/lit/ - Literature

>>19419514
I’m liking these post-apocalypse images, that said, I cannot say the same with any novels are post-apocalyptic. Outside of Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road, most of those have protagonist who are irreconcilable good in a world that is so often characterized by its ruthless behavior and Social Darwinistic competition with the survivors.

>Check catalog
>3 /sffg/ threads up

Are you fucking retarded?

It will never cease to amaze me how GoT went from an absolute cultural juggernaut that ruled 2010s culture to a show that everybody pretends didn't even exist. It doesn't even get a legendary reputation like LOST did. It was ahead of the curve, and for whatever reason, it will be forgotten to the passage of time in the following decades.

What are you guys currently reading? I’m reading Embassytown. With Revelation Space, The Diamond Age and Snow Crash being the next few books I’ll read after Embassytown.

>>19419764
>What are you guys currently reading?
Creatures of Light and Darkness. As for what I’ll read next after that? Belgariad vols 1 and 2, since I just recently bought them.

any advice wise anons :(

>>19419764
Last Legends of Earth. Afterwards I might read some more Vance, or maybe something non-fiction

>>19419764
>Embassytown
Good shit, but revelations and story developments happen way too late. I gotta had world building to Mieville, though. It's so amazingly weird.

>>19419550
sounds like you just want edgy protagonists, though. people who would be the first to die in such scenarios.

>>19419764
I just got done finishing reading The Library at Mount Char. I’ll have to wait a bit to read the next book on my list, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Which was recommended to me in the last thread, so I have high expectations for it.

>>19419853
I don’t want edgy protagonist, I merely want the protagonist to be morally grey in a situation that’s gone completely to shit.

>>19419764
Just started Wheel of Time. Don’t know what I’ll read next.

>>19419514
Just finish the first three novels of the Dresden Files and how the fuck did Jim Butcher ever get published in the first place? It’s one of the worst Urban Fantasy series I’ve ever read. How do people even managed to read such garbage in the first place? Not even going to bother reading the rest, dropping that shit to read Ecce and Old Earth.

>>19419764
Just finished The Blade Itself. After I'm done with the trilogy I'll be starting The Wizard & The Knight. I've heard great things about Gene Wolfe's books and I thought I'd give this one a try before I dive into BoTNS.

>>19419550
>if I type this in as verbose a way as possible everyone will think I'm smart on this gayporn/incest/black racemixing Jewish shill/frog picture image board

>>19419961
>I absolutely have to be different and special so I don't like morally exceptional characters I want morally despicable characters oh and also guess what you know Shane in the walking dead that would totally be me because it's all about survival
Jesus I bet you hang your toilet paper backwards just to feel special

>>19419764
Been reading some Thomas Ligotti ever since some anon recommended him a few threads back. I would recommend The Last Feast of Harlequin for pure, undiluted Lovecraftian kino. A shame he isn’t talked about here more often, very under appreciated in his craft.

>>19419764
>What are you guys currently reading?
Chasm City by Alistair Reynolds, but I’m almost done with that. As for what I’ll read next, it will have to be Viriconium by M. John Harrison

How is this.

>>19419764
nice. I've only read The City and the City by Mieville but I do own Embassytown so that's on my list. I'm on Children of Dune (book 3) right now. Fuck it, I'm reading all the Frank books.

>>19420371
You should read Cradle.

>>19420490
I hear it's a western take on a chink genre, so any chink books I should read first?

>>19420371
Why are people in /sffg/ so into this shit? Time to grow up and read more mature fantasy/sci-fi

>>19420551
>more mature fantasy

>>19418750
Oh, buying books is fine
I just want to hassle finns

>>19419514
i want to give Stephen King a try what's his best work?

Wondering if one of you could help me recall something.

Im trying to remember the name of a book. It's associated with Gen Wolfe in someway. I think he praised it or gave it publicity or something. Not Vance, I think its something somewhat contemporary.

It's title is something like The Wizard Knight. Obviously too that. That Wizard's Student, The Mages Apprentice, etc. Some sort of generic fantasy title, I think. Anyone have any idea what I'm talking about.

>>19420897
Assassin's Apprentice?

>>19420922

Thanks, but I don't think that's it. Im not seeing the Wolfe connection and I know that part of it was pretty prevalent upon googling. It may not even have a 'student' connotation, that's my bad for leaning heavy on that.

>>19419764
China Miéville is a commie faggot therefore hes injecting commie fagotry into your brain. Soon you will be running after BBC

>>19420897
>It's associated with Gen Wolfe in someway.
>It's title is something like The Wizard Knight
How about The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe?

>>19420985

I just meant it’s in the same vein. I know you’re just busting my balls tho

QRD on sci-fi set on a McKendree/O'Neill cylinder specifically? what is the usual plot etc etc?

>>19420897
Assassin's Apprentice?

I finished Rise of Hyperion. Not as good as the first which I already had mixed feelings about. Mainly it felt like there was a lot of filler, you could have told the same story in 300 or so pages with how little plot progression there is for the majority of the novel, everything gets unsatisfactorily resolved in the last 30 or so pages. And I'm never going to read the Endymion sequels so I read plot summaries and they seem completely unrelated to the first two.

Fun! Maybe a little too fast in places, but fun.

>>19421291
fucking based af. didn't expect to see that here.

>>19419805
stop getting sisters that are whores

I'm going to post this in every thread

>>19421319
i'm going to sneed this in every chuck

Anyone know any good vampire fiction along the lines fo Fevere Dreame? I have a sudden urge for that sort of thing

>>19419680
>completely forgotten
>people won't shut the fuck up about how it's totally super seriously forgotten
Sure, buddy

>>19421706
Avatar 2 coming any day now!

>>19421706
That's the only context it's ever brought up in, unless someone mentions infamously bad endings. The GoT dream is dead.

>>19421706
It went from a culture juggernaut where parents would name their children after characters, to nothing. That’s not a good sign.

Has anyone read Marlon James' 'Black Leopard, Red Wolf' ? How was it?

>>19422050
People being disappointed in something is not the same thing as being forgotten. In many ways it is the furthest thing from it. Nobody is going to forget how shit it was.

>>19419514
The Way of Kings, The Stormlight Archive #1 - Brandon Sanderson (2010)

The Way of Kings is the tenth Sanderson novel I've read and the twenty-seventh work overall. As with his other works, the writing is serviceable and meant for wide appeal. This isn't meant to be read for its prose. This is one of the longest books I've read where I didn't mind that it was overly long and meandering. It wouldn't suffer much from losing hundreds of pages. I wouldn't call it engaging so much as enticing. For some there may be insufficient plot progression for well over a thousand pages.

The Way of Kings is one of the most videogame inspired books I've ever read. There are many books that are closer to videogames, but they're emulating rather than being inspired. The book is completely filled with the logic, character archetypes, and tropes of RPGs. There's especially a lot that seems to be from Final Fantasy. I haven't the slightest problem with that. I love RPGs. If you don't think you'd like a videogame aesthetic, then this may not be for you, though clearly many people do like it. However, that may also limit the overall appeal of the series.

In terms of the three primary viewpoint characters I liked Dalinar, Shallen, and Kaladin in that order. I don't like Kaladin even though he's by far the most popular character. The narrative arc for his character development seems obvious. His archetype is one that I dislike. I hope I'm wrong. I didn't really care for his childhood chapters, but that's more a general issue than a specific one with dual timelines.

