/lit/ - Literature

Don't forget to read Beyond Apollo!

You have read it, right anons?

>invents every genre and subgenre of speculative fiction
What makes British authors so incredibly original, like the source of creativity itself springs from their minds?

>>23083711
The English language itself is conductive to creativity.

Bakker is a hack
Wolfe is a hack
Tolkien is a hack
Howard is a hack
Lovecraft is a hack
Sanderson is a hack
Dunsany is KING

>Read some LITRPG books since they seem interesting
>The majority of the protags are sociopathic autists
I wasn't expecting this.
Wasn't this genre inspired by anime and manga?

>>23083736
what is it about english in particular? or is it just that je ne sais quoi

>>23083785
was low brow entertainment inspired by low brow entertainment?

>>23083785
No, clearly not. It's literally in the name. Literature Role Playing Games. They're inspired by videogames, specifically their mechanics.

>>23083636
Nova Swing, Kefahuchi Tract #2 - M. John Harrison (2006)

Nova Swing is Roadside Picnic reimagined with a Philip K. Dick aesthetic as a New Weird Cyberpunk Noir set in the city of Saudade in 2444. That's reductive because it's also literary, subversive, and much else. There's a lot to say for the beauty of its style, but I'm not one to do so. I found its substance to be a secondary consideration at best. Its literary qualities probably go a long way to explaining its award nominations and wins.

This time it was extremely obvious that I didn't understand the meaning of what I was reading and wasn't able to appreciate what was there. That's not to say that there isn't anything to appreciate. Its greatest strength to me was how much it felt like this was something that had happened. The sense of surreal verisimilitude for something that almost surely could never be, yet was so clearly presented is praiseworthy. Everything else though, not so much.

The characters were too much like people in ways that I don't usually like to read in fiction. Their motives were inscrutable, their impulses irrational, and their behavior inexplicable. The reader never really gets to know any of them and I assume that was intentional. As I wrote of the first book, Harrison seems almost indifferent to entertaining the reader and that's much more so the case this time.

There's only one character that was mentioned in passing from the first book in this one. Other than that they don't seem to have almost anything in common other than the setting and cats. There's Vic Serotonin, who travels into the Saudade Event as a travel guide for tourists and also to smuggle out items to sell. Inside the event zone anything could happen and everything is always changing. Those who go in never return exactly as they were before. This time he's unknowingly brought out something dangerous, which leads to detective Lens Aschemann to investigate his activities. They're the two primary perspectives, though various others have a go at it as well.

There are a few sex scenes, which run more towards the metaphorical than the erotic, some masturbation, and several descriptions of the female breast. After the first sex scene one of the characters says that he's very puzzled by why the sex happened, which I found funny, though it would've had more impact if variations of "puzzled", weren't used 29 times, or 2-5 times per chapter, except for one that only had a single instance, throughout the ~300 or so pages. The characters apparently were as puzzled as I was, though in a different way.

Despite my disinterest more than disappointment, I'll be reading the third as well, if only to see how what I assume will be another disconnected entry finishes out the series. Reading this still gave me a strange feeling, though unfortunately it wasn't also moderately enjoyable.

Rating: 2.5/5 (3)

Previous
>>/lit/?task=search2&search_text=Kefahuchi&search_tripcode=sffg

>>23083785
>Wasn't this genre inspired by anime and manga?
Less weeb more the dorks sitting in the basement rolling dice and compiling an adventure. I'm still on the fence about the genre in general. Also to whoever brought up Starfist last year, I ordered the first book today. I need my space marine itch scratched again

>>23083824
Imagine finishing a book you'd rate 2.5 stars. Just shelve it little bro, and definitely don't review it.

>>23083849
You may not be pleased to know that I've finished and written about 1 star stuff as well.

Finally finished the First Law Trilogy.
Easy recommend, everyone's a bastard out for themselves, but they're believable bastards. Not moustache twirling caricatures.

>>23083711
The British are successful at anything they turn their hands to. Largest empire in human history, birthplace of the industrial revolution, second to none in scientific achievements, and so on.

>>23083791
Yes, it's that certain something where everything is taken from other languages.

>>23083640
>>23083752 Your "taste in authors" SUCKS. FUCK OFF.
>>23083872
Great post 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?

>>23083909
pasta or OC, either way you're a fag <3

>>23083920
hownew.ru

>>23083909
My brother in christ i think it's time you take a break from this place for a bit

>>23083636
>got sick of never writing my manuscript due to laziness
>assign myself chapter due dates on a calendar
>more productivity in the last week alone than in the past several months
I think I figured out the trick. Now I just have to stay consistent and look into how I can market myself for the endgame.
>>23083711
The British Empire is arguably on par with Rome when it comes to contributions to the modern western world.
>>23083872
Sell me on this a little bit more. Is this a western-inspired series?

I like this dude's comic, and this book was pretty good, but it definitely has a "first novel" vibe to it. I'd love to see him write more, if only because I'm pretty sure his fifth or sixth book would be peak.

Wolfe is king's time traveling spirit clone or something, not sure, might have to reread.

>>23084009
>Sell me on this a little bit more. Is this a western-inspired series?
Feels very European centric, characters and locations are obviously borrowed from the real world.
Some finer points made up whole cloth, but "the north" is obviously inspired by the UK and Norse folklore, "the south" is Islamic caliphate inspired, so on so forth.
The setting being grounded in reality adds a level of familiarity that allows the locations and their peoples to blend into the background, when a Northman is gruff and battlecrazed etc it's easy to picture and allows the author to focus more on individual interactions rather than describing a woodland scene for ten pages.
If you read the first book and don't want more then I wouldn't continue, the writing definitely gets better, but the themes and prose are the same throughout.
The highlight for me is how well described the fights and chaotic scenes are, I had no issue picturing even the most chaotic brawl vividly, and the visceral nature of the author's descriptions really sells the reality of a fight; there's no honor, no blushing brigands in an actual melee, just two people desperately trying not to die.

>>23084009
>arguably on par
It far supersedes it. Individual british inventions (like antibiotics) contributed more to humanity than the entire roman empire

is this any good?

>>23084161
>gay title
>bitch author
You already know the answer, you little shit.

>>23083824
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.

>>23084161
I thought it wasn't bad. I still have the sequel but I haven't read it yet. if you have any sort of interest in God and Catholicism and of course also sci-fi/alien first contact you will enjoy. my personal quick review from years ago was:

>7.5/10. Themes: problem of evil, loss of faith, unknowability of God. (Human characters were incredibly annoying except the main Jesuit priest)

>>23084181
who hurt you?

>>23084258
The "themes" are gay furry alien rape with some teenager-tier concepts slapped on top.

>>23084258
>who hurt you?
The jews.

>>23083824
Your """reviews""" are SHIT. fuck off

Good Fantasy and sci-fi

>Blame
>Ringworld
>Violent Solutions
>Tenebroum
>Melody of Mana
>Warlock of The Magus World
>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
>Sokaiseva
>I Am Not Chaotic Evil
Good Lit-RPG

>The Warlord
>Age of Stone
>Overgeared
>As Good as Dead
>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
>The Mana Influx
>Red Mage

>>23083896
Yeah I mean I'm being glib cause I know they had the most affluence and speak the lingua franca, but I was thinking about how seminal they are after reading John Wyndham. He didn't see himself as writing scifi, he wrote what he called 'logical fictions' - originality. Aickman didn't write horror, he wrote 'strange stories'. Gibson and Howard are Anglo names. Jules Verne had Scottish ancestry on his mother's side. It's incredible.

