/lit/ - Literature

>>19605546
The Halo books by Eric Nylund and Joesph Staten are fairly decent. The rest are bad, especially the 343 era ones

>>19605559
I remember reading the Fall of Reach, First Strike, and the Flood and thought they were all good. People apparently don't like the Flood, but I remember liking it. I was also in elementary school when I read it so I might have been retarded.

REMINDER

Meh.

Read her books

Every now and again someone posts asking for which books are like a certain videogame. That's because in terms of daily posting the videogame boards are 25% of all daily posting on 4chan, the greatest amount by far. /pol/ by itself is 15%. The Top 5 Boards, which are in order: /pol/, /vg/, /v/, /b/, /vt/, are 50% of all daily posts on 4chan. /a/ is 9th at 4%. /lit/ at 28th is only 0.6%. That's why it's constantly overran by everything else. 80 boards are listed and most are dead, the bottom 40/half are only 2% of the daily posting.

source, which uses the 4chan API for data
https://4stats.io/

>>19605604
Shut up namefag, fucking nerd. Imagine reading charts. Just rec me books that are somehow like other media that I like.

>>19605604
Very interesting

>>19605613
No, you shut the fuck up you seething faggot, go consoom the media you're obsessed with instead of reading books about it so you can pretend to be smarter than you actually are

>>19605604
The culture war is lost... Lost.
I don't mean le epic left vs right, trannies vs. chuds culture war. I mean the war over what constitutes culture itself. The point you've made so plainly here is that videogames *are* culture now, and everything else, including literature, is just an obsolete footnote that will disappear almost completely within a generation.

Have you guys looked at /v/ or /vg/ lately? It's just an endless stream of anime faggoty. This is the present state of western culture... its future... its grave.

>>19605620
reading is for fags

>>19605604 I haven't liked any of her books, but I've liked some of her short fiction.
>>19605604 Guvf jnf zrnag gb or cbfgrq jvgu guvf gevcpbqr. Znlor V'z hfvat gbb znal.

On a different note, for people who read the Cradle, you may not have read "The Savior of Garden's Gate" - Will Wight (2019), which is a short story about Ziel. Turns out not all of the story is in the books.

>>19605648
>>19605600

Back in February, I self-published a Science-Fiction novel. It hasn't sold very well, despite trying to do a lot of marketing stuff for it. Honestly, I don't really understand that part of the industry. But I got feedback from some people at Writer's digest when I submitted it for their self publish book awards. The short version is that it was too depressing and, without even a bittersweet ending, it all feels pointless. What's the purpose of reading it?
I knew I was writing something that wasn't a happy read. I'm still questioning whether I wrote something that was needlessly nihilistic or whether I wrote something that has value amidst its tragedy. But that's not really what I'm wondering. The judges at Writer's Digest contest were authors, agents, people in the publishing industry. Are novels that are inherently bleak, just not commercially viable in the slightest? Did I get rejected by agents because they knew they couldn't sell the premise?

I mean, they rejected it because I suck. But ya know, I like to think there are other factors at play.

>>19605664
so what was the title of the book in question? it's hard to make any opinion about it when we don't know what it's about

>>19605664
The mainstream press is very attached to "Our Own Voices" right now. Your work sounds interesting, but is off-trend with the cultural zeitgeist. Self-publishing might be a better route for you.
>inb4 I suck
I'm sure you don't suck that badly. post a passage if you want some (hopefully, I can't vouch for others ITT) constructive critique.

>>19605673
No, that's for /wg/.

>>19605673
Imagine not reading the post and still yet replying to it. It's even worse if you did and that's still what you posted.

>>19605672
It's Lord of the B8

>>19605672
>>19605673
>so what was the title of the book in question? it's hard to make any opinion about it when we don't know what it's about.
Pic related. I didn't want to come off as asking a question when really it was just an attempt at shilling.
I guess my two questions for what I wrote are: Did I write mindless edgy shit that's soulless, or did I have something to say. I re-read it from time to time and there are moments I still like. I feel confident in what I wrote, even if it's not perfect. But that critique from Writer's Digest shook me up a bit.
My second question is: Was there just no way this was ever going to get published? I'm working on my second novel and I'm thinking about reaching out to an agent once more, but I don't know if it's worth the trouble to go through that process again.

>>19605664
>>19605764
>was too depressing
That's what /sffg/ said as well with the first reply.
>>/lit/thread/17802288#p17802929

>>19605679
For specific writing help, definitely seek /wg/. For help with thematic elements, I think /sffg/ is probably a better place to discuss if only because the rest of /lit/ scoffs at the genre.

Repost from old thread:
Do you guys know of any 'trusted' reviewers of SSF? I don't want to read tons of praise for the next big thing by people who only ever read fantasy novels. Nothing wrong with that but 'great literature' more often than not justifies the labels and the inclusion in a literary canon.
I've read my fair share as a teen as well and occasionally still do so, but it's comfort food, it's a snack and - unfortunately - not serious.
So what else do the people in this thread read? Do you know of a Bloom-type guy who occasionally ventures forth into genre territory? Given what I just said, how do some of the greats really hold up? I enjoyed Dick and I think he has some literary merit, same with William Gibson. What about Clarke, Joe Abercrombie's First Law series, Book of the New Sun and R. Scott Bakker who's being incessantly shilled on here?
(Note I'm not talking specifically about already 'acclaimed' genre-adjacent novels like Master and Margarita, but recommendations are appreciated nontheless.)
>>19605553 #
>Are you looking for serious reviews of those books or for anons' casual opinions?
Both. But I'd appreciate it if anons added what classics they've read. In the end it's all subjective and I'm not trying to be the arbiter of quality, but Schiller evokes vastly different emotions than random author X who has orcs and humans murder each other. Of course I'm vastly simplifying but aside from an illuminating look at the human condition and a certain kind of timelessness 'the classics' often times do have exceptional stylistic qualities whereas it seems genre novels are mostly plot driven.
Just name-dropping a few authors: Hemingway, Kafka, Goethe, Schiller, Nabokov, Homer, Sophokles, Conrad, Büchner, Kleist, Brecht, Tolstoi, Dostojevski, Lessing, Ishiguro, Beckett, Shakespeare, Hesse, Miller, Hartmann von Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach

>>19606009
>Do you guys know of any 'trusted' reviewers of SSF?
No, I read books and form my own opinion on the matter.

Repeating my request for a novel set entirely on a generation ship halfway through its voyage with no one on board who has or ever will leave the ship.

>>19606114
Maybe this.

>>19606121
Seems interesting and I'll check it out, but from the description doesn't seem like it'll be what I'm looking for. I want something where the ship is the setting, not the plot. Where it shapes the characters' lives and mindsets but is just an established fact of their existence rather than the source of conflict in the story.

>>19606114
There's this one sci-fi movie that has a plot related to this. Its not a generation ship, but all people on it are supposed to be criogenically frozen until they reach their destination, but one of the pods malfunction and a guy gets let out early, with over 100 years left on the journey and no way to freeze himself up again. To cope with his lonelyness he ends up looking into the lives of other passengers, until he finds this one girl he's so infatuated with he decides to unfreeze her too.
It would have been a great premise for a terror movie/story, but fucking Hollywood decided to make it into a romance.
Pic related is the movie. I really hope someday someone actually does something interesting with the idea since it's really fucking cool. In the meantime, I'll share it to make more people mad with me.

