/lit/ - Literature

>>21049217
Any solid post-apo books? All I've seen is YA trashy proggresive romances for girls. I want something serious.

>>21049241
Everyone likes The Road. A Boy and His Dog is pretty good, if you can find it. The one by Harlan Ellison, not the YA trash with a nearly identical title by some literal who, like a straight-to-DVD ripoff of the summer's big animated movie that was written upwards of 40 years after the fact.

She called Wolfe a good boy and he liked it

75% through my reread! Having a blast. What a gnostic book.

>>21049241
How about some YA trashy conservative action/adventure for boys?

Don't trust this chart.

why is UK so soulless
I hate these new minimalistic covers.

Kino…

>>21049712
>no canada edition
Supreme.

>>21049712
Because it's soulless trash

>>21049754
Phil Dick remains amazingly relevant all these decades later. He's nearly singlehandedly responsible for several threads of the modern zeitgeist.

>>21049916
I want to read this next. Do you recommend it?

>TWI 9.15
pretty much caught up now. vol 9 has been great so far, it really made me realize just how much i missed the liscor SoL and erin shenanigans. 9.09P and the 2 VM chapters were also notable.

to give a short review on V8: it had some fantastic ideas but it felt like the author ran out of steam towards the end. for example on erin's side: it started off with a really cool idea, but at some point it just felt like they were running away from the six for what felt like ages. unbelievably enough, this setting eventually got old. i didn't care about all of these 'legends' as much past the initial novelty of it. i distictly remember thinking that while i read a scene about the fellowship charging into the tribes. i cared infinitely more about that moment, because i actually knew and cared about the characters. and that's despite the fellowship being one of the weaker arcs lol.
so yeah i felt that the the author overestimated the narrative power of the ghosts and their legends. there were too many and it dragged out for too long. again, i don't know them as well so at some point i started not caring as much.

other weak points in the latter parts were where the horns reunited or how mrsha reunited with lyonette. i remember those being rather underwhelming moments. especially the horns scene, which almost felt like a hollywood car crash scene. and then they were randomly grabbed up by fetohep... i suppose PA felt like wrapping up things at that point, no matter the methods.

there was a lot of missed opportunity imo. with erin missing PA should really have focused harder on the core characters, and it was the characterization that felt more lacking in this volume. instead it felt a bit like a story without a MC i guess.
one of my favorite scenes was actually with cire in 8.55L. it's great that TWI can constantly manage to make me feel for tertiary characters like that (same with valeterisa in V9), but i still feel like developing the core cast shouldn't be neglected too much. not that they necessarily were, i just expected more.

when the fuck will they publish a 10 book boxset of the expanse.

>>21050060
Told you so, V8 turned into something of a trainwreck at the end. You are absolute correct in saying the legends and ghosts were hard to care about, there were simply too many big things, great events, incredibly important stuff at every fucking corner...it cheapened the entire ordeal. But V9 is so far good, even if I'm tentative about getting my hopes up.

Congratulations, you've caught up. I wondered if anyone from this general will achieve that, so I'm positively surprised. Now you are sentenced to only two chapters a week. At least the next one drops tomorrow for non-patrons, and it's a pretty good one.

>>21050266
>Now you are sentenced to only two chapters a week.
ah, i was wondering about the release schedule. that doesn't sound too bad. i've read ones that update faster, but these are also longer so no problems here.

>>21049217
is the horror fiction general handled by the same OP as this one?

>>21049217
Nona The Ninth, Locked Tomb #3 - Tamsyn Muir (2022)

I'd describe this book as unnecessary, at least in terms of how the overall plot structure of a series ought to be. If the previous book was metafiction about fandom, then this is a book written as fanservice for her fandom. As Muir herself has noted, this was an unexpected book, which I assume was allowed because it's potentially highly salable and would be well enough received by its core audience. This is a transitional book that's made of filler which shows a failure of editorial guidance due to profits and author indulgence.

When I wrote that this book is for her fandom, what I meant is that is focuses primarily on the interests of her fans, including herself as a fan of her own work, rather than the interests of the series. The entirety of the book, aside from the interludes, is from a new point of a view, Nona. I didn't care for Nona or her gang at all, but it does seem like the sort of character interactions that would be particularly favored by her typical fan. Although there are less memes this time, I'd say there's considerably more focus on comedy than the previous two books. The chaste lesbianism of almost all the female characters is really played up as well. As I saw one article say, the book very much embraces its own campiness, and unfortunately camp is not one of my preferred styles. The first book had other stuff that allowed me to put that aside, but this one doesn't, and it almost felt like it was much more prevalent.

As for what the book is about, the first half is Nona going through life as a newly born adult with the mentality of a child. There's a lot going on the background, but she's mostly oblivious to it compared to what truly matters, childhood antics with the other school children. Considering that they're living in a city under siege with doom and paranoia everywhere, they aren't really engaging in the typical childhood pastimes. The latter half is more action oriented and similar to the two previous books, though the plot doesn't have much progression until near the end.

I'll be reading the fourth and final book in the series, but mostly only to finish the series. It feels like to me that Muir wasn't sure how to continue from the first book other than that she didn't want to have anything be the same again. If that trend continues with the fourth book I have to wonder how it will be structured and what sort of narrative gimmick will be employed. I think one of the major problems for me is that I can't find the meaning, or maybe I just can't value what it has been presented. There's also a lot I simply don't understand well enough to my satisfaction and I don't know whether that's my fault or not. It may be the case that the understanding is unnecessary because the characters are what matter most by far. Unfortunately each book thus far has traveled further and further away from what I enjoyed about the first book.

Rating: 2.5/5

>>21050307
The issue with the series seems to be that Muir wants to make each one a very different experience, which means that you're almost guaranteed to alienate a significant amount of people with every new book. Gideon is the most straightforward, but even then it's a mystery book where the protagonist is effectively a Watson that's being left out of the loop and nobody lets her do anything. Harrow has that weird second person stuff and a lot of different tonal shifts. And Nona it sounds like is basically about a character in the wrong genre.

>>21049217
I dreamt of Ursula Le Guin last night but never read her books. She said in my dream that some of her short stories were written just to make some cash, so she didn't care if they were bad. Is that true?

>>21049754
Which one is this?
>>21050003
Not him but read Clans of the Alphane Moon next.

>>21050307
I remember the first book of this, the only thing that keep writing until the end were the hints necromantic empire just outside the perspective of the main character who I couldn't give a shit about. Complete waste of my time.

>>21050380
Yeah, that is how it is. Here's a review I mostly agree with.

https://gizmodo.com/nona-the-ninth-review-tamsyn-muir-locked-tomb-series-1849524213

>>21050405
That's PKD, who she went to school with. An easy mistake to make to be sure.

>>21050405
If they were she wasn't doing a very good job of it. I don't think she was ever in a situation where she had to work to live either. Her 'serious career writer' phase only lasted like 12 years.

Any of you lads read it? Is it good? Looking for something comfy yet thought provoking.

>>21049217
Just finished "The Warrior-Prophet" because of the constant shilling of Bakker that is made here... And surprisingly, I love it and can't wait to read the third (I felt for the Gene Wolfe meme before and even tho I finished BOTNS, I was less pleased by it)

Looking for something new to read. Is pic related good shit?

>>21050489
>Which one is this?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

What do you know. Leave boring Earth behind and the story comes right back to life. I was a bit afraid that the Earth arc sucked because the author had lost his mojo and it would go on sucking, but I am pleasantly surprised.

>>21051370
Yeah. Those three earth filler books were shit.
I know some people who dropped the series because of that shit. He lost readers pulling that stunt.

>>21051299
It was Gemmell's very first novel (that he wrote purely because his doctor told him he was dying of cancer which turned out to be BS; though Gemmell DID die years later of cancer) so it has the usual issues associated with a writer's first novel, but it's still good. Gemmell was pretty much the only writer at that time writing 'epic' fantasy in a Sword & Sorcery style.

>>21050403
You never responded to my post on the last thread nigger.

>>21051370
When does an earth arc ever not suck? I can't remember ever asking for it or liking when it happens.
Maybe digimon, but i was only a kid

>>21051433
>>21051370
I keep considering getting back into it (I think I dropped it after book 5 because Earth was such a boring way to do it, it's like they actively avoided all the stuff that was interesting in the first few books), is Jason still just kind of "okay" as characters go? I'm of two minds about him, one is that I appreciate that he's a very defined, stand-offish dickbag sometimes, and on the other it seems like the story never REALLY goes against him even when he does stuff that should by all rights be dangerously dickish.

>>21051491
He kinda mellows out after the earth arc. But without his edge I felt that he didn't have much character any more besides muh food.

>>21051523
I feel people complained that the MC was too OP, and he wrote three books where he showed people shitting on Jason to show that he wasn't actually OP. I hate when authors try to appease their fans.

