/lit/ - Literature

Nearly done with Songs of Dying Earth, just these three left. I suspect I'm already past the high water mark but maybe the fat man will surprise

>>19698982
>make decent art
>add obnoxious amounts of chromatic aberration
how tiresome

>>19698982
>make great art
>add tasteful amount of chromatic aberration
how splendid

>>19699010
art is pozzed

Chromatic Aberration is pozzed and you are a troon for liking it

now lets talk about Literature, Bakker preferred

Is this worth reading? It seems pretty cool but contemporary fluoride-coffee people like it so it turns me away from it a bit.

Actually one of my all time favorite stories here, I wish I knew more about Homer and Shakespeare before I went into it but now I want to become more familiar with those 2 and then give it another go.

>>19699104
>woman
pozzed and unbased

*saves the fantasy genre*
heh....nothin personnel...kid.......

>>19699139
? women often make fairly good fantasy

>>19699153
>good
pozzed, only a fluoride coffee drinker would want good things

>>19699158
you're not making sense

bakkerfags are the same level of existence as the "voracious readers" who read maybe 2 new books each year and spend the rest of it rereading their "comfort books"

>>19699177
stop overdosing on fluoride coffee

>>19699180
better to reread the sublime than dive in a trash can full of unbased women books

>>19699180
It's just the meme of the month, a few months in a row...Something else will come.

I'm in the mood for some military sci-fi. I read The Lost Fleet a while back and I'm in the mood for something similar.

>>19699180
I don't think I've ever reread a book in my life, but I would definitely consider rereading Bakker. I'm a bit of a slow reader and so it takes me more than average to get through a book.

t. that fucker STILL reading God Emperor. almost done bros

>>19698982
Any sci-fi recommendations that take the idea of female rape breeding farms and run with it?

>>19699219
I haven't read The Lost Fleet but check out 40k. Gaunt's Ghosts is basically Band of Brothers. I haven't read Ciaphas Cain but a lot of people have good things to say about it. The first 2 books of Gaunts Ghosts aren't the best of the series but starting at Necropolis it gets really good.

I would argue that the Black Company spend more time being the underdogs in the South than in the North.

third of the way through this and thinking of giving up. at least 3 times now characters have announced their intentions to leave and then are immediately retrieved or convinced otherwise. pure padding.

>>19699401
my ex bought me this years ago. still haven't read it, doesn't seem like I will now.

>>19699411
it started off pretty comfy with him joining a performance arts group as a juggler. but it's soon bogged down in endless vague dreams and a passive protagonist who when confronted with his mysterious past decides it's best to simply wait until the group happens to journey closer to the place he (and the story) needs to go.

>>19699109
same, finished both books last week

i actually liked this more than hyperion

>>19699401
Personally I loved every single book in the Majipoor series at the time I read them.

why are writers afraid of romantic subplots?
is it their lack of irl sexual encounters?

>>19699252
In The Barn - Piers Anthony (1972)

Somebody tell me if The Prince of nothing is worth reading or not. I have read 10 percent of the book and it still haven't hooked me in.

>>19699465
because not having them is better than the possibility of a bad one, which most are

>>19699487
it took until kellhus rejoined the story for me to get fully invested. that's about halfway through i think. the second book i enjoyed thoroughly.

>>19699487
Is this your first time in /sffg/? I don't know why else you'd ask that.

>>19699487
only if you're underage and/or want to fit in here

>>19699487
you should be hooked by the very first line. you may be zoomer brained. stick to sanderson.

>>19699104
I read the first quarter or so and it was good. Saw it start to deviate from exploring the gods into the heroine becoming some quirky powerful girlboss OC and dipped.

Recommend me any relatively recent fantasy books without LGBT shit?

>>19699504
Yes
>>19699521
The book throws you into this vast world which might be interesting but it almost feel like a meme when they are revealing the world to the reader. Like this generic country is in constant war with this generic country. Or some normal looking dude is being calm while facing a powerful opponent, could it be that he might be more powerful?

>>19699570
>Yes
There's been some very dedicated spammers of it for years, so I figured you were meme'd into reading it.

>>19699570
>The book throws you into this vast world which might be interesting but it almost feel like a meme when they are revealing the world to the reader. Like this generic country is in constant war with this generic country. Or some normal looking dude is being calm while facing a powerful opponent, could it be that he might be more powerful?
you're mentally ill.

>>19699570
the protagonist is an incredibly obvious mary sue with no redeeming qualities other than threadgoers being able to self insert as him, add a thin veneer of epical trad christianity crusades aesthetics and you've got emotionally stunted autismos going autismo over it

>>19699465
Fantasy genre is strongly influenced by the best authors being catholic (Tolkien, Wolfe) and half of the others some manner of Christian (Jordan, Lewis, Sandersneed)

>>19699565
Respond to this post with your nomination for a book that I'll write about.
The only requirement is that no one has written about it in the /sffg/ GR group.
It doesn't matter how many have read it.
Open the link below, type the book's name, search, and then click "view group reviews".
https://www.goodreads.com/group/add_book/1029811-sffg?utf8=%E2%9C%93&id=1029811&search[query]
I'll choose a winner from the nominees since the voting hasn't worked.
You can ignore the requirement, though I'll probably the ignore the book as well. Maybe not.

>>19699104
It's a decent evening or two's worth of reading.

>>19699608
>Mormon
>Christian
No.

>>19699584
Man the book literally starts with this fuckery. Like the scene in the first chapter when the old bald guy is facing the scarlet spires slave(pretty gay name by the way), the slave is like yo who is this faggot trying to act cool. And then the bald guy is like, you have got some balls trying to face me with this attitude. This scene is literally straight out a generic shonan anime where some guy is underestimating some fat bald old guy.

>>19699679
>anime
u hav 2 go bak

>>19699731
you're the one reading that garbage pal

>>19699597
>the protagonist is an incredibly obvious mary sue
Which one of them, fat middle aged spy, homo barbarian or prostitute?
It is fucking amazing how every single person who complains about Bakker here turns out to be filtered so hard he can't even brasp basic things in the book, like thinking plot device without personality or ego is a protagonist.

>>19699757
>he's not the protagonist because... he just isn't ok!

I really should've saved some of the join messages people write and made a collage out of them.

Is this worth checking out? Stumbled on it when I was looking for some haunted ship/first alien movie style books

I love when he fumes with rage then wakes up later with poop on his dick

>go to book store
>"the epic fantasy of epic, book 2"
>"the epic fantasy of epic, book 3"
>guess I'll just pick another series to start on
>"the epic, book 1 part 2"
>"the epic, book 3 part 1"
>ask about book 1
>"sorry we don't have that one in store"
Americans are unlucky for being in current America I guess but at least you have book 1 in your stores.

>>19700004
>doubts his masculinity
>copes by raping another man
Is getting Dunyain'd really that bad?

>>19699109
How is it related to those?

>>19699109
Ilium was awesome but Olympos was disappointing

>>19700106
Happens here all the time.

