/lit/ - Literature

first for zyzz

Amazon is killing haremshit with heavy censorship and changes to KU that don't apply to other smut genres. Based or cringe?

>>22128563
Source? That would be shitty of them. Women got their romances at bestseller page 24 horus, 7 days a week, but men cannot have their crumb of a genre without it being censored? That'd be downright vilianous.

>>22128563
>heavy censorship
Examples? Details?

>>22128563
as much as I hate haremfags this doesn't seem to be fair in the slightest even though men should be above their vapid desires

>>22128545
I'm pretty new to SciFi and Fantasy in general. Last year I read a couple of books by Dan Abnett that served as an introduction into 40k. I heard good things about Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Is that a good place to start for the genre?

My favorite "regular" authors are Dostoyevsky, McCarthy, and Faulkner.

do you guys really read that much fantasy smut?

>>22128563
What's actually changing, out of curiosity?

>>22128563
[citation needed]

Last I heard they did a change a month or so back that meant books didn't appear in the recommendation lists for as long but that was a global change. It hit certain authors hard, like smut and harem authors who churn out content frequently, because it meant people were more likely to miss seeing some series they were reading had a new book out.

>>22128563
they'll back down, those shitty smut books are literally their best selling books and it is not even close

>>22128578
>>22128587
I'm not going to post links to reddit or facebook but some authors have started talking about it there. For a long time including the word "harem" anywhere in your title, blurb, even the book itself made the KU algorithm bury your book and authors reported massive drops in income. Now there's a checkbox when self publishing that you're supposed to check if your novel has any adult content at all which also leads to the book being buried and only showing up in the search engine if you search directly for it. Any more details than that are likely being discussed in author discords but I'm not quite that far gone to join those so that's all I know.

>>22128624
It's Kindle Unlimited, there are no books sold. Amazon makes the same amount of money either way.

>>22128563
Good. Let the harem smut die and the comfy PG close-knit family type harem take it's place.

Finished up reading Waybound. I'll say I'm largely satisfied with it as a finale, but it felt remarkably... Simple for a finale? Like, I don't know what I expected, but it managed to basically have no real surprises at all. Makiel dying was the most unexpected thing, really, and that wasn't that unexpected. I guess Northstrider ascending whereas Shen and Malice died was a little surprising, but again not really. The post-climax denouement or whatever you wanna call it was handled pretty well, I enjoyed the aspect of a sort of 'downtime' and a snippet of what they're all gonna be doing 'after' the book. There were some really nice character moments, but a lot of characterisation was set aside or sort of done alongside big action moments so very few of them got a chance to breathe. Not the best book in the series, but a very solid cap-off. Does just kinda make me want a proper 'world-hopping' series from Will Wight. Not crossing over into established worlds too much, more just a group of protagonists constantly going about to different ones with different powersets and whatnot. House of Blades could honestly progress to that if he returns to it, though I guess his focus is The Last Horizon for now, which... I relatively enjoyed book 1 of. Didn't give me as much enjoyment as some of the best of Cradle, but Cradle started off rocky too so we'll see where it goes.

>dont read Cradle cause /lit/ said it was bad
>now that Cradle is over 10 people every thread post their reviews
huh

>>22128680
>Recent pretty big book comes out
>People talk about it

>>22128606
Hyperion is good, or Latro in the Mist by Wolfe is great as well

Wrote a short story for a general thread on another board some time ago. Went to re-read it recently and was expecting to hate it all, as you usually do coming back to something you've written some time ago, but turns out despite the time difference I still genuinely liked how it came out. Despite it still being a exercise in light smut mildly pandering to the tastes of that general when I don't really care for such things, along with deliberately writing for subjects that typically result in complete schlock. (Pushing yourself to do things you normally don't do and all.)
Figured I needed to be brought down a few pegs, and wanted to generally find out if I'm just off my rocker with still thinking it's pretty all right or not.
https://pastebin.com/KxtUTAUu
>There is a spelling mistake or two in there, couldn't fix them as it was posted anonymously.

>>22128703
>those tags
It's too early for this

>>22128611
They are on 4chan/internet all day. Probably coomers. Lives in fantasy worlds. Deadly combination. Sprinkle in anime. This also makes them likely degenerate trannies.

it's so fucking funny that conan got a videogame and it's just another survival basebuilding game
>>22128628
they need to change the alithiogram because it's impossible to find anything you're actually looking for behind 600 books all titled
X: A harem litrpg romance adventure fantasy

>>22128703
>Human to feral dragon, M to F, M on F feral, Pregnancy and oviposition, Breast expansion, Intimate time between a mother and her offspring
People like you have legitimately ruined /sffg/

>>22128563
dont are
those books are complete muck

>>22128611
people who read them are probably those that are into litrpgs, chinese shit and web novels
so likely most of the posters here

>>22128837
What I will say, while I don't remember exactly why the story was originally written, I do distinctly remember thinking "Holy fuck these other stories (in the thread, on average) are terrible. Could I write something that isn't 1000% horrendous and having all of these blatantly fetishy subject matters actually have narrative purpose, instead of just puking up whatever came out of the writers boner-ladled mind with minimal thought beyond what got said anon hard?"
In general I don't write smut otherwise, ever. Which was in part why I was surprised I didn't actually hate the story after re-reading it years later.

Thank you for the Bakker rec. Does the gay sex include feces as lube for anal?

Bought Gardens of the Moon today. What am I in for?

>>22129003
>Bought Gardens of the Moon today. What am I in for?
Pseudo intellectual blabbering
>“Children are dying." Lull nodded. "That's a succinct summary of humankind, I'd say. Who needs tomes and volumes of history? Children are dying. The injustices of the world hide in those three words.”
Malazanfags think this shit is "deep"

>>22128960
I'm on the third book now and I don't know why people said there's tons of rape, especially gay rape is almost nonexistent. Is it all in the third book? I'm waiting fags.

Post the
>last book(s) you read
>current book(s) you're reading
>next book(s) you plan to read

>>22129003
a real slog
i trued to finish it twice and just couldnt do it

>>22129046
>Waybound
>Second book from a series called Eldest Throne, called Edict of Honor, it's pretty fun
>No idea, I don't plan that far ahead

>muh Siöl
>muh blood of Tsonos
Nihrimsul was the true House Primordial and I’m tired of pretending it wasn’t.

>>22129046
>Last
Narcissus in Chains by Laurell K Hamilton. It was bad, like really bad. It's actually insane how much worse this book is than the previous 9 in the series.
>Current
The Blackgod by Greg Keyes. Pretty good so far, not as good as The Waterborn but it's also quite different.
>Next
The Joiner King by Troy Denning (Star Wars). People say Star Wars books aren't worth reading past the end of the NJO but I like Troy Denning so we'll see.

/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

/SFFG/ Recommendations: LITRPG Edition

Read Azarinth Healer, Primal Hunter, He Who Fight with Monsters, Dungeon Crawler Carl

Also read System Universe, Dissonance, Defiance of the Fall, Iron Prince.

>>22129186
>He's still calling Iron Prince a LitRPG

>>22129145
>than the previous 9 in the series
jesus christ

>>22129234
>replying to ritualposters
filter and ignore those posts, they provide absolutely nothing of any value to these threads, they are effectively botposts, but even more pathetic because a human being manually posts them as a result of self-lobotomizing internet addiction

>>22129347
>posts them as a result of self-lobotomizing internet addiction

should we also filter and ignore you for posting the same line everytime someone replys to the /sffg/ recommendations fag?

>>22129423
The retard probably didn't notice that he's stuck in a loop repeating the same lines, at least the other fag just ctrl+V and leave the thread alone.

>>22129234
who cares, its all shit anyway

>childhood friend betrayal

No one told me this would be SO KINO

Why is it that you guys are constantly complaining about young people and fantasy geared towards them (people with low attention spans), yet whenever you guys bring up your complaints about The Stormlight Archive, one of them is always about how "nothing happens" or how it's "too slow"?

>>22129542
Because Sanderson doesn't know how to pace. Every arc has its climax delayed (often artificially) until the last 10% of a book, and half of those climaxes just raise new questions.

>>22129003
A post structuralist deep-dive ruthlessly exploring the human condition... with dragons and fireballs and shit.

>>22129522
everything about the way of kings was kino, everything after though.... still gonna read the last book next year but this is sunken cost fallacy at this point

>>22129003
Fantasy hijinks in a city

Do i need to read mistborne before reading way of kings?

>>22128563
It will single handedly kill those romance books for women too
Harembros... I don't know how to feel

>>22129774
You need to read neither, and instead pick up an actual fantasy novel that isn't brainrot garbage written for 12 year olds.

>>22129798
Any recommendations?

>>22129832
Tolkien
Wolfe
Vance
Bakker.

