/lit/ - Literature

>>19327367
First for Cradle. And I'm on a post cooldown. I'm just that epic.

SF .VS. F
CHOOSE

>>19327402
If I had to choose, fantasy. But I like scifi and weird hybrid shit too.

>>19327402
Fantasy for sure. The only scifi I like is basically space fantasy.

Asked too late in the other thread I guess. Will paste it here too:

I love me some sword and sorcery. I've read most of Conan, all of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, a bit of Jirel of Joiry, most of Moorcock's stuff (going to buy the current comic adaptation if they ever finish the whole series and put it in an omnibus, as it's breathtaking and Moorcock considers it the definitive version).

I watched The Spine of Night the other day though and I can't get it out of my fucking head. It felt like sword and sorcery written by Jeff Noon or something.

Anyway, please recommend me some sword and sorcery or heroic fantasy (which is similar, right?) I may not have read.

>>19327402
Fantasy any time of the day
Classical medieval European Fantasy is still king

>>19327367
Got some backlog amassed while reading long fucking series, what to read next?

Book of the New Sun
The Hobbit
Tigana
Between Two Fires
Farseer first trilogy

>>19327392
yeah I'm thinking this poster is based

>>19327522
This image is funny, because Yerin's audiobook voice makes her sound hispanic.

>>19327463
Outside LOTR, what's some good "classical medieval European fantasy?"

I mostly read S&S so this would actually be a big change of pace for me.

>>19327460
Have you read Gemmell?

>>19327547
Nope. Is there a best place to start?

>>19327553
His first novel would probably be best, but I started with Morningstar and that was fine too.

>>19327571
Thanks!

About to read this, what am I in for?

>>19327575
If you get filtered I don't want to hear about it. Just talk about how good it was and how the new movie totally missed the point while also looking bland.

>>19327536
This one for example. You got your norse, your anglos, your italians, and a few other Fantasy equivalents. Also a sprinkle of elves and a dark lord somewhere. It is as good as it gets, but pretty slow.

>>19327575
It's actually a fantasy book about a super powered young man having drug induced vision quests. Forget any notion of science fiction.

>spend all day reading
>get BPPV

The villain in my story is based off power hungry Roman emperors and Satan. His goal is to turn the Universe into a chaotic landscape he rules over to fulfill his megalomaniacal desires. What do you think? What villains does he sound like (Baron Harkonnen comes to my mind a bit?

>>19327460
How good was The Spine of Night? I'm not a huge fan of the animation style.

>>19327652
I'm busy this weekend but I'm probably going to watch it again next weekend. It's surprisingly philosophical in the themes it raises, but I'll avoid spoiling that because I don't want to push you toward any particular interpretation of it.

>>19327245
Sin Eater is pretty good, but not as good as the first book. It has a fairly predictable twist regarding the nature of the gods, which sets up a crazy third book which is the best in the trilogy. The second book has minimal horror and dungeon crawling.

>>19327505
>Between Two Fires
This is really fucking good.

>>19327532
I don't do audiobooks, but travis baldree says his inspiration for yerin was gal gadot

>>19327646
>The hero in my story is based off power hungry Roman emperors and Satan. His goal is to turn the Universe into a chaotic landscape he rules over to fulfill his megalomaniacal desires
I just fixed your story, no need to thank me.

>>19327763
B-but love trumps hate

>>19327785
I always thought love trump's hate was a weird slogan

>>19327646
he sounds like something marvel writers shit out their ass every two weeks. let me guess he's hunting for hidden power crystals or something.

>>19327758
I can't recall what Gal Gadot sounds like. But Verin for sure sounds like an hot tempered latin woman. I'll see if I can pull up a good example.

>>19327796
No he was a messiah figure but decided being evil and in control was better than being a servant to the God. This is where he got his powers from in the first place.

>Miles and miles of alien gold…

>>19327796
I appreciate your point though. Any advice to write a stronger villain?

>>19327815
>Any advice to write a stronger villain?
>>19313238

>>19327815
you have to make their motives believable and almost, but not quite, justified

>>19327815
turning the universe into a chaotic landscape doesn't seem like it would be conducive to fulfilling megalomaniacal desires. that sounds more like he just wants to fuck shit up and watch le world burn. I'd say scale back his desired range of conquest to something a bit smaller scale than the entire universe, and rather than wanting to make chaos he wants to make it more orderly.

>>19327815
nobody just "decides to be evil". try to think of ways in which someone might be motivated into committing evil acts.

Ken Liu's The Veiled Throne is finally almost here. After I read that I have more Cradle, Cloud Cuckoo Land and Murderbot. Cradle is looking pretty good but not sure about the other sfuff.

