/lit/ - Literature

Just started reading pic related.
I'm about 50 or so pages in, it seems to go back and forth between characters pretty quickly. Like sometimes only a few paragraphs at a time and the you get like 5 pages of the other.

Is it like this throughout the book, or does it stop becoming less of a thing further on?

Not really a fan of that, just as you get the feel for one character and what is going on it abruptly switches to another and back again.

>>21825662
Just bought Dune
I hope that the book is better than the new film.
How good are the translations from English?

>>21825662
Ok folks
Knight see a pretty girl wanting a necklace. He (for unrelated reasons) goes to a dungeon and get one (which was not expected). I need good reasons that stop him from giving it to her. I first imagined to say grave robing is wrong and thats why he left it there, but it is too weak. Any ideas?

>>21825747
The real question is why he would care about some random girl in the first place. Is being a simp so ingrained in you that you see no other way? Don't talk to her in the first place or ignore her later.

TWI 9.10W-9.11W
Is it me or has Wiskeria's character been completely rewritten in this volume?
I recall her being just this cute, tad awkward witch, competent but slightly insecure, kinda talkative, always tugging on her hat and adjusting her glasses
But in these last two chapters she's felt wayyyy too much like Belavierr, just full on autismo barely knowing how to act human and it's kinda sad since she was one of my favourite characters
It's kinda in line with how some characters have been acting in this volume so far though, more often than not acting like caricatures of themselves, specially Erin, some passages have had me actually cringing with how overdone it's been
I hope the writing returns a bit back to normal
Also, quick note on V8 ending
It was alright, but holding all the happenings and twists for the last two-ish chapters was a mistake
You can't just build up so many storylines and hint to so many things only to have the payoff of all of them at the same time and barely have any of them hit home
idk

>on my third fantasy book in a row with a lesbian protagonist without trying
Is it a coincidence or are we living in a golden age of lesbian protagonists?

>>21825747
She's evil and the necklace is cursed.

>>21825790
It's more than a coincidence since you're reading works which are far more likely to have one. There is much more LGBT content these days though, yes.

>>21825790
you're a giant faggot so your preferences naturally skew toward the type of books that have a much higher chance of having faggy shit in them

>>21825822
Not him but please go back >>>/pol/

>>21825822
why do you feel the need to be rude

>>21825790
The protag in my fantasy series will be a lesbian but it will be almost entirely platonic and there will never be sex of any kind shown in the books

>>21825747
Make it be robbed, make the dungeon itself fight to keep it, I dunno.

>>21825835
>>21825839
i just don't like people who get obsessed with lesbians
nothing against lesbians or other gay people but i've never once in my life come across someone who liked "lesbian media" that wasn't a huge fuckin creep so now it's on sight

>>21825790
Which ones? I'd like to make sure I avoid them haha

>>21825869
I'm not obsessed with lesbians, I literally said I wasn't even seeking out books with lesbians but managed to read 3 in a row by accident, which struck me as unlikely.

>>21825772
Pirateaba retconns and changes the past and characters all the time, mostly those are minor things, but as of late the tendency's become worse. My least liked aspect of TWI, but the author has always took plot over coherency. I'm more suprised you ahven't noticed it before, I believe it had started around Volume 6-7. I love TWI, but damn if it doesn't its bunch of problems. It is what it is, though, and Volume 9 has been significantly better than the last one.

Volume 8's ending was a bit of a mess. It worked in the end, barely, but you only need to look at The Horns' plotline in Chandrar and how it ended to see mistakes were made. Almost 3 milion words and still not enough to suficiently make time for everything.

>it's kinda sad since she was one of my favourite characters
Anon, I love Toren's plotline. Imagine how I've felt since V6. It barely exists.

>>21825909
You assumed that the author remembers any details in the long term. It's not intentionally retcon. It's simply everything happens as written and no one is meant to take it seriously. You just have to enjoy it chapter by chapter and not be concerned with anything that happened before.

>>21825904
What books?

>>21825680
The writing gets less bad as the books go on, but Reynolds is a shit writer in general. All his books are long form jags about technology and physics, and everything else is just sort of there. Which isn't to say I didn't read the trilogy and find it interesting, but if you want great prose and characters, maybe you should not be looking at hard scifi.

>>21825790
>>21825809
>>21825841
The tendency to have a lesbian protagonist has increased enormously the last few years. There are few factors behind it, one is mainstream female authors wanting to be inclusive and liking WLW (women-loving-women) stories. Not to mention actual lesbians enjoying writing stories about themselves, which the market welcomes more than ever.

Another, much weirder and concerning case are male authors, especially the young men, who have problems with writing male characters as protagonist. When you look at talented young men, they often prefer to use a female protagonist that's similarly to a man, but homosexual as the author cannot and doesn't want to write them loving men. There is a deep, deep problem with masculinity these days and young men don't know how to properly function in their roles, so they instead live vicariously through female lesbians as those are something they understand. You cannot do one step without walking into some lesbian shit, either in movies, books, comics or whatever. Everything is full of lesbians.

This will have dire social consequences somewhere down the line, I'm sure of it.

>>21825923
>You just have to enjoy it chapter by chapter and not be concerned with anything that happened before.
Anon, I just told you that what TWI is. You cannot enjoy it as a whole because it is not consistent in world-builidng and characters enough for that. You MUST enjoy chapters as they come, but that is not a good thing, it's a BAD thing. A big, real flaw of the story. And it could be ameliorated if the author wasn't so fucking arrogant and thought he can keep all the story in their head. He actively refuses to make notes on characters or the world, and reacts with hostility when people point that out.

Again, there are far worse flaws for a story to have, but it cannot be denied it is one.

anyone here unironically read patrick S tomlinson? he's a huge cringelord and calls everyone a stalker child.

>>21825923
I generally agree with this sentiment for most stuff, like any spell/distance/system details etc
But completely changing how a character behaves out of the blue or making them a joke for no reason is not it

>>21825939
>Another, much weirder and concerning case are male authors, especially the young men, who have problems with writing male characters as protagonist.
Is that really a case? What causes that?

>>21825995
>Is that really a case? What causes that?
Inability to connect to masculinity. They cannot see themselves as driven people with agency as culturaly that role in fiction has been increasingly given to women. There is nothing wrong with having female characters or protagonist, but the current obsession with feminity across all western media and its glorification has resulten in men relating more to women than men, but those characters aren't exactly written for men, which creates a dissonance.

There is something deeply creepy about it, and I don't like this trend, as a whole. Whenever I see another story written by a man that has a female lesbian/bisexual protagonist, I get goose bumps.

Read Redemption's Blade

>>21825939
>>21825995
Basically they're uncomfortable asserting masculinity and afraid of being criticized or punished for it so they shield themselves behind a more socially invulnerable class. Same deal as making your protagonist black to avoid claims of racism.
The real issue is it's often not a conscious decision to avoid trouble, but a subconscious instinct that manifests as a general fear and avoidance of men, which if the author IS a man, leads to fear and avoidance of HIMSELF, or at least his masculine attributes.
And we all know where I'm going with this.

Ironically, the people who do this subconsciously ALSO do the reverse, where once they've successfully cloaked themselves in a female mouthpiece will tend to act EXTREMELY assertively to a degree that would be excessive and strange even for a normal man. Like they go from a guy who can't even look a girl in the eyes without panicking and looking away, to an abusive "lesbian" serial rapist.

I finished Red seas under red skies (Gentlemen Bastards #2) today. I will keep this brief. Did this book have an editor? It reads like a draft. The random shift in the plot, pages upon pages of things introduced that just don't amount to anything, a character that will obviously die for plot reasons, character decisions that are contrived.

What happened? Lies of Locke Lamora was much better than this.

>>21825662
Do Ravens really get that big?

>>21826094
If you feed them enough oats

>>21825747
You reach for the necklace, hanging on the witches grave deep within the Dungeon.

As you reach out towards it, you feel a change in the air. Your vision begins to blur, you sense a presence in your mind creeping like a shadow in the night. You attempt to pull away, but the more you try the more the shadow consumes you. A voice you now hear, not within the dungeon but within your mind. A child's voice, innocent, but at the same time sinister and crule. The voice of the witch long buried within the grave you now stand before. She speaks to you now, her voice echoing in your mind, bouncing around inside your skull.

"good knight, though your intensions are good, should thou taketh thy necklace from thy grave, you should know one thing. This is no ordinary necklace your maidens heart would desire, it possesses power of an evil kind. A wicked curse once bestowed up thyself by the most wickedest of evil from the far reaches of bellow."

Your eyes are now fixed upon the gleeming jewel set within the necklace, shining like a star in the blackest of skies. A deep red glow, blood, swirling within, pulling you ever closer.

The echoing in your mind begins once more, the witch now sounding older but softer in tone.

"You may take this prize and bestow it upon the neck of your hearts desire, but should thou do this, know one thing. You shall enjoy many years of the sweetest love, you will live long and grow old together. You will bear three children, all of fair hair and full of grace. But know this will come at a price. The evil bestowed within thy necklace will spread throughout the land, the cruelest and most evil of demons from the depths below will rise and consume this earth. Many people will die and Kings and their kingdoms will fall."

