/lit/ - Literature

first for sci fi is better

sex books

>>18536036
fuck you

>>18536033
Miles and miles of alien gold...

>>18536033
First for giving your wife away and deeply troubling Bakker up his delicious Canadian ass

If sffg were to make a Sci Fi reading guide, what would be in it?

>>18536092

>>18536092
The Second Apocalypse by R. Scott Bakker
The Lord of the Rings + The Silmarillion + The Unfinished Tales by JRR Tolkien
The Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe

that's all.

Caroline and Lawrence were still in the cyberspace, weren't they? The ending is straight out of The Outer Limits. Good torture porn with child sex scenes, though.

Not strictly sff but I recently finished it and thought it was alright. A solid 3.5-4 stars. Enjoyable plot, barebones story, ok characters.

The fact that everybody has a super crush on someone else, and 4 of them on the main character, at 15 years old was weird, but I could look past that I guess.

It was very obviously written in the late 1990's, but I won't put that against it. It was more predictable than I anticipated though. I was hoping for a book where I had to keep guessing who would actually win the BR, but there was an obvious single main character and he had some ridiculous plot armor.

>>18536164
One last thought-
The book is easily the most violent and bloody book I've ever read (granted I haven't read too much other stuff like this) and it manages to walk the line of being incredibly graphic while not feeling out of place or gratuitous.

wen botns adaptation sers?

Can somebody smarter than help me conceptualise ConSensus from Watts' Blindsight? I don't have a great understand of exactly what it is, in relation to protagonist.

There any actually GOOD new fantasy series from the last five years?

>>18536233
I found this which might help you out
https://mechanteanemone.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/lingo-peter-watts-blindsight/
>ConSensus: The on-board wireless network which all Theseus crew members can access via their artificially augmented senses. Sensory data from other crew members can be accessed in real time.

>author writes mic as mike
>writes tranq as trank

>>18536262
>glossary
Thanks anon. This is perfect.

>>18536246
Was she Chinese? Is this a shoop, chop job or both?

What about a JRPG similar to Rune Factory/Harvest Moon set in The Shire during a time of peace? You play as a lower class farmer- hobbit who works his way up to living in a lovely and comfortable home over the course of decades.

>>18536033
>Discord
https://discord.com/invite/KWPCM7m

>Book Club Selection
Galactic North
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/89188.Galactic_North

> With eight short stories and novellas--including three original to this collection--Galactic North imparts the centuries-spanning events that have produced the dark and turbulent world of Revelation Space.

Give me some kino written in 100% transliterated ebonics.

>>18536246
no

>>18536426
There's those portions of Infinite Jest.

>>18536392
I get a slightly violent reaction to discord links these days. I know the kind of nonsense that can spawn from them. Are you not aware of the damage it can do if it gets out of control?

>>18536246
Yes.

>>18536426
The Vorrh is a good fantasy novel with niggers in it if that's what you're wanting.

>>18536753
I think we'll be OK anon.

>>18536753
Would it really be any worse than bakker vs sanderson?

Hey I am looking for a certain hard sci fi book with an incredibly weird planet shape, something almost like a non-euclidian planet shape if that makes any sense. The planet looked kind of like a tower. I am having a really difficult time finding it since i saw it posted and described here some time ago.

Why is it so comfy, bros? His prose is surprisingly good for the infamy of “pulp” fantasy.

>>18536937
Philip Jose Farmer, "World of Tiers"? That one has a tower shaped planet. Its far from hard scifi though.

>>18536937
Tower of Babylon by Ted Chiang? It's a short story.

>>18536962
It's not that, even though now that I looked into it, I might give it a go
>>18536968
It doesn't look like it but I will till give it a read, thanks for the recs.

I remember someone describing the plot and the world to some other anon, the one describing it also used a gif to illustrate an orbit. It had geography and weird climates and looked kind of like a cylinder, but wider at the poles and narrow at the equator. I don't remember a moon or anything. It may have somehow been non-euclidian because the shape and the way it rotated was incredibly weird and outlandish, it might be barely ehat someone could call a planet.
if i don't find it i might just write it myself but i am very very certain that i saw it described here once

If Kellhus was so smart, why didn't he invent guns?

It doesn't seem like there is time to wrap this up (halfway through, no spoilers pls).

The Darkness That Comes Before Is put at the very top tier of the genre. Really great stuff, you can tell Bakker is a philosophy PhD in some of the threads he worked on, but then it still manages to be fun genre fiction with a very cool fantastic world.

The second set of books though, it's like he was successful with the trilogy and decided he didn't need an editor. Some of the tangents are cool even if they should have been cut, but I feel like the characters are just being tortured by the same shit for long stretches and nothing much advances. Book 4 is meh. Book 5 similarly just didn't have much happen until the end, which was a good pay off. Book 6 had a lot of momentum but now I'm looking at the end and it's stalling a bit again with drawn out internal monologues and speeches recovering the same ground.

I do like the "short story" type sections where he describes battles or events outside the main characters in snippets. That and the repition of verses "...and death came swirling down," reminds me of the Iliad.

Biggest complaint is the over the top violence in all of them. I get it, it's grim dark. It doesn't really bother me. I love Beserk. There is nothing worse in here than what is fully drawn there (gore, cannibalism, the troll rape, horse rape, insect rape, demon rape, etc.) but it really cuts down on the people I can share it with who will be able to enjoy it. Dude needs to learn when to be graphic and when to leave things to the imagination.

Only plus side of the later 4 books is that the female characters are good and do things other than have sex, and the Consult story is front and center and pretty cool. As are the non-man parts. The rest is better in the first three.

Anyone know of there is any word on more? Haven't reached the end but apparently he might do another series called the No-God so I guess it isn't all wrapped up.

I wish he did less on suffering and more on the Dunyain, they are the most interesting and unique thing.

>>18536092
There are multiple guides already.

Lurk moar, newfag.

