/lit/ - Literature

Fantasy needs more of pic related.

>>18767329

I'm finally taking the plunge, see in a couple of years I guess

>>18767333
>Jordan has come to dominate the world Tolkien began to reveal.
More like piss all over it.

Reading Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. I picked up in an interest in them after delving into H. P. Lovecraft, since he and Howard were penpals. Also their works exist in the same Cthulhu Mythos.
So far I find the stories ranging from good to great, with Rogues in the House and Iron Shadows in the Moon being my favorites. Pulpy stuff, but REH has a way with prose, but he has a knack for efficient worldbuilding.

I just finished this and loved it, first book of his I've read. Which of PKD's books are most like this? Or books by other authors that scratch the same itch?
And how different is his later stuff from this?

>>18767332

>>18767242
>Sea Monster Edition
From the Depths is a good anthology, the first story is my favorite (The Ship of Silence). A shame its author (Albert R. Wetjen) is super obscure.

>>18767367
I kinda wish his Pictish stories caught on, but if you actually look into Howard he had a very weird approach to writing. Conan simply happened to be his last protagonist and given a year or two he would've abandoned him too. After all, who remembers Steve Costigan or El Borak?

>>18767539
>if you actually look into Howard he had a very weird approach to writing
It's only weird by today's standards, It was quite normal back then for hack writers to switch genres regularly.

>black and/or female writer
>praised by women and/or blacks
I do not read that book.

>>18767604

>>18767604
Same.

>>18767333
I really cannot stand modern American fantasy writers. They are experts in making the fantastical into the banal.
>>18767615

>>18767667
xenophobes*
Mutts should learn the difference between xenophobia and racism.

>>18767686
You're incorrect. The issue is that they aren't white, not what country they come from. If they were white no one would care.

>>18767694
Ma'am.

why are we being raided by amerimutts

>>18767667
What I actually don't like is cynical reject of magical as something wondrous. Everyone wants that shit codified and treated as if it was hard science. One anon jokingly said that's because autists out there have a fetish for compiling wikis and he may be onto something. While at the same time everyone is also obsesses with character drama and how they're feeling at any point in time.

>>18767761
They want to treat magic like DnD, because that's what they think of when they think of fantasy.

>>18767761
> Everyone wants that shit codified and treated as if it was hard science.
Blame Sanderson for that. He teaches that the magic system should be rigorous.

>>18767778
but vancian system was quite shamelessly stolen from dying earth

bakkerchad here, i had a manic episode and tried to fly to hong kong and then take a boat to china and see genghis khans tomb, i was turned away and while looking for a hotel was attacked by a drug dealer who hadn't slept in 6 days because he thought i owed him money, i kicked his ass but he threatened to come back with a gun so i had to run like 8km home and dump all the books i had been planning to bring with me because they were slowing me down including all of my bakkarinos....

china mieville is the definition of a 4/5 author

>>18767914
Mieville has consistently wrote 2/5 works for nearly a decade, his career is basically over at this point.

>women

>>18767914
nah. he's a 3/5 author who scores extra for his vocabulary.

>>18767968
palimpest

>>18767435
> this image
Someone once commented on how the spearhead stuck to her thigh couldn't possibly stay up like that and now I can't unsee it.

>>18767978
palimpsest

>>18767966
>...ruin everything

Has the fantasy genre stagnated completely at this point?

>>18768104
Yes, even some edgy boy like bakker who at least brings on some originality to the table doesn't get published anymore.

>>18768104
If you refuse to read anything except books written by white men, then yeah it might have.

>>18768118
I will never read women or black authors and there's nothing you can do about it.

>>18768104
Kinda, what's commercially viable is becoming ever more strict.

>>18768126
I never said you had to. Just don't cry about nothing being new if you refuse to try anything new

>>18768126
what's left for you? Sanderson and litrpg?

>>18768136
New is meaningless. It has to be good as well.

>>18768142
Pretty hard to know if something new is good if you refuse to even give it a fair shot

>>18768154
I've read my fair share of women authors, I've consistently found them overhyped and hopelessly mediocre, I'm convinced the people who recommend them aren't actually reading them.

>>18768165
>I've read my fair share of women authors
such as?

>>18768154
This female reddit user has an impressive amount of karma.

>>18768174
Recently? Addison, Jemisin, Clarke, Wells and Schwab.

I've got Jones' Howl's Moving Castle and Bradley The Mists of Avalon next, also what's your opinion of Ada Palmer?

What I am in for my bros?

>>18768245
Looks like a series of books written by someone named Raymond E. Feist. Could be wrong. Just go in blind.

>>18768139
The whole library of works in the western world written in last 100+ years.

>>18768245
covers are wack not a good sign

>>18768197
If you've read Clarke, I'm assuming you mean you read Piranesi. What were your thoughts on it?

>>18767424
I'm not a PKDhead but you can read The Stars My Destination to scratch the same itch without covering the same ground.

>>18768373
pkdickhead

>>18768245
Feel-good fantasy with some good ideas. The first is a bit slow and has something of an ensemble cast whereas the latter two are fast-paced adventures that focus on the most chad cast members.
Decent light entertainment.

>>18768395
Alright, are the next 3 sequel sagas that are only worth reading (Krondor, Empire and Serpentwar, never heard good things about the rest) a step up? Currently 3 chapter in of Magician and I am enjoying it for what it is, kinda gives me Earthsea nostalgia.