>>21051577
I never felt that way, I enjoyed his use of edge and social ability, to dab on people and when it blew up in his face it was always a good laugh. The only time I could think of when he flexed his power was when he took out like ten Iron rank chumps at greenstone, otherwise he was hiding in other people's shadow, or relying on teamwork.
But now his edge is his muh trauma, muh ptds, and while "realistic" it isn't fun. All his antics seem a bit more hollow.

100 pages in and I don't get the hype. It's a fun read but not a classic.

>>21051299
Yes. Gemmell is good shit. Highly recommended.

>>21051617
Oh, he went the route of "character development by removing all his interesting traits"? Shit.

>>21049311
Based mommy Le Guin

>>21049678
>Right wing direction brain post apocalypse book
>Faggy tacticool pepper tier retards on the cover
Yeah, checks out.

>>21049685
>Orson Scott Card telling me how to write science fiction
Fuck that shit, Enders Fag is the single most overrated garbage YA science fiction I've ever had the displeasure of reading from cover to cover. His primary advice is to probably shove in as much incestuous shit as possible whenever possible.

Seriously, that fucker has a problem, he's all straight edge Christian cringe but family fuckin'?

It's AWRITE!! hypocrite.

>Older science fiction story that takes place at most a couple hundred years from now
>Soviet Union still has a prominent role
Ahahaha, this shit is pathetic.

>Older science fiction story that takes place at most a couple hundred years from now
>Human population > 1 million
Unrealistic

>Older science fiction story that takes place at most a couple hundred years from now
>We have a competent democratic world government
What the fuck were these nerds thinking

I really liked final fantasy 12. not so much the characters or the plot but the world and the setting and just like the general vibe. so what book should I read

>>21051974
Video game strategy guides you fucking weeaboo plebian

>>21052029
:/

>>21051870
Calm down, tranny.

>>21051974
Dune, The Prince of Nothing

>>21052044
Yeah, fuck you. Fucking final faggotry.. good God..

>>21052127
>Wearing tacticool trash in the post apocalypse
>I think it's dumb and clichéd
>This makes me a tranny for some reason
Okay

>>21052221
>tacticool
You lost that war ten years ago. Tacticool is now plain cool.

>>21051689
>not a classic
Then why does anyone still read it?
And I don't even particularly like Snow Crash.

>>21051974
Ivalice is a kino setting, don't worry about that schizo guy.
I can't really recommend anything other than Dune, though that might be a tough read for some. If you don't want to get into it that much then messiah is a very good stopping point that ties up the story decently well.
also play tactics

>>21052351
Innawoods fags are fucking insufferable

>>21052152
>>21052571
alright, dune it is. thanks :)

>Anything Bakker gets suggested
Opinion immediately, vehemently discarded without a second thought.

Simple as.

>>21052689
what don't you like about him? I haven't read anything of his

>>21052717

'ate fags
'ate cucks
'ate misogynists


simple as

>>21052740
This basically, I don't mind misogyny so much though.

Can planets from different systems intersect orbits?

>>21051448
>'epic' fantasy in a Sword & Sorcery style.
any other kino for this?

>>21052804
yes
David Gemmell

>In this world, instead of preaching peace and forgiveness and being crucified, Jesus became a revolutionary agitator and assembled an army to overthrow the Roman Empire
ok that sounds kino

>>21052852
>Other

>>21052853
It's more of a backstory curio than having an actual impact on SF story itself.

>>21052803
No, if their outer reaches were "intersecting" like that it would be a binary system. The planets interact with both stars, so orbits wouldn't look like that. The orbital dynamics mostly depend on how much bigger one star is than the other. Weird orbits generally aren't stable.

>>21049241
The Gunslinger by Stephen King. I’d recommend the original version.
>>21049311
Sistser got my bro a collection of his short stories, I should really check out some.

>>21051448
>Pretty much the only guy writing sword and sorcery at the time.
>Started a gambling ring at school by the age of 16.
>Got hired by a newspaper because of his supreme arrogance, which was mistaken as confidence.
This author sounds giga-based. I shall now proceed to read all of his works.

>>21053059
your assessment is not wrong and I think you’ll enjoy his books, anon.

In the name of Bakker and all that is supreme, there is no ruler but Bakker and sandi is his bottom

>>21052803
Weird orbits are unstable. Either they become uniforms or something breaks.
There's one Binary system known where two suns were mutually orbiting one another. One sun was bigger, and so it started to strip material from the second. Eventually the smaller sun was left with nothing but its hardest elements, turning it into a planet-sized Diamond with veins of precious metals orbiting another very large sun.

>>21051689
It's silly and fun

Erotica Fantasy Anon here, I want to come clean and admit I'm most likely not going to finish my Fantasy Erotica/Harem reading chart as well as I had intended to when I said I would. I realized that I definitely over-indulged -- I don't believe in no-fap or any mind fuckery of similar notion, but I jsut realized I've become downright spoiled and it reading those has been cutting too much into my free time and other goals. Right now I'm reading another Sarah Hawke's series of short books (The Amazon's Pledge, together the series ends up being one solid book) and I believe it should be my last erotica series for the next few months. I'm most likely not going to quit it altogether as I belive it's somewhat healthier than porn, but it's going too far for me.

I planned to read many more female-written Fantasy Erotica to have a decent idea about the current state of the genre at the moment, but it would probably be a big effort on my part, and not one I can afford at the moment.

Thus, I intend to make a ranked reading chart based on the dozens of the books I've read throughout the last few months.
Can some Anon familar with making charts and photo-editing recommnd be the best way to use an image (I intend to use one of the better cover-arts and then make it blurred as a background art) in any freeily available software and then put the rest of books' covers over it?

If anyone has better idea how to stitch it up together, feel free to educate me. I saw a few different reading charts in the linked folder, but I'm not sure which one is considered the most readable/informative.

>>21054045
As both a designer and a reader this is my favourite chart format.

Start with one quintessential book that you feel best encapsulates what the chart is about, and then relate everything back to it, either chronologically or relationally. Include a brief comment on the book merits or significance.

A recommendation chart with no apparent order induces choice paralysis, and without comment or relation does little more than make the reader aware the book exists.

Flowcharts like Sfsignal one of NPR's list are suitable only for readers with the palate of a child. At best they're venn diagrams that are a pain in the ass to read

In terms of software: Inkscape is probably suitable but what you use doesn't really matter. Just make sure you size all your covers to the same height, don't change their aspect ratios and make sure you don't use nearest neighbour scaling like some retards.

Rereading Bakker, I just realized the skin spies are supposed to be a foil for Kellhus. All the thoughts Kellhus has about how they merely mimic human faces and emotions apply equally to Kellhus. Same thing with all the manipulation.

The only difference is they have less control and are spurred by passion. The entire Consult is spurred on by fear, an emotion. But Kellhus is basically the same in many ways.

I also didn't catch how his prophecies keep coming true despite him knowing they are just bullshit and shouldn't be predictions. I guess this is how he starts to believe in himself and see the halos around his own hands.

>>21050971
Last book is quite good, you'll like it.

Second series has cooler stuff and higher peaks, but is less consistent overall.

Why do the alien invaders always seem to land in Africa?

>>21054158
Charts like the one for Dying Earth are great, but I don't think it's a good fit for Erotica chart, there are too many differences to make one that isn't stupidly convoluted. I'll definitely do some grouping, because some of what I read was almost pure Porn, while many others were actual stories with sexual elements. Mountain of differences bettween those kinds of books.

One thing that seems sure to me now is to use a long image, instead of trying to fit everything into one wallpaper-sized image. I guess I have some resolution bias in my thinking and haven't really thought of using images that way.

>>21054502
I’m looking forward to your chart, anon. I think I’d like to give this genre a shot but I’m sure it’s full of absolute shit books so I’ll see what you recommend.

>>21052853
>>In this world, instead of preaching peace and forgiveness and being crucified, Jesus became a revolutionary agitator and assembled an army to overthrow the Roman Empire
We already saw how this played out in real life
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Kokhba_revolt

>reading webnovel
>author introduces rival/enemy for mc
>it's a girl
>builds her up to become powerful
>a couple of books later the rival betrays her side to join the mc since she's in love with him
This is why rivals should be the same gender.
I was looking forward to cool fights between them but she's just become a heroine.

>>21054893
77 KB JPG
>reading webnovel

That was the real mistake

I want to like Fahrd and Gray Mouser, but so far every story ends with them either winning by just stabbing everyone, or running away with no resolution. Does that ever change in later books?

>reading webnovel
>author introduces related side character
>it's a boy
>womanizer in volume 1
>bisexual in volume 2
>gay married w/ children in volume 3
He read the comments section, didn't he

>>21054045
Sarah Hawke is the only good smut I've seen recommended on this general. They get down to business quick. Unlike that saving superheroes guy who went on and on and on with the bullshit. If I wanted to read regular fantasy without sex I would just read a real book. Instead of reading a badly written surface level story about super heroes fighting off green goo monsters with tacky action that I can only imagine with Sky High tier cgi and body acting.