The book ends by tying off its immediate plot threads, so it may be possible to satisfied with only reading this one, but that seems strongly doubtful unless you're the sort of person who'd be fine with only finishing the first disc of a ten disc game and not playing any of its downloadable content. There's a lot of random lore and references that seem to be the narrative equivalent of backtracking in a game to earlier areas later on when the characters have more resources. Probably some stuff won't make any sense for a few books at least. There was a lot more focus on being in singular locations for characters than I expected there would be. An adventure novel this is not.

The Cosmere excites people too much regardless of the valance of their feelings. Its supporters think of it as a puzzle and want every possible morsel. The detractors dislike that they feel forced to read more than they want to get the entire story. To me the Cosmere is a marketing ploy masquerading as bonus content. Maybe eventually it'll be relevant when/if there's significantly more crossover content. When/if that happens there'll probably be a lore book published detailing all the connections for more profit, called something like The Cosmere Codex.

This is a solid fantasy novel inspired by videogame RPGs that puts easily accessible fun above all else while providing an illusion of depth.
Rating: 4/5

>>19422236
Musings Part 1/2:
And now for the stuff that I had to exclude or otherwise wasn't suitable for the main post.

Brandon Sanderon's Favorite Videogame Franchises. There's also a youtube video about them.
https://mailchi.mp/brandonsanderson/newsletter-summer2020-101412

Someone else who agrees
https://www.tor.com/2017/09/27/brandon-sandersons-cosmere-is-surprisingly-similar-to-final-fantasy/

It's difficult for me to imagine the mindset of someone reading this as their first novel by Sanderson, let alone one of their first fantasy novels, or even as one of a few books they've ever read.

There are epigraphs, but I disagree with how they're used. Even if they were meant as ambient pieces, I don't think they work that well. I suppose he had to get the information conveyed in some way, but surely there could've been a better way.

The bigger and stronger the monster is, the bigger and better the gemstone they have inside them, which are worth more money and are more useful. The specifics of most anything are probably best left unexamined and not given critical thought despite being thought of as "hard fantasy". It's one of the various concepts I'd call videogame logic.

As for being anime, or calling it a shonen series, that isn't the case aside from the crossover that comes from the relationship between JRPGs and anime/manga. Sanderson has professed that he doesn't have interest in either and I think that's evident.

During a climatic boss fight scene I began hearing the Final Fantasy VII boss fight theme song "Fight On!" and imagined a short cinematic introduction. That may be because I recently finished Final Fantasy VII Remake.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_imagery

There's a chapter that's entirely about quantum mechanics which is evident by the real world experiments they're performing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measurement_problem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wigner%27s_friend

I have to wonder if the eye color was based on
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Elliott#First_exercise_involving_eye_color
There's also the highly questionable idea of personality differences related to eye color. I had a school teacher who had a conspiracy theory about eye color and seemed to have developed a persecution complex about it.

Certain characters remind me of Planeswalkers, Sanderson wrote a Magic: The Gathering novel, or the ascended in cultivation novels, or really just https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exaltation_(Mormonism)

Shardplate is basically power armor from Fallout
There are various renamed ethical systems.
The Alethi ideas about gender and sex are real world cultures exaggerated.
Does there really need to be spren (spirits) for everything? What is this? Animism? Shinto? It goes beyond both.
I initially thought the gemstones would be similar to the gemstone magic in R.A. Salvatore's DemonWars Saga.
I hope to see more magic used as technology in this series.

>>19422245
Musings Part 2/2

Excerpts & Responses
No plot spoilers.

>Reading was an unseemly trait in a man.
Men don't read. That's why women now dominate books in the real world.

>feminine arts: music, painting, writing, logic, and science.
Women are for culture. Men are for practicality.

>I haven’t the patience for a simperer.
NO SIMPS ALLOWED
Here's a review of a different Sanderson wrote that I had a lot of fun writing about that this reminded me about, especially the spoilered part: >>/lit/thread/S14689093#p14701812

>Nine out of ten Soulcasters were capable of a few limited transformations: creating water or grain from stone; forming bland, single-roomed rock buildings out of air or cloth.
Water and grain from stone? MANNA! Rock buildings out of air? Literally incredible.

>A greater one...could effectuate any transformation. Literally turn any substance into any other one.
Philosopher's stones!

>Ten Essences
It may just be a coincidence, but it reminds me of the "Sefirot meaning emanations, are the 10 attributes/emanations in Kabbalah" that's not uncommonly used in RPGs and some Japanese media.

>Hoid
Sanderson's reason for his existence is amusing.

>spanreed
Quantum entangled rubies? Aw yeah.

>...you are a self-righteous prude...But you come by it honestly.
Is this a self-description?

>Failure is preferable to winning through unjust means. Protecting ten innocents is not worth killing one. In the end, all men die.
Trolley problem solved.

>you might just have cracked one of the most perplexing—and ancient— mysteries
Rosetta stone moment was neat.

/sffg/ Consensus of 482 members
5: 59
4: 35
3: 7
2: 1
1: 0
Unrated: 10
Didn't Finish: 1
To Read: 51
Currently Reading: 3
Reviews: 9
Total: 167/482, 34.6% have shelved it in some way.
There aren't any blank accounts aside from the admin one, though several have very few books listed, so the actual percent may be higher.

Way of Kings has 102 ratings by members and Goodreads has 366,363 ratings.
Game of Thrones has ratings by ~150 members and Goodreads has 2,168,202 ratings.
Maybe I should look into similar more to see which books that the average member /sffg/ member is much more likely to read than the general sff audience.
Maybe it's not really much of a correlation at all.

>>19422236
>>19422245
>>19422249
Once again, you’re the only reason why I even bother coming back to this general. Thanks for the review.

>>19419764
The Sword of the Lictor

>>19422236
This is not an analysis or a critique just a summary of the book

>>19422313
Well, technically you don't have to come back to the general if that's all you want.
>>/lit/?task=search2&search_tripcode=SFFG.n1h7M
The above link would suffice for that.

>>19422236
>>19422249
>>19422249

Unironically take your meds.

>>19422329
I agree. It's not meant to be either. I call what I do "write-ups". Not even reviews. They're more reaction pieces than anything else. If you expect more than that, than you'll have to look towards more professional, academic, or at least hobbyist sources.

Why was a post about JRR Tolkien and Gene Wolfe deleted?

>>19422344
While saying you’re the only reason why Income here might be a bit of an exaggeration, nonetheless, whenever you post here, it’s always worth the effort to wait. That and there’s occasionally other anons who effortposts.

>>19422458
Thanks, I appreciate it.

>>19422236
I thought it was incredibly slow and boring
maybe a 2

>>19419805
fuck, that must be horrible
being european and your father having no control over his property I mean
I'd suggest Islam but I know europeans don't think too highly of Islam

>>19422584
A single member did rate it a two, maybe you.
That's an entirely valid opinion. I've no doubt that I would've felt that way if I didn't find it so comfortable.

I was going to read the 3rd book of the Dandelion Dynasty next, since it recently released, but I don't feel like it yet. Instead the next couple books I write about will be those that I finish from the Goodreads Choice Awards. I may end up not finishing any though. I've already briefly tried to read all 40.