David Gemmell Is an excelent author. Why doesn't this thread ever talk about him?

read the first two thomas covenant books and found them so fucking bad, the prose was average with some thesaurus use, all the characters didnt feel real except covenant and it felt really dated with how all the wars and action scenes worked

i was expecting covenant to be some kind of epic joker incel character but he didnt live up to that

>>18767667
how is it possible to look this jewish

Will I like this if I liked the Conan and Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser stories?

>>18768118
how so? white men don't write good now?

>>18768513
He’s underrated for sure. I highly recommend Legend to any anons here who are looking for non gay fantasy action stories.

>>18768513
He gets brought up occasionally. Main thing I see posted about him, except to recommend him, is that his endings are rushed.

>>18767333
Wheel of Time is feminist garbage. Soýbert Jordan was the Brandon Sandersoý of his time, hence why the latter got hired to finish that dreck.

>>18768726
I thought Elric was written to be a faggy subversion of S+S stories, but I can't see how it could be worse than anything written recently.

I read about 150 pages of The Way of Kings and I had to stop. Not for any dumb political reason - I'm not afraid of ideas lmaooo - but because it was so fucking boring. I couldn't keep my eyes open. Nothing ever happens, its just pages upon pages of useless world building and remembering dumb shit that happened. Every other chapter introduces a new character. I hate that trend, by the way. Large casts are just there to cover for the fact that the writer doesn't know how to give his characters depth. They just shove a trope onto each one and call it good. Man that bad.

>>18769140
The reason why you bought and read his book is the reason why he is the most popular fantasy author.

>>18769140
Normies enjoy garbage like that
Hard to understand

Speaking of normies, what xianxia are you guys reading now

>>18769298
i can't understand why so many xianxia novels end up being BL novels. you look at a xianxia novel, think its synopsis is interesting, then sudden BL in the middle of the novel.

>>18769322
Always check for yaoi or shounen or whatever among the tags

>>18769343
when the fuck did shounen become another word for yaoi?

>>18769396
Shounen ai means gay I believe

>>18769425

Yeah, Yaoi is basically softcore porn or actual porn. Shonen Ai means "story that centers on a gay male relationship" generally.

>>18769298
Anyways, enough with the gay, any recommendations?

>>18769470
No wonder the weebnovel fag loves it so much.

>>18769482
I’m currently liking My Senior Brother is too Steady and Let Me Game in Peace

>>18769116
Long winded way of saying you haven't read it.

>>18769116
>Wheel of Time is feminist garbage
Clearly you never read it.

>>18769235
And what reason is that?

>>18769502
>>18769736
>only women can be mages
>every single female character is headstrong and dominant and bullies the men without effort
>every male character is a doormat
>endless snickering about 'fool men'
>all the most important states are matriarchies
>even the ogier are matriarchal
The list goes on.

Almost finished with The Prince of Nothing trilogy. It was definitely enjoyable in parts, but on the whole I think it confirmed for me that I don't like fantasy writing. Going to stick with sci-fi from now on.

>>18769919
I'll add that I'd easily recommend it to anyone who does like fantasy, though. It's good but something about the genre just does not click with me no matter what.

>>18769919
Does it get better?
I enjoyed the last chapters of the first book but getting through everything before that was a slog

>>18769955
Warrior prophet is the best book in the series imo.

>>18769955
Yes it does. All of the build up pays off as the holy war gets rolling at the beginning of book 2. The battles and sieges are great. Not finished with book 3 yet so I won't make a judgment about it, but book 2 is definitely worth continuing through at least.

>>18769298
Reverend Insanity.

patrick gnomefuss

>>18769803
lol imagine being this insecure that any book where women have power, even if it's shown in a negative light, makes you have a spastic fit of rage

>>18769919
Of all things why would you pick that series as your only foray into fantasy?

>>18770331
Their wording makes it seem like this isn't their first

Dear /lit/ you have helped me on 2 occasions discover 2 books from my childhood which I have read and more and I remember fondly. And rather than talking to my father who left when I was young. I'd rather ask you guys to see if you can remember.

Only 1 request at a time. I only remember one scene. The book could have possibly be in russian or online desu I am not sure.

Here it goes :

The story itself is an isekai. And I only remember 1 scene from it in a distinct way. Essentially a girl gets spirited away. I don't remember the circumstance. She gets taken to some place and is told of her secret laten power. Then the dude who tells her that. Throws a dagger at her head. Which she stops and shatters.

Frankly this is a hard one. Absolutely this is a terrible amount of information. But if you could help me, I'd very much appreciate it. Here are your guys previous gets, earthsea series, dragonflight,

I'm interested in the idea of Grimdark, although I've only read ASOIAF. Should I read Abercrombie or Bakker first? Or someone else?

>>18770432
Abercrombie

>>18770465
Cool. Why?

>>18767242
I’m very new to writing, and not sure if this belongs in this thread, but if anyone would like to read my the first two chapters of sci-fi story on the exploration of alien oceans and catholics at odds with alien religions, here’s a link to my work: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10LkV1_D--VqSGHzit_gfRasnfb1YZ5foTA4re5lIhJk/edit
(If anyone responds to this post and I don’t reply, it’s because I’ve been banned after spamming Nicoavocado’s butthole on /fit/

>>18770539
kek

>>18770552
I’m such a retard. Pls try again, it should work now

>>18767966
The series should have ended with The Dark Forest, it had the perfect conclusion. There are a few really neat ideas in Death's End, like Singer's chapter where he casually destroys humanity and the cool fourth dimensional expedition but it just doesn't work overall.

