/lit/ - Literature

Should fantasy protagonists be sex havers or celibate?

I do not care for Bakker and Wolfe. I find them shallow and pedantic.

>>20371872
Fantasy that isn't Dark Fantasy shouldn't even have women in it.

I don't know why SF and Fantasy are always bundled together

>>20371872
they should only have women from conquest and there should be minimal detail

>>20371872
>>20371891
This, in fact fantasy in general should not have women and sex in it.

>>20371901
because we get enough of that irl amirite

>>20371893
Scifi is just fantasy with sciencey aesthetic. Only hopeless autismos argue otherwise.

>>20371907
reeeeeeeeeeeeee

>>20371891
Literature in general shouldn't have women in it unless it's for a rape or torture scene. Preferably both, à la Stephen R. Donaldson.

Just finished Liveship Traders Trilogy and it was exquisite. For me this Elderlings series has been the first fantasy series to rise to the same heights as LotR and Asoiaf.

>>20371872
Depends on your intention. More historical (mechanical and psychological) stories have more leeway to to add whatever they like because "its realistic" etc. More mythic, or analogical, stories where there is a union of heaven and earth through the meaningful actions of the heroes need to make sure that there is some kind of deeper archetypal meaning to the act that is congruent with the meaning of the story in general.

Should I read Kingkiller Chronicles knowing full well Patrick Rothfuss will never finish it, Anons?

>>20371923
No, and the reason he'll never finish is because he spent most of his life writing and rewriting those two books, and the third is something he started after. You'll get the next book in 20 to 25 years.

A lot of sausage lovers in here..

>>20371928
Does book 2 end on a cliffhanger or something?

>>20371902
Quite the opposite, irl we can just tell them to piss off with their advances but when it comes to books contacting authors and publishers and passing the message across becomes almost impossible.

fuck you weedfag

>>20371872
Male protagonists should be having sex and female protagonists should be pure and wholesome virgins.

Female protagonists should be lesbians and they should have harems dedicated to them.

>>20371865
John Langan, Laird Barron or Evenson, which one you prefer?

>>20372049
Langan. His short stories tend to be varied and consistently well-written. Technicolor is mind-blowing. Barron's too repetitive and abstract. Also, half his main characters are gay. Is Barron himself gay or something? Not familiar with Evenson.

I want a comfy clothbound sewn edition of Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales

>>20372064
Don't be a poorfag then

>>20372084
Well do you know a publisher that sells what I want?

>>20372090
There are like a million editions of LotR and just a quick google search brings up this one, for instance. Now granted this particular edition's missing the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, but no doubt those exist clothbound too.

>>20372100
Oh alright
Well it seems to be out of print for quite a while so it's hard to find
If it's truly sewn then yeah I want it and hopefully they'll do a reprint

>>20372106
I should think they are sewn, here's a another view. But yes, it's out of print and reaches ludicrous prices on ebay and similar platforms. I don't think it's the only alternative, although no clothbound version is going to be cheap.

Does anybody have experience with any of the Forgotten Realms and/or Planescape novels? I've been on an Infinity Engine kick for the past few months and am looking to read a few of the better novels. I'm going on holiday next week and am looking for a couple of books for some light reading.

>>20372121
Well I saw a video where it seemed to be sewn but that pic you just posted makes me think it isn't, that looks glued but it could just be the pic idk
Also clothbound editions aren't exactly expensive, everyman's library can print them relatively cheaply at least much cheaper than the 'deluxe' editions that Harper Collins prints
Was going to buy the folio society set but then I realised it's a shitty paper hardback and not clothbound at all so it's worthless to me

What are some decent books about Rangers (ie. as in the typical Dungeons and Dragons class - bow on their back, sword in each hand, warden of the wild frontiers). Hard mode: no Drizzt do'Urden

>>20372127
Some people appear to complain about the quality of that 2013 edition given that it's supposed to be a fancy collector's edition, so you may be right. But I should be surprised if there doesn't exist the sort of edition you want for LotR of all the books in the world.

Here's another one from Juniper Books, this time including the Silmarillion even, though the dust jacket makes it hard to tell what the covers are made of.

Warrior Prophet > Darkness that Comes Before > Thousandfold Thought.

Anyone read pic related? Just finished the first one of the series and pretty fun, comfy reading. Would definitely recommend

>>20372190
True, but the true chad is able to put all the seven books to an order. I cannot do it, for I read all the four books one after another in the course of a month so its all muddled together.

>>20372216
based ESL

>>20371865
What's an apocalypse that makes more sense to modern audiences and justifies magic coming back?

>>20372253
Honestly you could probably go with "magic pandemic". Infects people, most die or become weird cursed beings, some people get magic. I'm sure it's been done.

>>20372266
That's something I've thought about, actually. Kind of like GURM's Wild Cards series.

>>20372272
Not sure why you're asking here, anyway, this isn't for writing, this is for discussing books that exist.

>>20372285
You're right.

do you guys hate sanderson just because he's a reddit goldenboy? I would understand because reddit is insufferable when it comes to....well anything. I've only read way of kings and though it was fantastic. Though a retard could comprehend his prose. Everything else was great.

>>20372216
The problem with the 4 books is that they still retain the structure of the initial duology, so it isn't just that reading them all together muddles them up, they are pre-muddled to an extent.

I would probably go Great Ordeal> Judging Eye> Unholy Consult>*POWER GAP*>>>White-Luck

Just started reading this and the plot is terribly boring. Does it get better? Or is vance another one of those writers you have to develop stockholm syndrome to enjoy?

>>20372369
Personally I simply can't stand all the shitlibs and woketards that are dominating the market with an iron fist. Sandersoy may be a lesser one, but he's still one of their number. There can be no doubt that intersectional feminism is his true religion, ahead of his professed mormonism. This is true of essentially the whole upper crust in writing and publishing now. One doesn't become Reddit's golden boy otherwise either.

>>20371940
The main plot is introduced in the first book, which is then completely forgotten about and then he keeps dropping these small hints about it maybe twice or thrice in each book. The rest of the book is just a huge side story. So the plot isn't resolved at all but the second book doesn't end on a cliffhanger.

>Fucks and marries one of the woman sponsible for his parents death.
>Said woman is also nearly fifty years old, and has been grooming and fucking her nephew since he was a child.
Based or cringe?

Winds of Winter never ever

>>20372448
Yes I would agree, woke culture has infiltrated contemporary literature these days. Thankfully I don't typically read contemporary, Sanderson actually being one of the exceptions. I don't really see that type of stuff in his writing, though I wouldn't be surprised if his publishers have told him to incorporate it. But he sells so much he may not need to. Only time will tell I guess

>>20372506
And again I say this only reading Way of Kings

>>20371893
I don't know why sciencefags tried to separate them in the first place. "Scifi" was considered fantasy in the past. It should return to its proper place.

Which fantasy novels should I read if I like power metal?

>>20372520
there's "sci-fi" and sci-fi
one involves the same tiered plots/themes/messages that we're familiar with from other genres
except, you know, in space
the other involves science and futurism focused plots
eg. read Seveneves. you will see its very much not tolkien or jane austen, bUt iN SpAYs!

>>20372546
>there's "sci-fi" and sci-fi
They're the same picture.

>>20372423
One of the only truly kino contemporary fantasy novels out there. When did YOUR favorite book series get canceled by the government?

>>20372123
I've read a lot of Forgotten Realms novels. Anything particular you're interested in? Country, content, race, characters?

Should I read Port of Shadows after The Black Company, or stick with publication order?

Sci-if is actually fantasy
Fantasy is actually sci-fi

>>20372604
Stick with the publication order. Port of Shadows is a prequel of sorts, but none of it is relevant to the original series and it's not all that good besides. Though if you like Lady x Croaker shit then you may find some enjoyment in it.

>>20372042
I knew I'd find another man of taste in this general eventually

>>20372707
I did enjoy that. I might go for it, I've never read a series in anything but publication order and I'm a bit curious how it would feel to read an interquel written decades later.

>>20372543
David Gemmell books.

>>20371923
No. The entire books are the protag narrating his life story to some storyteller who wants to preserve his legacy. He starts by telling the storyteller that to recite his life it will take 3 days. Each day corresponds to a book. By the end of the second book we are only a year into his college exploits. PR didn't have a plan and the books are a boring shitshow where nothing happens. The reason he can't finish the last book is because he would have to fit 20 years of the supposedly legendary dudes life into a singe book.

>>20372514
>>20372506
He added a gay character in that is readily accepted by everyone

>>20371872
i don't care if they fuck, i just don't want to read chapter after chapter of sex scenes.

Why is there so much furfaggotry in sci-fi? Tons of "aliens" are just humanoid animals.

>>20372814
Who? I dropped the series halfway into Oathbringer and I don't remember anyone being gay. Though it would surprise me if it was Jasnah.

Where do I go from Reynolds?
I've also read everything by Watts.
I guess I should check out Banks' Culture books?

>>20372800
I was on board with Kvothe being this larger than life character but man Rothfus got lost in the weeds in book 2 and just digressed away from the main story way too much for what he had initially set up as a trilogy. I think you're right in that he didn't have a plan for each book which is how the second one got away from him. I have no idea why though, after he finished the manuscript for it, he didn't realize he'd squandered an entire book. Surely his editor told him to rethink that book since it fucked up his entire three book plan and three day framing device. Then again Rothfus was given a weird amount of hype from the very start. He was paid a very huge advance for his books and started off as a celebrity author despite having published nothing but one book. Maybe his editor just wasn't there for him.

>>20372829
Because it's hard to imagine lifeforms that are genuinely alien to us, and even harder to write them in a book. Talking animals are easy.

>>20372862
Jasnah is described as completely asexual, but romantically straight. The gay character is one of Bridge Four, a guy based on one of Brandon's friends who's also gay. There's also a secret trans character in book 4 that people don't seem to care about.

>>20372829
Go read Children of Ruin and you'll long for humanoid aliens. The way the aliens communicate is literally painful to read.

