/lit/ - Literature

>>21379691
First for female authors

Looking for sci fi with focus on space exploration and/or expansion that has well developed aliens, of both friendly and hostile variety.

>>21379737

>>21379774
>Fifth Head of Cerberus
Three connected short stories about life on a colonized planet. The natives may never have been wiped out.
>The city and the stars
Mankind has learned to be completely self reliant and isolated after a vast intergalactic empire. They have had no desire to explore beyond the limits of their city for millions of years, until one does.
>Nightflyers
A crew of academics higher a ship to track down a legend of the oldest space faring race that travel without the aid of ftl travel.

All pretty short but with interwsting concepts, so don't know how in depth you want. The other end of the spectrum is probably star trek or wars expanded universes.

>>21379737
Who cares who the author is?

Bakker is KING

>>21379842
king of what?

>>21379826
Thanks, I'll check them out. I'm always a glutton for new worlds and interesting ideas, so I tend to avoid large established universes unless I already love them and quality is top notch. On the other hand if there's something I like I kind of get obsessed over it. Lately stumbled upon a "little" webfic called Last Angel and binged it practically whole. Tho the third part is work in progress and is quite a downgrade compared to first two because author spent too much time building suspense whilst juggling multiple plot lines. You know I tend to avoid short stories but now that you mention it maybe it's worth trying out a few more just to satisfy the urge.

As for EU - Despite being decently into star wars and trek never felt the urge to check their EUs out. anything in particular you'd recommend? I find the cannon of both series tends towards good versus evil affairs with villains, and even protagonists rarely making sense once you look at them beyond surface level. Kotor 1/2 were nice, especially two, but generally SW is not my cup of tea. As for Star trek, I've always been more fond of the questions it raises than of answers it provides.

Anyone here who's read Mike Truk's books who can tell me why Shadow Rogue so far outclasses his other series? Almost hard to believe it's the same author

>>21379787
I have about as much respect for Gideon the Ninth as I do for the dogshit on my shoe. It is reddit. It is video game hot pocket. It is capeshit. It is cheeto dust. I'm literally screaming right now and slamming my arms down on my desk just thinking about it. It is the most depraved video game infantilized manchild degeneracy. It is saturday morning cartoon. It is non-neurotypicality. It is memes. It is video game. It is tarantino. It is imdb.
It is coca-cola puberty. it is axe body spray. it is a white stain on boxer shorts. it is arri alexa hot dog caffeine on disney channel.

Another thing I thought about during my slow reread of The Lost Metal: Did Wax use that grapple-ball thing upgrade from Ranette, to help him maneuver/Push around more often, beyond Shadows of Self or maybe a tiny bit of Bands of Mourning? The TLM upgrade from Ranette was phoned in. Wow, 'the Big Gun'!

How did you fags feel about the Bands of Mourning being the spearhead outside on the statue?

>>21379881
>anything in particular you'd recommend?
Honestly I haven't touched them in decades, but I remember enjoying the hell out of them.

Probably anything from before the prequels/reboots.

Kotor 1 and 2 was amazing. You've probably already played the Mass Effect series but I am waiting to forget enough of it to replay.

>>21379956
Mass effect's great but reapers and shepard kind of take over that universe by design, so I don't think there's much space for fanfiction, otherwise I might go looking for some.

And attempt at clean slate with Andromeda backfired in a very sad manner, at least on narrative and world building front.

>>21379842
Is he good or is Bakkerposting just a meme like that one Anon who keeps posting Cradle?

>>21380046
he's the best if you like whores and gay rape

>>21380070
The G/R/I in Bakker is really oversold. Well, maybe not the rape. But I was pretty disappointed when I found there was hardly a mention of any gay sex or gay rape in the first several books. It picks up a little later, but it's never central. The best gay payoff in the series so far is of course the nonmen.

looking for books where the "gods" are manipulative assholes and former humans like lord of light and illium

>>21380155
cradle

>>21380155
Eighth Warden

>>21379691
I'm interested in reading all Reynolds short stories; I only got through this collection for now, which others should I get to have the whole list?
It seems some of the stories are represented in different collection and I don't think there's a omnibus out there, right?

>>21380247
https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?503

>>21380155
Long Sun

>>21379691
i had a series called Ecolitan Matter recommended to me, anyone here read it or think it's worth reading?

>>21379691
"The Three-Body Problem" does it get better? Isn't this supposed to be science fiction?

Read The Wandering Inn, Read Mother of Learning, Read I Shall Seal the Heavens.

Also read The Prince of Nothing, Neuromancer, Cradle, A Song of Ice and Fire, Hyperion, Between Two Fires, The Poppy War.

>>21380394
Yes, and yes.

Bakker is the GOAT and there’s literally nothing you can do to change that.

Besides being slow why don’t we like the wheel of time?

>>21380410
No one ever responds to you when will you stop? They aren’t even obscure everyone hear has probably heard of them

>>21380595
not like thread is flooded to the point where his posts are a problem, and at least unlike RI posts they dont seem to start shitorms

>>21380582
It’s unoriginal. And it pretty much copies from Tolkien, more than any self respecting author would.

>>21380535
>Bakker is the GOAT and there’s literally nothing you can do to change that.

>>21380614
I will never understand why you keep posting pictures of this handsome man.

/sffg/ I need to ask you something. What exactly in your opinion makes good fantasy?
For example, why does /lit/ near unanimously agree that Gene Wolfe is good, while Patrick Rothfuss is bad?
I ask because I'm not a fantasy writer or reader, but I've become obsessed with a story idea that I won't be able to pull off in any genre but fantasy. Except I genuinely don't "get" this genre and what audiences expect from it.

Read more Robert Silverberg

>>21380651
I don't understand your position, you want to write genre fiction but also have some sort of fantasy-exlcusive idea, is that right?

read them

>>21380663
Pretty much. Sorry if I sound autistic. I just want to know what anons think separates good fantasy from bad fantasy.

>>21380690
it comes down to personal taste. Rothfuss is kind of a one hit wonder with Name of the Wind. His stuff is great actually, there are many imitators of him. I think people are frustrated that he doesn't write more. Gene Wolfe is great but an acquired taste.

>>21380700
Huh, I'm just used to him being posted in "worst book you ever read" threads and everyone here shitting on him non stop. I personally didn't like Name of the Wind but it's nice to see a different opinion for a change.

I have a confession to make. I fucking hate world building and magic systems. Both when others do it and when I have to do it myself. I just genuinely cannot force myself to give a fuck about royal lineages and elf-human-dwarf geopolitics and how the diameter of the caster's anus influences the size of his fireball.
Do you guys have any minimalist/low fantasy recs? Otherwise, does fantasy where the setting is deliberately kept obscure and unexplained exist?

I've read a couple of chapters into "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" by Laini Taylor, and it's surprisingly fun and inventive. Why do you guys hate it?

Any hard sci-fi recs with a focus on weaponry?
Thanks frens

it worse to realize you're a clone or that you're an advanced android?