The voice begins to fade now from your mind. You sense feeling in your limbs once more, as your senses return and your vision clears you look down at your hand. The necklace now held within your palm.

The witches voice returns once more, this time from the grave. A chill down your spine as she speaks her final words of head to your soul.

"Leave now, brave sir Knight, take your prize within your grasp. You may hold it within your possession and worry not. Only upon giving into your deepest desire, when you finish tying the necless around thous maidens neck, will the dark start to consume the light and the land you walk. Go now brave sir Knight, let your heart decide your fate and that of the world."

>>21825931
I've only read one of his other books, House of Suns. Really enjoyed that book but the writting and pacing in this doesn't seem anywhere near as good so far.

Think I'll stick with it and see if it gets better for now.

>>21825995
I don't think it's quite so much that masculinity isn't seen these days as much as that a lot of more contemporary media that many of these people will be consuming will often have very milquetoast male protagonists, so they'll often emulate that. It's not necessarily a bad thing for your protagonist to be the most 'normal' character in your cast, as it means everybody else has a different relationship to him, but for books it's pretty tricky because you're spending the majority of your time with this character and they're boring the moment another character isn't with them, it's gonna be glaringly obvious to anybody who's reading how bland the character actually is.
It also sort of derives from this idea that "the man is a default", so people don't even try when making a male character, assuming the defaultness will be enough, whereas female protagonists they feel like they have to make more interesting (even if there's any number of female protagonists who are insufferably bland you just don't hear too much about them). I'm not sure my point's getting across quite so well, but I can't be fucked to make this make more sense.

You see? This is what being a pay piggie does to authors, you make them lazy and comfortable. If you withhold funds from an author and make them hungry, they will make sure that their works passes quality checks, and to publish their works on time so they can eat,. A starving author is a productive author.

See what happened with GURM? He didn't need money anymore, so the pressure to fill his belly is not there. Pay piggies were pulling out their support from E William Brown en masse and behold, a book is published, and he is on Royal Road now.

I thought it was going to be terrible with how Roberts decided to include genderfluid dialogue, another character that existed only to be characterized as lesbian, and of course a tiny sprinkle of interracial romance, but eh, I was wrong. Christians will surely gobble up both the theme and story of this one, especially with how the book is dominated by a religious protagonist.

What to say without giving away to much? It's unique, I'll give it that. Roberts takes an interesting memory concept, the neurotoxic, and makes an entire world out of it. He takes a mysterious alien megastructure and creates a Dantian revelation. He wield together what might seem like two distinct narratives into a Christian symphony, albeit with a serious dose of existentialist philosophy and anti-war sentiment thrown into the mix.

>>21826061
>I finished Red seas under red skies (Gentlemen Bastards #2) today. I will keep this brief. Did this book have an editor? It reads like a draft. The random shift in the plot, pages upon pages of things introduced that just don't amount to anything, a character that will obviously die for plot reasons, character decisions that are contrived.
>What happened? Lies of Locke Lamora was much better than this.
You didn't listen when people kept repeating to not read past the first book? If you are stupid enough, go read the third book, you are going to retroactively make the first one worse.

>>21825901
>>21825924
>Bloody Rose
Sequel to Kings of the Wyld. The worldbuilding of this setting leaves a lot to be desired, but the series is built around adventuring parties being treated like rock bands and going by rock band-like names, so that thematic gimmick at least somewhat compensates. The author also tends to suffer from MCU influence in the sense that he often deflates the tension and gravity of what should be dire moments with poorly-placed/executed comic relief. That said, I ultimately enjoyed it and will add the third book to my backlog whenever it drops.
After finishing that, I was in the mood for something with a non-western aesthetic, so I went to Barnes and Noble and basically grabbed the first book I saw in the fantasy section with a non-white person on the cover, checked the reviews, and bought blind. That book was
>The Unbroken
It's a good book. The prose was well written. But it wasn't the kind of story I wanted, which was on me since I bought it blind. If you're into books about colonialism and the conflict between sympathetic colonizers and hardline colonizers like Waiting for the Barbarians, it could be up your alley. It also takes place in a gunpower age and magic was sparsely used and shrouded in mystery, which I appreciated. However, the book basically takes place entirely in one city and the colonizers of !North Africa basically being !France was too euro-centric for what I was going for. Compared to the blistering pace of Kings of the Wyld and Bloody Rose which had every chapter introduce a new character, conflict, or set piece, it felt like the story beats of the Unbroken dragged. The resolution also had no real hook to get me interested in whatever the follow-up might be.
So feeling dissatisfied, I flipped through the extras section of the book to look for some leads on a fantasy series truly devoid of eurocentrism, which led me to
>The Jasmine Throne
This one is almost a fucking mirror of the Unbroken in terms of themes, except it's set in !India and the colonizers are a different !Indian ethnic group instead of some analog for the British, so that was a plus. Like the Unbroken it also takes place entirely within one city with a one-note dynamic to the story. However, I liked its aSoIaF-style jumping around character perspectives on multiple sides of the conflict and unlike the Unbroken, it sets the stage for a greater conflict that will go beyond the one city and actually makes me interested enough to give the sequel a read.

>>21825680
I'd say cut your losses. The book isn't that great. A major flaw is how Reynolds used the male character.

>>21825680
Read Peter Hamilton, he writes the real modern space opera kino

>>21825995
>Is that really a case? What causes that?
Being raised by single moms.

>>21826183
>You didn't listen when people
I don't listen to Bakker-fags and litrpg fags.

>>21826185
>>21826209
Think in about reading Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

I also have a Hamilton book called The Abyss Beyond Dreams though.

>>21826249
Same

>>21826249
based

>>21826249
Based

>>21826209
nights dawn and commonwealth saga are the only works of his worth reading, everything else is garbage and/or progressive liberal garbage

>>21826249
Huh...based

>>21825680
The books disappointed, mostly because the big reveal of what is behind everything is laughable and nonbelievable. Chasm City was the best book of the lot.

I just bought the first 3 Wheel of Time books, what am I in for?

/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.

>>21826605
books to avoid

>>21826184
Did the lesbianism get in the way of the story? Did it feel like the books were actively trying to draw your attention to it, like "look! they're lesbians!!"?

I wish more protagonists in transmigration web novels would be more unapologetic when it comes to enforcing our cultural standards, whether traditional Western or Globohomo, onto the natives of another world. Often, an author will make the natives engage in slavery or blood sacrifice, or even simply in displays of misogyny, in order to justify their 21st century onions male enforcing American culture onto them, and I wish that they’d eschew the excuse. Where are the stories where the protagonist outright claims that their original culture is outright superior to their host culture in another world? Where are the protagonists who actively engage in cultural cleansing, replacing the vibrant and original cultures of the other world with those the protagonist is most comfortable with?

>>21826666
>Where are the protagonists who actively engage in cultural cleansing, replacing the vibrant and original cultures of the other world with those the protagonist is most comfortable with?
Forever stuck inside the heads of authors who are scared of publishing something like that lest they be labeled all sorts of shit up to and including the second coming of hitler, thus ruining their careers. Such is the state of the world now.

>>21826605
Why are you putting actually good books among garbage? Do you honestly think it'll help you blend in?

>>21826677
It looks like I’ll have to do it myself.

>>21826677
lol @ the assertion that anyone actually wants to write this schlock but can't because of woke moralists

>>21826492
Ok but any books like Dark Souls and Berserk? Are The Witcher books any good? Only played Witcher 3 because it has cute waifus. Where do i start with WH40k? And just started reading Mistborn and Stormlight Archive, when does it get good? Will fat Martin ever finish winds of winter? Is it true that Rothfuss is a cuck? Any fantasy books like Red Dead Redemption 2? Just started Dune, when does it get good? Did Paul just commit genocide? Asimov's Foundation is boring. Any comfy fantasy books like Legends and Lattes? Truth Shines.

>>21826691
I don't know if anyone actually wants to write that shit. But if they wanted to, they won't because of that

>>21826693
>Will fat Martin ever finish winds of winter?

>>21826693
>actual Dork Sails book comes out
>nobody else reads it
lel

>>21826691
This
Most if not all western authors are moral fags at least on some level.

>>21825759
It is a very short story about self control, she represents his unanswered desire. But if he justs "eh fuck her, I'm holding this for me" it would be worst than Deus ex machina.
>>21825795
>>21825857
short story, I don't have enough lines to develop that
>>21826124
... that is actually very good. Thank you very much. I don't wanna be a dick, but there is dialogue. How can I write this without talking lines?

>>21826745
Has anyone actually read it? Would like to know if it is actually good.

>>21826774
I think I posted about it when it came out. It was okay. It was more of a standard fantasy novel with some loose Souls theme than an actual Souls book.

>>21826748
>that is actually very good. Thank you very much. I don't wanna be a dick, but there is dialogue. How can I write this without talking lines?
Thanks.

Don't know about the dialouge, unless you skip that part and explain the situation to the princess of what would happen if you gave it to her.

>>21826781
Meh, I was expecting it to be the story from the game. I know it isn't possible to do a 1:1 version of it but that is what I thought it would be. Might give it a read one day.

>>21826651
Not particularly. The only book from my list where a character's sexual orientation could be considered a factor in the plot is the Jasmine Throne.