>>22129870
but anon, all of those are definitely written for 12 year olds, especially the last one

>>22129870
>instead pick up an actual fantasy novel that isn't brainrot garbage written for 12 year olds
>Tolkien

ohh the irony

>>22129873
The golden age of fantasy is 12.

>>22129774
No anon, they're completely separate until like the seventh mistborn book, and even then it's connected to basically everything BUT stormlight. Also don't listen to the other retard, TWOK and mistborn are both pretty fun

>>22129798
>scifi/fantasy
>Somehow NOT brain rot garbage
You genre piggies are a cute, delusional lot.

>>22129953
Correct.
But the question is what type of 12 year old - the kind who has a shelf full of Star Wars toys and Goosebumps books, or the kind who has a notebook full of the kind of sketches that indicate a future school shooter?

>>22129971
Second one is far superior

>>22129974
Then Bakker is your first, last, and only book series you'll ever need to read. Though you may want to expand into Kafka and Nietzsche, to complete your unholy trinity of underaged cringe.

I read LOTR when I was 11 and never cared to reread it.

>>22129989
I crapped out after judging eye, really not that interesting of a story honestly. Not even all that unique as far as epic fantasy goes.

Maybe get to work on The No-God books and stop shitposting on 4chan verbally sucking your own cock Bakker, you don't fool me.

>>22129989
Hey, I'd rather be a school shooter than a fucking star wars as a way of life nerd any old day of the week.

>>22130023
I've only ever read The Silmarillion, Hobbit and all the background legend stuff, the primary trilogy has never interested me, probably because I was at the age to read it when the Jackson films came out.

>>22130042
I think I first (tried to) read The Hobbit when I was 9 and didn't finish--probably lost interest; tried it once again a few years later, likely when I read the trilogy, and had the same result.

>>22130057
I've thoroughly enjoyed and reread the Hobbit many times growing up, I've read it enough times that I never need to read it ever again really.

Maybe I would have felt the same way about the Rings books if I had read those naturally like The Hobbit instead of seeing the movies first, dunno.

>>22130029
how did you construe me describing Bakker as part of an unholy trinity of cringe as being a puff piece in favor of Bakker?

>>22129522
Yeah I hope Kaladin finds and rapes/kills that whore!!

>>22129870
>Author turns in work to publisher.
>"Here is my book. It is my 3,800 page epic mostly based around thought experiments to explore the philosophy of Hegel, illustrated through vivid depictions of rape, warfare, cannibalism, and torture, with the main plot arch centering around rape aliens versus rape gods... for 12 year olds."
>"Do you think your average 12 year old knows what orthogonal, marmoreal, or heuristic means? Ah, fuck it, I'm keeping them in... all 200 times."

Imagine Lord of Mysteries with proper editing, quality assurance and not being tied to the absolutely worst publishing platform in the planet...

>>22130198
Why are bakkerfags so obsessed with horrors and crimes beyond human comprehension

>>22130275
they're perverts and mental midgets

Three Body Problem and the other two in the trilogy were incredibly good.

>>22130275
Low rent Lovecraft wannabes

Lin Ming dunked on Xiao Moxian through the superior power of the Phoenix and the DICK, now he's about to go up against Jun Bluemoon.

>>22130307
do any chinklit stories have americans in them or does every character have a name like Kung Pow, Chow Mein, or General Tso's Chicken?

I was enjoying The Prince of Nothing books for a while, but then it started focusing way too much on cucking and I got uncomfortable and stopped reading

>Red Rising = shit
???
in fact why even include a shit category in the first place

>>22130353
It does frustrate me: the amount of wasted potential. The story--these types of lengthy xianxia in general--could be so much better if there were any effort at all involved in any naming process, from the characters to the physical locations.

I read The Hobbit about five times as a kid and feel it's about time to give Lord of the Rings a go. What's a good box set that won't break the bank?

>>22130382
>Writers like Tolkien take you to the edge of the Abyss and point out the excellent tea-garden at the bottom, showing you the steps carved into the cliff and reminding you to be a bit careful because the hand-rails are a trifle shaky as you go down; they haven’t got the approval yet to put a new one in.
>The great epics dignified death, but they did not ignore it, and it is one of the reasons why they are superior to the artificial romances, of which Lord of the Rings is merely one of the most recent.
>The sort of prose most often identified with “high” fantasy is the prose of the nursery-room. It is a lullaby; it is meant to soothe and console. It is mouth-music. It is frequently enjoyed not for its tensions but for its lack of tensions. It coddles; it makes friends with you; it tells you comforting lies. It is soft
>Moderation was the rule and it is moderation which ruins Tolkien’s fantasy and causes it to fail as a genuine romance. The little hills and woods of that Surrey of the mind, the Shire, are “safe”, but the wild landscapes everywhere beyond the Shire are “dangerous”. Experience of life itself is dangerous. The Lord of the Rings is a pernicious con- firmation of the values of a morally bankrupt middle class. Their cowardly, Home Counties habits are primarily responsible for the problems England now faces. The Lord of the Rings is much more deep-rooted in its infantilism than a good many of the more obviously juvenile books it influenced. It is Winnie-the-Pooh posing as an epic. If the Shire is a suburban garden, Sauron and his henchmen are that old bourgeois bugaboo, the Mob — mindless football supporters throwing their beer-bottles over the fence — the worst aspects of modern urban society represented as the whole by a fearful, backward-yearning class for whom “good taste” is synonymous with “re- straint” (pastel colours, murmured protest) and “civilized” behaviour means “conventional be- haviour in all circumstances”. This is not to deny that courageous characters are found in The Lord of the Rings, or a willingness to fight Evil — but somehow those courageous characters take on the aspect of retired colonels at last driven to write a letter to The Times and we are not sure — because Tolkien cannot really bring himself to get close to his proles and their satanic leaders — if Sauron and Co. are quite as evil as we’re told. After all, anyone who hates hobbits can’t be all bad.
Tolkienbros...not like this

>>22130408
>Tolkien bad because simple

>>22130353
It's amazing how important using western names can be.
If I'm reading a book and it goes
>Xiao Yan! How! I thought you were dead?
it's going over my head because Xiao Yan didn't show up in the last ten chapters so I've completely forgotten him.
Some translators add things like
>(TN: he's that fat ice magic guy who we last saw chapter 248 when he was caught in that dude's self-detonation)
and THEN I remember him, but without that it's a crapshoot.

Some books use titles or usernames for characters, which get translated, and it's great. Incredible how much easier it makes reading.

>>22130419
>Marvel bad because simple

I'm entering the Royal Road Community Magazine, and holy smokes, I didn't have any idea how easy it is to write litRPG shit.
I'm able to just vomit stuff onto the screen and it works. I don't even need to think, just write.

>>22130483
Marvel bad because iron man and the hulk invent time travel
lol
lmao

Is this you guys?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avzNttcpyh4

>>22130408
I can smell the Early Life through that wall of deranged pseud text

>>22130454
>>22130405
A Chinese author made a Star Wars book under the new Disney continuity and if you really want a laugh look at the character list on wookieepedia
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/The_Vow_of_Silver_Dawn
absolutely wretched

>>22130681
>Early Life
There are so many /pol/ euphemisms.

>>22130454
The names take time to get used to but name places are fine , in fact often they are better than name places in western fantasy (assuming western author uses some made up words/names instead of English words)

>>22130681
I'm sure they rolled their eyes at 氣功 Jin.

About to have a long car ride with the family. Going to listen to something from Discworld. Any suggestions?
>Guards, Guards!
>Mort
These appears to be the go to recommendations (wife hasn't read any). Kiddo is absolutely terrified of dragons, so I think Guards, Guards! may be out too. I've heard Wyrd Sisters is extremely good, but I dont really want to start it mid series.
prrrrrrrobbly just gonna go with Mort

>>22128675
I haven't finished yet but I'm feeling very much the same. The book feels more like a wrap-up than a conclusion.

>>22130275
because it’s literally the essence of human nature and history. something fantasy as a genre is uniquely suited to explore, desu.

>>22130942
>Kiddo is absolutely terrified of dragons
You need to drop him off the mountain, Spartan style. If a boy doesn't want dragons he's already a failure as a descendant.

>>22130408
The seethe emanating wrom those words could be used to heat up a pan.

I'm looking for a short, good fantasy story written before 1965. Any ideas?

No series, please. I don't have the time for that.

>>22130681
>>22130693
>muh early life
Why do tolkiendrones pretend that tolkien was some "BASED" right winger when all he was was a philosemitic catholic cuckservative?
>“I have in this War a burning private grudge—which would probably make me a better soldier at 49 than I was at 22: against that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler (for the odd thing about demonic inspiration and impetus is that it in no way enhances the purely intellectual stature: it chiefly affects the mere will). Ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present in its true light.”
>Thank you for your letter. I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people.
Tolkien's great grandson is jewish

I just finished my first read of The Broken Sword. What a magical book. It's the only fantasy that comes close to Vance's Lyonesse in terms of how much I've liked it.