>>23084777
are you going to add anything to this list or are you just joining the list of annoying ritual posters?

the prose is dry as plywood, all characters blend into one, but the premise is kinda cool. should i keep going? does it get any better? the first battle scene was so fucking disappointing i cant even, how the fuck can you fuck up such an interesting concept that one guy of ancient race sitting in his flying fortress defeat a whole army of organized mages and soldiers by making it seem like the most boring shit ever written? it was the only thing that kept me going for those 70 pages before it began, but once it did, i was constantly thinking "thats it? THATS FUCKING IT?!". jesus christ i am so fucking disappointed right now

>>23085070
>Read genreshit
>Got genreshit
I don't understand what you're complaining about

>In the five years from May 2016 to May 2021, sales of LGBTQ+ romance grew by a jaw-dropping 740%. From May 2022 to May 2023, sales of LGBTQ+ romance grew by 40%.
LGBTQ+ romance in all fiction is here to stay and will only become more prevalent. What sells is what's published.

>>23085215
>What sells is what's published.
Except that isn't true.

>>23085215
>the writing field is filled with gay coomers who get off to erotica
Say it ain't so!
Anyway, where's the sci-fi/fantasy part of this

>>23085234
Romantasy is now the best seller for SFF.

>>23085340
It was started by Sarah J Maas, which considering how much she's made fun of here now looks like copium because her sort and similar and replacing all other sorts by the publishers. There's no only the distant past for mostly suitable books. Never again will the SFF of yesterday be relevant

>>23085340
>Romantasy
I have never heard this term in my life. Is this referring to SFF with settings or worlds heavily inspired by ancient Rome?

I LOVE the Hugos.

>>23085369
read
>>23085357
Or
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/02/11/romantasy-explainer-maas-yarros/

>>23085375
That's a very outdated image. Everything is now known what happened, why it happened, and who did what. Everyone involved has been permanently banned from being involved again. Turns out it was 100% the Westerners involved and nothing to do with the Chinese government aside from the Western organizers being terrified and take preemptive measures.

>>23085396
Damn, it looks like you're literally Chinese. The article for anyone interested: https://archive(dot)ph/S7bhM

>>23085386
>its not Ancient Rome fantasy
>its Romance + Fantasy
>"Oh cool, like romantisicm inspired fantasy?"
>its literally just chick flicks invading my fantasy lit
You gotta be kidding me. You cannot imagine the sheer disgust contorting the skin on my face as I continued to read this article. "That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon." I've never been more disheartened in fantasy in my life

>>23085215
Still just a drop in the bucket. You don't comprehend how much romance is out there. 99% of it still about tall White billionaire boyfriends.

>>23085408
No worse than chinkshit or litrpgs or webnovels

>>23085443
Good point. Maybe culture is dead and this is the best our generation can create? Maybe it's easier now more than ever for a breakout author to make a name among the trashheap? I dunno. All I know is I'm out of excuses to not publish when garbage like this is considered popular now
Thank you anon, you've fueled my spite for this month

>>23085450
Your works, fueled by hate, should rather be fueled by good ideas.

>Zoloft, BuSpar, Vyvanse, Lamictal, Ketamine, trazodon, cannabis, alcohol, and caffeine—all of high doses.
Surely was taking a lot, but didn't work out, unlike some other SFF authors of long ago.
>diagnosed with dyslexia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a child, but didn’t realize had autism
>social isolation
Wow, same as the posters here
>experienced blackouts during manic episodes
>psychosis is when you are completely disconnected from reality. And so the logic of all of this, if it doesn’t make sense to you, it’s because it doesn’t make sense—period—to anybody who is not in it.
As it is for the schizo spammers here.
>“It wasn’t until it was too late that I realized that I didn’t actually want to die.”
>checked into an in-patient psychiatric facility
https://www.thedailybeast.com/author-cait-corrain-who-review-bombed-writers-of-color-im-not-racist

>>23085450
Good luck self-publishing and being dead on arrival

Gonna review some books I read:

>Rating: Bleh/10
Short Edgy Horror Western with the gimmick of two authors each writing a half of the novel. First half is better than the second half, but the whole story is just a mess with not much making sense in the second half. If it had been entirely written by the first author then it might have been better, but there's a massive characterization hole at the very beginning of the story that soured me on the whole thing.

>>23085534
>Rating: Wokeslop/10
Remove all the wokeslop and cut down the page count significantly and this could have been based. As it is it's like the author had a woke checklist he checked off as he was writing.
>Interracial gay male couple? Check.
>Grrl power lesbians? Check.
>Good guys are racially diverse? Check.
>Vampires are all White? Check.
>Not-Christianity/The Church bad? Check.
It is better written than most wokeslop which makes it all the more sad.

>>23085555
Rating: 8/10
Now we're fucking talking. A short story collection, but all the stories connect together and form an overarching story. If you like your Fantasy high, but structured more like S&S then this it. Really old school feel to the entire book in the best way possible. Author doesn't get bogged down in needless details; he tells you just enough that is important to what's happening and he lets your imagination fill in the rest. I wish more modern writers took this approach to writing.

>>23085065
maybeh, show me something worth adding?
>No im not adding Erikson, Bakker or Sanderson

>>23085070
The rest are better in every way.

>>23083791

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJYoqCDKoT4

Borges does a great job giving some elements on English's unique characteristics. If you ever compare an English dictionary to another language it tends to be far larger.

>>23084777
Actually good sff:
>The Hobbit
>The Stars My Destination
>The Broken Sword
>Neuromancer
>The End of Eternity
>Shadow of the Torturer
>Swords and Deviltry
>The Coming of Conan
>Dune
>The Forever War
>Blind Voices
>Fevre Dream
>Berserk
>Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
>Wizard of Earthsea
>Bridge of Birds
>Soon I Will Be Invincible
>Spaceman Blues
>The Pastel City
>Cloud Atlas
>The Deep
>Assassins Apprentice
>The Swords Trilogy
>Black Leopard Red Wolf
>A Song of Ice and Fire
>The Darkness That Comes Before
>Jack Vance

>>23085570
>Author doesn't get bogged down in needless details; he tells you just enough that is important to what's happening and he lets your imagination fill in the rest.
Can you elaborate a bit on this? Any quotes or examples? I try to be succinct when describing commonplace things and ideas in-universe even if they're out-there irl, but I get caught in how much is too little or too much.

>>23085795
>Can you elaborate a bit on this? Any quotes or examples?
You could read the book? I just meant he doesn't get bogged down in details when it isn't necessary. Like when characters need to travel somewhere; he doesn't go into needless details about the actual traveling unless it's important to the plot or characters.

>>23083636
John Carter and Barsoom really unfolds into something big and unique by the end of the series. While ignoring what would usually be expected as the main things that get explained in sci fi like how the premise of a man going to Mars even works.

>>23086248
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_romance

>>23086305
Now give me planetary bromance.

>>23086305
>flying carpets to another planet
How can hard scifi compete?

you guys should read this if you haven't yet

>>23085555
>Book is "we have Vampire Hunter D at home" mixed in with the Lone Wolf and Cub trope genre-fic writers have been obsessed with since The Road
>I'm still pirating the next one

It ain't easy been a slop enjoyer.

Just finished reading Deadhouse Gates and I had a question; Why didn't they use a warren to travel to Aren? I know they couldn't open warrens at first due to the D'ivers, but after Vathar crossing they can hear the enemy using sorcery again.

>>23085396
Lol @ the hacks promoting this narrative, assume its people so "progressive" that they'd rather assume Americans are awful than concede China isn't wonderful.
I assume some are Chinese, but I think the blue hair and problem glasses brigade is out as well.

>>23085396
Yeah, China is the land of freedom of opinion.

>>23087200
And when the Worldcon guy referenced getting "guidance" on concerns around things like China and Taiwan it wasn't from Chinese sources, it was probably the Swedes, or maybe the Dutch.

>>23087077
Warren travel is generally more dangerous and there's nothing to keep the enemy sorcerers from just following them.

>>23086950
Vampire Hunter D has a fantastic setting and a lot of cool shit in it, but unfortunately the series itself is pretty terrible aside from the movies.

i'm reading some scans of old weird tales magazines and it feels so good on the eyes
i don't really understand why people have an issue with scanned materials, to me the fact that i'm looking at a physical thing even if it's through a digital medium adds to it a tangible quality that's severely lacking in just using a purely digital edition for an e-reader
i can understand how this might be an issue for phonefags (though a minor one nowdays), but if you are using an ipad or pc literally why would you ever want anything but high quality scan?