Best Fantasy:
Women: 19
Men: 1
Read: 0
To Read: 2

Best Science Fiction
Men: 12
Women: 8
Read: 2
To Read: 0

How many years will it be until the SF ratio is the same as F?

and the YA SFF category is of course all women and I've neither read nor plan to read any of them that I've looked at.

>>19420299
>Thomas Ligotti
Is he actually good? I know some anon around October was recommending him, but I don't know where to start with him.

>>19422236
Weird to see an unbiased review about this book, considering this is /sffg/. It’s a nice change of pace.

>>19422236
Oops, I I typed "valance" rather than "valence". Oh well.

Was it kino?

>>19422866
I've read way less this year than past years but She Who Became the Sun is the only book on there that I've read that I think is good, everything else I can point to better books from this year left off. Might be just my narrower reading but this looks to be the worst year ever for good books being on there.
Not gender specific either, there's good female authored books from this year left off.
Like if you want to be hyperspecific I can even name a better gay romance genre fiction book from this year than winter's orbit

>>19423432
That's just how it is I suppose.
I've read 11 novels published in 2021.
Even so, there's only two on there that I would care to have on there that aren't. The others I read would be fine to have on there, but I don't think they'd be worthy nominees. That's how it goes with the most any award though really.

>>19423539
I'm not one of those freaks who gets up in arms about the hugos or whatever but it's just annoying when you see what was once upon a time supposed to a community site just bigging up whatever big publisher and known name author slop has come out that year

Bros I don't know if I'm autistic or if it's just my anxiety talking, but when I read a book for many hours I keep forcing myself to replay what happened in my mind, just to make sure I actually read it, kind of. retard thinking "Hm did I really read the book? so what happened when such a character met such a character in such a place....."

I can't stop doing this, does this happen to you?

>>19423554
Sounds like some form of obsessive compulsive behavior.

>>19423539
>>19423549
So, is this astrosurf or anything? Because some of the reviews are less than stellar.

>>19419514
You guys ever buy those movie/game novelizations? Been thinking of buying the interstellar novel, Halo novels, and Resident Evil novels.

>>19423835
It's a mystery how Goodreads/Amazon determines them.

Where do I find more novels like this?
Any recommendations?

>>19423869
It probably doesn’t matter if we knew how they did it.

>>19423878
Have you read the other books? The sequels are even better.

>>19423904
Yeah, oh well.

Damn, we had a hell of a run without the bakkerfags.

>>19423835
Everything about book sales has always been astroturf when you're talking about top tier publisher, distributor, or best seller lists.

>>19423916
I did read the entire trilogy. A friend recommended it to me.
The Darkness that Comes Before.
The Prophet Warrior
The Thousand Fold Thought.

>A Canticle for Leibowitz
This is kino

>>19419680
probably would help if Martin actually put out a book. Kind of hard to rehash the same shit for 20 years.

>>19423951
There is another series set after the trilogy. It's called the Aspect-Emperor and it's four books long.

>>19420897
The Book of Knights?

The Wheel of Time show is kektacular

>>19422139
I've read it, it was actually quite nice. The world building was better than most and the plot & characters were different but exiting. Definitely got me hooked on the series and getting the next book whenever it comes out next year. I've actually seen it mentioned here before and everyone whose read it here have liked it.

>>19424266
the diversity was very diverse... least they got the trolloc's right..

name
one
n
e
good
o
o
d
LIT-RPG?

>>19424813
Worth the Candle

>>19425020
it goes off the rails when it tries to be inception

>>19419809
HOLY SHIT IS THAT LAST LEGENDS OF EARTH BY ATTANASIO
>1 day old
FUCK
IS SOMEONE READING RADIX AFTER SIX FUCKING YEARS OF ME TRYING TO FIND ANYBODY WHO READ ANY RADIX

>>19424813
By definition LitRPGs are not good. Have you considered playing video games or watching anime instead? Reading real books might not be for you.

>>19426206
Not same anon but I'm already tired of anime and video games. So give me lit that'll keep me interested in books.

ok, so I started reading this. Took a while to set everything up. I understand. Finally the Merlin character shows himself after much much set up. And I think the story is finally going to begin in earnest. But then the very next chapter is the author droning on and on about all the world's countries and their politics, and the things they export/import, and their military power, and the exact amount of technology they have. Just blah, blah, blah about shit I don't care about yet. TELL A STORY.

The next couple chapters better be good, or I'm dropping it.

Any recommendations for books that have or about evil wizards/warlocks?

>>19420110
The Eye of the World -> The Great Hunt

>>>/tv/159385395

going on a road-trip soon. anyone got audiobook recommendations? prefer something suited for the format, i.e. not super dense/literary

>>19426615
The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow

https://locusmag.com/2021/11/sfwa-and-lackey-statements/

>>19426615
Wheel of Time so you can shit on it

>>19426408

>>19420897
The once and future king?

>>19422236
>The Way of Kings, The Stormlight Archive #1 -
Have you read The Final Empire ? Can any anon let me know which game its reads as?

>>19426989
>Can any anon let me know which game its reads as?
What do you mean by this?

>>19426999
sffganon say The way of Kings reads like an RPG akin to Final Fantasy. That kind of way. Is it similar to the Wiedzmin series?

>>19425020
Got this shit recommended to me by some friends. Read about a third of it, but I just cannot anymore. Mary Sue protag, flat badly written characters, plot slower than a fried snail, and endless wankery over how """rational""" everyone is being. Why do people like this?

>>19427131
Thoughts on Phantastes?

>>19426989
Yes, I've read the first Mistborn trilogy. That felt much less like a videogame to me. It's more of a standard fantasy that focuses a lot on its magic system. Really the only one of his works that I've read that felt as such are Way of Kings and the novelization of a videogame he wrote.

>>19427149
The /sffg/ consensus on The Final Empire is also far less favorable. Stormlight Archive may be only his series that's particularly well-received here.

>>19427149
Oh, right, he's also had some short fiction that's very videogame like, but that was just bad.

>>19427135
Didn't like it. Too ethereal, if you catch my meaning. Apparently it's crammed with references to Romantic era poetry but I don't care about any of that stuff.

>>19420897
The Sorcerer's House?

>>19424813
Necromancer of Seoul Station
Azarinth Healer
Warlock of The Magus World

>>19422236
Your score is terribly at odds with what little you actually wrote about the quality of the writing and storytelling, even if you like "videogamey" stuff. Can't believe some retard "only" visits these threads for such incoherent tripe. Must be some vacuous sandersonstan desperate for validation of his dumb reading habits.

What are some very overrated 'must reads'?

Best book without a strong female presence?

Based on the interests of people in this thread, and that the catalog doesn't fly like /pol/, I'm interested in what you all think about my novel, set in 2087. Quick excerpts:

-------
Trump Greogry flexed his corded muscles. Muscles honed from a lifetime of fighting. Though he had been born after the 2nd American Civil War, he had fought hard for the Imperium in both Asia and Mexico.

Growing up in a time of cataclysmic struggle, a clash of civilizations the likes of which the world had never seen before, had sharpened him. The generation before him had grown up soft, sipping soi lattes and playing vidya. They would be children until the age of twenty-six. Unable to fight, unable to care for themselves, they would consume far more than create.