>>22131483
>Why do tolkiendrones pretend that tolkien was some "BASED" right winger when all he was was a philosemitic catholic cuckservative?
Strawman: The Post
No one attributes much of any politics to tolkien, it's just that his great work was greatly inspired by the languages, histories and cultures of northern and western europe and the story they tell is a timeless classic, because the archetypes presented resonate with readers from those cultures and even with those who aren't. It's not "le subverted" or signaling some current year pop-politics. It's in a sense, pure, and people gravitate towards something like that. That's it.

>>22131528
>No one attributes much of any politics to tolkien, it's just that his great work was greatly inspired by the languages, histories and cultures of northern and western europe and the story they tell is a timeless classic, because the archetypes presented resonate with readers from those cultures and even with those who aren't. It's not "le subverted" or signaling some current year pop-politics. It's in a sense, pure, and people gravitate towards something like that. That's it.
Plenty of other books did that
Like the broken sword
So how come tolkien is special? Why is tolkien "based" for it?
And tolkien isn't a "timeless classic". The "heroes" of tolkien's "epic" aren't at all like the heroes of actual epics. They're sanitised

>>22131313
The hobbit

>>22129278
They aren't sprawling epics, they're episodic vampire crime thrillers. Not exactly difficult to read.

>>22131016
>hits pipe
Not one of my worries currently

>>22131549
>Why is tolkien "based" for it?
"Based" has become a term for the american/western modern culture war, Tolkien simply has no part in it. And that's the beautiful part: western/northern culture and art can exist beyong being "based" or "woke", and in my opinion it should. He's hardly the only example.

>So how come tolkien is special?
Is he? If we're talking about lotr specificially you're basically asking "why book good?"; a browser search will net you multiple answers. Not everyone has to like it.
>And tolkien isn't a "timeless classic". The "heroes" of tolkien's "epic" aren't at all like the heroes of actual epics. They're sanitised
Lotr is not a timeless classic? I guess you're entitled to your opinion. It's widely held as *The* classic fantasy novel/story, so whatever. I'm not sure what you mean by sanitised, and archetypes include more (all) characters, not just the heroes. Just to try to give you a bone though: everyone in the story is shown to have weaknessess, especially regarding the one ring, and the characters are multi-faceted (some more than others). Not enough sex and tax politics?

>>22131549
Is that you George R.R. ?

>>22129046
>last book(s) you read
Bloody Rose. Not as good as the first (Kings of the Wyld) but still really good. I hope the author shits the third one out soon.
>current book(s) you're reading
Between Two Fires. It's okay.
>next book(s) you plan to read
Not sure yet. Maybe Sabriel

>>22131602
>"Based" has become a term for the american/western modern culture war, Tolkien simply has no part in it. And that's the beautiful part: western/northern culture and art can exist beyong being "based" or "woke", and in my opinion it should. He's hardly the only example.
No
Tolkien fans have this delusional notion that Tolkien was "based" and that you're a jew for not liking his works when in reality tolkien was philosemitic and his dwarves wre inspired by jews
>Lotr is not a timeless classic? I guess you're entitled to your opinion. It's widely held as *The* classic fantasy novel/story, so whatever. I'm not sure what you mean by sanitised, and archetypes include more (all) characters, not just the heroes. Just to try to give you a bone though: everyone in the story is shown to have weaknessess, especially regarding the one ring, and the characters are multi-faceted (some more than others). Not enough sex and tax politics?
If you were familiar with epics then you'd know that it's not an actual epic. It's a sanitised, kiddified epic. Unlike the actual epics, which glorified war and death, LOTR is anti war. Unlike the actual epics, which glorified the hero and the warrior, LOTR glorifies the small guy, the hobbit. Unlike the actual epics, which (mostly) end with tradgedy or death, in LOTR all the main characters live happily ever after, with frodo living forever. Unlike the actual epics, which are actually connected to a group of people and based in geography, LOTR is set thousands of years in the past, unlike the song of roland, which is set in spain and france, or the poem of the cid, which is set in spain, or the niebelungenlied, which is set in germany
And why are you trying to insinutate that I'm a GOT fan? GOT is trash

>>22131493
Super good book. If you liked that and Lyonesse, have you read much Dunsany? Less humour than Vance but I found the wistful tone of a lot of his work somewhat similar.

>>22130408
Reads like something Alan Moore would write

>>22131720
>with frodo living forever
Wait, does he? Some tolkienfags that visit this thread led me to believe the hobbits in the lands beyond actually age faster, then do not resurrect but instead go join the grand good, being, whatever it was, something akin to christian vision of the good death.

>>22131720
>No
What a compelling argument
>Tolkien fans have this delusional notion that Tolkien was "based" and that you're a jew for not liking his works
This is a shameless strawman argument. I don't think that for example. And again trying to slip in the "based", I don't give a shit about "based" or "woke". Argue with someone who actually says tolkien was "based", if you can find one.
>When in reality tolkien was philosemitic and his dwarves wre inspired by jews
"In The Silmarillion—published posthumously in 1977, but conceived of as early as 1914—the Dwarves were created separately from the good races of the “Children of Ilúvatar,” the creator-deity. The Dwarves, made by another of Ilúvatar’s creations, were the first race of Middle Earth, but they were clearly inferior to the Elves and the humans who come after them."
Uh oh. Maybe reality is not as simple as someone only capable of being strictly anti-jew or worshipping them? Maybe trying to shoehorn people into the binary duct of "based/woke" is a juvenile world view?
>epic
Why are you so stuck on this? I never described lotr as being "epic". Who are you even talking to, it's like you've created these imaginary debates in your head without actually reading my posts. Lotr doesn't need to be "epic" or follow the epic formula to be a timeless fantasy classic on its own right. You seem to imply his themes are somehow wrong for creating his own narrative. And there are many shades to being "anti-war", in the case of lotr it certainly doesn't mean being unwilling to fight or kill, or funnily enough, to go to war for a good cause. And the nobles are literally lionized as being the paragons of their races, complete with bravery, virtue and martial ability. They're depicted as good, strong men. Even fucking frodo is as much of a noble a hobbit can possibly be. Portrating intelligence, wisdom, persistence and strenght of will being good despite the hobbits being small of physical stature is somehow wrong? And a proper classic can only have tragic endings, what the fuck are you on about, sheesh. And the ending is bittersweet if anything, the elves have to leave, the dwarves diminsh and men with all their flaws are left to reign middle-earth. Even the best men are shown to be on the decline in favour of the common short-lived and weaker lesser men. And the main hero is left as a husk after the tribulations that pretty much consumed him; he actually fails his quest in the end and only by the selfish and self-destructive nature of evil do they actually "win".

It's like you've never even read the books and are basing your knowledge on some politically-colored second hand commentary.

>>22131738
It's bullshit. He doesn't live for ever. He doesn't know what he's talking about and probably hasn't even read the books.

In Red Knight what's with the forced romance between the captain and the nun

>>22130942
You can also try some of the later ones specifically aimed at younger audiences. Amazing Maurice is a good standalone one all things considered.

>>22130681
>look at the character list on wookieepedia
It kinda gets me that, like, the protagonist is just "Sean". I mean, you can absolutely have normal-dude names in Star Wars (Luke, for example), but it's such an underwhelming name, and then virtually every other character has a Chinese name.

>>22131738
>>22131816
He goes to the undying lands
>>22131803
>What a compelling argument
"Tolkien is good" isn't a compelling argument
>This is a shameless strawman argument. I don't think that for example. And again trying to slip in the "based", I don't give a shit about "based" or "woke". Argue with someone who actually says tolkien was "based", if you can find one.
People are saying it's jewish to say that tolkien is bad despite tolkien being a kike lover himself
And twitter trad nerds talk all the time about how tolkien is BASED
>muh dwarves
Here's what tolkien actually said
"Tolkien elaborated on Jewish influence on his Dwarves in a letter: "I do think of the 'Dwarves' like Jews: at once native and alien in their habitations, speaking the languages of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue..."[T 20] In the last interview before his death, Tolkien said "The dwarves of course are quite obviously, wouldn't you say, that in many ways they remind you of the Jews? Their words are Semitic, obviously, constructed to be Semitic"
Dwarves are jewish
>Why are you so stuck on this? I never described lotr as being "epic"
I'm arguing with tolkien himself, retard, who wrote LOTR intending it to be an english "epic", which it isn't. As I've explained already. It isn't anything like the actual epics of old. As moorcock stated, it resembles winnie the pooh more than an epic
>muh manly characters and war
Again, here's what it actually says in LOTR
"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend"
Those aren't the values of the anglo saxons, who valued war for its own sake. they aren't the values of the old epics. they're tolkien's values
>It's like you've never even read the books and are basing your knowledge on some politically-colored second hand commentary.
I first read LOTR at 10 years old and i've reread it twice. It's good but it's not great, and i think tolkiendrones need to be taken down a notch and get off their high horse

>>22131937
>He goes to the undying lands
Which is just a place and it is never even implied frodo "lives forever", the opposite in fact, "the rest of their days". Just swallow your pride and admit you were caught bullshitting.