>>23087276
>fantastic setting
>a lot of cool shit in it
like what? can you sell me on it without spoiling too much? you've piqued my interest
and why is the series bad?

>>23087384
The setting is far, far post apocalyptic, the world ended in a Nuclear apocalypse 10,000 years prior after a space age of sci fi technology. In the ensuing nuclear winter, Vampires took over. Not pseudo scientific vampires, but straight up classical vampires, they have to rest in the soil of their homeland, can't enter homes uninvited, and suffer from crucifixes and silver.
However, they were a very independent and fractious bunch, and had their own apocalypse, mostly driving themselves to extinction. Dracula, who was essentially the king, saw this coming, and spent several thousand years trying to genetically engineer a successor species, something that preserved his people and culture but could survive their extinction. Ultimately he failed, and the majority of the remnants of vampirekind took their human chattel and went into space in an attempt to reclaim some of the abandoned colonies where there was no sunlight.
The protagonist is D, he's one of Dracula's more successful experiments. He's a quasi vampire who can survive limited exposure to sunlight and all the other things that typically harm vampires, but he also lacks the ability to use the magic true vampires can do, he's essentially half human. He spends most of his time hunting the vampires who remained behind.

The setting manages to add in a mishmash of technology bordering from Rail era to sci-fi, all mixed together yet still making sense because of the backstory. You have farmsteads with shield generators projecting forcefields over goat pens, owned by an illiterate farmer with a pulse rifle.

As for why they're bad. Well, they're pulp, D is a massive mary sue, the translations are stilted and dull, and the prose is extremely purple.

I'd still recommend the movies though, they're great.

>>23085574
since you have such slop there I'll recommend some slop I've enjoyed
The Flower that Bloomed Nowhere
Tread Lightly
Shadow Slave
The Blessed Child
Nameless Sovereign
Way of Choices

>>23085450
If anyone needs a cheap editor, let me know. I'm nearly finished with this Felliniesque rugby novel

>>23083872
www.reddit.com

"The fall of Hyperion" by Dan Simmons.

3/5, read from Feb 12 to Feb 18th.

Much worse than the first book, Dan Simmons seems to write a lot of descriptive fluff to the point it seems like nothing interesting is happening.

I lost interest in the plot by halfway through, too many mysteries and no explanation really or it was too convoluted/vague.

The format of the first book is vastly superior with each pilgrim telling a story compared to the dream vision narration of this book.

At times it was sort of cool and I wanted to like the new direction with the AI vs humans vs ousters vs future humans vs future AI junk but God it is so longgg, boring and long.

A lot of parts that SHOULD have been emotional or high points like Rachels somewhat conclusion midway through the book didn't even hit home for me at all. Again, that should have been a major point but it just was flooded by mediocrity on every other page.

I have had very, very bad luck with continuing series's. The Witcher, Dune, and now Hyperion. All had good first books but the second books have lost me so quickly. The only series I have liked all the way through is the zones of thought by Vinge.

The Christianity themes reminded me in some ways of Neal Stephenson and his mythology links in snowcrash or even Roger zelazny with the lord of light, although those two are done MUCH better and more interesting even though I rated those also like a 3/5. The Christianity theme was half cooked it feels like, he kept wanting to turn it into something more but kept hesitating.

The twist at the end is lame. Fuck this book.

I will now either return to reading 'we' by yevgeny zamyatin or one of these, starfish by Peter watts, the black company by cook, collected stories of Vernor Vinge, or two philosophy books (the history of western philosophy or the story of philosophy).

Thoughts and feelings? Anyone have opinions on the entirety of the hyperion series? I'd love to hear them, and if you have spoilers for the rest of the books, please explain it to me so I don't have to trust a YouTube video explanation. Also book suggestions welcome.

Great post above me.

>>23085215
>X grew by 1000% over the last Y years
Means nothing if you don't know where it started at. A very good example of how people will try and mislead with statistics.

>ten thousand to seventy thousand sales per year
sounds far less impressive than something like
>grew by 700%

It could be the case that the entire LGBTQ+ genre is being outsold by individual fantasy series, like ASoIaF, which sells some 2 million books a year.

>>23087461
I know considering where we are i'm expected to not even look into your suggestions and just call you names but here goes;

>The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere - Time loop + Slow burn + Who dunnit + Femc + Psychological drama = Hard pass

>Tread Lightly - Looks interesting = in backlog

>Shadow Slave - Couldn't into because of super spechul ahh he's so weak but also strong with his unique power and sekret identity shit

>Blessed child - looks interesting = in backlog

>Nameless sovereign - xinxia + slave + MC with color for a name + secret identity = no ty

>Way of Choices - Looks like it leans hard on cultivation/dao study with romance and muh sick master tropes = if i get really bored might check it out.

I accept that my views on these are not everyone's take. Just like everyone's tastes are not mine. Glad to see others recommending new-ish stuff :)

/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

>>23087440
that sounds pretty rad

>>23083872
i remember reading this 10 years ago and i remember nothing from it now
beyond glokta being a fun meme character it wasn't at all memorable

>>23083872
>Easy recommend
stop reading slop

>>23087598
>MC with color for a name
That's a weird reason to pick as a negative. It's a good xianxia though, aside from the first arc (the cave) which drags on a bit too long, there's no young masters or the usual tropes and the characters are fleshed out. Cultivation isn't really the main focus of the story. Him being a slave is kind of irrelevant as well and it quickly becomes obvious there's a lot of weird shit going on with the MC. Been a while since I read it but I don't recall him going to great lengths to hide his identity
>The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere - Time loop + Slow burn + Who dunnit + Femc + Psychological drama = Hard pass
That's fair but it's not REALLY a time loop. Big spoilers: basically all of the story so far takes place in the last loop The MC was the most annoying part of the story until a certain truth gets revealed later which made her one of the best characters (to me).
All the ones I recommended start out in some way that grabbed my interest from the beginning

About 90% through The Great Hunt and I have to say, the books are a lot weaker than I thought they would be. Descriptions of the setting and plot make it seem a lot better than the prose actually delivers. There are way too many characters who aren't developed that well, the pacing is glacial, the descriptions of things like fight scenes are terrible. Anyone else feel this way about the first couple Wheel of Time books?

Which authors would be most similar to Robert E. Howard?

I'm looking for some real decent romcom stories set in a scifi setting. Can anyone oblige?

>>23087746
Karl Edward Wagner. Read his Kane books. His Conan and Bran Mak Morn novels are decent too.

>>23087577
That's fair.
I will excerpt from the article I linked in this post.

> Rebecca Yarros’s “Iron Flame" broke a preorder record...shot to the top of bestseller lists worldwide. Sarah J. Maas’s “House of Flame and Shadow"...sold more than 120,000 copies in the first week and was an instant bestseller too. Maas’s biggest competition may be herself — she has four novels on the New York Times bestseller list and 13 on the USA Today list — and Yarros, whose books are on five bestseller lists.

> Romantasy is... one of the fastest-growing genres...with sales increasing by 42 percent from 2022 to 2023. Maas alone has sold 40 million copies of her books worldwide.

I just ordered book 1&2 of book of the new sun. What am I in for?

>>23087855
It's the same people buying it.
https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/lgbtq-fiction-gay-literature-publishing-turning-point-rcna127922
> In the 12-month period ending in October 2023, LGBTQ fiction sales reached 4.4 million units
Yes, it's only a tiny fraction of it right now, but it will continue to grow every year. Even that tiny fraction is a significant amount of current years SFF sales.

Anyone knows where i can read/download Regressor of the Fallen family/A Flame reborn? could only find up to chapter 81 for free, no way im paying 50$ for 100 chapters.

where can i pirate this shit?