>>21054893
It's not like love interest rivals can't work, but they never really seem to have that dynamic work out, it's always just one or the other. Rivals don't have to be enemies, just people who push each other and try to overcome one another.

>>21054937
> I can only imagine with Sky High tier cgi and body acting.
Kek. I thought I was the only with the specific autism where my theatre of the mind basically scaled production quality to the quality of the prose.

>>21054937
I mean, if you want straight up porn with next to none story, then you can enjoy Sarah Hawke novels. I enjoyed them, but I believe that books like Good Intentions that combine sex and and serious story are much more valuable. That does not mean pure smut is bad to read, though.

Hawke has also problems with interweaving smut properly with the story, as indicated by Elf Slave series that is all over the place, and focuses to much on politics with it not going anywhere, and sex scenes being somewhat random. That's why Spider Queen series is much better, focused on few characters, full of good smut and the story is tight and local. I am on the third Amazon's Pledge stort atm, and I can say it's better than Elf Slave while at the same being more...lively than Spider Queen. Not sure if I would rate it over Spider Queen, though.

>>21054158
I wonder what it is about a Dying Earth setting that has produced so much gold. Maybe dying earth settings are just different enough from D&D generic fantasy to keep riff-raff authors out. Maybe CA Smith's fans were attracted to writing in the subgenre because of him, and Smith was a cut above other fantasy writers of his time.

>>21051467
Sorry, what was the question?

>>21054937
Btw, did you read Hellcats by Misty Vixen? It's the closest I've seen to Sarah Hawke in terms of the story being full porn.

>>21054902
>*stabs you and runs away*
Pshh, nothin personnel, kid...

>>21054937
I see it really differently. I want a good story so by the time the characters shag I'm really invested. What are some of the best written of the porn-with-plot stories you've read because I'd like to find one.

>>21055008
Fostering Faust
Good Intentions (Don't read book 3 if you are panicked about cuck stuff, otherwise it's fine. It supposedly takes a hit in quality too, so it's fine to not read further than book 2, there's no big over-reaching narrative)
Saving Supervillains
Inferna: Prism Academy

>>21055053
Actually, you can try Slave to the Empire, it's a a really short story by Sarah Hawke so you can give it a fast read and decide whether you want to continue with the rest of the Slave series.

I've look at the Phillip K Dick flowcharts/guides and none of them every make reference to his last "unfinished" novel The Unteleported Man/Lies Inc. It seems fairly interesting and from what I understand it's the most unhinged/out there of his works. What does /sffg/ think of it? Is it worth a read?

>>21055008
Actually, you can try Slave to the Empire, it's a a really short story by Sarah Hawke so you can give it a fast read and decide whether you want to continue with the rest of the Slave series.

>>21055053
I always feel taken aback when I see a smut novel cover that isn't JUST a woman on the cover. This one has a GUY on it, even if the woman is the focus, which is fascinatingly rare.

Smut anons, you said this book was well written, right?

>>21055089
Yep, it's a common theme to see a scandily clad woman on the cover. On one hand it quickly informs you on what kind of book you are getting, on the other it might be simply genre convention. Sadly, most erotica cover arts have little to no 'soul' or personality to them. Randi Darren seems to consistently get decent covers for his books, not entirely sexualized.

One of the better examples in quality if not personality would be Scholomance, the author gets some weirdly good looking art for his books, evne if they are rather simple and bland.

>>21055125
I've read every thread from now to 3-4 months ago and I can't say I've seen this book mentioned even once. Even the author isn't familar.

>>21055177
Logan Jacobs, Jamie Hawke, Harmon Cooper, Eric Vall, etc are some of the worst the self publishing world has to offer, but because they release regularly, the coomers flock to them.

I mean, if they can stomach machine translated chink books, they would have no problem with the shit books that those above write.

I see the zoomers coomers are refusing to let this thread got to the second page, by artificially prolonging their forced discussion.

>>21055125
Also, check every book on Goodreads. As a rule thumb, if it's under 500 ratings it's very niche and likely bad, anything around 1000 ratings is likely flawed, but good enough in overall quality that a lot of people read it. Books above 1000 and higher are decently written and have at least a few things that make it rise above the average.

Of course, take into account how long ago a story was released. Strangely, if you see niche self-publish books the same way as early-access games, a lot of things seem quite similar in idea.

>>21055208
>people are actively discussing something
>why can't they wait 5 hours when it's on page 4 to respond
>why are they responding when they see a reply

>>21055183
Some coomer posted a write up about it a few months ago. The book is out on audio, and I want to know if I should read it or not. I don't know if it was review anon.

On the subject of sex, anyone here read the Worldwar series by Turtledove? While I quite enjoyed the first couple books, there were some rather strange sex scenes. Like, not that the sex scenes themselves were weird, but I'm here for the WW2 powers fighting aliens god damnit, not forced smut.

wrixle pleasedness

wish-wash

prudential pencil case

>>21055208
It’s really sad to see, I don’t understand their need for this thread to be on the first page. The recent threads were doing okay, and so was this thread since it was pretty slow and comfy, don’t know why they keep trying to keep it on the first page. Just let it take it easy. Maybe it’s some mental illness or something.

>>21055222
>Audio smut book
Oh god. I get it, people have acted out and voice acted some pretty unholy sex acts, but something about someone sitting down to read smut in an audiobook just feels weird to me.

>>21055199
It seems to me like most of the actually popular smut stuff is relatively low quality then.

>>21049217
Is that after the fall?

>>21055234
>>21055208
I think this is a bot. They posted the same exact shit a few threads ago.
Then "another anon" will post just now agreeing with the first two.
These bots are getting fucking annoying.

>>21055238
>Oh god. I get it, people have acted out and voice acted some pretty unholy sex acts, but something about someone sitting down to read smut in an audiobook just feels weird to me.
LOL. There is a big market for audiobook smut.
I think Logan Jacobs or Eric Vall started his own audiobook publishing company because of the thirsty coomers. I think it's called Royal Guard Publishing. Many a VA is making bank because of smut. I'm sure the coomers that get off to a Woman's voice loves smut books.

>>21055199
I don't have a lot of respect for people who read the absolute trash of erotica like the authors you've mentioned, but I'd still rate them above Machine Translation Xianxia readers. Those people are extreme degenerates who most likely suffer from one or another mental ilness that makes them addicted to that stuff.
Some of them even start becoming better at reading Machine stuff, while at the same time slowly losing their ability to understand normal English.

ML Xianxia readers are low-key unnerving and I hope AI translation gets better, for their sake.

>>21055222
I'm the guy that reviewed mot of the smut around here and I can't recall this book at all. Maybe you are confusing it with Backyard Dungeon? it's quite trashy, though. Picrel.

>>21055238
>Oh god. I get it, people have acted out and voice acted some pretty unholy sex acts, but something about someone sitting down to read smut in an audiobook just feels weird to me.
I believe that bascially ALL of erotica books I've seen are read by women.

>>21055241
>Schizophrenic anon sees bot conspiracy because people are actually discussing books
The worst posters in any thread are those who cannot shut the fuck up and keep commenting on what people are talking about, while not contributing themselves in any regard, only spamming the thread.

fractionalization bearable

blackishly, Winnetka

dreamboat malocclusional

bump

tough crowd

B

U

leaping house

M

P

>>21054972
>>21042149

>>21055258
>>Schizophrenic anon sees bot conspiracy because people are actually discussing books
Does this look like a book discussion to you?

>>21055359
Funny that we don't have anons doing blatant bumps until you get called out on your BS. Wonder why that happened?

>>21055438
Yeah I have nothing better to do than to spam this thread. It can't possibly be that the botter saw that people were onto him and decided to go full in.
Impressive, the mystery is solved. Congratulations to the most intelligent man on Earth, (You).

>>21055199
I've given most of these sorts of "churned out a thousand books" authors at least a peek and the only one I even sort of liked was Dante King, because he at least felt like he made an effort to make, y'know, a book. Not much, but it was there.

>>21049241
Swan Song by Robert McCammon. It is the book that "The Stand" tried but failed to be.

>>21055355
You should finish reading it, several interesting and exiting things happen after the body swap.

>>21055223
>turtledove
I've watched a few alternative history videos recently and my educated assumption (that will not change no matter what I'm told) is that he occasionally has good ideas but cannot write.

Recommend me something to read, must not be pozzed and have as little female focus as possible, bonus points for it being political, action, adventure with no women/drama/sex

>>21055664
Go back to pollie with your buzzwords.

>>21055691
kys you damn cunt

>>21055621
Yeah, I read it for the subject matter, but the writing itself was certainly no Pulitzer winner.

>>21055258
>ML Xianxia readers are low-key unnerving
I've been disturbed by this as well. I know you're specifically talking about machine TL, but it seems like there must be something sick about the whole (modern) genre to drive people to do that in the first place. It's almost like a drug.
If there are redeeming qualities, I'd like to learn of them. I mean that genuinely.

