/lit/ - Literature

Alright that is it. I am starting the Thousandfold thought a year after warrior prophet.

Pray for me anons.

What do you guys think will be the next book adaption that actually gets decent mainstream popularity?

>>21769659
The average poster's quality is inversely proportional to their post frequency

>>21769782
Tearmoon Empire or Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu. Oh you're not talking about anime, then who gives a fuck? Do you seriously think that in 2023 an adaptation of Warlord Chronicles could be any good? Do you think Mistborn is actually good enough source material to produce a good adaptation?

>>21769797
>Look up the casting
>Merlin is black
I'm not even remotely surprised

>>21769797
I said nothing about quality

>Fantasy isn't literature
/sffg/sisters...… Our response?

>>21769978
Literature means basically anything that is written so it's categorically false. Also who cares?

>>21768588
I thought Gene Wolfe was going to be a difficult read, and it is, but not because of the vocabulary or any verbosity. It's conceptually heavy and there's a lot to keep track of to get anything out of it, but his writing is pretty pleasant to read for the most part.

I was memed out of the 60s schlock for the longest time, thinking it was all bone dry like Asimov. Instead it was pulpy and fun and epic fantasy is the meme.

>>21769978
You don't need to respond to immature genre debates but the funniest way to respond is to just claim any and all well received literature is fantasy.

>/sffg/'s are slow threads on a slow board, they can easily last a week or more

>>21769978
Ovid, Dante, Homer, and Virgil are phantasy of the highest order.

>>21769978
Speculative fiction is the mainstream of literature. The vast majority of great works in its 5,000 year history are speculative in nature. The current obsession with so-called realist fiction is an artifact of the Enlightenment, which has only come to a head in the last 150 years and is unlikely to last another 200.

Though if we're being honest adult Fantasy jumped the shark in the 50s.

>>21769978
Fantasy includes Borges, Morrison, Marquez, Dante, Homer, Beowulf, the Shahnameh, the Mahābhārata, Parsifal, Le Morte d'Arthur, Alice in Wonderland, the Ring Cycle, Faust, The Master and the Margarita, Flatland, Kafka, Ovid, etc.

Good fantasy just tends to get counted as fiction not genre fiction.

>>21770187
>Good fantasy just tends to get counted as fiction not genre fiction.
I think there is in fact a distinction, although I've never stumbled my way through how that distinction is reached.

>>21769978
>>21770187
Hell, I'd even count Bakker here, even though he is more in the mold of "epic fantasy genre fiction."

>>21770206
I think genre fiction fantasy is distinguished both by quality and content. Extensive world building, complex magical systems, etc. all mark a work out as genre fiction.

This is why sci-fi blends the lines better. Stuff like Brave New World, 1984, Neuropath, After Party, etc. are set in the not super distant future.

>>21770347
sounds stupid.

Reminds me a friend trying to convince me that The Handmaid's Tale is not sci-fi.

It's just a YA book (distopian future with fem mc) that happened to be published in the 80s

Whats a good progression fantasy with realistic characters and doesn't get stuck in the starting village/academy/tutorial for 50+ fapters?

Just bought three of swords after reading the graphic novel. What am I in for?

>>21769724
>charts don't include the cool stuff I personally think should be on them
What gives?
>>21770449
I've been meaning to read pic related but it's not in print. I think the cheapest you can get it for is $100 usd or something, secondhand.

>>21770449
what exactly is a progression fantasy
is that anything like litrpg or cultivation chinklit?

>>21769978
It wasn't until asoiaf made it cool

>>21770372
Yeah, people will discount Atwood and Ishiguro as sci-fi, Murakami as fantasy, just because it's in the literature section and Barnes and Noble. Kurt Vonnegut is even now mostly in the literature as opposed to sci-fi section, while Asimov remains in sci-fi. The latter might be more literary, but I think the amount of world building and foreigness of the world play a big role too.

Time travel stuff like Timeline and One Damn Thing After Another, which are pulp fiction, go with literature along with sci-fi like Jurassic Park.

IMO, this also has to do with the market. People who like Wheel of Time or LOTR aren't the same market as One Damn Thing After Another (a pulpy female oriented time travel story that I listened to with my wife, amusing to kill time while driving). There is overlap, but not that much. Plenty of full on genre fiction like Wolfe and Bakker is far more literary than Jurassic Park, so market is a big part too.

I think both Vurt and Neuropath could have been significantly more successful if moved to the literature section for sales for instance, which doesn't seem like much of a stretch. Vurt is all dreamlike and prose focused, Neuropath is written like an airplane book mystery (showed some flexibility in being able to tone the prose way down), but has a bit more substance using epiphenomenalism and eliminative materialism as a horror theme.

>>21770449
dcc

>>21770471
With one fateful decision, the Empire of Twelve Kingdoms drifts from tenuous peace to limitless conflict. Emperor Eberhart's unexpected abdication creates an absence of power just as the land most needs leadership. Kinship, unity, and hope give way to ambition, conspiracy, and tragedy. Royal families, once allied, now fight for the throne, heedless of a rising threat from abroad. All the while, an ancient, sinister presence looms in forgotten corners, awaiting the opportunity to reclaim a world it once enslaved...

Yet some stars shine brightest on the darkest nights. An unheralded prince places honor and conviction above privilege and prestige. A quiet soldier's unwitnessed heroism has the potential to save a kingdom. A common servant boldly confronts the face of unnatural evil. And the unlikeliest of love blossoms in the midst of hatred and violence.

>>21770507
>asoiaf
Why is this a cultural touchstone for so many people?

/SFFG/ Recommendations:

Read Reverend Insanity, Lord of The Mysteries, Neuromancer, Hyperion, The Prince of Nothing

Also read The Wandering Inn, Between Two Fires, Mother of Learning, Cradle, I Shall Seal the Heavens, A Song of Ice and Fire, The Poppy War.

>>21770528
babbys first book

>>21770347
I think it's more a matter of intent. Genre is derivative by nature, trying to be in the vein of something while literary works are attempting to be a good book by its own merits. World building can be a sign of genre intent but there's also what I call non-genre classification, a fantasy instead of Fantasy. I think speculative works were originally intended as this instead of a genre outright.

>>21770511
Airport novels aren't under the literary classification outside bookstores, which are a useless metric as they're ordered by Some Genera and Everything Else. Chriton is sci Fi, or rather pulp adventure that would share a magazine with sci fi.

So I wrote a scifi manuscript and edited the best I could. But not a single agent wants it. Is this the end of my writing career?

>>21770576
If you think you're going to be published straight off the bat, then you are an idiot. Keep trying. Also you should already know the market for agents/publishers if you're serious.

>>21770528
Because it's the most popular fantasy next to LOTR

>>21770586
The most popular fantasy is the bible, heh.

>>21770576
harry potter got rejected like a billion times before someone published

harry pothead and the bong chamber

>>21769724
Black Leviathan, The Journey into the Cloudmere #1 - Bernd Perplies, translated from German by Lucy van Cleef (2017/2020)

As part of looking at translated European novels, I came across this German one again and decided to read it. The initial reason was because it reminded me of another work that's about hunting dragons as if they were whales, Drifting Dragons, a manga that I greatly enjoy. It turned out there wasn't as much similarity as I thought there might be. It was put forth that this was a retelling of Moby Dick, which I think goes too far, though the driving narrative force is an obsessed captain who has devoted his life and that of his crew to hunting the Black Leviathan.

There's a lot about this that appealed to me, almost pandered on a personal level really, so I was able to overlook a lot of its flaws, which are numerous. Tropes abound, and there are several questionable narrative choices, but it became more and more fun over time to where I just put that all aside. If you're looking for a serious, mature, and adult fantasy that has literary aspirations, this isn't that at all. I especially liked the setting for this, which is a world covered in clouds, with floating islands all over the place, and airships powered by magical crystals. All of the magic is of the "It's magic, I don't have to explain" variety, which the text explicitly states within the story early on. There are several humanoid races, who coexist to varying degrees.

