/lit/ - Literature

>>23043214
lmao this line, my fucking lungs, holy shit.
https://youtu.be/d3J6vzL9Kv0?si=sx0u3xT-kufhgBDY&t=2882

Fantasy is dead.

malazan

>>23043761
I&F obviated every other fantasy series.

Has anyone read Monument by Ian Graham? I believe it's standalone.. it's his first novel, it's possibly grimdark. Anyway I found a copy for .50 cents. First chapter so far is good - some drunk thief getting his ass kicked and healed back up by a priest.

>>23043214
I'm into the third volume of Against the Gods, nearing the end of the tournament.
I don't much care for how conveniently women fall for Yun Che so early on, and he feels way too strong this early, constantly given powerups. Might be the most accelerated xianxia protag I've read so far, feels like.

>>23043838
sounds good I'll put it on my list thanks. I love standalone books. Fuck a series.

>A young noble scion escapes his family to 'make his own way in the universe'
>Telekinetic space wizards
>Rumblings of galactic war
>Military academy training arc
Pick any one of the above and you have a recipe for half decent sci-fi genre slopa. So why did i get:
>Barely two pages worth of action
>MC is written like a like a middle aged woman rather then a teenage guy.
>Antagonists are worse then shonnen villans
>political intrigue is more like a playdate of toddlers at a public park
>Training is time skipped to focus on wooden dialogue that is like a beta AI stating plot points.

My question is; How is anyone supposed to make it past the first book of the series?
My follow up question; how did this shit make it through editing let alone get published?

>>23043806
Malazan what

> Just over half of all Americans said they read at least one book in 2023
If you read more than 50 books in 2023, you're a Top 1% reader in the US. How different are those percentages for /sffg/? There's lots of other interesting stuff in this survey as well.

https://today.yougov.com/entertainment/articles/48239-54-percent-of-americans-read-a-book-this-year

>>23044395
People stopped reading because tradpub was taken over by femishit cunts and they only publish garbage.

>>23042685
>500 pages long
>2 main characters, both women
>an elf and a goblin
>plot sounds like generic fantasy book #4245 about underdog characters becoming involved in epic world changing affairs

it doesn't sound very promising. even the book title sounds like something i would want to avoid

>>23041871
i read this a few months back, idk it seems like a good book but it didn't work for me

Just read first part of house goy's time looping harry pooper.
Colt did indeed equalise people.

>>23044395
I managed 52 last year. Mostly thanks to the 23 books in the sharpe's rifles series

>>23044395
I think I usually manage about 40 books per year. I'd like to do a book per week every week but sometimes I got other shit to do.

Don't forget to read Beyond Apollo!

>>23044202
>MODERN space opera
You have only yourself to blame

Trying again, I believe in y'all

I'm really digging this book: it's nice having a fantasy with low stakes, which is not about saving the kingdom/world from an ancient evil or a formidable foe.
My only complaint is that you could replace dragons with lions and the plot wouldn't be affected that much.
Anyone who happens to know a similar book? Fantasy with low stakes, even better if it's about a scholar studying magical creatures or phenomena?

So far I've been told about The Sorcerer's House, anything else?

>>23043214
Death's End - Remembrance of Earth's Past #3 - Cixin Liu - (2010/2016)

Death's End begins with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 CE. That may seem odd, but its purpose is to set expectations that something may seem like magic, but it's not, because magic doesn't exist. It's simply a phenomenon inexplicable to us with our current level of understanding. The book then follows a different narrative than was presented in the second book, which was mainly about the Wallfacer Project. For this book it's the Staircase Program, though it's not followed as closely. Eventually it catches back up to right after the second book ended, though following a different character. From there on it goes far further into the future than you may expect, but that's the power of hibernation, time dilation, and even more advanced technologies. The scope of the series greatly increases as do the consequences of its decisions. Humanity faces their greatest challenges yet.

There's so much in this series that's done very well that raises it in my estimation. The future eras and the specific details that make up the world are wonderful, especially the space habitats. The scientific ideas are intriguing thought experiments and are detailed in fantastical ways. However, there's considerably more that drags it down to where it's frustrating, if not tortuous for me to read. It's not that I don't understand the perspective, or even at times think it's wrong given a specific set of circumstances. The problem is how unrelentingly heavyhanded it is about its social ideals. Seemingly almost every situation has the same problem and resolution, repeated over and over. Does society as a whole ever learn from what is considered to be their mistakes? No, no, they don't. What frustrates me the most is how much idiocy has to be allowed for plot reasons. That being said, I consider the character that was considered to be the stupidest and worst by many simply to be a scapegoat for ideological reasons.

Depending on personal preferences some may be annoyed that although there's explanations for a lot of what happens and why, the advanced technology may as well be magic for a lot of it, especially the further along in the book that it goes. Three fairy tales are also included that metaphorically explain science and I was surprised by their inclusion and their length. There's also a considerable number of events that occur because they need to, rather than having any plausible reason, but I found that to be far easier to accept than the idiocy.

Despite the numerous issues I have with this book, author, series, and otherwise, it does a lot of things that I enjoy, though I prefer how Greg Egan did them in his novels and short fiction. Overall I'm glad that Oepin had me finish the series. If nothing else, it provided a rather different perspective on human nature, societal limitations, and morality than what I'm used to.

Rating: 3.5/5

>>23044789
There are several books in that series. Will you be reading more from it?

>>23043243
>PENIS!
>laughs uncontrollably to the point of injury

>>23044395
54. but a handful of novellas, a couple stand alone short stories, and a couple short story collections where I only read 2 or 3 of the stories.
so more like 40 something

2023 statsfag breakdown thanks to KOReader:
>reading days: 290
>total read time: 487h 14m 7s

+1 physical book I read during the summer

>>23044817
I am currently reading the 5-books series, yes.
They all deal with the narrator traveling in different biomes to study dragons, it's quite a peculiar incipit when compared to most fantasy titles.
Since I'm enjoying this premise more than expected, I'm already looking for other similar titles for when I'm done with this saga.

>>23044395
I read... I wanna say 83 books last year. Four of them were novellas so I kinda count them as one book, so 80.

I read at my job, so that's like 30+ hours of pure reading time every week plus whatever I add in my free time.

I would like to ask: who is the modern equivalent to Jules Verne

>>23044991
>I would like to ask
Absolutely, go right ahead!

After over a day of extensive research I have found more Dying Earth stories. In the previous thread I asked if there were any obscure books in the genre I wasn't aware of. Here are some I found that I might like and ordered.
Read any of them?

>Cinnabar by Edward Bryant
Collection of eight stories, located in the city of Cinnabar at the center of time, involving such characters as a network sex star, a mad computer, and a hybrid catmother.

>Divine Endurance by Gwyneth Jones
(Though usually I am skeptical reading female authors I decided to give this a try.) Set in a Ruined Earth in Southeast Asia with a matriarchal society, Jones depicts the protagonist as a female Android accompanied by a Cat, weaving though a dangerous civil conflict that begins to devastate the land.

