/lit/ - Literature

You say Tolkien I say Bakker
You say Aragorn I say Kellhus
You say Middle-Earth I say Ëåŕŵã
You say orcs I say sranc
You say romance I say gay rape
You follow the professor, I follow the KING

We're not the same

>Chinese author completely dunks on fat people every chance he gets
Based

When Bakker fucks you hear screams
When Sandi fucks he quickly blows cream
Bakker's cock never runs out of steam
Sandi's cock ruined his self esteem

>>21206859
That's just Chinese culture.

>>21207035
>fuck women
>fuck fat people
>fuck ugly people
>fuck religious tolerance
How hard exactly is it to learn mandarin?

Starting the morning by finishing Breeding Ground, which I began last night and is one of the short stories in the Xeelee: Resplendent collection; these stories primarily take place during the Assimilation Era of the overall Sequence.
What are you reading?

i did some shit posts earlier.. image related

>>21207039
For English speakers it's one of the hardest and that's just to speak it. To read and write the characters is even harder.

>>21206859
i'd imagine having such a huge population anyone eating enough to become fat is really a huge piece of shit... they must despise Americans and most of the Western countries

>>21207039
Difficult. I''ve personally had an easier time since I already know Korean and Japanese so a lot of vocab/chinese characters were familiar to me, but it still took years to get used to reading.

My listening and speaking skills are also still shit, although I've never actually focused on training these 2 skills.

>>21207199
Their media promotes looking as white as possible as being a attractive which funnily enough makes all their stars look western.

>>21207217
same as japan and stuff right? I remember seeing them Japanese outright insult people with darker skin as islanders or something..

>>21207192
>>21207210
Yeah I’d imagine that. Joking aside, I was actually considering learning Chinese for a while now, just to be able to absolutely dab on those that feel smart because they speak Spanish or similar languages (I already speak German, English, Latin and Italian, so it’s safe to say I don’t particularly struggle with languages already)

>>21207227
>>21207217
white skin is seen as more upper class in general even when looking at asia in a vacuum. it has nothing to do with western whiteness if that is what you're implying.

>>21207228
> German, English, Latin and Italian
All those languages are related so learning them is (relatively) easy compared to one as different as Mandarin. But good luck in your efforts.

>>21207247
Yeah what I wanted to say is that I have an easy time with the learning methods themselves, not the languages in particular. But thanks for the kind words

>>21207247
i tried to use google translate to talk to Russians in counter strike. Got put on the wrong server. It's fucking impossible to get the sounds right as someone with no experience.

we lost so I yelled "Slava Ukraine" over and over and they called me a bitch

QUESTION:

So I just reached Volume 7, Chapter 613 of The Wandering Inn (basically around where the main plot finally picks up), and I'm wondering whether or not I need to dip into the sidestories and the one webcomic to get some of the sub plots.

Hate discord? Want to chat scifi/fantasy on IRC? Come to #/sffg/ on Rizon.

Server: irc.rizon.net
SSL ports: 6697 or 7000

Recommended clients:
Window: https://hexchat.github.io/
Mac: https://www.codeux.com/textual/
Linux: https://irssi.org or https://weechat.org

>21207300

It's a trick. Get an axe.

>>21207261
Good job man I'm sure you could learn mandarin if you wanted to

>>21207291
Damn that sounds comfy, too bad that I just started a 2200 chapter xianxia novel

>>21207302
No tricks here, pal.

>>21205415
>Any book where the MC is a mastermind behind the scenes?
>I fucking love this trope
'Double-Blind', if you are not prejudiced against Litrpgs.

>>21207403
Double-Blind is stupid Reddit trash. The protagonist goes against his interests 24/7. He is suppose to be some Vulture PvP character but he involves his family like a retard. "We need to stop the "French revolution" because ???"- Complete garbage

>>21207448
Stopping the French Revolution is the ultimate good.

>>21207300
Should've just linked
https://www.rizon.net/chat

>>21207728
Maybe I should do one of those charts one day, already late with the erotica one. Sounds relaxing to just donwload images, cut them to size, then make up arbitrary categories and put them in.
Thus, culture is maketh.

>>21207728
fixed

>>21207728
This chart makes no sense because the left means nothing. This is just a list of books.

LotM 2 in only a few months
I cannot fucking wait

>>21207912
Wait, what? The author is allowed to write again? I thought the chinese government banned him.

>>21208008
I don't know about the government, but he confirmed lotm 2 for march 4th 2023 in the afterwords of ember ad infinitum

>>21207857
>that opinion on BotNS
Now, none of your opinions matter, sir.

Reading Severian's encounter with Daria after he mounted the destrier and I'm getting the weirdest boner.

a peasant named after jackals

read cradle

I am reading Cradle.

>>21208170
>>21208205
what's the point, the mc got strong, the novel was ruined

>>21206859
>the most common, wide-spread attitude
>based
Why is 4chan more out of touch with reality than reddit?

>>21207728
>Prydain Chronicles a D.
At least as good as Narnia, without the christ allegory

>>21208258
>Entire point is protagonist getting better and more powerful to achieve his goals
>It's somehow bad now that he's powerful even though he's still punching way above his weight-class

>>21208059
Wolfe is the most overrated sffg author, pretentious purple proser who couldn't write a coherent story to save his fat ass

>>21207728
I don't get it, how is Perdido in "3" difficulty? Shit makes no sense, every sentence consists of 50% obscure words plus a ton of location descriptions that I can't picture because of that at all. Was way harder for me than first book of BOTNS.

>>21208393
I like to self insert and that's the main reason I don't read femc titles. This is my sin, /lit/

>>21207728
Peake bros, I just started gormenghast like a year after finishing titus groan, and it feels a little off. I'm gonna keep with it of course, but at the moment it isn't living up to how the first book felt, when I've always heard that this one is the best?

>>21208448
It takes a while to get running but yes, the second book is the best. There will be a lot of action, don't worry.

>>21208283
>without the Christ allegory
>he doesn't know
I bet you thought The Song of Albion was pagan lmao

>>21207728
Was this image made as a joke? Did you place those titles at random? Is it a trollpost that exists purely to obtain (you)s? If so, good job, because I've never seen such a schizophrenically improbable combination of tastes that could possibly lead me to believe this is a genuine opinion.

>>21208507
>he doesnt know

>>21207857
fucking moron. stop posting here you fucking idiot.

>>21208512
You're right, I don't know whether it's an unironic schizopost or an ironic shitpost.

First for the Senjak sisters

I wanna read the Dragon Age novels, which is the best book to begin with?

>>21208589
The Darkness That Comes Before

>>21208623
Oh fuck off

>>21208395
Nobody cares you didn’t understand Peace

>>21208589
Don't bother, they aren't very good. I read them all back when I was into Dragon Age, and they taught younger me to avoid video game tie-in fiction.
If you REALLY want to read them you can just pick any one you're interested in, they're all standalone and accessible as long as you've played the first 2 games.
I thought The Stolen Throne and The Calling were the worst, Asunder and The Masked Empire were slightly better, and I don't remember a thing about Last Flight.

>>21208720
Yeah but I'm biased as I love the games and lore

>>21208737
cringe

Guys, I jut realized that his name is Severian because he severs heads.

just got this based on the cover because i like sisters of battle in warhammer, what am i in for

>>21208991
>what am i in for
Have you tried reading the book since you got it, or is that asking too much?

>>21208994
dont delete your comment and try to hide, i was planning on reading it after i finish last 100 pages of what im currently reading, have you tried not being condescending or is that asking too much?

>>21208994
Reading is for queers and steers and I ain't from Texas.

