/lit/ - Literature

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

wheres the mega with all the books to download

Which one should I read ? 4th one is Ambergris

Any fantasy that is just as dark and aesthetic as fromsoft games?

>>22218162
In the op >>22217847

>>22217389
what is the name of that novel where mc sneaks into the girls house, rapes her then butchers her family?
I tried googling it but coundn't find it and I am not gonna go through every novel just to find that specific one

>>22217847
I'm amazed by the kind of smut sometimes gets legitimate publication.

>>22218428
I read Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories by qntm and it was pretty mediocre.

Nigger tier thread

Read the Second Apocalypse

TRUTH SHINES

>>22218162
That was removed years ago. There are many easy sources though so it doesn't really matter.

>>22218496
Is going through the second trilogy rewarding? It's so damn long and boring.

>>22217663
Define what you mean by depressing. It can manifest in many different ways. Is Lovecraft too depressing? Is Discworld too childish? Maybe take a look at any of the recommended reading charts and go from there.

>>22218517
I would say if you made it through the setup that was the first trilogy, it's worth reading the payoff.
Also, the last book is quite short. Half of the page count is the glossary.

>>22217663
Try out the HP fanfiction some anon posted thread before last. Decent enough, with antihero Harry and smut. Gives you a feel for what you like in a story.

>>22218523
Dostojevski is depressing, lovecraft isn't. Discworld seems too convoluted for me.
I also don't want any kids or women in my books, the fucking "orphan girl becomes the greatest fighter in the land and she's only 14" mc sucks ass.

>>22218557
>Dostojevski
Fellow slav, you are on a path to reading wuxia and xianxia, God help you.

>>22218557
Before you read contemporary fantasy you should have read the Odyssey, the Aeneid, Beowulf, the Kalevala, Historia Regum Britanniae, Novalis's Heinrich von Ofterdingen, The Lord of the Rings, Gormenghast, Lord Dunsany's short stories, Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, and Howard's Conan stories.

Pyccкиe впepeд

I memoryholed all the jokes from reading part 1 of DCC 6 months back so these first several chapters have been refreshing and wonderful.
>spay your cat at home kit
>crab splooge all over the baby seals
>batshit crazy superior demons

>>22218557
>Discworld seems too convoluted for me.
How so? You can just read each book in order. Each builds on the previous, but even in the sub-series a lot of books are fairly standalone. You might not know some characters, but almost never does a book use an antagonist again (I think the only exception is the elves are used twice, but for different protagonists), so it's simply "here's these characters, this is the thing". And, there's the stand-alone ones like Small Gods that have almost nothing to do with the rest of the series. I can see what you might mean by convoluted, but really it's just... A lot of books.

>>22217847
The Butcher's Masquerade, Dungeon Crawler Carl #5 - Matt Dinniman (2022)

The Butcher's Masquerade is a return to the RPG stylings of the second book and to traditional fantasy more generally. I don't know what the primary references for this one would be. Maybe Grimms' Fairy Tales, global folk tales, 19th century literary nonsense, and a splash of webcomics. There weren't any specific games that came to mind. The characters compare what they're doing to media, but they don't really think that's what it is either. I wrote that the first book may not had have had anything that was was original, but with each book that's been less and less the case, or may it be that I know what's being referenced less and less. In that way it may be becoming more accessible with each book rather than less, though that may not have any basis in reality. It's odd. Regardless, I'm still enjoying it quite a lot.

This time the floor premise is that the crawlers are being actively hunted down. As noted in the previous book preparations for a counterattack are now underway. Even so, that's easier said than done, though the new guild system allows for greater cooperation. They're certainly need as it their numbers continue to dwindle, inside the dungeon anyway.

There's certainly no lack of named characters to continue to die, which means that either more will have to be named, or there will be a tighter focus on those that remain. It makes me wonder how this will all end, especially considering that Dinniman wrote that he's never written a happy ending. This is the only series of his I've read so I'm unable to assess that claim. I've experienced various media works that have ended with all the characters dead, or otherwise have a bad ending for everyone, and it hasn't been one that I've preferred almost ever. I've found that it's rarely done well. Even of this series does go that, I don't think that would retroactively destroy my enjoyment.

Unlike the previous books, I don't know quite why I enjoyed this one as much as I did. Maybe it's the shift in focus and the promise of greater scope. I'm certainly very sympathetic to where the story seems to be heading, but less so about the methods and the possible end result. Regardless of anything else, I'm amazed by how much fun it continues to be.

Rating: 4.5/5

>>22218909
If you had began DCC last year, around when 5 came out like me, we could have been twinsies.

>>22218954
Very homosexual

Why doesn't anyone tell Shallan to stop being an insufferable bitch and to stop making those stupid unfunny jokes and quips all the time?

>>22218740
>>22218523
Discworld would be nice, but I hate comedic books

>>22218954
So goes the arbitary nature of the order of reading.

Question: Why do low fantasy settings seem to be better written than high fantasy ones?
Of course this brings in question of what is high and low fantasy, and the very subjective 'better written' but indulge me for a moment.
Admittedly I haven't read nearly enough fantasy to make this claim, but from my limited experience it seems that the overall plot and worldbuilding seem tighter and less reliant on 'pulling shit out of your ass' the less powerful magic and mythical powers are in a world. Does it have to do with people naturaly having an easier time writting something that is more closely related to the real world? Maybe granting magic such versitality and high-level influence allows the reader to undo the status quo of the world with a bit of thinking, therefore making your story feel illogical to an extent?
Would love to hear your opinions as to why, or if it's the case at all.

>>22218996
They know she's just punishing the reader for reading Sandershit so they let her get away with it.

>>22218496
Done, really like it and want more of it. So while we wait for the Nogod sequel, are there any other series like it?

>>22218996
Correction needed

>>22219100
High fantasy can work as long as you know how to do magic right, like the works of classic authors like George Macdonald, E. R. Eddison, Lord Dunsany and J. R. R. Tolkien, these authors wrote magic as something truly magical and unknown not just RPG stats.

I was considering starting Prince of Nothing a while back, now I'm noticing Bakker is contentious(?) in this general. Can I get a quick rundown on why that is?

Princess Posse or Donut Hole?

>>22218428
Antimemetics is pretty short. I recommend it

>>22219259
I like donut holes. Never had a princess posse.

>>22218909
your """reviews""" are SHIT
FUCK OFF

>>22219169
Casting pearls before swine

>>22219169
ritualposting

>>22219169
It used to have a fanatical fan base here until they started going away from sffg as this place has been filling with light novel readers. Couple of them are still here to remind that Bakker exists. The books are honest to God good but they are not for everyone and most will get filtered by the first book. People either appreciate them or drop when they get frustrated because not everything is spoon-fed to them. I suggest you give a try, after all, that is the only way to be sure.

Shortly, not everyone likes every book. But because Bakker fans were vocal, the other party had to be as opposed to Bakker as the fans were for him.

Should I post my own story here if it's fantasy related?

>>22219452
No. There is writing general /wg/

>>22219452
No way to stop you from posting it, neither is there a way to stop others from reading it and giving their opinion. But you will find more feedback elsewhere.

>>22219124
>are there any other series like it?
No unfortunately. The only other thing I've read that evokes similar feelings is blood meridian, which Bakker himself quotes at least once.

>>22219445
They haven't left. Some leftshit mod got butthurt and started baning them, and because of having to constantly change ip (and other things) is a chore they just stopped spamming bakker. After a while it stopped being funny desu.

>>22217996
Is he the only modern fantasy writer left that focuses on heterosexual relationships?

>>22219169
Is this even a question?

>>22219836
The grimples of florsgusmerg marched upon the plains of dimplesnorf under the high king mukot of the endless. Beside him lurched the gimped god of pumpkinplumple and the fool of zmestorf. He raised a shit-stained fingers at the low-herald of the false-king Vxofrdwarf who stood before them on the blood-stained plains

/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.

>>22219860
Filtered.

/SFFG/ Recommendations: LITRPG Edition

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

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

>>22219860
Not enough accent marks

>>22219866
bakker a closeted homosexual and doesn't understand what made Tolkien's names "work". he thinks just flinging random shit at the wall is all you need for a complex language system

So I got the Traitor Son Cycle series, The Ruins, Between Two Fires, The Barrow, and The Ruins. How am I doing here?