>>21826829
That's alright then
If I wanted the lesbians to be the whole point of the story I'd just read smut

Any medieval fantasy where the distant past is actually depicted as stone or iron age instead of the world somehow being stuck in the same tech level for millennia?

>>21826862
Dragonlance Legends, the past looks like ancient rome in times of Nero with crossed with conan-like fantasy bronze age

Any fantasy with a plot similar to pic related?

Finished this trilogy last night. It was pretty enjoyable for what it was. First book was good, second was my favorite and I'm not sure how to feel about the third right now. It did what it needed to do and I'm somewhat satisfied with the ending. Magic system was really cool and it tackles heavy themes pretty well. Main character was interesting throughout and the side characters were really fun. 7.5/10

>>21827187
>Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power
Sounds on-the-nose pozzed.

>>21825995
Lifelong shaming.

>>21827202
Eh it's not so in your face as you'd think it

>>21825995
weak or just absent fathers. Boys grow up raised by women, then they struggle to understand how to be a man and not some beta faggot

Is Luna trilogy from Ian McDonald any good?

>Meng Hao walked into the McDonald's. The cultivator taking his order gave a derisive snort, but Meng Hao did not really care, because he had repressed his aura down to the Single Patty Realm, and a fool would not be able to tell his true level of burger eating.

>"Give me... a Happy Meal!"

>The cultivator's face flickered before he finally regained his composure and laughed. "You couldn't afford a Happy Meal. Get lost! Don't you see that there are Double Quarter Pounder Realm eaters waiting behind you? Meng Hao slapped his bag of holding and threw 80 billion spirit McDonald's coupons onto the counter, causing an earthquake which demolished half of the restaurant. Everyone dropped their jaws. None could see how this was possible!

>"I'll take that Happy Meal with a side order of fries, " Meng Hao said. He was as calm as the ocean in a painting of an insanely calm ocean. "And let me see your manager!"

>The cashier cultivator coughed up a mouthful of ketchup. He simply could not handle Meng Hao's killing intent, because he was only at the Quarter Pounder with Cheese realm himself. Even though Meng Hao had suppressed his aura, because he had cultivated the Heavenly Burgin' Qi, this was enough to kill people a few levels higher if he truly wanted.

>It was then that another man which a much more fierce aura stepped forward. "You dare make trouble here?"

>"P... Patriarch Hamburglar!"

>Patriarch Hamburglar was 99 cents of the way into the Big Mac Realm, plus tax! Meng Hao was pushed back two feet, knocking over a soda machine. Powerade Mountain Berry Blast geysered outward, killing several onlookers. Of course, Mayor McCheese saw all this happen through the window.

>Meng Hao coughed up a mouthful of blood, snorted, constricted his pupils, and then his expression went calm. He unleashed the aura of 64 patties, condensed down to a 2 patty stack that could fit into his mouth! Mayor McCheese coughed up a mouthful of cheese. His pupils constricted.

>"Is this... Seeking the McRib stage??"

1/2

Recommend me books with good wizard battles. Proper wizards with vast and varied spells, not Sanderson "I have one specific superpower that I call magic" shit.

>>21827332
2/2

>Meng Hao had the gentle air of a scholar, but it wouldn't stop him from killing several people in a McDonald's. "Burger Devouring Scripture! I'm Lovin' It!"

>With the first keyword of the Burger Devouring Scripture, everyone below the early Quarter Pounder With Cheese stage exploded into purple mist. The light of the immense heavenly burger shone down with the contours of a golden arch as 9 illusory burgers floated around Meng Hao's body, which is probably an important xianxia number that matches the number of lakes in some sacred Chinese province I've never heard of. But that was only a fraction of Meng Hao's power. He waved his arm, bringing forth thirty more cultivation techniques that hadn't appeared in over 400 chapters!

>"Heavenly Tribulation Fries! Eastern Everburning Egg McMuffin! Fruit Smoothie Guillotine! Soul McCafe Mocha Incarnation!"

>Meng Hao's expression was the same as ever as he slapped his bag of holding, and brought out his karmic ketchup packet, Fry Cook Lord medallion, seventeen different wooden time spatulas, a five-coloured resurrection coupon, the silk burger wrapper, various souls of lightning McNuggets that he may or may not still have, and his mask of the legacy of Ronald McDonald. Oh, and the image of a flying Chicken Snack Wrap dragon appeared. Remember that? It was basically his Main Thing at the start of the novel, but quietly faded into irrelevance. Until now! All of this takes some time to describe, but actually happened in the space of only a few breaths. "What! Impossible!"

>Meng Hao wanted to summon the parrot as well, but it was too overcome with eroticism by the purple fur depicted on a nearby poster of Grimace, and was busy drilling out a glory hole straight through the poster, and the wall it was pinned to, with its strong parrot erection.

>But it was more than enough. The Hamburglar's soul flew out and was absorbed into his mask! He screamed as his body was destroyed completely.

>Meng Hao brushed off his robe and swept up his spirit coupons and everyone's bags of holding which probably didn't have any cool sh*t inside unless I write him into a corner later, and anyways, don't worry about it for now. He surveyed the rubble that was all that remained of the McDonald's.

>"Guess I'll be taking that Happy Meal... to go!"

This is how it feels trying to read xianxia.

>>21827335
I Shall Seal The Heavens

>>21827335
It does kinda take the magic out of it a bit when it's all so physics-based and has so many clear and documented rules, doesn't it

>>21827358
no not particularly

>>21827231
My friend, you are in a thread dedicated to a genre exclusively for beta faggots.

>>21827332
>>21827340
I liked Ze Tian Ji. The MC spends like most of the first book being a non-fighter and when he actually powerups it feels both justified and earned. Also, it doesn't read like this passive-agressive self insert fantasy of your parody where all the people he beats up are ridiculous cartoon villains who were mean to him.

>>21827466
Anon the greentext is literally just stereotypical xianxia writing with cultivation terms replaced by burger terms

>>21827481
Yes? Nowhere did I say it wasn't an accurate parody.

>>21825995
I sometimes feel like posts of this sort may be targeted at me, but then I remember that my female protagonists are more masculine than 90% of male protagonists in modern literature. They are, in fact, men with tits, and I have no shame in that.

>>21827492
Oh, I just realized I misinterpreted my post. Accept this junior's prostration.

About 1/4 thru Grass by Sheri Tepper so far. Really enjoying it, her prose and dialogue is great and the mysteries have really hooked me. Interested to see where it goes.

>>21827335
Reverend Insanity

What would be the most metal fantasy books? I feel it's either LOTR, Eric or Conan since they inspired a fuckton of metal bands.

>>21825939
>There is a deep, deep problem with masculinity
I think it's probably just horniness.
>>21826019
>Inability to connect to masculinity.
>relating more to women than men,
They just like imagining hot action girls getting it on with other girls. It's Laura Croft. 'If the player has to look at a character's ass, it might as well belong to a hot woman.'
>>21826040
>Basically they're uncomfortable asserting masculinity and afraid of being criticized or punished for it so they shield themselves behind a more socially invulnerable class. Same deal as making your protagonist black to avoid claims of racism.
I don't a 100% disagree with you. There really are Joss Whedons out there. But I wouldn't state in such absolute terms.

>>21826094

>>21827552
cum brained take

Reading the second Mistborn book. It's ok, but somehow more of a slog than #1. Does the series get better or should I stop reading it?

>>21825939
Something tangentially related is the phenomenon for terminally online males to obsess over images of cute anime women, and not in a sexual way.
Some guy who has spent hundreds of hours customizing his anime girl vr avatar has the nerve to call me a freak.

>>21827552
Eh I see where you're coming from, they want to have their cake and eat it too. So they need a bold masculine protagonist to ravish the women in the story, but they also want a hot girl protagonist to voyeuristically stalk through the narrative and play rape bait with.
They could just have TWO characters, but then the story becomes more complicated, it's awkward to switch back and forth between them, you have to deal with their relationship to eachother (can you still rape bait with the bimbo if she's already banging the guy, and how will she fit in with the other women, etc...) It's definitely doable, and probably would make for a more interesting story, but I can see how the kind of writer churning this kind of crap out would find it too difficult to bother and just go for the shortcut.

That's a general lesson for writers, shortcuts are the last thing you want, especially for these dragged out serials, learn from tv writers how incredibly long you can milk drama out of a simple two character structure.

>>21827571
The pace corrects, yeah. Sanderstorm has a writeup about it on his website, basically he almost added an entire half book worth of a journey to the north only for the party to find out that the well wasnt there, and his editor slapped his ass and made him stand in a corner.
So the slog youre experiencing is brantonios attempt at rejiggering the story to be better paced.
Think about that for a second, the final product is the BETTER paced version...

>>21827581
Thanks. I kinda want to read the shitty version of the book now, to see what was improved

>>21827552
>these days and young men don't know how to properly function in their roles, so they instead live vicariously through female lesbians as those are something they understand.
Calling that horniness is like saying a schizophrenic just has a sour disposition.

>>21827558
Take this girl's virginity

>>21827585
Thankfully the third book manages to find the speed the first book set. So if youre invested (lmao) in the story, its worth it to slog on.

>>21827540
Everything Epic? Bakker and Malazan unironically.