>>19700228
why the fuck do you always post volume 5 specifically instead of another volume, is it the best one or something

Fucking love this quote

>"But then," interposed Sutt, "how would Mayor Hardin account for Lord Dorwin's assurances of Empire support? They seemed –" He shrugged. "Well, they seemed satisfactory."
>Hardin threw himself back in the chair. "You know, that's the most interesting part of the whole business. I'll admit I had thought his Lordship a most consummate donkey when I first met him – but it turned out that he was actually an accomplished diplomat and a most clever man. I took the liberty of recording all his statements."
>There was a flurry, and Pirenne opened his mouth in horror.
>"What of it?" demanded Hardin. "I realize it was a gross breach of hospitality and a thing no so-called gentleman would do. Also, that if his lordship had caught on, things might have been unpleasant; but he didn't, and I have the record, and that's that. I took that record, had it copied out and sent that to Holk for analysis, also."
>Lundin Crast said, "And where is the analysis?"
>"That," replied Hardin, "is the interesting thing. The analysis was the most difficult of the three by all odds. When Holk, after two days of steady work, succeeded in eliminating meaningless statements, vague gibberish, useless qualifications – in short, all the goo and dribble – he found he had nothing left. Everything canceled out."
>"Lord Dorwin, gentlemen, in five days of discussion didn't say one damned thing, and said it so you never noticed. There are the assurances you had from your precious Empire."

>>19699989
It was a /sffg/ group read. It was liked.

>>19700106
And then bookstores are wondering why they are closing down because nobody buys books anymore. Fucking niggers
Hilariously here in Germany the only ones propping up book store sales are apparently anti vaxxers buying all those selp help books. Book stores are the only inner city stores I encountered who just do not control your vaxx pass, and they even have signs on the door that everyone is allowed entry, and they only ask you kindly to obey the local laws.
Those people must have mad market power, buying their five hundred copies of Bronze Age Mindset.

>>19700462
I wish I lived in Germany. The bookstore I saw there was much better than bookstores here in Sweden.

>>19700477
as long as stock copies of koran they are good enough for Sweden

>>19700477
we are at a strange point currently where the small local bookstores are shit, but the large chains are pretty deece
Thalia has a lot of outlets, and they carry a lot of sffg stuff, even smaller books.

>>19700544
Let me guess, pink hair?

>>19700544
Topkek.

>>19699401
His standalone books better, but only some of them--no author has had his great works buried under so many volumes of pulp.

>>19700582
Lemme guess, inbred?

Can I get a shorter standalone recc to read in between bakker novels? Idc if it's scifi or fantasy.

About to start Terms of Enlistment, what am I in for?

>>19700668
The only correct choice is to read more Bakker. Read his short fiction between the novels. Read other Bakker related works after that.

>>19700668
freeze frame revolution + the short stories in the same universe are probably the length of a single proper book and really good

>>19700668

>>19700680
>>19686058

>>19700617
Nah I'm white, not even Muslim, and yet Talichads are more based than you'll ever be

>>19700668
>>19700690
"Stars My Destination" is the best Alfred Bester book and its the best 'fast read' in scifi

Has his stuff aged well? What is his best work?
Give me some suggestions, I wanna work through the classics.

>>19699620
Yes, that's exactly why they suck so bad.

>>19699608
What's a book with a passable romance in your opinion?

>>19699474
How can one man be so based?

>>19700969
yes read time machine.

>>19700460
For the record, i did not like it at all. Thought the writer did a really lazy job with the plot and the characters.

I still can't tell if you guys are for real with the Bakker bullshit. His worldbuilding is interesting and autistically detailed, sure. but that's the extent of his talent - his prose is shit and he doesn't understand exposition at all

>>19700969
You can smell 5'6 shitlib oozing out of the pages, but he was a decent writer. In a Glass Darkly is my favorite Victorian era SF.

>>19699141
not so fast

>>19700680
First book is guy lives in dystopian hellhole, goes to bootcamp, and guns down civilians who zerg his squad. It's like 5v100000 with high tech smart guns vs little peashooters and everyone gets blown to fucking bits.

>>19701095
Okay I'll add it to my list.
Anything else by Wells?
>>19701149
Shitlibs didn't exist yet, anon. He was an old fashioned leftie. From before they realized just how bad communism is a fuck up.
> In a Glass Darkly
Oh, so that's where ENT got that episode title from.

>>19701231
>glass darkly
The original source is:

1 Corinthians 13:12
King James Version

12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

>>19701247
Every great work is based on the bible.

>>19701250
Every mediocre work uses biblical allusions for an illusion of depth

>>19701247
>>19701250
I don't understand bible verses, lads.

>>19701231
Shitlibs have always existed

>>19701286
Yeah, yeah I guess you're right about that.

>>19701280
Count yourself lucky, lad

>>19700447
Me too bro, love Azimov. One of the first sifi I read thanks to my dad.

Finished God Emperor- was really great, enjoyed it a lot.

Unsure if I should read something else or jump right into Heretics/Chapterhouse.

>>19701812
are you me? I'm still trying to finish it, got 100 pages to go. I'm also not sure if I should jump into Heretics, part of me wants to just to get done with the series, but I've been reading this shit straight since Messiah and I'm a bit burned out. I really really enjoy God Emperor, it's my favorite of the four Frank books so far, to see the Golden Path "in action" is interesting. I love all the dialogue between Leto and Duncan.

>>19699474
>ShindoL's work "A Dairy Cow's Life" was actually an adaptation of an old sci-fi horror short story
Who would've guessed?

Any fantasy recommendations with futas and females being the only 2 genders?

>>19700687
Bruh you're trying to meme a memer. I'm trying to take a short break from bakker

>>19700689
I'll take a look
>>19700690
>>19700724
I read stars my destination you guys reccd it last time I asked this question. I quite enjoyed it wish I could jaunt.

Embarrassingly only now getting into reading seriously (beyond casual infrequent pasttimes). I've found a lot of scifi books I'm interested in but very few fantasy ones since they all seem to be;
>just Tolkein/D&D rip offs that do nothing different with the setting (Discworld takes this and does something great with it imo)
>protagonist is either perfect, snowflakey, sad sad orphan babby's first D&D character backstory,
or
>the story is just an excuse for females to masturbate

Any recommendations?

>>19702055
yeah, I recommend you just start masturbating too

>>19699264
I know nothing about Warhammer 40k but heard only good things about it. What is a good book to start with?

>>19702065
I suggest Horus Heresy, the first book is Horus rising.

>>19700690
read this, meh, wasnt that gripping and jumped around too much. Haven't read TSMD

>>19701391
>One of the first sifi I read thanks to my dad.
Huh, me too. He basically threw the foundation books at me and told me to get reading, and a couple of years later here I am.

>>19702215
Stars is the better book, but it's not that much better that I'd recommend it if you didn't dig The Demolished Man

>>19702065
I found the first horus heresy books to be "twilight for guys" and stopped.
The lore is ok, you can just read about that on wikis and listen to podcasts.

>>19702224
Awesome, in my case i saw them on his bookshelf one day and asked about them. Got me onto Robot/Foundation series, Stainless Steel Rat (highly recommend) and strangely Deltora Quest...

>>19699081
Make your own then big brain

>>19699004
The fat man surprised.