>Child of The River by Paul J. McAuley
The first of three books. The Preservers made the world called Confluence and peopled it with ten thousand extraordinary bloodlines "shaped" from beasts of every sort. Then the Preservers abandoned their creation - leaving behind their law, their bureaucracies and their trillions of machines, awake or slumbering, in the soil and the water and the air. In the Preservers' absence war came and a dangerous heresy arose that split the world in two. But a babe swept in on the great river, cradled in the arms of death, the last and, perhaps, greatest of a remarkable bloodline. And now the end times are at hand. As Yama grows to young manhood, he will make his way from necropolis to metropolis, and through the labyrinthine country of the mind in search of a past and a lost destiny. (many have said on goodread that it's very vancian/book of the new sun inspired)

>Soldiers of Paradise by Paul Park
First in a trilogy. Religion dominates every page of The Starbridge Chronicles, which is set, aeons hence, in a Dying Earth venue where history endlessly recycles, tied to the return of the generations-long seasons of a Great Year. On a distant world of cruel belief and harsh reality, Dr. Thanakar and his cousin, Mad Prince Abu, enter the city of Charn and become involved in a society of freedom, oppression, intrigue, and power.

>>23044202
>how did this shit make it through editing let alone get published?
I searched "Duboff synagogue" and it appears to be a surname of some jews, though not her specifically

>>23045120
>though not her specifically
I mean it's her last name but... you know what I'm trying to say

>>23045080
cinnabar sounds interdasting

>>23045126
Anon, if you are implying what I think you are implying That just feels like a little too fantastically fictional to be believed.

>>23043214
Are there more QUALITY books in the vein of Starship Troopers and Armor? Good military sci-fi. Not Old Man's War type crap. Self-published is fine, as long as it's actually good. Looking for hidden gems.

>>23044789
still can't think of anything exactly as you want but since you ask again i will name a couple more things that come to mind

>The Buried Giant
fantasy setting although the fantasy elements aren't notable at all, it's a character story with what i think are low stakes. it's mostly about people coming to terms with their past, the main characters are an old married couple. not sure if it's what you are looking for but i think it's an excellent book in any case

>A night in the lonesome october
kind of a mystery book, i think it has with low stakes. the MC and narrator is a dog. i also liked it a lot. it has some elements of investigation, with magic and occult elements and creatures and so on

>>23045177
Sten Chronicles

>>23044947
What do you do for work that lets you read so much?

>>23044735
>MODERN space opera
I get the word modern is redundant, but why should this be a warning flag?

>>23045431
>Female author
>Published 2015 or later

>>23044991
I would like to answer: no one. the high adventure novel has been replaced by trashy genre fiction

Man i've been rereading The Zombie Knight a ton.
No other webnovel quite scratches that urban fantasy battle itch.
Especially the battles on moving vehicles and stuff.

>>23045382
I'm a security guard at a warm body site.

found this https://files.catbox.moe/mz8hpn.png in the mega, are they still being made? do you agree, there is something you would move or add?

>>23045450
Too Like the Lightning got published in 2016, and that series is one of the most well-written sci-fi stories I've ever enjoyed.

>>23045311
Thanks, I'm asking cause if I try to look for recommendation online I find pic related.

Other title that I got to find is The healer's road, which sounds interesting, I might look into that one.

>>23045526
No, that was a one-off thing made from a vote that was done at the time by the guy who'd later start the discord server. No one has cared enough to do so afterwards. I made a spreadsheet later on that's now some years old to get try to have a more accurate idea based on the members of the /sffg/ Goodreads group. I'd do that again if it weren't for that it's so much tedious effort spend over too long a time for a result of unknown value. It'd take much longer now considering there's over 800 members now versus the ~250 or so at the time I did it. /lit/ has still been doing it and I've added those as they've been done.

Thoughts?

>>23044202
>how did this shit make it through editing let alone get published?
It was self-pubbed and then got published via an indie publisher that the author runs so it basically didn't.
>>23045450
Finder came out in 2019 and that's a fun read that fits your negative criteria.

>>23045498
Nice, sounds comfy. I miss being able to read at work

>>23045526
>>23045628
I fully support not voting on lists like this, it's probably the most pathetic attention seeking thing outerlit does and voting lists like this always flatten down to a really boring list unless you have weighted votes and purposefully put the more niche stuff at the top of your entry.

>>23045467
Yikes.

Good Fantasy and sci-fi

>Melody of Mana
>Warlock of The Magus World
>Ringworld
>Neuromancer
>12 Miles Below
>Berserk
>There Are Superheroes In This Story
>A Neets Guide To Becoming A God
>The Reality Dysfunction
>What We Do To Survive
>A Practical Guide To Sorcery
>Healer of Monsters
>Blame
>Tenebroum
>Sokaiseva
>I Am Not Chaotic Evil
>Violent Solutions


Good Lit-RPG

>The Nailmaker
>Cinnamon Bun
>Book of The Dead
>The Tutorial Is Too Hard
>The Reincarnation of Alysara
>Dawn of The Void
>Eight
>Hell Difficulty Tutorial
>Age of Stone
>Overgeared
>As Good as Dead
>The Warlord
>The Mana Influx
>Red Mage

>new book by a fairly well regarded author
>it's another fucking magic school story
Fantasy makes like no money anyway for the publishers they could do with being a bit more ambitious with what they accept.

What are the best fantasy book series?

>>23045536
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Like_the_Lightning
"Gendered language
By default, almost all characters use gender-neutral language, with "they/them" the predominant pronoun used. Mycroft, the primary narrator, finds his world's obsession with gender-neutrality oppressive, so often uses gendered pronouns to refer to other characters, assigning genders based on the characters' personalities and roles, as they relate to traditional Western gender roles. For instance, Chagatai is referred to using "she/her" pronouns because of their fierce, lioness-like strength when protecting their nephew from attack. The author has explained that Mycroft frequently "misuses" gendered pronouns, just as people in real life often make mistakes when using gender-neutral pronouns.[1] Also, in its chapter at the start of Seven Surrenders, Sniper advises the reader to not "trust the gendered pronouns Mycroft gives people, they all come from Madame".[2]:23 Mycroft sometimes varies the gendered pronouns he gives characters. For instance, Carlyle is mostly referred to using she/her pronouns starting with Seven Surrenders, whereas in the first book Carlyle is referred to with he/him pronouns."

Hard pass.

>>23045680
>Finder
Looks interesting, i'll give it a shot.

>>23046331
Your question is stupid, anon. That's like saying "What are the best movies ever?????"
Be more specific nigger

>>23044704
god i love bush

>>23046416
I think sush, hairy pits and hairy buttholes are cool but uuuhhh think of the advertisers

>>23046442
Bush*

>>23046416
Even my jewish scrotum afro has nothing on the sheer density of that primeval forest

>>23044991
Probably Neal Stephenson

>>23044812
>Death's End begins with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 CE.
it's AD you Communist wanker. fuck off

>>23046569
If I it had said AD in the book I would've used that. It doesn't, so I didn't. I don't personally care either way.

/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.

/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

>>23044838
In the context of the story, the line seems random, but then I'm reminded that it's a Ballard novel.

>>23044395
About 250 books.

