/lit/ - Literature

>>19083798
FIRST FOR ZYZZ

King

Finished Warrior-Prophet, here's my quick faggy opinion:
I had a blast reading it, in many ways this part exceeded the first novel. I ended The Darkness giving no shit about the Holy War and thinking that moving forward it'll be little more than background noise to the real shit involving Consult and Kellhus' bizarre adventure to reach peaks of autism. But as the book went on I found myself getting swept in hype of Inrithi-Fanim conflict, their glorious victories and biblical struggle through the desert and plagues of Caraskand. Bakker isn't very good at writing medieval warfare but it almost didn't matter because, like the book states plainly, here it's all about conviction and spirit. This thematic element was so strong it ALMOST sold the final battle in which a ragtag of emaciated dudes demolish the creme de la creme of the heathen army. On the character side, I was sad that my Darkness favourites Xerius and Cnaiur were pushed aside, Achamian's chapters slogged up until he transforms into Punished Achamian, Maithanet is nowhere to be seen, Kellhus is still fun when it's his POV but the book could do without 20 chapters of Esmi lusting after his dick, we get it. The prose isn't as polished, the clever metaphors are far and few, the philosophical injections are shelved entirely to the epigraphs, replaced by often excessive torture porn of epic proportions, although the blatant homage to Berserk in the end gave me a hearty kek.

>>19084046
TL;DR.

>>19084046
>homage to Berserk
You mean Inchoroi rape?

>>19083798
I just wanted to thank the anon who recommended Earth Abides to me in one of the earlier threads. Good read and somehow manages to balance out a downer ending with a hopeful one what with the old ways pretty much dying and last hope going out with the one kid who had any interest in the past.

>Here they shoot with the bow, skillfully, and their hunting-dogs are trained to give tongue. They love assembly and debate. Their womenfolk walk proudly. The symbol of their god is a hammer, but they pay him no great reverence…

>>19083798
>not!Book Club
sep 26: the scar https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68497.The_Scar
spooktober:
songs of a dead dreamer and grimscribe https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24611567-songs-of-a-dead-dreamer-and-grimscribe
the dark eidolon and other fantasies https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18143067-the-dark-eidolon-and-other-fantasies

>>19084234
I'm currently reading it cause an anon recommended it in the last thread and it's been a pretty good read so far.

I had a vision of Jesus stopping me from raping Alice in the Judean desert and the memory of it has been killing my boner constantly. It's made me too soft hearted. It is very virtuous and all, but I need other uses for Alice. Who should I visualize intervening AND where I am raping Alice to reach these given states?

Chastity | Judean Desert | Jesus
Hatred | ? | ?
Determination | ? | ?
Silence | ? | ?
Work ethic | ? | ?
Sadism | ? | ?
Lust | ? | ?

I just finished "The Fifth Head of Cerberus" and honestly, I don't know what to think of the story. What are your opinions on it?

>>19084650
I assume you mean the entire book and not just the singular story by that title. Did you understand that VRT killed John Marsch and then assumed his identity?

>>19084702

Yes, I got that. It was pretty obvious. But I couldn't find a connection between the first novel and the other two, besides having Marsh in all of them. I was expecting to, at some point, find secret/double meanings in the first novel at the end of the third, but that didn't happen. Why they though that Marsh was a spy, I couldn't understand.

So, in general, I think the story was mostly straight forward, and no double meaning no awe-inspiring revelation was to be found, which seems to contradict what several people write about the novel. So, my question is simple: where is the big mindblowing moment?

>>19084798
Believe it or not, people do read this book and fail to understand the basic plot, which is why I asked.

Any fantasy or sci-fi books like enough time for love but without the shitty endless sex?
I quite enjoyed the "immortal has a lot of adventures" but the sex is really off putting, i don't have an issue with sex in books when done tastefully, but Heinlein just doesn't seem able to do it.

>>19085133
Heinlein was a massive coomer. Immortal protagonists are usually awful however so I can't recommend anything. Well I can't recommend any books, but Planescape Torment is a particularly old video game that is great, and also that, kind of.

>>19085133
You are looking for David Marusek's "We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy".

I would personally suggest "The Weding Album" and "Counting Heads" too, but maybe they are not exactly love stories.

>>19085214
Oh I'm not looking for love stories, just trying to see the same "idea" or "setting" being explored.

>when you pass out then wake up with shit on your dick
yep, that's how we roll

This general is dead

Why haven't you read Full Metal Daemon Muramasa yet, /sffg/?

Bakker profoundly relishes hard gays, hard gays are not homogeneous to the mundane gays, they are hard and they profoundly relish scat, they additionally pass out after hard gay rape, they arouse afterward with poop on their dicks

>Religion is a huge theme in this story

>what do any of the religions believe in?

>uhhhh...they mention God now and then? Quoting from old scriptures?

>right but what are their doctrines, their soteriology, their claims about revelation, their account of cosmic history, what liturgies and liturgical theology do they practice?

>well there are zensunnis, they're like if you imagined zen buddhists and sunni muslims mushed together haha

>what?

>Buddhislamics worship buddhallah

I cannot believe you guys praise this world building

>>19085854
I'd like to know the religions view on rape after passing out in the heat of a horny wave

“Tell me,” Lord Oirûnas bellowed, “how the Vile have come to rule /sffg/!”

>>19083798
I started reading the Wheel of Time earlier. It's pretty cosy, but perhaps TOO cosy. 5 chapters in, and the basic mystery of who the dark rider actually is has still gone unresolved. I'm digging it though. It does make me feel that the mystery isn't really important, and that the way the book is playing out feels genuine.

>>19085958
a hecking Bakker reference? such based and king pilled post!

women sjw non based, they are black and non white, its the hollywood netflix cuck show, they are non white and jew pilled

>>19085975
agreed, they put non hard gays as actors and only black non whites, then they put sjw women and leave dick behind

Schizos please take your meds. Yes I’m talking to you.