>>21827571
In era 1? No, it only gets worse. Era 2 of Mistborn is a much-better paced deal, though it has its issues overall too.

>>21827591
Good to hear it picks up.

Wouldn't say I'm invested in the storyline, as such lmao. However, I'm the type of reader who hates "giving up" on a story partway through a series/trilogy, even if I'm not fond of it. Not sure if it's autism or masochism. I'll probably just read the first trilogy and forget about the rest of the series

>>21827604
Thanks anon. What kind of issues does the second series have?

>>21827610
The first book feels much more disconnected from the next three, it often brings things up just to kind of discard them, and Wax isn't a great protagonist. Wayne is one of Sanderson's best characters, at least, but Wax is just kind of... Fine. It's hard to find anything appreciably bad about it except for the usual issues with Sanderson (pacing problems, keeping all major resolutions 'til the very end of the book, scope creep with the Cosmere, etc.)
I overall like era 2 more, because it actually feels like each book has something happening in it, meanwhile Books 2 and 3 of era 1 could've just been combined into one, in my opinion, because of how little actually happens in the third and how much useless nonsense there is in the second.

I dropped Mistborn at book 2. Didn't really care about any of the characters and the overdescribed anime fights were getting annoying.

>>21827348
>>21827515
Not wizards.

>>21827630
Asian wizards are cultivators.

do you think sanderson never released aether of night because of how horny it was? cause it's actually a decent read and the female characters are not annoying at all

>>21827637
What's that one? I know he has a few unreleased things that you can read somewhere, but I don't recall that one.

>>21827642
Aether of Night and the prose (novel) version of White Sand were available (upon email request) since the beginning. You could even interlibrary loan from his university. I believe there's a first draft of Dragonsteel too; it may have even been his thesis for his master's.

I can't tell if I love or hate fantasy/sci-fi localised expressions.
>Tsk, guys like that are a silver coin a dozen
>After all I've done for you, you'll just throw me under the hoverbus?
I'd give a less satirical example but they're all like this.

>>21827605
Invested was a bit of a joke. Investature is a power in bronsons cashmere.

>>21827335
Rhialto the Marvellous

>>21827335
Malazan, the Book of the fallen.

>>21827653
I think I'm fine with "fantasy swears" so long as they seem reasonable. But there's only so many "by the ancestors" or "oh gods" you can take. Like, have somebody just say "fuck" sometimes.

>>21827620
after the slog that was rythm of war, I am convinced Sanderson is surrounded by yes men. as a side note it feels to me he has become increasingly heavy-handed regarding gender roles and strong women. earlier works had strong women with objectives, more recent ones are feminists mouthpieces.

>>21827669
raboniel was a feminist mouthpiece?

>>21827669
Does it? Maybe I haven't noticed, but it feels like Sanderson's always been pretty straightforward with his female characters. Many are active warriors and such, but he clearly enjoys a lot of them also being princesses. Hell, Mistborn's first book is half a heist book, half My Fair Lady. You get very few tomboys.

>>21827637
Aether of night is one of his finer works, ironic that it was never published, the book has other issues in addition to horny females, there is a humanoid race that is impotent and only propagates by infecting human children with their pozzed blood, I am absolute not making it up, so they kidnap orphans, forcibly inject their demon blood and thrive as a community, needless to say they are also portrayed as a peaceful people and wrongfully villified by the larger human community

>>21827686
Lol nice
I'm gonna steal that and portray them the way they ought to be portrayed

>>21827676
there is a trend. stormlight 1 Jasnah was a scholar heretic who was competent but limited. she later became got a penis envy vibe and mary sue levels of competency. compare it to his female protagonists in Elantris and Warbreaker, they are more defined by their roles and goals than making a statement about the role of women in their societies. Vin had a girly side and was badass, she didn't go "see, girls can do it too!". Marassi went against the norms in book one but in later book she lays it down thick. I don't decry the feminist message but rather the delivery, it lacks subtlety.
>>21827674
raboniel was introduced and discarded just to advance the plot, she's another Jasnah.
I'd add Sanderson suffers from wanting to have continuous character growth

>>21827715
jasnah was always a mouthpiece of sanderson, even in book 1 she was mostly just there to say "see, I get atheism guys!" for him
idk the power creep might be justified for her since she's likely being set up to play a much larger role after SA5, and in case dalinar doesn't survive we all know she's most likely to take over
also being hoid's piece is uh, definitely a thing that is happening

>>21827715
He suffers from wanting continuous growth but also from not knowing how to have it happen. Kaladin and Shallan just keep retreading the same character arc.

>mistborn 2
>better paced
How can you be better paced if nothing fucking happens. Mistborn 2 is literally just a three book advertisement for the cosmere.

>>21827656
>tfw the joke went over my head

>>21827733
spot on. just have sylph give kaladin some sprend handjob and be done with it. have Adolin dick Shalan's schyzophrenia away.

>>21827332
>>21827340
I liked the idea of cultivation but most of the popular books seem to be like this. What are some actually reads in the genre?

>>21827731
sando said he lurked atheist forums to learn how to write jasnah lol

>>21827540
Legend by David Gemmell. Anything by Gemmell really.

>>21827626
I want to like the series more than I do. It reads like a novelization of a 90s JRPG, to me

>>21827752
Cradle, it shares the themes by brings western moderation in the growth rate and has fights where the protagonists are threatened. asian authors just make a character op and narrate an endless series of stomps.

>>21827751
Like, I GET that you don't just "get over" depression and all that, but... It's sort of proof that realism doesn't make for good storytelling. Especially given he clearly does kind of get over it in pivotal moments only to go back to being stuck in his own mind.

>>21827777
>Especially given he clearly does kind of get over it in pivotal moments only to go back to being stuck in his own mind.
To be fair that is how depression can work irl

>>21827540
The Broken Sword

>>21827777
sorry, I was only half jesting. I agree it realistically doesn't go away but it is narratively dragged on.

>>21827794
And it doesn't really feel like new aspects of it are tackled. Kaladin isn't really "somebody functioning with depressive episodes", he just kind of keeps going back to the "my life sucks and I don't deserve happiness" deal, which, fair, I understand depression is like that, but it's... Again, narratively really not satisfying.

>>21826094
The wizard is a 4' 10" manlet

>>21827752
*actually good

I'm writing an urban fantasy piece, but it kind of overlaps with military sci-fi because it's set in 2030 ish. Mercenaries are unting invading monsters and I want to give them some slang. The first example was easy--I think it makes perfect sense to refer to armor piercing rounds as hide-busters.

I'm hesitant on calling the quadrupedal weapons platform (think a horse sized version of the Boston Dynamics dog) a "Hoofer"

Part of me says if this were a real device, people would just call it a horse, but if I submit a story to a fantasy competition and say they have a 50 caliber machine gun on a horse... I don't think that would go over well.

So, do you all think "Hoofer" is fine enough slang? Or do you have a better suggestion for me?

>>21827826
Call em heffers. Grunts would call em heffers.

When Jasnah deus ex machina survived at the end of book 2, I almost dropped the series. Fuck Jasnah. All my homies hate Jasnah

I feel like a strong indication of a talented author is one that can write realistic women
women that act like women, arent "just men", arent sexual objects, arent damsels that need to be rescued, and certainly arent stronk independent women dont need no man
a woman that has those "certain defects" that make women charming in the first place, and also those instinctive qualities that make her a good partner and mother.
the only author I can think of that makes good women is jack vance but admittedly I'm not very experienced in this genre yet. any recs?

>>21827335
Bakker unironically. his magic system from what I remember was interesting. something about philosophy of language, intention of words.. fuck it I don't remember but it was cool when the middle-eastern-snake-wizards were fighting the other wizards

>>21827540
absolutely based Cirith Ungol fan, I saw them on a reunion tour last year. other than what you mentioned (with LotR being the big one since so much metal is inspired by that), another off the top of my head is Malazan related, Caladan Brood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlhYIDUc2lE

I love Summoning-style metal so much

>>21828001
unironically grrm, particularly his 1000 world stories
inb4 myrish swamp

https://pastebin.com/nDVEGEPN
Criticism for my fantasy story? It's a rough draft for a general outline. I'm trying to make it a very dark fantasy with gritty, dire themes. I'd really like to see a version of fantasy and magic that's less LotR and more Darkest Dungeon, if anyone's played that.
Maybe the best way to describe it is a realistic take on fantasy and magic that includes all of the bad stuff. I don't want to glance over violence, blood, disease like it's just part of the story. I want it to be gross, course, hopeless, violent, worrying, etc. but I don't want to be gratuitous, or just for the sake of doing those things

Any good fantasy books that incorporate the themes I'm going for?

>>21827988
when she meets back up with everyone in the third book it isn't even a big deal

>>21828038
Darkest Dungeon isn't the grime and grimderpshit. It's about hope and goodness in spite of those things. Look up nobledark.

>>21828001
Cs lewis, he wrote such a realistic female character that roasties still cry about it to this day.

>>21828060
Well, I'd like to have some of that too. Something I'm trying to push in my story is that good can be done through evil (in a religious sense), it's not just torture porn. I like that about DD.
Anyway, looking up the term nets me with some stuff that tells me that's sort of what I was going for all along.