Also friendly reminder that Wade and Beihai both did nothing wrong.

>Heat cupped the fallen Believer-King’s eyes, a sting he could not swat away.
>“So these are my wages?” he cried on the welling edge of anguish. “These are my wages? Betrayal? Damnation?”
>The white-robed figure stood without reply, or perhaps replied by standing.
>Proyas looked back to Golgotterath, the tyrant that had commanded this final betrayal in sooth. And it seemed the most mad thing, both in and of itself, and relative to him and his yearning. At long last he could scry the distance, pace the cubits, between here and the dread end that had given meaning to every instant of his life.
>To come so close.

>>18770495
Bakker unironically requires you to be a more in dept reader, if alll you ahve read in fantasy is ASOIAF Crombie is more of an easy read.

>>18770432
Any novel by Guy Gavriel Kay. He gets zero love here despite being a great author.

>>18770356
If they take Bakker's writing as an example of fantasy they haven't read much fnatasy.

>>18770432
ASoIaF isn't really grimdark. It's more just gritty "realism" in fantasy. Actual grimdark would be stuff like Tim Lebbon's Dusk and Dawn, or the grimmer parts of Malazan Book of the Fallen (like Chain of Dogs or Memories of Ice).

>>18770630
>Bakker unironically requires you to be a more in dept reader,

Are any western xianxia story readable? Apart from Beware Of Chicken, First Step and (kinda) Cradle.

>>18768521
>i was expecting covenant to be some kind of epic joker incel character but he didnt live up to that
If you wanted everyone to disregard your opinion out of hand, then you sure succeeded.

>>18770745
>*xianxia stories
Fuck I shouldn't post drunk.

>>18770581
>>18770539
Overall I liked it. I'm no expert writer, but it seems relatively well put together. I liked the way the (ant-like?) aliens were indirectly described, and overall the first chapter was good fun. I'm not as familiar with most newer sci fi books, but the worldbuilding was interesting enough for me to want more.

There were a few mistakes and awkward sentences, but nothing an editor can't fix. The lighthearted writing was good, but felt out of place at times (I don't imagine someone just out of a supposedly traumatizing/horrific situation would have such a conversational demeanor).

I wasn't convinced the second chapter needed to be quite so info-dumpy, not sure how much of it was necessary or how to alleviate it though. I don't know how much of it could have been spread out throughout subsequent chapters. That's a question for a (more experienced) second opinion. Also,
>...such as Pufferserpents and spinosalamanders and macroguanas (oh my)!
>(oh my)!
Please, no.

If I didn't have many other books on my plate (which I unfortunately never do lol) I wouldn't mind picking a book like this up, at least for a quick, easy read in the same way I would read something like Bobiverse or Murderbot.

>>18767667
>They are experts in making the fantastical into the banal.
Never before has one sentence so perfectly captured my feelings on a subject.

>>18770652
What do you mean by this? The only fantasy I've read has been Harry Potter, LotR, and some WoT as a kid. Wolfe, Bakker, and Crowley as an adult.
I've also tried things like Sanderson, Rothfuss, and Erikson but quit fast.

>>18767424
Depends on what you mean by "most like". If you mean a dystopian scy-fi future then he has a couple that are similar but arent quite the same type of, almost post-apocalyptic, setting. If you mean a tripy introspective mindfuck then basically all of his work has that as a trope.

>>18770745
Never found any
I’ve read some litrpg but never finished a series

>>18770539
I read the first chapter and liked it. Keep writing anon.

>>18767785
But magic can be both rigorous and soft. The idea of something that is beyond the scope of human understanding is actually more realistic in some ways. For example, most computer algorithms are now written by machine learning, and no human really understands how they work exactly. They just have vague ideas of what they do, but not how they do it.
Magic could easily be constantly changing as opposed to having fixed rules. It could be extra dimensional, and so literally impossible for us to comprehend.
Hard magic is just softcore porn for the tRuSt ScIeNcE crowd.

>>18770926
>no human understands how machine learning works
Why would you make such a claim while knowing nothing about the subject?

>>18770986
They're not completely wrong. They just worded it poorly.
People obviously know how ML works, just that a specific model is more or less a black box

>>18770827
>>18770894
Thanks bros, really appreciate it
I was iffy about that wizard of oz line

>>18770827
>I don't know how much of it could have been spread out throughout subsequent chapters.
I infodumped because the protagonist is leaving this planet very soon, my story will planet-hop for the next few chapters until getting to “the big one”. And I’d like to make each planet really feel unique

>>18771205
I definitely overdescribed that creature in the lake, but I rationalize it with it being what shapes the protagonist’s goals, so she’d describe it in detail to Narik and Thur. And because nobody else has ever seen that creature before. The rest of the creatures won’t be described so thoroughly, I’ll just namedrop it (like the necropossum and barbed coyote) and let the reader interpret it however they want.
I based the color scheme of the creature on this lizard I found in my pants the day I wrote it

>finish Malazan
>not sure wtf the point was
>still enjoyed each book
Oh well. Is WOT good?

>>18771277
I love it. Books 2-6 are amazing

>>18767558
Oh fuck you are all kinds of retarded.

>>18767686
>>18767719

>>18768104
Only if you're reading mainstream jew-approved crap.

>>18768118
There is LITERALLY nothing being innovated by non-white male writers in Fantasy. Unless of course you consider writing 'woke' propaganda to be innovative.

>>18768513
Because nothing about his writing is a meme for the retards here to latch on to. He was just an extremely solid writer without any pretentious or subversive nonsense.