>>21054450
There’s a lot of stuff about kellhus that you only pick up on the rereads. Like when he tells the leader to punish the holy knights and sending them to a death charge wins the battle. That’s one of the crucial points where Kellhus starts to believe.

>>21055867
Xianxia is part of Power Progression genre, which is booming right now. The idea of a character getting more and more powerful is downright addicting to young human males. While Europe, Korea and America prefer LitRPGs, China is obsessed with Xianxia, and that obsession is trickling towards other regions of webnovels.

There isn't much to it, it's like watching porn. It speaks to a primal desire to progress in people. The genre has 95%+ male readerbase for a reason. You will only see it becoming more and more popular as time goes on. He Who Fights With Monsters is already #1 of the best selling books on Amazon. The industry is taking notice. Power Progression will be the same for men as trashy romances are for women.

TL;DR
Numbers going up makes brain feel good

>>21055664
Read The Three Body problem. Women are the reason Earth faces annihilation total annihilation and 2 women have all the blame all because they are cunts or retarded.

>>21055911
I, James Krake, hate the three body problem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz5XNcsU4ds&t=1s

>>21055867
Not sure what exactly is the problem with xanxia in a world of liberal progressive trash literature

>>21055900
>The idea of a character getting more and more powerful is downright addicting to young human males.
Nothing wrong with it, in fact most good western fantasy is similar, only fantasy released by women or liberals portray men as weak who do not seek power and and instead focus on some irrelevant irrational idea thougt up by women.

>There isn't much to it, it's like watching porn
It is not. Nothing is like watching porn (except actual porn)

>>21055911
Thanks for recommending me exactly what I don't want to read.

>>21055664
Xenophon's March of the Ten Thousand

>>21055664
Recommend me something that's pozzed and has a large focus on women

>>21055911
>chink wuxia shit
Fuck off.

>>21055984
The Wheel of Time.

>>21055975
Sounds good however I tried reading several ancient greek tales and more often than not found then lacking in logic (unironically), the way ancient greeks acted and spoke just don't make sense to to me, maybe those stories due to passage of time and changes in language did not get translated right or maybe the translations are correct and I simply can't understand them because of modern upbringing.

>>21054963
>I enjoyed them, but I believe that books like Good Intentions that combine sex and and serious story are much more valuable. That does not mean pure smut is bad to read, though.

I've laid down my problems with Good Intentions many times. It has plenty sex scenes spread about so it doesn't fail in that regard. But holy hell the author can't help shoving down his retarded views down the reader's throat. It reads like a moral lesson book on sex from a liberal perspective.

All this bullshit about how the loser protag is such a nice guy and any girl should be lucky to have him and how the succubus only enhances his already present attractiveness. While ignoring the obvious fact that he was a loser virgin before that demon became his literal sex slave. Then there's the succubus with all her bullshit about how she has served many masters but this one is extra special and worthy of love because he's such a "nice guy" and treats her with respect and asks for consent and so gets extra "service". Again ignoring the fact that this entire relationship only exists because she's literally a sex slave.

And then there's the subversion. That angel bitch saying how God doesn't hate decadence and fornication, which is a blatant lie. Also there's the message that used up whores are worthy of respect too. "The past is the past" tier bullshit. If I had a succubus sex slave, the last thing I would do is parade her around as a "girlfriend". He's a complete nonce.

Lastly, what story?

>Hawke has also problems with interweaving smut properly with the story, as indicated by Elf Slave series that is all over the place, and focuses to much on politics with it not going anywhere, and sex scenes being somewhat random

Sex scenes are the only thing that made this series bearable to read. The rest is basically filler. I, for one don't mind the politicking . But it's obvious that all the big players are supposed to be corrupt, decadent and incompetent, and the story is gonna have an anti-slavery message.

>>21054977
I'll try that

>>21055008
You see that's the issue. Almost none of them have a good story(unless you are a literal teenager) . So without the porn it all falls flat. Why would I ever read a book about super heroes killing green goo monsters? Also I think good characterisation is far more important than story in case of smut.

>>21055900
We used to call it shonen back in the old days

>>21055900
>>21055951
>>21056097
no, it's the result of retards who base their """fantasy""" novels on vidya and shitty anime ttrpgs instead of actual books
literal subhumans who need levels and numbers to know how powerful a character is
this drivel is literally the death of the fantasy genre

>>21056057
Ok. Try Congo Mercenary by Mike Hoare or Tigers in Mud by Otto Carius or The Maneaters of Tsavo by John Henry Patterson. If you want to avoid women reading colonization or military history is your best option.

>>21056108
Levels and numbers are irrelevant and least of litrpg problems. Try and read litprg novel and some older traditional fantasy novel, compare them, the main difference is the pacing and story progression. Litrpg is literally a rpg (game) script, litrpg authors are so influenced by games that even their own story telling and creative process follows game script formula.
Take one of those games that were based on a novel (witcher), adapt the novel and make the game, then lift the script from the game, compare the original novel to the litrpg version, they are somewhat similar but infact totally different.

>>21056108
>no, it's the result of retards who base their """fantasy""" novels on vidya and shitty anime ttrpgs instead of actual books
>literal subhumans who need levels and numbers to know how powerful a character is
>this drivel is literally the death of the fantasy genre
Braindead take. Power progression has been big part of Fantasy books since forever. There are hundreds of books that incorporated Power Progression elements before video games got popular, but it was never distilled to its pure form. Now that everyone can publish on the internet, it has (d)evolved into its pure form - Progression. If you disagree you simply don't read fantasy aimed at younger males. It has had these elements since forever.

Also, Xianxia isn't LitRPG, and yet it's as popular. Strange, huh? It's almost as if it wasn't about numbers.

Anyone who claims Power Progression is based on Video Games is a massive ignorant retard who doesn't know the first thing about Litrpg or Power Porgression genres. It is known not many in this thread even read, but absolute brainrotted retards who keep flaunting their ignorance are the worst.

>Zoomers found another excuse to keep forcing their artificial discussion.
Jesus Christ.

>>21056165
Always notice how it happens when this thread reaches page 2. Fuck me, I don't understand why they can't just let the thread slow down for a bit, but they're adamant in forcing this shit.

>>21056170
What shit?

>>21056165
>>21056170
1 minute apart.

>noooo stop discussing books

>>21055664
The Hobbit

A few weeks ago there was someone here who was looking for a fantasy series with romance and battle couple. I didn't want to recommend this book / series until I'd finished it, especially since there were problems with every relationship at that point in my reading. I just finished it and the series has some nice conclusions to two cute romance stories so go ahead and read it if that's your thing.

Aside from that, I feel the series has a problem finding purpose in each scene / book. The POV character chosen is often the wrong character, and there's big swathes of material between checking in with many of the POVs (and there's only 6 so it's not even a huge amount of characters to check into) that leaves it feeling really fragmented. There's also some serious deus / diabolus ex machina problems where new problems and new solutions seem to come out of nowhere. My favorite POV through the first few books (Tharok) feels disjointed from every character at the start, and completely irrelevant by the end of the series.

There's some tropes I hate (such as the evil religion / theocracy) that aren't quite resolved satisfactoriy (the pope turns out to be ok guy but his story thread isn't fully resolved by the end of the series).

Also for some reason everyone has ridiculous fantasy names except for the Fujiwara clan, one of the main protagonists in the series. None of them actually have Japanese personal names or seems descended from any kind of Japanese expy (although Alethian society has poetry battles and some key Japanese nods in architecture, clothing, etc.) it just feels weird.

>>21056225
>battle couple.
Jesus christ, battle couple is even worse than strong woman protagonist.

>>21049241
One of the first is one of the best - Earth Abides. It's honest and sad, avoiding the heroic and the maudlin.

>>21056159
>>21056164
I don't care
if you read these shitty books you are killing the fantasy genre. vidya, rpgs and anime have done more to kill the genre than anything else. if you find this shit actually exhilarating then kill yourself
>b-but the story tradition of a character changing over time is totally the same as muh animu protag self insert levelling up by slaying goblins
fuck off

>>21056164
>Braindead take. Power progression has been big part of Fantasy books since forever. There are hundreds of books that incorporated Power Progression elements before video games got popular
Bullshit.

>>21056307
>I don't care
Then why did you bring it up?

>>21056307
>fuck off
You do care, you care so much that it's eating you up inside.
Why is are your jimmies rustled?
Are you one of those newfags that came onto 4chins and cried about seeing anime macros everywhere?

>>21056307
Genre is dead not because of anime but because of progressive hugo/nebula trash, everyone these days has to include some liberal progressive aspect into their stories? And why? Well I have no clue, no one wants to read that shit but it is still being pushed down our throats.

What's wrong with machine translated

>>21056763
it was written by a soulless bugman

>>21056810
So was the original.

>>21056396
>>21056421
>>21056425
imagine defending this soulless npc bugman drivel
fucking off yourself. if you want to play a vidya game where you kill things and level up then play one, don't infest reading with your purile infantile dreck

>>21056824
that’s what I said

Anyone care to recommend someone or something similar to Joe Abercombie?