>>22219894
Bakker never tried nor claimed to have created a language. Tolkienerd constant seethe at everything is very strange.

TWI 8.65
I gotta say, I understand the complaints regarding Vol 8 as a whole. Each chapter has multiple POVs, and the story seems to jump around like crazy without time to develop much of anything. Thankfully there's been a few longer spans, like the Wistram and the Hectval chapters, but it does feel like the author is spread a bit thin. Also seems like you could fill an entire volume with just the miscellaneous plotlines that have been dropped since the start of the series, but other than Liscor's Dungeon there isn't much I'm personally missing (Does that ever become relevant again?)
Despite that, I am still enjoying the read. I'm surprised how well the story is going despite the main character being effectively dead, but seems like building a wide cast helped smooth that out

>>22219836
I raised the question of WTF the first line is supposed to mean many threads ago and nobody explained it then. Ishual did not fall to that what has been forgotten the first time. Foreshadowing it's second fall would be extremely out of place. If "what has been forgotten" is Ishual itself, inhabited by the Dunies, then, well The people of Three Seas don't exactly need to raise walls against it - every Duny that visits non-autistic civilization gets mindbroken by it.

Is it the Consult that should've raised walls against the Ishual? That would be quite something to imply in the first line of the series.

>>22219944
>The people of Three Seas don't exactly need to raise walls against it - every Duny that visits non-autistic civilization gets mindbroken by it.
Moenghus didn't, and Kellhus goes from pauper to Emperor in a couple of years. He might go a bit mad in the process, but that doesn't really help the 3 Seas much, does it?

>>22219944
I haven't read anything of that series but the quote in the image, but it's definitely referring to Ishual as what's been forgotten.

>>22219976
>Moenghus
The faggot willingly gouged his own eyes out. Let me spell it out for you: the first Dunyain that ever journeyed to the Three Seas gouged his own eyes out and sincerely believed that it was to his own benefit.

>Kellhus goes from pauper to Emperor in a couple of years
My overall impression of Kellhus' ark is how the experiences of his journey buck break his Pure Reason with the hammer of irrational, which he tries to use as a convenient leverage over others, but ends up violently internalizing. Cnaiur is the embodiment of the whole shebang - Kellhus tries to use him to his own ends, struggles a lot, somewhat succeeds at times, but ultimately never manages to tame him, and in the end it's Kellhus ends up on the same board as Cnaiur, instead of being the chessmaster moving all the pieces. Kellhus becoming the Emperor is not him using human civilization to his own ends - it's human civilization incorporating him into it's telos. Pure Dunies agreed with the Consult.

>>22219977
>I haven't read anything of that series but the quote in the image, but it's definitely referring to Ishual as what's been forgotten.
That's what the first impression is, but that doesn't make much sense in the story. Seems more like it's there just because it sounds cool.

>>22219976
>Moenghus
The faggot willingly gouged his own eyes out. Let me spell it out for you: the first Dunyain that ever journeyed to the Three Seas gouged his own eyes out and sincerely believed that it was to his own benefit.

>Kellhus goes from pauper to Emperor in a couple of years
My overall impression of Kellhus' arc is that the experiences of his journey buck break his Pure Reason with the hammer of irrational, which he first tries to use as a convenient leverage over others, but ends up violently internalizing. Cnaiur is the embodiment of the whole shebang - Kellhus tries to use him to his own ends because muh blind animal, struggles a lot, somewhat succeeds at times, but ultimately never manages to tame him, and in the end it's Kellhus ends up on the same board as Cnaiur, driven by the same things that made him believe Cnaiur is a dumb predictable animal, instead of being the chessmaster moving all the pieces. Kellhus becoming the Emperor is not him using human civilization to his own ends - it's human civilization incorporating him into it's telos. Pure Dunies agreed with the Consult. If he remained himself he would just drop the trapper again and run for his own goal.

>>22219100
This isn't an era for grandeur and purpose, so high fantasy notes strike false unless they are perfect. In an ascendant time, low fantasy might strike you seem obstructively cynical.

BORN TO CANT
CONSULT IS A FUCK
鬼神 Kill Em All 4132 Year-of-the-Tusk
I Am Mandati Man
478,637,782 CULLED SRANC

>>22220218
Literally me the post.

>>22219100
>Question: Why do low fantasy settings seem to be better written than high fantasy ones?
Idiot terms that mean nothing except "do the guys on the cover have sleeves"

>>22219860
>>22219894
Cope
Bakker is KING
>Then the madness fell away. Once again it was the pure thunder of the charge. The strange camaraderie of men bent to a single, fatal purpose. Hummocks, scrub, and the bones of the Vulgar Holy War’s dead rushed beneath. The wind bled through chain links, tousled Thunyeri braids and Tydonni crests. Bright banners slapped against the sky. The heathen, wicked and foul, drew closer, ever closer. One last storm of arrows, these ones almost horizontal to the ground, punching against shield and armour. Some were struck from their saddles. Tongue tips were bitten off in the concussion of the fall. The unhorsed arched across the turf, screamed and swatted at the sky. Wounded mounts danced in frothing circles nearby. The rest thundered on, over grasses, through patches of blooming milkwort waving in the wind. They couched their lances, twenty thousand men draped in great mail hauberks over thick felt, with coifs across their faces and helms that swept down to their cheeks, riding chargers caparisoned in mail or iron plates. The fear dissolved into drunken speed, into the momentum, became so mingled with exhilaration as to be indistinguishable from it. They were addicted to the charge, the Men of the Tusk. Everything focused into the glittering tip of a lance. The target nearer, nearer … The rumble of hooves and drums drowned their kinsmen’s song. They crashed through a thin screen of sumac … Saw eyes whiten in sudden terror. Then impact. The jarring splinter of wood as lances speared through shield, through armour. Suddenly the ground became still and solid beneath them, and the air rang with wails and shouts. Hands drew sword and axe. Everywhere figures grappled and hacked. Horses reared. Blades pitched blood into the sky. And the Kianene fell, undone by their ferocity, crumpling beneath northern hands, dying beneath pale faces and merciless blue eyes. The heathen recoiled from the slaughter—and fled.
KINO

>>22219100
Because low fantasy stories are usually carried by their characters or underlying themes, while the main drawing point of high fantasy is the genre itself

thoughts on picrel?

Is The Riftwar Cycle any good?

Just finished Ubik. I went from loving it to hating it so quickly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTz2-im7s9k

>detailed (debateably) incest rape scene between Guinevere and Meleagrant immediately followed by fade to black implied tender sex between Guinevere and Lancelot
Women writers are fucking mental, I can't believe you guys are forcing yourselves to miss out on this shit.

This fuckin book is too damn long and full of so much useless, uninteresting shit. Jesus christ. There is a good, great even, book buried under all this SHIT.
2.5/5

>>22220516
Sure, very cheesy. Waifufaggotry is consistently poor and he overwrites action scenes enough to be irritating though.

>>22220610
Women are gross.

>>22220538
Typical PKD novel.

What do I think of her titles?

>>22220698
I'm more interested in her tittles.

>>22220698
Michael Myers looking bitch

>>22220331
*shart*
*thump*

>>22218496
What is this image depicting?
I'm intrigued.

Best fantasy book I've ever read

Khymyrium: The City of the Hundred Kings, from the Coming of Aviathar the Lion to the Passing of Spheridion the Doomed by Lin Carter

>>22220538
PKD was a bad writer, it's time for everyone to admit this. He wrote 40+ novels, and out of them maybe 2-3 are good, 4-5 are serviceable (great ideas hindered by his clunky ass prose) and the rest is just pure shlock written by volume

>>22219865
>>22219878
Webnovels are crap

>>22221399
>He wrote 40+ novels
only?

>>22219944
The first paragraph is one sentence, present tense.
The following paragraphs are a running narrative, past tense. When you reach the end of the prologue, you find out exactly how the first sentence relates to the events described in the narrative at large.

>>22221420
I'm fairly sure Gibson channeled his Hypergraphia constructively. You don't manage to make a killing the way he did by writing through the Great Depression otherwise.