---
The story of Songs of Dying Earth are arranged roughly in chronological order, with those closest to the time of Vance's Dying Earth at the beginning, and those in Dying Earth's death rattle at the end. Rating for stories are follows: *** - Great, ** - Good, * - Not good/Skip

The True Vintage of Erzuine Thale by Silverberg **
A good opening story, The True Vintage transports the reader back to the saturnine and sensence world of Dying Earth with charm and economy

Grolion by Matthew Hughes ***
If you can spare only one moment to read any of the Songs of Dying Earth it should be this one. Hughes nails the dry wit and philosophising dialogue of Dying Earth's denizens, and presents his story so convincingly that in my memory it merged with the originals.

The Copsy Door by Terry Dowling *
Copsy offers few surprises and little to excite

Caulk the Witch-chaser by Liz Williams *
I like the concept, but not the execution

Inescapable by Mike Resnick ***
Chun the Unavoidable didn't need a backstory, but now he has one, and it's pretty good.

Abrizonde by Walter Jon Williams ***
The tale of Vespanus of Roe is an amusing and surprising delight.

The Traditions of Karzh by Paula Volsky **
Broadly this has the outline of a good Dying Earth story, but it lacks in style and playfulness.

The Final Quest of the Wizard Sarnod by Jeff VanderMeer *
As fantastic as it is tedious. Skip it.

The Green Bird by Kage Baker**
A Cugel story. Judging from the afterword Baker would seem far less infatuated with Dying Earth and Vance than many of the other contributors to Songs, she also seems to understand it far better than most.

The Last Golden Thread by Phyllis Eisenstein ***
Eisenstein's tale would seem to lean far more towards a younger audience than any other story in Songs, and also indulgent enough as to feature T'sais, Turjen and Chun. But it is charming and original nonetheless.

An Incident in Uskvesk by Elizabeth Moon **
Fun and original.

Sylgarmo's Proclamation *
Another story featuring Cugel, but it is in name only. Skip it.

The Lamentably Comical Tragedy (or The Laughably Tragic Comedy) of Lixal Laqavee **
A good outline of a story, but lacking in the finer points. The dialogue is particularly cumbersome. Despite these maluses it gets a passing mark from me for the dark and witty ending.

Guyal the Curator **
It has some rough edges, but it is nice to have another story featuring Guyal.

>>19702688
Part 2

---
The Good Magician **
Cook alone returns to Rhialto and his fellow sorcerers. The Good Magician is serviceable.

The Return of the Fire Witch **
Hand's story of Saloona the Fungalist and Paytim the Fire Witch is dark and highly memorable, but not very satisfying.

The Collegeum of Mauge **
Another story of a young man learning magic, and the third story to feature Cugel. Easy to read, not great, not terrible.

Evillo the Unknowing by Tanith Lee ***
Evillo is a tightly paced, witty, surprising and mostly original tale. Lee emulates Vance's style well, striking good balance between contrived and archaic phrasings and readability, and suffuses the dialogue with pomp, tension and irony. At points it leans on characters or places from the original tales, which have an element of metacommentary to them, but these are weak.

The Guiding Nose of Ulfänt Banderōz *
Dan Simmons seems to have great admiration for Vance, but little interest in crafting a tale in the scope and style of Dying Earth. The Guiding Nose is double the length of most of the preceding stories but lacks qualitatively. With frustrating regularity there are words or turns of phrase that are very contemporary "Peasants of the world, unite" and "epoxy" particularly stick out. There are also several points where plot developments are presented in a manner that seems unintentionally ambiguous and lacking in narrative weight, giving the impression of a draft. I would have probably enjoyed it in a vacuum, but it makes for a pallid imitation. Given its length I'm recommending a skip.

Frogskin Cap by Howard Waldrop
At a mere 10 pages Frogskin Cap is the shortest story of Songs, and its worst. Unlike the other stories I've recommended skipping Frogskin Cap does not have any redeeming qualities.

A Night at the Tarn House by GRRM ***
A few authors in Songs have tried to bend Dying Earth in their own direction and Martin's is the only one I find worthy. It is well balanced, briskly paced and darkly humourous. The prose is on point, largely disfavoring archaic or arcane phrasings for a timeless quality. Perhaps most surprisingly it makes its own small addition to Dying Earth's lore that feels so natural it could have been there from the beginning.

An Invocation of Incuriosity by Gaiman **
Of all the authors within only Gaiman could have the gall to open and close his Song of Dying Earth in fucking Florida.

Life sucks. I've already read everything worth reading. Prove me wrong.

I am once again going to shill this series.

>>19699219
Read A Hymn Before Battle and Gust Front and then pretend that John Ringo died in 9/11.

Recommend me something with romance in it.

>>19701212
God I hate that faggot.

>>19701946
Anyone who thinks anime is weird has never read 1980s fantasy novels. One of the Xanth books focuses on what color a mermaid's panties would be if she wore them.

>>19702916

No, it's OK to fuck a busty mental child because 15 day's later she will be a horse faced scientist.

Also trees made of eyes that scream but are tasty frozen treats.

>>19702065
The Core Rulebook. All the novels are just glorified GI Joe filecards.

>>19699465
On the contrary. It's the incel writers who obsess over romance, because they view it as some great unattainable treasure they only can daydream about in their novels. Meanwhile the chad writers who have laid with a number of women know just how terrible and poisonous the so called "fairer sex" really is and therefore can't well write about romance without it getting ugly. Better to avoid the topic altogether.

>>19700724
both are awesome

>>19702974
Counter argument, Robert E Howard.

>>19702864
then write

>>19702875
>take a look at his wiki
>the pic they have is him literally tipping a fedora
LMAO

idc that this shit is aimed at kids; Nylund is a damned good sci-fi action author. Fall of Reach was incredible and this is almost as good.

The novel by the other guy trying to adapt Halo CE was an abomination.

>>19700704
>t. Incel
Don't ever get married and disappoint one more woman other than your mother.

>>19703309
He looks like he owns a katana

Any good space opera books that aren't all battles and war? Thinking something like Deep Space Nine.

>>19703531
m'reader

Colour of Magic read more like a Guliver's Travels type book- stuff happening but ultimately not much story. Are the other Discworld books more story-y??

A good scifi or fantasy with a little bit of hot lesbian shit? Nothing too LGBTQPISAIIAP nor the main focus just in it.

>>19703832
Depends. I can say the Death books have a storyline in them, though it can be a bit loose at times, but still pretty good

>>19703845
I think Gideon the Ninth (And teh rest of teh series) feature lesbian necromancers in space, but I'm not sure how much focus there is on actual llesbian action not on LGBTQ+ stuff (though I figure it's more of the latter as it's a pretty recent book)

>>19702974
That's true at the livejournal level, but if you're a commercially viable author and aren't getting laid, you try to avoid romance. Because you're savvy enough to know you know you can't write romance for shit.

I dunno if this is something /sffg/ will have answers for, but what are some good sf/literary weird fiction publishers that take submissions for my second novel.

My first novel is a fantasy LN that was published online to mostly an audience of teenage girls. My second novel is going to be sci-fi but very different from what gets associated from the genre. More weird fiction set in the future. The book is kind of akin to the kind of weird esoteric shit you'd get from Wakefield press much more than generic boomer Star Wars/Dune ripoffs.

I don't have an agent but can say I've written a published novel before. I want this to be a print book even if it's mostly on Amazon, but I want to have a real publisher. Where the fuck do I look?