>>19086001
Me or the other me?

>>19085966
I enjoyed the slow opening as well. It's a long first book of a long series. I'm glad he took his time with it

>>19084046
I don't want to ruin the magic, I'm as big a Bakkerfag as they come, but read Iron Men and Saints, its an amazing recounting of the First Crusade, and 95% of his warfare comes from that book. The Holy War in Earwa is almost all shit that really happened. Emaciated crusaders repulsed the heathen army after getting trapped after winning the siege, the crossing of the desert, the traitor handing them a city. That siege was even when the Crusaders had a major miracle with a minor peasant who got a bit of a following.

its the No God fault, he created Big Black Seed to subvert us and make us sjw

are any sci fi magazines worth reading or are they all woke sjw bullshit

>>19086594
That's what everything is these days.

>>19086594
Just get a collection from the Golden Age of magazines.

What do you guys listen to while reading fantasy? I've been looking to set up a nice environment for reading to my boy.
So far I've got Fief, quest master, and hole dweller
https://youtu.be/W7HQBN2SOsw

For sci fi all I have is tangerine dream and scrying glass

Plenty of other

>>19085958
>“The Janny has abandoned th-the General!” Sorweel coughed into the dark.
>Oinaral lay sprawled as clothing over bones, the only kind of suicide a Nonman could be.
>“Sandershit! Sanderfag’s accursed seed, he rules …”
>He was never a charm for Oinaral! He was surety that truth would be heard, so that terrible consequences might follow.
>“He has surrendered the /sffg/ to the nobooks shitposters—to the Vile!”
>The Vile—only now could he taste the violation that name tokened.
>He looked down to the spectral illumination the phone screen cast upon his hands. Dust and grit bearded both palms. The left one bled black in the light.
>“ALL HOPE AND HONOUR HAVE FLED THE THREAD!"

>>19086680
>"reading" chinkshit "prose"

Will this be a good place to seethe about the Wheel of Time adaption or will I have to put up with the philistines on /tv/?

>>19086728
>will I have to put up with the philistines on /tv/?
>a shitty TV adaptation of a shitty low-end Tolkien ripoff
Yes. Keep your low-wit shittery out of my General.

>>19086728
No, the dune movie, the WoT show, and the LOTR show all belong on /tv/

>>19086594
most based sci-fi on earth

>>19086763
Shame. the other boards only read wikis of adapted material to spoil the story for people and any actual discussion gets drowned out by the speed of the boards anyway. Oh well. I'll settle for the increased book discussion that will inevitably happen as more people start reading or reading the series as the show gets closer to release.

>>19086809
what about forgetting about the sjw women series and start reading some based non sjw sex stuff like the Prince of Nothing

>>19086314
interdasting I'll give it a shot

>>19086821
>sjw women series
>rand ends with a harem
idk sounds pretty based to me

>>19087018
>sounds pretty based
because you are brainwashed by women, a real based non sjw man will like hard gay literature like Conan The Barbarian and Prince Of Nothing, where only big muscles and big cocks rule the world.

>>19087030
what if I like big muscles, big cocks, and big harems?

Will we ever get the next installment? Only series I'm currently waiting on.
Gave up on The Council Wars (also it got worse)

>>19086724
It is excelent. But don't let me distract you from consuming yet another western lgbtrtq+ liberal progressive fantasy novel written by some fag sjw.

>>19087363
>>19086680
>"people" in /sffg/ actually "read" this
oh no no no...

>>19087406
>"I failed in the end." Fang Yuam sighed in his heart emotionally
lmao

>>19085966
The dark rider wil be explained eventually

>>19087406
This is fucking awful.

Can someone recommend me some /sffg/ books involving Christian themes written by people who actually know what they're writing about? I don't care whether the authors are themselves Christian or not, but I'd like some settings whose comprehension of heaven and hell are not fueled by the saccharine heresies of American WASPs with its little red goblin Satans with pitchforks and van Dyke moustaches and wimpy faggy Hollywood Heaven with Claude Rains and Edward Everett Horton and too much fog effects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ms5hDWafhw
why are dunefags like this

>>19087481
also, the POV style he's talking about is called "free indirect style" and authors of literary fiction have been using it since the early 1800s; it's not new, its not especially noteworthy, and the fact that, as an english major, he wasn't able to realize this makes me wonder if he's actually a retard

>>19087459
Can't be done. /sffg/ authors are notoriously all satanists

>>19087494
fedoratipper Wayne Barlowe made a better Christian novel series than most people who aren't named C.S. Lewis or G.K. Chesterton

>>19087444
no gays, no niggers, no feminists, no sjw, no sex scenes every page or two. Truly terrible

>>19087481
Got this shit randomly crammed into your recommended too, huh? Sure love the marketing these days

>>19087459
canticle for lebowitz

>>19087459
The Wizard Knight

>>19087580
Is that the one by Gene Wolfe? I intended to get it but I didn't know it had any Christian themes to it, just that the author was famously Catholic.

>>19087627
Wolfe has Christian themes running though everything he wrote.

>>19087631
That's good to hear, I'll pick it up

on a scale from 1-10, how schizophrenic is it that I find xianxia to be a sort of valid metaphor for reality?
>there are theoretical elixirs and lifestyles out there that can withhold aging to some extend, as well as body tempering like extreme cold and extreme heat which will preserve your rna readers from degrading to some extend
>expensive cultivation rooms (high pressure tanks have shown very promising results in senescence research)
>forbidden techniques (transfusions of blood between a young person and an old person have shown promising results as well).
>unorthodox paths (some billionaires try to immortalize themselves with space travel and legacy)
>dangerous drugs that could get people ahead but only if they don't lose themselves to the destructive elements (cocaine, psychedelics, cum)
>people in this thread could very easily reach immortality through fortunate encounters and careful cultivation, but likely will remain mortal if they don't cultivate

Heck yeah Enderbros I'm finally going through the Shadow series, already 8 chapters in Hegemon

>>19085777
dude wtf

>>19087951
You got a problem with the hard gay lifestyle? You some kind of sjw or something? Fag

book that makes me feel like a chad slapping a bitch?

