences, but gladly those are never pretentious and preachy. They mostly show themselves in the form of a conflict between the angels of heaven and the devils of hell.
>The writing style
The book is a real page-turner, from a dialogue and event standpoint. The dialogue is really well written and sounds organic, no matter if light-hearted, comedic banter between our protagonists or harrowing, graphic threats by adversaries. The protagonists personalities and worldview clash more than a view times, so it's never boring, but even in this conflict none of them is unsympathetic. The struggle not only includes fights against men and monsters, that are dirty, graphic and ugly, but also against such things as hunger or personal struggles. Every encounter with a hell creature invoked a "Oh shit!" moment at one point or another. One event chases the next and the author is also able to create very vivid images. In short, it is never boring.

And that's about it. I can wholeheartedly recommend it. Two things I did not like and spoiler talk about the ending in the next post. [1/2]

[2/2] There were only two minor things I did not like
Number 1/PSA: Don't read all the chapter titles beforehand! They spoil the death of a character.
Number 2/SPOILER: I did not like the death of Pere Matthieu. On one hand, it was really noble, him dying to protect the little girl by holding her above the water and getting stung by those jellyfish monsters. On the other hand, while reading it, I thought "man this is lame". Because, at the end of the day, he was stung by poisonous jellyfish monsters without being able to put up any fight. I'd much rather he sacrificed himself against a more threatening opponent or tried to put up a fight, stayed behind to let them escape, something like

Because I did not quite get it, here are some thoughts about the ending, last chapter and epilogue. Would be nice if someone here, who understood it can fill me in. MAJOR SPOILERS:
As far as I understood it, after Delphine dies, she acts as a gateway to heaven. From her corpse first one, then several light beams shine up from which angels emerge, including major archangels. This raises a few questions. Why did it have to be in Avignon? Of course, there were 3 major devils there, but at that point, almost every major town had them. And upon her death, not only in Avignon but in other places as well that lightbeam portal appeared. Also, if Delphine is so important to the whole story and is personally instructed by angels who sometimes even use her as a vessel for themself, why did they let her die in such a cruel way? Why was Delphine chosen in the first place? The other major thing I did not get, but have a few theories about is what happens to Thomas after his death. After he dies he is condemned to hell. Of course you could say he was a brigand and killed people in the past for money, but without him protecting Delphine, who the angels hold in extremely high regard, she would never make it anywhere near Avignon. He actively even killed hell creatures, but is condemned to hell anyway? I'm not too knowledgeable on religion, but who even decides this? And from the detailed and very disturbing descriptions we got it was no "minor hell" or something, it was the absolutely WORST hell anyone could ever imagine and he was there so long even he forgot. You'd think after all he did starting with the book he does not deserve that. But alright, after that he gets saved by Delphine or an entity that looks like her and he comes back to live. And here's where it gets weird, because it's almost like a time travel story, where it goes back to the start of the book to the point where dialogue and events are word for word and Thomas yet again meets Delphine but instead of a brigand he is a farmer and he remembers everything that happened. What does this mean? The only theory I may have, is that it happens after the fight at Crecy and the rest is a vision? Also is there deeper meaning behind Lucifer being dead and Mammon ruling over hell now?

I just remembered how much I enjoyed reading this.
It reminded me of Gene Wolfe's The Wizard Knight. The hefty egyptian influence was a lot of fun.

>>17182057
>>17182626
no no its not post apocalyptic they live in the towers on purpose - theyre ecocommies
i swear it was called the green something, the doomsday weapon was like a satelite laser or something

>>17184072
Are you saying that the No-God is a tranny?

>>17183289
Yeah probably. There are a lot thing in Gardens of the Moon that go unexplained or at least not explained fully until the later books and many people who read genre fiction are apparently allergic to not knowing everything about a concept or setting immediately after it is introduced. Personally I think the way Gardens gives you just enough information and context to know what is happening while holding off on some of the history and details is what makes it such an interesting read and so rewarding when you finally learn the entire picture. It feels, for lack of a better word, fantastical and like an alien world

>>17183481
>>17183679
Thanks, anon. It sounds very Interesting. I will read it

>>17184199
>>17184199
Is this stuff worth reading? Does it have cringe mages or any dumb magic shit

>>17184199
> tfw the Boding hits

Where exactly did her success come from?

