/lit/ - Literature

first for

Bliss is my daughterfu!
Finding out Valin was the Wanderer was neat. I forgot that was a thing he did. I wish the book would get to any point where we figure out what the fuck the Great Elders want.

>>17258704
Bliss is best girl

>>17258676
>Are there any authors you cannot stand for a very specific reason even if they're generally acknowledged as good?

To get the ball rolling - Brian Aldiss. I posted in one of the older threads about it, but dude just can't write characters. He writes dialog the same way George Lucas did in the Prequel Trilogy.

>>17258602
No way. When the camp is in shambles, the commander from the Shrial knights says the Dread God is walking among them, implying they've been visited by the "bad luck" or disease God.
If the No God had somehow been revived at that poing, it would've been a huge issue.

>>17258751
that's because they're camping on the site the No god was vanquished. They're haunted by his presence. Achamian explains as much

>>17258751
Perhaps you are thinking of Akkjëari (spelling?), the bellicose disease god of Eärwa?
>>17258764
This is correct, Mengedda is a topos because of the residues that Mog-Pharau's destruction left there.
> when you realize the indigo plague was just radiation poisoning

>>17258751
Could also just be Akkeägni. Disease and all that sort of shit is his domain.
Anyway, fuck Bakker and his "everyone is damned lol" world.

>>17258676
Brandon Sanderson because his books suck dick

>>17258776
>fuck Bakker and his "everyone is damned lol" world.
Barely a shred of real love or friendship that isn't somehow trampled into the dirt. Barely a single relationship that isn't profoundly sullied by betrayal, lies, etc. Barely a single character that doesn't get raped and/or murdered in some senseless, horrific manner. Barely a single soul escapes from both Hell on earth and the eternal Hell outside. Barely any true heroism, true sacrifice, true selflessness that isn't motivated by some kind of ulterior cruelty.

I love Bakker's inventiveness, poetics, and expansive vision, but one gets sick of his angsty nihilistic tedium after awhile. He's clearly a very depressed man, obsessed with his own genius. Literal teenage edgelord that never grew up. Just look at his blog, it's obvious.

>>17258764
>>17258771
Not at all. They crossed the desert (first noticeable mention of this "dread god") and are now camping outside Caraskand, when it starts raining and some disease like dengue is obliteraring them (hemoplexy). In the council that's kept secret from Kellhus, the knight-priest says they're been visited by the dread god and one of the nobles says they should ask themselves why they're being punished.
This is mentioned before they storm the city.
>>17258776
It's the most likely explanation but there are no hits on Google whether Dread God was one of his names.

Chris Nakashima-Brown on his book Tropic of Kansas:
>There are a lot of guns in Tropic of Kansas. It’s the story of an insurrection in an alternate United States. When I wrote it in 2013-14, that idea of an American version of the Arab spring, an #Occupy with AK-47s that rises up against a media personality turned authoritarian president, seemed almost too implausible, and by the time I sold the book this time in 2016 something very similar was already starting to happen in real life.

>The book’s penultimate scene features a mob ransacking The White House after the rebels retake Washington. The mob is trying to overthrow a dictator rather than keep one in power, and the intent of the book is to repurpose our revolutionary creation myths—the third rail of our political culture—toward more emancipatory ends. But I couldn’t help be sickened by the parallels as I watched the events unfold Wednesday in the building where I worked for five years before and after law school. Especially as I wondered whether any of those wannabe real-world insurrectionists might have been influenced by the book, which was read pretty widely, or by any other of the similarly-themed books that appeared that year and after—fantastic fictions of a Second American Civil War.

>>17258676
A People's Future of the United States (2019)
It would've been nice if more than literally one of these was upbeat.
Even though I didn't like most of them, it was still interesting to see different perspectives.
The title is misleading to me, but it's a nice title.
Almost every story is about sex and/or race. LGBTQIA POC abound.

Enjoyable: 1
Ok: 7
Meh: 6
Blah: 10
Unrated: 1
Total: 25

The Bookstore At The End of America - Charlie Jane Anders
California has seceded from the United States. Both sides are caricatures. The protagonist is a physical book fetishist and book store owner who is trying to remain neutral. Her teenage daughter has both a boy and a girl trying to woo her. Then the Mecha come. The neutrality is preserved by having everyone discuss a YA fantasy series that is universally beloved.
Meh

Our Aim Is Not To Die - A. Merc Rustad
An autistic teenager suffering from gender dysphoria who was assigned female at birth will be discovered to be neurodiverse in three days due to a surprise Medical Evaluation. All citizens are required to required to disclose all activities of their day to the government through social media. Anything that diverges from the being the Ideal Citizen will be severely punished. However, the Purge App promises freedom, if you'll only accept it. The ending left much to be desired.
Ok

The Wall - Lizz Huerta
The United States has collapsed and now all the Mexicans are trying to escape back to Mexico.
Blah

Read After Burning - Maria Dahvana Headley
The protagonist is a member of a literal death cult. This is presented as a good thing. The United States has collapsed but also has complete control over the people. This may be an allegory and not meant to taken literally, but I find it entirely distasteful regardless.
Blah

Chapter 5: Disruption and Continuity [Excerpted] - Malka Older
I don't read excerpts, especially of books I may read.

It was Saturday Night, I Guess that Makes it Alright - Sam J. Miller
A bottom thinks he's in love with his straight co-worker. He works a minimum wage job for the surveillance state. Desperate for gay sex he wanders around looking for anyone willing and able. What he finds is sex that may or may not be altering reality.
Ok

Attachment Disorder - Tananarive Due
The protagonist was both a carrier and cure for The Doomsday Plague. Now extremists known as The Cleaners have come for them. There's protection in The Republic of Sacramento, but she'll never return there. She'll take her chances being on her own with her daughter not of her body.
Blah

By His Bootstraps - Ashok K. Banker
Trump tries to use a Genetic Time Bomb to Make America Great Again but it has the opposite effect and erases the depredations of the United States from history.
Blah

Riverbed - Omar El Akkad
A woman revisits where she lived as a child on the 50th anniversary of the Re-Segregation.
Blah

>>17258901
>Publishing your first book at 57
Is "Chris Nakashima-Brown" a pen-name?

>>17258911
What Maya Found There - Daniel Jose Older
Trump has deregulated and seized control of all bioengineering. Maya, a bioengineer, doesn't want her notes to fall into his hands.
Blah

The Referendum - Lesley Nneka Arimah
Trump has been re-elected. The 13th amendment has been repealed. Slavery has been reinstituted. This is the story of The Black Resistance.
Meh

Calendar Girls - Justina Ireland
A teenage girl is selling contraband on the street corner. Condoms, birth control pills, and abortifacients are her items. The argument of the day is whether to lower the marriageable age for girls from 14 to 12. After being given an offer she can't refuse she has to smuggle a girl elsewhere for an abortion.
Ok

The Synapse will Free us from Ourselves - Violet Allen
The protagonist is a gay conversion enforcer. There's a problem though. He may just be gay himself! Also, why can't he remember his past?
Enjoyable

O.1 - Gabby Rivera
An ambiguously sexed person is pregnant in a world that hasn't seen a birth in 10 years. Also a sentient bacterium is intentionally killing the greedy and/or racist.
Blah

The Blindfold - Tobias S. Buckell
Defendants in criminal cases have their race randomized for juries. A hacker is hired to make sure they appear white for the all-white jury. However, Russia interferes, which the government ignores because of their help in their elections.
Meh

No Algorithms in the World - Hugh Howey
The United States has a livable UBI and and almost everything is automated. There's little reason to work, but his father is determined to follow the old ways.
Ok

Esperanto - Jamie Ford
A woman disfigured by an explosion from a terrorist attack comes to live in a city where everything and everyone has an augmented reality overlay.
Ok

Rome - G. Willow Wilson
Do you think we'll all be burned alive before we finish our midterms?! A satire about academia and the privatization of fire departments.
Blah

Give me Cornbread or Give me Death - N.K. Jemisin
Biblical plagues, dragons, and revolution.
Blah

Good News Bad News - Charles Yu
A series of news articles from the future.
Meh

What You Sow - Kai Cheng Thom
>her cock
Yun is a Celestial, a being whose Ichor can alleviate the symptoms of the Undreaming.
Ok (almost enjoyable, but I have some concerns about the ending)

A History of Barbed Wire - Daniel H. Wilson
Corporations have literally become the government and everything is privatized. For those who aren't wealthy the Cherokee reservation may be the last bastion of freedom. A crime investigation story.
Meh (could have been ok if it were longer)

The Sun in Exile - Catherynne M. Valente
The sun is put on trial for treason.
Blah

Harmony - Seanan McGuire
Two women who are married to each other buy a ghost town with their own money and with the support of various others.
Ok

Now Wait for This Week - Alice Sola Kim
A woman is caught in a time loop. A reference to PKD's Now Wait for Last Year.
Meh

>>17258915
Yes. I thought he was a japmerican, but I was disappointed.

