/lit/ - Literature

>>20562360
why was the last thread nuked?

>>20562361
because jannies are subhuman retards

>>20562361
Yeah what the fuck happened, it was archived at 165 replies?

How does Meng Hao get away with it?

>>20562361
why curate when you can simply erase it all

>>20562246
I recently started He Who Fights With Monsters and it's pretty entertaining. Basically an Australian shitposting his way through a fantasy world.

>>20562111
If you're a fan of the genre and want a friendly twist try Level Up by Dan Sugralinov. Good gamer, lost in life is granted access to an rpg system for real life which give him a chance to turn it all around. It's charming and good hearted and unless you obsessively read the Russians is unfortunately something of a hidden gem.

>>20562444
>an Australian shitposting his way through a fantasy world
you sold me, i'll check it out, thanks anon

>>20562438
Think ISStH is actually funnier than AWE just because of all the times he pisses everyone off without doing anything wrong

>>20562454
First couple of chapters were a bit rough, but once he starts to get used to the world Jason becomes much more likable as a protagonist. Less generic sarcasm and more sick bants. Just be sure to always imagine the accent when reading his dialogue.

are there any stories about portal fantasies/time travel set in Europe during the Roman Empire or Dark Ages (before 1000 AD)?

>>20562523
Eh it was the opposite for me.
His constant moralfaging got old quickly.

How is Iain M. Banks' quality so all over the fucking place? I read Consider Phlebas and it's consistently just O.K. I read Player of Games and it's wall-to-wall fucking amazing. Then I read Excession and half of it is transgender sex-addicts screaming at each other about a 40 year old gestating baby. Then I read inversions and it's an incredible medieval political romp. Is there alternating years where he didn't drink or do drugs or something?

>>20562361
I don't know, but I swear some of my posts have been disappearing entirely. So between these threads getting nuked, my posts disappearing, and constant spamming I'm not sure what the point of even trying to have a discussion on /sffg/

>>20562553
I only read a handful of those books after Consider Phlebas, but even that book had some major quality and pacing issues. The entire lull in the middle, sans dialogue, just a methodical unfurling of a half-baked infiltration before moving back into the heavy team dynamic. It was jarring. Also, what an odd entry point to the series with Phlebas and the Culture's war with Irida.

>>20561765
It was very popular here in Australia. My school library had multiple copies of each book and they were always checked out.

>>20562641
This was the first major fantasy series I ever got into as a kid. Read and collected ALL of them, before moving into K.A Applegate's Remnants series. I swear it was huge everywhere but the United States. Japan made an entire anime around it, which I still need to watch.

>>20562538
I can see how it could get annoying. I'm only about halfway through the first book and he's been fairly reasonable on that matter so far. I did expect him to change a bit over the course of the story, especially considering the title, so I probably will be bothered if he keeps going into speeches like the one about how fighting monsters is kinda bad.

>>20562538
Yeah, wouldn't say it was constant but the soapbox incidents brought it down. Also had no desire to see him get trapped in our world for like a million years. Usually an author gets his self-insert more under control as the series goes on but I WOULD USE MY MAGICAL POWERS TO SAVE THE CHILLEN way way in is a failing orbit. I still read it though. Bro might rally.

>>20562657
I loved it too. Was the first time I think I really got into a fantasy world - I remember being about 8 and pouring over the official Monster Manual/encyclopaedia tie-in that they released. My dad saw I loved it and then gave my The Hobbit to read around age 9.

>>20562641
Does your school library stock the Napoleon Bonaparte mysteries, or is that too hot for today?

>>20562526
Lest Darkness Fall

>>20562670
That's fair.
Despite the meh MC there was something that kept me going for 2 more books. I enjoyed the progression and the whole skills system.
Mind you the Mc does get a bit less preachy but eventually I couldn't stand him anymore. I dropped the series at book 3. Maybe I'll continue eventually but probably not.

Read Cradle

>>20562682
I was maybe 10 or 11 at the time and saw the book cover at a scholastic fair at school. I thought that alone was cool as heck because the dude on the cover was this big holographic monster. Then I read the book and the prologue made me incomprehensibly sad as the king and blacksmith's friendship fell apart. Was amazing, I made sure I got one at each book fair. Really was my gateway book to the rest of the genre.

>>20562753
If you're trying to advertise the series, could you post... GOOD art?

What are your top 5 sff novels? I need some recommendations.

>>20562461
>Meng Hao: Smiles shyly
>Cultivator: This little brat I'm going to rip out his cultivation base so hard nine generations will feel it

>>20562771
LotR
The Cyberiad
Permutation City
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (fantasy in my book)
Seveneves (sans the last third of the book)

In no particular order

>>20562771
- Spin by Robert Charles Wilson (sequels suck)
- Forever War and Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman (didn't care for the 3rd)
- Wax and Wayne series (Mistborn 2) by Brandon Sanderson
- Cradle series by Will Wight
- Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons

>>20562771
Eye of Argon
My Immortal
The Lair of the White Worm
Ralph 124C 41+
Eragon

>>20562771
The chronicles of the black company
Malazan book of the fallen
The wheel of time
The lost fleet series
Garret files

In no particular order.

>>20562847
good reply

>>20562360
What are you reading and what are you planning to read?

>>20562866
That’s really none of your concern, you creep.

>>20562361
I thought I was losing my mind when I saw another dragon post thirty replies in since I swore already making the "what are you reading" post lol.

>>20562771
In no particular order:
>The Dying Earth
>The Second Apocalypse
>The Lord of the Rings/Middle-Earth canon
>Lyonesse trilogy
>Gormenghast

>>20562866
I finished my reread of Zelazny’s This Immortal. I liked it better this time but it’s very first novely in some ways. It’s good but he’s trying too hard to be clever and the characterization is spotty.
Next up, picrel. I’ve tried it before but couldn’t get into it. This time I’ll force myself

>>20562771
Vurt by Jeff Noon
Last Call by Tim Powers
Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Neuromancer

>>20562925
Never heard of it, but the cover is kind of nice.
>>20562872
Gettaloawdof dis guy!