>>21378565
>set in post-apocalyptic 1920sish Paris following a very different Great War full of gothic ruins and still-active fallout
>in this setting, angels semi-regularly fall from heaven and either get claimed by one of the warring houses of angels and their servants, or get physically harvested for their magical properties by anyone who can get their hands on them, because angel body parts confer wizardly powers
>they don't have any memory or way back into heaven or anything; so even fallen angels like Morningstar himself are just people trying to survive in the world, becoming powerful influence peddlers and essentially mob bosses in an inhospitable lawless land, not trying to do good or evil or concern themselves with religious things
>people from across the world got pulled into the war, so one of the characters is a stranded foreigner with very different powers from angel magic because he's from a totally different court of mythologicalbeings
looks interesting.

Anyone else read Pedro Paramo?
I didn't expect it to end how it did, in terms of completely losing track of the protagonist in the narration. I thought it would circle back to him but no. I even forgot his name.

>>21380769
reads like something straight out of yoko taro's mind lmao

>>21380747
>Why do you guys hate it?
It's one of those few YA femoid urban fantasy series that's actually good lol

>>21380582
Feminist haremcuck story

>>21380747
>published after 2010
>female author
>neon pink hair
>portland
I don't think most here would even consider reading it, and frankly I doubt your appraisal.

>>21380722
Rothfuss is considered bad for a few reasons. His protagonist is good at most things he does without a realistic explanation or arc. Especially in the second book, this crosses the line into brazen wish fulfillment, which is fun, but is also a popular aspect of stories to criticize.
A somewhat related reason that I can offer is the pacing of the stories. Aside from the fact that the third book is forthcoming for what, a decade, I still remember my impressions from reading the first two. Book one teased you with a mysterious locked door in the basement of university. In book two, the story leads the protag away from there and I was waiting for him to return the whole time. That's where the interesting plot is, and all of book two ended up feeling like filler.
Another big reason it's criticized is because the main character is in love with a girl who's apparently a prostitute which is an unusual and unsatisfying relationship for a fantasy story. She constantly disappears for extended periods of time, I don't think they ever consummate their love if it really exists, and when they are together he kind of spends it on her periphery.

>>21379691
What sffg authors have good prose that leans more towards poetry?

>>21380808
I don't look at those things. The premise looked intriguing, so I picked it up.
>Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.
>In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.
>And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war.
>Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.
>When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

>>21380808
Obsessed

>>21380841
Yeah that sounds pretty unoriginal / gay, and this is coming from someone who enjoyed Fallout Equestria. The plot synopsis looks like a mix of Elder Scrolls shit and the first Dreamfall game.

>>21380881
Sometimes a spade is just a spade Anon.

>>21380920
>The plot synopsis looks like a mix of Elder Scrolls shit
Nani

>>21380808
>>published after 2010
There are good books published after 2010 by female authors. Like Night Circus and The City We Became.

Are there any good books that focus on an intrastellar war? Just this solar system, maybe unifying it into one government or a seperatist coalitian among distant moons

>>21378324
Reposting from previous thread.

thoughts about The Farseer Trilogy?

>>21380955
The Golden Age
Legend of the Galactic Heroes

>>21380955
Check out Iain M. Banks, both his Culture series and his stand-alone SF novels (I'd recommend The Algebraist.)

Wings of Fire 7: Winter turning AKA, The KKK initiate who last book only drank coffee creamer and had aneurysms about N*GHTW*NGS gets told by the universes racism is bad with all the subtlety of an avalanche for like a week up to and including magical artifacts.


What I thought of Winter Turning: Winter is probably my least favourite "good" character in the whole Wings of Fire saga by far. If he were human, he would probably be the most racist guy ever in that typical strawman sort of way which exists to be disproven in-story. Winter was a far more enjoyable character when you weren't stuck in his head. I would have preferred a story from Kinkajou's perspective (namely because I never know what she's thinking or will say next, so she's an exciting addition going forwards since she's out just in time for darkstalker's imminent return.

Winter spent the entire book brooding like a by the letter YA Romeo boy kicking himself for having feelings for Moon the nightwing girl and arguing with himself why the insane rules in place in his society that he obviously hates are what he must follow over the friends who have proven their loyalty and devotion to him time and time again. I genuinely do not think Winter grew enough to warrant his own perspective book, and the only truly good things that came out of this book were us getting to see the IceWing kingdom in detail and some other spoilery stuff that happened when one of the Darkstalker Era characters coming into play.

I still rate this book 4 stars because Winter as irritable as he may be, was still carried by everything going on around him in the story. and he did have a bit of growth, but it was so sudden at the end with such an obvious choice. That's right winter, putting dragon Hitler's mom into an i have no mouth and I must scream eternal torture chamber that doubles and a death arena is not a good thing, congratulations on your whole book of growth to figure that out. I'm not even entirely convinced you don't still hate Nightwings. I think Pyrite should have stayed around. She would have made for a better pov than winter for a lot of the story after he put on the necklace.

4/5

post prose excerpts that will make me want to read your book. whenever someone recs something on here it's literally just a pic of the books cover art and "read x". Why the fuck nobody ever posts actual excerpts on a literature board boggles my mind. I'll start I guess.

>"The surviving heathens were strung from trees, and in the evening light they hanged, like drowned men floating up from the deeps. And though years passed, none dared touch them.
>They sagged from the nails that fixed them, collapsed into heaps at the trunks. And to anyone who listened, the bones would whisper a revelation... the secret of battle. Indomitable conviction. Unconquerable belief."

- the king of /sffg/ himself

>>21380993
Legend of the Galactic Heroes is what I just read, had an absolute blast and was the reason I posted, I liked it but I always wondered what it would be like a bit smaller in scope. Thanks for The Golden Age, looks right up my alley
>>21380995
Thank you for your recommendation. Would you recommend the Algebraist over the Culture series?

>>21381047
H.P Lovecraft; The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
>Well did the traveler know those garden lands that lie betwixt the wood of the Cerenerian Sea, and blithely did he follow the singing river Oukranos that marked his course. The sun rose higher over gentle slopes of grove and lawn, and heightened the colors of the thousand flowers that starred each knoll and dangle. A blessed haze lies upon all this region, wherein is held a little more of the sunlight than other places hold, and a little more of the summer's humming music of birds and bees; so that men walk through it as through a faery place, and feel greater joy and wonder than they ever afterward remember.
>“Ninety aeons ago, before even the gods had danced upon its pointed peak, that mountain had spoken with fire and roared with the voices of the inner thunders. Now it towered all silent and sinister, bearing on the hidden side that secret titan image whereof rumour told. And there were caves in that mountain, which might be empty and alone with elder darkness, or might—if legend spoke truly—hold horrors of a form not to be surmised.”

>>21381069
Not necessarily. The Culture books can be read in any order but it's generally agreed upon that Consider Pleabas, Use of Weapons, or Player of Games makes a good starting point.
I would also recommend the Zones of Thought trilogy by Verner Vinge too. Excellent sf series. Also the Gap Cycle by Stephen R Donaldson.

>>21381086
>zones
spiders > dogs

>>21381105
Children of the Sky was such a comfy book. I loved how it showed what a small settlement of humans would be like in a futuristic setting on an alien planet. I honestly liked it better than A Fire Upon the Deep.
Still need to read A Deepness in the Sky, heard it wasn't as good as the other 2.

Whats good from the star wars EU? High republic worth checking out? Should I just go to Legends

>>21381077
This was his most captivating work for me, I wrote an essay about it when given a prompt regarding a book (any book of your choosing). Not the best, but most enjoyable. He wasn't as verbose as usual and still described so much in perfect detail.