>>17183481
>>17183679
The book is poorly written by a literal retard with no idea on the subject matter - both historical and religious. In fact the only thing he knows is how to speak 4-th grade French (which i think he failed a couple of times in highschool). The end made no sense. The faggot brother had no purpose at all. In fact nothing was important and there were no themes. The guy just had a few scenes in his head about how it should end but obviously couldn't write his way there.
TLDR: A HACK

>>17184328

>>17184344
I smell christcucks ITT

>>17184363
Tranny

>>17184199
Yes

>>17184363
You will never be a woman.

I'm finally reading the Elder Empire series but I'm only 25% through the first Calder book. Anyone else read it? I haven't seen it mentioned much on the archives.
I'm also reading Methods: The Detective Competition which is a VN but the only 'gameplay' elements are literally pointing-and-clicking. There is a good amount of textual content spread across 100 chapters.

>everything about the anomaly immediately RAFO'd
figures
fuck you sanderstorm

Are the bakker books good someone answer me NOW

>>17184533
idk

>>17179957
The Once and Future King.

>>17184533
Yes but Neuropath is actually the best one.

>>17184533
just read them. i guarantee the ranks of we glorious Bakker-shills will grow with each Prince of Nothing-pill we drop.

>>17184517
You'll just have to wait until Dragonsteel my friend :^)

>>17184659
>low effort memeing for sandershit
anon are you okay

I fully expect to get made fun of for this, but has anyone read the Pirates of the Caribbean "books?" How are they? Typical licensed schlock? I put book in quotes because it seems like they're short stories at best.

>>17184669
made that shit in 2016 don't talk to me

>>17184669
any well made version of this meme is commendable despite the chosen author

a very well made meme indeed, made me laugh

it is the gondola spren that got me

Whoever reported my post, you will never be a woman.

> TELL ME.......

>>17184816
>you will never be a woman
Get some new material.

>>17184517
https://wob.coppermind.net/adv_search/?query=Cognitive%2BAnomaly
lmao you weren't kidding. Bait from Sanderson.

>>17184328
Because The Fifth Season was pretty good

Is the liveship traders the best Hobb?

>>17184824
> YOU MUST TELL ME WHAT YOU SEE

>>17178840
The main character of this book is a hilarious example of a wizard. He's always hammered, and mostly uses his magic to fuck with people and commit crimes. He's definitely not the most competent wizard; in fact, he may be one of the least. It's kind of how I imagine I'd be if I were a wizard. His poor nephew is his apprentice, and he gets dragged into the shittiest situations. The story gets pretty dark at times, but it's always humorous. Worth checking out if you like satire.

Fucking Radagast the Brown, obviously.

Just finished hyperion and i enjoyed it. Any opinions on the sequel "the fall of hyperion"?

>buggers you
Why?

>>17185736
there is a head on a pendulous phallus behind (you)

books that feel like the blade runner movies and/or dredd, go

also unrelated but this book is good

>>17185733
Second book is alright but definitely not as good as the first. The third and fourth books are widely considered to be pretty bad

>>17185788
I might move onto another series and come back to it later. Thanks for the input.

>>17185733
looks like another series I can read the first book of and treat it standalone

>>17185888
it certainly feels that way.

>>17182911
Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King

>>17179462

> I dont know how to live. I spend my days locked in a tower, i feel like i dont belong in the New Empire. Every woman i show any interest in cucks me. I been hurt bad by a Sumna whore one too many times. First gf broke up with me to be a Holy Empress. I didnt think i was that ugly but apparently, posting my face i dont care anymore its over for me, i can be your hero baby if u know what i mean in Sauglish

>>17184517
The Calder books are miles better than the assassin girl books. If he had just focused on writing Calder it would have been a much better series. The assassin girl books are painfully Reddit.

>>17178840
Any books to get into Sci-fi? I have read the time machine and nothing else of sci-fi, but I want to get into it. I thought you people could help me.