>>20372814
>He added a gay character in that is readily accepted by everyone
That scene is one of the worst implementation of LGBT character I've seen in literature, no joke. The entire book was kinda bad in my opinion, but that forcefully-shoved talking about the character and how 'everyone's okay with him being gay haha' was dreadful. Like, I am not convinced whether Sanderson actually wrote that, or that the scene instead demanded by the publisher. There are hundreds of ways to show there's non-heteronormative people among the characters, and that was the worst one. Even one line about the character having sex with another man, in passing, would be enough, even if blunt. Honestly, it might have been forced upon Sanderson, we know he's a Mormon, with strong religious themes in his book, he even used to be a missionary. Wouldn't be suprised if he was privately against homosexuality and had to be forced to do it by the publisher for cirtue signaling or something.

Of course, the simpler explanation is that Brandon Sanderson is just a bad writer who cannot handle anything with care. That's also possible.

>>20372888
>Then again Rothfus was given a weird amount of hype from the very start. He was paid a very huge advance for his books and started off as a celebrity author despite having published nothing but one book.

How does this happen? Does he have connections, or is it just that they thought his work was something they could push? The reaction to his debut is like nothing I have seen before, even Sanderson's first was only a moderate success, and it took him until Mistborn, and arguably his WoT books, for the hype train reach peak Sanderson, but with Rotfus it was so overnight.

>>20372888
Rothfuss was a talented writer without any real business sense or professionalism, is my take. The smart thing to do, which would've been done by any competent author/editor team, would be to write a huge amount of material then trim it down to three novels and take all the extra to be published later as "untold stories of kvothe" in several volumes and make even more money.

>>20372888
>I was on board with Kvothe being this larger than life character but man Rothfus got lost in the weeds in book 2 and just digressed away from the main story way too much for what he had initially set up as a trilogy. I think you're right in that he didn't have a plan for each book which is how the second one got away from him. I have no idea why though, after he finished the manuscript for it, he didn't realize he'd squandered an entire book. Surely his editor told him to rethink that book since it fucked up his entire three book plan and three day framing device. Then again Rothfus was given a weird amount of hype from the very start. He was paid a very huge advance for his books and started off as a celebrity author despite having published nothing but one book. Maybe his editor just wasn't there for him.

I am absolutely convinced that The Kingkiller Chronicles is just another 'mythical, legendary character story' which people always love, that has gained particularly strong fame. I've seen stories like that numerous times. I enjoyed them extremely. But the author didn't seem to have any particular idea how to take his story forward, merely being good at using THE IDEA of a character like Kvothe. If another book doesn't come, I don't think people will even talk about the series in 10-20 years. I am quite sure there were similar instances in history of fantasy writing, where people got some fame, but had never managed to finish their stories. And we don't hear of them, because they were simply forgotten, unfinished, sentenced for oblivion.

>>20372934
I don't get it either. Given what I know about the Publishing industry I suspect he simply had an inside track with somebody. It can be as simple as making friends with the son of the guy who runs the publishing house (which is how Paolini jumped from self-published by his parents' vanity press to professionally published and celebrity author), or it could be his publisher believed he would be "the next big thing", was weirdly convinced of his inevitable stardom as a "big author". I think the latter is likely given how much media hype there was for him despite his being a non-entity. I'm reminding of the singing dancing frog from old cartoons.

>>20372868
Peter Hamilton. Start with Pandora’s Star

>>20372914
I don't understand why is there even a need for this? If someone wants to write gay or trans fiction just do it, but why hide include and try to hide such characters in straight fiction?

>>20372961
>I don't think people will even talk about the series in 10-20 years.
People barley talk about it now. At least grrm wrote a big chuck of plot and some very memorable scenes before checking out. It made people hungry for more and left room for hundreds of fan theories which gives people something to talk about even if he never writes another book. PR has delivered any of that. All he really has going for him is his prose and people's memory of that will fade.

>>20373039
Gay and trans content would be banned if we lived in a just society

>>20373039
It's subtle because the narrative around trans people is they don't really wanna go around shouting it out. Or at least some don't. So having one that you only really identify as trans if you're reading between the lines a bit is representative of that. For reference, it's that king that Rysn met. Showed up first as a woman who everybody called king, Rysn just assumed it was how they were, later shows up as a man after becoming a Knight because Cosmere healing works off your own self-visualisation, so the healing gave the king a male body.

>>20372862
>>20372914
>>20372930
>>20372814
Behold the greatest writer of our time.

>>20373059
>Cosmere healing works off your own self-visualisation, so the healing gave the king a male body.
I completely missed this. I though we had already reached maximum cringe.

>>20372596
Any good reads taking place around the Sword Coast or the ten towns?

>>20372930
>it might have been forced upon Sanderson, we know he's a Mormon, with strong religious themes in his book, he even used to be a missionary.
None of that really matters, whatever remains of Sanderson's Mormon faith is just a vestigal holdover from his upbringing. It's clear that his allegiance lies elsewhere today. In practice he's another convert to wokeism, whether or not he might be in denial about it.

By way of analogy, Joe Biden claims to be a Catholic and maybe he even takes pride in being only the second (nominally) Catholic president of the US after JFK, who knows. But here's the rub: Biden openly supports abortion rights, which is diametrically opposed to the stance of the Catholic church. So from the viewpoint of the Church, Biden is in fact a heretic and the Pope would have strong grounds to excommunicate him. If you want to avoid a charged word like heretic, you might also call Biden a de facto protestant, if he's even that. Doesn't matter that Wikipedia lists him as a Roman Catholic, the way he acts proves that Biden couldn't give less of a shit what the Pope thinks or says.

Whether Sanderson was coerced by his publisher, or whether he just felt the peer pressure and caved, or whether he coldly calculated that his financial interests would be best served by bending the knee to the new state religion of the coastal elites - that's his main allegiance now. If it wasn't, he would've went the way of poor ol' Orson who got blacklisted by the better part of the industry for being an actual conservative Mormon. Sanderson's dedication to wokeism may not be as overt and obnoxious as that of other writers, but that doesn't mean he isn't a convert. His actions make it clear which religion has more power over him and it ain't mormonism.

Brandon is playing Elden Ring while posting screenshots on facebook.
Should I hate Elden Ring now?

>>20373316
You should hate Elden Ring for being a lazy rehash with badly designed gameplay.

>>20373316
He is has been a fromsoft fan way back to the original Kingsfield

I need to some advice lads. Is there anything similar to A song of ice and fire that is completed. I hate that fat fuck for not completing his shitty series so I want to read something with an ending that's similar.

>>20373420
Lyonese Trilogy.
Try and get the original books with the beautiful artwork covers. The new ones are cheaper but their covers make me want to cry.

>>20371874
Do not mention those two in the same sentence.

>>20371874
No big deal anon. I don't care for Dick and Zelazny. Read what you like.

>>20373420
I read The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford is similar, but I haven't gotten around to it so I can't vouch.

>>20373316
You should hate Elden Ring for being a "press one button to win" game.

>>20372437
This is the only Jack Vance you've read? This is one of his more obscure books.

>>20373420
Two series were a major influence on Martin's work, "The Accursed Kings" by Maurice Druon, although those are historical novels rather than fantasy. And "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" by Tad Williams.

>>20373156
I have never read sanderson but that reads like a script for some low quality tv show, is the whole book written in such 'style' (or should I say format)?

>>20373039
>why hide include and try to hide such characters in straight fiction?


It's the same impulse that compels them to use the ladies' room.

>>20373509
As other anons have noted before, Sandersoy is basically Marvelshit in book form.

>>20371893
>I don't know why SF and Fantasy are always bundled together
Because until very recently, many of the big name authors did both.

>>20372123
Dragonlance obviously

>>20371893
Science is our world's magic system.

>>20372795
This. I've stumbled upon him just recently and I really enjoy his work.

>>20372795
Wasn't Gemmell that guy who wrote niggers into his works for the specific purpose of spiting a racist fan of his?

>>20372868
>Reynolds
QRD on him?
I remember starting one of his books ages ago but I got busy and the time and completely forgot about them

Is there an unabridged audiobook of Foundation?

just learned that nameday in song of ice and fire is actually just a birthday. I remember being confused when in the show they said "prince jofrrey's nameday", like why would you celebrate a name day with a tournament

why do fantasy authors do this stupid shit? just say birthday for crying out loud. I dont feel immersed in your world just cus you created your own names for everything

>>20373588
We don't say that word here.

>>20373497
And obscure is not synonym of bad.
Are the other books of his better?

>>20373237
There's the Icewind Dale trilogy, basically a pretty classic fantasy series and the second (chronologically) series in the Drizz't canon. Although it was written and published first. Later Drizz't books play around Icewind Dale, too.
The Songs and Swords series by Elaine Cunningham is set mostly in Cormyr, I think, but Waterdeep, Evereska and Candlekeep are in those, too.
The Avatar series narrating the events of the Time of Troubles is set around the Sword Coast, too.
It's been years that I've read them, so maybe I remember some wrong, but Icewind Dale is pretty fun. I haven't read books after the fourth Edition of DnD came out, so all of those are a bit old. There's also the Baldur's Gate trilogy, but I haven't read that.
My favourite series were War of the Spider Queen, Starlight & Shadows, Return of the Archwizards and The Year of the Rogue Dragons, btw. I don't think any of them play in those parts.

Why everyone on The Wandering Inn amazon reviews are hating the Main Character? I just started reading and the MC is just the average character that is new to a certain world, I think its a good choice for this type of story, better than a strong know it all MC.

>>20373553
>in book form.
>"..." character 1 said.
>"..." character 2 said.
>"..." character 3 added.
>"..." character 2 said.
>"..." character 3 said.
>"..." character 1 said.
>"..." character 2 said.
Book form eh?

>>20373712
Well, it's still a book rather than a movie, but that's about to change too.

>>20373632
Name days are a European Christian tradition dating back to the middle ages, its when someone gets baptized and the name of the saint your baptism is associated with. GRRM just made it so in his setting that the baptism happens on the same day for those who follow the seven, however it is different for other cultures within the series. Aesthetically it evokes the kind of medieval social fabric that GRRM is often concerned with, and within the setting itself it serves as one of many cultural markers that delineate between groups. For example the freefolk don't have namedays, or naming in general, until the child is older so most don't even know their exact age, which is seen as a sign of their barbarity.

I know what you are getting at, but this is a poor example.