>>18768726
Morecock literally wrote Elric to be the polar opposite of Conan and his S&S writing in general is reflective of that so if that appeals to you go then go for it. But if you are going to read Elric you really, REALLY need to read the stories in published/written order; NOT chronological. His earliest Elric stories are the best while the later ones are not. I suggest you download or purchase pic related and start from there since it has the early stories whereas your pic related starts off chronologically.

>>18769127
I don't know if this will make sense to you if you're not into Metal, but Moorcock was like those original hipsters who first discovered Black Metal and really only claimed to like it because no one else they knew was listening to it and ultimately they even started forming their own Black Metal bands making their own hipster version of Black Metal. That's how Moorcock with Elric comes across to me; hipster S&S written by someone who only started writing S&S because it was unpopular at that time and he wanted to be different.

>>18770325
You are straw-manning which proves that anon correct.

>>18770656
>ASoIaF isn't really grimdark.
Yes it is; it just isn't AS grimderp as later grimderp books would become. A huge aspect of grimdark is the subversion of Epic Fantasy and ASOIAF is nothing but subversion.

>>18771131
You mean the Alice in Wonderland line? That was fine.
>>18771205
>>18771247
If chapter two didn’t have the almost drowning scene it would’ve felt too info-dumpy but I think that livened it up. Sci-fi readers like world building and want to be able to picture the strange alien races and planets so I don’t think describing those things in detail is a mistake at all.

>>18768726
Probably, but Elric and Moonglum aren't nearly as fun as Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Elric is a proto emo whiney boy.

>>18771565
Gemmell was a chad writer. He literally managed to write dozens of fantasy novels from the 80s to the 2000s while completely ignoring Tolkien. Something virgins like Jordon, Branderson and GRRM can’t do. Gemmell didn’t write LOTR fanfic, he didn’t write anti-LOTR sUbVeRsIoN. He wrote as if Tolkien never existed. Based.

>>18771768
He basically wrote S&S adapted for a market that no longer wanted S&S.

While we where talking sanderson is finishing a novel. Check his twitter, another win for sanderchads

>>18770986
>>18771001
Sorry I wasnt clear. I meant that no one understands how the algorithms created by ML work. Obviously the designers of the ML know how it works.

Why read shitty, bloated epic fantasy full of either grimderp subversion and/or woke jewery when you could read about two bros going on adventures together instead? Recommended for fans of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

>>18771800
You’re right but I also wouldn’t call it just sword and sorcery. His books are infused with his own appreciation of history and also (usually subtly) his Christian faith.

>>18771706
I was iffy about that line too, thought it was forced. I meant the lions and tigers and bears (oh my) reference

>>18767242
sci-fi needs more realism.too much science fiction tends to care about philosophical ideas and techno-geekery than character building. think catcher in the rye on mars. why can't more sci-fi be like that?

>>18767333
I just started Eye of the World over the weekend. I'm liking it so far

>>18772125
come back in a month or two and tell me what you think of the series.

I just had a sci-fi weapon idea. Let’s say you’re in a delicate environment like a starship where a stray bullet could kill everyone. What if the ammo was a mix between a rubber bullet and a musket ball? And the ball kept ricocheting off the walls with nearly zero gravity to slow it down. So battles would just become endless rubber bullets flying all over the place. And maybe there could be some foam shields or armor or barricades to catch them.
If this isn’t scientifically feasible, is it at least fun?

>>18771916
Without “oh my” it’s fine IMO.

>>18771803
>Mistborn 7, 94% complete
Not even mad. Is this space age now?

>>18772221
>If this isn’t scientifically feasible
Not really. You’d still transfer a lot of energy to any surface you hit every time it strikes something. A rubber bullet would stop being useful pretty quickly unless it’s some futuristic composite rubber or something. It’s also strategically kind of dumb unless it’s a grenade type thing in an enclosed room. Why shoot at someone when there is a good chance it comes back to hit you? Better a rubber bullet that expands like a hollow tip.
But it does sound fun

>>18767864
that is what you get for reading bakker

Does anyone have that image where a author compare sci-fi stories to a "turning your car on" stream of descriptions? It ended with him asking if people actually read that crap, if it helps.

>>18772416
6005 Camino de la Costa La Jolla, California Mar 14 1953

Dear Swanie:

Playback is getting a bit tired. I have 36,000 words of doodling and not yet a stiff. That is terrible. I am suffering from a very uncommon disease called (by me) atrophy of the inventive powers. I can write like a streak but I bore myself. That being so, I could hardly fail to bore others worse. I can't help thinking of that beautiful piece of Sid Perelman's entitled "I'm Sorry I Made Me Cry."

Did you ever read what they call Science Fiction? It's a scream. It is written like this: "I checked out with K19 on Aldabaran III, and stepped out through the crummalite hatch on my 22 Model Sirus Hardtop. I cocked the timejector in secondary and waded through the bright blue manda grass. My breath froze into pink pretzels. I flicked on the heat bars and the Brylls ran swiftly on five legs using their other two to send out crylon vibrations. The pressure was almost unbearable, but I caught the range on my wrist computer through the transparent cysicites. I pressed the trigger. The thin violet glow was icecold against the rust-colored mountains. The Brylls shrank to half an inch long and I worked fast stepping on them with the poltex. But it wasn't enough. The sudden brightness swung me around and the Fourth Moon had already risen. I had exactly four seconds to hot up the disintegrator and Google had told me it wasn't enough. He was right."

