/lit/ - Literature

Bakker is King.
A new headcanon came to me lately, that may not be a headcanon: Ajokli = Kellhus + Cnaiur and due to the nature of the Outside, always has been and always will be. He is the Prince of Deceit (Kellhus) and Hate (Cnaiur) and the most human of the Hundred. It just has a nice ring to it. I also think Kellhus' soul, the elements of him that were not absorbed into Ajokli, achieved Oblivion when he was salted, thus the Absolute, in a way.

Bakker news?

Let's continue. Any good books with feeling of decay, decline and with aesthetics of ruins? Maybe something poetic, tragic or melancholic.

What we have:
>The Silmarillion
>R. Scott Bakker
>McKiernan's The Iron Tower
>Dying Earth (Vance, Wolfe, Clark Ashton Smith, M. John Harrison, etc)

>>23159600
Northern episodes in ASOIAF.

>>23159600
>The Winter of the World

>Last
>Current
>Next

>>23159600
Unironically Vampire Hunter D

>>23159698
Based. Such a comfy read

>>23159698
>last
'The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge'
5/5, think I already reviewed it.
>current
'The history of western philosophy' by Russell Bertrand
>next
'Starfish' by Peter Watts.

Started reading ASOIAF book one recently.

I like the sense of place. I like Bran's psychedelic dream-visions. Intrigued about this Asshai place everyone keeps mentioning. Already suspecting that there is an underlying Science Fiction element to the world. I am finding the Dothraki and the Wall chapters generally more interesting so far, but I don't hate the Cat chapters as much I expected.

The language can feel borderline anachronistic at times, naming conventions aside the prose, and often dialogue, doesn't sell me on the world being another time and place.
He comes close but doesn't beat Tolkien on food descriptions, despite being a fat fuck.
Ned seems like a genuine retard at times.

>>23159846
You mean Game of Thrones? Why call it ASOIAF book one?

>>23159878
Because it's the first one.

Oh g-d bros , I just saw the news...

Someone pick out a new book/series for me.

I started Game of Thrones, and it is enjoyable only for GRRMs sense of prose (he is a good writer, unironically). However, the plot meanders absolutely everywhere and even he lost track of it, which is why I never bothered reading past book two. It's not going anywhere, lads. Bail out now.

I've recently read the Three Body Problem, and despite repeated exposition dumps, its still readable. I finished it in three days. I feel like this guy is probably one of the last SF writers whose books don't insult my intelligence (although I've never read his other stuff). I used to love Gibson too, but he's gone downhill in a big way. Peripheral and its sequel were roundhouse-kick-into-a-tree-shredder-tier books. Neal Stephenson is also hyped by many but I find him insufferable. His books are 95% exposition dumps with an occasional peppering of dialogue. Every single one I sample on Amazon or at the book store, the first 20 pages are just talking about whatever random topic popped into his head and not setting up any plot at all. I don't know why he's popular.

Maybe I'll just read Tacitus or something, but I'd like a normal book too.

>>23159414
Contrarian, The Grand Illusion #3 - L.E. Modesitt (2023)

Dekkard is determined to reform his country through the legal procedures of government. Foremost is to hold the most powerful corporations and their executives accountable for their treasonous and ruinous dealings that have destabilized the country for their exclusive benefit. They are believed to have funded domestic terrorism in order take back power without it seeming like a coup attempt. For those involved, no one is above the law, not even former Premiers. Dekkard must constantly be on guard against assassination attempts, as there have already been several, and he expects there to be several more.

There's no denying that Contrarian is a repetitive book with a clearly defined routine. At over 200,000 words, 22.5 hours for the audiobook, that may be too much of roughly similar events unless it's something you specifically like, which I do. Almost every single chapter, excluding those chapters that are newspaper articles and book excerpts, is a new day that often begins with Dekkard's morning activities. Afterwards he goes to work, does his job, then enjoys a few hours of leisure, which may overlap with his work-related activities. This is surely the most Modesitt has ever done in detailing the daily life of a protagonist from what I've read and must be among the most for anything he's written.

Some of the daily life activities that Dekkard engages in are learning about the concerns of those in his district, house hunting, discussing legislation (including tax policies), forensic accounting, acquiring information, debating, committee hearings, and eating white bean soup. There's more than that, but as noted, it's often the same activities over and over again, though they're always different in execution, except the white bean soup. He eats other food, but there's so much soup in general.

My reading experience was very immersive, to the point where I wanted to be certain that I read every single word at a relatively slow place. I don't feel the need to do that usually, even for the books I most enjoy, because often I feel the need to read more quickly. A visual depiction of my enjoyment would be a horizontal line. On a heart monitor that would indicate someone is dead, and I have no doubt that's what many would find this to be, dead boring. For me though that instead indicates that it's consistent from start to finish with minimal variation. It doesn't reach anywhere near the highs of my favorite books, but it never becomes any lower than solidly enjoyable.

Modesitt hasn't decided yet whether this is the last book in the series, though the five responses he's posted about it by answering reader questions on his website shows that he's certainly considering doing so and has ideas for what he'd write. I know that I'll be reading whatever comes next.

Rating: 4/5

Previous
>>/lit/?task=search2&search_text=grand+illusion+&search_tripcode=sffg&search_ord=old

>>23160044
I really like that cover

>>23160070
https://chrismcgrath.art/

So been wondering lately what's going to happen if Winds eventually gets published and just how much of a toil on the printing press it will be if GRRM gets his wish and it is released as one massive tome. Not only will it probably cost a little bit more extra I'm thinking somewhere within the £30/$50-$60 range than your regular new hardcover but I expect a lot of delays because of the sheer size and cost to print the book wouldn't this also mean first editions of Winds would be a little more rarer if it didn't have a larger print count

>>23160093
Thanks, based reviewfag

>>23160044
Your """reviews""" are SHIT. fuck off

>>23159600
Good question. That melancholy feeling of being amidst the dead ruins of an ancient golden age is a key part of fantasy’s appeal for me.
There’s also BotNS, of course.