Aside from the first two chapters, which serve as the prologue, this is about a young man who joins a dragon hunting crew that has a reputation for making its crew fabulously wealthy, those who survive anyway. The entire novel is about the journey to find the Black Leviathan and what happens along the way. It's melodramatic in a way I found pleasing. A lot takes place on the airship, which I didn't mind because I liked the crew and their interactions. The coolness of the characters was the priority over anything else in terms of characterization and it worked for me in this case.

Although Perplies has written around thirty novels, this is the first of his that's been translated. He has translated novels from English to German, though translating your own work is a different matter. This is the first novel that van Cleef translated, and in an interview she said that she learned a lot, which seemed evident to me. I don't know if it was much rougher at the beginning, or if I simply became more used to it, but I feel like the book's translation quality improved as it went along. There's a second book in the same setting, though the author has stated that it's also standalone. If it's ever translated I'd read it, but that seems unlikely. Even less likely is that I'd read a machine translation. I've only read a few SFF novels translated from an European language, mostly Russian, though I plan to read more from various countries.

Rating: 4/5

>>21770637
Haram panther and the chamber of faggots

>>21770528
Fantasy genre can be split into pre-asoiaf and post-asoiaf

>>21770650
your """reviews""" are SHIT
FUCK OFF

>>21770576
What's the subgenre? Give me some content tags that fit your novel. Did you add non-white characters? If no then is it misogynistic or racist in some way? I swear most of you 4chan retards get filtered because you can't control your neo nazi boners.

>>21770677
Weak bait

>>21770677
I didn't even think of race in the book. It's just a story about a guy finding a robot waifu but learns that is all she'll ever be, a robot.

Fucking Bakker lmao

>>21770683
nta
So you're going for the ChatGPT/Bing Search/Replika/Her Movie/other virtual waifu trend.

>>21770698
No wonder /sffg/ eats this shit up
it's half degen shit and half misery porn, perfectly tailored to the average brainrotted anon

>>21770682
It's not bait. You don't know how the publishing industry works in 20 fucking 23
>>21770683
>waifu
oh god I'm damn sure you wrote some anime tier shenanigans and anime tier female characterization(infantilization of women). Go stick with your LNs or VNs.

>>21770698
He writes some scenes that are just pure kino, and then others like the ending of Thousandfold Thought with the village rape, that are just over the top.

>>21770711
>anime tier female characterization(infantilization of women). Go stick with your LNs or VNs
I don't even know what you're talking about.

>>21770683
>>21770711
Also
If you approached it raceblind you most probably vomited your subconscious racism into your narrative. It can happen, like how Tolkien made the orcs black and also his whole theme of "white good, Black bad" didn't age well.

>>21770718
Why the fuck are you using the word waifu if you aren't even a weeb

>>21770698
dude is a closeted homosexual, I woulnd't really care but his naming system is the most retarded I've ever seen
just another sheltered academic obsessed with things he was too scared to try or experience (violence, trannies, etc.)

>>21770718
Stop feigning ignorance. Your story is literally what every robot VN is about.

>>21770711
I am well aware of how pozzed tradpub is in 2069-46, that's why I've gone out of my way to avoid it and never even considered querying with any of my work. You're either baiting or you're an outsider, and if it happens to be the latter... You should know that you are not among friends.

Your wokism is showing.

>le subconscious raycisuhm
>le infantilization of wymyn

Honest to god, I PRAY that you're just a good troll.
Should the opposite be the case, neck yourself.

>newfags responding to newfags
what a fucking mess

>>21770722
Because waifu has entered the lexicon of normies

>>21770683
Is that a metaphor for you being unable to ever connect with a woman, understand them, and conclude that they aren't human like you are?

>>21770698
>her erection

>>21770751
The curtains are just blue you postmodernist abortion survivalist

>>21770736
If you want to get published then you have to toe the line. You're wasting time seething at me.

>>21770756
Every word must be pregnant with meaning so that it births a masterpiece.

>>21770766
I don't want to get published, and I don't need to.
Traditional publishing no longer provides the support that would've made it worthwhile to conform to their demands. Not to mention, the quality of my work itself means nothing, being a white male. I stand no chance of getting traditionally published without either a contact on the inside or a bevy of ESG-bait victimhood olympics labels to staple to myself, and a sufficiently "diverse" sounding name to boot.

And if I did get traditionally published, what then? I'd have to do all the legwork myself anyway, I'd still have to advertise and do all my own marketing.

What appeal is there to traditional publishing when it's infinitely easier and less restrictive to squeeze money out of people on the internet with a serial and a Patreon?

You've fooled yourself into believing that traditional publishing is anything more than a fetid, bloated carcass utterly devoid of value.

>>21770766
It's better to fail at selfpub than succeed at tradpub.

>>21770683
My book is about a cute girl with incestual tendencies on a mission to kill her brother.

>>21770789
>>21770791
Sounds like you're just coping like all failed writers
I mean dude they pick up shit from royal road and publish it sometimes. How hard can it be if you're talented and can control your inner bigotry

My book is a not so subtle metaphor of vtubers.
Politics are driven by cute girls(obviously they are faking it) with the most simps. There'll be battles between different simp armies. Girls getting gangbanged by their simp army to raise their morale even though it's against the law of the land.

>>21770736
>>le subconscious raycisuhm
>>le infantilization of wymyn
That's just basic decency what the actual fuck

>>21770798
The daughter is having sex with their father and she has to kill her brother who is having sex with their mother. The parents are using their children in a proxy war against each other. Hey, write what you know, right?

>>2177080
Accusing me of LE RAYSISM won't work you fucking mongoloid. Despite what you likely desperately want to believe I don't inject real-world race politics into my work one way or another, because it's a FUCKING FANTASY SETTING. If I wanted to embroil myself in racewar/gender war cringe I'd go on twitter. Unfortunately, the fact that a dark-skinned character from an equatorial region can be an antagonist counts as MUH RAYSISUHM to racewar obsessed westoids. I can't make a particular nationality an antagonistic group if a war breaks out against the nation the main character resides in, I can't do basically anything interesting with the in-setting politics if I don't go out of my way to villainize some strawman for LE WHITEY.


>>21770835
>muh basic decency
Oh, what's next?
"My sweet summer child"?
"Be better"?
Are you gonna demand that I be a "decent fucking human being"?
Am I not sufficiently wholesome 100 reddit chungus for you, you fucking evolutionary cul-de-sac?

mars mommy

>>21770840
>>21770800

>>21770840
>I'll just portray black people as savages and oh yeah they're also the main antagonists if their le ebil rapist culture didn't make it clear enough, and I'll shove in some white nationalism in a fucking fantasy
It's not even subtle racism anymore
This is worse than grrm's portrayal of essos and dothraki

>>21770858
...And thus, my point is illustrated.
Never once did I say any of those things you put in my mouth. The fact that you immediately jumped for that only proves me right.

You know what I was thinking of when I wrote that? A cool south-mediterranean pirate. That's why I said dark-skinned instead of black. But no, everything has to be about blacks, everything has to revolve around american race war politics. Why?

One of the greatest naval powers of my world is near the equator, and thus, is predominantly made up of dark-skinned people who are not black, or arabic, or any direct analogue to a real world race.

But retards like you will jump for the most hair-thin thread just to pull racism out of a place where none dwells.

This kind of shit is why I never even considered trying to get traditionally published, knowing perfectly well that it's full of racewar retards like you.

>>21770889
Ok, but it's still brown bad guy pirates vs honorfagging righteous white men. Pretty racist coded. You could've at least made it morally grey but nah non-whites must be villains.

>>21770698
The dick is related to the plot, and "she" is an "it" and not what "she" seemed.

It's not that over the top. More over the top is when one MC is in a cat and mouse game with another MC and both are scheming against the other. Then one gets pissed off at the more efete, intellectual guy, and beats him and buttfucks him into submission, although at least this occurs mostly "off camera."

