/lit/ - Literature

Mars was pretty cool

>>23399663
i recently finished A Natural History of Dragons, which is written by a woman and has a woman MC, and i didn't like it. i won't say i think it's a bad book, but i thought about it.

i think the only good book with a female MC that i really liked is Tehanu

>>23405180
Is that anything like The Flight of Dragons?

>>23405180
I think my personal favorite female protagonist is Lyra from His Dark Materials. Can't remember another female protagonist I enjoyed a lot, desu. Maybe Sansa from ASOIAF, who I think gets a lot of undeserved hate

>>23405069
For me it's Earth.
>Can support life
>Many different story arcs
>From wild unexplored thunder lizard lands
>To world wide wars
>Many different biomes

>>23405263
I stopped reading after the boat.

>>23405236
first time i hear about that so idk. natural history i thought was going to be about dragons and learning about them, it's actually just the adventures of an annoying lady and how she solves a mistery. but your suggestion sounds much better, i might try it out

>>23405261
i wasn't thinking about asoiaf since it has no single MC, but yeah sansa's pov was really good. i think i liked all women in that book, although some might have been kinda boring

The buried giant also has an extremely good woman character, although she is not strictly the MC

I really like CJ Cherryh's writing style and her plot premises, but she never seems to stick the fucking landing, the plot keeps dithering until reaching an unsatisfying non-conclusion that's not really the story ending so much as stopping.
I've read the Morgaine cycle, the Faded Sun trilogy, and Fortress series, and despite promising starts, they always manage to let me down. If the 15 Foreigner books are going to fart around edging me without letting me cum I'm not going to bother with this author anymore.

>>23405053
Light Bringer, Red Rising Saga #6 - Pierce Brown (2023)

There's a four year gap between Dark Age and Light Bringer being published. The first five books were published in five years. Perhaps it's a victim of the pandemic and/or other troubles, because it's not clear that the additional time helped in any way. That's unfortunate but not uncommon. As this is the book that leads up to the finale it has more setup than one may expect from the sixth book in a series. Maybe a third trilogy had been considered and then was truncated to a single book, the seventh, so much had to be done. The plot is once again back to being a matter of needing to arrange puzzle pieces (characters) in specific ways that don't feel organic, but are necessary to carry out all the required plot developments. There are several questionable narrative choices and various matters that aren't addressed. Even so, it's a fun and twisty ride that delights. I'll withhold my final judgment until after I've read the final book.

As for the characters, there's four again, though two are clearly given more importance. I wouldn't be surprised if the final book features two alternating perspectives. Darrow reads a book on how to be a better person. Lysander becomes a rollercoaster. Lyria knows what matters most. Virginia continues to endure. Brown says he got into psychology between this book and the last and it shows, though probably not in the way he'd prefer. I assume that's mostly what explains the considerable shifts in their personalities. It's peculiar, especially with some of the emotional whiplash a few of the characters go through. At least it made for some wild moments. It may just be because there's a lot more introspection, soul searching, and pondering of what matters in life than the previous books, which Brown isn't able to do as well as the fight scenes and other high intensity action. The dramatic battles and duels carried the book for me.

Light Bringer does what it needs to do, no more or less. While it's not anywhere as enjoyable as Dark Age, it does enough to be a good time. I probably would've been relatively more disappointed if I waited four years for it rather than reading it immediately after, so it's fortunate that I didn't start reading this series until I did. Even so, I'm surprised and confused by its rating (4.75), as it seems much higher than it ought to be. There are also those who feel much more strongly about its problems than I do. I know they exist and I'm able to accept the flaws, though inertia from the previous book helps. I want to believe that some of the seemingly dropped plotlines, strange character arcs, and odd narrative choices may yet be resolved. A few things that I thought would be Chekov's guns are apparently going to be left in storage. If the final book doesn't address enough of my concerns, I'll likely drop this to a 3.5 rounded down rather than up.

Rating: 3.5/5

5>2>4>6>3>1
I hope for 7>2, but expect 4~7.
1 like

Should I actually read the entire 14k pages of Wheel of Time or is there any better time waster out there? It's the last "classic" fantasy series left for me to read. I also partly want to read it because I really like that Blind Guardian song, but I doubt they translated a dozen and some thousand pages perfectly into a 9 minute song.

>>23405459
>last "classic" fantasy series left for me to read
I doubt that for a multitude of reasons.

>>23405497
I've read Hobbit/LOTR, Narnia, Song of Ice and Fire, Harry Potter now the only one left is WoT.
These are the big top 5 of fantasy from what I've gathered, that's why I put "classic" in quotes, I'm not talking about every actual classic, I meant the layman's classics.

>>23405459
wheel of time got me into fantasy

it has a lot of annoying characters (all the women bully men with the same insults throughout the fucking series)

it has books of filler

if you can handle that then go ahead, I think it's a better LOTR than LOTR

still havent read the final book tho so didnt reach the end lol, shit is looooooong

>>23405564
also it starts to do its own interesting shit after The Great Hunt, that's when I really got into it, if you cant stomach the writing you can go for the audiobooks narrated by 2 really good readers husband and wife I believe

>>23405545
So really you mean "most popular series".

>>23405564
>I think it's a better LOTR than LOTR
See, that's what intrigues me the most, almost everyone I've seen that gets through all the Wheel of Time books always say this, and I don't know if it's just cope for the dedicated timesink or if it's actually true, and if it's true goddamnit I don't want to miss on that.
>>23405573
>starts to do its own interesting shit after The Great Hunt
So it starts actually getting good three books in, huh? I hear that it nosedives pretty hard later which is what mostly keeps me from reading it, it's not normal for a fantasy series to get progressively worse in my personal experiences so WoT really seems like an outlier here, anyways my interest is piqued, so I'll give it a go why not.
>>23405599
Yeah, my bad if I didn't express myself adequately enough.

>>23405564
>I think it's a better LOTR than LOTR
No, the Belgariad/Malloreon is better LOTR than LOTR.
WOT is a better Dune than Dune (the other 15 Dune books after the first that is).

>>23405545
Just read Dragonlance

>>23405607
>See, that's what intrigues me the most, almost everyone I've seen that gets through all the Wheel of Time books always say this, and I don't know if it's just cope for the dedicated timesink or if it's actually true,

I wouldn't call it cope but it's still absolutely retarded.

>>23405607
more precisely after the great hunt it does stuff to put it away from generic fantasy story and potential accusations that it's just a clone of whatever the fuck classic fantasy you pick, I just remember reading before I got into it how its a lotr clone but after first 3 books its definitely shining on its own

until then just enjoy the ride and hanging out with the characters as they travel through this huge world, pacing is all over the place so just enjoy every tavern and inn and whatever

you get into WoT through the worldbuilding first, it's very cool even now to think about, how magic works, all the different cultures and high fantasy stuff, there's lots of good eating for fantasy fans

then you sloooooowly meet all the villains who are still my favorite ideea of evil villains, because they are just as varied as the main cast so it's an ensemble of villains

then, all the stupid CUNT women who have just bitched for books and books and books start to redeem themselves, then again some dont and are just dumb cunts forever

>>23405633
For the love of God do not read Dragonlance unless you truly have an infinite tolerance for schlock. If you can and will read literally anything without discrimination, then save Dragonlance for when you desperately need something to distract you; if you have any sense of taste, refrain from Dungeons and Dragons tie-ins.
For that matter, if you ever see the name "R.A. Salvatore", run far away, though of course no Dragonlance novel is that bad.

>>23405459
>>23405643
and yes the blind guardian song is sick as hell, this is my favorite version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=606xRt9Yav8

enjoy anon!

even after reading all kinds of amazing fantasy -even now I am reading Circe by Jadeline Miller which is an excellently written story from the POV of olympian gods - I still love Wheel of Time and when I think of badass fantasy I think of the heroes in that

>>23405053
>>23403808
So from last thread it doesn't seem like much of this exists. Very disappointed in the low IQ "nah it doesn't exist" -> challenge cliches -> "uhh just go read something else" pipeline.

Anyways thanks for the recs I got. Maybe I will just have to start writing the stories I want to read.

Read First Law trilogy a few years ago and enjoyed them, heard that Age of Madness is really good as well, but should I read any of the stand alones before taking on the trilogy

>>23405745
The stand alones are the best in the series imo

>>23405744
China Mountain Zhang is sort of what you want. Maybe Sea of Tranquility, partially.

