/lit/ - Literature

just finished City at the End of Time. Thanks for recommending it, anon. It was pretty fucking incredible, Greg Bear has an amazing mind with some brilliant ideas. It almost gets surreal with his descriptions during the second half - you really have to use your imagination to understand what's going on and I almost had to start reading everything twice the closer I got to the end. His writing doesn't have the same beauty as Gene Wolfe but his ideas are fucking huge and I enjoyed reading it a lot.

>>20407898
Star Wars anon go read Heir to the Empire.

>>20408715
I wish the Thrawn Trilogy had an ending besides oh the book is almost over? Guess the good guys win lol

>>20408735
What? Mara killing clone Luke and setting herself free from Palps is kino.

>>20408746
sure but the Thrawn wrapup is extremely anticlimactic

>>20408749
It was artistically done.

I just marathoned "The Stars My Destination"
What did I think about it?

A very fitting ending for such a morally ambiguous main character, though some closure on the blind chick would have been nice, such as her being punished in some way

I want to f... Elend...

Netflix is adapting your favorite book!
Who is cast?

>>20408803
the ugliest cluster of "people" you can imagine

>>20408803
I don't have a favorite book but here's the star

dear /sffg/, i need you to recommend me some exciting, well-written (both from a plotting and writing POV) fantasy, e.g. something like ASOiAF (inb4 the more she drank, yeah, yeah) or Abercrombie's First Law. i've also read Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy, which was juvenile garbage written in inappropriately modern English, and Bakker's first trilogy (i.e. Prince of Nothing), which was solid, but i can't say i did love (from a worldbuilding POV it's very convoluted and very little is actually told)
it's been like half a year since i've read anything besides professional literature and i'm desperate for something that'll excite me and hold my attention. someone suggested The Aspect Emperor in the last thread, but i'm not too keen on that, as to properly enjoy it i feel like i'd have to reread PoN, which i don't feel like doing

>>20408893
The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan?
Or maybe try some Guy Gavriel Kay

>>20408893
Tad Williams new Last King of Osten Ard is exactly what you want, but in order to get the most out of it you would need to read the old Osten Ard books and they are very slow.

If you don't want to take that plunge maybe read John Gwynne, he certainly is fast and exciting, but apart from the celtic larping it is all a bit basic. His prose is very utilitarian, it is not bad like Sandersneeds, but it is not exciting either.

Just finished booked 3 of the spellmonger series I don't care what people say it sates my need for world building and misogyny 8/10

>>20408893
>well-written (both from a plotting and writing POV) fantasy, e.g. something like ASOiAF

Spoiler free review, after watching his review and having read the book I agree with what he says
https://youtu.be/BscxDMH2BJQ

>>20409070
>goodreads reviews full of sexism complaints
your brief post and those reviews have sold me

>>20408469
We have known who the back-half POVs will be since between books 1 and 2 IIRC. Very early on.

>>20409089
Those're apparently potentially subject to change, but yeah it's tentatively been Lift, Renarin, Jasnah, Shalash and Taln, I think in that order or close to it. And these aren't necessarily 'main characters', Rhythm of War is the 'Venli book' but in practice it focuses more on Kaladin., it just means they're the ones who have the flashbacks for that book, like Szeth will for book 5.

>>20409100
'Main character' was a poor choice of words last night which is why I changed it to "POV".

>>20408940
>>20408968
>>20409071
i'll look into this Gwynne fella, thanks

>>20409112
Even then they're not really always the focal character. They will often have a POV for a majority of the book, but, hell, even WoR wasn't fully a Shallan book. I imagine book 10 will have some Taln stuff but most of his contribution will be in flashbacks to explain whatever the fuck happened with him.

*sterilizes you planet*

>>20409118
Yeh it's just the majority of POVs for their book. By the time book 10 gets here, I won't care for whatever the fuck happened with Taln.

>>20409122
Yyyeah, I'm wondering how the fuck 6 more books of this can even go. If book 5 doesn't have Odium biting it and Cultivation becoming the new villain I have no idea how Sanderson will stretch on the story for that long.

>>20409126
>look mom I posted it again

>>20409128
We already had Odium biting it and Odium becoming the new villain, funny how that worked.

>>20409133
I meant Odium proper getting iced or absorbed or some shit by Cultivation. She's basically the only one who COULD be another villain, and I just can't buy book 5 not actually resolving anything before a 10 year timeskip happens and then 5 more books of not actually anything happening.

>>20409143
I know I know I was messin' with you. Considering that Cultivation kind of groomed Tara into that position, it does beg the question as to what her ulterior motives are. Plus with the back half, I wouldn't be surprised to see some big threat from outside the Rosharan system.

>>20409166
It's hard to say, really, but either way I can't see the Odium threat maintained for the next 6 books. Maybe it'll involve whatever the fuck was getting involved in Mistborn Era 2. Sanderson does have a bit of a problem of too many external forces sometimes.

>>20409234
>too many external forces sometimes.
We (still) don't even know what all the Shards are yet. This feels like One Piece sometimes.
>oh boy I can't wait to learn all the Shard names!
>20 years later

>>20408893
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb is the only series that's ranked up there with ASOIAF for me.

It has a sort of quiet simplicity to it that makes it almost feel YA, but the characters are incredible, and it doesn't hesitate to go to some very disturbing places, and the above all the writing is just so fantastically done that it easily rises above it's slightly bare bones foundations to become something really extraordinary.

Oh and Gormenghast if you haven't read that yet

>>20409238
We know, I think, 15 of the original 16? One of his upcoming 'secret project' books deals with the aftermath of a splintered Virtuosity, I believe.
There's Ambition (splintered), Autonomy (probably what's fucking with Scadrial), Cultivation (alive and scheming), Devotion (splintered), Dominion (splintered), Endowment (seems to be alive and well), Honor (splintered), Invention (around, apparently), Mercy (also around), Odium (around, though with a recent vessel change), Preservation (fused into Harmony), Ruin (same), Valor (alive but unknown), Virtuosity (splintered) and Whimsy (alive but unknown).

>>20409243
i actually started it some time ago, but i didn't have time to read it then. iirc i got to the point where the kid meets his father or uncle or smth. if it's really that good i'll take another crack at it
>Oh and Gormenghast if you haven't read that yet
call me filtered, but i read a bit and it was too slow and unexciting, although i will definitely try to come back to it at some point, same with Wolfe's stuff

>>20409253
Ah, Virtuosity is a new one to me. Mite b cool to see another post-Splintered anything, like with Elantris on Sel. I still can't get over fucking Whimsy.

I made the mistake of going to reddit/r/fantasy today

first three threads I saw were:
>Mercedes Lackey Removed from Nebula Conference Over Racial Slur
>I just finished Mistborn….oh my god.
>Sword & Sorcery & Feminism, with Nicole Emmelhainz

That place went to shit so hard. I remember a decade ago discussing books on there was comfy. What happened?

>>20409267
A lot of the "alive but unknown" ones we only know of from Sazed trying to talk to the others to do something about Odium. They all naturally are as unhelpful as possible.

>>20409269
Watch out anon, the resident mod will ban you for talking about that website.
>>20409276
Dropping ~5 names was probably the best thing SA4 did.

>>20409283
I wonder if Sanderson plans to DO anything with a lot of these names. It's like Frost, Hoid's friend, he's just dropped a bunch of important figures who so far have done jackshit.

>>20409070
trust me it will get worse

>>20409292
Names that were never going to be relevant for years and years.

>>20409283
would be mildly retarded as 95% of the posts I make in here are book reccs
>>20409255
don't read Dragonbone chair then, as they are partially inspired by Gormenghast and particularily take the super slow pacing from it

Any good hard sci-fi books about life on a generation ship?

>>20409335
Don't know how hard you'd call it but Aurora was the only KSR book I liked unreservedly.

>>20409335
Tau Zero by Poul Anderson

>>20409335
Ring
Marrow

>>20409339

>>20408968
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn is monumentally boring, it takes 3,000 pages to get through what would have been more satisfactorily accomplished in 600, and the whole scale and plotting of the series is just miserably stupid. What's worse is that everything the heroes does is completely pointless and irrelevant because the villains implode with no input from the protagonists in the last chapter and then the book tells you to fuck off. It's really anticlimactic, I've rarely been so thoroughly disappointed by an author as I was by Tad Williams.

>>20409129
Bayne?

>>20409339
>>20409651
Avatarfagging is against the rules.

>>20408968
>>20409071
I still haven't had a satisfying rundown of these books, how is that dragon one?

>>20409729
>I still haven't had a satisfying rundown of these books, how is that dragon one?
Haven't read that series but it is supposed to be really good.

The Shadow of The Gods (Bloodsworn Saga) is the first book I've read by him, which is set in a different universe with different characters and story. I'm currently on the second book and in my opinion the series is 5/5 so far.