>>19327758
>>19327805
Alright. I'm not sure if this is the best clip, because I just grabbed the first sound of Yerin I heard. Skimming audio for a specific voice is more time consuming than I realized. https://vocaroo.com/126MSFszc7s7

>>19327842
Eh, its set in a space war bigger rhan 40k and the villain is essentially an angel whos decided hes had enough of Gods bs and would rather become a chaos god where hed have control which is why turning the universe into Hell is fine by him

Still, good to consider

>>19327948
>le angel…. is FALLEN
sounds pretty fucking trite, generic and overdone anon
unironically read paradise lost

>>19327460

Thune's Vision by Schuyler Hernstrom, a new face in the genre that made a big splash for me personally

>>19327948
>more war than 40K !!!
>chaos, except, like, he has control
anon just
keep writing don't get too attached to this one ok

>>19327608
Are you the same anon who tried to sell me on Osten Ard and the Shadowmarsh? Cuz if so, I hope you're doing well and good, fren. As soon as I finish the Brothers Karamazov I'll probably get into MST

>>19327646
Roman emperor with Satan origins, basically? How about instead of trying to make the Universe a chaotic landscape he wants to make his city a paradise where he can fulfill any base desire he has? Or maybe scale it down even more to his castle or keep or whatever. I dunno, it just seems like turning the whole universe into chaos to fulfill desires is not something that rolls off the tongue, so to speak. It doesn't make much sense either. Can you elaborate on him?

>>19327995
Haha or learn to pitch it better. The villain isn't the main drama. But ya it's a silly setting and there's probably only so much I can do with it.

>>19328047
Fren, I say this with the best of intentions: you sound too young and/or low-IQ to write a decent book. That’s fine; stick to your vidya and fanfics.

>>19327571
has a more splendid fantasy yet been written? (or does this bad boy still hold the title?)

>>19328051
Wow bro you figured all that out based on a couple posts. Thanks. I'll go get my McDonalds applications.

>>19327367
Does Bakker still read these threads?

>now I am free
Holy fucking kino bros.

Are there any good novels set in a world with a Delta Green or SCP-like organization, either presented as the heroes, as the villains, or more ambiguously?

>>19328159
He was here for a thread or two before he left in disgust
We, /sffg/, managed to shock, offend and annoy the master of black seed.
>Tell me... who are (We)?

>>19328210
Proof it was him?

>>19328215
No proof, just speculation based on one anon suddenly articulating his writing style perfectly during one thread. If it was an impostor, why wouldn't the impostor post more in the same style? That's what makes me think it was really him. In any case, he probably hates /sffg/'s guts and wishes we were never born.

>>19327367
>Discord
https://discord.com/invite/KWPCM7m

>Book Club
Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer trilogy) by Robin Hobb

Reading and discussion both will take place this month.

>>19328274

>>19328226
>makes up terms and condescends on people for not understanding them
he is perfect for /lit/

>>19328267

>Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer trilogy) by Robin Hobb

holy shit that sounds gay

>>19328274
no one is more obnoxious about taste than twitter pseuds. they make this shitohle website look reasonable
>>19328326
your gay

>>19328274
It amazes me that these faggots have enough brain cells to "write".

>>19328332
damn owned

>>19328326
Reading books is super gay

>>19328379
Yeah, Frank Herbert sucks.

How many non-human races should I have in my fantasy setting?

>>19328563
none

>>19327646
Final Fantasy 2, Emperor Mateus

>>19328226
So... he keeps shilling his books? Fuck, I'll get a pdf then, just to shit talk it with propriety.

>>19328453
Go back to twitter.

>>19328663
I'm tweeting about my successful gender reassignment surgery as we speak. Yes, I do enjoy Sanderson.

Who has the more crippling degree of autism? Bakker, or /sffg/?

Newfag here,
How long has /sffg/ been a general? Is lurking required, beyond the expectation of lurking when you come to a new board? Do you have an ongoing book or literary project of your own? Are you writing it with the long hope of one day getting it published or is it purely a hobby—or both? I want to start writing a novel but it would be purely for my own entertainment

>>19328812
Fuck off and never come back.
>>19313238

>>19328563
If you're going to treat fantasy races like dog breeds, then just don't bother. We don't need to read about a race that is all one kind of way, and another race that is all another kind of way. If you don't have anything to say about cultures that are alien to the humans entirely, then don't include alternate races.

A non-human race should represent concepts that humans cannot easily grasp. Doing radically different non-human things. So if you can think of a cool concept, and you can justify a people to represent that concept, then go for it. But don't force an arbitrary number. Just create something cool. Perhaps 1 is enough. Or maybe you can think of 2 or 3 or 4 or more. So long as the concepts are interesting and distinct, you don't have to limit yourself.

Can anyone please recommend me good standalone fantasy books? Preferably pre 2000s

>>19328812
I've been here for about 10 months, and still feel like a newfag. But I literally don't care, and just say what's on my mind. What are they going to do? Kick me out? Pff. The people around here don't talk about much. Just rehash memes about this author or that author. Occasionally leave a post regarding a book they're currently reading, and then ignore everyone else.

It's a slowish general. So don't watch it too closely. You know what they say: a watched pot never boils. Just say what you have to say, and then go about your business, and hope someone is interested enough to respond.

>>19328887
Thanks
>>19328819
Yeah I should have posted there first. What are you reading right now fag? I just started the third LOTR book good god the second one sucked

>>19327571
thanks for this rec. read up on the impetus of the book and was pretty inspired.