>>22131937
>I'm arguing with tolkien himself
You're going all over, ignoring pertinent points and ignoring arguments you don't like just to replace them with your own strawmen. Have fun arguing with imaginary strawmen, or "tolkien" as you put it. You're either a disingenious midwit or an effort troll, which are often the same.
You can mald and seethe all you wish, but it will never erase the fact that lotr is a fantasy literature classic. Not perhaps the greatest ever, but that was never even the argument made.

>>22131937
>twitter trad nerds
Are the twitter nerds in the room with you now anon? Are they in this thread?

>>22131960
Now you see why I called that post deranged? I bet that quote wasn't even from a real book, it was probably the schizoid you're replying to quoting himself the way r/atheism came up with the "euphoric" quote

>>22131937
Gee, it sure is surprising that in the cultural climate of tolkien's time he just didn't go full martin luther on the jews.

>>22131977
Though in the hobbit he kinda did. And they are butthurt about it to this day.

>>22131977
>>22131980
Greed does them in in lotr as well, see: Moria. Any comments to smooth things over by him later are obvious damage control and being afraid of backlash.

>>22131952
>>22131960
>>22131967
>>22131977
>>22131986
Seething tolkiendrones
You will never read an actual epic
Keep reading winnie the pooh with swords instead of actual historical epics
fantasy will always be inferior to the real thing

>newfags arguing with newfags
please go back to outer /lit/, or better yet, /v/ or /pol/ where you undoubtedly came from

>>22132013
The origin of dwarves is indisputably in nordic and germanic folklore and tolkien lifted them wholesale from there with most of their racial characteristics (which is documented). That is no sin on its own. The "jewish" characteristics are just window dressing to differentiate them further, which again is no sin. Getting obsessed about these details is peculiar.

>>22128545
The Light Brigade - Kameron Hurley (2019)

The Light Brigade was intentionally written by Hurley, she states as much, to be in conversation with other military science fiction novels, the history of war, and as an extrapolation of current trends. Three that I saw prominently referenced were Starship Troopers, The Forever War, and Slaughterhouse-Five. There were doubtlessly several more that were referenced in many ways. The title itself is a reference.

The story is experienced nonlinearly by both the reader and the protagonist. The structure of the narrative and its presentation is what I most enjoyed most about the book by far. It allowed for me to overlook the concerns I had about the book's other elements. Hurley has provided an explanation of how it all works and her writing process, though it does contain full spoilers, so if you intend to read the book you may want to hold off until you've finished. It's probably better not to know the specifics as that aligns the reader more with the protagonist's experience and allows for greater emotional resonance. The characters travel as light, there's time disorientation, interplanetary war, and corporations rule everything, but all that seemed secondary to me compared to the protagonist's personal journey.
https://www.kameronhurley.com/the-logic-of-time-travel-with-graphs/

As with Starship Troopers, The Light Brigade is a deeply ideological novel, increasingly so as the narrative progresses. There are a series of interviews that are basically infodumps of political messaging which are heavyhanded even if the reader agrees with them. I'm sympathetic to the expressed ideals though I found them bordering on melodramatic sentimentality, especially near the ending. If you're someone who can't abide explicit political messaging, especially if it's contrary to your own preferences, then this may not be a book for you.

It isn't all talk without action though. Soldiers are messily blown apart, body horror is common, minds are regularly broken, and murdering civilians and children is routine. All sorts of atrocities are constantly occurring because that's how all out war goes, especially when there's seemingly minimal rules of engagement. The protagonist also has sex with both men and women, though that's more about release and wanting to feel anything at all with whomever it may be rather than anything emotionally meaningful.

I had been avoiding Hurley's works due to what I perceived as a reputation for a kind of nastiness that I didn't prefer. This one didn't have that and it's possible that her other novels may have less than I believed. The author-provided content warnings weren't anywhere as severe as I thought they would be. I read this one as a suggested group read and I'm glad that I did, as once again my prejudgment was wrong. It's still unlikely that I'll read her other novels, but it's much more likely now than it was before.

Rating: 3.5/5

>>22132119
your """reviews""" are SHIT
FUCK OFF

>>22132126
Nta, but what is your problem?

>>22132161
nta but lurk more so you don't respond to spamming newfags

>>22132161
Don't respond to the schizos.

>>22132177
nta but lurk more so you don't respond to people responding to spamming newfags

>4chan general
>people telling others what to do

i hate newfags so much

>>22128546
Based

>>22132216
I too hate when I post off-topic and get scolded like the bad dog, fellow newfriend :DDDD

I just graduated from Signum University with a BA in Tolkien Studies.

>>22132271
>get scolded like the bad dog

Are you 12? who gives a fuck about what you or anyone here says? unless janny decides to do something nothing matters, you would know that if you lurked more

I've been reading through these stories and love them so far. The Jeeves and Wooster parody story was funny, and given the clusterfuck war in Ukraine, a technically competent Russia/USSR featured in many of these stories (as a nod to the Venera program) is almost as exotic as the soggy dawn star setting.

now...we remember our god/gods as a once-in-a-lifetime visitor/visitors, for the most religion, this is the norm. they came and taught us things that we followed them as a guide because our mind and so on, you know about religion, right! but what if those weren't gods but they were a lifeform from a different plant, a different galaxy, even! and they used to visit us in the early period of humanity because they could, but now their planet/galaxy is got got, it's over for them lol, so they can't visit us, and we will become an advanced civilization and we will jump towards the sky and the space beyond, we will find things that we could not see before because of our technological inabilities, but now, we have the necessary equipment for that.

well? what do you think anon?

>>22132501
that is a phenomenally entry-level speculative fiction premise, so generic and overused it has become a cliche parodied even within otherwise serious science fiction works

>>22132501
Calculating.... That's improbable. People can imagine things without having to see the thing. That's what fantasy is all about.

I picked up all of The Prince of Nothing and Malazan from audible's sale, which should I start with?

>>22132683
Start with a refund request

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qkn75m/fun-in-the-supermax

holy shit bros

I'm trying to remember the name of a kid's book where he got two boxes, he put one in the basement that was full of weird ants that built a little city, and the other box he put in his closet and it had tentacles and he had to bring ants to it as a sacrifice.

>>22132705
>>22132683
seconding refund request

Get Radix instead.

>>22132740
He died today.

>>22132161
It's pointless to post book reviews for mediocre books nobody has ever heard of. The only reason to post a book review is if the book is 5/5, or it's a very popular and well-known book that sucks.

>>22132769
Doing pointless things is sort of the whole reason for 4chan's existence.

>>22132757
>Radix
holy fucking based. I will suck you off

I really like prince of nothing. I love the fact that Kellhus is gigachad david koresh/jesus that cucks everyone. It's just too much fun seeing him manipulate people. How can anyone hate this insanity?

>>22132884
>How can anyone hate this insanity?
they're sane

>>22132764
He read the book and died of cringe.

>>22132271
You're even lower than a janny, you're doing it for free and lack even the miniscule power a janny has. Dwell on this.

>>22129046
the knight
the wizard
idk

>>22129046
Last: Submission by Houellebecq and the Black Company by cook
Current: Neuromancer
Next: not sure, either Blindsight, Let the Right One In, or the King in Yellow

>>22129046
the knight
the wizard
深夜特急

>samefagging twice

>>22131729
no, i haven't, just heard him mentioned. thanks for the rec. any particular titles you'd recommend i start with?

>>22129989
If I love Wolfe will Bakker be good? I tried Vance (Cugel's adventures or some shit) but even if it was funny and creative here and there I couldn't identify with the POS main character most of the time. Ending was great tho.

I don't want to read Bakker if everyone says fuck all the time or is some retarded boomer trope like in Hyperion. Also I can't stand when romance plot is love triangles cucking etc. Wolfe did incest but that doesn't bother me unless mixed with truly gross sexual stuff.

>>22129046
>Night of knives
>Return of the Crimson Guard
>Stonewielder

>>22133009
How ya finding Neuromancer? Is it really all its made out to be?

>>22133619
I read Night of Knives but have been nervous to go on to RotCG because I've heard mixed things, what'd you think of it?

>>22133631
Loving it so far. Ian's prose seems much better compared to Nok. His characters are all good and the story is closer to the timeline of the book of the fallen (after Bonehunters), so you will see some familiar faces.
If you love malazan, don't think you can go wrong.

>>22133560
>If I love Wolfe will Bakker be good?
Let me illustrate the answer to this question by restating it in a different context
>If I love big tits, will gay porn be good?