>>17186188
Dune

>>17186188
>you people

>>17186188

>>17185888
It's interesting how many books are like that.

>>17185733
Hyperion sequels ruin everything by overexplaining. Steer clear.

What's some books that focus on solitary exploration. I'm looking for pretty much anything that captures the cathartic feeling of being alone in wide expanses. Like Roadside Picnic if there was more time spent alone in the zone. I'll take more horror leaning suggestions too, but like I said I'm looking for a more cathartic and lonely mood than chilling.

>>17186188
The Expanse series is a good contemporary scifi but you can't go wrong with some of the classics like >>17186362 posted

>>17179102
cringing at you right now. that writing is reallly good. far better than youll ever write

>>17186188
Dune is a pretty good start if you want something traditional. I recommend Metal Boxes for people that don't read sci-fi. It does not take itself to seriously and is on the more humorous side despite that it has lots of sci-fi staples like aliens, space ships and war with said aliens.

I did not care for Dune.

>>17186018
I liked the assassin books because of all the Emperor flashbacks, he was the most interesting character in the whole series.

>>17182779
>Kaladin is Sora
>Shardblades are Keyblades
>The Voidbringers are Heartless
>The good boy team runs around various worlds fighting the heartless

>>17183188
this was always the thought in my mind when i'd read people complaining about how "difficult" GotM was.

like bitch, you're reading a high fantasy book that isn't set in medieval europe. did you expect to have the author spoonfeed you a datadump in chapters 1-3 everytime?

>>17187343
>the main character is the main character
>the sword analogs are sword analogs
>the bad guys are the bad guys, despite one being a faceless monolithic horde led by a small cabal of weirdoes and the other being a troop of immortal beings subjugating and enslaving similar beings via magic power and humanity itself by force that are all being led by a personal God
>the setting of one is dozens of separate distinct worlds the MC visits with a rag tag pair of buddies and the other is a single planet where only a handful of relevant locations are seen
Sure. Exactly the same. And creamed corn and ethanol fuel are literally the same product.

>>17185733
i'll be the lone contrarian here and stan fall of hyperion to my dying day.

the canterbury tales framing device is gone, it's just multiple viewpoints unfolding in normal time now. but fall of hyperion takes all the set pieces that were established in the first book and now moves them to endgame in a very satisfying way.

simmons oringinally intended hyperion and fall of hyperion as a duology, and simply stopping after the first book leaves a lot to be desired. that all said, ignore endymion/rise of endymion. those almost felt like a different author wrote them

.....

>>17187492
I'll reconsider, I was originally going to skip it and come back to it later but i do fell unsatisfied with the cliffhanger ending.

> Tell me about the Aspect-Emperor. Why does he wear the halo?

>>17187607
He is weary.

>>17187607
>Or perhaps he's wondering why someone would salt a man before throwing him to the Sranc.

>>17183679
I read the book from the same anons suggestion a few months ago. As I remember there was an explanation in the book that said every soul was being taken by the devils to hell no matter how righteous they were, and the angels were unable to stop it until delphine freed them. As far as the time reset, Im pretty sure there was no time shenanigans, Thomas was 'reborn' as a farmer and Delphine was 'reborn' into a childhood that was taken away from her. The barn and donkey similarities were just coincidences but I could be wrong.

fantastic book though, whoever recommended it thank you

realizing all of the science fiction I read is decades old, and I don't really know of any current writers in the genre. Are there any you'd recommend? If it helps, my favorites are Hyperion, God Emperor of Dune and Shadow of the Torturer.

why can't I be a good enough writer to tell the story I want to tell /sffg/? I know there's a spark inside me capable of it, but I can't draw on it no matter what I do and the pressure of trying to live up to my heroes is crushing me into carbonados

>>17187763
because you don't actually write

>>17187763
Stop comparing yourself to others, you will never be like them and that's a good thing.

>>17187771
at this point I've written about 25,000 words split between two novels. But I'm still too retarded and useless to handle something as simple as multi-pov.

>>17187782
no. it's not.