>>19327367
All /sffg/fags must hang

>>19328899
right? fuck them with a sword, specially some weed faggot

>>19328899
literally shaking rn

>>19327460
Karl Edward Wagner's Kane Series.
Elak of Atlantis by Kuttner Henry
Kull Exile of Atlantis by Robert E. Howard
Renegade Swords by Robert E Howard Clark Ashton Smith
The compleat traveller in black by John Brunner
The Complete Dilvish, The Damned The Changing Land by Roger Zelazny
The Complete Jirel of Joiry by Moore C. L.

>>19327505
Book of the New Sun

>>19327460
>comic adaptation if they ever finish the whole series and put it in an omnibus
I doubt it. Anyway, it's edgy as fuck IMO.

im reading dune, im enjoying it desu, i might watch the david lynch adaption

what is the most /sffg/ vidya

>>19329047
Shadowrun: Dragonfall

>>19329062
tfw no demonic cyborg medic gf

>>19329047
>what is the most /sffg/ vidya
A Dance with Rogues

been reading some of the warcraft novels. cycle of hatred -> wota trilogy -> starting the last guardian now and I have day/night of the dragon as well as tides of darkness and beyond the dark portal planned.

>>19329100
Ma'am.

>>19327367
Which other Jack Vance works are most like his Cugel books? I fucking love those things and want more. Like I will start autistically rereading them 4 times a year love them.

>>19328880
Small Gods
The Mask of the Sorcerer
The Curse of Chalion

>>19329047
A game about arguing with strangers over trivial nonsense? The Talos Principle

>>19327460
check out everything else howard wrote. his non conan work is just as good as his conan work and better in some places
karl edward wagners kane is top tier sorcery that rivals (and suprpasses) a lot of howard's best material. imagine a mix of conan and elric with a healthy touch of lsd, heavy metal and gothic literature and you have kane

Rolling stats for my characters I'm writing about. Maybe that will give me some inspiration.

how many words is enough for a book to be considered a novel?

>>19329259
50,000 according to NaNoWriMo, which is just above the expected length for a "novella"

>>19329259
10,000 would be the minimum for a short novella.

>>19329218
are your character culturally diverse enough ?

>>19329268
They're all Italian so that's already too diverse for me to be honest

>>19329270
pretty boring banter opportunities tbqh;
"Mama mia they stola my pizza!"
"Oha Noa! His facea, it isa red like a tomato!"
"Gerogino, get the parmisan! he is getting away!"
"He stola my bambino! Uh oh! Spaghettios!"

>>19328026
That is Osten Ard, but I don't shill Shadowmarch as I havn't read that yet. Always nice to hear that there are more of us.

>>19329270
Are you italian or your story is settled in Italy?

>>19329332
it's set in a post-post-apocalyptic renaissance italy analogue

Reaper was good.
Started off kinda meh, but it really picked up in the second half. If Wight stays true to form the next book will be a colossal disappointment and the one after that will be great.

>>19328640
The Quantumm Prince. also the sequels somewhat, but not really. each book in the series gets worse so don't worry about the sequels

>>19328880
The War of the Flowers

>>19328198
The Laundry Filed

>>19327505
might as well knock the hobbit off since it's short

>>19329047
i'm currently playing disco elysium. thus far it has gay and rape in it, haven't encountered incest yet but i'll keep you posted.

>>19329410
The 12th will be the final book, believe it.

>>19329047
Prolly some tryhard shit like Sunless Seas or Pathologic.
If this thread was good it would be Gothic II.

>>19329336
Neat concept

>>19328051
Shit advice, no one ever became good by quitting.

>>19328226
GOOD

What's some good japanese inspired fantasy/science fantasy?
I'm Chinese but I passionately despise wuxia, it disgusts me

i'm starting to feel like a brainlet because i only read scifi or fantasy lately. any recommendations to break the cycle?

>>19329899
some non-fiction mayhaps?

>>19329899
Catch-22
A Confederacy of Dunces
The Iliad / The Odyssey
Lolita
I'm out of ideas, I also only read scifi and fantasy

>>19329899
Russia Against Napoleon by Dominic Lieven
The Blitzkrieg Legend: The 1940 Campaign in the West by Karl-Heinz Frieser

Books about truth shining?

>>19329549
>The Laundry Filed
Kind of lame once he got rid of Angleton and sidelined Bob to focus on his wife and her team of quirky retards.

>>19328864
>tl;dr: No fun allowed. Everything must be made for an ultra important reason.

Newbie here, finished my first brandon sanderson (audio)book Steelheart, do all of his other works have this fast pacing? I really liked it, i totally thought that things would get stretched out to the sequels with some filler but nah it actually ends what it started.

>>19330071
lurk moar before posting

>>19330071
Brandon stays very easy to read, and particularily the second halves of his books stay very fast.
He gets sequelitis and writes a 10 part Fantasy series atm, although most plot hooks are ended in the same book.
"Read" better books.

