/lit/ - Literature

Bakker

Anyone got some reccs for horror fantasy? I'm interested in The Night Land but want to see some other stuff too.

>>18717538

Any of these Black Library omnibuses any good?

Have you read it yet?

>>18717717
have you? is it any good?

>>18717874
Not as good as picrel.

>>18717879
>Xeelee Sequence
>good
come on mate the writing is very bad, I couldn't get past the first book. And i usually like this sort of setting.

Anyone hyped for the new Reynolds book, Inhibitor Phase?

Finally finished reading the Dying Earth, what a trip man, can't wait to read the Cugel books ince I've heard those are even better. Is Rhialto the Marvellous just as good after I finish the Cugel books?

>>18717923
>implying it hasn't been delayed

>>18717538
Clark Ashton Smith’s Zothique stories
>>18717925
It’s the worst one in the series IMO but it’s still worth a read, especially if you like Vance’s humor

>>18717892
You dont read Scifi for language, you read it for scope and ideas. And Baxter is up there.

>>18717717
Give me a QRD and I'll consider adding it to the backlog, fren

Just recently finished the complete fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. I chose book of the new sun to take its place in that "lane" of stuff in reading. What am I in for bros? Pls no spoilers pls

There is a discord, but everyone on there is a gigantic prick.

Getting cucked by Kellhus doesn't seem that bad. I feel like I'd be okay with sharing if it was him.

their was a grimACE on her fACE

>>18718182
pronounced like Liberace

>read bakker
>get to the inverse fire part
>become deadly scared of dying and even the slightest possibility of an eternity of SOMETHING after
g-guys

>>18717717
>Adequin Rake commands the Argus. She has no resources, no comms - nothing
>she

>>18718264
It's true. You'll be held accountable for every illicit action and thought you've ever indulged throughout your entire life.

>>18718264
that's how they used to get you to join the local religion lol

>>18718264
Rev. 14:10-11 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night ...

Hell yeah there's a new Claire North book out. Recognised the name but had to google her to remember that they were the 15 lives of harry august author

>>18718425
Oh shit, nice, thanks for the heads up.

Brandon Sanderson Brandon Sanderson Brandon Sanderson Brandon Sanderson Brandon Sanderson Brandon Sanderson Brandon Sanderson Brandon Sanderson

>>18718096
i used to go there, it was ok. they often talked about books

i used the word nigger once and they all got mad at me lol

>>18718096
How does that differ from this thread?

>>18718264 babby's first religious concern

Trying to get trough the sword itself, ardee is just a shit character and the tool by which one of the only likeable characters was ruined. And for no reason other than "hur dur nobody is good" I mean for fucks sake Crombie I get you want to be all edgy and shit but the domestic violence scene was completely unnecessary and it put's a unnecessary damper on a character that wasn't "good" by any means, he just wasn't shit.
And now I'm put off from reading this book once again , just when the story was picking up.

>>18718085
Just finished Shadow of the Torturer myself anon. Be prepared for some complicated prose and rich world-building.

Fuck E William Brown
Fuck No Releases
Fuck Lies
Fuck Pay Walls
Fuck pay Pigs
Fuck Delays
Fuck Excuses
Fuck Incommunicado
Fuck Plainning Not to Publish anything in 2020 / 2021

>>18717665
Eisenhorn and the sequels and Ciaphas Cain are the ones I've enjoyed.

>>18718264
>Anon becomes reacquainted with the concept of damnation
Repent!

>>18718925
through sheer power of will, I'll overcome the coupled consciousness of reality and will away hell, no longer shall humanity suffer eternal damnation.

>>18718264
>anon took the consultpill

>>18718264
The only thing I truly fear is reincarnation.

How do we think about GRRM's world building and map drawing skills?

The stuff with the Wathi doll in The Warrior-Prophet is great

>>18719037
>Austrios
No way that's not made up

also post more maps

>>18718473
Hhmmm yes... I see

Has anyone read the Mageborn series by the guy who writes Art of the Adept? I like the much more casual prose, and the characterization and relations between others feels conveyed naturally. I'm almost finished with book 4.
>killing off a major side-character so abruptly

>>18719257
did you just spoil a book while recommending it in the same post?

>>18719266
I wasn't recommending it. I was asking if anybody else had read it but I would recommend it, now that you bring the topic up. The series actually kills off characters casually so the general would probably love it since they're full of normalfags who like ASoIaF.

>>18717538
Karl Edward Wagner's Kane stories; specifically the short stories.

>>18717550
I like seeing anons rec books that I originally recommended to this general. Makes me feel like I accomplished something.

>>18718182
This post is grimiss (read: cringe) inducing every time I see it.
t. Angloid.

>>18717925
Be sure to eventually get around to reading some Schuyler Hernstrom; he's the best modern writer of Vancian fiction. Michael Shea also wrote an unofficial sequel for The Eyes of the Overworld called A Quest for Simbilis that so impressed Vance himself he allowed it to be an official sequel (until he wrote his own sequel kek.)

>>18719257
>>18719266
>did you just spoil a book while recommending it in the same post?
Chad move desu

>>18719037
>Britain, but it's a rectangle
>some more rectangles
>Australia

>>18718296
R E J E C T E D

>>18719123
>No way that's not made up
Wow really? You were able to spot this cunning forgery? You're so clever anon.

I liked Dune, but I can't buy any books because of lock down bullshit.

>>18720108
Lesser minds might be tricked by it's inclusion next to prominent places in the story such as the odd lands or the spooky plains, but not I.

>>18720119
>Buying books
>From authors long dead
why would anyone do this?

>>18720144
I don't mind supporting local businesses. I am a bit of a miser when it comes to other things so I don't mind purchasing some stuff. Also physical books are clearly superior.

>>18719037
GRRM didn't draw that map. He also didn't draw any of the maps published in his books, those were done by professional artists, as is the case with most maps in fantasy books, if you actually bothered to look at the credited artist.

I’ve read almost no fantasy at all besides Tolkien. Please recommend the top 3 must-read fantasy books that aren’t Tolkien (in your opinion).

>>18720144
Because authors who are still alive tend to be utter trash

>>18720261
Game of Thrones
Terry Pratchett books
Redwall books

I really enjoy comfy fantasy rather then grand stories

>>18720261
You realize fantasy is a genre written for entertainment and there's no objective best option right? I don't even know what your opinion is on Tolkien, only that you read him. Or do you not have your own opinions?

>>18720615
Did you miss the "(in your opinion)" part of anon's post? He didn't ask for the top 3 UNIVERSALLY AGREED UPON fantasy books; just the top 3 each of us considers to be the best fantasy books.

>>18720261
Carmilla, Eyes of the Overworld, Stardust
Super tight novellas.

>>18720655
And you failed to understand the point of my post which is that people have different opinions and just because one person likes something doesn't mean another person will. This kind of post is pointless and doesn't promote any useful discussion. It's just people listing books and then getting into arguments over them instead of finding stuff to read based on his actual interests.