>>19087963
>hard gay lifestyle
dude ew wtf stop this is a book club

>>19087976
a HARD GAY book club

>>19087977

>>19087977
dude no wtf I did not sign up for this I'm out

>>19087977
only girls reads books so how could we be hard gay. think about it

Almost anything by William Gibson. Parts of his Jackpot trilogy hit a little to close to home.

>>19088084
i hate almost every single one of those covers

>>19087996
dont act surprise i know you wanted this

>>19085966
Stop now. Sanderson finished the series and it’s not great. Don’t do it to yourself.

>>19088138
Sanderson did a decent job. But it's not "bad" enough to not read the first three WOT books, anyways

>>19087565
Unironically this

>>19088138
He finished the series with Jordan's notes. It might be written worse but it's still the ending. The only issue I really have is that he stretched the final volume into three so that he could plaster his name on more of the series, but that doesn't detract from how good the rest of it is.

>>19088111
>i hate almost every single one of those covers

Have you tried reading the books inside?

>>19088330
no i haven't and their contents wasn't the subject of my post

>>19088133
schizo, meds, now

>>19088330
Generally you can tell if a book is worth reading based on the cover. Never let an idiom tell you otherwise

is /sffg/ incel too?

Hello, I'm looking for a book that has realistic global relations between nations in midst of war times, and has realistic battle strategies that are not overly simplistic. I am tired of stories where negotiations cannot work out or a "destroy all mankind" button has to be pressed because the worldbuilding doesn't allow for long-term engagement in war with believable tactics in place. Got any suggestions? I really like battle tactics, so I'd prefer a story that takes place heavily in the war front and involves a lot of planning using established rules/information.

>>19088749
I hear the Belisarius books by Flint and Drake are this

Sci fi with mushrooms? I know about Lovecraft’s Mi-go race.

>>19088760
>Belisarius
>author is a war vet who is also a lawyer
damn, dude knows about war and negotiating. I'll certainly look into this. Thanks.

>>19088749
The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great by Steven Pressfield

Why is Hyperion so much better than everything else in this genre?

>For the war had gone ill with the sons of Fëanor, and well nigh all the east marches were taken by assault. The Pass of Aglon was forced, though with great cost to the hosts of Morgoth; and Celegorm and Curufin being defeated fled south and west by the marches of Doriath, and coming at last to Nargothrond sought harbour with Finrod Felagund. Thus it came to pass that their people swelled the strength of Nargothrond; but it would have been better, as was after seen, if they had remained in the east among their own kin. Maedhros did deeds of surpassing valour, and the Orcs fled before his face; for since his torment upon Thangorodrim his spirit burned like a white fire within, and he was as one that returns from the dead. Thus the great fortress upon the Hill of Himring could not be taken, and many of the most valiant that remained, both of the people of Dorthonion and of the east marches, rallied there to Maedhros; and for a while he closed once more the Pass of Aglon, so that the Orcs could not enter Beleriand by that road.

Finished Wisdom of Crowds

I've read all 9 books in the First Law universe plus the 1 short story collection. How would you guys describe Joe Abercrombie's writing style? It's like a level of deep PoV that you rarely find in other authors especially within sci fi. It makes the characters sound very unique, and really pop on the audiobook. I really want to write like this.

>>19084046
>Cnaiur pushed aside
He literally has a bad-ass vengeance showdown with the fucking Skin-Spy and the entire rest of the series stems from his being smart enough to figure out what Kellhus was talking about and driven enough to make it happen.

>>19089308
Only read the first trilogy and the Heroes. But from what I see he uses a lot of repetition in a character's inner monologue. Little catchphrases each character repeats to themselves or ways they assimilate situations to their own experiences. This is a good way he gives his character 'character', for a lack of a better word. I dunno why this technique works, exactly, but he does it in a way where it doesn't feel too much.

He also manages to write very gruesome scenes into palatable stuff, sometimes even humorous. Not in a dark humor 'ha-ha see what I'm doing?' way but I never felt visceral disgust except when he wanted me to. I can't remember much aside from that.

That being said, his "subversions" can get pretty fucking annoying and hurts the narrative more than it helps it. I also hate how every female character he writes is completely smart and stoic. I can't remember a female main character that actually showed average human traits

>>19084549
Most people do not get chances like this, ever. Stop thinking with your fucking dick, and take the win.

>>19087500
Not going to finish it (dropped it after the Lilith masturbation scene) just tell me what the twist is.

Is "God" actually the evil one?

>>19089368
>I also hate how every female character he writes is completely smart and stoic. I can't remember a female main character that actually showed average human traits
Only thing worse than grimderp is woke grimderp.

>>19089308
Also, is the new trilogy worth it? I keep seeing people say he's leaning towards sjw womyn power territory ( I could definitely see hints of it but nothing too bad).

But even if he is getting a bit more preachy: does the story stand on its own?

>>19084650
Fun and rapey. Loved it.

Just finished this and really enjoyed it. Is the rest of the series just as good?

>>19089404
they are good but nowhere near as good as the first.