>>21828001
>I judge authors by how they write women
>I can only think of 1 good author

>>21827751
Just started Rhythm of War. Does Kaladin finally fuck the faerie or does Sanderson drop the ball again?

>>21828101
which character?

>>21828226
Susan.

>>21828038
>5 commas in the first sentence

>>21828019
>unironically grrm, particularly his 1000 world stories
where to start?

>>21827715
>it lacks subtlety
>sanderson
dude, seriously? sanderson never had the slightest idea what subtlety is, the only change is he adopted "muh grrrl power" as a topic

>>21828247
since your original post was regarding female characters, you can try the following stories :

bitterblooms
a song for lya
windhaven
the lonely songs of larren dorr

>>21828038
>Under the wizard's aura of evil magic, the townspeople are cursed into servitude,
>and the slaves that were below the townspeople are emboldened by evil magic, and command them to build a great tower for the wizard to further propagate his evil magic.
>The wizard uses this evil magic
Even if this is supposed to be like a high level overview/outline you gotta figure this repetition shit out bro

>>21828238
>Fantasy author Neil Gaiman's 2004 short story "The Problem of Susan" depicts its protagonist, Professor Hastings (who strongly resembles an adult version of Susan), dealing with the grief and trauma of her entire family's death in a train crash, as she is interviewed by a college literature student regarding her opinion on Susan's place in the Narnia books.[7] Since the publication of Gaiman's story, "the problem of Susan" has become used more widely as a catchphrase for the literary and feminist investigation into Susan's treatment.[8][9]

>There comes a point where Susan, who was the older girl, is lost to Narnia because she becomes interested in lipstick. She's become irreligious basically because she found sex. I have a big problem with that.

—J. K. Rowling

>I just don't like the conclusions Lewis comes to, after all that analysis, the way he shuts children out from heaven, or whatever it is, on the grounds that the one girl is interested in boys. She's a teenager! Ah, it's terrible: "Sex — can't have that."

—Philip Pullman

Reality confuses and unnerves them

Holy fuck, I just used ChatGPT to rewrite 2 lines of dialogue from a character and I have never felt more powerful. The feeling of being a hack doesn't even come close to the erection I have.

>>21828399
If those were, indeed, the conclusions that Lewis arrived at, then I understand why people would take issue with them. Puritanism is retarded regardless of which side it comes from, be it wokists or religious fundamentalists.

>>21828411
post

Holy fuck, I just used ChatGPT to rewrite 2 words of dialogue from a character and I have never felt more powerful. The feeling of being a hack doesn't even come close to the erection I have.

>>21828415

>"Thou art he who bears the burden of a wretched curse, oh mighty emperor. Even from afar, I have sensed the weight of thine wickedness."

>"Verily, I have awaited thy coming since before the creation of this world. From the wombs of thy foremothers, thy lineage hath been foretold unto thee. Thou art the chosen vessel of divine wrath, to be delivered upon the incarnate of evil."

>"Your silence avails nothing to me, for your deeds are accounted as your speech, and your speech as your thoughts, and your thoughts as your spirit. You shall be cast into the shadows, O mighty emperor, the fallen ruler of the great city."

>"Doth this host of heavenly messengers strike fear into thine heart? Doth the voice of righteousness assail thy spirit? Verily, thine inheritance is destruction, and thy legacy, death. In the fiery abyss shall ye come to understand thy transgressions."

>"Lo, I shall hold thee no longer from delivering this world from evil's grip. Behold, I give unto thee my angel, my stronghold of light, who shall guard thee against the horrors of darkness. He shall be thy sword."

>true youve been inside the circle of her arms, tasted her mouth, felt the warmth of her and that is something i have never had. But there is a part of her that is only for me
>there were more than a few, she went through them like a pen though wet paper

I thought you guys were exagerating but no, kvothe is a straight up cuck.

>>21828452
much like his author, yes

>>21828412
Indeed, but you can assume they missed the point by a mile.
The tell is in their reductive criticism. They are, somewhat hilariously, the puritans in this case.

To distil the idea that worldly obsessions are antithetical to complete spiritual growth, down to "kids will be kids chud!" Would be depressing if it wasnt funny.

>>21828444
Did you tell it to write in the way Jesus spoke?

>>21828459
This whole time im waiting it to happen, and it just doesnt come. And im like
>oh so she leads men on for free shit and hes a lovestruck idiot
So i could see why anons would call it cuckoldry, but this? Watching her kiss other men? MY MAN WHAT.

>>21828469
the prompt was,
>Rewrite the following line of dialogue from a Lady of the Lake to sound like an excerpt from the Old Testament.
When it gives me a little too much, I tell it to be less King James-y.

>demon wakes you from sleep
>threatens you
>cries
>makes sure youre satisfied with your room servive
>jumps out a fucking window
Okay fine, i can ignore the cuck shit for now. But if kvothe doesnt end up deep dicking the demon twink then im dropping this dogshit author.

>>21828497
You thought that was a little too much?

>>21828568
There were a few other lines of dialogue that didn't flow as well in that cadence. I just cut them.

>>21825662
Any based royal road stories?

>>21828627
I'll be more than happy to shamelessly shill my own work:https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/42627
Main antagonistic faction is literally just Cultivation ChinaTM and the first major arc revolves around exterminating literal bugmen (as in humanoid locusts that reproduce infinitely only limited by available biomass)
An anon in /wg/ also described my work as "the only tolerable cultivation story" so that's a plus

I also have a new book about a reincarnated cyberpunk detective if that's more your speed: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/65583/

Or just read literally anything from Avitue

>>21828627
Sexy Space Babes

Why is there not a single scifi book written in the last 20 years that goes deep into future internet, interplanetary communications and future networking in general using real IT concepts? Why is every hard scifi cuck a physicist and no computer science despite some of the largest strides we've made in the last few decades being in communications and it being one of the most important aspects to human existence. Do I have to write this shit myself?

>>21828730
>Why is there not a single scifi book written in the last 20 years that goes deep into future internet, interplanetary communications and future networking in general using real IT concepts?
Scifi and conventional literature can't seem to move past 2002, i really don't know why, maybe because the majority of those writers are older?

>>21828730
Because it's much harder to write about an interconnected society with extreme access to infromation. It's easier when you jsut have to showcase a few ideas, but today's world is much, much more complicated and requires in-depth understanding of how people act in the internet groups. And most of sci-fi writers are anti-social spergs.

>>21828730
Too mundane and boring for people.
Consider the absolute engineering insanity that is the current global network, and everyone takes it for granted and doesn't give a fuck how it works.
An interplanetary network would be about the same, simpler really since there wouldn't be any cables.
Sure, it'd be an engineering marvel unsurpassed by any human effort in history, and sure it'd be the foundational underpinning of the entirety of human civilization, but I imagine most people would STILL not give a single fuck about it, except to occasionally complain when a comet interrupts their live telepresence feed to the rings of Saturn.

Also computer stuff just feels fake to most people and always will, and simultaneously it's threatening since it can ALREADY imitate and invalidate most other more concrete scifi and in the future will be ever more ridiculous.
I mean once you've got a holodeck, what other technology even matters?

Still it'd be interesting for those of us with sufficient esoteric interest in the field. I'd like a story about an interference pattern in a sports broadcasting satellite around jupiter forming an oracle machine by unknown mechanisms and the discovery, study, and exploitation of what is simultaneously just a sensor bug, a higher dimensional alien intelligence beyond human comprehension, and a perpetual motion machine. One that no one understands how to recreate and which at any time could cease functioning with no indication or warning and never occur again.

>>21828794
>I'd like a story about an interference pattern in a sports broadcasting satellite around jupiter forming an oracle machine by unknown mechanisms and the discovery, study, and exploitation of what is simultaneously just a sensor bug, a higher dimensional alien intelligence beyond human comprehension, and a perpetual motion machine. One that no one understands how to recreate and which at any time could cease functioning with no indication or warning and never occur again.
Its called the dot

>>21828730
>what if the internet, but on, like, different planets and shit
who cares

>>21828720
At least say Sexy Sect Babes, which has an actual plot.
Space is just "what if aliens were all hot women who are horny all the time" and the main character is an average Joe.
Also Fisher's Principle breaks immersion.

>>21828730
>Oh noes, the subnet was miscalculated! Everyone to your battle stations!
>If the bit bucket overflowed, we were dead men.
>The only way to save the space princess was to repair the TCP header. I cracked my knuckles and began to type furiously.

>>21828730
Because usually they have advanced beyond the Internet and there are alternative forms of communication and ways of accessing data. Like implants, vr, holodeck type technology etc.

>>21827493
>my female protagonists are more masculine than 90% of male protagonists in modern literature. They are, in fact, men with tits
That doesn't sound good.

>>21828836
Me. That's why I bought it up. In reality it would be one of the biggest hurdles to a space civilisation and as far as I can tell its never once been focused on at a deep level.

>>21828892
>using tcp in networks with high delay

>>21828794
I suppose you're right about people not giving a fuck. Your main character would almost have to be a network engineer running one of the nodes/gateways in order to find any reason to elaborate on anything.