>>23046463
Aren't you supposed to be off trolling /pol/ or something?

lit with mech? and im not talking about power rangers/ gundam mech, but more like BattleTech?

if that makes sense

>>23046664
there's a sci-fantasy selfpub called heaven on fire (IIRC) by ivan kal, the guy who writes infinite realm, which features magitech piloted mecha in space
idk if this is what interests you but im not erasing it now that i bothered to type it out. you'll have to describe battletech in more detail, and what exactly you mean by sentai/gundam mechs (huge piloted devices?)

>>23043214
How do I escape from the onlyreadingscifi trap? Pretty much all I read and would like to move on to something that isn't embarrassing in front of girls.

>>23046690
What kind of scifi you read? If you read New Wave scifi (scifi from the 60s to early 80s) it's pretty easy to move to "real" lit since a lot of authors were inspired by their more literary contemporaries,

>>23046664
For me it's magic mechs.

>>23046664
Not many, just battletech novels, Robotech novels which are surprisingly good and way better than the show and maybe something like Hammer Slammers or BOLO.

>>23046753
I like those two tags but I looked into the authors and the first one writes monster hunter fiction.

>>23046950
not to be confused with the monster hunter video games

is this shit any good?

>>23047075
>The X of Y was Z
>An X of Y to Z
>The X of Y that Z

>>23047075
It's apparently one of the better modern fantasy trilogies. I have no idea what passes for "good" these days, though. Sometimes I get the feeling it's people desperately clinging onto anything because they've run out of things to read.

>>23046149
people write what they like, that's it

>>23047015
My bad, the name threw me. I'll check it out when/if its released as an audio book.

>>23046401
>What are the best movies ever?????
But that's a good and common question though

How much of a Mary-sue Christ figure would Kellhus appear if the reader didnt know he was Dunyain - until at least Aspect Emperor?

>>23047206
even without knowing he's a dunyain he's still introduced as cold and ruthless with how he leaves the hunter leweth

>>23044241
Malazan my balls

>>23047075
>>23047151

I found it to be extremely mediocre, on par with any of the 1980s or 1990s quest trilogies that came out by the dozen back then. There isn't much new or exciting going on with it but it's not incompetent. If you like stuff like the wheel of time you might have more fun with it than I did.

>>23046121
Nueromancer is not good anon.

>>23047387
LitRPG readers opinions can be discarded wholesale

Wish I got time looped so I could increase my knowledge of stuff

Also wish I was a wizard. I'd cast surprise diarrhea on Twitter users.

>>23047153
it was actually by this guy >>23047075
Novik gets a bit more of a pass with the setting because I can trust her to do something interesting with the microgenre.

just about finished with the first law trilogy.
Solid 7.5/10, I appreciate the realism offered, and the lack of any truly "good" people. Everyone does what they do for their own reasons and they're inline with how they should act.
I'm sure someone is going to call Abercrombie a hack or whatever, but I'm enjoying it, unsure if I'll read the rest of the in universe books but I may.

>>23047399
I'm turning 31 soon wizard powers are overrated

>>23047547
ahh youre talking about the will of the many, I actually quite liked it which is why I asked about his previous series. If it makes any difference to you the school part is explicitly not magical as in theyre not allowed to practice any magic there, and the school part itself takes up a lot less of the plot than you'd expect

>>23047547
>her
Stopped reading there

>>23047652
>Stopped reading
you've never started, you just post all day

Any Bakker updates? Since his brother newspaper post

>>23043806
>>23044991
>>23045177
>>23046331
>>23046603
>>23046612
>>23046941
>>23047075
>>23047575
>>23048055
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? 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?

>>23044202
is some gay shit from Baen's Bar?

>>23045544
>Legends & Lattes
stop recommending retarded sjw slop.

>>23047109
In English please

>>23047791
>Many such posters

>>23048254
read his post, newfag

>>23047206
Pretty sure a Mary Sue has to be the good guy. Kellhus is essentially the villain of the books though. Yeah, there are other evils, the Consult and the Gods, but they are really more a utilitarian foil to make Kellhus palatable enough that he can still shock us.

People who read Kellhus as a self-insert hero seem to be really missing the point. Kellhus is a monster, he's literally described as a spider devouring his prey and be does horrible things to all the somewhat likeable characters.

>>23047387

>>23048055
An anon who worked at a publishing house had to read the series to review the No God manuscript. He said it has "gone off the deep end." [Spoiler]Most of the plot of the 8th book revolves around manipulations Kellhus left in place to turn Cnauir into Ajokli, fully bringing the Four Horned Brother into the material world. Kellhus then comes back from the head, binds Ajokli with the daimos, and rapes him. The rest is just set up for this, during which Kellhus moves to a Wathi doll and using it manages to rape most of the other cast in between brainwashing them and getting them to enact his plan. The manuscript runs 3,000 pages and ends rather abruptly with Kellhus raping a bound Cnauir/Ajokli while the rest of the Hundred look on, powerless to stop it. Also, Kellhus rapes the No God prior to this.[/spoiler]

>hasn't learned to spoiler tag in the 4 years bakkerfag has been here
sad

>>23048331
>Pretty sure a Mary Sue has to be the good guy
Read an S.M. Stirling novel to disabuse yourself of this misconception.

>>23045544
>The healer's road
>it's about a woman and a fag
>it's the first of a series, 2014
>woman author
i guess i will check it out but my expectations are not very good

>>23045080

The Sandersonite CRETINS have come out of the woodwork to defend their indulgent drivel. I don't care about the CRABS or the PLANTS or your DUMB MAP when your characters have no spark of humanity and only exist so they can FLY AROUND AND FIGHT. Authors worthy of the name can draw real human tragedy from just 20 pages of two people talking in a room; the modern fantasy "author" can't provide a glimpse of humanity from 1000 PAGES of the most APOCALYPTIC CLASH of GOOD AND EVIL. I recently attempted to get through book one of Sanderson's "epic" Stormlight saga, and was FLOORED when he had to represent how characters feel by MAGICAL EMOTION FAIRIES because he was UNABLE to convey it through BELIEVABLE DIALOGUE. THIS IS THE MAN WHO HAS THE MOST POPULAR LECTURE ON WRITING ON YOUTUBE. It is no wonder that today's young fantasy writers think CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT is synonymous with "LEVELING UP". World-building represents the D&Dification of the Fantasy genre. The focus foremost on setting rather than character, prose, plot, or theme, can only be explained by the influx of AUTISTIC sons of 35 year old mothers who cannot understand or conceptualize human emotions or relations, and can't write for shit. BRANDON SANDERSON has destroyed an entire generation of writers, along with VIDEO GAMES, ANIME and AUTISM. It should be no surprise that the current trend in the genre are so-called "LitRPGs"--a derivative of ISEKAI, D&D, and VIDEO GAMES, because these stunted shut-ins have no exposure to the world beyond the mediated glow of their computer screens and the musky back rooms of tabletop gaming centers. MAGIC SYSTEMS are the product of STEM AUTISM and are completely irrelevant to anything that makes a story worth reading. The entire genre has become one big MALADAPTIVE DAYDREAM. The only solace is that fantasy is falling into such disrepute that it can safely be consigned to the same bin as YA fiction and romance slop..