>>19088864
after having read ilium and olympos i'm pretty sure it was half-accident that simmons wrote something that good

>>19087406
>This end result was something he had foreseen. We he made his decision in the beginning, he had prepared himself for this.
China needs to be nuked back to the dark ages

>>19089411
Ah cool, thanks. Well Hyperion ended on a cliffhanger so I at least need to read Fall Of Hyperion. Maybe I'll stop there

>>19086680
How many variations of "teenager dressed in black with a sword is literally invincible" do there need to be before people get sick of this tripe?

>>19089505
I will never tire of insertable fantasy

>>19088084
>Neuromancer
>Hinterlands (short)
Great
>Virtual Light
>Burning Chrome (minus Hinterlands)
Good
>Count Zero
>Mona Lisa Overdrive
Passable
>everything else he ever wrote
Utter dogshit

All Gibson novels (except Neuromancer) have that fucking infuriating chapter-per-character structure. You never have time to hook into any one character and 3/5 of the characters are boring as fuck filler. Hack writer who struck gold.

>>19089505
we need something new, some more progressive, I am sure people want something like it.

Oh no no no no.... Bakkerfags.....

https://bellard.org/textsynth/

>>19089633
Huh, it can actually write tryhard fantasy prose quite well.

>>19089633
>>19089658
Yes it writes much better than the average /lit/ writefag.

I say we use this AI to write the No-God books, since Bakker has proven totally incapable of doing so.

>>19089674
It makes for a better schizo than the average /lit/ fag too.

>>19089382
>sjw womyn power territory
Stick to the hungry hungry caterpillar.

>>19088836
does it mention the 2000 people he crucified at Tyre? i'm interested but not so much if the author is sucking alexaner's dick all the time

>The Orange Catholic Bible (or OCB for short), also known as the Koranjiyana Zenchristian Scriptures, the Accumulated Book, or the Zenchristian Navakoran, was one of the most important religious texts in the known universe.

>It was supposed to be a fusion of all significant religious thought in human history, with a strong emphasis on religious beliefs originating on Earth. These included the Maometh Saari, Mahayana Christianity, Zensunni Catholicism, and Budislamic traditions.

this sounds so retarded and unrealistic

>>19089945
it's supposed to be like 12,000 years from now retard, things blend and pool together

plus it was the 60s-70s hippie milieu herbert was writing in. get a grip man

>>19089945
Yeah, religious texts never pawn from it each that shit is unheard.

Empire of the Vampire is pretty neat so far.
Reads like the author saw Name of the Wind's framing device of a guy retelling his life and decided to actually do some interesting metatextual stuff with it instead of just telling a straight story.

Dunno if it's good yet but it's kept me interested.

>>19089966
yeah bro islam, catholcism and zen buddhism are all going to join together bro! not like muslims blow up buddha statues and are so afraid of idolatry their temples don't even have art of people or animals,

>>19089378
long time ago since i read it but if i remember correctly the main character is hannibal barca

>>19090030
>what is speculative fiction
>what is a divorce from reality
>what is a leap of imagination
autistic faggot

>>19089545
>(minus hinterlands)
Hinterlands isn't even the worst story in Burning Chrome.

fuck you /sffg/

>>19090294
Rude

Are there any antinatalist SFF novels?

>>19090294
Right?

>>19090328
>>/reddit/

>>19090357
Sometimes I forget that 4chan is now the home of "traditionalist" moralfag LARPers.

>>19090030
Dune is like 20,000 years into the future, fuck knows what could happen in that timespan

>>19090364
fuck off that's why you'll have new books about that

>>19090361
antinatalism is pretty stupid though. it's almost always a reflection of depression or other mental issues rather than a fully formed ideology. I get it, I'm mad at my existence too and I can see the argument that being born is a violent, involuntary action, but the philosophical groundwork is really weak to be honest

>>19090366
>antinatalism is pretty stupid though
It is not.

Is "The Tunnel" (1913) any good?

>>19090371
is too

>>19090371
We get it, you want disgusting third world niggers to breed like rats while you spend the time you would lose if you had a kid on staring at your Funko Pop collection. I'm just saying that there are websites much more friendly to your worldview you could go to.

>>19090374
man you make him sound almost reasonable with your poltard shit. you really are a moralfag larper

>>19090374
From an antinatalist perspective, to keep shitskins breeding would be the greatest possible punishment you could deliver to them.

>>19089966
>>19090364
it's silly to assume religion then will have the slightest similarity to any mainstream religion today. but what bothers me more are the names: zenchristianism or budislamic is what i would make up as a joke do you expet me to believe it could be the natural result of the evolution of religion and language over 12k years

>>19090399
no unless they also happen to be antinatalist

are hard gays antinatalist? on one hand they don't have kids if they anal rape, but sometimes they rape vagina and get kids every now and then.

>>19090030
>heh my fellow crusader you must be jesting, there's absolutely no way we would ever tolerate the presence of saracen h*athens on our land, schools, coupling with our women, having access to our political bodies! I mean, what next, we will start tolerating filthy sodomites?

>>19090419
Yeah I could totally buy Christianity being very different from it is today, a bit like mormonism or whatever and I could buy all the major religions not existing anymore but those names and joining together with other outdated religions just seems unrealistic

>>19090421
Doesn't matter. They would still remain locked in the cycle of suffering.

you may think joining together is hard to believe, but non sjw hard gays can join with non sjw straights as long as they enjoy rape

>>19088164
>It might be written worse
It's fucking not, the last books are miles ahead of the trash that were the what, 8 books? before that point. Jordan was a hack who milked his franchise until it was utterly in the gutter and then died. Sanderson, whatever you may think of him, gave it a proper ending.

I want to get into Jules Verne, what translations do I read?

>>19090520
You learn French, you ignorant fuck

>>19090530
francais wa muzukashi desu

>>19090530
Basée

>>19090530
Outer /lit/ meme go away

I try to write copper age Sumerian sword and sorcery. Does that even interest anyone here?

>>19090595

Gods real or not?