>>17258911
>>17258918
Reddit: The Post

>>17258925
>>>/v/

>>17258717
>>17258704
So yall wanna fuck bliss in her 1000 year old cunny too?

Does anyone actually read those blogposts?

y'all read light of the jedi?

>>17258918
>>17258911
> the absolute state of modern sf/f

>>17258915
The guy is a professional lawyer but started writing with the original cyberpunk circle.

>>17258960
>but started writing with the original cyberpunk circle.
Well I was actually thinking about reading something of his but this completely put me off.

What is the /sffg/ version of this book?

>>17258960
I liked this short story
http://futurismic.com/2010/05/04/new-fiction-windsor-executive-solutions-by-chris-nakashima-brown-and-bruce-sterling/

Anyone read this? Tell me about it.

>>17258676
BROS!!.....

I am on Children of Dune right now and am really loving it. Should I stop with God Emperor or go all the way to Chapterhouse?

Also, why did they do my girl Alia, so bad?? She was such a good ally to Paul in the second book, then no one seems to have given a shit about her and let her fall to her her other lives.

How does goodreads work?
Do I need to purchase books to make them count on my profile?

>>17259123
no. You can claim to have read anything.
I just either put books in my to read list or when I've finished them mark them as read. That's it

>>17259123
>mfw I see how many people read 5+ books at the same time
How? Do they just have some in audio format or what? And they keep it doing it week after week. How much do you even retain reading like that? So-called "booktubers" seem to do this by default.

>>17259170
I hear learning to read parallel books actually increases overall speed and annual amount.
Is there any truth to this?

>>17259056
depends how into hard slaps, beefswelling, chairdogs and vaginal pulsing you are.

>>17258901
>which was read pretty widely

For the first book I overlooked how 1 dimensional the main character is because vengeance always gets me going. I enjoyed it for that.

The second book's start has been a rough slog because the main character lost that fire he had in the first one and makes one retarded decision that I can't overlook.

Hot take:

>>17259170

Audiobooks do not qualify as books. You can’t claim to have read anything. You merely listened to a story and didn’t learn anything from it. Both in vocabulary and meaning.

There is nothing better than slowly savouring a book page.

>>17258911
Thanks for the review

Why are Frank Herbert's naming conventions so bad? I mean, would you ever believe that Muslims and Buddhists can merge together and name their religion Buddhislam? Did he ever explain this?

>>17259270
>denying the oral tradition, was has been the standard for almost the entire existence of humanity

>>17259271
You're welcome.

>>17259272
who the fuck cares, not like these made up people actually speak english.

>>17259218
>reading a black author

>>17259281
Ah yes, those amazing Illiterate caveman who told stories., before history.

>oral tradition
you spelled “passive tradition” wrong.

>>17259179
no? this is the most retarded concept anyone has ever come up with. it doesn't even make physical sense.

Saw in the last thread.
Is it worth a read?

>>17259281
You need to be an adult to post here.

>>17258901
Kansas City mayor is a piece of dog shit, they would be the last to rebel for freedom

>>17259270
Some faggot in my friend group was being a dick to someone who listened to audiobooks.

>"You can't talk about the book with us because you've only listened to it"

Dude was called it, bitched, and apologized. I don't get this take, what is with the elitism to how art/media is consumed?

>>17259465
>elitism
Authoritarians love hierarchies.

>>17259270
>and didn’t learn anything from it
Learn how to speak for yourself, big brain
>>17259421
You mean the people who invented language In the first place and carried down stories like the Iliad until written language was invented

>>17259465
>defends audiobooks
>can’t write

Every time.

>>17259465
Chances are your friend doesn’t have a full time job, the odds that he does are small

>>17259423
Why wouldn't it? If you grow tired of a story after 50 pages before you need to put the book down and read more the next day, you may still be able to read with high comprehension, just not that particular text.

If you then switch texts, you might be invigorated to start another 50 pages for that day. I know sometimes I feel if I am racing through a fictional story, I am not letting it mature properly and fully form. If I switch to something else for a few hours, I am enthusiastic to pick up where I left off on that text.

If I didn't do this, I might very well go play vidya for the rest of the afternoon instead of switch to another book I am in the middle of.

>>17259513
You clearly didn’t learn how to spell.

>>17259421
>>17259436
not him but what is wrong with the oral tradition?

>>17259549
Nothing

>>17259549
Claiming that the oral tradition is, in any way, superior to its counterpart is folly.

>>17259524
I do have a full-time job and I’ve never acquired an audiobook in my life.

>>17259524
You can’t be a white collar worker and listen to audiobooks during work.

>>17259575
Just to be devil's advocate, the oral tradition has these qualities that print media cannot have...
>communal rather than solitary (important in tribal society)
>can use tone, volume, tempo, melody and other elements of voice to create atmosphere and drama
>is infinitely more insulated against time than re-tellings are (most studies of pre-literate people show remarkable memory and their oral tales are retold almost word for word)
>they are selective and thus you do not accumulate the kipple of trash literature and the paradox of too much choice
>they are central to forming cultures' common narratives and value systems, thus have a teaching element that a solitary reader several timezones away from the author (or living after they have died) cannot get through being unable to initiate a dialogue.

>>17259655
t.religious schizo

>>17259666
lol nope I am an agnostic, what made you think that though?

>>17259655
all of this is either actively harmful or no longer relevant in the modern era, and certainly not relevant to reading books for entertainment.
as far as the best way to consume a book, it'll always be reading it yourself, as you get to go at your own pace and skim bad paragraphs or re-read segments from prior chapters easily, and you get your own internal narrative with all the tone that fits you specifically instead of some narrator's opinion.
it'll always be better to read books yourself, audiobooks are shit with very, very few exceptions.

>>17259679
Based. Imagine enjoying having someone’s voice polluting your imagination.

>>17259679
>harmful
which is?

>relevant in the modern era
>not being perennial
anon, I...

>entertainment
my second point is pure entertainment driven.

>as far as the best way to consume a book, it'll always be reading it yourself, as you get to go at your own pace and skim bad paragraphs or re-read segments from prior chapters easily, and you get your own internal narrative with all the tone that fits you specifically instead of some narrator's opinion.
This doesn't necessarily conflict with the points I made.

>it'll always be better to read books yourself, audiobooks are shit with very, very few exceptions.
I was not talking about audiobooks, I was talking about oral tradition.

>>17259743
nobody cares about oral tradition in sffg unless you're talking about audiobooks. who cares about some hippies talking vietnam stories around a campfire? completely unrelated to anything discussed here.

>>17259756
>/lit/
>not discussing the original form of lit
Anon, by this extension, audiobooks should not be talked about in /sffg/

it is a topic of format, not genre.

>>17259281
>>17259270
>>17259436
>>17259549
>>17259554
>>17259575
>>17259655
>>17259666
>>17259679
Well, anons?

As far as we know there's no significant difference between reading or listening to a book as long as you're focused on what you're doing.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244016669550

The reason why Audiobook listeners are almost always shit at retaining information is because they insist on listening to a book while they're doing chores, commuting or even doing video editing. The only other barrier would be being a brainlet that lets unknown words slip through without pausing the recording to look them up.