>>22133659
I agree that Wolfe is big tits. If Bakker is gay porn, I shall abstain and probably try more Vance. Thank you.

found some vintage sffg on an eight year old drive

>>22133677

where my pulp nibbas at

>>22133690
More people should read the Lensman series

>>22133631
RotCG is Esslemont trying and failing to write like Erikson. Too many storylines and only a few of them are handled well. I think one of the major ones is completely dropped in the rest of the books, but I haven't read them because I don't like Esslemont as an author.
This book is saved by the climax and it's contribution to Book of the Fallen by fleshing out Traveller. I don't regret reading it but if it didn't connect to Malazan proper I would have probably dropped it.

>>22133624
I’m halfway through and liking it so far, but it’s not blowing me away yet

>>22133022
Noisms?

>>22133675
lyonesse is his best work in my opinion. he also has novelettes you can try, like for example "the last castle".
if you liked his writing style but not the scumbag character and lackluster main plot, lyonesse will definitely be more your tthing.

>>22133816
i felt similarly. i'm not a prosefag by any stretch but i found the writing very bland and lifeless, as opposed to that famous vivid opening line interesting plot and concepts but kind of a chore to read.

>>22133848
I saw you recommend it earlier in this thread and you had piqued my interest, so reading that was exactly was I was gonna do anyways. Thank you.

I'm starting to realize the sci-fi books I have previously read are turbo-retard shit because this is genuinely the most difficult genre fiction I've ever read. I feel totally lost in a way that doesn't really feel intentional, it's the first book in way too many years that I need to repeatedly reread 3 or 4 pages at a time to fully grasp what was actually being said or actually going on. I can't visualize anything at all, I think because I made the mistake of reading the foreword of the Tor Essentials edition and now I can't help but overthink every single thing mentioned by any of the character.

>>22133919
Guess that proves I'm retarded, I meant to post pic related.

>>22133919
>>22133921
Welcome, brother. I recommend staying away for now. Just read BotNS and then you can look online. There is stuff you can't possibly understand yet. Try to stay unspoiled.

Warning: you might not want to read anything but Wolfe for a while. I've arrived at the point where I'm purposefully not reading the last few Wolfe stories I haven't got to. It would be so sad to not have any left.

>>22133860
Yeah agreed

Ahoy, you fantasy sub-enthusiasts! It's me, Dunsany-anon, I've had too much mead and decided to come and check and see how all of your Dunsany appreciation is coming along. Have you read any Dunsany since I've been away? Please tell me what you've read and appreciated of Dunsany. If you say "none." or "I don't know who that is." then I'll be upset. So upset that I'll seize 30 hounds and go on a hunting holiday. Well, anons, what have you read?

>>22133916
i was about to say it wasn't me but i guess it was lol. i posted that while drunk

>>22128628
>adult content
NWO doublespeak for government-restricted

>>22128545
want to read a relatively short, fun fantasy adventure story?
written by an anon?
with smut?
then look no further.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/41688777/chapters/113395627

>>22128545
want to read a relatively short, fun fantasy adventure story?
written by an anon?
with smut?
then look no further https://archiveofourown.org/works/41688777/chapters/104576295

>>22129870
>doesn't list Greg Howell

>>22134042
>Furry
At least get a good fetish like sister fucking

>>22133690
Gimme your best pulps

>>22134177
People are gonna say that Seabury Quinn is bad and not worth your time but they're wrong! Jules De Grandine is extremely entertainging because he has the thickest set of plot armor I've ever seen in a literary work. It's hilarious, dude will spend 0.6 seconds examining a supernatural event and realize that the solution requires a Nature Valley granola bar blessed by an Irish Catholic priest to be chewed and spat at the supposed poltergueist. You will have a great time with the Sherlock Holmes knock-off.

>>22129832
John Crowley
R A Lafferty

MEANWHILE
IN MARTIAL WORLD
Lin Ming finally awoke from his last minute powerup thanks to Empyrean Divine Seal, and now is about to fight Frost Dream, who is a cut-off portion of Empyrean Divine Dream's soul! Intended to recultivate into something beyond Empyrean, a True Divinity...!!

Is this tread plauged by AI bots that just strings together popular buzzwords or something?

>>22134384
no, those are actual schizophrenics

>>22134412
I didn't relize that schizos were really into Elden Ring and Chinese fantasy knock offs

>>22134426
It's ESL retard zoomers

>>22134443
>pointless exposition
>more pointless exposition for a response
Holy autism, these writers really need to work on thier dialogue. That read like a Channel Awsome video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHgeDMN0Q2g&t=284s

>>22134643
sorry wrong board

I'm trying to worldbuild and I had this idea of Dwarves as a sundered people with different "clans" IE Dwarves of Gems, Dwarves of Stone, Dwarves of Metals but it hits a roadblock when you consider that in the absolute, Dwarves of Gems wouldn't be able to use metal axes or in such a way that would break the entire setting

FML

>>22134470
I read sanderson for quality dialogue.

>>22134999
For me it's Hemingway

>They look like white elephants
>Touch grass, woman

>>22129046
>Hothouse
Was weird as shit with a kind of weak opening act, got good when the mind control fungus was introduced
>Time and the Gods
Every I read by Dunsany is incredible. Fast overtaking Vance as my second favourite fantasy author, behind Tolkien
>probably some non-fiction
I wanted to try get a copy of Porteous' The Forest in Folklore and Mythology), or maybe some classic non-fantasy lit probably Dostoevsky

>>22133502
He was an incredible talent. Id start with The King of Elfland's Daughter. It's his most accessible work (being a reasonably straight forward narrative) but also imho his best. If you dig it and don't mind something slightly esoteric I'd pick up the Time and the Gods omnibus.

>>22134999
Much better than Bakker

https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-06-09/brandon-sanderson-an-immeasurable-phenomenon-of-literary-fantasy.html

brandon's girth is immeasurable
it extends into the cognitive realm amirite

>>22135420
>known to some as the 21st century Tolkien
This is totally false right? Nobody who can read is this retarded. Or am I that out of touch with modern fantasy lit?

>>22135420
>elpais
Dude's crazy popular in Spain because of some big gayming youtubers shilling him for years

>>22129044
there is some gay rape in the third book, yes

>>22129046
SerpentwarKino
>last book(s) you read
Shadow of a Dark Queen (1994)
>current book(s) you're reading
Rise of a Merchant Prince (1995)
>next book(s) you plan to read
Rage of a Demon King (1997)
>>22134082
>Sisterfucking
Good, but motherfucking is better

>>22134426
>Elden Ring and Chinese fantasy knock offs
welcome to /sffg/

>>22133949
that's me at this point. and yet i don't know how to dive into other sci fi after reading most of his work. everything seems like a step down.

What are /lit/'s favorite sci-fi/fantasy books that relate to language? Currently reading Babel-17 (Delaney) and have read Story of Your Life (Chiang). Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

>>22134981
well in video games like minecraft the setting allows for diamond pickaxes and swords despite the fact that they would shatter instantly. I guess it depends on how much you want to veer from real world gems/physics, you are worldbuilding but I feel like readers are at least conditioned to not think about this

>>22135786
One of the major characters storylines in The Kingdom of Thorn and Bone revolves around him deciphering ancient texts.

>>22135939
oh man...

>>22133502
>>22135194
>>22135186
After reading through Time and the Gods and King of Elfland's daughter, you should try giving Dunsany's plays a read as well as his Jorkens. The plays have a sort of blend of comedy and horror that I don't think exists much elswhere, The Gods of the Mountain is a must as well as King Argimenes and the Unkown Warrior. The Jorkens are a lot harder to come by which is a shame since they're so good. You can get a Penguin press edition of Dunsany's most popular works that have some of the Jorkens in it.

>>22135994
There are three words with more than two syllables in the Tolkien excerpt, and there's nothing wrong with the Briar King excerpt. Sounds like whoever wrote that is just being performatively outraged at nothing.

Is there a recommended reading for Magic the Gathering? I've started looking at some of the cards after learning that an artist I like did a few and it's got me mildly interested in the lore.

>>22135994
>le spork

>>22136067
You'll have better luck asking >>>/tg/. There doesn't seem to be anyone ITT who reads Magic or discusses it at all. A lot of the 'sets' are standalone anyway aside from much of the later Planeswalker shit.

>>22136091
I figured it was worth putting the question out there since I occasionally see people here talking about other licenced work like 40k or D&D. /tg/ also seems to be largely dismissive of the story, although that may be mostly focused on the Planeswalkers which I don't particularly care about either.

>>22135939
Sell me on this series. I'm considering buying it from amazon.

I only read fantasy because my life is horrible and I want to escape into another one.

>>22136187
NGL I'm really bad at explaining why I like books. Greg Keyes has a style that I like reading and really manages to endear you to the characters without making you feel emotionally manipulated, while being able to construct a story that feels like a well executed classic fantasy narrative with enough injections non-traditional character and plot beats that the story doesn't feel tired.