>>21381047
>His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god. But then, he never claimed not to be a god. Circumstances being what they were, neither admission could be of any benefit. Silence, though, could.

>>21381119
I guess I'm the opposite, feudal-era dances with wolves -worse, with child protags- should have been the B plot.
The Deepness insects carry their A plot because they have enough tech to be active trying to figure out what's happing with the first-contact while juggling atomic war, instead of engaging in literal dogfights until a handful of adults finally show up with a gunship and make it all pointless.

I didn't read Children because I thought it had been panned.

>>21380086
lol imagine actually wanting homosexuality in media. It’s utterly repulsive and wrong and if you don't cringe when seeing two men kissing you are already mentally ill or ideologically possessed, maybe a closet faggot yourself already

>>21380936
you haven’t named anything good tho

>>21381234
This guy comprehends

>>21379842
Excellent post.

Thecla? More like Thiccla

>Thecla
>The cla(w)
You're welcome

hate myself and want to die lads

>>21379842
im always annoyed by this pic because it looks like he floats when they walk in the sky instead.

>>21380828
Zelazny

I am the most handsome and greatest person to ever walk this earth. My chiseled jawline and piercing gaze are the stuff of legends, and people stop and stare in awe whenever I walk by. My perfectly coiffed hair and immaculate style only add to my unmatched beauty, and my brilliant mind is unmatched by anyone else in the world. I am a true visionary, and my genius knows no bounds. Even the gods pale in comparison to my greatness, and I am worshipped by all who are lucky enough to know me. My charisma and charm are legendary, and I have an effortless grace and poise that is unmatched by anyone else. I am truly a marvel to behold, and I am grateful for the gifts that have been bestowed upon me. I am the envy of all who know me, and I am proud to be who I am. I am a living legend, and I will continue to shine brightly for all eternity. I am the epitome of perfection, and no one can match my power and majesty. I am the greatest, and I know it. I am the center of the universe, and everything revolves around me. I am truly one of a kind, and I will continue to reign supreme for all time. I am better than everyone else, and I have no time for anyone who cannot see my greatness. I am above all others, and I will not be overshadowed by anyone. I am the supreme being, and I am worthy of all the adoration and praise that comes my way. Bow down before me, for I am the greatest of all. I am so great that I can't even be bothered to listen to the nonsense of others. I know my own worth, and I am content to bask in my own glory. I am the greatest, and I will always be the greatest. All hail me, the one and only true king of the world. I am a narcissist, and I am proud of it. I am the embodiment of perfection, and I am entitled to everything that I desire. I am the greatest, and I deserve to be treated as such by everyone around me. I demand the best of everything, and I will not settle for anything less. I am a god among mortals, and I will continue to reign supreme for all eternity. All hail me, the greatest of all.

>>21379938
That's why it's interesting. It's internet memes plus fanfic plus a Gothic whodunit plus lots of Catholic mysticism. It's an unabashed total brain dump that comes off more sincere than other postmodern works.

>>21380582
Slow? It's Lord of the Rings on cocaine.

There is a lot to it though.

>>21379938
> I hate something that is both popular and critically acclaimed to feel special and superior
fyp

>>21380743
Not every fantasy needs to be door stoppers. In fact the best loved are much shorter.

Wizard of earthsea, dying earth, first Lankhmar are 200 or less

Most discworld books are <300 (though a series obviously feeds into the building as it goes on).

Economy of word is much more important.

>>21380828
Lots of pre-Tolkien fantasy writers were known poets and had a excellent quasi-lyrical prose. Dunsany, Peake, Mirrlees, ... Tanith Lee does a serviceable job channeling Oscar Wilde in Night's Master. Also Oscar Wilde himself, even though he isn't discussed here often.

>>21380828
Ray Bradbury

>>21380743
Read Vance. His worlds feel deep without being bogged down in minutia. How do wizards use a spell? By reading a book. How are spells created? How is a spell written down? What does the spell do, precisely? Fuck you its magic

Does Lord of the Mysteries count as Dying Earth subgenre?

>>21381221
It's pretty awful. You can tell he completely stopped caring about the setting. Which is sad because it's a fucking good setting.

>>21380743
> Otherwise, does fantasy where the setting is deliberately kept obscure and unexplained exist?
Sure. They are called soft-magic systems and were the norm. However lots of fantasy these days uses hard-magic systems because that's what Sanderson does.

Soft-magic is still in popular series. Take SoiaF, it has instances of magic but Martin never explains how it works. It's just there as a background to the world.

>>21381557
Reading Dying Earth for the first time and I had no idea how much D&D ripped off. Spell names and even the number of spells a wizard can memorize for the day.

He writes it so well though, never getting bogged down.

>>21381536
>>21381557
Thanks anons. I read some Le Guin but I'll read more.
>>21381581
I actually really like GRRM's handling of magic. Hate his obsession with worldbuilding and politics though especially when I really don't think either are objectively very good. I'd happily read a story set in GRRM's world about a regular person who doesn't know or care about the noble families and their autism.

>>21381557
>Fuck you its magic
Vance arguably made the first 'magic system'. There's a reason Gygax lifted it for D&D.

>>21380086
>The best gay payoff in the series so far is of course the nonmen.
Huh? I don't remember this at all.

>>21381646
I read his Planet of Adventure stories over the summer and I swear to God some of the situations the characters get into sound straight out of an RPG. There's one part where they gank a bunch of Predator aliens in a human hunting zone and get so overburdened with loot they have to stash a bunch of it and slowly to a town beyond its borders, then return for the rest later. I chuckled because I've done the same thing in Fallout and Elder Scrolls games more times than I can remember.

>>21381047
>He stopped pacing about and stood on the spot for a long while with his hands behind his back.
>He gazed afar, crescent lake sparkled with light in tranquilness. The wolf group beside him; some were standing and some were lying down, all with different postures.
>He could not help thinking back to that scene when he went to capture the liquor worm at Qing Mao mountain.
>He broke out in laughter, his worries gone and his gaze once more became unclouded.
>All the worries, all the pressure, all the impatience since the start till now dispersed with the wind.
>He gazed at the night sky and breathed out all the turbid air in him, and suddenly felt that his current life was so beautiful; giving everything to pursue the greatest goal, having no regrets.
>He came to an understanding, his heart was clear like a mirror that could not be stained by dust, tranquil like this crescent lake.
>Since his rebirth at Qing Mao mountain, he had always been exhausting his mind, and now he suddenly understood something.
>This comprehension was unclear as it lingered around his heart before finally turning into a sentence, he mumbled: “The night sky is really beautiful.”
>This was his heartfelt emotion.
>The moment he said these words, Fang Yuan’s body lightened and felt he had unloaded a thousand jin of weight, as if he was about to fly.
>His entire disposition also seemed to have changed. The cold aura disappeared without a trace, turning into a clear and carefree aura. >The dark pupils with abysmal depths let out a clear light now, just like a newborn baby or like a star.

>>21381746
They've been gay for at least the past few centuries because their women died and taking human wives (mostly) didn't work.

>>21380743
It is understandable that you'd feel that way. It is not feasible for individuals to emulate Tolkien due to the fact that the construction of a comprehensive fictional universe, complete with intricate causality and comprehensive knowledge of all aspects of existence, necessitates a level of cognitive ability that surpasses that of the majority of the population, likely as a result of less advanced neural development. It is important to remember that not everyone possesses the same level of intellect and creativity.