>>19090595
i'd read it

>>19090595
post excerpt

>>19090595
sounds like hookey weedsmokin vision questin hippie shit

>>19090598
Real.
>>19090602
Okay thanks :)
>>19090603
https://pastebin.com/TCJ6Pxgs
I have a lot to improve, but a rejection slip said this had good prose; it just needed a better character arc, they said.
>>19090654
I guess so. I’m into the psychedelic kind of fantasy, too.

>>19090683
>Real.
Yeah, I'd read

What's your personal favorite series that isn't dune, foundation or hyperion?

>>19090701
Does Vermilion Sands count?

>>19090701
Robinson's Mars series (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars)

>>19090706
So long as its one of your favorites, of course it does.

>>19090701
xeno or drakengard

>>19090723
It’s just it’s a short story collection but they were serialised still.

>>19089378
I don't remember Lilith masturbating unless you count her lezzing out with her (resurrected) handmaiden Ardat Lili in the sequel Heart of Hell
Anyway long story short:
>Hell sucks, some demons (such as Sargatanas, Eligor, Valefar, etc) remember how much better Heaven was that they wonder if their punishment (which they recognize that they deserve) cannot be commuted if they ask for forgiveness from big G
>Lilith, a pre-adamite immortal being who has been condemned to be Beelzebub's waifu after her original love Lucifer disappeared, has a soft spot for the human souls who are tortured in unimaginably horrific ways for eternity, and is trying to create a cult surrounding herself among the souls to try and get them to rise up against their demon overlords
>Sargatanas is shocked into losing the stomach for punishing souls when two of them (the remains of Boudica and Hannibal) stand up to him, and becomes convinced that he needs to fight against the ruling powers of hell in the pursuit of salvation for everybody, both fallen demon and soul
>instead of rebelling against the demons, the souls form an army to help the fallen angels against the powers of the dark lord Beelzebub, while Lilith and Sargatanas fall in love
>in the final battle, Sargatanas is mortally wounded by Beelzebub before the lord of flies is defeated, but as his demonic material body dissipates he is reformed into his original ethereal angelic self due to his selfless sacrifice and taken up to Heaven; a bright shining star is formed in the otherwise bland cloudy skies of hell to remind the denizens thereof that Heaven is still reachable
I'm not going to mark those as spoilers because this book is like 20 years old, the sequel is from 2019 though . Anyway it seems one of the major themes in the book is the sin of desperatio - despair; it seems like the reason most of the characters in hell remain there because they don't believe that they can reach for anything better, and indeed, many of the more villainous characters' "despair" is such that they have convinced themselves that hell is better than Heaven

>>19085854
DUNC religion is pure fedora-tipping worldbuilding wank. He could have torn out every mention of religion or religious quote and just replace it with "God" and it would have been 10x better. People like the worldbuilding of Dune mostly for how the Fremen live, the explanations for shit like people fighting with knives and mentats, and all the cool magic powers and powers people get.

>>19090683
>https://pastebin.com/TCJ6Pxgs
Written well imo, even though I have no fucking clue what is going on. I don't like the first person, I don't think it suits S&S, but that might just be me.

>>19090849
>Written well imo, even though I have no fucking clue what is going on.
Thanks and sorry if I’m not clear enough. I’ll try work on better exposition which shows and doesn’t tell.
>I don't like the first person, I don’t think it suits S&S
My creative writing professor told me to do first person a few years ago because my third person was a bit wild. I’ll take your advice though, I think you’re right it’s not for S&S.

>>19090683
yeah this is cool i like your style

>>19090934
>yeah this is cool i like your style
That means a lot to me. Thanks for reading and replying.

>>19090683
raze not raise

>>19090981
Ah my friend actually picked that up but, doofus as I am, I didn’t change it. Thanks for telling me.

>>19090873
>I think you’re right it’s not for S&S
I guess it is because in S&S you don't really want a super complex protagonist. You want interesting and fun scenarios, enemies, and characters for your dude to interact with. Sitting inside his head in first person isn't super conducive to that. At least not for Conan or Kull style stories.

>>19091011
Conan wasn’t all boneheaded. Doesn’t Conan draw maps in “Phoenix on the Sword”? I’m sure he had interesting thoughts but it may be as grey and drab as the Northern lands. But I agree that third person would be best, to move around action and descriptions, as well as give a sense of some poet reciting the deeds of a hero.

>>19091011
>You want interesting and fun scenarios, enemies, and characters for your dude to interact with. Sitting inside his head in first person isn't super conducive to that.
I agree. The action and heroic deeds also need to feel like they’re being recited through the ages by some poet or scald, too.

What /sffg/ think of the new dune movie?

I saw Frazetta’s nephew did similar artwork but for bands. I still prefer the uncle (pic related is artwork for Death Dealer IV: Tooth and Claw).

>>19091141
I haven't watched a movie in at least six years.

>>19091204
Based. I can’t even get invested in movies.
>>19083798
Do you guys have SFF music to blast as I read or do stuff? I found this
https://youtu.be/UrSwkz_AjU8

watching movies is sjw, non whites in movie are straight or tranny pilled, you need to only read non troon hard literature like Bakker

>>19091153
Frazetta is actually Hard Gay Pilled, he appreciates a hard ass on a non sjw man

>>19091239
>https://youtu.be/UrSwkz_AjU8
Damn, thats pretty good.
I almost always have something playing in the background. It really depends on the book though and sometimes lyrics can be a little distracting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbBgDgy8yKY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHfoCBw4lXs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO3sMqnjYoo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMGo-9tKb90
Also honorable mention
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6wzijeiClA

>>19091273
Did your ban end?

>>19091324
Thanks for this. What I’ve listened to of each is fantastic, especially Caladan Brood. I’ll listen to it as I read Lovecraft.