>>19703832
Yes. Colours and Light are both markedly different from most of Discworld. Although the later books featuring Rincewood still track a similar vein

>>19703911
i hope you published the first one under a pseudonym lol

>>19699219

If you just want political intrigue and space battles with a war hero, Honor Harrington is still the standby. Otherwise there's the first three books of the Star Carrier series.

I read BOTNS, Ian M. Banks "Inversions," and then reread BOTNS (No Urth yet) and I have no idea where to go or what the fuck to do at this point. I feel as though I hit divinity and that everything else I pick up will only be echoes compared to the quality of these two absolute mad lads. What do I read next, /sffg?/

>>19704254
first dislodge your head from your ass

>>19704254
Long Sun and Short Sun

>>19704254
Gormenghast? I don't think its as good as BOTNS, but reading stream of consciousness and the other fancy writing techniques in genre ficiton is a bit trippy.

>>19704255

What a witty and snappy book recommendation. You must be what, two thirds through your mom's wine bottle? Go to bed, you have highschool in the morning.

>>19704261

I'm considering picking it up but sort of burnt out from getting into series that has its author die before their works completion. My Sci-fi disguised as fantasy streak is going fucking strong right now so Gormenghast seems like the logical way forward. I was thinking of reading The Knight/The Wizard but might revert backwards chronologically to the Fifth Head of Cerberus.

>>19704287
follow the advice instead of trying to clap back next time

>>19704288

Provide literary advice instead of being a fucking bitch, retard.

>>19704287
Gormenghast has nothing with sci fi going on until later books, it is more like a stage play disguised as Fantasy at first.
Maybe read Hyperion for Fantasy disguised as Sci Fi for axis inversion.

>>19704300

Already went through Hyperion over the fall and trudged through Fall of Hyperion. Endymion continually makes me want to fall asleep about a third of the way through, so I don't know if the final 2 books are for me.

>>19703538
>Any good space opera books that aren't all battles and war?
space opera without battles and shit?

>>19703538
Try A Talent For War

What's the best Star Trek book?

You must be what, two thirds through your mom's wine bottle? Go to bed, you have highschool in the morning.

>/sffg/

>>19704428
Battles and shit are great so long as they're not >50% of the pages.

>>19702864
Just wait for my book to be finished!

>>19703845
Now I'm curious about smut novels. I know people usually like pure girls, but what about girl on girl stuff before the main protagonist gets them? Or after with some bi threeway stuff?

>>19704254
I always forget Severian never wears a fucking shirt.

>>19699474
Not a bad read, although it basically amounts to being the equivalent of one of those PETA ads/publicity stunts in literary form.

Post your top 10 fantasy and scifi books respectively

>>19705014 You first.

>>19705019
I haven't read ten fiction books.

>>19705045 You expect too much from others.

just finished reading picrel trilogy, really like the way this guy writes. any other authors with similar styles you'd recommend?

>>19705069
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_weird

>>19705014
Limited to 1/author

Fantasy:
To Green Angel Tower
The Tombs of Atuan
The Slow Regard of Silent Things
Under Heaven
The Fellowship of the Ring
Titus Groan
Last Argument of Kings
The Magicians Nephew
Memories of Ice
The Goblin Emperor

Honorable Mentions:
Way of Kings, Piranesi, The Warrior Prophet

Sci Fi:
Shadow of the Torturer
Hyperion Cantos
God Emperor of Dune
The Long Earth


I am not getting to 10 Sci Fi books I liked enough to enter them into a top 10 because I read ALL of the Star Wars novels as a child and am now eternally burned on the genre. I only pick up science fantasy and other crossovers.

>>19705076
i don't necessarily mean genre, more so the way things are written and described and sentence structure and such
forgive my lack of education, but is this prose?

>>19705080
>The Slow Regard of Silent Things
Seriously? SERIOUSLY? Why?

>eternally burned
Foolish

>>19705088
It may be a subjective emotional experience in which case little can be recommended.

>>19705090
Because Rothfuss' prose is genuinly insanely good, among the best in the genre with Guy Gavriel Kay and a few others.
The problem is more that Kvothe is the worst character in Western Fantasy, and the overall story is below seasonal Isekai power fantasy trash.
The advantage of The Slow Regard of Silent Things is that it has effectively no story, so you can read it for the prose only.

As for spaaaceeee, I plan to read something by K Dick eventually, maybe that will reignite my love for Sci Fi. Jack Vance failed to do so.

>>19705112
Proseist be gone.

>>19702864
This is called depression.

>>19705014
Haven't read 10.
Fantasy: don't think I've read any
Science fiction: read 1984, brave new world (not sure I finished it), foundation, a scanner darkly, I think that's it. I would say 1984 is the best. The girlfriend parts are cringe though.

>>19704982
based

>>19701850
>>19701812
If you have made it through book 4, why stop? Next books actually have more action and world building than God Emperor. If you like the Bene Gesserit and tleilaxu, these factions get heavily explored. Discover the ruins of God's empire. See the bene Gesserit further exploit people and learn more about their point of view. Remember the fish speakers? They and bene Gesserit in the scattering lose their minds in deep space and return as space Huns, pillaging the empire. Massive cat fight. You get more Duncan gholas. You get a new character, hardened battle commander Miles Teg, perhaps the most badass character is n the entire series. These books show you more about what's going on outside of the narrow point of view we are given in previous books, with scenes hopping planet much more than previously. These books are however very very dense. You will have many chapters of thick, philosophical chapters of bene Gesserit leaders. They really are the spiritual successors of the Atreides. There is an entire chapter on chapterhouse about cooking with spice. If you don't like scenes with old women sipping spice tea and thinking about lunch, while thinking about how to save humanity, then you might get bored. Some is very dry. However like most the books, the they have big payoff as Frank does well at building up the tension. You will get a cliffhanger ending, but I would argue it leaves about as much intrigue and wonder as you feel right now. You may want to see what Brian Herbert wrote (they are not good) or you may just decide to stop there and settle with what you think Frank wanted to happen.

>>19699141
Why do people dislike Sanderson here? I'm reading The Last Empire and I'm pretty impressed. It's a page Turner.

>>19705608
It's just an extremely vocal minority. The vast silent majority absolutely adore him.

>>19705608
he's successful and loves his genre and job

>>19705608
shit characters, embarrassing dialogue, prose that is basic to the point of being unejoyable to read and many of his books are insanely bloated
only thing the guy has going for him is that he's very prolific

>>19705608
Jealousy.

>>19705655
That and being one of the best selling modern SFF authors.

>>19705608
Sanderson gets shat on more because of his fans than anything else. The guy is decent, but hardly a super good author, yet is promoted every-fucking-location by a horde of really braindead people obsessed with his stuff. Despite the fact they've read almost nothing else.

Also his made up names for magical stuff is so goddamn stupid I can hardly articulate how goofy they sound.

>“Wot if when you fart you can alter gravity for as long as the fart goes on for?”
>“And the pitch of the fart dictates how far away you can alter gravity?”
>“Those who can do this are called Shartbingers!”
>*write 800,000 words about this 0.05 nanoseconds in the most bland style possible.

>>19699109
Olympus gave me literary blue balls.
I hate those books so much for creating an amazing story with excellent mysteries and not tying up any loose ends.