This culture of moral degeneracy had led to physical degeneracy. Most couldn't pass the modern basic Trump Imperium fitness standards for fourteen year olds: a one plate (135lbs) standing military press, a two plate (225lbs) bench press, a three plate (315lbs) squat, and a four plate (405lbs) dead lift, all for five repetitions. Trump Gregory had reached these standards a week before turning 13, but of course, he grew up in a very different world.

He had fought hard for 10 years in Mexico. The Imperium had pushed as far south as the Panama Canal- and then disaster had struck.

A whole cadre of High Ashkenazim Warfiends, some 7,000, augmented by cybernetics and the Kabbalahic Probabilistic Trance, had landed, backed up by 10,000 elite Jews to lead the armies. Under the coordination of the latter, were 150,000 Communist and Antifa special forces, traitorous Whites with black hearts.

Then there was what soldiers like Gregory had called "The Unbreakable Wave." The breeding pits of Africa had gone silent after the carpet bombing campaigns of 2056 laid waste to the continent. Tungsten rods from space, hydrogen bombs, small meteorites pulled out of nearby space, and antimatter cluster bombs had racked the continent. It was a last desperate move to save Europe from being overwhelmed. And for awhile, it seemed to work.

Pt. 1

>>19428163
What the Imperium did not know then is that the Jews had burrowed deep, deep underground. Beneath the Earth, unscathed by the Trumpian bombardment, whole pit cities filled with roided up Blacks, breeding constantly to the sound of trap music, and trained to a furious edge in combat remained. What these new soldiers lacked in tactics or ability to execute strategy, they made up for in sheer numbers and brutality.

And so Operation Flesh Golem had begun. Wave after black wave crashing against the Legions of the Imperium. The wave broke around the brave Legions, iron in their resolve, but flooded around them, ever forward, swamping them. The Unbreakable Wave. And striding above the Wave, the Ashkenazim Warfiends, hanging in thin air above the crowds, immune to rockets and jets, protected by Kabbalahic plasma shields, speaking unspeakable sorceries and firing down fusion beams to break holes in the Imperium lines for the Black hordes. It took over a decade, but the Legions were pushed back. Now, only the Great Trump Wall held back the Wave, mighty in solid gold splendor.

But today, Trump Gregory was dealing with politics. Some in the Texas border states questioned to loyalty of those few Black Legionairres, the ones who had been granted the legal status of Basedblackmen.

----

...Excerpt 2

Legate Trump Gregory lay prone, silent in the early dawn light of Mexico, a gray rock amongst the dry brown grass for the camouflage of his armor. The surrounding chaparral was washed to a uniform red brown by the sun slowly cresting the hill ahead of him to the east.

To be a soldier of the Imperium and on this side of The Great Trump Wall was dangerous enough. To be there alone, in daylight? This was a role reserved for elite legates like Gregory himself.

Silently, Trump Gregory moved his monocular back to his main quarry, the special forces soldiers of the XIth Border Legion's raiders, the Claws of Trump. Only half the unit was out this morning, fifteen men total. The were on a ridge to Trump Gregory's east, using the backlighting of the sun to obscure themselves; he had to use multiple filters on his monocular to see them clearly. They moved with slow and grim intent despite the great weight of their heavy arms and armor.

Below they spied their own prey. A beat up collection of four vehicles, two former flat bed trucks and two former buses, all remodeled into junk heaps. Armor playing had been haphazardly welded onto the sides, and barbed wire had been strung up around the beds of the large trucks. Mexican engineering no doubt.

The bed of the trucks, open to the air, showed what dread purpose the vehicles now served. They were filled with young girls, 12-18, young maidens of the Trump Imperium taken as slaves in border raids. The girls would fetch a good price as slaves south of the Wall. In remote areas, cross Wall attacks on settlements were a common threat, and the taking of young maids as chattel was a fate worse than death.

>>19428166
Surrounding the vehicles were about twenty tall, heavily armed black men. From the heavy plate armor they wore, and tribal face tattoos they had, Gregory knew these were no normal slave raiders. Each man stood at least six and a half feet tall, some more than seven. Their armor had custom cod pieces, and where their thighs met extended a massive Kevlar shaft of phallus armor.

He used his monocular to measure the size of the phallus armor on several. Not a one less than 10 inches... "Bix Nubians!" Gregor thought. But why? Why would these elite forces be deployed for a slave raid? Were these girls more than the usual spoils of a raid? Were they choice maidens bound for the elite of the forces of Globalhomo?

Gregory looked back at the Claws of Trump, slowly moving closer to the vehicles. His mission was to remain hidden at all costs, to watch the men fight. He was to vet their effectiveness. If they preformed well, they would be used for more dangerous and important missions in the future. Though the threat the elite Bix Nubians posed was great, Gregory still thought the Claws were up to the task. They were not significantly out numbered and they had the element of surprise. This would be a good proving ground for them.

He panned back to the slave caravan and extended his sound measurement cone towards what appeared to be the lead Bix Nubian. He appeared to be directing the others, and was now in an argument with a huge seven foot tall monster in tactical plate mail, holding a large .80 calibur "gat" in one hand and a 40 ounce bottle of malt liquor in the other. He spoke forcefully.

"I'm just sayin motha fucka, they don't be needing all dese chicken head snow bunnies, we can try at least some out. Dey won't know tha difference."

The leader turned to the large one. "Nah dawg. You heard what L'T'Marqus be sayin. Dese girls is for that rabbi dude, don't be trippin dawg, we'll be gettin some when we get back."

>>19428177
Another, smaller, light skinned with intelligent eyes interjected from the side. "Yeah, but why we always be listening to them rabbis dawg. We the ones fighting. I know we be working for King Nigronius, but I be hearing people say all sorts of stuff, like he ain't even known about before he became king, like he ain't even black, like he be some sort of Jew in that blackfac-"

"Yo! Yo! Yo! You shut up mouth dawg. You fuckin trippin!? You sayin shit like dat be gettin us all killed," the large one bellowed. "I ain't trying to front on the King, I just be sayin they ain't gone know if we be trying a few out here. Ain't no cherry to be breakin if we do it in da booty."

Trump Gregory had heard enough, his stomach lurched at the thought of how many slave girls had been taken this way. He panned over to an open truck. It was strange the way the caravan had stopped here. Too close to the Wall to be safe, needlessly risky, even for confident Bix Nubians. But this worked to the Claws' advantage, they were closing ground even now.

The young girls looked cold and terrified. They huddled together, speaking in soft whispers he couldn't pick up. Soon they would be rescued.

But one girl caught his eye. She looked old for the group, maybe nineteen or twenty. She did not look scared and did not talk with the others. She stood imperious, proud. The others stayed apart from her, as if they feared her.

He zoomed in on her form. Something about he sent danger alarms running through his brain. Suddenly, she looked up at him, as staring directly at him through the monocular, though there was no way she could have seen him. The look was hard, it seemed to recognize the ambush coming, and yet it did not betray fear.

Suddenly a jolt of fear hit him. He panned down her body to her high, supple, large rounded breasts. "Those- those are Khazar milkers!" he almost yelled.

>>19428186
He wasn't supposed to let the Claws know he was there, not under any circumstances, but he now knew that this entire convoy must be a sort of trap. He panned back over to the Claws, they were now only 30 feet away. He moved his fingers to his forearm computer, mounted into his camouflaged armor to hail them. It was too late.

An anti-material rifle boomed, then another. Two huge armored forms near the caravan staggered and fell. The heads of the others turned to the east as bottles of malt liquor dropped in shock.

The came the cry of the Claws, booming in one masculine, throaty voice. "Invictus! Triumphus! Trumparum!" Out of the gray brown of the chaparral the Claws emerged, resplendent in their heavy tactical plate. They wielded fierce diamond tipped chain swords, heavy depleted uranium hammers, plasma torches, and various high caliber ARs designed to punch through tactical plate. The best the armories of the Imperium had to offer.

The defenders, caught unawares, were still a force to be reckoned with. They had large high caliber gats, crude handguns, which they held sideways and sprayed at the attackers, creating a deadly, if inaccurate hail in their direction. They also had large chainsaw swords and plasma hurlers, as well as powerful pump shotguns designed for piercing tactical plate.

Still, it seemed an easy victory for the Claws. They would pick off most of the Bix Nubians before they reached melee range, where they were more dangerous.

But then the doors of a bus blew open and a dark clad figure emerged. He had begun chanting as soon as the Claws had exposed themselves with their first shot. It was an unearthly sound that carried unnaturally, filling Gregory's ears even from his far off vantage. The Hebrew erupted from his mouth in an unending stream, filled with both linguistic and mathematical meaning.

The Kabbalah! This was no mere rabbi, this was a full Ashkenazim Warfiend.

The man's eyes took on an unearthly glow, fire seemed to froth from his mouth as he ascended into the sky. His Kabbalic manipulations of reality spewing from his form.

He rose into the sky, great arcs of plasma exploding from around his body as the energies of his spell escaped. The Claws were doomed and there was nothing Gregory could do to save them.

The Claws' remaining sniper fire crashed into the Talmudic intradiction field, and the high caliber rounds fell harmlessly to the ground.

Guns would be useless here, for the Claws at least. Meanwhile, the Bix Nubians had begun laying down a hail of inaccurate, but still deadly fire as the Claws charged. It caught four men before they closed with the enemy, toppling them to the ground.

"Trump! Invictus!" The brave men boomed as they charged to their glory, and their doom.

"Unga bunga motha fucka, bix nood sheiiiiiiiit," the slavers screamed in response. The two sides flew at each other and Kabbalahic sorceries flashed overhead.

>>19428035
Look at others I've done and see if you feel the same. It's not the first time someone has told me that. I do have a habit of focusing on the negatives rather than what I personally enjoyed about it. For some people their goal in doing so is either to persuade or dissaude someone to read it. That's usually not what I'm concerned about. The ratings are my personal enjoyment and not a reflection in any way of the "objective quality" of a work.

>>19428163
>>19428166
>>19428177
>>19428186
>>19428194
didn't read

>>19428095
pretty much anything that is called a "must read"

Bought all the Malazan and Witcher books. Which should I read first and which is better?

>>19428163
>>19428166
>>19428177
>>19428186
>>19428194
Think there is a market for Warhammer 40k style Trump fan fic? My guess is yes, but they probably won't actually pay. Everything has to be free in the right wing media sphere, which is fairly ironic.

>>19428166
>>19428186
>>19428177
>>19428194
How many times and how often will you be posting this?
One previous time:
>>/lit/thread/S18618662#p18619063

>>19422866
Didn't work out.

ok bros i just finished Blackflame, is Skysworn really that bad? i see a lot of people saying Skysworns is horrible

>>19426371
you'll like it if you want to see merlin go epic mode for a few scenes.
I don't remember how it turned out but 14 year old fedoralord me loved this book

>>19428714
I can't even remember what happened in Skysworn. I can remember every other book.

>>19428714
It's basically the same formula for at least a few more books.

>>19428801
what do you mean

>>19428807
Formula for each book: New Area -> Train -> Boss -> End

>>19428582
I had expanded on the story. Mods are biased leftards though so you can't see the improvements.

>>19428866
Nothing is really ever deleted. It's just made not publicly visible. I could link to the deleted posts, but there isn't really any reason to do so.

You should've posted it in the writing thread.

>>19428866
Nothing to do with the mods. Users of the general don't want you stinking up the place more than it already is.

We both know you were posting spam.

>>19428821
>Bloodline: Old Area -> Kowtow -> Boss -> End
>Reaper: New Area -> Lose party members -> Boss -> End

100 pages into Norstrilia. It's good, but I don't think it really started-started until about page 70.

has anyone read persephone station? the first chapter didnt grab me and i might just return it to the library

>>19429091
I read the preview on Goodreads some time ago, since their samples tend to be long enough for me to make a decision and they have them for most any new book. It wasn't the kind of writing style I wanted to read. It was just very offputting for some reason.

>>19428490
>>19428866
Not if Games Workshop has anything to say about it.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/11/19/the-imperium-is-driven-by-hate-warhammer-is-not/

>You will be asked to leave. We won’t let you participate. We don’t want your money. We don’t want you in the Warhammer community.

>>19429142
>/the-imperium-is-driven-by-hate
It's sad that the owners of the franchise don't even understand their own fantasy world.

>>19420574
Series like Lotr and Foundation are mature series of their respective genres. You clearly are an uncultured pleb if you think otherwise.

>>19429170
I think it's more about English language being simplified 1984 style. In (((intended))) use of language "hate" means not particular negative emotion but basically every imaginable kind of expression of hostility, no matter how warranted. Imperium's animosity towards alien cosmic horrors that want to tear humanity apart and eat it? Still "hate". Oh and did I mention that "hate" is universally bad and every single expression of it must be suppressed, hence you are not allowed to experience any hostility at all (unless towards permitted targets)? That's how it works.

IMO the Scouring is the most important "message" part of LOTR and the fact that the movies left it out shows they didn't understand (or care about) the work.

>>19429322
>openly signalling membership in a hate group
lol

>>19426073
Yes, I have nearly finished it

It is okay

>>19419805
Be happy knowing your sister is throwing away her chances for longterm happiness for a quick thrill while you can still find a good woman who isn't a whore

/sffg/, what does a sequel need to do to be good?

>>19430236
Sequels are fundamentally a flawed prospect. A story represents the most interesting and important point in a character's life. A story represents the moment where they overcame their greatest flaw or confirmed their greatest strength. You understand that a happy ending for that story reprsents a happy ending for the rest of their life, because they've overcome their greatest challenge.

When you make a sequel you're essentially saying, "no fuck that. It's time for them to suffer more." Do they need to learn a new lesson? Did they not learn the one in the previous story? Could the story have begun with your sequel if the previous entry was actually inconsequential?

>>19420551
Newsflash: It’s called fantasy, kid. If you’re reading it for anything other than escapism, you’re wrong.

>>19430292
This guy gets it.

>>19421256
I think you mean Fall of Hyperion, and yeah it just exists to finish off Hyperion. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who didn’t love the first book, since it adds nothing but a bit of closure to the first. Endymion is a garbage fire.

>>19430271
in my case, the story was about subverting the heroic fantasy narrative and showing how it fucks up the people who grow up consuming it

in the first book, the main character's goal is to prove his own worth to himself, which he does. The problem is, proving your own worth to yourself is a non-accomplishment. It doesn't solve the root insecurity, and so sooner or later you're going to need to prove yourself again, and again, and again. It's a vicious cycle. The only way to truly get your happy ending is realizing that you don't need to prove anything

>>19426223
Unironically start with some easier popular reading like Mistborn and from then on cultivate your taste into better direction. Don't half ass writing, don't read RPGs in literary format.

>>19430271
What about a sequel about a descendant, like the hobbit to LOTR?

>>19430236
It needs to have been planned before even the original work was written to fit it perfectly.

>>19430301
Endymion genuinely feels like author outsourced writing to someone next to first 2 books. Funny since one of characters in the story remembers doing just that.

>>19419514
Reading pic related at the moment, I'm enjoying it but it's a bit too Pulpy, even for me.

Also does anyone have any SF short story ideas they're willing to give up? I'm in a blank.

I had one idea about taking peoples DNA and using it to predict their movements when they commit crimes but it's a little paranoid/schizo tier, although it was cool in a dream I had

>>19430457
>I had one idea about taking peoples DNA and using it to predict their movements when they commit crimes
Would read

>>19428095
>The Man in the High Castle
>Neuromancer
>Stranger in a Strange Land

>>19430467
kek don't encourage me to struggle with that, I already have a stomach ulcer as it is, it's maybe been done before tho I dunno

>>19428714
All of the events sort of mash together in my brain because I read them back to back all the way up to Uncrowned.(Book 7) But I've never thought of any of the books as "bad". Whoever said it was horrible must have a horrible reason for believing that. Sometimes people have weird hang-ups, and they blame everyone and everything else around them, rather than blame their own quirks.

>>19419514
>work every days
>evening too tired to read
>bought hundreds of books

How do you do /sffg/?

>>19430653
read 10 min at the end of the day and fall asleep, forgetting the last 6 minutes of what you read

>>19423368
possibly the shittest cover art ive ever seen

>>19430680
>eh looks fine?
>zoom in
oh shit that's bad

>>19430680
it's boomer tier

>>19419514
How do you improve your imagination?is it even possible a an adult?

>>19419514
I need a big, long, epic fantasy to sink my teeth into, and for whatever reason I'm craving something in the vein of The Magic of Recluce and/or the Harper Hall of Pern trilogy. Doesn't need to be YA, but I'm wanting a comfy bildungsroman.

I'm feeling nostalgic for the stuff I read when I was a kid. Suggestions are welcome.

I found Shannara and The Belgariad intolerably dull, but I really like Raymond E. Feist, R. A. Salvatore, and plenty of other pulpy writers, so I'm not super picky.

>>19430747
>big, long, epic fantasy
>bildungsroman
Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb is what you're looking for.

>>19430706
guy with the knife is an extremely obvious compter render, looks like a ps2 character

Any good science fantasy novel similar to chrono trigger, a game I've just beat and enjoyed a lot?

>>19430873
In what way? Saturday morning cartoon about time travel or what?

>>19430873
Not really. Now go play the Legacy of Kain series.

>>19430727
The thing about children's imagination, is that it's actually very limited. They only know the few things they're exposed to by their parents. And then they repeat those things except stupidly suggesting that dogs can fly or cows can jump over the moon, because they don't yet understand physical limitation. And then everyone pats them on the head and tells them how imaginative they are.

Kids are simply too stupid to understand limitation, and so if you want to create like a kid, then simply suggest that something can do the impossible. It's really that easy.
But as an adult, you probably aren't entertained by lolsorandumxd concepts anymore. That's when you TRULY have to push to be imaginative. Now you have to create rules that help you understand why things are the way they are. You have to understand what motivates people to do what they do. And that's tough.

The trick is that you have to expose yourself to as many new concepts and experiences as possible. Because even though you're older and more rational, you are still as limited as a child. You still need experiences from which you can build from. Experience provides both your material, and your blueprints to create *new* experiences. You can come up with far out ideas, and then use the structures you're familiar with to support those ideas. The stronger your structures are, the crazier your ideas can be.

A bit of zoology can give you the rational structure you need to explain why your dogs fly. That is, if you wanted to sell it as science fiction. You could take the more fantastic approach and use a religious structure to explain why your dogs fly. Perhaps they're actually some form of angel or demon. Or you can take the technological structure and say flying dogs were made by men by giving them cybernetic parts, or crossing their DNA with bats. Or whatever you can take the psychological approach and flying dogs are symbolic in some way. They don't literally exist, but the main character still perceives them.

Anyway, you get the idea. Imagination isn't so much how different your concepts are, but rather how you're able to frame concepts in an interesting way.

>>19430873
Depends.

If you want a time-travel, save the world from the release of the big bad evil, you might try the webnovel Mother of Learning.

If you want something with the tone of Chrono Trigger, I'd recommend trying out the Fullmetal Alchemist manga. Honestly, the most similar in tone are going to be anime and manga, or other video games.

>>19430878
The overall setting, the mood and the time-travel aspect of it.

>>19430902
Corridors of Time is now playing in your head manually.

>>19430902
>>19430873
Long time CT fan here. Nothing will ever be quite like it. Not even Chrono Cross.(though some people swear it's a good game regardless)
I can't recommend anything similar, because I haven't found anything similar in all my years. But out of everything I've read so far, here are some things that have at least a part of CT's formula.

1. Cradle by Will Wight has that lighthearted feel of going on an adventure after something happens that changes the main character's life. And the friends he makes along the way have their own specialized kind of powers. And there's a looming threat of destruction that motivates the main character. There's no time travel, but the main character does get a glimpse of a doomed future, which is one of his major motivators. The overall book has that easy charm where you instantly like the main characters.

2. An Echo of Things to Come. That's the title of the first book to the Licanious Trilogy. This book feels like it's a JRPG that's been transcribed on paper. And I mean that as a compliment to it. As I was reading, I figured it could be some crazy JRPG plot. It just has that air about it. It's difficult to explain in so few words, so I'm not going to bother trying. But it does have time travel. The mood is a little darker in this one. It's like if Chrono Trigger was told from Magus's perspective. Just speaking of mood. I'm not saying the main character is like Magus. It's just overall more fiendish. Characters travel to far lands and discover magical places. It's a whole adventure.

>>19430928
For me? It's Jurassic Rhythm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pptryEgBCQ

>>19430948
For me, it's the full version of the forest music. Which you rarely get to hear, because the forest is so small, and your passing is constantly interrupted by battles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SaAcrpNqfs

And Schala's theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iPLxszqpW4

Both songs with great rhythm. People often undervalue the rhythm of these tracks when remixing them. Going full orchestra and somehow loosing that rhythm in the process. But these are songs you can nod your head to. They're like R&B tracks.

>>19427178
Placed an order for Stormlight Archive, will read once i get done with 2 Gene Wolfe books (latro) and a norse mythology intro book. hope its good!

Just came by to recommend the Dogsland Trilogy. It isn't a long read, it isn't a very complex read, the world building has some holes, but fuck me, the story pulled at my heart strings and then finally wrenched it out of my chest. You spend the whole book knowing how it ends, but it is a wild fucking ride of emotion.

>>19420422
>Children of Dune
I just finished Messiah, but I'm gonna burn through Foundation 1-3 before I go through the rest of it.

>>19419514
*ahem*
All /sffg/fags must hang

>>19431187
yes daddy hang me with your sagging ball sack

Would you be averse to an author from a different genre (even a literary type) writing Sci Fi or Fantasy? My friend always tells me to write more sci fi and fantasy but I barely belong to it.

give me something easy, give me something angsty like picrel

>>19431282
I don't give a shit about any author's background. If they tell a good story, then I'll be satisfied. Simple as that.

>>19430966
Yes Hello

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYoGFvn_fOk

>>19430755
How is the series past Assassin's Quest?

>>19428235
Witcher is better. First book is actually well done, and the rest of the series is worth it for Vilgefortz.

>>19430706
More 'Top 100 bestselling Kindle Fantasy this week' tier tbqhwyf.

>>19428235
Malazan's pretty good I guess, Witcher is trash. Read Witcher first so you can drop it quickly.

Is there an actually good Isekai in which the hero is faced with the dilemma of going back home and remaining in a fantasy world that they had grown to be attached to?

>>19430457
Philip K. Dick's The Minority Report is similar to that. It also has a movie.

>>19431522
muvluv

>>19430947
Isn't the latter the Wheel of Time knockoff?

>>19431282
There are many authors who like to declaim they have anything to do with SFF while writing what others label as SFF. Your friend is probably telling you that out of self-interest as well.

>>19431522
Narnia

Hello I'm going to a book fair today and I'm figuring out what /lit/ books to look for.
Which of Murakami's books to get?

>>19431551
Okay. I guess science fiction can be broadly construed as fiction that speculates about technology, and fantasy can be extended similarly to that of mythos.
>Your friend is probably telling you that out of self-interest as well.
How so? He always wants to collab but all he does is smoke weed and watch movies, whilst animating occasionally.

Any Faction Paradox fans in /sffg/?

>>19431574
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/18/it-drives-writers-mad-why-are-authors-still-sniffy-about-sci-fi

There are several examples in the above article. There are many more than that.Here's an excerpt from the article:

>In 1968, Vladimir Nabokov priggishly informed a BBC interviewer: “I loathe science fiction with its gals and goons, suspense and suspensories.” At the time, he was working on Ada, a sprawling incest saga set on a parallel Earth called Demonia

>>19431577
Either just you or one other.

>>19430947
>>19430873
Oops. Posted the wrong book. That's the second one. THIS is the first one. The Shadow of What Was Lost. Sorry if I caused any confusion.

>>19431545
No, it's nothing like the Wheel of Time. Oh, now that you made me think about it, I guess they both have a blighted land that is protected by a great wall. But other than that, no, they're nothing alike.

>>19431399
That's a nice remaster. Now try this one on for size. It starts with Corridors of Time, then transitions into Schala's theme. His rendition Corridors of Time is nice because it uses a steel drum sample. Which is what I imagined from the original track. But his rendition of Schala's theme is simply AMAZING.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlimStRlAEQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3SU5dDBwCI

>>19431821
The pixel art is good, but I don't like his character designs. Too derivative of the old characters. Has that "OC donut steel" feel to them.

>>19431566
none lol

I met a Sanderson fan in the wild recently. As in, this person said with absolute pride that Sanderson is their favorite writer of all time. Then he said with stone faced seriousness that he thinks Sanderson will be the one to finish Song of Ice and Fire after GRRM dies, which made me laugh. Now I kind of want that to happen just to piss off all the GRRM fans.

>>19432287
The most likely writer to finish it to me would be David Abraham.

>>19432303
Daniel

>>19432287
You do Bakker proud.

>>19431522
World’s Best Martial Artist touches on that subject

>>19431791
>THIS is the first one. The Shadow of What Was Lost.
I have this series on my to-read list. Have you read it all? How did you like it? How much, if any, woke shit is injected into the story?

>>19432931
Read it and find out.

>>19432958
of course you give the most retarded answer possible.

Just finished Chapterhouse Dune, and Hellstrom's Hive.

making my way through Galactic Heroes v4,

and going to pick back up Wearing the Cape 4.

After that I'm thinking maybe some fantasy or horror next. I've made several aborted attempts at Necroscope, but really want to finish the first one.

>want to start reading
>Bakker: The Darkness that comes before
>start reading 4 days ago
>read 40 pages
>can't conentrate
>stopped reading
>i have not read since then

>>19433017
The ideal /lit/izen.

>>19433017
not the best book to start on

I read lots of the older SF--Poul Anderson, Zelazny, Vance, Leiber, Moorcock, etc.

I am running out of works by the greats to read. A lot of the currenly popular works seem like overly video gamey mediocrity (Unsouled, Stormlight Archive), which is fine sometimes, and entertaining. But who is actually good?

The critics are absolutely fucking useless because they are constantly falling all over themselves to praise things which are diverse for their diversity alone. In fact the intersectional obsession seems rife in the genre at the moment. I go to the bookshop and all the new books seem to be about angry women overthrowing governments.

>>19433017
His series is tryhard edgelord garbage with philosophy wank from a guy who dropped out of his philosophy program, try something else.

>>19433017
the prologue is terrible. it gets better after that

>>19433167
i've been enjoying John C. Wright recently. City Beyond Time for time travel stuff and Superluminary for exploring the limits of manipulation of matter and energy

>>19433167
It was a different style back then. You may just simply not like anything new because it's a different style. There's nothing wrong with that. That's just how it is. Some people may only like music from the 60 & 70s and refuse to listen to anything. It's just something that you'll have to come to accept. The cultural mood won't always be towards your personal. Also, it takes decades afterwards for the "greats" to become known.

>>19424807
I would have thought 4chan would find the series based. Think about it, basically all bad guys are black. Eamon Valda (the whitecloak questioner), Padan Fain (who is one of the most evil characters in the book) and Dana, a darkfriend in ep3.

>>19419514
what would lit look like if they let you freaks out of this general?

>>19433405
what do you mean?

>>19433405
Maybe some of the religion and philosophy (i.e., not /lit/erature) threads would get pushed off the board by equally meaningless threads about fantasy novels.

>>19433405
Literally nothing thing would change.

>>19433478
>thinking "meaning" can be determined

>two different sci-fi franchises
>both have things best described as space whales in them
kek, is this a common cliche/trope or did I just get unlucky to have read these back to back?

>>19433679
Yeah, it's relatively common all over the world.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpaceWhale

>>19433687
shut up globohomo, stop trying to troll people into falling for you nonsense.

Really loving this so far. This is top-tier, professional writing.
Why does it seem like normies hate it?

>>19433753
too many books
too many characters
thrown right into the middle of a world with no background.

not to say those are bad things. normies should be filtered.

>>19433753
Cause it's a huge series with a fuck ton of characters and very little hand holding or exposition in the first few books. People get disoriented, then as more characters are introduced they just give up since they can't "relate" to anybody.

>>19433710
No, that's what the Bakkerites do

>>19431531
yeah that pisses me off

>>19433167
you might like Keith Laumer and Frederick Pohl

>>19434169
Why? It's just one example and that was written way before you were born.

>>19434196
More the movie than the book, because it is a well known better version of what I came up with

Does anyone remember which Bakker book had the like holy woman getting hot and bothered at the sight of a dude? The description involved her being more powerful than him but still turned on or something

>>19433753
>Why does it seem like normies hate it?
The more important question is why do you care about their opinion?

>>19434409
A more recent example would be Psycho Pass.

>>19434518
I'm pretty sure you're confused.

>>19434518
> “I loathed the covetous eyes of Men as a child,” she said, perhaps watching him through the mirror, perhaps not. “I had learned, you see, learned what it was they would take. I would see girls like the one staring at me now, and I would think them nothing more than whipped dogs, creatures beaten until they craved the rod …” She raised a cheek to a waiting pinky, smeared what looked like gold-dust across the outskirts of her plump gaze. “But there’s knowing, and there’s knowing, like all things living. Now I understand how the earth rises to the seed. Now I fathom what is given when Men take.
If it's this, it's The Great Ordeal.

>>19434545
>>19434567
Thanks Bakkerbros

>>19434567
Holy shit, you guys weren't joking when you praised his prose. I might actually fall for the memes and read him.

>>19434535
>Psycho Pass.
Is it any good?

/sffg/, how does this premise sound?

>magic is pervasive in the universe, but billions of years ago the seed of an eldritch abomination fell to earth and took root
>needing a relatively stable environment to grow, this entity evolved to encase its host planet in an anti-magic field as part of its lifecycle
>it's in this environment, where matter is conserved and resources must be fought over that life on earth evolved
>the possibility of intelligent life was always a threat to it, so the entity censors the area outside its host planet to keep them from realizing its threat
>planet x, dark matter, the fermi paradox... astronomers spent decades trying to explain the apparent emptiness of the universe
>never did they imagine the secret was under their feet the whole time
>not that is until the thing began to hatch, when reality as we knew it started to break down

>>19434615
Go to /wg/ for this shit.

>>19434600
The first season is okay. There's obvious problems with the psycho pass system that characters are somehow blind to, beyond the corruption that drives the plot. Everything but the first season is complete trash though.

>>19433753
No continuous narrative. And you will learn that the hard way.

>>19434619
Sounds like something that could have work as a novel. The premise seemed interesting.

Has anyone here read it?

>>19434643
No, and stop shilling your novel already.

Thoughts on seafort saga? Read one of these when I was 12 and forgot it existed until today. Can't remember if I liked it or not.

>>19434713
Why not just reread it again?

>>19434718
I might. I'm asking for my internet friends in /sffg/ opinions on it. I didn't realize it was that complicated of a post.

>>19434649
Excuse me, I would never design a cover that ugly

>>19430680

You haven't seen shit.

Well fuck me.

What does this say about me?

>>19434766
you eat ass

>>19434766
its the closest you can get to a futa patronus

>>19434567
I don't see anything about that passage that relates to what the other anon said.

>>19433753
That very book is a pleb filter because it's densely written and throws you into things without explaining anything. I would say it resonates more with older fantasy than modern people today are used to as they expect character drama and easy stories to follow. Malazan is the opposite of that.

>>19419550
Write the book you want to read.

I came up with this book idea based on the punic wars. Its about humanity (Carthage) in the far future at war with another planet inhabited by Aliens (Romans). I thought the first punic war could be like a space ship battle, a daring drop attack on the planet like crossing the alps/battle of Cannae, and the eventual destruction of the humans by the aliens (3rd punic war).

Any books like this? Probably Foundation.

>>19420237
Just got the book delivered and I can't wait to dive into it.

>>19435103
I felt The Knight over stayed its welcome and haven't gotten The Wizard yet. I am reading Book of the New Sun now

Just looked at THE FINANCIAL TIMES (FT) Best SF of the Year. It was a lot different from other lists I've seen. Try don't have a fantasy list though.

Lol

https://youtu.be/e5M-rviIOfc
You're telling me she fucks a fish?

>>19435161
filtered

>>19435161
And I should give two shits about his opinion, why?

>>19433017
nice to see the filter is working correctly

>>19435248
Don't. What's even the point of trying to appease people's niche tastes? No one should really care what plebs think.

>>19435260
Then why post it?

>>19433753
>Why does it seem like normies hate it?
what makes you think normies hate it?
to me they're a solid 7/10. good but not good enough for me to invest my time in such a long series when there's other stuff that to read out there (i read the first four books for reference).
the general consensus is that the books are good but have too many flaws, which stops them from being great.
they do have kind of an exceptionally cultish fanboy following though which i think turns people off.

>>19433017
I wouldn’t worry about it. Bakker is a shit writer. Try reading The works of Vance, Wolfe, Tolkien, Dunsany, Zelazny.

>>19435265
I didn't post it, anon. Ask him.

>>19434615
Sounds interesting. Have you read the Hitchhiker's guide books? There's a planet that exists in a nebula so the species on it doesn't know anything exists except them. When they realize there's other stuff in the universe they decide to destroy it because, "well it has to go, doesn't it?". Is that kind of the situation you're going for? Also, it's a little unclear. Magic exists, but no one can use it because of the hatchling that's also veiling them from the rest of the universe? Then what's the point of it existing if no one can use it until the hatchling hatches and starts breaking reality? If you make it more clear and consise it would be better. I also don't know what kind of narrative you can weave if the premise is a billion year long gestation period or whatever. Is it told the from perspective of some scientists? Is the main plot going to be happening when the thing awakens? (That would be most interesting, imo)

>>19435265
>>19435248
autism?

>>19435319
???

>>19435319
Good answer

>>19433753
Normies love Malazan.

>>19435310
to give some context, the entity is a larger scope villain who isn't even mentioned until the last page of the first book. The actual story is more of a meta riff on a traditional western-style portal fantasy in which the main characters eventually learn at the end of book 1 the "magical world" is in fact just the real world after the anti-magic field started cracking.

>>19435418
Okay, but have you written anything?

>>19435451
How could he write if he hasn’t gotten the basic worldbuilding right?

>>19435451
the first draft of book 1 is already done. I need to get back to editing it

>>19435499
So, you wrote the first draft? Then why are you asking us about it?

>>19435507
the thing I'm asking about isn't even relevant in book 1. I could swap out a myriad of other explanations and only have to change two pages. It's book 2 that I'm planning for

>>19435518
That doesn't answer the question on why you're asking us?

>>19435521
because I want to know if there's a problem with it. why else?

>>19435526
Because this general is extremely schizophrenic and won’t help you in the slightest?

>>19435526
You do frequent this general, right?

>Someone in /co/ managed to draw a story that was similar to mine and did it well for four issues.
Fucking hell.

>>19435529
>>19435532

I'm well aware people here have absolutely shit taste and will shit on anything and everything for little to no reason, but occasionally one anon will actually be competent enough to find a serious internal contradiction that unravels the whole thing. I'd rather find that contradiction before I start writing becuase if you only notice them after the fact they can cause a lot of really stressful rewrites

>>19435550
I mean, you could have asked /wg/, even though they don't write, they would do better to help you.

>>19435550
I think this is something going to a writing forum would help.

>>19435547
I know how you feel. I had a similar revelation when I was drafting a space opera story. It was just legend of the galactic heroes. Same me depressed over a month.

>>19435563
>Same me depressed over a month.
Made me

>>19435547
Every imaginable archetype of the story has been already told many times. Your job it to make your particular iteration most importantly good and then distinctive.

>>19419805
>>>/adv/

>>19435569
>Your job it to make your particular iteration most importantly good and then distinctive.
After reading that comic, I just couldn’t measure up.

>>19435574
We all have that feeling. Don’t give up.

New thread
>>19435579