>>21827493
An interesting fact is that most women are dogshit at judging whether the character is 'feminine' or not. Cersei from Game of Thrones is a perfect example, women either see her as an amazingly written character presenting a toxic female trying to live in a patriarchal society...or as a man with tits that is for some reason described as a female.

>>21827032
Damn, I wish.

>>21828730
>>21828907
Wait until you learn that a lot of LitRPGs are just Sci-Fi with advanced technology allowing people to improve themselves with nanites and what-not, with stats and unequal access to power to balance it all.

Hell, Dungeon Crawler Carl is all about an extremely advanced galactic civilization using less developed planets for televised blood sports. Skills, statistics, fantasy elements...those are just set-dressing for the viewers. Advanced civilizations using lesser ones for fun is much more compelling portrayal of the future than yet another 'despite extreme advancements many people are still poor :(' that you see all over sci-fi.

Let's be honest for a second, LitRPG has incorporated a big chunk of young sci-fi writers. That's what the situation is.

>>21828943
And /wg/ anons continue to rail against it out of a deluded pridefulness in... Writing unreadable, hyperdense schlock whose obtuseness is only matched by its substancelessness.

>>21828891
haha, ive been reading Sect Babes as it releases but i greatly prefer Space Babes and wish the author would return to that series

>>21828943
>LitRPG
Stoped reading there.

>>21828978
seethe

>>21828412
Pullman's longing for teen pussy is the defining characteristic of his work.

>>21828038
The prose gets in the way of the vibe of the story. Too many run-on sentences.

>>21827032
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX9Cpuj4igk

I fucking hated the first Mistborn book. Is it even worth reading anything else by Shitterson or if I disliked Mistborn will I also dislike his other work?

What is the literary equivalent of Ultima IV? Or more specifically, are there any fantasy novels about the development of virtue?

>>21829174
Well if you hated the first one you'll probably dislike the rest of the trilogy as well. The second trilogy is a pretty radical change in terms of setting and stakes, but the prose is just as bad. Dunno about Stormlight Archive, haven't read it yet.
What did you hate about it, exactly?

>>21828497
>less King James-y
>the name Jesus didn't exist in any Bible until the King James version post-1600s
lol you religious nuts

>3rd mistborn trilogy is set in the computer age and the 4th one will be a space opera
I dunno man, kinda stops feeling like fantasy to me at this point, I don't know how much you can try to reinvent the whole allomancy, feruchemy and hemalurgy stuff

>>21829370
With allomancy at least there is a precedent, every shard has a god metal, you can burn it and experience some powers associated with the shard, ferucheny is genetically passed or so I remember, for hemalurgu, you can simply yank out the spirit web form one person and place it to another, sounds more like medieval medical care than anything else, we can be sure that it switches to a ftl future before mistborn 4 as mistborn 4 is the end of the cosmere, it comes after dragonsteel that comes after storm light archive(5-10)

>>21829370
We haven't seen Hemalurgy's final form yet. Modern Mistborn should be fun to see Scadrial's Realmatic Arts within, and as other anon said, Era 4 is the finale of the Cosmere.
>>21829494
Dragonsteel is the prequel where we would see The Shattering (of Adonalsium).

>>21829528
ah storms, but at least mistborn 4 is the last of the cosmere?

>>21828459

My mom watched the first episode of House of the Dragon with me and her main disappointment when she finally watched something Ice and Fire was that the dragons weren't intelligent shapeshifters disguising themselves as humans. I guess that's just a trope she likes. For a story about the extinction and revival of dragons, I think it's better the ASOIAF dragons were portrayed as animalistic, but do you think dragons are better as animals or intelligent, sentient beings in fantasy?

>>21828658
>female lead
No thanks.

>>21829594
Dragons being unintelligent takes away from their extinction as it's just big strong animal dying, unless you tie the entire race to bigger natural concepts and powers that symbolize something, like they are tied to magic in ASOIAF. I personally prefered approach like in The Wandering Inn where the extinction of Dragon is hit home much harder when you know they used to have an entire advanced civilization and shook the entire world...just to end up as a species that likely doesn't surpass ten members. Now they just shapeshift and scuttle around, pretending to be someone else.

Having a PoV of an ancient Dragon that had seen both his species peak and the utter desolation after thousands of years hits much, much harder. Once a commonplace species, now myth and legend that people don't even treat seriously, and in time even that might fade into obscurity.

About a third of the way through. Really cool insights into the Yautja and their hunting culture. Impressed with the writing and the attention to detail.

>>21828459
Will be ever finish his third book?

space cats

>>21828452
>>21828459
I'm glad he did this so I know to avoid his work.

>>21828452
But the prose is so good!

>>21825662
Is Project Hail Mary actually worth sticking through with? I find the protagonist inappropriately quippy as author can't settle on what mood he's going for.

>>21828012
I wish I was into this kind of shit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw4SmoAXwgc

>>21829923
For you personally? No, it isn't.

>>21828452
Yeah the guy's kinda of a pathetic cunt, I think it's sort of the point and his pathetic cuntery ends up fucking everything up for everyone, but since book 3 is literally never happening we'll never know

(You)r favorite series is never getting finished until its author dies.
This is not a what if, the deal has already been made and SanderGOD has already written the books during the bathroom breaks he took while he was writing his own books. They're just waiting for their original authors to croak, plus a year or two to avoid suspicion.
You cannot prevent this, as it has already come to pass and we're just waiting for the fallout to happen.

>>21829681
Reminds me of pic related. The protagonist is by whole book accompany by a young post-apocalyptic cat girl, daughter of tribe priest, who is in love with him. He likes her back, but is weirded out by the whole cat thing. But it's implied that they fuck by the end.

>>21830011
Nah you can tell the difference between a characters flaw and a writers flaw. Him being a "nice guy" is a character flaw, i could put up with that. The problem is the root of that character flaw, the authors degenerative sensibilities.

This post and its responses confirm the level of lazy retard that i share the planet with.
>https://www.goodreads.com/series/192752-bobiverse

Don't read any author who has a Twitter account and posts regularly.

>>21830057
>and posts regularly
No, if they have a twitter account period.
I will however allow an "official" twitter account ran by their agent or publisher, but ONE singular personalized post and its over.

>>21830053
Don't think you posted the right thing there, anon.

>>21830053
i think STEMcels should die
failing that, they should stay out of writing

>>21830080
i did but i just forgot to link it to the appropriate post cos i'm fresh from my coffin.
It was meant for this >>21828730

>>21830052
While reading the books I couldn't stop noticing how Kvothe is constantly portrayed as the smartest dude, best musician, best writer and storyteller, super adept practitioner of whatever that magic system was called, just the greatest dude around, but then he was a complete retard around woman but one day he just happens to get a supernatural goddess of sex and love to fuck him for days on end
Obviously since it's a first person narrative you could say that's just how Kvothe sees himself but I couldn't help but feel it was more Rothfuss describing the guy he wishes he'd be

>>21829594
>For a story about the extinction and revival of dragons, I think it's better the ASOIAF dragons were portrayed as animalistic
Agreed, but generally i like talking/shapeshifter dragons that can turn into humans and other animals, it was a common trope in older fantasy like Dragonlance or Dragonsbane, maybe that's why your mom likes it.

>https://pastebin.com/k95Qz28d
Repost from /wg/ but it also fits here so
I revised the outline for my fantasy story. It's still sort of a rough draft, and I have yet to *fully* flesh out the basic lore, but it looks like a solid start.
Give me your thoughts on the prose and how the lore comes together. Or anything else.

>>21830217
it's shit

>>21830217
>A giant exposition dump
Reads more like a movie intro like I'm LotR or star wars. Works in a movie, but not in writing.
This guy got it right
>>21830229

What are some worth checking books with non-human protagonists? I heard first four books of E. E. Knight Age of Fire series is pretty decent (and the last two are completely garbage not worth reading). As well I'm thinking about reading The Last Unicorn since I really liked the movie. Both examples have non-humanoid protagonists, but humanoids are fine as well. As long as they're distinct from humans or aren't basically humans with super powers.

>>21830242
It's an exposition dump that sets the stage for me to write the story, it isn't the story itself. It's supposed to read like a movie intro, I'm more or less wondering if the idea and the fantasty concepts are good. This will not be in the story at all, it's just for me and others to get a grip on what I'm going to attempt to write while giving examples of the writing style.
>>21830229
Now all that being considered, why?

>>21830281
Because it's a poorly written exposition dump
Exposition dumps can be alright depending on the tone of the story and how well you write but you aren't a good writer (nothing wrong with that)
Why not write about the emperor brooding? Why not introduce the emperor sitting on a rock, brooding, write about that for a few paragraphs and then slowly give us the exposition dump over the course of a page or so?

>>21830255
The Lord of the Rings

>>21830255
I recall reading a nice and hilarious series about a goblin living in a mountain which was full of of old treasures and whatnot, resulting in constant adventurers raids. It was definitely inspired by classic fantasy and D&D, but followed a story where the goblin was for a reason I don't remember forcefuly incorporated into one adventuring party as a guide of sorts.
Nevermind, the book's name is Goblin Quest, released 2004 - so you know it's a classic fantasy pre-current weird era.

There's also The Iron Teeth: A Goblin's Tale, although it's not amazing and falls off later one. Still a decent read, though.