I don't read a ton of Fantasy. Is "deathly ill little sister" a common thing? Or is it "Deathly ill mother"?

>>20562950
Not in my experience but there are literally hundreds of thousands of fantasy novels and I can hardly be said to have a comprehensive knowledge of the lot, I can only speak for one or two hundred at most.

I FUCK SRANC

>>20562968
t. alpha sranc

>>20562925
Zelazny is awful. I had to force myself to finish the first Amber novel. Really regret purchasing the massive ten-book omnibus.

Has anyone here read The Sun Eater books? I just finished the 4th and am now waiting for the final one. Would really recommend it if you liked the Red Rising books or Warhammer 40K. They might not be high literature but they were fun.

For Earth and Emperor!

>>20562948
Eye of Cat is definitely one of his lesser works

>>20562984
What didn’t you like about 9 Princes?

>>20562990
The 4th book is out already?
I quite enjoyed the first 3.
Occasionally it felt a bit campy and the plot seemed a bit confused at time.
You could tell the author is young and inexperienced but the bones of something great are there.
Overall very good series and Im really looking forward to reading more of the stuff.

>>20562950
not really, what gave you that idea?

>>20563031
Yeah, the 4th book is out, titled "Kingdoms of Death". I liked it but would say that it's one of the weaker of the 4 for sure. The series was never grounded but it gets a bit more deus ex machina if that makes sense. I still enjoyed it enough to preorder the final book though.

>>20563033
I feel like I've seen it a couple times and was wondering if it would be a trope

>>20563056
It is a trope, but mostly an anime/light novel one.

>>20562950
While that is a common thing in fiction, I find that secondary world fantasy tends to use something genre specific to set up the "a woman I care about is in danger" plot device.

>>20562984
no shit, Zelazny is genuinely some of the worst """"""literature""""""" I've ever read, getting through that same omnibus was excruciating, I'd sooner read James Joyce or Franz Kafka than ever subject myself to garbage like that again

>>20562771
Honestly it's hard to even name 5 books I've read, I tend to forget everything I read unless I'm reminded of it somehow. So this more probably more of a "last five books I liked that someone mentioned in the last month"

Caves of Steel
Prince of Nothing
Sabriel
The Night Land
Armor
Reverend Insanity

>>20562771
A Storm of Swords
The Historian
Brave New World
Perelandra
The Fifth Head of Cerberus

Requesting cute and funny science fiction.

BAKKER

>>20563223
Sewer, Gas and Electric by Matt Ruff

I'm the guy from the last thread. I just finished The Knight. I'm going to give it an 8 out of 10. I thought most of it was great. But like one of the anons in the last thread said, the ending felt like it came out of nowhere. It felt like there was a deadline trying to be met. It's like suddenly the book is just over and it's all wrapped up in 10 pages.
I'm reading Way of Kings before I read The Wizard.. I have to admit going from Gene Wolfes prose to Sandersoy it pretty hard. Sandersoy has no style.

>>20563267
Sandersnoy has admitted that Gene Wolfe mogs him

>>20563250
>Sewer, Gas and Electric by Matt Ruff
Thanks, sounds pretty wild, I'll give it a read.

Magician: Apprentice
Magician: Master
Jhereg series
Myth Inc link stuff
Elfquest
THIEVES WORLD, need I go on lol

>>20563267
>I have to admit going from Gene Wolfes prose to Sandersoy it pretty hard. Sandersoy has no style.
That's like going from a Monet to a finger-painting.

>>20563267
>But like one of the anons in the last thread said, the ending felt like it came out of nowhere. It felt like there was a deadline trying to be met. It's like suddenly the book is just over and it's all wrapped up in 10 pages.
As a matter of fact that was me, and I actually wasn't talking about The Knight, but The Wizard (i.e. The Wizard Knight as a whole, singular book), but in retrospect I now realize that when considering The Knight as a independent novel the last chapters do have that feel about them, with the whole dragon cave and griffin and female sacrifice, which I of course didn't notice because to me they were in the middle of the book. It gets "worse" (that is to say, more exaggerated in its abrupt plot-shifts and fast-paced wrap-up) in the Wizard. Now that woman who was about to be sacrificed to the dragon, let me tell you that despite the way it was written, it was not a dream, and you will shit a fucking brick when you learn who it is.

what are some actually SCARY books?

>>20563315
Warrior, Disciple
In me, the Wishmaster

>>20563327
Last book that actually scared me was Revival by Stephen King.

>>20563327
The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James, and also this short story by Abraham Merritt called The People of the Pit
a lot of the Michael Crichton books about wierder shit like dinosaurs and gorillas and cannibals
anything to do with Jack the Ripper, I don't know why but that shit always gives me chills worse than anything else

... I hope I don't regret reading this shit. I'm one chapter in and it's like Sandersoy copy pasted his WoW rp guild's chatlog. Why the fuck does he have to say the name of the attack being used like it's a video game? "He used a Light Lashing on the gaurd".

>>20562771
The Deep by John Crowley
Bridge of Birds
The End of Eternity
Spaceman Blues
The Dragon Masters by Jack Vance

>>20563435
sanderson is really bad, don't waste your time

While they were a shadow of the first two, I didn't outright hate them.
Rise has its slow moments, and there are some predictable revelations, but the story did keep me invested enough to see it to the end.

>>20563508
intredasting.jpg
I will try some of these books. Currently reading Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr

>>20562764
Not that Anon but Cradle is pretty good if you're looking for a eastern style fantasy written by a western author
Better than most IMO

>>20563435
Just stop anon. There are so many other good books you could be reading, life is too short.

The Violet Fate arc is really comfy, I don't want to go back to Meng Hao fighting every rando because he walked by their dog

>>20563435
Stop now, don't make the same mistake I made. I was halfway through the second book, already too invested, when I sadly realized that Sanderson's writing is as shallow and boring as it can get, and it doesn't get better.