>>17187800
>250,000

fucking typo

>>17187800
>multi-pov
This is a meme, my friend. It's really unnecessary.

>>17187809
just because it's unnecessary doesn't mean I don't need to be able to write it. I can't just stick to simple point-to-point narratives for the rest of my career. I WANT to tell a complicated story. There's a beauty in well-executed convolution

>>17187809
this, it's pretty much ruined sff for the foreseeable future

>>17178909
I have it saved for later on Amazon. You can stop shilling now. That said the excerpt was great and reminds me of Stoner/The Book of the Disquiet.

>>17187828
Important note: the person who posted the original image and has been spamming is a different anon than me, who posted the excerpt. I rated the book 5 stars myself.

>>17183699
Also featuring a bunch of insane and evil wizards (>>17182911)

>>17181048
Kaladin is just depressed failure Kelsier and fuckup Raoden
Dalinar is his most distinct so far, I'd say
>>17181160
Sanderson's comedy characters are such ill-fitting cartoons compared to anyone else in his books. They're so tonally bizarre

>>17186650
>expanse
made it up to midway through persepolis and then suddenly could not read another word. tried to pick it up a year later, read about a page, and immediately put it down again. not sure what happened exactly but maybe stick to the first few books and call it a day.

>ctrl + f
>Goblin or One Eye
>0 Results
>Shame

Black Company Series, Goblin & One Eye

They are a subversion of what the atypical wizard is and I enjoy that, made them more human. They do not rate much higher than a typical soldier in the Company and exhibit all the typical traits that a mercenary soldier would.

>>17185736
The guy seems cool, but the constant shilling is a bit off putting

>>17187763
because writing is a skill that you have to develop

>>17185736
What does one read after Bakker?

>>17188120
how much more developing do I have to do? I've written two full novels but the stress of just thinking about multi-POC is frying my brain so much I can't put one idea in front of another and focus on one narrative thread

>>17184533
yes

>>17185038
kek, just need to edit the black guy to be Akka

>>17188234
scfi is shit precisely because the science is boring or wrong so might as well just read fantasy

>Classics
I made the mistake of reading an older book than I usually do, Timelike Infinity by Baxter 1992. Dropped after the 5th page cause of
>The small viewport glowed briefly crimson, its flawed plastic sparkling with laser speckle.
but everyone now knows that viewports on a space ship don't make sense. It's a weak point. This was obvious in a much later book by him, Proxima - which is set only 200 years in the future , as opposed to 2500 for Timelike
>You understand that what you see is simulated, a live feed from cameras mounted on the ISM shield.’
>'ISM?’
>‘Interstellar medium.’ McGregor clapped his hands again. ‘Wraparound VR star field.’
>The walls and floor of this deck shimmered and melted away. It was as if Yuri, with McGregor, Lemmy, Mardina Jones, Tollemache, Liu Tao, and the handful of operators with their screens, were standing on a floor of glass. And all around him, above and below, he saw stars, with one particularly brilliant specimen directly under his feet.
And this is a hard sf writer with degrees in math and engineering. Yet he couldn't predict such a basic thing back in 1993, he had to wait until the rest of us saw the trends of the digital age, cameras getting smaller, displays getting better, etc. This is why sci fi ages like milk, i don't care what anyone says, go back one more decades and there's even more ridiculous anachronisms like people using pen and paper and shit while travelling through space, and i don't even want to know what "sci fi" from the 50s or 30s (kek) is like. Anyone who recommends shit like this is just being a snob because it's a "classic" when it defeats the entire point. Go read some more "classic" sci fi from ancient greece where they sail to the moon lol, it's old so it must be good !

>>17188247
Toilet paper booba

>>17188242
well fantasy is just cookie cutter pulp. It's the medieval era with magic inserted as a plot device whenever the author feels like it despite something like magic fundamentally changing everything we know about reality and the universe, it would be completely unrecognizable

>>17187909
>Sanderson's comedy characters are such ill-fitting cartoons compared to anyone else in his books. They're so tonally bizarre
I can't disagree with this at all, and despite how they're always highly irregular from the basic archetype of everyone else in the cast, I find the contrast makes it more humorous. At least to me.