If you want mature writting, good POVs, good characters, good pacing and good world building with very little romance, then you are going to enjoy it.

Reviewfag continuing a 20 book read in the Xianxia-Isekai-Gamelit genres. I wrapped up Xia Remy Y, a break in this nightmare. The narrative and character writing is worlds above most of the books so far, for something that's supposed to be cliché. Though that may refer to the cultivation system, which is along the lines of the most basic ones I've read. The wonder of the story tends to be on the cultivators themselves and what their accomplishments within their realm mean. A lot of the focus is on Sects and their influence on the continent they live.

The cultivation system has 3 cores - the foundational core, the middle core and the upper core. Throughout a cultivator's body are qi meridians that direct the flow of energy to these cores. The main character in this is the son of a doctor and trains under a high-level cultivator as a doctor himself, allowing him to sense these meridians and obstructions within them. Acupuncture or a good enough cultivator can even redirect these flows to make cultivation more easy, though this is a rare and highly coveted technique. Qi can also take on an elemental affinity such as fire, poison, etc.

The first arc of this book is absolute gold and is such a realized story that I was entirely hooked. The character writing and attention to training, setup and execution of previously communicated ideals and points just nailed it for me. One of the only xianxia stories that properly break down the 'might makes right' inequalities of the world. Unfortunately after the first arc, things become rather saga driven and the cohesiveness I saw before waned. Not to say it wasn't interesting; they are still building to a penultimate conclusion, but it is very clearly YEARS off.

This is a Royal Road story, so it will be a while before I pick it up again. Seems like the author uses multiple interludes to note the end of an arc, so there are decent start and stop points. Overall, great story and great characters but the author plans to adhere to the cliché as time goes on, so I think the novelty may wear off.

8/10 for everything up to the Dead Plains arc.

Still listening to Mother of Learning Arc 2 on audiobook but it's a slow-go of things. The author is spending more time on telling the reader theory than actually showing it. During the background of this entire mental training arc, Zorian has been working on building golems and improving their design. I think this might've been something truly interesting to follow but instead they're flushed out with a few sentences here and there, only to pop up as enforcers when he needs them to. Same thing with the transmog into an eagle... I can only imagine that's setup for later.

>Next Book:
Lord of Mysteries by 'Cuttlefish'
>Next Audio Book:
Defiance of the Fall by The First Defier

>>20409801
>Defiance of the Fall
Good luck with that one. I have a lot of mixed feelings about it, personally, and based on your previous reviews I think you'll fall on the side of not really enjoying it, though it does take a while before those sort of issues really crop up.

>>20409794
I like romance tho

How "edgy" would you say it is? Because I find that people like to use the word "mature" when they actually mean to use the word "puerile" in their reviews of stories. I'm not opposed to gritty, grisly scenarios, but I'm sort of tired of the tendency to write litanies of woe that make the most hellish atrocities of real-life look like stubbing one's toe. I've read enough grimdark 40k novels to last me a lifetime, and those at least had the excuse to be stupid to the point of comedy, and not unironic.

>>20409801
Previous Scores:
>Cradle by Will Wight - 9/10
>Ave Xia Rem Y by Mat Haz - 8/10
>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
>Mother of Learning Act I - 5/10
>Reverend Insanity by Gu Zhen Ren - 5/10
>Soulhome by Sarah Lin - 5/10
>Reincarnation: Threads by Michael Head - 3/10
>Last Ship in Suzhou by Lungs - 0/10 (Dropped)

I came around on Reverend Insanity's previous 4 after determining Sarah Lin's would get a 5 for it's Cultivation alone. RI's Gu system shits all over Soulhome's, especially with its execution in the story.

Mean Score of 5.5 (6.1 without the dropped score)

Recommendations from others, including titles I've already wrapped up:

Definite Reads (5+ Recs):
>Mother of Learning by 'Nobody103'
>Worm by 'Wildbow'
>The Wandering Inn by 'Pirateaba'
>Soulhome - Weirkey Chronicles 1 by Sarah Lin
>Ave Xia Rem Y by Mat Haz
>Lord of Mysteries by 'Cuttlefish'

Tentative Recommendations (2+ Recs):
>Soulship by Nathan Thompson
>Heaven's Laws by Apollos Thorne
>Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe
>The World After the Fall by Sing-Shong
>The Second Coming of Gluttony by Ro Yu-jin
>A Practical Guide to Evil by ERRATICERRATA
>Beware of Chicken by Casualfarmer
>Defiance of the Fall by TheFirstDefier

Recommended Once:
>A Goblin's Tale by Scott Straughan
>Ascendance of a Bookworm by Miya Kazuki
>Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends by Ivan Kal
>Web of Secrets by David Musk
>Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
>Savage Divinity by ruffwriter

Dropped:
>Coiling Dragon by Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi
>The Menocht Loop by Lorne Ryburn

>>20409822
I'm about 4 hours into it (was waiting for Mother of Learning to release) and there's already a great deal of lapses in character logic to facilitate the 'wonder of the narrative'. For someone who played MMOs all their lives, Zac sure forgets simple convention in favor of randomly knowing cultivation arrays and flag systems. We'll see how it goes, I guess.

>>20409835
Zac's issue is he's not really a character. It's not like the author can't write characters, he just continuously refuses to give any personality to Zac. DotF does have some really good worldbuilding stuff going on, and it has neat insights into cultivation as a concept, but so much of that just doesn't actually matter to Zac because he's a zero-note character who's just on the "must get stronger for unspecified reasons" train. Like, compare to Cradle, Lindon has a specific goal in mind to get stronger for (defending his home in the future) and also personal motivation (he's been kept from being able to train properly all his life and he's relishing every opportunity he can get). Zac meanwhile feels like his goals never exist outside of basic survival, and that's fine early on, he's in a situation where any other goal would be frankly nonsense, but it just becomes unbearable later.

'A Story' > V.R.T. > Fifth Head

>>20409849
You've really summed up every issue I have with the story so far... Shit. Maybe I'll drop the audiobook and switch to the text then. Pay attention to the worldbuilding and game semantics instead of hearing the narrator speak through Zac's whiny bitch voice. Thanks for the head's up.

>>20409855
I dunno too much about audiobooks, I never use them, but I found it more tolerable to push through because of what was happening around Zac being more interesting than Zac himself. I'll probably keep reading when the next book drops but until them I'm not super invested. He Who Fights With Monsters kept me more interested, even if I have my problems with it, just because it has... Characters and a plot that I was interested in.
It sucks because we see other characters who are characters with... Some semblance of depth to them, but Zac continues to just be "grumpy guy doing things". He doesn't really form any attachments, he doesn't have any real drive, etc. Honestly this is why I recommended Dungeon Crawler Carl to you earlier, it has a REALLY well-realised protagonist. I haven't touched too many cultivation stories, so I dunno how good Lord of Mysteries is (I've heard a lot of good things), but enjoy that at least. Your other recommendations feel a little all over the place, though I haven't read too many besides what I've already mentioned (I'm currently reading Mother of Learning and it's hit-and-miss a lot of the time, I can see why people like it, and there's great moments, but some things like Zorian's inability to fucking talk to Zach for the first 20 chapters feel a little... Forced?). Sufficiently Advanced Magic I enjoyed well enough, though it has a bit of a meandering issue that you might expect from a magic academy story.

>>20409876
>I can see why people like it,
Why?

>>20409850
the ending of A Story is kino

>>20409902
Solid worldbuilding, good intrigue, a lot of decently well-delivered exposition, etc. Zorian is frustrating as a protagonist but I can see several readers sympathising with him. Honestly my biggest issue is that you can tell the author didn't speak English natively, and there were a lot of weird tense stuff that didn't flow right at all. I'm not that far in, not done with Arc 1 yet (because fuck this author writes a lot per chapter), but I can see why this picked up steam.

>>20409830
Not edgey at all to be honest, it has a very good balance between high fantasy and gridmark.

When I say mature I mean the writting isn't like a YA novel with anime shit and edgelord characters. It is written for adults and doesn't try to pander to the YA crowd.

There is romance and emerging romances but it doesn't go deep into the relationships, just touches on them lightly. There might be more romance in the second book that I haven't got to so far but up till now it is minimal.

>>20409910
>Solid worldbuilding,
Worldbuilding is average at best

>good intrigue,
What intrigue? For most part story completely linear and predictable

>Zorian is frustrating as a protagonist
Yes

>but I can see several readers sympathising with him.
Not sure why. Out of all protags I have ever read Zorian is probably the most boring and lame one.

>>20409927
Thank you for the explanation, I shall have to try him out then. I'll buy the series I posted first because it's complete. I prefer to binge entire series, not wait years for a fantasy saga to finish (if ever)

>dotf sleeping beauty subplot
For the love of god make it fucking stop.