>>23160160
>>23160166
You're welcome. I've only been completing series, or what's out of them, so since far this year as I said would be, but I may have to add a few standalones soon or even start a new series. We'll see.

>>23160158
Same thing they do with Sanderson's books, bring them down into multiple physical books if they need to.

>>23160044
How pozzed is it? On the scale 1 to 10

>>23160261
I don't know how to rate on that scale. He believes in equality between men and women which may be enough to disqualify it for you.

>>23159978
I seriously hope you didn't just read three body problem and then stop there.

Properly formatted sample extract just came out today for anyone willing to give it a shot:
https://mansworldmag.online/improvidence-exclusive-extract/

>>23160274
Does it have any trannys, fags, cucks, race mixing, blacks, religious fags, anti white agenda, feminism?

>>23160391
Woke isn't when there are blacks, it's when something is BLACKED.

/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.

>>23160391
Not really, though you could just read what I wrote about the other books with the link I provided. As I already stated, the protagonist doesn't hate women, so if it's your definition of feminism, then yes to that. There's religion, but it isn't really relevant.

/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

>>23160425
out of the few Ive read of these idk why theyre recommended. LotM has fucking awful, atrocious pacing on par with the worst kinds of cultivation novels. And wandering inn suffers from the RR curse of bloating the fuck out of a simple story that could have been done in 100 chapters to several hundred

>>23160391
>religious fags
The Bible is pozzed? WTF?

>>23160465
Might be an actual poltard. A rare find.

>>23160465
Words only mean what their user wants them to mean.

Any more fantasy books with Ayy's in them?
I have already read BoTNS and Second Apocalypse.

>>23160476
Words don't mean things, people mean things. Words are how we communicate our meanings.

>>23160699
But... I rotated it... Why does my phone keep doing this

>>23160702
Anyways one more
3% in and Trump gets mentioned lel

>>23160699
>>23160712
what book?

Finished Empire of the Vampire. At no point was I surprised, but it's good to have dark fantasy that doesn't get up too its own ass about how dark it is. Would recommend.

>>23160756
Atomic Horrors by Tim Curran

Is there any science fiction with sword fights? Like cyber samurai, almost Star Wars esque but more graphic and mature

>>23160801
I'm sure there are dozens of WH40K books that will satisfy that itch.

>>23160771
>It's on kindle unlimited
Nice. What would you rate it? Any other dark fantasy recs? I usually associate vampire shit with being intended for female audience.

>>23160831
>What would you rate it?
3.5/5. I have my quibbles with it, like the entire framing device being more than a little clumsy to actually read and there being some diversity present, but I do like the protagonist consistently telling himself that he's more of a bastard than he actually is and the whole "vampires are monsters in human skin that all need to die no matter what" thing.

>Any other dark fantasy recs?
Not that I can think of for the moment, no.

Read Beyond Apollo

>>23161022
no

Comfy atmospheric adventure fantasy with campfires in the night wood or among ruins? I have pretty good reminiscences of DragonLance and Trollslayer in this context.

>>23160712
They really are mentally ill.

>>23160373
You are basically pedophile Gardner but even less talented.

>>23161007
vampires are monsters in human skin that all need to die no matter what
except his sister because uhhh just because OK lol

>>23160373
Anyone got a quick rundown on this guy? I don't want to be the one with a dirty hard drive if the allegations are true.

>>23161413
From what I've gathered there is a strong religious subtext and very little (if any) pedo stuff. Not my cup of tea.

>>23160307

I'm about to finish it. What do you recommend to read as follow up?

>>23161413
>>/lit/thread/23122557#p23135602

>>23159701
>Vampire Hunter D
>good book
>book
Maybe the movie

>>23159846
>Ned seems like a genuine retard at times.
You have to remember he was a second son who wound up in his current position largely through circumstance outside his control. And had he been more cunning and proactive, he'd probably be the most powerful man in the Seven Kingdoms instead of the lord of the poorest region on the continent.

>>23160801
More pls
>>23160806
Which

>>23161413
I was curious because of the allegations so I read some and it's pretty fucking weird and gross. Do not suggest.

>>23159846
I'm sorry to tell you but there's little to no payoff for all of those interesting things, unless you have nothing better in your backlog you might as well just read or watch a summary on youtube and move on, the books are never getting finished.

>>23161539
No thank you, then. Thanks. anybody else here read anything by Andre Norton?

>>23161539
What was so weird about it?

Since it's such a popular thing, are there any "romantasy" books you guys like?
Nothing I've seen interests me

What book?

>>23161989
The Poppy War, for me. Not often I read a book and sincerely hope the main character gets killed and replaced by somebody more tolerable.

>>23160699
>>23160712
For fuck's sake take the picture with your phone held upright, not to the side. It only looks small on your screen, but it has a ginormous resolution camera so it will be fine when you upload it here.

>>23161989
Pandora's Star. Way to fucking go, Justine.

>>23161989
Everyone but Fitz, Nighteyes, and The Fool are fucking horrible. I almost hoped Fitz would just kill everyone and go rogue at one point. Something about the story makes me inclined to forgive them, but damn, this series is basically what the libs call trauma bonding.

>>23162036
*In Assassin's Quest

>>23161997
>For fuck's sake take the picture with your phone held upright, not to the side
I did.... I also rotated both of those images in the opposite direction but they both uploaded to the same stupid side for some reason

>>23162052
https://www.lifewire.com/why-is-my-picture-turned-sideways-1701398

>>23159482
Ajokli is Gilgaol and that is the great FUD. War damns u no matter what.

Adult fantasy or reading fantasy as an adult is difficult
I can’t mentally let go enough to trust the vision I have in my head about the world the words on the page created
I’m always second guessing if i understand what is being written
I want to be able to enjoy fantasy
How to foster imagination?

Off the top of your head those who dabbled in both what’s the biggest difference between Slav sci fi and nonslav/western sci fi

>>23162218
Slavic writers of all genres and styles are essentially hopeless anglophiles. It can be charming in a provincial sort of way, but at its core, every Slavic work from Tolstoy to Lem is a weak humorless aspiration towards something done better elsewhere.