>Tydonni didn't consort with dark-skinned peoples - or picks, as they called them - because they were polluted. For world-born men, such customs simply were.
wtf

>>17258981
I’m interested if there is one also.>>17258995

>>17259822
>>17259822
>NNNOOO THIS FANTASY CHARACTER'S MORALITY HAS TO BE EXACTLY LIKE MINE OR I CAN'T ENJOY THIS BOOK, NOT EVEN TO SHOW SOMEONE WHO CAN BE BETTER THROUGH LEARNING AND EXPERIENCE, WHY ISN'T HE JUST A DECENT HUMAN BEING, TWITTER PLEASE BAN THIS AUTHOR AND MAKE HIM UNEMPLOYABLE UNTIL HE DIES OF STARVATION ON THE STREETS.

>>17259806
Amazon offers hundreds of free books.

>>17259850
Which libgen also has

>>17259806
peepee poopoo

>>17259850
>he gives his address and name to amazon in exchange for things he already owns by virtue of being a member of the public.

>>17259926
Cope

>>7258627
Yeah I agree, 3BP is all theory no story. Still, very cool theory.

Book 2/3 also contains the Western-Eastern Liberal versus Authoritarian debate, literally in the different eras, and represented by the Earth/Trisolarans.

I also read, particularly in the earlier sections, a not-so-subtle desire for China to be recognised on the same stage as Europe and the USA.

>>17260001
>it has no response and thus thrashes out in anger and frustration

>>17259536
Nothing’s spelled wrong, you can attack grammar if you wish, but ultimately you need to build a bridge and get over it, learn how to speak for yourself from now on and you wouldn’t be so upset right now

>>17259427
No.

>>17259617
I work 30+ individual machines that make up a processing line at fortune 50 company, I am required to wear ear protection, instead I use noise canceling earbuds and listen to books

Stay salty service sector bitch

>>17259617
t. not an IT professional

audiobooks are what I mainly listened to while doing SRE work for silicon valley corps

>>17259427
Do you like gnosticism and accurate portrayal of women?

>>17259820
It depends on whether you are a visual or audio person. I would not be able to retain information from audio books regardless of how intently I listened, but I have excellent retention for things that I read. I have always been a highly visual person and I visualize strongly while reading.

Why is every thread full of dudes who are ABSOLUTELY anal autistic about one topic? Like that bitch who kept shitting the thread about flintlock fantasy. You don't like it? OK cool, make your argument and fuck off.
You don't like audio books? OK cool, make your argument and fuck off. You don't have to spend 50 posts trying to convince everyone about it, then get buttmad when people call you a faggot.

Also Mistborn is one of the top fantasy series out there. At least the first trilogy. I can hardly think of a more comfy read. It's clear Sanderson had a clear image about it and had a concise plan on how to tackle this story. I didn't read the second series.

>>17260004
You know what I've never seen anybody comment on? Liu Cixin's concept of Europe is actually VERY in-line with American europhilia, Europe is already losing its relevance on the world stage in 2021 yet they're portrayed as a superpower in the novels.

>>17260168
I thought the first Mistborn trilogy was alright. A decent, fun read. The second series though, that was actually really good. I ended up liking it more than the first Mistborn.

>>17260183
Europe was a dominant force in the world for so many centuries, people seem unwilling to imagine a future where they are irrelevant. Don't get me wrong, Europe is still fantastically wealthy and prosperous compared to most of the world, but in terms of geopolitics, they've become insular and stagnant.

>>17260194
Europe isn't fantastically wealthy Western Europe is, the poverty in rural eastern Europe is fucking shameful. It's actually scary how much of our R&D funding comes from America.

>>17260253
You do not understand how poor most of the world is. Yes, eastern Europe is not as wealthy as the west, but it is still leaps and bounds ahead of Africa and most of Asia. The only reason Eastern Europe is not inundated with immigrants thew way Western Europe and America are is because why settle for just "better than here" when you could go for "top 5% of the world"?

>>17260286
How poor is the rest of the world?

>>17260194
Sure, China and India were the most powerful economic centers of the world for centuries, mainly for demographic factors, and after a brief euro parenthesis carried by technological innovations (portuguese and spanish naval advancements, brit steam engine, french science philosophy, american engineering dominating the 20th century etc..) , it seems in this century they'll be back to their primacy position

>>17260253
Lack of education. People's fault. Poor mentality. I live in rural east Europe and I have my own plot of land, a nice comfy house, grow my own veggies and even raise a few rabbits and have a dog. I also finished 2 universities and have a relaxing lab job with small hours so I can enjoy my free time writing and reading SFF and working out.
Life can be good, but I admit most people here and legit retarded.

>need to poo
>quickly grab my e-reader so I can knock out a page or two while on the loo
You must have a 200+ IQ to respond to me.

>>17258776
>>17258823

“I renounce!” Anon roared, sweeping his scathing gaze across all assembled. “I renounce my station as Holy Shill, as Exalt-Shitposter in the service of R. Scott Bakker!”

He glanced at the Janny, not caring whether the old tranny sneered or no.

“I renounce my School!” he continued. “As an assembly of adolescent midwits and misogynistic edgelords.”

“Then you sentence yourself to death!” a Bakkerfag cried. “There’s no good philosophical fantasy outside of His work! There are no other series—”

“I renounce my Author!”

Gasps and sputters filled the galleries of the /sffg/. Anon waited for the uproar to subside, staring for what seemed an unblinking eternity at the otherworldly aspect of the stringy-haired Canuck. Nothing passed between them.

His face a mask of nimil, Anon turned without leave, began walking back the way he came. The anons of the Thread stared at him dumbstruck, their outrage as bright as sparks in their eyes. But they fell away before his approach. They fell away.

“ANON!”

The Self-Insert himself. Anon did not condescend to turn, but he did pause. It seemed the future itself leaned inscrutable against him, a yoke about his neck, a spear point against his spine …

“The next time you post about me,” the Autist-Author said, his voice surprisingly nasal, ringing with Canadian accents, “you will shill, Anon.”

Retracing his bloody footprints, Anon limped on.

>>17260316
I do this too

>>17260316
what if i had a habit of bringing in chapter books into the loo and reading them in their entirety, condemning everyone else in the house?

Which fantasy books you'd argue to be good in terms of omnipresent qualities that are not tied to the genre itself? Like just generally good in terms of quality of prose, dialogue and whatever. I'd read a non-fantasy story by Abercrombie, but apart from him I can't come up with anyone else from the top of my head. I guess I'm just willing to look past a lot of things if there are medieval weapons and some supernatural elements in the story.

>>17258918
>Gabby Rivera
Based Gabby is back!

>>17260363
that sounds awkward

>>17260194
Sure, China and India were the most powerful economic centers of the world for centuries, mainly for demographic factors, and after a brief euro parenthesis carried by technological innovations (portuguese and spanish naval advancements, brit steam engine, french science philosophy, american engineering dominating the 20th century etc..) , it seems in this century they'll be back to their primacy position

>>17260122
>Stay salty service sector bitch
Ok, proletarian. Seethe harder while I sit on my ass all day making more money than you ever will.:^]

>>17260168
>how dare people discuss topics in an image board? just enjoy everything or shut up, no bad feefees allowed.
>likes Fagderson
like pottery.

>>17260430
It’s the Sandersoy, what did you expect?

>>17260036
I wasn’t even the same guy. But whatever, schizo.

ITT: zoomers with severe ADHD that can’t read

i have needed to some book in English to improve my english. if you have such book, please share it.

>>17260453
Depends on your current level

>>17259465
I wouldn't discuss game mechanics with some loser who watches an entire game on Twitch, but I can discuss the story and characters. Same goes for books.

>>17260145
>dude! pedophile orcs, goblins, coke snorting billionaire elves, dick sucking fairies, vampires, trolls, zombies attending college
>magic but it comes from sex
>"Gnosticism"
Stop baiting people with lies, you faggot.

>> i think that my readings level is not bed. of course i am not reading novel. but i have improved my english trough reading book(textbook). my reading level can be advance aproximately 3000 words.