>>18537276
RAFO :)

Do we know if Bakker ever wrote under a pseudonym? I really feel like he's the kind of guy who would be a hornyposter or hornywriter I guess, so it's kind of my secret fantasy that he wrote a more pulpy kind of sexual fiction

>>18537384
Yeah look up I.F. Uked Urmom

>>18536591
Yeah, that's what I thought.

>>18536043
Where do you find these? They all look fucking amazing. Is the guy doing more?

>>18536246
Ash and sand series is decent

>>18537276
Or nukes really. He could have reverse engineered them and just nukes the Arc by teleporting them on top of it.

need...
more...
romance....

>>18536753
It's been dead since it began over a year ago. It's deader all the time.

>Be Sakarpus' boy-king
>Spend 3 books having and arc leading up to,, something
*gets stabbed in the brain and fucking dies*

>>18537518
Except he didn't have the time to do that.

>>18537763
Things that never happened.

>>18536948
>infamy of “pulp” fantasy.
What?

>>18537440
Guess you've been filtered or are just a reactionary, many such cases

Why did Navani betray her allies?

Any good novels with a little girl protagonist?

>>18537864
edgedancer

>>18537864
Mistborne.

Is this the best series ever written?

>>18537276
>>18537518
This is the Eärwa equivalent of “why didn’t they just ride the eagles to Mordor and drop the ring in mount Doom lel”

Why can't Kylar nullify the wedding rings' magical bond by using the ka'kari (which devours all magic)? About 3/4 done right now and this has been bugging me since it hasn't been addressed at all. I thought he'd at least try or ask the ka'kari or something.

what is this book and why/how does it have 5 stars on amazon with 4500 reviews and should I read it

>>18537874
Wait, Amazon says the reading age is 12 - 17 years. Does MC fuck or not? I better not be trolled into reading something where the MC doesn't fuck

Help me decide my next book, bros:

The Blade Itself (Joe Abrecrombie)

or

The Shadow of What Was Lost (James Islington)

>>18538127
Yes, the MC fucks.
Book 2 and onwards.

>>18538127
I think you're being trolled into reading it for other reasons.

WFT? I love Sanderson now!

any books like this?

>>18538374
I'm also in the mood for smut. Would like to find a book or series with lots of romance. Sapkowski almost scratched the itch, especially the grape stomping scene in Toussaint.

>>18538374
neuromancer

>>18538361
What do you mean? It's a best-selling fantasy book by a hit female author. Hard to go wrong there

>>18538478
the only thing female authors know how to write is sex scenes, and only from the perspective of the female

>>18537959
Yeah, or likewise, why don't the Inchoroi just nuke the Ordeal. They have space travel and genetic engineering. Just give the Sranc guns.

>>18536137
>with child sex scenes
Wew

>>18536948
Well at least you took your meds.

Fuck
E
William Brown

Fuck
Pay Pigs

Fuck
Pay Walls

>>18538373
I don't imagine even 0.01% of fortnite players have any idea who that is

>he doesn’t read Conan to fantasy-themed metal
NGMI.

>>18537776
Robert E Howard and Lovecraft are consistently called bad writers by naysayers.

>>18538726
Time to take yours, too, anon.

>Tell me, /sffg/. Have you grasped the Absolute?

>>18536033
Hello folks, I have never read a science fiction book. What shall be my first?

>>18539450
Hyperion, by Dan Simmons. Or, if you kinda like military stuff, try "Forever War" by Joe Haldeman or "Starship Troopers" by Heinlein..

>>18539450
What do you like? Political intrigue? Technology? Aliens? Space Travel? Conquering? Military? Smut? Real current day Tech and their limitations?

Give us what you enjoy and we can tailor the rec to you.

>>18539479
I'm a 25 yo. engineer and voluntary firefighter. At the moment I'm very fed up with politics.

Give me tech, tech and more tech, please. Also a plot that I can't easily predict.

>>18539561
So no hard scifi? Crazy out there tech?

Try Neal Asher. Read in this order
Prador Moon (2310 CE)
Shadow of the Scorpion (2339 CE)
Gridlinked (2434 CE)
The Line of Polity (2437 CE)
Brass Man (2441 CE)
Polity Agent (2443 CE)
Line War (2444 CE)
The Technician (2444 CE)

>>18539561
not sure what to rec since many of the better sci-fi include politics... are you looking for light or dark? if you want a lighter perspective I'd say Asimov or Gene Roddenberry is a good starting point.

>>18539002
What do you mean by pay pigs?

>>18539639
customers

>>18539653
Is that what we are to authors now? I never bought a Sanderson book in my life.

>>18539577
I recently read the the concluding trilogy, The Soldier, The Warship, The Human
They certainly did their part of feeling like a proper finale
It's a series that very much builds on itself

I can also recommend reading the book Dark Intelligence at some point

Pardor Moon is the odd one out, short book, not much like the rest. Don't know if I'dd been captured if I started with it.

>>18539590
Ok. Usually, I really like politics in books. But my real life was a political shitfest over the past 12 months.

>many of the better sci-fi include politics
Ok. Lets lift the politics-restriction. What would you suggest me? I'm ready for something dark.

>>18539639
Pay pigs are people who pay authors to keep up a pay wall, then still buy the book they 100% mark up to read when it comes out. Authors are just slaughtering them like pigs.

>>18539670
That is how I read it. Everything started with the crabs, then the ducks and the jane.

>>18538715
Don't forget the long scene where the nazi skins the main character. Or the one where a zombie ejaculates maggots into her womb. High class novel for high class readers.

>>18539472
Thank you!
>Hyperion
I lurked /lit/ for the last two days and saw this recommended fairly often. Is it really that good or just a trend at the moment?

>>18539758
It's excellent.

>>18539689
rendezvous with rama
ringworld
the black cloud
the mote in god's eye
2001 space odyseey
the quantum thief

the rest i could rec is more sci fantasy or cyberpunk since i'm still working down my own reading list... but if you feel inclined starship troopers trilogy or works by PKD and william gibson.