>>20409835
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/42367/12-miles-below

here is proper kino

>>20409993
have you considered not being a disgusting weeb?

Hunkering on a mossbank spearing fish in the tide pools, he met himself in the silvered water and knelt astounded before the changes. He had his mother's high, solemn cheekbones and small, docile ears close to his head. With horror he observed that his nose had grown long and straight — the big nose of a swamp monkey and not the flat, broad, and beautiful nose of the forest people.
"You will never eat if you are waiting to spear your nose," Jabalwan chided, coming out of the forest.
"I am truly ugly, teacher," Matu groaned.
"The uglier the sorcerer, the greater his power. You will be less tempted by women — for they will certainly not seek you out with a nose like yours. And good riddance," the soul-catcher quickly added, seeing the consternation on the youth's face. "You belong to no tribe now. The Rain Wanderers have no claim to you anymore. You are a sorcerer, and so you are married to yourself. Your wife is the stately sky. She is naked only to your gaze."
Matu heard this with alarm. In the weeks since his initiation by the Spider he had endured his first emergencies of lust. Dreams of Riri, her naked, dusk-colored body, polluted his sleep. He would wake fevered, laminated in cold sweat, and could return to sleep only after touching himself where the heat of her body still gripped his wakefulness. Orgasm only deepened the dreams. Alone in the forest, while Jabalwan sewed feather-fins to his cane arrows or sat chewing roots, entranced by the sky's tapestry, Matu thought of Riri and stroked himself until his seed flew from him and peace soft as the inside of a cloud filled his limbs. "Only the sky will be my wife?" he asked Jabalwan. "I will never have a woman?"
"You are a sorcerer," the soul-catcher said in a gust of laughter. "What woman would want a sorcerer? We have no tribe. Our life is endless wandering without roof or garden. Who would protect our wives and children while we hunt? We would have to build longhouses and pigpens and paddies. There would be no time for cloudreading or healing those who need us."

Jesus Christ woman, what the fuck was this? Literally not a single female character in this book survived. A broken neck, a slit throat, burned alive, or my favorite, casually mentioned to have been lynched by an angry mob off-screen in the very last chapter. Overall I think I liked this one better than the first book. It dragged a bit in the second half, but it was still a fun adventure. I just really don't like adding children to an adventuring party. And still can't believe that best girl is dead.
Alright. On to the last one. I'm going miss Space Christianity and especially the magic system once it's over.

>>20410053
"What about desire?" Matu asked, churning with uneasiness. "Don't you have desire?"
"Everyone has desire. When a man thinks too much about desire, a stink of death becomes apparent in his movements. He becomes hesitant. He whines for pleasure, and his mind is not in the wind but in his memory. Even the future becomes a memory. He is already dead but thinks he aches with life. He aches with the madness of the insatiable dead. Desire is not the Life — but the Life is desire."
"Is there a root or leaf I can chew that will blunt the desire?"
Jabalwan smiled. "No, young sorcerer. Your desire is your endless prayer. It is the plaint of your life, the wish of your soul for what is unfinished — for what the stars are finishing."
"Is that why my desire is so strong at night?"
"Yes. All our hungers are the echoes of the hawk's cry before the sun killed the hawk and scattered its skull into stars and moon. When the sun's back is turned in the circle dance, the cry is loudest. Listen to it — without memory, without hope. Just listen to it twanging your muscles. It has its use, like the hawks that circle over the forest again and again, keeping the wind clean."

>>20410065
>Literally not a single female character in this book survived
based

>>20410065
Based?

>>20410095
>>20410122
I'll just leave you with this.

He leaned forward. “And the Matria. Haven’t you wondered about that? Doesn’t it strike you as odd that only women can head the Church here?”

“Why should it?” Hesseth demanded. “Division of labor according to gender is part of your human heritage. What makes this so significant?”

“First, because the colonists who were chosen to come to this world had no such tradition. Each colony had its own socio-psychological profile, and that was part of ours. Second, because there are real biological differences between men and women, and those should serve as a template for any division of labor which develops. It did in my own time, when we resurrected the so-called ”traditional“ roles as part of the Revivalist experiment. Men competed for the reins of power and women adopted roles of protection and nurturing. That arrangement worked because it was compatible with our biological heritage; this one isn’t.”

>>20409801
>One of the only xianxia stories that properly break down the 'might makes right' inequalities of the world.
That was gold for me as well. Glad you liked it so far.

>>20410152
That's always something I have a hard time enjoying about xianxia, so it's nice to see stories that tackle it, even if they do so from a point of pure pragmatism. I believe Beware of Chicken does a similar thing?

I'm getting filtered real hard around halfway through the first book of the new sun (shadow of the torturer). Is it worth slogging through this story of me not knowing wtf is going on and general confusion due to word choices and character behaviour?

God it's hard to keep reading this when every character seems incredibly dull and random events seem to happen for no particular reason (like taking care of that stray dog at the start, or Severian meeting random girl, they then randomly crash into some religion's shrine? Then she's suddenly asking Severian to kiss him?). Idk, maybe I'm just too retarded to understand subtext or something.

>>20410031
Not with the current state of western fiction, no.

>>20410175
>I believe Beware of Chicken does a similar thing?
i wouldn't say it's the same.

ASOIAF - why does everyone forget that Jaime fled his duty in Kings Landing to go to war in the Riverlands before Robert died with no permission? He then repremands the kings guard for failing to protect both kings when he returns.

>>20408083
You had me. I'm way too gullible.
>>20408715
>>20408213
>>20408712
Thank you anons. I have added some of these to my reading list.

>>20408705
I once made the mistake of trying to stimulate literary discussion by posting an excerpt from a book of Lovecraft literary criticism, on a Lovecraft subreddit. It stated that the entirety of HPL's Cthulhu Mythos was, in fact, imbued with science fiction and not just horror. This was due to the fact that most, if not all, of the "supernatural" entities in the Mythos were indeed extraterrestrials. Then all these mouth-breathers said (in stilted, broken English) that only AtMoM was sci fi because they simply could not imagine that this author's corpus, which they largely pigeonholed as 'horror,' was something more. Even the fact that HPL was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe shows how much the blend of surrealism, symbolism, Romanticism, decadence, science fiction, and horror would be reflected in the Cthulhu Mythos.

>>20410290
For my part I think the new canon Thrawn books are really good, technically better written than the originals, but the original Thrawn trilogy is more "epic"
The Han Solo Adventures trilogy is enjoyable 70s schlock, but the Lando Calrissian trilogy is garbage, so avoid that
Shadows of the Empire is a classic
The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy is the original story of how Boba Fett survived the sarlacc (it's basically the same as the Book of Boba show)
There's a cute stormtrooper perspective book called Allegiance
I also recommend reading the novelizations of the OT, you can get a fancy leatherbound from Barnes and Noble

>>20409729
John Gwynne is a medieval larper, so you get high authenticity, a lot of pretty good fight scenes, fairly low magic, a bunch of norse/celtic inspired cultural stuff and weird passages where the protagonist literally decides to get /fit/ and starts doing dips and chin ups.

Apart from that traits of him are multi viewpoint storytelling with quite a lot of characters, a lot of immediatly satisfying but not terribly complex subplots like revenge stories or training arcs, some mythology sprinkled in, rudimentary but effective prose, fast pacing and decent characters. There is also some misdirection and hidden information at play, but nowhere near as much as other authors do, mostly the books are straight and hard to the point.

Stuff I don't like about him is that the characters can be very archetypical. Gwynne has his types, and sometimes two characters occupy the same role in a story to the point where one is just an inferior version of the other. That makes viewpoint chapters of the discount character very boring to read, especially if they follow a chapter by a very similar but better character. Also his ideas lack a certain excitement. There are books which have more interesting ideas in a chapter than Gwynne has in an entire book, although those are rarely low fantasy.

He is the fat guy with the axe

>>20410296
just stay there

>>20410296
genrebrains are a lost cause

Need some recommendations for SciFi that deals with long-term problem solving. Specifically, societies or groups across long-spans of time dealing with goal preservation and that sort of thing.

Two perfect examples are Foundation and Two-Body Problem series. I've been told some Alistair Reynolds and Vinge may fit this?

>>20409716
What happened to the cat in Memory, Sorry, and Thorn anon? I really want to know.

>>20410330
>I also recommend reading the novelizations of the OT, you can get a fancy leatherbound from Barnes and Noble
Thank you. Surprisingly, I actually own an original paperback copy of the first movie novelization that my father gave me decades ago. Now you're making me wonder where I put it.

>>20409716
I agree about MST. Enjoyed Otherland though. Don't know if it would be as fun now that litrpg is everywhere.