>>19606114
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/generation-ship
Possibly some in there. I opened a few and this one seems to meet the requirements, but may fail in other ways.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34381254-an-unkindness-of-ghosts

>>19606114
Not a generation ship, but this has some similarity to the premise of the series that begins with Wool. People living many generations into the habitation of a sealed bunker that none of them could ever hope to leave.

>>19606114

there's this but realtalk you are just an autistic pedant who's too lazy to write the book you want to read

>>19606221
I am writing it. I just want to mine ideas from anything similar.

>>19606234

Knights of Sidonia might be good inspo
Also you should read all of Niven's ringworld stuff by default.
Prossibly also check out Count to the Eschaton, which afaik is the only series covering near-future through the heat-death of the universe.

>>19606191
It was improved on greatly by famed child erotica author Alvo Torelli

What should I read to see righteous knights slaying evil and being chivalrous as fuck

>>19606303
Have you read Three Hearts and Three Lions? If not then that.

>>19606311
I have and I loved it, pretty much exactly what I want more of. That or historical fiction, I just dig the romanticism around knights and paladins

>>19606257
I.. I searched that and immediately hit Safe Search. I'm scared

>>19606303
Literally any shitty action book

>>19605546
anyone here got any gypsy (romani) sff?

>>19606429
>>19606429
I would narrow your search down to books about Nomads.

>>19606429
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/876.Thieves

>>19605673
>Our Own Voices
Is there a more depressing genre? Some womyn authors writing about their own lives. Nice biographies.

>>19605604
any books like factorio?

Elves look so beautiful

>>19605664
People don't want bleak stuff right now. To most people the world already feels bleak.

Do not assume that the criticism of purposelessness is necessarily one about content though.

>>19607093
That is not an elf.
You were very eagerly awaiting her turning 18 though, huh?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkmOnEFCyI0

>>19605664
>>19607114
He self-published, so his work is probably by definition not very good, if it wasn't accepted anywhere else.

>inb4 someone starts a rant about trad pub. Keep seething

>>19606114
>a novel set entirely on a generation ship halfway through its voyage with no one on board who has or ever will leave the ship.
There are plenty of novels set on Earth

>>19607093
what is this creature

>>19607158
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhad_Bhabie

>>19605546
I've got an idea for an alien invasion novel where some of the characters give in and say, "Maybe the aliens were right for invading and we should surrender peacefully." Any books done like that?

>>19607181
France 1940

Are there books similiar to HP, about wizards and shit, with loving characters, romance, a cool world? I do like HP, but the series has some serious issues.

>>19607190
Lol. I think I found Sirens of Titan to be that premise, but a bit more satirical and comic.
>>19607205
Wasn't HP plagiarised?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_disputes_over_the_Harry_Potter_series

>>19607205
Does xianxia count

>>19607219
lol

Anyone got the "How should I read Dune?" infographic? Looking to share it with a friend

>>19606108
If only there was more time in this world to give every book the time it deserves...

>>19607361

>>19607372
Bullshit god emperor is "as good as" Dune 1.

>>19607379
Filtered. In reality, it was better.

>>19605586
where can I find an epub of this?

>>19607639
the usual places

,>"Prince of Nothing has too much rape. Misogyny!"
>Next series cuts out female rape, just has tons of gay rape.
I am wondering if he missed the point here, or if this would be considered acceptable if not for his prior transgressions...

>>19607657
Was there any benefit of Cnaiur raping Conphas? Was he just bored?

>>19607668
He had to show Conphas the error of his way, the dude was no-joke living life as he was living it a second time, being so sure of everything. Damn annoying if you ask me, it is just fitting he got ass-raped, didn't expect that did he?

>>19607680
Didn't he have orders to have Conphas killed? I'm forgetting why he raped him instead of killing him then and there

>>19607690
IIRC he had order to make sure they depart by sea, but realized that Kellhus sent him expecting Conphas or his people to kill him and not the other way around. While dealing with that he could also find a moment to prove to everyone that he's not womanish by raping another man in the ass.

reminder this is what /sffg/ considers the best of the best of chinese literature

>>19607727
This Fang Yuan knows his stuff.

Hail to the king

my first vance book. i would have loved this as a kid. still enjoyed it, especially when he destroyed the misandrist witches. has that same comfy feeling i get from a john wayne western.

I'm at page 20 and so far it's pretty boring.

>>19608126
Assassins apprentice that is

>>19605574
I read The Flood in second grade, and I think it's one of the books that got me into reading in general. I remember it being really good, and read it recently, and while the Master Chief parts are shit, I'd say that all the other parts were strangely great, like, some of the best sci-fi out there great.

>>19608126
wait until fitz gets an actual pov. first chapter is just a glance over over his toddlerhood or something

>>19608160
Are there like dragons and wizards in this or is it just humans?

>>19608197
there are dragons and there is magic but this series is large so don't expect either right away. I guess magic is in the first book already but it's not a focal part of every series in the book

>>19605546
Future Weapons of War - Edited by Joe Haldeman and Martin H. Greenberg (2007)

So this is the power of a Baen anthology. I thought I knew what I getting into, but I was wrong. I wanted to see through what would happen in each story, all of which I found to be varying degrees of "Did I just read what I think I read?" By the end I realized I should've just cut my losses after the first story. I've read and liked stories by some of these authors, but I didn't like these at all. None of them. It's a mystery even to me why I end up reading what I do. I have read and enjoyed books from Baen, but they weren't like this. Maybe this was an outlier for the time, or maybe it's just me, but I have my doubts.

Craters - Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Children in 120 countries are microchipped at birth. Terrorists hijack this process and insert major explosives instead. Any child could be a suicide bomber. In a refugee camp in an unnamed probably Middle Eastern country that the US is at war with, an American undercover war reporter who is dead inside seeks out the truth. The "truth"(?) is that the parents are making their children into suicide bombers.

David in the Lion's Den - Geoffrey A. Landis
Saudi Arabia and Israel are on the brink of all-out war. It's up to a lone American to save the day with bioterrorism.

Rocket Boy - Paul J. McAuley
A homeless teenage orphan of a persecuted people on a backwater planet is given a gun with an AI. The AI tells him that violence solves everything. Thus began his improbable reign of terror. It really seems like this is about Israel, but I could be wrong.

Jade Angel - Dena Bain Taylor
Earth is doomed. Mars is all that's left. The United States of America on Mars will never give in to the Chimese [sic] threat. Time alteration silliness ensues.

Broken Bits - Mark L. Van Name
A human/nano-machine hybrid kills.

The First Cup of Coffee War - James H. Cobb
After several decades of fighting The Global War On Terror, America thought it had won. That Islam was no longer a threat. BUT THEY WERE WRONG!

The Soldier Within - Michael A. Burstein
MARINE'S RIFLE CREED: THE STORY...BUT SUBVERTED!

Spec-Ops - L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
Remote spec-ops biowarfare for the US, but at what cost to your humanity?

The Weapon - William H. Keith, Jr.
Billions of years from now The Metacivilization creates The Weapon, which can destroy galaxies.

The Looking Glass War - Brendan DuBois
The United States has fallen. The Chinese are victorious. All because Americans won't stop playing videogames! The Chinese hacked all computers to where if you play a game, it mindwipes you!