They pay brisk money for this crap?

Ray Chandler

Putting my literal shit out there for the universe to break down and build up. I thought real hard and I have a proposal on how to marry fantasy and science fiction in everything meta, abstract, or literal. Even if it's good or bad, we need a little of everything to grow. Avoiding books so much that I realized I need them taught me a lot about abstract concepts of infinity and zero.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L5PNW3F

Check it out or not, can't force you beautiful motherfuckers into anything. Every single action you do has very real weight and also is completely pointless. Embrace and internalize that shit my niggers but also realize its not THE answer. The human condition is a group effort, the impossible has been conquered time and time again. The one thing I do ask is to consider saving the link and sharing if you see someone who MIGHT like it. Force it on them, or have it available. Mindhaccing does a fuckton for the world. Even Schizos and Schizophrenics are onto something.


https://www.amazon.com/Arcadias-Reach-David-G-R-G-ebook/dp/B08L5PNW3F/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=arcadia%27s+reach&qid=1627955397&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

>>18769298
I really want to write a shitty Xianxia novel but with furries and wizards instead. I doubt that kind of thing has any readership whatsoever.

>>18767242
It's pulp.

>>18772221
Frangible ammo

>>18772691
Thank you Pulp Anon. I will now leave this shit thread begin reading The Iliad thanks to your guidance

>>18770871
I guess those that combine both. Which would you recommend?

>>18772791
The Iliad is ancient pulp.

Trying to read Dune before the new movie comes out. Anyone else?

>>18772650
It will eventually. Write it and publish it somehow. NMRGM

>>18772966
There's always various people reading Dune here. It's one of the most read books of anything people read here. Perhaps the most read even of SF.

>>18772691
Is pulp a genre or format?

>>18773305
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine

>>18772545
>"Arcadia"
>"18-year old"
>"Academy"
>"Cloudburst"
>"magic"
>"Criminals, ghosts and demons"
...
I read the sample. Your prose is skeletal, and you seem to give one (1) single shit about imagery and sensory detail. Vastly unimpressed. It's solid writing, don't get me wrong, it has a cogent sense of narrative and your diction is just fine. I can tell that it's written in the American idiom. Contractions like "hell'd" in the first few paragraphs and the usage of American dollars as the standard currency for your fictional world... It's beyond any conclusion I could draw. The dry premise does not do you or Matt any favors. It is just not very creative nor do I feel you were even attempting to compel your readers. On a better day I'd buy the thing just so I could read all 600~ pages just to more accurately shit upon its substance. Keep writing and reading, my man. A skeleton can be made full.

Once again, please recommend me any lgbt-free modern fantasy books

>>18771800
That's actually a good way of putting it.

>>18773335
now look what you did, anon.

recommend me a book similar to Pathfinder Kingmaker

>>18773717
The Goblin Emperor, It ain't good, It's basically AWFL the book and tries really really hard to justify neoliberalism.

Still no /gfg/ in the catalog.
No, Im not going to create one
dilate

After reading all this sci-fi.
So is there any fucking scenario where aliens and us don't just start war immediately?
It really seems like it's all or nothing. You can either dump everything about Earth and humans on them and hope they don't invade, or you play footsie for a bit but then you both get anxious and things start to get blown up.

>>18767329
I love the visual and the idea but my brain can't shut off that blood is filthy filthy stuff and that getting it into your face pores or wounds is almost certainly going to spell the end for man without medicine.

>>18773997
I guess it depends if you're looking for peaceful coexistence or a more uneven/one-sided relationship. Off the top of my head:
>Childhood's End
>Rendezvous With Rama
>2001
>Dragon's Egg
>Hitchhiker's Guide
And for non-novels:
>Mass Effect (Sorta)
>Arrival
>The Day the Earth Stood Still (most humans lost their shit, though the alien was peaceful, I like this one)

What is the appeal of pulp writing such as the sword and sorcery genre?

>>18774165
It's unpretentious and entertaining, and the classic serialized format of the original pulp classics lent itself to being extremely experimental.
The experimental aspect has started to come back a bit with the rise of self publishing.

>>18773615
thunes vision by schyuler hernstrom

>>18774171
What are some good modern examples of the genre?

>>18774343
The Gotrek and Felix novels by William King, Cradle, the Spellslinger series (not to be confused with the SpellSINGer series), the Undying Mercenaries series, the Powder Mage series, and the Kormak series. The monster Hunter International series is also alright in small doses, but it's repetitive in the extreme.
Defining modern pulp is pretty nebulous, depending on how you look at it, pretty much everything that's self published could be considered pulp, or none of it could be, since it's not really a genre and the term itself relates to the way it was published in the early days.

>>18774397
Thanks, I'll look into those.

>>18773997
Children of Time.

>>18771479
I've been told volumes 2 and 7 are supposed to be the best books of WOT, and that it goes down the drain afterwards because it needlessly drags on too much. And that the Sanderson wrap-up is supposed to be a sloppy mess.

>>18769769
marketing

>>18770432
Read Abercrombie before Bakker. Abercrombie is a much lighter read.

>>18770642
GGK is great but he's absolutely not grimdark.

>>18770432
DONT FUCKING READ BAKKER FIRST YOU WILL REGRET IT BECAUSE NOTHING WILL FEEL GOOD AFTERWARDS. READ BAKKER AS THE LAST THING YOU WILL EVER DO.