>>23405069
Oh fug look at dat ass

>>23405413
your """reviews""" are SHIT. fuck off

>>23405413
your """reviews""" are GREAT. stay here

Rec me kino that has pic related vibes.

has any litrpg surpassed homestuck

>>23405053
That reminds me. I was gonna set a nice lovely country adventure in Rifts and I never got around to making one. We always do city or space campaigns. Too many.

>>23405633
Writing aside, can we all agree that 80's AD&D had probably the best artwork of the whole series?
They really put in serious effort for each and every book & magazine cover. And most of the interior work for the magazines was also top notch.
The shit they have today looks AI generated.

This series is so fucking good bros can't wait to start #3 soon

>>23406066
I'm a big fan of the TSR and Elmore stuff. It felt real but still fantastic.

>>23405413
I like your reviews :)

I like Dragonlance. At least the original few books I remember fondly. They made a fuck million of them though.

Man I just miss that whole time of fantasy in general. Makes me think of my time playing table top and my old comic shop.

>>23405643
I think the villains are the weakest point of the series (other than books worth of Perrin doing nothing)
Other than Ishamael (and Taim, but he's new) the defining trait of everyone is being utterly incompetent. The only consistent thing in the books is that the Forsaken go from terrifying (thanks to Ishamael) from pathetic (Demandred completely missing the point of the Last Battle and Moghedien getting caught without doing anything. Again.)

I'm looking to read either The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams or continuing the Stormlight Archive with Words of Radiance? Which one should I read next????

>>23406134
I usually like to break thing sup after I read a book with one of a different author

>>23406134
Heads: Sanderson
Tails: Tad
https://justflipacoin.com/#flip-a-coin

Finished another PKD. Now to cope with this seemingly endless despair and fractured view of reality.

>Isn't a miserable reality better than the most interesting illusion? Or is it illusion, Barney?

One of the lines that really got me.

>>23406134
I would recommend against reading Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn "trilogy". It's excessively long and tedious (single chapters extending as long as 80 bible-dense mass-market pages, and countless plot hooks that don't really go anywhere), profoundly bleak, and thoroughly anti-climactic, generally speaking a waste of time. It tries very hard to be Lord of the Rings or perhaps the Fionavar Tapestry, but fails spectacularly at every turn. Unless you're the type of person who doesn't care what sort of mess is on your plate as long as it's a medieval fantasy and lots of it, you're better off skipping Osten Ard and going for Brando Sando.
Not that that's an endorsement of the mormon J.K. Rowling, just that you're more likely to get satisfaction out of his work than you are out of a feghoot shaggy dog story that Tad Williams seems to fetishize.

>>23405633
Based, Est sularis oth mithas
>>23405648
Dragonlance is better than 90% of the chink slop/webslop/modern fantasy they post daily here
>>23406066
old school fantasy had the best art t b h

>>23406382
>Dragonlance is better than 90% of the chink slop/webslop/modern fantasy they post daily here
That goes without saying - at least for chinkshit and webnovels (same thing lmao).
There are occasional good modern fantasy novels, though they are phenomenally difficult to find wading through the cesspit of rape and/or snuff fetishism disguised as novels for teenagers written by pedophiles and spinsters. It also depends on how far back you define "modern" - 1990? the 2000s? Between 2013-present?

>>23405632
>Belgariad
>read book 1 due to shilling
>worldbuilding is fine
>MC spends increasing time whining about being adopted
>everyone decides to just jerk off for a week while the guy with world ending mcguffin is running away
>they let the chosen one walk around unsupervised even after knowing there's a spy because why the fuck not
>start book 2
>MC constantly sperging out over nothing and bitching about slavery
Trajectory isn't looking great.

>>23406407
Wait until MC gets /ss/'ed by the snake queen

>>23406450
Bran Mok?

>>23405413
Keep posting your reviews, anon. They're worth it just to see that other anon endlessly seethe

Are there any fantasy books where the magic system that varies depending on the caster's beliefs? Like a hermetic magic user being different from a holy magic user for example.

>>23405545
>not putting the Chronicles of Prydain on the list
Ngmi

>>23405607
>See, that's what intrigues me the most, almost everyone I've seen that gets through all the Wheel of Time books always say this
I got through WOT but I still prefer LOTR. Stil la good series but you're gonna have to get through the warts and all (aka the slog)

>>23406478
They're not comparable outside some broad genre similarities. LoTR is just on another level. That doesn't make other things bad but they really need to stop trying to make these bold claims. Because seriously.

>>23406455
I don't remember Conan ever being a shota fought over my horny older women...

>>23406556
In the old marvel comic when was a young teenager out to assert his manhood he made it with a polar bear goddess.

>>23406314
>Don't read Tad Williams, it's too long.
>Just read 5000 pages of reddit slop instead.
Holy...

I'd personally much sooner read three 700 page novels trying to be Tolkien than four 1200 page novels trying to be shonen anime.

>>23406314
>perhaps the Fionavar Tapestry
i highly recommend to at least partially read the Matter of Britain/King Arthur before reading it, it hits so much deeper if you know about arthur.

>>23406399
>There are occasional good modern fantasy novels, though they are phenomenally difficult to find wading through the cesspit of rape and/or snuff fetishism disguised as novels for teenagers written by pedophiles and spinsters.
completely agree with this, its very hard to find good novels today.
>It also depends on how far back you define "modern" - 1990? the 2000s? Between 2013-present?
I consider anything from this century as modern. speaking of modern fantasy i have not read the new Dragonlance novels by Weis & Hickman, all i know is it has time-travel and Raistlin shows up which is not suprising because he is Margaret Weis husbando

>>23406689
>all i know is it has time-travel and Raistlin shows up
Didn't that already do that?

>>23406700
Yes in Legends. apparently this has the same plot but instead of raistlin and caramon going to past is a new cast of characters from the future going to the past to meet the Heroes of the Lance.

>>23406716
Well I don't much like the sound of that at all

>>23406382
>old school fantasy had the best art
Yeah, objectively most of the clothing is as ridiculous as the grimdark clothing in modern fantasy/"history" series nowadays, but there's something that makes it feel incredibly comfy and fun. Probably precisely because it takes advantage of the idea of "fantasy" and doesn't take itself super seriously. I think that makes it more appealing, it almost makes me want to read books I'd never considered to read simply because they have a nice cover.

>>23406807
A lot of the artists painted from models which gives a since of tangibility I think. Not all of them but quite a few. But yeah I feel like a lot of them knew how to strike the balance between real and fantastic. Like you could get really nitpicky and poke at a lot of stuff but it's all delivered and framed with a sense of real gravitas

>>23405053
A few threads ago a bunch of you retards creaming your tighy whiteys over picture related so i gave it a read.
That was a mistake.
I'll admit i was taken in by the premise of a intergalactic roman empire, but instead what i got was a books worth of a lemming like main character with no sense of self preservation what so ever.
How retarded can one protagonist be? Luckily Chistopher Ruocchio has the answer.
He tries to offset Hadrians downsyndrome betamaximal nature with foretellings of him becoming an heroic gladitorial Übermensch but it just does not work.
That is even before we get to the rampant homosexuality littered throughout. I know, I know ancient Romans loved it up the butt but its just so unpalatable that it turns the work from a literary exercise in How To Be A Retard to - How To Be A Retard In An Advanced Degenerate Space Faring Civilization.

>>23406837
now THIS is a review. good work anon

>>23406837
>reading YA
>Reading MODERN YA
>Reading Modern YA space opera depite the fact that scifi died almost 30 years ago
>suprised that is shit
you have no one but yourself to blame

>>23406111
demandred was hyped up for 14 books I am never reading book 15 to spare myself dissapointment

forsaken just had a nice intro I loved their council meeting at the prologue of a book

more books need ensemble villains instead of 1 big bad

>>23405745
I remember The Heroes being good

>>23406050
got into wandering inn recently and it's definitely worth checking out

>>23406134

read Way of Kings its such a good standalone story I fucking love it, soooo much betterr than sanderson other stuff including sequel books in this same series

>>23405745
The standalones are great and expand the world and build on some of the characters. I can't recommend skipping them.

>>23405353
That's 10/10 book cover right there. Makes me thirsty for some medieval knightly adventure.

>>23406134
Dragonbone Chair is supremely comfy. The first 100pgs or so of Simon wandering around the Hayholt was my favourite. It's a slow burn but I liked it a lot. Still haven't finished To Green Angel Tower though.

>>23407376
Based Tad Williams take. Highly recommend you get to the end, anon. One of my favorite fantasy series endings.