The Humans Call it Duty - Michael Z. Williamson
Alien kills the invasive pests known as humans.

Casualty - Brian Stableford
The newest advancement in biowarfare, genetically engineered fetuses that will be able to turn off and on being bioweapons. The unsuspecting mother is displeased.

>>19608205
On a scale of one to Goodkind what do you rate it?

>>19608431
I didn't read goodkind but hobb is probably my favorite author. you enjoy an introspective focus though, there's a lot of it in those books. that and interpersonal relationships between characters. the story is serviceable but it's not the main focus

I want something light and fun to read

>>19608465
Sounds like a book equivalent of Inuyasha

>>19608475
Colour of Magic if you like reddity british humor.

This book isn't funny. It's got that annoying british comedy where the joke is just how outrageous and silly things are.

>>19608475
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is pretty good if you haven't read yet.

>read mysterium tremendum by laird barron
>cosmic horror where a bunch of literal faggots get brutalized by college bros and instead of seeking medical help, they go hiking in the mountains looking for some location mentioned in an equivalent of the necronomicon that may or may not exist
kek

>>19607429
god I can't wait for it. I am 3/4's through Children of Dune and it's such a slog. I'm pretty certain I'm going to stop after God Emperor and then just read the wiki articles on the last two Frank books. The urge to pick up and read another book in my backlog is incredibly strong, but I'm holding out

>>19608496
What makes it "reddity"? Especially considering that it was written many years before reddit became a thing.

>>19608709
It just reminds me of something a redditer would like.

>>19608618
The other too books after God Emperor (Heretics and Chapterhouse) were much better in my opinion. Some of my favorite parts in the entire Dune saga happened then and all the main characters are compelling in their own right.
God emperor has Leto II, he can't be compared to anybody else which is why it was such a good book, but Heretics and Chapterhouse feature a much more interesting conflict and dynamic that you just don't find anywhere else in Dune.

>>19608618

Wouldn't audio books help you get through it? pop in some earphones go to bed and listen to the books?

>>19608864
Cheater

>>19608424
>Rocket Boy - Paul J. McAuley
>A homeless teenage orphan of a persecuted people on a backwater planet is given a gun with an AI. The AI tells him that violence solves everything. Thus began his improbable reign of terror. It really seems like this is about Israel, but I could be wrong.
Sounds interesting but only because I am a sucker for sentient weapons in fiction. I fucking love that shit.

>>19607727
>Grr... this Fang Yuan. Although he is simply too cunning for his age, but can he do something about it? Hehehe, of course not. He is just a lowlife C grade talent scum. Hmph, to think that I just felt a slight tremble about him.

>/sffg/ still hasn't read it

You fuckers spend a lot of time shitposting and so little reading.

>>19609026
But, I have though, and before you did.

>>19607727
>>19608902

>>19606114
Book of the Long Sun

>>19606114
Non-Stop by Bran Aldiss

>>19607181
That's one of the central conflicts of the Three Body Problem series. While the aliens are still hundreds of years away from reaching Earth, there are some human collaborators they can communicate with who are basically treated like terrorists.

Terra Invicta is a upcoming game that deals with this. I can't think of any books cove this subject.

>>19607727
Have you read it? Did you not like it?

>>19608845
I will keep an eye out then and at least give book 5 a try after God Emperor, thanks

I am struggling to make it through Malazan book 2. Have I been filtered?

>>19609499
>Have you read it?
I opened a random excerpt (the screen) and saw everything I need to know about it

Do you guys have some fantasy recommendation charts?
I want to look into fantasy before Tolkien.

Anything to say about these works?

George MacDonald
1858 - Phantastes (3,92)
1872 - The Princess and the Goblin (3,99)

H. Rider Haggard
1887 - She (3,57)
1890 - The Saga of Eric Brighteyes (3.80)

William Morris
1896 - The Well at the World's End (3,78)

Edith Nesbit
1900 - The book of Dragons (3,87)
1902 - Five Children and It (3,85)
1904 - The phoenix and the Carpet (4,05)
1906 - The story of the Amulet (3,98)

Lord Dunsany
1905 - The Gods of Pegana (3,88)
1924 - The King of Elfland's Daughter (3,83)

E. R. Eddison
1922 - The Worm Ouroboros (3,7)
1935-1958 - Zimiamvian Trilogy

J.R.R. Tolkien
1937 - The Hobbit (4,28)
1954 - The Lord of the Rings (4,50)

T.H.White
1938-1958 - The Once and Future king (4.04)

Mervyn Peake
1946 - Titus Groan (3,91)
1950 - Gormenghast (4,04)
Gormenghast Novels (4.00)

C. S. Lewis
1950 - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (4.22)
Chronicles of Narnia (4,25)

Poul Anderson
1954 - The Broken Sword (3.86)
1961 - Three Hearts and Three Lions (3.87)

Ursula K. Le Guin
1968 - A Wizard of Earthsea (3,99)
1969 - The Left Hand of Darkness (4,08)
1970 - The Tombs of Atuan (4,08)
1972 - The Farthest Shore (4,11)
1990 - Tehanu (3,95)
2001 - Tales from Earthsea
2001 - The Other Wind (4,15)

>>19609576
It has a strong male lead and no progressive agenda or sjw nonsense, so yeah you wouldn't like it

>>19609641
yes that is clearly the reason. not the incoherent and blatantly mtl'd chink powerlevel babble

>>19609641
>i only read book that confirms my fragile worldview, even if said book is absolute brain rot garbage
/pol/ niggers are functionally retarded and do not belong on /lit/

Debating between Bakker or Wolfe for my next fantasy series. Mainly the Wizard Knight from Wolfe first. Any thoughts between the two?

>>19608867
Meh its more enjoyable some readers do good effort adding allot of sound effects and make you feel a part of the story.

>>19609662
>>i only read book that confirms my fragile worldvierw
Should I read book that opposes my fragile worldview? Maybe some liberal pro immigration gay feminist literature? For what fucking reason would I read something like that?

>>19609656
Incoherent? lol, it really is quite coherent, in fact magic/cultivation system in RI is quite unique and the author also does good job describing it and integrating it into the story line and plot.

>>19609629
Look at the OP for charts.

>>19609738
>it really is quite coherent

>>19609664
Read the first Bakker series (prince of nothing), then Wolfe as a "breather," then the Aspect-emperor.

>>19608709
Trannies here use it as a convenient catchall that all the other retarded, wannabe hipster cucks here will accept no questions asked.

>>19609744
A small error, it happens sometimes given that it is not professionally translated and edited work.

>the reddit inchoroi lied
only the serbian, russian and chinese fandoms can save us now where are their forums

>>19609740
Thanks, that was a lot of charts.

I picked up Wizards First Rule since I found an old cheap copy at the used book store I frequent. About 70 pages into it so far, and it feels like babby's first epic fantasy. I'm hoping Goodkind is a lot more skilled than he's letting on and this is a setup for some kind of twist, cause if the whole novel is this by the numbers and straight forward I can already see a lot of the "big reveals" coming.

Does the Hyperion cantos books have a satisfying ending or do half the motifs get neglected in the end?

>>19610076
Did Sanderson actually say that? That's far better of a take than I expected from him.

>>19608126
it's all misery porn, not sure why hobb wrote three thousand books about a character she hates

>>19610076
>if literary works like those written by Gene Wolfe are the highest form of our art, are the rest of us simply hacks?
Yes!