>>18768245
God I fucking hate it when paperback covers peel off like that. And it always happens so fucking fast, I'm not even halfway through the book. Why do publishers produce that shit? They have to be aware that you can't read these paperbacks without ruining them. It's not a problem for all paperbacks either, only for those with that thin plastic film.

>>18775175
That's why matte or textured softcovers are the superior form of printing. Fuck hardcovers and fuck gloss

>>18775175
>Why do publishers produce that shit
A significant percentage of people that buy books never read them; they stands out better on a bookshelf.

Reposting this map because last time it showed up on /sffg/ it didn't have all the location names on it

>>18775567
Books set in Mysterios?
>3 captchas to post this

any fantasy recommendations for isekai LN enjoyers

>>18775829
Have you tried some western self-masturbatory schlock?

>>18775829
It's not an isekai, but just read Muramasa when it gets released at the end of the month.

>>18775945
give me some good examples.

>>18775829
Try reading LOTR while pretending Frodo was a 27 year old virgin in a previous life.
Better yet, how about the ASOIAF fanfic where Jon Snow has sex with the whole of the Night's Watch

>>18773659
Yes it is. Thank you for acknowledging my basedness.

>>18774191
>tfw based Hernstrom is finally starting to catch on
I've been pimping this nigga for a long time now.

>>18774343
See: >>18774191

>>18776036
There were a few okay ones that got axed at the worst moment and left a bad taste in my mouth, I won't be mentioning these.
Beware Of Chicken is good, but I don't know if it will be self-masturbatory enough for you (and it's unfinished, though still getting regularly updated).
Cradle is popular, but I'm not a great fan.

To be honest I lost interest in all the others I used to follow, so I can't recommend them either. Is this the fate of schlock? Either get axed or go long enough to lose all appeal?

>>18769803
>Only women can be mages

You haven't read it

>>18776306
Technically not wrong. The setting is set up in such a way that all male Aes Sedai have been eradicated. But the intent wasn't likely feminist, but rather to make Rand stand out more.

>>18775829
There's loads of isekai novels, the biggest time for them was in like the 70s(?). Try Magic Kingdom For Sale.

>>18769298
I tried getting into I Shall Seal the Heavens but the writing is atrocious, so repetitive and all tell don't show. I can't tell if it's a translation thing or do web novels just not have editors?

>>18776107
did you read a Thousand Li? is it any good? Xianxia are violent power fantasies but I have a feeling western versions take out a lot of the brutality which I don't like

Fuck E William Brown
Fuck No Releases
Fuck Pay Walls
Fuck Pay Pigs
Fuck Lazy Shits

>>18774157
that picture reminded me of why I liked ender's game so much. The sequels are fine but I'm really looking for something similar to the first book which I'm having a hard time finding. Not specifically in the man vs bug-alien or military setting, but rather the story focusing on Ender himself as a smart character in a complex system with some loose connections to other people like Bean but still cut off from everything else being in a closed space-base, the character himself being without desire, hatred, pride or lust.
I don't know if this will come off as odd but Project Hail Mary was really the first novel where I got that feeling again and just devoured it. I've been eyeing house of suns since the synopsis seems a bit similar too in that dynamic.
I'd love to know more of these kinds of books. If my description makes sense of what I like about them.

>>18772239
No, it is the last book of era 2 / on wax and Wayne. I think era 3 is the space age with era 4 being the galactic age.

>>18777191
Why would you get so mad for awful content. His last book was terrible. Being forced to write something you no longer want to makes for a bad product.

Finished The Book of the New Sun and wanna start The Fifth Head of Cerberus? Is it worth it, is it on a BotNS level?

>>18777275
The only thing he wants to write is Table Top games.

writing this here to write it anywhere. there's some drama going on about weather Terry Pratchett would have been a transally. From the female dwarf plots and the dwarf faggot in UA we can safely assume he would have been pro trans. And from the way he wrote children, especially Tiffany Aching, it wouldn't surprise me if it were to come out that he was a pedo.

>>18772807
A Scanner Darkly is my favourite novel of his so far. You'll recgonise allot of the same self doubt, questions of sanity, and paranoia that are present in Androids.
The man In The High Castle was good but had more of a supernatural feel with the Chinese I Ching playing a major role in the story as its the main plot device used to advance the plot.

>>18777448
Of course he would have been. He was the quintessential British liberal. But he was also a white man, and quite old in the end, so he's fair game to shit on either way.

>>18777448
I don't really know who that is and I don't care who and who isn't a "trans" ally or whatever.
Sexuality and gender is a silly mass psychosis which the ruling class sells to morons as another means of control. Transcend carnal desire, transcend both societal and physical programming.

>>18775567
Can someone edit in “Land of Confusion”?

I liked the Second Apocalypse, is there anything else like that around

>>18778012
Check out neuropath and crash space by bakker

Finished legend on someone's recommendation over here. What a great book, I haven't read such good shit in a long while and will definitely read the rest of the author's work. No since Vance have i enjoyed myself so much reading
It seems people here aren't all just absolute tastelets.

>>18778012
Berserk.

>>18777300
The first story is fantastic, the other two are just pretty good. You should read it if you liked BOTNS.

>>18770588
The series should have ended with The Dark Forest, it had the perfect conclusion
Indeed
>but it just doesn't work overall.
I never got how they managed to understand how [Spoiler]they destroyed the waterdrops using the fourth dimension bubble [/Spoiler]. I must have been bored of Death's End by then.