>>21057044
The steaming shit I took earlier reminds me of his books.

I read ML Chink stories for the sheer, exquisite racism present in many of these stories.

The online Chink is a master of sneaking in not only Han Chinese supremacism, but also regular old racism as well. The people who complain about racism in modern YA fantasy books or blablabla have seen nothing. I have seen some authors straight up use nigger(黑鬼), and a common saying in these books is “as poor as an African Chieftain” , or simply boiled down as an adjective like “African chieftain”.

The average multi thousand chapter MTL chink xianxia novel will have at least one direct race war going on either in the background of the setting, as a whole arc, or even the entire premise of the novel.

Western authors often refuse to write about the understandably extreme amount of racism that would no doubt occur in any Fantasy/Sci-Fi setting, so I have to make do with the chinks.

>>21057129
I enjoy his books while taking steaming shits. Wanna go out sometime? I'm gay, btw, in case it matters.

What should I read after Bakker?
I feel like he "won" the fantasy genre.

>>21055077
Try that if you want to see a vagina being referred to as a "smoldering entrance" for the 100th time in a row.

>>21057328
roald dahl

>>21055900
>Power Progression will be the same for men as trashy romances are for women.
Thanks for this explanation. I see what you mean. This is another example of the ongoing expansion of traditionally female-consumer-dominated industries to men. Matt Damon, apparently a traditionally "masculine" actor, just launched an "all-gender skincare line" according to a gas pump that played advertisements at me (hell world).
So it's just something that appeals to some base human lust or urge. Degenerate doesn't sound like an unfair description.

>>21055951
>addicting to young human males.
>only fantasy released by women or liberals portray men as weak
Nice job transposing the reader for the character, in the heat of your gender obsession. The degeneracy of this video game type stuff has nothing to do with the characters' genders. An all female "power progression" fantasy would be as degenerate as one that's all male.

>Not sure what exactly is the problem with xanxia in a world of liberal progressive trash literature
Pointing to one problem does not make another one go away. Everyone knows that even intuitively, so people only say that kind of thing as a diversion tactic.

>>21056097
>We used to call it shonen back in the old days
It does have a lot of the same appeal. Something about popular stuff in the DBZ vein did always make me a little uncomfortable in the same way as this. I guess the trend boosting these books is capitalism's inextricable expansion of the vice to new markets and mediums.

>>21056164
I can see how there is something 'deeper' behind the video game elements. I know that xianxia is an ancient genre, but sex is an ancient art. Pornography is still pornography. And yet I agree with your point, this kind of thing has appealed to (certain members of) the human race for as long as they've been able to speak of it. Even if I call it pornographic, that doesn't make it worthless. If you think there's a book that will win me over to appreciation of the genre, let me know (because you're right, I haven't read it)

>>21055893
I guess I am due for a reread, but I dread the slog. Thanks for this observation as well, it really illustrates how the self-defensive properties of the thousandfold thought influence the thinker.

>>21057499
Unironically Reverend Insanity.
Beware though, the xiaxia translation quality filter is powerful, a mere mortal cultivator has no chance. You must advance at least a half step into the initial stage of ML reading before you can read it.

>>21057332

>>21056901
There's a market and people are gonna fill it. Nobody anywhere ever wants to read woke antiwhitemalepatriarcycolonial """fantasy""" like >>21056425 said and if that's all tradpubs are willing to back then it will 100% deserve to die as a genre. This will be creative destruction because the things people actually want to read will win out instead even if it's all written by Han supremacists.

99% of modern fantasy was always garbage anyway, just like most of the stuff pumped out online now.

How dare you not read my heavy-handed and derivative metaphor for capitalism and global warming sir? How absolutely dare you?

>>21054902
I don’t know what it is, but I’ve read about half of them and never loved the stories much either, save for “Ill Met in Lankhmar.” Might be like you said about them just winning so often by fighting enemies too easily. It always feels like a struggle with Conan or Kane.
>>21056201
I don’t want to encourage the anon but that’s a perfect answer.

>>21056901
I am not defending litrpg, its garbage, but progressive lit is even worse, but you don't seem to have a problem with it

Never reading xianxia
Never reading litpg
Never reading sanderson
Never reading bakker

>>21057784
Never reading

read cradle

Hypothetically, if I wanted to write something with the same ham level as Ace Combat with mechs and aerial combat, do I need to find someone from /k/ to fact check and tell me when I'm doing something fucktarded? Or can I gloss over the blow by blow and still be compelling?

>>21057925
If you're writing mecha your readers aren't going to be expecting realism anyway. So long as you don't step into 'we fire the whole bullet' territory no one's going to care. That said it would still be worth reading up on mechanised infantry and airforce combat procedures so you can slot in a few shreds of realism where you can

>>21057870
read a book nigga

>>21057946
>read a book nigga
t.

>>21057499
>I can see how there is something 'deeper' behind the video game elements. I know that xianxia is an ancient genre, but sex is an ancient art. Pornography is still pornography. And yet I agree with your point, this kind of thing has appealed to (certain members of) the human race for as long as they've been able to speak of it. Even if I call it pornographic, that doesn't make it worthless. If you think there's a book that will win me over to appreciation of the genre, let me know (because you're right, I haven't read it)
If you want the shining example of a Power Progression story, read Mother of Learning. It's a bit dry at times (the author is not a native english speaker), but almost everyone loves it. If you want something with more humor and not as autistic, try Dungeon Crawler Carl.

>>21058021
It's a shame the first few chapters are kinda bad

>>21058046
>It's a shame the first few chapters are kinda bad
For a webnovel written by a romanian? For than enough. I wouldn't call it bad either, the author just prefers to set up the characters and the story, instead of going all in from the start like other webnovels. It's more of a typical book experience. There is always an introdution.

>>21057597
>Nobody anywhere ever wants to read woke antiwhitemalepatriarcycolonial """fantasy""" like >>21056425 # said

Unfortunately you are wrong. Wokesters have a lot of money and they like to consoom. Even if you tried to sell to right wing males, they're tight as ticks with money and a good portion will pirate. RW guys are also much more willing to read old books rather than whatever you published this year.

>>21057925
Write the story first and do your research afterwards.

>>21058046
MoL sticks the landing relatively well, but it has a really turbulent take off and flight, to stretch the metaphor. Arcs 1 and 2 feel a bit meandering, and Zorian sort of actively refuses to participate in anything resembling character interaction apart from a few stand-out moments (like him realising what's going on with his sister and resolving to at least stop being so rude to her if he can, that's a nice bit) so he feels incredibly undeveloped for a long while. And in a story where you're stuck with a single character who's one of the few who CAN grow and change, him remaining stagnant for a while is frustrating as hell, especially when we see so little of Zach for so long.

>>21057499
>This is another example of the ongoing expansion of traditionally female-consumer-dominated industries to men
No it is not. Men have always loved power fantasies you dope.

>>21058965
Power fantasies are universal to both men and women, it's just that they express themselves in different ways. A man's fantasy is to overcome great adversity and become stronger for it. I'm not quite sure if I understand the female version of it, but it would be similar in principle, but heavily based on social structure and changing society for the better while also becoming loved for it.

>>21059196
>Power fantasies are universal to both men and women
no they aren't
women don't have power fantasies

Just finished this
so did the ship ram the aliens or did they learn that the aliens submitted and then change course?

J.G. Keely thread >>21059098

>>21059196
Female power fantasy is basically the male power fantasy with a furniture swap and constant affirmation.

>>21059202
Women aren't magic vagina dragons Anon. You can talk to them.

>>21049678
Here you go.

Why haven't you read Worth the Candle yet, /sffg/? It's a rational self-insert litrpg isekai webnovel by Alexander Wales, and it's the best piece of writing I have read in years. At over 1,650,000 words divided into nine books, that's AN ENTIRE FANTASY SERIES worth of free content!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11478249/chapters/25740126
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/25137/worth-the-candle

>It's a self-insert litRPG portal fantasy, loosely based on my personal experience of falling into a portal to another world and discovering that I had a character sheet attached to my soul. This story uses some custom CSS for the character sheet and definition tags to allow mouseover on various game terms, so mobile and touchscreen users, you're missing out.
>Update schedule is, as always, whenever I feel like it. Special thanks to the people of /r/rational for helping me think about ideas.

The setup is that Juniper "Joon" Smith, an ordinary suicidal rationalist teenager who has been on a self-destructive downwards spiral ever since the tragic death of his best friend Arthur, suddenly finds himself transported from English class to the magical land of Aerb and given RPG abilities along with a quest system and achievements. Specifically, he finds himself dropped into the Risen Lands, an abandoned hellzone filled with undead used by the government as a trail by ordeal. There, he meets the most beautiful woman in the world, Princess Amaryllis Penndraig, who has been falsely accused of a crime by her power-hungry family in a bid to claim her substantial assets. Now, the two of them must team up to escape the Risen Lands alive while unraveling the hints that Amaryllis's great ancestor, Uther Penndraig, may be someone Juniper knew in his past life.