>>20373697
I'd say the chess thing is handled a bit awkwardly in the first volume, it really felt like the typical powerfantasy bit. And maybe stuff like wanting to befriend the goblins and stuff? I really don't know
I'm gonna go on a limb and say that it's because a decent chunk of people that pick it up expect a regular litRPG after seeing the tag, but the whole series is really light on the litRPG elements

>>20373632
Because GRRM is writing for people over an IQ of 95.

>>20373782
Piece of shit gobbo loving slut getting good peoplekilled.

>>20373697
>I just started reading
When you finish the book you will understand (if you can reach that far).

>>20373795
Midwits?

>>20373813
Probably. He certainly isn't writing for morons who were unable to realize that nameday=birthday.

>>20373811
NTA but I'm in Volume 3, what do you mean

Any books similar to The Evil Dead series?

>>20373457
>Lyonese Trilogy.
So, it's not like his Dying Earth stories?

>>20373632
What did you think it was before finding out? Because it doesn't really take a genius to figure out what it's implied to mean through context. Unless, you know, autism.

>>20373632
I can't tell if you're serious or not, even if you didn't know what a name day was you didn't just assume "maybe its like a birth day" or "maybe I should do more research on this"

>>20373857
If you are in Volume three and don't see a problem with that gobbo slut, then you are the problem and one of the reasons the author continues with this shit.

>>20373873
Oh, that was just you again huh
Please explain your reasoning, I've seen a bunch of your posts and you just sound unihnged

>>20373891
Just ignore him, he's not going to give you any reasoning

>>20373156
It doesn't matter how shit it is, it's progressive and normies eat it up

>>20373457
>>20373488
>>20373501
thanks lads I'll look em up

Anyone else read this? It seems like it's hardly known. An anon recommended it to me the other day.

>>20371865
Do you faggots skip over poetry in stories?

>>20373857
>NTA but I'm in Volume 3, what do you mean
I love The Wandering Inn, but I very disliked Erin at the beginning. The way she approached goblins and people had some sense, but overall was very stupid and Erin was easy to hate. I hadn't started to like her until Volume 4/5, only then she grew on me. I think Pirate didn't have her character quite figured out back then, so she just came out as very stupid and naive, instead of intelligent and driven but with strong convictions and beliefs. Only later it is said that she was just 'pretending' all along, which fits much more.

>>20373942
That feels like an awkward way to retcon things when you could just have it be character development.

>>20373942
>Only later it is said that she was just 'pretending' all along, which fits much more.
Jesus. Glad I didn't bother reading this garbage.

>>20373926
I don't remember much examples beyond Tolkien himself.

>>20373942
>she
Stopped reading there.

>>20373942
I mean, I kinda like her being all bubbly and a bit airheaded but
>she was just 'pretending' all along
I feel like this is already being slightly implied when she remembers her home and family and stuff, she forces herself to cheer up and put on a smile at times
I don't know if this is what her character development will revolve around, but I honestly can't see myself hating her in the future books

>>20373951
>That feels like an awkward way to retcon things when you could just have it be character development.

>>20373955
>Jesus. Glad I didn't bother reading this garbage.

I don't mean to say that her character is retconned, that very much is not the case, and there is a lot of character development from Erin. Actually, I think there were some 'pretending' from Erin even before, but only in Volumes 4/5 the author leaned into those things more heavily, making Erin a better character. Honestly, it could also be the case that Erin was supposed to be obviously pretending at times, but the author didn't convey it clearly enough, just making the character hateable.

However, on my re-read I found myself liking Erin a lot, but that's mostly because her character makes way more sense in a framework established in future volumes. But that's just one of the TWI's traits, the story gets better as it goes, all the time, so looking back it's harder to see it as it were. The story is still utterly dwarving the competition and stands proudly as one of the best webnovels ever written.

>>20373996
Fair enough, I haven't read it so I don't know what she's like, but having a protagonist 'pretending' to be something else entirely feels wrong. Just have them adapt to their circumstances, realising they could've been this sort of person all along or some such.

>>20373996
>stands proudly as one of the best webnovels ever written.
What an accomplishment!
Anyway, having the protagonist "pretend" to be a retard for literally millions of words sounds godawful.

>>20374007
>he has never pretended to be mentally retarded for seven years

this is a wandering inn general now? how the mighty have fallen

>>20374043
>now
Some autist took RI autist's spam as a personal offront so now this shit has been going on for weeks as a result.

>>20373670
>Are the other books of his better?
Yes. Most of them are better.
Try Lyonesse.

>>20371874
>Putting Bakker and Wolfe on the same tier
Seriously consider killing yourself

>>20374072
They denounced Bakker as their ruler and now they reap the crops of their wrongdoings, it's a mistake they keep repeating, one day Bakker will not come back to rule supreme, and at that moment, they will rage and scream, they will rage so hard they blow steam, cause they can't compete even in a dream.

>>20374007
>Anyway, having the protagonist "pretend" to be a retard for literally millions of words sounds godawful.
Erin is consistently presented as very intelligent since Volume 1, by saying 'stupid' I mean how her naive beliefs and attitude land her in horrible circumstances. To be fair, it might just be Erin being starkingly different from typical protagonists, especially webnovel ones. She is very much against violence and killing, even against people who try to hurt her, which makes her look extremely naive and stupid. But at least the story treats it seriously and Erin suffers for it, heavily, so it makes sense. After all, she does kill a hobgoblin who tries to murder and rape her by drenching him in boiling oil, horrifingly burning off his face. And then sitting next to him when he keeps on breathing in pain for minutes, until he finally dies. The story does not fuck around.

>>20372216
The judging eye > The darkness that comes before > Unholy consult = Thousandfold thought > White luck warrior > Warrior prophet > Great ordeal

>>20374077
This, Bakker is a level above.

>>20374084
Does make me wonder if there's webnovels that aren't just slice-of-life wholesome stuff that have pacifistic protagonists who make it work. I see variants of willingness-to-kill but it's almost always a 'thing' (some are full-on "kill anybody who's just in my way", some are more "come at me and I won't hold back", some are "you try to kill me I try to kill you", etc) whereas I rarely see any just straight-up go out of their way to maintain a pacifistic approach.

>>20374087
Nice ranking, and based phallus poster.

Warrior Prophet > The Darkness that Comes Before> Judging Eye > Thousandfold thought > Unholy Consult > Warrior Prophet > Great ordeal

>>20374084
>That pic
I guess I really should read TWI

>>20373633
Fan?

kek and hot

>>20374084
>Erin suffers for it, heavily,
Does that bring back the good people she got killed because she was a gobbo slut? Why does she get to live when other have to die? The author should have killed her off in Volume one. She is the main reason I dropped the fucking series when I see her "suffering" was emotional shit. That gobbo should have raped her, I bet the ant-bro wouldn't have died if that happened.

>>20374117
Yeah, I think the starting Bakker books are his best in the way he introduces things and concepts and history and relations, the they are followed by his final books, which tie things together is at least a mildly satisfying way.
The middle is Bakker's weakest point because he tends to drag things a few thousand pages too much. It's only so many times I can read about an army of battered men fighting against a huge horde of sranc. Bakker's strongest point is his descriptive scenarios (featured in the beginning books) and the horrifying conclusions to scenarios (featured in the endings of his books).

I only wish he had better dialogue and would stop being so frustratingly cryptic.

>>20373914
I've read this. It was good.

>>20373872
okay asshole

>>20372520
>"Scifi" was considered fantasy in the past
lol no it wasn't

>>20374142
Honestly, not sure if you're just trolling at this point
Ant-bro isn't dead

>>20374083
Bakker is a supreme being almighty, just because some trannys denounced him doesn't mean that Bakker denounced them. They will face Him again on the day of judgement.

>Conan... but in SPACE
Can't believe not a single author has thought to do this yet.

>>20372190
Darkness that Comes Before > Thousandfold Thought > Warrior Prophet

At least based on a first time read through of the trilogy.

>>20372914
>completely asexual, but romantically straight

>>20374330
Those aren't incompatible. She feels no physical attraction, but she's romantically interested in Wit at least.

>>20374340
>They're not incompatible because
>Insert schizo babble here

>>20374087
>>20374117
>>20374314
Thousandfold Thought > Unholy Consult > Warrior Prophet > Judging Eye > Darkness that Comes Before > White Luck Warrior > Great Ordeal
I preferred the trilogy. Sorweel and Momemn were both pretty boring. I also wasn't a fan that the three major plots are all separate from one another until the end. By contrast, in PoN, all of the major plotlines converge within the first book.

Post your favorite writer

even if Bakker is supreme, sometimes he can be merciful and understanding, we can coe-exist now, please try to be non-pozzed or Bakker might reign havoc on your ass.

>>20373562
>ask for forgotten realms
>try dragonlance

I wrapped up Soulhome because it was easy listening. Only around 7 hours in audiobook form and it's surprisingly easy to fit that time into humdrum bullshit throughout the day.

The best part of Soulhome by Sarah Lin is the cultivation system, by a wide margin. Instead of a traditional core, a person's soul is a flat landscape based on the current health of your soul. Laying the foundation for the first room makes you a soulcrafter, and each room feature you add is a different technique. Doors allow a soulcrafter to view their external body and the area around them for protection purposes, windows allow one to filter incoming stimuli - light, sound, etc. By adorning a curtain to your window, you effect the level of the technique.

As you advance and build additional levels to your soulhome, you increase the amount on 'cantae' you generate. This is just a replacement for qi and is nothing special beyond that. Archcrafters tend to have homes that look like personal villas carved out of ornate materials. These homes support weapon rooms, allowing them to manifest a soul weapon. Inner chambers which can house mini suns to power techniques. Pedestals, depending on their material, can power techniques based off of the sublime material or trophy that tops it.

This is about where things end. The techniques when translated to combat are lukewarm at best, often being illustrated as glowing lights accompanying someone's weapon or fist. Fights often end with a attack-defend-counter-win formula. She's got all the structure here to represent techniques with amazing flourish and fanfare, but it comes across as absolutely nothing. A flash in the pan.

The main character Theo is someone who's experienced this world before and cultivated, once being part of a band of heroes seeking to challenge demons. After being betrayed, he is returned to earth at the point of his isekai and spends 60 years trying to find a way back. Despite the experience of a man around 150+ years old at this point, he acts like a child. The narrative also explains that 40 years have passed in this fantasy world, so he exists in a world he's had significant influence over. This is not explored in the least.