I was introduced to him with Star Wars books and I liked the elegant simplicity and execution of that book so much I've gone on to read two of his other series and haven't been disappointed yet.

>A. F. Kay, B. R. Bea
>AFK
>BRB
This guy is taking the piss isn't he?

>>22136226
Pseudonyms are in fact pseudonyms, yes.

>>22136067
I've read at least 53 of the books and have a dedicated shelf on my Goodreads account for them. I mostly read them in my teenage years. In summary, there's both a storyline that goes through a lot of the books and overlapping characters and locations. However a lot of them also don't have anything to do with anything else really. You could probably mostly read whatever you want, though for the ones later in the storyline it may be harder to appreciate. It's been a long time since I read any. Brandon Sanderson even wrote a novel, but that was long after I stopped reading.

>>22136108
What do you care about?


>>22135786
I might respond to this later.

>>22136091
Why would anyone be discussing it? The same goes for a lot of other shared world and franchise books. What is talked about in general is rather limited, though why that is is a matter of its own.

>>22136226
This guy's Shade book was one of the few I dropped or maybe I decided not to continue after the first because it was that dull. How did you not notice it instantly? The naming.
>t. read this dude before anyone in the thread discussed him

>>22133690
>>22133776
The Japanese covers by the great Noriyoshi Ohrai are fucking amazing

>>22136306
>>t. read this dude before anyone in the thread discussed him
You mean you think you read him before other people in the thread. I was reading his books for years (won't read this hamma shit), but never recommended it because the author is a shit that has everyone use the protagonist as a doormat. People get mad at him (protag) for shit he wasn't even alive for, yet he gets blamed. Then people threaten to kill him, yet he goes out the way to save them / power them up.
It's a badly written YA shitfest with a spineless protag that lets his gf (hamma) demand shit without having to reciprocate it.

>>22136367
I've read the series and while he has a bit of a 'pushed around by others' problem I don't think it's nearly as bad as you're saying.
That said I did read the Hamma book and hoo boy was it a whole lot of nothing. It's literally "Hamma thinks maybe she should break up with Ruwen because she thinks he's gonna end up leaving her behind at the rate he's going and then she eventually realises 'wait that's stupid'" and that's it, that's the entire book.

>>22136367
>>14188514
I liked something about it after all! Otherwise it wasn't worth mentioning and I was wrong! Looks like someone else got to it first

try uhh blade of ghosts that's something relevant that i never see discussed itt

Anything else (good) that's like the Elric books? Incredible influence that series has had on fiction, the last few stories clearly got ripped off by Warhammer

>>22136293
Mainly interested in the individual worlds and various factions across the planes. I'm not entirely opposed to the Planeswalkers, but I think I would prefer them as a vehicle to see more of the setting or tangential characters rather than reading something focused on their personal story. Though that could always change if I get invested in one of them.

Jshs

>>22136390
>while he has a bit of a 'pushed around by others' problem I don't think it's nearly as bad as you're saying.
Dude. Hamma blamed Ruwen for her Mother / father because the goddess put them on ice. The dude wasn't even alive, and hamma forgot he also lost his parents. Then there was the start when he was keeping secrets and she was like you tell me everything or I walk because I don't like people info from me, yet she kept that her mom was a judge or w/e. There are other parts but i will not get into that. The dude is being used. Then you have the author artificially starting shit between ruwen and that cultivation guy, just to have drama. You can't tell me the relationship the protag has with his comrades is healthy or genuine? They are using him, and he will end up just as the currents gods are if he gives them power. If when they are powerless they are threatening to kill him(the assassin gf), what will happen when they get god powers? You telling me that they won't try to get ride of him so he doesn't take it away? Especially that assassin chick.
If you think this is healthy, then you were/ are in emotionally abusive relationships and need counselling.

>>22136220
what star wars books has he done? this is incredibly important, because I've read a lot of Star Wars books, and they range from the very best to the very worst of scifi

>>22136470
I just realized this can be read as though I don't care about character or plot and only want worldbuilding. That not true, I'd just prefer it be focused on someone smaller than the big-dick superheroes of the setting.

>>22136490
Can you recommend some? I've read some Dan Abnett 40k books and didn't really like them.

Preferably with a jedi/wise priest archetype protagonist, like Silk in Book of the Long Sun, or the protagonist in Card's Speaker for the Dead.

>>22136397
>blade of ghosts
Read that too. Didn't like the whole you were working for the big bad all along, among other things.
I read a lot of these self pub books, bro, I only recommend ones that have either a good story, or are well written.

>>22136470
I'm not sure what you think the books are about, but they're almost all entirely about the characters and their personal stories whether they're planeswalkers or not. They're mostly standard fantasy novels that sometimes have high power level stuff. I'm not quite sure what you mean by factions and there was only one primary world, Dominaria, though from what I understand there's various others now. The later books are far more standalone. I don't know how many there have been since I stopped reading a long time ago. Most of the books aren't about the planeswalkers or similar powers and are about average people who really struggle.

>>22136428
>Anything else (good) that's like the Elric books?
More moorcock or like elric but different?
If you you're fine with more moorcock (lol) then the corum and hawkmoon series are good although they never reach the greatness of elric

>>22136497
my favorite star wars books are:
>The Thrawn Trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, His Last Command) - widely regarded as the best of the EU, and rightly so, this is effectively the "sequel trilogy" that everyone wanted but regrettably never got, it's so popular that it's the default recommendation for Star Wars EU
>The Thrawn Trilogy (Thrawn, Thrawn: Alliances, Thrawn: Treason) - same author as the other Thrawn books, it's actually Sherlock Holmes stories in space as opposed to The Further Adventures of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo like the other Thrawn trilogy is, not as good in that respect obviously, but better if you actually want to read a villain protagonist
>The Han Solo Adventures trilogy (Han Solo At Star's End, Han Solo's Revenge, Han Solo and the Lost Legacy) - basically classic 70s pulp adventures with Han Solo and Chewbacca and basically nobody else you'll ever recognize, although there are proto-gungans in the last book
>The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy (The Mandalorian Armor, Slave Ship, Hard Merchandise) - books about Boba Fett's past and survival from the sarlacc
>Shadows of the Empire - book about the period in between ESB and ROTJ as they search for Han Solo in carbonite
>The Courtship of Princess Leia - despite looking and sounding like a romance novel, it's actually Romancing the Stone in space

now I don't have many books like you're asking for (excepting when Obi-wan's ghost shows up), but there are quite a few, although many of them involve the villainous aspect, in particular Darth Plagueis (widely regarded as the second-best Star Wars novel after the original Thrawn trilogy) which is all about Palpatine's history as a Sith, and also Dooku: Jedi Lost, Legacy of the Jedi, and Master and Apprentice if you like Count Dooku's character and his relationship with Qui-Gon
for more regular jedi stuff, you probably want the Jedi Academy and New Jedi Order books, which are generally exactly what they sound like: Luke Skywalker sets up a new Jedi Order, but I personally find them middling at best

>>22136745
>>22136497
oh and by the way, do not expect Wolfe-tier quality from Star Wars books, duh
you can definitely get Card quality though (that's not a good thing)

>>22131846
Annoying. Its good in that it highlights how young the captain actually is, but it also shows the weakest parts of Miles Cameron as a writer. Hes best at writing autistic medieval military stuff.

>>22136031
The "he amended that to" is kinda cringe. I'm hoping "sweat" was a typo on the reviewer's part.

>>22136031
Wait, what are the 3 words with over two syllables?

>>22136663
Like Elric but different. I tried a bunch of the longer Moorcock series but like you say it didn't really reach me like Elric. Well except Behold the Man.

>>22136843
Devour is three syllables, as is warrior.

>>22136853
diphthongs are not considered separate syllables
wild is a monosyllabic word according to english language experts

>>22134177
My personal suggestion is to go on Webarchive and look for the actual old magazines, my personal favorite is Amazing Stories. It's the raw stuff just injected into your veins.

>>22136845
There's nothing really like elric, but i'm assuming you're familar with other well known S&S characters like Howard's Conan, Solomon Kane and Bran Mak morn, Fritz Leibers Fafhrd and the grey mouser. If not check those out
The closest I can think of to Elric is Karl Edward Wagner's Kane, who IMO is equally as good if not better than elric, although the Kane stories are more horror-oriented. But good luck getting any of the books in physical form since wagner's estate refuses to rerelease them in cheap paperbacks and so all the kane books are incredibly overpriced

>>22136490
Edge of Victory: Conquest (NJO 7)
Edge of Victory: Rebirth (NJO 8)
The Final Prophecy (NJO 18)

Conquest is the one where Anakin Solo goes by himself to try and evacuate the Jedi students on Yavin 4 before the planet gets attacked by the Yuuzhan Vong.

>>22136937
this right here. The goat

>Jnan had commenced.

>>22136497
I doubt any SW books have protagonists like Silk or Ender in Speaker. If you don't like Abnett then Star Wars books are probably not for you.