>>18720465
Redwall books were so good that when I was six and seven I read everyone of them nonstop and fucked my eyesight. Getting glasses at seven sucked.

>>18720802
>It's just people listing books and then getting into arguments over them instead of finding stuff to read based on his actual interests.
lol is this your first time here?

>>18718096
How did we hurt you.

>>18720814
is it true that reading can damage your eye sight?

>>18721114
That’s what the optometrist told me, but I don’t know that for myself.

>>18721080
N-IGGEEEEER

When I was little I read The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, I loved it, especially The Hobbit, but The Two Towers was fucking boring. Now I reread the first two books and the Two Towers still seem boring... to someone else? I don't know, but this book seems like fucking shit to me. Like it's the worst book I've ever read.

>>18721155
This post is too chad for the discord, true.

>>18721210
Read it when you grow up. Two Towers is not a separate book -- they were just split up by the publisher for printing / financial reasons.

>>18721210
Yeah is hot garbage.

>>18721210
always felt that way about lotr, even with the movies.
the shire, the great forest, bree, rivendell, moria, lothlorien, boating down the anduin: super comfy.
rohan, gondor: zzzzzz.

I enjoyed Eragon

>>18721114
It's mostly genetic, and you can do a lot to mitigate it with exercise if you're a masochist. I'll take book damage over sun damage any day.

>be Anasûrimbor Kellhus
>be le epic conditioned super autist dûnyain facereader man
>is aware of the white luck, but fails to conclude that something is up with Kelmomas and his would-be WLW/assassins
>fails to realize that Kelmomas is, in fact, not actually bullshitting to his face when he says Sorweel really was a fucking Narinddar
>goes up to the inverse fire room and proceeds to start posturing and talking shit to everyone like a generic cartoon villain
>doesn't even kill the fucking skin spies that pose an immediate threat to his sorcerer self, even though any self respecting epic facts and logic man would do so
>gets fucking killed like a dumbass
What a fucking retard. Relative to his alleged über intelligence, is he the single most retarded character in /sffg/?
>inb4 No-God comes out and "it was all according to keikaku :^)"
Just kidding, No-God never ever, Bakkerfags.

>>18720465
> Redwall books
Good books but YA... I remember reading the first one when I was 12.

>>18722522
Not gonna spoiler it but if you think that was K monologuing in the GR you are stupid.
And you are right about the release date of the next book.

>>18722619
>YA
Not even that, middle-grade.

>>18718473
>motherfucker sold the rights to all the cosmere works to literal whos a few years before every big streaming service started leaning hard into adapting fantasy

Finished reading Alice in wonderland and found it highly overrated. Idk how it became so popular.

It doesnt really say… anything. All chapters feel disconnected. Most dialogues serve no purpose. Specially the turtle and the gryphon.
The last pages about Alice sister was the best part ironically.

Little disappointed as I was expecting something more internet.

>>18722866
most classics are pretty disappointing. What do you expect, it was created as a way for a pedophile to pass off shit-talking mathematicians as a bedtime story for the little girl he was molesting

that said, for lot of old works, the vision is what matters more so than the story itself. The only classics that really delivered for me were the wizard of oz and journey to the west

>>18721114
>is it true that reading can damage your eye sight?
If you do it for too long stretches at a time with no breaks to look into the distance while you and you eyes are still growing, then yes. The eyeballs need to elongate to focus at short distances and that may become permanent.

>>18718264
It's not fair is it? Everything is already predetermined in that universe, so some people are just born to suffer eternally for actions that they never truly had a choice in.

>>18723235
>Everything is already predetermined in that universe, so some people are just born to suffer eternally
It's the same in this universe.

>>18723251
Nobody knows anything for certain

>>18720171
GRRM did draw the map of Westeros, or at least he claims that he did. There is at least one interview where he explains that he knew ASOIAF wouldn't merely be a novella but something more when he started to draw the map. It's pretty funny, in that interview he emphasizes that "once you draw the map, you know that you're done for," and then he pauses, clearly expecting the audience to laugh at his witty remark, but they don't, so the pause turns into a moment of awkward silence.

Anyway, I guess it's possible GRRM handed over his rough sketch to an artist who refined the map for publishing. But I feel fairly certain that slapping together Britain and Ireland into a single landmass was 100% GRRM's very own brainchild. I'd like to think a professional artist wouldn't have done quite so blatant a hack job.

>Me reading the Turin chapter of the Silmarillion
WTF bros, this shit got dark

>>18717538
Clive Barker has a few Weaveworld comes to mind

>>18722890
(Not that guy) it's interesting that our culture no longer produces classics anymore tho

>>18722890
I found that to be the exact opposite, at least in my reading experience. Classics usually range from excellent to good, at least in their quality, even if the reading isn't enjoyable because of my personal preferences. That is definitely not the case with contemporary books.
>>18723651
To be quite fair several "classical" authors and works never got commercial or popular success in their time for a myriad of reasons not related to the quality of their work including sociopolitical ones. And several acclaimed authors in their times had their hypoed work forgotten with the passage of time.
So we might be producing a lot of classics right now but we simply cannot see it because the mediatic focus is on utter garbage.

>>18717395
Literally…

>>18717538
Lovecraft, what else?
>inb4 zoomer memes about squids and insanity

>>18721114
ask 80% of the male korean population below 30

Can anyone tell me any fantasy that features trolls heavily?

>>18724116
thanks for reminding me to rewatch this movie

>>18717538
It's old, but if you want to go back to the source I really enjoyed the horror/uncanny stories of The King in Yellow.

>>18724030
Is that a half-welsh person? Wow! Literally a fish monster from hell!

I've never read a book before but I'll do anything for my fetish, what is a good book that features male to female body swaps

>>18722866
stick to reading YA zoomer

>>18722866
Filtered

>>18723651
The reason for that is the splintering of mainstream culture, mainly due to the far lower barriers for artists nowadays. You can't have "a classic" if everyone is reading different books.

The lack of "classics" is a statement about the democratization of media production, not about the quality of produced works.

>>18724030
Yeah, but everyone's already read most of Lovecrafts stuff.

>>18724583
This is wrong. It was never about mainstream culture. It was never about everyone reading different books. You are wrong about what a classic is. It has nothing to do with the democratization of the media production. You're right that it isn't about the quality of produced works.

It has always has been about a small number of elites have decided is worthwhile. That's what it still is about.

>Read synopsis of a book
>It looks pretty interesting, I might want to check it out
>Very last sentence of the synopsis says something about gay/tranny shit
Why the fuck is this so common these days?

>>18724728
>read random Romance
>all going well
>Character suddenly starts obsessing over the fact she's Jewish
God fucking damn it, I'm so fucking SICK OF THEM

>>18724712
There's no elites anymore that anyone gives a shit about outside of their small bubble.