>>23162214
just read. its that simple

Give opinion of "the tournament trilogy" by BB Griffith please

is there a better alternative to goodreads? that site is fucking shit. its way too hard to find something good because there are no advanced search, sort, filter features. only way to discover anything is their shitty worthless lists

>>23162622
That's not true at all, but try this:
https://www.book-filter.com/

Anything martial arts related that isn't cultivation?

>Keep in mind that many people have died for their beliefs; it’s actually quite common. The real courage is in living and suffering for what you believe.
a surprisingly kino quote from a 16 year old homeschooled hack

>>23162698
The Combat Codes - Alexander Darwin

>>23162712
it doesn't make any sense, though. the one who died for their beliefs died because they lived and suffered... then died

Imagine having your 10 book series peak in book 1

>>23162720
that's the case practically all series, peaking at book one

>>23162722
WoT peaked in book 4

Good Fantasy and sci-fi

>The Dragon Riders of Pern
>Warlock of The Magus World
>The Murderbot Diaries
>Melody of Mana
>Ringworld
>Neuromancer
>12 Miles Below
>Berserk
>There Are Superheroes In This Story
>A Neets Guide To Becoming A God
>The Reality Dysfunction
>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
>The Warlord
>The Mana Influx

>>23162698
Jin Yong’s work, Legend of the Twin Dragons of the Tang, Gu Long, wuxia stuff, etc.,

>>23162622
I've been using GR for over 10 years and the layout has become too comfy for me to switch the a different site, but I hate that they removed the ability to add books and you now depend on some rando who won't even read your request.

>>23159414
>>Recommended reading charts (Look here before asking for vague recs)
>https://mega.nz/folder/kj5hWI6J#0cyw0-ZdvZKOJW3fPI6RfQ/folder/guIyhAzS
>>Goodreads
>https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1029811-sffg

These are fucking retarded. Someone needs to make a replacement

Is Circle of Inevitability worth reading yet?

has anyone read a decent scifi from the last 10 years that isnt "Part # of the Who-Gives-a-Fuck C hronicles" or whatever?

It seems like I just can't find any standalone novel worth reading.
All the awards are given on the basis of the author's race or the fun shape they've carved their genitals into.
Review sites are a menagerie of the various mental diseases and flavors of dimwit.
Half the threads on /lit/ are the same tired pynchon/wallace/nabokov jokes or that one guy who wants to suck ayn rand's welfare flavored penis.

well this was fucking insane. I wonder if there is an objective interpretation of the ending or even if it's worth searching for one. it really is one of those stories where you're not sure if the writer was writing it as he went along or if he's a pure genius.

>>23162670
thanks

>>23162937
scifi is just too difficult of a genre for good books to exist. every time i try one i get burned. last one i tried was project hail mary and it was really bad. i think you can only enjoy scifi if you dont know anything about stem

>>23163373
All PKD books are heavy with "what is real?" and psychic paranoia that nobody else can quite capture, but Ubik is one of his best. Scanner Darkly, VALIS trilogy, and most of his short stories are worth reading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwUIr37sLAw

>>23159846
Throughout the whole series there is one thing and one thing only that I urge you to keep in mind: the years in the planet where the story takes place are shorter than in our world.

>>23162937
>has anyone read a decent scifi
Plenty but 99% of /sffg/ enjoyers don't read anything beyond whatever the top bestselling sci-fi novel/author is.

>>23163373
https://philipdick.com/mirror/websites/pkdweb/ubik.htm

>>23163394
Check out either the zones of thought series, rainbows end, or true names by Vernor Vinge.

I'm a materials scientist and love them. I've also heard good things about Charles Stross.

Vernors work is excellent and often includes or references cool concepts, rainbows end for instance talks about Hurd OS as a plot point lol.

>>23163774
>I've also heard good things about Charles Stross
I read the laundry files at least until the nazis on the moon nonsense. It was shit, stross a textbook modern commie garbage.

>>23162911
A replacement in what way?

>>23163774
>I've also heard good things about Charles Stross.
Finished Accelerando last month, would recommend.

>>23163774
unread A Fire Upon The Deep and the medieval "pack of dogs but can think and is one guy" stuff was incredibly boring.
does it get better?

>>23164387
Fire upon deep does not even feel like scifi, it's terrible.

>>23163774
Rainbow's End is not worth slogging through for the couple of interesting ideas it presents

Besides Starship Troopers and A Deepness in the Sky, what other good novels have bug aliens?

>>23159600
didn't answer in last thread but Canticle does have aesthetics of ruins iirc, the opening scene is a guy literally scavanging in some ruins. it's not so prevalent in the rest of the book but i think it's still there. in any case there's always an atmosphere and aesthetic of something lost, being civilization, hope, faith. i wouldn't describe it as melanolic or poetic

in any case bro, did you start reading through the list? what's the point of asking for more recs

what do you call this spell?

or this one?

Books with prominent characters like pic related?

>>23164629
That's just a roastie.

>>23164578
>>23164581
Are you the lezdom guy from /aco/? I am a fellow lezdom generator and I don't even bother these days. The golden age of the bot being too stupid to know foot worship is sexual is over. I'm waiting on a new bot or a new low-censorship commitment from some company or something, I don't know.

>>23164711
>pure woman who stayed loyal to her husband is a roastie
This is what 4chan does to your brain.

>>23164227
Same

>>23164227
>Pic
Same

>>23164782
she mean to jun snawh = BAD

How do you think Connington's Greyscale is going to get discover in Winds? I see either two options either Arianne offends Joncon in someway that causes selfdoubt within him that he backhands her but he does so realize he backhands her with his infected hand or if Conningtonbowl happens between Jon and Red Ronnet over Griffin's Roost then I think Joncon will resort to desperation depending on how far the Greyscale has actually spread at that point and resort to dirty tactics during a duel like catching Ronnet off guard and infected him to gain the upper hand.