>>17188253
Sorry fucked up a key adjective so had to remake post

>>17188258
star wars is fantasy

>>17188278
Of course. So is Dune, yet people keep mentioning that as sci fi for some reason

Any book, scifi or fantasy, with skillful reluctant protagonist? (Yang Wenli from logh as an example)

> Thought-dancer...!

>>17188432
>reluctant
i don't know why you'd want a protag to be reluctant

Is there any book database with tags over there? I find it terribly difficult to find something specific when the only thing I can count on is a book cover and title. Even though many websites let me filter books by genre, the fantasy genre is still a broad term which encompasses everything that spans from hidden gems to zoomers' woke garbage.
Until now I was mainly reading web serials that often tagged extensively, but I feel like I've grown up from them, and I want to read what is properly published. But it's too difficult to find what I want.

>>17181697
That's great, except both lame and generic are entirely subjective criteria.

>>17188432
Reluctant to do what?
The Pastel City. Between Two Fires. Heroes Die. Elric.

>>17188247
>can't enjoy retrofuturism
ngmi

/r/ that big list made my SJWs about fantasy authors categorizing them based on do their books have racism, rape, incest, sexism etc

>looking at all the new and upcoming fantasy books for 2020 and 2021

>>17188955
>reading new shit
Why

>>17189032
this exactly, let others read the books first, if its not complete garbage after 5 years, yes then I might consider the slight possibility of buying the book

>>17188955
>The Fall of Babel comes out this year
feels good

>>17188144
incels.co

>>17185053
Back to shill again huh?

>Sandersoys

Tell me about Alastair Reynolds.

>>17189468
He's written some interesting books.

>>17189331
bakker here, i'm not an incel, the character of neil from Neuropath and his social life was based on myself

>>17188457
I like the concept of it.
>>17188600
To do their duty/job although they're good at it. Between Two Fires looks interesting, there's cunny too, thanks

I want a protagonist who is reluctant to be the protagonist and keeps trying to make himself into a side character.

>>17189805
Gateway

>>17189404
>rent free :^)

>>17189805
Wheel of Time has all 3 main characters trying to do this till they all give up at different points through the story and just be the hero

>>17188713
Should've kept the link in some way.

>>17188247
Yes, despite being a hard sf writer with degrees in math an engineering he didn't realize that all advances in materials science would end by 2020. God you sound like a bore.

>>17188247
>SF writers are clairvoyant

Has anyone read Bakker on a Kindle/Kobo?

Are those editions any good? I heard that the first book has some typos.

>>17186362
This is a strange chart. Latro is not a good place to start with Wolfe, even if we're limiting it to his fantasy works (The Wizard Knight would be a better pic). Also, though it's well known, The Forever War isn't very good.

>>17190388
fifth head of cerberus is the better pick for beginning wolfe imo

>>17190305
I've read books 2 and 3 on kindle, didn't notice any typos

>>17178840
https://www.deviantart.com/uthp/journal/The-Legend-of-Twilight-Zelda-Princess-part-I-348420007

>>17189264
Really? Huh.
I didn't like the last two very much, but the first book was good.

I know i'm late to the party but i like it

Imagine being a filthy degenerate who fucks elves, rabbits, dogs, cats and demons.

>>17190732
How often do you imagine doing that?

>>17190732
a white woman?

>Don't come back till you have him!" the Ticktockman said, very quietly, very sincerely, extremely dangerously.

>>17190732
What do I read if I just want to fuck traps?

>>17190732
How the fuck is elves and demons in the same category? Much less like domesticated animals like dogs, cat and rabbits?

>>17190881
search "language:english male:tomgirl" on sad panda. Thank me later.

>>17190997
I know all about the material available from Japan, my friend. I want a book.

>>17190983
t. elf fucker

>>17191017
This is the best trap. Prove me wrong.
Gyaru bitch bois are the best.

>>17191090
Ugly design.

>>17189032
At some point your run out of old material.

>>17187528
I see a fucking terrible photoshoppe.