>>18724728
Every age has its dominant religion which demands that people shall at the very least pay lipservice to it, lest they be branded as heretics, infidels or worse. It just so happens that you live in the age where the lipservice takes the form of kissing the asses of fags, dykes, trannies and niggers of course, instead of praising God's glory.

>>18725515
>There's no elites anymore that anyone gives a shit about
Maybe when it comes to literature but plebs idolizing the nobility has just changed forms into plebs idolizing celebrities (including e-celebs)

>>18725515
There may be none that you care about, but that makes you an outlier. A casual look at even outerlit, let alone elsewhere, shows that there still many elites that people care about. We may have a different definition of "elite".

>>18717395
God Emperor of Dune, Dune #4 -Frank Herbert (1981)

This book is different from the preceding three in terms of structure, though the same in terms of it being a deeply political and philosophical work. It also asks you to take a lot on faith, and it would seem many rejected that from the premise alone. That's reasonable. It can be very difficult to understand the beliefs of another without accepting or rejecting them.

Although it took a while for me to to feel it, I greatly enjoyed that it eventually felt like I was reading a mythos, which is exactly what it's intended to be given how the story is framed.

I found the diverse and divisive opinions on this book, as with the series overall, to be rather intriguing. I think a lot of it is misunderstanding, whether willful or not. Nothing else comes to mind that seems to have so many different combinations of engagement in significant proportion. Explaining that in detail is outside the scope of this writing though. Leto seems to be especially misunderstood, in negative sense that that may simply a matter of disagreeing on the value of intentions, and whether the ends justifies the means. He's also misunderstood in a positive sense, thinking that he's far more more than what he is, in that sense these readers have fallen for the presented propaganda as much as most any character in the book. I'm not exempt from not realizing I'm misunderstanding.

The strangest thing to me what how I didn't find any of what I read to be strange. I had been expecting the content to be more extreme and/or explicit, but that wasn't what I read at all. Admitting as such may be more self-incriminating than anything else. For example, as shown on the cover, one of the characters is decidedly non-humanoid. To which I say, yes, and? It doesn't really matter to me any more than other alien morphologies would. As for perversion? Overstated, which may be self-incriminating as well.

There are several choices and character motivations that may seem odd, especially near the end of the book, and I think that's because they become expressions of emotion. This reduced complexity certainly does harm them as believable characters as opposed to instruments of the author's will, though I was willing to overlook that. After all, Everyone except Siona is a puppet, even Leto, who is puppeting himself.

To me the overall theme was eventually releasing humanity from the bondage of determinism and allowing them to experience true freedom for the first time in existence. I didn't mind that how this was accomplished was never explained in the slightest, though usually I would. There was also much else The Golden Path was for, but that was what was seemed most important to me.

I believe how much we enjoy anything is a often a matter of how willing we are to overlook its flaws.

Rating: 4.5/5

>>18717395
anyone have any reccs to start with Moorcock? Im interested in his influence on alan moore--was considering picking up the cornelius quartet or gloriana

Halfway trough a series and I'm not filling it, should I continue on and finish it or do I start another one, coming back it on a latter date?

I don't really know how to describe it, but does anyone else sometimes just get annoyed reading 'real' novels?
Like you read a YA or LN and it just flows like natural story telling, just some dude writing a story and describing events and settings.
But like an adult novel just feels too try hard I guess? Like the type shit you'd hear someone read out loud when describing how you're supposed to write and it just feels pompous and long winded without actually adding anything to the story.

>>18725901
>Like you read a YA or LN and it just flows like natural story telling
kek
what novels have you been reading mate? I have read my share of LN before and I just can't get into it, the writing is just atrocious. It's just plain non imaginative description of scenes IF that, especially the translated ones.

>>18725919
Well not to say they're good books either, just that the writing itself is straight forward.
That's why I mean its kinda hard to describe, like when people have to start books with shit like
>The flowing river foowooshed through the misty morning fog
it doesn't feel natural, it feels like someone trying to "write" a book and it rubs me wrong. and it feels like every other fantasy novel I pick up has endless heaps of that shit.

>>18725901
No, I don't feel like that at all. I have ascended; I equally appreciate both literary fiction and speculative fiction (don't read any YA, don't know what LN are—light novels?). The reason, though, that people like YA is because it is indulgent; they're specially written to sell and to appeal to that demographic

>>18725934
sounds like you just dont like good prose and cant appreciate style; have you read any Brandon Sanderson? If not, check him out

>>18725901
>>18725934
Nah, I love when books build an atmosphere like that so you can almost "feel" the scene.

>>18725901
No idea what books you're talking about can you give examples? I agree that needlessly ornate prose can get in the way of storytelling but the authors whose prose I like best I wouldn't call overwrought. Nabokov and Conrad both write excellent prose with vivid, inventive descriptions. Nabokov's elegant simplicity isn't hard to parse at all, while Conrad's longer, more dense sentences can be intimidating they are also rich with meaning and don't serve to obfuscate in any way the story he's telling.

>>18725886
Are you reading a book for a class? Because you have to for your job? If not, why bother reading something you're not enjoying? I went through a phase where I forced myself to finish any book I picked up. Majoring in English lit in college cured me of that compulsion. By the time I finished school I was burned out on reading and didn't pick up a novel for almost 2 years afterward. Now I only read for pleasure, so if I'm not enjoying myself I stop.

>>18725901
Adult writers have a compulsion to impress the reader and it often backfires.

>>18723327
>GRRM did draw the map of Westeros, or at least he claims that he did.
Not the one published in his books. That map was drawn by two different men for different editions of his books. We don't know what his original map looked like. My guess is nothing like the finished version, much like how his original draft of the book, even only a few months before publishing it, was very different from the version we got.

>>18723644
Read the Children of Hurin for the full story, it's pretty tragic.

>>18725951
Despite his reputation, he's one of the wordiest authors out there. Constant repetitions and ugly descirptions.
His books can be made 20-30% shorter (at the very least) if he was actually efficient. Maybe he improved since mistborn, but I'm not touching that shit anymore.

>>18725934
Why don't you read some Agatha Christie?

/sffg/, im seriously considering changing my main characters last name to Lipschitz. help talk me out of this

>>18727016
https://suits.fandom.com/wiki/Stan_Lipschitz

>>18727125
not sure how that's supposed to talk me out this, I have no idea who that is.all I know is I want to give my MC a name that fits his whole family and that he would hate enough to change

as it happens, he's a lippy little shit, his aunt is a piece of shit and his mother is fused with a citrus tree, which is apparently where the name comes from

>>18727150
That isn't how names work.

>>18717978
Seconding Clarke Ashton Smith - read hist short story The Abominations of Yondo if nothing else, intensly imaginative and well worth the few minutes.