>>17260478
Literally Sophia at the end, you colossal plebeian.

>>17260494
Literally the 250 preceding pages of edgy muh trope subversion bullshit, you pretentious liar.

>>17260490
Just read Sanderson. He should be right about your level.

I listen to audiobooks while running or cycling. Its always a book or a series that I'm "reading" just for fun pastime and isn't good enough to warrant my full attention.
I believe this is the best way to go about it.
If the book surprises me and is better than expected then I re-read or continue it in physical form.

i am searching some mateials to improve my english. perhaps some stroybook or reading skill books.

>>17260459

thanks a lot your advise. but if you know that how i take Sanderson's book, or where?

>>17260529

>>17258676
What's some Robin Hood Fantasy I should read. There's Arthurian Fantasy so I bet there's some Robin Hood as well.

>>17260529
Stop that.

>>17260532
>Still cannot cope

Books that have fun with outdated science?

Luminiferous aether, phlogiston, bodily humors, etc.

>Be Covenant
>Be misanthropic leper who hates life and society (The typical 4chan user)
>Get transported to fantasy universe and is cured
>He thinks that he's dreaming and its all bullshit
>Random woman shows up and tells him he's not dreaming
>Thisiswherethefunbegins.jpg
>Commits one of the most horrific acts and single handedly destroys her mental state
>Despite this, he's still the hero and chosen one
>You root for him for the following nine books as well
How did Donaldson get away with it?

>>17260618
Dumb shit to justify a guilt and redemption storyline.

>>17260640
Keep seething.

>>17259679
Absolutely, anon. Don't be a fulltime audio cuck, anons. Any worthwhile book you must conquer yourself

>>17260320

>>17260326
That is actually beautiful and based, anon

>>17260490
Good job so far, Anon. Are you asking for novels that may help your English? James Ellroy may be good. His short, snappy sentence prose style may be good for you, and you'd probably find his stories both very based and interesting, though he's a crime and historical fiction author. I'd recommend any anon who hasn't read Ellroy to start reading him, though, starting with American Tabloid.

>>17260490
Try Ursula K Leguin - A Wizard of Earthsea. The prose is simple and easy to digest, but quite deep and beautiful.

>>17260168
what a retard
>go discuss things elsewhere
it's a fucking forum you mongoloid, the whole point is discussions
>likes sanderson
yeah that seems about right.

Have any other Anons read this? I did when it first came out years ago, and remember loving it. It's set in a gritty medieval historical fiction/fantasy world of King Phillip & Edward, familiar from the Maurice Druon epic series and other depictions, except the biblical & catholic mythology of angels, saints, fallen angels, demons, witches, etc are concrete and manifest in this world. I remember the kings trying to summon their patron angels to help them in battle. The angels had the weird, biblically accurate description too. I highly recommend this.

>>17260183
Through appeasing Europeans, China buys relevancy. Like I say, the message is to make China appear worthy, reclaiming it's historical greatness in the world stage.

Obviously anecdotal, but I lived with a Chinese guy for a few years. This opinion is shared by a fair few.

Also, worth noting lots of Euro stereotypes in 3BP, i.e. English general quoting Shakespeare. So probably more simplistic than deep with meaning

>>17260168
>Also Mistborn is one of the top fantasy series out there
LMAO

>>17261121
Chinese American bro here. Asians looove to fetish Europe. They generally see it as quaint and historic compared to their own powerful and future-facing societies.

>>17260415
You will digest a third of the literature that I do while growing even more lethargic and for not much more money, enjoy your Daniel Steele series bitch boy

>>17259218
>>17259336
What I did to tolerate his garbage writing is imagine all of the characters except the Chinese ones as White.
I also imagined the whites as some kind of Vikings crossed with Barbarians instead of retarded magical Zulu herdsmen.

The books are like Shonen fantasy anime in book form for Blacks and judging by his interviews, the author literally only got published for being black.

>Leads you astray
>Leaves you to die
>Leaves you to burn in Hell
W-why'd you do it, Kell?

>>17261661
Because he was born into that world.

It took me a while to come to this conclusion, but I’ve finally realised that the shittiest authors create worlds where their main characters’ decisions have virtually zero impact on the world around them.

Which is ironic, to say the least, since it’s fucking fantasy.

>>17261675
He just keeps moving forward

>>17261326
>audiobooks
>digest

The irony of this is fucking delicious. Only a seething commie like you would make me laugh this hard.

>>17261326
I accept your defeat.

>>17258771
> when you realize the indigo plague was just radiation poisoning

Didn't kill plants/animals, did it?

>>17259270
Rational people who enjoy books don't all think this?
>>17259281
>MUH ORAL TRADITION
I bet you'd be really excited for the internet to be exported to rolodex huh?

>>17258704
>>17258717
>>17258936
Yeesh. Bliss was such a blatant anime cliche, it was embarrassing.

>people glorifying the oral tradition

Take your benzos

>>17260168
I've been thinking about mistborn posting for a few days now. Coming up in the end of my re-read of era 1. After the long march of re-reading every stormlight book prepping for RoW, it's nice to go back to a tightly wound self-contained little trilogy. I found myself thinking how much more I was enjoying it than most of SA. I know it's supposed to be up its own ass with cosmere lore and that's basically the point, but there's just something more fulfilling about letting the lore spin the story instead of the story spinning the lore. But I'd be lying if I said Secret History and it's intimations of yet Another Secret wasn't a primary driver in my cosmere-boner.
I'd give Era 2 a shot. You might wait till the 4th book is finished (hopefully next year) so you don't wind up on a cliffhanger, but it's definitely worth reading if you enjoy the mistborn formula and want to see how the story progresses in Harmony's new world.

>>17260316
>not having every book you've ever read in epub format on your phone at all times for immediate use
YOU ARE SMALL TIME

>>17261881
Sandaro destroyed his “magnum opus” because of the cosmere.

>>17260430
>I enjoy being an obnoxious shitflinger because I know it bothers others
It rimes.

>>17261881
>hopefully next year
Assuming he doesn't push it back yet afuckinggain.

>>17261699
Explain? I kind of get this feeling with grim dark shit where everything is terrible and nothing is bettered and nothing matters, like Abercrombie.

>>17260434
No it's not, I'm right here. I'm always with you, rent free in your little pea-brain ;^*

>>17261907
What he fuck? Do you come in searching for the word “sandersoy” in every thread?

>>17260978
>>17261899

>>17261892
Isn't that supposed to be the cosmere via SA? How has he destroyed it by further integrating it in exactly the manner he's described for a decade?

>>17261900
This nigger has way too many projects going on at once. Its funny watching his live signing sessions where he realized around like 5 or 8 that he's going to die before finishing his autistic opus. Dumb faggot suddenly realizes he has to put out like 25 more books before it is done.

>>17261900
Well he's acted like he can't finish the front half of Stormlight till the last Wax and Wayne comes out, maybe it's spoiler dependent enough that he won't be able to push it back anymore without upending the whole SA timeline.

>>17261921
>what the fuck? do you read posts in a general about literature you peruse semi-regularly

this was shit bros

>>17261905
I mean that, as a writer, you’re a fucking lazy cunt if you let the world drive your story. Just look at the Stormlight Archive. Everything is predictable, and when something truly important happens it always
ends up being a prophecy or a cataclysm. The heroes are just being scattered in the whirlwind. Nothing they do matters.

Just look at Bakker and Martin for instance. Whether you like them or not, you can’t deny that they put a lot of time into their characters and the ways they interact with each other. They drive the plot. And their actions have true consequences.

>>17261944
He brought that up during his yearly blog post about his overall book status in 2019 then immediately contradicted himself and talked about how he was going to be working on the next Skyward book. He's become a pop-writer.
>>17261947
Era 2 takes place during the gap between SA5 and SA6 but considering he wanted to write modern Mistborn during that real world break he takes between writing SA5 and SA6, I really don't get why he continues to postpone.

>>17261933
The cosmere is a dumpster fire.

>>17261962
I couldn't finish it. Either my admittedly pirated ebook copy has some really jarring conversion errors or Gibson self-edits his books and is really bad at it.