>>20409876
The recommendation list has taken on a mind of its own, given I take recommendations from these threads too and might have some overlap in terms of recommendations. Given we tend to align on some of our thoughts regarding Mother of Learning and Defier, I'll bump Dungeon Crawler Carl up on my list. Anything character driven will catch me before anything else.

There's a lot of shit that bothers me in Act 1 and Act 2, especially all the artificial pushing away from the main plot in favor of exploiting the time loop. Even when faced with the idea that the timeloop decays, the character speculates (correctly) that this is still 'a long ways off' with no baseline. The growth of Zorian over 4 years is also shit at best, avoiding the fatigue and weariness of being trapped in the same month constantly by... just not talking about it. There's so many missed opportunities with the narrative as a whole, especially with this mind magic section that just... eats word count instead of adding anything of value.

>>20409910
>>20409936
If I had to score both Acts now, they'd be a low 5. Above Soulhome for more engaging chracters, even if they are poorly utilized. The worldbuilding would be the mainstay for me, but it's intrigue and expositional delivery leaves a lot to be desired. The author doesn't have a great grasp of female characters; all of them come off the exact same. Zorian's character did grow in Arc 1 but it seems to have stagnated out to 'smart mouth who wants to learn', not wiggling from there. I can see the appeal but I think a lot of it rides on the concept of the timeloop.

>>20410026
I'll take a gander and add it to my list. Will probably try and curate the recommendation list I post at some point, at least make something cohesive for when I finish all 20.

>>20410152
Xiao Nan and Liu Jin's relationship in the story was phenomenal, especially that exchange. Nan's fate as someone who is stuck in the system whether he wants it or not, and Jin exploring ways around it. I think Liu Jin suffers a lot in later sagas because he doesn't have an elder figure to bounce off of. Seems like so much from East Port City has been turned into future story hooks, however. Su An's fate in particular hit me hard.

>>20410590
probably eaten by Guthwulf before he died

>>20410773
I'll withhold full judgement of MoL 'til I've read it all (which will be some time, it's a lot) but the most intriguing parts of Arc 1 so far seem to be "everything Zach is up to off-screen". Honestly, if the series opted for an alternating perspective of Zorian and Zach I would have loved to see that. Zach is a fairly 'typical' hero, but in contrast to a misanthrope like Zorian seeing their two perspectives bounce off each other would've been more interesting than everything being filtered through the antisocial Zorian.

>>20409801
Do you have a Goodreads account?

>>20410807
Agreed, I'd much rather follow Zach's story over Zorian. That bit with fighting the elder dragon for instance is made out to be ego, but Zach has been preparing himself for the invasion just as thoroughly as Zorian. Would be interesting to see his own internal struggle or suspicions, since Zorian is not coy at all with hiding his nature. Not sure about the subject contents, but there is some Mother of Learning AU that the author has touched upon. Might be worth checking into at some point to see if it adds even off-handed context for Zach.

>>20410835
I don't, reviewing books isn't something I often do. I bit on this challenge and needed an outlet for my frustrations so I started by reviewing the books at my friends... who had no interest in the genre. Refocused my efforts here because at least its good for some conversation. Would people find value in a goodreads account? I could scavenge for my old reviews and republish them there.

>>20410872
Again, withholding full judgement until I'm done, but Zorian strikes me as surprisingly unadventurous, which would make sense for the first few loops, but he's been through like 20 so far as I'm reading and the most adventurous thing (and actually useful) was taking Taiven up on her offer. I'm surprised he hasn't once tried to leave the city and just play hooky for the month as of yet, for example. I get he's a thorough guy, but the point of a timeloop to me is variations and differing routes. Minute differences and improvements aren't all that fun to read about. It's why I was so interested when the spiders showed up, at least that's something happening.

>>20410872
I was just wondering what other books you've rated. You probably don't need to make a Goodreads account if you just want conversations here. I only use Goodreads to keep track of specific editions of my books.

>>20410773
Can I get you to read a piece of homo xianxia? A lot of the most popular stuff is pretty short for webnovels — between 80 and 250 chapters.

>>20408940
>Guy Gavriel Kay
he looks pretty interesting, any specific recs?
>The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan?
a Goodreads review suggested it's similar to Abercrombie, i think i'll check it out

listening warhammer 40 audio bookorinos on the wars for armageddon

im on the second ork war right now

>>20410773
The worst part of Ave Xia Rem Y is its title. It's even worse once you know what it stands for. I can't believe the author still hasn't changed it.

>>20410925
Getting to the high point of Arc 1 for me. Let me know what you think of it once you've wrapped things up.

>>20410927
Everything on my Previous Scores list has been reviewed in one thread or another. I'll try to find links for all of them and include them in that section when I drop Book 10's review.

>>20410935
Homo xianxia? As long as its good, I don't care where a character's sexuality lies but if you've got to advertise it as 'homo xianxia'...

>>20411003
The title does definitely need a change, I can imagine it dissuades a lot of people from reading it and yet there's not an official 'harem' yet. All the relationships are well conveyed and at different points of the MC's life. Nor is it very cliché, it's actually one of the stand-outs of the genre.

>>20411003
Its title suggests it's parodic, but it really isn't.

>>20411013
>Let me know what you think of it once you've wrapped things up.
Will do. I do appreciate that the author at least has made the effort to set up a lot of things earlier on that then get brought up in later loops, some obvious (Taiven's job offer), some less so (Zorian feeling genuine pressure from crowds), so he's been good at setting up stuff, even if the payoff is a little minimal. I imagine Zach's 'missing loops' are something else that'll be paid off, and whatnot.

>>20410985
not that guy but I've got The Fionavar Tapestry in my backlog which is supposedly portal fantasy crossed with Christian allegory a la Thomas Covenant, given that I haven't read it yet I can hardly give my impressions on it only that I like portal fantasy and Christian allegory so I have high hopes
Kay's also written a lot of "historical" fiction set in an alternate version of medieval Europe/Mediterranean in books such as Tigana, The Lions of Al-Rassan, The Sarantine Mosaic, and many others
again I haven't read any of these yet but they sound really cool and I've got them bookmarked for me to purchase and read at a later date

>>20411013
All your previous posts under your current name can be found here:
>>/lit/?task=search2&search_username=of+20

This of course assumes no one uses a similar name that clogs that up.

The ones prior to that would either need to be linked individually or copypasted elsewhere to have them together.

Tripcodes, secure or otherwise, make searching a lot easier.

What space operas can you guys recommend? Preferably stand-alone books. I want stuff like big ships, combat, characters that aren't terribly written, military, warring factions, etc etc.

>>20411097
Happy little accident that I started distinguishing myself to avoid cyclical arguments with the Fang Yuan gang. Thanks for this, I'll find the ones before I started naming myself to round out the list.

>>20409801
If you don't enjoy Lord of Mysteries I don't think we'll be friends anymore.

>>20411153
What's the appeal of Lord of Mysteries compared to other xianxia stuff, out of curiosity? I've heard good things, but nobody really says why it's good.

>>20411117
Reviewed this (thanks anon) and added in links to my previous reviews... It turns out I never dropped a review for Cradle, Bastion or Virtuous Sons. However, I did make reviews for my friends on Virtuous Sons and Bastion which I'll post now...

Virtuous Sons: A Greco Roman Xianxia by YaBoy

Very interesting cultivation system but it relies solely on philosophical rhetoric as a combat solution after a certain point in time. You believe that the tools you have are better than the other person's and thus they are, conjecture being fact or by forcing your memory onto the other person so they see your truth. Uses all the old greek gods as their cultivation ability system, which is super cool, but the abilities cultivators manifest don't seem to be specific to their gods. Seems like people can really do whatever the hell they want, and just get a special feature. Character writing in this is... alright, but you have to accept the fact that you're dealing with two Gary Stus in a world of Gary Stus, trying to be the best Gary Stu. This is a fictionpress work and rolls out on a weekly basis and it shows. The formatting isn't novel-esque, its episodic and I think the pacing and development of the world struggles for it.

If everything else on my list is disappointing, I'll pick up the second half of the Arc but as of now it's a pass.

Immortal Great Souls - Bastion Book One
Final Score: 6/10

Great cultivation system, dealing almost exclusively with fire concepts and burning your Heart (cultivation core in this novel). I don't really understand how all the techniques manifest, but they seem to be extensions of the concept... either hardened by fire (shielding), crafted by fire (weapons) or some straight on transformations into demonic looking entities. Character writing in this is worlds above most of the cultivation shit I've read so far, though most of the females come off as written too similarly. Author needs to work on individualistic tones. MC has a lot going on for him, but the struggle in advancing is conveyed well. This feels like 3 books crammed into one and has the page count of 2, so I think the pacing could be a lot better.

First 25% of the book would be a 4/10 for me, but the last 75% was satisfying if not hindered by repeat conventions.

Will be picking up book 2.