>>19330132
I started "reading" this year so i'm pretty much going blind into anything that gets suggested around, not sure what "better books" means since almost everything i've tried has good reviews (doesn't mean i liked all of them equally of course)

>Eithan is Ozriel
Well shit, I didn't expect that, but it works.

>>19330175
Brandon is comicbook level writing, read him a while longer and you will understand. Fun and fast to read, but not even a speck of long term value in it.

>>19329899
read christs samurai

>>19330196
>Brandon is comicbook level writing
This is true in every sense of the word. He's even going in the same trajectory as them in terms of pandering to twitter retards. Like when he randomly made Shallan bisexual and then celebrated it like it was some massive achievement for mankind.

>>19327865
Got pushed back to fucking December! Guess it's time to read all my other stuff. Can't believe he pushed the date back that close to publication!

>>19330054
No. I'm saying that that the dog breed approach to race creation is actually "no fun". Like who gives a shit if elves are slightly more slender and smarter than humans? It doesn't say much about them. Who cares if dwarves are squat and good at smithing? It's not *interesting*. You're just creating different types of human. You might as well just say they're tribes of humans who have evolved those traits after many years of adapting to their environments.
And besides, these concepts have largely been explored, so there's nothing more you can add to them. You would just be retreading the same path, except probably worse because you're an amateur writer.

You know what was a cool fantasy race? The Shrike. It was something that behaved so differently from humans that it was terrifying by its mere presence. The Shrike was such a mystery that learning any new scrap of information about it was fascinating. And I can already hear your basic bitch response of "HURR, NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE LIKE THE SHRIKE. DAT WUZ A HORROR MONSTER". Like, no shit Sherlock. But you can still create the same sensation of mystery and fascination by coming up with an alien concept.

Or take Quaddies from Falling Free for example. Once human, now their own species due to genetic engineering. Their bodies have been adapted for the zero gravity of space. Which includes another set of arms and hands where their legs should be. Making them the perfect workers for space stations and spaceships. They're also highly obedient, because they're basically slave workers. Though they're so obedient, that they don't realize they're slaves. And they're awkward in gravity, because they were never meant to be in gravity.

tldr, just think of more far out things.

>>19327608
I read this and I've never been so let down by a book series in my entire life

>>19330459
I was just bored of it. The only interesting part was the heroine cucking the protagonist but even that was quickly solved with no consequences.

>>19330476
The sheer stupidity of the characters, the princess especially, was really grating. But that's not the worst of it, the worst is that nothing is ever really explained by the end of the last book and the characters have basically no agency whatsoever. Everything throughout the entire 3000 pages before hand is completely meaningless because the plot just self-destructs in the final 20 pages without any elaboration.

>>19328226
Is there any more?

>>19328226
I approve of the death of Bakkerfaggotry

>>19330184
>moused over
rip
People have been calling that since several books ago, hack writer. Is it finally out then?

>>19330705
Yeah it's pretty meh. Seems like he's rushing towards an ending just like he did with his previous series.

>>19330724
Elder Empire's ending seemed okay if a bit grandiose but I suppose what were we to expect? I wonder how much of it is him rushing to finish it to write other shit but whatever, its peak was too many books for me to ever regain my investment. It would be cool to see any more of Traveler's Gate. Simon should have been the MC of Cradle.

>>19327460
Have you read Song of Ice and Fire yet? It gets memed as crap here because contrarianism but it's incredible, and in many ways is the perfect marriage between Howardian gritty sword and sorcery and Tolkein style high fantasy. Feels like a bow on top of the whole genre.
I hope that spurious news report of a 2023 release for Winds is accurate. But even if we never got another book it would still be a masterpiece.

>>19328864
I agree with this guy in spirit but think he's taking it a little too far. The important thing is that the races should have a purpose.

Tolkein didn't introduce elves to be badass or fun, he created them to be inhumanely virtuous society where the art and joy of craftsmanship is behind every single thing they do. Meanwhile Orcs are their dark opposite, where everything is about brute functionality and progress and multiplying their numbers and dominating more of the world.

Or look at Game of Thrones, where the Giants and the Children are meant to be more innocent natural creatures, but also more at home in the red-in-tooth-and-claw side of nature as well, to reflect on the nature human civilization and it's need for power structures.

Basically, have a point to what you do.

>>19329047
Conan Exiles

>>19330273
You assume the author has literally any say in the matter.

>>19327575
very good. read the sequels only if you're 100% excited about the world.

>mfw reading The Scar
Don't get me wrong because it's a really great setting and builds upon Perdido Street Station I want to find out more about, but is there an actual STORY here?

https://old.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/comments/qfxank/cradle_is_overrated_and_i_dont_get_the_hype/

>>19331047
/sffg/ isn't reddit.

>>19329899
Read Don Quixote. It's essentially a 400 year old satire of fantasy stories

>>19331148
A naive proclamation.

>>19331254
I guess I should say /sffg/ doesn't blatantly crosspost with reddit. If you read an opinion you find interesting elsewhere, then take a minute to process it, reform it in your own words, and type it out. Don't be a bitch who casually links to reddit

You too like the meme faggots, the book four you've been crying about for years is finally out.