Notice how most of the non-human protagonists are goblins? Fancy that, there was another popualr book recently called Goblin Emperor. Fuckers don't write about dragons, only about goblins. Well, writers and readers do love underdogs, and no better one that stinky small goblin.

Tentatively, consider Kitty Cat Kill Sat (https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46113/kitty-cat-kill-sat).). It's a finished webnovel about a genetically altered cat(?) supervising a cosmic station on its own after the world went to shit. I DIDN'T read it, but heard only praise about it from people with good taste.

Going back to Dragons, there's Temeraire series (two protagonists, one dragon the other hsi rider), but I don't share the praise others have for it. A decent alt-history read, but I couldn't finish the series. Too dry.

For last, recently there was this story about an Animated Armor that was supposed to be a part of a dungeon, but left to the big wide world for whatever reason. Haven't read it, but supposedly it's good - it's name is 'Armor' by C.B. Titus.

>>21830281
>This will not be in the story at all, it's just for me and others to get a grip on what I'm going to attempt to write while giving examples of the writing style.
Thanks for wasting my time. Go write a story.

>>21829923
I really enjoyed it, one of my favourite books now.

It is a bit heavy on the maths and engineering at times, don't understand most of what was being said during those paragraphs but I still enjoyed the book.

Also liked how the story gets pieced together slowly over the course of the book, revealing bits at a time.

Rocky is a bro, loved the dynamic between the characters.

>>21830419
Armor was stubbed and is now only available as an ebook or audiobook on amazon

>>21830444
>Armor was stubbed and is now only available as an ebook or audiobook on amazon
So? He can either buy it or get the book from libgen. If it was still on RR I'd give him a link.

Goddamn this books is a fucking train wreck. I actively despise this book. Why? Because you read it for the spiders, literally everyone that has ever picked this up has picked it up for the sapient spiders, but it opts to shove a boring chapter of human shenanigans between every spider chapter. And the MC of these chapters is the definition of insufferable. He is a weak-ass, flaccid bitch whose idea of solving conflicts is to passive-aggressively bitch, either in internal monologue or actively at people. You'd think at least he'd make up for it it with interesting insights (he's a historian), but no, he does not offer these. His are just basic midwit views. You could not even get a witty insight out of him if you squeezed him like an orange.
And the antagonist of these chapters is just a tired "aging dictator with a megalomaniac aim" plus a bog-standard sci-fi plot element of this villain wanting to achieve this via digital immortality. Yawn inducing.

>>21830217
that's nice and all but it's the execution that counts. readers want a main character that they care about for whatever reason to get invested in the story of what the character does and feels

>>21830522
It's the spiders that puts me off reading this book. I just can't take the idea of an advanced species of spiders in space. Just doesn't sit right in my head.

Spiders are supposed to be dumb creepy insects that spin webs and catch flies. Spiders do not get to evolve and become an advanced species flying ships around intastellar space.

>>21830537
Well if you haven't the first clue of a book, maybe you shouldn't make such statements that purport to trash the logic the book employs. The spiders have no naturally evolved. They are a trainwreck side effect of an experiment of turning monkeys sapient via a so called "nanovirus" that was explicitly created by humans with the goal of making the spiders larger (cat sized) and intelligent.

Also the spiders don't develop spaceflight, most of the book they have up to 1920s tech, and how their metallurgy is completely underdeveloped is a minor plot element.

captcha: 0w080

>>21830556
>spiders larger (cat sized)
Of course, I mean making the MONKEYS larger, and the spiders just happen to attain cat size/mass (or rat? It's never explicitly stated).

>>21830556
Still don't like the idea of spiders in space.

Of all the creatures on earth why the hell would humans choose spiders? If it was cats, dogs, squires or even raccoons I could maybe get my head around it.

Spiders do NOT get to evolve by any means. Through human intervention or otherwise.

>>21830568
chill bro its just a book

>>21828188
I started RoW two days ago and once Kaladin started immediately doom spiraling again I decided to drop it and skim a chapter by chapter summary, and fuck am I glad I didn't bother. I imagine at some point in book 5 he's finally going to hit some kind of breakthrough and get over his survivors guilt / hero complex but I just can't give a shit anymore.

>>21830611
Spotted the spider.

>>21830255
A Night in the Lonesome October

>>21828188
only adolin gets to fuck fairies

>>21830405
Funny how this didn't come to my mind, yet it's technical true.

>>21830419
I actually read the first Temeraire book years ago. I even still have it somewhere on my shelf. I recall it was fine, but I don't remember it well and it didn't prompt me into reading more books from the series, so I might share your feeling about it. Honestly nowadays I dislike dragon riders trope. At worst it makes dragon into just a tool a main character is using and at best it makes it into secondary character without it own agenda.
But all your suggestions are interesting. Thanks.

>>21830628
That looks intriguing. I will check it out.

>>21830628
it cannot be overstated how bad this book is

>>21825662
Are there any fantasy works similar to Master of the Five Magics? And how would you rate the book itself and its sequels?

>>21830804
bro, you don't genuinely consider your post to be a serious one, do you? How are we supposed to recommnd a book similar to the book you didn't describe at all? I doubt many in this thread even heard of it.

>t.baited by annoyance bait

>>21830522
Not true. I read it without knowing there were spiders.

>>21830419
>>21830444
I gave Armor a read a while back. It's... Like... Just kind of 'fine'? I can't think of anything overtly wrong with it. Characters aren't garbage, but nothing particularly stands out (the most entertaining bit of the story is when the protagonist uses the voices of the four separate people he consumed before becoming sentient to fuck with people, but it's a minor character bit and that's really it). It also ramps up in the climax weirdly obscenely fast, like the author was rushing it out. Competently-written, but doesn't do enough to make the protagonist feel non-human, it reads more like "guy with some weird abilities".

>>21830850
>like the author was rushing it out
He was. Guy got a book deal with Aethon early on in the story's run on RR.

>>21830865
Ah, that'd explain it. It definitely felt like the climax just sort of 'happened' at what was more like the second act.

>>21830522
I'm 2/3 through and think it's fine, but otherwise I agree. Adrian cannot write characters. The multiple megalomaniac humans come close to being philosophically interesting, but nah they just blindly powertrip. I was disappointed when Kern wasn't instantly written out (reminded me of Stratt from >>21829923 who may be my least favorite character of all time). Beyond them, there's the loser MC, the one who swears a lot, and a band of forgettable nobodies.
There's some bullshitting in the spider stories, but he was smart to de-emphasize the spider characters as much as possible (just reusing the same names lol) because the civilization over time stuff is nice. Typically I just wanna get back to the spider chapters when I'm on a human chapter.

>>21830865
>>21830828
Armor being rushed to met publisher's standards means webnovels are now as legit as traditionaly published books. Great, I guess...?

Anyway, is it a stand-alone book or a series? It'd be more forgivable in the later instance.

>find new story on story on RR
>"grim dark" system apocalypse setting but basically what i'm looking to read
>starts out fine. some annoying quips on the way but nothing that turns me away from the story
>MC enters a special trial
>multiple people dying
>MC has to play a game of chess where his toes and fingers are blown apart every time he loses a piece
>MC chooses to be a warlock and summons his first familiar
>"Athela’s blood-tipped legs tapped rapidly in excitement as it looked around, and as her two red eyes settled on him – she lifted the two front legs and spread its fangs while getting up on the hind legs. “Hi there, master! How’s your day going?”"
>" “You’re rather cute. How’d I get so lucky with my minion choice?”
>“Now, now, human; I can’t have you hitting on me right after summoning me. We’re different species and it wouldn’t’ work out.”
Fuck you, author. Take your own setting seriously.

>>21830890
It's a stand-alone. Not a particularly long book either.

>>21827752
I've tried (emphasis) reading multiple xianxia. The only ones I've managed to finish are
>Martial World
>A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality
>Renegade Immortal
>A Warlock of the Magus World
>Reverand Insanity (as far as it goes)

>>21830897
AO3 has better writers than RR; fact

>>21830951
Based on both story and translation quality. Oh, and Monarch of Evernight. But it is not conventional xianxia.

>>21830951
Anon, sincerely, you have have shit taste and surprising tolerance for trash. I can understand Reverend Insanity, even if that is a bit trashy as well, but to read stuff like Warlock of the Magus World one needs to have little respect for one's dignity and time.

>>21828110
in this genre yes, but the russians wrote very good women characters. shakespeare too.

>>21830951
You really are an edgelord, huh? I for one can't say I liked a single one of those.

Alternate choices are
>A Will Eternal
>Divine Throne of Primordial Blood (nicer if you're already familiar with xianxia, but it's not a parody or anything)
>Aspiring to the Immortal Path (ongoing)

>>21831062
Do you have any xianxia recommendations or do you think all of it is trash?

>>21831083
I don't think Reverend Insanity is trash, but I mostly read western xianxia. The problem lies in the quality - I don't know whether it's the translation or inherent quality, but chinese xianxias are overwhelmingly utter shit, and those that aren't are only mediocre to decent, i.e. I Shall Seal the Heavens. Readable, but there are tons of better fiction to read.