>>23406134
Second the other anon. Go with DBC

>>23406314
>recommending 14 gorillion page reddit slop instead of comfy epic fantasy
Opinion discarded

>>23405745
youre missing out if you dont read the stand alones, they provide an ending for some of the characters in the first trilogy and an intro of sorts to new ones

>>23405053
So I started to read Dying Earth, and just finished the first story "Turjan of Miir"... Bros, what the fuck is this shit? This is the definition of slop and I already don't see the point in continuing. Should I start The Wheel of Time, Black Company or Dragonlance instead? I just ask for a good story and competent writing

>>23407492
When people recommend classics you just have to realize that the classics usually suck and people pretend to like them because they think liking old things gives them status.
Wheel of Time is fun, but it's very much 80's anime fun and if you can't deal with that, it probably won't be for you.
Dragonlance is shit
I didn't like Black Company but that was a matter of taste rather than quality, I just don't like that kind of setting or tone.

>>23407499
>they think liking old things gives them status.
Absolutely. I just found out that the book was written in 1950, I think I can now forgive it to sound like some random wizard quest from an infinity engine rpg, because it was written way before DND even existed

>>23407266
As usual though, covers always lie - such a scene never occurs in the book and there's really only two significant combat altercations - across 5 novels.

>>23406897
>aggressive mememaxxing brainrot that says nothing is the ideal

>>23406598
>>23407402
As if being ignorant wasn't enough - To Green Angel Tower IS 1400 pages - it's genuinely astounding how supposedly competent English speakers can so utterly misconstrue what was said in a post.

>>23406917
In what fucking world is this grimdark edgeslop YA? You can't just use "Young Adult" as a universal insult against everything you dislike without looking like a retard. You gonna call ASOIAF YA next? Is Dark Tower YA? Is Dune YA? Shut the fuck up you gay pajeet.

>>23407376
>Dragonbone Chair is supremely comfy. The first 100pgs or so of Simon wandering around the Hayholt was my favourite
It was my favorite too but then I read the rest of the series and the only other time that approaches that level of comfy is when Seoman is in the elf forest with Jiriki and his sister going "haha wouldn't it be funny if you and me had human on elfgirl sex, as a joke haha" and sadly I'm not enough of a coomer for that alone to get me to keep a book in my library.

>>23406837
>he didn't drop it as soon as he realized it was "Dune x Roman Empire" fanfiction
NGMI

>>23405053
R.A. Salvatore is better than Brendon Sanderson

>I said, in my father's voice

>>23407581
>As if being ignorant wasn't enough - To Green Angel Tower IS 1400 pages
And SLA isn't like 1000 page apiece? It's way more slop of the same characteer arcs for each book, that's the point

>>23407608
All fiction is inherently YA. Actual Adults who live in the Real World only read nonfiction.

>>23407621
As someone who's read R.A. Salvatore but not Brandon Sanderson, I am absolutely confident that Salvatore is worse. He had the most agonizingly braindead prose I've ever been forced to suffer. Quite literally a 70 IQ author.
Now I doubt that I'd like anything written by Sanderson, but I don't think he's the kind of fellow to make "See Spot Run" look intellectual.

>>23407626
lol homo

>>23407622
>>23406837
A few threads ago, someone said these books were "Christian xianxia" and I really want to know
A. what the fuck that means
B. how the fuck that can be so with all this apparent gay sex and Nietzschean philosophy

>>23407626

>>23406837
you're completely correct about EoS, but no one really creamed themselves over the first book.
it's like you didn't even read the posts lol
I think one anon gave it a 4 or something, but then he rated the next books higher anyway (where hadrian gets away from the homo governor and actually goes out into space and does shit instead of being a whiny bitch)
his gay friend also disappears in book 2

>>23407622
this + variations of
>it took me 30 seconds to realize that it was myself that had spoken

>>23407534
>the book was written in 1950
This alone made it worthwhile for me, it's interesting to see where the genera comes from.
Some of the stories in dying earth is really funny, I mean as in humor, if Cugel's Saga doesn't entertain you, then Vance is probably just not something you'll ever like

Hmmm, I guess some of the short stories in Dying Earth maybe just are a bit weird and boring, then ends. I really really like some of Vance's longer books

>>23407644
>I guess some of the short stories in Dying Earth maybe just are a bit weird and boring, then ends.
That's how I felt, but I'm going to skip that first book and go straight to the second as I read a lot of people saying that Cugel stories are better

>>23407631
>Christian xianxia
Maybe it's like Wolfe, got pagans in space. But the main character has yet to find the 1 true God
No, but seriously, I don't feel like the the author is trying to sell me on Catholicism. I got no idea where that came from.
Well... there's a crusade, and an inquisition and stuff, those are Christian. Not Roman

>>23406837
Sometimes you have to try for yourself to confirm that's it's bad, or have others suggest you do.
>>/lit/thread/22601218#p22601658

>>23407638
Most common rating for the first book is 5 stars.

Severian the Torturer vs Elric of Melnibone in a duel to the death.

Who wins. Both are at full power. No handicaps.

>>23407654
I guess you could ask the guy here who says it's Catholic Warhammer.

>Red Rising
>Sun Eater (Empire of Silence)
>Warhammer

I think I'm about to OD on Romans in space

>>23407676
There are many more. It's easily the most common variant.

>>23405573
>audiobooks narrated by 2 really good readers husband and wife I believe
I couldn't disagree with you more after finishing the entire audio series with Kramer and Reading. The two of them (despite being a husband and wife like you said) couldn't be bothered to agree upon the pronunciations for some of the made up words and character names. Kramer calls Moiraine "More-Ain," whereas Reading calls her "Mwa-Rain," to name just one example.

Hell, they didn't even keep the pronunciations consistent for themselves. Kramer spent the first 13 books pronouncing Demandred as "Dee-Mon-Dred" before inexplicably calling him "Dee-Mahn-Dred" in the last one. Reading goes from calling Birgitte "Burr-git-uh" to "Beer-git-uh."

And don't get me started on Reading's take on a Seanchan drawl, which is just her mumbling.

>>23405632
>WOT is a better Dune than Dune
I disagree with this as well. Herbert's worldbuilding wasn't as broad as WoT, but deeper. I could actually tell the differences between each nation in Dune. WoT has more nations, but I only got a feel for the Aiel, Seafolk, and Andorans. Everyone else just felt like "this nations wears veils, this nation's men have mustaches," with no deeper distinctions.

>>23407676
Ostensibly, Isaac Asimov's Foundation series is supposed to be an SF retelling of Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, with the assumption that the empire centered at Trantor is Rome.
Having read Foundation, I can confidently say that Isaac Asimov never read Edward Gibbon.

>>23405053
Read Violent Solutions

>>23405053
I can't read fantasy anymore after reading Bakker. Unironically, everything else seems too childish and poorly written... Please rec another author that is that good

>>23407939
You've fallen into the Bakker Trap. You get one long euphoric high then never again.

>>23407950
>the Bakker trap
Kek
I only read the first trilogy tho, but the other books aren't translated in French and I don't think I'm good enough in english

>>23407939
>>23408005
>French pseudointellectual
>likes Bakker
here's an author that's right up your alley: Michel Foucault

>>23408025
Not reading this bald faggot sorry

>>23408039
Sorry, I thought that since you were a Frenchman interested in a gay atheist communist pedophile author, you'd appreciate recommendations for other authors that were gay atheist communist pedophiles, but more homegrown.

>>23406837
cliché to say but the series improves as the author does each book, i was a bit on the fence like you after finishing it but im glad i did by the time i finished book 6

>>23408063
Tell me what's your favorite book, now

>>23406465
The Child's Play universe

first female main character I ever loved in fantasy, that's not a mary sue, what a great writing

>1st person story of a nymph daughter of Helios the titan (the sun basically)
>actually makes greek legends into a cool fantasy story
>actually good writing, that's not annoying to read like so many fantasy slop

>>23408085
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.
Although, assuming you mean science fiction or fantasy, I'd simply have to admit Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton.

is pirate fantasy or even pirate scifi a thing?

>>23408385
Funny you should ask this because I remember seeing a book called Vampirates in my house a few years ago. I looked it up and it seems to be pretty bad though. So yeah, there is at least one pirate fantasy title.

>>23408385
>pirate scifi
I mean... A space ship is really a lot like a regular shup, just in space.

>>23408385
I mean yes? Space Pirates have been a thing forever

>>23408385
>he doesn't know

>>23407492
>>23407499
>>23407534
This is levels of retardation never before thought possible. These are posts by actual hylics.