>>19330476
>cuckold
>filtered by good writing

What do I need to know before I start Book of the New Sun? I've heard that it is difficult to read through and would require multiple readings to fully appreciate it. Would I have to take notes regarding events in the book? Should I try out wizard knight first to ease into his writing style?

>>19327367
I finished the 5 books of the Book of the New Sun and I'm conflicted on whether to read them again, read what others have written about the books, or read it with Lexicon Urthus in hand. Or, start reading Short and Long Sun? Or read the Soldier books.

>>19331621
Weird hive mind. I read it blindly and it wasn't bad, having previously read Wizard Knight and loving it. If you go straight through it'll be an interesting sci-fi fantasy story, I'm considering starting back at Shadow to read with knowledge of the world and twists looking for things I missed. There's Lexicon Urthus if you find yourself struggling with some stuff, but it's spoilery. Notes weren't really necessary for me but I did all 5 in a row over about 4 weeks so everything stayed pretty fresh. Wouldn't hurt.

>>19327367
Flood, Flood #1, Stephen Baxter
This is a book where the reader probably ought to know what they're getting into beforehand to have suitable expectations. I base this on that 80% of the top 10 most liked reviews are 1 or 2 stars, but only 13% of the 5,079 total ratings are 1 or 2 stars. That seems rather skewed to me. No one else in the /sffg/ group has shelved it as read, so no comparisons there.

The premise is that the oceans are rising ever more every single year. There are reasons why that are given, but they aren't relevant. The purpose of the novel is that it's happening. If you aren't able to suspend your disbelief about how quickly they're rising, which is entirely absurd, then you may not want to read this. If you believe that the ingenuity of the human spirit can overcome anything and everything and require a happy ending, then you'll have to read something else.

I was well into the book before it won me over. There wasn't anything in particular that changed my mind, though over time what I thought about it became more positive even as the events were more negative. It starts rather slow and depending on the reader may remain that way the entire time, which may not enjoyable. For most of the time I thought it was merely ok.

To me this is an observational, or naturalistic, disaster novel. That is to say, many may find it rather boring. Several of the characters have very detached and stoic personalities. In terms of the narrative, they exist to bear witness to the events that occur over the course of decades. For the most part the novel doesn't wallow in misery and anguish, because the characters are apart from these events. They're noted, but not experienced. Overall, the characters go through the end of the world from relatively privileged positions. Despite that, this is a very bleak and depressing novel. If you feel anything for the characters, then by the end you'll likely hurt. I know I did.
Rating: 4/5

>>19327646
>Roman emperor
>Inducing chaos
I think maybe you meant the >h*ly Roman emperor...?

>>19327392
based

>>19329410
>true to form
but 3 in a row (underlord, uncrowned, and wintersteel) were all good ?

>>19331047
goblin hands wrote this post

>>19331749
I worked my way through all the Baxter my library could supply me recently, and really enjoyed the Flood books.

>>19331864
I haven't been interested enough to read anything else by Baxter aside from this, based on what little I've read of his other books. Maybe I'll give some of them another try eventually, some year. I'll be reading Ark very soon and then Landfall after that.

>>19331876
I read Proxima and Ultima and enjoyed them. I read the Manifold series also and enjoyed them - the third book kind of surprised me in how different it felt from the first two. I worked my way through a couple Long Earth books and was thinking of starting that series over.

>>19329096
Been seeing a lot about this one recently. It's pretty old, does it still hold up nowadays?

ISTHAT book a good story?
>>>/tv/158587989

>>19332142
even if works are good, hollywood doesn't care, they just want to cash in on whatever has a perceived pre-established value

Anyone here read this? I thought It was pretty good, but kind of all over the place. Probably missed 7 layers of esoteric references that explain wtf actually happens.

I don't know about you but I'm starting to think that we should make a general of Science Fiction and Fantasy separately.
It can perform better, the discussions would be more focused for the average anon

>>19332244
That way leads only to two dead threads.

>>19331047
did you know 4channerchads hates redditbetas?

>>19332252
NTA, but the sffg is fairly fast and /lit/ is not a slide board yet. Way slower generals can survive on other small boards.
/ffg/ and /sfg/ would probably not be dead.
The only problem is if shitposting would consule the threads easier, due to lower post volume.

>>19332142
I can see it working. Hyperion is at the start basically a really high quality weird sci fi anthology, which work well atm with stuff like Love Death and Robots.
Then the sory threads coalesce for a hype finale, which is good for TV format aswell.
After that it becomes generic SF, but tv series always drop in quality after early seasons and yet retards keep watching so who cares.

>>19331831
Why does he make videos like he's trying to appeal to elementary school kids?

>>19332268
We’re not splitting up this general.

>>19332268
>>19332244
Make both threads. Have three at a time. Your biggest problem is convincing people to go elsewhere. You'd have to have no one creating this thread at the least. That seems very unlikely. Those who create the generals like this tend to have obsessive tendencies.