>>23164387
If you didn't like the dogs, you can read 'a darkness in the sky' which has none of the dogs but a lot more space stuff.
>>23164469
What parts felt like a slog to you?
I felt like the story moved pretty quickly.

Also I watched dune part 2 tonight in IMAX. It felt almost like torture, I think it was easier to read the book than sit in the theater for 2.75 hours. It was a good movie, just long. Maybe It'll be better when I watch it at home again.

>>23165157
>I see either two options
>either Arianne offends Joncon in someway that causes selfdoubt within him that he backhands her but he does so realize he backhands her with his infected hand or if Conningtonbowl happens between Jon and Red Ronnet over Griffin's Roost then I think Joncon will resort to desperation depending on how far the Greyscale has actually spread at that point and resort to dirty tactics during a duel like catching Ronnet off guard and infected him to gain the upper hand.
What a shitty and retarded thought process there. You should seriously consider self publishing some ya teen drama slop on RR.

>>23165207
I don't know, anon, I watched the first Dune at home with my friend and we nearly fell asleep.

>>23165237
That's because your friend drugged you and put his finger in your shithole.

>>23164501
>in any case bro, did you start reading through the list? what's the point of asking for more recs
I have read the first 3 items (The Silmarillion, Bakker, The Iron Tower). Now I'm reading Zotique. But I want something conventional (with elves, for example).

>>23165157
Connington is gay and he has fantasy aids. What did GRRM mean by this?

I am never again starting an unfinished fantasy series

>>23165648
That's a lot of the most popular of this century.

>>23163394
Read Greg Egan

Why would Dunyain keep names, let alone surnames. You'd think a culture that repudiates all history would have simplified monikers right?

>>23165733
Just turn your brain off and consoom the leafslop.

>depressed ex slave who acts like an uppity nigger
>a literal schizo
>a war criminal
>chad thundercock
>/r9k/
>strong womyn the character
Why does reddit jack off so much over the stormlight cast?

>>23165745
Because there's less difference than you want to believe there is

>>23165741
I prefer to think things through. I'm like a Dunyain myself you see. Intelligent. Nihilistic. And with a wicked sense of humor.

>>23165763
Damn this nigga bussin

>>23165733
Probably a logical reason. Like, having names and honoring them is not the same thing; the practicality of names is reason enough to keep them - especially considering their breeding program.
Of course in the first book Kellhus thinks his surname and its relation to the prophecy is only a coincidence, and so uses it to see his mission through.

>>23165745
Who's /r9k/? Szeth?

>>23161468
Read the whole trilogy, book 1 is the worst book of the series.

>>23165800
/r9k/ is Renarin, Szeth is just a mallninja weeb

>>23160044
As someone who read and enjoyed most of Modesitt's Imager series (aside from most of the Quaeryt ones), but not the few Recluce novels I tried, I thought the first in this series was probably his weakest book I've tried to date.

It pushed his love of the mundane to the extreme while having very little plot and characterization to speak of and is basically just the two main characters agreeing with each other a lot while working for that other guy. Does it actually get that much better?

>>23160226
They never do that outside of Japan, and in Sanderson's case the UK for some reason. The US versions are always all in one and look way better than the UK ones.

>>23165799
Fair.

Who is the Tolkien of fantasy?

>>23159600
Caves of Steel or Foundation by Asimov

>>23166063
Paolini

>>23160801
Bump

>>23165964
I extensively qualified what I wrote for exactly that reason, and as seen in the link at the bottom of the post, I did so for all three books. I enjoyed the mundane to the extreme and specifically said so. So, no, for you it probably wouldn't and there's nothing wrong with that.

If contemporary fiction was written like science fiction
https://youtu.be/dd_HxhLKlY8

>>23166080
Foundation barely interacts with the ruins and when it does its to say they're shit and to parrot 18th century 'civilisation' ideals.

>>23160801
Dune

>>23164782
>>23164877
She started a fucking war based on no good evidence.

>>23165157
It's going to infect other people and wake the stone dragon

>>23166309
There is sword fights in dune?

>>23159482
would it not let you prompt Sranc?

Are Ambrose Bierce or Algernon Blackwood good authors? Are they better or worse than Lovecraft

>>23166295
I subscribed to your channel, or I will subscribe to your channel when I wake up, that is after I go to sleep later considering I'm not sleeping yet

>>23159846
>Already suspecting that there is an underlying Science Fiction element to the world
why?

>>23166315
Yes they use swords in Dune because the personal shields blocks fast moving objects like bullets but not slow moving objects like swords swung by people or slow remote controlled dart things.

>>23166331
But dune is YA shit

>>23166325
That isn't my channel, it's just something I saw that was amusing so I shared it. I only saw the channel in my yt recs today.

>>23162718
Fucking lol'd

>>23166333
I've only seen the David Lynch movie.

>>23165648
I just finished one that felt unfinished and I'm not sure whether the author was going write some more or not because he died. Feels bad.

>>23162736
Actually good sff:
>The Time Machine
>The Hobbit
>The Stars My Destination
>The Broken Sword
>Neuromancer
>Swords and Deviltry
>Shadow of the Torturer
>Conan
>Dune
>Wizard of Earthsea
>Titus Groan
>Blind Voices
>Fevre Dream
>The Forever War
>Berserk
>Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
>Illuminatus!
>The End of Eternity
>Bridge of Birds
>Soon I Will Be Invincible
>Spaceman Blues
>The Pastel City
>Cloud Atlas
>The Swords Trilogy
>Black Leopard Red Wolf
>Assassins Apprentice
>A Song of Ice and Fire
>The Darkness That Comes Before
>Jack Vance
>John Crowley

>>23166321
Both are excellent. Both are probably better authors technically, Blackwood particularly. But Lovecraft wrote the best stories.

>>23159414
https://clawwebserial.blog/

New wildbow web serial is out.

>>23166063
Lord Dunsany
>>23159600
Gormenghast ofc

>>23165207
I can't remember specifics, it's been too long since I read it, I just recall this section where the characters are underground somewhere and I was just wishing the book would end.