>>22219827
Yes. Be grateful

>>22221426
>When you reach the end of the prologue, you find out exactly how the first sentence relates to the events described in the narrative at large.
Elaborate, please.

>>22221399
Anon is a bad bait poster, it's time for everyone to admit this. He made 40+ bait posts, and out of them maybe 2-3 are good, 4-5 are serviceable (great memes hindered by his clunky ass autism) and the rest is just pure shlock written for cheap (you)s.

>Is better than T*lkien in your path

>>22221581
> Not a better writer
> Didn't invent an entire genre of fiction
> Only successful because he finished someone else's work
The only things you can give him credit for is being prolific and good at self-marketing.

>>22221581
I take it his writting is as good as his fashion sense?

>>22219827
>forgot that he already has homosexual, transsexual, and many-voiced heads in his books
The Mormon has capitulated

>>22221581
>wrote 14 novels, all rejected, before he got published
Bakker got through on his first try

>>22221627
Tolkienfags with the „invented a genre“ shit always. Fostered the retarded D&D trend, maybe.

Read Dunsany.

>>22221721
Sanderson is still a slop producing machine even when you don't consider Tolkien an absolute fantasy literature genius.

>>22221707
Brandon has homosex and trannies? Where? I didn't read anything he wrote after about 2010.

>>22221721
>Fostered the retarded D&D trend
He did not. Wargames featured roleplaying and judges/dms a long time before then. Nothing new under the sun and shit.

>>22217996
i found this to be one of the better cosmere books by sanderson, though it still suffers from the smarmy narration of hoid in the same vein as tress. From the sample chapters, only the sunlit man is a "true" cosmere book, as it is not narrated by hoid, and was always on the anvil to be written as it is a core story.

Back to yumi, I would think this is one of the few books where sanderson could have expanded more, it is written in a constrained but not satisfying manner of silence or tse; the leads are fine, painter is one of the characters that is not in a classical brando-mold, yumi is more tolerable than his usual female characters, the setting is great, prose is the usual sanderson fare, the supporting characters are a big hit this time, has not happened before in cosmere books, overall a 5.5 /10

>>22221365
Where is it? Wiki says it was unfinished at his death.

>>22221724
The Reshi King from Rysn's interlude in Stormlight Archive is trans
Drehy from Bridge 4 is gay
Shallan has dissociative identity disorder

Stormlight Archive? More like transpride archive

is Black Company any good?

>>22219865
heard that Hyperion sequels are crap

>>22221825
>heard that Hyperion sequels are crap
correct

>>22221825
>is Black Company any good?
It is.

>heard that Hyperion sequels are crap
They are.

>>22220509
It's the best Dune book and if you don't read it you haven't actually finished Dune.

Halfway through and I wish this wasn't as dull as it is, it's a real shame. Hoping the Riddle-Master of Hed has a bit more going on in it.

>>22221969
It is a good book. Every book in the series (except Children) improves on the previous books. Contrary to what most believe, Chapter-House is actually the best book (source: me).

>>22221825
>is Black Company any good?
Yes. Read the first book at least. It gives a semi-open ending so you can finish there if you don't like it. TBC's grimdark reputation is greatly exaggerated compared to what else is out there now.

>>22221710
Gay interracial is very popular these days

Is there any fantasy series that inverts Bakker’s depiction of gnosis? I want to read a quality story about people taking the piss out of monks who try to achieve “enlightenment” and about strength being conferred by a higher power. It can still include wacky characters fighting big battles, just none of this “logical magic” bullshit.

>>22218490
>>22219260

I ended up reading Antimemetic and it was pretty nice

>>22222437
So a series were the Cishaurim would be stronger than the Gnostic sorcerers?

>>22222437
my book, baka

>>22222457
Basically.
>>22222466
What’s your book about, anon?

>>22222471
I will never ever reveal it here.

>>22222069
For me? It's God Emperor. Speaking of Dune, I lent my mate my copy and just recently moved away before giving it back to me. What are the best editions of the original Dune? I was thinking of getting pic related and the second volume containing IV, V and VI, but it's basically just plain black and afaik doesn't have any internal art etc

>>22222655
the original first edition obviously

>>22222691
I'm not rich like you, shelfthatsavedsffg poster

I've been playing a lot of shmups lately (donpachi, battle garegga, a couple of others). What are some novels that have that 80s/early 90s animu aesthetic?

>>22222705
Ah, you know me well. You could probably find one for around $100 though

>>22220876
seconding this, if this is Second Apocalypse then I'll pick it up, really curious

Is Sumner ever going to get out of the mutant village? holy fuck is this dragging out

Someone please recommend a fantasy story where the protagonist gets "rewarded" with a bride by her father. Especially if he's weirded out by it, but doesn't refuse.

>>22220876
>>22222789
It's the ending of the second book

>>22222655
I have that black edition. It is fine. The three other books I got as one of those new paperbacks. Personally, I don't care too much of editions and I prefer to get paperbacks. The black leather-like cover feels nice tho.

>>22220876
>>22222789
see >>22222891
It is a rather gruesome scene, I won't go into details. And yes, it is from The Second Apocalypse.

>>22222879
Much easier to find one where the protagonist goes "WAOW! Erm, not for me Chief! Women are not objects. Better yourself!"

Just started Malazan. What am I in for /lit/ bros?

What are some collection by Harlan Ellison that have a lot of crazy sci-fi pulp stories like I Have No Mouth and Ticktock Man Said? I just read Paladin of the Lost Hour and I liked it but it's not what I'm looking for.

>>22223295
500 main characters and a ridiculous fog of war. Also undead neanderthal armies, (((dragon shapeshifters))) messing up the world, dinosaurs, undead dinosaurs, flying pyramids that shoots lasers, seal pelt economics, female genital mutilation, bickering gods, the adventures of a dimwit with a huge penis, crucified dragons, lots of explosions, and quite a few genocides.

>>22223329
Alone against tomorrow

>>22223418
Oh both those stories are in that book, thanks.

22221825
These are the posters complaining about demanding and enforcing discussion while faffing over the same stories.
>>22222840
Yes, progression happens. That's the meditation arc, right? The plot is about to heat up.

>>22222444
Did you read the first part (like 5 texts I think) or all of it? I'm currently reading the second half. Definitly not as good

Is Leviathan Wakes any good?

>>22223603 Yes.

>>22223571
I read the entire thing, second part is not as good but it's short so it's fine

>>22223603
The entire series is worth reading too, if you end up liking Leviathan Wakes

>>22222437
>a quality story about people taking the piss out of monks who try to achieve “enlightenment” and about strength being conferred by a higher power
Bakker's Second Apocalypse

Bakker is king
>Cnaiür screamed. “Show me your mighty warriors!” His limbs fevered by all-conquering hatred, he cut them down, weak and strong alike, fighting like one mad with heartbreak, hacking shields until arms were broken, pounding figures until they stumbled and spouted plumes of blood. The advancing ranks engulfed them, but still Cnaiür and his Utemot killed and killed, until the turf beneath their feet became bloody muck, treacherous with corpses. The Nansur relented, scrambled back several paces, gaping at the Utemot chieftain. Sheathing his broadsword, Cnaiür vaulted the bodies heaped before him. He caught a wounded straggler by the throat, crushed his windpipe. Roaring, he heaved the thrashing man above his head. “I am the reaver!” he cried. “The measure of all men!” He sent the body crashing at their feet. “Is there no cock among you?” He spat, then laughed at their astonished silence. “All cunts, then.” He shook the blood from his mane, raised his broadsword anew.
The greatest fantasy writer since tolkien
>And he thought of Proyas. On the worst nights he hugged himself in the blackness of his tent, screaming and sobbing. He beat the earth with his fists, stabbed holes with his knife, then fucked them. He cursed the world. He cursed the heavens. He cursed Anasûrimbor Moënghus and his monstrous son. He thought, So be it. On the best nights he made no camp at all, but instead rode to the nearest Shigeki village, where he would kick in doors and glory in screams. On a whim, he avoided those doors marked with what he imagined was lamb’s blood. But when he found all the doors so marked, he ceased to discriminate. “Murder me!” he would roar at them. “Murder me and it stops!” Bawling men. Shrieking girls and silent women. He would take what compensation he could.