>>19332285
Because he's mentally an elementary school kid

>>19332296
Given that this is 90% a fantasy general one could make a Science Fiction general and see if that one flies on its own.
I think the sffg wont go anywhere either, generals indeed attract weird pseudo jannies who are probably slightly mentally ill

>>19332321
If it's only 10%, then there's really no reason to create a separate thread because there's clearly no interest.

>>19332321
>Given that this is 90% a fantasy general
is it? i don't come too often lately but i think it oscillates a lot

King.

Simple as.

>>19332429
What are some chad scifi books

I only read Bakker because of his beautiful blonde hair. If it was a shade darker I wouldn't touch him.

>>19332469
Those are fantasy books though.

>>19332485
That's why I'm asking

>>19332469
Books are inherently for betas.

>>19332469
nothing comes to mind honestly. there are plenty of action centered novels, like the 3 Halo books by Eric Nylund or 40k i guess. good reads but not really high literature

>>19332457
What do you sneed.

I'm reading The Black Company, and I gotta ask... is mai waifu Soulcatcher in the rest?

>>19332469
>chinkshit

>>19332572
She comes back. Eventually.

I just finished the First Black Company novel and loved it. Looks like their are 7 books in the series if you include a spin off are they all recommended?

>>19332609
Read them and find out.

Why did Navani betray everyone?

>>19332572
How would this happen when she got her head cut off?

>>19332607
Fuck yeah.
>>19332618
She's pretty strong though.

>>19332609
The first one is the best, there's a drop to the second and then another drop (not as far) to the third. After that I've read the fourth, which is around about on the same level. I expect they probably sit at the same ebb from now on?

>>19332617
Because she’s a woman

>>19331771
Uncrowned was too rushed and should have been two books instead. Instead neither the training nor the tournament got enough focus.

>>19332244
>>19332296
You sci-fi cucks have tried multiple times over the years, to establish a separate thread and it always fails. I believe there have been 4 different attempts to make a sci-fi general. You're not the first person to think this, you're only the most recent newfag to try and fail.

>>19328026
No that was me. And it's Shadowmarch.

>>19332469
no book for chads was written after 1970

>>19332747
It's the same person and just shitposting

Dune's on sale because of the shitty new movie. Should I get that or Hyperion first?

fantasynumales sucks hard

>>19332776
Flip a coin they are both good if you just saw the movie go with Dune

>>19332781
what

Is Earthsea good, bros?

If not, what are some alternatives?

>>19331047
They fellate Will the way this general fellates Bakker and Sanderson.

>>19331621
Just finished shadow last week. It wasn't difficult. Most of the "complicated" or "big" words or sections of prose are just worldbuilding pieces that you can put together through context. Even if you don't fully understand everything, it's still easy enough to follow the story and know what severian is on about. You likely won't find any difficult "real world" words like you might find in books from the 1800-1900s. It's not that type of difficulty.

[Spoiler] anyone have that meme with severian, "urth aint free" that a version of that bakker meme?" [/spoiler]

>>19331771
Uncrowned has been the most vocal I've seen anybody against any of his books, even amidst all the censorship and down arrows.

>>19332469
The one im writing desu

I'm finally getting some time after 4 days at Les Utopiales...
Bought Carbon & Silicium (picrel), it won the graphic novel prize, it looks kino ngl (ik it's /co/ shit)

On an unrelated note, does anyone have modern cyberpunk recs? All the "cyberpunk" shit I see is some 80s outdated shit

>>19332907
Cyberpunk is long dead, that's why it's all from the 80s.

>>19332914
Long live post-cyperpunk!

>>19332914
it's not dead, we live in it. But it shouldn't prevent authors to explore more extreme settings, I'm sure there's still some cyberpunk out here

>>19332926
I'm pretty sure the post-cyberpunk, or at least the post-post-cyberpunk, is the thrillers and shit as read by the mainstream popular audience. The technology in the world now used by Jack Reachers and the like, I'm guessing, is comparable to the mass surveillance systems of science fiction past.

Do I read Metro 2033 or the Expanse next?

>>19332941
You play Metro 2033

>>19332941
How should we know? Stop being such an indecisive little bitch and pick for yourself.

>>19332941
Metro 2033 bc I don't know the other one
>>19332946
after reading the book

Are there any /sffg/ books sympathetic to christianity in a way similar to pic related? I.e., less so in a bible-thumping way, and more like a Joshuah Graham from New Vegas way?

>>19332799
Daniel Greene loves this series!

>>19333071
You mean explicit, actual real-world Christianity transposed directly into another setting, correct? Not pure allegorical facsimiles like Tolkien or analogs with the names changed like Tad Williams? Does it have to be cosmologically true in-universe, or is the actual reality of God/Jesus/angels/heaven/etc in the setting not important as much as the believers therein being portrayed positively?

>>19333191
>>19333196
dangerously based posts

>>19333215
lmfao, I didn't know that someone had already posted cute animalos

>>19333215

>>19331749
I forgot to put the year again, 2008. Seems I keep forgetting the minor details. The formatting also really depends on how it's being viewed and with what.

>>19333211
Any examples you've got anon. Lets hear 'em.