>>19610100
Sanderson's pretty intelligent, he's just not a very talented novelist. There's more to being a great writer than just intellect, in fact in some ways intellect can be harmful to creative talent.

>>19610130
>in some ways intellect can be harmful to creative talent.
It's best not to confuse Asperger's Syndrome with intellect. Being able to ramble on about specific topics gives the illusion of intellect, I'll grant, but depth of knowledge is not hard to achieve if one possesses a singular obsession with a topic and no concern with social obligations to distract from pursuing it. Sanderson's writing feels like the product of such an obsessive, socially inept mind. It explains how the settings for his stories can be so meticulously crafted, yet the characters interact as if written by somebody that never had friends and could only guess at how two adults talked in private.

>>19610107
I feel like he can't admit that Wolfe is a better writer than him

>>19608522
>NOOO ABSURD THINGS ARE NOT FUNNY I NEED MY QUIPS

I'm about 20% through the last (to date) Game of Thrones book. Why do normals hype it up? It reads like polished fanfic

>>19609957
You are a literal brainlet

>>19607881
I just finished this book. It was a fun read.

>>19610226
The outrage of him killing off half the cast made it more interesting to normies who also picked it up. The more I read the more I loathe Martins books. They're knockoff Jordan in the worst way.

>>19610227
What an odd reply. I'm guessing you're a Goodkind fan? Does it get better then?

>>19610294
I mean, it was the only interesting thing that happened in the book. Like 80% of the rest of it is poorly written sex scenes or poorly written 2philopsophical4u shit.

I'm glad I am almost done with it, so I can have that I can say I finished it. And so I can read something half entertaining

>>19610326
Sanderson fan?

>>19610406
No, I just haven't refilled my meds yet

>>19610406
Not in the least. Can you answer my question or can't you? Is Goodkind burying the lede in Wizard's First Rule, or is he really this bad?

>>19610401
>2philopsophical4u
the criticism of martin is that he's too pulpy. calling it pretentious makes me wonder if you've read like 5 books in your life.

>>19610431
You have no understanding of fine literature. You are ignorant.

>>19610076
Well what are the right tools then? Seems like he's digging his own grave here. It's not about genre fiction, it's about shitty writers.

>>19610457
I was making fun of his pulpy-ness. Attempting to anyway

>>19610465
I'm going to hazard a guess Goodkind is a hack of the worst kind, to attract somebody like you as a fan.

>>19608520
Keep at it Pengolodh-anon.

>>19610492
He’s shitposting

Goodkind was named Goodking but he changed his name because he was 100% devoted to his libertarianism

Anyone read it?

>>19610294
for real though Jordan invents the changing pov character and everyone acts like Martin did it? baka

>>19610766
>strong woman who doesn't actually look that strong whois still finding herself
>a kang
>and cuck

>>19610786
The dyed hair is a bad sign

>>19610788
Since when have the covers of SFF books ever had anything to do with the contents, though? It's not like the author had any control of what got put on there.

>>19610840
>It's not like the author had any control of what got put on there.
He did. It was a self published book.

Best sci-fi with A.I. as the villains?

>>19608864
Can confirm the audiobook for Children of Dune is excellent.
>>19608618
Keep it up friend. I enjoyed all of the Frank books. There is a lot of world building in the last 3 and a bit more action to keep you sharp.

>>19610766
I checked out the reviews on it. Apparently it's excellent world building and action. The sword fighting is all historically considered in shad fashion. However the story and writing skill is pretty average to bad. Basically it's a power fantasy about a mary sue character that conquers the world, kills millions AND rapes tons of women. Then he fakes his death, gets magic powers, becomes young, and does it again. Then the world forgives him and puts him on the Avengers for the sequel. I'm paraphrasing of course.

I don't read much. I really enjoyed the first bakker book. I'm on the second now about 1/4 through it. Holy shit the amount of names and countries and rankings etc is really confusing me. Am I retarded or what is going on here. I like the storylines of acha and kelhaus and cnair and the king but fuckin a I spend more time trying to figure out who the rest of these guys are that I've about gone mad....

I'm planning a book. What percentage of readers in science fiction are female? I'm trying to figure out if I need to go undergo the painful process of writing a female point of view character.

>>19609753
This desu

>>19611494
Between actual women and the things that pass themselves off as male in literary circles, around 100%

>>19611494
Do you want to be traditionally published by a major publisher? If so, then you probably do. That may not be enough. Assume a majority. Of course, it all depends though.

>>19611571
>>19611494
On a different related note, men are far more likely to engage in piracy then women. So, that hurts sales from men as well.

so far tried reading
wizard of earthsea dropped after 120 pages got tired of reading ged or w/e his name is transforming into some abomination and chasing shadows, traveling in boats and talking to dragons. Reads like a massive LSD trip.
guards guards by terry pratchett
dropped after reaching the part with the human dwarf. Unfunniest shit I've ever read it's like author was trying too hard to be funny, the convo between the cultist was mildly intriguing and nothing else.
prince of thorns dropped after 20 pages, way too edgy for my taste feels like its been written by a preteen.
currently reading witch world by andre norton, reads like standard isekai shit but due to me being ESL I barely understand what is written considering dropping
is this the best fantasy has to offer?

>>19611593
Who told you these were the best fantasy has to offer?

>>19611494
>>19611583
You aren't planning shit. Why would you even ask this here if you were serious? What special insight do you think this general thread has into the publishing industry and relevant marketing data? This isn't a haunt for authors or publishers.

>>19611422
Holy based

>>19611602
from the rec charts in the OP

>>19611571
>>19611583
Self Publish on Amazon probably. I just want to keep my audience in mind.
>>19611614
Because you guys read science fiction and are my only friends

newfag here, i'm having a debate with an acquaintance about solarpunk. i agree that being eco-friendly would be for the better, but i'm concerned about the cultural homogenization implied by utopias such as this. i can't imagine an old family business getting bulldozed for a sanitized health store or something. anyone else agree?

>>19611434
Bakker is dense, and that's before he even starts trying to get you to really think about anything he's saying (and even if his ABD "philosophy" is drivel, it's the ground truth of his world and you have to accept that it's true there for events to make any sense). But the names and geography, you'll certainly get used to. It helps that all the countries are basically stereotypes. Eventually you'll remember, "those are the viking guys, these are the byzantine guys," and even the names of characters will start to make sense when you recognize the patterns in their historically-inspired made up languages. I give him crap to bait him into posting and so you won't think he's me, but the world-building really is well done, and thought out enough that you can go along with him for a ride in his boyhood fantasyland.

>>19611494
Write what you know. A woman POV written by an incel is far worse than no woman POV at all (yes, to publishers too).

>>19611666
>cultural homogenization implied
Don't know why I'm replying to this bait, but your image is only "homogenized" because the "digital artist" who made it had boring assets and didn't try to make the parts that aren't "the big ideas" look interesting enough.

>>19611666
Solarpunk isn't even a thing, as in, it has no collection of works that define it either as an aesthetic or a genre, so your anxiety is both ridiculous and pointless.

>>19611645
>Because you guys read science fiction and are my only friends
That doesn't change anything I said, this isn't the place to ask those questions because nobody here has the answers.

>>19611620
Pretty sure most of the charts in the OP were made by redditors but none of my bitching about it ever got any traction so the OPs always contain reddit charts.