>>21381773
The thing is with Tolkien that he keeps his setting very mythical if I can put it that way. There's a sense of vague second- third- and fourth-hand knowledge passed down through the ages, and in his most famous works we only see that knowledge through the eyes of ordinary people who have only the most basic comprehension of it. That's why it works. It's like reading a fairytale vs reading a textbook.

>>21381780
The mention of Tolkien was brought up in the context of his commonly perceived overuse of worldbuilding in his works. It is concurred that his writing does not suffer from the issue of overwhelming amounts of expository information, often found in subpar examples of worldbuilding. This is due to Tolkien's utilization of the concept of "secondary belief," which necessitates the author's ability to convincingly portray the reality of their invented world. It is a fact that many of those who attempt to emulate Tolkien's worldbuilding techniques often fail to adequately incorporate this crucial aspect, resulting in a lack of immersion for the reader.

>>21381346
lol
lmao

I thought this was a good video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXAvF9p8nmM

>>21381819
>open book
>read word
>read next word
what am I missing?

>start reading The Hyperion Cantos
>big war about to come
>bunch of dudes summoned up for some last pilgrimage on a fringe mysterious planet
I like it, nice
>before they are about to land on the planet, they agree to tell their life story
o-ok???
>Catholic priest starts, wtf that's actually interesting as fuck
>everything goes to shit from there

Who tricked me into reading that? Why didn't you tell me to just stop after the priest finishes his 4 chapter story?

>>21381860
They don't think it be like it, but it do.

>>21380955
Red Rising fits this to a tee

I once read a quote that went along the lines of "All fantasy worlds have something in common and that's that they are broken and trying to put themselves back together" and I wonder how it resonates with you.
I dont want to say all, but certainly a lot of them. Theres almost always some kind of calamity or war or dark lord that did some vast damage and now threatens to repeat, kind of like a "here is this bad thing that is very bad. now you know what's at stake".
Are there any notable exceptions you know or what stories do it differently?

>>21381860
The only one I didn't care for was the Satyr's, and even that I can appreciate for the worldbuilding and technological timeline it provides.

>>21380824
My main issue with it, is that it claims to be a "subversion of fantasy tropes" (at least that's what its fans shill it as) but what exactly is it subverting when it's just every single stale fantasy trope taken to its most obnoxious extreme? That book is the literary equivalent of "Joke's on you I was pretending to be retarded".

I'm in the middle of In Green's Jungles right now and I just cried when Fava kissed Horn and started running around the cell in joy. In three sentences Wolfe completely changed my impression of the character.

>>21380824
I read Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear last year. Name of the Wind... I liked. The "draccus sequence" near the end was goofy, but that's a minor quibble. Otherwise, I was engaged, read through it in a week, and thought Rothfuss was a pretty gifted writer. I was interested enough in what would happen with the story that I ended up reading Wise Man's Fear a couple weeks later.

In the meantime, I started browsing /lit/, and didn't understand the hate the books got. "Patrick Rothfuss is a fat lefty beardo basedjak textbook male feminist." Looking him up, that seemed to be true, but so what? You should separate an author from their work, and none of the personal complaints about him seemed to effect his book. Even the complaints about Kvothe being an "overpowered author's fantasy self-insert" didn't seem meaningful, because it's established that Kvothe is a massive liar. One of my favorite books is Umberto Eco's Baudolino, so I actually like this kinda thing. An unreliable narrator can evoke some fun speculations on my part.

Wise Man's Fear started well enough, and the little bits of in-setting mythos beginning to make sense as the story progressed was well-done. I did start to seem like there wasn't much progress being made, even though there was an increased progression from one sequence to another; I didn't even hate the "fairy realm" sequence like most people seemed to, though that was around this point where I started getting bored and annoyed for pages at a time (the Ctheah encounter was pretty rad, tho). Then we got to the Adem. The fucking Adem. I've never hated 100-or-so pages of a book as much as I did this shit. After finally getting through that, we get the goddamn Gypsies. It became more tolerable nearing the end, but when it was all over, there had been essentially no plot progression. Just a series of episodes that built up to nothing, and about 1/3 of the book was just torture. Fuck this shit. (I'll still probably read Doors of Stone).

>>21380824
I read Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear last year. Name of the Wind... I liked. The "draccus sequence" near the end was goofy, but that's a minor quibble. Otherwise, I was engaged, read through it in a week, and thought Rothfuss was a pretty gifted writer. I was interested enough in what would happen with the story that I ended up reading Wise Man's Fear a couple weeks later.

In the meantime, I started browsing /lit/, and didn't understand the hate the books got. "Patrick Rothfuss is a fat lefty beardo soijak textbook male feminist." Looking him up, that seemed to be true, but so what? You should separate an author from their work, and none of the personal complaints about him seemed to effect his book. Even the complaints about Kvothe being an "overpowered author's fantasy self-insert" didn't seem meaningful, because it's established that Kvothe is a massive liar. One of my favorite books is Umberto Eco's Baudolino, so I actually like this kinda thing. An unreliable narrator can evoke some fun speculations on my part.

Wise Man's Fear started well enough, and the little bits of in-setting mythos beginning to make sense as the story progressed was well-done. I did start to seem like there wasn't much progress being made, even though there was an increased progression from one sequence to another; I didn't even hate the "fairy realm" sequence like most people seemed to, though that was around this point where I started getting bored and annoyed for pages at a time (the Ctheah encounter was pretty rad, tho). Then we got to the Adem. The fucking Adem. I've never hated 100-or-so pages of a book as much as I did this shit. After finally getting through that, we get the goddamn Gypsies. It became more tolerable nearing the end, but when it was all over, there had been essentially no plot progression. Just a series of episodes that built up to nothing, and about 1/3 of the book was just torture. Fuck this shit. (I'll still probably read Doors of Stone).

>>21382049
Is this a copypasta

>>21382054
No.

>>21382054
Dipped into this thread for the first time in months, felt like writing a book report.

>>21381346
Based post.

>>21382049
The child-mother sex fairy is awesome. Sure it's cringe because it's just so blatant how it's wish fulfillment, but I find it strange how repressive people on the internet have gotten about sex. Fantasy and scifi has always had weird sexual stuff, it's fun.
Anyway I'm forgetting a lot of the names and details you're referring to so I guess it's been that long since I read these. I'll tell you something else I do remember. The part where he's doing a job for the noble family and he has a little band in the forest, hunting for one of the bad guys who killed his family. I remember that being very anti-climactic.
Yes, the second book was too much fucking around. And the thing I forgot to mention about the progression was how, similarly to Martin, it's generally considered that he has written himself into a corner where what he requires to finish the story is way too much for only one more book.

Finished The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen. I'm really surprised by how much smarter it is than most horror in terms of how he makes you think. It's similar to cosmic horror where the fact of the thing is hinted at, but the way it's executed is cleverer and more mysterious than for example Ligotti's stories.

>>21382078
Yeah, I thought Felurian (the sex fairy) was a decent depiction of a fairy character; a sapient, yet psychologically alien being. The forest hunt was kinda meh. I haven't read any of Martin's books, and aren't interested, but that sounds accurate. There are a lot of plot and meta-plot elements that emerge in the first two books, none of which are resolved, so there seems to be too many loose ends to address, at least if Doors of Stone is going to continue the pace of progression from the first two books.