Previous Scores:
> Cradle by Will Wight - 9/10
> Ave Xia Rem Y by Mat Haz - 8/10
>>20409801
> Forge of Destiny by Yrsillar - 7/10
>>20276359
> A Thousand Li by Tao Wong - 7/10
>>20259011
> Virtuous Sons by Ya Boy - 6/10
> Bastion by Phil Tucker - 6/10
> Mother of Learning Act I - 5/10
>>20367274
> Reverend Insanity by Gu Zhen Ren - 5/10
>>20259349
> Soulhome by Sarah Lin - 5/10
>>20374490
> Reincarnation: Threads by Michael Head - 3/10
>>20209353
> Last Ship in Suzhou by Lungs - 0/10 (Dropped)
>>20279014

>>20411153
Are you the one that recommended it to me? You were a good sell, hope its as good as you made it out to be.

>>20411188
Curious what your review of Cradle would be, then? It's still sitting at the top of your list (and I can see why it is really good), but hearing your thoughts would be good, you seem to have a good way of putting your own opinions into words. For me Cradle shines almost entirely on characterisation, it's got some of the strongest of all these ones. It's been months since I binged it and I can remember every major character and even some minor ones very clearly compared to, like, the main characters of entire series I've read since who I maybe remember the names of.

>>20411161
Its the world, its history, and magic system. All of them connect which makes Lord of Mysteries an immersive story.

>>20411188
Hmm, I'm not sure I was the one that created the asian webnovel list putting it at the top.

>>20411231
How's the translation? I generally have a harder time reading translated webnovels because of how clunky they can read.

>>20411013
I’m flagging it as homo because I don’t want anyone to get forty chapters in and get mad when two dudes kiss.

Try one of the following:

- Scum Villain’s Self Saving System. Comedy villain isekai where a NEET webnovel reader transmigrates into a trashy novel and has to fix plot holes and fill in backstory. Cultivation systems aren’t a big deal, but the magic flora/fauna ecosystem is important. About 90 chapters.

- Grand Master if Demonic Cultivation. Former dark lord accidentally comes back to life and has to solve a murder mystery on a road trip with his former rival. Could be a buddy comedy except that one of them is turbo-gay. Most popular of this author’s works but the worst official English translation. The only one where the magic system, namely the MC deceiving necromancy, is really important. Heavy sect politics/war story in the backstory, but less in the contemporary story. About 120 chapters.

Not going to recommend Heaven Official’s Blessing unless you really want a nice comfy MC solving mysteries with heavy folklore influences, because it’s a bit slow and long (250 chapters).

what exactly is inside grrm novels or should I instead stick to warhammer fantasy which is a much larger universe with tons of lore and not a fetish diary written by an old obese man (im hinting at grrm)

Im basically fueling my imagination of cool stuff so I can think about it while gaming or create new fantasy roleplays in games etc

>>20408705
Statement on Removal of Mercedes Lackey from the Nebula Conference

Dear Nebula Conference Participants and SFWA Members,

We learned yesterday that while participating in the “Romancing Sci-Fi & Fantasy” panel, Mercedes Lackey used a racial slur...we are immediately removing Mercedes Lackey from the conference and the additional panels she was scheduled for.

https://locusmag.com/2022/05/mercedes-lackey-removed-from-nebula-conference/

>>20411228
You might come to regret this. After re-reading what I put to post, this comes off more fanboyish than I intended but I truly love the series.

It's the wide breadth of cultivation systems and their uniqueness (while adhering to the system's rules) along with the characterization for me. The world of Cradle is so beautifully alive at all times. Even when you're with Lindon, Yerin and Mercy across the continent, there is still this background current of tension and forward progression all leading to an inevitable conclusion. Some people don't enjoy the Iteration writing with Suriel but the way it's presenting is fantastic to me. When you realize all of her chapters are concurrent instead of at the same time as Lindon's, the implied dilation of time depending on her distance from her is EXTREMELY well captured.

Almost every character is well introduced and well represented like you said. The ebb and flow of the different sects, especially the Akura Clan, is represented extremely well with the different daughters of the matriarch that we encounter. Not to mention Malice and Mercy's moment at the end of the last book which I damn near legitimately cried at. The character journeys of the main 3 are just a drop in the bucket of the experiences of everyone present. Eithan Arelius may be one of my favorite 'teacher' archtypes present in fantasy just because his characters grows so incredibly deep over time, even BEFORE massive reveals regarding him.

The character writing, pacing and execution of the cultivation system is truly fantastic. He executes these concepts so well its like watching one's favorite anime for the first time as a kid. The build up to the tournament arc and the execution of new techniques, all of which have been eluded to in some capacity, only to put a cherry on top with a fucking truly fantastic training arc with Yerin and Lindon discovering their unique paths. I'm absolutely gripped when reading these books, waiting for the next shoe to drop or the next advancement for really any of the characters. Its one of the only series I've read through multiple times.

My favorite out of the set have to be Ghostwater and Wintersteel. The sheer amount of character development, emotional pay-offs and advancement in these two books alone put damn near everything else on my list to shame. Ave Rem is the only one that gets close, but its far and away as attentive with its B and C cast.

>>20411234
Repost that list for me, will you? Thought I had saved it but I can't find it.

>>20411247
Magical flora and fauna ecosystems are something I'd like to explore in my own writing. I'll definitely add Scum Villain's to the list and check out Grand Master of Demonic Cultivation. Appreciate the recommendations.

>>20411242
Its mechanical, which means its 100% readable but has no spice.

are these any good? if you've read them, please give me a description (quality of writing, plotting, character work, world-building)

>>20410345
Is his daughter retarded or something? It looks like she’s in an electric wheelchair

>>20411294
Ah, that's rough. I can enjoy lifeless text if what's happening in the text is interesting in and of itself, but it's definitely a mark against it.

>>20411292
I think the Suriel stuff does something really important that other progression stuff lacks: It shows the pinnacle early on, so we know what is being built towards. It also contextualises some things, like making it obvious how petty the Monarchs truly are given the scale of issues they're causing, etc. Series definitely has some low points (Skysworn and Bloodline mostly, not a lot really happens in either), but they've both been followed by really solid ones at least so I have very few issues with the series as a whole. It's rare I read a series that makes me go "Oh, dang, I just wanna read another story about some other people in this world" but Cradle has done that surprisingly well.

>>20410345
A good take on him.

My greatest gripe is his prose. Yes, I get that the Norse called it a seax, but fuck me, use some synonyms. I don't need to read "seax" 500 times per page.

>>20411333
The Suriel stuff ruined the book for me, it just made the whole world of Cradle meaningless, it also sidetracked some of the word building for retarded space shit.

>>20411341
There aren't many synonyms for "flat, inverse-bladed long-knife that gave a Germanic tribe its ethnonym"

>>20411359
I don't see how it's meaningless. The minute concerns of individuals are always important, even when there's grander things beyond them going on.

Thoughts?

>>20411372
cool if you like bugs

>>20409335
Children of Time

any good dark fantasy/scifi about living in a lawless world? preferably with a theme of "humans without morality are depraved" as opposed to "humans without morality just do what they need in order to survive but are still naturally good"
bonus if theres rape

>>20411376
Are the “Wasps” actually wasps then?

>>20411365
When you're describing a fight scene, those modifiers aren't needed. State it once, so I know what it is, then saying "knife" or "blade" or "dagger" works just fine.

>>20408705
What are some good books with satisfying power progression set in medieval europe with guilds? I've read like hundreds of asian novels on this and still can't get enough.

>>20411311
I read them last year. They are very easy reads, pretty plot focused. The characters and world are pretty forgettable, but the magic system was unique enough to finish the first trilogy. if you can get them cheap (or free), they read pretty fast.

>>20408705
Is there some kind of website that lists a bunch of different fantasy sub-genres and has titles matching the sub-genres?

>>20411292
>Cradle
>male to female character ratio 1:10
no thanks, this is some garbage catering to coomers and feminists

>>20409339
Chink lit will never be good

>>20411616
based and Supreme

>>20411586
>"I'm sexist and a prude"
Nobody cares how non-existent your libido is.

>>20411311
'powder' is such a gay word. Imagine telling people that your fantasy series is called "the powder mage." I would just laugh and be like yeah, you should write a prequel series called 'the lipstick knight.'

>>20411311
"THE AGE OF KINGS IS DEAD... ...AND I HAVE KILLED IT."

"THE HOUNDS AT OUR HEELS... ... WILL SOON KNOW WE ARE LIONS."

"I WOULD DIE FOR MY COUNTRY... ...BUT I'D RATHER KILL FOR IT."

>>20411643
gonna cry, cuck?

Ok, I kind of said I would never read a book written by a female author, but I keep seeing Ursula Le Guinn pop up on the recommended charts
Is she actually good?