>>19611919
People on 4chan are far more likely to say what they think is bad than what they think is good, and even then only when they think almost everyone else agrees. Hence, reddit charts. Although I seem to remember rounds of informal voting to make a top 100 in this thread, years ago.

>>19611927
I unashamedly admit to what I enjoy and just ignore mindless haters because I know there's people lurking here who take positive reviews to heart.

>>19611968
I try to do the same. Hard not to be influenced by the thread's mentality sometimes, but as I always take positive reviews to heart, I try to give them to people as well

>>19611927
If you let the opinions you read on 4chan influence your taste you wind up as a massive contrarian, as evidenced on pretty much every discussion board on this site. You either end up joining the herd of mindless contrarians or you learn to disregard 90% of the posts that don't have a substantive opinion worth considering.

>>19611972
I use a filter for common shitposting terms and images, it helps filter out a large bulk of the garbage. This thread is even slower than normal with my filters on, but it's far less shit to read.

>>19605546
Are there any good war fantasy series? Or should I just read a history book instead? If so, any period recommendations? I'll probably go for Three Kingdoms.

>>19612031
Historical Fiction

>>19610326
I think this is more your speed.

>>19612210
I don't read YA, sorry. So I'll have to stop reading Wizard's First Rule in keeping with that policy, cause what I've read so far is definitely YA-tier.

>>19612031
>war fantasy series?
Most fantasy series feature wars. Do you mean military fantasy? As in, fantasy where most of the characters are professional soldiers / warriors and most of the plot is about fighting in a military campaign? Cause there's a lot of those too. Glen Cook is sort of the big name of that subgenre, his Black Company series being the most famous example of it, but practically all he writes is military fantasy.

>>19612031
the first 3 books of the darkness that comes before are a big crusade

>>19610076
just because he's a shit writer doesn't mean he's wrong here.

>>19611494
>I'm trying to figure out if I need to go undergo the painful process
dude you don't literally have to transition. it's okay to write female characters if you're a male.

>>19612210
Goodkind is very much in the same fantasy vain as Sanderson, Rothfuss, Jordan, etc.

>>19612400
It's shit, one anon is trying to meme it here for some reason.

>>19612400
Brainlet

>>19612475
Robert Jordan is the greatest fantasy writer of all time. Period.

>>19612475
This general is a hotbed for autists anymore.

>>19612505
>Robert Jordan is the greatest fantasy writer of all time. Period.

I just started reading name of the wind and it's enjoyable. Why does everyone keep shitting on it? I'm only halfway through the book and I feel like the pacing is fantastic, which is not something I can say for most books I've read.

>>19611593
>doesn't like Pratchett
[ ]GMI
[X]NGMI

>>19606009
>Book of the New Sun and R. Scott Bakker who's being incessantly shilled on here?
These two most definitely have merit. Not sure about the other two though.
To be honest I think the Hugo awards track literary merit well. You should look into books that have won them.

>>19612537
Pratchett isn't funny

Is there no cool solar punk book that's not a total modernized cringe book and written by someone with a brain?
Closest I've found is Hyperion honestly but it rather has just elements of it.

People who rebel against the system using the power of solar energy?

>>19610107
Imagine thinking that Gene Wolfe is the highest form of the art. At his best he could be considered good compared to dragonlance and forgotten realms novels. And by best I am talking about his short stories where his overindulgence didn't pile up.

>>19612400
>gets filtered by kid's books

>>19611494
You need to make a token intersex person for >>19611521

>>19612605
There's no such thing as [technology]punk because technology is the system.

>>19612635
No, just bored by them. Cause I can already tell every major twist before I'm a tenth of the way into it. It's dull as fuck slogging through predictable tripe.

>>19612688
Now.
There's still a possibility for technological complexity embedded into a dominant natural system. I thought death stranding handled this well.

>>19612688
and Ted literally made bombs.

>>19610782
Imagine being dumb enough to think Jordan was the first to do this hahaha

What did you guys think about Halo infinite? I was hyped up about this "return to the roots", but it didn't really feel like that. It felt like a Halo version of Destiny

>>19607657
I don't know why the anti-Bakker shills got on about the cuckolding all the time. Yeah, one MC cuckolds the others, but that pales in comparison to:

>One MC is mad at another MC because that MC's dad butt fucked him as a kid. Also because he is a repressed homo.
>That same MC realizes another MC is plotting to kill him later. Drags him off in front of his army to butt fuck him (yeah bro, totally throwing them off the gay vibes there....)
>One MC is discussing religion and philosophy with a major side character, then to make a point he casually spins him around and butt fucks him.
>Literal rape monsters that are all males attacking human armies (also all males).
>There is a gay murdersex orgy involving several tens of thousands at some point or something as part of the general scene.

I am fairly certain one main character is going to be possessed by a demon thing which will give him the power to fight another MC, but that MC is pretty damn powerful so the entire series will probably end with him pinning down and buttfucking a god to show dominance.

Is this book good

>>19613369
that's a kindle retard.
And you don't eat that, or books. So it's not good to taste no. An apple is good, as an example.

>>19612893
343 is absolutely shit at writing stories. they keep building up a threat, killing it off screen and not addressing again for every single game they've made so far. and instead of bringing back the Flood which were kind of nicely reintroduced in Halo Wars 2, they just put some new robot shit because muh Teen rating.
also the forced romance between chief and cortana just doesn't work

The Expanse.
Book 9.
The chapters from "The Dreamer(s)".
Those are Cara and Xan, right, presumably when they're linked with the BFE? Still only like 8 chapters into the book so I haven't actually read the whole thing yet, so someone help me out here.
Unless it's like a massive spoiler like the 4th dimensional gods (Goths) are actually super advanced humans from the future and the Dreamer chapters are from their weird alien PoV or something like that, I don't want to know that kind of stuff until I get to it in the books.

>>19613526
How are the later expanse books? I dropped the series somewhere in either 5 or 6, whichever one had a bunch of chapters taken up by the awful polyamorous lady.

>>19613553
The last trilogy is pretty fucking great. They do a 30 year time jump and the martian defectors from books 4-6 that fucked off to their own system in the ring network come out with protomolecule ships and utterly body all of mankind in the first half of book 7 and the rest of 7-9 are about dealing with that shit (with the end of book 8 and most of book 9 so far about dealing with the 4th dimensional gods that killed the protomolecule builds).
4-6 are for sure the weakest part of the series as a whole, particularly book 5 and 6. People love book 5 because it's the one time you get into Amos's head for an extended period of time and the rocking of Earth through his perspective is probably the best written PoV in the entire series. But outside of that 4-6 range between 3/10-4/10. I'd put 1-3 between 6/10-7/10, and 7-9 at 7/10-8/10.

Any of you niggas read Greg Egan? Diaspora is fucking amazing.

>>19612532
Kvothe or however you spell it is a Gary Stu. Rothfuss is also on Martin time and has failed to produce another book in a decade while blogging and deeply inhaling his own farts.

>>19613369
No its desligado

>>19612532
Because book 2 is genuinely awful and it's been 10+ years since book 2 released and he's just now finishing the prologue for 3, which is nearly identical to the prologue of 1-2.
This is after he claimed that the entire series was written and edited and he just needed to tweak a few things in book 2 and 3 after he found a publisher.