>>23087710
wheel of time is garbage dude
only ancient boomers who remember reading that shit in high school like it, or contrarians who are "too good" for anything half-decent
wheel of time makes mistborn look like 11/10 masterpiece, it's just dogshit, the prose, the story, the characters, it's all shit
i have never met a sane person who likes WoT and isn't some boomer who last read it 40 years ago

>>23087908
First day?
Normalfag teens and 20somethings make it their life endeavor to choose one entire book series to read then spend the rest of their lives defending that series and acting as if it is infallible perfection.
Welcome to /sffg/.

>>23087710
>>23087908
At the time it was competing with shit like the Sword of Truth, Dragonriders of Pern, Shannara, and D&D novels. It probably seemed pretty good in comparison.

>>23087900
neither is up on the usual sites
tough luck, champ

>>23086872
Is it a good isekai manual? I've been looking to read one just in case.

>>23087983
i've never met a 20something or even a 30something who has read WoT

>>23088007
it's funny because thomas covenant came out a whole decade earlier and it's way way better
i'm not saying it's amazing or anything, but it's vastly superior to WoT and still a decent read nowadays (at least the first trilogy)
i always thought it was unfair that donaldson got shafted by history. then again, the other books seemed pretty bad, i never got past the first book of the second trilogy

>>23087710
The first three books are pretty generic as far as fantasy goes. Not bad necessarily but kind of discount lord of the rings in a lot of ways.
Things get more interesting after book 3 for a while though the pacing remains slow as fuck and gets even worse later on.

>>23088139
I had way more fun playing a Sai'din channeler in the WoT MUD than I ever did reading the books. Those days are long past, though.

>>23087908
I wouldn't say it's shit so far. Some parts such as action scenes are definitely shit - like when Rand fights that high lord in the town taken over by the slavers - but the rest I would call merely average.
Certainly compared to LotR or Dune, it is like a child's crude finger painting before a Rembrandt.
Neil Gaiman, Anthony Ryan, even Stephen King I would call better as well. However, I started reading Malice by John Gwynne and I literally could make it halfway through the book. It was so amateurish...
>>23088139
Alright, I will continue reading. It can't be any worse than the latter half of the Dark Tower.

>>23087539
Spoilers for hyperion
Page 12 of 'We' by Yevgeny is infinitely more clear and enlightening on the theme of the AI technocore using humanity to build their UI (ultimate intelligence) than the entirety of both hyperion books in my opinion. Reading all of fall of Hyperion is less meaningful than this single half a page from a different book, when I say Dan Simmons writes a bunch of fucking uninteresting fluff the entire book, this is what I mean. How can half a page from 'We' be more meaningful than what like 500 pages by Dan Simmons? Sub in the Farcaster network or AI technocore word for word for 'table of hours' and this could have cut 200 pages of Dan Simmons floundering around.

And now that I've had time to think more about it, I'd honestly give it a 2/5 because I'd rather read Ringworld or Lord of Light again instead of this shit. Those were more interesting and shorter.

>>23087555
I think so too :)

>>23087908
>the entire world is wrong

>>23088353
>>the entire world
*breathless wheezing*

>>23088046
yeah
shit sucks, finished the 80 chaps in some hours then saw i had to pay, cant even buy the whole volume in amazon or any other site
this pay4chapter is a fucking cancer, korean cucks have no shame

Looking to start a new series, deciding between Farseer and Malazan. Which would you suggest I check out?

>>23088436
>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.

>>23088441
Oh man if Malazan has a copy pasta then it has to be good
I'll check it out

>>23087678
>That's a weird reason to pick as a negative
In my experience a character with a lazy naming scheme i.e a color, a value of luminescence or even a singular letter generally means that they are as complicated and 'deep' as said name.
>The MC was the most annoying part of the story until a certain truth gets revealed later
How many words do i have to get through for my annoyance to have a pay-off?

I want to read the Fall of Chronopolis

>>23088436
malazan is great

>>23087489
>>23087640
>>23087663
>stop reading slop
>doesn't offer any alternative that isn't "slop"
You meme spouting mongoloids really need to fuck off.

>>23088657
Kitte :)

>>23088436
>>23088441
>>23088467
>>23088632
to elaborate,
malazan does a great job of setting up a lot of neat characters of indeterminate power and significance, thanks to fun (and often cryptic) foreshadowing and that sort of thing.
like some 40k books maybe.
it has its worldbuilding; and despite erikson being gay with archaeology and whatnot, it has neat magic, factions, legendary heroes, gods, etc.

the biggest downside for me, is it's a little too 'epic'. spans likes thousands of years, and bounces around a little, when i'd rather hear about the last guy i cared about-- this is where hearing about things '2 books later', comes in, because you see how they're having an affect elsewhere.

anyway... yea it's sort of fucky, but it's good stuff if you pay attention.

>>23088669

>>23088353
>eat shit, million of flies can't be wrong

>>23087240
They could've used the Imperial Warren so the enemy couldn't follow

>>23088657
again: stop reading slop.
>doesn't offer any alternative that isn't "slop"
not here to spoonfeed your faggot ass. check the archives for better recs.

>>23088700
This again. None of you idiots that use eating shit as an analogy have actually eaten shit before. You just want some random bad thing to use as an example in arguments.
Does shit taste good? No. But does it taste so bad that I'd compare eating it to every bad thing on earth? No way.
Flies eat shit. Animals eat shit. And yeah even people eat shit. That doesn't mean that it's good, but it's a natural thing that doesn't deserve to be used as an insult 24/7.

>>23088738
You give no reasoning beyond calling it slop, you offer nothing you think is good, you're useless trash. Go back to posting on /pol/ thirdie.

>>23088741
it is my opinion that human suffering on the level of million of indians literally eating cow shit pies should not be

>>23088598
>they are as complicated and 'deep' as said name
This particular MC isn't very angry or impulsive at all, which the color red would imply, In fact he seems to be the opposite. I don't remember if the origin of the name is ever explored, there's basically nothing about his past that's explained from what I can recall. It's the best xianxia slop that I have come across on royalroad so far
>How many words do i have to get through for my annoyance to have a pay-off?
I think more than 50% of the book? So probably not worth it unless you like the other aspects it has to offer

>Reading challenge of twenty books
>deicded to do the Drizzt series
>after six books, I decided I had enough Drizzt
>start War of the Spider Queen
>12 books into the reading challenge
>look up my reading list
>I only read drow books
Jesus Christ, I think I might need help

>>23088716
Yes they could. The leader of The Whirlwind forces was a very high ranking Malazan officer and half of his soldiers deserted with him.

>>23088831
malazan doesn't have drow

>>23088831
Does War of the Spider Queen hold up? It's been sitting on my shelf for forever and I haven't read it in 15 years at least.

>>23088741
shit is hardly the worst thing I've ever tasted.
t. has rimmed lots of dirty girls

>>23088831
>>23088851
Spider Queen?

>>23088851
It was certainly a more exciting read than the Icewind Dale Trilogy, but they're interesting enough for me to go from 1-4 in a matter of days (started on February 9th)
I just KNOW they'll kill off Valas, I am scared of getting attached to any character who is not Pharaun

>>23088762
>you offer nothing you think is good
again: not here to spoonfeed your faggot ass. stop reading slop.

>>23088967
average harry potter enjoyer

>>23087632
how can anyone take stuff like this seriously. What are you reading anon? Oh I'm just reading Dungeon Crawler Carl, it's my favourite!

>>23089044
nta, but most of these are total slop written by amateurs; HOWEVER, dungeon crawler carl is actually great.

Vote for your favorite children's books here: https://forms.gle/kDKSZssgZbaCgKnx7

Thread : >>23088792

>>23088967
>still zero reasons it's slop
You have nothing to say yet you continue to insist upon speaking, give me three reasons it's slop or you're a literal dumpling.