>>21826837
The Unbroken and the Jasmine Throne don't even have sex scenes, most of it is the two female leads being ambiently horny for each other and it climaxes with a kiss, but then these are meant to be part of a series, so maybe they'll bang eventually.
Funny enough, the MC in Bloody Rose has two sex scenes, one semi-explicit one-night stand with a rando, but when she finally hooks up with her main love interest towards the end, it's a fade to black. Like damn bro, the author will write out the MC fingerblasting a farmer's daughter to completion, but when it comes to getting down with the goth sorceress and fixing her with the power of affection, homeboy wants to be tasteful, I guess.

>hm i wonder if mercury has allomantic powers
>drink some mercury
>get poisoned and die
must have been rough for the first allomancers

>>21830050
Inevitably all books will be written by Brandon Sanderson. The Sanderlarity

Why does Brando treat his audience like they're retarded? I swear he spends half the books explicitly explaining things to the reader.

>>21831208
because people who read brandon sanderson are retarded

Who do you think is endgame for Zorian?

I really don't like romance in fantasy. I paid a book for the fantasy, not for drama; too bad half of the shit that comes out these days MUST have romance in it. The classics made me despise the hell out of romance and drama already. I'd rather kms than reread anna karenina

>>21831387
I basically have the view on romance that, if it's not the focus of the genre, it should only exist to further characterisation and character arcs of the characters involved OR it should be relatively minimal, just sort of "they just kind of get together, we all see it". The latter often ATTEMPTS to be the former and it fails all the time.

Can I read Stormlight archive without Mistborn? I don't feel like reading a lot of Sando's books. I still have to read Malazan.

>>21826038
themes explored?

>>21827593
Theres nothing "metal" about Bakker books. Second Apocalypse is more like TooL (prog metal i guess - which is not the kind of metal you mean).

>>21826038
looks pozzed

>>21831537
>I don't feel like reading a lot of Sando's books
Why? They all suck. Read David Gemmell or Wolfe again

>>21829062
>>21828340
to be fair its an over view of the plot, so maybe its not how its gonna read when he writes it?

>>21831597
are you autistic

>>21830255
everybody loves large chests

>>21831602
Probably

>>21828038
>TL;DR
In the midst of one of the Great Cities, a dissatisfied emperor seeks power beyond his vast army and secretly makes a deal with a sorcerer from another world. The sorcerer, consumed by greed, takes the city and turns its people into slaves. The emperor is cursed with eternal life and exiled, forced to hide from the sorcerer's army, which seeks to eradicate his people from the earth.
The sorcerer, at the height of his power, communes with a demon, which grants him god-like intelligence and knowledge of ancient evil magic. However, the demon ultimately tricks the sorcerer, leaving him alone in his tower, driven to madness over hundreds of years.
The sorcerer's aura of evil magic spreads across the land, turning it into a black, nightmarish hellscape that destroys reality and logic. The Great Keepers of secret magic battle to confine the evil to the fallen city, but it continues to creep further, threatening the universe.
The old emperor, tormented by eternal life, protects villages and outposts while avoiding the sorcerer's army. Only a few know of his significance, including the elder of a small outpost. The elder reveals to the emperor that he is one of the few slave refugees from the fallen city and commissions the emperor to combat the sorcerer.
The emperor must seek an angel of light to guide him through the sorcerer's tower, and negotiate with the Great Keepers to sever him from his curse in return for vanquishing the sorcerer. The unbinding of the curse takes the lives of the Great Keepers, leaving it up to the emperor to fulfill his negotiation and bring finality to his cursed existence.

>>21831597
>David Gay and Chud Wolfe
Worthless. Can't even talk to girls about these books.

>>21831628
Thanks ChatGPT

>>21831387
I want to like romance in fantasy, but I can't digest hetero romance comfortably because it feels like it's just teasing me with that I'll never get to experience. I would unironically rather read a fantasy novel with a male/male romance so at least my lizard brain wouldn't try to self-insert.

>>21831670
incredibly cringe, imagine not wanting to read about a vampy dommy mommy

>>21831677
I wouldn't. Horniness, desire, longing, whatever you want to call it, has been conditioned in me to trigger discomfort.

>>21831670
So you would rather read about guys getting fucked in the ass than read a guy and girl kissing?

>>21831726
Yes, not even memeing. Hetero romance or even waifubaiting make me want to kill myself from how much I hate being a kv over 30. Gay sex does nothing for me. Doesn't turn me on, doesn't disgust me, I could even mentally skip over it.

Come home, white man.

>>21831748
There are two wolves inside you.

I want to write fantasy and stop selling out.
...but I didn't sell out I just have written 36k words of a dean koontz style set in modern day.
don't know why i say this, except i can't sleep and drank a bit at the bar with a mason/shriner

>>21831748
>t. bakkerfag

>>21831551
orc cock

>>21831859
Go say it in the writer general, fatty.

>>21831872
I will not read your book.

>>21830095
Fuxk you for making me defend this author, but how long has it been since ypuve read it? I just finished the first book and am a few chapters into the second, and as far as i can tell the ratio of "kvothe is amazing" to "kvothe is a fucking idiot" is roughly 2:1. He jumped off a balcony for fucks sake.

We can certainly say, as it relates specifically to his relationship with debra, the authors fetishes are taking priority over the character writing. But as it relates kvothe as a whole, i just dont think hes a power fantasy character. Hes not even remotely portrayed as "just the greatest dude all around" its constantly pointed out that hes a reckless asshole, and if im remembering correctly its blatantly stated that he more or less stumbled into the role of a "hero" and its foreshadowed that he royally fucked it up either way.

So cuck fantasy? No doubt.
Self insert power fantasy? I wouldnt say so.

Any good book with an ugly ojisan being a good guy as the protagonist?

>>21831781
world building is ok, plot is garbage, characters one dimensional, prose is bad, 2/5 would not recommend

>>21831387
Read the licanius trilogy

What's the best of the Cthulhu Mythos outside of Lovecraft?

>>21832213
Unironically king

>>21825790
Why would you read anything released after 2020

>>21830088
>STEMcels
It's not stemcels, it's just all modern writers are shit. Gene Wolfe was an engineer.

>>21832355
>Gene Wolfe was a stemcel
it shows

>>21832359
Actually you're right. Gene wolfe sucks

>>21832213
Titus Crow, Dreamlands and Primal Lands by Brian Lumley, Cthulhufags hate it because in the last book Elysia (1989) Titus and his team fight against Cthulhu jrpg style and gets btfo

>>21831872
The Broken Sword reference?!?!

>>21832349
I dunno man, they weren't that bad

>>21832384
it's a reference to the feMC Celestaine, who is a slut for orc cock

>>21830095
Yeah i just got to the part where he gets his shit pushed in by the money lender. I am just not seeing the power fantasy.

Any recommendations for alternate history fantasy? I've read Lyonesse trilogy and The Dragon Waiting already. Something similar to the Ars Magica role-playing game.

Well gentlemen, I have officially read every fantasy novel worth reading that has ever been written. I'm open to recommendations but I'm almost certain your rec will be shit or already read by myself

>>21832702
now you can move on to reading the only SF novel worth reading that has ever been written (Blindsight)

>>21832702
>quote by person who hasn't even read all ten books off any shitty Top 10

>>21832676
Ive heard that eternal rome series was fun

dear anon who recommended the farseer trilogy to me last time i came into sffg,
thanks a lot for the recommendation, the first one was a lot of fun. i think i'm going to dive into the second, and if it doesn't stick i'll switch back to the bakker series.

>>21830092
Can someone else confirm that this cunts bobiverse recommendation fulfils the tech autism this post >>21828730 is after? I've never heard anything about the bobiverse that suggests it goes deep into real communication and info tech concepts.

Beginner here.
Anything involving Zeppelins? Citadels?

I don't usually leave /sffg/ is this what the rest of this board is usually like nowadays?
>>21832847

>>21832859
>zepplins
terminal world by reynolds

>>21832843
It's sci-fi that is interested in how certain computer technology could be used and implemented. I don't recall interplanetary networking being tackled directly (it was more Bob setting up his personal VR interface and that kind of thing). The author kind of handwaves in a basic "Star Trek" level of technology. FTL, AGI, matter replicators, the signature "mind upload" ability that forms the premise, and so on are all just granted as part of the setting and not given any particularly "hard" explanation.
I'm pretty sure the writer was a computer engineer or something. It's not exactly great literature in my opinion but it's fine as a pulp series. Basically wish fulfilment for nerds.

>>21831153
Damn, sold on that one already, you don't have to continue.

>>21828730
because speculative fiction is dead

>>21832930
It isnt, but its not being published physichally so i guess youre not all wrong.

>>21825728
>How good are the translations from English?
into what language retard

>shes obviously interested in you
>she's never said anything along those lines
Kvothe is insane

>>21832676
The Years of Rice and Salt
The Difference Engine

>>21832876
/lit/ was never good but it's turning into a shithole

>>21833041
im still mad how everyone talk like kvothe is a fucking legend and then the fat fucker proceeds to never publish the books and tell the tales

i fucking hate fattys

New thread
>>21833251

>>21833248
Jesus christ is this hobbit still in the university by the end of book 2? Theres only one more day left for him to tell the story after book 2, right?