>>19705700
/sffg/ has now reached the point of complaining about a fantasy author putting fantastical concepts into his books

>>19705721
If they do that though, how will they ever be accepted by the literary establishment, which is the end goal of all writing by all writers?

>>19705721
No, only uninteresting ones with silly names. The people who req Sanderson are the same people who have only read like a dozen other YA books, and nothing more complicated than that.

The reason Sanderson gets shat on all the time is because whenever he is brought up everyone knows some major grade dumbo has entered the conversation.

>>19705608
Because it's YA. Nothing but plot and magic systems. Ultimately it has no higher pretentions than being shallow entertainment. And that is fine, most entertainment doesn't. But the Sanderfans holding him up as the new king of fantasy is literally dumbing down the image of what fantasy is and has to offer.

>>19705608
I used to like him, particularily Way of Kings, but I expected him to neatly wrap it up in a trilogy, not write a 10x450.000 word odyssey with multiverse shenanigans, cameo appearances from other books and sideshow arcs. Marvel cultural influence is a disease.
Only way I give him another shot is if he pinky promises that a book has nothing to do with the Cosmere.

Leave the gatekeeping, elitism, pretension, and snobbishness to /outerlit/.

>>19705608
He's mediocre but extremely popular, all his books are kind of the same, and hardcore Sanderson fans are living s॰y memes.

>>19705746
Do you feel the same way about Harry Potter, only more so, because it's had much more cultural influence?

>>19705746
>Ultimately it has no higher pretentions than being shallow entertainment.
>Cont.
It doesn't delve deeper (or at all) into the human experience because his intended readers have no life experience. They are teens who just want to see cool shit, and that's what he focuses on delivering.

>>19705666
I really don't care how popular or successful he is

>>19705768
>extremely popular
That's untrue.
He's only popular within his niche.
He doesn't have mainstream appeal.
He already hit his upper limit of popularity a decade ago.

>>19705080
But Star Wars is science fantasy, not science fiction.

>>19705772
I think you're in the wrong general.

>>19705773
The lady doth protest too much, methinks

>>19705779
Nah, its just more honest. Sci fi and fantasy is an aesthetic difference, because eventually all the fantastical technology will boil down to 'idk lol' which is just what magic is.

>>19705788
What about SF that doesn't have any fantastical technology?

>>19705772
>They are teens who just want to see cool shit, and that's what he focuses on delivering.
And thats the thing. I don't think anyone would care enough to shit on him for doing that, but its because of his fans throwing him into every conversation that he is 'hated'. Nobody in this general shits on Sarah J. Maas. Because Her fans just read and enjoy her stuff, then shut the fuck up. They don't try and pretend she is something she isn't.

>>19705800
>Nobody in this general shits on Sarah J. Maas
I don't know if you're trolling, delusional, ignorant, or some mix of all three. Because the general very much does.

>>19705770
I'm not sure I follow. HP is literally shallow whimsy for children. Even adult superfans aren't claiming it is something it isn't. And certainly no one is claiming it's the best the fantasy genre has to offer.

>>19705796
Barely exists. You'd remove all the bulwark greats of the genre too. Oftentimes even so called ‘hard sci fi’ makes several fantastical assumptions.

At any rate, the science being made up in SW doesn’t mean it isn’t fiction about science. It just means it isn’t fiction about real science. The difference is only aesthetic, but it still is one. Maybe you could reterm sci fi that makes no assumptions to ‘realistic sci fi’ and then dump it off in the corner somewhere.

>>19705772
Well I'm only half way through The Last Empire and I'm getting a lot of human characters with life experiences so I would say shallow characters is a weakness. Not sure what more you want in that department.

>>19705768
Only heard of him in the past 2 months

>>19705816
>Even adult superfans aren't claiming it is something it isn't. And certainly no one is claiming it's the best the fantasy genre has to offer.
Or maybe you just don't go to Potter communities and spend too much time in Sanderson ones.

>>19705822
It sounds more like that you just prefer having a binary of literary vs genre.

>>19705814
Magna cum loudly is just banter, not shitting on her as an author. Everyone understands she writes for her niche, and isn't trying to do anything more than that, so nobody id bothered to deconstruct her stories and instead just laughs at her funniee title haha.

Sanderson fans have a much harder time doing the same thing. People shit on his writing because they want Sanderfans to go away, not because they hate him as a person.
>"If we can show that he isn't very good, you will stop throwing him into conversations"
is the general line of thought.

>>19705849
>People shit on his writing because they want Sanderfans to go away, not because they hate him as a person.
Why not both?

>>"If we can show that he isn't very good, you will stop throwing him into conversations"
Doubt

>>19705849
Well writing trilogies and long series of novels with connected universes beckons more discussions than stand alone books

>>19705863
Standalone books are a rarity these days in fantasy.

>>19705758
This

>>19705758
You're expectations were wrong from the beginning and that's your fault.

>>19705863
Not inherently, otherwise chinkshit would be way more talked about. Sanderson is very popular because of what he writes and who he writes to. I'm not going to be as reductionist as before and say it all balding 30-year-olds, but it’s clearly a group of people with certain tastes. Unfortunately for other fantasy fans, these people are extremely retarded and enjoy talking online a lot.

>>19705916
What other fantasy fans? Surely the Bakker fans would never cause problems.

>>19698982
I read Neal Stephenson's Termination Shock this month, and decided to trawl reviews to see what people compared it to. I found State of Fear by Michael Crichton this way, and finished that. When looking at the reviews for State of Fear I notice that it makes people seethe uncontrollably. Separating the politics from the narrative was easy for me, and I found it fair to middling as these techno-thriller sci-fi novels go. Any opinions?

>>19705834
Everyone aldready knows what HP is, so the ravings of their superfans automatically gets treated as such.

Sanderfans on the other hand are more or less taking over all fantasy discourse, immediately putting his books in the hands of newcomers and telling them that it's the best that fantasy has to offer (which is ridiculous since its targeted demographic is teens for the most part).

>>19705927
Anyone who reads and likes talking about stuff above YA level.

>>19705944
By "all fantasy discourse" are you sure you aren't mostly meaning /r/fantasy?

>>19705954
Not that anon, but all genre fiction is YA level at best.

>>19705966
Anything that isn't reading The Greats in ancient greek is YA level.

>>19705966
Anything entertaining is YA. Unless you are reading a book that makes you look smart on the coffee table or office shelf, its obviously YA

>>19705961
Not that anon but Sanderson has nearly taken over my coworker reading group. The job is IT so pretty much the entire office is young adults 21-30 with kindles and time to read while scans run or shit compiles. We have a book club and our team lead loves Stephen King so this month it's Doctor Sleep which isn't bad, but outside the book of the month our reading conversations are dominated by nerds jacking off to Sanderson's mechanical style of book churning. These same people I've tried to talk to about Gene Wolfe or even just Tolkien and the consensus is: Wolfe too hard and doesn't get to the point fast enough, Tolkien verbose and too much lore dump to keep up with but holds the distinction of Godhead among fantasy writers thanks to Elijah Wood. The consensus on Robert Jordan is more or less he's enjoyable but long winded, GRRM is a hack because books long and supposedly the story is finished by book 3, Neal Stephenson writes in a word way and nobody enjoys his prose or methodical style of writing, and finally that Sanderson, while he cannot supplant Tolkien, is the favorite. Maybe they are redditor tier, I wouldn't know. I also haven't read Sanderson, and in fact abandoned WoT when he took over, but I have read that he has a very bland and safe prose as well as Stephen King esque style of "words to paper" volume writing that I guess must be junk food for the brain if it's so popular. For what it's worth, I tend to enjoy the things that are not enjoyed by my group (Wolfe, Stephenson, etc) so maybe I have a broken brain.