>>17190023
>>17188713

Found the link
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/9nb57j/sexual_violence_in_sff_database_introduction_and/

>>17191090
No, Gujira is meh.

>>17191101
>>17191090
I don't know why, but this trap with the shadow eyes makes me diamonds.
It actually makes me want to find a trap irl to fuck and we all know that is gay. Don't know why I like the design so bad.

>>17191197

Of course I do not use this information to AVOID trigger warnings, rather this will identify based authors.

>>17191204
That isn't even one of their better works and it's also meh.

>>17191204

/lit/ - /sffg/ Science Fiction and Fantasy General

>>17191017
>>17191090
>>17191204
>>17191287

Aren't there containment boards for people like you?

>>17190732
Don’t forget spiders and foxes too

>>17191290
>/sffg/ - So Fun Fucking Guy-pusseh

>>17179971
>Zimmer

>>17185781
Read it a while ago, definitely a page turner but the climax didn't live up to the rest of the book and left too many unanswered questions.

>>17191300
We are talking about things that affect sffg books.
Akka is known for having boipussey when he can't get Esmenet and her daughter to fuck.

Hogg and Dhalgren deal with boipussy. So does Imajica.

bakker general

>>17191319
He fucked the Spider and the fox?
How did it work with the spider?
Was the fox the Whore House Madame/ Mistress?

>>17191473
you should still be contained degenerate

>>17191770
Moralfag begone

>>17191825
back to /lgbt/

>>17191842
Liking traps is not gay.

>>17191842
If it looks like a female, talks like a female, dress like a female, and I'm attracted to females, it's not gay to fuck them.

>>17191897
think you forgot some crucial biological female qualities

>>17190635
its fantastic. the other two books are also great.

Anyone have a mythical creature tier list?
Looking for something that's less than a dragon and more on par with a sphinx.

>>17183699
Excellent taste, Anon. I was just about to chime in with this book's protagonist, Sekenre, as my answer to the thread topic.

>>17190305
i ripped mine off mobilism years ago, they looked legit (not PDFs). i think i noticed more typos in aspect-emperor series, but that coincided with a drop in writing quality and aligned with editor issues for bakker so i figured that's all related.

don't recall seeing things like "darn" --> "dam"

>>17191473
akka had some boipussy?? when was this?

iirc, he was the only unabashedly hetero character around. constantly putting the pussy on a pedestal, no man love for him.

>>17191995
Not a tier list but I hope it is still useful

>>17191473
>Akka is known for having boipussey when he can't get Esmenet and her daughter to fuck.
Blasphemous and damnedpilled gay fan fiction.

>>17192455
I remember seeing this a month ago somewhere but neglected to save it. Should help, thanks.

>have seen the black company recommended many times in fantasy reading lists
>always thought it must have been decent enough if it's in so many
>see it mention on a /tg/ thread
>look at replies and see that everyone is shitting on it
So it's actually not good? What do you guys think?

It's good, not great.

>>17192516
its really bad
bad writing, boring stale and simplistic

>>17191927
I'm attracted to looks. I don't want to breed. If they thighs are thicc, the ass is fat, and it has a hole for me to nut in, I don't give a fuck. Once I don't see the dick.

>>17192624
Gay

>>17192624
are you attracted to normal females?

>>17192426
he had sex with his roommate at Atyersus as a mandate student iirc

>>17192645
>wanting to fuck the female form is gay

>>17192660
Yes. Especially when they act coy and innocent.

>>17192540
what was this post made in reference to?

>>17192823
Obviously the post above it.

>>17192785
>mental gymnastics
Gay

>>17192823
stupid anime poster

>>17193017
baka

>>17192823
>>17193054

tranny

>>17193101
you wanna see my cock, faggot?

>>17192516
It's not a masterpiece or anything but its competently written with interesting characters who don't act in the way you usually see in fantasy stories.

>>17191995

>>17193126
You will never be a woman.

>>17193326
wouldn't wanna be, retard

>>17190859
Not sure why this one gets all the love. He has better stories. On The Slab. Broken Glass.