>>19333071
Vinland Saga
Not a joke

>>19332799
Yes very good also very short. Skip her feminist rants inbetween chapters if you get that version with the pretty cover
>>19332776
Doesn't matter both are great.
Hyperion because its less flavor of the month

>>19333322
Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy (quadrilogy) which I already referred to earlier in this thread has what is explicitly the Catholic Church with the serial numbers filed off. Instead of Jesus Christ the Son of God is named Usires Aedon, instead of the cross it's the Hanging Tree (though he was nailed to it), instead of "our savior" it's "our ransomer", etc. It's never stated whether it's real in-universe or not, but it's portrayed rather positively, but like everything else in the series, ineffectually.

David Eddings' Tamuli and Elenium also have a not remotely subtle version of the Catholic Church (again portrayed mostly positively) except this time it's made very explicit that the Elene God and the Elene religion is real, more powerful than all the other gods by far (which also exist despite the Elene religion denying them), and created the world and so on. He's a bit stuck-up and dour according to the minor goddess Aphrael which the protagonist accidentally and unwillingly winds up fathering with his queenly wife, but she maintains that she still loves him (capital-G God) and vice versa.

A short novel by Holly Lisle called "Minerva Wakes" makes a passing reference that the average suburban American conception of God is more or less correct but that there are also an infinity of other universes where all the other religions we know about (and the ones we don't) are also correct.

Ironically the famous "pagan" icon of Germanic mythological literature, Beowulf, is keen to explain that Grendel is a descendant of Cain, and is punished by God for his transgressions.

Wayne Barlowe wrote the novels "God's Demon" and "The Heart of Hell", which depict what is more or less the Christian version of hell existing in a fantastically grimdark fashion, but turns hell into a noblebright setting by making it clear that the existence of Heaven makes the demons (that is, fallen angels) keen to reform themselves against Beelzebub's will in the pursuit of returning to the loving embrace of their creator. This is by far the most poignant of the settings I've listed despite the seemingly irrepressibly grim setting, and also my most highly recommended.

>>19333470
There's no existing Celtic or Germanic stories and myths that weren't written by Christians. The Norse sagas, as we know them today, were written down by monks and the like from oral tradition.

>>19333572
controversial opinion but writing is gay. Most of my cultural heritage is oral only and I like it that way

>>19333572
I know that, but Beowulf is the most famous example of "pagan" literature. It's pretty much the first thing everybody thinks of when it comes to ancient Germanic religion despite the fact it was written by Christian Anglo-Saxons in the 9th century.

>>19333470
There's also Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy which has the Church of the Redeemer, based around a martyred prophet, and it has a lot of the superficial trappings of the Catholic church. Though I don't recall if the Redeemer was explicitly the son of god, the parallels to Christ are obvious. In that series though, the god they worship is very much real, and performs miracles through his chosen prophets, but they are also somewhat constrained in how they can act, hence the reliance on certain people as divine instruments.

>>19327575
I really liked the lynch movie so I looked into the books and now have no desire to read them. Shit gets ultra cringey, the author never finished the series, and his talentless spawn is still killing it while shitting on his legacy to this very day.

The consensus among fans seems to be either
>A: Quit after Messiah to finish Paul's story
Or
>B: Quit after God Emperor to finish Leto's story

After that point shit just gets even more retarded

>>19330238
Wtf lol he's a Mormon. What a tool. Mormonism is retarded but either stick to your principals completely or include risque and violent sections. What a cuck.

>>19333703
based

https://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/84544-unpopular-brandon-sanderson-opinions/
>only 16 pages

>>19332799
It's fucking boring. I could see the appeal if you read it when it came out and we're like 16. Literally no point in reading it now. All about simple archetypes, yet they are never built on metaphor. Straight in your face. It's like she had just read Jung before writing it. And I love Jung.

>>19327608
Based mst poster
>>19327646
Just go watch anime
>>19328226
HE WALKS AMONG US
>>19328996
I'm reading the first draft. It's better than his final product and it actually ends
>>19329899
Read the short fiction of Roger Zelazny
>>19331831
Chinkshit is for bugmen and has no place in sffg
>>19330238
>>19333703
Sanderfat churns out woke vomit for trannies and manchildren. There is no value whatsoever in anything he has ever written.
>>19332799
If you like competently written antiwhite propaganda you will probably enjoy it. If you have functional braincells you will find it a waste of time

ahhhhhhhhhhahahah i'm on drugs i feels do good. i cant read but damn it feels great right now looooooooooooooooooontrinooooooool

>>19333930
based dead notelf ash anon

What cool powerset should my MC have? Necromancy + phantom sword? Skills + lots of general magic?

>>19333995
Writers with eighth-grader syndrome get the rope.

>>19334021
I don't care.

>>19333470
>>19333322
oh by the way Dune maintains that Christianity in only a slightly modified form exists 10000 years in the future, they even have an "Orange Catholic Bible"

Too much of a grug brain to relate to gifted kid problems, I like the parts where they say kike and nigger. I was expecting this to be YA in a YA way, but it's definitely deeper than that. Looking forward to Speaker For The Dead.