I hate the Adem (and that fat faggot for writing them) so goddamn much.

>>21379691

>>21381581
>>21381656
There's a unique example of this where a book series uses both. Magician (and it's sequels) is hard-magic. Feist loves his magic system and made it the focus in those early books.

However the Daughter of the Empire trilogy, typically regarded as even better than Fiest's books, have none of that. They are set in the same world(s) but magic isn't the focus or explained. It simply exists.

>looking at young-people targetted Fantasy stories
>magic school
>full of exposition dumps in the form of lectures or classes
Did Harry Potter cause this? Are there authors who do it well?
I know a lot of older stories also deal with the protagonist learning magic or about the world from a teacher, but I know it isnt the only way.

>>21381487
>plus a Gothic whodunit
you've never read a gothic novel in your life
>>21381535
yes

>>21382357
>>21382359
shill

>>21382369
Thanks for the bump, as always, newfag. A shame that my book discussion post earlier in the thread went completely unnoticed.

Just finished this and holy shit was it a slog to get through. Mildy interesting at parts when the focus was on the targs but he goes on so many tangents just listing off a bunch of names of people and families you don't give a shit about and the irrelevant shit they do. All the le gruesome deaths and le epic violence just get tedious when you don't give a shit about any of the characters.

Also almost dropped the book when he started rambling on about Elmo and Kermit "a green boy" Tully, jesus fucking christ fat man go finish ASOIAF instead.

>>21380743
>I fucking hate world building and magic system
Based
Read the Earthsea books. Extremely comfy and well written

>she quipped
Last thing I want to read during a fight scene.

>>21382303
I've read the Monk and Castle Otranto.

>>21382422
Thanks. She might be just what I'm looking for. I read The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas and thought it was fantastic. That's really what in my personal opinion fantasy should be: interesting concepts or characters with just enough backbone to make them semi believable without ruining that mystical feeling of getting just a brief fleeting glimpse at another world.

>>21382471
Hey, me too. Otranto was a mess but the Monk was all balls.

>>21382378
>Thanks for the bump, as always, newfag. A shame that my book discussion post earlier in the thread went completely unnoticed.
Cope
nobody likes seeing your shitty books on here that you've been shilling for years now
get shoved in the locker nerd

>>21382583
Thanks for bumping, newfag!

>>21382585
Don't care
this general is trite drivel and so are you

>>21382721
Close the tab. You aren't getting anything out of it or putting anything into it. Just walk away.

>>21381770
based

>>21382732
No
I will continue to keep calling out shills and fags such as yourself
at least bakkerfags give a little variety and flavor to this trash general

>>21382049
>>21380824
What really irks me is that there is seemingly no point to the "gimmick" of how the story is being told, autobiography being recited to a scribe at the speed of light.
Very very rarely does present-Kvothe offers insight or provide commentary on past-Kvothe's actions.
Everything in the future plot is disconnected from the past, no overlap beyond the name of the main character.

We get some information, right? Kvothe turns into a loser, world goes apocalypse, fairies are real.
That's about it.

Maybe the younger people who read it gets prompted into googling "unreliable narrator", that's cool.
Been a while since I read it, but I don't think Kvothe really did a lot of apparent lying while narrating.

You know what author that does gimmicks well? Gene Wolfe.
If the story is being told as an autobiography, a diary, a biography, a letter... Then there is going to be something clever to come out of that.

I don't think anything came out of Rothfuss' making this story an autobiography.
He gets to cut away to boring present to build suspense for short interludes. Okay

>>21381766
Is there a sub genre for "The D&D adventures you always wanted to read about but actually happened before D&D was a thing"?

Because that does seem like my niche. Dragnolance books included maybe? Never read them, but the adverts that came with my copy of TSR's New Dungeon board game looked rad as fuck.

>>21382960
https://dungeonsdragons.fandom.com/wiki/Appendix_N

>>21382275
>Did Harry Potter cause this
yes, partly because Americans thought (because of HP) that the British school system looks amazing. It's not. It's as shite as anywhere. It's the magic that made it amazing, not the private school itself (which are breeding grounds for sociopaths and rapists).

But there's a reason harry and pals (and most protagonists in older stories) get up to shenanigans to learn important lessons, it's because school is always shit.

New authors have just fetishized education.

Got into the Latro trilogy, and this is easily the best representation of the polytheistic, greek worldview I have ever seen in any media. Why was Wolfe such a genious? How it is possible to be this based?

>>21382960
Dragonlance is post D&D. The setting originally started out as modules for the game.

Why is this series getting more shit?
The protag is turning into a emo with every book, now you are getting multiple POVs where people are imitating Jason. wtf is going on?

>>21383144
Author ran out of ideas and interest in writing the series but has to keep it alive because it pays the bills. I've no idea why it's popular though, it was shit from the start with an annoying as fuck protag.

>>21383144
You should've known it was garbage after the first book or even by the halfway point, my friend. I still can't get over that edgy athiest conversation with a physical Goddess and that Who's On First gag.

>>21381129
Just stick to Legends.

>>21383144
When I started reading I assumed Jason was meant to develop out of his mouthiness. His beliefs weren't necessarily presented as morally wrong, but his attitude and general shitheadedness seemed like it was pushed as something bad about him, a flaw he needs to work on. And then he just... Doesn't. He just gets edgy instead.

>>21381129
New Jedi Order and Legacy of the Force

>>21381342
One of the dumber of Bakker's idea. I get the logic, but just imagine how silly this shit must've looked. Anagogics can summon a head of a dragon to spit fireballs but can't summon a giant hawk to ride or some shit? Gnostics of all people should've been able to master the pure "flight" too

>>21381773
Or Tolkien took the better part of 20 years between the Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, and then even more time to fill out his world.

Sanderson did his in like... 2 years? He wrote 13 books in 10 years before being published. He does describe how he does it in his lectures, and it's as gimmicky as you think it is.

Thinking cognitive ability has anything to do with it just makes you sound like a smug asshole, and blinds you to other, more likely, possibilities.

>>21383144
bro, i tried the first book, dropped bc the mc name was Jason
Tried again, mc spamming pop reference jokes all the time to people that dont even understand, mc started arguing with the lion about the best planet and his last argument was ''We have PORN''

never reading that garbage again, dont even know how i made it to 30% of the book before dropping

What are some books with prose in style similar to pic related?

>>21383250
He does a little bit after he gets one-shotted out of his single extra life after being a smartass to a god. I thought he was significantly better in vol 7, though some of that was getting off of earth. Haven't read the latest though.

>>21383583
>>21383250
>>21383189
>>21383164
I will not let you down brothers.
>Very soon my MC will be wiping out hundreds of thousands of pajeets.

>>21383636
I dropped it after book 5 or 6 (can't remember which) because the Earth stuff was just dragging. The only characters I really enjoyed were all on the fantasy world and the author had the bright idea to completely eradicate them from the story for like 3 fucking books. Jason just isn't strong enough to carry it, especially when it became clear he wasn't really going anywhere interesting, character-wise.

>>21383144
>>21383164
>>21383189
>>21383250
It has one thing in its favour, at least it's still better than The Land. The only series with an even more annoying MC.