This is an appreciation post.

for a long time i've shit on mr. erikson. i shit on his books even on his came out, and since reddit's inception, i must've been banned from that subreddit off of different accounts like 20 times. but you know what? while i still think malazan is pretty shit, it's clear we're never going to be getting that much better, at least in terms of epic fantasy

like yeah, sure, erikson quips like a marvel movie and his prose is dogshit. but you know what? AT LEAST HE FUCKING FINISHED THE BOOKS. that's more than i can say for grrm. more than i can say for scott "so what that i smoke pot" bakker

the truth is, there's almost nobody out there that managed to achieve what erikson did. there's a lot of stuff that passes as "epic" fantasy but it rarely actually is. erikson , maybe because of his anthopology autism, successfully managed to make a story that felt as large in scope as a world war and made a truly diverse cast of characters

i may not appreciate how he ended it, what he did with those characters, or even the values expressed in his work, but i've come to realize as the years go by that we'll probably never get anything better anytime soon

there may be good trilogies from time to time. there may be amazing standalones. but will anyone actually write another 5+ epic fantasy series of doorstoppers? probably not

so in other words, as sad as it sounds, i've learned to love the taste of shit. pour in my trough, i realize now i can never get anything better - at least in this particular domain.

thank you mr. erikson shitting out the full extent of your bowels and giving me a full of course. it's shit, but at least i'm full and you did your duty till the end.

>>23048675
>a hack wrote a book series
ok

>>23043806
>>23044241
>>23047290
>>23048675
>malazan
yikes
Another bland and poorly-written fantasy series that knowledgeable fantasy reviewers have steered me away from (Kelly's Review, Mark's Review)--an endless parade of flat characters filling out a convoluted plot with all the charm of an RPG game guide telling you where to pick up the best sword in order to beat the hardest demon boss.
Even the positive reviews I've read don't make it sound like a book worth reading, comparing it favorably to Martin (whose work I couldn't stomach), and suggesting that the plot often hinges on the reader recalling some apparently unrelated detail from two books ago, which some readers apparently enjoy, though to me it sounds like the worst sort of 'word search' writing. Moreover, most of the positive reviews cite the intensity and depth of Erikson's worldbuilding, but every fantasy book I've heard praised for this has turned out to be dull and flat with poor characterization and an aimless sense of structure for which the aphorism 'murder your darlings' was made.

>>23048675
All this confirms is that 5+ fantasy epics are gay and money grabs, and that I was correct in mainly reading standalones.
Oh, this also confirms that book burning is actually a good thing. 99% of books especially long series are dog shit and should go in a bonfire.

>>23043214
I talked to a really cute girl today about what kind of fantasy she likes to read and she named
>Paolini
>Rothfuss

>>23048706
I think Bakker actually had discussions years ago with Guy Kavriel and maybe Erikson about the problems of fantasy series. Basically it is impossible to write a long series well because you'll always have to adjust things later, as outlining multiple books ahead is downright mental and impossible. They've all failed in this regard.
>Sanderson writes shit and will never finish SLA
>Erikson writes a cringe DnD campaign with puddle-shallow worldbuilding and barely connected books
>Bakker wrote a damn good series but it ended on a cliffhanger
>Frank Herbert died before he could finish his
>Jordan died before finishing Wheel of Time
>Rothfuss is a laughable failure who can't even write a trilogy

>>23048763
>mentioning rothfuss before the big guy
you are truly shameless swine

>>23048710
any girl that reads fantasy or sci-fi is an instant avoid
only ugly freaks do that when they're female
harry potter is the only acceptable answer, other than that, run for your life
when i met my wife and asked her who her favorite author was she said de sade and i immediately knew she was the type of stupid pretentious bitch i could hate for a lifetime

>>23048694
he finished it faggot
all 10 books of it
you may not find that praiseworthy, but considering that even professional authors failed to do that, it's a testament to his will and autism if nothing else
besides, it's not that bad. you guys pretend bakker and sanderson are good so i think you could stomach it just fine

>>23048801
not only that but he wrote all ten (fuckhuge novels) in a decade, AND he did a lot of his typing on some tiny portable keyboard-pad with a screen you could barely see

>>23048694
Works on my machine

>>23048354
>GayRape gayrape gayrape gayrape

>>23048792
>ugly freaks
I don't know man, I've 20-20 vision and she looks pretty damn good to me

>>23048787
ye sry mixed up the fat fugly neck-beards
havent even read rothfuss

>>23048792
>>23048810
>finished it
>Witness trilogy still has two more books to go
>Walk in Shadow literally never
Haha, yeah, way to "finish" your series.

>>23048810
seriously? i didn't even know that
what a based guy
i'll respect these other faggots when they finish their series, and no, >>23048763
>it's too hard :(((((((
is not an excuse
real men finish what they start

>>23048838
from what i can see on wikipedia he's putting out stuff almost yearly
when's the last time grrm or bakker put out a book, huh?

>>23048854
Why GRRM has just put out a new, thrilling WILD CARDS adventure

>>23048792
I'm not ugly.

>>23048858
lol
i wish you hadn't reminded me of that... who reads that crap anyway?
i have to think it's karmic justice on some level that this fat fuck who dreamed of doing capeshit his entire life got famous for some fantasy series he clearly doesn't even like anymore

>>23048860
please be in london... please beautiful show me your bobs.

>>23048860
>>23048959
vagene too you whore

>>23048792
Harry Potter is entry-level mediocre trash and not even a good series.

>>23048984
>missing the point so completely
are you autistic?

>>23048989
>harry potter is the only acceptable answer
nobody who likes harry potter should be taken seriously

>>23048990
>>23048984
holy shit you're even too dumb for a sff thread
sad! many such cases though

>>23048990
yes it's a normalfag book and thus it wouldn't be surprising some average woman read it
if a woman told me she read bakker and enjoyed it, i have to assume she is fucked in the head on multiple levels
the point was what red flags to avoid, not what books are good
harry potter is not a red flag, everyone and their grandma has read it

>>23048792
leave this nonsense posting for /v/ or whatever mate

>>23049045
i'm not your mate, friend

>>23046950
>and the first one writes monster hunter fiction.
So? That book isn't about hunting monsters. And it's a lot better than his monster hunting series.

>>23048254
Do you even try to read posts before spouting nonsense?
I'm asking for recommendation here exactly because otherwise that's what gets suggested.
It's a good thing this is supposed to be a thread about books.

>>23044789
there's an entire subreddit about this
/r/CozyFantasy/

>>23049169
sounds like just the place to go if you want a fat 35 year old woman wearing horn-rimmed glasses to recommend you that coffee shop shit.

>>23049221
half of the posters in these threads recommend ai lit novel harem chink slop, I don't see how it could get any worse

>>23049221
lol it's better than nothing
realistically that anon should just read some cozy web novel slop, it's way better than any "cozy" fantasy i've read which is usually woke shit

>>23049169
Again, if I do that I get this >>23045544
recommended, and I surely don't want to read it.

>>23049373
check the OP maybe you can get some recs from the lists

>>23049435
Tried already, but my request was so specific there's no flowchart for that.
I guess there's nothing similar and I will just give up. Still, it's quite a pity no one else is writing fantasy from that point of view.