More often than not, Theo has no idea regarding the conventions he's being told. There are regular concepts in this world that are completely lost on him, while he can explain the cultivation system to advanced teachers more often than not. He's also a pouty piss baby who seems to pride himself on a failed relationship back on earth, where his wife told him he was a black hole of feeling that sucked all the happiness and warmth from the people around him. Taking this to heart, he decides to cultivate gravity magic. We'll see if this dude's bitterness holds up, but the first novel was... just alright.

6/10

Still working on Mother of Learning, but I'm into Act 2.

Next Up: Ave Xia Rem Y by Mat Haz
Reading Book Two: After everything else, sure.

>>20374490
I take back that 6 and put it at a 5. I'm starting to think I treated Reverend Insanity too roughly compared to the rest of the fairing here. If I'm starting to judge by cultivation systems alone vs. narrative, then it would be much higher... Fuck.

Previous Scores:
>Cradle by Will Wight - 9/10
>Forge of Destiny by Yrsillar - 7/10
>A Thousand Li by Tao Wong - 7/10
>Virtuous Sons by Ya Boy - 6/10
>Bastion by Phil Tucker - 6/10
>Soulhome by Sarah Lin - 5/10
>Reverend Insanity by Gu Zhen Ren - 4/10
>Reincarnation: Threads by Michael Head - 3/10
>Last Ship in Suzhou by Lungs - 0/10 (Dropped)

My Recommendation system can be found here, people have expressed interest before. I'll probably update it after I finish Mother of Learning, a review of Act 1 can be found in this thread too:>>20367298

>>20374490
>The best part of Soulhome by Sarah Lin is
That there isn't some sister con shit.

>>20374515
>that pic
Fanart not even once

>>20374518
I heard Street Cultivation was weird like that. One of the reasons Soulhome hit the list and that didn't.

>>20374524
Reminded me of those blocky Harry Potter covers from the early 2000s.

>>20374515
>I take back that 6 and put it at a 5. I'm starting to think I treated Reverend Insanity too roughly compared to the rest of the fairing here. If I'm starting to judge by cultivation systems alone vs. narrative, then it would be much higher... Fuck.
Rating chinese stuff will always be incogruent with the rest of literature because of how fucking bad it is. Reverend Insanity is 'amazing' when compared to the rest of chienese novels, but compared to anything from the west it's barely decent. I don't care whether it's culture or translation that makes those novels so painfuly bad, but they are just not up to standard. Or maybe only their webnovels are so dogshit, admittedly I've never ever heard of a published Chinese Fantasy book.

>>20374554
Other than Journey to the West you mean.

>>20374515
Mol is terrible. Everything is bad about it, but the worst is lame characters and even worse shitty mc . The cultivation system hardly exists in mol and even by western magic standards it's shit.

>>20374543
>Reminded me of those blocky Harry Potter covers from the early 2000s.
First Mother of Learning chapter was published back in late 2011, so it's that time period. Damn, those are ancient times for webnovels. I don't think I've ever heard of a webnovel that's been going longer than MoL, full 8 years plus some few months. Even TWI hasn't made full 8 years yet, and it's been going since July 2016.

I know people don't usually talk about video games in these threads but does anyone have any sci-fi or fantasy books similar to Xenoblade Chronicles? There's something about the world building and the setting that makes me wish for more content with a similar feel

>>20374515
Mother of Learning Volume two is dropping Tuesday, review fag.

>>20374581
Yeah, it's called go back to /v/

>>20374566
MC is miserable and the magic system is just DnD 5e with a few random Quality of Life cantrips thrown in for variety. At least for Act 1. Everyone who shills for it says that Act 2 is when it truly begins, and I can't say that the beginning of Act 2 hasn't been done better in other novels. A Thousand Li, for instance. One thing I've learned is that I'm truly sick of hearing 'it doesn't start for real until a quarter of the way in!'

I remain... pessimistically optimistic.

>>20374570
No shit? Took the author 8 years to bang out the equivalent of... 3 books? I suppose the buzz around it is that the first Arc got an audiobook in the last few years.

>>20374584
That explains it. Might make it easier to inhale. Thanks, anon.

>>20374554
Chinese novels are absolute garbage and xanxia genre has been completely ruined by commies and commie filter. The absolute worst is chinese xanxia/wuxia adapted to tv series, if you thought that chinese lit was bad then live action is 20 times more soulless.
RI is in fact pretty good even by western standards and it is miles ahead of anything ccp approved (thats why they've banned it)

>>20374596
>One thing I've learned is that I'm truly sick of hearing 'it doesn't start for real until a quarter of the way in!'
Always ignore these shitters.
Personally, I liked MoL pretty much right from the start. Drop it if you're not enjoy it.

>>20374623
>RI is in fact pretty good
No matter how many times you repeat this lie, its never going to be true.

>>20374628
>I liked MoL pretty much right from the start.
what did you like about it?

>>20374623
You still not tired in shilling that garbage?

>>20374596
>I suppose the buzz around it is that the first Arc got an audiobook in the last few years.
The First Audiobook was last year, the second one is Tuesday.
The narrator for the current books did a podcast like audiobook that he uploaded to youtube, professional shit, but he only stopped at Chapter 87. That was when the author got an okay from podium and he had to wipe existing shit from the net.

>>20374634
A concept that feels fresh to the fantasy genre: a world trapped in a time loop. The mystery aspect of this story is compelling, and every revelation feels like a genuine step toward real answers. This is a tough thing to accomplish when the mystery is so essential to the plot.

The main character (Zorian) is interesting too. Like most protagonists, he starts out flawed and grows along the way. But unlike many stories, this growth isn’t shown through his understanding of the book’s central theme, but rather through his interactions with the world and the people in it. By experiencing the same events in a loop, he comes to see the world differently. He sees his friends and family in new a light, and he emphasizes with people he barely noticed before. This is a bit different, but the traditional story frameworks (the Hero’s Journey and the three-act structure) are only meant to be guidelines. The author manages to pull off a great story without them.

>>20371893
Because 99% of so-called "science fiction" is literal fantasy, where technology is indistinguishable from magic. Aliens may as well be orcs, interstellar spaceships may as well be dragons, artificial intelligences may as well be gods. Even something relatively mundane and "plausible" like Jurassic Park is still effectively magic.
Note that I don't think this is a bad thing, but "hard"-SF nerds need to have their elitist fartsniffing behavior taken down a peg.

>>20374643
I agree with this post.
It was such a breath of fresh air.

>>20374643
I'd agree with this. The high point of Act 1 with me was Zorian coming to understand Kirielle, alongside working with the morlock family. I was disappointed they didn't circle back to this until the end of the Act, which I'd say was my second favorite part of the Act. Kirielle and Kael add a lot to Zorian as a character.

That's 3 or 4 chapters out of 20, however.

>>20374659
see >>20372546
not all scifi is like that.

>>20374643
>He sees his friends and family in new a light, and he
>emphasizes with people he barely noticed before.
Literally the worst part of the novel. I would'nt have cared if it was tagged as drama because I don't read stuff like that but instead they called is hero's journey. What hero? Literally a copy some modern marvel capeshit with mental problems who grinds through timeloops and finally manages to make friends, literally a novel for r9k. I guess it's popular thing these days, the r9k crowd will gobble up any trash with modern insecurities as main theme.

>>20374663
>The high point of Act 1 with me was Zorian coming to understand Kirielle
>hero's journey
The high point is so the called hero UNDERSTANDING some f*male.

>>20374684
Yes it is, the minute you put something impossible or unknowable in fiction it becomes fantasy. Hypothetical technology that doesn't yet exist is no different from magic.

>>20374490
Yeah that's about my feelings on Soulhome. It has a fancy cultivation system that doesn't really mean anything. It's sort of getting lost in your own foundational mechanics and not having much for what your ACTUAL mechanics are, magic system-wise. Like, harp on Sanderson all you want, he shows you exactly what his systems can actually DO.

>>20374717
Get help anon. You shouldn't be angry all the time, and you shouldn't look on the world with such empty eyes.

>>20374742
You should ignore him; I think he's the retard who never read the story and thinks Mother of Learning is some harem.

>>20374747
It is funny how MoL is such a popular webnovel and yet it doesn't have much of the popular webnovel genres about it (it has timeloop, but it arguably started that being a trend in webnovels), yet people lump it in with isekai/LitRPG/harem/whatever else.

Have any of you anons read super sale on super heroes? I recently tried rereading the series before starting the fourth one, and couldn't even get past the first book. I remember enjoying it well enough when it was was first released, but now all the character especially the female one all feel so infantile.

>>20374760
>superheroes feels infantile
You don't say.

Is it true that sanderson is marvel of fiction literature?

>>20374764
It's not the superhero side
They act worse than anime characters

>>20374752
Because it was made before webnovels started to become a trend.

>yet people lump it in with isekai/LitRPG/harem/whatever else.
Because people here don't read the stories and you have idiots like >>20374717 being idiots about it.

>>20374765
The fuck does that even mean?
How about you use your own words, instead of spouting shit you heard somewhere else that doesn't mean anything

>>20372064
>I want a comfy clothbound sewn edition of Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales

Here is my favorite collection (sadly, you have to double deep dick into your Bitcoin savings):

>The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
https://www.amazon.com/Hobbit-Lord-Rings-Boxed-Set/dp/0008376107
This is the best artistical boxed set you can get those three books for. HIGHLY recommended if you want The Hobbit "at its best".
>The Lord of the Rings "Bible"
https://www.amazon.com/The-Lord-of-the-Rings/dp/0008471282
THIS! THE BEST LOTR BOOK EVER! IT IS LITERALLY THE BIBLE OF LOTR. Sadly it misses The Hobbit and the Silmarillion, but I love reading this LotR bible. Highly recommended and the best LotR can be (has every original content Tolkien created for this book, like his own drawings. Also ALL THREE BOOKS are together as one, like they are three chapters). Sadly you have to buy also the previous set because The Hobbit is missing and if you already want The Hobbit with the new drawing, you also want the "new illustrated edition" as a box, and then in addition this Bible.
>Silmarillion
https://www.amazon.com/The-Silmarillion/dp/0008433941
This seems to be the best bang for the buck (if you don't want an expensive collectors limited edition). I'm still waiting on my copy, so I can't say more.