>>23408577
Modern sci-fi readers are very stupid, that's why I prefer books written in the 60s-70s. The audience was more refined.

>>23407492
>This is the definition of slop
It's the opposite. Old fantasy, like Dunsany, was written in the vein of Orientalist works and European fairy tales. They were lavish and poetic and dream-like. But after Tolkien, fantasy became filled bland travelogues and encyclopedic world building. Vance draws from the older tradition, as well as other literature, esp. the picaresque.

You grew up on slop and can't appreciate fine dining.

>Liane the Wayfarer
*snores*

>>23408636
Face it grandpa, you're old and senile.

>>23408666
That's true, Satan, but I'm still correct.

>>23408678
God I can't wait to play KH again now it's free from EGS hell

>>23405069
Sword & Planet is probably permanently dead as a genre, but the aesthetic at least is still good and deserves to be revived somehow.

>>23408577
>Le hylic meme
You can do better
>>23408630
Go to bed grandpa

>>23408636
Nah man people in the archive tell me I'm right. Also I already read old fantasy and sf, I just read "The Stars My Destination" before and loved it

>>23408385
I hear good thing about this one

>>23407939
he ruined the genre for me too. nothing else comes close desu. luckily the series is expansive and dense enough that it rewards several rereads

>>23408873
Are the four books after the trilogy worth reading?

>>23408882
indubitably. i can't imagine just stopping at thousandfold when four more tomes of heartwrenching kino exist after it

>>23406067
Is it true this guy's series is SciFi Bakker?

>>23408768
Are there any other greats in the genre outside of the John Carter stories?

>>23408801
Thanks for posting this. If a story triggers overly sensitive modern readers this hard then it's definitely worth a read. You should stick to Sanderson and his Whedon-esque Marvel quip-fest anime garbage.

>>23408891
I don't think a hetero Christian American author whose ouevre is so profoundly influential that he has captured the hearts and minds of non-Christians would appreciate being compared to a gay atheist Canadian author who is unknown outside of his personal blog and this thread 4chan.

>>23408909
>le old, thus LE GOOD

>>23408919
yes

>>23408953
>>23408953
my favorite author is Wells who wrote before your meme 50s pulp authors, by your standard I have better taste than you

>>23408973
Wells was a good author before 1914, after that he became a pompous old windbag, a delusional fuddy-duddy, and worst of all a useful idiot for Bolshevik subversion by his acolyte Haldane.

>>23408981
>is a poltard
now I get why the silly takes

>>23406837
>How retarded can one protagonist be? Luckily Chistopher Ruocchio has the answer.
Ruocchio is a libtard. My condolences you wasted your time reading a book often propagated by degenerate and illiterate trannies.

>>23407626
Dangerously based

>>23407622
Our Boi Marlowe:
>'If i had known then what i know now i would not have been a retard, but even by the standards of what i knew then i was being retarded. I was retard.'

>>23408909
Robert E Howard wrote a pretty good S&P novel titled Almuric. It's one of only three full length novels ever written by him.

>>23408891
idk dude i never read anything written by Bakker, The Gap Cycle is brutal kino though

>>23408801
The only thing in Vance that really rubbed me the wrong way was when Cugel sells that one noblewoman to a redneck. She kind of had it coming but Vance could have found a better way to write her out of the story. Almost all the other evil shit his characters do is too cartoonish to be upsetting.

>open fantasy book
>“by the Twelve…. they are taking him to the House of Chains..“
>close fantasy book

>>23408987
>C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, and J.R.R. Tolkien are /pol/tards
Don't you have a neovagina to dilate?

>>23409007
I have never read this book but this made me laugh.

what do you call the phenomenon when you're reading about something and aren't quite sure about the specifics of it so you start thinking about it or looking at previous books in a series to see if it's mentioned, only to find out the literal next sentence on the page spells it out

>>23409338
Retarded impatience?

Just finished Dune Messiah. Once I started reading it gripped me completely. Really enjoyed the intrigue, the conspiracy, the insights of who to trust. Definirely less grand in scope compared to Dune. What I did not like however was the Jihad hyped in the first, reduced to a sentence or two. How did the jihad happen in those 13 years? How did the fremen and paul have the ships and weapons to launch a jihad to commit a multi billion genocide? Where did the freman get an army big enough to commit? I feel like so much of this is just ignored and forgotten.

>>23408919
Nowhere in my post did I mention anything related to a books age being relevant to its quality, but hey, nice strawman. I can see why you got filtered by Vance. Be sure to stop by later and let us know how that new Asian American female diaspora literature you're reading is.

>>23405413
This general is reddit

>>23409143
>Accusing Wells of being an idiot for Bolshevik subversion
Read The Way the World before spouting nonsense
>>23409506
If being repelled by childish writing is being filtered, I guess I am. Currently reading Cat's Cradle and it's like night and day

>>23406556
>The publisher wanted a less matronly look
fuck publishers

>>23409541
Bruh, you're not actually supposed to read Vonnegut, you're supposed to take a picture of the book framed with a wine glass and a bottle of your anti-depressants and post it on social media to look cultured (throwing the book in the trash afterwards obviously). Jokes aside, I was looking for Cold War era fiction books and this one seems interesting, Theodore Sturgeon praised it as well so I'm pretty sure it's good stuff.

>>23409541
>Cat's Cradle
No spoilers but the ending is kino

liked the part where Karellen started blasting shitty ska punk over the space ship speakers to earth in order to end racial tensions in South Africa.

>>23409120
>"what in the hells"

>>23409957
>"Gods be damned"

>>23409994
>"Heavens no"

>>23409957
>>23409994
>>23409120
it's called genrekino, you wouldn't understand

>>23409957
>Is that blood?

>>23410006
I hope it's not Chris's blood.

>>23409998
>peared his nails

>>23406556
>The Publisher wanted a less matronly look
dumb publishers, Polgara's entire arc is about being a mother/mentor

>>23409994
The use of "Gods" in place of "God" is one of my biggest pet peeves, because it's such a lazy and uninspired 20th century whiggish way of projecting modern day culture onto medieval fantasy with zero respect for historical foundations or even wholly fictitious worldbuilding.
It's an indicator of a WASP American's cultural illiteracy; being a normie Christian with limited understanding of his own religion, he has less than no understanding of polytheism. For starters, real historical polytheists never used a phrase like "oh my gods!" as an oath or exclamation; they always referred to the specific god or goddess most relevant to the subject. For example, one might say "by the hairy ass-crack of Thor" or "Hera's tits", but no one will ever say "godsdammit!" Ironically, the language used in polytheistic faiths to refer to gods generally in exclamatory fashion is singular! Such as the "Hey, Ram!" (Oh, God!) that Hindus claimed Gandhi said when he was assassinated. "Gods" is only used for descriptive purposes, such as "We must now give honor to the gods", never excited intentions.
This is equally relevant to fictive settings, because it indicates a lack of creativity on part of the writer not to bother with internal verisimilitude. Skyrim manages to have such oaths as "By Ysmir!" Baldur's Gate 3 had such swears as "Shar's shadow" or suchlike, but also constantly blundered with most characters - Karlach especially - generically using "gods" as substitute for any modern western oath using "god".

>>23410023
btw none of this has anything to do about being for or against monotheism or polytheism in the real world or otherwise, it's merely my autistic rant about cripplingly cliched worldbuilding

>>23410023
>>23410029
It doesnt even bother me, I just think it's funny. Stop being a sperg, for your own good.

>>23410031
>Stop being a sperg, for your own good.

>>23410023
While I do agree that a more personal touch adds a more personal flavor (Chrom's Teeth!) and certainly also agree that Godsdammit! Just sounds weird, I don't think people also wouldn't say stuff like BY THE GODS!

>>23410023
blood & bloody ashes Rand, stop acting like an autistic woolhead!

>>23410023
By Krogans Thirty Fifth nipple cease your wind pissing!

I am pleased enough with Shadow Slave so far to download chs. 101-200 and see how the first arc concludes.

>>23410057
>>23410060
These two posters are more creative than 99% of fantasy writers.
Not that that's a huge accomplishment, but still.

>>23410054
>I don't think people also wouldn't say stuff like BY THE GODS!
You'd think that (I myself once thought so) but statistically, if you go through the compendium of classical literature (that is to say, Greek and Roman poetry, dialogues, and plays), they don't, aside from a few rare exceptions. Virtually every reference in classical literature to a divine oath specifies the divinity, or at least the group of divinities (for example, naiads or aesir). Otherwise, it's neologisms.