Started reading Ringworld so far enjoying it and liking the characters far more than expected too when i figured it would be largely focused on worldbuilding more. Nessus in particular is interesting especially with his mood swings and depressive states. I learned a lot of readers don't like Teela much is it because she's boinking Lou for most of the novel and the age difference is a little bit creepy or because Niven just can't write females at all. Their whole relationship is a little odd giving how Lou listed after Teela's grandmother when he was younger

>>23089083
dungeon crawler carl is also total slop

>>23089379
You may not like Teela as much by the end.

The first quarter of the novel has good character introductions I'd say.

Have you read other Niven before?

>>23089115
Nta, it's slop in the same way YA is YA. You look at it or even read 5 pages and know. I'm not saying you should feel bad for liking it or anything however. Read what you enjoy.

>>23089379
I honestly think Niven is better at writing aliens then women.
I also think it’s kind of interesting how vanilla Lou is for a man who’s lived for two hundred years and done everything.

Just finished Holy Aspect Emperor series, and therefore Earwa, for the first time.

I’m sad.

What is a series you re-read several times as a kid but never touched as an adult?

>>23090109
I tried reading the sisters grimm last month and it's fucking dogshit. there's literally a part where granny says "RACISM BAD" and browbeats sabrina with absolutely 0 argument or discussion. it's just a guardian disciplining a child, but she's like 14 or something and her parents have been kidnapped by all these fucking magical assholes and she's treated like she's a normal 8 year old. dogshit books.

>>23088842
You're right, I forgot about the renegade fist

based sffg underrated royal road gemmies you will recommend?

>>23088657
maybe check the OP? fucking nigger

Done with The darkness that comes before by Bakker.
I rate it 3.5/5.
It was better than I expected desu.
Very grim and moody. Thevptm story seems to be inspired by the crusades which is pretty cool.
One major issue is that the characters are very inconsistent. One minute they are a person the next chapter they feel like a completely different one.
All women are whores, with no exceptions. There's young whores, aging whores and old whores. Women's role in the book is doing hoe shit. The emperor even calls his own mother a whore. Not saying she isn't but it is a bit edgy at times.
There is some weird shit going on at times like the bird sex (?) scene and also some gay shit going on here and there.

>>23089814
>Nta, it's slop in the same way YA is YA. You look at it or even read 5 pages and know. I'm not saying you should feel bad for liking it or anything however. Read what you enjoy
>muh feelings
>muh you just know
still not a reason, actual pseud.

>>23090109
I forget the name but there was a RuneScape forums fanfiction series about the adventures of a noob in the game. I even printed it to reread offline.

>>23090109
The Letter for the King. I remember hoping there would be a continuation back then and once googled it somewhat recently only to find out they made a diverse tv show out of it.

>>23087217
Believe me, the "guidance" comes from China. Maybe through some very transparent middlemen, but it's China.

>>23087382
Nice, I started looking for actual scans too, I find them more pleasant and easier on the eyes. Purely digital releases feel rather soulless.

Do you guys read physical or digital?

>>23090789
>Do you guys read physical or digital?
Can you pirate physical books?

>>23090755
yep

>>23087240
Atleast the journey would have been much quicker though right? Being followed in the real word or being followed in a warren, what's the difference?

>>23090792
technically yes

It's so funny how slice of life fantasy is a direct descendent of stream of consciousness modernist literature. Probably the least and most challenging forms of books to read and they basically set out to do the same thing.

>>23091016
you ok dude ?

>>23091016
In many ways, Legends & Lattes is the Gravity's Rainbow of the new century.

Maybe I just developed Stockholm syndrome after book 10, but I finished pic related last night and really enjoyed it.
That being said, there is a significant emptiness in me now that I'm done with the series after over a year. What should I read next bros?

>>23091206
I'd read malazan now whilst you're desperate for a long series, you'll never be more likely to enjoy it than you are right now

>>23091206
I'm on book three but I like to read other books in-between. Is it worth it?

>>23091237
Are you enjoying it? If so, I say stick through book 6. At that point, decide whether you want to keep going.
7-10 is an objective slump. It gets better again after that, but if you find yourself actively loathing reading it then you should probably just drop it.

>>23089466
why?

>>23090552
well I know you're a faggot like a redditor asking for the source in his internet argument. you're just calling this guy a faggot for not liking what you like, which is exactly the same thing he's saying to you. explain why you like it or you're no better than a pseud.

>>23089814

She's going to turn out to be a massive whore isn't she? Another aspect I'm liking is that Nessus brings together all these people who have had past conflicts with one another and they are learning more about their cultures, while also learning to communicatem, and get along with each other. It's quite fun and definitely one of the stronger points of the book. They have just arrived at the Ringworld were I'm up too.

>>23090109

Re-read Lord of the Rings consistently as a child haven't went back to until recently but I forgot how slow it was in the beginning and the first part of Fellowship is such a slog to get through.

I'm making my way through The Broken Sword by Anderson. Where does /sffg/ stand on the conflict with the elves and trolls?

>>23091337
I won't give any spoilers about the characters but please keep us posted on your reading kek.

Did you feel like it took too long to land on the Ringworld?

You can also dive into the 'Man-kizin wars' series, Niven did 2 short stories and then gave permission to his friends to continue the plot. There is currently like 12 of them and latest release is 2019.

>>23091342
Never heard of this book but elves are the superior race. Is it good?

What does the graph of hard scifi vs the author's ability to grasp human behavior look like? I would put Peter F. Hamilton on the high x and low y axis, personally. Or maybe I'm too much of an optimist and he understands us perfectly well.

>writes scenario in which man wonders why woman won't have the sex with him
>he asks her pointedly
>she shoots back that he thought he was a pedophile because he hangs out with a kid
>otherwise they were getting along just fine
>these people have already been born, according to his timeline

are we really that bad or is he just a sicko?

>>23091381

I'll see if I can find anymore Niven tomorrow when looking for books the only other one I've been able to find is A World Out of Time which I might read next.

>>23088436
Farseer is great if you like getting kicked in the balls. That's most of Fitz's life, and it gets so bad I wonder if Robin Hobb hates him, but like with similar stories, it's inspiring that he never quite gives up and he is pretty deeply written as a lead in an equally fleshed out world. On the other hand, it's stomach-turning to see how his closest friends treat him half of the time.

>Primal Hunter
>mc cucked
>Dungeon Crawler Carl
>mc cucked

why LITRPG authors have a obssession with cucks?

>>23091396
sounds like two complete autists interacting, so it was probably written by an autist who doesn't socialize that much. I don't think anyone but rabid feminists think men are automatically pedos because they hang out with a kid. also why is he hanging out with the kid? presumably part of the plot, right? however, women regularly shit test men with stuff like this, but rarely do they come right out and say they think you're a pedophile, usually it's a much more subtle game to gauge what you'll do in certain situations, aka to see if you're fit to be the father of her child and protect the family. but if she's decided he's a pedophile already, it's past the testing phase.

>>23091508
It's a long story ("1000s of small print pages as the first of two parts" long) but basically, the adult man is going on a journey to find an alien planet and the boy has a device that helps to guide them (it's visually identical to the Claw of The Conciliator but it doesn't heal people), so they're bonding and journeying together. They might be my favorite characters when they're not being total retards, which says a lot. Mind you, even after she had misjudged their relationship, she wanted them both around because the man was a technical genius and that's useful in context. I believe that Hamilton might just be a weirdo and it bleeds into an otherwise really clever story. Like how his solution to a character who's basically a cardio bunny with no career prospects is for her to whore herself out ... but as a spy, and there's no moral reflection on this or the fact that an AI is using her grandpa's voice to convince her to do things at all.

>>23091539
Yeah I would say the average author is a weirdo, or at least the average author worth reading. For infamous example, It by Stephen King, 5 underage boys running a train on their one female friend in the lair of the beast under the town because... it's how she shows them she loves them and guides them out of the darkness, or something. Really fucked up. Human sexuality and psychology is a vast subject and the average author who is more concerned with telling a good story with an engaging plot is likely to misjudge things.