>>22223904
>Bakker is king
>her erection
>my son

>>22223731
I guess you are right

>>22223295
Meh prose, samey sounding characters, pov shifts, everyone and their left nut being a super special flavour of god (apart from the 100% normal dudes who are inexplicably still relevant to the plot despite the mariana trench sized gaps of strength and lifespan).

Wheel of time unironically reads better, and has better plot and characters. It also is better at depicting large scale events without it becoming nonsense.

>>22223944
You're coping lil bro.
>A cut scarred where a caress faded away. In this simple fact lay the tragic and catastrophic truth of the Nonmen. Mekeritrig had lived a hundred lifetimes—more! What would it be like, Achamian wondered, to have every redeeming memory—be it a lover’s touch or a child’s warm squeal—blotted out by the accumulation of anguish, terror, and hate? To understand the soul of a Nonman, the philosopher Gotagga had once written, one need only bare the back of an old and arrogant slave. Scars. Scars upon scars. This was what made them mad. All of them.
Bakker is king.

>>22223898
>>22223904
>>22224042
stop shitposting

I have Robert Heinlein on my sci-fi list but I forget what books of his I was interested in. I had started Methuselah's Children and thought the concept was interesting but I got bored pretty quickly.

>>22219914
I guess what I meant to ask is what am I in for with these picks?

Would you read something with a pacifist protagonist like Trigun?

>>22224124
Only if it has correction sex.

what are some good light novels to read?
im not a weeb or anything i just dont like reading
im not interested in anime shit

Recommend me some books like Mother of Learning.

>>22224124
Already did.

>>22224124
Somebody genuinely pacifistic to almost a fault, where even a single life taken by them, even if absolutely necessary, absolutely tears them apart because it is so against their ideals? Sure.
I'd read Batman.

>>22224124
No, pacifism is a monumentally retarded ideaology.

>>22224395
How many white women have you raped?

>>22224425
Why is it so hot doing this?

Publishing houses are shit these days, and self published authors can't even do it anymore. Stuart Grosse had to drop his series because of the censors.

I didn't expect much, but MY GOD! I got a motherless motherfucking simp! Dude goes all out simping... God Damn! I was thinking of reading Tarzan next, but I'll probably read Tarzan wrestling with a leopard once and then soften like jelly for some bitch Jane....

When is this faggot going to release the audiobook?

>>22224441
Classic southern gentleman John Carter is the masculine ideal. Touch grass.

My spaghetti is gonna spill guys

>>22224520
>AIslop

>>22224590
>implying he doesn't want the gobbo

>>22219169
Not a fan of super OP all knowing protags, personally.

>>22221825
>is Black Company any good?
Yes.
Though I only read the first book.
It was fantastic, though. Great characters, good pacing, interesting plot and scenario.

>>22220331
>>22223904
>>22224042
None of these are doing it for me. It's just cynic wank and melee porn, tasteless and boring. If these are bad parts picked out by an edgy teen with bad taste and the rest is better I'll still read it, but if this is by and large what Bakker's like I'm gonna pass.

>>22224743
It's definitely representative of bakker. He's basically a combination of pretentious edginess and /r/atheism with a fixation on gay rape.

>>22222341
I read it for her


I got bored

>>22221825
I read the entire first trilogy and it was excellent. Although, I didn't continue onto the second trilogy as I was never able to find a print copy.

>>22220331
>no tumescent phalluses
>no black alien seed
>no scents of mens' honeyed anuses
>no gay rape cannibal holocaust

feels like you're kinda burying the lede there for the cautious/nonreaders

>>22220629
welcome to peter f. hamilton, sadly.

tbf, i haven't read his greg mandel series, but reading the commonwealth saga (starts with pandora's star) and the night's dawn trilogy are akin to being blasted with a firehose when all you wanted was a glass of water.

>>22223373
it really is good, honestly

>>22224989
>the night's dawn trilogy
Nooo, that was next on my tbr pile. I guess i'll have to go back to David Brin anda Lois Mcmaster Bujold's space operas

Bakker is king? Heh, yeah... king of nothing!

Did you like Stephen King's Fairy Tale?

>>22223904
THE MEASURE IS UNCEASING

>>22218527
I’m about halfway through the White Luck Warrior and nothing has happened since the scalpers escaped Moria and Yatwer revealed herself to Sorweel at the end of book one. Please don’t tell me it takes everyone another 2.5 books to reach Golgotterath and Sauglish. This is the weakest SA book by far. It gets better, right?

>See this recommended in the Dying Earth infographic
>Several posters claim that this book either equals or even surpasses Wolfe's Solar Cycle
>200 pages in
>?????????????
Have I been trolled? Is this an /sffg/ inside joke? This legit reads like a children's book, like something fit for a 5th grader. Is it actually a children's book that is sort of grandfathered in with proper sci-fi? The setting is just nondescript high fantasy with nonsensical weirdness for the sake of it, there's no sense of awe or discovery when the story moves from one set-piece to another. There's no meaningful development or evolution to the story or the characters, no philosophical dynamics at all, which makes comparisons to Wolfe all the more ridiculous.

Seriously, what's the appeal??

>>22220331
>>22223904
>>22224042
> “Even still, after all this time, he could remember her hand that first night, like ice stroking his baffled fire. That first night …
>Sweet Sejenus, but he was hard—so pulsing hard!
>He set down his bowl and turned to her. Suddenly he found himself pressing her back toward his canopied bed. She didn’t melt into compliance beneath his clasp, like a slave might, but neither did she resist. She smelled young … Tonight would be a night of desserts!
>“Please, Mother,” he heard himself murmuring. “It’s been so long. I’ve been so lonely … Only you, Mother. Only you understand.”
>He laid her across the great Black Sun embroidered into his coverings. His hands trembled as he fussed with her gowns. His groin throbbed so sweetly he feared he might soil his robes.
>“You do love me,” he gasped. “You do love …”
>Her painted eyes had become drowsy, delirious. Her flat chest heaved beneath the fabric. Somehow he could see through the skein of wrinkles that made a mask of her face, down to the serpentine truth of her beauty. Somehow he could see the woman who had driven his father mad with jealousy, who had shown her son the ecstasy of secrets bundled between sheets.
>“My sweet son,” she gasped. “My sweet …”
>His fingers and palm found warm skin. His heart became a thunderclap. He ran his hand along her calves, which she shaved in the fashion of the Ainoni, then across her still-smooth thighs. Could it be? He clutched at her groin, squeezed the haft of her erection—”
Bravo Bakker

If I wanted a "ground and realistic" world, do I have to use English names? Right now I'm trying with old dutch or gaelic names, but everything sounds fucking weird

>>22225691
Anon, I might be breaking it in a bit too hard, but you have to finally accept it.

Yes, they are pretty much children's books - fun pulp, to be more precise. Nobody ever pretended otherwise. Thing is - Wolfe's Solar Cycle is ALSO nothing more than fun pulp, on one hand more derivative, but on the other hand - somewhat better written. They are chock full of weirdness for the sake of it, there's no meaningful development or evolution to the story or the characters, no philosophical dynamics. They are just good at appearing like there's all of those things there, which is a part of the dying earth aesthetic, and you bought into it a bit too hard.

Your feeling of awe or discovery is entirely your own fascination with the novelty of the dying earth genre. For people who read Vance before Wolfe, it is usually the opposite.

You need to stop being afraid of liking a book for it's entertainment value and finally accept that the Solar Cycle is not a hidden philosophical treatise and instead it's just an entertaining page-turner for nerdy YAs.

>>22225773
>Solar Cycle is not a hidden philosophical treatise
>They are chock full of weirdness for the sake of it, there's no meaningful development or evolution to the story or the characters, no philosophical dynamics
>no u
Brianlet cope

>>22225700
What was the skin-spy's plan here?

>>22225691
gr8 b8 m8

>>22225780
Dear anon, you are the coping brainlet here, because you think anonymous people on a Thraxian destrier-breeding forum will brand you a midwit for enjoying a book that does does not require 500 IQ to grok, and it scares you - so you cope by forcing yourself to read esoteric bullshit written by legit clinical schizos so that nobody might accuse you of being a pleb. But finally, among books of modest popularity, you found one that you actually enjoy. Certainly, it cannot be because of it's nice prose and entertaining scenes - it has to be the intellectual challenge and complex spiritual journey presented by the gigabrain Pringles Man.