>>23048838
Yes, main series is finished. If you actually bothered to look up what those other releases are you'd know that.

I'm several books into the John Carter Barsoom series. Do the mysteries of the connection or travel between Mars and Earth and the strange way Carter has Martian longevity get answers? Or are they ignored for telling adventures?

>>23049772
No, Burroughs died before giving any answers, the last book ends in a cliffhanger too

>>23049772
something something spirit of Mars something naked savage something

Is Harry Potter good to learn English?

>>23049886
uh what

>>23049886
Yeah. Any book you've already read in your native language is.

Can you redpill me on fantasy outside of the western tradition? I know about the Arabian Nights and Gilgamesh and the Journey to the West but what bridges these stories to the modern day? Are there Tolkeins from these countries who created new stories from these myths?

>>23048354
It's bullshit, but I believe it. Bakker is great but he seemed to grow increasingly unhinged before finally disappearing. The way the series was climaxing, it ending with Kellhus gay raping the most powerful of the gods as god and mortal alike look on in disgusted horror sounds about right.

Maybe a narrative where, seeing the Apocalypse, Akka comes back to Kellhus and is reinstated as his vizier. He slowly grows to have a sense of purpose again. Then Kellhus rapes him too.

>>23050050
Yeah for basically every country ever but it gets muddied because fantasy is a post ww2 genre so there's not really a separate tradition, everything major got translated into multiple languages pretty quickly.
China's easy because you go JTTW>Gods and Demons novels and Water Margin>Wuxia and then both >Xianxia so you can easily see the difference.
But in other countries where there's not a state censor which gets a bit weird about fantastical elements everything gets merged quicker.
Like Japan has books drawing from Shinto but there's also loads that draw from Chinese or Western tradition from very early on.
Also it gets hard to tell because classic fantasy doesn't get translated to english as frequently, like there's a fucking billion light novels in english but Teito Monogatari hasn't been translated. Same deal for Chinese modern classics.
South America generally has magic realism as their fantasy tradition although that's harder to quantify because critics love to slap that on any fantasy novel that they deign to treat seriously.

>>23050288
>everything major got translated into multiple languages pretty quickly.
Just to clarify I'm talking about the major english language works here

>>23049772
Is it important to the story? No.

>>23044395
I typically read anywhere from 20-40 books a year, some years I go way above that, but it depends a lot on what I'm reading.

>>23044423
Why would recent publishing trends affect overall readership when there's more books published 20+ years ago than a person can reasonably read in a lifetime? Even if you restrict that to only one particular genre, there's hundreds upon hundreds of novels that are older than you are and are therefore not affected at all by recent trends.

>>23047075
I could not finish the first book because it was so cliched.

>>23049886
I guess, but it's got loads of nonsense words in it.

>>23050396
Finally, a good post on /sffg/

>>23050396
>Why would recent publishing trends
It isn't recent. This has been a steady decline for years and years. And when you have entire generations of people growing up without any new books being published worth reading then why would you expect them to read older books? Most Americans read books on a regular basis then the tradpubs gradually started putting out less and less books worth reading and naturally people started reading less and less.

>>23050396
this is is why it's not worth engaging with posters like that, they always come up with an excuse to justify their not reading

>>23050288
Thanks friend. Teito Monogatari sounds extremely cool.

>>23050405
Latin, and if he is from a romance language they won't be much of an issue at all.

Free aujio boog

https://www.amazon.com/Nullform-Book-RealRPG-Dem-Mikhailov-ebook/dp/B08NGVGYK1

>>23050631
>state fact
>DURR JUST AN EXCUSE
Fuck off, trancel.

What is the best sffg prose that I can find in the public domain besides Tolkien and Dunsany?

>>23051086
prose and world building* I should say

How many years will it take Circle of Inevitability to finish? I don't like reading unfinished works, especially webnovels.

>>23048660
is this pasta? reads like schizoid drivel

Is the princess of mars worth reading?

>>23051689
Edgar Rice Burroughs is certified soulful boyhood reading kino

>>23043838
I got recommended it when I was looking for something a bit more under the radar and only read it recently.

It was pretty solid and the MC is such murdery asshole that even just that aspect of it is entertaining.

The author's only other work from what I can see is a two part (available as omnibus) prequel set when the MC of that series used to be in the military

>>23051241
yes
> reads like schizoid drivel
Another CRETIN

>>23046950
Correia's Monster Hunter series is ass from what I can tell but other fantasy stuff is pretty good.

Grimnoir is basically alternate post-WW2 if people had powers. It's solid.

His other series, Saga of the Forgotten Warrior is more pure fantasy and takes place in a kind of India-esque setting where religion is forbidden and a strict law and caste system has replaced kings. Also demons live in the water so the country is largely cutoff. It's by far his best work from what I've seen.

I haven't read Servants of War yet

>>23047075
Imagine WoT-lite written buy a guy who can't write character personalities worth a damn (they're so bland that they almost blend together). There's a bit of interesting time magic mixed in but it's not enough to make it worthwhile.

His new series seems to be off to a better start in comparison.

>>23051086
Phantastes

Is it still sunk cost fallacy when you're fully aware but use it anyway to get through a series?

>>23048792
Its because the modern mode of writing doesn't facilitate it. Without a sweeping style you can't tell a long or complex story without getting bogged down in dross. If you can't just 'zoom out' and have a long period of time pass without it seeming unnatural then there is no chance you're writing a good epic.

>>23051960
>Correia's Monster Hunter series is ass from what I can tell
Read half the first one and it was garbage.

>>23052064
>Without a sweeping style you can't tell a long or complex story without getting bogged down in dross. If you can't just 'zoom out' and have a long period of time pass without it seeming unnatural then there is no chance you're writing a good epic.
Are you posting a pic of Tolkien ironically? LotR is totally bogged down by its travelogue format.

>>23052064
It's cool how excuseposters don't even read the post they're replying to with their drivel now

>>23052038
Yes. The time has still been expended regardless. Awareness/Knowledge without action is worse than ignorance.

>>23052097
Yeah, I finished half of it before dropping it myself. It made me not touch his other stuff for years, but I read books and listen to audiobooks and as the number of options continued to dwindle, I tried his other stuff on audio and had a better opinion of them.

I actually just read the fourth Forgotten Warrior book because for some reason it still hasn't gotten a fucking audiobook, so I finally got the novel and read it. I've been noticing this weird trend of series with multiple audiobooks suddenly stop coming out on audio. It's happened with this series, Steven Brust's stuff, and this other series called Dragons of Terra (which has awful covers, but is pretty good for the most part).

>>23052242
>>23051960
Thanks anon.
>Grimnoir Chronicles and The Forgotten Warrior Saga are now on the 'to read' list

Looking for a genuinely epic, grandiose fantasy novel or series, something in the vein of WoT and LotR, if possible with good prose. Already read Bakker and not in the mood for Sanderson.

Any anons read the edge chronicles growing up? Flipped through one of the books the other day and got really nostalgic. Not as heady as the more celebrated stable of fantasy series, but I ate those books up. I should re read them

>>23050613
Okay I finished 'Tales of the Dying Earth' by Jack Vance, started on Jan 29th and finished Feb 9th.