>>23410023
Thank you for writing this exact sperg rant so I didn't have to.

>>23410182
It's literally from a youtube video

>>23410185
I don't care.

>>23410193
You wouldnt, fucking ****ter

I just finished up Hyperion today and my god it was great. I love that is goes into multiple genres and stories while not feeling disconnected at all from the main plot. I hope the next book focuses just on the main overarching narrative with the Shrike that the first book set up.

>>23405614
>>23406221

Best video game adaptation EVAR. Pure pulpy goodness with a surprisingly epic and emotional story.

>>23410060
By the holy anus of Zanzibart the 12th!

Looking for more like this that revolve around god tier gamers?

>>23410023
>Such as the "Hey, Ram!" (Oh, God!) that Hindus claimed Gandhi said when he was assassinated.
surprised there aren't more conspiracies about that, then, because the assassin's name was Ram
>>23410424
there's Last Call by Tim Powers but I binned it halfway through so YMMV

>>23410247
I'm bummed they retconned these books in Doom Eternal and turned Doomguy into a Space Marine.

Any advice on how to write pulp sci-fi/fantasy like Jack Vance?

>>23410503
>Jack Vance.
>Dragon masters.
>But, it's not an epic adventure in draconic supervision and management of desperately horny harem slave girls.
Don't bother writing like him. Write something original.

>>23408909
>Are there any other greats in the genre outside of the John Carter stories?
The Darkover books? They are quite famous.

What did I think of it?

>>23410590
>should I write something original?
>nah, too much work. I'll just write John Carpenter fanfic instead

Is /lit/ being brigaded or something? I've been noticing a lot of... off posts.

What would have happened had Gandalf the White fought the balrog instead of Gandalf the Grey? That door blocking spell he cast would have held and Gandalf wouldn’t have even broken a sweat, but would he have known it was a balrog if it didn’t show itself on the bridge of Khazad Dum? The balrog, much like Smaug, needed to die, as it could be recruited to the service of Sauron. If Gandalf’s door blocking spell holds then he probably assumes it’s just another vile creature from the depths like the Watcher in the Water and leaves it be.

>>23410641
I think, however, that it’s possible that the door spell was cast to buy time for the Fellowship to escape. Perhaps Gandalf suspected it was a balrog and would have gone back in to fight it once the others were safely out of Moria. In that scenario, Gandalf likely fights the balrog and slays it with Glamdring and the Flame of Anur, burning it with holy fire to which the balrog, despite being a creature associated with fire, is very much weak to.

>>23405413
You are the only dude posting the 'same' shit every thread worth a damn. You may be superfluous but at least you try.

>>23410674
kill yourself

>>23406067
>>23408891
>Stephen Rape Donaldson
>The Rape Story
I only read the first one but bro wrote an afterword discussing his thought processing and did not even once in any single detail allude to how the plot/main character arcs are about an ugly bastard lucked into capturing a 10/10 galactic officer's trophy daughter to technologically force her into sex doll servitude.
It was a different time.

>>23406224
In case you haven't done any, that's a metaphor for hard drug use if there's ever been one.

>>23406556
I don't remember a minor in a Conan story at all

>>23406837
>He tries to offset Hadrians downsyndrome betamaximal nature with foretellings of him becoming an heroic gladitorial Übermensch but it just does not work.
>That is even before we get to the rampant homosexuality littered throughout. I know, I know ancient Romans loved it
This is short sighted. Romans loved it, based on what? The public now loves it. It's Rome as seen through AIDSfaggot womeme lenses.
Look at anything popular and see how gay/pozzed/cucked/feminized/woke/I'm running out of adjectives it is. It shouldn't be that hard to pander to the mainstream if we have the stomach for it.

>>23410023
Wolfe pulls it off

>>23410677
You will never be White

>>23406837
>He tries to offset Hadrians downsyndrome betamaximal nature with foretellings of him becoming an heroic gladitorial Übermensch but it just does not work
It works when you keep reading and watch him turn into a heroic ubermensch

>>23407631
A. Imagine if god chose you to kill fallen angels
B. how the fuck that can be so with all this apparent gay sex and Nietzschean philosophy It's an intentional juxtaposition. Hadrian's "crisis of faith" is spectacularly resolved during his third(?) death, where he travels to perdition and meets the archangel michael (this is not a joke) who challenges Nietzschean philosophy Hadrian developed by explaining to him how much god loves him (this actually happens) and then plunges a flaming sword into Hadrian and he is reborn into a new body.

>>23410711
All you'll ever be is soft.

Are there any fantasy novels from the last 20 years by Chinese, Korean, or Japanese authors that aren't garbage?

I checked the Mega in the OP and didn't see any

>>23410639
I read it immidately after reading original campbell short story. Originality doesnt matter so much if the writing is complete dogshit

>>23410857
Watts was always absolute dogwater as far as writing was concerned. Blindsight was hard-carried by divisive nature of employed concepts - it's overwhelmingly more interesting to discuss it rather than read it.

>>23410225
Sadly it all goes downhill from book 1

>>23410932
I am not saying he is a good writer, but just try to read the original

This guy sure likes one word sentences.

>>23408857
sounds pretty cool

>>23409120
No, but seriously, Fantasy and SciFi as genres literally IS the expectation of certain cliches

>>23410185
>from a youtube video
Wtf are you talking about I literally just wrote that offhand last night

>>23408768
>Sword & Planet is probably permanently dead as a genre
Why?
>the aesthetic
I know nothing about the genre. Is the aesthetic that different from having jedi pirates running around boarding each other?

>>23410590
I don't care about what you thought of it but I thought it was the cringiest fucking faggotry I've ever read and that's really saying a lot. No one but the most emasculated of basedboy communists could come up with such a pathetic "no u" subversion.

>>23410727
>It's an intentional juxtaposition. Hadrian's "crisis of faith" is spectacularly resolved during his third(?) death, where he travels to perdition and meets the archangel michael (this is not a joke) who challenges Nietzschean philosophy Hadrian developed by explaining to him how much god loves him (this actually happens) and then plunges a flaming sword into Hadrian and he is reborn into a new body.
This sounds ludicrously cringe, yet also somehow based. I'd almost be tempted to read this but I don't think I'd be willing to read through a half dozen doorstoppers to get there; I learned my lesson with Memory Sorrow and Thorn.

>>23410590
>In 2019, Wildside Press published Short Things, a collection of short stories inspired by Who Goes There? and The Thing.
You've only begun your journey.

>>23410641
That part where Gandalf confirms it's a balrog and he falters on his staff is pure kino, man.

>>23410686
>In case you haven't done any, that's a metaphor for hard drug use if there's ever been

I haven't done any drugs, looking to change that this year. Nothing hard, just some mushrooms with the bros in a forest. I'm aware the book, and most of his other work was heavily influenced by his own experiences with drugs and religion. I find it fascinating. It's like he lived on a different plane of existence than most people for a majority of his writing career.

>>23411455
Ludicrously cringe, yet also somehow based.

This is the perfect way to describe the series, thank you. Now I will tell you this, the first book is undoubtably the worst in the series. Howling dark picks things up a bit, but demon in white is easily sci fi kino. In demon in white Hadrian is a dashing young leader of an amazing cast of side characters. And it's followed up by kingdoms of death which is the best written and also just straight up a snuff book. Everyone dies, I kid you not.

Book 5 is passable, fuck all happens but it's not that long.

Book 6... oh boy book 6, how do I sell you on book 6? Honestly you should just skip straight to it.

Okay so think of Hadrian in book one, and now throw him in the trash where he fucking belongs. In book 6, Hadrian is a thousand year old conservative tradcath. Does that tickle your tatas?

>>23411455
Side note, what's the deal with libtard authors turning their protagonists into right wing archetypes?

>>23411193
How is this book? Doesn't seem to be talked much here

>>23411636
I have a moral compunction against skipping ahead; my autism DEMANDS I start from the beginning of a series and finish to the end chronologically (assuming I can tolerate it).
Just how much gay sex and nihilism is in these books really? I can get through a little innuendo but I don't want to listen to an old fag moping about the death of his twink sugarbaby. I'm not falling for that Between Two Fires shill again.

>>23411445
The aesthetic is basically Frazetta combined with Raygun Gothic.

>>23411649
To the best of my memory.

No gay sex, there are only two gay things in the books. The catamite boy and the gay noble dude. Both are swept away in book two and one respectively.