>>18778344
I mean in terms of approach rather than specifically grimdark

>>18767667
Republicans should be skinned and left at the stake. Good god have they ruined this fucking country

>>18770588
>The series should have ended with The Dark Forest, it had the perfect conclusion
Indeed
>but it just doesn't work overall.
I never got to understand how [Spoiler]they destroyed the waterdrops using the fourth dimension bubble [/Spoiler]. I must have been bored of Death's End by then.

>>18770588
>The series should have ended with The Dark Forest, it had the perfect conclusion
Indeed
>but it just doesn't work overall.
I never got to understand how they destroyed the waterdrops using the fourth dimension bubble . I must have been bored of Death's End by then.

>>18769955
Trilogy is good. Don’t go to the next series though. It sucks.

>>18769955
>>18769985
>>18778632
Definitely listen to it as audiobooks I would say. It is worth sticking to all the way to the end. Also, rate this claim for me
>Kellhus really did go insane at the very beginning from sensory overload but Bakker wants you to forget about that

>>18767982
>thigh
OH
That makes more sense! Thank you

>>18770027
Son of a bitch

He got us

>>18767864
Have you learned nothing? You could have just dumped all the exposition and you'd have practically flown away.

bakker more like baka

Were first age Eldar physically stronger than the Edain, on average? Reading the Silmarillion and it seems like men are described as having greater physical stoutness than the elves. For instance Túrin was the only one strong enough to wear the Dragon-Helm, including both men and elves. And Tuor seems as stronger than the average warrior-elves of Gondolin.

Yet the Great Eldar like Feanor, Fingolfin and Ecthelion are described as killing multiple balrogs single-handedly and facing off against the Dark Lord.

>>18778715
kek

>>18778722
I think thats the implication, or at least the ones from the royal lines were

but remember that Tolkien is writing by "the hero is the exception" rules and not by classifications

>>18778577
>seething about red team blue team plebfic
>on a isekai containment thread
Go read the First Law trilogy or the Ekumen 3-6 and write us a report on why you're a goddamn retard.

>>18778737
what is Ekumen

>>18778742
what is Google

>>18778792
A search engine nobody here uses?

>>18778792
>>18778801
Im asking because I dont just want a raw description, I want to actually know from an anon what it is and what they like about it. I dont understand why some of you think "spoonfeeding" is such a chore. Im here to discuss, and part of discussion is asking questions kek

How does this fit into the Lovecraft mythos?
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_the_Creation_of_Niggers

>>18776937
Yea I dropped ISSTH pretty fast

>>18778337
Awesome. Glad you liked it anon. I think the four book Rigante series is my favorite but I also like all the Drenai books as well.

>>18778897
tell me more about these, please

Anyone read this? I dropped it immediately after they revealed the main character is gay.

>>18778922
>honor is everything

This is why I couldnt read those English language Cultivation novels (Ensouled? was that it?) because the damn honor conflict was so cringe and boilerplate I couldnt stand it. Bakker is the only person to ever make the honor conflict even vaguely interesting, and that was by relentlessly shitting all over it the whole time

>>18778901
It’s two duologies, one during fantasy braveheart times and one during fantasy colonial times, set in fantasy Scotland a couple centuries apart. Lots of fatherhood stuff, culture and blood stuff, and all the unabashed masculinity that defines Gemmell’s work. If you liked Legend you’ll like basically anything he wrote IMO.

>>18778935
>fantasy Scotland
in what sense

>>18778922
> main character
bruh

>>18778952
is he not? talented teenager that doesnt fit in. on top of being gay. he definitely seemed like the main character to me.

>>18778942
It’s almost literally Scotland and the UK by a different name, and with some magic. The enemy is called the the Empire of Stone and is just Rome by another name. It’s basically historical fantasy but *technically* not because he calls it something else. But the setting isn’t really the point of his work, it’s the characters.

>>18778962
I think hes making fun of you for not saying
>protagonist
like a true /lit/izen (virgin faggot)

>>18778967
Ah

>>18778922
>female writer
You have only yourself to blame.

>>18778968
I dont use /lit/ out of these threads.

>>18778973
I realize that now.

>>18778816
It's long form thought pieces on politics and the human condition. First two books are about the author's brown catboy fetish and can be skipped, 3rd book is Jews, 4th is Nords, 5th is Avatar, and the 6th book is commies but also is pooping actually funny and what if the child consents.

>>18778962
>>18778968
He means there is no main protagonist. All of the younger generation is the core of the cast. Similar how AsoiF starts with the adults but moves on from there.

>>18778984
Sounds like Bakker

>>18779109
Oh my god, it is.

i read the golden lucius shepard due to some anon recc it, either i got filtered or dl an incomplete copy. what happened to the actual mystery? or was it just an excuse for the main character go through some self reflection and change?

>>18779257
just an excuse for the main character go through some self reflection and change

>>18779264
if i had known that i would have had a completely different response to how it ended it. any reccs for other vamp stories that are pretty brutal or interesting?

>>18779284
Sorry, I got none.

>>18778715
No way the pic is real.

>>18779410
Bakker is extremely insecure.

>>18779416
Is he really? Would explain his fans.

>>18779497
Yeah, he is, there's no denying it.

>>18778922
Why do you even bother with trad books?

>>18771835
Sell me on it.

>>18770642
My man, he’s the shit. Why don’t people talk about him more?

>>18770652
Honestly, with how they’re desperate to force Bakker forefront I wonder if it’s only a few anons who post him at all.

>>18779691
I talk about him occasionally because his stuff is just out there enough that I dont hear about him in the general chatter. That said, he really isnt all that special, just odd.