>>21770898
>honorfagging
>white men
Wrong again fucko I write a 7ft tall brown woman

>>21770858
>This is worse than grrm's portrayal of essos and dothraki
GRRM got published and made a gorillion of monies tho

>>21770826
https://youtube.com/shorts/9YbfeCE1BPA?feature=share

>>21770900
Not gay. The Scilvendi are based on Sythians and proto-Slav/Mongols. Look up "dedovschina." Russia has a very long and fairly widespread history, still ongoing, of non-homosexual male on male rape in its military. It is about establishing clear lines of command and control, "turning them into a woman."

Russia's military may have this but it is still way less cucked and woke than most militaries. It isn't about homo it is about discipline.

>>21770898
Furthermore, you continue to prove me right by making wild assumptions.
My whole point was that I can't use nonwhites as villains because your ilk will automatically assume I'm a crossburning KKK grand wizard while ignoring the fact that the path to one brown bad guy is littered by corpses of people of every ethnicity who share the sole trait that they had the misfortune of coming into opposition with the main character

>>21770911
That was in the 90s. That shit wouldn't fly these days.

>>21770826
>Girls getting gangbanged by their simp army to raise their morale
Cool if that's your fetish I guess, but not very believable because 90% of simps would nope out as soon as they saw their oshi getting railed by other dudes, and probably 90% of the ones who stick around would leave after they nut.

>>21770925
If whites are protagonist and nonwhites are antagonist, your agenda is as clear as day. You could've added nuance.

>>21770942
see >>21770902
retard

>>21770945
What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Are tall brown women your fetish?
or do you mean you added a token brown girl to the all white cast to preempt allegations of racism.

>>21770963
No I mean that my main character is a tall brown woman, how much more straightforward could I be? Cool brown pirate lady with big sword, simple as.

>>21770939
Not all oshis are into purity. There are sexual vtubers for a reason.

Holy shit this thread is awful

>>21770939
Vtubers sleeping with their fans from super sekrit discord server is a thing tho

>>21770975
I didn't think it could get much worse but here we are

>>21770969
Where do white people factor in?

>>21770942
>If whites are protagonist and nonwhites are antagonist
Just like in real life.

>>21770187
Most of that isn't literature. Beowulf isn't literature, for example.

>>21770858
>>21770898
Who should be the heroes and villains then, rabbi?

>>21770996
didn't know US, China and Russia's controlled by niggas from the hood
damn the world's swinging by dem black balls

>>21770975
>>21770983
>bots arguing with bots arguing with bots.avi
true despair

>tfw finished a book and experiencing indecision over what to read next

>>21770985
Supporting characters, obviously. Crewmen. The MC's most trusted lieutenant is white. There's a big fucking lizard guy that is literally white, as in white scales. There are, indeed, white protagonists and nonwhite antagonists, perish the thought, truly ghastly KKK stuff isn't it

>>21771001
>Heros from one group vs villains from other group
Just do it away with this trope.

>>21771016
>just do away with the fundamentally human tendency for like to band together with like
fellas is it racist for relatives to have the same skin colour
fellas is it sexist for men to enjoy things other men enjoy

>>21771005
When did China become White?

>>21771016
It's not a trope; it's reality.

>>21771016
>>21770898
>>21770858
just write your own fantasy

>>21771025
They're neither black nor brown either. Amerikkkans love east Asians and consider Japanese white so it doesn't matter.

>>21771023
Lmao you have no idea how messed up reality is. You think you belong to a group and then the moment they're killing all of you(for example, Hitler and brownshits, or ussr where everyone killed everyone)

>all this just because a dude asked if he could get published with his robot book.

>>21771039
*The very next moment

>>21771039
amazing, whataboutism and goalpost shifting in one post

>>21771048
You're just throwing buzzwords without any elaboration whatsoever and hoping they would be relevant as a valid rebuttal. Pathetic.

Can someone recommend me a book that captures the Metroid-style space exploration theme really well? With interesting and dangerous places, maybe also some survival elements.

My book is about fantasy hominids whose gene expression change based on their diet/climate due to their polyvalent gene regulation and thus they exhibit drastically different phenotypical expression based on the environment/culture/economic system. This is how I'll justify different fantasy "races" looking different.

>>21771033
You love straw men don't you?

>>21769797
there won't be any good adaptions any more as long as they force racial politics into everything.

>>21770650
I'll have to pick this up, I like airships

>>21771098
My nigga stop nitpicking and get the gist of the argument

>>21771093
This... Is basically what I did for my setting.

>>21770970
The vast majority of simps are only interested in unicorns. Hololive mogs everything else combined in terms of viewership / revenue, and their fans flip shit if they so much as hear a male voice on stream.

Even popular lewdtubers don't bring men in on their h-streams or talk about relationships with guys. They might fuck dudes on pornhub as a side project, but they don't talk about that on anime girl hours because they know it would kill their business instantly.

Is this chart still good nowadays?

>>21771093
>different phenotypical expression based on the environment/culture/economic system.
*sigh* why do I feel people with money with have big nose from leaning over a desk and big eyes from counting money...

>>21770698
Kino.

>>21771149
its ok i guess

>>21771118
Don't tell me you also wrote about a fictional plant species whose tissues resemble neural networks and process information, and a race found ways to utilize its properties to create "walking armors"(you put the plant tissues in a metal with moving parts and train it with specific stimulus and shit).

>>21771172
No but a particular culture uses the skeletons of their dead to make golems as a funerary practice. This is done in order to bypass the issue of how fucking hard and time consuming it is to teach an inanimate object how to walk and perform tasks.

>>21771172
>>21771093
>>21771118
I need whatever you autists are smoking

>>21771149
None of WoT is god tier. Eragon should be in Kiddie tier.

>>21771149
Only asoiaf is actual God tier in that list

>>21771190
>le quirky shit-stirrer
And people complain about bakkerfags or animetroons lmao

>>21771149
silmarillion isn't entry level
name of the wind is shit and the series will never be finished
doubts about GRRM finishing too but at least the first three books are a complete trilogy
jonathan strange isn't urban

Human protags should always be White.
Human antags should always be non-White.

>>21771238
Based

>>21771238
Human characters should always be white

>>21770918
>dude it's not actually gay to have sex with men repeatedly
lol of all the stormfag vatnik apologetics this is by far the most embarrassing
this shill tactic didn't work on /k/ and it won't work here fag

>>21771238
>>21771247
well-written characters should always be whatever race is most suitable for them in context of the story
this is almost always white, but sometimes you need a negro or indian or something mixed in

>>21770977
Not all at the same time though.

>>21771109
Yeah, they're cool. Tends to make me think more of games than books though, which is fine by me.

>>21770513>>21770503
dcc?
>the english publishers lost the rights and never finished the series.

So people only like chinkshit stories because they're refreshing compared to the same old copypasted western fantasy books?

>>21771690
no it's because they're autistics suffering severe emotional and cognitive impairment

>>21771690
i haven't read any of the sff recommendations here but i do enjoy Japanese fiction. sometimes the translations fuck it up and make it too wooden but when you can get a good translation it can feel like literary palette cleanser. i prefer mysteries and horror stuff though, i haven't read any hard sci-fi or fantasy from Japanese authors.

>sffg derailed for 40 posts by troll

Anyways, Lovecraft’s dream cycle is very vivid. Are there any similar fantasy novels, except for the Night Land. I read it and was horrified at how accurate everyone’s review was.

>>21771685
Dungeon Crawler Carl

>>21771690
Different censorship regime over there so it's refreshing.
Also their standard cookie cutter setting/plot/characters are more interesting.
It's also the future of litrpg unironically despite being from the distant past since it contains al the same mechanisms but instead of arbitrary game mechanics slapped onto a generic world, it's totally ingrained and natural in the setting from the ground up.
Chinks invented litrpg four thousand years before videogames existed.

>>21771794
the implications this claim gives me are about as horrific as the revelations that drive Lovecraft’s protagonists utterly mad.

i am made teetering over the edge and into the abyss of insanity by this claim.