>>18539472
Can attest to this, started Hyperion as my first sci-fi and enjoying it immensely

>>18536246
The Books of Babel

>>18539844
yeah

>>18539758
Cookie cutter reddit recommendation.

>>18539861
You mean cookie cutter SFF classic recommendation. Do you want self-published recs only?

>>18539894
> You mean cookie cutter SFF classic recommendation.
Yes, I was being too mean.

> Do you want self-published recs only?

Absolutely not.

>>18539758
Hyperion is amazing.
Fall of Hyperion was great, just not as great as the first.
Endymion is awful
I didn't even bother reading the fourth book.

It also has really cool Sci-Fantasy tech

>>18537989
Well anyway, I finished the series. The ending was quite good, I think. It started off kind of bad and there were a number of moments that I felt it wasn't written particularly well, but it managed to make me invested in the story and care about the characters, so I can't rate it poorly. I did not like the cuckshit regarding Logan not one bit. I really hated that. If Logan had been the MC I would have dropped it and would hate this fucking book. But since he wasn't I was able to suppress this feeling.

>>18540359
Did you like how daddy took daughter's pucci when he wanted?
And how that guy was raped till he liked dick?

>>18540398
>Did you like how daddy took daughter's pucci when he wanted?
I'm not sure I know what you're referring to.
>And how that guy was raped till he liked dick?
Having a black kid get buck broken so hard he turns into a faggot was one way to start a book.

>>18540416
>I'm not sure I know what you're referring to.
The godking used to fuck his daughter, then Kylar took that sweet used up pussy. Nothing like fucking broken women.

>>18540483
I don't think Garoth actually fucked Vi at any point. Her mother ran off somewhere and Vi got raped my men who mother hooked up with.

>>18540494
Why can't I get parasitic tattoos that make women into cum buckets that can't think straight?

>>18540507
What was that tablet that Ariel pulled out of Ezra's wood? Do you remember that part? I don't think it was ever brought up again.

>>18540551
I think it was something to make a fake stone?
Why couldn't dollface be raped?

>>18537989
>>18540359
>>18540398
Fuck that series. It started me down the path of a degenerate. I was raised a good church boy, now I want girls to be raped and sissy men to be used like the holes they are.

This entire general should be purged for starting me down that path.

>>18540572
Feir got the instructions to make the fake Curoch but that was on a separate occasion. In Book 2 Ariel goes to Ezra's wood and finds the corpse of the other Maja who's holding a gold tablet, which Ariel pulls in with a rope. It materializes writing on itself in different languages and tells her to go south or something, which is where she runs into Vi and Uly.

>>18540572
>Why couldn't dollface be raped?
I was mildly anxious for the entire series that she was going to be raped.

>>18540591
Does it trouble you?

>>18540572
Elene had impenetrable rape armor. Her pussy is for Kylar ONLY. Even when she gets kidnapped by Khalidorans who are indiscriminate mass rapists, that group has specific orders to NOT RAPE. Even when it happens again and they actually do rape one of the girls they rape one other than her because no reason.

>>18539758
It's an older book, kind of a classic. Dune is great too.

Chasm City if you like hard sci-fi.

What are some romance books?

Waiting. To see what happen

>>18537306
I think that those are all fair critiques-- I wasn't a huge fan of books 4 and 5 either. Things really picked up again though with The Great Ordeal, and I thought The Unholy Consult was a great wrap-up for the Aspect Emperor series. The Ishterebinth chapters were absolute kino. You're in for some good stuff at the end of the book.

>>18539319
what will his son do

>>18541473
I haven’t started the last book yet. I’m probably going to save it from when I’m older or when Scott announces something. I think I will re-read everything again. I have never loved a series as much as I do this one. I just have the feeling that the UC isn’t enough to wrap everything up.

>>18538373

>>18538373

>>18537306
>Biggest complaint is the over the top violence in all of them. I get it, it's grim dark. It doesn't really bother me. I love Beserk. There is nothing worse in here than what is fully drawn there (gore, cannibalism, the troll rape, horse rape, insect rape, demon rape, etc.) but it really cuts down on the people I can share it with who will be able to enjoy it. Dude needs to learn when to be graphic and when to leave things to the imagination.

Are you one of those people who is afraid of recommending books because you think it might reflect what other people think of you? Genuinely asking.

>>18541514
If you're going to reread the series, I would recommend finishing TUC. I can't say that it wraps up the entire 7-book series, because more sequels are planned, but it definitely wraps up The Aspect Emperor part.

Just got access to a fuckload of fiction books (my friend's grandfather died and he had a pretty sizable collection) and among the books I managed to piece together the Thomas Covenant trilogies (both of them), Otherworld, and The Swords trilogy by Moorcock, alongside some standalones I thought were interesting. Anyone care to give any general impressions on these books?
Should I send a picture of the haul to see what the collective consciousness of /sffg/ recommends?

>>18541893
Yeah let’s see what the old man had

>>18541910
Aight. Here's the box of my personal picks (plus three other Thomas Covenant books that wouldn't fit in the picture)

>>18541910
>>18541956
Here's the first layer of the rest of the stash

>>18541962
>>18541956
>>18541910
Here's the second layer. There's a whole nother box of non sff fiction I won't be getting into

The chapter of Severian descending into the mines and getting swarmed by man-apes just flies off the fucking pages.

>>18541993
solid Clarke collection, I'm gonna read Songs of Distant Earth soon if you wanna post ur thoughts on sffg as you read I might keep up. I've heard Pillars of the Earth is great if you wanna just read one, haven't read any Moorcock but that trilogy sounds interesting

>>18542159
> Songs of Distant Earth
Right back at you. I still have a pretty big backlog to go through before getting to this one, but under the excuse of reading it for sffg I might bump it up
> Pillars of the Earth
I'll add it to the ones I'll take for myself!

>>18537484
>>18539844
Thanks for providing answers, anons. I'll look into these.

romance and sex

>>18544141
torture and rape

Does someone have any recs for naval fantasy?