And that's just the tutorial!

>>21059196
>>21059202
>>21059378
Mens power fantasies involve conquering themselves and/or the world. Womens power fantasies involve conquering men who are (or have already) conquered themselves and/or the world.

>>21059378
Strong tranny vibes from you

>>21059406

What really sets this story apart is the intelligence of the characters, the plot or the setting.

There are no idiot balls, failures to communicate, or any other form of artificial conflict; Joon and Mary act exactly the way you would expect smart, rational, mature adults who are trying to survive and achieve their goals to act. Their every move, from which quest to tackle next to how to optimize Juniper's build to whether to trust this or that stranger is discussed and analyzed in excruciating detail as the life-or-death choices they are. Personal and romantic issues are brought into the open and worked-on rather than allowed to fester for umpteenth installments as they would be in a typical anime. Juniper is incredibly well-read and a veteran Dungeon Master with a ton of experience in worldbuilding, while Amaryllis is a workaholic with a gift for diplomacy and management. Both of their skillsets get a lot of use in the story.

Aerb is an extremely detailed and coherent setting. Everything from the mechanics of travel on a hexagonal grid to the logistics of bulk-teleportation to the economics of magic items has been accounted for and integrated into the story. More than once, these details turn out to be the key to solving this or that puzzle.

The plot is hard to explain without spoiling anything, but rest assured that there IS a rational explanation for everything, up to an including why a random Kansas teenager was transported to a fantasy realm and gifted with magical powers.

Overall, if you are the kind of person who likes Greg Egan or (early) Larry Niven, you will not be disappointed with this story.

>>21059406
>>21059423
Nobody gives two shits about your horrendous, poorly written author self-insert garbage. Fuck off.

>>21059406
>>21059423

Here's a good Goodreads review:

>A slow, slow grind; as I write this, the author is closing in on chapter 150, and we may not be even halfway through the plot. Still, I've seen enough to justify five stars.
>The prose is strong throughout, and the characters feel like people, but the book's real strengths are:
>* A world where people take extinction-level threats very seriously. Perhaps the best example I've ever seen of this essential characteristic of rationalfic. A world where the laws of physics can be broken is a world where many new forms of disaster become possible, and in Worth the Candle, many of those have happened already. Nations have been subsumed by dark magic, or beings too powerful to fight, or cracks in reality so dangerous they need to be kept apart from the rest of the world. And those parts of the world that have survived now devote enormous effort to preventing this from happening ever again. This is extremely satisfying to read about.
>* Extraordinary worldbuilding. The story takes place in a fantasy world which is (I think) larger and more populous than Earth, with hundreds of years of history, and it feels that way. There are dozens of races; a score of schools of magic; countless competing powers, all planning and plotting at the same time. Juniper, for all his gamebreaking abilities, is far from the strongest force in the story. Despite his achievements, he is still a single piece on a gigantic chessboard, and you really feel as though he could be crushed at any moment. This is what it is to be an individual in a world of billions, to be the hero of one story in a world with a million stories.
>* A character who becomes more intelligent and charismatic over time, chapter by chapter, and whose behavior and thoughts match this transformation. The author convincingly portrays what it might look like to go from INT 12 to INT 18, one point at a time, and I'm not sure I've ever seen that before. Too many stories show someone growing stronger with no change in personality, or a change that can be described as briefly as "more courage" or "more empathy". Juniper grows stronger in many ways, and his personality also shifts in many ways.
>Worth the Candle is the absolute pinnacle of the "getting stuck in an RPG" genre. If you've ever rolled a 20-sided die, you owe it to yourself to read the first few chapters.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/36146179-worth-the-candle

>>21059406
>>21059423
>>21059436
Stop spamming you no-life piece of shit.

>>21059423
>>21059406
>>21059436
Worst garbage ever produced by a human, if you can call the author that.

>Out of all the somewhat decent webnovels out there, decides to shill Worth the Candle instead
Kek

>>21049546
Pausing while I revisit some stories from Vacuum Diagrams and let the story and words sink in. Attanasio writes on a level of evocation that nobody else has achieved.

>>21059202
>no they aren't
>women don't have power fantasies
You don't have to look further than blockbuster movies to see realize it's utterly false. Captain Marvel for example.

>>21059470
Captain Marvel isn't an actual power fantasy. She's what people THINK is a power fantasy.

>>21059406
I hold Worth the Candle in respect, but I'm unable to determine whether this post is an actual shilling or troll hit piece against it. The fact Anon used meme cover from Korean translation points towards the second option.

If someone wants an actual recommendation: If you are positive towards rationalism and have at least heard of Slate Star Codex, if autistic writing and bizarre rabid holes of actually thinking about ideas doesn't sound off-putting, if the author taking his trauma and irreconciled conflict with the world and turning it into a big webnovel sounds interesting...read Worth The Candle.

The enjoyment derived from Worth The Candle is proportional with how much autistic or schizoid you are. If you are neither at all, don't read it.

>>21059497

>I hold Worth the Candle in respect, but I'm unable to determine whether this post is an actual shilling or troll hit piece against it. The fact Anon used meme cover from Korean translation points towards the second option.

A little from column A, a little from column B.

I am genuinely a huge fan of Worth the Candle. At the same time, whenever I recommend it, I deliberately make an effort to make it sound as autistic as possible, because I know normies won't enjoy it. If you are not filtered by the original description and the meme cover, chances are you will like it.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170714102936/http://archiveofourown.org/works/11478249/chapters/25740126

>>21059472
She's a power fantasy for waste of skin gynoids who hate the medium they're working in.

Any good horror recs if I really liked Lovecraft (Color/Music/Dagon) and Chambers (YK)?

>>21059714
>>21036391

>>21059406
>Now, the two of them must team up
is this some power couple bs? I dislike couples even more than single strong womans

>>21059726
Thanks, apologies

>>21058021
>If you want the shining example of a Power Progression story, read Mother of Learning
Why do you keep shilling this? It is technically power progression but in reality it can't be further from it. It is snooze fest and when something does happen it is mc getting involved in some female drama because most side characters around mc happen to be females(of one race or another). The advertised claim of neutral protagonist who does not even like people is misleading, sure protag is like that but everyone around him are good girls who just mc to be part of their friendly group and with that comes all the female drama. I hate it when you coomers appropriate power progression genre ( in this case) with your shitty teenage drama shit.

>>21059396
Jesus Fucking Christ what a horrible cover

>>21059567
>>21059472
>>21059470
>>21059378
>>21059415
as i've said already, women don't have power fantasies. as shown by films, books and television, the ultimate female fantasy is to be drawn into a relationship with a sexy yet at the same time dangerous man just look at fifty shades of grey; an unassuming woman gets drawn into a painful yet erotic (the same mix of sexy and dangerous that you see in all womens romances) relationship with an attractive billionaire. the woman doesn't progress, she doesn't advance or improve yourself, she doesn't have to do anything to get the man, she is simply swept off her feet
any look at female oriented literature will tell you this. a woman is SWPET OFF HER FEET. the princess lying around in the castle gets rescued by the dashing (yet dangerous, able to inflict fear and pain) knight.

>>21059714
Clark Ashton Smith

Is it worth reading?

>>21056225
Damn, elric of melnibone looks like THAT?!?

>>21059931
no, she conquers him. she warms his heart, makes him fall in love with her, makes him settle down, makes him treat her better than he treats other women, changes him from a bad guy to a good guy or at least to a guy who’s good to her, etc. and while she isn’t expected to actually change anything about herself in the same way a male character is (the woman is already “good enough” when the man meets her), she is still required to, as you said, enter his world (get swept off her feet), and this is still a sort of (emotional) cost to her. she gets swept up into his world and then she changes him and makes him pussywhipped (at least compared to how he was before, with other women, etc). that is feminine power and books like 50 shades and a million other romances are about exactly that kind of sexual feminine power women have over men, even though the emotions the woman is feeling are also powerful and she may feel protected and even “swept away” by him, she nonetheless is an active character. the perfect example of this in 50 shades (which is also a kind of staple in romance literature at least since 50 shades did it) is the negotiation scene. she gets special rules for her that none of his other women ever got.

>>21060196
Christ, what garbage, I pity men who read something like that.

>>21058021
What the fuck does
>nobody103 writing as Domagoj Kurmaic
mean? I've never seen somebody's screenname on the cover a book before. This sounds like somebody's online fanfic, not a real book.
And that would explain the complaints about "female drama" drowning out the rest of the story. If I look into this I will probably find out that it was originally a Harry Potter or Twilight fanfic or something of that nature.

>>21060303
It's their penname.
It's like when JK Rowling used a penname and saw she wasn't getting sales, the publisher put JK Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith, as JK Rowling is more popular, and the name will sell books.
Well nobody103 is well know on the internet in certain circles and has thousands of fan already following, so the publishers decided to use him name to draw in fans to get sales.