You could give the James Luceno and Matthew Stover books a try. They're the best best the setting has to offer that's anywhere close to what you're looking for.

>>22136745
Thanks a lot. I might try the Thrawn and Bounty Hunter Wars trilogies and Master and Apprentice. I'm not really that interested in the further adventures of Cuck Sister-to-another-man-walker right now.

>>22136992
Are those the clone trooper books? I've heard good things about them but I'm afraid of it being Jocko Willing-to-suck-any-dick's adventures in space.

>>22136992
>>22137017
On second thought it's fucked up that no one has written anything like that. When people describe characters like Silk or Ender, they use the term "jedi".

Man I feel like SW is one of those things that could have huge potential but just insists on always letting you down. Like 40k.

>>22137017
No, James Luceno mostly writes background politics/scheming stuff. Stover is very emotionally evocative and eloquent as a writer. He wrote Shatterpoint which people basically describe as Heart of Darkness in space. I don't know how accurate that is, but I've read Traitor by him and it was the best Star Wars book I've read in terms of prose, character, and theme and it wasn't even close.

>>22137041
There's a decent number of Jedi characters like that, they just aren't ever the protagonist.

>>22136992
>If you don't like Abnett then Star Wars books are probably not for you.
lol what are you talking about?

>>22137041
>Man I feel like SW is one of those things that could have huge potential but just insists on always letting you down.
It sounds like you don't like Star Wars' basic premise. In that case, why are you interested in consuming more of it? Star Wars is what it is, and what it is delivers satisfaction to a demographic that cannot satiate that particular itch pretty much anywhere else. If it's not for you, then don't ask it to change itself to suit your tastes, just find something else that does satisfy your interests.

>>22137118
Are you going to say with a straight face that a person who doesn't like Dan Abnett is going to enjoy the average Star Wars book? Abnett does the same style of story as the average Star Wars author, but he does it better.

>>22137131
Dan Abnett writes for 40k and Judge Dredd, the polar opposites of everything that Star Wars is. Your assertion is as inane, and insane, as saying nobody who likes Tolkien and Lewis could dislike Martin and Moorcock.

>>22137116
Alright I'm gonna look at Traitor then.
I'm gonna attempt to find out a bit more about these books without spoilering myself.
>There's a decent number of Jedi characters like that, they just aren't ever the protagonist.
I enjoy that too, like the monk Takuan in Musashi. I would rather have a side character do the trope well than the protagonist not do it justice.


These also sound interesting:
>>22136964

>>22137130
I do like it, I just haven't come across any good (extended universe or whatever you call it) stories yet and hope to change it. You've all been very helpful, Dankeschön.

>>22137142
Which EU stories have you read? There are a lot of bad ones. There are a LOT of really, really bad ones. Like some are so bad they justified the Disney buyout and purge in a lot of people's eyes because they retroactively damaged the setting to an irreparable degree. Some people, whether right or wrong, believe that as bad as Disney Star Wars stuff gets, it still hasn't hit the lows of the worst of the Expanded Universe (debatable, but I get where they're coming from). That's a major problem with supplementary material to a genre fiction franchise.

>>22137138
I've read a lot of Star Wars books, and I've read a lot of Dan Abnett. If you don't think Abnett has written a bunch of stories similar to Star Wars you either haven't read Star Wars or haven't read Abnett.

>>22137184
I've read every Gaunt's Ghosts book he's ever made, haven't read his 2000 AD work, but Judge Dredd never struck me as particularly compatible with Star Wars narrative philosophy

>>22137138
No he's kind of right, Abnett took 40K and presented it in a way that's presentable with a sort of Star Wars veneer

>>22137207
Exactly

>>22137207
He's a good writer that knows how to write a compelling plot, albeit fairly standard military fiction fare. If that's the basis for being comparable to Star Wars, it's a pretty low bar, but then the authors GW hires for their 40k lit are mostly the kind of unreadable hacks that make bottom of the barrel Star Wars authors look good by comparison, so the fact that Dan Abnett is capable of writing actually good books certainly puts him on an even footing with the likes of Zahn, Luceno, and Stackpole.

>>22137165
>Which EU stories have you read?
You got me dude I haven't read any just read up on the general lore recently after thinking SW must have good stuff to offer. So I just asked you guys like a lazy fuck but tbf I had bad experiences with people recommending 40k which disappointed me.

>>22137251
I might want to add that I only read the Eisenhorn trilogy so idk maybe it gets better. If there's 40k books out there that read like the training and combat parts of Starship Troopers, might be cool if I'm in the mood for it.

>>22137251
well it all depends on what you want
I don't blame you for not getting into the EU, but if you liked the George Lucas movies, the best place to start is probably the Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn (the 90s one as I said) and if you like those, explore others

Which sff books do you guys reread the most?

>>22137142
If you want to read Traitor I would recommend reading
>Edge of Victory: Conquest
into
>Star by Star
Into
>Traitor

Star by Star has a good recap of the relevant events of the series it's in and you shouldn't need much other context to appropriately frame the story.

>>22137273
>>22137285
Thank you guys. I've got a little list now, I think I will start with Conquest and see if I like it.

>>22137282
BOTNS by far

>>22137282
I love to reread The Time Machine at least once a year

>>22137282
Cradle, Wandering Inn, Bakker

>>22137282
Jurassic Park easily

Just saw an article when opening the internet on my phone that showed the "top rated" books of some kind in every country.
I don't know what 99% of them were but I looked at China and it was some Demon Cultivation shit.
What the fuck is with China and this "cultivation" or whatever? This farming magic nonsense seems fucked in the head.

> enter a barnes and nobles for the first time in nearly a decade
> for some reason 1/5th of the store is dedicated to manga now
> they keep yotsuba stocked
ive never seen something go from onions to based that fast

>>22137326
They sell Light Novels now too. Bought Re:Zero vol 1 for my little brother since he loves manga and our parents want him to read more books

I liked it.
I'm not good at reviews since I like most of what I read, doesn't matter the genre.
But now I don't know whether I want to read the next one right away, something else he's done, or step into another writer's universe first. I might do the last one.

Also this book has shown me something I didn't know I wanted to read about, which is humans rediscovering and retreading technology they once had. Super fantastic technology that's ahead of even their centuries long space faring capabilities.

>>22137322
Are you into molecular biology?

>>22137413
Not that guy but the most kino biology read for me is fundamentalist christians arguing with atheists academics against the theory of evolution and destroying them.

I used to believe in every aspect of it myself but there's really no proof yet and I'm willing to be convinced but basically the best anti-evolution argument is that positive mutation (new genetic code, not the loss or multiplication of it) aka the real gist of evolution has never been observed.
Could be that it's outdated at this point as I read all this 10 years ago but back then there was really no good answer for it.

Not even religious btw.

>>22137413
not at all, I just like dinosaurs and gory techno-thrillers (as long as they're not too self-indulgent like Relic and Reliquary were)

>>22137448
I'm Christian and I believe in (theistic) evolution
however I also educated myself on the history of the theory of evolution, and what most modern day fedora-tipping anti-christian atheists who think everybody religious thinks the earth is only 4000 years old are unaware of, is that the present-day theory of evolution as accepted by scientists bears little real resemblance to what Charles Darwin originally posited; Darwin himself altered his theory numerous times in his life, and it was qualitatively debunked in the 1880s by people who built off his work and completely revamped it into something that bears closer similarity to the current accepted theory

>>22137456
>the history of the theory of evolution
any standout books on this topic?

>>22137448
>>22137456
This isn't the thread for it and I'm too stupid to explain it properly but reading a lot of things on /lit/ has changed my mind on evolution and aliens. I love them both as story elements though.
To cut it short; something about a big leap still needed to go from even complicated amino acids to a single cell organism that manages to live long enough in it's pool of hot acid to sustain further life. Couple that with how recent most of what they theorize about space is, along with all of the things they do with medicine and how we don't know much about much because nobody actually does decades long testing, money interest doesn't last that long. God only knows what happens to women who have been on the pill since they were teens until old age, for example.

As for aliens? Radiation. Simple as... and most star systems being more than 1 star. Anything more than 2 means no life.

I liked this. Even the TURBO KEK plotline. It could have been great, if the author had the skills to handle the mc's moral transition. But it's kind of clunky. Book 2 isn't quite as good, book 3 is a collection of novellas that I find engaging but some people get upset when a story abandons its MC for an extended period.

I find myself wishing the author had aged up the MC or provided better justification for his change. I guess that's a restatement. Anyway, I'm sticking with it. A nice break from endless progression fantasies, a mix of grimdark and idealism, and no wokist elements.