I know it's kinda specific, but is there any book where the mc hunts dragons and monsters like monster hunter games?

>>21208836
Severian[us] is a Latin name, meaning "[Son] of Severus", Severus being the word for serious, or stern. There are a large number of early Christian martyrs named Severian.

>>21209061
Haven't read it but pretty sure The Red Knight falls under this

>>21208775
I am not ashamed, they're comfy and at least there's no god awful American accents like in Elder Scrolls

>>21209194
Play the French dub.

>>21206820
Hyperion, The Hyperion Cantos #1 - Dan Simmons (1989)

Hyperion is essentially six works of short fiction that tell the stories of characters who share a commonality and have been brought together for a pilgrimage. The frame story provides the reason for why they're telling their life stories. This isn't a self-contained novel, so if not having any resolution at all bothers you, you may not want to read it, but you may enjoy it anyway. The purpose of their stories is more about connecting with each other than affecting the outcome, which they believe to be their collective deaths. Some books are about the journey, rather than the destination. This takes that idea a step further by having the individual journeys already taken be what matter. The initial destination of those journeys have been arrived at by all. The frame story is a collective journey, and the destination isn't quite reached. I found it to be slow to start, but it didn't take long for me to be engaged. Slow starts are the most common cause for me initially missing out on great books.

Each character's story has its own voice and style, which may be based on the works of other authors. This inconsistency may bother some, but I really enjoyed it. I like the every character's story, but I have my preferences, which are as follows: Scholar, Priest, Poet, Consul, Detective, Soldier. The greatest strength of the book is its characterizations, especially its superb emotionality. Harsh and pessimistic assessments of humanity, religion, technology, and AI are presented through the characters.

Hyperion frequently and consistently references literary works and pop culture media. I was surprised by how many I recognized, though there were surely far more. There's an abundance of ideas, but their exploration isn't matters. A few ideas haven't aged well, but overall Simmons was surprisingly accurate in terms of extrapolating from the contemporary trends of the time. There's also considerable worldbuilding and depictions of life and society, but again, that's not the central concern. This is a story about connection of all kinds, not only the interpersonal. The in-universe author of Hyperion says it's about loneliness.

I didn't expect there to be so many descriptions of the female body, let alone the frequency of briefly described sex scenes. The ejaculation scene is horrific and hilarious. I didn't mind their inclusion, but oftentimes they seemed to be there because Simmons wanted them to be rather than having any narrative purpose. They certainly didn't have much build-up.

The self-referential statements and inclusion of pop culture prepared me for the comic farce of an ending. Hyperion is only as serious as it feels like being at the time. I'm somewhat trepidatious about continuing after considering the /sffg/ ratings and what seems to be the consensus narrative. Ignoring such warnings hasn't gone well for me before, but I'll do so anyway.

Rating: 5/5

>oftentimes they seemed to be there because Simmons wanted them to be rather than having any narrative purpose
>comic farce of an ending
>5/5
lol

>>21208991
I feel like literally nobody in this thread has heard of this book.

>>21209194
>there's no Godawful American accents in Dragon Age
>only Godawful fake British accents by American voice actors

>>21209205
Don't read the sequels.

>>21209276
It can't be helped. If nothing else, it'll be something to write about why they shouldn't be read. I probably won't read any more for a while though.

>>21209205
>Rating: 5/5
I refuse to believe this is a serious rating for that trainwreck of the story. The ejaculation scene itself should bring if a score lower due to the serious treatment of it. As you said, the story isn't serious. But it pretends it is. It's dowrnight absurd how silly this story is. Metal vaginas and space jews. Not that those elements are bad intrisicaly bad, but this book works only as an absurdist comedy. But it isn't one, nor was it intended to be one.

>>21209294
Do put it off for a few months so you can savor the first and let it's weird mysticism settle in your memory before the sequels shit all over it.

>>21209205
This is bait

>>21209295
There's various explicit statements of being a farce and "comic-serious" in the text, along with a shaggy dog story, which is a type of comedy. As I said, it's only serious when it wants to be. I accept the absurdist comedy elements along with the seriousness, so that isn't a problem for me.

>>21209300
It's possible that I liked it for different reasons, so it may not be as much of a drop off for me, or maybe it still will be. Either way, it'll be what it'll be.

>>21209304
This is a fish intentionally hooked by bait.

>>21209252
Leliana: English
Cullen: English
Morrigan: Australian
The list goes on, and so what if they're American doing accents? It's the accents that bother me, not the fact they're actually American. Nothing more jarring thant when I strolled into Cheydinhal in Oblivion for the first time and not only saw an orc walking around in fine clothing, but then proceeded to hear him chatting with an American accent

>>21209295
i feel the same way about Hyperion. It is the most overhyped trash ever. This is just because of the literary references in a science fantasy novel. its just trashy bullshit.

This started out as a promising new entry in the genre of Australian litrpgs, this of the system apocalypse variety. In this one, the flimsy setup is that when a civilization takes science too far, local reality is altered and a higher order emerges, usually upsetting things enough to destroy said civilization when it first emerges. So over time galactic civilization has developed means to help newly changed planets along, supplying people with an interface that just happens to resemble World of Warcraft and blah blah blah you've heard it all before and nobody fucking cares.

The system and setup were engaging, though. MC is stuck in Wagga Wagga and needs to get back to his family in Melbourne. So his job is to balance his urgent need to get home to his wife with his urgent need to get strong enough to make the journey. Author has a bit of a growth through suffering fetish so the MC's ascent isn't a comfy glide. I liked that he had meaningful failures and meaningful losses along the way.

The problem came in volume 3, where he had to struggle with a shift in enemies from mindless monsters to humans, and how to morally resolve that. The author took the easy way out and made the human adversaries the vilest imaginable sorts -- racists, misogynists and vaccine deniers. I mean. Really, really, really sucked the life out of this thing.

I felt like the He Who Fights With Monsters story died at some point, but then the author matured a little bit, got a bit more professional, and was able to breathe life back into it. Don't know if this guy can do the same.

>>21209354
The literary references didn't really have any impact on my enjoyment, they were just something I noticed.

>>21208395
fuck off mouthbreather.

>>21209336
>gets mad at characters in an American game having American accents

>>21209367
>he system and setup were engaging, though. MC is stuck in Wagga Wagga and needs to get back to his family in Melbourne
Where's that one anon that kept bitching about the author of HWFM being from Melbourne, ranting mad shit about the city? Why is another major aussie litrpg also set in Melbourne, lmao.

>>21209376
Hyperion is the prototypical nooticer novel. "I loved it when i nooticed X, ooh I laughed when I nooticed Y, but did you nootice Z? I did because I nootice everything."

>>21209390
Australia only has a few highly populated cities.

>>21209205
>>21209294
Disregard the naysayers. The conclusion of the series is a spectacular stale of love presented as a gospel. THE best rendition of the messiah-in-space trope out there.
And don't forget you're getting the story from one of the characters who is quite explicitly an impish self-insert.

>>21209392
Please put more effort into your trolling if you want further replies in the future. Thank you.

>>21209400
I assume "stale" is meant to be "story". Yes, it does seem like it'll eventually go that way. Indeed, it seems like writers as characters almost have to be self-inserts.

>>21209367
Book one of Alpha Physics was shit, I never picked up book two.
He who fights with monster turned shit when the author sent him back to earth and held him hostage for 3 books, which should have been one book.