>>18718861
Are the sequels to the Eisenhorn books really worth it? I loved the first one and short stories but book 3 felt weak/slapped together to the point the second half was a slog ending in a nonsense anime fight.

>>18727195
not sure what you're getting at. You mean because it's his mother's maiden name? Nobody knows who his father is, so what other last name would he have?

>>18725758
Great review. You got a lot more out of it than I did on my initial read (when I was 16 to be fair).

I think its interesting that you think overall opinions of Leto II were mixed, and the reasoning for it. I think both are valid, and both very much play into the themes of the book. The "negative" opinion is how the rest of the universe viewed him, IIRC he made himself out to be the worst dictator humanity has ever seen. It's hard to argue that the ends didn't justify the means when the person carrying the acts out was the only person in the universe with the foresight to know it was the only possible way.

I guess that means I lean on the "Leto was in the right". It's been long enough that I can't properly give both sides a fair shot.

I'm curious what you mean "thinking he's far more than what he is". To me, he seems all too aware of his place in the universe, the role he had to take, and the extent of his power. His whole goal as the God Emperor was to encourage the development of means to fight him.

I don't think the translation was very good, or at least the prose was pretty rough, and it was definitely rushed.
The movie is much better and I highly recommend it, especially the ending which is completely different and fits much better with the relationship D and Mayerling wind up having. Highly recommend it. Even without comparing it to the movie the book is just okay. I don't think I'll read any more, but I guess that's what I get for reading a light novel.

>>18725758

>I didn't mind that how this was accomplished was never explained in the slightest, though usually I would.

The interesting thing is that Leto, to be consistent, cannot explain how exactly it happens. If he could with his prescient vision see it, it would have been a deterministic process.

>>18720119

>>18727541
I thought about writing more, but I've been keeping the reviews within a single post's worth of characters.

> thinking he's far more than what he is
Not himself, I mean the readers, with a positive illusion what they've read, at least going by a lot of what I've read in this threads and elsewhere what they think about Leto.
As I note,
> These readers have fallen for the presented propaganda as much as most any character in the book.

The title of the book is both ironic and fitting, and what I meant is that those with the positive misunderstandings were oblivious to Leto's situation and only saw him as a God Emperor, and not as he was. There's a certain type of people who embraces ironic and mocking statements at face value and think that's exactly what they are. Hence, "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" is a statement of affirmative self-reliance and hard work, rather than the mocking statement it was originally meant to be.

>>18727814
That was indeed quite the feat and one of the reasons it may have taken so long is that it states at one point that he was doing a lot by random chance.

I have read and read and why is it that no book comes close to the "magical" felling that reading LOTR? I know it's one of a kind but nothing comes even close. I thought maybe some very classical "old" literature would do it but after reading Le Morte DArthur I'm just lost. I mean the book is good and all it's just not, not that excellent comparison.

>>18727830
What if I greatly enjoyed both of them?
A lot of what you've written for both is entirely inaccurate as well.

>>18727830
Stop making these cookie cutter memes. My captcha sums it up: JHKYS, i.e., Jesus hombre, kill yourself

>>18727830
It's like I can smell the stale period blood on your keyboard.

>>18717395
Not really in the mood to start a new novel, so does anybody have recommendations for anthology books? Genre doesn't really matter, but do already have HP Lovecraft, Poe, and Conan books.

>>18727975
Jack Vance, Dying Earth

Still reading Use of Weapons.

>>18727735
Yeah, I've read a fat stack of vampire books, and if I could unread any of them it would be the Vampire Hunter D LNs. They make it plain the whole franchise is a simple narcissistic power fantasy, and it only diminished the movies for me if anything. Like a total inversion of Hellsing.

Hello writefags, how are those stories coming along?

Are there any Mass Effect books, and if so, are they any good? That's by far the most compelling sci-fi universe I've encountered

>>18728123
There are, but they're legendary bad. Like White Chicks meets The Others in space starring Kai Leng.

>>18727927

It's easy to see how someone could only take the surface level of what Leto is in God-Emperor. Because Leto has made himself a single point of failure for a galactic scale government. The Fish Speakers, his soldiers and administrators have religious adoration of him as almost their sole motivation. He doesn't just control the spice monopoly, he is the spice monopoly. When he goes spice production is crippled until the sand-trout return Dune to its previous state and another generation of worms grow. It's easy to see how people could confuse the title for something serious. Arguably his prescience is vital to it working as well, despite him trying not to use it. It means forces like the Bene Gesserit state their purpose is to try and figure out what he wants them to do, then to do that. The only forces who move against him, beyond those he deliberately encourages and cultivates, are the ones who perceive themselves as having some hold over him, the Telaxiau and the Ixians.

Thinking about it, I wonder if Herbert had read Nizetche. Because Thus Spake Zarathustra with its: "Mankind is a rope fastened between animal and overman – a rope over an abyss. A dangerous crossing, a dangerous on-the-way, a dangerous looking back, a dangerous shuddering and standing still." seems to have more than a little in common with what Leto is doing, and why.

>>18728090
Any recs for good vampire books?

/sffg/, please give me something fun to read. I'm bored constantly. I'm drowning in boredom. I would kill a man to get the dopamine flowing again

>>18728255
Cocaine gives you more dopamine than about anything else that exists.

>>18728273
every path keeps leading back to cocaine. Why can't my brain handle this on its own like it used to?

>>18728432
Oh, you're the "writer" that has continually complained this for who knows how long.

>>18728445
it just won't go away. every moment is agony

>>18728458
Yet you trudge on.

>>18728482
I can't kill myself without hurting my mom

>>18728229
Sadly the best ones are some of the most well known. Carmilla and Dracula (always read back to back), Ann Rice' first 3 books, maybe the first 8 Anita Blake books if you've had a woman in your life with borderline personality.

A lot of decent ones are better on screen like Hellsing and Vampire$.

>The living shall not haunt the dead
>There is a head on a pole behind you
What did Bakker mean by this

>>18728536
Try.

>>18727975
Schuyler Hernstrom's collections.

>>18724116
The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson

Who was in the wrong here?

>REEEEEEE I was tricked into falling in love with and fucking another man!
>I am NOT GAY!!!!!
>GRRRR I hate him so much I would suck off other dudes and let them cum on my face if I could have my revenge....!!!!!
Why is Cnaiur such a faggot?

>>18729546
He was predisposed toward madness to begin with, and the existence of dunyain who can overturn everything a human believes they are made him break

>>18729546
As that queer ir*sh once said, sex is about power. His entire quest to kill Moe is based on the need to reassert his own power, his autonomy.

>>18729565
He just needs a man to bend him over and put him in his place IMO.

>>18729569
Nah, look how he used the tekne dickgirls. The king of tribes is a top, and his entire life is him trying to express his autonomy and free will in the face of the reality of his deflowering by the dunyain and his rudimentary understanding of the darkness that comes before.
He just wants to be real.