>>23091539
I think the role of moral reflection is up to you unless you believe that authors ought to be prescribing morality to their readers.

>>23091599
I honestly don't know. Maybe I just got filtered by the pacing and the haphazard genremashing.

>>23091503
It all happens before the story starts. It's the emotional equivalent of the protagonist getting hit by a truck.

>>23091396
How well do you grasp human behavior? How confident are you that you'd know what "normal" looks like when you see it? Is human behavior on 4chan an outlier?

>>23091609
For you it is. For others it may all be the same. That's how purity tests work.

>>23091503
>>23091609
>>23091626
samefag

>>23091329
already did nerd>>23084075

>>23091329
Nah this is bollocks
I don't like abercrombie but the guys in here who just shit on stuff and never actually bring up anything they like are more annoying.
Hell even the one guy who does bring up stuff he likes and it's crap S&S like Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser isn't any better because the list never changes, they never develop as a reader or a contributor to the thread.

>>23091631
kek

>>23091626
The logic of having a cheating gf in the protagonist's background is so that he can make a dramatic break with his previous life and go on to have adventures. The author's are lazy; they aren't 'obsessed' with anything. And they aren't injecting their weird sexual fetishes into the story either.

I'd say people with these 'purity tests' are the ones obsessed with cuckoldry.

>>23091678
Yeah also these books are power fantasies, having the protagonist be emasculated gives them even further to grow. It's like the basic trope of fascist literature.
(Although I don't think DCC is doing it for this reason, the author just clearly wanted to write a guy who was pretty normal but had a reason not to be depressed too much when the world ended)

>>23091678
>>23091683
I don't remember Fang Yuan ever getting cucked. It seems power fantasy is possible without cuckoldry.

>>23091622
Why I asked, really. I read half of his characters and thought "that makes sense" or "i can see WHY they would be that way" and then the rest I'm just baffled by. People can be baffling though. and ironically that's something actual autists have trouble with.

Think I'm finally gonna read pic related today.

>>23091696
He gets defeated at the start which is even more cucked

>>23091708
idk who John C. Hocking is, but there's no substitute for the original Howard, anon. Only approximations that vary from welcome additions to abortions.

>>23091696
Carl never got cucked either. It's the same ritualposting newfag who invents definitions for words like everybody else who came here after 2010.

>>23091708

I want to get into Conan since I'm making my way through the Elric novels at the moment and feel like I should at least check out the original or one of the more famous ones. He just seemed like a big, dumb, uninteresting brute to me who enjoys swinging his sword too much but I heard there was more character depth to him than that.

>>23091734
>"Well, last night in a tavern, a captain in the king's guard offered violence to the sweetheart of a young soldier, who naturally ran him through. But it seems there is some cursed law against killing guardsmen, and the boy and his girl fled away. It was bruited about that I was seen with them, and so today I was haled into court, and a judge asked me where the lad had gone. I replied that since he was a friend of mine, I could not betray him. Then the court waxed wroth, and the judge talked a great deal about my duty to the state, and society, and other things I did not understand, and bade me tell where my friend had flown. By this time I was becoming wrathful myself, for I had explained my position. But I choked my ire and held my peace, and the judge squalled that I had shown contempt for the court, and that I should be hurled into a dungeon to rot until I betrayed my friend. So then, seeing they were all mad, I drew my sword and cleft the judge's skull; then I cut my way out of the court, and seeing the high constable's stallion tied near by, I rode for the wharfs, where I thought to find a ship bound for foreign parts."

Conan is actually one of the most based men in the fantasy canon and Aragorn is his bitch.

>>23087855
>broke a preorder record
Which preorder record?
>shot to the top of bestseller lists worldwide
For what period?

>Maas
If thats the standard for lgbtq fantasy then its clearly just a vanity project of white women - since that is Maas' audience and seems to be the audience of anyone significant.

>>23091704
If you were autistic would you know?

>>23091745
It doesn't really matter aside from that it relatively sells much better than anything you'd be interested in reading. That's okay though because the past has many lifetimes of books to read. The recent past, present, and future may be almost entirely lost, but there's still the longer ago past.

>>23091748
I'm here, aren't I? Anyway, there's definitely something to be said for how a detachment from humanity enables one to write characters convincingly, including an alien that barely grasps anything beyond STEM concepts. Kudos to Hamilton for that.

>>23091748
Yes because autism is a spectrum between low and high (functioning). Surely your entire belief system toward autism isn't based off what mass media tells you?

my ideal fantasy book would have a very old and bumbling wizard, think gandalf except without the arc of becoming super power and enlightened but just a sweet old man with a great deal of power and knowledge
he would go on adventures always helping out the little guy and occasionally he would indulge in some young puss, but still, all in all quite wholesome

>>23091774
Elminster might do you good. Or not; I haven't read it.

You guys ever read a book and convince yourself you can write a book?

>>23091730
I was reading Conan before you were born, bro.

>>23091800
Very good. In that case, what are the best pastiches?

>>23091766
>an alien that barely grasps anything beyond STEM concepts
There's a TV series I'm watching that I recommend for this: Resident Alien. I'm autistic and loving the show, it's funny and smart. Based on a comic.

>>23091798
>You guys ever read a book and convince yourself you can write a book?
Yeah but only when I get annoyed at shitty web/self-pub stuff and think I could easily do better.

>>23091808
I've heard of this. Alan Tudyk is always the best in whatever he stars in, I know that much. It would be very funny to see him portray MorningLightMountain, whose response to human quirks is less curiosity and more "I don't give a shit. Die and let me have your resources." Hell, maybe I should give these books another try. I obviously can't stop thinking about them.

>>23091807
Conan and the Emerald Lotus by John Hocking.
Conan: The Road of Kings by Karl Edward Wagner.
And I'm sure Hocking's Black Starlight will be just as good as Emerald Lotus from all the reviews I've read. Scott Oden's recently released Conan novel The Shadow of Vengeance is good too apparently, but haven't read it yet so can't confirm.

>>23091840
Thanks for the wisdom, oldfag. Which is your favorite Howard original? I enjoyed People of The Black Circle, most recently.

>>23091798
Most LitRPG is absolute slop that anyone could write. A half decent novel from a professional author is leagues apart from this stuff. Some people aren't aware of how large the gap is, and probably don't appreciate good writing.

>>23091850
It's a tie between Tower of the Elephant and Scarlet Citadel.

>>23091863
>The Tower of the Elephant
>Scarlet Citadel
nta but damn you old niggas got awful taste

>>23091873
Most of the Conanfags jerk off Tower as one of, if not the best story in their opinion. I don't read Conan myself but I remember these great posts in every single thread.

>>23091758
I'm more speaking to how misleadingly statistics can be used to push ideas or sentiments. No doubt stuff enjoyed by women is far more popular since they are the bulk of (paying) readers.

Its like when a TV show comes out, is shit, and is called the "most successful amazon cartoon this year - 200 million watch minutes". You later find out they haven't released any other amazon cartoons that year (but ones from previous years are still more popular), and the watchtime counts people scrolling past it like an advert.

>>23091880
I'm the guy who asked for oldfag's opinion. I respect it, and I do think those are actually two of the really good ones. Certainly before the slump that Black Circle corrected, imo. I honestly don't think there's anything wrong with Tower as a starting point, but it gets even better from there. It's probably seen as dull now because its formula looks too much like modern dungeon crawling, up to and including the random encounters.

>>23091873
>>23091880
Nice try, homolings.

>>23083636
Hi guys, first time posting on /lit/. Do you know any good fantasy books with lesbian characters? Or just cool female characters that aren't involved in any romance?

Don't have to be main characters but decent page time would be nice. I'm tired of the same 5 books being recommended anywhere I look (like Gideon- trash). I know of the /u/ charts but 99% of the books there suck. Got something less known but worth reading?

>>23091929
So you want men writing lesbians and men writing women in general, since the /u/ charts are almost all women as far as I remember.