>>21209424
>I assume "stale" is meant to be "story"
Yes, odd autocorrect

>>21209392
>>21209354
>>21209295
I feel like most critically acclaimed SF literature of the 20th century is only acclaimed for the merit of existing at all, and the fact that fart-sniffing critics promote them.
There is staggeringly little in the genre of science fiction that I have observed that seems to be anything more than self-styled intellectuals jerking themselves off with plots of what amounts to a low-to-mid quality Star Trek episode stretched paper-thin over five or six hundred pages. Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, etc. it rarely seems to be anything more stimulating than Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. I'm almost considering resorting back to Star Wars or Warhammer 40k novels because the best scifi I've managed to come across are The Stars My Destination, Dune (the first one only), and John Carter of Mars.

>>21209385
It's MEDIEVAL fantasy, I want nice English accents ok?

>>21209461
Hwaet, êow wierslic angelic ðês?

>>21209390
I'm right here. If there's one thing any Australian can empathise with, it's wanting to get out of Melbourne so much that getting sent to a world full of monster and cannibals is an appealing option.

>>21209437
I thought Monsters righted itself when Jason lost his only silver rank respawn when he got one-shotted after mouthing off to a god. The epoch of boring smug was over and it was back to the story.

>>21208507
>I've never seen such a schizophrenically improbable combination of tastes
Well duh, it's /sffg/'s combined taste.

>>21209530
I keep thinking of going back to HWFWM after I dropped it on... I think Book 5? I can't remember now. The Earth stuff just kept fucking going and I didn't care. None of the characters on Earth were as interesting as the other ones, and because the author refused to even jump back to their POVs at all, it felt really mind-numbing. Even when that one girl was brought back on Earth. It just... Eh.

>>21208991
That is a pretty rad cover post a review here when you have finished it.

What are some good fantasy books for coomers?

>>21208420
Same, but when i get horny I read fantasy books with assertive and strong female mcs

>>21209061
Year of Rogue Dragons - Richard Lee Byers.

Well, that was pretty bad. Mostly because Kvothe was just such an insufferable douchebag. I don't really mind selfinserted characters, but this is just too much. And the romance line was just dogshit. The story itself, tho, was interesting enough to keep me going.

2.5/5
Hopefully the second book won't be as bad

>>21209855
If you didn't like first you'll hate the second.

>>21209769
The Night Angel trilogy

>>21209449
based post

>>21209855
Rothfatt doesnt write anymore, the series is unfinished. you are wasting your time. read a real writer that actually works like Ruocchio

>>21209449
Hey man it’s not our fault you’re retarded

best fantasy series with suicidal protagonists?

>>21209969
Zombie knight saga

Words of Radiance reader here. Sanderson has an awful habit of cutting away from the only good parts of his books to something else. Amaram shows up then boom, interludes. Kaladin does something then bam, Shallan. Its tiresome and the books could be tighter and more focused if we only had Kaladin and Dalinar. If he introduces even more povs like some anons said he does I can see how your patience for these thicc books would quickly fade. Ive started Stormlight and I intend to finish it but I can't see myself really giving a shit about the "Cosmere" outside of it.
When I finish up the four books out right now I think Ill read bakker(is that how you spell it?) or malazan

>>21209969
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever
it's Steven Erikson's favorite fantasy series

>Justice of Kings
>Daughter of the Moon Goddess
>Legends & Lattes yes I'm interested in reading the lesbian orc book
Were there any other notable non-sequel fantasy books this year that I should add to the reading list?

>>21210104
i thought L&L was fairly mediocre. it's probably nice if you've never read SoL in your life, but otherwise it was not worth much.

>>21210104
Sure, but it all depends on what you like. I've tried reading a lot, but I've only finished 3 that fit those requirements. 1 was ok, 1 I liked but others haven't, and Justice of Kings.

>>21209909
I need to read this desu for research

The crybaby in this thread got me to pick Hyperion back up. Read 100 pages of it about a year ago and haven’t gotten back to it yet. It’s time.

>>21209969
my diary desu (I live within delusional fantasies)

>>21206820
spontaneous recommendation: Bancrofts tower of Babel.
Babelchads, how are we feeling?

>>21210491
The last book took too long to come out and I lost interested when I started reading it. I'll probably get back to it eventually though.

>>21210491
>these fonts
WordArt is my passion

> coming of age fantasy section
> its all litrpgs
what went wrong with self-publishing

>>21207857
>Malazan good
>Lord of the Rings bad
Mediocre bait

I kinda want to write a story that blends Azathoth with the simulation theory.
But I really need to read more Azathoth-ish stories, any recommendations?
>inb4 Hauri
watched that.

>>21210765
>any recommendations?
Go to the writing general that's meant to help aspiring writers like you? >>21202081

Today I will finish Citadel of the Autarch

>>21210713
> coming of age fantasy section
> its all litrpgs

>what went wrong with self-publishing
It started giving people what they want, instead of endless LGBTQ themed drivel the industry tried to push. Young men want adventure, raise to power and hot chicks acting confident and sexy while trashing monsters alongside their badboy. Not unedning barrage of sensitive simps more interested in giving their lifes for women and minorities.

I have faith in self-pub, it already started giving us great fiction, now I want it to crash the industry to smitherens and stand upon the corpse of female-dominated publishing.

>>21210858
yeah I want adventure but without the soulless rpg vidya interfaces and stats blocks that get injected into the story almost every other page

>>21210874
You're probably just too old to appreciate well-written RPG. Young men became obsessed with video games and 'progression' in them for a reason. It speaks directly to something primal in us, demanding strength and power to go up if it's possible. Will to Power in pure form. Traditional fantasy has problem insufficient, thus it has to be replaced, at least partially. Until the balance is restored.

>>21210874
Tough luck. Modern male audience lacks the reading comprehension to understand even the simplest of narratives without gamified abstraction.

>read pic related
>there's a minor character called Frerb Hankbert
>this was published one year before Dune
nani

>>21209997
consumption of cosmere can only really be enjoyed in 1 way: read the books from start-to-finish without breaks; this will create a zen-like feeling where the mind sort of attains a weird state and that greatly increases their enjoyability.

btw, do not give up on sanderson before trying his best works:
the emperors soul
shadows for silence
warbreaker
aether of the night

he is a semi-decent author but only when his works are compressed, which is ironic for his cosmere setting

if you are choosing between malazan and second apocalypse, always go for the latter, malazan has a wide cast of characters, most are built-up and then do not show for lengthy periods of time

>>21210713
try this, coming of age, but the mc is on track to become an immoral asshole

>>21206820
>tries to write a lovable rogue book
>makes the rogues annoying twats
what did he mean by this?

spontaneous recommendation :)

oh no, another spontaneous reccomendaSHUN

>>21211029
Brandon Sanderson suffers from weak prose and self-indulgence which in this case means writing too much stuff that is irrelevant to the story or the characters. If he could condense his books and if he wrote less cringe I could read him. That being said The Way of Kings of OKAY and The Emperor's Soul is his only actually good work (because it is short).

>introduce interesting and flesh out characters
>Introduce great settings
>suddenly abandon them
>follow adventures of under-developed and boring characters instead
Why is Jack Vance like this? I am liking Lyonesse, but holy shit. Has he ADHD?

>>21210906
Great taste

>>21211194
BAYNE?

>book introduces an interesting, flawed character
>he is suddenly swept into a dangerous adventure
>big things are happening in the background, everything tied together
>actual story is:
>LOOP STARTS
>hero is escaping from someone
>he is rescued by someone new or some old friend
>something happens and he goes is own ways
>he stumbles upon an old enemy or new
>start loop again
Any less books like this?

BOTN is the Infinite Jest of fantasy

>>21211227
Yes, we all know this. Thanks for pointing it out.

>>21211217
Yes anon, BAYNE! You did it! You posted the image and you made the epic maymay reference!!

>>21211235
Thanks, I'm rather proud of myself.

>>21211223
I call it Conflict fatigue. I coined it myself. This happens when there is so much conflict that you stop believing in the story. A lot of people like this "loop" because it is, indeed, a page-turner. But it gets boring very fast. At least for me.
The ideal way to introduce believable conflict is to get the hero into breaks after conflict, so that he reflects on them and we can see him grow, slowly, and then, organically, spice things up so that the adventure continues. By doing so you make the character more likeable, so that when conflict arises you really care for him. If too much conflict without breaks happens, you eventually stop caring.

A lot of fantasy writers are like this.

>>21211249
>>21211223
The Tower of Fools being one example of this.

>>21211249
Non-stop conflict can work, but the issue most writers run into is that it's something that is inflicted upon their protagonists. The protagonist ends up being a passive participant, constantly reacting to the plot happening and no longer acting upon the plot.
I think this is what Cradle manages to get right that a lot of the other Progression fantasy series flounder at, conflict in Cradle is non-stop, but it's almost always motivated by the protagonists going out of their way to engage with that conflict for their own reasons.

>>21211249
I think you and me get bored with it, but those who are, let's say for a lack of a better way, less intelligent, do not get so bored because they are sucked into the story and they don't keep in mind the bigger picture or think outside the box. They probably lack the proper amount of pattern-recognition.

>>21211260
Now it is happening in Lyonesse. Great, flesh-out characters discarded and thrown away before things get really interesting. Let's get into the conflict fatigue loop instead.
>>21211204

>>21211264
Your post was all good and valid. Then, you mentioned Cradle.

>>21211249
You might be interested in Worth the Candle by Alexander Wales, it's a meta fantasy about a guy literally being a chosen one isekaied to another world...but the one he created for his DnD campaigns. And he isn't the first one, because hid death friend was first, and he got trapped in 'Degenerating Cycles' of conflict, which you call looping. Fascinating series.

>>21211273
Would you kindly stop recommending something that can hardly be considered literature?

Been getting into more physical books recently. Got all of these in the past 7 months and The Hunger of the Gods is coming in Dec. I really wanna buy the Obsidian Path trilogy by Michael R. Fletcher soon.

>>21211264
Yep. That's another issue. But I would say that getting a respite and break for the characters to breathe so that we can "be with them" for a while and care for them, is very important.
>>21211273
Thanks for the rec.

>>21211278
>tfw Berserk is better than the ~fifteen or so safe space book series that the normalfags of this general obsess over

>>21211204
Suldrun's Garden is probably the worst instance of that in any of his books I've read. Suldrun dying nearly put me off reading the rest of it. With the perspective of the rest of the series it's more of an extended prologue.

As a rule of thumb I wouldn't get too attached to any female characters if they're introduced fairly early on as they have a habit of either dying or getting written out in some other manner

>>21211269
I wouldn't call them less intelligent. But they haven't probably read a lot outside of Rpg-style fantasy

>>21211278
>>21211285
nice. yes I've seen that huge Berserk books and I'm tempted to try them, but man there are a lot and they are pricey.

almost done with Old Man's War now. it's fine. I'm done with Scalzi, he's not very funny or insightful, but the book was a bit fun and a very quick and easy read. next up his Use of Weapons by Banks. I love the book cover so much

>>21211287
>I wouldn't call them dumb...but
Pottery

>>21211296
The big Berserk books are $80aud for me but well worth it imo

>>21211296
You're practically buying an art book. Berserk is some of the best manga artwork, easily top 3.

>>21211287
>I wouldn't call them less intelligent. But they haven't probably read a lot outside of Rpg-style fantasy
I read hundreds of fantasy books before I saw a litrpg for the first time. Literally rekindled my passion for reading. The plots on average are below the traditional stuff, true, but reading it is incredibly refreshing, not to mention some stories are amazing. The Wandering Inn can easily compete with the famous Epic Fantasy series.

>>21211286
Well, I think the most problematic thing about Lyonesse is not only that Suldrun dies[/ spoiler] is that he crafted such an interesting setting during 100 pages (Haidion) that it didn't make any sense to abandon it in just one stroke.
But worst of all, is that it becomes a total mess with unlikeable characters.

I will give it a chance, though.

>>21211286
Well, I think the most problematic thing about Lyonesse is not only that Suldrun dies is that he crafted such an interesting setting during 100 pages (Haidion) that it didn't make any sense to abandon it in just one stroke.
But worst of all, is that it becomes a total mess with unlikeable characters and gets into that conflict loop with them.

I will give it a chance, though, since you said is kind of like the prologue.

>>21211313
Lyonnesse gets really boring after the sudoku, outside the all too brief Vancian nonsense adventures. The politics stuff is painfully simplistic and straightforward.

>What happens when the god of chaos wins a divine poker game?
>Bee-girls.

>The life of a giant bee is a simple one. The life of a giant bee when her queen turns the entire hive into human-like apis to fend off an attack? That’s a good deal more complicated.

>Getting down from a 50-foot giant rose without wings, while surviving the attacks of malevolent wasps is just a start. Surviving long enough to figure out what to do with her new life proves to be something of a challenge, but at least that much is understandable.
I-I just wanted a comfy lesbian harem romance (non-explicit, it's NNN), instead found this. Why does this sound like I'm bout to experience pure kino?

>>21211421
Not that guy, is it worth reading after I'm done with Dying Earth?

>>21211495
If you are into a hodgepodge of western yuro medievalisms and really like Vance, then maybe.

Just finished reading Picrel. I also read Perdido Street Station before that but for some reason my library doesnt have The Scar. so I'm looking for more stories in a similar style if anyone has suggestions.

I also quite liked the southern reach trilogy and borne by jeff vandermeer if that helps

>>21211615
I've only read The City and the City by Mieville and I loved it. It's got a fair amount of government bureaucracy, procedures and policies type stuff that is in book 2 of Southern Reach, check it out. It's got a dark, cool air about it. You will enjoy it, I'm sure

>>21210858
How do you even get your work out there as self pub though?

>>21211278
Modern fantasy book covers are fucking abysmal

> Nakomi. Among the materials Jordan left behind at his passing was a single line of instruction about a mysterious character who would appear to Rand al’Thor as he left Shayol Ghul:

> “An unknown woman says to Rand, ‘Yes, that’s good, that’s what you need to do.’ She hurries off.”

> Brandon Sanderson explains: Well, the team had no idea who this was and—like the infamous pipe—had no idea why Jordan had chosen to write what he had. But I found it an intriguing seed, reminding me of the other mysterious events (like the voice Rand hears at the end of The Eye of the World). Therefore, as I was working on the Aviendha scenes, I decided to bring in this mysterious woman—whom I named Nakomi. A foreshadowing of the scene Jordan had created at the epilogue.

> I decided that this woman was the Creator’s version of Shaidar Haran, something Jordan had explained a little in the notes. A vessel, kind of an avatar, but not quite. Shaidar Haran for the Dark One. Nakomi for the creator. But again, not actually the Creator. Something else, something close to the Creator—and inhabited in part by something of the Creator. As many have guessed, her birth is Jenn Aiel. Yes, the’re still around. A few of them. And providing the vessel who was the counterpart to Shaidar Haran was part of their purpose, lore, and identity. Nakomi (which is her birth name among them) is the latest in this line.

Welp.

>>21211718
>How do you even get your work out there as self pub though?
Uh, the usual way? Generally you'd want to write webnovel or just publish online on one of the websites, Royalroad, AO3, tapas, webnovel.com, etc.
Then, if you get any worthwile following, or just got the feedback on your story, you publish on Amazon Kindle or just on Amazon.

If you just straight up publish on Amazon...you would have to advertise a lot.

Non-coomer fantasy where subby twink protag gets seduced by voluptuous women?

>>21210906
Love Reverend Insanity, I'm sure it would make a banger rpg.
Tried to read more stuff from the author and it was meh. He just struck gold with Gu Yue Fang Yuan.

>>21211837
The Belgariad by David Eddings, I'm not even joking

>>21211467
Title: Sting & Song
Author: Benjamin Medrano
Rating: 5/10

So. I've finished this sudden two-hour-long intrusion to my life called Sting & Song. I believe this is the most average fantasy book I've read in my life. Like, it hits the perfect 5/10 score in every regard. Characters are there, but they are tropey and undeveloped. The main character gets the most attention, but she's also tropey as hell, even if a highlight of the story. The plot is simple as hell, barely there. The writing is average, especially dialogues were kinda...unnatural? Each character spoke as if playing their part on a scene, more actors on a scene than book characters. Weird, but many amteur writers write like that. There are some emotional moments too, and...a twist(?), but all predictible and average.

Oh, and it's also a Litrpg, but perfectly average in this regard as well, a 1:1 game-to-real-life translation. Those basically never jump over 6/10.
There isn't much to say, this is a slightly fun, just the right kind of short adventure of a bubbly and guiless bee-girl in a fantasy world.

For some reason the book was listed on 'Lesbian Harem' recommendation page, yet despite all party characters being female and a few small innuendos there wasn't anything like that. Maybe in the later books, but unlikely. I think the book would be more popular as a Female Reverse Harem. But that's my inner coomer talking.

The author has many books under his name, all of cute adventurous young women, mostly in context of lesbian romances. The man knows what he wants to write, respect for that. He also wrote some explicit female harems, which I am likely to visit at a later date. After NNN, that is.

>>21212018
>The author has many books under his name, all of cute adventurous young women, mostly in context of lesbian romances. The man knows what he wants to write, respect for that. He also wrote some explicit female harems, which I am likely to visit at a later date.
To add some more to that, I found this on the author's blog:

>Lesbians/Polyamory – I don’t know why I write major characters as lesbians, if I’m being perfectly honest. I think it has something to do with a few personal issues which I won’t go into, but there’s one thing I do know. In my earlier stories, long before I wrote Ancient Ruins, I tried to write stories with a male and female lead. They were utter disasters.

>In every last one of these stories, the male character ended up incompetent, a jerk, or a traitor. Invariably I ended up hating the male lead, and feeling like the most reasonable male character had no interest in the female lead or was happily married, while the female lead was only interested in one of the female side characters. It was weird, but all of my stories started working better when I didn’t try to force things into a male-female relationship. At this point I’ve grown used to it, and only on rare occasions do the stories emerge naturally, like in the story A Date Gone Awry. So it’s something you can expect.

I believe this is worth mentioning, as this type of 'I don't know why, but I prefer to write women' is worringly popular these days. Nothing intrinsically wrong with it, but doesn't it interest you anons how almost every popular self-pub or webnovel author prefers to write women as protagonists? And basically always a lesbian, at best bisexual?

This is a trend seen in the entire sphere of web writing. Male authors don't write male characters unless they are self-inserts. Women are by and large protagonists of almost every story. If you see popular webnovels, the chance of seeing a male main character is slim. Harems on the other hand are exclusively written with male protagonists in 99.99% of cases.

This goes beyond Litrpgs, it's everywhere. Why? What makes a female point of view so alluring to a modern young writer? There must be some degree of fetishization in this, after all a confident, strong-willed young woman is go-to romantic fantasy for men.

I wonder if it's part of the trend of men wishing to be cared for by so-called dommy-mommies. A more vicious man would say this generation of men is weak and soft, but I'd rather point towards them being depressed and bereft of love. But what will be the consequences of this in the coming years?

>>21212096
I never met a "dommy-mommy" male in my live outisde of this forsacken site, apart than dom woman don't exist and the few than work for that will prefer to be domed than otherwise and only do that because money.
Also fem-protagonis, is an auto-skip. Thanks for posting your mental illness about a whole series of books I never wanted to read, just confirmed they are waste of times of the cringiest degree.

>>21209581
>I dropped it on... I think Book 5?
I waited until book 7 was released, then picked up book 6 and 7 at the same time, because I was told that book 6 was still earth shit. Book 7 looked like it's back to the norm. Book 8 is coming out in December.
I don't care what his hardcore fans say. Book 4, 5, and 6 were unnecessary. He could have done those in one book, it was literal filler and a cash grab.

>>21211467
>>21212018
Benjamin Medrano only writes lesbian fiction, sadly. I enjoyed some stories, but I don't want lez shit.

>>21211957
Man that part with the snake woman in book 2 was what the niggers would call wylin. I refuse to imagine Garion as anything other than a cute little anime boy, I don't care how many times he's described as being any bigger than that.

>>21211278
How is the poppy war btw? I am bit reluctant to read it, because it's really overhyped everywhere

>>21212325
>hyped
>written by a woman
Do you need any more clues?

Just read the part of Hyperion where the soldier fucks a lady in VR over and over again in different historical wars. Why do crybabies hate this book it rules.

>>21212367
Nobody hates the first book, it's a masterpiece. The sequels is where opinions start to divide. People with small penises and liberal arts degrees tend to dislike Endymion parts because it's less about philosophical deliberations and more about actionpacked adventures

11 pages left in the BotNS
At this point I consider myself a critical wolfe fan. There are many things I admire about his writing but also there are things that I don't care for. At a very late part of the book he goes into this, almost two page long description of this fucking boat Severian is on for a while. Maybe it has some symbolic significance but I confess to having skipped half of the overbearing description part.

>>21211755
Thanks anon, I'll check this out. Is it copyrighted automatically when you upload it though? And should I publish on all those sites or stick to one?

>>21212325
>How is the poppy war btw?
War Torture porn. It's overdramatic as fuck, and in the end becomes yet another YA romance. I dropped the second book halfway through, nothing worth reading if you are past the age of 18.

>>21212385
Shhhhhh you can't just criticize Wolfe, the golden calf of sffg. Wanna get called stupid or something?

>>21212437
>Thanks anon, I'll check this out. Is it copyrighted automatically when you upload it though? And should I publish on all those sites or stick to one?
I'm 99% sure Royalroad is safe, people regularly take down chapters to publish them on Amazon. I believe AO3 is similar. However, be wary of webnovel.com and others. I didn't do much reserach into them, but heard some nasty things about webnovel.com copyrights, supposedly cotnracts they offer are exploitative. But I don't thnik you need to take it.

It depends what you want to write, Royalroad is mainly for Litrpgs and Power Progression genres, but you can write everything there. Other sides have different focuses, but as far as I've seen it means that they have romances for women as well.

>>21212462
This post in not an endorsement nor is it a rebuttal.

Are 80% of posts ITT bots or some shit?
Whats with unironic litrpg, chinkshit, and tranny erotica posting?

>>21212314
he's literally described as being made to wear effeminate makeup and scanty harem clothing, it's the exact same shit as Gerudo Link

>>21212096
>This goes beyond Litrpgs, it's everywhere. Why? What makes a female point of view so alluring to a modern young writer?
Most of them are legit weak low test males brought up on western sjw propaganda. They write female pows because they don't know how to write strong manly male pow because they have not once in their life met a real man of strong character, they never had a father figure or even if they did he was probably just weak spineless provider. They just don't know any better.

>>21212602
This happens whenever there’s a slow thread, zoomers use that as an excuse to just spam so the thread can be on the front page. They’ve been doing this for a while now.