Ill go ahead and say it is a 5/5. Very excellent work with few low points.

I wrote this to describe the book to a friend halfway through it and it still mostly stands, "It is 4 'books' in an omnibus, those 4 books are of themselves also fix-ups and collections of short stories all set in the same universe. The earth is dying, the sun has turned red with age, the mountains have smoothed with wind, thousands of civilizations have risen and fell, science has come and gone, now magicians wield what is left of science. It is a book of journies thus far, lots of small and large adventures with a great degree of variety. In some ways it's similar to the oddysey."

The science portion I described is admittedly most referenced in the first few stories from the first 'book', later it gets forgotten or atleast not as focused on.

I only disliked (read as apathetic/disinterested) was the weird second half of Rhialtos story about the perciplex, and the story about the eye ball cape.

The prose is great, I only was startled by it for the first page and remembered someone here joking you need a dictionary to read Vance, I think that's hyperbole but still funny.

The audio book versions by brilliance audio were all excellently narrated.

I miss Cugel at this point. I want more of his story, more different stories by him. I wouldn't like a third magician adventure lol. How his story occurs is rather poetic in some ways and I enjoyed it a lot.

Cugels story should definitely be a movie or TV show, my favorite scene is at the Manse where he gets the scales. I like the opening scene where he keeps turning around while knocking on the door to the manse and the hyperborean sloths keep appearing closer and closer while he argues with the butler to be let inside. Very comical and subtle.

Anyways, 5/5 very nice. I'll read Gene Wolfe in a bit. My next read is 'We' by Yevgeny Zamyatin.

Should I also read the spin-off Cugels story that other guy wrote?

>>23052612
>still partway through Cugel's Saga
I have a shitload of highlighted words on my kindle from looking up definitions. The nice thing about this ereader in particular is that it saves a list of all words I've looked up definitions to. I have a huge word vocabulary backlog.

On another note, how do you fellas increase your vocabulary and add new words to your lexicon?

>>23052612
>>23052621
for me? it's "punctilio"
also used in The Last Castle

>>23052495
Wars of Light and Shadow by Janny Wurts

>>23052648
>female author
>and yet another unfinished series
stop

>>23052702
It's not unfinished. The last book just isn't out quite yet. It releases in a few months.

Wurts is a great author.

>>23052612
>Should I also read the spin-off Cugels story that other guy wrote?
Vance himself thought they were good enough to be released as official sequels (until he wrote his own official sequels).

>>23052702
You are just looking for excuses not to read.

>>23052648
I will give it a look, thanks Anon.

>>23052728
I really enjoyed her co-authored work on the Empire trilogy, but disliked her own work To Ride Hell's Chasm. Which series is Wars of Light and Shadow closer to?

>>23052612
>another anon discovers dying earth

>>23052644
I don't remember punctilio but I definitely had to look up "pfthitic"

>>23052971
How about discovering Lyonesse next?

>>23052612
Quest for Simbilis is very good. Songs of Dying Earth also has a couple of really good Cugel stories, although one of them does feel very reminiscent of a chapter from Cugel's Saga

I recently finished this. It was charming as hell. Barely even fantasy, though.

>>23053231
>Roberta Ann MacAvoy
No, thanks.

>>23053325
whyisthat

>>23053342
foid stole a man's name and added an a at the end ):<

>>23053395
...I don't know what I expected.

>>23053342
We don't read vagslop here.

>>23053423
Why not? Fantasy is an inherently feminine genre, the counterpoint to Scifi's inherent masculinity.

>>23049065
stop reading slop

>>23052702
Wurts is an amazing author, Cycle of Fire and the empire trilogy are finished and are very very good, she's like guy gavriel kay but more epic

I picked these up at a library book sale today. What do you guys think of them?

>>23053820
Never read the second but the first is pretty decent.
It's a fairly unique attempt and merging the postcolonial fantasy novel with some elements that are taken from progression fantasy/shonen manga.

Hey guys, I finally finished up all the Commonwealth books! (Except for Misspent Youth). One thing I can say for Hamilton is that his books really help me kill time. They're dense but not difficult.

>>23053231
Started reding this for being one of the first urban fantasy novels, stayed for the milf getting RICED.

Which one should I become a scholar in?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovecraft_studies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolkien_research

Why did Delany switch from sci-fi to extreme erotica?

>>23054019
you mean joseph delaney who write spooks apprentice?

>>23054019
he was bored with scifi because he had already done everyting he wanted there, also by the 90s scifi was pretty much dead. that being said i didn't enjoy his non-scifi books.
>>23054031
Samuel Delany, based gay nigger New Wave scifi author. he was so based that even famous racist Harlan Ellison liked him

>>23053893
It's funny, he's described as ambiguous-asian-indian-ish, and I kept imagining Zahn McClarnon.

If Patrick Laplante can publish 18 books then so can (you)

>>23054064
>Book about woman-hating racist incel desperately simping for a theater girl
>climax of the story is him having a mental breakdown and becoming trans to be the trad gf that no longer exists in this degenerate "utopia"
How the fuck did Delany write this in 1976?

>>23054310
The 70s came after the sexual revolution of the 60s.

>>23054314
Show me one other author that predicted the chud-to-tranny pipeline

>>23054325
The question wasn't "how many authors did this?", it was "how was this possible?".

>>23054331
If you can't see that those questions are two sides of the same coin, I can't help you.

>>23052702
Janny Wurts is great. She pretty much wrote all of the Empire Trilogy and they are the best books in the Magician series. All Feist offered was the existing worldbuilding. Her own series are just as good, maybe even better.

>>23048792
mental illness

>>23053124
how about you lyon dese nuts

>>23054498
>Janny

>>23053435
Heroic Fantasy is extremely masculine.

Where to start for someone who's never read any SF?

>>23054498
>She
Stopped reading there

>>23054617
>Recommended reading charts (Look here before asking for vague recs)
https://mega.nz/folder/kj5hWI6J#0cyw0-ZdvZKOJW3fPI6RfQ/folder/guIyhAzS

Pretty good slop. It's no Cradle. But almost a response to everyone who hated how long it took for Lindon to get strong in Cradle. This time, the main character gets strong first, and then the rest of the book is just exploring how ridiculous battles at a cosmic scale can be.

The book almost feels gamey at times. But Will Wight is smart enough to avoid making overt LitRPG. Rather, he shrouds the gamey concepts behind a thin veil of world building, and I appreciate that. Not high art, but a light fun easy read.

>>23054648
awful, awful cover

>>23054674
Yeah, the art is pretty amateurish. It must be a friend of Will or someone with a connection

>>23043214
Thoughts on Markus Heitz? Kinda liked the Albae

>>23054648
>>23054674
>>23054678
>superhero costume
>Harry Potter magic wand/Doctor Who sonic screwdriver
This is some prime slop right here, you know the audience for it instantly

>>23054703
>Heitz
Sounds jewy.

>>23054674
It's better than this shit: >>23053820

I'm seeing Three Body Problem everywhere but I know nothing about it.
Genuine opinions? Any good?