>>23091929
Still me. A recent example of who I consider a "cool female character" would be someone like Vika from the Ember Blade, read that shit last week but when I found out she dies pathetically in the next tome I said fuck that shit.
>>23091945
Exactly, lol. I've found that I prefer lesbians/women written by men.

>>23091929
>lesbian
>fantasy
>good
yeah no such thing

>>23091929
you couldn't have chosen the worst medium to look for this
you can find plenty of films with lesbians and games with female characters, hell, even sci-fi books with female leads and lesbian relationships
but fantasy is pretty much a dead-end for what you're looking for, toots

>>23091964
a worse medium**
i'm tired

>>23091929
maybe there's a book adaptation of Xena warrior princess, but she's romantic, I think.

>>23091953
https://cjwerlinger.wordpress.com/2016/12/10/meet-the-men-of-lesbian-fiction/
Looks like even the men probably won't be suitable for you outside of erotica.

>>23088967
>"I didn't come to the general for this subject to discuss this subject!"

How brave of you to have exactly zero opinions or contributions. I would rather hang out with someone who jerked it to Mistborn than someone who is afraid to enjoy anything because of the criticism that might follow.

>>23091999
this thread is giving me ideas
maybe i should write a good book with a lesbian protag that isn't full of degenerate shit
sounds like there's a void to fill

>>23090067
I know how you feel, but you may reflect the ways in which the ending is a real success on the philosophical punchline.

My main issue with it is all the threads he left dangling.

>>23091206
Sanderson actually did as good a job as could be done, I think.

>>23090375
The second series dispenses with all the pesky hetero sex and exclusively features sodomy

>>23092010
>lesbian protag that isn't full of degenerate shit
Yes please. Do it anon, I'll preorder that shit, you have my word.

>>23092012
what do you mean "left dangling"?
bakker's not dead and the series isn't over
he has plenty of time to finish it should he want to
personally i thought the aspect-emperor was pretty shit and completely underwhelming
granted, i say this as someone who started reading from the very first book and eagerly pre-ordered all the new releases
i remember when the first aspect-emperor book came in the mail i literally bought some food, went into some parking lot where nobody would find me, and read in my car the whole day with my phone turned off
i knew something was off from that first book and it never won me over in the same way as pon

>>23091929
Otherside Picnic, Traitor Baru Cormorant, Le Guin's got some in the Hainish books
She Who Became the Sun kinda, it's more of a trans allegory really.
Don't dismiss OP just because it's a light novel, it's really good.

>>23091556
It was actually a metaphor for growing up and navigating the darkness of adolescence to become adults who forget what it's like.

But it was underneath that just an excuse for his fetish

>>23092023
what would you wanna see in that kinda book anyway? or what are bad tropes to stay away from?

>>23092035
+ he was on a mountain of coke probably. and there are better more elegant less crass ways to express this.
why children, king?

>>23092028
My guess is that he's done because he wanted the story to be a metaphor for the collapse of meaning. The ending is exactly that.

I think to properly follow it, Bakker would need to find an antidote for that philosophically to play into the story and he will not.

He wasn't just writing a story here, he was playing out a much grander picture

>>23092068
>He wasn't just writing a story here
every author is just writing a story, miss me with this pretentious bullshit
>I think to properly follow ie
he explicitly said it would a story of three parts and he conceived the story since reading dune in his teen years so, clearly, he intended it to be more than this
actually it's funny we have this back and forth because i just checked his blog and today EXACTLY marks four years since his last post, to the day
this nigga must be going through some real shit in his personal life, he loved blogging almost as much as grrm

>>23092087
>check grrm's blog
>>Exciting news for all the Wild Cards fans out there
pain.

>>23092068
>He wasn't just writing a story here
Bakkerfags are truly mentally ill in the same way evangelionfags are.
2deep4u faggoooooooooot

>>23092125
the 4chan people that have come to the bakker fanbase have made it really shitty
admittedly it was pretentious before too but now it's far worse

>>23092087
>Miss me with this pretentious bullshit
It's his pretentious bullshit, not mine. I'm not just putting this interpretation on the series, it's his self-proclaimed ambition.

There's definitely quite a bit out there by him to imply more is coming. I hope I'm wrong, I really do, but with his love of inverting fantasy tropes I could see everyone dies being an acceptable ending in his eyes too.

>>23092125
Again, I'm not just saying that as my interpretation. It's his intention.

I'm aware that things standing as a representation of other things is probably pretty foreign as a concept on the lit board, but I don't think it's too crazy to mention when discussing the motivations of the author or intention of further writing.

>>23091733
>It's the same ritualposting newfag
who?

>>23092145
>it's his intention
he wrote some books. that's reality. any pseudointellectual allegories either by readers or authors can be dismissed a la tolkien. allegory is gay and retarded. he wrote some books.

>>23092159
He wrote some books while actively stating the intended meaning of those books.

You're as bad as the people who claim the Muslim dude running over children shouting about Allah could've done it for any reason.

I did not imply his allegories are more outstanding than the work itself, I used those allegories as a point in an argument for why he won't write more.

>He was exploring the collapse of meaning through fantasy.
>He did it.
>He has no remedy for this on a philosophical grounds because there is not one

This means he either has to stop writing or abandon the premise he was going for.

I cant stand Brandon Sandersons writing. Why is this guy so famous?

>>23085570
this sounds dope thanks I will get it.

>>23092210
"Better than everyone who writes faster and faster than everyone who writes better" sweet spot.

>>23092210
You don't like the vast majority of books by popular authors so why would this be any different?

Does anyone know the channel from the other day that made Dark Souls / shadow of the torturer comparison? I cant find the vid

>>23092240
I literally typed the title of the video into Google and it was the first result.

>>23092221
Based.

>>23092221
>>23092277
I'd also recommend pic related. The stories aren't connected like in Zang, but it's a great and varied collection.

>>23092210
>why is the guy who writes 5th grade shounen fantasy like he's paid by the word famous
gee bill

>>23092093
The new Wild Cards book is really good tbf

>>23092240
google nigger or just find the thread from the other day

>>23092318
is it really

>>23092349
>telling people in these generals to use the archives
O I AM LAFFIN

>>23092172
>discussing books and those who write them
>you're just like x who does y
>literally using allegories and metaphors for things that aren't books and writers while arguing with someone calling you a faggot for using allegories and reading deeply into things
it would be funny if I didn't know you had no self awareness
he just wrote a book nigga

>>23085728
Borges says some interesting things, but what he says about physicality and malleability applies to German to a far greater degree than to English, I think. It also works similarly in Russian, which is why I've often found Russian translations superior to English originals

>>23090375
>There is some weird shit going on at times like the bird sex (?) scene
Man, you have no idea. The first series is relatively tame, even though at the time I read it I thought it was the wildest thing in fantasy I read, but the second series is completely bonkers, for better or worse. Just make sure to not get spoiled, I had most of the second series spoiled to me by sffg

Has anyone actually read any of the new authors from DMR? Any good?
A large chunk of them seem available on z-lib.

How long until we get a STC AI that generates 100% serviceable (but extremely formulaic) stories

>>23092554
I'm not sure what you mean by "new authors." Ask instead if any of the books DMR publishes are good. And the answer is yes.

>>23092566
I mean the ones written by new authors alive today instead of republished older works.

>>23092580
Yes they're good, but quality varies as with anything.
My recs are:
The Eye of Sounnu
The Great Die Slow
Necromancy in Nilztiria
Worlds Beyond Worlds
Terra Incognita
Arminius, Bane of Eagles
Germanicus, Lord of Eagles
Samhain Sorceries
Die By the Sword
Vran the Chaos-Warped
The Infernal Bargain

>>23085070
>>23088441
>>23088436
Yes.
It stops overspending its time on setup somewhere in book 2, and actually start doing its job. The downside is that its still tabletop genre fiction, which means it reads like tabletop genre fiction.