>>19706025
I never heard of him until this year. I heard people talk about wheel of time a CPU Le years back as "like game of thrones" from GRRM fans. Never knew a thing about it and then I watched the show and realized how awful it was. Made me want to look up Jordan. That's where I found Sanderson. You would think the guy would be loaded but I guess as of this month his net worth is about 8 million. Not bad considering his career is less than 20 years but still. For being top of your game, writing that many books, being a marketing machine, having a popular YouTube channel, he is by no means super rich. Really shows how hard it is to make it as a writer. I expected him to be worth more though. I'm sure he will expand his wealth exponentially though with some tv or movie deal. But until a couple months ago when Amazon out out wheel of time, never heard of him. I always stuck with classics like Tolkien and Frank Hebert.

>>19706025
I'm surprised people still think much of him after the fourth stormlight book. even reddit has been more and more negative about him since then. I thought the third one was so bad that I didn't even bother with the fourth but I haven't heard good things about it

>>19705700
He sure makes Rothfuss look like a pile of shit though, so I love the guy even though I've only read his mistborn.

It's almost like readers aren't a monolith and different people like different things. The primary difference seems to be how accepting each individual reader is of this.

>>19706080
Rothfuss can do that just fine by himself.
>someone post it

>>19706114
>women
pozzed

>>19706073
I honestly doubt anyone has actually read him, or at least finished the bulk of his work. There's like an IQ line between me, team lead, like two other people, and the rest of our team. We have 4 consistent book finishers and discussers, the other team members are always halfway through a book they'll never finish, if they even start it. Yet somehow here we are, with all these strong opinions on shit they HAVEN'T read or haven't finished. I get so fucking mad when I hear some half baked opinion so obviously copied from a book or game YouTuber, then get 3/4s through my sentence thoughtfully explaining my experience with the topic of discussion and why I did or didn't like it, and some invariably fat, probably bespectacled, likely bearded, definitely sweater vested nerd fuck interrupts me to shit out a canned take and then admit they've never read/seen/played the fucking thing. What the fuck are these people doing with their time then? Just googling random shit and copy pasting opinions into their head to piss people off by being a practiced pathological contrarian? I swear they just botpost IRL.

>women with vagina
reddit and low IQ
>women with cock
based and high IQ

>>19705942
>Any opinions?
Crichton indulging in conspiracy theories? I am shocked.jpeg
Him giving ammuniton for unscrupulous capitalists is kind of lame though.

>>19706128
Congrats on thinking your anecdotes matter and that you're superior to everyone. Your problem is you.

>it's a prophetic dream that foreshadows something chapter

>>19706112
What the time he started insulting his fans?
Or the time he decided to start begging instead of writing?
Or when he decided to shelf the book he'd "already written a decade ago" to start working on his third short story instead?

>>19706143
penetrating insights from someone who probably eats their own boogers

>>19706143
Look I dither about a lot of things and am very willing to admit I'm wrong, admit I don't know something, admit I'm not perfect, willing to grow etc but no. Not now, not this time. I am absolutely superior to terminally online caffeine induced ADHD chronic masturbator actively dying of adipose tissue pseud normies who can barely start or finish a book let alone a fucking conversation, and good news! So is pretty much anyone that can finish a book and offer thoughtful critique and insight. Thinking my anecdotes matter? Perhaps not the last one, unless further contextualization of my experience within my local SFF discourse were useful to any reader as a barometer of said discourse outside of an online space, but my previous post was absolutely topical to the person I replied to.

>>19705830
How many fantasy authors could you name 2 months ago besides Tolkein, Gurm, and Harry Potter?

>>19705776
If you write New York Times Bestsellers, plural, you are objectively very popular. Just because you can't name everyone who does doesn't mean they aren't famous.

>>19706128
>I honestly doubt anyone has actually read him, or at least finished the bulk of his work. There's like an IQ line between me, team lead, like two other people, and the rest of our team. We have 4 consistent book finishers and discussers, the other team members are always halfway through a book they'll never finish, if they even start it. Yet somehow here we are, with all these strong opinions on shit they HAVEN'T read or haven't finished. I get so fucking mad when I hear some half baked opinion so obviously copied from a book or game YouTuber, then get 3/4s through my sentence thoughtfully explaining my experience with the topic of discussion and why I did or didn't like it, and some invariably fat, probably bespectacled, likely bearded, definitely sweater vested nerd fuck interrupts me to shit out a canned take and then admit they've never read/seen/played the fucking thing. What the fuck are these people doing with their time then? Just googling random shit and copy pasting opinions into their head to piss people off by being a practiced pathological contrarian? I swear they just botpost IRL.
>>19706195
>Look I dither about a lot of things and am very willing to admit I'm wrong, admit I don't know something, admit I'm not perfect, willing to grow etc but no. Not now, not this time. I am absolutely superior to terminally online caffeine induced ADHD chronic masturbator actively dying of adipose tissue pseud normies who can barely start or finish a book let alone a fucking conversation, and good news! So is pretty much anyone that can finish a book and offer thoughtful critique and insight. Thinking my anecdotes matter? Perhaps not the last one, unless further contextualization of my experience within my local SFF discourse were useful to any reader as a barometer of said discourse outside of an online space, but my previous post was absolutely topical to the person I replied to.

>>19706214

>>19706214
that image is you as you greentext their posts as you seethe lividly

>>19706199
>you are objectively very popular
That's objectively not true. NYT Best Seller is literally only a branding and marketing tool. It isn't actually about sales.

>>19706128
>Just googling random shit and copy pasting opinions into their head
This is what the vast majority of people do concerning every single opinion that they have. Except instead of google they just copy whatever people in Tiktok and Twitter think.

>>19706128
congratz you are an obnoxious hipster who can't make conversation
>>19706195
only because non-fat people are superior to fat people

>>19706261
or whatever is posted on various 4chan boards

>>19699551
>Saw it start to deviate from exploring the gods into the heroine becoming some quirky powerful girlboss OC
This is why women should stay out of fantasy.

>>19705608
Having made several long posts attempting to take Sanderson down a few pegs now, I just want to come back to you and say that I did really like Mistborn when I read it. Raved about it for weeks after even. And I hope you do the same (but maybe not going so far as to calling Sanderson the king of fantasy).

>>19706290
So will my interest drop off after The Final Empire? My experience is sequels progressively drop in quality.