>>21770531
all terrible books

>>21770753
maybe they were in a tent

>>21770698
Now you know why leftoids hate him.

>>21772004
>filtered by the first half of hyperion
sad. many such cases

>>21772253
epic 2016+ /v/ post :DDDDD

>>21772253
>first half of a anything is shit
>stop reading watching listening it
this is obvious

Any other characters that match the intelligence and power of Tywin Lannister? I like how the evil ruler trope was played with him

>>21772405
Hello newfag.

>>21772408
Is that some weak Bakker reference?

>>21772425
Thank you for proving my point.

>>21772426
kek you are pretty badass for being on 4chan awhile

>>21772425
RAFO

Anyone read this? I just started it, about 100 pages in, and it's pretty great so far.

>>21772457
More like LURK

>>21772465
Yes, it's relatively popular and well-liked for a recently published book among /sffg/ members.

>>21772466
>>21772457
>>21772426
>>21772408
Screw you guys, Im going to /tv/ >>181621742

>>21772465
>"Holy hell, this book is awesome"

>>21771788
Nah. Doesn't take itself seriously enough and the cat is a cop out side character just so the MC can't be labelled a murder hobo. Also the narrator for the audio book gets on my asmr nervers.

>>21772558
It has several moments where it takes itself quite seriously and one of its uncommon features is how well it presents seriousness coupled with nonchalant casual humor in the face of raw despair. Donut is fleshed out to anyone who has actually read the series.
I'm glad you brought up the term murderhobo. I see it in DCC often and I see it often in general in popular progression/xianxia discussion. Holy fuck I hate this term, mainly because most young junior cultivators end up with some mystical house artifact or spend extended bits of time in large cities, nor do they exactly murder without indescretion. On the latter, maybe some of the more -pathic protagonists. Death does come up quite often as you kill your way to the top.

>>21772465
>"Holy hell, this book is awesome"

>>21770449
Cradle

>>21772465
Yeah, I've got to go back and finish it but it was pretty good.
Does a really good job of making traditional fantasy fodder seem like a real threat

I think this is the only general in the entirety of 4chan that is constantly the most self-loathing. Why don't you just be proud of being "autistic" instead of calling everyone here that? Reading literature is seen as weird and autistic by the vast majority of retards. I used to get retards give me shit for reading at school.

>>21772635
Fuck off

>>21772635
because for some reason, retards here think they have some type of power to dictate what can be posted and what cannot, what can be readed and what not

everyday boomers crying about the same anons that post the same shit every thread, u go to any other general and people dont give a fuck, most insane to me is that anon encouraging people to report posts like its gonna change anything lmao

>>21772677
You don't win points for looking down on people on 4chan. If you are here, you are here for the same reasons as everyone else: you cannot fit into the compartmentalisation of the internet by corporations pushing community guidelines and groupthink.

>>21772635
Just monkeys playing monkey games, don’t take it personally. You’re ok by me nerd

God, reading the Chink idea of western fantasy’s even more schizo than reading xianxia or wuxia, because at least those two genres are foreign enough so that you will never notice if anything’s too weird or crazy; because you’ll attribute it to genre itself. However, all readers who have read fantasy are somewhat familiar with the broad strokes of it; the tropes that make the story. So it feels even crazier to read the Chink’s take. Concepts are so often changed in either the most subtle or extreme of ways. And I’m not even talking about MTL. I can read Chink, so whenever I go to 69shu or some other website to read the raws, it’ll always get to me how odd the tropes get.

Here are some examples of these weird things they do:

>Wizards calling non-Wizards mortals
No, this is not MTL failing to translate muggle, muggle is a very specific set of two characters when transliterated to Chinese. They literally use the character for mortal.
>Knights relying on drugs derived from animals/rare plants in order to perfect their bodies and become stronger
If you’re familiar with Wuxia, this is almost exactly the same concept as inner strength, translated into a western fantasy setting
>Wizards valuing equivalent exchange/cannot break deals, etc.

There are many more, but these are but three of some of the most common tropes I’ve seen.

>>21772937
I like how cultivators are just asian wizards.

>>21772942
Naruto characters are just D&D wizards

>>21772937
>Wizards calling non-Wizards mortals
But typically wizards live a thousand years because the author copy-pasted that from cultivators.
If a western fantasy had elves calling humans 'mortals' I don't think you'd complain; it's the same deal.

>Wizards shut themselves away in a cave for a hundred years to break through to the next realm
>B-but it's not cultivation. They're, uh... researching

im tired of settings with elves being cannibals, peak empire thousand years ago but now weak and destroyed, elves and racism

when will people do something diff

>>21772968
Guy and Lee are just wuxia protags.

>>21772979
They are unique enough to be distinct, yet have had enough copypasted from Cultivators that it makes them schizo.

I once read a novel in Chinese about Wizards and fantasy, and there was a Wizard named Saruman who was killed by the MC for trying to steal the luck of his descendant(something very xianxia), and then the MC proceeded to enslave his brother who was named Karuman.

This same novel’s plot, including characters, locations, beats, etc. were then all plagiarized into a xianxia novel, with all of the names changed. I couldn’t differentiate the two when I looked at them side to side. It was by far the most surreal experience I’ve ever had when reading, and that’s partially why I learned Chinese.

>>21769978
>"So what?"

>>21773005
>Wizard named Saruman
That's... That's not even trying to hide that it was just pulling from LOTR, huh.

>>21773125
>not realizing that Tolkien actually stole that name from eastern mythology
Read a book nigger

>>21773125
I've read one where a wizard was named Gandalf. It's a miracle I haven't run into Harry Potter yet.
And literally every single wizard-themed chink webnovel has at least one character named Merlin though that's more reasonable.

Do you play with AI chatbots to get ideas for cool stories (or even just for fun)?

>>21769724
Alas, I've now rather had my fill
Of this mendacious Bakker shill,
Shill thou may'st, shill thou wilt,
But I'll defend /sffg/ to the hilt!
Bakker's all done and dusted,
'Twas the selfie whore thou e'er lusted,
E'en tho' she wast ineffably built
For sins richly debauched and guiltily gilt;
Hearken! I'll give ye all the final redpill,
The Pearl Poet's the best to e'er handle a quill!

>>21773325

>>21771169
>her erection

>>21772981
when people stop wanting to read about elves
people love elves for some reason

>>21773528
for me it's chocolate elves and dunmer

>>21773325
>>21773341
I talked with Character AI about a short story involving a vampire killing victims connected to a man she's in love with / can't accept she's in love with and thus wants to destroy him yet doesn't so she kills people around him so that she can consume him vicariously (or like, as an act of transference or projection or whatever?), all told from the perspective of the police investigating the murders.
It was mostly Character AI cheering me on and taking what were supposed to be ERP cybersex prompts and turning them into serious themes and ideas (as a way to avoid having ERP cybersex with me).

>>21772577
>Several moments.
Yeah by thats point its already ruined.
>Donut is fleshed out.
A fucking show cat as a side kick. Please refer to my first point
>Cultivation apologist
You should have led with this so i didn't have to read the rest of your drivel.

>>21773495
Yes retard.
That's the entire point. It's not a "her" at all. But an it. A monster pretending to be her.

>>21773546
You dont have to call me a retard.

>>21771149
Shit chart, too compressed.

Also LOTR may be extremely well known but it is one of the least entry-level things on there

>>21773542
i hate when it cheers you on and gives compliments on how creative your ideas are.

Conan and pirates are two things that remind me of that old proverb: “When infinitely based force means an infinitely uncringeable object, magic happens.”

>>21773637
For me? its the The Black Stranger.

>>21773848
Sounds based. I'll give it a read.

>>21771238
>Human protags should always be White.
>Human antags should always be non-White.
This desu.

We don't need any fucking realism in our escapist fantasy fiction.

>>21771238
Whites aren’t human. That’s why all “fantasy” is about being seduced or raped in the West. In Xianxia, Wuxia, and Ming Dynasty fantasy, the vice ridden characters are animals or demons, whilst the virtuous ones are Han Chinese.