Only it's not. It's a well written pulp book, and you liked it because you actually have a preference for well written pulp, like most people who read. You can accept it, or you can keep coping and creating Wolfe threads were you don't actually discuss anything at all because everything that you pretend to see in the books is not actually there, while what is there is too plebian for you to discuss.

I'm 10% in and this is pretty good.

>>22225773
>there's no meaningful development or evolution to the story or the characters, no philosophical dynamics.
I can no longer tell the difference between bait and the /sffg/ contrarianism.

>>22225800
Never mind, I see it’s another contrarian

>>22226002
Please describe the philosophical dynamics unfolding in the Book of the New Sun.

>>22225679
It was supposed to be a trilogy but there wasn't enough time to complete the editing so it became four books. There's a good 1000 pages of filler that could be ripped out without you even noticing.

>>22225762
If you are trying to write a realistic story set in the area where those names were used, then obviously yes. Go with shorter names if they sound unwieldy.

i think I'm going to start The Culture

>threadly vance/wolfe circlejerk

>>22226381
You'll love it if you're a fan of liberal interventionism.

>>22225691
>t. too dumb and pretentious for vignettes

>Wolfe fanboy filtered by vance of all people
Lmao
You know Wolfe was a huge fan of vancre, right?

>>22226584
Good thing he was also a markedly better writer than Vance and produced something truly worthwhile, creating one of the best utilizations of literature as an art form.

>How am I supposed to read this? It doesn't have hamfisted Christianity allegories!

I love Christian themes in my fantasy.

>>22225782
to kill him?

>>22225773
>Solar Cycle is not a hidden philosophical treatise
it kinda is tho, nigga

>>22226676
Read traitor son

>>22224743
The fighting parts are from the pov of a Conan deconstruction. The third one about scars is a good example of how he writes - though again the mention of a philosopher is because of the pov.

This is a better example of how fight scenes are handled:

Crying “Glory to the God!” Athjeäri and his thanes broke ranks, crouching forward on their mounts, slowly dipping their lances. More Houses abandoned the line and pounded toward the Kianene: Wanhail, Anfirig, Werijen Greatheart, and then old Gothyelk himself, bellowing, “Heaven wills it!” Like an avalanche, House after House followed, until almost all the mail-clad might of the Middle-North cantered out to greet their foe. “There!” footmen on the line would cry, glimpsing the Red Lion of Saubon or the Black Stag of Gothyelk and his sons.

From a trot the massive warhorses were urged to a slow gallop. Nesting thrushes took flight, burst slapping into the sky. Everything became breath and iron, the rumble of brothers before, behind, and to the side. Then, like a cloud of locusts, arrows swept among them. There was a hellish racket punctuated by screaming horses and astonished shouts. Warhorses toppled and thrashed, yanking knights to the ground, breaking backs, crushing legs.

Then the madness fell away. Once again it was the pure thunder of the charge. The strange camaraderie of men bent to a single, fatal purpose. Hummocks, scrub, and the bones of the Vulgar Holy War’s dead rushed beneath. The wind bled through chain links, tousled Thunyeri braids and Tydonni crests. Bright banners slapped against the sky. The heathen, wicked and foul, drew closer, ever closer. One last storm of arrows, these ones almost horizontal to the ground, punching against shield and armour. Some were struck from their saddles. Tongue tips were bitten off in the concussion of the fall. The unhorsed arched across the turf, screamed and swatted at the sky. Wounded mounts danced in frothing circles nearby. The rest thundered on, over grasses, through patches of blooming milkwort waving in the wind. They couched their lances, twenty thousand men draped in great mail hauberks over thick felt, with coifs across their faces and helms that swept down to their cheeks, riding chargers caparisoned in mail or iron plates. The fear dissolved into drunken speed, into the momentum, became so mingled with exhilaration as to be indistinguishable from it. They were addicted to the charge, the Men of the Tusk. Everything focused into the glittering tip of a lance. The target nearer, nearer …

The rumble of hooves and drums drowned their kinsmen’s song. They crashed through a thin screen of sumac … Saw eyes whiten in sudden terror.

Then impact. The jarring splinter of wood as lances speared through shield, through armour. Suddenly the ground became still and solid beneath them, and the air rang with wails and shouts.

Dying Earth sucks but the Lyonesse trilogy is purest kino.

Maybe the originnal rabid anti Wolfe poster was right in his depiction of Wolfe fanboys as dumb zoomers who attack the very material that Wolfe drew inspiration from
Wolfe is a brilliant author but his writings aren't "creating one of the best utilizations of literature as an art form." you out yourself as an illiterate who doesn't read anything but genre fiction if you make that statement, and you're not really a fan of the dying earth genre if you think vance is bad

>drowning amidst the bakker/wolfe/vance spam
I am nonhappily floating in Carl's river. I should get to it and finish the damn book but I am keeping it slow and tasty still in part 1.

>>22225773
Deluded midwit or ingenious attention whore? We may never know.

>>22226872
Happy to take this spam, since I like all three, then the constant ai chink RPG shit we have been getting the past dozen threads

>>22224981
This is the reason I won’t read Bakker. It’s a shame really, because his prose is excellent.

Whomever was the fagget to post this, thanks. It turned out fun. It's like paranoid mage but with a coomer and not a schizo. Starting book two soon.

>>22227277
You won't read it because there's alien rape monsters in it? but that's the best part and they are barely in it.

>>22224981
someone post a full excerpt of the mens' honeyed anuses bit

>>22226643
>mate Cugel comes across *ANOTHER* wizard and eats his magical bug the absolute madman hahaha
>>22226854
>you're not really a fan of the dying earth genre
I am a fan of well written novels like pic related, and not glorified children's books for mental retards that were literally grandfathered into being considered good
>his writings aren't "creating one of the best utilizations of literature as an art form." you out yourself as an illiterate who doesn't read anything but genre fiction if you make that statement
Very few authors have ever made the concept of reading and the way reading works so essential to actually consuming the story. Wolfe is the American Borges.

You are a posturing pseud.

>>22227487
I seriously thought this was a /lit/ joke about his writing until I reached the scene in the book, I couldn't stop laughing for a solid 10 minutes

>>22227487
>A wind had dropped into the silence, and the scent of the onlookers filled his nostrils: the bitter of rotting teeth, the ink of armpits, the honey of unwashed anuses.

>>22227567
So really, you're just mad about the title.

22226995
The general is surely graced by your black/white vision.

>>22225534
I read it, it had some tense moments like when the MC was about the enter the city
the whole atmosphere surrounding the city and the castle was horrifying
but it wasn't very well executed I didn't like the slow start which took up nearly 1/3 of the book and then the jail part happened
it was an interesting read but underwhelming overall

https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/dun/tago/tago13.htm
Dunsany is king.

I just grabbed one of the original fantasy books, what am I in for?

>>22227986
Read the prequel first so you can weigh in on the same author debate.

>>22227986
Also who the fuck is Emily Wilson

>>22228032
What's the prequel called?

>>22228049
The Greek Awakens

>>22227484
No. I won’t read it because it’s so needlessly edgy that it reaches the point of being gratuitous and weirdly masturbatory. After all the strange excerpts that I’ve read from Bakker‘a work, I genuinely fear for the man’s psyche. I probably wouldn’t want to be alone in a room with him, and I certainly wouldn’t let him anywhere near young children.

>>22228032
You mean the Illiad? Already did

>>22228066
Yes, then go for it. It's quite different - more "fictional", more Hollywood, with arcs and tentpole scenes. And cucking. Not to say it's bad - it's that stuff when it was fun. A Ray Harryhausen Iliad.

>>22227567
>Wolfe fan calling anyone else a pseud
Lmao
BOTNS is good but it is genre fiction. Wolfe is not the greatest author in the world, BOTNS is not particularly challenging, it is a tropey well written series with some unique elements. You're a zoomer filtered by vance
>anyone who reads vance is a retard
OK so by your standards Wolfe is a retard so he greatly enjoyed and was inspired by vances work
Read some actual literature for once and stop lambasting the authors your favorite author loved
Retard
Filtered

>>22228182
Wolfe surpassed Proust.

