/lit/ - Literature

First for King of Fantasy, R. Scott Bakker

bros I am in need of a good fantasy book, haven't read anything in over 6 months.

>>22608409
Read Kings of the Wyld

Trying to find a book/short story I read a long time ago. I've been thinking about it a lot but don't remember enough to search it out. What I do remember is:
>opens with the primary character living in a small village
>he is being trained to be a flesh shaper
>he is in competition against another young boy, one who works with mechanics
>the two are trying to create a solution to pump water out of a well
>the primary character creates what is essentially a weasel that pumps water through its body and wins the competition

Thoughts on Under the Skin? I like hoe the author bait and switches the true nature of the protagonist st first making us think she is some sort of serial killer picking up hitchhikers off the road Dahmer style but the reveal was done well and the pay off was pretty decent.

Also heavily confused on the authors nationality it says he is Dutch but also considered himself Australian, or British

>>22608398
should i read The Aspect-Emperor if i got spoiled that the Great Ordeal ultimately fails?

>>22608447
>she

Looking to get into fantasy, I just want to read about bearded wizard(s) doing cool shit. What books does this sound like.

Kelhus and Paul switch places how well do they do at their new jobs of making sure the Golden Path and The Great Ordeal come to fruition

>>22608479
Golden Path is pretty much was the Consult is trying to accomplish, Paul/Leto would be the villian in Bakkers world

>>22608476
The Black Company's first three books are literally just about wizard empires fucking each other over. Don't read past book 3 (as the first three are self contained and the series goes to shit during The Books of the South).

>>22608491
Silver Spike was a decent sidequest and takes place during the original trilogy.

>>22608429
Reddit of the wyld

There's a lot of women with big, round eyes on the Wheel of Time, particularly when they are naked

>>22608605
women in the wot universe turn into anime characters when naked

>>22608476
The Dying Earth saga.

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

>>22608626
>>22608398
Great posts anons, very original but just started three body problem and i'm wondering when does it gets good? are the witcher books any good? Any books like LOTR?? Only played Witcher 3 and the netflix's series. Just started Eye of the World when does WoT gets good?? Any books like dark souls/berserk/Bloodborne??? Any books like FF/Dragon Quest/Tales of..??!! Any books with N'Wahs?Kvothe is a cuck, will slob Martin ever finish winds of winter??? Abercrombie is Reddit-tier?? Are the dune sequels worth it or should i stop with god emperor of dunc? Should i read the Hyperion sequel???? Did severian fucked his grandma? Is severian a clone? Any books with chinks? Any books like fallout/metro? Any books where the mc gets cucked? Any books where the mc Doesn't get cucked?? Stormlight book 5 when? Will kaladin fuck the fairy?? is the Eisenhorn trilogy a good place to start with W40k??? Or should i watch 4hours YouTube vid about le EPIC lore??? Any books with young petite women? Any books with old thick women? Any books with MANLY men like David Gemmell? Soulcatcher or Lady who is the better waifu? When does malazan gets good?? I didn't finish highschool so i can´t understand Malazan?!?! Any books with chinks??!! When does ASOIAF gets good??!? When does Farseer gets good?? When does lightbringer gets good?? When does codex alera gets good??? When does Lord of The Isles gets good?? Dunsany is king or bakker?? Any books with incest?

>>22608614
>>22608643
But have you read wolfe?

Even the ritualposters are replying to the ritualposters now. Don't you people have any shame?

>>22608687
the greek cynics said shame is a spook

>>22608398
First for kill yourself

/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.

>>22608462
The Unholy Consult is dead and gone. Kellhus's son becomes the new No-God :^)

>>22608643
>will slob Martin ever finish winds of winter???
Well, will he? Haven't followed the fat fuck for a couple years.

/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.

>>22608681
I'm the only Wolfe reader here and i haven't read Wolfe.

>>22608409
Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton

>>22608687
said the ritualposter that complains about ritualposters every thread
dont you have any shame?

>>22608753
Holy shit. What an absolute trash list of goyslop

>>22608753
No

>female protagonist book
>there must always be something about patriarchy bad
This is so annoying

>>22608409
Soldier of the Mist.

What will I think of it?

>>22609273
Mc is a 37 years old knight who falls in love with a 16 yo princess.

>>22609281
Kino

>>22609281
I'm in.

I'm writing a fantasy romance novel. The leads are 18 years old but end up acting very awkward/nervous around each other as they struggle to express their feelings.

>>22608447
well I watched the movie and it made me very uncomfortable

>>22609344
This dialogue is already better than some of the absolute garbage that keeps getting recommended here.
Mind you that's not saying all that much, you're coming up against Azarinth Healer.

>>22608398
baste

I'm reading Ani-Droids.

>>22609344
Not bad fren. Would continue reading.

>>22609344
you butter the girl way too much
the guy seems to be a raging cunt at any minor insult
otherwise decent

>>22608626
You can read the main series without Esselmont stuff, but it improves the experience. You only fit in the Esselmont stuff 5 books in anyway, so just keep reading and decide then

What's some adventure fantasy that's competently written and has engaging prose? I've been rereading the Legend of Drizzt, which I used to love as a kid. Salvatore's writing is so clunky, though, and he reuses phrases like "blades appearing in hands" ad nauseum. Is there anything that captures a similar feeling to the Legend of Drizzt or Dragonlance, but is written by someone who actually knows what they're doing?

>>22608626
I've read up to Midnight Tides. It's good, but slows down and gets pretty slow by Midnight Tides.

>>22608681
Nearly done with The Shadow of the Torturer. Pretty good read so far.

>>22609455
Michael Moorcock, Jack Vance, and David Eddings all write better than Salvatore.

>>22608319
>>22609455
How about my work in progress, it is a comfy Traditional Catholic Fantasy Epic.
>When the crystal protecting her kingdom begins to fail and the spooky monsters beyond its protection threaten to destroy her people, the faithful Princess Leonor must journey beyond enemy lines in order to retrieve the holy incense and rejuvenate the crystal's power before it fails.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/74960/allhallowtide-halloween-nocturne
It is still a work in progress and I am still in the process of writing it. I would appreciate

>>22609455
Just read David Eddings
Belgariad/Malloreon or Tamuli/Elenium series

>>22609489
>female protagonist
>royal road

>>22609455
Seconding Jack Vance. Try Dying Earth. Lyonesse too, although the emphasis is less on adventure and more on an overarching meta-plot. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, also.

I liked it.

>>22609494
I am aware of the demographics on that website, I just wanted to put it up somewhere. However despite the fact that it is female protag lead, It is a comfy story for all readers regardless of sex or age.

>>22608753
Surely a far better title would be He Who Fights Monsters

>>22609519
Look, we laugh here at >women but writing anything but LitRPG on Royalroad is a massive risk if you want to get anything from your novel besides some people commenting about typos or how your web serial suck.

>>22609349

I got interested in the film because of nude Scarjo but I'm finding the actual source material pretty compelling the title is very apt because Faber does a good job at making you feel uncomfortable and uneasy.

>>22609478
>>22609492
>>22609496
Thanks, just added Moorcock, Vance, and Eddings to my reading list.

>>22609532
How come a good chunk of best rated series on the site arent litRPG in that case? MoL, The Perfect Run, The Last Orellen, Beware of Chicken, Blood & Fur to name a few.

>>22609554
Because 1) they got lucky and 2) they hooked the litrpg crowd with something: timeloop, battle royale (orellen) etc
Of course, these novels are also decently written

>>22609581
I guess so. I was going to argue but I remember how author of The Far Shore (which I thought was really good) only got a break once he started writing litRPG adjacent stuff (even if it turned out to be a massive bait-and-switch dozens of chapters in).

Best sad fantasy novels? Sad in the emo sense. Not in the dramatic, heroic death of characters.

>>22609628
Thomas Covenant

>>22608626
Not important for a first-time read. Return of the Crimson guard after Bonehunters for a minor but important event but overall not needed. I'm reading the last novel soon, but unless you really like the world they are unimportant and don't compare to Erikson's writing.

Can someon please tell me the name of the amazonian alien anthro x human romance story someone posted on here a while back.

>>22609628
The queen of melancholy and sadness would probably be Robin Hobb. You wouldn't want to be a character in one of her Elderling books, they do not have a happy time.

>>22609918
ok, found it, was called pinwheel.

finished wot 4, shadow rising.
I'm liking where Rand is going. He's way off on the deep end on the Lone Wolf thing, but it's good. He's doing my girl Moiraine dirty, but she kinda deserves it.
Perrin is a much more standard Hero of the People story, and it's fun too. I dont really understand the Slayer subplot.
I expected the White Cloaks (or at least Bornhald) to come around and fight the Greater Evil, enemy of my enemy and so. A bit disappointed, it would make an interesting reverse parallel with Egeanin.
Matt is awesome when he's under pressure and has his own chapters. Otherwise, all he does is say he wants to leave.
I dislike Nynaeve very much. She does nothing to deserve all the power she has, people go out of their way to help her and she's an absolute bitch to everyone. She throws around the title of Wisdom of bumfuck nowhere like it means something. Any other character would get their shit kicked in, but Nynaeve gets a pass. Making her Accepted immediately was an incredible mistake.
Elayne & crew are alright.

>>22609948
My brother in Christ why are you wasting your time with WOT
It won't be worth it I promise you

NOW THERE IS NO END
THE WHEEEEEEEEEEEL WILL TURN MY FRIEND
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJtFXTIEwYQ

>>22609948
see
>>22608643

Does anyone know the name of a chink novel where Earth had a space ship or something in the north pole and the MC left Earth and became an apprentice of some boxer dude in another galaxy?

>>22609948
>I dont really understand the Slayer subplot.
It's pretty much impossible to piece it together at this point, and it's one of the main side plots Jordan had going that elicit a "oh, okay" reaction.
>Matt is awesome when he's under pressure and has his own chapters. Otherwise, all he does is say he wants to leave.
Yeah get used to both those things. Mat only gets better over time, and becomes one of the bright spots in the later novels.
>I dislike Nynaeve very much.
>Elayne & crew are alright
It's funny how these opinions will eventually reverse. Nynaeve is actually my third favorite character now, and I also found her insufferable on my first read of WoT. It's not just what she does later on, it's understanding her character in retrospect. The early book chapters of Nynaeve feel very different on reread.

How are Er Gen's World Worth Protecting and Pursuit of the Truth compared to ISSTH and AWE?

>>22608605
There are also a lot of women with impressive bosoms and shapely hips.

Still reading Reverend Insanity, just got done with the assault on Heavenly Court/Fate Gu which was an absolute slog. On the other hand it feels like the "main plot" just finished so I'm not sure what the rest will be about.

Also listening to Conan fan audiobooks while playing video games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmd1kGz5gLg&list=PLlFcav_ti8rkUvq2sqnHxKQ6AmeSN-2QK&index=3 This guy's voice is really great at it, though the female voice he gets needs to check her damn audio levels.

>>22609519
>is a comfy story for all readers regardless of sex or age.
So it's ya romance garbage. No thanks.

>sirs doing the needful: the novel

No idea what i just read.
It starts pretty well but then the first half is about a heist and the second part is a whodunnit. And the protagonist is perfect at both while being a young monk? It doesn't make sense.
I couldn't even follow the descriptions in the first half without looking at the cover art every five minutes.
I really hope it gets better because i did not liked the dream sequence.

>>22610408
There is a reason Silk is so skilled at what he does. He is hardly perfect though, he gets caught by Musk when he breaks in.
The Tunnels are the rough part of the next book, if you push past that you'll be in the clear for one of the most intriguing depictions of the chaos of revolution put to paper matched with some out there revelations about what the setting is and why everyone is there.

>>22610291
The premise was intriguing, but the book ended up a huge disappointment with the thematic depth of a shonen filler episode. I have no idea why it's so highly praised in certain circles. Do people just have no idea about poo religions and think any surface references to them are inherently deep?

>10% left to finish book
Should i just mark it as read and move on with my life?

>>22610439
Does it spark joy?

>>22610430
Zelazny just managed to cram a lot of interesting ideas into it

if i take two paragraphs at the beginning of the book, after the introductory paragraph, to name m protagonist, vaguely show that he is there for a reason, then describe the bit about the planet my characters are approaching, including just a line or two about its history which hint at the bigger picture of whats happening, no massive lore-dumps or anything like that, do you you think that would be too much exposition too early? should i push it back until after a few pages of dialogue?

i could keep the lines introducing the character and push back the description until right before they land on the planet, but I personally like the way the introduction flows into the description

Is it true the line "walk without rhythm and you won't attract the worm" from Weapon of Choice is a reference to Dune?

>>22608491
>Don't read past book 3 (as the first three are self contained and the series goes to shit during The Books of the South)
I disagree.

>>22610580
Looks like it

This was better than I expected. Yes, there is a lot of silly plotholes and the action parts are a bit too drawn out and tiring for my liking, but the way the author structured the plot to connect the story of a tortured, depressed, stoic soldier and a suave space pirate was great. Surprisingly good at showing the despair and hopelessness of war from a soldier's perspective.

>>22610632
>title of the book in massive letters is spelt wrong

>>22610669

>>22608319
>alien slop reading binge
just finished alien prototype, such a letdown compared to cold forge.

now reading alien into iran, lets see how allah fights xenomorphs.

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

I just finished The Curse of Chalion. What a great book. Not the sort I'd normally enjoy, as almost all of it was just court intrigue and talking, almost no action. But I enjoyed the writing style and the story. One of the few books that really hooked me from start to finish. Is it worth reading any of the other books (Paladin of Souls, Hallowed Hunt, Penric books...)? In what order should I start?

>>22610841
>princess and knight pairing
Ugh

>>22610681
Armor is incorrect
It's Arnour

>>22610841
They're all good. Paladin is Souls is a direct sequel to Chalion, with Ista as the protagonist. Hallowed Hunt is a prequel, set around 150 years prior.
I'd say read Paladin of Souls, then read up to Penric's Shaman (which won't take long, most of the Penric stories are novellas under 100 pages), and then the Hallowed Hunt, as Hallowed Hunt covers topics that are fleshed out in Penric's Shaman, that being the specifics of Shamanism in the series.

>>22610841
Don't go into Paladin expecting more of the same, it's much more geared towards female readership. Haven't read the other two

I have been thinking about how "Magic" of the elves is presented in Tolkien and I think it's actually the best analogy to technology, as opposed to hte many "hard" magic systems that pretend that amgic is technology:
>all magic objects are crafts in the end
>all workers of magic are really skilled crafters, legendary in their days, from the elves of Lothlorien to Celebrimbor to Faenor himself
>most "magic" items of elves are cultural creations, amazing those that do not understand the elven culture, leading to them calling it magic
>all workers of magic let their own understanding into their world
>such as the three rings of power that each pertained to an element and the wearers were in the end associated with that element (Elrond with stars, Galadriel with water, Gandalf with fire.)
>Celebrimbor's three rings are tainted because he used the secrets delivered to him by disguised Sauron, which he did not understand well enough himself
>so even though they were forged without Sauron's knowledge, they are still connected to him
>(this makes the rings of power the perfect analogy for unsafe webcode copypasted intoa thousand projects by amateur or lazy devs)

>>22610841
Funny I just finished it too. Enjoyed it a lot and was similarly surprised considering how little action there was.
Old mate was just that good of a character.
>>22610959
I also just had a quick look at the synopsis after looking up the author and being surprised it was a femoid. The sequels do look a lot less interesting.

>>22611066
Paladin of Souls is as good as Chalion. Hallowed Hunt is probably the worst of the three. The Penric Novellas, I think, are probably the best part of the series. Penric is a very enjoyable character, and Desdemona is a great counterpoint to him.

What's some fantasy about orphanage burning, paladin party betraying, teleporting-behind-youing edgy evil protagonists?

Fantasy books like the film Moneyball?

>>22608319
give me your best grimdark, I'm an old forgotten realms lover who went down the deep end of a lot of grimdark novels (an underrated and criminally unknown one is the aching god)

>>22608626
They're fine on their own, just like Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach. Esselmont's style is also different enough there's no guarantee you'll like his novels if you like core Malazan.

>>22610632
>mfw Felix goes all out at the end

This book could've been half as long, why was Gali even a character

>>22611285
Gaki

>>22611271
I like to imagine that Felix exploded Borglyn's head with a single punch. The only think I disliked about the ending was the rushed redemption given to Kent. I prefer my headcannon in which Kent actually tried to kill Felix. He went insane because Felix exposed him as a fraud to himself and he couldn't handle that, his shame was so great he had to kill him, but in trying to do so the Engine awakes and Felix kills Kent in self-defense. Knowing that he would be executed for killing ''Everybody's Hero'', he fled by taking his friend's spaceship (which was full of money) and ended up in Sanction. The part about Jack and Holly being bros in Sanction was very wholesome, not gonna lie. I was expecting a depressing ending.

>Trade paperback is too expensive
>Mass market paperback is too cheap
Every year it gets harder to enjoy print scifi

>>22611344
Seems like everyone's into hardcovers these days. As in, paying premium for books that look nice on their shelf while they probably listen to audiobooks or something.

>>22611344
Why would anyone complain about something being too cheap?

>>22611365
ESL?

>>22611426
No, a pedant.

>>22611285
>This book could've been half as long
That's every Tchaikovsky novel. His best work are his short stories and novellas.

>>22610632
They don't make kino mil-scifi like these anymore.
SAD!

>>22611103
Prince of Thorns

>>22611253
Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton
>>22611232
Dodging Prison and Stealing Witches

Expect an announcement The Winds of Winter is finished tomorrow lads

>>22611543
The puppy in a well story fucked me up.

>Imagine living like that! Here is a human being with absolutely no sense of optimism, no faith in his own future. No hope.

I am literally Felix.

Anyone know of some other weird western/dark fantasy core like the six gun tarot trilogy or dark tower?

Bonus points for gay angst?

>>22611580
Why? I've been taking my meds so I don't see why I would be this delusional all of a sudden

>>22608319
I read a book from a recommendation here and loved it, but have since lost it and can't remember the title. Google search sucks shit now.
It was about a trickster shapeshifting robot who stole an artifact from some ancient temple and set out to wake old gods who created him. The world is kind of low tech with people using swords and riding carriages. Halfway through the book the perspective changes to a robot who is pursuing him and it tells of his creation.
I think the title had Gemini in it or something, any help would be appreciated. thanks

Why haven’t you retards read this yet?
It’s great, way better than half the shit you guys talk about.

>>22611640
Tell us about it.

>>22611640
Looks like typical litrpg garbage.

>>22611289
if tchaikovsky did something else with the ending that character could've worked.
felt like he didn't really know how to wrap up the book

but if he ever revisits the setting I would read it
a prequel in the Underworld could be cool

Name a single good fantasy and/or sci-fi book released this year.

>>22611654
It's worse than that. It has all the elements of a litrpg harem smut novel, the author has written that genre before, but without the smut or the litrpg leveling. All that leaves you with is a childishly written piece of inferior fiction.

>>22611689
I'm waiting for the Hugo & Nebula awards to tell me what to read.

>>22611360
>As in, paying premium for books that look nice on their shelf while they probably listen to audiobooks or something.
This is especially evident with book tubers. Some of those people REALLY have a problem with how much they're spending on books they already own simply because of a new edition, prettier cover, etc.

>>22611697
>big book of the month box thing
I can't imagine anyone actually reads these things.

>>22611689
I'm glad you asked.
Today two of the books that I've most enjoyed this year released.
Generation Ship - Michael Mammay
>>/lit/thread/22095341#p22096462

These Burning Stars - Bethany Jacobs
>>/lit/thread/22591004#p22591099

>>22611696
Unclear how much this is bait or idiocy. Your only choices are that you're pretending to be retarded or that you're sincerely retarded. Which is it? You're welcome for the reply.

>>22611728
Of course it's bait but they are useful lists, to know which books to avoid.

>>22611765
How useful is it really when you avoid anything published this century?

>>22611728
>Unclear how much this is bait or idiocy. Your only choices are that you're pretending to be retarded or that you're sincerely retarded. Which is it? You're welcome for the reply

>>22611778
How is that a suitable reaction? Are you saying you're in support of them? That's the wrong image to use if so. Please put a minimal of effort into this. Thank you.

Any sci-fi books with magic? Not advanced technology but magic magic.

>>22611826
What about fantasy books with high tech equipment?

You know what trope I'm tired of? All-wise and knowing old witch living in wilderness. I think it would be refreshing to read about witch that knows something about herbalism or maybe even a bit of magic stuff, but which knowledge is largely fake superstitions and believes that at best do nothing.

>>22611826
Brandon Sanderson's newest book, The Sunlit Man basically does that.

>>22611831
i want high tech gnomes in my fantasy

>>22611907
Enjoy. Was a nice trilogy.

>>22611864
All-wise witch can be a walking plot device, whereas the sham one like you want would be a minor flavor character at most, unless the author really twisted things up to force another narrative role.

Any advice for trying to wean myself off of Chinese MTL bugslop? The worst part about it is the fact that, with an editor, MTL becomes just as readable as the average prose of a Webnovel English writer.

>>22612035
>The worst part about it is the fact that, with an editor, MTL becomes just as readable as the average prose of a Webnovel English writer.
>bugs bunny no.png
The "editor" would have to end up rewriting the entire book, because those books are wordcount farms. The author does shit to fill his weekly quota.

>>22611965
what a trustworthy cover quote

>>22612035
What do you like about MTL bugslop? There's a lot of series that tackle action/progression/cultivation stuff and are written in actual English. Not always good English, but English nonetheless.

>>22611645
At the most basic, it's a Cyberpunk Detective novel, however the world and the world-building are miles above most 'cyberpunk' books. The premise is that the entirety runs on AR technology that you interact with via a brain implant you get as a teenager. However, the main character has a rare condition that makes it impossible for him to have one, which leaves him in a city that he cannot integrate into. However, that disability leaves him as a blindspot to the police AIs (human officers are being phased out) that passively scan people's brain implants for crimes. This allowed him to take many 'grey market' jobs. Due to the events at the beginning of the novel, the AIs recruit him as part of the police department. The AIs live almost entirely on the net and only interact with the real world via intermediary bodies. They want him to advise them as someone who isn't 'compromised' by a connection to the net.

I would say the novel's strong points and the main reasons to read it are the excellent world-building and characters. The main mystery is servicable, but not stellar. The sequel books have much-improved mysteries.

>>22611690
What are you even talking about? I think you confused him with someone else.

>>22612170
> I think you confused him with someone else.
No, I don't think I have.

>>22611965
>Gears
>Gnome Saga
>Arcanum flashbacks
They couldn't get away with this shit anymore. Sad!

>There are people writing cyberpunk stories in the year 2023

>>22612170
Sounds good, actually. I'm gonna read the first couple pages.

>finish reading Inda book 4
>discover it's the last book
>Inda never explores sartor or the rest of the continent
>he never goes around doing stuff in the vast world and just die in his bed
I feel cucked.

>>22611786
>Are you saying you're in support of them?
Them? Who is "them" ?

Is he slop?

>>22609344
How did she sneak up on him with Sir Leon clinking along beside her?

>>22612304
"Them" is whomever needs to be cast in the role of villain at the moment.

>>22612317
How much does being slop matter if it makes you one of the most successful and wealthy authors in SFF?

So I found out Japanese really love Greg Egan's works. I've only read Diaspora, and Luminous but why does he have such a big fan base there compared to America, or UK. I also found out not only Nihei, but Shinkai was influenced by him too is it just because of the size, and scope of his ideas

>>22612317
Basically the Marvel of SFF

>>22612025
A rather cliche plot device and one that for the best effect should be used sparingly anyway imo. So what it will be a minor flavor character. Taking detours isn't necessary bad.

>>22612342
Mechanical prose probably translates pretty well. Same as Murakami.

>>22608874
>Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton
>just a collection of short stories
into the trash it goes

>>22608409
The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe

>>22610835
pain

>>22612401
american isekai power trip slop

How much of the old and influential sci-fi is actually, genuinely worth reading today?

>>22612661
none, scifi is dead

>>22612661

Definitely Gibson and PKD their ideas and insights really hold up well today. Asimov too his works surprisingly don't feel dated but there's definitely this sort nostalgic vibe towards them he was one of the first to to call out humanity's relationship with AI and automation making him more relevant than ever

>>22611103
The Brothers Grossbart kinda

>>22611826
>>22611831
Demontech?

So I read Red Rising. It was decent enough. I’m now reading Golden Sun. When it was hinted that Mustang was with someone new, I immediately feared the worst and guessed it was going to be Cassius. I hoped the writer wasn’t going to be as stupid as that. Now I arrive at the point it is ”revealed” and I’m just annoyed. She knows that Cassius is a retard who swore a bloodfeud against Darrow. She knows all this and yet still sleeps with him. I just can’t wrap my head around this forced drama, because I’m 99% sure that Mustang is the ultimate ”love interest” for the main character and I can’t comprehend anyone getting back together with such a whore.

Tell me whether it’s worth continuing to read this series. Otherwise I’m liking the books, but this just pisses me off, perhaps unreasonably much. I was nowhere near this pissed when the whore in Urth cheated on Severian.

>>22612798

>>22612876
Strange Journey was ruined for me when someone pointed out the curve under the eyes of the helmet looks like a smiley face

>>22612884

>>22612890
>hp lovecraft
>HaPPy lovecraft
woah...

>>22612876
I don't know what this picture means

>>22612896
It's the demonica from Strange Journey
It's a game where you have a strange journey

>>22612890
Mfw i see an interracial couple on the street

>>22612945
I saw mommy kissing Yog-Sothoth

I'm convinced at this point GRRM is just running his own thought experiment with Ice and Fire modeled after Waiting for Godot

>>22612661
The answer to that I feel is that there are distinct eras of Sci-Fi that have interacted with the general attrition of time in different ways. If you go all the way back before what I'd call the beginning of the mid-century SF then pretty much everyone you can name from that time period I'd argue is worth reading if only for style. The science of Cordwainer Smith or Lovecraft or Jules Verne may not hold up but there's a verve and adventure to them that held fast. That's not to say that all the old influential stuff from that era maintained its value. I think many of the Weird Tales and the pulps a la Flash Gordon are dreck and best left forgotten. In a service of convenience for the modern reader we have already had those authors purged from common knowledge for us. You still have some lesser knowns who one would now call "your favorite authors favorite author" like Henry Kuttner or Manly Wade Wellman, and those are worth reading. Time has given us the twin gifts of the river Lethe and the convictions of men nearer our time to shave off the fat.

Moving past that you go to the technologists, the writers from the tech boom of the second world war that hurtled science fiction from novelty to in some ways a birth right. Technology and science are here and transforming us, and so our cultural output changes with it. Asimov was one of these slide ruler men, Arthur C. Clarke and Theodore Sturgeon were too. The science is now much more likely to become outdated and incredibly so. Pulp sci-fi may feel kitschy, but shamefully I find Asimov's Three Laws more quaint and outdated than Captain Blastall and his laser phaser. You have some derring-do still: Alfred Bester hits his peak in the mid century. There's still a lot of influential Science Fiction from this era but it does somehow seem the most dated of all from a technical standpoint.

You then have the realm of the artiste and the counter revolution. The moon landing came and went and we were still at war down below. The Triple Revolution was chugging along and Science Fiction in America became something dedicated to talking about the triad of Civil Rights, Arms, and Cybernetics that were driving the zeitgeist. This might seem parochial, but I define that era by Dangerous Visions if for no other reason than it was the first collection from that era that made a case for what science fiction had become of the time. Harlan Ellison came into play here and by God he remains a hell of a read.

(cont.)

>>22613149
You have the lesser known today but still all time greats of Robert Silverberg and Poul Anderson. Frederik Pohl as well started putting out some real crackerjack work in this era that I nebulously define as the late 60s through the 80s (maybe I oughta give Dune the credit as the first "modern science fiction novel" for starting this era? Ech!). This is the era where you can view the Hugos and Nebulas at their most useful: an industry award by and for the industry that runs on the blood of the newfangled fan convention circuit.

I will devote slightly more time to this era because I feel its perhaps the most complex set of inflection points in terms of whether or not you'll enjoy science-fiction from any given author or not. Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Jules Verne, Clark Ashton Smith, Lovecraft, Cordwainer Smith, running down the great names through those decades in general you would seldom find their stories "objectionable". You would get a sense whether or not you liked their prose, figure out their general matters subject and get on with the process of reading their works or not. Clarke's got a new book about a big dumb object in space? I'll check it out. Asimov's trying to dip back into the Foundation inkwell? I'm checked out myself. Aside from the cases of some gender issues, you can run the Bechdel test on the early Hugo winners if you want to waste a few months, one could read the entire gamut of science fiction from whatever protostory you want to claim started the ruckus all the way up until the new wave of lets say around Dune's release so I can make the ohsoclever joke of After Dune or AD.

AD you start to get into wildly divergent approaches to science fiction that make it really hard for me to tell you if the science fiction is worth reading for you or not. Are you interested in serious technical explorations of possibility? Or are you interested in fantastical adventures draped in the robery of science? Or are you interested in a roman a clef about a homosexual time traveler (this being a major twist in Dangerous Visions made quite tame today)? Do you want thrumming sexuality and provocative gender discovery? The use of what-ifs to not interrogate the future but rather our present? Some can argue with me but this era is when science fiction transformed itself into a new beast entirely, one that I think subsided a bit in the 90s and 00s but then came full swing in the modern era of the genre.

(cont.)

>>22613154
This humble author did a cursory survey of science-fiction not to really so much give a history but rather a heuristic. Does the reader want to merely have an adventure? If so you can go right back to 20,000 Leagues and keep going onward and you'll see that even if the word choice is outdated and the actual science farcical the narrative still maintains the attraction it did for our grandfathers. Do you want "hard science fiction" in the sense that you want to tickle your mind with a sincere exploration of the interesting ways science could interact with society or perhaps what if our universe had one great big lie e.g. the gravitational constant g being ever so slightly different, then yes you can still find that and those authors keep their prominence on the mantelpiece above our collective hearth. With the caveat to that previous lauding being that with every new discovery we make that past retreats ever further from our own understanding. So if you just want decent prose and fantastical adventures, or interesting what-ifs in a bottle from the past (Heinlein's Roads are fantastically silly but a very powerful window into the present of his writing) then we can say that Science Fiction has kept its vim and vigor. However if you want to delve into relevant social issues or have utility then we hit a roadblock. You have to accept as a communicant that they are distanced from our current science and our current society, even if only by decades that might as well be a gulf. Their concerns were not o the same flavors as ours, they'd much sooner use the term transvestite over transgender and they might be much more optimistic on the futurism of their time than us, the generation that wholesomely labels ourselves as late-stage. Even then there are writers for your niche subject most likely. You have Octavia Butler and Le Guin. However I have to assume that when this question is asked, we're referring to the beloved Dead Old White Guys Society.

TL;DR: I could list various authors and works that could interest the modern reader but in this case I feel passion for the multitude over the ultimate localization of worthiness. It varies depending on what you yourself want out of Science Fiction but if their names are still remembered today they tend to hold value still, and if their names aren't as widely known they still can have value to you the modern reader depending on your purpose and interests. I think that socially you might find them more outdated, and you can also definitely have issues with their prose but I still love even that old austistic aphantist Asimov, good words be damned!

Thanks chatGPT

>>22613161
Not that anon, but I'm mostly interested in sci-fi that deals with timeless human conflicts, fears and questions. I don't mind the sci-fi aspects being relegated to a cool backdrop. For me it has to be about people, the human condition. I have absolutely no interest in masturbatory daydreams about technology and advances in scientific knowledge or the authors vision of a utopia of scientificism. Those usually age like milk anyway.

what was that line
16MB of hot ram or something

Is Cordwainer genuinely his name? What kind of parents name their kid fucking Cordwainer?
Then again some parents call their kid Gaylord

>>22613202

Then I'd argue that for you mostly you'd want authors from the sixties on, although Asimov and Heinlein both dealt with humanity. The Foundation is as much about the individual vs history as anything else, for example. But you'd probably find something interesting in the era of the late 60s onward. After Dune you have a lot of authors exploring the human condition more specifically in some more proactive ways.

>>22613211
He was the godchild of Sun Yat Sen and a close friend of Chiang Kai Shek. Cordwainer's real name was the embarrassingly white Paul Myron, but he kept his fiction writing a secret because his day job was using his connections to Asia to become a prominent psychological warfare expert throughout the region. Permit me some psychological inspection but I think that Cordwainer Smith was a declaration of intent: a cordwainer was a leatherworker and shoemaker, a smith was a craftsman of metal. He intended to make fine materials out of the traditional Chinese stories he grew up with, and also propogate catgirl fetishism in the west.

>>22608681
He doesn’t ever tell a story. Great style, but no payoff.

>>22613211
>can't be bothered to open the relevant wiki page

>>22613252
Severian taking off his boots is a bigger payoff then 99.9% of the slop posted here.

>>22612282
There's always a market for what's current :^)

>>22611689
The Basilisk Throne was just okay, but the series has a lot of promise. It's also the only book I've read that released this year.

>>22612840
Just keep reading.

>>22611689
uh

uh

Jackie Chan

bit on the fence about memory thorn and sorrow by tad williams, in regards on weather i should read it or listen to it in audiobook form. some people are saying it's long and plodding which makes me lean towards audiobook, others are saying the prose is really good which makes me lean towards reading.

can i get some input from sffg as well? so far i'm leaning more towards audiobook because i've got 4 hours per day to listen to audiobooks and one hour to read and i'd rather save my reading time for the best stuff.

Without naming it. What do you like about your favorite book/serie?

>>22613656
Intelligent, Nihilistic and with a Wicked Sense of Humor

Audiobooks are a line i will not cross. I'd rather listen to lectures and conferences instead.

>>22613723
A book is just a written lecture

>>22611640
Oh the author for this used to run quests on /tg/ before they got shuffled off to /qst/

>>22608319
I have been reading fantasy books for a while now - and decided to read the Hobbit by Tolkein, and for the life of me I cannot enjoy it. I understand that he is a pivotal person within the fantasy genre and without him it wouldn't be where it is now, but this is like eating drywall. 3/5 at best.

Are any of his other books actually any good?

Thomas Covenant so far feels like if PKD decided to write his own Tolkien knock off but decided to become progressively edgier as it goes on

>The second book is the best in the series

What's her name

>>22612781
Thanks anon, its definitely a "kinda" but its still heaps of fun.

>>22613656
How unrealistic it is, as all fantasy should be.

>>22614109
Three-Body Problem

>>22614109
The Prince of Nothing.

>>22614109
The Ringworld Engineers

>>22614123
Glad you like it. They literally leave an infant to burn to death in the first couple chapters iirc.

>>22614083
Stick to whatever slop you were reading before and don't sully actual literature with your slovenly attention

>>22614083
>This nigger got filtered by THE HOBBIT of all things
Can't make this shit up, Kek.

Which is better?

What else should I get? Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion are arriving next week.

What else should I add? Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion are arriving next week.

>>22614396
Funkopops aught to round the whole thing out you witless consumer

>>22614396
What an utter waste of money in pursuit of a decorative aesthetic. What you own isn't a proper substitute for a personality.

>>22614404
>>22614405
Are you illiterate? Answer the question.

>>22614396
>paperbacks
Trash it and start over

>>22614396
If you post this on Reddit, they'll give you upvotes and validation for your pathetically normal taste in books. They'll probably call you a pedo or something because of Berserk and retract their precious updoots.

>>22614396
How about you read those two books that are coming before you get any new ones? Shitheel.

>>22614419
No. Paperbacks are more comfortable to read.
>>22614420
Ok? Thanks for the meaningless input, dumbass.

>>22614396
>Manga
I hate this weeb shitter website

>>22614434
Take your normalfag books back to a normalfag website, retard faggot.
>>22614439
Anime website, newfag nigger.
>b-b-b-buhhhh 4chan didn't exist until the day I started posting here!!!!

>>22614433
I like having a big tbr so there's never really any down time for my reading.
>>22614445
No, I don't think I will.

>>22614396
see
>>22608643

>>22614445
Been here since 2005. I can still despise you fucking subhumans all I like thank you very much.
>Always been this way!!!
Don't care. This is not one of the anime-focused boards.

Neck yourself or stop looking at picture books.

>been here since 2005
>neck yourself!
every time

>>22614274
Yep, I was looking for psychopath mastermind shadow the edgehog kind of fun but literal scum of the earth is fine too.

>>22614347
>Can't make this shit up, Kek.
Its a boring book - despite me quite enjoying works older than it. I don't think that it is awful, but I don't think its amazing. Its just okay - and I found it a slog to get through.

>>22608874
Book fuckin rules. I wish McNaughton's others were half as good.

>>22614109
Lake of the Long Sun

>>22614396
Dosto book made me chuckle

>>22614109
Earthsea

>>22614272
Isn't this the one with all the furry sex?

>>22612170
>however the world and the world-building are miles above most 'cyberpunk' books.
I don't read cyberpunk novels because the genre isn't my preference. However is what you mentioned about the world-building in Neural Wraith miles above most 'cyberpunk' books really accurate?
I read NW not because of the settings, but solely because of the author. And to be honest the worldbuilding is very barebone imo when compared to other scifi titles, even Blade Runner does it better.
If you claim NW has better world-building than others does that mean most cyberpunk books are of low quality in that aspect?
Also regarding the harem, are there any humans in the later books, or are all the members of his harem AI robots?

>>22614396
lmao why do you have two copies of each stormlight archive books? did owning one not help satiate your aesthetic autism?

Anyone ARC read newer indie fantasy? Anything good?

Not a big fan of ereaders, but free novels is free novels.

>>22614821
They're split in two outside of the US.

>>22608319
>start new series
>fun books until the author inserts faggots and pronouns shit
Why do they do this?

>>22614838
Technically ARCs are physical copies only. DRCs are digital copies. I've read a quite a few trad published DRCs this year and a couple self-published ones.

>>22614821
Thanks for the meaningless input, dumbass.

Has anyone read this yet?

>>22614872
>>/lit/thread/21917688#p21918601

>>22614354
If your magic has a clear unambiguous "system", it ceases to be magic, at this point you're writing science fiction in antique setting. Like, if you wrote a story about dropping a crate of assault rifles during the peak of Roman Republic, it wouldn't be fantasy just because romans would think of the rifles as magical death sticks granted to them by Mars. Obviously, one need only to look to the GOAT Bakker to see the brilliant happy medium. In Bakkers works, magic is a form of philosophical thought, systemic in a general sense but open to interpretive freedom. Various forms of philosophy yield various strengths, materialistic sorcerers can only fashion crude replicas of physical objects whole gnostic sorcerers break the metaphysical barriers and operate with pure forms.
Not only that, but Bakker subtly makes fun of the radical magical systems in a form of wild, unpredictable, sensual magic of Psukhe, and clarkean technology-indistinguishable-from-magic in the guise of Tekne.

>>22614855
Why are americans like this

>>22614855
what book?

>>22614914
Trash.

>>22614976
"On the Shoulders of Titans" by Andrew Rowe.

>>22614779
Nah, you're thinking of Ringworld Throne, but Engineers first mentions the rishathra bullshit iirc

>>22614396
Retard, go put the heavy books at the bottom shelf.

>>22615021
he did that with his first series, making his MC a faggot at the very end
he is a mod of the /progressionfantasy subreddit, which is very pro-faggotry. One of the authors of Iron Prince is also a mod and sperged the fuck out newfag-style back in June during Pride month about people asking why the book forum had a pride flag, like full-on caps-lock "YOU ACT LIKE THIS" posting

>>22615052
Why would he...?

>>22615052
That's unfortunate. His prose is lacking but I had fun reading the first book. Is this shit common in modern fantasy?

>>22615052
progression fantasy is for faggots anyway

>>22615066
No it's a requirement

>>22614868
Any recommendations?

>>22615066
>Is this shit common in modern fantasy
Depends, mostly yes if the author wants to make some bucks out of women and fags.

>>22615103
Nah, authors write what's on their mind and about things they know about.
If there is jw garbage in the book then the author is definitely pozzed

>>22615093
In terms of getting free books that haven't been published yet if you're approved for them? There's several sites for that. As far as I know the two main ones for trad published are NetGalley and Edelweiss. I've only used the former though. There's many more for free books that have already been published, for self-published anyway.

If you mean what books do I recommend from this year you can look at:
>>/lit/?task=search2&ghost=false&search_text=2023&search_tripcode=sffg&search_ord=old

or my Goodreads profile.

>>22615162
What's your GR profile
I hate searching the archive for your reviews

>>22615162
I loved The Will of the Many. Anything similar?

No-God when

Should I buy this?

>>22615366
It's your money bro do whatever you want

>>22614855
Why the fuck would you highlight something like that? Shouldn't it come naturally to the narrator/pov character if its truly the right thing to do? It's jarring as fuck.

Why is Bakker so bad at coming up with names? And why is Robert Jordan so good?

>>22615366
Looks like ass desu. There are a million better covers

>>22612317
maybe, but his books are better than most of the other stuff that gets put out these days

>>22615052
sufficiently advanced magic has one of the weirdest coming out scenes i have ever read
I dropped it right there and then, didnt even bother finishing the book

>>22614962
John Birmingham (Australian) does the same thing in The Cruel Stars.

>>22615217
it's the most derivative shit I've ever read so try literally anything else. Read Naomi Novik's Scholomance if you haven't already.

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

>>22608440
Peter F Hamilton Void trilogy

Why is Robert Jordan so bad?

>>22615533

>>22612317
I don't know, Elantris is really fun to read so far :)

>>22615557
You're bad

>>22615557
he isn't

>>22615514
Same.

Thoughts on The Legends of Ren Zu?

How is this story draft?

In the year 4,862, a time when disco-loving robots grooved to the binary beat of the intergalactic holo-dance floor, a super-duper-mega-hero named Captain StarDazzle, decked out in neon spandex spacesuit, stood atop the cosmic cheeseburger.

With a confidence that could eclipse a thousand suns, Captain StarDazzle exclaimed, "Fear not, citizens of Planet Funkatron! I shall save you from the impending doom of the Electro-Tofu Monster, a creature that boogies with laser-sharp tofu tentacles!"

In the midst of this dubious threat, StarDazzle summoned his trusty sidekick, Lady GlitterBop, whose helmet was adorned with sparkling sequins and who wielded a rhinestone-coated ray gun that fired glitter beams. She chimed in, "Oh, Captain StarDazzle, let's groove into action and shower that Electro-Tofu Monster with the fabulous force of disco dust!"

As they disco-glided toward the monstrous menace, StarDazzle's spaceship, the Groove-o-Tron 9000, transformed into a gigantic disco ball, and a catchy tune, "Funky Galaxy Showdown," blared from its speakers, making all aliens in a 50-light-year radius bust out into questionable dance moves.

With epic poses and exaggerated disco-inspired martial arts, our heroes engaged the Electro-Tofu Monster in a dance-off. The monster flailed its tofu tentacles, creating kaleidoscopic tofu waves, but Captain StarDazzle and Lady GlitterBop countered with dazzling twirls and moonwalks.

The climax of the battle saw Captain StarDazzle harness the power of a mirrored platform and reflect the disco lasers back at the monster, causing it to erupt in a glittery explosion. A disco dance party erupted across the galaxy, and all the aliens rejoiced in their signature awkward dance style, the "Cosmic Cabbage Patch."

With an extraordinary level of enthusiasm, Captain StarDazzle declared, "Fear not, citizens! We've defeated the Electro-Tofu Monster and brought interstellar funk to the far reaches of the cosmos! Now, let's get down and funky!"

>>22616016
>planet funkatron
Only reason I'm giving you a (you)

>>22616024
So you like it?

I like Toe Jam & Earl.

>>22612317
He actually writes compared to hacks like martin and patrick

>>22616286
so true

>>22615573
no mention of all the other impact craters?

I need fantasy novels with prominent dance sequences

so did he get mommydommed and he's just coping over being abused or is it all just a lie to make him seem like a more desirable person?

>>22614396
those are some nice dune covers but an entire shelf of sandersonshit is revolting

>>22616717
what do you mean?

>>22616733
Thelca, did she actually rape him or was it a lie and/or just what Severian wanted to happen?

>>22616740
That's up to you, really.

>>22616752
well that is kinda lame

can't believe I never read Jack Vance before, this guy essentially invented DnD in the 1950s. Are there any other authors that come close to his style?

>>22608409
I know it’s been a bit since this was posted, but I want to take the time to say that Kings of the Wyld was fucking god awful and I couldn’t make it past the first few chapters. Using rock band terminology for mercenary groups in a medieval setting was completely retarded. Go read the Wizard Knight like >>22612401 suggested and enjoy some good writing.

>>22609948
I'm still working on TSR, the pacing is really dragging me down. It feels like for every 6 or so chapters of really good progression there's back to back chapters where Jordan slams the brakes and starts fucking around describing scenery for 25 pages. It doesn't help that I'm reading the hardcover version where every page is a literal wall of text.
The Perrin stuff has been a massive highlight and is the main reason I haven't just read a breakdown of the chapters and moved on to Fires of Heaven, I didn't even like Perrin that much going into this book.

>>22616895
TSR is right around the time Jordan realized he was dying, and so the editing is a lot more rushed from there on out. For what it's worth, it's pretty obvious when he's going on a tangent, so you can skim it and not miss anything. I think those big tracts of exposition were what he did to help himself picture a scene, and he wrote them with the intention of removing them in edit, so they're usually just a big block of text that is uninterrupted and relatively clearly demarkated exposition. But with his illness, i think he just didn't feel like he had time to properly edit it all out.

>my god it's full of stars
He's in fucking space and is an astronaut
Why is he possibly surprised space of all places is full of stars?

>>22614396
>babbies first manga
Try developing some fucking taste outside of "THIS MANGA LE BROKE ME" faggots
Try Getter Robo, Biomega, Holyland, GTO

>>22614354
Wasn't Name of the Wind the one where there's like 3 paragraphs about him getting cucked and how he's coping by saying "n-no guys she's emotionally into me so it doesn't matter"

>>22616016
you've gotta play this

>>22617189
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu6MaN9tT_8

Thinking of reading Elric of Melniboné. Did any of you read it? What to expect?

>>22617294
mid

>>22617294
It’s okay.

>>22615573
>The Anus Leaf
Toilet paper?

>>22617294
Mid at best. Elric himself is terminally retarded and the series never really outgrows Moorcocks desire to be Anti-Conan".

>>22617294
I love the setting but dislike Moorcock's prose.

>>22617753
>I love the setting
>i dislike the prose
>the setting is described in prose
What did he mean by this?

>>22615573
>getting salt pillared avoids damnation
Is this a random theory for the sake of it or is it hinted at in later books?

New!!!
>>22618331
>>22618331
>>22618331

>>22611718
Nobody cares about your dogshit poplit trannybooks, back into the corner faggot.

>>22618888
why the fuck would you say this???
now I am hurt and emotionally damaged
fuck you