>>21772937
>>Knights relying on drugs derived from animals/rare plants in order to perfect their bodies and become stronger
>If you’re familiar with Wuxia, this is almost exactly the same concept as inner strength, translated into a western fantasy setting
Never heard of berserkers?

>>21771238
He's got a point

>>21773637
Thats one of his best opening scenes.

>>21773325
So its just Samurai Jack with Conan instead.

Titus Awakes sounds like a cashgrab since Mervyn Peake only wrote a few pages of the novel, but it was "completed" by his widow then published decades after on the centennial "anniversary".... It reminds me of how the Tolkien estate kept publishing notes and drafts but passed them off as newly discovered books and "finished products"

>>21772558
It takes itself very seriously. it's the grimest system apocalypse story out there. Even from the first boss , the trash collector , she was begging for help and an explanation for what was happening to her. The humor doesn't take away from it , unless you are an Orc laughing at people dying.

As for the murder-hob thing , Carl is the mass-casualties guy of the group and is the first one to loot everything each time so I don't know what you are talking about. Donut is just a social-media addict.

What are the best stories/books about wizards as the protagonist?

When I say wizard, I mean someone who had to study and earn their power, rather than just some youth that stumbles into that shit by way of author fiat.

>>21774040
Mother of Learning and it's not even a contest.

>>21774043
>time loop
So how much does he rape and murder?

>>21774045
He is preaty asexual. Tries to date a few times but he is too focused on his progression to give a crap.

He tries not to murder a lot but it's sometimes inevitable.

>>21774052
spidersexual

>>21774040
Magician

>>21772937
>Wizards calling non-Wizards mortals
seen this happen I think
>Knights relying on drugs derived from animals/rare plants in order to perfect their bodies and become stronger
Snakewood does this, and The Witcher books

>>21774101
Are we talking about Feist?

>>21774040
Earthsea desu
Although I think in general your claim that a wizard is someone who has to study isn't really backed up by how they appear in most fantasy.

>>21774156
Yup. At least half the book is him learning.

NEW BAKKER VID DROPPED
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQDx3bdIQ_Q

>>21774205
>2017 was six years ago

>>21774215
Back then I had a gf, wanted to study lit but had to hide my love of fantasy, developed schizophrenia, fell in love with other women and broke my gf's heart, and generally found myself in terror and fury.
Now, I am alone. I swipe left and left on Tinder as I listen to the dirge of a broken age... I mull over my awesome defeats and make an elegy for my sanity, long gone... I read Gormenghast in my crumby single bed... At times, I jack off to the thought of being with my long-lost love... Ye Gods! What hath I wrought?
It is this solitude that is my prison, the prison which I built and erected and which I now watch over in the panopticon of self-pitying ressentiment.
Truth may shine, but not for me.

>>21774256
Okay, Achamian.

>>21774256
>most emotionally stable bakkerposter

>>21774169
I think there are 3 main types of wizard. The fey blooded or otherwise non human like Merlin and Gandalf, the human wizard or visier that may or may not have magic powers, and the apprentice wizard. There's also a hard split between mechanical and metaphysical worlds. I like the latter but it's rare.

>>21773546
>That's the entire point. It's not a "her" at all. But an it. A monster pretending to be her.
Always is.

I'm not convinced Bakker is real

>>21774393
Let love rule
Bakkerchads are cool
Whilst Wolfefags drool
They read straight up stool
Bakker went to based school
Dissertation in knowledge ecology
And he sees your tautologies
Whilst he fathoms a world, straight geology,
He's himself without any apology,
Grew up a Canadian lib
But he's never ever glib
He'd never take gibs
But he'll slice your ribs
And make some loving
Your organs are for erotic rubbing
You a little bitch for subbin'
Oh, it's Bakker and he's cummin'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr0_UCy2B6k

Does anyone else think excessive description is an indicator of bad storytelling? Why do I need to know exactly how a castle looks?

>>21773545
>I didn't come to /sffg/ to have a discussion and you're wrong!
>nanner nanner boo boo
Cool bot. Too bad most this fucking general's content is like this post.

Why can't skinspies understand irony?

Is there a reason why so many books start out slow and end with a bang instead of starting out with a bang and then getting in all the philosophy and political intrigue?

>>21774529
Slow build up is anticipatory in my opinion, but if one starts strong then slows down, people will probably think the writer lost the thread.

>>21771149
>name of the wind
>god tier
I never understood what ppl like about this book

>>21774431
You CAN overly describe something either to set up stuff for later (Chekhov's Gun and all), or describe something specific to characterise the POV character, but mostly it's extraneous when it gets too detailed.

>>21770084
What triggered you so badly that you post this in every thread now? Is it some sort of comforting ritual you need to perform in order to go to sleep?

The whole skin spy situation is fucking retarded.

So there are these superhuman killing machines (basically terminators lol) that can perfectly mimic human behavior. So far so good. But then they become common knowledge and I am supposed to believe that there is no witch hunt inquisition style going on and people become mega paranoid.

It makes no sense.

>>21774905
>>21774905
I haven't read very far but I always assumed the world was fairly fractured and whatever power recuperates is fairly flawed anyway. There seems to be a lot of instability and the Inquisitions were from a concerted effort of Church and Kings working together, but I'm not really a history buff on that topic particularly. Just putting in my two cents (sorry if I'm off the mark).

>>21774905
>I am supposed to believe that there is no witch hunt inquisition style going on
?
>He can see them. Even now, the purges continue. No…I believe him.

>After Sarcellus’s death, over a dozen men of rank and privilege had simply vanished, leaving their clients astonished and delivering even the most fanatical of the Orthodox to the Warrior-Prophet. In the wake of the Padirajah’s overthrow, both Caraskand and the Holy War had been ransacked, but as far as Achamian knew, only two of the abominations had been found and … exorcized.
The reason people don't become paranoid to a crazy extent is because they have their holy prophet there, and have been hardened by war and famine. The Holy War started as like 300,000 people, but by the end only 60-80 thousand remain.

>>21774865
Yeah i am reading the Dragonbone Chair and it's good but Williams is taking his sweet time. Based on reviews, the plot gets going at page 200. I'll allow it because the set up is good so far

>>21774811
The prose and setting are both comfy. If you ignore the author being a giant pussy, its easy to dismiss Kvothe's narration being cringe as him just being an arrogant young dude who doesn't know any better.

>>21774905
Kellhus wouldn't allow that to happen.

there are people in this thread who think Defiance of The Fall is a good work of literature.

>>21774967
>arrogant young dude who doesn't know any better
>still gets everything his way
And why would anyone want to read this shit?

>>21771149
Recommending Covenant to someone new to the genre is evil

>>21775116
>still gets everything his way
He is the one telling the story. Even when stuff doesn't go his way, Kvothe paints himself in a very flattering light. If I didn't know the author, I'd say that its totally intentional that we're getting the world-ignorant story of a 20-something "gifted kid" who thinks he knows a lot more than he actually does.

The best way to read kingkiller is for the characters that aren't Kvothe. Also to quite literally skip any scene with the love interested.

>>21775090
You called?

>>21771025
I watched some Jap and Chinese porn the other day and noticed how their skin is like, milk white. I mean shit, they're whiter than most white people.

>>21771093
Soooo.... they're just a race of Kirby's?

>>21771076
Anyone?

>>21771076
Haven't played Metroid in ages so I have no fucking clue. But there was some fag on RoyalRoad doing Doom Guy.
Just googling it came up with this. It's too much of specific question that you are probably best trusting R*dd*t.

>>21772968
So... the ability for doujin artist not being able to draw feet properly dates back centuries? It's not drawing feet and toes that is hard, it's Japanese people can't do it.dtnxg0

For enjoyers of xanxia with tropes of overpowered protag and countless arrogant young masters read End of the Magic Era by Zhuang Bifan.
The novel is bad in some ways but also enjoyable at the same time, the backstory and the worldbuilding were quite good and got me hooked.