Please recommend something that can be described as "ASOIAF but good".

>>20564084
That isn't possible to do without knowing why you don't think it's good. Any guesses would just be speculation.

>>20562771
>This Day All Gods Die (Gap Cycle) by Stephen R. Donaldson
>The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
>Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky
>Hyperion (the sequels suck) by Dan Simmons
>Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman.

Does anyone actually not skip forewords/introductions? They're usually just circlejerks with spoilers.

What's a huge fantasy series with lots of characters, some characters that are just dropped one book and you read about them later on, etc over a long time

jolenta booba shiny from the river water splashing as severian rows the boat gently downstream

My phallus has become strangely curved after experiencing Bakkerkino.

>>20564098
Author tells little story in a huge amount of words.

>>20564200
Like a bow string, sir?

Is there a recommended reading order for Middle-Earth? I've read the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and now want to get more into Tolkien.

>>20564205
Read standalone novels, novellas, and short fiction. Almost anything with a lot of words is going to have relatively less story density.

Give me your most misogynistic non-Japanese fantasy novel

>>20564241
Unironically Bakker

Any fantasy about haunted or eerie forests? I'm looking for a story about a Mirkwood-esque, dark and deep wood.

>There was a sound, like that of a little boy pissing against leather.
Woah.... Bakkerbros. You were right about everything.

burgerbros...

>>20562771
Curse of Chalion
Going Postal
The Master and Margarita
Lanark
Little, Big

If you want less writerly recommendations than the last 3 I'd highly recommend Robert V.S. Redick, Finder by Suzanne Palmer, Barbara Hambly and Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

>>20564164
I wanted to read Journey to the West last year and decided I better read the intro because of cultural context and it was like 200 pages long lol

>>20564382
>>20562771
Black Sun Rising too, forgot about that but it's a great read.

>>20562360
January Fifteenth - Rachel Swirsky (2022)

I rarely write anything about what I don't finish reading. I believe that this is the only time I've posted what I have outside the GR group. This is an exception and outlier in many ways. I strongly recommend against reading this.

I tried to finish reading this novella, but I couldn't. There's just so much utterly wrong with it. I don't doubt that a lot of is a personal reaction and perhaps even melodramatic, but I couldn't read anymore more than I did because of how upset it made me, in a unenjoyable way.

Keep in mind that because I didn't finish this that some details may not be exactly correct, though I did skim through the rest of it. The ostensible idea about this book is UBI, but saying that is a complete misrepresentation and bait & switch. If you're thinking about reading this for that, then don't, because you'll be severely disappointed.

As someone who is pro-UBI, this read as a completely propagandistic strawman attack that presented UBI as the worst it could about possibly be. All social welfare programs have been replaced by a single annual payment, the amount of which isn't specified. Though, basically nothing is specified in general. One character compares UBI to Special Field Orders No. 15, popularly known as "Forty Acres and a Mule". The narrative isn't really about the politics or anything else other than emotional disapproval. At most it's an excuse to call this speculative fiction. I can understand that and disagree with it without being upset, as opinions differ.

The problem was the characters and their interactions with each other. I don't know that I've ever read something that is so simultaneously exploitative, self-righteous, patronizing, and condescending with such intensity. I could feel my mind rebelling against the utter nonsense that I was reading. At first I was much more bewildered than angry. It's clearly not meant to be that way and the author may even be sincere rather than calculated. That makes this a story that has a bait premise and utterly fails at what it's actually about.

On a structural level it's a mess as well. There's not nearly enough pages dedicated to the four POVs, nor is that space used well, as apparently nothing is resolved in any way. I honestly don't know what the purpose of this novella is, let alone who it would be written for.

I've read short fiction from Swirsky before and what I read was at least alright and some won various awards. This though is an utter travesty. It cloaks itself with language that would make many of the author's political persuasion loathe to criticize for fear that they would be criticized in turn regardless, but that means little to nothing to me. I can't tell how much of this is performative allyship and how much isn't and honestly I can't bring myself to care.

Rating: 1/5

>>20563894
same, book 3 acuatlly one of my favs

>>20562866
re-reading bakker, about half way through warrior prophet

>>20564233
not really but the silmarillion should probably be next

>>20564233
The rest of it is just an extended version of the appendices.

>>20562866
started Long Sun

>>20563554
I love that book

>>20564205
Stormlight

>>20562866
I didn't finish a book since The Land Across by Wolfe.
Im 10% of the way through Peace, and Ice by Anna Kavan. Still halfway through The Invisible Man. Skimmed most of the first quarter of The Real Story when I was posting screenshots of it here. Started Distress by Greg Egan.

Is this level of shilling normal in "literary fiction?"

I've got recommenden lord of mysteries here and tried reading it in english.
Is the translation really really bad? In the sense that it is structured in a chinese way, whatever that is, and not english. Doesnt feel natural too me, I fear my voice in my head will get an chinese accent if I keep reading. I don'T want to shit on it cause I'll keep reading a while. But does it get better at some point? Something feels very off.
I've read some webnovels so far, and while some had "cringe" dialogue, it still felt like something someone could say.

>>20564848
It's very stilted and slow for like 50 chapters from what I remember
IMO it works fine because it's a very baroque story and, from reading other works by the author, I think it's an intentional effect in the original writing because his other stories were very easy to read.

That said I did stop reading LOTM not long after that.

>>20562771
Hard to leave Tolkien out, but haven't reread his books since I was a kid. These are books I've seriously enjoyed in the last decade:
Midnight Tides - Steven Erikson
House of Chains - Steven Erikson
The Way of Kings - Brando Sando
Words of Radiance - Brando Sando
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

>starting vol 4 of TWI
honestly it's starting to get on my nerves how painfully slow the main plot crawls forward. vol 3 again feels incomplete, we don't even know what really happened at the end of it and ryouka still hasn't made it to the inn toren didn't even appear in the last few chapters.
and now vol 4 is starting and what do we get?
>6 (SIX) K chapters
that's worse than the 5 wistram day chapters i complained about last time (i liked them btw).
again, i don't mind POV changes, but if the main plot drags and feels inconclusive like this, it really feels bad. or maybe pirateaba doesn't care at all about the concept of "books/volumes" and intends it to be read as a more continuous thing...?