>>23054934
Some interesting ideas and concepts stretched out over far too much bland story and uninteresting, flat characters

>>23048787

>>23054949
Corpulent.

Fuck you Steve, you don't deserve a goth dark ascended goddess gf. It should have been me.

>>23054648
I gave it a listen when it came out, but wound up disliking it quite a bit. Wight has good concepts sometimes, but his execution has always been hit and miss even with his best work and this is more of that.

>>23053820
The first book is basically every trope people love shoved into one story, but with an African setting to flavor it. The character writing isn't the best, but it's just good enough to work and combine that with stuff like castes, tournaments, military school, special training, and so on an you get a fun read.

The second book is a solid follow up to that now that it's gone beyond some of those things I mentioned.

>>23054934
Lots of great concepts, through it takes a while to get into book 1 to appreciate some of them. The sequel is by far the best in the series with a good plot execution along with those great concepts to go along with it and just the right amount of existential dread. The last book's main character sucks, but the final book has the highest number of really neat ideas which makes up for that somewhat.

The other guy is right that the characters are kind of flat and while the TL makes it perfectly enjoyable, it probably has a bit to do with that along with them actually changing an entire plotline in book 2 to not spoil another novel of the author's that they were translating (and I kind of prefer said idea over the original.

I listened to them on audio and the length felt fine to me.

>>23054908
yes they are both shit, i don't what your point is

>>23055020
My point is you're gay. Now enjoy this AI sloppa I made.

>>23055032
I want snu-snu with her

Wait, George wrote a book where
>the antagonists are a race of dark-skinned humans who outbreed all other races on the planets they immigrate to
>all of the neighboring planets expelled their race and formed an alliance threatening them with a nuclear holocaust if they ever tried to leave their home system
>to defeat them, the protagonist creates a genophage that will reduce their population to a few hundred thousand
When did the fat fuck stop being so based?

>>23055053
Book covers used to fucking rule

>>23055053
Time to cancel George.

>>23054904
Interesting assessment, because I never read or watched Harry Potter. I never watched Doctor Who, and I've only ever read a few super hero comics in my lifetime. Not really a fan of those.

I only gave the book a chance because I like Cradle.

>>23055053
I will now read your book

>>23055053
Is it actually good or shite?

>>23055080
George was a good writer back when he was still a writer

>>23055080
The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey said it's Martin's best book (better than ASOIAF).

>>23055055
>>23055083
>>23055085
Look how terrible the cover is for the copy I just downloaded.

>>23055092
If there's ever a collapse of civilization I'm going to burn publishing houses first.

>>23055080
GRRM's short fiction is close to top shelf and this is a fix-up novel of some of that short fiction. Feels like it comes from a completely different era of scifi (and it does).

It's honestly a shame he didn't finish Dunk & Egg, which I like better than mainline ASOIAF.

>>23055053
>>23055080
>>23055083
>>23055085
are you trying to trick me? the description on amazon makes it sound like "COLONISATION = BAD"

>>23055032
>>23055059
This thread belongs to the bear clan, wolflets have no place here!
Also any fantasy with this feel?

i don't know why but i feel my favorite take on sci-fi, at least aesthetically, always comes out of the 90s
god do i love those weird 90s or even early 2000s sci-fi games and book art

>>23055234
Because you were a young impressionable kid. Late 90s was a wasteland of black leather and bare metal.

>>23055248
boo

>>23046345
Agree - I've found this shit in a lot of scifi I've tried to pick up that's more recent. I liked some of the earlier Peter F Hamilton stuff but am struggling to find decent space opera that I haven't read... so many of them are full of genderless bullshit or are super boring
that arkady martin desolation called peace series is a pefect example of what I'm trying to avoid.

I just want more like Hyperion or Pandora's star... Even Old Man's War would be good

>>23055263
I'd have been happy if Dan Simmons himself had been able to write another book on the level of Hyperion, but the sequels just didn't do it for me

>>23055263
Try Walter Jon Williams' space opera series.

>>23055299
Thanks fren. I'll give it a go :)

>>23055098
At that point, it would be unnecessary

Bakker updates?

>>23055619
Anon I keep telling you. He was mistaken for a hobo and euthanized like all homeless people in Canada.

>>23055626
Wtf I love canada now

>>23054904
>>23055073
Reminder to check out and read Silhouette.
While it is technically a licensed Who novel, you don't need to know anything about Who to enjoy it since it serves pretty well as a surprisingly solid standalone hard sci-fi story about the 12th Doctor and Clala traveling to a mysterious hidden planet.

>>23055092
>>23055080
i read it a few weeks ago, that same edition. i didn't like it overall desu. the first chapter is great, a bit over the top but fun very fun and entertaining. but the rest of the book is very episodic, every chapter is tuf going somewhere and winning and teaching a lesson in the process to the people he is helping. i was mostly knowing beforehand more or less what was going to happen and didn't care for it much. towards the end of the book you get to see inside him a bit and how arrogant he becomes, that is nice. but other than that it isn't interesting at all. he is a mary stue and the other MC, the lady is even worse. and the whole concept of the humans who outbreed everyone (they aren't antagonists at all btw) is so retarded, but it's what most of the book is about

Why did nobody ever recommend this book to me? It's catch-22 in space and it's hilarious. As if someone in the 60s rather than 80s came up with 40k and then played the grimdark for laughs.

5* highly recommend, best 3 hours I've spent on a book in ages.

>>23054934
ハウディ

People said he was good but I was not ready for the level of mastery he has over the craft.

>>23056112
For me? It's A Song for Arbonne or the Sarantine Mosaic books

>>23052648
>series about a pseudo-homosexual couple
lol

>>23056118
>series about two brothers trying to kill each other in a feud that expands and expands to involve more and more people who all have to suffer on their behalf
FTFY

>>23056115
I'll get there. But I feel like I should spread his books out rather than just binge them if they're all going to be on this level.

>>23056130
Yeah, there's only so much of him to go around. I love how worn the spine on your Tigana is.

>>23055216
Wolf Bitches rule here. And if you want to read non-feminist cringe Amazon fiction then check out Last of the Amazons.

>>23056112
I haven't read Lions yet, but seconding >>23056115 here. The Sarantine Mosaic books are amazing, doubly so if you're a Romeboo

>>23055709
I shan't be reading this slop then.

>>23055059
>>23055053
He also uses the nigger word a billion times in his book Fever Dream

why are fantasy comedies so rare?

>>23054595
I'd say the "heroic fantasy" is more focused on the story than the setting, and focusing on story gets you into Campbellian gender psychology, masculine and feminine themes nesting within each other like a russian doll.
Conan, for example, is heroic fantasy that barely features and fantasy at all. Flash Gordon is a heroic fantasy with a sci-fi setting.
I was more talking about setting-focused pieces. If you compare "fighting a dragon in the woods" and "fighting aliens on a spaceship", and are asked to pick one to be masculine and one to be feminine, the choice is pretty damn clear.

>>23056311
Fevre Dream *

>>23055001
>Manchild self-insert gets transported to a fantasy world with built-in goth gf
tell me what this is called plz/thx

>>23056187
>Last of the Amazons
I shall allow your continued existence.