>>21049259
This. A Boy and His Dog is excellent. I recommend listening to Harlan Ellison's audiobook. He was a great narrator.

>>21059497
The fact that this stuff is connected to the "rationalists" makes it even more off-putting to me. I have found it difficult to express exactly what I feel is "wrong" without resorting to petty insults, but my intuition about this kind of thing has been right in the past. And this is speaking as someone who absolutely fits into the intended demographic for these "books" (or web stories or whatever). I've read rationalist pieces before and have even had periods of autistic fascination with some of their ideas about AI, for example. But something about it creeps me out. It's like a cult that I could see myself becoming a member of. It's almost the same feeling I had about early /r9k/, and we know how that turned out.

>>21060337
A pen name is a still a name. JK Rowling didn't publish her books as "hotmama97." Putting something so unserious on the cover just demonstrates that it's not a real (or "traditional," if you like) book.

>>21056134
>Congo Mercenary by Mike Hoare
Got a link, anon? I cant find it either on libgen.is or on myanonamouse.net.

Is science fiction/detective a good combination?

>>21060372
I don't dislike the concept of 'rational writing' inherently, but it definitely feels like it doesn't need to be its own 'thing'. Just "hey here's some tools to apply to writing smart characters sometimes". Like, yeah, a rational smart character will generally make the best decision according to their own interests with the info available. That's pretty basic.

>>21060382
>just demonstrates that it's not a real (or "traditional,"
Well it's not traditional publishing. Traditional publishing is in it's death throws at the moment.
Even Sanderson is trying to get some of that self publishing money, and move out from under the traditional publishing house's thumb.

>>21060422
>brainlet can't search properly

>>21059497
will I still like it if I adore Scott Alexander’s writing but loathe 99% of the rest of the rationalist bubble (bunch of pretentious self important twats if you ask me)?

>>21060557
Traditional publishing is not in its death throes (the correct spelling). Sanderson has no intention of leaving traditional publishing.

>>21060425
Yes.

>>21060588
>Sanderson has no intention of leaving traditional publishing
I didn't say he was leaving it, but he is doing his own projects. Remember that 3 years of Sanderson or w/e his kickstarter was? It's all self published. After he tried it (and was successful) I saw other Traditional published authors try getting some off contract book money.

>>21059449
Name one decent webnovel

>>21049217
>rich fantasy world decades before Tolkien or DnD
Why did the Dreamlands get (relatively) overlooked? Was it just before its time?

>>21060283
the point isn’t that it’s good (it isn’t) the point is that there is an undeniable power fantasy at play in which a woman gains sexual and psychological power over a very powerful and dangerous alpha male that no other woman has ever been able to tame.

Black Company > Malazan > The Shitblade Itself

>>21051974
Iktf but mine is 13. Yes the game is ass but the vibe and setting for the 1st few chapters is probably the greatest in the series.

>>21060948
Wait I meant "the blade shit itself"

>>21060569
>will I still like it if I adore Scott Alexander’s writing but loathe 99% of the rest of the rationalist bubble (bunch of pretentious self important twats if you ask me)?
You will most likely like it, the story is more self-reflective and discusses the ideas rather than declaring which are good or what. I know The Methods of Rationality supposedly had the problem (I'm not sure, havent read it) of being pretentious, but I don't think WtC is like that at all. It's more of a weird DnD campaign with a lot of rationalist ideas woven in.

>>21060659
Not detective fiction

>>21060088
author's twitter
you decide

>>21060720
Literally anything but The Wandering Inn

>>21060569
That's probably a common position, I feel the same way.
I need a palate cleanser after reading rationalists just so I don't speak in pseud gibberish.

>>21061104
This actually makes me happy because any culture that is anti-[thing] is stone dead. You can't build a community around being mad LotR isn't gay enough (somehow).

>>21057870
Why is yerin black?
Is it because she was literally illiterate until like 6 books in.

>>21060152
he's a pale guy with a talking demon sword which he immediately eats the soul out of and discards for it to be completely forgotten about, it's probably a nod but not really anything beyond that

>>21061366
Any talking demon sword is probably at least an indirect Elric reference at this point, it kind of originated the trope, arguably.

>>21060720
Fallout: Equestria

>>21060303
>This sounds like somebody's online fanfic, not a real book.
>And that would explain the complaints about "female drama" drowning out the rest of the story. If I look into this I will probably find out that it was originally a Harry Potter or Twilight fanfic or something of that nature.
Mother of Learning is actually based off a rationalist Naruto fanfic called Time Braid. Zorian is Sakura, Zach is Naruto with Sasuke's backstory, QI is Orochimaru, they're all stuck in a one-month loop that ends with an invasion, etc.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5193644/1/Time-Braid

>>21060487
>Just "hey here's some tools to apply to writing smart characters sometimes".
You mean like Eliezer Yudkowsky's "Abridged Guide to Intelligent Characters"?
https://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing

>>21052995
Original? Was there a reprint or something? What's the difference?

>>21060425
Bump

>>21060425
It can be. Both Asimov and Greg Egan have pulled it off.

best novels(or short story collections) to get into classic sword and sorcery?

>>21060743
It gets more associated with horror than fantasy for some reason, probably because of it's connection to the Cthulhu mythos, also you should check out the works of Lord Dunsany if you like the Dreamlands stories.

I like xanxia/xuanhuan. There’s a lot of authors and trash, but the appeal started as a strange new world of quasi religion and different tropes. I think I started with Martial Peak and Invincible. If it doesn’t pull you you’re not missing out on classics. Some have potential with editing to cut the serial release fat into a story palatable for western audiences, but it’s just a whole new ballgame.

>>21061621
Check the charts in the OP.

>>21061630
Okay? Don’t know why you’re telling us this. We don’t care.

I have now read two books on Royal Road and they were both acceptable. I thought I'd try another, but how the fuck do you find anything decent when the top followed stuff is suffused with literal Pokemon fanfic?

>>21060743
>Why did the Dreamlands get (relatively) overlooked? Was it just before its time?
Because no cthulu meme

>>21061785
>I thought I'd try another, but how the fuck do you find anything decent
By reading. Not that hard.

>>21061793
Tell you what, you read all the Pokemon fanfic and get back to me on whether that was a fun experience. Don't tell me which were good, just tell me if you enjoyed reading thousands of chapters of this shit

Fang Yuan is me. Literally me. No other character can come close to relating to me like this. There is no way you can convince me this is not me. This character could not possibly be anymore me. It's me, and nobody can convince me otherwise. If anyone approached me on the topic of this not possibly being me, then I immediately shut them down with overwhelming evidence that this character is me. This character is me, it is indisputable. Why anyone would try to argue that this character is not me is beyond me. If you held two pictures of me and this character side by side, you'd see no difference. I can safely look at this character every day and say "Yup, that's me". I can practically see this character every time I look at myself in the mirror. I go outside and people stop me to comment how similar I look and act to this character. I chuckle softly as I'm assured everyday this character is me in every way. I can smile each time I get out of bed every morning knowing that I've found my identity with this character and I know my place in this world. It's really quite funny how similar this character is to me, it's almost like we're identical twins. When I first saw this character, I had an existential crisis. What if this character was the real me and I was the fictional being. What if this character actual became aware of my existence? Did this character have the ability to become self aware itself?

>>21061816
Hey, if you spend your time instead of posting here you’ll find good stories. But waste your time here instead.

>>21060372
Because rationalism is ultimately a belief structure. It's certainly much more pliable and open to being amended than most, but it is one. Coincidentally one thing that really put me off spending more time in rationalist spheres was their fucking awful taste in fiction.

>>21061816
Try Leaving Earth by J W Scarpacci Motherfucker linked his godammed discord in the book he published on amazon though you can get the free version he wrote on RR

>>21061852
I haven't encountered anything particularly awful thus far. They mainly seem to like LotR, Chesterton, and Bujold from what I've seen. I actively avoid the Yudkowsky related stuff, though, on account of him being a retard with inexplicable cachet

>>21061860
Ok, I'll take a look

On RR though anyone who goes on it for actual worthwhile reading should take a check on Books by andur his shit is fantastic without resorting to straight smut and he actually keeps to a schedule the first book you should stop to is Until Death but he has a reading order guidelines that he states does not really matter

>>21061891
You can stop your shilling, its getting a bit annoying.

>>21061208
Why do you read their stuff, then? Why do I? You're right, it is a common position. Is rationalism a millenarian cult? Is it something like a mind virus akin to an all encompassing conspiracy theory? How can it be so enticing to some while annoying to others, and sometimes both to the same person.

>>21061521
A fucking Naruto fanfic, of course it is. I hate sharing a world with the adult versions of the cringe inducing generation I grew up with.

>>21061896
If you don't want to talk books or can't stand the sight of someone making a genuine recommendation then get the fuck off the thread.

>>21061914
Not him, but you aren’t even talking to anyone.