>>20408705
rate my "cyberpunk" lovecraftian horror plot
>humanity tried to make ai
>but they always commit suicide

>>20411710
this may come to a shock to you but women are in fact human beings

>>20411751
barely

>>20411751
Yes they are, just some things they do not excel at. They are great at reading and teaching children to read. They are not however, the best writers. That said, perhaps they are good at writing books for women to read. Also the current male authors are not very good so a female author from any other point in history is probably more skilled.

>>20411742
that sounds awesome
can I steal the idea

>>20411751
The things they write about and the stories they tell do not appeal to me because I am a man

>>20411670
"JUST PLAIN AWESOME." -- BRANDON SANDERSON

"JUST PLAIN AWESOME." -- BRANDON SANDERSON

"JUST PLAIN AWESOME." -- BRANDON SANDERSON

>>20411742
Ambigious antecedent

>>20411688
You're the one crying because there's too much women.

ok, /sffg/, i was the guy above asking for fantasy recommendations. so far, i've narrowed it down to the following
>Eames' "Kings of the Wyld"
>Morgan's "The Steel Remains"
>Kay's "Tigana"
>Gwynne's "The Shadow of the Gods"
>The Aspect Emperor (although i still feel like i won't enjoy it w/o rereading PON, something i don't feel like doing)
>maybe taking another crack at Hobb's "Assassin's Apprentice"

which should i go for?

>>20411816
Decide for yourself. The fuck is wrong with you.

>>20411816
Tigana

>>20411816
>Narrow down a few
>Still can't decide
How do you people function in society.

>>20411827
thank you for your contribution
>>20411832
that is a few, i considered about twice as many initially

>>20411816
Since apparently you can’t decide for yourself for whatever reason, read all of them except the aspect emperor.

>>20411816
>not adding them all to your backlog

>>20411848
i should've clarified, which should i go for first*
>>20411843
who says i can't? i'd like to hear your opinions and i will decide based on that

>>20411835
Doesn't answer my question on how you function.

story about galactic conquest? very violent, and no leftist propaganda please. thanks

>>20411879
better than you, i'd wager

>>20411868
>who says i can't?
By the fact that you made a post about it.

>>20411292
I'm genuinely interested to hear what you think of Scum Villain after binging serious xianxia.

The first two volumes of Scum Villain have an official English translation (apparently available at my local library, what a world). You can also get the fan translation here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BFDueXsFfFb_ryYeyx-X8dMin9li_aCT (don't use this folder for Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation or for Heaven Official's Blessing, these aren't the best fan translations). The Scum Villain fan translation is by the same team as the official translation, but it's an earlier/rougher effort.

hickory niggory doo
I need a dark fantasy rec that has evil shit in it but isnt written by a liberal or a 16 year old atheist. one that is actually good. is prince of nothing good?

Has it been 3 days?

>>20411936
>I need a dark fantasy rec with evil shit in it but I don't want it to be written by the only sort of person who writes that garbage
that's kinda like asking for pro-Catholic apologia written by a Jehovah's Witness

>>20411960
idrc if they espouse liberal bullshit, as long as they're an okay writer
is prince of thorns good
why do the 2 biggest dark fantasy have prince in the title

>>20411964
>why do the 2 biggest dark fantasy have prince in the title

>>20411936
Malus Dorkblade series, maybe.

>>20411964
>idrc if they espouse liberal bullshit
then why bring it up?

>>20412012
because ideally they would not
are you going to help me, or be a butthurt liberal?
>>20411986
ty kindly

>>20412023
Why even bring politics into it?

>>20411964
>is prince of thorns good
if you're mentally 15 maybe

>>20412023
you're the one censoring yourself to content because it might trigger you

>>20412038
>>20412044
because I hate faggots that also happen to be more likely to be pedophiles, so I intentionally read books to escape from that

>>20412042
based on his comments in this thread, that might be an accurate assessment

>>20412053
Pedolit is an importance piece of literature history.

>>20412061
>echo chambering
classic lefty

>>20412053
You have to be 18 years and older to post her.

>>20412068
to post who? your gf's nudes? epic freudian slip?

>>20411964
Shadow the hedgehog the video game might be more your speed

>>20411616

*Laughs in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.*

The question isn't whether or not most of this thread is bots. The question is, why the fuck is this general being targeted by bots? Is it just a coincidence, part of a general scheme to just completely fuck 4chan? Or is it specifically important that the sff thread isn't allowed to discuss anything except edgelord garbage, Thoughts? and manually translated webnovels. Is it because Wolfe, a Christian, was regularly talked about positively here before this all started and that's not allowed now?

>>20412099
I’m manually shitposting about homos.

>>20411376
Is it Fantasy starship troopers ?

>>20411816
Tigana

>>20412099
Generals are antithetical to the nature of 4chan, as such they prone to autoimmune disorders. Eventually they all suffer from rouge anons that attempt to destroy it all, even while being part of it. Generals are a static target so this works very well. Anything stable or with regulars is doomed to problems. One off and random threads don't tend have as many issues.

>>20412099
It's not bots, it's the same speds who got banned for bakkerspam.

>>20411816
Read Black Company instead.

>>20411767
sure, I'm bad at writing so feel free to stole it
my idea was to involve a wetware hybrid cultured from main character brain cell that'll slowly go insane
>>20411798
idk, I'm an esl

>>20408893
>well-written (both from a plotting
>plotting
>Abercrombie's First Law

You can only pick one there, son

>>20412099
>Or is it specifically important that the sff thread isn't allowed to discuss anything except edgelord garbage, Thoughts?
You new here? This general was incapable of having any sort of discussion until a month ago when the jannies and mods finally decided to step in and punish the shitters who shit up the the general.

>>20412287
i do agree w/ you in that plotting is by far Abercrombie's Achilles Heal (something that became painfully evident in the 2nd trilogy), but i think the plotting of the first trilogy and of Heroes is pretty solid

>>20410985
The Steel Remains is gay. Literally gay; with gay homosex.

Halfway through the Flos wall in Volume 4, shit ain't that bad

>>20412315
Okay, and? That doesn’t bother me.

>>20411936
The Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton
Night Winds by Karl Edward Wagner
Mask of the Sorcerer by Darrell Schweitzer
Skin by Peter Fugazzotto

>>20412329
Fag

>>20408705
I asked earlier ITT but never got an answer, is there some sort of database of fantasy books categorized by sub-genre? Nobody ever gives me an answer here

bros.......am i gay?

>>20412357
Take the hint and fuck off already.

>>20412365
Lol make me pussy

>>20412364
>Old bipolar fag
I'm sorry for you Anon.

>>20412376
it also says I'm 77% gandalf. maybe I'm just bad at answering personality tests? i don't feel like a wise old man

>>20412364
is this that one survey that's supposed to be really good? post the link

>>20412357
just browse Goodreads

>>20412385
https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/characters/

>>20412193
You tried so, so hard to come across as intellectual, yet crashed and burned spectacularly.

>>20412099
>why the fuck is this general being targeted by bots?
I mean, this general is targeted by a no-life fag that seethes whenever people are discussing books, is it really that far-fetch?

>>20412193
I don't know about other general on different boards, but it's extremely obvious that this general is targeted by a few or just one anon who makes it extremely obvious on who they are.

Essentially this anon >>20412201 is right.

>>20412365
>>20412376
>>20412391
Obvious samefag is obvious

>>20412193
you really should proofread before posting

Hello /sffg/, let me know if you'd prefer this type of stuff to not be posted here.
I recently began writing my rather generic high fantasy rip off of Kill Bill, it may wind up being something some of you like. I primarily write paranormal horror/thriller stories, and a lot of that background is going to sneak its way into this over time.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54622/the-kill-list

Any feedback or reads are much appreciated.

Favorite sci-fi book is Dune; favorite fantasy series is the Witcher. I am a pleb.

I'm writing a story where one of the main characters is a knight. In one chapter, he comes across two assassins who plan to kill members of the royal family. Is it dishonorable for him to sneak up on them and cut their throats? Or should he give them an honest fight? He's meant to be a noble, upstanding guy.

>>20412400
Writing general is more your speed, go there >>20406485

>>20412404
>>20412405

>>20412357
no, goodreads is the best you can get, blame big publishers and jews

>>20412394
Nah, I ain't the bipolar fag, nor am I a "rouge anon", retard.

>>20408968
>>20409716
I disagree. I think the slow pace works well for the story as it is immersive and the characters are interesting and when the story goes in overdrive, it goes hard. The problem is that, yes, the very ending makes the whole journey a bit pointless. I still don't understand what happened, desu, but the journey was worth it and Tad ties up pretty much every important loose end quite satisfyingly.

>>20412400
fuck oiff

>>20412193
I understand what you're saying and I agree with it but the way you write it so autistic.