>>19706267
Yeah nah I'm sorry but I'm very capable of making conversation and frequently do so in many different ways. "Conversations" to the people I previously described simply consists of preempting active listening and discussion in favor of vomiting up memorized opinions. I can't tell you how many times I've just let an obviously canned opinion just hang, or asked someone to explain why they think a certain way, only to get a cud chewing mentally bereft bovine stare in return. Like do you have no social grace? At least fumfer and change the subject if all you had was that one line you memorized from that one 4 minute video. It's like they think when they talk, it's the same as a post, they can make it (the verbal contribution to the conversation) and just walk away from it with no further interaction. Often times I just let this type of person go on, safe in my knowledge they will never say anything unique or interesting. Sounds mean but you what man, I have 24 hours in a day and less than 100 years on Earth, I'm not fucking wasting time on pseuds anymore and neither should anyone. Now queue up the response about why I'm here if I hate wasting time, I deserve it. For future dissection of my social abilities (we are all just here to fuck around and write dumb shit after all) I've had plenty of fulfilling conversations about other hobbies, vehicle maintenance and use, hiking and rock climbing, and sport shooting among them. My theory is that the phony phenomenon is so bad among mentalist type hobbies because there are just so many people who do or know nothing (you cannot gather applicable rock climbing experience for example through YouTube osmosis) and desperately want to be SOMETHING, and the endless dissections of pop culture offer them a ready made and now socially relevant role in society: the nerd. Just queue up some YouTube videos, remember some Marvel tier quips, and voila. You now have a "personality." Just don't scratch the paint, eh?

>>19706318
Unfortunately yes, the middle book isn't highly regarded at all. It can still be worth sticking it through to see just how crazy and large-scale things get in the final book though. And after that read the Secret History of Mistborn novella, which pulls away the curtain on a lot of the grander Cosmere universe lore.

But The Final Empire works perfectly well as a stand-alone though.

>>19706158
I think he means the Cuck pages

>>19706346

>>19706141
Was he incorrect or way off base then? I'm not a climatologist but am aware that special interest groups of all types will just lie to you.

What are the must have books from the SF masterworks series.

Where to start with the Strugatsky bros?

>>19706112
>>19706114
>>19706158
>>19706410

>>19700134
LMAO

>>19706346
Is your own life your favorite topic to discuss though?

>>19706494
Not really, no. It seems that way from my posts since there's some needed context (I feel) to explain that I'm not talking out of my ass with my judgment of certain peer groups. Probably my most favorite topics from the past few years have been the conversations I've had talking to people about books I and they have read, notably when a friend read Wizard Knight at my recommendation and when I read Canticle For Leibowitz at another friend's recommendation.

>>19706346
Have you considered that these people actually don't want to hold conversation with you and consequently put in the absolute minimum effort they can get away with, because they don't consider their coworkers friends? None of you are there because you want to be after all. Only economic necessity drives you to spend any time together. I know I don't give a shit about my coworkers' interests but it would be unwise to directly tell them to fuck off, because I'm forced to interact with them on the regular.

>>19706346
>vomiting up memorized opinions
I'm glad everything you say is an Original Thought. Certainly nothing you've been posting is unoriginal in any way. I'm also glad that I'm doing the same.

>asked someone to explain why they think a certain way
Introspection isn't the universally valued you seem to want it to be. It isn't even a necessary trait. Lacking it may even be adaptive.

>cud chewing mentally bereft bovine stare in return.
Ok, but why you are this way?

>just walk away from it with no further interaction.
You assume there's an obligation present here. There isn't.

>safe in my knowledge they will never say anything unique or interesting.
Sounds like a coping method to me.

>I deserve it.
Some self-awareness appears!?

>hands-on and practical matters are superior
Ever more your presence here is a mystery.

>You now have a "personality."
Yes, and your "personality" comes through quite clear as well. Everyone has a personality, which is defined as a stable set of behaviors. What do you think yours are?

>>19706535
you are neither smart nor wise enough for your thoughts to have any relevance to anyone

>>19706532
If people don't want to converse that's fine but quite often I find myself being used essentially as a sounding board for the latest hot takes ripped straight from a Twitter feed. I'm not conflicted on how to treat coworkers, they are human, I am human, if we can connect and converse over a topic then great. If someone doesn't want to hold a conversation and just go about work that's also great. It doesn't explain the verbal diarrhea though. If someone doesn't want my opinion or doesn't care for my opinion or simply doesn't want to talk, why would one feel compelled to invite me to their Ted Talk on Sanderson's most recent book or their interpretation of the KOTOR II YouTube video they just finished watching? And then preempt any input from the invitee? Like just put it in a Teams message for me to thumbs-up if that's the case but no, myself and others like me are invited to face to face conversations that the initiator clearly isn't willing or able to invest in, they perhaps prefer a captive audience that approves or validates their opinions maybe?
>>19706535
>I'm glad everything you say is an Original Thought. Certainly nothing you've been posting is unoriginal in any way. I'm also glad that I'm doing the same.
Yeah there's too much snark here, you're obviously baiting for me to make a point that you simply don't have. If you want to say something, feel free to say it.
>Introspection isn't the universally valued you seem to want it to be. It isn't even a necessary trait. Lacking it may even be adaptive.
I should stop replying here, you're clearly a barely sentient rogue machine learning algorithm from the dankest depths of the swarthiest Delhi coding dungeon if you can posit they without a hint of irony. But I'll keep going, idc
>Ok, but why you are this way?
I'm not going to interpret what you say for you, again if you wish to make a point please make it and do not invite me to make them for you.
>You assume there's an obligation present here. There isn't.
Incorrect, I'm not sure why you thought that but yes you are indeed incorrect. I do not presume responsibility or obligation as far as one's involvement in a particular conversation may go, I simply remark on the bizarre phenomenon of quipping pseuds substituting canned opinions for social interaction. Again I reiterate that if social interaction is undesirable, one need not participate. We work IT, everything can go through a computer and nobody will care. This is axiomatic no matter how dense someone may be. Yet time and time again, social interaction is ostensibly the goal, but executed so poorly as to be baffling.
>hands-on and practical matters are superior
Now this is a words in mouth situation, but I'll let it slide to further explain my point. You cannot fake knowledge for hands on matters. No matter how many videos you simply won't gain experience that way, this is not the same for media fans which is why I drew that distinction. I was going to continue but 2994.

>>19706559
and you aren't discerning enough to not read it and lack the discipline not to engage.

>>19706595
>>Ok, but why you are this way?
That was a joke about you asking people "how they think"

As for introspection, it can be extended to consciousness in general. Various philosophers and authors, including one often posted here, posit as much. Personally, I love it, but that doesn't it's necessarily of value. Many of the most successful people probably have comparatively little inner lives than you'd prefer people to have. Being too much in your head often inhibits action and drains confidence, as it ought to in most cases.

>>19704257
Your mom is ugly, it's why your dad had to do her drunk.

>>19706595
You are still rambling because someone said they don't like Brandon Sanderson?

This reminds me yet again I should've made more notes about short fiction so I could make recommended reading lists from them on specific topics. So, here's one for now, reminiscent of the preceding conversations.

The Man in Grey - Michael Swanwick

More cosmic horror like the yellow king?

What books have you dropped lately?