>>23056317
Have you even read The Eyes of the Overworld, breh?

>>23056317
fantasy authors take themselves way too seriously most of the time

>>23056383
>how dare someone have self-respect

>>23056389
>having self-respect
>posting here
The lady doth protest too much, methinks

>>23056335
You have no choice, bear slut.

>>23056130
you should get children of earth and sky just because the spine is really sexy

>>23056317
comedy is too hard for most authors

>>23056317

>>23056321
>If you compare "fighting a dragon in the woods" and "fighting aliens on a spaceship", and are asked to pick one to be masculine and one to be feminine, the choice is pretty damn clear.
>>23053435
>Fantasy is an inherently feminine genre, the counterpoint to Scifi's inherent masculinity.

This is your brain on dualism.

>>23056197
>The Sarantine Mosaic
blurb sounds neat

>>23055205
The brown people actually have a prosperous advanced society, they just also have a religion that requires they pop out as many kids as possible to maximize the productivity of society. It’s probably a metaphor for Abrahamics or something. Or maybe he was just really ahead of his time and criticizing the unlimited growth pyramid scheme of modern neo-liberals.
In any case, Tuf sterilizing them isn’t portrayed as a good solution, but maybe Martin was veiling his true beliefs on what should be done with extremists who multiply uncontrollably.

>>23055053
>When did he stop being based?
Many such cases
Martin, king, kneel gayman
I think it's that they refuse to step out of line against the establishment. They didn't want to be book writers they wanted to be screen writers and make films. That's why these three authors in particulars writings all read that way. This is why Gene Wolfe is an actual good writer and why his stories can never be fully realized in another medium. Writing as a form comes first for him, while sell out writers are mimicking something else for maximum fame and notoriety in the mainstream medium.

>>23056331
The Library at Mount Char. Crazy book.

>>23055709
Supposedly he published the stories in a different order, while the anthology puts them in chronological order. This fucks up the pacing somewhat.

>>23056522
Wow, this is like an actual fucking book! I was expecting something with scantily-clad airbrush art on the cover

>>23056520
One interesting data point that's sort of related to this: I saw a recent Peter Watts interview where he was bragging about all the movie and TV adaptations he's negotiating for with Hollywood, but he seemed less enthusiastic about that than he was frustrated at his failure to break into the video game industry. He wanted a Witcher type franchise based on one of his book series but couldn't figure out how to make it happen. The cultural center of gravity seems to be shifting somewhat when it comes to the relative prestige and wealth of movies vs other media.

>>23056460
It is not clear at all! I have never fought aliens on spaceship(mind you I was chased by some africans who wanted to rob/kill me, that probably counts as alien encounter, no feminine vibes there), but had an encounter with a angry wild beast and it did not give me any feelings of femininity, thankfully I was in a well protected tour bus but if I had to fight it then that would definitely have been a completely savage conan do or die mode fight to survive, absolutely no feminine vibes there either. I don't know wtf you people are on about

>>23055032
>>23055059
>>23055216
>>23056187
>>23056335
>>23056431
UUUUUUOOOOOOOHHHHHHH muscle hag erotic!

Just finished the Three Body trilogy.
What did I think of it?

>>23056971
> What did I think of it?
What a fucking terrible meme. To start a proper discussion post your opinion first.

>>23057030
Fool that you are, you don't realise that "What did I think of it?" is an invitation for others to provide their own opinions of the work.
I will not give you my opinion. You don't deserve it. You abhorrent waste of human potential. I spit on your ancestors.

>>23057039
Yeah, like I said, a meme for morons.

>>23056971
What do you think of what I thought of it?
>>23044812

What I thought about the official fanfiction fourth book will be posted in the next thread.

>female in position of power and influence is introduced
>feel uncomfortable and close book
I ain't wasting time with such bullshit

>>23050613
You should probably read the entire sentence instead of the first 5 words only
>Why would recent publishing trends affect overall readership when there's more books published 20+ years ago
Pretty sure books published 20+ years ago are largely free of the shit you're complaining about, but you'll still find excuses not to read them.

>>23057125
>This makes me uncomfortable
>I stop
>I only want comfort and to hear my beliefs echoed back at me

>>23057164
How about you read my entire post instead of behaving like a plebbit faggot. I literally explained how this has been going for years and has created a culture of non-readers.

>>23057207
>>I only want comfort and to hear my beliefs echoed back at me
Yes, why would anyone want or actively seek out uncomfortable situations is beyond me.

>>23057125
based
>>23057207
cringe

I'm so board. I've read over 2000 books and cant find anything remotely interesting anymore. I start a new book and find the author using every old trope, it's just so bad. I re-read some of those I remember being fond of only to find I can no longer stand them. I pick up some random book and discover half way though the first chapter that I've already read this one.

Have I broken myself?

>>23057303
What helps me when I feel this way is explore films or other forms of entertainment for a while.

>>23057303
Try nonfiction.

>>23057300
Surely there are other sites that would be safer spaces that provide more comfort for you than here.

>>23057303
Yes, you've broken yourself through the combined powers of depression, cynicism, jadedness, contempt, and disagreeableness.

>>23057376
There aren't. Every other site requires registration, namefagging or even use of real identity.

>>23057401
Why not any of the other imageboards?

>>23057423
Other imageboards are just too slow.

>>23057303
>I've read over 2000 books
Doubt.
I do agree that there is nowhere on the internet to discuss books. There is here, which is a joke, and there is reddit, which is a joke; and that's about it.

>>23057454
There are tons of forums for individual series and fandoms. There's an abundance of sites to discuss books on. The problem is finding enough for any book that isn't popular.

>>23057466
>There are tons of forums for individual series and fandoms. There's an abundance of sites to discuss books on
Unfortunately, I read books beyond the top 10 of any genre.

>>23057472
Then start a fucking book club, damn.
Then again, that would entail leaving your library and talking to people

>>23057472
>>23057466
>>23057454
was wondering if there are any forums known to discuss subjects here >>23045080 Would very much be appreciated.

>>23057507
epic rebuttal

>>23057507
Book clubs are probably even more prone to failure and disappointment.

>>23057517
It's possible to start the discussion yourself somewhere relevant and active and hope for conversation. Barring that, use the search function on sites with names and find those who have previously discussed and ask then if they'd be interested in further discussion.

>>23055293
>I'd have been happy if Dan Simmons himself had been able to write another book on the level of Hyperion, but the sequels just didn't do it for me

second book was OK. Third and fourth didn't quite get there. I didn't hate them but remember them being a little strange.

>>23057542
Book clubs would just be dudes talking about GRRM and girls talking about Maas/HP.

>>23057545
You haven't had any involvement with any of them, have you? Including the /sffg/ one.

>>23057256
>gets refuted
>screams PLEBBIT PLEBBIT PLEBBIT
>doesn't realize he's invoking the reddit frog

>>23057625
>>23057625
>>23057625
New

>>23057581
/sffg/ goodreads group is normalfag central. Literally worse than reddit for finding material or discussion.

>>23057644
I didn't mean the Goodreads group.

This guy's either trolling or pathetic, the usual shit of going on about how you're too well read for everyone else without giving any specifics.