>>20564806
>McNuggets and Whopper in the same establishment
that's astoundingly bourgeois and urbane, so elitist you confuse McDonalds and Burger King because you've never been to such a peasant establishment

>>20563435
The first two books of Stormlight Archive are great. If you don't enjoy those, you might as well stop reading fantasy entirely because you're going to be really disappointed when you run out of fine literature. That said, I draw the line at the third book. I really didn't like it. I'm satisfied with the first two and I fully intend to reread them both once I'm caught up with my backlog. I will be the first to criticize Sando's writing, but it honestly sounds like you're just being filtered (not in the good way) by his writing and that's really sad anon. I mean, it's not particularly difficult to understand that he's simply using shorthand to impart information to you.

>>20564909
>twi
what book are you talking about?

>>20564939
newfag

>>20564915
At no point in that text does the author imply it is one meal

>>20564939
The Wandering Inn

>>20564084
Maurice Druon's Accursed Kings series. Not fantasy, however.

>>20564909
I just finished Volume 4
>doesn't care at all about the concept of "books/volumes"
That's the feeling I was getting, from what I understand, they only take like a month break after every volume before they go back to publishing like three chapters a week. I feel like this really doesn't help if you're catching up and regard it as a regular book.
>6 K chapters
I had the same reaction kek
I ended up really enjoying them (as with almost all these breaks from the "main" chapters), but putting them at the start of the volume... not the biggest fan of that decision.
These chapters aren't very consequential for most of the volume though, so you can skim through them (except maybe first and last ones) for now or just read a couple of them after every other normal chapters.

>>20564806
>"serious" authors write for ten fucking seconds without mentioning cuckoldry challenge

>>20564806
how is this literary fiction
and stop reading trash written by women
don't ask me how I know

sorry if this is a taboo subject but where can I go to torrent audiobooks that might not be on thepiratebay?

>>20565243
myanonamouse
rutracker
uhhh idk really
audiobooks are useless without subtitles tho

>>20565244
i listen to them while fishing so, its ok

>>20565262
just a dumb joke i like that i have to explain to women when they read my profile

>>20564084
Memory, Sorrow & Thorn

>>20565243
mobilism has an audiobook section

three body problem?

>>20565371
>local woman ruins everything

>>20565266
yeah i thought like shit does everyone listen to audiobooks on a pc media player or some shit
i dont get out much

>>20565243
audiobookbay is my go to use the info has as a magnet link.

>>20564930
It's not shorthand. It's like reading the battle text in an mmorpg.
>boar used charge
>missed
>you used critical strike
>56 dmg

>>20565433
It's a lashing (a fastening) made out of light, saying light lashing is fine.

>>20565519
He also does a Heavy Lashing. The Light Lashing takes half of his energy and the Heavy Lashing takes all of it. So no it's literally gay video game shit.

has anyone here read the galactic center saga by gregory benford? how was it?

>>20565371
Pretty fun books if only for the interesting ideas and concepts it presents
I specially liker the incel dude that stuck himself into a mini black hole

Are there any scifi or fantasy books about non-human species following human religions? Like for example, orcs that get converted to Roman Catholics during a crusade, or a hivemind of insectoid extraterrestrials that begin to worship Zeus or Athena or something.

Anyone have a recommendation for some that takes abit from progresssion/rational type novels into adventure filled with magc? Maybe some apprentice slowly growing into an archmage while figuring stuff out.
I havn't read much besides Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, and basiaclly ask for a more mature Harry potter with more of a power fantasy and less of a friendship fantasy.
Is there maybe some general description for this kind of fiction to look some stuff up myself?

Good military scifi that would be recognisable if it was referenced?
I want to write something like Dispatches, but instead of the Vietnam war it's a parody of science fiction space wars.

Why are so many determined to destroy the value of being anonymous?

>>20565723

>>20563435
Literally where I stopped. I can't believe this is not only published, work from an author who had already written several books, is massively popular, but reads worse than some fanfics.

>>20565806
Newfag Summer of 2015, redditors insist on having identities on 4chan

>>20564930
>pretending he's having trouble understanding what's being written and why
No wonder you think this shit is good, you don't even have basic reading comprehension. It's exactly made for mouthbreathers like you.

>>20565846
Multiple times I've seen people praise him for his ability to churn out books at a fast pace. Now I know how he does that. Like yeah he publishes a lot but it's not good.

What am i in for lit? I got this for fifty cents bros

Any good Resident Evil books?

>tfw I killed the last thread because I bad mouthed Dungeon Crawler Carl, and someone couldn't let that stand

>>20565987
I can see what you mean by the joke being stretched too far. I'll see how many books I can stand before I move on to more MTL xianxia!!

>>20562771
フェアリーテイル・クロニクル
異世界はスマートフォンとともに。
ありふれた職業で世界最強
魔王になったので、ダンジョン造って人外娘とほのぼのする
目覚めたら最強装備と宇宙船持ちだったので、一戸建て目指して傭兵として自由に生きたい

>>20562360
I wanna read Journey to the West next but currently on Paradise Lost. More people should read classics as seeds of fantasy, imo.

>>20564909
>honestly it's starting to get on my nerves how painfully slow the main plot crawls forward.
To address that and the other things you've mentioned, volumes 2 and 3 and an anomaly in TWI as they don't actually have proper story per se, in comparison to every other volume. Volume 4 is basically the end of the prologue to TWI, some minor stuff gets set up, the story hits its stride. Then with Volume 5 TWI proper begins. You might think I'm exaggerating, but you really haven't started TWI yet, at all.