>>22228192
Filtered by vance

>>22228161
Sounds like fun
Still wondering why Minoans are on the cover, they were mostly forgotten by Homers time.

>>22225700
Based, we need more books with horny moms.

Are there any books/series similar to the Fable games?

>>22228293
One good one followed by two over promised disappointments?

>>22228310
For once I wish I could ask this question somewhere without people bitching about this.
Yes, we're all aware how much the other games let you down. It's been nearly 15 years. Get over it.

>>22226995
>the constant ai chink RPG shit we have been getting the past dozen threads
It's been far, far more than just the past dozen threads...

>>22228293
In what sense? The sort of vaguely bawdy British humourous overtones? Ribbing at fantasy but still playing it out?

>>22228293
Maybe eventually anons will stop asking for stories that are similar when they finally understand that the two mediums have entirely different approaches to narratives and that they aren't really all that comparable.

Even novelizationa of games aren't all that similar and draw a lot of complaints.

>>22228393
If that is what anon is looking for, you pretty much just described Terry Pratchett

Infinite Realm #1: Monsters and Legends by Ivan Kal

[Story]

Ryun and Zach were best friends before the Framework came to Earth... 10 years later Ryun has all but destroyed the world and Zach has amassed the last 9 souls on the planet to end him for what he's done, minutes before they're due to ascend. As the last living humans fall around him Zach is able to cut Ryun off from his cultivation, leaving them both at their weakest as they move into the Infinite Realm; a flat plane with a developed core and wild lands that truly extend into infinity.

With Zach and Ryun separated for the safety of other mortals in their Iteration, they struggle to find their bearing in this new reality.

[Progression Mechanics]

The Framework is a combination of 3 systems: Classes, Cultivation, and Skills. When first introduced to the Framework you are set before The Dealmaker, who takes a measure of your life experiences before converting it into a value called 'essence'. With this essence you are able to purchase items, armor, weapons, even classes. Whenever one enters The Dealmaker's realm, their inhibitions are muted and they are driven to make choices to their truest nature. You can even gamble, one of the MC's betting his life in exchange for a powerful path.

Anyone within the Framework can possess 1 Class, 1 cultivation Path, 3 active skills, and 3 passive skills. You can explore all 3 with enough essence, though all major Rankers focus on 2 of the 3. Classes are structured, molding you in that classes image even down to your ideals as you level. Cultivation strengthens the person's body and spirit. Both are capable of learning 3 unique techniques, though Cultivation includes combat and breathing forms.

Essence becomes a staple of the universe, acting as ambient mana and currency on this post-Framework Earth. You can gather this by killing monsters, cycling (if you're a cultivator), or completing quests. To level up a class you need to invest a certain amount of essence into it. This amount is negligible for people with a Class while Cultivators will see themselves spending hundreds of thousands of essence to expand their core before breaking through to the next stage.

Leveling up brings perks and bonuses, as do achievements. There's more here, very ROBUST system, but this covers most of it.

[Characters]

Ryun Nacht is our primary focus, with a bulk of chapters focusing on his point of view. At first an aimless and emotionally stunted college student, being introduced to the Framework represented a new start for him. To the point that he and Zach butted heads initially due to him treating life and death like a 'game'. It's heavily implied though not outright stated that Ryun has a form of Asperger's and struggles to connect with people... which makes him perfect for the isolating lifestyle of Cultivation. After gambling with The Dealmaker and earning the Path of the Final End, Ryun relies on Zach to carry him as he develops his Foundation.

>>22228467

After the 10 year time skip, Ryun is a vastly different person. Known as the monster who ended the world, he's responsible for taking the souls and essence of every surviving human being on Earth before they transitioned to the Infinite Realm. This has allowed him to cultivate into the early Lord realm, distinguishing him as the most powerful entity on Earth and well ahead of where he should be upon entering the Infinite Realm. He received this power by painstakingly hunting down every monster on earth and consuming their essence, Reaving it from their flesh and inhaling it. At the end Ryun is something like a vampire, completely absent a soul.

Except something in the Infinite Realm stirs him. Witnessing the same injustices in the Realm as on Earth, he's compelled to act when a Sect Leader attempts to kill a defenseless woman and child before his eyes. As the story develops, we learn what made Ryun the monster he is and if there's a chance for a monster to change.

Zach Gardner was Ryun's best friend and the most powerful Classer on the planet Earth, becoming the defender of humanity and final bulwark against the darkness Ryun represented. At the end of the world he had sacrificed everything to learn a skill called the 'Sealing Slash', which cut Ryun off from his Cultivation. It barely wounded the man... only for them both to be teleported away from each other before he could act again. Still seeking revenge against 'the monster', Zach is quick in his attempts to find civilization and join up with the Realm's 'Law'. Their information network seems to be the best way to find the bastard.

[Final Thoughts]

There was a lot turning me off to this book at first, including the Reverend Insanity-like opening and a few other areas that I found derivative of other series. It wasn't until about 1/3 through the book that it finally hooked me, providing some characters that were less experienced with the system and having OP characters like Zach and Ryun contribute something to their growth while receiving information about their new world in return. The book flips between the past and the present often and while its clumsy at first, the author finds a stride in it by using both viewpoints to inform the reader about events or occurrences in their specific timeframe. There's an interesting breakdown of Ryun as this... Chaotic Neutral and Zach as this Lawful Good and how both extremes can hurt people in horrifying ways. I like that they're both GUILTY except one doesn't quite realize what he was perpetrating yet.

The relationship writing is clumsy, as are some of the resolutions to plot threads in the book. Certain characters are left in the wind and again, as with all litRPG serial-likes, this one has poor final act pacing and doesn't know when to end.

8/10

>Currently Listening
Dissonance by Nicoli Gonnella

>Currently Reading
Fostering Faust by R. Darren

>>22228467
>>22228473
I'm also done with Human Emperor, which is another 'Dropped' in the Cultivation department. If I read the term 'wootz steel' or 'glorious Han' one more time I was going to fucking kill myself. I truly don't understand how reading something reiterated over 35 chapters is enjoyable in any language. The Chinese confuse the fuck out of me. Oh well, back to litRPG harems.

>Lord of the Mysteries by Cuttlefish – 9/10
>Dungeon Crawler Carl Series by Matt Dinniman - 9/10
>Cradle Series by Will Wight - 8/10
>Worth the Candle by Alex Wales - 8/10
>Infinite Realm by Ivan Kal - 8/10
>Mother of Learning Series - 8/10
>Ave Xia Rem Y by Mat Haz - 8/10
>All The Skills by Honour Rae - 7/10
>Iron Prince by Bryce O'Connor and Luke Chmilenko - 7/10
>Chrysalis by RinoZ - 7/10
>Forge of Destiny by Yrsillar - 7/10
>A Thousand Li by Tao Wong - 7/10
>Mark of the Fool by JM Clarke - 6.5/10
>Retribution Engine by Akaso - 6/10
>Beware of Chicken by Casualfarmer – 6/10
>Wandering Inn by Pirateaba - 6/10
>Virtuous Sons by Ya Boy - 6/10 (Re-Reading)
>Bastion by Phil Tucker - 6/10
>The Primal Hunter by Zogarth - 6/10
>Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe - 6/10
>Reverend Insanity by Gu Zhen Ren - 6/10
>Heaven's Laws by Apollos Thorne - 6/10
>Battle Mage Farmer by Seth Ring - 5/10
>I Shall Seal The Heavens by Er Gen - 5/10
>Soulhome by Sarah Lin - 5/10
>Soulship by Nathan Thompson - 4/10
>Azarinth Healer by Rhaegar - 3/10
>Reincarnation: Threads by Michael Head - 3/10
>Paladin of the Sword by Marvin Knight - 2/10
>Portal to Nova Roma by JR Mathews - Dropped
>>The Human Emperor by Huangfu Qi - Dropped
>He Who Fights Monsters by Shirtaloon - Dropped
>Coiling Dragon by Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi - Dropped
>The Elevation Chronicles by Captain Capslock - Dropped
>Last Ship in Suzhou by Lungs - Dropped
>Defiance of the Fall by J.F. Brink - Dropped

>Still Reading (Cultivation)
20. Way of Choices

>Still Reading (LitRPG)
18. Dissonance
19. Re-Start #1
20. Fostering Faust

And that's it. How are you? We're almost done with our excursion.