Overall there are only three things you really need to take care of
>buy from a shop with GOOD SHIPPING SAFETY (never from Amazon if you want a collectors edition, or enjoy the "Mark of Amazon shipping and handling")
>buy from a shop you know is actually shipping the collectors editions without any scam like reselling used books (like on ebay)
>order from a "giant" because if something goes wrong, you want to make sure that you can return it and get a new book shipped without the small book shop drama and without risking not getting it because of out of stock

There are some god tier online book stores with even cheaper prices than Amazon for new books (simply because they are hard specialized), but some of those or country exclusive and therefore not generally available.

>>20374515
So are you just going through cultivation novels at the moment? I'm surprised you Savage Divinity isn't on your list yet. It was and still is I think a pretty popular novel on royal road.

>>20374719
yea, see, no, you clearly don't understand what im talking about

if reading a book is too much work for you, watch 2001 space odyssey
its proper scifi, like seveneves
its not just a regular plot, but in space
the plot itself concerns science and futurism and space travel

contrast that with eg. the tv series firefly, which is "scifi"
it could very easily have been a show about a merchant galley and 90% of the episodes would translate exactly

>>20374769
I wonder why specifically isekai and LitRPG stuff became a trend. Light novels, I assume. It's gotten to the point where you're getting deconstructions of these trends (to varying success), which I find kinda fascinating. I wonder if you could even deconstruct a timeloop story, actually. I suppose something like Re:Zero already did that, but still.

>>20374717
The character is perhaps 16 years old at this point and comes to understand that his sister has a struggle of her own, being barred from entering the magical academy because she's got an arranged marriage waiting. Due to the power dynamics of this family, Zorian is the black sheep while all the other children are bargaining chips of different measure. It's a small point, but being able to understand people's perspectives in a time loop where you can do something about it once you're out is important. If you can't identify how moments like this may add to a pithy teenager's character, then you've got work to do.

Can't believe you mother fuckers make me defend things I don't have a strong stake in.

>>20374721
I'm a fan of Sanderson usually, going to read Oathbreaker at the end of this 20 and get caught up on the series. He makes great use of the magic in his writing presentation-wise. Wish I could find a happy medium for that in cultivation books beyond Cradle.

>>20374752
>>20374769
This. Mother of Learning may be some's first exposure to a timeloop. Unfortunately I've ingested that... 4 times now, so the potency is lost on each iteration (just like a timeloop's - rimshot!). I may be more receptive to it otherwise. I'm guilty of lumping genres together at this point. Fair amount of litrpg in my list.

>>20374781
My list is pretty broad - cultivation, isekai, litRPG and light novels have been peppered in now. It's meant to explore the genre and pays off in its own way. I have not yet heard of Savage Divinity but I'm always taking recommendations in these threads. I'll take a look at that now. Thanks.

>>20374787
>if reading a book is too much work for you, watch 2001 space odyssey
Clark Ashton Smith wrote the book of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and it's still a fucking fantasy where a godlike monolith is directly responsible for inducing human evolution and a self-aware artificial intelligence kills people and a human astronaut becomes a space baby. That's not exactly empirically sound science.

>>20374771
I meant what i said

>>20372466
Book?

>>20372868
Take the Baxterpill. Read Xeelee

>>20374828
science fiction is not supposed to be empirically sound science
*science* is supposed to be empirically sound science
*science fiction* is allowed to take liberties like imagining a more advanced state of scientific progress
we are allowed to judge science fiction on the improbability of the fictional science it portrays
i too dislike it when Dr Who solves the problem of the day by going "wait a minute! i just connect thing A to thing B and make thing C which will totally work"
but that's not what i was going on about

the plot of 2001 is not so much about the alien monoliths themselves, they're a mcguffin
the plot is primarily about HAL, an AI assistant, and his attempt to kill Dave.
and im saying its proper scifi because that plot is not just a copy paste of common plots we've seen in drama and fantasy for centuries, it actually concerns a scientific subject

and its good scifi because the science and technology involved in the plot, while more advanced than existing stuff, is still quite probable and realistically portrayed.
the SSTO they show in the beginning is well designed and does the right thing, it docks to a space station in low earth orbit.
the space station rotates to simulate gravity, instead of the captain saying "engage artificial gravity"
then a different ship, which looks much more like what you'd expect from a lunar uber performs the moon transit
and then yet another ship is used for the jovian transit, again a much more realistic one for the task, in order to address the length of the voyage and the need for gravity.
(small break to say its been a while since i last watched it, so forgive any small inaccuracies. the gist is correct.)

contrast all of this with star wars and ray just "bypassing the compressor" and suddenly they're not going to blow up anymore, whoohoo.
contrast this with firefly where the plot is either "we need to run away from space pirates" or "we need to stop the rich bad guy from stealing medicine from poor refugees"

What do (You) think is the ideal length for a fantasy novel? For me, 600 pages is the sweet spot

>>20374881
Depends what it's about. Some fun adventure story shouldn't be more than, like, 400 pages. Something more serious and involved could be way more.

>>20374828
samefag >>20374870
also 2001 was written by arthur c. clarke
and he also wrote a few more books in the series, which are worth a read

there is also a second odyssey movie, which is not nearly as good as the first
but its still proper scifi, i loved the inflatable heatshield they use for jovian insertion

>>20374760
Yes, it was widely read here. Are you perhaps underage b& who grew up? I think most people understood the female characters were just there to be cute.

>>20374779
Nice selections. I love that LotR edition. It looks great and, best of all, is affordable.

Why does he get called evil? Fang Yuan does not act out of malice a single time in the entire story. Self-defense against mortality is his singular pursuit the entire time. Fang Yuan doesn't want to hurt people, he simply needs to, because he wants to live.

>>20374796
>The character is perhaps 16 years old at this point and comes to understand that his sister has a struggle of her own, being barred from entering the magical academy because she's got an arranged marriage waiting. Due to the power dynamics of this family, Zorian is the black sheep while all the other children are bargaining chips of different measure.
>It's a small point
It is not a small point, it is literally what the novel is about. Retard author could have chosen worse main theme.

>>20374881
Yikes

>>20374719
>>20374684
>>20374659
Scifi is just fantasy with the pretext that it's actually possible and will happen in the future. Most of the time it's wrong, but there's an implicit agreement that the author THOUGHT his guess might be correct at the time he wrote it.
So that's a legitimate difference, but also means Conan and LoTR are potentially sci-fi since both are presented as actually having happened in real history.

>>20373156
I hate Sanderson so fucking much

>>20374950
RI is the only xiaxia where demonic/righteous paths aren't just evil/good. I'd say it's more freedom/order or self/group. There are people who do good things for selfish reasons and so are demonic, and those who do evil things for selfless goals and so are righteous.
Fang Yuan isn't evil, but he's a model demonic cultivator because he's entirely selfish and doesn't care about anything but his own personal goals, to the point where he'd even give up his own freedom and support an organization if he thought it would benefit him, and then instantly abandon and betray that organization once it's worth his while.
So evil no, untrustworthy YES!

>>20375031
Sanderson hates you too.

>>20375031
Sounds like something someone who isn't extra manly would say.

>>20374881
No book needs or deserves more than 350 pages.

>>20374994
Anon, why don’t you just read it?

>>20375071
What if it's about the Loch Ness Monster?

>>20375046
I don't think righteous/demonic is a good selfishness indicator, the story is absolutely full of selfish righteous-pathers. HC claimed to be defenders of humanity but we didn't get to see their complete endgame because of the CCP. Heaven's Will was clearly selfish so I really doubt any human agents would escape that category. Righteous/Demonic were ultimately just practical social constructs, as demonstrated by Fang Yuan becoming righteous for his own interests toward the end, with righteous forces following him for their own interests as well. Also Fang Yuan is extremely trustworthy so long as you trust him to do what's necessary to achieve immortality at all times, I wouldn't be surprised if some venerable (Red Lotus) is intentionally using him to show the path to true immortality before snatching the benefits.

>>20375080
then it wouldn't be fantasy, it would be sci fi so even less pages would be needed

>>20375088
It's a nebulous concept but there obviously is a difference, and it's obviously not evil/good. That's what's good about it, it's complex enough that even the characters in the story aren't 100% agreed on what exactly it means to be righteous or demonic. Makes things more interesting.

>>20375095
>nessie
>fiction
ok retard

>>20374881
15-30 pages

Finished Princess of Mars, I liked it, felt very similar to some Vance books, especially Tschai
Are the next books in the series worth it?

>>20375124
Read them and find out, anon.

Your book is total garbage, this is the misery of the trash reader.

>>20375156
>misery
never, I only read sublime books

>>20375072
yes, I have read it, not all of it but enough to know that it's terrible.

>>20375102
The further into the story it gets the more all sorts of conventional distinctions get dissolved into the nebulous "Dao" concept, this included good and evil, demonic and righteous, selfish and selfless, even stuff like elements mimicking eachother, or Heaven Path allowing the fusion of multiple paths. The process got interrupted part-way but I think it's pretty evident by then where the author was going. RI is one of the few xianxia that actually come across as thematically daoist instead of simply being a hyper-confuscian social drama about wizards.

>>20375161
This is the supremacy of the sublime reader.

>>20374842
Red Rising series, book 4: Dark Age

>>20375172
the sublime reader lives in joy, the trash reader lives in misery, its a known fact.

>>20375162
Really doub it, but there’s no point in continuing this.

>low fantasy
Also known as "historical setting but with asspulls and macguffins"

>>20375124
Pretty sure I read a review of the entire series that said the second book is the best one.

>>20375232
Cope

any other bros like this series?

>>20375124
I got up to Chessmen but stopped since the focus shifted from John Carter. I might try to find the later book where he turns back into the focus.

>>20375071
How’s middle school going, champ?

>>20373571
Tips fedora

>>20373813
Yes, even midwits can work out what nameday means.

Why is Wheel of Time so redpilled?

This is a better fantasy novel than most fantasy novels. If you need a plot for your own fantasy story this is a goldmine of ideas.

I'm about a third of the way through The Warrior-Prophet. How the absolute fuck has nobody worked out that Kellhus is not actually a prince yet? Surely at least one of the Great Names has some connection to the northern kingdom where he claims to be from?

>>20375294
Don't question it, anon. Just blindly worship R. Scott Bakker like the rest of the retards ITT.