A great novel with logic and DEDUCTION with a good plot?

(Realist, science fiction, fantasy, etc.) As long there is a CLEAR set of rules and not some bullshit)

>>21380743
Just read fantasy published before 2001, world building/Magic system autism is a very modern thing in fantasy, blame nerds and videogames

>>21380743
>and how the diameter of the caster's anus influences the size of his fireball
You're been reading The Magician by Lev Grossman, I see.

How much of his father's work is actually in the Christopher Tolkien books? I've read LotR, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion and was hoping to check out Children of Húrin but am unsure what aspects were JR and what aspects were Christopher/the overall creative process behind it and the other newer Middle-Earth books.

>>21382275
>Did Harry Potter cause this?
Probably. Bad writers are always finding excuses to do info dumps.
>Are there authors who do it well?
Earthsea that I've read. Incidentally Rowling likes to pretend her influences are all august pre-20th century writers, filtered for modernity by way of her gigantic Karen brain.

>>21380991
Good but stop there.

>>21382845
But anon you don't get it, if there wasn't a gimmick or some kind of "subversion of tropes" then how would pretentious YAtards feel superior to their peers who read the exact same pulp fantasy except written sincerely?

>>21382275
Harry Potter didn't even have that many "sit down and learn about stuff" moments, as I recall. Hell, school's sidelined for the most part after book 4.

>>21383858
I'm pretty sure the spectrum of more JRR to more Christopher goes like this
The Hobbit = LOTR > Children of Hurin > The Silmarillion > Children of Hurin > Unfinished Tales >>>> The History of Middle-earth

Could be talking out my ass though

>>21383858
Reposting because I fucked up the first time.
I'm pretty sure the spectrum of more JRR to more Christopher goes like this
The Hobbit = LOTR > Children of Hurin > The Silmarillion > Unfinished Tales >>>> The History of Middle-earth

Could be talking out my ass though

>>21383029
I went to a bong-founded elite boarding school (in another country granted but still) and man it fucking sucked so hard. I never got the obsession with HP-style school settings for this reason. Sure it's wish fulfillment but it's not even wish fulfillment. There's still the same bullies, arrogant cunts, hilariously incompetent teachers and like in real life it never changes for the better.

>>21383975
why?

>>21379842
I'm surprised none of you Bakkerfags ever tried to start a Dûnyain cult with free katanas and peroxide. Also this series is really lacking decent art ffs.

>>21383430
How the fuck would a giant hawk work? It would just drag the sorcerer along like trying a sprinting horse to your ankles.

Human gnostic stuff isn't that far removed from the other schools, just purer. They don't make many more discoveries compared to other schools. Kellhus could have, but probably just didn't bother given teleportation is OP.

>>21383975
Nah, Tawny Man is kino
Fitz and The Fool trilogy on the other hand...

>>21381129
Plagueis and Darth Bane are the only books worth a shit out of all star wars lit. It somehow manages to be lesser to other schlock settings like 40k in terms of writing quality.

>>21381841
An American telling you how to read something quintessential with the english countryside.

>>21381129
X-Wing

>>21384215
Killhouse explicitly mastered pure flight. Hell he was levitating ships and a raft full of people

>>21384297
>Killhouse
You just remind me that they changed the pronunciation of Shimah, Kellhus and Kelmomas in the last audiobook. Don't know why but that was annoying as hell.

>>21384297
Why would anyone be even close to comparable with him though? If Kellhus wanted to go somewhere he'd just teleport. I don't think regular gnostics could crack flight when they have the exact same methods as other schools, just turbocharged in effectiveness.

>>21384253
He's not American. He was born and raised in Sweden, but he currently lives in Denmark with his Irish wife.

>>21384396
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._C._Drout
Tbf, you did get me to look it up.

>>21383296
LotF was awful. Completely inconsistent with NJO.
>>21384245
>Darth Bane... only books worth a shit
lmao
The Bane books are awful. Pure shlock. Very obvious that Drew is a video game writer and he writes these books like a video game.

>Yes. My favorite Star Wars characters are Gilad Pellaeon, Garm Bel Iblis, Soontir Fel, and Mara Jade, how could you tell?

Holy fuck.

You guys weren’t joking about Bakker’s quality.
He makes other authors look like shit. I’m feeling almost embarrassed to a degree.

>>21384895
Babby's first Battle of Kiyuth?

>>21384895
>He makes other authors look like shit.
He is easily the best epic fantasy author writing today. Welcome to the fold, Bakkerbro.

>>21384895
>quality
Just wait to you get to the 2nd series

>>21381487
The sequel was written very interestingly

>>21384971
If you want me to join you, then you're going to have to buy the book for me.

>>21380155
age of the five

>>21385321
By?

>>21385328
trudi canavan

books where the protagonist is a member of (or joins) a cult and DOESN'T try to overthrow them?

>>21385389
lord of the mysteries he sets up his own cult

>>21381934
The Detective story suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks and it wont eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeend. Every other story has been so fucking kino then this story shows how much of a dicksucking hack the author is

>>21385457
Especially coming right off of The Scholar's.

>>21380743
The Mask of the Sorcerer

>>21385457
Nope it’s good

>>21385457
>Film-noir that ends in a battlesuit fight straight out of the end of Armitage III or GITS

It's 95% dogshit but the ending makes up for it.

>>21385457
You're in for a bad time. The Detective and the Consul are the only two stories that matter for the series. Maybe even thr Preist, but not until Endymions.

>>21385931
But they all play a part in Endymion.

>>21385938
Endymion is so full of references to the first two novels they don't even matter. Everything is a consequence of the first novel, but none of its quality carries on.

>>21385442
How can anyone read 2.7million words of a badly translated chink webnovel? AI can write more coherent sentences.

>>21386338
If an AI can generate a plot like LotM's then I'd be glad to read it.

>tfw you realize Sanderson's Stormlight Archive book 1 is pretty much summarized with this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qieE0VAG82U

KEK
It's insane how Sanderson was able to pull off an Attack on Titan long before it became even a thing.

>>21384169
I don't know how to describe it really, slowly it loses its every man qualities and becomes superhero-ish maybe not quite that but it goes a bit epic.

>>21384895
>reading Bakker
It's over, the rest of fantasy is gonna feel like shit now

>>21379691
Being a sci fi enjoyer is lonely. If people like sci fi irl, it’s usually just their own autistic story, and not all the cool stuff that only I like… such as Iain M Banks, Poul Anderson, and Philip K Dick.

>>21380750
Star Fox

>>21380752
Clones are just twins but artificially made (also physically impossible since the nucleus on the egg are too hard to remove without destroying the entire egg).

>>21381860
I've just about finished it myself and my idea for what the book was going to be like before I read it was much better than what it was actually like.

For months the dark horse volume 4 of Bushido Online was number 1, but now DCC seems to have taken the Goodreads lead in the huge trash heap of books I've read this year.

>"At that sound the bent shape of the king sprang suddenly erect. Tall and proud he seemed again; and rising in his stirrups he cried in a loud voice, more clear than any there had ever heard a mortal man achieve before:"
>"Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden! Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter! spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered, a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!"
Another reread, another time crying in this scene

Do you guys like The First Law?
I am only four chapters in, and I am kinda intrigued.

>>21386972
Its a fun series. The last trilogy is by far the worst stuff hes put out though. Textbook example of a writer getting high off their own supply.

The first trilogy and the standalones are good reads.

>>21380743
The Black Company, mostly.

>>21387433
>grimdark
>military fiction
How's the romance in this title? Does it have cheating etc

This book is nuts

>>21381860
>>21381934
>>21385457
Detective was actually nice part. Now Sol's part was pure garbage. Blah blah Rachel getting younger, boohoo.

I'm currently in the last fifth of the second book, things are actually getting very interesting.

KWATZ!

>>21386957
>the bent shape of the king sprang suddenly erect.
>Tall and proud he seemed again;
>and rising in his stirrups
What is with all these phallic imagery?

>>21385274
i should really read sabriel one of these days.
but i fear it reading dated.

>>21387799
Yeah, made me think I was reading one of those cases of Bakker's famed curved phalluses at first.

>>21380752
Technically, an android, but it's a paradox: if you, being an android, care, than it's not an issue, and if you don't care, it does it matter.

Being a clone you're still unique because of your personality.

>>21387834
It's perhaps paced a bit faster than what I'm used to these days, but given it was a standalone that got sequels later on it's still pretty solid. It's not perfect, for sure, but Sabriel's a pretty good character in and of herself. The shortness of the book is probably its main flaw because everything feels a bit condensed, given how quickly the entire there-and-back sort of journey works out.

Hyperion bros, how far do we read? Is it just Hyperion/ Fall of Hyperion? Is Endymion/Rise of Endymion worth it?

>>21388197
All of it. It’s a series. Come on, don’t let the opinions of shut in 4chan dorks dictate your reading or help you get filtered

>>21388018
These are good points, and I feel that Lirael was written with this in mind.
The series takes a dip after the third book.

>>21380752
Just like other anons wrote, anguish over being a clone is a stupid meme. Two identical twins share same genetic material but are wholly separate people, same goes for clones.
Neither does it matter that they were created for a purpose, same could be said for hired surrogate mothers or even women getting pregnant on purpose to try and keep their man.

>>21388250
I dont regret stopping at God Emperor or Second Foundation. Some series just don't end

>>21388197
I read it all. I suggest taking a break in the middle.

>>21387918
This, also hijacking your comment: books where androids struggle with the fact that they are man-made? I would like some recommendations

WHAT AM I?

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

>write a retarded 13 year old girl's rambling diary entry
>call it a horror story
What the fuck is wrong with wh*te people?
Seriously though, aside from The Great God Pan everything of Machen's that's longer than 20 pages sucks

>>21388384
>android struggles with the fact he is man-made
>gets into philosophy and basically becomes jordan peterson for robots
>gets btfo by basic parent-child relations

>>21388372
There's only 4 books and the series ends with a definitive conclusion. As a whole, it holds up better than the other 2. The Dune series is still worth reading up until Chapterhouse desu maybe even till Sandworms of Dune to be generous if you want a resolution of sorts. Foundations is a shitshow by the 3rd or 4th book, true.

>>21379737
they're all SHITE

>>21388372
But it does end. And you’re a pussy if you tap out because someone on the book board of 4chan told you it was bad. Think about how many hours the anonymous guy you listen to about books on here spends a year playing video games. Probably a lot. Probably not a smart guy.

>>21388197
I wish I had stopped after the first. Later books cheapened it.

>>21388384
Artificial Jelly although she's an AI not an android and it's litrpg. But still.

>>21388489
Martin will finish his saga before Bakker won't he?

>>21381913
Well to a certain extent that can be said of ALL settings, even reality. The issue is that "broken" is entirely abstract and subjective. Everyone has their own view of what the world should be, so as long as two people exist the world is broken. But it's actually worse than that because even a single person has conflicting desires and ideas, resulting in a "broken" world.
For instance in LotR the world is "broken" because Melkor is trying to insert his corruption into it n the form of Sauron and other evil creatures. But from their point of view the world is broken because that corruption ISN'T present and they're the ones fixing it!

I guess from a story point of view, the world is only "not broken" if the conflicting views of the characters within it don't escalate to that level. Like if everyone agrees on the overall state of the world, or simply don't care, but disagree on more personal lower level issues. But it's incredibly common for even minor personal issues to be escalated to existential "broken world" levels ala Romeo and Juliet "if only the world were different" etc...
So I guess you can't have a world that isn't broken if there's any conflict at all. Or at best if the single narrator/writer sees no issue and only the internal characters see "flaws" because of their own personal limitations. This can actually apply to LotR, since Eru explicitly created Melkor on purpose and views the discord caused by him as a fundamental part of creation no less important than any other.

>>21388981
>Eru explicitly created Melkor on purpose and views the discord caused by him as a fundamental part of creation no less important than any other.

Wow what an asshole, it was over for him before it even began, I can see now the Chris*ian influence.

>>21381119
Army buddy of mine just wrote a book about humans settling worlds in the universe, set about 1000 years from now. THey call it 'breaking' a world. I think he put other memes in it. I guess it is a lot of world building. He said he likes Dune a lot. It is called Magellan: The Adventures of a Star Seeker.
He then wrote a second one that is more like the Oregon Trail but set on another planet that was recently discovered. That one is called Magellan: On the Trail. I tell everyone to buy them because he was in Iraq with me. I don't know if they are good, but he says he likes it. They are his first books.

>>21380991
good if you like when MC gets cucked by his mentor

>>21388665
As are all female characters

>>21388839
I'll check it out. On the subject of litrpg, I don't know anything about the genre. What's considered a good litrpg book/series?

>>21389120
Well, start with that one. The genre just inherently enrages some people so give it a trial on one that focuses on another element that interests you.

Vintage sci fi is best

>>21389192
Up until when, would you say

>>21389120
>litrpg
It's got it's positives and negatives. Mosty it's a crutch for weak/inexperienced writers, much like timeloops, that naturally drags a story forward without having to come up with more complicated motivations for the characters/plot besides "make number go bigger". On the one hand, crutches let invalids walk, and if you take his crutches away he'll fall on the ground. So it could be said that an amatuer writer will often produce a better quality litrpg than if he tried writing standard fantasy. But on the other hand it means almost all litrpg writers are extreme amateurs, often writing their very first story, and thus are by and large even worse than the average shitty webnovel.
But really there's nothing stopping them from being good besides author incompetence, same as any other genre.
I put it in the same wheelhouse as isekai, xiaxia, and fanfiction. They all provide a skeleton to hang an otherwise limb and immobile story idea on and possess enough internal structure to carry even the most absurdly uninteresting premises kicking and screaming to some sort of climax.

>>21384666
Checked.

Anyone know any particularly good audio books? I'm putting together a collection for future use.

Also, anyone fans of BBC audio dramas? I just found out there's a tonne of them uploaded to Archive.org
https://archive.org/details/neuromancer-william-gibson

>>21381736
It's also fundamentally difference from what modern readers and writers would think of as a magic system because it doesn't rationalise or explain anything. It exists purely in service of dramatic tension.

>>21389372
The original Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy was written for radio and remains to this day my preferred manner of consuming it. Douglas was often writing the script several hours before air time, an absolute mad lad.

>>21389156

Thank you, maybe I'll start with this one

>>21389243

Thanks for the summary of these new genres, I'm oblivious to it so I'm grateful for understanding it a little better. Is there any clutches-free somewhat-good author there already?

>>21389205
Mid eighties at the latest, disillusionment around technology goes into higher gear later.

>>21389120
>What's considered a good litrpg book/series?
There are none. I have read or attempted to read most well known series and every single one was garbage.

>>21389372
The best audiobook performance ever is Patrick Tull doing the Aubrey-Maturin series.

I'm rereading Conan. There never was a fantasist like Howard and I don't think it's even close.

>>21389409
based

>>21379774
three body problem by cixin liu

>>21389383
Yeah, that's actually how I encountered it originally, rather than reading the book, which I think most people do. My dad's a big fan.
If you want to talk original radio works I heard one recently called Leviathan 99, which is basically a sci-fi rewrite of Moby Dick, written by Ray Bradbury, and starring Christopher Lee.

Any books that feature footjobs

>>21389431
Yes.

>>21382998
I wish more games would do this. Obviously there's nothing new under the sun and it's cool to read what their various inspirations were.

>>21389120
Well, one I'd recommend as just kind of a solid one that doesn't really do anything particularly unique is Unbound. Not terrible, not amazing. One really good one I'd recommend is Dungeon Crawler Carl, which takes a bit of a different direction than most, but thrives because of it.

What's the proper genre for sci-fi like Judge Dredd, Starship troopers and Warhammer 40k? Basically series that are both serious and silly at the same time. Satire doesn't work because the stories where dredd is arresting protesters aren't satirical at all.

>>21389466
Well, Dredd is a product of comic books. Different writers write him different ways, so you end up with a variety of takes. I guess the same with Warhammer, because it's a collaborative project that no one writer is in charge of.

>>21389442
>unbound

>>21389466
Pulp is probably close to correct? Like, it's taking itself seriously, but doesn't expect you to do so.

What's the most Nick Land novel/series?

My favorite sci-fi novel is Rendezvous with Rama, any recommendations?

Favorite author is Jules Verne if it helps.

>>21389887
RWR was boring as hell imho. Clark has decent ideas but can't write an interesting character to save his life.

>>21379737
Is Murderbot a girl....

>>21390078
Murderbot has no genitals, but it's clearly the kind of guy Wells imagines would pay 10 cents a page for very sloppy short stories with a long plot arc that goes nowhere.

>>21390227
Rude

>>21381129
Darth Plagueis by James Luceno is Kino. Same goes for his Tarkin novel and Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel. Pretty much guaranteed kinos that won't disappoint you.

>>21390522
Also forgot, but you also need to read the novelization of Revenge of the Sith written by Matthew Stover. It's such a fucking wild ride that it honestly a different experience from the movie.

>>21390522
Luceno's Agents of Chaos was so fucking boring it made me stop reading the NJO.

>>21390554
Okay, don't know why you're telling me this, I don't care.

>>21389466
Satire doesn't have to be funny, it can be used to riddicule, and that's what Dredd does.

Dystopic Satire I guess would be the genre?

>>21390522
>Darth Plagueis by James Luceno
Ah, yes, the Sith legend. Fuck, I loved Palpatine in that one. I swear, any prequel novels with Palpatine in the forefront was Kino for me.

>>21389432
Name five.

>>21390646
It’s called using google you lazy fuck. Use it.

>>21390609
>any novels with Palpatine in the forefront was Kino for me
Same. I gave Star Wars: Lords of the Sith an honest try and I like it. I think they've captured Palpatine/Sidious really well. Story is okay as well, so it wasn't bad as a expected.

>>21390535
>novelization of Revenge of the Sith written by Matthew Stover
Fuck, I remember reading that when I was a kid. The anakin chapters with the dragon always stuck out to me. Fuck. That novel was a gem. It also did my boy Kit Fisto good with how well he did during the battle unlike the movie.

>>21381129
From the old legends' continuity, Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, and the Hand of Thrawn duology. From the New canon; Timothy Zhan's Thrawn, Thrawn: Alliances, Thrawn: Treason, and the Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy.

>>21389372
>Also, anyone fans of BBC audio dramas?
No.

>>21384666
A man with good taste.

>>21384666
>Gilad Pellaeon
My man. That scene with Natasi Daala on Tsoss Beacon is where I started to like him and rooted for him

>>21390754
He was the best side character

>>21390766
True that, I just hated how he died. He was done dirty.

>>21390522
Good picks. Though I don’t recommend the plagueis novel unless you know Star Wars lore, or at least, Sith lore.

>>21384666
>Mara Jade
Her death at Jacen Solo's hand hit me like a truck. I never saw it coming.

>>21390784
It works as a stand alone novel, barring that, a prequel novel to the phantom menace.

>>21390797
I mean, the novel hits more if you knew lore more than anything else. Or else the big twist just misses.

>>21390813
There is no twist, we know how it ends, everyone does. The novel works more to give insight on Sith lore and their machinations

>>21390707
Thrawn must be a good character if he has that many novels.

>>21390820
He really is. he's a fan favorite for a reason.

>>21382144
So I finished reading all of this and it was surprisingly decent.
The good
>Characterization is generally quite strong. Sunny in particular comes across well. He is cowardly, but in a manner that makes complete sense considering his upbringing. Likewise his occasional lack of moral scruples doesn't come across as him being edgy
>It puts enough of an original spin on the typical webnovel elements that you might not even realize that they're typical web novel elements until you actually think about them. The author isn't trying to be super original, but it's not super derivative either
>It's very light on the litrpg elements, to the point it's borderline not litrpg at all
>The world building is interesting
The bad
>Gets bogged down in filler WAY too much
>Related to that, the pacing is SHIT. Some chapters might only have one or two lines of dialogue that are even relevant
>The author shits a chapter out every day so there's typos and shit all over the place
>The author cribs too much from Dark Souls

All in all one of the better webnovels I've read, but at the same time it could use a significant rewrite just to cut out the pointless padding and fix up the typos.

>>21390827
You can stop shilling, ain’t no one is going to read it.

>>21390793
That’s what makes it work. And it helped solidify Jacen’s descent to the dark side.

Hate myself lads

>>21390840
Then kill yourself and spare us your bitching.

>>21390840
I would hate myself as well if I never did anything but whine how I hate myself on some random website

>>21390766
I take solace that his imperial remnant outlasted almost everything. There’s no better honor than that.

>>21390766
You already posted this, a bullet to the head would help you alleviate that suffering.

>>21390707
>New canon has six books about Thrawn
They’re really trying to milk him for all his worth. Shame it won’t save the EU.

>>21390864
>Shame it won’t save the EU.
No, but at least it will have some books worth reading. Which just says something about the EU than anything else

>>21390675
I liked the usage of second person point of views. Really got me involved and immersed with the book.

>>21390666
>Star Wars: Lords of the Sith
>palpatine is asking like a kind old grandfather to a bunch of children
>Tells Vader to kills them once he's done for shits and giggles
God, I love that man. The sheer depth he will go knowns no bounds.

Damm, use spoilers...

Bakkercunts have still not recovered from this and I don't think they ever will.

>>21390793
>her death
based

New thread
>>21391224

>>21390820
He's like Rommel, the enemy general that everyone can still like

>>21389372
IIRC they had a good LoTR adaptation back in the day, except that Strider had a lisping old queer kind of voice.
>they will cum on you in the wilds, Frodo. Mmmmm.