>>20412411
>doesn’t post proof he’s not samefagging
spamming retards are so obnoxious

>>20410590
He got out from under the Hayholt and fucked your mom

>>20412423
Sure thing, Corky

>>20412404
>Is it dishonorable for him to sneak up on them and cut their throats?
If they’re planning to kill his lord then he should do everything in his power to stop them, whether it’s fair or not

>>20412099
i wanted to tell you this last time already, but i don't think you're very good at telling human opinions from bot generated posts.

>>20412404
Traditional knights would decry them in public while challenging them to a undeclining duel while the other option might make for a more interesting character.

>>20412434
>babby’s first HTML edit
Your number one mistake is assuming everyone else is as dimwitted as you are.

>>20411267
imo the only valid argument against the ASOIAF books is that the series is not finished and will likely not be finished
beyond that, the books are amazing.
i can't think of any book that i've ever wanted more than the remaining 2 from asoiaf.

>>20412434
Stop replying to the threadshitter.

>>20412423
Jesus, you're 75% of all posts here, troon...

>>20412448
Ok.

>>20411108
The Gap Cycle
Culture series (both series)
A Fire Upon the Deep is only 2 books long (3 if you count a prequel set thousands of years before the first book.)
>>20412448
so just leave 4chan entirely? gotcha

>>20408893

>>20411936
you might like Prince of Nothing

>>20412455
It’s one dedicated spastic shitting up the thread, if you stop replying to him he’ll fuck off. I’ve said this hundreds of times but nobody seems to listen.

>>20412468
No, you got to report him for his low-effort/spamming posts, anything less than that is pointless.

>>20412455
checked and thanks. Which Culture books specifically? Consider Phlebas kinda had what I am looking for but man I didn't enjoy it for whatever reason. Player of Games was better but it was definitely not what I'm looking for.. shit it was Chess... in SPACE!

>>20412468
>>20412470
you probably spend more time complaining about him than he does shitposting, you’re part of the reason he keeps doing it because he loves the attention

>>20412483
Threadshitter samefag

>>20412400
Not bad at all, actually.

>>20412364
Only after you're dead

>be me
>break leg one summer
>pretty severe, need significant surgery
>eventually start walking again with a cane
>very immobile for months
>stay at home and binge watch a tv show I found on netflix with a character I can relate to a bit
>pic related
Oh no

>>20412541
Kek. Did you also start telling dying kids that God and heaven isn't real?

>>20412490
Gonna cry even more?

>>20412595
no sir, I surrender

>>20412603
Great, now we can get back to work

>>20412557
No I'm still a Christian but I would do the "gods not real thing" with other topics.

>>20409128
Idk it's supposed to be split into 2 sections with the time skip after book 5. I think his shorter series and stand alones are better since they aren't stretched as thin.

>>20412457
Sarah J Maas actually good and based

>>20412457
female written pozzed garbage marketed to the same midwits that enjoy Branderson

>>20412655
retard

>>20412643
nobody cares about sandersöy schlock faggot

So are there any English-speaking /sffg/-related awards left to pay attention to?

>>20412675
fuck off and die shitlord

>>20412682
That’s pretty rude anon.

>>20412675
>>20412682
>>20412685
Samefag

>>20412201
Isn’t he still ban?

Requesting stories containing a decent amount of loli, ideally loli POV. Lude is welcome but not required.

>>20412743
Kys pedo

>>20412410
>>20412357
>no, goodreads is the best you can get, blame big publishers and jews

As much as I like blaming Jews for just about anything this seems the sort of thing we should be able to do on our own. Amazon even has an API that lets you scrape it's product data. You have to pretend to be doing it to sell referral links to shit and it does rate limit you but if you had ten or so accounts you could probably scrape all scifi/fanticy book amazon data in a few days.

You would get categories like
#18 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
#103 in Epic Fantasy (Kindle Store)
#103 in Dystopian Science Fiction (Kindle Store)

Not all inclusive list but it would be a decent and easy start.

>>20412318
just started volume 1 and it ain't bad, makes you want to come back. also nice art.

>>20412772
I’m not sure if Amazon has details on sub genres, if they did they surely would put them on their site. It wouldn’t be hard of course to start a website with this kind of stuff and get reviewers to add tags to a book upon submitting a review, but getting people to use it without getting sued is unlikely.

>>20412755
Kindly stop posting your off topic trolling. His request is just as valid as any other. If you don't like it just hide the post.

>>20412790
The following is a complete list of categories SFF books on amazon can be classified as, a book can be classified under multiple categories at once.

>Science Fiction
Adventure
Alien Invasion
Alternative History
Anthologies & Short Stories
Classics
Colonization
Crime & Mystery
Cyberpunk
Dystopian
First Contact
Galactic Empire
Genetic Engineering
Hard Science Fiction
Humorous
LGBTQ+ Science Fiction
Metaphysical & Visionary
Military
Post-Apocalyptic
Space Exploration
Space Opera
Steampunk
TV, Movie, Video Game Adaptations
Time Travel

>Fantasy
Action & Adventure
Alternative History
Anthologies & Short Stories
Arthurian
Classics
Coming of Age
Dark Fantasy
Dragons & Mythical Creatures
Epic
Fairy Tales
Fantasy
Gaslamp
Historical
Humorous
LGBTQ+ Fantasy
Metaphysical & Visionary
Military
Myths & Legends
New Adult & College
Paranormal & Urban
Romantic
Superhero
Sword & Sorcery
TV, Movie, Video Game Adaptations

>>20412805
Another list from the teen section

>>> Teen & Young Adult
>>Science Fiction & Fantasy
>Fantasy
Alternative History
Coming of Age
Contemporary
Dark Fantasy
Epic
Fairy Tales & Folklore
Fantasy & Supernatural
Historical
Magical Realism
Myths & Legends
Paranormal & Urban
Sword & Sorcery
Wizards & Witches

>>>Teen & Young Adult
>> Science Fiction & Fantasy
>Science Fiction
Action & Adventure
Aliens
Alternative History
Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic
Dystopian
Science Fiction
Space Opera
Steampunk
Time Travel

>>20412450
Who were you responding to?

>>20412805
No, lgbt, progressive, tranny lit belongs on >>>/lgbt/
We don't need this garbage here, we already get enough of trash with gamelit and xanxia posters.

>>20412894
After years of resisting I finally installed 4chan X because browsing >>>/lit/sffg was impossible due to all the censorship. Here you go, all the cancer in one screenshot.

>>20412930
Ah, jannies doing their jobs.

>>20412930
What censorship?

I haven’t checked in here in a few months, seems like Bakkerposting has finally died out eh?

>>20412984
Certain topics seem to really rustle jannies jimmies, and they have a real 'no fun' vibe.

>>20412984
There’s no censorship, just fags bitching that they can’t shit up the general no more like they use to.

>>20412999
Yes, the threads are now useable and people can discuss things.

Bros, I really love Godzilla and the Godzilla universe. Is there a good series I can read that is very similar?

>>20413110
Have you tried reading the novels?

>>20413114
sadly, none of them are currently purchasable in my country

>>20412930
>>20413022
Christ, you're so full of shit, months, perhaps even a year of shitposts and spam that made this general unbearable but the second the jannies and mods try to fix this general so people can discuss, you cry censorship

>>20413140
Where do you live that buying those books are impossible?

>>20413163
Germany

>>20413174
Oh, I thought you lived in some third world, why are they impossible to get?

>>20413048
haha lets discuss game lit and xanxia, also lets not firget isekai

>>20413182
Yeah, pretty much, an improvement, why are you even here if you hate discussions.

>>20413177
I have no idea. Unless you are talking about to official novelizations of the recent movies. I don't care about those because they are not different from the movies themselves. And I have already watched those.

>>20413187
No, I'm talking about the old ones, I'm pretty sure the old movies had novels about them.

>>20413186
I like freedom, unlike the pozzed reddit trannies

>>20413174
>>20413187
Can’t you buy from overseas?

>>20413110
>>20413193
Don't these tend to just be the movie's scripts digested into a semi-readable format? Really not worth bothering with, but some can surprise you. Novelization of Star Wars: Episode 3 is surprisingly good, for instance.

As for general kaiju media, can't say they're often the mainstay of a series. The only one I can think of is Project Nemesis by Jeremy Robinson.

>>20413245
>movie's scripts digested into a semi-readable format?
Yeah, that's basically what books are.

>>20413245
Oh, if you care for John Scalzi's work there's also The Kaiju Preservation Society. I know nothing about it and am not a fan of Scalzi myself. Think he's crawled too far up his own ass. He also has Wil Wheaton narrate his audibooks which is just... horrible.

>>20413248
Aren't you clever?