Those six Flos chapters are known as 'Flos Wall of Volume 4,' it might appear extremely unappealing, but this is where people generally start liking the Chandrar plotline. I personally am not a fan of these six chapters as a whole, but the last two provide some great character moments, the end especially is one of my favourite scenes.


>>20565042
Good to hear you finished Volume 4, Anon, you are past all of the hiccups of the earlier volumes, and now you can fully enjoy Volume 5 where the true Kino begins. However, you are wrong about the inaccuracy of volume format. Volumes 2 and 3 are an anomaly in that they are a bit aimless, every other volume starting with V4 tells its own story, it has of course a lot of other plotlines, but the core mostly stays the same for the entire volume.

Also, the monthly break between volumes and a weekly break every month started around Volume 7, before that Pirateaba WASN'T getting any rest at all.

>>20565744
>Anyone have a recommendation for some that takes abit from progresssion/rational type novels into adventure filled with magc? Maybe some apprentice slowly growing into an archmage while figuring stuff out.
>I havn't read much besides Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, and basiaclly ask for a more mature Harry potter with more of a power fantasy and less of a friendship fantasy.
>Is there maybe some general description for this kind of fiction to look some stuff up myself?
Sounds very much like Worth the Candle, one of the best webnovels ever written. I strongly recommend you to check it out, it's much deeper than it appears at the first glance. Don't let the beginning fool you into thinking it's just another wish fullfilment LitRPG, it's the polar opposite of that.

>>20566194
>Volume 4 is basically the end of the prologue to TWI
i think you say this quite often so now i have to ask, is the community opinion, is it based on something the author said or is this your personal opinion?

>>20566206
>I havn't read much besides Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, and basiaclly ask for a more mature Harry potter with more of a power fantasy and less of a friendship fantasy.
Reign of the Seven Spellblades

>>20566261
meant for >>20565744

>>20566206
>Don't let the beginning fool you into thinking it's just another wish fullfilment LitRPG, it's the polar opposite of that.
yeah instead it's the worst attempt at metafiction ever written

>>20566246
>i think you say this quite often so now i have to ask, is the community opinion, is it based on something the author said or is this your personal opinion?
Personal opinion mostly, but I've seen people having similar judgement. Once you read Volume 5 it's easy to notice how much is changed compared to the previous volumes.

>>20564848
>But does it get better at some point? Something feels very off.
no you just get used to it though it does have some clean lines here and there.

>>20565744
Uhh Lord of Mysteries is kind of like that but his apprenticeship is being a new recruit on a sorta paranormal detective team. After 200 chapters he then goes out into the world by himself but doesn't really move that often, he mostly stays around the capital which is where all the paranormal activities happen. Though if you enjoy city adventure then you will like this. After this book he will go on a sea adventure which fits your criteria perfectly. It is also a very mature book with consequences and what not, there isn't a focus on comedy but there are some funny moments.

Anyone know where to get some up to date TWI epubs?
I really don't wanna copy paste hundreds of chapters myself

am i allowed to think this book is trash?

>>20566415
Haven't read that one. I like the Carnacki stories, scholcky though they are.

>>20566415
I enjoyed it, but it took me quite awhile to get through it.

Why do (all) Anglo fictional fantasy universes have to have trope "people sailing west to colonize" LOTR, SoIaF, even Warcraft universe?
Is this just ingrained in Anglos brain set? Is it influenced by Irish Immram and Odyssey/Aeneid, if it is why don't they just sail and come back home? Why do they have to settle?

>>20566433
>Haven't read that one

its maddening. the beginning has such good pacing and an really interesting and terrifying setting but then 80% of the book is just the main character talking about how much of his rations he ate and all the bushes he crawled through.

>>20566449
because colonizing the west was cool and it be even cooler with magic

So is this worth reading or is it just trash that gets memed?

What's so special about this book?

I didn't like GoT. Is ASOIAF worth finishing for meme value?

>>20566654
Nothing at all, it is average at best. It just got hyped by normies.

>>20566546
I'm wondering the same.
Should I read this or Wolfe first?

>>20566684
>worth finishing
Anon...

>>20566206
>it's much deeper than it appears at the first glance
I just finished the first installment audiobook. At what point does this become apparent?

>>20562753
I've already read the tales of demons and gods, I assume every cultivation story is like that

>>20566546
Trash that gets memed by one autist

I just wanted to know if the book is any fun.

>>20566546
The first 3 books were pretty decent, but I have no desire to continue the series.

>>20566705
They aren't very much related. Wolfe made literary puzzles with repetitive themes. 2nd Apocalypse is like a HBO adaptation of a Glen Cook story.

>>20566810
Go back >>>/pol/

>>20566810
>science fiction professor

>>20566810
>before cyberpunk becomes a global storytelling mode
This bitch is retarded. By '92 cyberpunk was nearly dead. Everyone had been doing it for a decade or thereabouts by then.

>>20566815
neck yourself woke cult shill

>>20566684
yes. got is largely unrelated to the books

>>20566867
I meant AGOT, the first book in the series.

>>20566815
>>>/lgbt/

>>20566924
Wrong person you are atting, it should be >>20566810 As that fagget posted some pro fagget review.

>>20565806
pozzed trannies need to advertise itselfs

>>20566962
the Pozzed machine, rules supreme
But Bakker chads have a plan
To defeat the pozz with a clever scheme
and make everyone a Bakker fan

I finished I Shall Seal the Heavens: Book 10, it was good but I wish it had at least 1 or 2 more books, there were more things I wanted to discover.... especially when it talked about the universe and allheaven / immortal

Thinking about what I can read in the next 10 days before Cradle Dreadgod release

>>20566654
I would love to buy this but (((publishers))) had to make it fucking paperback and I'm not wasting money for that shit

>>20566412
Use the WebToEpub extension from the Table of Contents page on TWI (install the extension on your browser and click on the extension from the ToC page, the rest is easy to figure out). Make sure to turn off image download or you will end up with a stupidly large epub.