>someone makes a reddit thread to explain what good prose is (and subsequently people offer examples of bad one)
>thread gets locked by the mods so they can ban a bunch of people because it obviously degenerated into sanderson bashing
sorry for the crosspost but I found it hilarious

>>17193545
I don't give a shit about what people on leddit are doing, and neither should you.
Literally, who cares?

>>17193545
>posts le epic dumdum head wojak instead of any receipts
haha very good post my fellow redditor sure showed those sandertoddlers!

>>17193322
>flat globohomo art style
retard

>>17193614
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/kp6hin/seeing_i_dont_even_understand_what_people_mean_by/

>>17193614
>instead of any receipts
what the fuck does this even mean?

>>17193913
How underage b& are you to not know what a screenshot is, or understand a simple sentence?
You better don't pretend to be retarded.

>>17181251
If you can get through the first book and think, "huh, this isn't too bad", then you deserve to read all 14 tomes.

>>17193958
a receipt is not a screenshot you fucking esl

>>17181276
Things get a bit confusing starting with house of chains. Still one of my favorites in the series regardless.

>>17193999
Full Queen's English, Amerifat. Go clap at people getting injections.

>>17194036
>t. Mohammed

>>17193999
Maybe you should stick to Penguin Readers books anon, even Sanderson might be a bit too advanced for you

>>17194277
nigger I will slap your shit so hard you'll drop your tea and crumpets

>>17194307
>>17194277
>>17194061
>>17194036
>>17193999
>>17193913
>>17193904
>>17193739
>>17193054
>>17193017
>>17193011
>>17193614
>>17193555
>>17193101
>>17193126
>>17193545
Stupid fucking threadshitting retards. Fuck the lot of you. Stay out of my general you sad plebs. You should all be banned for off topic and low quality posts.

>>17187824
What's so hard about multi POV? Just cut to a new perspective after a break in the text. I do it all the time and nobody has ever told me I'm fucking anything up.

>>17194330
transphobes are eternal

>>17194347
Tranny, transphobes, I don't give a fuck. KYS either way. Go to /pol/ or /b/ with this garbage.

>>17194345
The hard part would be making both POVs unique but still entertaining. A lot amateur writers will have both POVs sound similar or do similar things which is annoying but even worse is when you cut from an interesting POV to a boring one (looking at you GRRM)

>>17181447
r/malazan

>>17194389
I can understand that I suppose. I've personally found the real sweet spot with POVs to being three or four. A couple of protagonists and one villain tends to keep the pacing up and ensures that something interesting is always happening.

>>17181447
i absolutely skip the fucking poems or pithy sayings erikson puts at the beginning of his chapters. theyre so bad

>>17191524
Just oral with the spider. And yes to the fox

>>17194518
Can you post them so I don't need to read the whole book?

>>17178840
Unorthodox pick, but Bridger from Terra Ignota.

>>17194330
All me

I'm close to finishing echopraxia and maybe I missed some little detail earlier in the book but why does Sengupta always talk in run-on sentences without punctuation it's completely consistent I don't think it's a print error.

who's writing it?

>>17184861
it was very undercooked

>>17181160
I didn't mind Wax, I found Wayne tiresome. The bulk of the missed potential in Alloy of Law was in Miles.

>>17181276
I'm four books in and I still do not understand how the magic works at all. Bakker is less obtuse than this shit.

>>17187343
That isn't it at all. We find out pretty early on that the humans are the Voidbringers, everyone just forgot because it was a bazillion years ago.

>>17195389
Its simple really
Its just a separate dimension you are siphoning power from , dont siphon more power than you can.

Depending on your location that dimension is closer or farther making magic easier/harder, another might interfere with you, also some characters are powerful enough to interfere with this.

>>17194345

the thing that makes multi-pov hard is that I'm telling multiple stories going on at the same time. the first book in the series did technically have multiple points of view, but the characters were almost always in the same place at the same time. this next book follows multiple people on different quests at the same time

>>17194389
except there aren't two points of view. There are at least four. Granted, all those points of view are the same four characters the readers were always following in the first book, but that doesn't make telling four stories in parallel all tied together by the same goal any easier