>>21061911
I feel like you're overthinking it, but I don't yet know anyone in real life who has any interaction with rationalists other than me, so maybe I just haven't seen the mind virus in action. As far as I've seen rationalism is just a bundle of interesting ideas that a community developed around. The community is now large enough that it has many annoying and insane members, as inevitably happens, and they are quite loud sometimes. I feel like I see the same thing happen here over and over, /vt/ for example

>>21061862
>I actively avoid the Yudkowsky related stuff, though, on account of him being a retard with inexplicable cachet
I "met" him once. As in being in the same room at a party. Didn't get to speak to him because he was surrounded by a gaggle of people who were all focused on him the whole time. When I saw the NXIVM cult documentary, Keith Raniere instantly reminded me of that scene. There are a lot of similarities in their "movements" too.

>>21061929
Yeah, that's weird. I guess that's the kind of stuff that spun off the post-rats? Who knows, I've only been vaguely observing all their internal politics from the sidelines. I'm just here to read interesting essays, the existence of a social culture around it seems like it can only detract from what I want

>>21061928
>I just haven't seen the mind virus in action. As far as I've seen rationalism is just a bundle of interesting ideas that a community developed around
You know how they invent or redefine a lot of words to refer to various building blocks of their ideas? That's a cult thing, for example. Even just the idea that a dedicated community (of amateurs, I'm not talking about a school of writers or artists) springs up around a "bundle of interesting ideas" shows an unusually intense appeal to at least some humans. Maybe we don't have a good word for this yet. But many other fringe movements built around enticing collections of ideals with all encompassing implications have turned out to be very bad news.

>Protagonist is from Melbourne
>He's an obnoxious ranty champagne socialist

Checks out.

>>21061955
Inventing and redefining words is a community thing, it's not limited to cults. Weeaboo, fag as a non pejorative suffix, and based all seem like solid local examples. I mean, maybe rationalism turns into some destructive cult, I've just seen nothing in my life to suggest that, it still just looks like your standard sub-culture to me, with all the pros and cons that brings

>>21061955
You're overthinking things, join a group or something, what you described is not that sinister

>>21061785
https://old.reddit.com/r/rational/

>>21062028
Go back to r*ddit where you belong and take your shitty made chart with you.

>>21062028
This remains one of the shittiest charts I've ever seen posted in these threads

>>21062028
I don't know why you keep shilling this god-awful chart, it's obvious you don't know what Isekai, Gamelit, and Progression is with what's in the chart. Are you really that proud of this abomination that you keep posting it in every thread?

>>21062038
>>21062055
What’s wrong with the chart? I know he keeps shilling it, but any reason the animosity?

Given the current replication crisis in the sciences, does all scientific publishing fall under the "sci fi" umbrella?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis

Just finished God's Demon, any other books with ultra-bleak and weird settings? Not just things fucked underneath the surface like for example the Second Apocalypse series mind you, I mean just everything everywhere is crazy. I've also read The Night Land, similar vibes.

>>21062090
No, fuck off.

>>21062089
The poster who made it. doesn't know what Isekai, Gamelit, and Progression is.

>>21062089
Because it sucks. Most of what's on it is terrible, and what isn't does a piss poor job of covering the genres it's nominally about

>>21062092
Both Worm and Worth the Candle fit.

>>21062107
>Worm
It's dark sure but it's still a relatively normal human society but with superheroes added.
>Worth the Candle
Never heard of this, looked it up. It's a DnD-type world? Does it subvert the tropes any and get all fucked up looking?

>>21062107
>Worth the Candle fit.
Good lord, you're just going to keep on shilling this horrendous story aren't you.

>>21062102
Wow, anon. Thank you for articulation what’s wrong with it.

>>21062111
>Never heard of this, looked it up. It's a DnD-type world? Does it subvert the tropes any and get all fucked up looking?
worst novel ever written by man, mostly because the author is an enormous piece of shit 10x worse than yudowsky with an ego twice the size, and the entire story is about him. Literally him, not even a fictional character he's supposed to self insert into!

>>21062148
That’s essentially what every rational fanfic is about. Replacing the main character and making an OC “smart” self-insert. No reason to get so worked up over it. Just ignore it.

>>21062178
>That’s essentially what every rational fanfic is about.
I still don't know it became a thing, I read the first five chapters of that one harry potter fanfic and holy shit, was it terrible,

>>21062191
>I still don't know it became a thing
>Replace old main character with new OC smart self-Insert
>He’s literally me
There. That’s the gist of it. Not that complex.

>>21062191
>harry potter fanfic
You talking about the one where Harry is some pretentious little shit about logic and science? I couldn’t get past the first chapter with how retarded it was/is.

>>21062208
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. And its less a fanfic, and more of a complete rewrite of the original story all the while espousing bullshit.

>>21062224
I remember reading that when it first came out during the 2010’s. Not going to lie, liked the premise, but that version of Harry is such an annoying protagonist that I couldn’t get past chapter 10. Surprise it got big, since from what I remember, all Harry does is talk about scientific terms and what no.

>>21062224
What bullshit? Everything Harry James Potter-Evans Verres says is scientifically proven.

>>21062228
>Surprise it got big, since from what I remember, all Harry does is talk about scientific terms and what no
Neither do I, but midwits love it because they think they're smart.

>>21062233
Yeah, I really don't care about discussing it, you do you.

>>21062233
Ah, the sleep disorder, what a retarded concept. Truly, one of its many failings.

>>21062234
They should read science books and scientists essays then.

>>21060720
Mother of learning.

>>21062228
The start is kinda rough but there are some gems later on. I really liked how Dumbledore was portrayed and how Snape just got absolutely dunked on
It’s also way better than the original Harry Potter, which doesn’t say much though

>>21062264
>It’s also way better than the original Harry Potter, which doesn’t say much though
No, the original is better and I’ll rather reread that than methods.

>>21062264
I don’t know how you can read it. It’s just plain awful.

>>21062224
>while espousing bullshit.
I could have sworn some other guy debunked his bullshit, but it’s whatever. Hopefully, it’ll die out soon.

>>21062296
I read it like I read 4chan greentext stories. Autism amuses me

>>21062296
>It’s just plain awful.
Worse than awful, if it was awful there would be at least some amusement to the story. Instead, it's just some fag being a tryhard.

>>21062313
>I could have sworn some other guy debunked his bullshit,
There was that, but I think anyone who bothered would have known to begin with, and again, the story is just for midwits.

>>21062334
Midwits will be midwits. But I’m glad people are starting to see it. Maybe people will stop shilling it.

>>21062200
Maybe I just expected more.

>>21062342
That’s a good way to get burn.

>>21062228
>but that version of Harry is such an annoying protagonist
It's not even Harry, just the author's self-insert.

>>21062115
Just ignore him, he’ll get tired eventually.

>>21062349
Yes, we know, you don't have to repeat it often, we got it the first time.

>>21062318
>be me
>genius level IQ
>learn all of science by age 11
>get letter from magical school
>probably fake or some shit
>they send a professor
>she turns into a fucking cat
>holyshitmagicisreal.png
>go buy supplies
>befriend rich twink
>could be useful
>get on train
>befriend nerd girl
>she's gonna be hot one day
>i just know it
>arrive at school
> headmaster is crazy, but ok
>dada prof is a fascist, but ok
>potions prof bullies me in front of the entire class
>not ok
>youdungoofed.webm
>escalate fight with potions prof all way to principal
>blackmail them into conceding
>feelsgood.jpg
>next defense class
>dada prof is pissed
>says im an idiot for blowing that out of proportion
>arranges a "special lesson" for bullies to beat the shit out of me
>sick fuck just likes watching kids get abused
>go along with it
>oh god oh fuck it hurts
>finally stops
>stand up in front of class
>rich twink explains to the bullies that they are idiots
>dada prof awards me a gorillion points for ravenclaw
>everyone claps
>mfw

>>21062089
The chart is random as fuck and contains anything from good stories to porn, there is no reason to put it all together. The anon just has weird tastes and thought of turning it into a recommendation chart, which is fucking stupid. It has no structure or thought.

Literally an anti-lesson in maing charts.

>>21061000
Arguably it has elements but I wouldn’t say it’s detective fiction overall. More like crime fiction but mainly still sci fi.

>>21062092

I'll throw out a perhaps obvious Dying Earth recommendation, the entire world is fucked and things have gotten weird over the pressing weight of eons.

The Bas-Lag Cycle has a mixture of grounded evil and the weird intruding into daily life.

The Edge Chronicles

>>21061911

>How can it be so enticing to some while annoying to others

Autism, simple as that. It’s physically painful for normies to look at ideas through a purely logical lense devoid of emotion. So, kind of a mind virus, except you’re born with it.

>and sometimes both to the same person.

I personally love SSC because he is the most intellectually honest and modest writer I’ve read while also being incredibly insightful and rethorically gifted, which is a very rare combination. I hate most other rats because, while many have the smarts, few have the humility that I consider essential for rationalism because its entire point is to avoid bias, which is impossible if your too proud of your own work.

New thread
>>21062696