>>23166295
I enjoyed this

>>23166327
Some of the myth and folklore seems to hint toward a celestial catastrophe of some kind in the distant past. Dragons coming from a destroyed moon. Dragons being hybridized with humans.

Nothing that couldn't be plausibly denied as pure fantasy, or even just cultural myths with little to no connection to the reality of the setting.

Currently reading Blood Song, I'm on chapter 3, its good so far. I never knew thaf reading fantasy book during rainy season was THIS comfy

>>23166411
ah yes Web Serial Sanderson

>>23166472
Weirwood trees are computers and magic is nanite manipulation. Caspere knew this.

>>23166312
>a woman starting a war,
Why was she allowed to do that? Why didn't the men stop her?

>>23166482
Read the book 1 but do not read the rest of the series. It goes straight from absolutely based to completely pozzed.

>>23166567
Thanks for the heads up anon, I didn't know that this book was part of a quite big series until you pointed that out.
Also, my next fantasy read is Traitor's Blade, I haven't bought it yet, if you know that book, would love to know if its a good book or not

>>23166557
Don't take my word for it, but probably because she didn't start it and they were planning to go to war anyway.

>>23166295
http://web.archive.org/web/20040929041451/http://www.shrovetuesdayobserved.com/flight.html

>>23166557
The most famous war in myth started because of a woman.

is there a single sci-fi book as good as unique as dune?

>>23166697
I dunno if you can call Dune unique, though mostly because shitloads of scifi after it cribbed from its ideas.

>>23161506
Certainly not on the level of the authors the original poster named, but Kikuchi is still a cut above a lot of modern slop writers. As a pulp action horror novel, it gets across the brooding and melancholy nicely, and many books deal with the remains of fallen Vampire society and the ramifications it has on the surviving earth.

You can certainly do a lot worse.

>>23166512
>Sanderson wants a witty smartass teenage girl, that likes insulting people
>Comes up with Shallan
>WB wants a witty smartass teenage girl, that likes insulting people
>Comes up with Tattletale
Don't ever compare those two. Also, WB knows how to write compelling dialogue.

>>23159414
It's simple: hard scifi is when space travel is massively inconvenient, yet everyone is doing it.

>>23166704
Like Bakker

>>23166704
>>23166740
Dune cribs from Foundation. In fact Asimov -> Herbert -> Bakker is a pretty clear genealogy with one being inspired by but also critiquing/complicating to what came before. The shared thread is the idea of a science of civilization, of management principles scaled to the level of history, and then all the attendant questions that the existence of such a science implies, of which the individual writers flavour with their personal values and beliefs.
Psychohistory -> Golden Path -> Thousandfold Thought.

>>23166696
Yes because the men instead of acting like cool headed competent leaders went full coomer retard

>>23166708
The book reads like total shit. I expect it wasn't even that good before the translation, which is terrible.
>The setting sun was staining the far reaches of the plain, its hue closer to blood than vermilion. The wind snarled like a beast across the barren sky. On the narrow road that cut through a sea of grass, high enough to hide all below the man’s ankles, the lone horse and rider ceased their advance as if forestalled by the wall of wind gusting straight at them.
This is total dross. The first sentence is so poorly constructed it fails to actually describe the colour of the sun despite the purple prose. "closer to dark red than dark red" lmao.

>>23166844
I haven't read the first novel, nor the third for that matter. Most of my praise comes from later books. I think the 4th volume is where the series finds its footing, and 6-8 are when it hits its stride.

The great thing about VHD is that most stories are standalone, so you don't have to read them in order. I myself would agree that one should start with the movies (which adapt the first and third novels respectively) and then for the other books. They're great fall reads too, and I've made it a tradition to read at least one book around the halloween season.

>>23159698
>Last
Malus Darkblade: Bloodstorm by Dan Abnett and Mike Lee
>Current
Overlord v1
>Next
Hard Magic by Larry Correia

>>23166879
>it gets good later on
Spoken like a true animefag.

>>23166885
I just said you don't even have to read the early volumes if you don't want to. They're pulp novels, just pick a volume with a premise that sounds interesting to you, no need to read in order.

>>23159698
>Last
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin, 4/6 stars.
A fun little story not generally what I enjoy but the writing was more than enough to keep me interested. Since they're so short I have no problem continuing to see if I'll like the rest.
>Current
The Dying Earth by Jack Vance and The Odyssey, Lattimore translation. Dying Earth is wild, but very similar to Earthsea in style and so far The Odyssey is much less compelling than The Iliad.
>Next
Probably The Tombs of Atuan or The Eyes of the Overworld.

>>23159600
Raft.
Everything is old and busted and seems doomed.

>>23165733
Maybe to keep track of lineage for breeding purposes.

>>23166903
>so far The Odyssey is much less compelling than The Iliad
I thought I was the only one on this board who thought this. It's true, very true.

>have cool sci-fi idea
>no motivation, vocabulary, skill, or discipline to write it
Being a retard sucks

>>23167142
just write a shitty draft. or, if you're really self-loathing post your ideas in the worldbuilding general

>>23166439
That is the end of the book.

>>23164387
Nah I just read it too and it was boring as hell. If anything the dog stuff is more interesting than the broader sci-fi

>>23166276
His mundane style works when it's set to new circumstances and that's why the second Imager Portfolio where the MC works as a cop for an entire book works, but most of the time it misses.

>>23167571
I agree and I wrote that it'd be a miss for most people, even for those who have liked his other books.

>>23166766
shut up nerd

>>23167619
I had already finished, but your post has brought me back. If you are have nothing else to contribute then I will return to fucking your mother.

If I don't reply to your next post it's because I am filling her ass with cum.

>>23166884
Sell me on Darkblade.

Is it fair to say that the classics of sffg seem to emphasize ideas/plot, whereas slop tends to emphasize character development

Love the world and the space archeology theme but damn the characters do some dumb shit
Also had the read the authors retarded "six tenths of a centimeter" line.

>>23159600
Wool series has a good dose of this.