>>20375294
>>20375294
The northern kingdom is isolated. But keep reading. It will be addressed in that book.

>>20374950
>chapter 66-68
>normal village boy finds you stealing his village's food from a trap they made to catch food
>village boy asks boy to get lost
>you instantly start attacking this normal non cultivated village boy
>village boy defends himself but gets killed in the end
>show up to their village with village boy head
>ask them to give you the location of all the surrounding hunting spots and traps
>they obviously lie because they'll starve if they do that
>you kill the village boy's father cause he lie
>then you kill his daughter because muh 'root tree' metaphor
>you ransack their house and finally find the map, leaving a whole family dead to feed a fucking bug
>not evil

>>20375244
never heard of it but it looks cool

>>20375307
Yes. That bug was worth a thousand times more than the entire village.

>>20375307
>feed a 16 year old girl's tender breast meat to an actual bear just to make your cool ass beetle bigger
>not evil

Fang Yuan is nothing if not classy.

>>20375307
>>20375317
>he killed someone to advance his interests therefore he's evil

>>20375327
yes that is literally the definition of evil

>>20375331
Then those hunters were evil for killing all those boars and Fang Yuan is a saint for defending nature.

>>20375335
boards do not have morality, humans do.

>>20375331
Damn I guess you're evil for paying taxes then. I probably shouldn't take an evil person's word on evil though, so I won't believe you.

>>20375327
Correct. Or maybe when he rewound time to kill everyone in his village before the psychic vampire could, stealing all the power of their bloodline for himself? I think him and Bai laughing about it and highfiving during the orgy of blood was pretty evil...

>>20375335
Ah, Fang Yuan (Chinese Bug Man)'s mentality. 'We are no better than beasts because we kill them with impunity hohoho'

>>20375342
do you kill someone to pay taxes

>>20375343
>>20375346
You do realize you're arguing with an underage fag, right? He's literally in that teenage edgy phase.

>>20375343
Killing to further one's interest is one of the basic human social functions. It's why you have a military.

>>20375346
You pay taxes to kill people, nerd. Criminals, enemies, natives of occupies or colonized territories- all people.

>>20375343
you don't understand that was the only way he could live because the author wrote that it was.

>>20375342
What makes you think anyone here pays taxes? That's for idiots and wagecucks lmao

>>20375351
>tries to pass a strawman on /lit/
The absolute state of this general.

>>20375352
If you want to take it to an absurd autistic moral high ground, sure. Lavishing in the act is what makes him evil then. You Reverend Insanity fans all come off identically to American Psycho fans.

>>20375372
Beautiful crop.

>>20375372
>Lavishing in the act
Which he never did. You're unironically projecting your repressed envy of people that live outside the legal framework as sadism in a character that has none, and is purely goal-oriented. Real healthy, anon.

>>20375352
you have no choice over where your taxes go to, you pay taxes because you live in a society and participate in a social contract, if you consider paying taxes as murder then you would have to consider every single action that tips fate's scale into killing someone. Of course we don't do that because humans aren't gods, we judge people on what they directly have impact on, i.e. not fucking killing someone.

>>20375244
Very much so. Like an improved version of Roadside Picnic

>>20375372
There is a distinction, he lavishes in the act of accomplishing his goals, the means and methods are unimportant. Whether he just pet a bunch of kittens or ground up and ate his own parents his emotional response is entirely based on whether he personally benefited from it and how much.

>>20375378
End of Chapter 197: Changing Fate!

Fang Yuan laughed loudly, saying to Bai Ning Bing: "Come, kill them all with me!"

Before he finished he acted. As the razors on the Chainsaw Golden Centipede moved, he slashed a Gu Master nearby into half!

Blood Skull Gu!

Soon after, Fang Yuan actived the Blood Skull Gu, absorbing the blood.

Chapter 198: Ruthless in murdering people, cruelty exercise to profit from disaster

"Hahaha, interesting!" Bai Ning Bing laughed loudly, suddenly attacking and killing someone beside him.

...

Bai Ning Bing laughed maniacally, "Since you can kill your own clansmen, I can't lose to you. Sigh, since too many deaths have occurred, Bai clan's future is ruined already, we can no longer be a village. The clan leader I'm indebted to is dead too, I might as well kill them now, and enjoy the fun."

"Hehehe, that's great," Fang Yuan laughed, heartily, his body moving quickly, starting his slaughter.
=====

Imagine being a disingenuous faggot like yourself. Disgusting.

>>20375401
At least you're on message. Next line is exactly:

Since these clansmen were going to die anyway, they might as well die at Fang Yuan's hands, contributing to his aptitude growth instead of First gen Gu Yue.

>>20375381
>you have no choice over where your taxes go to
Big cope. As >>20375358 said, paying taxes is your choice. All the "intended or unintended" consequences of that are still your choice, just like plowing through a crowded crosswalk because you tried to drive home smashed and half asleep.
>if you consider paying taxes as murder then you would have to consider every single action that tips fate's scale into killing someone
That's precisely the point the book seeks to make. You have blood on your hands, you are not sacred, you can come to terms with it or you can drink kool-aid and LARP as a non-participant while the families of your enemies work toward taking retribution on you. Civilians only get to think they're uninvolved until they lose the war. Ukrainians know this, russians know this, germans know this, only dumbass americans don't seem to know this.
>we judge people on what they directly have impact on, i.e. not fucking killing someone
t. first worlder oblivious to the fact that he has always been shielded from consequences for his actions for his entire life.

>>20375299
Do you think Bakker is aware of 4chan's adoration of him?

>>20375299
>>20375420
It's literally just one mentally sick spammer.

>>20372127
Hope you find some anon, read all six of those and they’re all excellently. Honestly surprised some publisher hasn’t released that yet.

>>20375420
>Do you think _______ is aware of 4chan's ___________ of ________?
No

>>20375406
As >>20375401 said, it was never about the killing. Slaughtering Gu Yue village was about defeating his captors and escaping bondage. This is also why it coincides with using Blood Skull Gu to improve his aptitude- by slaughtering the village that opposed his growth at every turn in two lifetimes, he obtained a potential for growth that exceeds all his peers. The village was an unambiguously antagonistic entity against Fang Yuan due to the social arrangement that prioritized aptitude and status (which Fang Yuan had neither) over true ability and potential (which Fang Yuan used both, destroying the village). Edge was never the point of RI.

The fact that we can even argue about this exposes how head and shoulders RI is above most xiaxia. Can you name one other chinkshit story with actual competing moralities besides LoTM? I can't.

>fang yuan is evil for killing people that were treated as chattel
>fang yuan is also evil for killing the people that kept the chattel he killed as chattel
lol

>>20372560
Kino, abbreviation of kinesthetic from Greek kinein "to move" (from PIE root *keie- "to set in motion") + aisthēsis "sensation".

The sensation of movement.

:^)

>>20375451
Xianxia is pretty fucking bad in general. RI is one of those stories that you read in spite of the flaws, most other xianxia don't have much to spite their flaws. Boomers would probably like the heroic heel protags if they could get past their fear of anything chinese though.

>read Mistborn (first novel)
>like it
>see picrel book/series very highly recommended on r/Fantasy (like top 3 on lists/polls)
>ppl recommend finishing first Mistborn series
>Trudge thru the garbage tier second and third books of it
>Ppl recommend also reading Warbreaker before
>Finish that too, its decent
>”Ok, here we go! Get to finally read his magnum opus!”
>Read all 1200+ pages
>…
>Its fucking garbage

anyone else?

>>20375492
It's not bad, but it's just so bloated. Would have probably enjoyed it more if Shallan was removed entirely and the focus was just on Kaladin and Dalinar.

Almost done with Book of the Long Sun now, about halfway through Exodus. Great series, I don't like it as much as New Sun but it's still really good and I can tell it will get better on rereads.

Probably going to take a break from Wolfe and maybe SF for a while after, 1,200 pages of Wolfe is a lot.

>>20374581
Light novels are more your speed.

>>20375503
I actually think some of Shallan’s parts were intriguing. The real offender for me was actually Kaladin. He’s just too much of a Mary Sue for me. Why does he want to save the bridgemen? Well, he just does because he’s a le good guy!
Love Dalinar though.

>>20375503
I know the entire point of the series is to be literally The Biggest Most Bloated Series Ever but I think that's a huge mistake and wish it wasn't the case. With a lot of the boring (Shallan) chapters cut out and some editing the story would be way better. Shallan's story actually isn't terrible but we know where it's predictable, you can tell exactly how it's going to end, it just drags it out getting there. I guess he didn't want long breaks between her chapters?

>>20375520
>Kaladin
>mary sue
This phrase has absolutely lost all meaning because of idiots like you.

Also, if the Dûnyain were basically superhumans, why are they extinct now expect for Kellhus?

>>20374515
>the fairing
It shows.

>>20374623
RI is good because unlike the genre fiction chugging retards here, the author reads REAL novels like The Moon and Sixpence.

The problems with it are mostly issues that are inherent to the specific webnovel model that China uses, where you have to pump out chapters every day and get paid by the word. Repetition becomes a very good idea, not only because you get paid, but because readers might have forgotten what happened seven chapters ago because that was last week and they went through a hundred other chapters through various stories since then.

>>20375531
Because its shit storytelling, read something better. I recommend, Tolkien, Vance, or Wolfe to get you started.

>>20375530
Explain to me how he isn’t a Mary Sue and a bland as hell character

>>20375531
Because their philosophy was actually fucked. When confronted with sorcery many of them either killed themselves or let themselves be killed.
As for the rest, just because they are "superhuman" doesn't mean they can take on entire armies let alone sorcerers.

>>20375537
Because he is a very flawed character who fucks up many times... And I never said anything about whether he is bland or not.

Whichever faggot recommended me "Let the right one in", please neck yourself. It's the worst book I've ever read. Fuck you

>>20375451
What are you talking about, the bug mentality is present in every chinkshit novel?

Whichever anon recommended me "mistborn", please treat yourself> it's the best book I've ever read. Love you

>>20375554
Can you repeat that not in zoomer please

>>20375557
Not that anon, but nothing in that post was zoomer speak.

>>20375557
he thinks its non-supreme and non-sublime.