It works for almost all webnovels out there.

>>20567045
Why do you like it so much? genuinely curious. I'm 70% of the way through.

>>20567066
Thanks, it worked

Science-fiction fans are nerds. Fantasy fans are stoners.

>>20567157
for me it's weed & scifi

Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow, John Scalzi, Paul Di Filippo

>>20564190
Malazan Book Of The Fallen does this with quite a few characters. Though usually there isn't a massive time skip.

>>20566725
>I just finished the first installment audiobook. At what point does this become apparent?
Dunno where the first audiobook ends as I read it as a webnovel, but Falaher(?) arc is where the story starts to really shine, it would be after around the time Amarylis is kidnapped.

>>20565855
Oh, sick burn zoomie. Ouch. How's this season of Stranger Things?

>>20564892
Midnight Tides and Bonerhunters were a great unrelated yet sequential pair of books, the best two out of the series.

>>20563550
>deep character dives with a fun composition
>space opera with terrifying answers
>KEK
>SHIT
how do I keep getting tricked into reading such cuckoldry

>>20564892
>>20567356
My niggas, Midnight Tides is also my favorite. It's interesting how it's either that or the book that breaks people because it's by far the biggest perspective shift up to that point, but it introduces so many great characters that I instantly loved it.

Why does anyone care about his bitch's opinion? She had a shitty web series 15 years ago and was on a few episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

>>20567652
>Why does anyone care about his bitch's opinion?
I don't know, why do you?

>>20567662
I don't care about her opinion. I wanna know why other people do since the last time I heard about her was 2013. She had that cringe sitcom about WoW.

>>20567672
Nobody is talking about her except for you.

>>20567672
>I don't care about her opinion.
Why are you looking at and posting it here then? Cause that's the opposite of ignoring her. If you need an example to remind you of what not caring is, it's not doing exactly that.

>>20567677
>>20567679
I don't care about her opinion, I care that other people do.

>>20567680
You evidently do care or you wouldn't have posted her here, apropos of nothing. Had you not posted here I would have gone my whole life without even being aware of this person's opinions. That's what "not caring" looks like by the way. It isn't screenshotting their reviews and posting them on 4chan.

>>20567680
>I don't care about her opinion
>begins off-topic discussion of her, unprompted, for no reason
Go back to /v/ you literal autist.

>>20567685
>>20567684
Stop simping

>>20567652
>filtered by Wizard Knight
At least you can tell she's a real woman.

>>20567688
And now you're projecting your obsession onto other people. You're like a textbook case of mental illness.

>>20567688
>bring up random person for no reason
>people ask you why you're talking about her
>accuse them of simping for her
????

>>20567704
>>20567712
You're literally 2 people. Probably one person samefagging since every time I post something two comments replying to me get posted within minutes of each other.

>>20567652
>>20567672
>>20567680
>>20567688
>>20567731
Nobody here was talking about her, and I'm pretty sure most people here don't even know her, except for you. Again, why do you even care about her opinion?

>>20567712
>>bring up random person for no reason
Don't forget that he claims he doesn't care yet gets defensive about it when called out.

>>20567652
This is the first time I've ever seen her mentioned here. What book is she even reviewing? Why are you people so shit at generating conversation?

>>20567652
This is like complaining your horse ate a Rubic's cube.

>>20567652
Literally who?

>>20567652
bye felicia

>>20566546
It's interesting, to say the least. Read and find out. Either you will be filtered and drop it after a few pages, or you will become hooked. It's just one of those love it or hate it series.

>>20562526
Turtledove's Videssos Cycle is sort of like that

What's the most "our guy" character in fantasy and Science Fiction?

>>20565571
i remember reading the first book about 15-20 years back. Thought it was ok, but felt like i'd read that plot before (though i can't say where i got that from). i want to go back and read the entire series at some point.

>>20568168
>What's the most "our guy" character in fantasy
Harry Dresden, and no that's not a good thing.

>>20568168
Darken Rahl

>>20568168
The guy from The Man Who Folded Himself

>>20568198
Seconding this. Harry is essentially “our guy” and it’s extremely pathetic

I liked The Way series. Is anything else from Greg Bear good?

>>20568331
Couldn't get past the first book, hell, I couldn't even finish it. It was one of the few rare times, I've wish I read a review of the book before starting. Which is sad since I liked the premise of the book, I mean a wizard P.I., how can anyone fuck that up?

>>20568198
>>20568331
Those last two books were some of the biggest pieces of shit I ever read... Butcher must've had Avengers End Game on repeat for weeks, trying to bang that out. Harry was at one point redeemable back in Changes, now he's angling a harem. What in the fuck?

actually good sci-fi standalone, subpar as a series

>>20568355
I don't know how you could read the rest of the books, the first was terrible.

>>20568355
>>20568388
Harry Dresden is supposed to be a self-insert. Butcher is merely giving his readers what they want.

>>20567652
The Goodreads culture in general is pretty bad. Even if your blogpost was worth reading, and useful as a review, why post it on Goodreads instead of on a blog? I guess it's social media but I can't imagine anyone caring.

>>20563435
You've already decided you hate it because of Sanderson so why bother kek. Are you a masochist?

If you don't enjoy WoK to some degree, I question whether you actually like epic fantasy. I can at least understand his writing style not being to your tastes.

If you just want edgy or philosophical stuff, pick your authors/subgenres/books better instead of complaining.

>>20568440
I don't like one aspect. I've only read the first 70 pages or so. I'm not going to declare that it's terrible. I've seen a few of Sanderson's Youtube videos and he seems like a cool guy, so I don't have any issue with him.

>>20568451
I would also like to say that none of the chracters so far seem very interesting. By this point in Eye of The World the two rivers had already been invaded by trolloks. In Way of Kings I'm still be introduced to boring characters. Nothing has happened yet that makes me want to keep going. I'm just pushing through it hoping something will catch my interest.