>>18729593
(I also just want to be real.)

>Week 4 of Christian/Miles Camerons new books not being on mobilism.
The fuck bros...

>>18729599
Maybe you need a man to bend you over too

>>18728106
I finished pic-related earlier this month, and am just now starting on an outline for another short story/novella. The goal is to write enough short stories that I can bundle them together and try and get a publisher to accept them as a sort of anthology.

>>18717879
>mfw breathable space and flying trees
I liked the first book, though. Seems like Baxter went for a complete reset by the end. Should I keep reading?

Hey I'm writing a fantasy novel. I'd like some criticism, mostly on tone and style. There's not much narrative content, this only being an excerpt of a larger draft. I just wanna know if I'm being tonally consistent and if my word choice is pretentious. Any criticism is cool. Thanks guys.

https://pastebin.com/1ntX9bRz

>>18719502
>Schuyler Hernstrom
thanks for the heads up. anything specific?

>>18729636
>A dreamer’s nameless soul drifted and had been drifting for as long as memory served.
stopped reading there. Nothing can be salvaged. Just give up.

>>18729641
I was thinking of opening the whole thing on that line. What's repellent about it, to you?

>>18728229
Beyond the usual ones you know about or absolutely dredge that are YA takes? I'd probably check out The Golden. It's a whodunit story with vampires set in a spooky castle, but I liked it.

>>18729639
You'll be hard pressed to actually find anything other than Thune's Vision.

>>18728123
Unfortunately, Fanfic is your best bet.
I really enjoyed A Matter of Rae and Character, and its follow up A Matter of Time and Space, though it's been like 5 years since I've read it

>>18727830
>straight up invented being nonbinary
well, into my blacklist it goes

>>18729636
>>18729651
>and if my word choice is pretentious
It's very hard to get past the first paragraph. It's very overwritten. I like that you are sticking to one analogy but it doesn't feel very timeless ocean-y. The end of the first sentence bring you back to human time scales rather than evoking eternity . Pretty sure vortexes pull downwards in the ocean which also evoke depth better. I don't know what "Deaths slow topography" means.

>>18724116
Get into Norwegian folklore. It's all about trolls.

Are you still here?

>>18717395
One thing about Black Company books
Soulcatcher, Stormbringer and one more Taken (probably Night Crawler) were females and wanted to bring back their husbando Dominator and dethrone l*dy.
>tfw you will never be a sorcerer king with powerful sorceresses - waifus

>>18729963
To be fair it's established there was no love between Dominator and Lady as it was an entirely a political marriage between two crazy powerful wizards. Makes sense he'd have side pussy. Fact literally no one else wanted to bring the guy back because he was just that bad proves they were driven dick crazy.

>>18719037
topkek
good job anon

>>18720261
ASOIAF
Prince of Nothing
Book of the New Sun

Just finished reading this, I find it lacking when compared to it's predecessor. Firstly the novelty factor is much lower, which is understandable, it's the second book and as the series progresses the sense of familiarity will grow. Secondly the scale things took a nosedive, from trying to bring an empire to it's knees by kidnapping the daughter of it's ruler and stealing an artefact of great political importance, we went to being involved in a civil war in a minor city after the protagonist just wanted to buy a bloody bird to get on with his journey, a journey that actually takes place in the 3rd book!!!! The premise is that he has to reach a place, but is caught up in trouble after a mishap in a foreign city (don't accept money from strangers Tarl Tard!) and the whole book is detour he has to take to fix his own mess after causing a civil war (again).

>>18730468
I feel like you're missing the point of the books if this is the part you're fixated on.

>>18729632
Yeeeeeeeees

>>18718085
Hilariously thick prose.

Any fantasy version of Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar? I'm interested specifically in the empire forging and the great conquerors. Wheel of Time would fit partly, but it's so full of filler and trash that I really don't like it. The insanity and the conquering just wasn't enough.

>>18730581

Fire and Blood Aegon's Conquest kind of goes into this a bit. Early wars and him getting people to bend the knee to his kingdom is actually a fascinating read.

>>18720261
>The Darkness That Comes Before
>The Warrior-Prophet
>The Thousandfold Thought

>>18730581
The Prince of Nothing trilogy

>>18729636
Are you this guy
>>18729894

>>18730594
I guess I should give it another go. I dropped it at the second book years ago, don't remember the reason. Not the biggest fan of pure grimderp for it's own sake.

>>18730605
Second book is probably the best in the trilogy. It’s not grim dark for the sake of grim dark but it fits best the overall theme of the series.

>>18729593
That was just his copium. He definitely bottoms for moe

This has been the most anti-climatic end to a series I've yet to read. Books 1-3 were excellent, 4-6 were pretty great too, but the rest ended up being a slog and the final book was a huge disappointment. None of the build up mattered and then it just ended.

Man I'm annoyed. No idea what to read next but I think I'll avoid any massive series for awhile, especially since I was think of doing Wheel of time next

>>18729636
I liked it. The text is very purple but it doesn’t bother me. I like a world with an afterlife.

>>18729636
>The motion was blind and mute
What

>>18729636
Just don’t make your world autistic and explicit like Sanderson.

>>18730468
I remember reading some Gor books. Fappable at points, but usually not enough. Autistic ideology Norman spouts gets in a way of that too. Ironically, the hottest scene for me was where one noblewoman enslaves another one over rivalry and debts.
That said, one idea I like in the books is that it gives a nice functional explanation as to why technology does not advance in the Gor after a certain point. I would steal that idea.
>>18729983
I suppose so, but I would like to have powerful sorceress be dick crazy for me...

>>18717996
>And Baxter is up there.
Nah. Ideas don't mean shit if you can't apply them properly. And Baxter sucks at that.

Finished BoTNS. Really enjoyed the climax on the beach with the finding of the New Claw . Overall Sword of the Lictor was my favorite with the revelations concerning the Hierodules and Baldanders .
Moving onto Urth next hopefully Severin makes it.

>>18730581
The Alexandrian Ring by William R. Forstchen. If remember correctly, the premise is that advanced humans (or beings) travel back in time, take dying Alexander (and his bodyguard), heal him up, then send him to some planet to form his own kingdom and fight some alien people who get their own (not really their own, they are artificially created, I think, don't remember well enough, but they look like him) legendary general to fight on their side.

It's one of those books that also inspired and gave me ideas, alongside Gor and Black Company.

>>18718622
Abercrombie get so lost in
>must subvert tropes, everyone is a shit person
that he forgets to actually write a good story. It's a shame, the series was looking good at first.

>>18730717
He doesn't, his applications are serviceable and his writing is also ok. It's nothing mind blowing but it's a decent vessel for the exploration of interesting concepts.
Honestly there are very few authors who come to mind that deliver as often and as consistently as him.

>>18720615
Read On Fairy-Stories by Tolkien.

>>18729894
Hello, yes.
I’m still writing, albeit slowly.