>>19091239
i've been listening to SleepResearchFacility while writing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7aZrhW3t8E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u53HsuMJsK0

>>19091328
I didn't get banned, I was just reading Conan the Barbarian. Fantasy is inherently Hard Gay.

>>19091428
>Fantasy is inherently Hard Gay.
the ultimate truth that get censored by amazon

>>19090701
Red Rising

>>19090683
Its pretty well written. I personally feel though that it doesn't feel *real* enough. It feels like a play acted out on a stage rather than an intense battle experienced firsthand. Maybe that's what you were going for idk

>>19091471
Okay, I’ll try to add more raw experiences and realness. Thanks for the feedback.
>maybe that’s what you were going for
Not necessarily, I think I have the theatrical tone because I’d been reading Shakespeare before I wrote that. And I tried to make combat centred around dialogue, which may have made it seem like a play on a stage.

>>19090701
Conan the Barbarian. Not even memeing. I read those collections as a kid and they are what hooked me on fantasy novels.

>>19090683
I enjoyed it anon. I'd recommend a little less dialogue though. You could condense line 4 into something like "the Uruk man taunted that he sabotaged my carriage. "Fight alongside your Cutnah dogs!" He exclaimed"". Too much dialogue clutters things in my opinion.

Other than that nitpick and the raise/raze suggestion from others I'd definitely read the whole story

>>19091549
>I enjoyed it anon. I'd recommend a little less dialogue though.
Thank you and I guess you’re right it clutters up the action, to such a degree it almost detracts from the story.
>Other than that nitpick and the raise/raze suggestion from others I'd definitely read the whole story
It’s not really nitpicking, you and others are helping me write better and more clearly. It’s very kind of all you Anons to give the time to read and comment. And thanks for the kind words. I’ll try write more third-person stories with more realism, less dialogue, and more clarity/exposition.

>>19089835
Kek implying there's no such thing as stronk womyn literature. Any opinion you might have has been discarded

>>19090371
It is. As far as I know, antinatalism can be boiled down to "wahh I don't wanna exist :(" and the overpopulation meme.

This is coming from someone who was a full blown antinatalist, btw but then realized I was just memeing my depression

>>19091647
>This is coming from someone who was a full blown antinatalist
You were not. It has nothing to do with overpopulation.

>>19090382
Notice how he didn't disagree. Funkofag detected

His sentences flow like rivers, bros… imagine him just shouting the words as he writes them… the madman.

>>19091680
That post was not by me. I don't understand these figures. Is it something like Beanie Babies?

imagine him just shouting the words as he writes them… the madman. It flows like a river, even when they’re multi-clausal.

Any suggestion for something like the Dragonlance Chronicles, with classic group adventuring vibes?

Any Kaiju novels that are any good?

>>19091766
Tolkien obviously
anything by David Eddings
Wheel of Time if you have way too much time on your hands
I suspect Terry Brooks' Shannara series is like that but I haven't gotten around to reading those
Urshurak if you miraculously manage to find a copy under a hundred dollars

>>19089404
>>19089411
>>19089496
Fall Of Hyperion is crap.

>>19091842
>Urshurak if you miraculously manage to find a copy under a hundred dollars
You can get just pirate a pdf of it you know

>>19091842
Thanks bro.

>Story is about a young protagonist undertaking training to become an assassin/thief/mage/etc.
I will not read your book

>>19092021
>story is about someone with goals
dropped

looking for a book I read, my google searches always lead to unrelated books.

people are born with superpowers, each one twice as strong as the last one.
government conspiracies, wars, secret agencies, breaking the laws of physics set up by higher dimensions beings and apocalypse.

I just realised that Kellhus could never succeed if he was short and ugly.
Even Dunyain conditioning is no match to Height, Face, and Frame

I'm a few pages into chapter 4. When does it start being interesting? Shit book so far.

>>19083798
After watching the TV series, I've been thinking of reading the Expanse novels. Should I do it?

>>19092385
You want to be kellhus but you are really akka. Many such cases.

>>19092486
Yeah. They're better than the show and the show is damn good.

>>19092068
>story is about cock and balls
based and non sjw

>>19092500
What made me want to read it is that unwelcome and sudden main character death (my favourite character, by the way) the TV show threw in the last season, because the actor was accused of sexual harassment.

>>19090701
Chronicles of Amber

>>19092488
Kellhus is essentially an automaton perfectly focused on whatever he is supposed to do, who the fuck wants to be automaton. Well he eventually attained some degree of humanity and lost in absolutely retarded way because of that.

how did tolkien manage to square both being a giga cathoboo and seeting about based wille and his jolly band of normans at the same time?

>>19092562
by not being an NPC, you should try it some time

>>19092562
maybe he was a Hard Gay?

>>19092580
I don’t see why you’re an box of hating one guy also leads to liking the organization that sanctuted him doing what you hated so much a little less

>>19092628
try typing that in english, bud

>>19092636
I don’t see why you’re an npc if hating one guy also leads to liking the organization that blessed him doing what you hate so much a little less

>>19092649
The world isn't black and white

>>19091662
Okay, so literally the only argument is your fee fees are upset you were put into this earth. Case closed

If it isn't, enlighten me

>>19089404
just looking at this cover and any cover of Dune makes my eyeballs roll out

those books are a chore every page

>>19091867
Does the .pdf come with the Brothers Hildebrandt paintings and sketches? If not, it's not worth it.

>>19091842
>shannara
I'm going to read that when I'm done with Two Years Before the Mast. I'll tell everyone how it is, although as a preliminary I know that my grandfather read it and stopped at book 3.