I keep thinking about the world of Assault Android Cactus and I wish there was a book about it.
Because in that twin stick shooter game a commerce freighter goes rogue and you're a junior police android sent to investigate. This single (massive) freighter has an AI and sub-AI's that control their zones of the ship and they make neat area bosses. But the AI of a single freighter ship went mad and in the end connected itself to the "aether-sphere" which is some virtual reality that's separate from the real world and it drags you in with it until you defeat it. And then you blow up the multi-trillion dollar AI core with one of it's lasers and roll credits.
It makes one wonder why they do things the way they do them in that universe. What's their stance on FTL? Why was everyone on board a sentient android? Why full AI? Why did it go mad other than presumably being sick of being a ship? What's Cactus' tax policy?
For a long time this was their only game. I wish it was more successful. I thought it was really cool anyway.

Any good book with a guy protag that is cautious, not arrogant, not a raging ball of emotions, not a horny bastard and gets the job done?
Basically western version of early Klein and his Gerhman persona

>>22137324
Cultivation is older than the China of today. Sure what you see nowadays might be ultra gay, but it has some old roots.
Cultivation is the pursuit of perfection and continual improvement. Stories where the characters are always seeking to better themselves and can attain superpowers through hard work appeal to a lot of people. In China, upward mobility is an unrealistic power fantasy, so of course it would be popular there.

>>22137617
Well I suppose I should give one a shot at least.
Farmer wizards does seem kind of neat and I always like seeing what a normal man who obtains powers does with them when he gets them, even if it's all wish fulfillment.

>>22137324
This youngster should spend more time meditating upon the Dao and stabilizing their qi. Cultivation is asian wizardry.

>>22137629
Rec a good one then.
Not Cradle. I'm assuming Cradle is one of them.
I won't give the satisfaction.

>>22137637
You won't receive a proper portrayal of Chinese spirituality through the typical xianxia discussed here. The most notable difference is how the irl custom is founded upon pacifism and introspection while fiction is laced with combat; not that introspection doesn't occur but not typically for the right reasons (i.e., someone wins a fight then gains power through enlightenment after).

>>22137324
Ancient chinese mythology broadly featured people accumulating power and ascending to immortality. Cultivation webnovels are just the modern popularization of that genre.

>>22137637
Cradle is just some white guy in america writing his spin on chinese cultivation novels.

If you want a few recommendations:
>Record of A Mortal's Journey To Immortality
"Vanilla" example of the genre. Some might find the protagonist to be bland but I personally enjoyed a rather straightforward and serious main character who is neither comically evil nor some absolute 'muh justice' fag
>Reverend Insanity
Edgy novel with an even edgier fanbase. Author received censure by the ccp for being too edgy so it will probably never be finished but there are still several thousand extant chapters.
>Lord of The Mysteries
Not really traditional cultivation, written by a chinese westaboo who thought victorian england was the coolest thing ever.
>Ave Xia Rem Y
Another cultivation series by a westerner, but sticks closer to genre tropes than Cradle. Disregard the title and plot summary it has literally nothing to do with the story and I have no idea why he named it like it's a parody. Actually reading something that was written in English first and not translated is always nice.

not gonna include any retard harem power fantasy recommendations, which are debatably a staple of the genre, because I don't like them

Can anyone recommend me any French fantasy books? Preferably good ones.

>>2213771
Are you able to read French?

>>22129003
I enjoyed Malazan in it's entirety.

>>22137728
Who could possibly read that jumble of English letters in random order?
"danger"
It's gibberish.

Man is anything good coming out this year.

Enough drawings.
More Nordic models with loincloths, greaves, and pauldrons and a big ass sword for fantasy book covers.
Cosplay has come far since the 70's and I demand to look at our protagonist in glorious HD instead of some random trinket like a sealed letter from the book in chapter 17.

I also demand that the word "sterile" be banned from sci-fi so my brain doesn't erase everything and picture white, smooth rooms on ships.

That is all. Thank you.

>>22130382
>First time I've seen Soon I Will Be Invincible in literally a decade and it's to be shit tier in an underpopulated list
Why even include it? Why do this to me, the only one whose read it?

>>22137773
Do you like any current stuff in general? I've liked plenty this. Are there certain authors you want to be reading more from?

>>22137794
kek
Does the title deliver? Do we get a man who's drunk with power and soon nobody can do anything about it?

>>22137773
DCC 6 is out in a few weeks :)

>Mage Errant ended this year
Haven't gave a shit for several books
>Cradle ended this year
Haven't gave a shit for several books
feels bad man

>>22130408
The man who wrote that has friends who "identify" as something.

>>22137728
Oui

What does /sffg/ think of John Gywnne? I'm torrenting his audiobook collection now. What am I in for?

Should I do that trick where you write a very short summary of each chapter (introductions to characters, he does this, she does that) after you read it so you remember more of the book and for longer, or is that gay?

>>22138045
That's definitely pretty gay but if it furthers your enjoyment (or whatever else you're trying to get out of the experience) of reading a book then just do it and stop caring if random strangers on the internet think you're gay.

For the record though, I do think that you're gay.

>>22137679
I'll take a look.
And Victorian England is the coolest thing ever. If oil is really finite and the Earth doesn't make it like it churns out other minerals then we're not getting to the stars before running out so it'll be High Victorian from here on out. Gonna have to learn some sturdy woodworking again. No more relying on heating and cooling systems to keep your house free of mold. Gotta have a proper design to keep it dry. Older houses weren't sealed as tight as our drywall houses are.
And I look forward to every second of it even though I won't live to see the end of oil.
It would be nice if I knew of a book that was something like that. We ran mostly out of oil except some billion barrels that are used for only the most important things like oiling some important industrial machine or making sure some small scale computing facilities are good to go.

>>22138062
Then I've lost the gay war but can still enjoy the battle plunder.

>>22138045
Why would you want to remember what you read? If the book turns out to be shit, it's better to forget it all, and if it's good, it's better to forget so you can re-read it in a decade.

>>22138089
A valuable point.
I do enjoy it when I reread something that I forgot but remembered that I liked.
For example, I like the Great Gatsby but all I can think of now are how it ends, there's parties, and there's a happy scene with Gatsby and the girl where he throws all of the fancy cloths he has around to amaze her at his wealth. Oh and that Nick is a homo for breaking up with Jordan for no reason.

>>22137679
>>Ave Xia Rem Y
>Another cultivation series by a westerner, but sticks closer to genre tropes than Cradle. Disregard the title and plot summary it has literally nothing to do with the story and I have no idea why he named it like it's a parody. Actually reading something that was written in English first and not translated is always nice.
Low-key interesting how two major western xainxias (Ave Xia Rem Y and Beware of Chicken) both started as a harem stories, but one switched, while the other goes the slow, serious route. Fascinating.

I see people are talking about Star Wars again, and inevitably the Thrawn/Heir to The Empire series got brought up.

I fell for this meme at the start of the year and let me tell you, don't waste your time unless you're a teenager or early 20s at most. It's not even airport novel tier, it's children's book tier. inb4 "it's Star Wars", etc. etc. I get it, but why are you recommending it then

I went in with low expectations, thinking it's going to be some book where Thrawn is always smarter and comes up with clever strategies and everything goes according to keikaku, like Lost Fleet or Codex Alera or the Legend of Galactic Heroes anime that gets shilled here but it's even lower tier than that. Thrawn isn't shown to be clever, he's just shown to be basically prescient "this rebel ship will do x because the pilot is species y and species y will always do x". All the characters, dialogs and plots are basically on the level of what you'd see in a saturday morning cartoon. It's just not worth reading. I don't even know if it's worth listening in audiobook form but if you simply must try it, I'd recommend going that route and saving your reading time for better things.

I will say that for someone like me who was always kind of on the periphery of Star Wars fandom and had seen the movies and only heard of certain plotlines and concepts from the expanded universe, it was interesting to see were all those plots originated. I don't know if it's accurate but I got the impression that Zann basically gave birth to the expanded universe single-handedly with these books. If you think that would be enough to keep you reading, go for it.

The amount of stories about men who have to develop universal-law breaking powers so they can have a harem proves the superiority of the Elephant Seal as the Milky Way's most powerful and perfect creature.
Without blasphemous steel and fire, man could never defeat the creature and the beast effortlessly rakes in dozens of sex slaves that don't even need anything from him when you get right down to it. The females can hunt just fine, the male does not share.
But there he is with his harem, and you with your millions made from shitcoins with none.

>>22138244
Now this is literature

Wandering Inn KINO, thanks anon for recommending

>>22137882
I started reading Malice and got bored by 60th or so page
it was bland, boring and not very thought out, I also got lost with the amount of characters that got introduced early on

>>22137773
in this current year, good is a high bar to concur, passable mentions to look forward to

2 brando sando cosmere books

master of the fallen, #3 of the silent gods

>>22137282
I reread wheel of time every year. Unfortunately by the time I finish it's time to start again so I haven't read anything else since 2014

>>22137326
B&N is the only place around me that stocks new releases of Drifting Dragons so I've stopped shitting on them.

>>22138887
What a shit year for books so far

>>22137773
The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher