/lit/ - Literature

Okay, so I loved Memory, Sorrow and Thorn and I'm still waiting for the last book of the Last King of Osten Ard to be released before I read that series. Are Tad Williams' other books as good? War of the Flowers, Otherland, Shadowmarch?

>>22548418
Otherland is his best work but it may also suffer the worst from his tendency to write looooong. If you can cope with that then definitely recommended.

>>22548445
I don't have a problem with getting more of what I like

>>22548396
I just finished Rememberence of Earth's Past. The last half of Death's End was wild.

Bakker is KING

>>22548418
You've probably gleaned this from MS&T, but he loves mythology and faerie tales, and all his books are heavily influenced by both. Otherland is a sci-fi series where most of what happens takes place in virtual reality, but it is no less heavily influenced by folklore, in this case Arthurian legends, Egyptian mythology, and even some strange African religions. Shadowmarch, meanwhile, takes very obvious influence from Greek mythology and Celtic (especially Irish) folklore and faerie stories. Shadowmarch is probably my favorite story by him out of everything he's written, untangling the mythology was some of the most fun I've ever had reading any fantasy series.

War of the Flowers is a stand alone novel featuring faeries of the European variety, I only read it once some time ago, and recall enjoying it, but off the top of my head couldn't say more than that.

i'm currently a third way through Litttle, Big and i got to say i'm getting a bit bored by it. i really enjoyed it at first, it has nice dreamy style and fantasy-like feeling and learning about the characters and their sheananigans is somewhat interesting but i haven't been hooked at all for a while now, so much so that i haven't read in more than a week. it's a long book too, now it feels like a chore to pick it up again and finish it

does it get better? i'm thinking about dropping it and starting something else, next on the list would probably be A Voyage to Arcturus

>>22548542
That mythology stuff sounds interesting. How come Tad isn't more talked about?

>>22548632
Because his words are poorly thought out, in shadowmarch book 1, the entire castle is under siege for most of the novel and movement in and out id the castle is non -existent. In book 2, the MC party somehow escapes the castle to a nearby island/cottage home for the royal family which has never been mentioned before and one of the mcs remembers all the good times she had there, to put they into perspective, her entire arc in the first book is 70-80% flashback, and not one she recalls this convenient island nearby when she has been cooped up in the castle for a very long period of time.

Williams's works also suffers from the main character syndrome, where the chosen one are very clearly marked by gods and their actions is baffling to everyone around them, I will go so far as to say that Williams is the original sanderson, that is why his works are not readily discsssed

>>22548677
But Sanderson is talked about incessantly

>>22548465
Please explain wtf happened in the end. Why was the big bad a tornado. And why was he screaming non in caps lock. Nothing made sense in the end. What the hell happened. I couldn't understand anything

>>22548707
He was screaming in caps because his voice was being broadcast by the hundred thousand sranc baying for blood, at the same time. The dunyain and the golden swarm are inhuman in a strikingly same but philosophically different manner, the no-god is the absolute 1, the ultimate open system with the sranc as his instrument. The dunyain, otoh, are striving for absolute 0, the ultimate closed system with feedback where their thoughts and souls are self-moving

>>22548692
Yes, because he attaches modern bells and whistles to his stories such as ridiculous anime-level power ups, why should the modern audience read his predecessor which is the same boring dry text without the benefit of proverbial laser beams?

Also, forgot to mention in the last post, Williams has literal animals interacting with characters in shadowmarch, not with telepathy or something, these animals, like small mice, birds straight up talk to people like it is a disney movie. Even sanderson for all his flaws has only used this plot device once in his cash grab 4 side books a year

>>22548750
>Also, forgot to mention in the last post, Williams has literal animals interacting with characters in shadowmarch, not with telepathy or something, these animals, like small mice, birds straight up talk to people like it is a disney movie
Holy shit wtf, fantasy author with no imagination.

>>22548750
Animal companions? Grim. I would never read such childish slop.

what is hard and soft scifi exactly, is there a picture with a bunch of books ordered along a line pointing from left to right, left being soft and right being hard scifi?

if there isn't one of you autists should make it

for example Blindsight would be quite towards the right, The Quantum Thief a bit to the left of it. The man who folded himself would go halfway on the soft side, as well as Ubik. The High Crusade on the left edge. idk if these are the best representative books

>>22548465
When compared to most nu fantasy authors he probably is.

>>22548817
For me there is science and there is science fantasy.

>>22548396
just finished Lightbringer, my new rankings
>Golden Son
>Morningstar
>Dark Age
>Lightbringer
>Red Rising
>Iron Gold

>>22548817
There are multiple definitions, so it isn't possible without choosing one first.

It finally clicked

Just started this last night, enjoying it so far.

>>22548934
Fang Yuan is so smart...

>>22548707
I. MAN WOULD SOONER WEEP BEFORE GOD THAN HIS BROTHER

What purpose does God serve, asks TNG? Then he answers: It’s for Man to weep before. Better before God than before one’s own brother.

“Brother” we can safely assume to mean “fellow man,” but what does “weep” mean? What does weeping represent here, exactly? Well, to weep is to admit weakness. Show vulnerability. Bare yourself and share yourself with another. Not something you do in front of other Men, obviously, because that’s dangerous.

What comes to mind is one of Achamian’s early chapters, where he’s sailing from Atyersus to Sumna, and the ship’s captain tries to start some light conversation. But Akka, the fool, doesn’t even notice that the man is making an effort, extending an olive branch to the sinner he’s supposed to fear and loathe. Instead, he snubs the captain while whining to himself how nobody will talk to him, how he’s misunderstood, how everyone fears and loathes him! That scene was the first time I was impressed by Bakker’s subtlety, this understated, humorous exchange that shows us the first of Achamian’s many weaknesses. He’s lonely, in large part because he doesn’t know how to act around other people… and he blames them for it.

So yeah, we don’t like to “weep” before strangers. It makes us anxious. We erect barriers that alienate us from our fellow men, then we hide behind those and condemn the people on the other side! Why are they way over there? Why don’t they like us? What could they be hiding? There’s a bit of that primal hypocrisy in all of us.

But hey, we sure do like to weep before God, don’t we?

That, I think, is the No-God’s point here. It’s gently ribbing us for being such frightful little mammals that we’re scared of ourselves, so we have to invent idols before which it’s safe to show vulnerability, safe to bare your soul.

He’s telling us, You invented gods because you were too scared of your fellow men. Everything that follows is him expounding on that, showing us what such folly must lead to.

>>22548955
II. HE COWERS BENEATH THE ROD THAT NEVER FALLS

This is a troubling one — what do you mean the rod never falls, aren’t the Gods real and all-powerful? — but I think I can make it work.

So, cowering before the rod means submitting ourselves to divine will, giving up all agency to a Higher Power. We live our lives in accordance with scripture because to do otherwise would draw Punishment! What if the rod falls upon our back? We don’t want that, do we?!

But that, TNG tells us, is a primitive ape’s view of the divine. God is not our Father, applying the rod when we transgress and rewarding us when we obey. God is instead a Spider, preying on our immortal soul, intent on feasting upon it no matter how we behave.

The rod never falling means that the divine will not intervene in our lives. God does not care what we do, only that we live and then die. We’re a resource for the divine, not children to be educated. The world is their Granary, not their remedial school.

No Redemption. No Salvation. You are irrevocably Damned at birth, and you will feed the Spider-God when you die. A bit biased, the Inchoroi perspective, but fundamentally correct for the most part.

So why do we cower before the rod, then? What’s the purpose of piety? Tell us, apocalyptic technological monstrosity!

>>22548957
III. TO BETTER CONVICT HIS BROTHER OF PRIDE

This is the true purpose of piety, according to the No-God. Feeling superior to your fellow man.

You conjure into being a divine force, then come up with a strict set of rules that you must adhere to (or else the rod! beware the rod, which will surely fall unless you behave!)

Then, whoever doesn’t adhere to that set of rules, you condemn them as prideful, arrogant sinners. Fools and unbelievers. They don’t know the True Way; only you know the True Way. You are the Favored of God, the Chosen Tribe, the Righteous who will be rewarded for its virtuosity… it’s everyone else who’s prideful!

As has been expounded on by Kellhus and others, the problem with that perspective is that everyone else also thinks the same. Countless sects, large and small, all convinced of their exclusive righteousness. They can’t all be correct, can they? Best to assume it’s you that’s right and everybody else that’s wrong.

And what else does cowering before the divine rod provide us?

IV. TO BETTER BEAT HIM INTO SUBMISSION

Ultimately, it’s not enough to hide from or feel superior to your Brother. You also need to dominate him righteously. Beat him into submission until he’s either converted into a version of you or ceased to exist.

This leads to a catastrophic war of all against all, essentially unending because even if one type of dogma rose to dominance, men would still hesitate to weep before other men. We would still seek to invent new rules over which to convict our brothers and beat them into submission as heretics.

It’s in the nature of human society to splinter endlessly, is what the No-God is saying.

>>22548947
He is smarter than you.

>>22548943
Wtf, is that Guts and Griffith?

>>22548396
what am i in for?

>>22548742
And what happens in the end.? Weren't they aliens and not god in true sense ?

>>22548988
Fitz watching Molly, his pregnant fiancée/girlfriend, fuck his adoptive father Burrich, then having six children with him.
After Burrich dies they get back together and he raises the children then has another magic child with her.

>>22548986
I don't consume tranime so I don't know who those are you brainrotted weeaboo slime

Why does every short story I write always end with either the protagonist dead, or even worse off then they were before. I like happy ends why do I keep writing myself into bad ones?

>>22549046
because you are subconsciously aware of the human condition

>>22548707
You got to the end of the series and don't know what the No God is?

>>22548988
Every single problem could be solved if they killed Regal, but they don't because that would be wrong.

>>22549061
I am not very smart. I got selective breeding of dunyains. Got what Emo elves were. Sarc = orcs. Achamian was a liar. But how did the stranger gain those powers all of a sudden. What truly was the purpose of covenant

>>22549000
>not god in true sense ?
What does that even mean? In a metaphysical sense, the book is concerned with the transmigration of souls. The golden swarm are alien, yes, they are more like bio-mechanistic robots sent forth by their creator to forcibly close the passing of souls for the sin of grasping the absolute 1, grievous in the eyes of the outside as it stops the movement of souls, the dunyain are trying to achieve the same by making their own soul return again and again, so both seek the unification with the whole without falling for the divisions along the way.

What happens in the end is a bit dodgy, further books may illuminate better, for now we can only take the ending prose at it's face value

>>22549036
Why do americans like cuckshit so much

>>22549111
Circumcision

>>22549111
It's not a problem exclusive to Americans
The question should be
>Why do boomer jews and women love cuckshit so much?

>>22549098
>What truly was the purpose of covenant
To prevent damnation of their souls, the inchoroi had the mission, the machinery capable of accomplishing this mission, but being only bio robots under the control of the ark's computer, they were unequipped with working their machines or understanding how to utilize them.

The cunuroi provided the magic tech expertise, they took could not understand his to operate the ark, reflect that it is understood that nonmen cannot decipher paintings, their brains are not wired to logically combine those areas necessary for running the ark tech.

Humans brought the expertise of understanding and utilizing the ark tech, the no god is raised for the first time once the mangaecca becomes involved, before for the long wars of the swarm with nonmen, they could not unleash it, that would have more easily killed off the nonmen without the swarm resrting to stealth innoculation

>>22548988
People say this has good prose, but it really doesn't seem so to me. Its just blandly purple without any vivid imagery.

>>22549040
Your loss nigger

>read the Wizard Knight
>absolutely fantastic book
>go to finish up the last book in the Blade Itself series after
>find it to be now boring, uninspiring, and grimdark but not even in a fun Black Company grimdark way
What should I read next? I know most books aren’t going to compare in writing to Gene Wolfe, but what is something that’ll inspire the same sense of knightly adventure and wonder?

>>22549229
Malazan

Any Malazan readers here? Are the Ian Esslemont books important for a first time read, or should I not bother with them?

What are the actual chances of No-God coming out soon? December will mark the two years since I read the series, I thought it'd be worth going throuhg it again if Bakker will deliver

What are /lit/'s suggested books for getting better at writing fantasy and sci-fi?

>>22549229
Guy Gavriel Kay.

>>22549243
important no, but they are fun and give context for important characters in Malazan, I think it's up to you if you read before, after, or in between other books.

>>22549229
listen to this guy >>22549275 and not >>22549233

>>22549248
GRRM will finish Winds of Winter before Bakker puts pen to page ever again

Any good books with female protagonists? I usually don't read them but I feel like I'm losing good stories by deliberately avoiding it

>>22549450
Wheel of Time

>>22549450
The Last Unicorn seems good

>>22549450

>>22549432
What is Bakker up to anyway? His blog seems to be silent since 2020.

>>22549531
He's evading the Canadian government's euthanasia enforcement units.

>>22548817
There is no meaningful distinction so I am confused as to why you would care. There are tons of competing definitions for these terms and none are authoritative, so you never have any idea what somebody means, precisely, when they say "hard/soft scifi", it might mean the same definition you're used to, or it might be a slightly different one. This makes it useless for discussion, marketing, basically everything.

>>22548632
His books are very old fashioned in subject material, tone, and style. Lots of traditional heroic narratives, lots of traditional fantasy tropes and cliches. This is a big reason I like him. His influences are strictly old school, pure mythology and folklore.

>>22549450
Black Magician trilogy is one of my favorite fantasy series of all time. Unfortunately the sequel trilogy she wrote to Black Magician does not live up to it at all and I cannot recommend it. Thankfully the Black Magician trilogy stands alone as a great story.

>>22549243
Oh fuck you. Why are you the way that you are?

>>22549243
Read them at your own discretion, they're not necessary to understand Book of the Fallen. They just follow some of the dropped side characters that showed up here and there.

>>22549256
Just read more fantasy and sci-fi then shamelessly imitate the authors you most admire.

IDK if this general has much writefaggotry but I need a blurb to start from and I love scifi
R8

The year is 783 PC. Earth is forgotten, its history scattered like leaves in the wind. However, mankind’s many colonies, Mars chief among them, have now uncovered the efforts of previous generations to span the stars with speed commensurate to the species’ imagination.
Scourer Ships—projects funded by a frantic greed for power long lost—set out for stars held in long coveted records from centuries past. Talented people, sometimes bearing unnatural acumen, set out to bring back a stellar bounty to their ever growing home worlds.
The light shines from Proxima Centauri to Betelgeuse once again. And in this light, shadowed secrets shaped upon the wall of man’s ancestral past are revealed once more.

>>22549256 (Me)
>>22549626
I would but i prefer looking into the actual thought process of the writers themselves. I wish there was something like where I could read the writer's outlines themselves.

I'm reading Coiling Dragon as my first xianxia. Is it normal for these stories to be so void of romance? I'm 10 chapters in and there hasn't even been a female character

>>22548817
There's not really a clear line and there are some overlaps that point out where the subgenres fall short. If I have science fiction that doesn't really stretch itself too far, everything feels like a natural iteration of what already is, yet the author themselves have no real care for the science of it at all does that really get to the appeal of what hard science fiction claims to offer? In contrast what if there is the fantastical but its handled in loving detail and thoroughly explained and worked through.

I find it more useful to categorize things by the intent vis-à-vis technology's place in the plot. Ringworld is very hard scientifically but that's mostly just to allow for a playground to explore, its an adventure novel. Contrast that with Foundation which is much softer and at its core has a made up discipline of psychohistory that has no real equivalent in modern science: the series revolves around it though and as best as he can Asimov focuses on the details of such a field of study and how it can be used and misused, what would it require to work, why anyone would pursue it. The hardness of science fiction seldom matters to me, instead I am obsessed with whether or not that author is focusing on technology and all else cascades from there or if the science fiction is in service of the narrative as either set dressing or to allow events to occur.

>>22549450
There are no good books with females.

>>22548396
I remember liking this book.

>>22549682
And this one.

>>22549229
You'll need to go back. Far back. Start reading the classics.
>Le Morte d'Arthur
>Sir Degrevant
>Parzifal
>Sir Perceval of Galles
>Ywain and Gwain
>Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
>The Squire of Low Degree
>Prose Merlin
>Sir Lancelot of the Lake
>The Book of Sir Tristram de Lyones
and so on...

>>22549656
Is it normal for western fantasy to be chock full of romance and drama to the point where plot and story don't matter anymore?

i'm nearly at the finish line with dune, like a fifth of the way through chapterhouse and he just started putting literal jews in the story in the clumsiest manner. the honored matres are an exciting villain and weaponized sex is actually a fairly interesting idea but ugh

>>22549040
Why are you on 4chan then, you retarded niggerfaggot, this is a fucknig imageboard inspired by weeb culture. Also, Berserk is a better fantasy story than 99% of the garbage slop you read. Also, it's not even an anime, it's a fucking manga, you uncultured troglodyte.

>>22549762
Pic related perfectly describes berserk, in other words berserk is a terrible story.

>>22549450
I haven't the slightest idea of what good is to you, so here are some female protagonist books.

Mistborn
Electric Forest
Fledgling
Six Wakes
The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Gideon the Ninth
Elfshadow
Station Eleven
Dawn
Wheel of the Infinite
The Sacred Book of the Werewolf
Bannerless
The Clockwork Rocket
Tress of the Emerald Sea
The Light Brigade
The Windup Girl
The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids

>>22549703
this post is funny because it implies oriental literature has plot or story and is anything but a litany of superheroes fighting each other - in other words, the parts of Morte d'Arthur that Malory cut out

>>22549703
Isn't drama = plot and story basically

>>22549847
chinkshit enjoyers think plot is when the characters level up a new power to going even further beyond super saiyan x3

>>22549821
Whatever it implies or doesn't imply is irrelevant, a topic for another discussion. Answer the question, is it normal normal for western fantasy to be chock full of romance and drama to the point where plot and story don't matter anymore?

>>22549847
No, that is not correct.

>let's argue personal meaning with others who have entirely different personal meanings then be be mutually upset at each other because our arguments go nowhere

>>22549859
How is romance and drama not plot and story

>>22549593
>>22549675
i just like to look at cool infographs and get book recommendations from them

>>22549859
No, it's not normal for that to be the case, if you find yourself perceiving romance and drama as somehow unrelated to plot and story it's a sign you are suffering some sort of mental illness or stunted cognitive capacity, or possibly merely a terminal case of sour grapes.
If, on the other hand, you are actually being sincere and intelligent, and are merely misrepresenting pointless and puerile pornography and gore as "romance and drama", then that is also not normal for western literature: those are merely awful books.

Where to start with him?

>>22549851
It's incredibly sad that dumb people like you are allowed to browse and post on the internet.

Hard SF = Nothing out of what is known to be possible, or at least is strongly grounded theory. The purpose of the science may or may be for the purpose of education. The science is the primary focus.

Soft SF = Can do whatever for whatever reason and the science isn't the focus.

>>22549896
Based, btfo

>>22549896
The issue here is the amount or romance and drama in western fantasy. There is too much of it, so much that the plot and story suffers.

>>22549815
>>22549450
Probably stretching the definition of “good” and “protagonists”, but the Expanse. Where you’ll get such unique perspectives as:
>Indian grandma who is also a masterful diplomat
>Mommy dommy Martian Samoan super soldier
>insane asian girl terrorist
>Red headed lesbian pastor
>An autistic black pastor
There’s probably more but I stopped reading after the fourth book.

>>22549926
nta
You have my condolences for your difficultty in finding material to read that is suitable for your autism. Oh, to be asexual, aromantic, and uninterested in non-fuctional dialogue.

>>22548418
War of the flowers is great, it's like a modern take on Thomas Covenant.

>>22549851
bro you're reading web novels of a very specific subgenre written by teenagers after cram school

>>22549936
can't you be asexual and still enjoy the psychology of the characters developing into a romance? romance is functional, at least it should be if its written with depth.

>>22549955
no one is asexual unless people with specific genetic disorders that are even less numerous than hermaphrodites

>>22549959
trauma can make people effectively asexual
I give them the benefit of the doubt because the more men that devalue pussy in our society, the better.

>>22549926
Ok this sounds like the emotionally stunted option. You just don't like scenes of romance and drama, you want endless mindless action with paper-thin characters that make 1980s saturday morning cartoons look deep. That's a very understandable attitude to take when you're about 7-14 years old and girls still have cooties, but it's not so endearing when you're 30 or 40 and complaining that neurotypicals behave like neurotypicals.

>>22549936
If 80% (or more) of the supposedly action and adventure story targetted towards male audience consists of drama and romance (the rest 20% is little bit of adventure mixed with padding and modern pandering) then there is something very wrong with that story. When every story/book released in the west is like that then that indicates serious problems with entirety of western authors and publishers.

>>22549955
can't you be sexual and still enjoy the psychology of the characters NOT developing into a romance?

>>22549990
Yes
I can enjoy both

>>22549914
There is no such thing as hard SF, that is pure snobbery. If the plot of a piece of fiction uses real science to accomplish real things that are possible in the real world, that is not "hard" SF - that's just fiction, probably historical fiction. It's not hard SF to write about NASA using a rocket to fly to the moon and drive a buggy around the surface for a few hours, then come back to earth. All of those things have been done, and what has been done can be done. That's no different from writing a story about a man using a telephone to call his family from work.

If however, the plot of a piece of fiction uses real science (or for that matter fake science, also known as theoretical science) to accomplish unreal (fake, also known as theoretical) things that are impossible in the real world, that is not "hard" SF at all - that is pure fantasy. The instant some type of activity that has not been accomplished in reality occurs in fiction, it becomes fantasy, that's the definition of the word: something impossible. Jurassic Park is fantasy - yes, cloning is real science; extracting genetic data from dinosaurs and reconstructing them using amphibian DNA and ostrich eggs is not.

>>22549987
What a nice fictional statistic you've created for yourself.

>>22549987
Do you have an example of this hypothetical brand of literature you are suffering through? I dare not ask for a source on your madeup statistics, since that would be lunacy on my part.

>>22550006
>If however, the plot of a piece of fiction uses real science (or for that matter fake science, also known as theoretical science) to accomplish unreal (fake, also known as theoretical) things that are impossible
theoretical =/= fake/impossible

>>22550015
>theoretical =/= fake/impossible
prove it

saw this posted here a couple times and decided to read. 9/10

>>22550006
You've completely ignored the educational aspect. In China traditionally published SF must be at least minimally educational.

>More and more the definitions are argued

>>22549111
it's hot, there's just something special about seeing the women you love grunting and moaning like animals as they have sex with other men, only the ascended minds can't enjoy it, that's why it's called the thinking man's fetish

>>22550034
>only the ascended minds can't enjoy it
absolutely based and redpilled freudian slip

>>22550015
A theory is by definition untrue until proven otherwise. That's how science works: you prove that every other option is wrong before you are right. That's called falsifiability, the minute you make unfalsifiable claims, you are preaching religion, which may or may not be true, but it isn't science.
But ultimately, none of that is relevant, because even the hardest of hard SF still utilizes science as functional magic to accomplish whatever the author desires regardless of whether its true or not. It doesn't matter how grounded it is, if the author is using it to accomplish things it can't do in the real world, it's magic, there's no ifs, ands, or asses about it.

Think of it this way: if I used a ham radio to dial a certain frequency and accidentally contacted an alien mothership in orbit, that would be hard SF, since all that is theoretically plausible - but it's still bullshit.

>>22550006
This more like you're arguing that science fiction doesn't exist at all.

What should i expect lads

>>22549978
>you want endless mindless action
>with paper-thin characters
Why do you say this? Can there only be two types of characters, the paper thin characters and their opposites romantically oriented characters? Is a concept of a character that's deep, well though out but not romatically oriented really so foreign to you?

>>22550045
science fiction is bob drives a spaceship that crashes into conan the barbarian, hard sci-fi is speculative by nature as it is supposed to be based on known and extrapolated science to justify the mechanics of its universe.
But in a sense and in essence Sci-fi is just fantasy with laser guns and spaceships, or techno-political commentary.

>>22550052
first book good, rest not good, also lol anal

>>22550043
Your popperian notions are obsolete. That's a terrible example because it assumes the existence of aliens, let alone ones in orbit.

>>22550059
I hope one day you emerge from your early 20th century thinking and join us in the 21st century.

>>22550045
I would accept such an appellation. Science and magic are functionally indistinguishable (magic deriving from a Germanic word meaning "working", and technology from a Greek word meaning "craft"), both being methods of understanding and utilizing the laws of the natural world, the only difference is that one is labeled as "fake" because it involves phenomena that scientific empiricists deny the existence of, broadly labeled "the supernatural", but "nature" is a very arbitrarily defined stratum, and what was previously classified as "beyond" nature by less knowledgeable generations is now confined safely within it. The distinction between science and magic is equally arbitrary, and is typically only defined by whether or not it has successfully been replicated - yet.

>>22550011

>>22550077
When your go-to example is a gay communist Canadian Jew, did you ever stop to think he might not be representative of the Western literary tradition?

>>22550075
but nothing in the 21st century is worth thinking about.
As far as I'm concerned the world ended in 1999.

>>22550052
Soulcatcher > Lady

>>22550092
Lady is the reason the latter Black Company books are bad

>>22550076
I'm sure all the allopaths, psychics, astrologers, witches, occultists and many more will be very happy to hear that.

>>22550090
>the world ended before you were born

>>22550075
>join us in the 21st century
>filled with muslim terrorism, fag marriage, nigger riots, child sexualization, the homogenization of culture, and communist propaganda subverting every level of society
I think I'll stay back in the pre-9/11 days thank you

>>22550052
>>22550092
Also, read the first book for a fairly original (at least for fantasy) narrative/dialogue style. It annoys some people, but I like use of the first person narrative and language that feels more "real" instead of a movie script.

>>22550076
>both being methods of understanding and utilizing the laws of the natural world,
in science fiction there is the natural world not too dissimilar from our own, fantasy on the other hand features natural world and an additional fantasy or you can call it a supernatural world, for which laws (science and technology) of natural world cannot be applied.

>>22550111
Always has been
You need to study history
Your time being alive is nothing special

>>22550101
As will the phrenologists, eugenicists, Jesus mythicists, Newtonians, Lysenkoists, Lamarckians, and the students of Galen of Pergamon

>>22550025
And fantasy minimally endorse marxism?

>>22550133
Only science fiction is government funded and supported.

>>22550084
Have you been living under a rock? The vast majority of western representatives of so called literary tradition are canadian jews, simps, cucolds, race apologists, gays and feminist lesbian females
I wish that was not the case but unfortunately it is.

>>22550130
Indeed, and the Turing cultists as well. May all that isn't true and useful be purged in time.

>>22550147
You only needed 14 words, but you chose to write more.

>>22550150
I admit I'm being pedantic about definitions, but I don't dislike the various levels of how grounded SF is or can be; I only take offense at the intellectual snobbery, pretense, and cliquishness of so-called SF purists who invented the Hard-vs-Soft labels as a form of hypocritical elitism to segregate out "real" scifi from fantasy, when it's all various levels of fantasy.

>>22550139
And what kind of government does the People's Republic of China have, Einstein?

>>22550147
this sounds like a selection bias problem, have you considered reading novels outside of the LGBTPOC authors table of Barnes and Noble?

>>22550219
>And what kind of government does the People's Republic of China have, Einstein?
A Chinese government

>>22550247
lol, an actual Han chauvinist outing himself

>>22550261
Not even Chinese but structurally the current form of Chinese governance is 1:1 the same as it was in imperial time, the only difference being that the position of President is no longer hereditary

>>22550281
>structurally the current form of Chinese governance is 1:1 the same as it was in imperial time

Chinchong Chang to you too chinkman

>>22550052
Book one is max comfy. Things take a bit of a turn after but aren’t too bad. Fantasy India devolves info max suffering, but at that point you’re already invested and might as well keep reading. Biggest gripe is they should have spent a lot more time with the Company having one off adventures in fantasy Europe. That’s when the series was at its best.

>>22550015
>I can imagine it happening
>This makes it rational
>No I have no idea how it could come about or would work on a fundamental level
Literal make-believe. The only difference between fantasy and sci fi is one of aesthetics.

>>22550219
>have you considered reading novels outside of the LGBTPOC authors table of Barnes and Noble?
we generally have 3 choices in this generals genre
black muslim lgbt furry reddit bullshit
self published schlock
a handful of good books that we call "classics"

I've been whipping Wheel of Time fanboys left and right over on /tv/. 4 threads now. It's actually kind of exhausting taking so many Ws. I will be glad if the /tv/ WoT thread takes a break for a few days.

>>22548988
Heartbreak and wholesomeness

>>22550733
>cuckholdry is wholesome

>>22550052
Cordy bros.....

>>22550740
One part of a 21 book series
Bakker has more plot relevant and constant cuckoldry than hobb does

>>22550731
Moiraine, My beloved...

>>22550754
B-but he's based because kellChad has an uncut penis (BASED!) AND rapes babies and b-black women (black women scare me irl btw)

>>22550754
Except this one is particularly disgusting and egregious because
>Molly is pregnant with Fitz's kid when she fucks Burrich
>Burrich is Fitz's father
>Fitz watches them
>Burrich and Molly have 6 children together
>Fitz still goes back to Molly despite having another woman and Molly having nothing to offer him except guilt and a child he didn't raise
>he then gets cucked again with Bee as she is the result of a magical mental spiritual threesome

>>22550731
Nobody on /tvpol/ likes Women of Time, this sounds a lot more like you got ran out of town for being a Nigflix shill

>>22550677
Again, I think this is a problem on your end.

>>22550754
>his pregnant wife gets fucked by his dad, she loves it, and has 6 kids with him afterwards
>they still get back together
Only fags, retards, degenerates, and women could find that enjoyable. Which one are you?

>>22550784
>Nobody on /tvpol/ likes Women of Time, this sounds a lot more like you got ran out of town for being a Nigflix shill
Can you fit anymore buzzwords in that?

>>22550757
Hideous hag.

>>22550757
This should have been Lan and Moiraine.

>>22550794
I could call it goyslop but I'm not a brainrotted tourist, so I won't do that.

>>22550802
Is that his daughter?

>>22550816
No it's mine

>>22550816
>>22550818
I forgot who the actress is already. But I looked her up yesterday, and she's 25. So no pedo.

Is there a SINGLE fantasy writer in the last 20 years that isn't a soi leftist (literal) cuck?

>>22550802
I don't mind chink Lan but he always talks with that stupid raspy voice like if he was in a Lifetime movie for divorced women.

>>22550861
Guy Gavriel Kay
Stephen Lawhead
Wayne Barlowe
Martha Wells
David Scidmore
MA Rothman
Andrew Klavan

>>22550784
>Again, I think this is a problem on your end.
I wasn't the same anon you were speaking to, but can you name 3 great sffg novels written in the past decade that don't fall under the first 2 of my generalized examples? I'm giving you a full 10 years here.

>>22550754
All the cuckery in the second apocalypse is framed as one dude fucking over someone else. Its framed as wholly negative and causing mental anguish.

Its also not from a fucking first person MC pov, which is what makes the Hobb example particularly shitty.

When I write my successful 80 million selling epic fantasy series, I will literally make sure that being white is an important and necessary part of the plot, so niggers can't be cast in the jewflix TV show. Maybe a plague or disease that sucks melanin out of you, and it is effecting the whole world.

>>22550897
If you want my honest HONEST answer:
Thrawn, Thrawn: Alliances, and Thrawn: Treason
But to be entirely fair I have a huge backlog of shit I haven't investigated yet and I tend to go by how interesting the premise sounds versus the year it was published as my standards for purchasing books.

>>22550940
https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-updated-sff-all-time-sales-list.html?m=1

>>22550946
>the current state of the genre doesn't matter, just read the premise
>I also don't read so I am absolved from delivering a real answer

Every single saturday we get some long ass reply chain from someone making excuses to themselves to justify not reading anything.

>>22550940
>Maybe a plague or disease that sucks melanin out of you
Netflix adaptation: "Oh, no! The the pale mare is sucking the seasoning out of him! He's becoming bland and tasteless!" Then the actor is color changed using AI, retaining his facial features, essentially making him albino. The main character was already cast as a real albino from the beginning, and they used AI to put color on her, until a few episodes in when the pale mare took her color.

>>22549040
How can you post in /sffg/ let alone 4chan if you don't read Berserk nigga

>>22550964
I read plenty, but I don't read indiscriminately. If you want that, you may as well get your jollies from the daily paper.
I only just started the Morgaine cycle, a series of four books written in the 70s and 80s by C. J. Cherryh. It'll probably take me 2 or 3 weeks to get through the thousand pages of the omnibus at the current rate of reading an hour or two before bedtime, though if I go on all-day benders that'll probably be cut down to 2 or 3 days.
Then I'll be reading On Stranger Tides (1987) by Tim Powers. Then I'll be reading Lost Gods (2016) by Brom. Then I'll be reading the Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone quadrilogy written by Greg Keyes between 2003-2008. By the time I finish all those it'll probably be near Christmas - depending on whether I've finished before or after Christmas, I'll re-read the Star Wars novelizations by Alan Dean Foster and the original Thrawn trilogy from 1991-93, by which time I will surely have created a new backlog of whatever books I'll be getting for Christmas.

>>22550996
Any bokss like berserkkrr?!?!?! When does wot getS good??????????¿????????

>>2255089
nta
That's a terrible question. Who decides what "great" means? Maybe there hasn't been one for 50 years. Some may say there's never been one.

>>22550996
Berserk went to shit a long time ago, I used to religiously buy the volumes but when Shirke and the Berserk armor were introduced I just stopped.
Last chapter I remember is the dungeons and dragons town where they kill troll monkeys with penis noses.

What modern/21st century author is most like Clark Ashton Smith in style?

>>22551030
Is dungeons and dragons a derogatory term to you?

>>22551035
None. The circumstances that created him and the choices he made will never be repeated. None but his contemparies could come anywhere near.

>>22551035
Tim Powers
or at least, his novel Declare gave me that vibe, but it's the only novel of his I've read
possibly also the Preston and Child novels Relic/Reliquary, but that's a bit dumber, as if Michael Crichton and Clark Ashton Smith were co-writing a novel and neither of them liked what the other was doing so only the worst of either got through

>>22551038
No but it's generic fantasy shit

>>22551091
That seems derogatory to me.

>>22551014
you do discriminate
you prefer good books over bad books
and you think you're being open minded and cavalier by ignoring the fact that mainstream sffg authors are being propped up for politically correct bullshit rather than their talent, and that we're in a drought of good books to read for that reason
you keep saying "this is a problem on your end" but you're gonna need to take your hands away from your eyes and ears if you ever want to read anything new and good with some measure of consistency

>>22551096
>you do discriminate
Of course I do, I literally said "I don't read indiscriminately", why did you feel that was necessary to repeat unless you misinterpreted that word? Are you an ESL that has trouble with double-negatives?

>>22551103
your feelings are hurt

>>22551113
No, I'm flabbergasted at your post. It's inane. First you repeat what I said. Then you say it's a good thing. Then you accuse me of something I didn't say but which you are hallucinating tangentially to this conversation, a hallucination with which I am unfamiliar and incapable of responding to with any sense since you are the only one perceiving it. Then you tell me I need to stop reading books I've never read before if I want to experience new and exciting things, I think? I can't tell if you're denying the existence of new experiences vis-a-vis older literature that I have not yet encountered or if you're saying the only positive experiences can be obtained with the most recent publications and anything older than a certain period is no longer acceptable.
Either way it's just such a bewildering post that the only feelings I can parse are befuddlement, not anger or sadness. If you define confusion as a negative emotion instead of a neutral one then I suppose you can say my feelings are hurt.

>my feelings vs your feelings is a battle that you'll lose every time

>>22551126
typing a paragraph to prove you aren't mad on the internet never gets old

Cum

lmao

>>22551183
>Dark mode
You lose. I don't care what you guys are arguing about. But dark mode is loser mode.

>>22550052
One Eye is a nigger, Tomtom is kill, Silent is a simp, and Goblin is best wizard.
>>22550092
Never stick your dick in crazy. Not saying that Lady isn't also nuts, but Soulcatcher is the kind of crazy that ruins entire bloodlines.

I just finished the Bobiverse books. I really enjoyed the implications of being an AI and how the humans ended up treating them.

Maybe I should read the culture series...

Does The First Law get better from a style/prose perspective? My favorite authors are Wolfe, Erikson, and Donaldson. 170 pages in and I'm not really digging it but everybody says the sequels are better. I'm willing to stick with it if the style improves.

>>22551233
Not really, within the first law trilogy most people dislike the 3rd book the most.
The standalone novels set in the same world are a bit better but his prose never changes much it just improves because he was super young when he wrote first law

Best WH40K books?

>>22551249
The one with the single mom imperial soldier.

>>22551246
Darn. I guess I'll give it a bit more to make sure but if the style stays pretty much the same that's a big disappointment.

>>22551166
>>22551134
>>22551183
I still haven't figured out what you've been trying to say.

>>22551276
That's a result of cognitive impairment and a lack of reading comprehension.

>>22550770
>>22550790
>>22550909
These faggots really read all of elderlings and still think they can have an opinion on cuckoldry

>>22551249
ciaphas cain

Water sleeps

/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.

>>22551376
Die.

who /horror/ up in here?

/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.

>>22548566
no, drop it

>>22551376
Based

>>22549040
You wouldn't have known it was anime-related if you didn't consume anime in the first place.

>>22550034
I'll fuck the women you love anon, you can watch from the corner.

Perhaps it does not fit here, but what is the best prehistoric fiction?
Is the earth’s children series any good? I’m interested in (frightening) depictions of early humans interacting with Neanderthals

>>22551586
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_Adam
I can only think of this

>>22551586
Technically, Lord of the Rings and Conan the Barbarian count as prehistoric fiction since they both take place ages before accepted recorded history, but I imagine you're thinking more Flintstones than Atlantis

>>22551249
Fehervari's Dark Coil universe for horror

Dan Abnett's entire output for the best writing overall in the franchise

Ciaphas Cain for the humorous adventures of a true hero

>>22551637
>>22551249
I don't remember it exceedingly well as it was 15 or so years ago, but from what I remember, Graham McNeill's Ultramarines omnibus was acceptable reading as far as 40k literature goes. The adventures of Uriel Ventris might not have been up to the same snuff as Gaunt's Ghosts or Caiaphas Cain, but they weren't too terrible by Black Library standards I think, perhaps a little bland with a murky meandering plot.

>>22551645

I tried reading Graham McNeill to get ready for my big Horus Heresy splurge and its thoroughly serviceable when its action oriented. But when its dialogue it has the most third-grade style of telling you exactly what you should feel and how the scene is progressing.

>"Though the pain was intense, he felt a powerful yearning for such power. What must it be like to command the power of the empyrean, to have its unimaginable power pump through your veins like blood itself?"

That said McNeill also created Honsou and absolutely is willing to go balls to the wall on the weird part of the setting.

Just finished Hyperion. I've got Project Hail Mary, and The Fifth Season, which one should I read?

>>22551807
I don't know what Project Hail Mary is, so I'm going to have to say go with The Fifth Season. Though, you should lower your expectations after reading Hyperion.

>>22551820
>I don't know what Project Hail Mary is

Andy Weir's new book.

>>22551233
Don't listen to the other anon, general consensus is that the first one is by far the worst and nothing really happens, but it picks up significantly from book 2 onward, with the standalones being incredible.

>>22551233
Don't listen to the second guy. I have to agree with the first guy. The 3rd book is the weakest. I think we're all going to agree that the standalone books are great.

What book reads like a DND campaign but in a sci fi setting?

>>22551384
fuck yeah bro. what are you reading right now?

>>22551861
If you want something science-fantasy that both celebrates and questions heroism: Heinlein's Glory Road

If you don't mind a more fantastical time travel bent back to prehistory but also with aliens, Saga of the Pliocene Exiles has a real fun vibe to it.

If you want straightforward space opera then go for Deathstalker.

If you want Alistair Reynolds writing what are essentially space based dungeon crawls then Revenger and Shadow Captain are very solid.

>>22549450

were you there?

>>22551386
>Azarinth Healer = Starts good but fizzles hard midway.
>Primal Hunter = MC+background is so impossibly nonsensical that he's not even cannon in his own setting.
>He Who Fights with Monsters = every character that isnt the MC is just there to be amazed at how smart Jason is while he tells them shit they already know before reminding them (incorrectly i might add) that 'Oh you have no idea".
>Dungeon Crawler Carl = The MC's sidekick (A cat named 'Princess Donut') is so much smarter than Carl (the MC) that every scene the two are in is eye-gougingly painful. This would not be so much of a problem if such scenes did not constitute the majority of the series.
>System Universe = After the initial premise is established it turns into how to pander to followers at a snails pace AKA; 'Filler McFiller Face - The Excessively Extended Sleep Inducing Saga'.
>Dissonance = MC gets god fucked more then once as he goes about becoming a man/bear/goat/pig/axolotl hybrid who also has many super sekret identities.
>Defiance of the Fall = Brain dead MC with very-much-just-barely opposed kingdom building with a wafer thin cultivation system
>Iron Prince = edgy school setting with even edgier MC who has lightning powers and no discernible challenges what so ever.

>>22550940
Just make it so the default racial slur against white people your setting is to compare them to monkeys or other apes. Then if Netflix or whoever does cast blacks in those roles we will at least get to enjoy watching other actors call them monkeys while mocking them with a little "ooh ooh ahh" chimp dance.

>>22551203
Maybe she gets more cray cray in later books, but she doesn't actually seem very crazy in the first book.

I'm about to read The Witches of Eastwick, does that count as fantasy?

>>22551586
>prehistoric fiction?
Fantasy or sort of like historical fiction but for prehistory?

death to litrpg/isekai shit

>>22551984
Sure. There are lots of genres of fantasy and you could class that book as paranormal.

magic systems

>>22551999
but also xianxia

>>22551849
I don't have a problem with the plot, I have a problem with the writing style.

>>22551575
They only fuck black men

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

>>22552281
A little compassion goes a long way.

>>22550052
I remember enjoying the first book, then I remember they go on a riverboat cruise through a swamp and I tapped out somewhere in there.

Oi, I need a story where the protagonist starts off a cynical anti-hero but eventually develops into a paragon. Hoping I can learn from it for my own story.
Can anyone send me a rec? I don't even care if it's a webnovel or something.

>>22551586
It's YA but I liked the Michelle Paver books when I was like 10
Can't remember if Tiger and the Wolf is fantasy prehistory or just a tribal society but it's pretty good

>>22552281
Pawgs, bbws, femdom and compassion

>>22552436
The Lords of Dûs or in some editions titled Lords of Dusarra,The Death Gate Cycle and Thomas Covenant

>>22551987
I suppose either, honestly. It doesn’t seem to be a very big genre. Wikipedia has a nice list, I was just wondering if there was a gold standard or something—doesn’t seem like it

I've never read any of Sanderson's stuff but I decided to try out Tress of the Emerald Sea because I like nautical fantasy. I thought it was rather good for a cliche fairy tale type story, but I don't think I'll be reading any more of Sanderson's stuff any time soon. The worst parts of the novel were the ones tying it to the Cosmere.

>>22552889
After what he did with the mistborne series and rhythm of war i have lost all interest for anything with his name attached.

>>22549229
The Blade Itself was always shit, even if you don't compare it to Wolfe. It's Grrm fanfic tier at best, and often much much worse

>>22549243

Esslemont's Malazan Empire is skippable, his Dancer and Kellanved series is pretty good. Tsundere Laseen in the second book if you're a Laseen fan. Her backstory ends up being pretty good.

>>22553015
I would never skip my Crimson Guard hijinks.

>>22552457
What's the summary for Lords of Dusarra?

>>22548878
It kinda felt like he used this book to finish some of the many ideas he keep throwing into the mix.
>The AI chip is thrown into the trash where it belongs
>The minotaur as a villain is finally dead, what an uninteresting character
>volsung faa was killed off in a cool way but also kinda gay
>we can finally get to an awesome finale. I am really looking forward to the next book.

>>22553061
Garth, a 7ft tall overman seeks to become famous – in essence, for his name to “live forever.” Garth asked an oracle how he could be "remembered until the end of time". The answer sent him into a web of treachery, of ancient secrets and forbidden knowledge, and entangled him in matters far beyond his understanding, until he found himself face to face with the gods of destruction and death.
There are always a few excellent fantasy series that slip through the cracks. Novels that are loved by their fans but ignored by everyone else. Unfortunately, Lawrence Watt-Evans has been the writer of more than a few of those type of books: obviously inspired by Howard and Moorcock The Lords of Dus is one of the last great S&S stories before it was replaced by epic fantasy and is one of his finest stories and one of the most overlooked.

>>22552811
I liked this book.
https://secure.grantbooks.com/product/mammoth-hunters/
https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovci_mamutů
But it's from 1918 and I'm not even sure if there is an English translation, I had a hardcopy gifted to me as a teen and it was translated into my mother tongue.

>>22551956
>>Dungeon Crawler Carl = The MC's sidekick (A cat named 'Princess Donut') is so much smarter than Carl (the MC) that every scene the two are in is eye-gougingly painful. This would not be so much of a problem if such scenes did not constitute the majority of the series.
This so fucking much. Anytime you call out Dungeon Carl for the author switching from carl being the protag to the cat, you get called a cat hater or some shit.

>>22553166
So, this Garth. Does he actually become a heroic paragon? Or does he stay a heathen, glory seeking warrior?

Is there any book similar to BOTNS?

>>22553292
there's lots of bad books out there

>>22553274
Yes he does, he's a real bro by the end

so i got DUNE for my birthday and the book has an actual fucking copyright by Legendary and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. on the back
does this mean it is not the "original" 5th edition dune? did they change the story after the movies?
oh and same question goes for the hobbit, do they change the books after movie releases?

>>22553381
no, of course not, the only thing that changes is the cover and licensing material

>>22553406
thx bro, wasn´t shure about that and fought if someone is willing to spill the beans it would be here

Bakker.

Why is sci fi so gay now? I’ve been listening to the Escape Pod podcast where they read short sci fi stories and every week it’s a gay main character.

Can someone recommend some book or stories like I, Robot? What I mean is stories similar to sherlock holmes but instead of solving a crime
it's about finding a solution to a problem and how it's reached.

>>22553794
>Why is sci fi so gay now?
Because the majority of popular fantasy and science fiction comes out of the northern United States which is pozzed beyond belief.

>>22553794
Faggotry is the logical conclusion to a gnostic worldview, and that's what most sci-fi is based on.

>>22553839
source?

>>22553778
BASED
>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

Are there any /sffg/ books a videogame addict like me can actually enjoy?

>>22554028
The legendary mechanic
The main character becomes a NPC in a game world and fucks around with real players, trolling the hell out of them. It's pretty funny

so whats the score with modern sci fi and fantasy? I assume anything past 2010 will be rock solid with faggots and niggas.

any authors writing beyond blackrock approved topics?

>>22554066
>legendary mechanic
terrible execution, terrible writing

>>22554028
Read Rebirth Of The Strongest Sword God

The ending of which book or series is good not only in terms of plot but also emotionally? It's been a long time since I read a good ending that would make me not only say 'wtf that was good', but also make me go outside, touch some grass and appreciate life. This happened to me f.e. after the first reread of BOTNS.

>>22554083
we had this discussion earlier in the thread

>>22554277
Malazan unironically. Very emotional series with a satisfying and emotional conclusion.

>>22553262
its because the predominant fans of the series are 'cat people', their brains atrophied by too many youtube cat videos.

I got this in today. I've already read the first two stories in here when I checked it out from the library a couple of months ago.

>>22554445
>guy's name is MORE COCK
>has a guy in a dress on the cover of his book
don't tell me the 2010s-20s are responsible for faggotizing SF-fantasy literature

Sex in fantasy = book bad
Simple as

>>22554502

>>22554515
That's like 99% of the genre.

First time /lit/ poster,
Is this a decent book or bait?

>>22554606
Jim Butcher recommends it, so either he actually likes her work or he's trying to get in her pants.
>She's in her 60s
It might be good.

>>22554561
That is why 99% of the genre is garbage.

>>22554515
Unless it is male homosexual sex, of course.

>>22554445
>forward by Neil Gaiman
Is there a fantasy book that this faggot has not formally commented on or introduced?

>>22554515
Sex in any media is bad. I'm just as much of a coomer as any other anon, but when I see a sex scene in a movie or TV show it strikes me as cringeworthy and unnecessary, in writing it's usually as corny as any fan fiction or pulp romance novel, and in vidya it just makes me immediately want to skip the cutscene.

>>22554679
Yes, all the good ones.
If you ever read "Forewarned by Neil Gay Man" on the cover of a book it's a sure sign you shouldn't read it. I've learned this the hard way because I've foolishly read many books with just such a promotional blurb.

>>22554515
Well, how else would the protagonist create sons to pass down his legacy to?

>>22554708
>Lud-in-the-Mist
>not good
You must be 18 to post here.

>>22554277
I agree with you on BotNS but only if we count Urth as the real ending.

>>22554299
I felt complete apathy for the ending. Could due to me binging the series, hating Tavore and how she was a focus(with her obvious quest), the dogshit pacing of the last 2 books etc.

>>22554515
I think almost all of my favourite fantasy books have sex scenes

>>22554938
Name 4

>>22554515

based, I hate sex scenes in all media, especially in fucking video games.

>>22554963
Name of the wind
and every book by NK Jemisin

>>22554963
Book of the New Sun.

>>22554938
ASOIAF
The Broken Sword
Elric of Melnibone
The Darkness That Comes Before

>>22554515
do you mean sex scenes as in "he thrust his turgid manhood into her quivering nether regions" or are you talking about the literary equivalent of fade-to-black with something like "and they closed the door behind them"
because if you're complaining about the former type of blatantly unnecessary erotica, you may have a point, but if you're whining about the in-universe existence of human reproduction and relationships then you are a faggot angry because nobody will have sex with you

>>22555032
Sodomy isn't sexual intercourse, it's mutual masturbation.

>>22555041
Interesting that you think a woman giving a blowjob is a form of masturbation for her.

>>22554729
You don't need to be biologically related to pass down a legacy.

>>22554278
>reading the thread
Terrible idea

>>22555064
Woman giving a blowjon is not sodomy

>>22555087
Sodomy is any sex not for the purpose of procreation. Look it up. Good luck arguing against sodomy laws in a lot of countries.

>>22555105
Sodomy is anal sex

>>22554963
Swordspoint, Sharing Knife (want to say Paladin of Souls but I think that's only dream sex with a god), Night's Master, Tigana

>>22554277
The traitor Son Cycle (the red knight series) has a very good emotional ending that hits on multiple levels and has great payoff

I'd say the black company does too, if you stick with it by the end, it's a good well done ending.

Any readers of Robert E Howard in the thread? Can you give me a recommendation on a good collection?

I like Clarke Ashton Smith and HP Lovecraft a lot, but I'm daunted by Robert E Howard because I've heard they can be hit and miss. What's a good collection to start?

>>22551233
No. It's all an utter slog through shit. You'll simply be sucking your gums incessantly.

>>22555112
You may want to look up the actual definition, Downie anon....

>>22555196
>Look up Robert E Howard
>Died at 30
What the fuck. He accomplished more in his life than I could dream of, and I'm older than him.

>>22555196
I'm not familiar with any specific collection, but there aren't very many Conan stories in total, so any collection that has all or most of them should be fine. Queen of the Black Coast, Tower of the Elephant, and People of the Black Circle are the best, so make sure the collection has those three. All Conan stories are short, so if you end up not liking one you can take comfort in the fact that the opportunity cost of reading them is low.

>>22555444

>>22555196
I bought a complete collection of all his Conan stories called "Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian", also came with a Kull the Conqueror story and two Solomon Kane stories, it was pretty worth it, though a couple of the Conan stories were real letdowns, but that's like 2 or 3 out of 30 or so
>>22555317
he killed himself because he was a depressed NEET incel 4channer

>>22555449
The Great Frog King has died of old age, and in his stead a sickly heir must uphold the kingdom of which is gripped in a losing war against The Crows.

Post the first paragraph when done pls

>>22555551
What my fiercest frog legion saw before death took them were black wings. The crows were swift. Shadows with talons, plucking our golden eyes from corpses like jewels to pike and parade once they have returned to their nest kingdom. If father could not halt such a devastating zephyr's advance, then what what can a cripple such as I do to weather the storm?

This is how Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen canonically looked btw.

Is it me or we are being raided by /v/?

>>22555928
>/v/ reading

People who post there don't even read the quest instructions.

>>22555196
>any reads of RE Howard itt
Yes, basically everybody.
If you have a kindle you can get all the Conan stuff for like a dollar. Then look up the Darkstorm chronology and follow it. Conan is still the pinnacle of sword and sorcery, enjoy it anon.

>>22555803
Kinooooo

Read the sunlit man, better than his other secret projects in dialogues, thin story line though, a C, does not drag down like row and ob, but as it is also set in a day or two, characters are not able to grow judiciously

>>22556453
>Conan is still the pinnacle of sword and sorcery
I'm not disagreeing with you but it is unfortunate for the genre that it peaked with its creation. S&S renaissance when?

New!

>>22557030
>>22557030
>>22557030