Any recommendations for a comfy, mid stakes adventure? I’ve been looking for something that captures that same feeling as WoT book 2/3.

I don’t need anything great, just something to make me feel happy.

>>23167798
This question, are there any tie-in novel series/settings that rise above the pack? I am getting into Battletech and I'm wondering if it gets better than that or if that's it.

>>23167790
>Mc goes to one secret society, has a chat with a secret member who tells him to check another secret society, he goes there and is sent to yet another secret society, after about 10 secret societies and finding some ancient artifacts like old coffee mugs. The End.
lol the writing wasn't terrible desu but his books were extremely low energy. And as he got older they progressively got worse.

Bros I need my fix of well-written fantasy/sci-fi. Of late I've been going back over the same books again and again. Whenever I go to the bookstore, everything I check out reads YA-adjacent or is written by a chink.
Stuff I've enjoyed of late:
>Second Apocalypse (obviously)
>Acts of Caine series by Matt Woodring Stover
>Terra Ignota by Ada Palmer
I've read most classics, i.e. Dune, Hyperion, everything by Gene Wolfe, so I'm looking for less-traveled works.

what will the collapse of the american empire mean for /sff/? will it usher in a new golden age? or will it stagnate as the main engines of /sff/ – the anglo countries – stagnate in turn?

i'm a thirdie and i certainly don't expect any /sff/ renaissance to come from vapid braindead regions like MENA and latin america or from declining conservative shitholes like Russia.

>>23168024
>what will the collapse of the american empire mean for /sff/?
If that happens within our lifetime it probably means the collapse of so much global infrastructure literature will be the least of our concerns.

>>23167976
Ye i'm done after reading the one book. Heard the rest is just the same bs but worse

>>23168024
While America is declining, it's main rivals, Russia and China, are also declining, and are actually declining much faster. China's got one of the worst demography problems in the world right now and it's exacerbated by their refusal to import immigrants to stave off population decline. This alone is a crisis in the making, their age pyramid is going to totally invert within a couple decades and by the end of this century half of their population will be gone. This isn't going to destroy China, but it may very well destroy the CCP, especially since by this point Xi will be dead and there will be a massive power vacuum in the communist party that will distract them from dealing with it.

Russia's problems are so numerous that I could write an entire essay on the ways they are fucked. Suffice to say though, once Putin dies, Russia's going to tear itself apart.

>>23168115
This. The future is poo

>>23167687
lol nerd

>>23168115
Yes yes, there's just one small problem with what you said. America's not declining. In fact America is doing better than ever (compared to the rest of the world). America's economy has shown to be incredibly resilient and practically bullet proof compared to the rest of the first world.

>>23159414

>>23161365
>>23161413
>>23161539
>>23161721
Reads like a discord tranny vendetta raid.

How do you think Jordan's estate would react if Martin decides to make Aegon Targaryen's nickname The Dragon Reborn in The Winds of Winter once people are fully aware of his presence.

>>23166879
>Most of my praise comes from later books.
That is absolute confirmation bias. The people who can troop through total slop are of course going to be predisposed to review slop positively.

You should start and end with the movies. Nothing is gained by plodding through bad prose that produces an inferior aesthetic than simply watching the anime stuff.

>>23159846
>The language can feel borderline anachronistic at times, naming conventions aside the prose, and often dialogue, doesn't sell me on the world being another time and place.

As a writer, how do I avoid falling into this?

Did the monolith in 2001 cause mankinds evolution, or was mankind always going to evolve and the monolith was there to record it?
I got the impression from the book with its description of radio signals and concentric circles that it caused evolution, but the film seems different

>>23166557
Because she had real power and her husband wasn't there

>>23168489
Unironically take the Robert Jordan route. Make every nation have bombastic idiosyncrasies. The Illianers do speak thus, by my aged grandmother they do, the Taraboners, they speak like this, yes?

Robert Jordan is a legitimately great example of how to give every character a unique vooce, and make it obvious where every character is from, without explicitly stating it.

>>23168423
They'd all kill themselves in shame when the WOT TV show is played in court as evidence.

>>23161421
>very little (if any) pedo stuff. Not my cup of tea.
as opposed to more pedo stuff, which would be more your cup of tea? literally kys.

>>23168489
You have to actually world build instead of doing what Martin did, which is lean very heavily on real world history and culture to evoke his setting. The problem with that is your readers will often already have their own preconceptions about what the time / place you're referencing is like, and if your portrayal doesn't line up with their own knowledge or expectations, it can feel jarring.

Whereas if you invent a culture which is explicitly different from anything on earth, and not trying particularly to evoke "this is Britain in the 13th century" for example, you have a lot more leeway for what kind of feeling it has, and readers are generally more willing to suspend disbelief.

>>23168383
>America's not declining.
Sadly, it is. Birthrates have been down for half a century, and it's finally starting to catch up with them. Mass immigration starting in the 1970s did a lot to slow this trend, but not anymore. Fertility rates are so low that even importing millions of new people barely covers the shortfall now, and worse: the immigrants fertility is also not as high as it was in previous decades.

This is the same critical problem that afflicts virtually the entire developed world and nearly all of the developing countries as well. It's a problem because nobody has an economic system that can work with stagnant or shrinking population, and nobody wants to design one.

What am i in for?

This is probably the best book I've read in ten years. Highly recommend

What am I about to experience?

>>23169006
Literary vomit no doubt.

>>23169000
Between Two Farts

>>23159698
>Last
The Black Company
>Current
We Few by Weber/Ringo
>Next
Going to finish The Hobbit. Got distracted halfway to the Lonely Mountain

>>23159698
I'm still reading The Centauri Device and The Clockwork Rocket, albeit not as much over the last few days as I had been when I started each.
I have the final chapter and what I suspect is an epilogue of TCD, and I'm only 30% into TCR; they've just stop accelerating and goddamn two more books of this already I simply cannot fathom how the man writes SO MUCH about this shit.

>>23168430
What part of
>I didn't read book 1
Don't you understand?