Nihilism? Buddy I'm not sure to be honey. Hadrian is a moody fuck but I'm pretty sure all abject nihilism ceases roundabout the time he dumps his second girlfriend. But what specifically do you mean when you say nihilism? Because a lot of bad stuff happens, and a lot of it feels meaningless. But that's explicitly the point as it feeds Hadrians crisis of faith.

"a little innuendo" I don't even think there is anything like that. Hadrian has like four girlfriends thruought the series. The catamite twink ends up betraying him and he cuts him out, hard stop. Banishes him because he's so mad at him.. He does mope about it but it's because they were good friends and it's not a big part of the book so idk.

I don't think the twink is mentioned in more than two paragraphs after book 2. Old fag Hadrian is too focused on raising his daughter to think about turncoats.

>>23411680
>to be honey
HONEST

>>23410682
I didn't read the entire afterward but I think the idea of taking a victim, rescuer, and villain and swaping their positions as the series goes on is a very cool idea

>DOTA battles
>"their eyes smoking as their bodies hit the ground"
>Jasnah raises her eyebrow
>Kaladin
>OOOOH I'M SO DEPRESSED ALL THE TIME
>WHY DOES EVERYONE DIE
>I'M GOING TO KILL MYSELF
>Dalinar
>OOOOH MY HONOR
>THE VISIONS ARE MAKING ME INSAAAAANE
>STICK TO THE COOOOODES
>Shallan
>OOOOH I NEED TO STEAL THE SOULCASTER
>BUT I WANT TO READ MY BOOKS AND DRAW SNAILS
>THE CONFLICT IN MY HEART
1200 pages of the same chapter themes for 90% of the book. How did this get past the editor? Why do people like this book?

>>23411788
If you think that was bad, try oathbringer. It is somehow ten times worse.

>>23411639
I think people are getting bored of the same-old liberal hero types and are moving into "maybe the Right has a point" purely for the sake of novelty.
>>23411450
>>23411502
if you want a new take on The Thing, read "The Thing Itself" by Adam Roberts. it's based

>>23410958
I've heard that. I'll read Fall of Hyperion because I heard that was also good, though not as good as the first. I heard Endymion was shit though.

>>23411639
He worked for Baen, maybe you have him figured wrong.

>>23411940
It's the meme, anon. People ITT call him a libtard because of EoS

>TWI went from biweekly to weekly release schedule

>>23408074
>the series improves as the author does each book
i gave up halfway through the second because i thought it was much worse than the first

>>23412034
Yeah the second book is weird. Only thing I can say is that if the third book isnt an improvement in your eyes, then you can be sure it wont get better.

>>23408857
His previous series put me off reading any of his books

>>23412034
personally I found the second to be much stronger in general, mainly because it became the space opera i was wanting the first book to be. Book 4 is the best book imo but i don't think theres a bad one in the series

>>23412045
>book 4 is the best book
4th dimensional fisticuffs > torture, torture, and oh here have some more torture

>>23412115
Yeah it's great. I love seeing characters get torn down to absolute rock bottom then seeing them deal with the aftereffects and how they build themselves back in following books

>>23412129
>I love seeing characters get torn down to absolute rock bottom then seeing them deal with the aftereffects and how they build themselves back in following books
name 5 books that do this i wanna read them

>>23411682
Looks like someone's been thinking about catamite twinks a bit too much.

>>23412285
are there any books about HETERO twinks?

>>23406837
>intergalactic roman empire

>>23411788
>>23411806
valid valid valid cryticism, not gonna lie
I dropped the series couldnt finish oathbringer

HOWEVER
way of kings is miles better than most of Sanderson's slop as his characters yes are repetitive in every chapter but at least his plot is moving along and you get a good climax to the book at the end

ignore shallan and her boring shit tho

So I recently finished the Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett and these are a summary of my thoughts on the entire 5 book series.

The setting is fantasy but with ample hints that it's earth, or close enough, in the future after demons destroy modern civilization. While traces of the old civilization exist it doesn't really loom over the story, it only comes up infrequently, since characters are more immediately concerned with fighting demons. Or at least, the best characters are. The worst characters are obsessed with interpersonal drama (more on this in a bit).

I think Brett did a good job with how he handled magic in this series. He gave it pretty clear limitations and rules without over-explaining it or even revealing all of its mysteries. We don't know why there's magic, or where it really comes from, but we learn through the characters' experiments with it how it works and what is possible with it. Seeing the evolution of magical weaponry throughout the series was pretty great. I also think the Warded Man, as a concept, is just really awesome. Arlen punches demons to death. Rad.

Now for the bad news. There's a LOT of cuckolding in this series. There's no way to sugarcoat it or even talk around it because it's literally a major plotline of the series' worst character: Leesha. Up side: if this is your fetish, I doubt you'll find a fantasy series that caters to you harder than this. Aside from the infidelity, this series is pretty smutty overall. No tasteful "fade to black" sex scenes, very GRRM-esque, tersely worded descriptions of (mostly awkward) sexual encounters. This takes a lot of the "epic" feeling out of the series, imo. It does humanize the characters a lot, which is a big theme in the story, but I kind of want my heroes to be larger than life. I don't need graphic descriptions of their premature ejaculations.

Also, I think Brett is just obsessed with Arabs. The Krasians are very obviously modeled on Arabs, and their religion on Islam. They are the only humans who still fight demons at the start of the series, and are portrayed as fearless, skilled warriors. But they're also brutal to the point of savagery. The amount of rape, sodomy, incest, and cuckolding in the series goes up exponentially as the Krasians become a bigger part of the narrative, and half the books are devoted to Krasians, so that's a lot of depravity.

The ending was fairly predictable, not the least because he'd so heavily foreshadowed it, but also felt incomplete. I knew he had a sequel series set after the Cycle, but I guess he'd already had that planned when he wrapped up book 5 because it didn't properly send off any of the characters besides Arlen. The Demon Cycle could be seen as Arlen's story, I suppose. It started with him and followed his life, but he barely felt like a character in it, at times.

So yeah. TL;DR - demon fighting is cool. Lots of rape, lots of cuckolding. Cool magic system. Weak ending.

>>23412647
In other words it's a suitable series for fans of Bakker?

>>23410677
Seethe and dilate, tranny

>>23412618
>ignore shallan and her boring shit tho
all my brothers know Shallan is a dogshit character

>>23412618
I found Shallan's chapters to unironically better than Kaladin's
>we're going on another bridge run
>we're doing chores
>I have to plan plan plan to save literally everyone
>can someone kill to save lives?
>What do you think Syl?
>"I-I don't know"
it's like 1000 fucking pages in before he even starts deliberately using stormlight, and it isn't even a WOOOOOW moment because it has been beaten into your brain from the very beginning with Sanderson's not so subtle hints
>did I mention that his spheres went dun again?
>did you notice it? huh?

>>23412647
>The amount of rape, sodomy, incest, and cuckolding in the series goes up exponentially as the Krasians become a bigger part of the narrative
So it's GRI approved?

what does this thread think about litrpg

>>23412656
I wouldn't know, I've never read Bakker

>>23412679
GRI platinum seal. It's got stuff I've never seen in fantasy before.

>>23412683
I don't.

>>23406837
>wanted roman empire in space
>didn't expect degeneracy
I see you don't know anything about ancient Rome.

>>23412683
Almost invariably the pinnacle of cringeworthy low-effort trash for autistic weeaboo manchildren. The closest thing to a good LitRPG I ever read was Fighter Fred and that was a comedy series taking the piss out of the concept of Dungeons and Dragons more than an even more retarded version of Dragon Ball Z.

>>23412851
but have you tried Skill Hunter - Kill Monsters, Acquire Skills, Ascend to the Highest Rank [Cultivation LitRPG]? It's trending right on royalroad right now

>>23412683
people who read them deserve to be kneecapped

>>23412865
Of course not, because I'm a human being and not an insect.

>>23411806
>>23412618
I loved oathbringer.

Dalinar's arc finally coming to the conclusion of taking personal responsibilities for his mistakes in the past, accepting his sins while still moving on with life was just pure kino.

I do admit the books are too long and probably could have cut out a lot of the intermission chapters along with Shallan's pov, especially during the later books where she feels more and more pointless with her whole schizo personality conflict that's never properly developed.