Is Altered Carbon a gud book? I liked the first season on Netflix. Didn't realize it was a book until looking at the mega list.

>>18544193
what gaym is that
modded GTA?

>>18544216
I think so. Looks like Michael from V, who is kicking Klee from Genshin Impact.

>>18544173
liveships trilogy? you really should read the assassin trilogy before it though.

>>18544193
yes it's good. if you liked the tv show you'll probably really like the book.

The whole sex/gf sub-plot in Blindsight is really bad.

>>18538099
only kids attracted by the cover pick it up and it's written to appeal to those kids, while people who wouldn't like it are repulsed by the cover would be my guess

inb4
>don't judge a book by its cover
in many cases the cover tells you some things (e.g. there is a type of cover that only smut has, etc.)

Bros i need a story where the love interest doesn't have a 3dpd personality.
Why do so many old fantasy stories involve the mc being cucked?

Will I die an ass virgin? Holy shit, I can only take so many decades of torture. The longer I wait, the hornier I fucking get. Is this normal?

I just want a beautiful transwoman to deflower me.

>>18544939
Is it true that trannies have a female brain?
Is that why they're as retarded as actual women?

>>18536033
What would ww1 be like if it lasted longer? Submachine guns were introduced right when the war was ending, it certainly made trench charges a lot more effective right?

In my story, there's a 100 year old war between kingdoms with technology ranging from the American civil war era, to ww1 era, and finally to ww2 era

>>18545029
Safer to write magic since then you can just bullshit everything and don't have to worry about being historically accurate.

>>18544954
This is just Propaganda based on misread researched establishing that some small parts of their brains (likely linked to the perception of self) was different and more akin to a female brain. Rushing to those conclusions it became 'they've a female brain, they're females trapped in the wrong body'. Is there any good scifi Book about becoming a real woman?

give me Romance sci fi book

>>18545164
end of eternity, asimov

Finished Neuromancer, besides more Sprawl stuff what should I read if I want more cyberpunk?

>>18545260
Please don't get fixated on subgenres of science fiction, especially cyberpunk, because outside of THE examples there is rarely anything worth reading.

>>18545280
Oh no, I meant I want THE full list
Stuff like Snow crash, the classics

>>18545282
>snow crash

>>18540398
>>18540591
Did you read the short story about Kylar torturing a guy by tying him up and putting a live mole up his ass?

>>18545287
I've heard of it, is it bad?

>>18545260
I thought Virtual Light was pretty good.

Snow Crash has been mentioned. That's my favorite of his work. Cryptonomicon is good too but very long for how good it is (good, not great).

There is a book called After-party that flew under the radar that is cyberpunkish. Near future setting, custom drugs can be printed with chemjet printers. A company discovers a drug that lets you see God. Cool premise and good story all together. Surprised it didn't get more hype considering the genre is pretty lack luster outside the hits.

>>18538327
The Blade Itself, no question about it

>>18544430
>The whole sex/gf sub-plot in Blindsight is really bad.
Agreed. Plus if you read the author's afterward you realize he's an insufferable fart-sniffing doucher.

He arrived at the epicenter, hovering within the infinite expanse and gazing down into the swirling energies where existed the thread. Torrential forces allowed the thread to thrive and its taint to pollute this universe with its unnatural miasma of despair and hunger.

>"Formidable. Very formidable...", he muttered under his breath. "But this is merely a minor matter."

>Energy began to coalesce around the figure! Time seemed to rust and corrode, unable to move. The sword arts of the robed man-shaped figure manifested a frightening shadow behind, awe-inspiring with a touch of righteous malice. These powers formed a visual pure-white aura and began to swirl, faster and faster in response to the thumping of his heart. No, the beating of his soul!

>"In my younger days, I fought off a spawn of your kind. I was inexperienced and it only cost my right arm. It taught me that I never did need an arm to control the sword; I AM the sword!"

>His eyes flashed with a sickening gaze, his killing intent rushing out like a shockwave! The thread groaned, locked in place unable to move, thrashing and screeching as a pig in a pen. In the time it took to brew a pot of tea, the thread was paralyzed in place.

>The cosmic energies revolving around the man shifted outward and began to merge into the shape of a sword. This large sword began to grow longer, wider, until it was 100, 200, 400, 700, 8000m long!!

>At this point, the thread was so desperate that it attempted to self-destruct butt it had lost control of its nascent soul!

>Imprisoned screams bounced off the thread's inner walls. In one last attempt to apprehend the sword artist's mental den, the thread fired a cognitive cannon armed with the nightmares of what-ifs and marinated within the ichor of its poisonous stagnation...

>Only to be rebuffed by the man's impenetrable foundation!

>"No more!", he cried. He shook his head, clearing unbound black hair and allowing pale amber eyes to look outward for the first time.

Give me a good sci series with no cuckshit and no romance drama. I don't mind a protagonist with a lover but no love related drama please.

>>18546156
What a nigh-unreadable excuse for machine-translated "prose." Weebshits really do not belong in /sffg/.

>>18536033
Sorry if this is the wrong thread to ask, but does anyone know any journals to submit short fantasy stories to?

Reminder that if you haven't read all 12 volumes of the Histories of Middle-Earth, you are a Tolkienlet with only a shallow, plebeian understanding of Tolkien and Arda.

>>18545029
The only way a war could go on that long is if neither side managed to inflict very serious casualties and both sides had found a way to offset the economic costs. That or it's not actually a hundred years of continuous war, but several smaller wars and campaigns fought by the same groups that occurred over the last hundred years (similar to the historical Hundred Years War). However wars in the late 19th century and early 20th century had become much larger scale and far more deadly than medieval conflicts. Casualties could number in the thousands, or even tens of thousands, in the run up to WW1, and in WW1 you saw staggering death tolls in the hundreds of thousands for a single battle. The devastation of WW1 lasted just over 4 years yet it claimed millions of lives, equal to a not inconsiderable percentage of the participating countries' total population. Death on that scale could scarcely be borne for the 4 years and change it went on, let alone decades of such slaughter. And WW2 was even more deadly, killing still more millions of people and devastating so many countries that it took them many decades to recover economically, and all this from a war that lasted just 6 years.