>>19091842
>>19092963
I'd also like to know about the shannara books. My only experience with the series is masturbating to the hot actresses with big asses in leather in the tv show. The show made me want to pick up the books but I figured there wouldn't be as many big asses in leather pants to masturbate to so it went further down the list

What are some good modern Sword and Sorcery books? I'm trying to get a good feel on the language and style of the genre.

>>19093016
>modern
Swords and Dark Magic maybe? Glen Cook and Gene Wolfe are in it.

>>19093016
In Savage Lands by Jason Thummel and Rakefire and Other Stories by Jason Carney for short story collections (S&S is at its best in short story format).
Lords of Dyscrasia by S.E. Lindberg is a full length novel and deeply dark and weird. Really highlights what S&S is capable of when writers go balls-deep into the 'sorcery' aspect of S&S.

>>19092385
Short and ugly dunyain would be considered defective and either used as test subjects in the face room or sent to work manual labor in the Thousand Thousand Halls.

>>19092562
>>19092628
>>19092649

>>19093150
>Rakefire and Other Stories by Jason Carney
not the other anon, but thank you for suggesting this, it looks cool

on that note, it turns out a lot of sword and sorcery pulp is freely available on kindle unlimited. can anybody vouch for any of these in particular?

What version of The Once and Future King am I supposed to get, bros?

>>19093298
World Beyond Worlds by John Fultz is another collection I'll recommend.
Return of the Sword has some good stories, but since it's a bunch of different authors the quality varies (and I skipped all the stories written by chicks); though I do HIGHLY recommend the story The Last Scream of Carnage by Phil Emery in that collection. Very dark with a great style.
I've only read one Tanith Lee story (since she's a chick) and I enjoyed it and it is in Empress of Dreams, but I leave it up to you to decide if you want to read a bunch of short fantasy stories written by a woman.
And the other collections are full of classic S&S stories.

>>19093358
do you really think stories written by women are of lesser quality? Why? I'm asking honestly, not trying to pick a fight

>>19093384
>do you really think stories written by women are of lesser quality?
Yes.
>Why?
Because they're women.
In all honestly though there are a handful of female writers I've been meaning to check out for years (Leigh Brackett, C.L. Moore, more Tanith Lee).

>>19093430
nice chud logic

>>19093703
you mad

>>19093703
Shut up, hole.

>>19093384
They're less likely to appeal to men, since they're written by women. Reverse is also true.

>>19093703
go write an sjw book you Vagina(ew), we hate holes! we want hard dicks in our books not some whiny vagina(ew).

Hey, speaking truth help you live. When I was after read I understood all. Good for you do so. SFF save me at time I was in dark well of life. Similar stories tell us.

>>19093718
pussy is so boring, cocks are riveting.

>>19093763
Male homosexuality is literally penis worship over all else.

>>19093773
damn straight, a hard penis is worthy of worship.

>>19093760
Schizobro that is so sweet... take your meds

>>19090701
Three body

>>19091863
No.
why would you even say that?

Post søy books

>>19092385
Feelsbadman

>>19092833
It appears to be a scan of the physical book, so yes.

I just reread the Lord of Light for the first time since I first read it as a teenager, and it has me deeply interested in the Science Fantasy concept. What other books capture that idea

>>19093786
>In 1930, Howard went to a hospital in Temple complaining of a varicocele, gas in the stomach and an abnormally small penis. The working diagnosis at the time was sexual neurasthenia but the symptoms may instead point towards neurotic depressive disorder. The doctor concluded that "We do not think there is anything wrong with Robert. We can find no varicocele of any consequence, and his organs are normally developed and he tests out good in every respect. His trouble, in our judgment, is due to his thinking there is something wrong. After he has dispelled this thought from his mind he will be in fine shape."

Conan the Barbarian was created as an over compensating hyper masculine alpha male power fantasy to make up for REHs perceived small penis

>>19094646
>Conan the Barbarian was created as an over compensating hyper masculine alpha male power fantasy to make up for REHs perceived small penis

>>19094665
t. dicklet

What's some good Space Fantasy / Planetary Romance that isn't Burroughs? I'm reading the Mars and Venus series right now and it's great fun.

>>19094692
scat by Jim Graham

I've been eating marijuana edibles nonstop for a week now, what sci fi story will awaken me to new paths?

>>19094703
scat by Jim Graham

>>19094703
The Lord of Light

>>19094696
>>19094705
Jim pls

>>19094708
READ MY BOOK

>>19094692
The Last Ancestor

>>19094710
Based, you are the new king of sffg

>>19094710
I'm the scat man

>>19094749
skipidi dipi di pipidi pap

>>19094766
this is a Jim general now

>>19094766
That puppy has a big tongue. Is it a hot day?

>>19094806
read scat, there is an easter egg about the dog and his adventures

>>19084234
I didnt appreciate this book when I read it years ago but it's really grown in my estimation in my memory. What a beautiful story.

>>19094832
>scat by Jim Graham
>When not gated to the garden, I stirred up neighbourhood wasp nests and made earwig and spider snacks for my baby brother.
You’re a monster, Jim.

>spend all day reading about scifi, but not actually reading it
>hype myself up for reading it
>night comes and I finally figure to read it
>its disappointingly slow paced or boring and I end up falling asleep before it gets good
>be too frustrated to continue another day

>>19094854
Are you into soft science fiction? I couldn’t put down Ballard. Maybe it’s the equality of the writing you’re reading.

>>19094873
I think its my attention span, and my proclivity towards quick gratification
could be the content of the writing too, but its hard to find quality stuff. A lot of the things people hype up, I end up disliking for different reasons. Whats Ballard?

>>19094848
>You’re a monster, Jim.
it's always the monster that crafts the most impactful art

Jim chads, I kneel

>>19094883
>what’s Ballard
A British writer who grew up in China and was in a Japanese internment camp as a teen. He wrote soft sci fi which had poetic prose and relied on imagery and metaphor more than character or plotshitting. It’s my type of writing.