>>23412647
>Krasians
lool

>>23412683
98% shit and the nonshit stuff usually minimises the litrpg stats almost immediately

>>23408891
in grimness? yes. in philosophical themes? not really, at it's core The Gap is an optimistic story about indomitable human spirit and to a lesser extent about a mother's love for her child, Donaldson has said in interviews that he doesn't believe "man is a useless passion" so most of his books have really optimistic endings unlike bakker's "everyone was raped to death" endings

>>23407658
never read either, but im gonna go with elric

>>23405053
is the malazan series worth getting into? heard it's a really difficult series to get into

Which fantasy or sci fi books have a punk music aesthetic?

>>23413185
>Which fantasy or sci fi books have a punk music aesthetic?

>>23413163
I tried really hard to enjoy it (read 5 books of it) but ultimately I dropped it.

The world and history are definitely interesting, and there's insane details with stuff like languages, names, cultures that really makes the world feel fleshed out.

But the actual characters and story aren't very interesting. Because even when you get interesting characters the story will constantly switch the POV character and that makes it hard to get invested in a bunch of characters.

I read so much of the books since I was enjoying the world and was expecting a satisfying payoff at some point, but none of the big climactic moments in the end of each book made me feel satisfied at all because it felt like there were no emotional connection between me and characters who suffer/die.

>>23413163
I'm like 70% into book 7, and it's already one of my favorite series. Like other anon said, you don't get a lot of time with individual characters so they occasionally feel underdeveloped, but the sheer number of characters means for every few shitty ones you don't care about, you'll find someone you really like.

Plus, as hard as it is to follow all the shit going on at once, the big climaxes at the end are usually pretty goddamn cool

One of the best Conan pastiche writers is gonna have a new Conan kino released soon.
His last one was good; not great. The premise for this one sounds more based though.

>>23413163
It doesn't ease you into the story, and just drops you into events without any handholding exposition. This can be really disorienting if you're used to a gradual build-up where unfamiliar names are gradually explained to you. Malazan doesn't bother. You just have to remember stuff as you go, and trust it gets explained later.

The scope of Malazan Book of the Fallen is also pretty enormous, even by epic fantasy standards. You're not done meeting new characters until book 6, and the overall plot is pretty much impossible to understand until very far into the series because of how fragmented your perspective is. It feels very disjointed, with some characters being completely removed from the rest and apparently not even in the same story, until eventually they do intersect toward the end of the 10 book series.

If you need to understand everything early into book 1, avoid it. You won't understand anything after finishing the first book. You will have several moments where you think you understand only to realize a bit later you don't understand anything. This continues until you get to book 9.

>>23407658
>Who wins.
No one, Mid-battle Severian would start his usual schizo ramblings while elric suffers yet another mental breakdown while blaming the Lords of Law & Chaos and the cosmic balance.

>>23406066
Some of the shit in the new gamebooks IS AI slop

You guys have to read Walter Moers (yes, I'm the anon who has been shilling him a bit for a while now). I've had a few very interesting discussions with anons who have read his books and also loved them, which gives me hope for this general. I think his world is weird, interesting, whimsical and pretty dark, in just the right doses. Just finishing Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures and will give my thoughts when I finish it so maybe I can motivate a few of you to read it as well.

>>23413163
It is if you like femdom and thick women.
But seriously just read it. Malazan fans like to scare people away from it. It's not a damn James Joyce novel, it's just that characters talk and think about the world they inhabit as if they actually live there, instead of explaining every little thing in their heads. The prose is digestible and well-written, You will get confused, but the mystery of the world is what makes it fun. Stay away from breakdowns of the series, even the "spoiler free" ones, because they'll just ruin the magic for you.

And by all means, take breaks between books if you feel yourself getting burnt out. It's okay if you forget a couple things. The books are huge, you can't be expected to remember all that shit even if you read them all consecutively. Enjoy them at your own pace.

>>23413358
>It is if you like femdom and thick women.
go on...

>>23412657
Why are you so mad?

Anybody have breakdown on the excellence of GITS. I am going through watching SAC I and II and will go on to Arise. This series actually got better since last I watched it before covid and I already thought it was the best anime.
I remember commenting here on how it's status being immortalized because it covers topics on the edge of singularity. It is an archetype and will retroactively btfo many things into the future. It will only get more relevant over the following decades until the materialist delusion realizes it can't achieve any of it. Is there any cyberpunk better than gits?
Alternatively, what fiction has torn about the philosophy of its day? Here, even Dante's Inferno would classify as an example.

>>23413409
Why will you never be a woman?

>>23413453
>I am going through watching SAC I and II and will go on to Arise
Surely you're not leaving the films for the end, right?...

>>23413458
seething

>>23413194
I’ll look into it. Thanks.

>>23413453
>It will only get more relevant over the following decades until the materialist delusion realizes it can't achieve any of it
luddite cope

>>23413523
>Luddite cope
Gwyn ap Nuddite cope, back to Yffern with you.

>>23413629
Warm, sweaty hands typed this cope.

>>23413658
You will never be a real knight of the Round Table. You have no steed, you have no squire, you have no damosel. You are a disloyal knave twisted by incest and sorcery into a crude mockery of chivalry’s perfection.

>>23410510
There is one horny slave girl.

>>23413684

>>23413453
"The Fortunate Fall" by Raphael Carter is good

How does Poul Anderson hold up compared to Howard or Vance?

Read Tenebroum

>>23405053
why aren't powerful women in modern fantasy allowed to fall in love?
why are powerful women in modern fantasy so sexless anyway?

Anyone else kinda find the armour types in Malazan jarring? Even the Malazan soldiers seem to be wearing a variety of armour types ranging from scale, to plate, to leather. Not to mention the shields/weapons. Why are some soldiers outfitted with iron armour and weapons but using bronze shields? It's very hard for me to picture it in my head. There'll be a warrior wearing chainmail over boiled leather, but wearing a copper helmet? wtf?

>>23414343
There is nothing in Malazan that I don't find jarring.

>>23412683
I don't.

>>23414343
>Malazan
>Being in any way a coherent world instead of a serious of "AND THEN" additions adding new rules and retroactively pretending they were always there.
xd

>>23414231
Men can only remain interested in a female protagonist as long as she's romantically available.

i'm starting to come to the conclusion that Greg Egan just isn't for me. I have read nearly a dozen of his books, starting with Permutation City, Quarantine, and Diaspora, all three of which I absolutely loved. I then moved into his more "physics" based books and I just bounce the hell off of them. I think that he's a brilliant thinker and writer, but either I am way too stupid to grapple with alternative physics, or the material is just extremely dry with zero fun aspects, but either way I might be done after Schild's Ladder. Too many pages of thinking "i'm not getting anything out of these paragraphs of physics discussions" and "why are these characters so autistic when interacting with each other? Everyone truly thinks that pontificating about physics and math is truly the end goal of humanity?"

>>23414231
Because it depends what you mean by "powerful women," do you mean martially powerful? Politically powerful? It's jarring in fiction because women are typically uninterested in those things in reality, and the nature of falling in love is falling into some kind of gender role/stereotype by definition. Tolstoy writes about powerful women in War and Peace and Anna Karenina in a believable way (imo).

>>23413312
Anyone can write a Conan short story or novel these days right? It's public domain I believe

Lads I need help finding a few different books from my childhood. I've started losing sleep over not being able to finish them.

All of these would have been written before 2011, as that is when I would have lost physical access to them.

1) a boy find a shop where he is dropped from our world, completely uninformed, into a fantasy world. He finds he has the potential for wizardry, but no tutor. He learns everything via trial and error, almost killing himself with a tornado spell early on as magic saps your physical stamina heavily. He picks up an urchin named Miko (I think) and slowly forms a band of adventurers. Miko eventually comes to possess an evil divine relic which drastically ages him into a man. He eventually obtains the opposite goods relic, but is forever changed and goes his own way as a cleric. The story spans many years, well into the wizard's adult life.

2) a young boy finds a magic gauntlet (I think it was a gauntlet) in the hollow tree of the town square. He goes on wild adventures, and eventually crosses dimensions where he meets with a "chimera" in a swamp. The chimera agrees to free him from the dimension for a price. The price is his firstborn. He doesn't understand this means his firstborn will be a chimera when he eventually has a child. The gauntlet was also made by an extremely powerful interdimensional frog wizard. No, I'm not bullshitting. I know there was at least a second book in the series.

3) a man jumps throughout time and keeps meeting the same women over and over. He cant stay with her for some reason. They meet even at the very dawn of time when she's an alien species that predates humanity. Their longest time together that I recall was in a more medieval setting where he escorts her as an important lady. I remember it mentioning fields of golden wheat as she passes from view. This is likely a short story from a famous author who I cannot recall.