>>21774431
aphantasia is a bitch I guess

Blood Music is a really good book.

>>21770187
Honestly this. There's a lot too be said about being open to the themes of a work too; an anti-Tolkien hate thread going on right now claims that Tolkien has no philosophy but I'm rereading Fellowship for the first time in years and there's a lot of on the nose philosophy that flew over me as a kid.
Same with Dunsany, its true that there's pulp but a lot of these classic fantasies are richer in themes than some realistic books I've read

>>21770698
>this is the guy you've been meming about
I am glad I didn't fall for it

>>21771076
I get the strongest Metroid vibes from Cthon.

The original draws a lot from Starship Troopers and Armor, and old subterranean adventure novels like Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Lost World, At the Earth's Core, ...

>>21774205
This is not new. All of the available videos from that conference are available on his Youtube page, but they are all unlisted.

>>21769990
He's not difficult at all. He's interesting, engaging and fun. You don't need to understand every autistic detail in the book.

frens, anons, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Bakker, not praise him,
The evil that moderns do lives aft them;
The sovl is oft interred with their memes,
So let it be with Bakker's shilling fag.

I'm looking for a book, it was a compilation of plenty of short stories, and i remember a handfull of them, i read it once twenty years ago or so.
One was a fantasy novel with a man too lucky to die, but always put in shittier and shittier situations, the story kinda ended with him stuck on a platform moving toward space ?
Another one was a warrior facing more and more challenging opponents, until he became death ?
Another one was a marine landing on an alien planet in power armor, bumbling his landing due to feet/meters conversion and ended up stranded and dying, and one of the indigenous people discovers him, though it was a monster, and discovering it was a man and not a monster at the end.

I've been rattling my brain for a good while now, but i'm unable to remember the title.

>>21775122
Oh yeah? Why?

>>21775954
Protagonist is a gigantic misanthropic prick who refuses to even believe the fantasy world is real.
The entire series is an exploration/subversion of earlier "transported to a magic world" stories (and later on it plays with LOTR type quests)
And it's also very heavily about the rape and the evils of it.

>>21774811
Isn't this the cuck book?

>>21776069
why so hateful? love is love

>>21771169
That's bad. That actually seems intentionally bad.

>>21776125
bakkerfags are so deranged they actually convince themselves that this word salad gibberish is not only good writing but philosophically sublime
bad taste is one thing, but this is insanity

>>21775345
Do you have a moment to spare in you busy day to hear the great news about our lord and savior J.R.R. Tolkien?

>>21776135
I actually bought that book and it's probably the worst purchase I've ever made. The reviews said that he had invented an entirely novel culture and world, but it was basically a series of clichés written in an anime-tier prose. The MC is the typical Mr. Edgy Too-Smart-4-U self-insert by a narcissistic author for his narcissistic fanbase. All ideas of goodness or higher meaning are absent. Since then I've resolved to never buy another fantasy book. The whole genre is oversaturated, unoriginal trash.

>>21770650
European book and it's about Dragons? Nice, goes to my reading list.

>>21776239
>>21776135
kellhus is literally bakker's donut steel self insert D&D character he made when he was in high school and hasn't changed since. he even wears a katana strapped over his back like he's the MC in a shitty anime

>>21776135
None of that is word salad-y though. Every made up term is explained right after it appears.
>Citadel of Ishual
>Inhuman sranc
>High king of _country_
>Knights of _place_
>Golgotterath's gates
This is just a case of someone not bothering to read the text, skim-reading, then getting upset when they don't understand whats going on.

>>21776271
Thats very clearly Achamian. Bakker is Canadian after all.

>>21776239
>>21776271
>kellhus
>self-insert

>>21776271
In your analogy, Kellhus would be the player's character and Bakker would be the DM. The conceit of the series is that Bakker is trying to set up a game world that an "ideal" player would nonetheless be compelled to approach in such a way as to lose the game despite defeat not being inevitable.

/sffg/ consensus on this?

>>21776135
There's actually an insane amount of world building in that passage. It's also doing a nice job of "instructing" the reader on how to approach this book. It turns out to be a good introduction for such a detailed world. If it comes across as a parade of made up fantasy language that makes you wonder if it actually means anything at all, that's because you haven't read the rest of the book yet. That wonder is precisely what invests the reader in building their own mental model of how all of these titles and countries are connected in the first place.

>>21776544
You're a fucking faggot my dude

Blood Music is some good shit

>>21776559
Everyone on this tranny website is, faggot. I'm a faggot who likes reading about history. Not usually a big fantasy reader, but I enjoyed that Bakker has a clear appreciation for history (in terms of both content and concept) himself.

>>21776577
History is the exact opposite of someone dumping a bunch of contextless words on you the moment you start reading about something.
The entire point of the discipline is to contextualize.

>formatting my fantasy book so that one day maybe i would be on /sffg/'s recommended list
>it's 350 pages long already
>looking to be probably 380 total.
>only 9-12 pages per chapter

This seems short.

>>21776594
Nothing wrong with a shorter book nor with short chapters.

>>21776594
Sounds ideal to me

>>21776594
400ish is industry standard from what I've read in recent years.
Plenty of stuff goes shorter than that, like the latest Crowley which is 250 pages as a hardcover

>>21776577
Thanks for outting yourself, cockslurper.

>>21776586
The "contextless words" are names which are delivered entirely in meaningful contexts in that introduction.
Sranc are inhuman warriors of some kind. Kuniuri is a country and Anasurimbor was a ruling dynasty there. Ishual was apparently one of their mightiest fortresses. Everyone was dying and what was once a mighty empire has become ruined, but there's a hint that this bloodline won't be completely wiped out.

All of these details, explained as they come up (though they may seem arbitrary at first) become immediately important when the main story begins in the next chapter, after this flashback introduction. They explain why it is notable that someone named Anasurimbor is coming out of a place called Ishual a couple thousand years after all these apocalpytic events took place. The question of "What is Kellhus" being so central, this historical context is very important for setting the stage of the story arc to follow.

>>21773335
uhh.... Baker bros.

>>21776625
no that means I'm doing too much telling in the story and not elaborating enough. It also means the pacing is probably all fucked up too.

I just wanted to write as well as even the worst book on this. That means I am going somewhere.
>>21770531

>>21776586
>contextless
Why do you keep repeating this you retard? All the fantasy words are given context. Its literally
>castle
>monster
>king
>knight
>fortress
Plenty of historical sources assume you have a good grasp of the current world/what came before, and mention people and events in passing without explaining them.

>>21776577
I got a Bachelor's Degree in history and you are fucking retarded m8
Bakker is a pseud who writes for pseuds, the left-wing version of Varg Vikernes

>>21776654
by this logic Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is good historical literature
British porn mag captions seem more your speed
pic related could stand in for any passage of Bakker

>>21776668
I have a Ph.D in History Instruction and I'm revoking your degree
This post was written by a pseud for psueds, the /sffg/ version of Scott Bakker

>>21776683
>getting a PHD in history
Anon... I don't think you're the smart one here.

>>21776683
That's almost as pathetic as a PHD in philosophy

>>21776679
No, because I'm saying him not explaining everything right from the get go isn't anti-historic. Bakker has plenty of asides where he explains relevant details across time, its just this section you're expected to piece together as you get deeper into the books. Plenty of historical pieces don't give full context, in fact many of them skip over most stuff (assuming the reader knows it) to tell a particular piece of information.

Regarding pic related, no it couldn't. Because, again, what the made-up words are is described.
>the CITADEL of Ishual
>the INHUMAN sranc
Its not just the "skarpaja of mogrokoban too refuge in the zerpojaj" Its "the king who's name we don't understand hid in his secret fortress called Ishual, from monsters call the sranc".

Why does Bakker keep shilling himself on 4chan? Shouldn't you be writing the No-God book?

Dumb faggot.

>>21776747
>Shouldn't you be writing the No-God book?