>>18779696
I mean, outside of memes and having the same discussion verbatim every thread, people really don’t discuss Bakker.

>>18776036
Virtuous Sons: A Greco Roman Xianxia

>>18779731
Isn’t that written by someone from /lit/.

>>18768513
Because people here don’t read.

>>18767719
Because this General is always dead hours on euro hours.

>>18773615
There’s none since that wouldn’t get published in modern times.

>>18779665
I already did. Now read it, asshole.

>>18779800
Can you go a bit more detail?

>>18778652
He became blind to the Darkness that Comes before already in book 1 when he irrationally clung to Serwe. I doubt it was because of sensory overload but rather that the future determines the past. What that Darkness is in this case I can’t say. Maybe Ajokli?

>>18779800
Anon, saying shitty, bloated epic fantasy full of either grimderp subversion and/or woke jewery isn’t selling me on it.

>>18779801
It's a collection of short stories in chronological order about two bros who meet each other in the first story and ultimately decide to go on bro-ventures together. There's no edgy and subversive grimderpness or woke faggotry; just solid and enjoyable adventure fantasy.

>>18779822
>just solid and enjoyable adventure fantasy.
We need more of those. Just comfy reads.

>>18767333
You wont even finish this first book, its that bad, and apparently everyone, including the Jordan fanboys say it get horrendously worse later.

>>18779802
Remember when, in the first ten pages of the book, he spends like five days just wandering around aimlessly? Being overwhelmed at the stream, etc?

Yeah, already all the way gone at that point. Everything after that was just that original break spreading.

>>18779826
What makes it terrible?

>>18779825
It's the epitome of comfy. Especially if you're sick and tired of bloated grimdark garbage.

>>18779835
I am, you got others or is that just the one?

>>18779830
Eye of the World reads like a Tolkien re-write by a pre-pubesecent. Its generic and boring as shit.
Later books apparently get bad since in 5 books nothing happens. People usually regard book 3 as the best, and usually by 4 or latest book 5 they say the suck is in fill swing.

>>18778931
>This is why I couldnt read those English language Cultivation novels (Ensouled? was that it?) because the damn honor conflict was so cringe and boilerplate I couldnt stand it.
I don't know. I really like it when the premise is something so culturally different it comes off as silly. It's like taking the idea of "saving face" too far.

>>18779838
Depends; are you wanting short story collections or full-length novels?

>>18779843
Makes you wonder how it even got published in the first place.

>>18779845
Either or is fine by me.

>>18779843
I don't know how said it first about Wheel of Time, but it's largely spot on - series simply happened to get published in the right place at the right time. It's otherwise dragged out mediocrity.

>>18779852
>It's otherwise dragged out mediocrity.
Are there any novels that read like pure filller?

>>18779867
You can skip entire volumes and nothing will change.

>>18779851
The White Arrow by Noble Brown is an extremely rare oddity: it's a modern non-grimderp/non-woke Epic Fantasy story contained within a SINGLE book that is less than 200 PAGES. There is nothing groundbreaking in it the actual story at all, but goddamn if it didn't feel refreshing reading it.

Everything by Schuyler Hernstrom. Some of his stories can get 'dark,' but not in a shitty grimderp way. He writes some of the best modern S&S AND Vancian sci-fi you'll ever read.

>>18779827
>>18779802
Was Kellhus defective?
Moënghus seemed to think so.

>>18779886
Thanks, I’ll add them on my list to read.

>>18779852
How much fault is it on Robert and not that other author they brought in later on?

>>18779888
No, I think they all are. Imagine living in the same fucking fort and immediate surroundings for decades, using all your idle mental capacity to track the motions of leaves and shit, effectively creating a closed causal system that just repeats itself, day after day, perfectly predictable. Then all of a sudden, you fuck off into the wider world. How can you assimilate that? You have to wrench yourself out of that entire scheme of total comfort and clockwork action, with no fundamental organizational heuristics of any kind. Honestly, if Bakker thought it through more, I think he would realize that they would be completely incapable of life in the world at that point.

>>18779843
>5 books nothing happens
Wasn’t that because they were trying to pad the series out?

>>18779822
That reminds of another series about two brothers who are mistaken as master assassins.

>>18779891
Based. Enjoy this picture of a tiny man killing an insect while a lizard watches.

I'm a complete pleb to fantasy lit, Black Company looks interesting though. Is it worth reading?

>>18779919
Yeah, it is. Read it.

>>18779918
That’s some nice art.

>>18779843
>>18779852
Man, you're critique can apply to most other fantasy series. Has the genre stagnated?

>>18779902
It's entirely on Jordan.

>>18779935
>Has the genre stagnated
Yes, it definitely has. It also doesn’t help that other authors try to recreate successful series with their own series.

>>18779941
well shit.

>>18779947
>It also doesn’t help that other authors try to recreate successful series with their own series.
I blame that on the publishers since they only accept novels that will sell.

>>18779950
The authors themselves can self-publish. A few of them did to release books they were working on.

>>18779957
>A few of them did to release books they were working on.
Names? Kinda curious on what they release.

>>18779962
They weren’t big shots. But a few of them did win rewards from some literary groups.

>>18779918
Won't the lizard kill the small man?

>>18779970
I wouldn’t be surprised if it does. It looks like it’s ready to attack.

>>18779970
>>18779973
They're frens

New thread
>>18779981

>>18776969
The MC is good, but not OP. The story is rather slow and MC gets constantly shit on by people with higher cultivation (they have been cultivating for a longer time, but still).