>>20375406
Look at you, you disingenuous little pseud. So much setup showing BNB's treatment at his clan, the big emotional moment where BNB sacrifices himself to try to save Fang Yuan, and you go "hurrrr look at them having fun killing their oppressors". What the fuck do you think you're doing namefagging? Kill yourself.

>>20373632
I shower once a seventh day.
Sun's day
Moon's day
Tiw's day
Thor's day
Odin's day
Frig's day
Saturn's day

Why does English do this? Who the Frig is Tiw?

ursula le guin
good author or reddit?

>>20375565
Good author who you should give a read. She was friends with Wolfe.

I tried to read Unsouled.
What are these stupid first names? Is this really what people think is good? Use Chinese names. It's not that hard. You could even mix it up with alternate romanizations like Wade-Giles or Yale.

>>20373782
I need pages and pages of detailed notation of characters stats. And entire chapters of the author talking though how he is selecting the skills and allocating stats points.

>>20375565
>ursula le guin
she was a pozzed women who ruled supreme over men, she dommed wolfe into submission, she pegged him perpetually, she was his supreme mistress.

>>20375544
How is he flawed??? Besides being justifiably racist towards lighteyes. Literally all his character is is “oh no, I wish I could’ve saved them. Oh no, I’m not gonna be able to save them. They
re all gonna die”. If you consider that a “flaw”, I just don’t think it’s a very interesting one. (I’ve only read the first book btw, still deciding if I should read the next one)

>>20375532
Yeah pacing is by far the biggest issue with RI. Also Fang Yuan doesn't really get much character development as he's more of a vehicle through which the author analyzes and dismantles the setting. This isn't necessarily an issue on its own, but RI tends to have a big climactic battle at the end of each arc and there isn't much dramatic tension to them due to how Fang Yuan is written.

>>20375549
Your fault for reading a horror book

>>20375573
Those names are specific to the Sacred Valley. The Emperor of the Blackflame empire on the other hand is called Naru Huan (Naru being the family name), then theres the Akura family who are almost all Akura [emotion]. Such as Akura Mercy or Akura Fury.

>>20375580
His constant and never-ending moping and dealing with depression. This becomes far more prominent in the later books.

>>20375565
I like almost everything I have read of hers.

>>20375575
Half of Chaos Seeds Book 8 is reading system notices and allocating points. The other half is shit, literally and literarily.

>>20375579
please get over your porn addiction, making regular conversations sexual is not healthy

>>20375581
I think that mostly ends up fine because Fang Yuan himself is more of a force of nature and by the time the big battle comes around, the author has spent plenty of time developing other characters.

>>20375592
You're talking the no-life spammer, who does this every time he gets unbanned.

>>20375588
>Akura
absolutely not chinchong

>>20375580
>>20375589
Oh and if you didn't liekt eh first book don't continue on. WoK is one of the stronger books of the series. The second book. WoR, is almost as good. But the third is downright terrible and I hear the fourth is just as bad (I don't know since I dropped the series after the third).

>>20375537
Obviously if it's a he, he cant be a Mary Sue. Now a Gary Stew on the other hand...

>>20375562
Bai Ning Bing was adopted by the Bai Clan leader and declared their number one genius. He never hurt for resources nor companionship and was never treated with anything beyond awe. What the fuck are you talking about? The entire point of his character is that he's bored with his life and waiting to die, killing people for fun until Fang Yuan inspires something in him.

Do you ever feel embarrassed that everything you say is a fundamental lie, representing something incorrectly for false points? I've already made a point of commenting that people represent themselves much better than you, you insipid little faggot. And psued? Do you know where you are right now? We're both reading cultivation fantasy, this isn't exactly literary gold.

Get the fuck over yourself and re-read your fucking series. It's incredibly clear you do not remember fuck all about its beginning.

>>20375439
Why can't you be more like this? I can at least appreciate the need to adjust my expectations to a hard approach to good and evil and the gray in-between. I'm not bashful about giving Reverend Insanity credit where its due. Let's not pretend it is something its not, however. Fang Yuan is a self-serving villain acting against other self-serving villains.

The only 'good' character we witness in the first 200 chapters is the divine detective and his daughter. He's led to his death, which Fang Yuan profits off of (mostly by escaping with his life). Him and his daughter were the only interesting introductions to this series and they are gone all too soon.

>>20375451
This in the smallest of ways. You get people who make points and then you have miserable faggots who lie through their fucking teeth.

>>20375601
Someone did say it was pointless to argue with them since they don’t care.

>>20375601
>What the fuck are you talking about?
That's the point. He had nothing to live for. Looks like I struck a nerve with your whiny bitchfit. Again, who the fuck do you think you're kidding?

>Get the fuck over yourself and re-read your fucking series.
Practice what you preach, cocksucker. Practice what you fucking preach or shut the fuck up.

>>20375607
I do it to myself.

>>20375595
No shit. The series isnt set in china. The sword sages' name is Timaias Adama. Were you under the impression Cradle was chinese or something?

>>20375609
Honestly, just start ignoring them since they refuse to debate in good faith. And it’s not like you’re the first they do this to.

>>20375611
Then don't use chinesium last names or cultivation.

>>20375592
Why would you read a short haired mistress?

>>20375616
Why not? It's not like the Chinese give a shot about copyright.

>>20375616
You were just saying the names aren't chinese enough, now they're too chinese?

Urban fantasy is a thing, but does rural sci-fi exist?

>>20375625
No, I'm saying they should have stuck to it.

>>20375633
Stuck to what exactly? Honestly it just seems like you're having a sperg because the series isn't generic xianxia.

>>20375629
>rural sci-fi
Rural sci-fi? Do you mean Rural Retrofuturism?

I need help deciding a decent magic system for this race I'm building, for the actual magic itself I have no idea what I want it to be yet but I have the narrative there ready to be used.
I really wanted to go with a Native American vibe or something similar, and as far as their magic goes I either want them to have low levels of reality manipulation or some kind of mental ascendancy.
Narratively I want their race to be split into the Kyltans and Ostracians, the first is more neutral and isolated whereas the the latter is more combative yet cooperative when they need to be. The reason they're called Ostracians is because in ancient times they wanted to use their magic for war and conquest and were quickly exiled to the plains far out west far away from the rest of their civilization. Without the support of their homeland they quickly fell into disarray until the humans who would settle a town near them moved into the area and entered a mutually beneficial detente with them after the Second Cataclysm further decimated both of their communities.
A writing friend suggested I use something along the lines of metallurgy/alchemy, but I'm still kind of stuck on what I actually want them to do.

>>20375653
>>20370652

>>20375601
Being a clan heir isn't necessarily all it's cracked up to be, one of the big criticisms that RI makes of the righteous path, at least from a demonic perspective, is that you can't escape bondage even at a higher status within the organization. It's through that same bondage that Fang Yuan skirted the rules within his village, playing the elders against eachother, and so on until he was ready to rebel. BNB didn't have the same kind of ingenuity that Fang Yuan did, and was at the same time basically just waiting to die, so that may have factored into his abnormally demonic character and obsessive craving for stimulus.

He definitely wasn't a good guy but I think there was more to him than just the overt psychopathy, otherwise Fang Yuan wouldn't have empathized with him. He considered BNB to be like his younger self, FY's younger self being an optimistic self-aware otherworldly demon who quickly found himself in a very treacherous and unfair world. BNB may not have been oppressed as much as FY but his situation was definitely unfair.

This is also similar to how I prefer to look at the AYM archetype, at least unless explicitly shown otherwise by the story. Their lifestyle is micromanaged so heavily for the sake of cultivation and their future responsibilities that they're driven half-crazy and the only outlet they can find to cope is abusing their power to act out without repercussions, and then of course get killed by a protagonist. They have great wealth and talent but their spiritual suffering and lack of freedom end up harming them much more.

>>20375659
>post question in wg about writing fantasy novel
>"go ask sffg"
>post question in sffg about writing fantasy novel
>"go as wg"
There's never any consistency so honestly I don't really care, I'll post in both.

>>20375629
Rural sci-fi makes me think crop circles, alien abductions, and The Dunwich Horror.

Esminet is cute. Cute!

>>20375667
What you should be taking away from this is that nobody goives a shit about autistic magic systems.

Is there any other modern (21st century) fantasy that does magic as intelligently as Bakker? Not even shitposting, I genuinely would like to read it if it exists.

>>20375678
Says you, and I don't really care what you particularly think.

>>20375678
Any time a magic system doesn't have rules it becomes too obvious that the magic is just a plot device that works to the convenience of the author, or pointlessly flamboyant filler. The hero's sword suddenly glowing auspiciously when he picks it up for the first time or whatever isn't mysterious and awe inspiring anymore. Fantasy veterans need magic to have rules and systems to be interesting.

>>20375690
Magic systems arent interesting. If you cant write magic as anything but an asspull without turning it into a video game, that's on you as a writer.

>>20375653
If it's a native american era aesthetic that you're looking for, your narrative seems to imply something far more advanced. Is it an industrializing native society? Feel like we're lacking context here. Alchemy would be more fitting. Tribes explored different herbal concoctions for medicine, visions, etc.

You could use the development of these medicines as a means to touch concepts from reality, such as spirit animals but that may be too on-the-nose. When you've ingested a certain blend of rare plants (could be a facet of your story how these resources are acquired) you could hallucinate certain concepts of reality.

Let's say a rainman ingests a specific mushroom from a hard to access region and is now hallucinating the spirit of rain, which just so happens to be a school of fish that swim through the sky. By interacting with them, he's interacting with the concept of rain. Perhaps the more you commune with an element, the more proficient you are with that element and thus you ascend to higher concepts. Rain becomes storms, storms become typhoons, so on and so forth. Spirituality translating to tangible magic.

Though there's always got to be a drawback or hardline rules to this use. The more advanced the medicine or herbs he's ingesting, the more it may poison him or make his spirit open to BAD spirits. Something something. Just a thought.

>>20375638
I'm saying I like chinese names with my chinese cultivation system.

>>20375695
Systems are how magic can become contextually appropriate to the world. Wants are magic systems. Robes and wizard hats are magic systems. Tomes and chants are magic systems. Get rid of all that and you'll just have guys in plainclothes going out and summoning stands to fight eachother- oh wait stands are a magic system too. Magic without an underlying system is, by definition, an asspull.

>>20375695
Absolutely this.

>>20375695
Based.