>>22218909
>next to zero information about the actual plot or storyline or thoughts of specific moments
>>22228473
>complete summarization of the entire story

The duality of reviewers.

>>22228473
Surprised you rank it that high after largely being negative in the review itself. I agree it's a clumsily-written series in many ways (it improves somewhat in later books but not really all that much). Also, the books sort of flip-flop between Ryun and Zach as the focal character for a good while, though eventually it just seems to be "whoever's more interesting to follow right now".
Zach takes a while to get going, but I like him for being just incredibly straightforwardly moral in comparison to Ryun's incredibly complex 'ethics' he has going on. Ryun himself also starts to grate on me sometimes because I feel like he's constantly 'rewarded' for being just kind of a shithead sometimes.

>>22228497
Despite my gripes there's definitely something THERE when it comes to the system and character writing. I feel like the past's pay-offs are lackluster but I do enjoy the development of the system and the characters they've introduced. If I had budgeted for more space, I would've added Anrush into the Characters section as she's just as important as Zach in this first book. The combat writing is pedestrian but the setup and execution of techniques is enjoyable as is the way the system itself is presented. Might just be that I recognize things that I like (seems like there's some Cradle in here, other series I like) but we'll see.

I picked up the 2nd book, plan to get at it when I finish this challenge. Want to see where the author goes with it, 3rd book tournament arc aside.

>>22228509
Yeah, it's... It's a book that's clearly written with a genuine passion and there's some good stuff there, the characters are generally clearly defined to an extent, albeit it does sort of make the non-important ones stand out a lot more for how bland they feel.
What were your thoughts on the intermission chapters that mostly exist to showcase other big players? Or is that only in the second book, I can't remember.

>>22228515
Passion is a good word for it. It's far from perfect but he's fully vesting in it, which I can appreciate.

They showcase a few of the High Rankers, only the Phoenix and the Wandering Drake sticking out in my head. I think the Phoenix was far more interesting because of whatever story they're setting up with Tali (the old woman teaching Ryun). Didn't care for the Drake, seemed like it was setting up a blowhard mentor type for Zach if I had to guess.

>>22228519
Ah, the Drake is honestly one of my favourite characters. He's just kind of a guy living his best life.

>>22228467
>>22228473
>>22228483
Your """reviews""" are SHIT
FUCK OFF

>>22228220
because sex sells and minoan women are known for walking about with their big juicy titties hanging out. homer was ahead of his time.

>>22228488
I don't like putting spoilers, which is what I'd have to do if I talked about specifics. Yes, I know anons regularly talk about complete spoilers for books and discuss, but I don't want to. When I'm discussing it'd usually take several posts and there wouldn't be any response anyway unless it's a very popular book, so it doesn't really matter. Also, the further ones goes into a series a reader already knows. The question again is always "who is this being written for?". I usually don't write anything for those who've already read it. Writing about specifics takes a lot of space as well and if I limit myself to a single post that means I'd have to exclude a lot else. These ones in particular are shorter than usual by comparison as a compromise to not writing anything at all.

>>22228509
It's kind of like you'll follow the dog who's caught the scent. You can sense when the writer is on the trail of something with his story and you want to join in even when parts of it are objectively sub-par. Whatever is happening, the author can carry you along just by believing in the future of his own work.

I want to write a Sci-fi (Mostly Science Fantasy due to Cosmic Horror) but I fucking despise sci-fi worldbuilding. How do i approach it in a way that doesn't burn out the creative wellspring while still getting it out of the way (In4b tough it out.)

>>22225804

Swanwick is a bit hit and miss with his novels but his short fiction is pure fucking gold. If you like TIDD you should consider one of his anthologies next.

>>22228598
If you hate sci-fi why do you want to write sci-fi?

>>22228598
Planetary Romance is the pinnacle of science fiction. If you can't come up with a compelling, original stellar system with interesting celestial bodies, topology, orbital dynamics, politics, and socioeconomics in a way that has never been done before you can't write sci fi. Simple as.

>>22228609
I dont hate sci-fi, I like the specicative aspects (Transhumanism, Artifical Intelligence, Intersteller Travel.. yada yada) However I find the worldbuilding boring/nightmarishly huge. Also the scale of which you have to worldbuild being on fucking intersteller scales for space opera is really intimidating.

>>22228670

Imagine Tolkien whining about how hard it was to invent imaginary languages. You're not a writer and never will be.

>>22228670
If you're already going with sci-fantasy, just make shit up

>>22228682
Whatever mate, just trying to gather some tips

>>22228598
>>22228670
>I hate worldbuilding
Then don't worldbuild.

Would you?

>>22228291
>horny moms
Anon...I...

Can someone please give me a straight answer on whether Malazan is worthwhile or not?

>>22228773
That isn't possible. Only you can can decide for yourself. Others can tell you what they thought of it and a consensus can be provide, but you are you, not someone else. If you're willing to believe whatever a single arbitrary anon tells you, then that's a decision as well, but that doesn't mean it resolves it for you. If you simply want someone to confirm that you shouldn't read it, then I can do that. No, you have too many doubts about it. Look elsewhere for something you believe you will more likely enjoy.

>>22228699
Yes. I trust that it's intelligent enough to know whether the drink is poisonous to me, so it's likely okay to drink and beneficial for my health or something.

>>22228769
>37L daily production
>42L is about the average water content of adult males
This bitch's prostate alone is producing an almost fully grown man every single day

>>22226728
>it kinda is tho, nigga
In the same way that A Scanner Darkly is.

>>22228182
Truth.

>>22228773
No, because any book series with more than 4 books is almost always not worth it. Read standalone books instead. 1995's The Mask of the Sorcerer should do the trick

>>22228773
It is extremely unlikely for you to find it worthwhile because it is hueg and each individual book is at best meh even according to the fans of the series - for it to be worthwhile, you gotta read all of it and appreciate the whole thing for it's scale as an autistic project.

>>22218428
Banks is always a safe bet. "Matter" is especially good in my opinion.

>>22227277
His prose is so purple it's fucking indigo.

>>22228192
Did he surpass Bakker tho?

>>22228915
Scanner Darkly is easily PKD's best and most well-written novel, so I don't know what sort of point are you even making here

>>22228467
wasn't this some homosexual novel?

>has a form of Asperger's
oh dear...

>>22227986
Read Lattimore's Iliad first bro

>>22228049
The Iliad (we are not sure, though, if they really shared the same author)

>>22228488
The first way is the correct way if you aren't doing a full spoiler review.
>>22228467
This person's reviews unironically are shit. There three time longer than they need to be while the bulk of it is only relevant to turbo-autists who would probably read the series anyways with a basic recommendation.

>>22228939
Wolfe is good but Bakker is KING
>You know nothing of war. War is dark. Black as pitch. It is not a God. It does not laugh or weep. It rewards neither skill nor daring. It is not a trial of souls, not the measure of wills. Even less is it a tool, a means to some womanish end. It is merely the place where the iron bones of the earth meet the hollow bones of men and break them.

>>22229177
This image always makes me chuckle, especially the Wracu

>>22229004
>Scanner Darkly is easily PKD's best and most well-written novel
Yes. Exactly It's wonderful, it's enjoyable, I love it, and it has some examination of several psychological and philosophical issues.

It is also, not an a hidden philosophical treatise. It's a book about a drug addict losing what remains of his life. Same with the BotNS - it's great and I love it, but it's a book about an awkward fellow traveling around a weird world and falling into an inter-dimensional conspiracy without realizing it. It also touches on several philosophical issues, but they are merely aesthetic instruments for characterization and scene-building, not the core of the work. Which is not bad - the opposite, actually, because good genre books are ultimately better than good philosophical treatises. So I am completely mystified by the efforts to present the Solar Cycle as something which is not only different, but arguably worse than what it plainly is.

>so I don't know what sort of point are you even making here
What mind-broken pseud level one has to attain in order think that "X is not a deep philosophical treatise" is a criticism that implies that something is bad and poorly written?
>"X is not a philosophical treatise"
>"Yes it is"
>"Only if about as much as Y"
>"But Y is good and well-written, so obviously it is a philosophical treatise"
Just how far up your own asshole are you hiding your head?