Literal trash

Was baited into reading this because of the overall good reviews and 5 stars from Lawrence. I chose to ignore the reviews that brought up Mary Sues, male fantasy wet dream, etc. thinking they were being oversensitive little bitches. I was wrong.

I read this whole damn thing a few years ago hoping it would get better, it did not. The amount of _plot holes_ and genuinely mentally retarded main cast was astounding. Gods, I wanted to like it because it had such a cool premise.

Please don't make the same mistake I did, anons. Only read this series if want the male equivalent of those housewife novels in both quality and story.

>>20568451
Sandersoy seems to have a thing for making women really smart. It's like the men are strong, therefore the women are all smarter than the men because he doesn't want people thinking he's sexist. Art, writing, and reading are considered "feminine arts" in Stormlight. To be honest Sandersoy's stuff is seeming to be the bugman version of Robert Jordan.

Requesting loli fantasy stories.

>>20568516
Kys pedofreak

>>20568499
>https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3428935-the-warded-man
>A well written book. Enjoyed reading it.
It also appears to have paid bots to keep it's review score from lowering. They all post the above message and it's been going on years, unless this a goodreads template.

>>20568499
>I chose to ignore the reviews that brought up Mary Sues, male fantasy wet dream,
Sounds like you should have just listened, don't know why you ignored it.

>>20568534
Wanted to trust Lawrence and I figured it would be like YA at worst

>>20568541
>Lawrence
Who the fuck is Lawrence?

>>20568499
I really enjoyed the start of this book and how they setup the world in this Arthurian dark age, having to protect themselves from demons at night and shit like that. The protagonist adapting runes during the beginning was well written and engaging... then the perspective changed to 'character who exists to be raped' and cuckold shota bard. When the MC finally showed back up, he stripped completely naked and fist fought demons using his magical wards. It was straight out of a Batman comic book.

I heard that the sequels somehow made everything worse, shoving the premise up its own ass multiple times.

>>20568541
Should have trusted J.G Keely instead.

>>20568546
Mark Lawrence, author of the Broken Empire series and its sequel series. One of the more popular fantasy authors from '10s

Are the TSR Black Sun novels any good? I’m in the mood for some mindless Sword and Sorcery and am trying to decide between that and Tarnsman of Gor.
>>20564233
The Silmarillion is definitely the next thing to read.
>>20566449
>LOTR
In Middle Earth the colonizers were from the west you pleb.
>>20568386
That’s sort of how I feel about The Gunslinger.

>>20564084
>Please recommend something that can be described as "ASOIAF but good".
for magic and moral ambiguity, Black Company by Glen Cook
also this >>20565285
>Memory, Sorrow & Thorn
in many ways, Tad Williams was ripped off by GRRM.

>>20568552
>I really enjoyed the start of this book
I did too, that's why I really wanted to like it :(

>The protagonist adapting runes during the beginning was well written
The runes were actually a giant plot hole right at the start and most of the plot holes later on are also related to their usage. I can't remember the specifics, but it made no sense that no one had intentionally or accidently fucked with runes but they could still copy them perfectly, and I think it had only been a few hundred years since they fell out of use? To be fair though, I was more than willing to ignore that if it helped build the world in the first book.

>I heard that the sequels somehow made everything worse
Yeah, I read the same. If the first book is by far the best, I fear what the rest could be like.

Guys :(
https://i.4cdn.org/wsg/1655888973408.webm

How do I become more like Lord Kosoter?

>>20568622
WoT season two is looking great

>>20568565
Never heard of it.

>>20568499
>I chose to ignore the reviews that brought up Mary Sues, male fantasy wet dream, etc. thinking they were being oversensitive little bitches.
Then you have only yourself to blame if other people tried to warn you.

>>20568696
There's always going to be those few bad reviews in the sea of 5s; like those WoK haters. You just have to take a risk and judge for yourself sometimes

>>20568706
If it were a few, I would have understood, but when several hundred of people keep saying the same thing?

>>20568696
>Then you have only yourself to blame if other people tried to warn you.
Same, I read Thomas Covenant, despite reading the negative reviews, and holy fuck, did I regret it.

>>20568527
https://youtu.be/nBfcuerhYog

>>20568711
>several hundred
What several hundred?

Anything above a 4.2 on goodreads is usually at least readable, and I didn't notice the bots until sorting recent reviews and going through pages. Most fantasy sites with a dark fantasy list have this series listed and I don't recall any of them mentioning that shit either.

Do I trust the critics reviews and the majority of user, or the few user reviews that made it sound like YA? As I said, sometimes you just got to try it yourself

>>20568648
Why are they like that? :(

>>20568730
The few user reviews that made it sound like YA. Especially if they give out a detail review on why they didn't like it.

>>20568499
>Only read this series if want the male equivalent of those housewife novels in both quality and story.
But that’s most fantasies? What makes this one worst?

>>20568737
Mental illness?

>>20568781
Too many things. Just go to goodreads and filter to only show the 1 star reviews, then glance through the ones that are well formatted essays which probably still only cover half of it.

>>20568809
I'll just have to take your word for it, but I doubt it could be worse than the dresden files.

>>20568809
>>20568826
>No one, I should mention, seems to have thought of having failsafe or layered wards, or maintaining warded roads or safehouses for travellers, or whatever else. Also the demons supposedly rampage about every night and shoot fire everywhere and have done so for 300 years but the opening village, at any rate, is in the middle of an idyllic forest with wildlife and trees and what have you. Again, these failures of logic might be addressed later, I don’t know.
I particularly like this one. Even if you ignore the one-dimensional characters, rapeworld, and dumb women, the writing is just the worst.

>>20568726
>Grown ass man watching this
What sickness is this?

>>20568828
>Even if you ignore the one-dimensional characters, rapeworld, and dumb women, the writing is just the worst.
Yeah, but you have idiots who would read the series because of the dumb women.