>>21212437
Copyright is generally applied as soon as you create something provided the tools used to make it don't specify otherwise. Royal Road's only real stipulation is that the series can't be freely accessible elsewhere (you can have it on Amazon, but not available for Kindle Unlimited, for example) as far as I know.

>>21212630
yeah Im sure C S Lewis is the poster boy for woke propaganda

I'm currently reading the second book of The Dagger and Coin and I'm at the part where Antea goes to war against Asterilhold and somehow the immediate "army" they field is only 600 strong (then adding that at most Antea can only field 6000 men) when just a few chapters before we have Marcus recruit 50 men to fight against a 70 man pirate crew.
If a guy can just immediately recruit 50 people from one city, why can't a fucking country with multiple cities only recruit field 600 people (with a max of 6000? Really???)
This shit has unironically been on my mind for days

>>21212602
>AI technology must be so advanced as to shitpost about books I personally don’t like.
Surely that’s the explanation!

need some non-grimshit fantasy with incest, STAT.

>>21212701
the simarillion as a whole is not grimshit and has incest altthough the incest part is easily the grimmest section

>>21212680
It really doesnt take a quantum computer to set up a bot...

>>21212607
It was /ss/ kino.

>>21212602
For the past two years the chinkshit, xianxia, litrpg and all the rest have been gaining more and more shitposts. It is all quite unfortunate.

Wuxia>>>>Xianxia.

>>21209061
The Faerie Queene

>>21212384
>Nobody hates the first book, it's a masterpiece.
Had a handful of vocal, low-IQ, litrpg-reading shits who hate it ITT
Such is the state of this general

>>21209295
I got filtered by the first story. Maybe only catholics can enjoy it.

>>21212384
>>21209295
This guy really pissed his pants over it

>>21211495
Lyonesse is my least favorite Vance series. I'd recommend any of his other stuff over it with the exception of the Magnus stories.

>>21212968
The book, and Simmons in general, is anti-religious so you seem to have misunderstood.

>>21213158
why is it that such midwits are attracted to SF? they should stay in their lane and read litRPG trash.

Wow I can't wait to need to read the book again so I "get" or "finally understand" all the various references that are only revealed until the end of the book. Oh boy! I love when authors do this! It is surely not like it is a tool to make a book artificially more "intelligent" and "deep".

I'm looking at you, Wolfe-chads.

>>21212680
GPT-3 bots have been effectively simulating human activity on 4chan since at least 2019 (probably as early as 2016) almost notice of anybody outside /g/
Not to say that everybody who makes a post I dislike is a bot, just that they do exist, and the kind that post one-and-done spam in a thread like "Read Cradle" or whatever are the easiest to make

>>21212701
Regrettably, any story that has incest in it is not liable to be anything but grimdark; if it somehow manages not to be grimdark, any incestuous relationships will be a relatively minor element of the setting vis-a-vis the whole work, and almost invariably either tragic or else villainous.

Bros this series has everything I love, all my favorite things. Its like a mix between Dune and Warhammer 40k. I cant wait for the next book to come out in December

>>21213239
I'll continue my rant by stating that both Bakker and Wolfe employ the concept of circular time (Outside vs. the World, or different lives of Severian) to deus ex machina many things. The Second Apocalypse (the many mysterious concerning Kellhus) can be interpreted in many ways by the tool we call timeless Outside, and so can Severian's weird life be attributed to his previous lifes because why not, it is an easy too to make story "deeper".

>>21213246
Yes, but you are implying no one in this thread reads litrpg, and if anyone posts about it, they have to be a bot.
I'm not a bot, and I read over 150 litrpgs for the year so far
Also why are you lumping the chinkshit in with litrpg?
neck yourself

>>21213253
Christopher, stop posting. We are not reading your shit book. One of the reviewfags read it, and from their review, I ain't touching it.

>>21213268
>why are you lumping chinkshit with litrpg
it all has the same energy (being fucking awful)

>>21213239
Wolfe is borderline too intellectual to be enjoyed. I'm really not a fan of his work but I respect his sublimely enigmatic intellect. There are untold layers upon layers to his writings that make it virtually impossible to parse fully on a single read (or even a reread) and forms a serious filter to almost all potential consumers of his work; it's simply too inaccessible for the average person unless they examine it purely on the surface-level plot, in which case the greater artifice of Wolfe's talent is lost. However, I can acknowledge the importance of the fact that he is an intellectual and not a pseudo-intellectual, which is more than can be said for most high-brow authors.

>>21213271
Dont care gonna keep reading, The last series I enjoyed this much was The Prince of Nothing

I like how this thread was actually slowing down and nobody posted for ten minutes but now zoomers are just spamming to keep it in front. Page.

>>21213289
But I'm a boomer, who mostly posts anonymously.

>>21213272
>it all has the same energy (being fucking awful)
fucking kek
realtalk, litrpg is just the western equivalent of chinkshit, there's zero distinction between xianxia cultivation novels and litrpgs except in one the protagonist is name Chow Sun Huo and in the other his name is Jack Dickley

>>21213289
Ten minutes is a long time for a zoomer, can you imagine if this thread when into page 3 or God forbid, page 4? Better start shitflinging or better yet, argue about the same shit they've been arguing for the past few weeks then just not post.

>>21213291
That's only true if you entirely disassociate the word from anything to do with age.

Any new books with ROMANCE in them?

>how dare you post in a thread?
Why are millennials so scared of /sffg/?

>>21213298
>>21213289
What is the purpose of keeping /sffg/ on the front page? I have notice whenever there’s a lull in posting, it’s followed by multiple posts with zero substance and mostly hostile as of to bait more retards into posting.

>>21212325
it's an easy read, the language is very modern. Relies on cheap shock value scenes to keep your attention. A painfully obvious allegory to the second sino-japanese war, it's going to annoy you if you know anything about the history of that
also the author is unironically pic related so beware. All her books are about how white people are racist

>>21213316
The Darkness That Comes Before
Dune
The Book of the New Sun

>>21213278
maybe if you’re stupid

>>21213323
a chinese (some people will claim vietnamese are different people than south chinese) woman writes fantasy book that is about china
How original!

>>21213326
none of those are new, one's even a gay lit.

>>21213320
Look dude, you already derailed the thread, you can either keep on spamming so the thread can reach the bump limit, or you can fuck off, so maybe a few anon who have something worthwhile to say can post. Either way, congrats on killing this thread.

What is “litrpg” and why does it make you all so mad

>>21213335
Most book will probably have romance in them, but don't come back here to complain the new book you read was shit-awful.

>>21213342
You already kill the thread, why bother people this charade up? Just spam already you pointless fuck.

>>21213323
Remember when Sword of Kaigen was about how every race had their own DBZ powers except for white people, who were slaves?

Wait, the Iron Widow doesn't have an MMC?
unfortunate..

>>21213342
You remember that horrendous Adam Sandler movie about video games becoming real life? That's what LitRPGs are. Authors incorporate discussion of hit points and leveling up into their dialogue and it's 100% serious

>>21212872
Recommend me a good Wuxia novel.

>>21212482
>>21212654
Good to know, copyright stuff has always bamboozled me a bit

>>21213409
Copyright laws differ by country.

>>21213289
>>21213298
>>21213322
I like how this exact same back-and-forth seems to show up every thread whenever people start talking about things.

>>21213347
…what? I just opened this thread. What is wrong with you guys today

>>21213399
What that can’t be real. Do you have any examples?

>>21213399
>Authors incorporate discussion of hit points and leveling up into their dialogue and it's 100% serious
Magic system is irrelevant desu. Using game magic system is very lazy but it does not matter. What defines litrpg is poor writing (magic system aside) and plot that is based on dnd games or even worse actual video games.