So basically you have to think about what kind of war this is, keeping in mind that anything as grandiose and horrible as the world wars would result in millions of deaths in under a decade, and that scaling that up to a century would not be feasible.

>>18546711
Pic related.

>>18536056
What does this mean

>>18541552
I'm new to these threads. Why do we not like Stormlight Archive?

>>18546752
>awful, middle-school-tier prose
>workmanlike author who pumps out books for profit, and his paypiggies eat it up
>shallow and simplistic worldview with little true moral complexity or depth
>his fans are annoying as fuck

>>18546752
Lots of people here read his stuff, there's just a super autistic clique that spams the thread any time he gets discussed.

rec me some sci-fi books where human men fuck alien chicks. the less human like the alien chicks are the better.

>>18546760
Ah ok. I still like him though.

>>18546762
This seems to be the truth in all boards. The people who visit and post the most are the one's you really don't want to interact with much..

>>18546766
Mass Effect

>>18546766
>>18546821
To add to that, sure it's not super graphic but there's a lot there.

If you want some of the really exotic stuff you'll probably have to delve into the interesting world of fanfiction. Pic Related.

>>18546711
I have never read a single word written by Tolkien. I watched the Jackson trilogy only once when it came out and skimmed Wikipedia pages when I needed to. What are you going to do about it?

>>18546857

>room-temp-IQ faggot cucks himself out of rich immersion the intricate majesty, beauty, and complexity of Tolkien's lifelong subcreation
Not my problem, pal

>>18546694
Do you own any short story anthologies? I took a quick look at the three I have (1 sci fi, 2 fantasy) and all 3 of them had a paragraph or so before each story detailing the background of the author and where they published in.

If you don't own any anthologies, I personally own The New Voices of Fantasy, New Voices of Sci Fi, and Gardner Dozois' Modern Classics of Fantasy. Haven't read all of it but I mostly liked what I did read.

>>18546857
Very based. I read the first two books, and they're unironically shallow as fuck. I have literally no idea how they've lasted this long, unless Catholics are like Mormons and autistically prop up any shit one of "their guys" pumps out.

>>18537006
Maybe Dichronauts by Greg Egan?

>>18545729
No. I don’t know what that anon’s problem is.

>>18546898
>The New Voices of Fantasy, New Voices of Sci Fi, and Gardner Dozois' Modern Classics of Fantasy
Thanks anon! I actually don't own any anthologies, but thinking about it you're definitely right that I should pick up some before sending my own stuff to them. I'll look at some of your recs.

>>18547361
There's also some editors who do yearly anthologies. I have volume 4 of pic related series, and it's pretty thick. I haven't read it but I'm sure there's some good stuff in it since it seems to be rated a lot better than some of the other yearlies I see on amazon.

>>18547261
Yup, that was it, thanks alot

>>18546873
>Tolkien's lifelong subcreation
Tolkien didn't create shit, he just plagiarized the Kalevala

i saw a book mentioned here on /lit/ a while ago that looked pretty interesting and i was hoping you guys could help me remember the title. it had to do with aliens genetically experimenting on humans so radically that many forms of them arent recognizable as human whatsoever. iirc the aliens did it as some sort of punishment. i think the title was something like "All Possible Futures".

Why does every character have the same speech pattern? Do black writers really only write in ebonics?

Please give me racist fantasy recs, looking for a fantasy version of Turner diaries basically.

>>18544349
If I completed the tv show is there any point in reading the book? Inb4 brainlet, it's about if it's worth the time to 'reread'.

>>18547931
All tomorrows

>buy the only kind of kindle paperwhite in my country
>it has ads
>every single ad is for some gay romance with a male model on the cover written by a woman using her initials
>illiterate friend of mine sees the inactive ad on the screen while visiting
>thinks i'm a bigger faggot than i already am
Thanks, Amazon.

>>18548086
sounds like it did little
your friend already knew you were a faguette

>>18548080
thats it, thanks so much anon!

>>18548094
My lips around his shaft confirmed that long ago, but now he thinks I'm a FAGGOT faggot, not just a faggot.

I'm trying to get thru Tolkien for the first time and already struggling with The Hobbit. It's just not pulling me in. It's a bit comfy, but I'm halfway through and really just want to read a completely different book. Should I finish the book and at least try a bit of Fellowship? Or maybe Tolkien isn't for me and I really am a bugman?

I LOVED Bakker and just want something with that scale of world-building, so I figured I'd better go back to the source and read Tolkien

>>18548213
The Hobbit is boring as fuck. it's a children's book. You do view Bilbo differently in LotR if you read it, though. Fellowship of the Ring also has some mind numbing sections, particularly those specifically cut from the movie, like the entire AIDS/Cancer hybrid known as Tom Bombadil.

Any sci-fi book with a focus in colonization? I recently read a Change of Plans by Dennis Taylor and go a hunger for more.

>>18548213
Hobbit is a kid’s book. Either start with Fellowship or go straight to the Silmarillion. If you’ve read Bakker you’ll realize how much he ripped off from the Silmarillion especially re: the nonmen/elves

>>18548238
Children of Time/Ruin.

Give me romance books...

>>18548282
So, cuck porn?

>>18548296
no

Is there a Lolita in space?

>>18541893
Thomas Covenant is fucking great. Really good, dude rapes 15 y/o cunny almost immediately.

>>18546752
Because he fucking sucks.

>>18548345
15 isn't cunny. Cunny is pedo slang for girls below the age of 10.

>>18545260
Read Vacuum Flowers lately, it's really good. Nails the high tech low life elements. Also read Schismatix plus lately, might be my new favorite cyberpunk as it transitions to post cyberpunk smoothly and unexpectedly and just keeps on rolling. Also, "The Bohr Maker" which is recent nanotech cyberpunk. Also fascinating.