Can anyone recommend an easy to read sci fi book? Preferably written before 1990.

I have the rona and can't concentrate well

>>20375700
Gandalf had no tomes, no chants, no stands, and wore robes purely for comfort , yet was still obviously magical. Your issue os you aren't grasping the difference between a system and a cliche. A robe and wizard hat is a cliche, not a system. An arcane tome and a ritual is a cliche, not a system. Ironically enough, magic systems are themselves a cliche.

>>20375710
I mean, does he really have room to talk? His series barely has magic at all.

>>20371916
I feel like I'm the only one who didn't enjoy this trilogy. The conclusion felt weak to me.

>>20375714
It has to do with the overall weight the magic has in the story. If we're talking rare, low impact uses of magic then it doesn't necessarily need to be explained. But then, we're not talking about magic being a point of the story, we're talking about magic being used to accessorize the story, to elevate the mundane events going on with a vague sense of alienation and mysticism. However if we're talking about a prominent story of magic, where the protagonist IS a wizard and frequently uses spells to solve his problems, like Harry Potter, then explanation becomes required, as do tools, as generally a reader needs to be able to understand what's happening in the story. Magic just being used to give mood lighting in a crypt every once in a while doesn't necessarily interfere with coherence, but an unexplained magical deus ex machina to the main conflict will suddenly turn your story into dog shit. I don't want to read about sweaty humans and not!humans in armor trudging through fantasy wilderness after a macguffin, I want to read about magic and mysticism, so rules and systems become necessary.

As for system vs cliche, it's both. In LotR the robes may not be a system, but in D&D they are. They are cliches, and they are also systems, and they are also cliche'd systems. There are, however, non-cliche'd systems.

>>20375710
I've always hated this argument. Science isn't "trust the science!", or electromagnetism and computers. It's a way to systematically analyze the rules that the world seems to operate under. So it follows that any magic system can be analyzed and understood through that process, even if the result of the analysis is just, "magic is really random."

>>20375727
>His series barely has magic at all.
I see people repeat this and I can't for the life of me believe they've read his series.

>>20375738
So you use Harry Potter as an example. What is the magic system there? They use a wand and spout some shit and magic happens. Not much of a system.
You are fixating on systematic elements because you have overdosed on dungeons and dragons garbage, and as a result you are writing dungeons and dragons garbage.
Your fundamental premise is flawed, you are using magic as window dressing for a power fantasy, which is BORING. You want to make magic interesting while also integral to the plot? Make it a fucking character. Give it goals of its pwn that don't necessarily align with those of the protagonist, make those goals entirely unknown to the protagonist.
Bam, you now have consistnecy without needing DnD retardation.

>>20375749
I read his series, it barely has magic, save for Daenerys, characters rarely interact with magic.

>>20375755
Perhaps, but the magic has massive consequences and entire plotline hinge on said magic.

>>20375765
I know, which is why I said it barely has magic, rather than no magic. I know one of the big things in a song of ice and fire is that magic is returning due to the birth of the dragons, but that doesn’t change what Insaid that it barely has magic. Which is why I think Martin is making a cop-out.

>>20375741
And? Most fantasy stories are set long before the creation of the modern scientific theory.

>>20375752
>Make it a fucking character.
t. grandpa that thinks thinly veiled mythological references are the end-all be-all of "magic"

>>20375768
But your point was stupid. It doesn't matter if it's fairly rare when the entire plot hinges on the magic. GRRM has plenty of "room to talk".

>>20375755
Nearly every major character has a very consequential run-in with magic or magic-users of some kind over the course of the books that proves to be a major turning point for them. Arya meets the Faceless man and it sets her on the path of learning his art, Brienne and Catalyn witness the shadow murdering Renly, and Davos likewise saw Mellisandre give birth to that shadow, which set him against her. Jon is fucking surrounded by magic on the Wall and only gets deeper into it as the story progresses. Tyrion is one of the only notable characters largely untouched by magic directly. He hasn't met any wargs, seers, sorcerers, revenant dead, warlocks, witches, or ice demons, unlike other characters who've met these things and even been afflicted by their powers. The closest he gets is to the pyromancers who are overblown alchemists.

>>20375778
>Tyrion is one of the only notable characters largely untouched by magic directly.
Didn't he meet a god during one of his river outings? Something about grey scale?

>>20375772
Even at its worst, that's still better than the autistic video game nonsense most authors shove into their stories.

>>20375783
That's because they're bad at it. I've read a lot of video game nonsense and it's always some washed up hack fantasy author trying to get popular on what's trendy without knowing a single thing about RPGs or why they're immersive. They just slap some gimmicks on their bog standard shitty paperback hero story.

>>20375795
Most RPGs do magic fucking terribly too, though.

>>20375801
That just adds to how unexplored of a frontier it is. Probably because any form of non-institutional mysticism, explicitly fictional or not, was a source of social panic for centuries.

prince of nothing is some of the most satisfying time i have ever spent with fiction. and yet i dont actually have the will to continue reading the judging eye, it feels too much somehow, and it also feels a lot less serious and more overtly d&dish.

i think i just had a deep connection with cnaiur and cared more about his narrative than any of the others', and while the philosophical themes (especially "unconquerable belief"- where thought manifests phenomena) are being touched on and theres some compelling ideas so far with the yatwer cult, the judging eye almost seems at risk of retroactively spoiling the trilogy a little bit

should i continue with it? theres also some cosmological things i might like with the summoned demon entities, if thats expanded on in a serious way i might wanna keep going. it's just getting a little too cartoonish.

>>20375824
>should i continue with it?
Drop it and read something else.

>>20375824
Hard to tell. I suppose it depends on what you mean by "cartoonish" and "d&dish"?
The story certainly has a far larger focus on the more fantastic elements of the series and, yes, that includes the cosmology, particularly the demons/gods.

>>20375730
>The conclusion felt weak to me.
Why? Can you explain?

You know Anons, I dropped Reverend Insanity because it just wasn't worth continuing despite some interesting ideas it'd brought up, but there is one scene that shows the author isn't a retard. At one point, early in the story, we have Fang Yuan going to sleep as always, but suddenly being beset by extreme loneliness. That motherfucking psychopath is just laying on his bed, hurting, because he has no one else. And then he starts motivating himself, talking how only one person he could ever count on is himself and his force of will will take him through anything. That was some really good writing right there. How many other Chinese authors would even be capable of presenting the protagonist as suffering for loneliness like that? In a Cultivation setting no less? As much as I don't recommend reading RI, the story is head-and-shoulders just because the author is self-aware to a degree.

I'm enjoying the fact that there's no such bullshit of friendship or pity in I shall seal the heavens, the protagonist doesn't cry because he killed someone, I finished reading a chapter where 80 thousand died at once during a war, no one felt pity, even the beginning of book 5 is just genocide after genocide, wonderful.

>>20375889
>I shall seal the heavens
Is it better than Reverend Insanity?

>>20375914
I found it very wordy and the characters less interesting, but it also makes an effort to be comedic. Pretty different overall from RI, people tend to like it because the protag is a jew.

>>20375929
You’re going to get a bit more in-depth than that, anon.

>>20375914
I haven't read Reverend Insanity yet
>>20375929
>>20375943
The protagonist is a jew lootgoblin, he will literally do everything for money and there are many situations where he has a chance of dying but will still steal treasures if he can

the translation is pretty bad which I find funny because the translator considers himself "One of the best in xianxia" but even so, there are a lot of weird things that you notice that is the translation's fault.

Magic systems are gay and only retards need magic autistically explained to them in order to accept it in a story.

>>20375949
>The protagonist is a jew lootgoblin, he will literally do everything for money and there are many situations where he has a chance of dying but will still steal treasures if he can
Sounds like a fun read if you ask me, any examples so I know what to expect?

>>20375959

>>20375949
God, that reminds of there’s a webnovel about an adventure who only cares about treasure.

>>20374106
Because it's retarded and makes for a shitty protagonist.

>>20375966
>Sounds like a fun read if you ask me, any examples so I know what to expect?
The protagonist being greedy is probably the only enjoyable part of the story, otherwise it's boring as hell. I found myself skimming all the time, the fights are boring, the dialogues are uninspired and the main character is Gary Sue. Good for chinese webnovels, bad for anyone with standards. And most of the chatpers are tedious filler that will make regret ever deciding to read stories. I recommend not reading, unless you are a big sucker for chinese cultivation stories.

>>20375988
I'm glad you agree.

>>20375778
also most of the stark kids are wargs

>Information was power. It could both be the sword with which you impale your enemy, or the sword you impale yourself upon. That was what was going through Zac’s head as he walked through the woods with a small hatchet in his hand, his face glowing with a sheen of perspiration and irritation.
The first paragraph of the first western story I pick up in years, and it EXPLICITLY describes a man's sweatiness to me.

>>20376073
What’s wrong with it.

>>20376117
He's a weeb coomhomo.

New thread
>>20376142

>>20376117
I can read many, many japanese fantasy novels without ever needing to imagine a male's perspiration, do you know why? Because I read a fantasy novel to encounter new things, new possibilities, new ideals and indulgences, to enjoy the infinite pleasures that exceed the possibilities of the material. Infinite, that's the number of things that I would rather read about than a man's sweaty body, and yet curiously a western fantasy author instead takes upon himself to make it one of the very first things the reader should read about instead. The sad thing is I'm not even surprised, it's the stereotype that I've held being proven right the moment I give it a chance to show otherwise.

>>20375406
>"Hehehe, that's great,"
relatively more like a small chuckle, definetely not lavishing.

>>20375451
>>20375485
Obligatory Virtuous Sons shill

>>20375520
>A character can't just be a good person

>>20376585
nta, but the problem I find with Kaladin isn't just that he is a good guy, it is the part of his character that is meant to complicate him being a standard good guy protagonist, that being his past as an abused and betrayed slave leading to a seething hatred that at times threatens to overwhelm his better judgement never really feels genuine. It feels like it is there to stop Kaladin being a garysue, but beyond that is poorly integrated into the character. Something you can point at and say "see he isn't 1 dimensional", an excuse. Then, so far, it is solved, regressed, and repeated over the course of the four books for what feels no other reason than Sanderson has his character development tied in to certain narrative moments that have yet to occur so Kaladin's character growth is placed on hold to run in circles until the rest of the story catches up.