>>21213289
>>21213298
>>21213322
I like how you are the fags(or bots) that are keeping the thread on the front page with your posts having absolutely no substance.
People discussing books is apparently zoomers wanting front page.

>>21213620
>Magic system is irrelevant desu. Using game magic system is very lazy but it does not matter. What defines litrpg is poor writing (magic system aside) and plot that is based on dnd games or even worse actual video games.
Another day, the same lie being pushed by seeting cucks of /sffg/. Go on, tell me what game The Wandering Inn, Beneath the Dragoneye Moons or Infinite Realm plots are based on. I'll wait.

>>21213701
TWI is pretty explicitly based on D&D-esque stuff, right?

>>21213239
>read Bakker
>First page is full of ridiculous words with as many accents and umlauts thrown into them to make the words sound exotic
Dropped

>>21213718
Warcraft/DnD
Some of the stuff like knolls is more warcraft than dnd

>>21213701
I haven't read them but they most likely have plot progression and are structured like some shitty rpg video game. If they do not have that then I would consider them traditional fantasy with lazy magic system.

>>21213253
I got bored when he was in the arena
Like you can only tell me galaxy spanning events are yet to happen so many times before I start requiring the present tense to be interesting

>>21213796
I dropped it when he got cucked

>>21213778
Gnolls are all over D&D

>>21213787
>If they do not have that then I would consider them traditional fantasy with lazy magic system.
Congratulations, you've just realized what a Litrpg story is. And considering most of people here consider magic systems to be a degenerate term for midwits, Litrpg is just traditional fantasy with few minor quirks.

>>21212701
The Broken Sword, the mc has sex with his elf mom
It's scifi but Dancers at the End of Time, the mc has healthy incestuous relationship with his mom. Great series, one of Moorcock's Best along with The War Amongst the Angels trilogy

>>21213848
FUCKKK
I wanna cum deep in some mature pussy.

>>21213859
Read fantasy books written by middle-aged women, they like to write age gap romances.

>>21210890
Vance and Herbert were mates. I remember reading that Vance and Hervert would take their families holidaying together.

>>21213845
>Congratulations, you've just realized what a Litrpg story is.
Just realized? I have known since the day I read my first litrpg.

>>21214019
they always do older male/younger female
the only exception to this rule I've found is Arwen/Aragorn and that's because she's a 3,000 year old elf (and also his 38xgreat auntie)

>>21214033
That's intriguing. Their styles are nothing alike but if you could somehow merge Herbert's grandiosity with Vance's cleverness it could be amazing. I wish they'd had a son who took over Frank's legacy rather than Brian and Kevin Gay Anderson.

>>21213848
>>21213859
>>21214019
based...

>>21213848
broken sword is EXTREMELY grimdark though

>>21214019
Any examples you got anon?

>>21214266
It's a greek tragedy that goes heavy metal.

>>21214266
It's more tragic than grimdark.
>>21214277
Wheel of the Infinite - Martha Wells
Morgaine cycle - C.J Cherryh

>>21214397
You consider mid-30s middle age? Well, ok.

>>21214277
Bujold

>>21210886
>t speaks directly to something primal in us, demanding strength and power to go up if it's possible
It speaks to the faggot in you, I have to turn to fucking wuxia to avoid that bing bing wahoo soishit. It's a crutch of bad authors to rely on number go up, as engagement.

>>21212096
Seems like obvious misandry to me, either internal(he just hates and fears men) or external(he's afraid of judgement and so anxious that he can't even write a character in a book without constantly second guessing himself and trying to downplay any potentially offensive actions). So he writes girls instead, but fills them up with masculine characteristics to the point where they basically are men, and then makes them lesbians so they can romance other girls. In essence he really does want to write a male protagonist, but the only way for him to do it without addressing his subconscious issues is to pretend the MC is a girl.
Basically it's the equivalent of making all your characters black to try to escape accusations of racism. Often I think we see both at once, this is what fuels the persecution tower, as everyone desperately tries to escape witchhunts.
>surely if I make the main character a fat, blasian, bisexual drag queen with aids and a club foot no one could possibly accuse me of racism!

>>21214413
>tfw you're favorite "older female character" growing up is 16 years younger than you

>>21214413
mid-30s literally is "middle-age" by the standards of the longevity of a human being, the fact that people these days last into their 90s and 100s regularly doesn't change the fact that for 5000 years you were expected to live to around 70 and anything much after that was a bonus

>>21214531
The solution is to have her be drawn older than you are now.

Chart Maker Supreme and his Bakkerbros

>>21213253
I agree 100%. Hadrian's story capitavated me in the same way that Severian's did in BOTNS. Some people make comparisons to Name of the Wind, but I'm sorry this series blows Kingkiller out of the fucking water. This is pure swashbuckling adventure, unapologetic fun.

>>21214548
No but seriously. Why are the charts in OP absolutely dogshit. Filled with literally who novels that no one here discusses

>>21214588
Nobody except brainlets even reads the OP in these threads. We just read what we know we will like. We dont need recommendations, we just KNOW.

>>21214588
Option A. The civilized man. Read a novel once, make a post about it, no one replies because it's by some literally who. It remains a literally who novel

Option B. The autistic man. Read trash. Post about it at least once per thread. Fellow autists are assimilated.

>>21214277
Marion Zimmer Bradley writes a lot of age-gap romances from both sides, it's a bit weird to read those romances now considering that she was a literal pedo.
>>21214413
That's the biggest age-gap you are going to find in fantasy, there aren't many fiction books with women in their 50s or 60s dating men half her age, let alone in SFF books. there are fantasy books with women in that age range but most of them don't have romance, and if they do it's age appropriate (ie boring)

>>21211235
Get this hothead out of here

>>21214741
>Marion Zimmer Bradley writes a lot of age-gap romances from both sides, it's a bit weird to read those romances now considering that she was a literal pedo

>>21214801
>In 2014, Bradley's daughter, Moira Greyland, accused her of sexual abuse from the age of 3 to 12. In an email to The Guardian[16]
:(

Any of you ever read some pulp sci-fi from old magazines? There's some really great stuff from them days if you can sift through all of it.

>>21214854
I will now read your entire bibliography ;)

>>21214857
i love old pulp art

When does BOTNS get good? I've been reading for a couple hours and he still hasn't shut up about his obsession with vodalus and his boyhood nostalgia with the sweet smells of the summer winter archway flowers along the dancing shadow pond in the cool breeze of the secret place underneath the sunny snow along the rampart and blah blah blah blah
Like if this starts to spool up into something interesting im down for it. I want to be charmed by a new book. I've been trying this fucking places suggestions for a couple years just to find something captivating and interesting and more than just flowery prose and description autism but you guys haven't delivered since Cradle. I can enjoy some good prose and description but only if it actually goes somewhere.

>>21215009
>When does BOTNS get good?
When you stop posting here and read it.

>>21214940
>Earth is not fur us, lad. Earth is for the weak, for the worms that crawl on the ground. For us is flight, and the mad rush of the winds past our hurtling bodies. That we must have, without it we cannot live - though Death be the price we pay for it!"

damn how do I write like that

>>21215009
Did you like Moby Dick? If not, then you're not going to like BOTNS.

>>21215012
Well I'm trying. Just got past the part where he finds a wounded dog. I got intrigued, thinking maybe his relationship with the dog would prove moving and his training as a torturer would help him mend its wounds, and the event would change him. But nope. He sews it up, brings it some food a couple times, it runs away, he tries to find it but instead finds some random bint and has a boring conversation about old ruins and nobility leaving the planet forever ago. Then he finds out someone else is caring for the dog. The end. Next chapter? Some fucking festival for the guild and managing apprentices. FUCKING GET SOMEWHERE

I finally figured out the end to the Second Apocalypse on a reread.