All these are unique, inventive and well written (I would rank Schismatix as best written, followed by Bohr).

>>18536196
Why does Gene Wolfe look so fruity?

>>18536762
Alan Moore is not a good writer, according to my supervisor

>>18546752
Not enough cuckshit.

>>18548282
If you want something fantastical, read The Faerie Queene. Otherwise, D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rainbow”

>>18548361
Why aren’t you outraged at the state of paedophilia?

>>18548607
Pedophilia is a social construct.

>>18548617
No it isn’t, if it’s describing attraction to someone before puberty. That is biologically determinable.

>>18545260
On the same note, is Idoru by Gibson good? I've seen some reviews say it's his best work and as a recovering v-tuber addict the idea behind the book seems pretty interesting

>>18548634
Banging children is completely natural. The stigma that comes with it is a social construct. Alhamdulillah.

>>18548652
No it isn’t normal. It’s devoid of pleasure and kids don’t possess sex hormones. Please off yourself.

>>18548660
Sex is only pleasurable for the male. If it fits, it's fertile.

>>18548667
Completely untrue and now you’re trolling. I consider you mentally insane and likely bored. Go outside.

>>18548674
You sound like a closeted pedophile who's convincing himself of these lies.

>>18548652
>>18548667
>>18548679
clean this shit up jannies

>>18548687
t. halfwit

>>18548690
You’re so stupid, dude. No one likes injustice or abuse, especially not 4chan, despite the bad reputation.

>>18548703
You're a mega brainlet if you think any of these shitposts are serious when the first one literally makes fun of Islam.

>>18536033
Unironically, what is the point of /sffg/?
>to discuss sf and fantasy books
literally no discussion actually ever happens; the last good discussions we had were the Bakker-flood and those were shitposts so
>to ask for/take recommendations for sf and fantasy books
those could just as easily go in the QTDDTOT thread

>>18546711
The moment Harper Collins finally releases the other 10 volumes, I may give them a listen.

>>18548901
*release in audio format.

>>18546760
>his fans are annoying as fuck
Is Bakker General really going to toss shade like this?

>>18547189
> unless Catholics are like Mormons and autistically prop up any shit one of "their guys" pumps out.
This is exactly what some retards here do with Tolkien and Wolfe, only that they're probably not even baptized, have never been to a Mass, and are "Catholic" only on twitter on 4chan

>>18548086
Kek

>>18548086
I feel sorry for you friend, genuinely sorry
>t. kobo owner

>>18548236
you feel as if you're contracting cancer/AIDS when you read Tom chapters? The character is a metaphor for the diseases? What are you trying to get across here?

which one do I read first

books with satans literal minions like chaos space marines in 40k?

So what is the opinion here on Ursula k le guin?

I got a hankering for some environmental and philosophical sci-fi.

>>18549198
Done

>>18549198
Dune is easier, BOTNS is better.

>>18548788
The point is to unironically pretend to feel like you belong to a community.

>>18549198
TRS book club bros

>>18548788
Have you seen the entire rest of /lit/? This is the one good thread in a sea of gay nerds trying to impress one another with whatever obscure philosopher they found.

>>18549328
I dunno about this place being great. A lot of people here like shitty writers like that Mormon guy.

>>18549294
then why do you guys bully me

>>18549226
A master you need never ask permission for

>>18549338
because you're not real

>>18549338
>>18549353
This is why you guys are anonymous. To dehumanize and take out your rage on each other

>>18549328
I mean, we still have a bunch of nerds here trying to impress each other with what they like reading. Only difference from the rest of /lit/ is that we aren't as gay

Romance
recommend me romance books now
I'm not fucking playing around

>>18549649
Try google.

>>18549353
speaking of that pic dude now that weed is legal when do we get lsd

>>18549654
shut up retard

>>18549649
anon... no one here has read anything, what makes you think they can even recommend you any books? they'll just spout some vague bullshit at you then fuck off

>>18549657
shut up retard

about to read magician by raymond feist. my buddy gave it to me and said it was good. thoughts?

>>18536033
Pretty common book here but still great to recommend, probably my favorite book.

Recommend me something pre-2000 sci fi anons, I've just exhausted my kindle

>>18549794
holy fuck, maybe it's just me but that book was so boring and disappointing. it's like the introduction level of some game with a mage but it's spread over 20 hours. He barely does magic stuff at all and everything he does is lame. I also had the extended version, big mistake

>>18547361
Any anthology by Gardner Dozois is good

>>18546253
Queendom of Sol

>>18545280
that series is fucking awesome and way better than any so-called cyberpunk shit

>>18536033
just came in to say I fell for the Poppy War meme, what a waste of a weekend.

>>18549198
Dune is easy and formulaic but you should walk the golden path if you like the first book

>>18549211
read PKD

Is Battlefield Earth good?

I'm having the time of my life with Hyperion and Fall
I know Endymion is bad, but what makes it bad?

>>18550803
I'll say first and foremost I don't really think it's bad, just that it's different, and has far less universal appeal.
Hyperion and Fall are all about exploring a core set of extremely strong characters with varied backgrounds in a genuinely fascinating sci-fi universe. Each has a strong voice and compelling background. etc.

Endymion is primary about a normal dude (the classic "farm boy hero" even) and his romantic relationship with a 16 year girl who is basically a Jesus figure. They go on the run from religious authorities, and overall religion becomes a huge overarching theme, with catholic space authorities and AI that reflect Zen Buddhism and so on and so on. It gets very weird and even more obsessive about Keats. Overall, it's just very weird, with very different priorities. One could say Hyperion/Fall are all about based AF characters and setting whereas Endymion/Fall is all about religious allegories and spiritual growth.

>>18547939
Myfarog

>>>/tv/152979942

>>18548420
>>18545767
Thanks a lot guys
>>18548636
No idea anon. hope you enjoy it.