>>19706669
Yes I have an hour left and am somewhat practicing stream of consciousness writing. And no, I am rambling because they DO like Sanderson.
>>19706660
I understand what you mean and do agree, however I firmly believe that to be a person of worth (whoever the governing body of judgement may be and whatever "worth" means will change per person so ultimately it's just my opinion and worthless beyond my brain) you must exercise some base level of consciousness or introspection that I just find lacking in many people. Either that or, fair enough, I come off as an asshole and many people simply do not want to interact with me. I'd be confused by that for many reasons though, mainly because of the successes I've had in building lasting friendships and the fact that quite often, the sub-introspective approach me, and not the other way round. Failing to leave your head leads to failure, yes, and now that you said that I truly wonder if the less than socially apt people I know aren't actually willingly ignorant, and so not as I imagined, but rather caught up in a never ending stream of consciousness, barely managing to dip into our dimension long enough to collect a paycheck and fuel their bodies, and if they are suffering a perpetual mental fugue state that will result, or has resulted, in either ego death or ascension, leaving behind a body that simply has to absorb and regurgitate pop culture so nobody suspects. Only that could explain Skyrim being someone's favorite game.

>>19706660
Consciousness is a curse. Blessed are the p-zombies for they do not know nor care about the universe's cruelty and absurdity.

>>19706709
>a person of worth
You have already admitted to being a commoner, a prole. You are cattle. Actual people of worth, actual patricians never do an hour of productive work in their lifes. That's what the cattle is for. What you are for.

>>19706740
This is some next level cope lmao

>>19706744
t. eternal prole

Hush hush now, back into your wage cage.

>>19699109
what is it about?

>>19706765
Sure, I'll play for a second because I have about ten minutes. There are two options here for your response, who made it, and why it was made. Either one: you really are, or believe you are, a member of some neo-Victorian shadow aristocracy that has been able to eschew work for millennia and pursue the purely intellectual and romantic arts of discourse and prose, which somehow has generated untold wealth and power naturally, and dipped your noble fingers into this 4chan thread because you felt so beard-strokingly chagrined that the cattle are talking amongst themselves in a way that has brought your blue blood to a boil compelling you to remind the aforementioned cattle that they simply are not allowed, nor will they produce, an opinion worthy of merit or notice (the previous merit and notice granted by His Lordship's graceful acknowledge does NOT count of course), or, you are an under employed or unemployed bottom feeder perhaps coasting welfare payments or small donations from family and wake up so buttblasted every day that you simply cannot reactivate your burnt out dopamine receptors and decided to fish for a (You) with a low effort reply that I magnanimously graced with a rebuttal. I know which one I think is closer to the truth, my Lord.

>>19702864

have your read The Arabian Nightmare by Robert Irwin?

>the priestess sees what lies writ upon my face, for hers becomes its mirror. then she nods
How does he get away with this shit

>>19706852
Because it appeals to his TRUE READERS

which writer beckons you. you feel your soul called to a far off place by his works? it haunts you? you hate being so drawn to it? you and your significant other share it? you don't understand why it has such power over you but you love indulging your significant other with it?

Any books that take place in a high magic world, but the protagonist is not a wizard while the antagonist is? It happens sometimes in sword and sorcery books, but wizards are generally super rare in those worlds too.

Is skipping to the last 3 expanse books a bad idea if I’ve watched the tv show?

>>19707020
Codex Alera kinda, as the main character is the only character in his society who isn't a wizard

>>19705800
>that pic
Is just patently false. High IQ is correlated directly with depression and mental illness.

>>19707123
It's also correlated with negative cognitive ability and low iq, such as schizophrenia.
But I don't really believe in mental "illness" either way.
>t. Szasz
yes

>>19705069
Are the other books in the trilogy good? I liked annihilation but I heard the follow ups weren’t as good.

>>19706702
pozzed books

>>19707123
Also with general life success in pretty much every metric
Now stop moping about the gift that God has given you and put it to use

>>19707345
>percentage changes by like 5 at most
wow! I can't believe people base their life around this shit.

>>19707345
I try every day, anon, to put these talents to work. But for some reason my intelligence leads me to become preoccupied with the most bleak, dark and disturbing stuff, and I end up sabotaging my own potential as I spiral ever downward. Thanks for the reminder, though...

Back to work, I suppose...

>>19707345
>120-129
>high iq

>>19707368
A bit off topic but maybe try meditation? There is some fascinating medical data that suggests it does a lot of good stuff for you, and the entire point of meditation, be it buddhist or the Western juppie crap is to be able to control and blank out your own active thought process to first perceive only the moment in its entirety, and then in the next step nothingness.

>low IQ
pozzed and unbased
>high IQ
non-unbased

>>19707432
I have 120 IQ, am I based? I don't want to be pozzed.

>>19700182
Pretty much the whole story is based around characters from Shakespeare and ancient Greek stuff.
>>19706777
Basically the Iliad is playing out on Mars, lots sci-fi elements surrounding it also

>>19705608
He writes shounen for simpering manchildren

>>19707917
That's not true. He writes videogames. It's not the same thing.

>>19705608
>Why do people dislike Sanderson here?
Because he’s successful and famous. Also, because people here are jealous.

>>19707020
this seems interesting.

>>19705014
i'm bored so why not. i'm going to post series rather than individual books where applicable, also this is in no particular order.
2nd Apocalypse
ASOIAF
LOTR
Silmarillion
BOTNS
Engineer Trilogy
First Law
Voice of the Fire
The Gone-Away World
The Folding Knife

>>19708025
non-pozzed list, you are non-unbased and you should be proud of yourself

>>19708025
based

>>19708025
non-pozzed

>>19707945
"Coward!" He declared as the enemy approached. His voice filled his opponent with shame, causing him to stumble and fall. He let loose with another shout. "Go for the eyes!" This was a technique he'd practiced long and hard, and the memory of each success and failure filled him with courage to do what he needed to do next. He struck the downed foe with a Vicious Attack, a spear strike that caused massive damage on foes he hit critically, leaving them with deep wounds that reduced their vitality.

>>19707123
atomic cope

>>19708188
D&D isn't the same as video games either. Even LitRPG isn't the same as writing something inspired by it rather than directly doing it.
I'm not quite sure what you were intending with this post.

>His voice filled his opponent with shame, causing him to stumble and fall.
>memory of each success and failure filled him with courage to do what he needed to do next.
Clearly a reference to something, but what it was eludes me.

"Go for the eyes!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8lLruVR2zQ

>Vicious Attack, a spear strike that caused massive damage on foes he hit critically, leaving them with deep wounds that reduced their vitality.
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Vicious_Attack

>>19708239
You honestly expect him to give you a serious reply to his shitpost?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww47bR86wSc

>>19708268
I did it for my own satisfaction.

>>19708239
https://gwpvx.fandom.com/wiki/Build:W/P_GvG_July_Coward_Spear

>>19708346
Oh ok

Don't post a new thread literally the moment it hits 310 posts. Wait. Just wait.

>>19708346
I really need to read guild war books.

New thread
>>19708373

>>19708239
>"Go for the eyes!"
Old time Bioware knew well the power of the saluki.

>>19708374
Despite knowing with certainty that you'd do so, I'm still disappointed anyway.

>>19699614
An attempt was made.

>>19702875
Is the entire series worth reading?

How do I get people to read my fantasy story? I know it's well trod ground so how do I make it stand out?

>>19708726
By having Jewish friends who take care of the marketing for you. Popularity has hardly ever anything to do with standing out and everything with connections. Publishing is a business like any other.

Thoughts on The Fifth Head of Cerberus? It'll be the first Gene Wolfe work that I'll read

>>19704257
Long Sun sucks