What are the best Keith Laumer books

>>19329047
Heroes of Might and Magic III
Dungeon Master
X-Com
Secret of Evermore

>>19329171
underrated chad post

Anybody read any Henry Kuttner? What’s good by him?

>>19333995
>What cool powerset should my MC have?
Curved Phallus + Rape Rage

>>19334183
I've only read Elak a long time ago and wasn't too impressed.

>>19334197
nice

>>19334210
this is me after I wake up from rage and find poop on my phallus (it's curved)

Tolkien explicitly said that he meant for the dwarves (or dwarfs) to represent the Jews, and he meant it in a positive way…that the dwarves were a hardworking and industrious people who had suffered greatly and were fighting to reclaim their home. Smaug on the other hand, was meant to represent nothing more than the greed and sloth associated with the modern industrial world, and is based largely on the dragon in Beowulf and Fafnir and perhaps to a lesser extent Saint George’s foe.

Should I read stranger in a strange land, the chronicles of amber, or foundation next?

>>19334224
How about you decide for yourself?

>>19334224
Or the left hand of darkness

>>19334218
its da jooooosss

I’ve heard this is way better and deeper than Ender’s Game. True?

>>19334224
>>19334233
Or Hyperion

What's some good science fantasy with a protagonist who is royalty

>>19334270
Dune

>>19334280
I don't want to read Dune sorry, I don't want to feel like a normie chasing what's trendy now

>>19334284
Can tell you’re real serious about sci fi

>>19334289
I don't like sci fi either, after my heart got broken with the EMdrive I'm not interested in it at all

>>19334298
I’m sorry you can’t read

>>19334284
you're uniroincally just as bad as them, letting the trends dictate what you are willing to read

>>19334321
People love an excuse not to read a book. Reading probably hurts his brain.

>>19334302
I can read but my brain comprehension isn't so good, I'm very confused
>>19334321
Ok I lied...
I finished the first book of Dune last night and was thinking of what I should read after I finish the series, please forgive me
I know I'm a plebian sheep

>>19334284
I read the first 100 pages years ago and cringed so hard I dropped it and never returned.

>>19334375
I liked it and didn't cringe but I read it after seeing the movie :(

>>19334417
Bakkerchads socializing after a long time of perpetually re-reading TSA in their damp room.

Is Terry Pratchett any good or is he just a dime store Douglas Adams?

What are the most absolute worst, most dogshit cliches you find in fantasy or sci-fi that's enough to make you actually throw down the book and never finish it.

>The Great Houses

>>19334603
b-but i love great houses

>>19334603
I just hate epic battles, cool heroes, fantasy races, and enjoyable stories

Is this any good? I've heard conflicting opinions on this.

>>19334649
Daniel Greene says it's great

>>19334649
>R.F. Kuang
Obligatory.
>black and/or female writer
I do not read that book.

>>19334603
It's not enough to make me drop a book but I've come to really despise mortals larping as gods or trying to make themselves gods. Ancient advanced civilizations called horseshit like eternal/primordial/precursor make me want to throw up

>>19334649
more like the poopy war

>reading the Gaunt's Ghosts series and loving it
>wow this has been fantastic so far time to read the final arc I hope its a great conclusion to the series
>so unfathomably shit and cringe compared to earlier entries I can't even believe the same guy wrote it

Dan Abnett fuck you fucking nigger its gonna take years to retcon the last 4 books from my brain you hack faggot

>>19330907
it definitely takes about a third or even half of the novel for the "main plot" to begin, and even then it's just the opening move. the scar is more about the setting and I imagine being a nautical person adds immensely to it.

>>19334649
just people jacking off to the fact it's asian

>>19331655
Re-read the first book, and if nothing changes congratulate yourself on being galaxy brain or retardus fantasticus and move on.

>>19334224
>if you want to nerd out
Foundation
>if you want to giggle at cuck jesus
Stranger in a Strange Land
>if you want to dnf some pretentious boomer shit
Amber

>>19334649
Why don't you read and find out by yourself?

>>19335119
People in this general don’t read. Except for that name gag, but he’s the exception.

>>19335132
I read progression fantasy!

>>19335136
>progression fantasy!
Don't know what that is.

>>19335136
I swear, I feel like Fantasy is just getting more and more gimmicks

>>19335173
It's a changing Market and it shouldn't come as a surprised.

Side note:

What video games gave you the best feeling of exploring a Fantasy world?

>>19335184
There’s a fine line, and I seriously think what’s in right now barely counts as Fantasy.

>>19335188
Dragon Age.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

>>19335188
Baldur’s gate.

>>19335188
Dragon's Dogma

>>19335202
Sad we will never get a sequel or play the MMO of that game.

>>19335202
Hated that game. Tried to be a magick archer and shit was hard a fuck. Had to minmax and shit.

>>19335188
Final fantasy 7. Magictek setting should be normalize.

>>19335218
The remake or the old version?

>>19335220
Remake

New thread
>>19335225

>>19335188
Tibia