>92 posters
These threads have more dedicated anons than even music boards and metal threads. I never knew science fiction fantasy had such loyal followers.

>>18551528
92 posters and at max one or two good conversations at any given time.

>>18551528
yeah, this is only the really consistently half-decent thread on /lit/ (which says a lot more about the absolute state of /lit/ than it does this thread)

>>18548213
I've already read all of Tolkien's books. For me the Hobbit was his best book, so I suppose it is not a series for you because the others are inferior.

Decided to read through the triad of sword & sorcery (Howard, Leiber, and Moorcock), but I only wanted to read the best of the best, not having to slog through some of their lesser stories (like the ones they clearly just wrote for money); after reading tons of internet blogs run by old greybeards and scouring decades-old forums that have long since been abandoned, this seems to be the general consensus for what the best of each is; I'm posting this here to generate some discussion (What do you guys think of this list, those of you who've read through these stories?) and for anybody else who likewise would like to read through them :

Conan the Barbarian, RE Howard; all of these stories are highly recommended reading
>Red Nails (1936)
>The Queen of the Black Coast (1934)
>The Frost Giant's Daughter (posthumous, 1976)
>The Tower of the Elephant (1933)
>Beyond the Black River (1935)
>The People of the Black Circle (1934)
>Rogues in the House (1934).
Also worth reading by Howard are the poem 'Cimmeria' (1932) and the short story Worms of the Earth (1932).

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Fritz Leiber; this entire list gives a nice rounded feel for the entire series, but if you only want the absolute best of the best, start with the ones marked with an asterisk (*)
>Jewels in the Forest (also known as 'Two Sought Adventure') (1939)*
>The Bleak Shore (1940)
>The Howling Tower (1941)
>The Sunken Land (1942)
>Thieves' House (1943)*
>Adept's Gambit (1947)*
>The Claws from the Night (also known as 'Dark Vengeance') (1951)
>The Seven Black Priests (1953)
>Induction (1957)
>The Swords of Lankhmar (1968)
>Ill Met in Lankhmar (1970)
>Lean Times in Lankhmar (posthumous? 1996)*

Elric of Melnibone, Michael Moorcock; this guy wrote everything all over the place and all out of order, but it is generally agreed that the best stories are some of his earlier ones; technically, these are all short story collections, and they should be read in this order:
>Elric of Melnibone (1972)
>The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976)
>The Weird of the White Wolf (1961)
>The Sleeping Sorceress (also known as 'The Vanishing Tower') (1970)
>The Bane of the Black Sword (1962)
>Stormbringer (1963)

>>18549794
I liked it when I was 15 years old. It's a classic but not really that great. If you end up liking it, I think the Serpentwar series is worth reading for sure when you're done with this.

How true to normal fag tastes are Goodreads ratings?
can I trust them to align with mine if I'm a normal fag too?

Is Dune any good? I might get the trilogy. I heard the expanded books by his sons suck.

>>18552244
Goodreads is about as normie as you can get. There are good reviews there to be sure, though.

>>18552244
if you have setup your library, the recommendations based on your shelves are decent.

>>18550404
What is the golden path?

>>18552276
Yes

>>18550270
Are the sequels actually good? I have them, but I remember some anons comparing Rucker to a brilliant relative who went nuts on acid or some shit.

>>18552313
nice, I set my account to private
gonna add in all the nasty shit I've read

>>18552325
>I can get the Dune Trilogy cheap, but there’s no publisher with Emperor of Dune in the same style/artwork
Should I just be a bitch and get the individual books, or maybe a box set?

>>18552479
you should get an e-reader so you can start reading books the moment you want to and figure out about acquiring hard copies whilst reading said book

>>18552494
You read my mind anon! I’m reading Dune on my phone. I love reading on Apple Books now I got given an iPhone.

>>18552506
>got given

>>18552506
>reading on a normal OLED screen
just invest in an e-reader, anon; your eyesight will thank you

>>18552507
Yeah it’s a handmedown. I would never pay for an iPhone. I’m also fairly poor :(

>>18552535
....that's not what i was mocking, m8

>>18552535
if you really are poor
then books are the last things you should be buying
save the money, get an e-reader and fucking save up

>>18552532
I have a kindle fire something rather but it’s quite old. It was also given to me, but the person who gave it was dyslexic so it was barely used. It has some gross grime on it though, which seems impossible to get off.

>>18552544
>mocking active voice
Anon, I…

>>18552545
Too true. I try to stop spending money on books but I like reading bc it keeps my mind occupied. I do go to the library a lot but I find that I’m usually getting stuff for my research purposes… also university libraries barely have good science fiction. It’s either ASOIAF in German or Literal Who.

I just want to read romance novels man....
why they got make the cover a muscular dood....
I'm not a homo......

>>18552584
D.H. Lawrence’s books usually have tasteful covers

>>18552584
Have you tried google?

>>18552584
>wants to read romance
>not gay btw
That's a pretty hard sell around these parts

>>18552610
it's not my fault that faggots read so much more than straight men
you assholes really need to start reading more

>>18545260
Snow Crash

Regarding Bakker, is this correct? The part outlined in red, specifically.

>>18548213
>just want something with that scale of world-building
Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon

About 350 pages into Book of the New Sun, the one volume version so I'm a bit into Claw and goddamn I kinda love it but I can't say I know where it's headed from here, the story seems to be Sev largely just wandering on his exile
Just got past the part where Severian escaped the ape-men, spared Agia and is just now meeting Vodalus with Jonas
Earlier Severian had a dream of a puppet show where a doll with a sword was fighting a giant, I assume this is him fighting Baldanders in the future?

>>18539002
When the fuck is the next Daniel Black book coming out? It's been 3 years.

Uh isnt this supposed to come out in november? eriksonsoys?

>>18553397
Absolutely not. TGO was a fantastic read

>>18553397
Whoever wrote this either was filtered by the last two books (which are the best in the entire series), or didn't read them yet.

>>18552479
The new box set is sweet.