>>23092350
Yeah, Wild Cards is mostly mid but The Sleeper is one of the single best fantasy/superhero character concepts out there. It's kinda funny how long it took them to just give him a whole book.

Have we reached Nirvana?

>The strangest, most cunningly beautiful thing I have read in a long time. To what boundaries of imagination has one saught to find such wondrous confines as this author.

>It is truly well thought out, complex, and thought evoking. It is not for someone who isn't into a bit of fantasy/just wants a light bit of reading...I found the writing to be incredibly unique

>what a interesting book.. well written, a very poetic way of writing

>I was completely blown away by the mastery with which Moers tackles this story. The City of Dreaming Books flows beautifully, I had the hardest time trying to get anything done while I was reading this book

>This book is exceptional! It fills you up to overflow with just the wondrous way in which it was written.

>Wonderfully creative writing.

>Walter Moers is a fantastic writer

>The writing is really excellent

>Walter Moers is a wordsmith in every sense of the word.

>Probably the most imaginative book I've ever read

>The author uses descriptions that are rich and powerful. The entire book portrays a mood I was eager to return to as a well crafted story unfolded. Absolutely delightful.

>The City of Dreaming Books is a book that anyone who loves fantasy literature should run out and buy immediately

>This book is really fantastic. The author's imagination is truly like no other. If you are looking for something truly unique and a book that you won't be able to put down...give this one a try.

>Be warned, this is the book you have been waiting for. ... You do not need to know what this book is about. You do not need to know that it will forever replace your here-till-now favorite fantasy. You only need to know that it is the book by which all other books will be judged. I have easily read hundreds of books, searching for a story that sustains you long after the last page: This is THAT BOOK.

>I'm so thrilled to have stumbled upon this book, as I'd never heard of Walter Moers before. Now I just HAVE to read everything else he's written. Right now. And I rarely re-read anything, but I think I'd enjoy reading this one at least one more time.

>This is one of the best BOOKS EVERE!!!

>a masterpiece that every book lover should have read.

>I absolutely loved this book! It was terrific. What a fantastic book!

>A masterpiece of fantastical proportions....This... this book was incredible. The writing is superb.

>Walter Moer's masterpiece is any book lover's wet dream.

>This book was amazing. I loved it, I loved it, I loved it.

>This is one of the finest fantasy novels I've ever read. There is no comparison. It is a book created for those of us who love books. It is the book that you have been waiting for. It is the last book you need to read- or the last book you'll read purely for itself, for, in every book you read after this, there will be the memory of the perfection you once found here.

>>23092093
>>23092350
>>23092623

>>23092318
>>23092809
What's the premise of Wild Cards exactly? Just a new premise every time and multiple writers?

>>23092674
and to think, those people reviewing it in English likely haven't even read the German original, which is ever so slightly better with its wordplay.
I'm really enjoying the increased Moers presence on here recently

>>23092674
why are you shilling a children's book

>>23092561
Sneed to Chuck Artificial Intelligence

>>23092871
No premise. It's just a superhero setting that other writers contribute to.

have you niggas read the works of Kenji Miyazawa?

>>23093029
>a superhero setting
And I'm out

>>23092871
It was a ttrpg superhero setting for a game that a bunch of SFF writers were playing and they decided to use it for short story anthologies going forward.
The premise is that an alien dna bomb goes off and kills a load of people but physically mutates a select few and gives an even smaller few superpowers.
But really it's an excuse to write whatever they want, like one story is "what if buddy holly didn't die but faded in popularity" lol

>>23092461

There's something to be said about German's concept of nouns and other quirks which lead for it to become a major philosophical and cultural powerhouse in the 1800s. Not an expert myself but something about how nouns merging together creates a mindspace where you can make connections with a tactility English lacks.

>>23093116
>The premise is that an alien dna bomb goes off and kills a load of people but physically mutates a select few and gives an even smaller few superpowers.
Forgot to add that this is pretty amusing because Marvel rather blatantly ripped this off when they tried to relaunch Inhumans

>>23093121
No surprise there. Capeshit may be the one genre more cannibalistic than scifi.

>>23083752
The only correct assessment here is Sanderson. Fat little Mormon churns out books like mexican bowel movements.

>>23092674
neil gaiman books+the hobbit blows this shit out of the water. I don't even have to read it to know that.

anyone shitting on sanderson hasn't read much of anything. or is comparing him to the greats, for whatever fucking reason. his slop is right at home with all other slop on bookshelves in currentyear.

>>23093245
Neil Gayman lol

>>23093256
greatest author alive today

>>23093245
>neil gaiman
Sucks ass hardcore.
>>23093256
for fucking real, he knew he was baiting.

>>23093272
no bait, name a better living author, and one who writes both children's books and normal novels. tell me why your book is better than the graveyard book, for instance.
you may commence the coping now.

>>23093245
Kneel Gayman is a 2-bit hack next to Moers. Not even the fag that keeps shilling Moers

>>23093289
germoid cope and seethe over the superior britoid specimen. additional poketard cope for compound interest dilation.

>cope seethe dilate /v/ flowchart newfag power hours
Cool!

>>23093295
>gayboy likes Gayman

why gaiman? his versatility? i guess we can give it to him. i'd still rather read whatever niche chad in his element.

>>23092125
>author puts subtextual themes into his book
>this is somehow bewildering
Thats every second book retard. Holy shit but this general is brain dead sometimes.

>>23093313
because he's simply the best author and american gods is his magnum opus

>>23093266
Only in Neil Gayman's house.

>>23093245
Kneel GAyMAN fucking blows my asshole lol

>>23093245
Gaiman is literally the worst hack to ever write a fantasy book.
I'm still seething that the Pratchett book tricked me into reading him, and I didn't read just one book but several.

>>23093389
? good omens is hilarious. anansi boys is the funniest book ever written. I don't even like british people either.

>>23093395
you are gay

>>23093410
cope, all his books are great. I can't think of a single one I disliked. even his nonfiction collections were enjoyable. he's just a great author.

>>23093395
Good Omens is mostly Pratchett and Anansi Boys is just ripping off folklore.
American Gods, Neverwhere and the Graveyard Book are some of the most derivative tripe i've ever had the misfortune to read.

loved Three Body Problem, Hyperion Cantos, Lucifer's Hammer. I like long character and setting driven stuff. looking for recs

>>23093420
sorry you feel that way. I'm not baiting, he's genuinely my favorite author. such effortlessly captivating magical prose.

>>23093428
I'm so sorry for you.

>>23093389
I honestly think Gaiman sold his soul for authorial fame. He's popular amongst braindead teenagers, none of whom have read anything he's written. His writing is occasionally quite compelling, but frequently unimpressive. I'm convinced his cultural impact will prove to be nonexistent, and his soul will languish in forever in Hell, writing epithets for Satan's cock.

>>23093487
I have to admit I was disappointed when I read about how he married amanda palmer and all that shit. he seemed totally cucked but I still like all his books. praying for him.

>>23093489

>>23093549
this is reasonable though? it's not even phrased in a cuck PC way. imagine taking a beloved character and making it a gay nigger woman because of your fucked up ideology. you may think this is a ridiculous tweet but the average person is fucking retarded. look up stephen king's twitter for reference.

>>23093576
> imagine taking a beloved character and making it a gay nigger woman because of your fucked up ideology.
They did literally that to his own work and he applauded it.

>>23093587
sad but I'm also glad I don't read comics. I only read his novels.

>>23093587
Is the Sandman adaption actually changing characters or is it just getting Netflixd

>>23093670

>>23093904
>>23093904
>>23093904
page 7 bump

Reading and rereading all these Doctor Who stories, with the most hard sci-fi of my current batch about to be wrapped up, sure has me craving the ol' scifi tales again. I think I'll add >>22979697 to my immediate backlog, and I'll even poke through Excession to read the fun inter-ship correspondence and ship POVs. I don't know what else to add. Are the 'newer' Revelation Space short stories Night Passage and Plague Music any good?