>>18729894
That’s my post

>>18730600
>>18729636
Not me but ‘preciate the effort

>>18729503
Thingol was kind of a dickhead desu, the jewel-madness and Elven pigheaded pride seems to have gotten to him.

Imagine if he had been less of a stubborn fuckhead, and had sent his armies to aid the Union of Maedhros. That would have easily turned the tide at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad and prevented Morgoth’s crushing victory.

Desu serves him right to have his shit kicked in by a bunch of smelly, short, fat Naugr*m over a shiny necklace.

>>18730736
>>18730787

Give small teaser sample.

>>18730826
I will soon, anon. I have actually posted excerpts before; search ‘cithara’ in the archives.

My problem as a writer is that I write very slowly and meticulously, editing as I go. It’s quite antithetical to the goal of churning out a massive epic, but here we are.

>>18730881
You write well. Either you have some kind of instrument fetish or your fantasy world has magic that works through music in which case you would say RAFO.
Please don’t make the magic system autistic fantasy physics like Sanderson.

>>18730929
EDIT: In an another wg thread you say music has magical powers so I understood right your way of writing ;)

>>18730929
Thank you Anon, that’s good encouragement to keep at it.

Yes, music has a magical power in my world (as in Tolkien’s); and I’m not technically-minded enough to come up with an autistic magical system. I prefer my magic to be mysterious and subtle (like Tolkien’s). There’s also decaying sci-fi tech à la Bakker and Wolfe.

I know my ramblings will never make it to the bestseller list or will probably ever be picked up by a reputable publisher; but if I can get a few anons on /lit/ to read it, without resorting to Gardner style spam tactics, I’ll be satisfied.

>>18730968
Keep at it. If you want more magical music inspiration you could look up Väinämöinen from Finnish national epic Kalevala.

>>18730968
>>18730881
Why is /wg/ full of hololive anime trannies? Do they even write (or read) real books?

I wanted a casual braindead novel to read on vacation. I really liked Dietz's Galactic Bounty so I decided to try Legion of the Damned

It gets points over many other trashy sci-fis because Dietz never forgets to include actual action scenes (so many writers labor to set up potentially awesome scenes, but then fade to black when stuff starts happening). But there's a few problems.

Viewpoint characters change every chapter. Attention diverts from the ruthless genocidal alien invasion to skirmishes with some tribal cat people for some reason.

The military seems to be mostly female. The human empire's head admiral and head general are both female. The colonel who's in charge of the military on the planet being invaded by aliens is female (she also strangles a 6'4" 350 pound alien to death at one point). Why do military sci-fi books do this? It takes me right out.

The author keeps describing characters shidding and fardding, and also being strapped to metal tables naked for torture (four different times so far).

Not Recommended.

>>18731038
I don't get why this one is so popular either.

Again, there's supposed to be a genocidal alien invasion... but the author spends the first three chapters talking about the main character's civilian programming job and the office politics there, and then a military conference where all anybody says is that everything is secret and they can't discuss it, and then a chapter for a flashback where the main character... changes a flat tire.

Why is so much military sci-fi so damn boring? For comparison, I've read a lot of real life military memoirs lately. and the authors of those are usually self-aware. They hardly spend any time talking about their personal lives, and focus only on the action and other interesting anecdotes.

>>18731038
>>18731116

>>18730989
Thanks Anon. You've encouraged me to get back to work. I'm definitely reading the Kalevala as well as the Sagas. I've also been reading a lot of non-sff literary fiction lately, so I hope I can bring in some of the sparkling dialogue and character writing I've found in authors like Fitzgerald, Balzac, and Brontë. I love to write and it's a labor of love. I just get distracted easily while waiting for the muse to strike me. When she does, I stay up for days and write many pages in an extremely focused, trance-like state. Blogpost over, thanks for reading.

Can /sffg/ do me a huge favor with my worldbuilding? Can you recommend names for a race of supernatural, immortal, magical fallen nonhuman beings in my setting. I was calling them angels earlier, but it seems to make people think there's an overt Catholic association I don't intend. They are not elves, nor are they gods, but they have aspects of both. Calling them an in-universe name (such as Tolkien's maiar) could work, but it seems a little autistic for my taste; overuse of invented words is a flaw in fantasy writing.


>>18731028
I've given up on /wg/ for useful feedback.

>>18731028
>Do they even write (or read) real books?
Believe it or not, they’re the only writers on that General.

>>18730663
>especially since I was think of doing Wheel of time next
If you thought Malazan was a disappointment you probably wouldn't get through half of WoT before you gave up.

>>18730581
The Shadow Campaigns series, starts with The Thousand Names, by Django Wexler. It's Napoleonic fantasy basically. Set in a fantasy world, and there's magic and demons and stuff, but there's a very obvious parallel with Napoleonic Europe. It starts in not-Egypt where not-Napoleon first splashes onto the scene as a genius commander, and subsequent books take place back in not-France and surrounding countries as not-Napoleon gradually gets more and more power as his kingdom undergoes revolution and he winds up as Consul, then Emperor, fighting a giant coalition of nations. Not-Napoleon isn't the main character though, he's actually a side character.

>>18731028
They don't seem to do much by have meta discussions about how bad their threads are, so not altogether different than than /sffg/ on a bad day.

>>18730136
He didn't make that image, it's been around for years and is not even the funniest version of it.

>>18719037
>>18730136
>>18731265

>>18727830
they idea is ok but the execution is horrible, less than 10% of the sentences are somewhat funny and the rest is just obnoxious preaching

>>18731156
Is this a recommendation?

The top review on goodreads calls it "xenophobic, racist, sexist, classist and jingoistic" "the story is populated by bigots, including the lead character" "the sci fi equivalent of a 1950s war film, the pacing and action relentless"

Mite b cool

>>18731190
Its me, >>18730962

You could try doing some descriptive name for them like
>The Fallen
>Forsaken
Or reuse some word that meant something else before and now it means this new race like
>Phantoms
>Seekers
Or make up a new name for them that suits them well. You might want to look for some certain cultural inspiration for this like make them sound like from tales from India, Russia whatever.
>Rhy’dians
>Vhevids
>The Ölv

>>18731038
i think many writers lately try hard to appeal to both men and women, and that's why they use a lot of female characters. i really don't like it, things like what you mention break the immersion, and when the pov changes to a woman it's often boring or straight up annoying scenes that i have to suffer through in order to get to the next chapter. i wonder if people who only read these things are used to it and don't even notice anything

>>18731293
If that's the biggest complaint because many Alien species are characters of real races and ethnicities then you know it's good. The entire series and side series is a love letter from military and special ops dudes.