I had a mishmash of the first 3, then went ahead and bought the box set with the new art. No regrets.

>>18537868
I will find you. I will summon my awesomeness. And I will kill you.

>>18553972

I fucking hate americans and how every book written by them has this fucking obsession with IDPOL

>>18548586
It's not by Moore, he just praised it. Brian Catling is the author.

>>18547871
Cope!

>>18549226
Lathe of Heaven is pretty good. That's all I've read from her

>>18549226 A truly great author.
>>18555350 One of her weaker works to me.

>>18554875
>implying other countries don't do the same

>>18539577
"hard scifi"
Prador Moon literally has a Warpgate through which a fucking moon shoots to deus ex machina resolve the books conflict in the end bruh

there aint no warpgates through whomst moons fly IRL and never will be

>>18541956
Songs of Distant earth, IIRC, is a short story collection and thoroughly recommendeable, some great gems in there! specially the one with the blind spacer <3

>>18556032
>what is reading comprehension
Those books are for non hard scifi lovers, not hard scifi faggots such as yourself.

>>18541993
Heinleins Time Enough for Love is wtf but enjoyable, very much like Stranger in a Strange Land :-)

Heinleins Orphans of the Sky is quintessential "Generation Ship wat do" and basically laid the foundation for that entire concept of storytelling

Herberts Soulcatcher is also a recommend

Greg Bears "Eon" I have not read ; but I find him hit or miss

>>18556042
oh sorry
it do be late
my bad! :-D

>>18556042
why would you call me either a faggot or hard scifi lover? I enjoy all kinds of SF and F :-)

any books about being a space bounty hunter or something like that?

something very western-esque, but in space

>>18556063
travelling in a plains wagon across an open field, being hunted by a monster beyond time? Try Hyperion

but for the true Western Feel ; ditch Scifi. Go for Karl May!

>>18556094
I like the feeling of exploring a world not yet tamed by a civilization but still far from wilderness
Not so much the frontier aspect of it, y'know, nothing works and everybody's starving and dirty and illness is everywhere, that sort of thing
I've found scifi "westerns" sometimes manage to straddle that line quite well

>>18540591

>>18556063
in a way , James S A Coreys "the expanse" is this, more or less. In the way that "Firefly" was a Space SF show with a crew of privateers aboard a commandeered ship: But its honestly more space opera in many ways :-)

>>18540591
might I recommend to you to try out Samuel R Delany
get tarted with the Tales of Neveryojn for Sword and Sorcery, maybe do the Jewels of Aptor after, and then ... buckle up buckaroo

what are some books that actively portray this feel?
https://youtu.be/lV0KmZKyUzA

Would anyone read my sword and sorcery set in Copper Age Sumer? I just started but I’m thinking of self publishing/posting here. It’s mainly for fun, as I’ll write under a pseudonym.

Is the Red Rising series good?

I want to train my voice and read an old classic of SF/Fantasy to read on youtube or soundcloud
what are some good classics that are in public domain so i dont get the DMCA hammer?

>>18553397
It's wrong, and whoever wrote probably got absolutely filtered by all the depraved shit. I believe the books are all great and very close together in quality, but TUC is undeniably peak Bakker.

The Unholy Consult > The Warrior Prophet > The Great Ordeal > The Thousandfold Thought > The White-Luck Warrior > The Darkness that Comes Before > The Judging Eye

>someone recommended Goodkind a while ago
>five hours into the first sword of truth audio book
>it's fucking trash at best
how do these people keep getting published?

>>18557355
>audio book
Get filtered, pleb

>>18557360
make me, bitch

>>18557355
>how do these people keep getting published?
If you want to get traditionally published you're going to have to write some permutation of YA, faggotry and niggers. Trad publishing has become, quite a joke. Self-publishing is where its at.

>>18557397
that was in 1994 Sword of Truth began in 1994
but HOLY SHIT that's a shitton of books
that's one book a year.

>>18557417
Doesn't change the fact that Trad publishing is pintless now.

>>18557432
Surprise that people here don’t support self-publishers more.

>>18557437
I do. And I always support them.

>>18557417
>but HOLY SHIT that's a shitton of books
>that's one book a year.
Two. The sequel came out like 1996. Also, pretty sure he took a hiatus.

>>18557339
>what are some good classics that are in public domain so i dont get the DMCA hammer?
try google

>>18556968
>Is the Red Rising series good?
I suppose boredom is a feeling. Not a single tear was shed. Not for a single instance was a single emotion heightened. It was by no means a bad book, but the message got lost in the telling, and there is just. So. Much. Telling. The writing is fantastic, but the plot just didn't work for me. I was bored out of my mind for much of the book.

This book tries to be grand. It tries really, really hard to make a lofty, awe-inspiring political message. It read like a rousing Communist propaganda, the sort that would get a crowd of common men fired up, ready to launch an uprising to bring down the almighty ruling class that has long oppressed them.

Wait, this book is trying to make a political message? Something about freeing the oppressed? What the fuck? No. It is a story about how Darrow is better than everyone else at everything because he is The One. His life is saved by the act of God, or shall I say, the act of deus ex fucking machina every single fucking time.

It wants to be the story of a common laborer, a sheep, one who is content with his hard-working life, who is proud of the products of his toil because it supposedly means something. Darrow is the Everyman, the ordinary worker, the common man to whom we all can relate! Not.

If Darrow were a female, I would not hesitate for one millisecond to slap a "Mary Sue" label on him. He is bloodydamn perfect. An Everyman, he is not. The common man, he is not. Average, he is most definitely not. Fine, Darrow is meant to be perfect because he's the SYMBOL OF HIS PEOPLE. He's so fucking special. He was plucked from the mires of obscurity to save his people.

His perfection raises a lot of question, and this book left me largely unsatisfied.

>>18537874
Yeah, for a New Adult Series, it is.

>>18538099
It fills a niche that people are willing to buy to experience.

New thread
>>18557553

>>18557339
The Faerie Queene.