>>20413110
goodreads has a whole list of kaiju novels, i can't speak for their quality or anything but maybe you could find something that catches your interest
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/73115.Giant_Monster_Kaiju_Novels

>>20408968
these look comfy

>>20413255
>Aren't you clever?
Man, that's what it boils down to in the end, ain't being clever about it.

>Yay, the spammers are gone
>Now we can talk about books freely
>No! No talk about Wolfe or Bakker
>Let's spam isekai, litrpg and the rest
Its not like its just one group of spammers that won over another (with the help of jannies). For me it doesn't really matter what the amount of spamming is but at the moment, even though some claim there are "more talk about" books than ever the talk has moved from traditionally published proven good books to self published garbage.

>>20413346
you're always welcome to start a discussion on books or topics you find interesting

>>20413378
He won’t because he’s the shitter.

>>20413378
No one here reads traditionally published anymore so there really is no point and I dont want to rot my brain on the worst garbage the literature world has seen since romantic comedies.

>>20413386
Neither does anyone else, which is why nobody talks about traditionally published books anymore.

>>20413386
what have you been reading lately

>>20413408
Nothing.

>>20413411

Why do all fantasy novels read like YA fiction?

>>20413408
Gormenghast, ASoIF

>>20413423
what do you think of gormenghast? it doesn't seem like typical fantasy, been on the fence on whether or not i should get it

>>20413419
Better question is, why have you been reading YA?

>>20413423
sorry xir but those books are not allowed here

>>20413430
personally it was a hard and slow read, mostly for its language which is highly ornate and descriptive, other than that the book was really good, definitely its not fantasy as your'd define it, more like fantasy of manners

>>20413419
try
>Dune
>PoN

>>20413346
You know we can scroll up and see people discuss traditionally publish books, right? Why are you being such a whiny bitch?

After finishing (or at least, I read 5 of them) Elder Empire, I've started reading Phil Tucker's Black Gate series since I liked Bastion

>>20413437
i definitely enjoy dense prose, slow reads. i've been looking at an illustrated edition of it, maybe should bite the bullet

>>20413419
Read Tolkein, Guy Gavriel Kay, Le Guin, Zelazny, and Peake.

>>20413448
I took a look at what else Phil Tucker had written after reading Bastion and I promptly decided most of it seemed like bandwagon-y stuff. How's Black Gate?

>>20413441
No

>>20413417
Shocking, I know, but what else did you expect?

>>20413454
Too early to tell. Proficient writing at least.

>>20413452
Le Guin says Zelanzy didn't take his style far enough, writing at a time when fantasy was looked down on, he didn't have the confidence to go full Elfland (being between Elfland (Tolkien, Eddison, etc. are lords here) and Poughkeepsie (trash airport fantasy)).

>>20413472
Truth be told, I was more hesitant in recommending Le Guin since fags here won’t read her for some stupid reason. But overalls, I recommend Zelazny because he holds a special place for me.

hello yes
i read Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (??) and it was BASED but also ended kind of lame
i read Forge of the Gods by Greg Bear and it was NOT based and really shitty

Hit me with some good sci fi brothers so that I may continue reading BASED books

>>20413472
Source? Rather interesting assertion and one that I agree with.

>>20413486
Her essay "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie".

>>20413494
Thanks, anon, I'll check it out. Le Guin is truly underrated here.

>>20413496
Is she really underrated? People who read her here praises her.

>>20411816
not Kings of the Wyld, it is a comedy book about an 80s rock band tour disguised as a fantasy book
the gay wizard keyboard player even has magic aids from all his homosex

>>20413517
And that’s an issue because?

>>20413378
When I do people freak out and tell me to kill myself and jannies try to get mods to ban me.

Why does he talk like that

>>20413536
Why are you using Twitter?

>>20413510
People here refuse to read her.

>>20413519
It's an acquired taste. I personally don't like to read about fantasy Judas Priest and the wife of the front singer shooting up heroin and getting fucked by her ugly bastard drug dealer.

>>20413578
Sounds more like a you problem, but I can understand.

>>20413536
Yes, men are more likely to be non-conformist.

Is Arthur C. Clarke still a good read?

>>20413632
Yes, he wrote the only book called "Cradle" that is worth a read.

>>20413538
because he's not conservative

>>20413648
What?

>>20413677
trumptard please leave

Is this late night newfag shitpost hours?

Welp, as someone who actually reads books, this interaction between Ryun and Zach in Infinite Realm volume 4 feels painful to read. I understand why he acts that way but I wish Ryun weren't so autistically dense, and Zach wasn't so stubborn/mopey. I still don't even care for Zach as a character.

>>20413684
I mean, the thread was made, at least for me, when it was around, 5 AM and it was active, so you know, that does not bode well.

>>20413684
You picked up LitRPG and complain its bad. Phew. Yikes even.

>>20413708
I didn't say it was bad. I said the interaction between this particular dyad is frustrating to read.

>>20412329
Fag.

>>20413683
Muskfag please leave.

>>20413727
>>20412315

Sometimes just a little (or a lot) of homosex is just what a good story needs.

>>20413739
Kys pedo

>>20410773
>There's a lot of shit that bothers me in Act 1 and Act 2, especially all the artificial pushing away from the main plot in favor of exploiting the time loop. Even when faced with the idea that the timeloop decays, the character speculates (correctly) that this is still 'a long ways off' with no baseline. The growth of Zorian over 4 years is also shit at best, avoiding the fatigue and weariness of being trapped in the same month constantly by... just not talking about it. There's so many missed opportunities with the narrative as a whole, especially with this mind magic section that just... eats word count instead of adding anything of value.

Oof, man, I think MoL just isn't the book for you, what other people read it for you find annoying and without 'value'. Still, I think you should finish it for the big pay-off at the end. You seem to be very much into characters, so I think you should focus on Worm and The Wandering Inn next. While I very much like DotF it focuses on different things than Cradle, those you seem to very much not be into. The Wandering Inn is almost all about characters, so it may be closer to your tastes. Worm also, but it's more, eh, psychological, rather than simply about characters, to an annoying degree even.

So yeah, go read TWI next, I don't think you will be dissapointed. Unless you want a harder LitRPG now, then go Dungeon Crawler Carl, but it gets...complicated, like literally overcomplicated at times. The second book suffered greatly from that to the point the author decided to simplify the stuff in the ebook version.

>>20413739
Jesus this looks pedo as fuck. Like, the character doesn't even look thin, just like a young teenage boy. Is it an actual anime show or something?

>>20413739
Actually, go kill yourself, you pedo freak.

>>20413739
The fuck is wrong with you, you sick freak.

>Lolifag was an actual pedo afterall
Doesn't surprise me, just weird he outs himself.

>>20412201
>if i keep repeating it over and over again, it might actually be true

>>20411188

>>20413752
I hated MoL too, much more than him infact, and especially later on near the end. And I also couldn't stand DCC, though for completely different reasons. Mainly, I just didn't like the tone of the story, how it felt like it was trying to be both a drama about how powerless and oppressed everyone is and also a power fantasy at the same time. Just didn't work for me. For a while I thought it could make sense, since that's sort of the premise of the entire situation, but once he starts reaching out and actually affecting the outside world it fell apart for me.
I'd say it perfectly executed it's core idea, but I don't like that idea or any story built around it. Doesn't matter that it makes perfect logical sense within the story if all I can think about is how contrived the whole thing is to create that specific story.
Definitive example was when they get railroaded by the writers on a quest where Carl is written to die at the end for drama and he bullshits his way out of it I guess it just said to me that everything that happens, good or bad, is meaningless, arbitrary, and can be reversed with no warning or buildup at any time. Which once again I think is the point, but just like Carl doesn't want to play the game, neither do I.

>>20413808
It isn't bots, it is a dedicated autist.

I loved Mother of Learning, honestly everything I've read after it has been trying to fill a MOL-shaped hole

I just started to read Children of the fang by John Langan. The story sweetums was pretty good, even though I didn't really get what was going on, but the world felt strange and eerie. Pretty good, would recommend reading it.

>>20413632
No. His ideas are just religious mumbo jumbo repackaged as sci fi

>>20413917
Thanks for the warning.

>>20413917
So you haven't actually read his books? OK.

New thread
>>20413959

I got around to finishing this finally.
My first attempt was sometime last year, right after finishing all the malazan books then fall of darkness. I only got about 300 pages in though.

I started from the begining and maybe due to nostalgia I stuck with it this time and was glad I did.

Its honestly a really sad book, I don't usually get emotional when reading but I did with this, maybe to due to it being a prequel and knowing how a lot of these characters end up or maybe it was due to unusual amount of philosophizing and inner monologuing that you get from so many characters, you feel closer to them.

I really did like it, in the end. It was a good read. When I reread the start I remembered feeling out of place with all the pages of not a lot happening, but it does pick up.

Is arathan ruthan gudd?