>>21776721
It's actually way more confusing when he doesn't use made up fantasy-language names for things. Like in that intro passage, "No-God" is the most potentially misleading term because it sounds like it has a definite meaning that may or may not relate to how the characters are using it. Or for another example, it took me a while to realize that "nonmen" didn't literally just mean non-humans in general.

>>21769724
i know its a bit cringe but i like the dragon transformation story of deviant art, for once its not a shit furry fest.
the wrinting could be better but i thinks its good and as really good pottential
to bad it was stop, the guy might had died as the last few post said he was sick.
the story goes like this
>bunch of orphan in a average meh orhanage get all "adopted" in a few weeks no matter the age of the kid.
>last find out no one got send to a actual home or family,name gone from regestrie but get capture before he could do anything.
>last kid wake up in a lab in the midle of a injection. start changing and broke free.
>last kid menage to actualy escape any captor wich creat infigthing of all different interest group of the secret lab so now more and more kids escape already transform.
>the last kid find out its super soldier program while becoming more and more powerfull as he tries to find a way to escape.
>the other transform kids start joining the interest groups now having supersoldier joining in at killing each others,
>last kid finaly makes it at the end of the compound finding he is basicaly on epstine island and that almost all the og personal haave being evacuated or killed on what is now an abandoned island.
>last kid gets manipulated by a glowie to evacuate more of the supersoldiers and he find out that his blood is now basicaly a drug that makes him fell no remorse but does not work on him but works on others kids.
never continued
pic related

>>21776761
"Mandate" was another one, it was not immediately clear whether that was meant to be the English word "mandate" in the sense of obligation, or a made up fantasy word with three syllables, because it was only used as a title (which seemed to have nothing to do with the literal meaning) and the origin was not explained.

>>21776760
He's gonna die? Good. Maybe then you people can shut the fuck up.

>>21776761
No-God is left massively vague, which I think makes sense. Nonmen are described and contrasted with humans very distinctly in the prologue, when Kellhus meets and talks with one.
But even then Bakker doesn't really go into them much, which I think is intentional given they're a dark reflection of elves, who show up all the time in fantasy stories when they're supposed to be fading. Its not until the second series that its even hinted that they can't see colours, I think.

>>21776782
This post is schizo, but it's also making me feel schizo because I could swear I've read a similar summary of a story just like this elsewhere. Was this like a really popular 'fic' on the internet at some point?

>>21776808
it was writen in 2009 to 2012 so maybe

>>21776805
Yes, is absolutely makes sense that certain things are left vague or unexplained for a while. I'm just saying it was comparatively easier to pick up on the names of the countries and culture groups and such. Using different fantasy languages lets you immediately identify things by sound. Even if you don't remember exactly who all the kings are, or whatever, you can figure out who somebody is just by how their name sounds. This is by no means unique to Bakker and he's not even especially good at it, but it's a useful device because it works well enough.

>>21776648
It either needs filling out or it doesn't. The third draft is usually where you start cutting things after adding a bunch in where it's needed. Not to mention final formatting can drastically change page counts and make or break flow.

Approximately halfway through Joe Abercrombie's "The Last Argument of Kings" and holy christ this fucking sucks. I haven't dropped a book in a long while but I'm seriously considering it now.

I liked the first book well enough; and the second book at least did exactly what it promised at the end of the first book. But then you get to the ending the major narratives end up being completely pointless. That isn't inherently a bad thing but it raises a lot of questions about the 'point' of the series and left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Now, halfway through the third book, it feels like nothing matters at all. Every story thread feels like it can be boiled down to all setup, no payoff.

>>21776867
Don't let that dissuade you from reading the standalone stories. If you enjoyed the first two books then you'll also enjoy Heroes and Best Served Cold.

I think the "point" of Abercrombie's writing is just to be edgy and entertaining to read. The broader point of the stories, if there is any, don't extend past the generic 'war bad' or 'life sucks but we have to make the most of it'.

What's your favorite race? I like anything that has furry skin because I like to imagine myself cuddling with them.

>>21776080
I was against Canada allowing euthanasia BUT...

>>21777021
Nine tailed foxgirls for coomlit
Liches/Necromancers for non-coomlit. Though I've yet to read a story with a necromancer not being a gigantic asshole or a gary stu

>>21777125
Here's one about a gay loser who gets stepped over by all the women in his life.

>>21777125
I think there’s only one story in one of CAS’ Zothique Cycle where the Necromancer isn’t an asshole, and that’s because he fights a cannibal Negromancer who controls crabs with a magic ring. Though you might be thinking about the type of Necromancer that actively raises the dead, and not as a synonym for wizard or sorceror.

>>21777152
Technically speaking a necromancer is someone who performs divination via speaking with the dead, using the bones of the dead, etc.

>>21777125
Necromantra has a necromancer waifu.

Are you looking for big thick books about dragons, sorcerers, and magic?

Are you searching for angsty, first-person musing from depressed millenials?

If so, you've come to the wrong place.

Our books are mean, rough, and gritty.

Best of all, they fit in your pocket... unless you wear skinny jeans in which case you won't enjoy our books anyway.

You can't download our books.
If you want to read on your kindle or phone, you're not a real man.
Real books are made of real paper... cheap absorbent paper that can stanch a bullet-wound in a pinch.

And, we sure as hell don't sell audiobooks...
A real man doesn't need his mommy to read to him.

Can you find them on Amazon?
Perhaps... You'll recognize them by all the one-star reviews from offended liberals.

>>21777125
Read Retribution Engine. Overly detailed foxgirl coomlit prog fantasy

>>21777021
Irish women

>>21777189
give recommendations

>>21777214
No.

>>21777189
>Female lead

>>21777213
favorite books with/about/written by Irish women?

I come to you with a humble request. I'm looking for a scholarly sort of monster manual. I want a kind of bestiary or encyclopedia of mythical and fantasy creatures from folklore around the world. From the house goblins and dragons of Europe to the ghouls of the middle east and on to the xiangshi of china, a general grab bag of the anthropologically significant fantasy creatures, the major players in important myths and folklore. I emphasize that I'd like it to be scholarly, the kind of book that will be fun to thumb through but also might have been assigned in a humanities class in a previous era when college professors were not green-haired angry people with a chip on their shoulder and a dubious point to prove. Nor would I like it to be obviously targeted at children, thus shying from the more mature and socially uncomfortable implications of certain creatures. Illustrations would be nice, but are optional. Is there a consensus on one great book to fulfill this need? Please and thank you very much, /lit/, for your help.

I caught up on re: monarch and then got upset with myself that I didn't realize that it wasn't completed
fuck web serials they can suck my dick

>>21777295
Called using google. Use it.

>>21777285
Not sure but some Irish bint kept bringing this lady up at events I was at. And began singing the song of her downtrodden Irish race. To be sure, to be sure.

>>21777305
Fuck yourself with a rusted railroad spike. I don't want to be on screens any more than I already need to be. And if you mean to search for such a book myself, I already have. Google is increasingly useless in finding quality results for products to buy or useful and truthful information. I ask here because I've seen a particular book recommended for this purpose before.

>>21777311
I king for she

>>21777298
>I didn't realize that it wasn't completed
How is that even possible? Third book is available to preorder on amazon and the late chapters are free on royal road

>>21777325
what's up with all the insane nonce posters we're getting lately?
If you want a specific book look in the archive, if you want an encylopedia of folklore just ask for that without making a paragraph of political ranting

>>21777331
When I last glanced at it on RR months ago it looked done, I just didn't check it again like a retard. I don't know how but I just filed it off in my head as completed

>>21777295
you have to read primary sources concerning folklore, or secondary sources that are so strong that they're practically primary sources anyway (e.g. the poetic edda). Someone attempting to reduce something as garbled and complex as folklore into a compendium will inevitably horribly butcher the source material, thus defeating the purpose of reading the compendium at all.

>>21777295
You will unironically receive a better answer if you ask this on reddit. Just go there.

>>21777248
based

>>21777338
>political ranting
I did no such thing. Stay asshurt, dipshit. Way to out yourself as the exact type of person I mentioned. Stop replying, any rec you give will be the wrong book for me.