4) a young man is tasked with slaying a dragon. A famous Dragonslayer shows up and he's shocked it's a women. She shows him the best way to kill one is to slaughter a sheep and poison it. The kill the dragon together and he goes off with her. I barely remember anything about this one.

Google is fucking useless nowadays, if anyone recognizes any of these please help.

>>23414940
have you tried asking chatgpt?

>whole trilogy is about pretend revolution while the true goal was burning down all the banks and the je...mage who owns them
How was this allowed and why wasnt the author canceled for it? shame the characters suck ass and make the books pretty shit

Just finished The Black Company. Please tell me, does Croaker end up with the Lady and will it be a happy ending?

>>23415046
You'll find out by end of book 9. It's worth the effort.
>>23414980
It can't tell me anything. All it's suggestions are super off mark.

I'll level with you lads I found Gardens of the Moon clunky as hell and I had fuck all idea what was going on 2/3rds but the names and some of the action scenes involving war and the assasination attempts were cool. Is Erikson's prose something that becomes less jarring the more accustomed you get to it with each book? Heard a lot of people say they also disliked GOTM but on a re-read wound up loving it

>>23415060
Issue is I don't wanna wait to read all 9 in one go. I'm planning on reading until the third one then taking a break and going for a different series.

>>23415078
You'll have one of your answers by book 3. The other is just a lot more complicated.

>>23412953
>>23412666
>>23412659
I could rant for ages about sanderson's problems

he's shit at writing women, they're all brilliant and sassy
he's shit at writing comedy
he's shit at writing anything related to sex
he's dogshit at writing a plot for women
all his characters do in all his stories is all figure out the magic system by themselves and power creep throughout every book

I DID love way of kings for all its faults but some fantasy writers after so many books it's all the same shit, like I loved Elantris, Mistborn, etc. from this fat mormon faggot but I just can't anymore
same as Joe Abercrombie I devoured First Law Trilogy in a weekend as I loved the action, then read The Heroes, then I couldnt stomach the dumb bastard as all his characters talk the same with the same witty comebacks to everyone

>>23413163
overall I would say its meh, the anon saying it's sooo complex is talking bullshit, there's some stupid magical realm for every magical race and class or some shit, that's basically where the complexity comes from, it has some cool concepts like ancient races/factions of undead armies or whatever, it's comic book slop if you ask me in how the plot advances

>>23415039
is the mage in question gandalf with muscles from first law trilogy? MEH

>>23415069
gardens of the moon was d-d-d-d-d-DOGSHIT but deadhouse gates actually is a nice read with a interesting set of plots, if you check out anything from malazan listen to the online tip I listened to and start with book 2, it's all new POV's anyway from gardens of the moon for like 90% of it

I would say deadhouse gates shits big time on gardens of the moon, you will probably love it

what do /lit/ people think about Wandering Inn? I finished volume 1 and it was kinda shocking but I am dying to talk spoilers about this shit as its so unique

>>23415121
>the anon saying it's sooo complex is talking bullshit
pardon my schizo comment, the anon telling you not to be intimidated by malazan is correct, it's really not that complicated to remember stuff, and if you need it there's a nice reading companion to help you keep track of characters and shit

>>23415130
>there's a nice reading companion
link?

>>23415143
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-Rqhn-lK66YQKPwZQNbHmuCLBc0d7zwvRLUJFkM3s50/edit#slide=id.p

this is for deadhouse gates

>>23415166
Cool, thanks anon

>>23414657
Have you tried reading any of his short fiction collections? They tend to be much less physics based.

>quite literally no room on my bookshelves
>have a massive tbr that keeps growing
>more books coming in the mail
bros... I can't stop

>>23415217
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliomania

>>23415180
I don't think so, do you recommend them?

>>23415046
>black company
>happy endings
you're barking up the wrong tree

>>23415231
I haven't read the newer ones yet, but yes.

>>23415225
It's over for me

>>23415217
get an ereader

>>23414343
I found it more jarring how quickly the author jumped into his fat fetish. He could only hold out like two chapters into his multi million word series of doorstoppers before jacking off in front of the audience.

>>23415046
If you only read the first 3 books then yes
If you read all 9 books then yes, but infinitely more complex

>>23412009
>TWI
I don't recognize that acronym, what is it?

>>23415644
The Wayfaring Inn

>>23415680
wandering?

>>23415644
Tranny WebnovelSlop Inn

>>23415217
I am the same way. I have four book cases that are 8 feet tall each, and I've filled all of them with books and still have stacks on my nightstands and tables.

>>23415225
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundoku

of course the nips have a word for me

>>23414343
This is one of the little details that's never overtly explained to you, but you come to understand by paying attention to other bits of exposition that get doled out. The Malazan Empire is very young, and its expansion is explosively fast because the army basically never stops. They roll from one campaign to the next, and replenish their troops from the ranks of the newly conquered peoples. They have no problem attracting recruits because they specifically target the dregs of society, the low class reprobates, the criminals, the outcasts. In other words people with little or no stake in the old regime, who'd have every reason to join a professional army that pays them and encourages their baser instincts of violence. Now that I've explained it, it probably makes sense how many psychotics you've seen in the Malazan army's ranks.

This should also intuitively explain the hodgepodge armor the army uses. They're constantly on the move, and forever recruiting from wherever they happen to be. This means their quartermasters make do with whatever they can easily get from the local armories.

>>23415916
At least I actually read the books I buy.

*gayest man alive voice*
I've been reading Maas and although I shouldn't be shocked at the quality of mass-market fantasy I am genuinely surprised at how bad of a romance writer she is.
Like isn't this what the girlies are buying the books for?

>>23416280
I really like reading fantasy written by women but Sarah Maas is peak chicklit, even for me. It feels like "the OC" or "one tree hill" of fantasy. Unless You are a horny college girl or a sexually frustrated housewife don't read it.
She's super cute tho, imagine having a slampiggy jewish gf who writes smut? sounds like wife material to me

>>23416355
Maas writes horny lit. I'd gladly give her the dicking that she so badly craves.

>>23416355
Easy Mode: Name one female fantasy author you enjoy
Moderate Mode: Who's 70 or younger.
Hard Mode: 60 or younger
Nightmare Mode: 40 or younger
Masochist Mode: 30 or younger

>>23416397
>Easy Mode: Name one female fantasy author you enjoy
Melanie Rawn
>Moderate Mode: Who's 70 or younger.
Joanna Russ, Anna Kavan, Le Guin, Sheri S Tepper, Mercedes Lackey etc.
>Hard Mode: 60 or younger
Jacqueline Carey
>Nightmare Mode: 40 or younger
>Masochist Mode: 30 or younger
I...I will bend the knee...
I confess, i only read old female authors

>>23416397
>Easy Mode: Name one female fantasy author you enjoy
>Easy
whoa there

>>23416432
ok chuddie

>>23416397
who the fuck is getting published under 30

>>23416454
just get mom and dad to publish you in your teens like paolini

>>23416459
The only female fantasy author I could think of was Samantha Shannon and she was basically YA when she started and was the literary version of an industry plant (Oxford student from london, 'discovered' by her oxford advisor with a bidding war on her manufscript)

ust finished this series. I kinda liked it. Despite the inclusion of heavy themes like rape and cannibalism, it felt very light, and I never truly felt the characters were in danger. Weeks uses a lot of dramatic irony, but everything works out in the end. The villains are quite shallow, and the ending felt rushed and missed a few beats. However, I’d like to see more of this cast and world. He has an annoying tendency to portray men as buffoons around women. Someone literally say “Don’t mess with a woman smarter than you, which is all of them.”

I read the first book of "The Black Prism" and just didn't like it, especially the main characters. The magic system and the cast were just meh.

>>23416481
Even though WoS is just a YA story plys some ridiculous edginess Black Prism is actually worse for weird shit being added to a normal fantasy novel

>>23416481
my fucking god why are fantasy covers so fucking BAAAAAAD now? even shitty women's fantasy erotica from the 80s had better covers

>>23416486
tbf this is a different type of bad to the current bad which is this sort of thing
(incidentally I'm not impressed by this book after 3 chapters, it feels unedited)

>>23416427
Reading female authors is equivalent to supporting feminism. Go back.

>>23416484
Yeah. The "twist" doesn't really make any real sense, tho. In fact, I thought the characters were twins for some reason, probably because that's the only way a switch would make sense.

>>23416579
>>23416579
>>23416579
New

>>23416454
Here's one example:
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/R._F._Kuang