>>17261974
Why?

>>17262004
Because he will never finish it. Way too ambitious. And he’s now stuck to it forever, no matter what he writes.

>>17261964
Oh yeah, now I see what you mean. Yes I much prefer when character action drives the plot, or at least human action. Divine prophecies or the will of gods pushing everyone around is a staple of epic fantasy but I agree that it's kind of lazy and overall empties your narrative of stakes.

>>17261969
Really I think the cosmere hurt him a lot more than it helped him. He just vomits out all these stories and it's going to make him largely inaccessible 20 years from now. He writes for the wookiepedia audience, honestly I think he'd be better off just writing a DnD setting or something. For all his bluster about his much he loves characters and whatnot it sure doesnt seem to come across in his writing. I know it's a bit of a meme but he feels like the most reddit author I've ever read. Safe, but autistic. Detailed but in all the ways that dont strengthen a book, but make for a really cool post on social media or to flex to your 'nerd' friends.

It's remarkable that Brandero Sanderas manages to uphold the quality he does while writing so many books.

>>17262147
Unironically yes he does try too hard but in a way that isnt quite as cringe but, even worse, makes his shit boring. There is absolutely no edge to Sanderson at all, he freaks out constantly about offending people but he takes no interesting stance about these issues ever. Not even on the liberal side, which at least yields chuckles from me.

>>17261015
sounds interesting, I might give it a try.

>fucks random strangers in the attic of a bar
>fucks her own brother
>fucks the genocidal tyrant who destroyed her family
Is there anyone this woman won't blow?

>>17262163
He explicitly supports BLM.

BTW who are rightwing authors of note.
I know and love the works of John C. Wright.
There is Vox Day.

Furthermore:
Dan Simmons
Orson Scott Card
Scott Adams

>>17262192
Look at Baen, the publisher.

>/pol/ is awake

>>17262192
I dont even know if he cares that much though. He does all of that shit it feels like for marketing. He's an accountant playing at being a writer and you can't be succesful these days as a right wing or even independent author.

Is there any YA urban fantasy book that isn't trash?

>>17258676
>Are there any authors you cannot stand for a very specific reason even if they're generally acknowledged as good?
Frank Herbert. The reason is he is a bad writer.

>>17262387
> YA
Always trash

> urban fantasy
Always trash because it doesn't mean what a lot of people seem to think it ought to mean.

shitposts within shitposts within shitposts
I didn't like DUNE either

>>17260194
I think the conflict between China and the US is the best thing Europe could ask for.
Typically a historical trend is that the leading two powers come into conflict for dominance, and the one that emerges is actually the third power which does not suffer so much in the conflict.
If this historical trend continues then the China vs USA smackdown will give Europe a significant boost in power.

>>17258676
Are there any authors you cannot stand for a very specific reason even if they're generally acknowledged as good?
>Tolkien
>Vance
>Wolfe
>Bakker
>Martin
>Sanderson
>Jordan

>>17262445
That’s practically everyone. So who do you enjoy then?

Why are miracles so superior to spells?

>>17262567
They develop a character's story and connection to their god, whereas spells just do shit without developing the character at all.

>>17262147
That thread on the Sanderson forums is pretty great. I find it particularly amusing that the first person to shit on Sanderson also appears to be a Bakker fan.

>>17259218
>nigger author
come on

>>17262192
Tolkien
Larry Correia

>>17262185
>Is there anyone this woman won't blow?
clearly not

>>17262387
bartimaeus trilogy

>>17262192
Me

I am halfway thru Ministry of the Future and I love it more than I'd thought. KSR can't write characters for SHIT (OMG POOR ME I SURVIVED AN INDIAN HEAT WAVE NOW I HAVE PTSD) but the political and technical aspects of this book are *chefs kiss*.

>>17262900
Is "Kim" a female author? Because you know that means the book and all your opinions about it are shit, right?

>>17262921
are you clinically retarded? I'm no doctor but you just may be..

>>17262983
There's no real point in engaging with him, you can't fix stupid

>>17262921
It's a dude and Gene Wolfe was one of his mentors iirc.

Worth reading/reminding other Wolfebros of his essay:
>https://www.nyrsf.com/2013/09/a-story-kim-stanley-robinson.html

>>17260302

Europe and USA is to the rest of the world as Elon Musk is to you, personally.

>>17262983
I don't write the rules. Do you have a female author that won't be categorically classed as shit?

>So in my new story, my main character is a "exiled" scientist who was recently called back to assist with a problem. When we first meet him, he seems like an ordinary person, but the further the story goes, the more racist and sexist he becomes. An example is that a princess tries to lock him up and while failing, he makes light of her, calling her a moron and thinking she belongs in the kitchen or as a maid. He also looks down on other races, but saved the Dark Elf race because he experiments on them.

>>17260302
Europe and North America together have over 50% of all the world's wealth despite having less than 15% of the world's population. And really, you could narrow that down to just the United States and just Western Europe and not affect the wealth totals much, while shrinking the population even smaller. Africa and Asia are poor as dirt compared to the "first world".

>>17262921
Are you the same guy who seethes whenever a non-white male/female author is posted in every thread?

>>17262147
As a non American, can some one explain to me what racial privilege is? Do they think that certain ethnic groups have super powers or what?

>>17264277
racial privilege is the fact that you can genuienly ask


"is saying kill whitey or end whiteness racist"
and you will get significant debate

>>17264183
Nah, I'm mocking the guy because I figured it was probably a dude named Kim. I don't give a fuck.

>>17264277
Racial privilege is a white mob storming the seat of government with almost no resistance who will unironically blame black people for their own murders because "if they hadn't been doing illegal shit they wouldn't have been killed".

>>17264357
What about white liberals?

>>17264357
Racial privilege is a black mob storming our precious nike shoe stores with almost no resistance who will unironically blame white people for their own murders because "if they hadn't been doing whitey shit they wouldn't have been killed".

>>17264357
I thought 4chan don't have bugmen like you. Go away Jew.

Give me sff book with lots of tits.

>>17264399
brainwashed nazi schizo. we are everywhere.

watch out bro, george soros is spying on you through the webcam right now. dont let him see your micropenis

>>17264434
lose some weight, fatboy

what are you going to do? eat all our chicken nuggets?

>>17264434
You need to be 18 to post here.

>>17264434
I said go away Jew. Scram. Don't project your shitty bugmen insecurities about penis on normal people.

>patch of 30-40 worthless posts, chatting about offtopic shit and giving (You)'s to baiting retards and schizis
Every single /sffg/ thread.
Just read, you dumb faggots.

>>17264476
The same applies to you, no?

>>17264476
You can rescue this thread by recommending be book with many naked women.

>>17264507
ayy LMAO
>>17258676
Niggas, recommend me more late 19th and early 20th century fantasy.

>>17264521
Clark Ashton Smith (tales from Zotique).
Meyrink, Vathek and all that gothic stuff if it's your cup of tea

>nuke off-topic post
>don't bother with initial off-topic question or subsequent /pol/ screeching
What did the mods mean by this?

This is a based general for based /lit/ards.

What are you reading right now, bros?

I’m thinking about what I should read after I’m finished with Bakker. Any recommendations?

>>17264536
>smith
Read literally everything.
>Beckford
Read Vathek and the episodes.
>Meyrink
I'm not familiar with this name, I'll check it out.

>>17264569
I'm about halfway through Blindsight. It's sufficiently spooky so far.

>>17264569
Sorry, sorry, apparently I know Meyrink. Today I received this one.

Which SF/F series has the best made up words?

>>17264507
Lol the last one in the red dress is too ugly to fix

I've started Hamilton's The Dreaming Void? Should I continue?

How come Fantasy Masterworks didn't put out a volume two of this edition? I really liked the cover artwork

>>17264507
>Vance only wrote two Cugel books

fuck

>>17264581
Well, The Golem is probably as well known.
I'd rec Arthur Machen but since you probably did Lovecraft>CAS you might know about him already. Same as The Worm Ouroboros.
Maybe some more allegorical or folk works bordering on outer lit: Manalive, Andreyev's Lazarus or The Devil's Diary, Akutagawa, Kenji Miyazawa, Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan.
That's all I can think of from that period of time.