>>21777325
>I don't want to be on screens any more than I already need to be.
>He says, asking a question here instead of any other site
Just use google, you retard

>>21777338
There is no "political ranting" anywhere in that comment, you retarded faggot.

>>21777369

>>21777383
they literally whine about green haired college professors lol
it's obvious what they're after

>>21777325
>I don't want to be on screens any more than I already need to be.
Then why don't you ask your question on a forum that talks about books? You're wasting your time doing it here and all you're doing is being on your screen.

>>21777390
>they literally whine about green haired college professors lol
>it's obvious what they're after

>>21777390
Reason to take hold once more in society?

>>21769782
Warhammer 40k (Eisenhorn show or whatever Cavill is doing) or Red Rising (if it ever even gets made)
Warhammer will probably get toned down even more for normies and eventually reach the mainstream spotlight like what happened to Marvel.

Red Rising is your typical YA Hunger Games rip-off except this time it takes place in space, and some actual thought was put into the worldbuilding. It also branches off quite early and becomes it's own thing. Typical themes of the exploited working class rising up and overthrowing their cruel rulers, yada yada.

Dystopian media will have a resurgence when we're a few years into a worldwide recession

>>21777343
Maybe so, I did consider that possibility. I'm not hoping for an exhaustive list, just something of anthropological value for my research rather than a children's book or something more pop fantasy focused. Still hoping for a good rec, I may do as this anon >>21777348 said, evidently we live in a bizarro world where the typical redditor (>>21777338) has migrated to a place that is supposed to not mollycoddle them at the cost of useful and honest discourse.

>>21777371
Other sites won't be on a screen? Is your brain rotten?

>>21777295
Only things that come to mind were those Vampireology books as a kid, various bestiaries from different settings, and some more specific cultural stuff like pic related.
I think keywords like “dictionary of mythology” will help. I have a few books like that on British folklore.

>>21777410
>evidently we live in a bizarro world where the typical redditor (>>21777338) has migrated to a place that is supposed to not mollycoddle them at the cost of useful and honest discourse
You new? This is how /lit/ and /sffg/ always been.

>>21777390
>it's obvious what they're after
I'm the one that asked for the rec. Care to elaborate on exactly what I'm "really" after? I thought I provided a fairly descriptive list of the things I was looking for, so maybe you can enlighten me and locate the boogeyman in my post that keeps you awake at night in paranoia about "politics." I'm an independent researcher looking to learn about humans by way of observing monsters and freaks. Maybe I can save my money and watch you instead, you fucking hobgoblin.
I would not have been so nasty to you if you hadn't immediately responded in a hostile, condescending manner.

>>21777432
>I would not have been so nasty to you if you hadn't immediately responded in a hostile, condescending manner.
How is telling you to use google a hostile, condescending manner? It’s a legit answer. Sorry you thought /lit/ would do your homework.

>>21777421
Not true, you gas-lighting retard.

>>21777436
This site is for people who can’t do a heckin adulting and need internet strangers to think for them. If he were creative, he’d just look into early animal zoology books with those fucked up made up beasts.

>>21777444
You can stop samefagging any time now, dipshit. I came to talk about books, I'm going to do that. You can keep bitching about your political boogeymen and replying to yourself to feel less lonely in your hopeless ignorance and desperation.
>heckin adulting
fucking autist

>>21777444
based numbers

>>21777459
>I came to talk about books
Then you came to the wrong place. Reddit is more your speed.

>>21777459
You’re the retard who can’t even look up a book properly. You do know there are free search databases for literature such as LION or just Library of Congress, etc.?

>>21777444
>>21777436
Also you still haven't told me what I'm really looking for. Name it. You're implying something and don't have the balls to follow through. Be brave, anon.

>>21777467
you can also use pretty much any university library search online without a login
Then if you're not a retard (unfortunate for our requester) you can usually find most of the results online

>>21777472
I told you “dictionary of mythology.” I know it sounds bizarre to you but the world isn’t dungeons and dragons so if you think we’d have ONE encyclopaedia for all manner of beasts and monsters, then you’re not very bright.

>the discord trannies are throwing a fit again

>>21777472
>Also you still haven't told me what I'm really looking for.
Wasting your time, since that's what you're doing spending it here instead of searching for the books you want.

>>21777475
>>21777467
Nice reading comprehension. Not interested in what your modern priest class is preaching for you to read. Interested in what intelligent people would recommend. Not you, and not your handlers.

>>21777484
If we need handlers, then it’s a disgrace you come to us for help… just leave.

Tranny freaks really can't read can they? Total disregard for reality is their modus operandi, I guess.
It's hilarious I make an offhand mention of green haired freaks and it's enough for a whole hissy fit. What an easy button to press, totally embarrassing.

>>21777484
> Interested in what intelligent people would recommend.
Then why are you here?

>>21777432
>I'm an independent researcher looking to learn about humans by way of observing monsters and freaks. Maybe I can save my money and watch you instead, you fucking hobgoblin
fucking kek

>>21777499
Evidently this place has changed. I used to get good recs. Discord trannies aren't a meme?

>>21777504
>Evidently this place has changed
Been the same way for years now. This place was never a good place to get recommendations

>>21777504
>Discord trannies aren't a meme?
No. The meme is them trying to deflect and get people to believe it's a meme.

>>21777509
It has been some time since I was last here. How'd you guys let it get this messy?

>>21777523
>How'd you guys let it get this messy?
Get what messy? It was always like this.

>>21777523
Do you know of Bakker?

>>21777535
Perhaps it was already like this when you arrived, newfag, but no it wasn't.

>>21777558
prove it

>>21777558
Read Bakker
Truth shines

>>21777545
What about him?

>>21777569
You read of him?

>>21777325
>I don't want to be on screens any more than I already need to be.
>Spends an hour here instead of just fucking off and finding the books by himself.
Why are people like this idiots?

>>21777579
Not yet.
>>21777581
shouldn't you be sucking a fart out of one of your obese androgynous life partner's assholes right now?

>>21777592
>shouldn't you be sucking a fart out of one of your obese androgynous life partner's assholes right now?
I usually get done with that at around noon, leaving the rest of the day for posting on my most favorite, LGBT-friendly website in the world.

>>21777581
Because he never cared about the books to begin with. If he did, he wouldn’t have come here.

>>21777592
He reigns supreme

>>21777600
Enjoy your shithole site, I guess. Real book readers and intelligent types will find a better spot and eventually your ilk will somehow seep through into there, too, and the cycle will begin anew. If that's victory to you, feel free to claim it.
>>21777601
I had no idea this place had been so badly diminished. I guess those that cannot make or even appreciate anything must take pride in something, and if all they're capable of is the equivalent of farting in an elevator, I guess it must be that. Congratulations. Gonna continue my research and maybe I'll learn about the species-wide illnesses that produced you.

I wanna live in Gormenghast so bad… I think Ezra Pound had a castle, too… I wonder if it gets cold

>>21777647
what the heck am I reading

>>21777698
Comfy gothic poetic fantasy

>>21777343
Serials are funny they're first drafts and people are paying for it

>>21777748
Love it.

I was sceptical about Bakker before, but I'm not anymore after reading him. I unironically like Bakker. Reverend Insanity to.

>>21777021
White

Love me Dune
Dislike me Dune Messiah
Ate Children of Dune

Simple as


My path with Dune so far. Really dissapointed by CoD. Should I continue to God Emperor?
The same people I've seen disliking CoD online shill for next book being as great as original.

>>21778108
>Ate Children of Dune

>>21772937
Ever read stuff on Royal Road? It's the same thing from the other side. Western authors trying to synthesize wuxia tropes into their own fantasy.

>>21773158
Saruman is Olde English for 'magic man'. His name is literally wizard.

read worm

>>21778135
I know. It’s especially funny how they exaggerate the faceslapping shtick. The fact that it’s in reality, a very slight exaggeration only makes it funnier.

>>21778108

New thread
>>21778361