Theory is that he had a ghost writer for 1 and 2, they got into a fight, ghost writer quit, and now he knows that he's a hack that can't actually write so book 3 will never come out

>>19613593
yea a lot of folks love Egan here. I haven't read too much of his stuff other than some short stories and of course Permutation City. I bought pic related a year back, it's a collection of some short stories, but I've yet to go through it. Since he's such an "ideas" guy I definitely do enjoy his short stories more than his longer stuff

>>19613626
terrible theory, I think he fell into a bunch of good ideas by accident that he was entirely unaware of and completely unable to expand upon properly, like when a student asks a graduate level question and gets a graduate level answer that can't comprehend.

Many of us were reading it as a satire of fantasy where he was aware of all the shitty tropes and hoping they were going to be subverted by the end. Maybe someone else
did write it and he's a midwit who can't hit those marks. There's a brilliant story and metanarrative about metanarratives that's pain as day and can't be an accident.

>>19613689
You’ve sunk costed yourself into thinking there’s more to the books than there is when he’s really just cribbing notes from Gaiman. Fantasy stories that jack off about how important storytelling is are a dime a dozen

>>19613069
>Repressed homosexual was molested as a child

I thought it was fantasy? That sounds like realism.

>>19613593
>Started Orthogonal
>Setting so completely alien even at the level of how physics, space and time work there, proper non-humanoid alien species story is about feel like least esoteric thing in the book
>Set it aside because it was too hardcore and I needed something simpler back then
I should get back to it. It's amazing how he can write something so completely outlandish.

>>19613689
>Many of us were reading it as a satire of fantasy
I have literally never seen another person with this take.
>There's a brilliant story and metanarrative about metanarratives
There's nothing brilliant about a dude telling his own story and being an unreliable narrator, and the fact that you seem to think that it's brilliant and deep tells me that you really only read trash pulp fantasy novels like Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance.

>>19611927
>>19611919
I made a spreadsheet and posted it here before and it's still available in the GR group. It was made when the group had half as many it does now, but I don't think it'd change a large amount aside from recently published books and those that only had a couple ratings. I don't know that I'd update it again though. Of course, none of that matters if it isn't considered valid or representative.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vSIqYUrsZUm9ssjDnDIrTH1C6OEQeYCNFRIz6orzgXBdsGZiB8MNbsfiykqp602ipeEMYFkTpyW6Bwt/pubhtml#

As to a few years ago, you may be referring to when the discord founder did something like that in this thread. A chart was made of it. Regarding the charts, as the owner of the mega in the OP I can say that they are almost all sourced from 4chan and its wikis. Whether that's where they were originally created doesn't concern me. It's not meant to be a curation. Their provenance is bothersome to determine. A reverse hash search can be done in the archives, but if the hash has changed it becomes much more difficult to determine the original posting on 4chan. Then it would have be checked for what the earliest it's been posted on other sites and compare. Even that may be give actual origin. Personally, I don't really care about the charts, but others seem to appreciate them. They do have a lot of problems, from creation to usage, but that's just how it is.

>far more likely to say what they think is bad than what they think is good, and
I don't necessarily agree. There tends to be much more spamming of preferred books than hated ones. The hate seems to be mostly be on the author level.

Next write-up will be posted in the next thread. I liked this anthology a lot more.

>>19613593
>>19613651
Yes, I've finished Quarantine; The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred; Diaspora; Permutation City; Distress; Perihelion Summer.
>>/lit/?task=search2&search_text=egan&search_tripcode=sffg
I haven't read any of his collections yet, but I have read his short fiction in various anthologies.
I've tried reading other novels from him, but they were mostly not to my preference. There's a still I've yet to really try reading.

>>19613902
What's GR in the spreadsheet? Is it an average weighted by the number of reviews?
If that's the case, I'd love to see the chart ordered by it, if not It'd be great to have such a metric

>>19614017
Oh, just realized it'd probably the Goodreads score. I'm rarted
Still interested in the weighted score though

>>19612633
ok, who's better?

>>19612893
one of the worst campaigns, comparable to five honestly
the multiplayer is a joke for pay-pigs

>>19614017
>>19614025
Make your own copy and have at it. As noted though, this was done when there was ~250 members in the group and now there's ~500. It only includes the first book of most series. There are various other limitations as well. A weighted score isn't provided because to me it isn't sufficiently robust for that to be worthwhile.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-KWR3o2Ai2hvcKBZjrNnmRlX16cQCv0nJwx0w-IZLkk/edit

>>19614074
Was about to ask for teh data since the HTML version is a pain to deal with. Thanks!, I'll give it a try and see what I can come up with. If it's anything interesting, I'll share with the thread

does the murderbot series actually go anywhere? i read the first one and thought it was mediocre but still curious where it was gonna go with the bot now free.

after the second book i feel the formula has been revealed. introduce bland secondary characters. introduce bland plot involving bland secondary characters. resolve plot. repeat. is that really all this is?

>>19614077
As a note, someone else in the group talked about this at the time in its thread. Reference here: https://imgur.com/ppVBBVr

>>19614087
If that's how you feel about it, then no, it's not worthwhile for you to continue.

>>19614077
i've looked back at the books i've read and rated on bookreads, and almost all of them have very high ratings. only 1 has 3 stars or less, the vast majority have 4 and a 3 or 4 have 5 stars. is this normal? do i go too easy on them?

>>19614124
sorry didn't mean for thit post to be a reply

>>19614124
Different anon than you replied to.
I don't know if it's normal or not. That's something I could get an idea of when I do stuff next month though.

>>19614091
>>19614074
Just gave it a try, using two separate methods, and the results were... interesting, to say the least.
I used two separete methods for averaging, one pushing the average towards 3 (the theoretical average of a 1-5 scoring system) based on how many (or rather how few) reviews it had, and another pushing the average towards the goodreads score (actually towards the average of the GR score and 3), more as a thought experiment than anything else.
The first method purely shows results based on /sffg/ scores and prioritizes books with lot's of reviews, while the second gives books with less reviews but a high GR score a higher spot.

Pic related are the top relevant results for both methods, Standard Weighted on top and Goodreads weighted on the bottom.

In canse anyone is wondering, the system for weighted average I used is based on https://steamdb.info/blog/steamdb-rating/ , as I really like the weighting system used in this site.
The exact formulae used were
W Average =B2-(B2-3)*2^(-LOG(C2+1,3))
GR W.Average =B2-(B2-AVERAGE(3,I2))*2^(-LOG(C2+1,3))

Would be interesting to do this with an expanded dataset

>>19614198
Interesting results were Gideon the Ninth, Sufficiently Advanced Magic and The Once and Future King having few reviews, but being seemingly consistently liked by both /sffg/ and goodreads.
Maybe I should adjust the Log coefficients up a bit to punish books with fewer reviews a bit more, but I find these results interesting nonetheless

>>19614124
I mean, in general, you'll have a pre-disposition to read things you are intereted in and think you'll enjoy, so your average score will probably be above average, and books you'll read will usually be well reviewd by yourself.
Though that changes when you're reading massive ammounts of books, or if you're actively reading things you think you won't enjoy for some reason.

>>19613621
Are you that spic from goodreads?