>>17264584
Tolkien obviously. No competition, dude was a master linguist.

>>17264606
It's fun, but where are the rockets

Also Terminus Est looks like it's made of wood

>>17264584
He's rarely credited for it, but Peter Watts is a master of neologisms.

>>17264606
I reread this and understood only a little more than when reading first time. Still don't understand most of it. What to do?

>>17264652
Get the Sirius Fiction chapter guide or read along with some of the two Wolfe podcasts (the rereading Wolfe one just finished doing Shadow).

>>17264652

I find the ambiguity helps a lot in visualizing how bizarre the world Severin and co are in.

>>17264626
I have the collected fiction of Machen, Japanese Ghost Stories edited by Penguin and The Diary of Satan. I'll check out the others. Thanks.

I can't remember this fuckin book from my childhood and its driving me nuts here, maybe you guys know what it is.

What I remember is that it followed 2 guys that I think used the quarterstaff as a weapon. They had this box with a fire breathing creature, I think it might have been a lizard, that they used to start campfires. At one point they stop at an inn and one of the performers is super hot and one of the main characters falls in love with her. She offers herself to him, and it turns out she's a slave, so he burns the whole inn down and saves her plus a bunch of other slaves. At one point they fight on a ship I think?

I dunno, is this some kind of fever dream I had or is this an actual book?

>>17264692
If your options are so dried out, you could check short story anthologies featuring the writers you enjoyed the most to find out lesser known names. There must be some with Machen and MacDonald and a ton of other old writers.

>>17260145
I love both those things, but >>17260478 has me doubting your intensions.

>>17264731
I have a lot of anthologies (pick related). I don't like the ones published by British Library, at least those edited by women because they find any excuse to bring up feminist and black writers (I wouldn't complain if those stories were related to the topic of the book).

>>17264737
Here's the second chapter of the book:
A human girl, a teenager, attends monster high school while living with/inside 9001iq dragon that's actually hateful and used as a warplane, by elf pilots. As a 10 year old, she has cunningly escaped an evil factory that manufactures dragons and other weapons and where she was almost raped by her boss, a troll, by forming a covenant with the dragon.
She has few friends in school and discovers she has feelings for a ghoul or something and she's a bit horny.
She and her friends go to a magic mall all the time, where all sorts of fairy and magical species gather (this place is outside time, so you can spend 50 hs in there and not a second would've passed in the real world). She can steal shit from the luxury stores because the theft detectors don't work on humans. They smoke some sort of magic weed.
Later she goes to college, where fairies, vampires, zombies, etc attend. She's a brilliant scientist but she almost fails until she discovers the experiments she must perform for her classes can be twisted by channeling the sex energies of some shit from outside. This knowledge and the fact she's a human, and into drugs and sex, makes her a coveted whore for the elitist and amoral elves that rule society.

Judge that faggot's intentions when he describes it as "gnostic".

>>17264703
>She offers herself to him, and it turns out she's a slave, so he burns the whole inn down

reddit moment

>>17264795
I'm sold thanks

So why is it that 4chan really hates Brandon Sanderson so much?
Is there a black boyfriend Im not aware of?

>>17264848
He's alive.

>>17264848
We are hipsters.
We hate anything that is unjustly popular.

He also isn't really anything special. His writing is mostly serviceable but doesn't really try anything exciting. He is just a 'paint-by-numbers' writer.

>>17264848
I don't :^)

>>17264889
Me neither.
I sure as hell like it a lot more than other overinflated assholes like Joe Abercrombie that seem to just wank on our faces for daring to like something "stupid"

>>17264848
I definitely don't hate him, his character arcs are pretty good and the main reason I pick up his books. Main reason I've seen him mocked is more to do with his fans recommending his books everywhere like some holy gospel, but that's just fantasy fans for ya.

Also, I really wish that he'd stop writing about characters raising an eyebrow.

>>17264964
>Also, I really wish that he'd stop writing about characters raising an eyebrow.
He is inspired by Robert 'Lip Biting' Jordan.

>>17264979
What gesture should every single one of my characters do when I finish my novel, /lit/?

>>17264992
>Foot tapping
>Arm folding
>Head tilting

Take your pick.

>>17264964
You don't emote with your eyebrows?

>>17260168
>Also Mistborn is one of the top fantasy series out there.
bruh

>>17259822
Picks?

>>17264848
Youd think Pol should love Brando Sandman

>Odium is a blatant Satan rip off as the being imprisoned by God in a fiery hell who cant really Touch the free Will of men but drives them by tempting the things they are passionate about
>The force of good is a literally planetary wide meteoroligical baptism
>Follows the mormonistic metaphor of the funny skinned natives punished by God Striped of their hymns for betraying the Lord, and the good (white) people coming in from another Land to civilize them with honor
>God died for humanities sins
>Dalinar holds on to the Good Book for Redemption as the highest form of value
>Women are all liars, manipulators, or godless heathens

Its pol all over

>>17265388
>implying pol is christian
kike on a stick

>>17265388
>Mother Nature is literally a Magical Negro Vodoo Lady
>Protagonist is autistic about the Spear (Longicolnis, we know)
>Has literal Messias complex
>Is tormented by a Judas who is driven to the concept of suicide
>Has an earthly Father and a Heavenly One
>His earthly Father is driven towards an earthly carreer that he failed to have his Son follow through on
>Apostles for days
>Magical Waifus
>Clash of Champions atop the hill of Meggido, I mean Urithiru
>Urithiru is literally the tower of Babyllon
>The Rise of the Ancient Dead, and gods Angels walking the Earth (The word Angel literally means Herald)
>The beast with 7 backs , the Champions with 9 Shadows

I mean, its not subtle

I mean, its ever

As someone with very Warhammer 40k knowledge, which books are the best to read?

>>17265445
Oh and lets not forget mormonisms obsession with hatefucking catholicism and the not!Vatican church of of the Vorenism Hierocracy

>>17257820
I don't really know how to explain it. Just the standard stuff, I guess?

>muh magic system, have a bunch of exposition - cool huh
>oh no, kingdom X is in danger
>I'm a knight, I'm strong and honorable
>I'm the thief, I'm snarky and kind of an asshole hehe
>we must find (or destroy) orb to save the world/kingdom
>having a feer beers at the stock fantasy tavern
>ok, it's been a while ... time for FIGHT SCENE!

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't really care about the world. I want interesting characters that have complex personalities, motivations and goals

>>17265510
See >>17261964

>>17261964
Being an Outliner is a big no no. Especially so when you have a long, fixed and overly detailed one.

Makes any book look artificial.

https://youtu.be/r5KfTjQCD5c

I think I’m starting to see why people criticise Sandaro so much. How can his books be good if keeps pumping so many pre-planed stories in such a short amount of time? No wonder his characters don’t feel organic.

>>17265445
literally 90% of these are schizo and not even closely related

>>17265452
eisenhorn, ravenor, legion from the HH, first 4 books of the HH, first heretic, betrayer

OUT BY THE ROOTS

>>17264652
If you're not grasping things after a second read, I would recommend going online or listening to something like >>17264662

I'm no /lit/ God, so I would be totally unable to comprehend BotNS alone. But when I've read loads of theories, and I'm half-remembering them alongside my memory of the previous read each time I pick up the books, it really adds to my enjoyment.

One final book was all they required.
“Let!” “Them!” “Read!”
The Bakker-shill stared across the threshing expanse of madmen. His every glance revealed some depraved vignette: Readers shaking with anticipation, their eyes rolled to white; Readers hacking out their own poorly-written fanfiction; Readers memeing like mad dogs, smearing shitposts upon themselves and others …
“We! We are the Readers!”
And he could feel It, the Spider that was the God …
“We! We are the Zaudunyani!”
Seizing his voice with tempest lungs, blowing truth as a howling roar.
“The Wicked-that-are-Holy!”
It seemed so obvious … so true …
“And we shall pick of the lowest bough!”
As if his heart had become an unconquerable fist.
“And we shall write—write!—upon the premise that He—He!—hath given!”
Hands outstretched over the ravenous multitudes …
“We shall fanfic what Bakker hath prepared for us!” he screamed.
And so led them all into irrevocable damnation.

>>17266029
At Ebaliol, the Warrior-Prophet climbed the broken foundations and addressed thousands.

“I stand,” he cried, “where my brother stood!” Twenty-two men died in the delirious crush. It would prove an omen of what was to follow.

I'm reading Dying Inside by Silverberg right now and fuck me it's heavy. Good though

I'm reading C.Yu's translation of Journey to the West and I dare you to find a protagonist as alpha as the Monkey King

>>17266486
Jesus Christ

>>17264652
Did you read Urth? It basically explains everything, or at least gives you the context to understand it.

Besides Goblin emperor, are there any other books with a golbin MC or that focus on goblins?

>>17266029
I fucking hate these new covers.
Wtf happened to those medieval inspired covers first books have?

Is there anything that's like Repo Man?

Is this worth reading. I fucking loved his Enzyme Bonded Concrete Saga. I thought the Night Dawn books were meh, and the Void trilogy was fine, but too much fantasy. I feel like he does Space Opera like no one else.
I tried the Abyss beyond dreams, and instead getting a cool future space opera I got to read a shitty fantasy novel concerning primitive revolutionaries. I don't want that.

Also jesus christ the sex in the Night Dawn Trilogy, I wasn't so much bothered by the acts, but can these people walk five paces without an orgy?

>Andel/Petal leaving for new jobs after all the sailing and PLOT and being a family
oh okay

I finished 'The Eye of the World' about a week ago, and while I did enjoy it, it was really slow going and the ending was dog shit.
According to some of you though, that is exactly what every WoT book is like.

Should I continue on with the series, or is this the best it gets?

>>17267923
>Should I continue on with the series, or is this the best it gets?

I mean, it's just the first book, but you have to understand WoT is basically well known because it was published in the right time at the right place. I'd say it's mediocrity that established itself as an institution purely through happenstance.

>>17267189
sad fact is that by modern standards the ones with the face aren't even bad. modern covers in general are horrendous, though.

>>17267923
The Waste of Time is fucking horrible dude.

You will most likely enjoy the second book more than the first one. But that ain’t saying much. After you finish the third one and go into the fourth, you will realise that it’s more of the same. Endless boring journey until something meaningful happens at the end.

>>17268030
>tfw no leather bound*, gold foiled complete series of bakker's works with large fold-out maps
[spoiiler]*sranc leather[/spoiler]

>>17268030
>tfw no leather bound*, gold foiled complete series of bakker's works with large fold-out maps
*sranc leather

>>17260532
Same, but only if I run in the gym or bike on the trainer. Outside sport should be enjoyed without distraction

Holy fuck, this book is so fucking DRY.

I'm a little over a third into it now, and Brandon Sanderson keeps explaining every little social dynamic. Maybe this is why you guys love him so much. Because he makes it very easy for autists to understand the motivations of characters.

It's hard to explain what he's doing in concrete terms. But it's like, he's a teacher reviewing every step of the process, so the slowest kid in class doesn't get left behind. Like
>"Did you catch that character did there? Well here's the reasoning why. And what it means to them? You with me so far? OK, so now here's what it means to this other character. And it's like that for these cultural reasons. And the gendered reasons too, can't forget about those. Alright, now back to the story."

The basic concept he laid out is actually rather interesting. Which is why I've stuck to the book for so long. And while I'll probably go even longer. Because I do want to see how all this plays out. But right now it feels like he's hitting me over the head with all this contextual significance which probably won't pay off by the end. God, I can only hope all of this SUPER IN YOUR FACE FORESHADOWING is actual foreshadowing, and not wasting my fucking time. Because right now it feels like he's wasting my fucking time.

>>17267516
I was kinda falling out of love with the Night's Dawn trilogy, thinking I was going to not finish it, then the motherfucker goes and introduces Resurrected Al Capone as a POV character and OH YEAH, LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOO

>>17267923
It gets better, but it doesn't get better by MUCH.

But then you hit the mid-series slump and it gets considerably worse for several novels, to the point where one entire doorstopper is devoted entirely to secondary characters hearing news about the climactic resolution of the previous novel and reacting to it.

>>17268129
>Maybe this is why you guys love him so much
The average /sffg/ poster knows he is quite average

finished Little, Big yesterday.
while reading it there were times I wished a bit more was happening and some more explanations wtf was actually going on and what's the point of it all. maybe it could be a bit shorter, dunno.
in retrospect it was a comfy read and all the vagueness perfectly fits the subject matter.
wouldn't recommend if you're ADHD ridden.

This thread

>>17268129
Brando is pretty cool in that save for some off shoots like his shitty super hero series his quality as a writer gets steadily Higher as he gains more and more experienced.

Elantris (and War breaker) is pretty early work for him.
At the time it came out the novelty of his style and aproach carried his audiences atention.

>>17268382
How
I hate

>>17268129
I'm not sure where you're seeing people rave about Sanderson's writing, but it's not on SFFG. The only people who won't shut up about his writing are the prose snobs who hate him. People who like Sanderson talk about his action scenes, his plots, and his cosmere setting, because those are the things he actaully does well.

>>17268389
I got recommend War Breaker as my first Sanderson novel by somebody in this thread and I couldn't even get 50 pages into it, I found it so dull. I just said fuck it and started with Stormlight Archive (at the time Way of Kings was the only published one) and enjoyed it immensely. Who the fuck are these deluded morons that keep recommending Elantris and Warbreaker?

>>17268281
Read Engine summer next. It's just as vague but easier and more rewarding to put the pieces together.

>>17258918
>The protagonist is a gay conversion enforcer. There's a problem though. He may just be gay himself! Also, why can't he remember his past?
Lol, do homos dream of gay sheep

>reading some old SF
>Protagonist is a depressed man
>Overwhelmed by society
>Falls in love with some woman over two pages
Why is this so common

>>17268129
Here's an example of what I mean. Notice how most of the language is just literal proclamations of what's happening.

“I have to stay, Father, regardless of the situation.”

“What loyalty do you owe them, Sarene?” Eventeo pled. “A husband you never knew? A people who are not your own?”

“I am the daughter of their king.”

“You are the daughter of a king here as well. What is the difference? Here the people know and respect you.”

“They know me, Father, but respect …” Sarene sat back, beginning to feel sick. The old feelings were returning—the feelings that had made her willing to leave her homeland in the first place, abandoning all she knew in favor of a foreign land.

“I don’t understand, ’Ene.” Her father’s voice was pained.

Sarene sighed, closing her eyes. “Oh, Father, you could never see it. To you I was a delight—your beautiful, intelligent daughter. No one would dare tell you what they really thought of me.”

“What are you talking about?” he demanded, now speaking with the voice of a king.

“Father,” Sarene said, “I am twenty-five years old, and I am blunt, conniving, and ofttimes offensive. You must have noticed that no man ever sought my hand.”

Her father didn’t respond for a moment. “I thought about it,” he finally admitted.

“I was the king’s spinster daughter, a shrew no one wanted to touch,” Sarene said, trying—and failing—to keep the bitterness out of her voice. “Men laughed at me behind my back. No one would dare approach me with romantic intentions, for it was well known that whoever did would be mocked by his peers.”

“I just thought you were independent—that you didn’t consider any of them worthy of your time.”

Sarene laughed wryly. “You love me, Father—no parent wants to admit that his daughter is unattractive. The truth of the matter is, no man wants an intelligent wife.”

“That isn’t true,” her father objected immediately. “Your mother is brilliant.”

“You are an exception, Father, which is why you can’t see it. A strong woman is not an asset in this world—not even in Teod, which I always claim is so much more advanced than the continent. It really isn’t all that different, Father. They say they give their women more freedom, but there’s still the impression that the freedom was theirs to ‘give’ in the first place.

“In Teod I an unmarried daughter. Here in Arelon, I am a widowed wife. That is an enormous distinction. As much as I love Teod, I would have to live with the constant knowledge that no one wants me. Here, at least, I can try to convince myself that someone was willing to have me—even if it was for political reasons.”

“We can find you someone else.”

“I don’t think so, Father,” Sarene said with a shake of her head, sitting back in her chair. “Now that Teorn has children, no husband of mine would end up on the throne—which is the only reason anyone in Teod would consider marrying me. No one under Derethi control will consider marriage with a Teo.

>>17268718
And it's very important to note, that all of these talking points have been addressed multiple times up to this point already. This is all information the reader knows. And the characters are reciting the information as if to make it extra clear. Rather than just having a natural conversation. I had to cut a couple paragraphs out to get it under /lit/'s character limit. But there's more. It goes on.

>>17268506
Exact same experience. Even this Mistborn stuff was a drag - I only read the first book before giving up. Stormlight has all been p neat, despite some awkward humour and the occasional dip in quality around the middle of one of the books (might've been the second?)

>>17268129
Elantris is a relatively weak novel.

Bandero is good at the core stuff, which is coming up with an interesting story. Usually one that wraps up nicely, and in surprising ways. Good prose and literally qualities mean jack shit if the story you are trying to tell is dull. And while people here criticize him for his hard magic system. Many of use love it, because it doesn't allow for convenient cheats, and he always manages to let the protagonists use the system in clever and unexpected ways.

He is hardly ever tedious, and never has his head up his ass.

>>17268159
I found that pretty lame to be honest. Ghost of criminals are much less interesting then weird and powerful aliens. But I especially hated how the villains got progressively weaker and weaker. Until they were barely more powerful then zombies. It's also clear the edenist could have easily wiped the baddies whenever they felt like it.

Interesting ideas and the first three chapters of the first book are great, especially the second about the Ly-cilph.

>>17268529
put it on my list, thanks.

>>17268798
I was going to try Warbreaker after Elantris. But now I'm thinking I should just skip to more recent work. I don't want to slog through another Elantris. Elantris is like:
>These people are living in sludge! They will feel better if we cleaned up the sludge!
>These people have no vision! They need someone with vision!
>These people have no food! I shall give them food!
And then it takes a break to go to the girl's side of the story like:
>W O M E N ' S R I G H T S
>All the singles! All the single ladies! Put your hands up!
Then back to the man
>These people have no hope! I shall show them hope!
>These people have no art! I shall give them art!

And basically what I'm getting at, is that he seems to be in love with his own process, than actually telling a compelling story.

Sandersoy

>>17268909
All of Sanderson is equally bad, I don't know why you would try more.

>>17264576
I'm jealous of your Clark Ashton Smith collection

Lads, I love using 4chan X and being able to filter anything with the word Sander in it. Sweet relief

>>17269027
imagine being such an absolute pussy

MANLING? Come here!!

>>17268909
Try Mistborn second series, shorter and more interesting

>>17269007
>>17269111
ok. This line just came up, and it's so bad, that it made me laugh.
>"If the king loses his income, then he would be in danger of losing his thrones!"
Like no fucking shit. No wealth no power. Fucking DUH. And then it's followed by
>"Is all that nonsense about rank being tied to money true?"
>"Insanely true"
>"The king takes away a family's title, if they can't maintain their income. If he lost his own source of wealth, it would destroy the foundation of his rule!"

>>17269223
i can’t believe anyone over the age of 15 or the IQ of 90 can stomach this absolute drivel. heck, by 15 i was on my second reread of the silmarillion and moving on to the tolkien apocrypha.

I just finished Pride and Prejudice. What should I read next?

>>17269266
>Gone with the Wind
>Lonesome Dove
>Anna Karenina
>East of Eden
>Pillars of The Earth
>Notre-dame de Paris

Take your pick.

>>17258676

other than that worthless hack joyce, most writers i dislike are legitimately good authors who just somehow seem to miss me

tolkien? the man founded modern mythopoeia, and was on top of that a linguist, artist and poet. the only probablem is, he had exactly one character with a personality and it was tom fucking bombadil

pratchet? the man was a visionary. his worldbuilding down to the very science of his setting is unparalleled, his books are ripe with philosophy, and I can't think of an author with funnier ideas. the only problem with those funny ideas is that the way he delivers them somehow ends up being depressing instead of hilarious every single time

/sffg/ give me a reason not to kill my comic relief character in book 2 and make him spend book 3 trying to break out of the afterlife

>>17269355
Having an afterlife side plot sounds boring and I doubt the comic relief character can carry a plotline by himself

>>17269355
do it for the lulz

>>17265631
>legion from the HH
love that book

So the Dunyain are autistic right?

>>17269626
Incredibly

>>17269266
Northanger Abbey

>Any shame. Any indignity. He would strangle infants in their cribs. He would kneel beneath the fall of hot seed. He would see his hate through!
What exactly did he mean by this?

>>17258676
https://www.deviantart.com/uthp/journal/The-Legend-of-Twilight-Zelda-Princess-part-I-348420007

>>17269794
pic related

This image seems to be suggesting that a lot of people find A Princess of Mars boring today, is this true? I found it intriguing but a slog nonetheless, I didn't know this was common

>>17269626
Nuclear weapons-grade autism. 1000+ IQ's. Sociopathy-tier manipulation. But being the sperg neets they are, they are totally sheltered and have zero understanding of how the outside world works, and thus are doomed by their own ignorance. I found it ironic and funny how Moenghus believed he would become a God by taking on the Pshûke, but ended up a blind cripple because of his shrunken, vesitigial spirit. Bakker said in an interview that while the intellects of the Dunyain are god-tier, their spirits are actually quite weak. In his own way, Kellhus falls victim to this as well.

Also just want to commend Bakker on writing so many interesting factions that all have extreme strengths and extreme weaknesses.

>>17269828
from a modern viewpoint it has basic characters and is very predictable. not exactly high literature.
it's dumb swashbuckling fun and that's fine.

>>17266794
There's a shitrpg where the main character plays as a goblin, but I doubt that's what you're looking for

>>17269828
I found it boring, but Doc Smith is a baller.

>>17269907
>Bakker said in an interview that while the intellects of the Dunyain are god-tier, their spirits are actually quite weak
There is one who is both strong in spirit and intellect

Just finished The Unholy Consult. People told me
>REEE it's the most horrifying disturbing fantasy ever written.
Meh, not really, most of the bad stuff was implied or shown offscreen.
Also
>no coprophagia
de Sade is way more disturbing, and he doesn't even have rape aliens.

>>17269828
>Foundation
>higher likelihood of satisfaction
Reader-average would probably be bored out of their skull by Foundation

>>17269828
Why the fuck would anyone ever recommend Ann Leckie and that absolute trainwreck of a book that is Ancillary Justice?

>>17270180

when I was like, 14, I loved Before Foundation, Asimov is kinda pulpy fun beneath the serious thought out world

Bakkerfags, since the No God wakes up at the end of TUC, does that mean Ajokli is trapped in the material realm?

He did manifest inside of Cnaiur while the No God was swirling about and was acting all pissed and confused because he couldn't understand what was happening.

>>17267770
>casual chat with fucking Ozriel out of nowhere around 35% through
well okay

>>17269027
>needing an extension to do something the website already does for you

I'm gonna hunt out true swashbuckling/historical fiction stuff, not weird pseudo stuff like Locke Lamora and shit, but the real Gawain/Robin Hood/whatever stuff that must still be written by someone somewhere, and report back, I'm sick of everything being "fantasy-lite"

>>17270264
>uses the default extension
lmao

>>17270180
You got filtered.

>>17268690
People want to be Dostoevsky and 99% of them fail miserably at it.

>>17269240
that's not impressive at all anon. You are absolutely retarded

>>17270291
>I think, what I really need, is a superior shitposting extension to more efficiently waste my life on a Sumatran shit picking forum

Migrate if you want, I don't really care. I only made this thread because I wasn't doing anything else
>>17270866
>>17270866
>>17270866