They are playing 2001: A Space Odyssey at a theater near me soon and so I've been reading the book for the first time. I think it's great - how are the book sequels?

>>22227567
It's not good bait anymore when you have to keep trying this hard. I'm starting to think you might be serious.

>>22223156
Which is why I asked.

>>22228065
What's wrong with zoomers? Why do they all act like a slightly edgy story can only be written by a deranged unmedicated serial killer who hunts and kills all the people who read his work? Newsflash, it's a book, it can't hurt you.

>>22228598
Don't explain shit or exposit unless/until it directly comes up. Go full flash gordon or original series trek. Spacemen in a spaceship fly around and there's aliens and magic and shit.
Just make shit up as you go, keep it fresh.

>>22230215
That's a strawman, dumbarse.

>>22230256
You're a strawman.

>>22230215
this. I think it's because they are such weak faggots now, they can't even read mark twain in front of a class with fear of saying nigger

>>22230241
Technobabble in a book would have to be consistent, and that's worldbuilding. The better approach for pulp would be be to just focus on what technology does and not the how. I think.

>>22230307
The ultimate peak of science is just magic. No one talks about how cellphones work, only what they do.
99% of all scifi tech either has a directly obvious utility or is part of the infrastructure to support the thing that has direct obvious utility. Asimov wrote several entire series about sentient robots without even the slightest clue how such a thing could function beyond basic logic.

https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/pu64ia/john_c_wright_jrs_count_to_a_trillion/

The outline of my ASOIAF clone

>>22228473
>Currently Listening
>Dissonance by Nicoli Gonnella
That better be a 3/10.

>>22228545
Exactly this.

>>22229005
Nothing homosexual yet, playing it pretty hetero... Ryun does seem interested in a newly widowed single mother while Zach is too high on JUSTICE to catch any tail.

>>22229150
I've tried short form, single post reviews before and people wanted the turbo-autism back. I would personally consider what I do an ANALYSIS of the genre(s) in addition to a review but it is what it is. Sorry peanut.

>>22230792
My eyes are already glossing over since its so similar to Azarinth Healer and Primal Hunter. We'll see though, so far its dull.

>>22228924
Wrong. Each book of Malazan is extremely self-contained and centered around it's own literary themes.

why do I constantly need breaks reading this? am I retarded? I can read most 19th and 20th century lit fine but this one is just something I have never read before
I can finish some books in a few days but this one I've had for months and yet I'm in the chapter The Burning

>>22230953
It's poorly written.

>>22230953
I'm the same with this very same book, I've put it down twice now and in the meantime read 2 other books, debating either trying again or admitting it's not for me.

https://i.4cdn.org/wsg/1688656161746777.webm

I don't know where to vent so I guess I'll do it here, I haven't kept up with warhammer at all and damn they made it gay as hell. The final point of all the warhammer 40000 stories was that in M41.999 the adeptus mechanicus discover a fault on the golden throne they cannot repair. And that's it. Humanity dies.

All the hobby was about pointlessness. All that silly shit and goofy box tanks and roided gene enhanced bucket wearing tard armies humanity uses to desperately stave off the inevitable finally ends in humans losing the ability to travel between planets and we go extinct presumably in a few centuries.

Now it's just silly shit with robot girlyman saving the day and humanity becoming more efficient and stronger. It's terrible. Now all that silly shit is in service of a happy ending. It feels cheap and all the grimdark now feels fake. Feels american, of you know what I mean. Feels like Disney Warhammer or whatever.

>>22231189
good HFY fags only deserve to suffer

>>22228473
This book is garbage, you are genuinely retarded if you liked it.
I can understand some people liking some books and not liking others but there is a separate category of trash, this book falls under that category. You always write these shitty reviews, I thought were are a snob, but this is 4chan I never really paid much attention to it, but if you liked this then your mental capacity is that of child, you don't even qualify to be a snob, you should not even be here, in fact you should not be allowed unsupervised computer use. I now realize that your opinions, your reviews, rating are complete and absolute garbage, trash. Everything you posted before goes into the fucking garbage. If you consider there to be good posters, bad posters, shitposters, oldfags, newfags, trolls and so on, then these people still contribute to the discourse in some way, but your opinion is so fucking low energy, so fucking pedestrian that you even find some shitty graffiti on the wall scribbled by a 6 year old to be worthy of your 40 paragraph pretentious review.

>>22231345

I cant stop thinking about Girl's last tour. It fucked me up.

>>22231189
You seem to place far too much emphasis on what you see as an extrapolated ending. As far as I can tell you're looking for ways to upset yourself intentionally. Perhaps you ought to look into the history.
https://pariedolia.weebly.com/nimh/oldhammer-lit-101

>>22231499
That's manga and /a/, but I understand. I know others who were very bitter about the ending, but why you have expected anything else? It was obvious from the beginning that it was going to be a depressing series with a bad end. It's not that uncommon of an ending really. I could name various others.

>>22231521
It is not about the ending, I expected that and I think it is perfect. I just wasn't expecting it to be so good. It is probably one of the best works about how we assign meaning to things.

>>22231345
It's over anon. You have to arm yourself. You have to fight back. They'll never let you live a happy life and let you lose your virginity. You have to make it (((their))) problem now.

>>22231345
Now write one of these about our B*spammer shitting up the thread for going on four fucking years now.

>>22231345
You're not wrong but you're silly to be upset by tasteless mental 13yos posting in this thread when that's half of its userbase.

>>22228467
>>22228473
There is no way on earth a human typed this out.

>>22231562
>It is probably one of the best works about how we assign meaning to things.
The absolute state of /lit/

>>22231680
It is really good. Read it and think about it.

>>22231688
If I wanted to read nip shit, i would have been on /a/ not /lit/

>>22231688
You enjoyed being fucked up by it?

>>22231593
I laughed at bakker spammers so that's contribution

>>22231669
If they are 13 then they should shut the fuck up and do not post until they are 18 or atleast put some effort and pretend to be adult.

>pretend to be adult
wild how it's always an ESL child who spazzes out when people post things they don't like

>>22231758
How do you know that I am ESL?

Upcoming !SFFG.n1h7M write-ups
Next threads (1,2,3...)
1: Eye of the Bedlam Bride
2: The Artifice of Eternity
3: Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
4: Blade of Dream (delayed from April)
5: TBD

These Burning Stars is delayed until October. 5/5.

This was intentionally posted at this point in the thread.

>>22231747
Yeah

https://www.amazon.com/12-Miles-Below-Progression-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B0BWKDF1C7

This was actually really enjoyable. I know I could read the rest on RR, but I would rather have the properly edited version on KU. I can’t wait until the next one.

Has anyone else checked this out yet?

>>22232232
Description sounds interesting.
Is this sci fi progression?
Also given that it was initially published on RR, is it pozzed in any way?

>>22222444
Try Ra next. that one certainly takes a lot of left turns.

>>22232232
It says progression, but I saw reviews saying that it wasn't so.

>>22232257

Yep. Feeling of mystery, enjoyable characters, great dialogue, cool setting, and everything is paced really well. Makes you want to learn more about the world. Probably one of the best series on RR besides Mother of Learning. The world Building is top tier. I read it in nearly one sitting. It was that addicting.

Also I only found it because it was listed as the #1 new release for that category on Amazon lol

>>22232286

It’s definitely progression fantasy.

>>22232232
I don't know, but it's been posted about a lot recently. What could that mean?
>>/lit/?task=search&ghost=false&search_text=%2212+Miles+Below%22

>>22232232
There was an anon a few threads back who read a bunch of it.

>>22232326
>>22232326

But is it actually good?

>>22232364
That entirely depends on whether you'd believe the anon telling you either way.

>>22232468

I don’t care if it’s good or not. I’m just sick of hearing about 12 Miles Below in every thread.

Can anyone recommend me some scifi and fantasy which are beautifully written? So much of it seems formulaic, I want beautiful prose (pic related).

>>22231792
>pretend to be adult

>>22231671
I assure you that I pass the Voight-Kampff.

>>22219865
i saw between two fires on amazon and added it to my read later list because the cover had a skeleton on it
is it any good