I reread harry potter every couple years

>>19614198
A copypaste what I posted about this from the thread

Yeah, it's currently sorted by number of ratings and then by average rating. I haven't decided what I want to do with it yet. I may put multiple ways that people can decide by. It's not meant to be a "here's the best book" because that's always a question of "for whom?". One of the main problems with your method is that it assumes that eventually there will be enough ratings to make the imaginary ones irrelevant and that isn't going to happen. Over half of them only have a single rating and probably always will. Only ~10% have 7 ratings or more. There are always trade-offs.
On a different note, I've probably forgotten basically everything I've ever learned about statistics.

Let's say 60% of people attempt to read a book but find it terrible and immediately reject it without providing any public information that they did so and the 40% who did it read it rate it mostly 4 and 5 stars. How does that compare to a book where 90% of people who attempted reading the book and finished it but rated it mostly 4 stars with some 3 stars and no 5 stars? Or, an extreme case, where 90% reject it and 10% finish it and all rate it 5 stars. How does that compare? Individuals aren't an aggregate rating. Unfortunately, this won't ever become what I'd consider particularly useful due to a variety of limitations, but it's something.

>>19614232
Gideon the Ninth is an outlier because of timing. I did this not longer after it was a /sffg/ group read and it was a relatively new book. It's unclear how much a group reading and discussion may improve the rating of a book when those are the only ratings. That and it may have just been well-suited at the time.

Previously:
5: 4
4: 1
4.8, 5 total

Currently:
5: 7
4: 4
3: 3
2: 2
4.0, 16 total

That's a significant drop. When there are so few ratings, even makes a large difference.

Sufficiently Advanced Magic is even more of an outlier.
Previously:
5: 3
5.0, 3 total

Currently:
5: 3
4: 1
3: 2
2: 1
1: 2
3.22, 9 total

It's the kind of book that's meant for a specific kind of reader. Most would probably see it isn't for them almost immediately and then either not rate it or rate it very lowly. Once it possibly got more exposure from the spreadsheet and some other ways, the rating tanked.

All of this is easily viewed by any member of the GR group.

>>19613745
He wasn't a child, he was like 20. The guy took advantage of him because he could tell he was already a repressed homosexual.

>>19605546
How can these threads reach 200 plus comments and yet have so little substance written within them? This is insane. This genre is the ultimate midwit container

>>19610076
>if literary works like those written by Gene Wolfe are the highest form of our art, are the rest of us simply hacks?

>>19605764
I picked it up through Kindle-Unlimited and gave it a read
I've never made a dime off of writing, or published anything. I also don't read the books at walmart which sell millions of copies, so who knows if you can even trust my taste?
Its good, but it is a sad, sorrowful tale. Its not souless, lol no, but hard to market.
The title feels very weak, titles are hard, but I would have called it like the 'The Dalton War' Maybe that's too basic, but something to elicit War, Love, or Sorrow. Its very important when you type the title into google you don't get other crap.
Biggest flaw imo is the first chapter has no hook or 'promise.' I would have started the novel with others finding the diary, or discussing the diary. Or start with the trip to the spaceport(touching on the mysterious world-building and the Triumvirate). You need something to say, there are 1,000,000 books you can read, why are you reading this one? I'm not a fan of books starting with a Save the Cat Moment unless they're something special. Things are so competitive now, you really need a strong hook.
You could have had a better ending, a strong implication that the diary would have changed Itto's world. But popular fiction (Steven King) have shitty endings all the time and prove the beginning/hook is 1000x more important than the ending.
Overall, you're a good enough writer
Your dialogue feels natural
Scene with the Dad and hospital bomb was quite affecting
The oral exam was a clever and engaging way to do exposition
you have skills
Don't be too discouraged.
If I thought you were a bad writer I would be honest and tell you to just kill yourself or become a plumber. You should probably write at least 5 novels before you give up--especially with how goofy publishing is today. I know Sanderson wrote 13 novels before he was published

what other Wolfe novels besides the Solar Cycle does /sffg/ enjoy? I just picked up a bunch of non-SC Wolfe, thinking about doing 5HoC after I finish Urth(which I'm nearing the end of)

>>19614538
Some options:
Wait for responses in this thread
archive: >>/lit/?task=search2&ghost=&search_text=gene+wolfe
Spreadsheet of previous ratings >>19613902
Current ratings for each book. Type in name of book/author in the search bar, open "view group reviews": https://www.goodreads.com/group/bookshelf/1029811-sffg

>>19612532
>Why does everyone keep shitting on it?
Because its bad. Also, who is everyone? Its a popular book with a lot of fans.

>>19613069
>gay shit
>western fantasy
Checks out.

>>19613069
>anti-Bakker shills say the series is full of cuckoldry
>True Bakkerites know it's full of faggotry

>>19610511
Thanks, I will.

>>19605604
Make better threads.

>>19614730
Explain the relevance of your post in relation to what you've replied to.

>>19610766
This book is insane, could never be published in a traditional method
MC is Stalin but with more rape, who kills himself, and becomes young again, and decides to be gud-guy 2.0
the characters are insane, the dialogue is garbage, and half the plot derails into rants about sexual slavery. And the MC running around killing people for crimes he did is a super-weird vibe.
but
the worldbuilding is dope as fuck. Floating islands, air ships, super-powered knights, magic swords, and people who stay in the dark too long become Evil Dead monsters

>>19614349
Yeah, I get these criticisms of the method as a whole. It's not perfect and takes away a lot of nuance one might find in the data, but as far as one can analyze a book by a single score among a number of reviews, this is as deep as one can go I'm afraid. Though in general I meant for this to be more of an interesting experiment for myself and that might interest the thread, not any sort of actual statistical analysis of our tastes. If you want to find out if a book is right for you the synopsis os probably a better indicator than someone's arbitrary score

> Gideon the Ninth and Sufficiently Advanced Magic
The trouble with using outdated data I guess. I do r have GR so I have no idea how easy it would be to conmpile a more complete version of this data myself, so for now this is the best I can do.

Thanks for the meta analysis of the procedure though, it's interesting to see others people's opinions on this.

> copypaste what I posted about this from the thread
Wait, what thread?

>>19614794
Maybe it wasn't clear, but I what I copypasted wasn't responding to you.
The rest of it was though.

>Wait, what thread?
The Goodreads thread

>>19614807
> Maybe it wasn't clear, but I what I copypasted wasn't responding to you.
Oh. Still vali criticism of pretty much any statistical analysis that tries to reduce data to a single value

> The Goodreads thread
Huh. Ive never used Goodreads, do maybe I'll give it a look

>>19614756
sounds like it has potential but author needs to remove sex and kangs

>>19610766
is the title supposed to be a BOTNS reference

>>19612031
Black Company, first two books are really good, gets a bit goofy after that.

The Darkness the Comes Before, at least the first three, is mostly military. Later it gets more supernatural focused in its military elements.

Game of Thrones, while sprawling and with a lot of subplots, focuses largely on a major war from Books 2-4.

>>19614303
Friendly reminder that your object of worship is The Liberal Woman's Guide To Muh Evul Raycism that was queefed out of pic related.

>>19614494
Hey look another post with zero substance. I think I solved the mystery anon, people like you just need to leave.

I thought you would enjoy this sffg

>>19614756
How does it rate on the GRI index?

>>19614538
i read The Knight and i absolutely loved it. then i read Soldier of the Mist and didn't like it nearly as much, i still recognize it's masterfully done but it didn't engage me a lot, i thin kin part it's because i went into it wiht expectations. it has stopped me from reading more of his work for now

I'm halfaway through this and I'm enjoying the search for Earth/Gaia subplot.
I usually like the "search for the origin" trope in science fiction.

>>19615007
That worthless faggot has to be joking. Besides which I'd bet good money that every last member of his "diverse" writing team is a steadfast radfem.

>>19615007
i hate wokie dokies!

>>19615007
I'm interested in what you wanted to be the response.
"That's the wrong sort of diversity!" - criticism that it's fake and harmful
"This is why anything that says 'diverse' can't be trusted." - snarl word/self-terminating cliché
"Why isn't it 'merit'" - confused about how any of this works

Were these what you were going for, assuming they aren't also you?
>>19615092
>>19615110

>enjoy
In what way? Anger, vindication, contempt? It's all signaling and nothing else ought to be expected.

>read all the books
Because they know what the strengths are

>dropped
Because they know the weaknesses

>not wot
To draw in more general fantasy viewers

>don't even know fantasy
To draw in more viewers in general

I assume that's the thought process anyway.
It's to be expected of design by committee, which very common for big productions such as these. To me it's just eyeroll-worthy corporatespeak that isn't enjoyable at all.

I honestly think GRRM and GOT is really good and he’s only not respected here due to the tv show and it’s popularity. You know I’m right.

I understand the feeling, if BOTNS ever got big with normies I will kill myself

>>19615175
>I will kill myself
Why would you ever let the opinion of the "normies" be so important to you?

>>19612400
Absolutely based.
Goodkind is awful. He makes Sanderson look like a good author.

>>19615163

>>19615216
What about it?

>>19615175
I don't care what you feel about anything as botns cannot be adapted into anything remotely interesting.

>>19615216
Why is a nobody like Judkins even afforded that much creative control? I cannot think of a single decision made for the adaptation that brought any sort of improvement over the original writing. All changes are neutral at best but for the most part make the product worse. Which is quite a feat considering that WoT isn't even that well written to begin with.

>>19605546
gardens of the moon any good? God a swedish friend really wants me to read it

I just want to say that this guy is literally me

>>19615438
he cute

'Twas days before christmas, at end of year at last,
But on the first day of my vacation I awoke aghast
My head pounded, my nose clogged, my breath a wheezing blast.
"god damn it," thought I
"This is when I get sick?" as I exhausted my tissue supply
Trapped in my home
with dog so not alone
Writing eluded me in the midst of this brain flu
Caught up on anime and Youtube empty too
Discord is empty as others fly to old home
So fruitless, the internet I roam
But I am yet dogged by a question or two
In want of an answer I come to you

How big does a number have to be ot be a BIG number? Context is a damage value in a video game like world of warcraft

>>19615413
i think malazan as a whole is ok
the second book with the great expedition the chain of dogs in the desert is incredibly great as they are pursued by hostile armies across the desert was my favourite of the entire series

>>19615413
It's not light reading. You'll know early into it if you're not going to enjoy reading Malazan because it never really slows down.

>>19615401
WoT is pretty tightly written in the first few books. It's not a great work of art (i.e. a thing of beauty), but it's a very competently constructed story. The problems occur around book 4 onward, where Jordan starts bloating the series to keep it going, adding new character PoVs and side plots for no real reason, and everything just grinds to a halt as most of the characters jog in place for most of the books waiting for him to finish catching us up on the increasingly vast list of characters we're expected to remember. There's literally dozens of named Aes Sedai by book 7 and you can be forgiven for not remembering most of them.

>>19615013
what tranny shit is this? why does sffg support tranny stuff?

>>19615500
I'm pretty sure it's a joke anon

>list a bunch of knights
>knights whose names you've already forgotten get unhorsed but luckily get back on again
>more lists of knights
>have the future of some knights told out of absolutely nowhere and then they vanish again
>literally no description of anything, things unironically just happen
I'm just gonna read The Once and Future King instead.

>>19615619
Enjoy reading about indians

>>19615694
Huh?

>>19615500 One is not all and all are not one.
>>19615616 Does it matter either way?

>>19615770
TH White likes to constantly describe things like "And they ran around with no shirt on with tanned skin like little indians"

>>19615920
The thing I remember most about the book was Morgan le Fay slept on a literal bed of lard.

>>19615932
Yeah, she lives in a castle made out of food on a bed of fat. She's absolutely coruplent herself and smeared in grease. Is this some kinda fetish?

do I read The Diamond Age next, which I own, or do I buy and read Seveneves, which I really really want to read

>>19615979 You already know the answer, you just aren't able to accept it.

>>19612532
I enjoyed it as well, just wish there was a third book desu

>>19616010
I buy all these books and then don't read them because my mood changes and I buy and read other books. I've uniroincally catalogued all my books, of which I own 323, and of which I've read 171. 62% of my books would be categorized as sci-fi, 21% would be categorized and non-fiction philosophy.

>>19611593
Sounds like your grasp of the language isn't very good yet. Try Sanderson, unironically.

Also fuck Pratchett.

>>19615979
>>19616022
Seveneves blows. I've only ever recommended it as a prank. Reject consumerism, embrace piracy

>>19616029
It has an amazing first few chapters.

>>19616029
it seems to be polarizing that's for sure

>>19616041
I agree, I'd even go so far as to so the opening line is one of my favourites from any book

Shame about the rest of it

>>19616029
>>19616045
>>19615979
/sffg/ on seveneves
5: 2
4: 1
3: 8
2: 2
1: 1
3.07, 14 total

Here's what I thought of it:
>>/lit/thread/S18902302#p18906137
I think this may be my most "liked" review on Goodreads, though it's still only a few.

>>19616097
thanks anon I appreciate your service. the books last half is so shit on it almost makes me want to read the book to see why it's so bad. and I'm a STEM edgelord myself so your description of the book, in that it's so scientific, sounds intriguing

Alright I need more coomer recs. I've read
>Wild Wastes
>Super Sales
>Dragon's Justice
>Succubus Summoning 101
Generally pretty bad, but Succubus Summoning 101 was a bit of a surprise though because the author is actually a pretty good writer and really leans into the horror elements, despite the book being cover to cover porn. Unfortunately the author has very different tastes to me.

>>19616225
What do you consider coomer?

>>19616234
Don't mind what I think, if you think it is, tell me about it.

>>19614531
The thread's probably going to expire soon, but I wanted to say I really appreciate you reading the book and giving me your honest thoughts on it. I'm hoping with my next book I can write a better hook and give it a better name. I'm alternating between two different titles right now. It'll be funny if in retrospect, I find out that the only reason agents rejected me was because the hook wasn't as good as it could have been.
Thank you, really.

New thread
>>19616243

>>19615413
Some sappers infiltrate a city to prepare it for invasion, a fat woman gets reincarnated, some guy is killed twice in quick succession and a thief tries to fuck a girl but everything is derailed by a bunch of gods fighting and eventually a large tree saves the day. It's really just a bunch of cool ideas stuck together with paper thin characters and a lot of setups for future books.

>>19615979
Diamond Age was hugely inspirational for me and got me into NLP, and the first 2/3 or so is incredible. The last 1/3 is the worst thing I’ve ever read.

>>19616618
NS can't write an ending to save his life. I don't know why his publisher hasn't necked him yet.