I could kill a dragon. First hit knocks me out. Dragon thinks I must be dead, a mere human. But unbeknownst to even me that awakens my inner rage mode and I slap the dragon around till it unleashes it's full potential, then our fight becomes more even, the landscape is destroyed, and finally I slay the dragon and pass out again.

>>20568850
What's your Save vs Breath anon

>>20562771
>book of the new sun
>book of the long sun
>book of the short sun
>5th head of cerberus
>wizard knight

>>20568856
Dragon wouldn't waste his breath for one person. That's more of an AOE move. He uses wind from his wings to knock me out. But when he's fighting my unconscious self he might try a breath move, but it's difficult to pull off since I'd be fighting CQC since I'm not a wizard or ranger, and I'm uber fast which means I can easily dodge range moves. He'd mostly have to rely on bites, arm attacks, body slams, and tail swings.

>>20568850
>>20568872
Wow, so you killed a mentally retarded Dragon, are we supposed to be impressed?

>>20568850
>>20568872
What the fuck are you on about?

>>20568859
>>20568555

>>20567045
There's a hard cover and the paperback is only $10 right now.

>>20568907
Anon, he wasn't being serious.

>>20568872
Ah yes - the dragon wouldn't want to waste something he has an unlimited supply of. Silly me.

>>20568938
The entire posts were pretty cringe. And really stupid, but then again, it read like one of those power fantasies.

>>20568938
Dragons don't have free energy. They're prideful and view men like worms, so they'd use the minimum energy of what would kill a person then move on. Creatures don't go out of their way to overkill things unless they have a specific reason. Let's say you were a Nazi. Do you empty a machine gun into one Jew? You use the minimum killing power then move on to the next target.

>>20568960
So.youre basing your entire strategy on one flimsy prediction about dragon psychology?

>>20568960
>They're prideful and view men like worms,
They're animals, the fuck are you on about?

>>20568964
Not him, but he's right about this point. Dragons aren't unintelligent animals, anon.

>>20568968
correct, in the modern fantasy tradition, dragons are intelligent.

>>20568975
Dragons throughtout history have always been intelligent

>>20568979
Okay, zoomer.

>>20568975
>in the modern fantasy tradition
George R.R Martin has them as just mindless animals. One of the few things I like about his take on fantasy.

what makes pulp fantasy so unapologetically genuine? i feel as if there’s something to old pulp novels in general that makes them very different from newer novels, though i don’t know what that is.

>>20568988
They weren't intensely commercial. All written for a specific audience who could be assumed to not be teenagers, or retards.

>>20568986
I think grrm's take on dragons is more interesting because not only are dragon's naturally aggressive animals, but they were once able to broken and trained like horses but that art was lost when they first went extinct.

Gives asoiaf more of that 'time of decay and everything is collapsing'-vibe.

>>20568988
They don’t pretend to be deep and just revel what they truly are.

>>20568986
GRRM exists to buck tradition for the most part. although, his children of the forest are actually a solid interpretation of elves.
there may be exceptions, but ever since Smaug, dragons have usually been intelligent. that's true of D&D, earthsea, and other works.

>>20568991
credit where it's due, GRRM is talented and asoiaf has its strengths. this often gets overshadowed by the fact that the last 2 books are a bloated mess, and the series lacks a proper thesis.

>the honey of unwashed anuses
Bakkerchads, he has done it again.

>>20569002
>and the series lacks a proper thesis.
i thought the thesis was "muh global warming"

>>20569009
>i thought the thesis was "muh global warming"
No, how did you even get that?

>>20569009
it's not. the entire book series is about a bunch of factions fighting and outmaneuvering each other for a tenuous grip on power. this takes place in a richly detailed world with a long history, but that's ultimately what the story amounts to. it really is just a game of thrones, nothing more.

>>20569031
i thought i remembered an interview or something where the original plan was to have humans weaken themselves infighting then winter comes and everyone dies

>>20569040
>infighting then winter comes and everyone dies
Yeah, no shit, the Long Night

>>20569045
that's the global warming analogy. humans spend their time infighting instead of instituting carbon taxes then we all die because global warming is an "existential threat".

>>20569062
No, you're just a retard. The Others are literally just a magical species of humanoid beings that exist in the north.

>>20569076
Yeah, I don’t know how he got global warming of all things.

I could fuck a dragon. First hit knocks me out. Dragon thinks I must be dead, a mere human. But beknownst to even me that awakens my inner rapist mode and I slap the dragon's fat ass till it unleashes its full plapability, then our intercourse becomes more even, the landscape is destroyed, and finally I bust in the dragon and pass out again.

>>20569099

Bakkerbros: why does Acha simply believe the Cnaiür is telling the truth of Kellhus' fraudulence? There is no real back and forth between them, Bakker just writes (words to the effect of) And Achamian knew the Scylvendispoke the truth. He simply knew.

>>20569111
Just stop reading a shit series.

>>20568991
>Gives asoiaf more of that 'time of decay and everything is collapsing'-vibe.
Glad someone else picked up on that.

>>20569111
because TRUTH SHINES

idk i didnt finish reading book 1

>>20568988
>what makes pulp fantasy so unapologetically genuine?
They aren't pretentious nor do they pretend to be deep.

>>20569119
Spoken like a true Bakkerspammer

>>20569120
Yeah, they just want to entertain people.

>>20569111
I think Bakker makes it quite clear that Achamian is not a pious man. He has many misgivings about Kellhus' divinity. He just couldnt put the oueces together to prove it until Cnaiür gives him the missing information he needs

>>20569001
>>20569120
Why is it, then, that Conan or CAS' work end up having much more depth than the majority of modern fantasy?

>>20569181
Because modern fantasy is an empty shell

>>20569194
Feels bad man

You gonna cope it?

>>20569407
what does this mean

>>20569415
I think he’s trying to bait.

>>20569415
I meant “cop it” as in “buy it” but I was phoneposting.

new thread
>>20569481

>>20567958
>>20567691