>that amazing city of alchemists and poets, mechanics and astronomers, philosophers and physicians, the heart of the only civilization in Middle-earth to bet on rational knowledge and bravely pitch its barely adolescent technology against ancient magic. The shining tower of the Barad-dûr citadel rose over the plains of Mordor almost as high as Orodruin like a monument to Man – free Man who had politely but firmly declined the guardianship of the Dwellers on High and started living by his own reason. It was a challenge to the bone-headed aggressive West, which was still picking lice in its log ‘castles’ to the monotonous chanting of scalds extolling the wonders of never-existing Númenor.

>>18731408
I think it's simpler than that. Women are cool, fighting is cool, so why not create women who fight? Its not a modern thing. There are female warriors even in ancient mythology, and also in medieval epic poems there are female knights. Frankly I'm a hypocrite, because in many circumstances I don't mind it. Girls with swords and guns look cool. It seems to bother me only when fighting is a woman's career- she's a professional soldier, or the head of security, or a rough-and-tumble cop. If she's good at fighting because of divine or magical powers, or she's a cyborg or something, that's excusable. Same if she was forced into fighting by dire circumstances. But a woman picking war as her job is inherently masculine, it makes her masculine, and its extremely unnattractive. It doesn't help that these sorts of characters often try to act tough by cursing, drinking, and roughhousing.

>>18731463
>t.

How's the No-God draft coming along, Scott?

>>18731620
Who knows what the man is doing. I tried frantically googling for any scraps of information about what he is doing and where. Nothing. He was adamantly telling in 2017 how No-God will be the next series.

Why is it so hard to find good sword and sorcery these days? Why does everything have to be on some grand scale

>>18731845
Everything is a series now or it’s woke, many times both. You are better served reading older classics like Conan or Tarnsman of Gor

>>18731881
Yeah I know, I've read all those. Been doing a deep dive into really obscure stories from pulp magazines when I can. Just wish there was a market for those kind of books so we could get some fresh stories

>>18731923
ok /sff/ags, I finally gave in and ordered my copy of Shadow of the Torturer. If this isn't the best genre fiction I've read, no more genre for me

>>18731943
I don't care

>>18731943
But anon that is not TDTCB

>>18731956
wasn't supposed to be a reply obv

>>18731845
Because epic fantasy got popular and sells way more than pulpy adventure books ever did. Pulp is what happens when publishers just need to churn out books to keep the lights on. Epic fantasy is about building huge fanbases and multimedia franchises.

>>18731923

Try old fantasy magazines on archive.org

>>18731482
I think you replied to the wrong guy my friend.

>>18731845
A lot of those stories come from an era where serialized fiction was more common. You'd read them in magazines, a chapter an issue. That format is going the way of the dinosaur so stories written for it are dying out too. I think light novels from Japan are the only format that still sort of writes this way but the audience for them is very different from sword & sorcery.

>>18731845
What's so great about S&S? It's all just
>Balgar the Brave slew a hundred of the evil sorcerer Vegagagagax's legions at the Bridge of Death in the Valley of Mortum in the Land of Undending Suffering to save the prophetess of the goddess Shmeel to fulfill the ancient prophecy that would spell the end of the vile sorcerers 1000 year reign and become king of the 11 and a half princedoms of High Alcaraan
>but this is a tale for another time

What fantasy tropes would you like to see take a leave of absence?

>>18732010
I have never read a S&S story that was anything like that.

>>18731845
Because authors today arguably get into it with some idea for a trilogy of books or more. Back in the day with serialized magazine releases it required a different approach.

>>18732010
You've played way too much Dwarf Fortress, anon.

>>18731845

Lord of the Rings movies started it. Suddenly all the series novels received attention and spawned copy cats. Then ASoIaF got turned into a TV series and THAT continued the trend.

>>18732046
Neither has he

>>18732062
I don't think its just a fad. I think most people itt are casual readers and have other hobbies like video games, movies and graphic novels/manga. The hardcore readers, who do nothing but read genre fiction, love big series. It cuts down on the friction of having to find new writers they like. They're the people who will throw down money on thick hardbacks, new, so they drive the market.

>>18730726
Enjoy Urth! It's probably my favorite inside Book of the New Sun, which I consider Urth to be a part of. Though ranking the little books among each other can be hard. If I had to go with only the four, I'd choose Claw. Urth is great, since it's the culmination of Severian's story. A lot gets revealed and it's overall a very enjoyable journey.

>>18732128

I'm not saying its bad, I'm saying the genre received the mainstream treatment like everything else. Once something hits the mainstream, like the fantasy genre, you get obsession and copy cats

>kindle recommended me absolution gap after chasm city and revelation space
>not redemption ark
For fucks sake.

>>18717538
laird barron

>>18717665
night lords

>>18730581
I'm sure Fate/ has some light novels.

>>18732010
where can I read that

>>18732046
What is S&S actually like?

>>18729636
Here's the thing anon; a majority of the readers here are not interested in technique, merit, or any deeper kind of analysis of speculative fiction (for fuck's sake, look at >>18725901 and >>18720615; clearly we are dealing with the lowest common denominator here); there was one anon awhile back that tried to start a discussion about literary techniques in SFF and how he (and by extension other writefags here) could add deeper meaning, deeper themes, characters, plot, etc to their stories; he mostly got crickets and finally somebody told him he was being pretentious and that nobody cared about those things. I'm not sure if he left or just stop posting but I haven't seen any of his posts since. The point is, readers here (and most SFF readers in general) aren't looking for literary excellence (although they should; I firmly believe that as readers we should demand quality from our books and our stories, and as writers we should strive to write quality stories); they judge books purely by how much dopamine and serotonin they provide; how entertained they were, how much they liked the characters, etc. etc. I have searched and am sad to report that there is nowhere on the internet for people who want to discuss these things (the Bakkerposting was done mostly for the memes, and by two or three dedicated autists; look at the number of people who tried to read Bakker and got horribly, horribly filtered). I like what you're trying to go for; give me an hour or two to type up a critique and some pointers

>>18732420
If you want literary excellence then there's no shortage of regular fiction to read. If you're reading fantasy it's presumably because you're more interested in the fantastical elements of the story than anything else. If fantasy doesn't interest you that much why bother with it? Just read literary fiction.

>>18732420
If you actually cared that much about literary merit you wouldn't be slumming it in genre fiction. It's like going to a dive bar to act like a wine snob. It's all well and good to sit there pompously spewing rhetoric like "we should all strive for higher standards" when the standard you set for yourself is genre fiction instead of intellectually stimulating literature. You're not really any better than the people here, you just pretend you are.

>>18732396
In my upcoming adventure serial, the Chronicles of Balgar the Brave.

>>18732062
The trend started well before the LotR movies, big door stopper multi volume series were a mainstay in Fantasy by the late 80s.

>>18732434
The presence of genre elements shouldn't be an excuse for poor literary quality. A good genre writer should somehow add to or transform the preexisting genre. Tolkien did this, so did Wolfe, Le Guin and Bakker. So did Martin, in his way, although his writing borders on pastiche. Abercrombie doesn't add to the genre, he merely reiterates it. Same with Jordan.