Kellhus is the No-God, or within him at least.

We know sorcery can be used to possess others, as when Aurang possessed Esmenet and has the confrontation with Kellhus.

We know Kellhus sees the No God when he was on the Circumfix and comes back deeply changed. He tells Aurang in the aforementioned scene that he talked to the No God.

We know Kellhus inexplicably goes back to grab the one person who can make the No God work and brings them right to the Consult.

We know Kellhus anticipated the deaths of all his friends and family because its in one of his rare POV scenes, around the Head on a Pole scene.

We know Ajokli can't see him at the end and they the God's can't see the No God. Yeah, he could be in a head, but why would the Gods not be able to see souls inside heads in the world? If there was a way to stick your soul into a head and avoid damnation and the Gods then the Consult wouldn't have to exist.

So what happens? Kellhus goes to the Golden Room which is on a huge Topos. He has Ajokli show up because that was clearly part of the plan and why he went to the Outside in the first place.

Ajokli jumps into Kellhus. Kellhus jumps into his decapitant and from there into his son. "Hey, I don't really want to help Ajokli, let's go kill myself."

Then he gets No Goded. Now Kellhus is in control of, or at least communing with the No God. The No God spoke to him before because the future No God knows Kellhus. Or rather, future Kellhus might have been using the No God to speak to his past self in order to select the one timeline where his plan can go off correctly.

This explains the Kellhus appearance at the end of the book, during which he says some very Kellhus shit. Sure, this could be, as people say, just a hologram to distract the ordeal while the No God comes up an elevator or some shit, but this seems dumb, a total ad hoc move for the climax of the series.

I don't buy the whole "everything was Ajokli," thing. That comes from one AMA, but Bakker has lied in AMAs before in order to bury plot twists. If Kellhus grabbing his son and wife halfway across the world just to bring them to where the plot needs them is a fluke, then that's just bad writing.

Plus, his brother got killed by a White Luck Warrior. The idea that Kellhus was blind to the WLW makes no sense considering he clearly banked on one doing its thing.

Of course, IDK what he is doing with the No God. Some Thousandfold Thought shot no doubt.


This explains a lot of stuff in the ending that has sort of shit ad hoc explanations otherwise.

>>21215075
>FUCKING GET SOMEWHERE
You would get somewhere if you didn't stop reading just to post here.

>>21215009
>>21215075
You read a chapter and stopped? That seems counterproductive. Why not just read it until completion or just stop if you hate it.

Any bros here read M. John Harrison? I really liked Nova Swing.

>>21215197
>Any bros here read M. John Harrison?
no

>>21215012
>>21215168
>>21215189
>you have to wait for the man pissing on you to empty his bladder before you move out of the way
Say something meaningful about it or fuck off.

>>21215224
>Say something meaningful about it or fuck off.
I mean, what's there to say? You hate it. Just drop it.

>>21215224
Bro, if you hate it just drop it. No need to force yourself to read a book.

>>21214854

>>21215013
Witness the atomic bomb.

>>21215224
Stick to YA you stupid fucking cretin.

>>>/gif/23895168

>>21215080
Credible, desu.

>>21215197
>M. John Harrison
Who?

>>21215009
>I can enjoy some good prose and description but only if it actually goes somewhere.
Then you better drop it now and save yourself and this thread your bitching.

>>21215320
An author

>>21215282
>>21215321
>better gatekeep words on wood so the plebs dont know
Neither of you deserve any iota of joy derived from reading

>>21215224
>Say something meaningful about it or fuck off.
What do you want us to say, its clear as day you're forcing yourself to read the book, the best you can do now is just stop reading and read something you like.

>>21215329
Anon, what do you want from us? You fucking hate the book, either stop reading or read something else. Nothing we can say will change your experience.

>>21215320
the nigga who wrote viriconium
has killer insects in it

>>21215260
this

>>21215339
Never heard of him, nor am I interested in his books

>>21215329
That’s not how you use gatekeeping.

>>21215344
Shh, he feels important.

>>21215336
>>21215331
Just ignore him.

>>21215331
If I had such a thing, I would not be posting here whining that this board's recommendations leave something to be desired. I come here to find better reading than the brainless tripe suggested by more mainstream discussion, but its just more of the same.

>>21215344
>>21215347
>>21215350
Clean the cheeto dust from your fingers and shave your neck

>>21215358
Then it's your fault for believing the words of anonymous strangers, didn't your parents tell you to never trust them? Again, just read something else that you like and drop the book instead of whining here.

women authors are great and i love them

>>21215080
[spoiler[You're overthinking it. Kellhus clearly was trying to stop the Consult and the No-God's resurrection. He allied himself to a God, and we all know that Gods are powerless in the face of the No-God, Kelmomas, which got his ass killed. He thought there was a way to save humanity from damnation without the near eradication of life on Earwa, which guided every action he took in the Aspect Emperor series, and also was the reason why he killed Moenghus. Kellhus knew that it was only a matter of time before Moenghus would eventually fall to the Consult's argument, like the 5 mutilated Dunyain had.

Also, the Consult aren't actually bad guys. They legitimately want to save the world from eternal damnation. It's the gods who are the real enemies, since they rule the afterlife with arbitrary caprice and extreme cruelty.

I really wouldn't mind it if the No-God succeeds in hunting humanity to the brink of extinction. I just hope Bakker isn't dumb enough to make the next series about Akka going on a D&D quest to find the Heron Spear and use it to fry the No-God but we're probably going to get that. [spoiler/]

>>21215080
You're overthinking it. Kellhus clearly was trying to stop the Consult and the No-God's resurrection. He allied himself to a God, and we all know that Gods are powerless in the face of the No-God, Kelmomas, which got his ass killed. He thought there was a way to save humanity from damnation without the near eradication of life on Earwa, which guided every action he took in the Aspect Emperor series, and also was the reason why he killed Moenghus. Kellhus knew that it was only a matter of time before Moenghus would eventually fall to the Consult's argument, like the 5 mutilated Dunyain had.

Also, the Consult aren't actually bad guys. They legitimately want to save the world from eternal damnation. It's the gods who are the real enemies, since they rule the afterlife with arbitrary caprice and extreme cruelty.

I really wouldn't mind it if the No-God succeeds in hunting humanity to the brink of extinction. I just hope Bakker isn't dumb enough to make the next series about Akka going on a D&D quest to find the Heron Spear and use it to fry the No-God but we're probably going to get that. [spoiler/]

>>21215403
>heron spear
>beam is red
>red heron
use your three pound brain anon

>>21209969
My life

>>21211215
Based

>>21215376
is that thing even a woman

New thread
>>21215791

>>21215320
>Who?
Wtf has happened to this general

New thread
>>21215835

>>21215403
That's pretty much what he said on the AMA and it wreaks of bullshit because it implies a character we've come to know as extremely capable just happened to accidently slip, travel a thousand miles to do the very one specific thing that ruined his plans, and then specifically not do the many very apparent things that would have secured his plans and instead just coincidentally did everything exactly right to fail.

Not to mention he literally says that based on the nature of the Gods he HAS to lose in the convention sense when he is explaining the situation, e.g., he literally says in Book 3 that the naive solution you say he is trying for is impossible.

>>21213400
Just read The condor Heroes. Pretty nice. There is plenty of non-sense chink "honor" stuff, Genghis Khan, and lots of crazy stuff.