>>19094720
>>The Last Ancestor
THIS?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41940881-the-last-ancestor

>>19095022
Yes

are there any good World of Darkness books?

>>19095091
>World of Darkness
Werid, people have been talking about it recently, did something happened to the series?

>>19095102
new Blacked.com release with a black vampyr

>>19095106
God, you’re fucking pathetic wasting your time just trying to derail this thread. Why don’t you just fuck off already.

Just finished Wisdom of Crowds. I can't really tell if nearly every character was supposed to be incredibly unlikable or if it's just a flaw in JA's writing. Other than with Orso, my feelings towards every other character range from indifference to disgust.

I actually think JA is really bad at writing female main characters, and this is probably the main reason they were so unlikable.

>>19095137
His newest trilogy was such a disappointment compared to the previous 6 books. The only character that was memorable in this one was Orso who was actually one of his best.

>dating an artist just so I can get free illustrations for the pulpy space odyssey series I am writing
>will dump her when it's done
Who d e v i l i s h here?

>>19095145
Yeah, I think there were a lot of good ideas, just executed poorly. Honestly, I'll never understand why people STILL, in 2021, create sequels to games/movies/books that focus on the children of previous main characters. It (almost) never works out.

One thing I'll say though, if he makes a final trilogy in the First Law world, I will be very happy to watch all these surviving characters eat shit and die.

>>19095158
the black person cucking you behind the scenes

>>19095185
I was pretty disappointed by the book.

>I'll never understand why people STILL, in 2021, create sequels to games/movies/books that focus on the children of previous main characters. It (almost) never works out.
Same reason why no one tries to make anything original and just go for sequels or remakes, people are already invested in the series, so why make a new one?

>In his H. P. Lovecraft: A Biography, L. Sprague de Camp estimated that Lovecraft wrote nearly 100,000 letters in his lifetime. S. T. Joshi revises this estimate down to 87,500 in his “A Look at Lovecraft’s Letters” (in Lovecraft and a World in Transition: Collected Essays on H. P. Lovecraft). Of these, Joshi estimates that only about 10,000 survive.
when people say Lovecraft would have used 4chan if he were around today, I 100% agree

>>19095222
Who did he write to? Just people he disagreed with?

>>19095227
>In these letters, he discussed his worldview and daily life, and tutored younger authors, such as August Derleth, Donald Wandrei, and Frank Belknap Long.
>He [Michael Dirda] also comments favorably on Lovecraft's correspondence, and compares him to Horace Walpole. Particular attention is given to his correspondence with August Derleth and Robert E. Howard. The Derleth letters are called "delightful", while the Howard letters are described as being an ideological debate. Overall, Dirda believes that Lovecraft's letters are equal to, or better than, his fictional output.
I guess he just wrote about anything and everything

>>19095137
>>19095145
I genuinely don't get why people like Orso.

Do you guys buy physical editions of most of the books you read, are do you stick to e-readers? I generally get physical copies of books I know are going to be great/books I will read again (Dunsany, Tolkien, Wolfe, Peake, Vance, Lovecraft, etc) but with newer books, things are a bit dicey so I generally stick to digital versions so I won't have wasted money on a physical edition of a book I might hate/not read again

>>19095248
Probably because he's the only actual decent person who gets a POV among a cast of detestable individuals. He gets character development that goes from bad to good unlike everyone else who goes from either good to bad or absolutely nowhere in the span of three books.

>>19095274
Buy in e-readers. Not wasting my extremely limited space to own physical books just to impressed people on /lit/

>>19095227
Friends mostly

>>19095277
He is utterly insufferable. A retarded 21st century trust fund kid but in addition to that can do no wrong and has all the best friends in the right places. His father was a much better character.

>>19095274
It astounds me when I see these booktubers with four or five huge shelves filled with pristine, hot-of-the-press releases of shitty newer sff books, I mean if they have the money then good on them but fuck

>>19095293
Is it really any different than what /lit/ does with shelf threads?

Is Malazan a waste of time? I don't read a lot of fantasy but I'm of the persuasion that if you want to try heroin you should just go straight to the needle so you can get the full experience.

So I'm not asking if it's too hard or anything - I know I can do it. But is it worth it?

>>19095298
well most other /lit/izens only read classics and stuff that has been lauded as great for decades; they barely read anything newer

new thread
>>19095308

>wish there were some Aztec/Mayan based S&S
>randomly find a book of exactly that today
B
A
S
E
D

>>19095305
Anon, /lit/, especially those from self threads don't read. Just take a look at their huge shelves filled with pristine, hot-of-the-press and none of them have been read before.

>>19095274
I used to be a purist who only bought physical books but I move around a lot and travel for work now and books are fucking heavy so I took the ereader pill. If I really really like a book I'll buy the physical copy, usually as nice/limited a copy as I can find to make it worth it and celebrate the occasion.

>>19095312
Sounds cool what's the title?

>>19095274
Does /lit/ still hate e-readers or something?

>>19095365
Only people who don't read hate ereaders.

>>19095371
So /lit/ hates e-readers then?

>>19095377
Yeah pretty much

>>19095158
hows the sex

>>19095304
Read the first 5 after that they get kinda bad

>>19089382
He made a few characters gay unnecessarily and there is a fag sex scene. The feminist shit is subtle not a big deal at all.

>>19095274
I buy both. Digital is great for reading at dinner, propped up in front of my plate, swipe page turns. But I like the analogness of paper, fonts, and book covers, and there are older books you can't get digitally.
I still have a Kindle Keyboard but now use an iPad Air

>>19095137
I grew to pretty much hate Savene.
With regard to Orso: do u think he's really dead?

>>19095576
>there is a fag sex scene
wut
is author closet homo?