>>18732420
Good post. I too lament the hopeless state of the current readership. Unfortunately, unless zoomers and alphas somehow start reading again en masse, the artform is doomed to a future of Sandersons and Maases.

>>18732483
>The presence of genre elements shouldn't be an excuse for poor literary quality.
Well it is. That's a fact. Part of what it means to write in a genre is to conform to the cliches and tropes of that genre. It's why genre fiction is rarely ever considered to have literary worth. When you are setting out to write a story steeped in cliches you're essentially forgoing any real literary merit. The fact you don't understand this makes me think you are probably a pseud and do not actually have any real understanding of literary fiction or why people value it.

>>18732434
>>18732455
>"we need higher quality books"
>"if you want quality go look somewhere else"

>>18732499
Being more literary doesn't make a book higher quality, it just makes it more ripe for literary analysis and discussion. If you think genre writing is "bad quality" then why are you reading it? If you think literary fiction is superior why aren't you reading it? I think we both know the answer to these questions.

>>18732483
>>18732455

Bros... I just realize that the 15 or so smelly autists who dwell in the polluted corridors of /sffg/ are quite possibly the last bastion of hope on the entirety of the internet for innovation and quality in literary fantasy...

>>18732499
>""""""higher quality""""""""
>my personal definition on it that has nothing to do with enjoyment derive from said literary work.
>On a general talking about reading for pleasure
Are you retarded or just pretending to be?

>>18732499
>hates fantasy and sci-fi books
>still reads them cause he finds actual literature too boring
>acts like a pseud in /sffg/ because he reads the few critically acclaimed books
many such cases

>>18732483
Wolfe and Bakker had basically no influence on fantasy at all, you cannot find a single famous author crediting them as an inspiration. Wolfe is known only to die hard fans of SF&F, and Bakker is downright obscure. Le Guin's legacy is strongly felt in speculative fiction and short fantasy, and Tolkien's legacy is self evident.

>>18732420
>Here's the thing anon; a majority of the readers here are not interested in technique, merit, or any deeper kind of analysis of speculative fiction
Neither are you.

>>18732560
>“Gene Wolfe remains a hero to me.… He's the finest living male American writer of SF and fantasy—possibly the finest living American writer.”
—Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods

>“Gene Wolfe is the greatest writer in the English language alive today. I mean it. . . . Among living writers, there is nobody who can even approach Gene Wolfe for brilliance of prose, clarity of thought, and depth in meaning.”
—Michael Swanwick, author of Dragons of Babel

>“Gene Wolfe is the finest and most subtle short story writer active in the field today.”
—David Drake, author of the Lord of the Isles series

“Gene Wolfe is a national treasure.”
—Damon Knight, author of “To Serve Man”

>“Wolfe is our Melville.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin, author of A Wizard of Earthsea

>>18732599
Nice blurb quotes, but not a single person credited him as an influence on their work. Know the first place I ever saw Gene Wolfe referenced as inspiration to a published work? On a 2nd edition D&D manual.

>>18732568
>>18732531
>>18732527
>>18732499
>>18732455

Stop trying to call us pseuds to excuse your own impoverished readership. I read all sorts of things, thank you, because I enjoy them and/or find them interesting. I read lots of literary fiction, philosophy, history, art books, how about you anon? I enjoy sff because I have an active imagination, but it's only a fraction of my library.

The high/low distinction you're so keen to apply here reeks of a feeling of intellectual inferiority. I read all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons.

>>18732637
pseud.

>>18732637
>I read lots of literary fiction, philosophy, history, art books, how about you anon?
I'm not a pseud. pls leave and stop shitting up the thread

>>18732637
>Goes into a general made to talk about a genre of books made be read solely or mostly for pleasure
>derides reading for pleasure
>gets mad when others calls them pseud.

If you want to wank yourself over your "intellectual reading" you have the rest of lit to go to.

Huh? What? I don't, like, get it? What's the point of the fantasy world if I, like, don't feel like I want to live in it?

>>18732725
God, what a stupid question.

>>18732521
Did Melkor have a free will, or was Eru an asshole?

>>18732637
I hate you so much. Your kind destroy/wg/.

>>18729846
>>18730681
>>18730694
>>18730701
>>18732420
thanks for the replies, guys. I will post more under the name "The Pluvian" at some later point with some revisions and some excerpts of later sections of the draft. I like the harsh criticism that /sffg/ gives purple prose wannabes like myself and >>18732521
sort of echoes my own feelings. I'll be seeing you guys later.

>>18732420
>people who tried to read Bakker and got horribly, horribly filtered
Bakker has a background in philosophy, and I assume he leans heavily on that, right? If that's the case, you can't blame most anons for not understanding him.

>>18732777
>Bakker has a background in philosophy
No, he doesn't. He failed.

>>18732777
Nobody got filtered by his stories. They aren’t as great as you fucks shill him as.

>>18732784
I know he didn't get PhD, but I mean, he still was in that field, and I assume he uses philosophical concepts and commentary.
>>18732786
I have not read his books, so I can't claim anything.

>>18718264
>>become deadly scared of dying and even the slightest possibility of an eternity of SOMETHING after
I got worse, I live with fear that there will be nothing.

>>18732792
>he uses philosophical concepts and commentary.
They're Reddit-tier.

>>18723251
Did Calvin believe in hard determinism?

>>18732802
You cans search it up, you know.

>>18732792
its his philosophical slant that dejects me so readily from his work. It's just such an insubstantial angle that he's pushing 98% of the time, with it. His narrative work, literally just his characters and their motivations, is what compels me when I read him.

What's your favorite Wolfe, Wolfebros? Mine is The Death of Doctor Island, no doubt. Haven't started BotNS yet though.

>>18732827
Who?

>>18732831
Who?

>>18732831
Who?

>>18732831
Never read a story from him and I do t intend to.

>>18732831
Read someone better.

New thread
>>18732849

>>18732843
I think that you're missing out, his stories are beautiful.
>>18732847
Such as?

>>18732854
Doubt it.

>>18729503
The Dwarves for being greedy cunts.

>>18730807
Thingol had plenty of reasons to hate the Sons of Fëanor, desu. One of which was, before the Nirnaeth, when they threatened to kill him after the battle, if he didn't return the Silmaril by then. He was an arrogant prick, but he in general had the right to be.

>>18731293
Yes it’s a recommendation. If you want military sci fi without the bullshit you’ll probably enjoy this series.

>>18732760
>>18732670
>>18732679

Well, I won’t leave, as mad as my opinions seem to make you. You are stuck with me, here, forever. And I with you.

>>18732010
You have LITERALLY never read ANY Sword & Sorcery.

>>18732831
I've only read the full BotNS and Fifth Head of Cerberus but I really loved both. I own both the Long and Short Sun books and need to read them