>>23168989
I'm on page 100 and so far it was 35ish pages of talking to an alien, then a hard pivot to focusing on the edgy leader of Seal Team Six with tons tacticool tryhard military dialogue and jargon.
I had to stop readong at the beginning of "Act 3" so we'll see how it goes tomorrow. Not super into the spec ops stuff so I hope there isn't too much more of that. The soldier dude kinda sucks ass.

>>23159846
i dislike fantasy where characters speak with a fake middle ages vocabulary

>>23169178
I like GRRM's fake medieval terms like holdfast.

>>23169178
Yes we know you like fantasy where characters speak with a genuine 2024 nu-speak vocabulary.

>>23169229
Imagine reading a fantasy story and the characters start talking about chestfeeders and birthing persons.

I'm in this thread just to say I like Red Rising. It's slop but I like slop.

>>23168115
>China is doomed unless they import a trillion Nigerians
Population decline will be painful for China, but letting it happen will probably work out better for them in the long run than the West's shortsighted attempts to stave it off.

>>23169192
I like mayhaps desu

>>23168115
>>23168985
There's nothing wrong with birthrates declining. Infinite growth is a degenerate delusion.

>>23169229
nice strawman
it is a fantasy world not historical fiction set in the 13th century

In the Claw of the Conciliator, does Severian just casually rapes Jolenta?

>>23169655
it wasn't rape because he didn't think it was t. Severian

>>23169662
lol?

>>23169662
Ah the 'Muslim in a non-Muslim country' defense.

>>23169687
He was having a sexual emergency please understand

>>23169655
She traded away everything to get a body that could seduce anyone and it worked.

>someone kills your son
>you kill his sisters son as vengeance
What was Rhaenyras problem?

>>23169655
she was well up for it m8

Is City of Brass good? I want to read a book involving Islamic mythology and this one seems well received but it's written by a woman

>>23169908
I didn't think it was and neither did others.

>>23169929
Any alternatives?

>>23169908
If it's good just read it, you won't get cooties.

no one has even BOTHERED converting Earwa to an OSR setting, but I will

Any good recommendations for books featuring paladins/the holy knight archetype? I can't remember the last time I read something relatively grounded and prosaic that also featured knights empowered by some higher calling.

Modern fantasy games love to handwave religion as worshipping and obeying "The Light" but I find this incredibly shallow and insubstantial. Its like they decide to scrap all the mythology of a cohesive religion and just have the characters straight up worship the fundamental concept of "goodness" instead. If that's paladins done wrong who, if anyone, does them right?

Has anyone ever written a book from an observers POV?

>>23169983
truth shines

The most powerful beings in Middle Earth during the events of LOTR:

1. Sauron
2. Gandalf the white
3. Saruman
4. Gandalf the grey
5. Glorfindel
6. Durin’s Bane
7. Galadriel
8. Radagast
9. Elrond
10. Tom Bombadil

>>23170058
I should also add I’d put the Witch King of Angmar at 11 and maybe Celeborn or Shelob at 12 but there’s a massive power gap between the top 10 and anything or anyone that comes after. Elrond is an immensely powerful elf and the fact that he’s all the way back at 9 says something about how powerful that top 10 is. Glorfindel is said to have maiar power levels and that’s why I put him above Galadriel and Radagast, who is a low level maiar.

>>23170038
"Inversions" by Iain M Banks, I think

>>23170058
#1 would be Iluvatar. He did 2 things during LoTR.

>>23170069
He didn’t directly intervene with anything. Setting aside his metaphysical omnipresence, he wasn’t physically and corporeally in Middle Earth. I’m also omitting the blue wizards since nobody knows what their deal is and if they’re even still around.

>>23169495
nice strawman
it is a fantasy world based on medieval times and historical fiction set in the 13th century, it is not based on liberal american academy fiction set in 2024 California.

>>23170074
How do you determine that Tom is weaker than the other 9? From what I've read he sounds very powerful, potentially #1 corporeally.

>>23170080
Mostly because there’s a lot of unknowns about him. Does he have any power at all outside of his dominion? Being immune to the power of the ring, including putting it on and remaining visible is impressive, but it doesn’t really tell me much about his power level so much as it tells me of his complete indifference to the affairs of Middle Earth.

>>23169061
Peak disingenuousness. I jumped ahead to volume six out of curiosity. Lo and behold, its just as badly written (or translated) as the first books. Reads like the subtitles to sword art online or something; autistic over-describing things with words that don't quite fit.

>>23169983
Here is a breakdown of the factions. Useful shorthand consulting tool.

>>23170058
Bombadil is probably more powerful than Glorfindel, certainly Elrond. Far far older than both and able to resist things that would corrupt either very quickly. Plus has his on, literal, magical realm - something only the strongest of beings have in lotr.

getting into sci-fi is so scary
i've just read fantasy my whole life and i have no idea where to start
guess dune and foundation...

>>23170386
Depends on what you enjoy reading. Its very easy to bounce off a lot of the sci fi classics depending on what kind of reader you are.

>>23170398
i like stuff with lots of characters and an emphasis on worldbuilding

>>23170404
Red Rising if you don't mind first person. Lots of character/world focus. Pretty soft sci fi. Author had to neuter his stuff to get published, so the first book is a hunger games ripoff, but picks up into space opera in book 2.

Besides Dune its been the only sci fi I've really enjoyed. That being said I totally bounced off the more high concept sci fi like Banks or Asimov. Don't find the fixation on improbable, essentially magic technology that interesting.

>>23170386
Read 'A Canticle for Leibowitz', literally can't go wrong with that one

>>23170372
What's that bit marked 'more rape'? Looks like another impact crater. Did another ark try this shit a zillion years ago?

This nigga is a Sword & Sorcery machine.

I know ya romantasy isn't this board's cup of tea several times over, but I'm almost done writing mine. Just have to finish the epilogue, edit the whole thing, have some people read it, edit it some more, and I'm done. Then I can start my sci-fi novel.

Reading Heretics of Dune how would you fellas rank the original six Herbert novels? For me it goes

Dune:God Emperor>Dune:Messiah>Dune>Heretics of Dune>Children of Dune

>>23170776
>male writing ya romantasy
>guaranteed 0% success

>>23170078
>my fantasy book isn't historically accurate

>>23170796
my favorite is god emperor and the one i liked least was chapterhouse, the others i'm not sure, i like them more or less equally

Fused sci Fi and fantasy is based

>>23170836
It doesn't have to be but it must be free of retarded woke shit and modern Californian culture.

>>23170590
Either a part of the ark, another ark that was essentially destroyed totally, meteor impacts, we don't know.

>>23170850
if you are reading fantasy with le woke shoved in is because you are reading books by woke authors for a woke audience and have no one else to blame but yourself

>>23170875
Have you been living under a rock for the past 30 years? Most authors are woke these days. If an author isn't openly woke he still going to sneak in some woke shit into his book.

>>23170796
1. Messiah
2. Dune and God Emperor
4. Heretics
5. Children
6. Chapterhouse
Chapterhouse is the worst by a wide margin.

>>23169000
GIRL IS JESUS AND KNIGHT IS A KEK AND A PRIEST IS A FAGGOT

>>23170917
>GIRL IS JESUS AND KNIGHT IS A KEK AND A PRIEST IS A FAGGOT

>>23170888
Maybe you should get with the times

Is "The Expanse" a good pick for baby's first space opera? I'm mostly looking for adventures/battles/drama, I don't really care about politics.

>>23171225
Lensman and Skylark series by E.E. Doc Smith

>>23171225
The Expanse isn't mostly what you want then. Modern space opera isn't what you want in general. You'd have to go back to the decades when that was a very derogatory term for it to be applicable to what you want.

>>23170058
Why did Glorfindel do basically NOTHING during the War of the Ring? He didn’t have to join the Fellowship, but a reincarnated Great First Age Hero like him could have led armies or carried out secret missions. Instead he basically just chills at Rivendell the entire time.

>>23170800
>male
>writing ya romantasy
pick one

>>23171225
>I don't really care about politics.
the opera comes from soap opera, pretty much every space opera of note has politics as a way to get character conflicts
But anyway it's not a good option for that, the driving force of the series is political conflict.

>>23171331
>autism
>making inexplicably bad decisions
Choose both

>>23171289
>he didn't play Battle for Middle Earth 2

I must get in touch with Bakker about my Eärwa RPG. Game is coming along nicely and he could stand to profit from it. It’s literally free money and publicity.

>>23169000
Nearly done with it, it's been a good ride. Gotten me teary at points.
>>23169839
Never could settle on how to feel about Severian morally. For a guy representing mankind's potential to angels, he never really seems to have a significant moral awakening or anything and largely just stays a befuddled adventurer with no clear compass or concrete opinions on matters. Even learning he was fucking his grandma didn't seem to phase him, just accepted without comment aa another weird fact of life.

>>23169457
>There's nothing wrong with birthrates declining
There is when your entire economy is set up on the presumption that there are going to be more people paying into the system than drawing on it Every country's social welfare system is going to collapse if population decline sets in, and virtually all investment-based schemes are going to fall apart.

>>23171382
>tfw when your game development ends the same way as The Great Ordeal

>>23171394
>phase him
>not faze
How did you even Wolfe?

>>23169414
>China is doomed unless they import a trillion Nigerians
That's not what I'm implying. China is doomed regardless, just like America and Russia. Importing immigrants would just give them more time to figure something out. America is also going to inevitably hit population decline because importing immigrants doesn't fix the underlying problem, it just artificially inflates population growth. It's just kicking the crisis down to the next generation without doing anything about it or even preparing the next generation to solve it. In fact it makes it harder to deal with because the administration is intent on not even admitting there is a crisis.

>but letting it happen will probably work out better for them in the long run
Not for the people in power, though. When I say "China will collapse" I mean "the Chinese government will collapse". Obviously China, the nation, will be fine, there will still be hundreds of millions of Chinese, and they can rebuild. But if you are currently in power in China, I would not bet on remaining in power when this crisis hits.

>>23171413
Nah, China will just have their elderly disappear in myriad ways.

gay

>>23171404
My game development will trigger System Resumption? That would be kinda cool desu.

>>23171548
>So did the Great Ordeal of Anasurimbor Kellhus perish in salt and butchery."
As in, you finish it, present it to Bakker, and he tells you to destroy it all or he's suing you.

>>23171572
This is what I dread the most desu... And honestly, it might be the most likely result, due to a certain Lord-and-Author’s famous ego and fractious nature.
I guess in that situation I’d either change all the names and release a blatant rip-off, or else release it as freeware with a donation button.
Wish I could find the Shortest Path with this dilemma.

>>23171289
>secret missions
Not so secret if you already know huh.

>>23171225
>Is "The Expanse" [...] good

>>23169068
Update, I'm halfway through do not give a shit about anything going on in this book. The only interesting characters are the schizoid girl and the aliens and they don't get much page time. So much pagetime is dedicated to jargon and bullshit and I don't care anymore. The book is cool looking so I guess I'll keep it, but I'm done reading it for the foreseeable future.

>>23171806
Your fault for reading something from this century.

>>23171445
Profound comment

>>23171868
Amateurlost response

>>23171445
Ah yes, the elderly people, who are the majority of the population, who own most of the wealth, who run most of the country and hold most of the power, will disappear themselves. Are you starting to see the problem more clearly?

>>23172378
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senicide

NEW:
>>23172523
>>23172523
>>23172523
>>23172523
>>23172523
>>23172523

>>23172378
>>23172526
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3229358/hong-kongs-elderly-suicides-reach-record-high-prompting-calls-more-healthcare-staff-and-measures

https://www.economist.com/china/2021/12/18/nearly-one-third-of-suicides-in-china-are-by-old-people

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/how-chinas-rural-elderly-are-being-left-behind-and-taking-theirlives/article29179579/

This will greatly accelerate in the years to come and there will be many more methods. Leave the elderly behind and take A Great Leap Forward again to embrace the future.