/lit/ - Literature

I'm almost halfway through book 4 and I'm seriously considering just bailing on the series. The first part of this book with only following Karsa was cool, but now that it's back to standard Malazan fare it's starting to feel like a slog again.

I'm barely feeling a connection to any of the characters, there's way too many of them to keep track of and it seems every character will now also be having at least two names to keep track of (and 90% of names are just nouns). There's too many plot-threads going on and it's impossible to gauge what is actually relevant in the text and what is just side tangents and fluff. To top it off there's the endless talk and descriptions of military plans, ranks, squads, companies etc that I can't even begin giving a shit about. I've been using the slides but that just makes it feel like work and studying instead of being a story I can simply enjoy and get immersed in.

GotM was my favorite so far with much tighter and faster pacing and smaller cast and it really got me interested and hooked on the world, it's mysteries and continuing this huge series. After that DHG was a slog and MoI was a step up but still just fine. The payoff to both of these were also really underwhelming after such huge books and after hearing that these are generally considered the two best books in the series. I really want to like the series since I hear so much praise for it and that it all pays off hugely down the line, but I don't know if I can be bothered pushing through. I keep telling myself that it'll start clicking with me if I just give it a bit more time, but I'm starting to feel unsure about it being worth it in the end. I have so many other books I also want to read and these are taking such a huge chunk out of my reading time.

Can anyone give me some motivation to keep pushing through? Or should I just accept that this series propbably isn't for me right now?

>>23595201
Meh, I like this silly one better.

>>23595205
Normalize silly sci-fi book cover art.

>>23595265
Based.

Read Dungeon Crawler Carl

>>23595325
Run into a freeway

>>23595371
no u

hmm...

>>23595255
>t. Ghost of Harlan Ellison

Son of the Black Sword was a mediocre read over all. Anything that wasn't the MC killing things or related to the MC killing things was a chore to get through, and compared to the authors own Grimnoir Chronicles or even his Iron Kingdoms books, this one suffers from poor pacing and uninteresting characters. The first 12 or so chapters were good, but after that the quality gradually gets worse and worse until picking back up in the final tenth of the book. The great action scenes and entertainingly autistic MC can't save it from a boring as hell world and a shallow plot that had no business being over 400 pages long.

Correia's a fun enough writer, but nothing he's written made me eager to read past the first book of whatever series he does, and this sure as hell didn't change that.

Should I read the rest of the series? Sounds like they won't be as good as Hyperion.

>>23595984
Fuck wrong pic

Hello everyone. I'm looking for some good SF for my dad. He used to read Sci-Fi a lot as a kid--Science Fiction Book Club, Bradbury, Asimov, LeGuin, etc. Massive fan of PKD. I mostly read litfic so I have trouble finding him new books to enjoy. I gave him Stanislaw Lem (since I've read some Lem and found him quite nice) and Gibson (he didn't like it, neither do I) and I'm now out of ideas. Which authors should I be looking at? Preferably newer stuff that he likely hasn't read, or maybe European stuff. Please don't recc. me pure slop or anything extremely hard (he cannot read Egan). He also doesn't like soft sci-fi. He likes hard science fiction mainly, speculative but realistic stuff, it just can't get too intense.

>>23595994
The Expanse maybe

>>23595994
Does he like old science fiction pulps, ie. Planetary Adventures where Venus and Saturn are jungle planets before we knew Venus was an uninhabitable hellhole?

>>23595095
Book 4 into 5 is the highest point in the series in my opinion.
Book 6 drops off a fucking cliff in quality.
If you do not like the series so far do not read further because it shits the bed in like 8,9,10 and by 7 I asked at several points why the fuck I was still reading.

>>23595994
Don't mind me, just the greatest hard scifi first contact novel ever passing through.

Also it's free on his website because Watts is a bro.

>>23595994
Three body problem

>>23595994
>or anything extremely hard (he cannot read Egan)
lol

lmao

>>23596092
>Greatest hard scifi first contact novel ever passing through
That's not the Mote in God's Eye

>>23595325
>Enjoying cuckoldry literature.
I should have expected no less from this place.

>>23595201
>>23595205
Kneel.

Just finished The Killing God and I can see why Donaldson was dispairing at the amount of editing down he was forced to do. And this was the "acceptable" compromise he was able to make with the publisher.
This is reality for the modern publishing industry for a guy who was a star 40 years ago. I guess this will be the last we see of him.

>>23596375
self publish

>>23595041
Fucking Australia, mate.

>>23595986
The rest of the series isn't as good. It isn't too terrible either. You should instead read the cunnykino that Simmons wrote.

>>23595986
I would say at least read them, especially Fall of Hyperion since you've already read Hyperion. Fall doesn't have the same literary quality but makes up for it in story pace despite a few wonky reveals that should have stayed mysteries.

Endymion is actually OK and is basically a decent chase novel with some interesting world building. I really didn't like Rise, it finishes the story off and has some decent sections but the final reveal and quantity of retconning actually arrived to spoil the whole series slightly for me. Don't regret reading all 4 though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU4Z33YshcU
fantasychads?

I'm reading The Name of the Wind right now. It was okay for a while but I don't know if I can stay interested in the magic boarding school plotline. Just such an uninspired slop premise and I don't think I like Kvothe enough to read about him attending classes and shit. Was kind of hoping all the university talk at the start would be subverted rather than followed through on.

>>23596503
>reading a fantasy novel
>TERRORISTS

>>23596503
not watching

>>23596092
>Hard scifi
Man, I hate to break it to you, but cognitive and neuroscience have advanced a lot since it was published. I'm not saying that is as soft as, like, Star Wars, but believe it or not, the cognitive science angle isn't as cutting edge as it was back then (and it's slightly shifted against some of Watts' core theses). Things like the Icarus array and the quantum specs engine are very creative, but looks like we could build something more efficient and faster (!) than the Theseus in just a couple decades.

>>23595994
Stephen Baxter and Charles Stross seem like what he's looking for. You could start with Accelerando for Stross, and Baxter has authorized sequels for War of the Worlds and The Time Machine

>>23595041
THE COFFERS

>>23596566
>but cognitive and neuroscience have advanced a lot since it was published.
In what ways?

>>23596503
Why are all these
>TOP 10 WRITING ADVICEE
type videos always done by the douchiest looking assholes who are, at least to my own knowledge, NOT famous writers.

>>23596679
Because all the famous writers are getting paid big bucks to mumble into a mic for 10 minutes at cons in between shagging cosplays and doing coke

>>23596092
>>23596566
Depends on what you two fellas mean by "hard SF".

>>23596679
probably because the personality you need to have to be a good writer and the one you need to have to be a successful youtube clown are diametrically opposed

och I hadna read thi' series since I was a wee bairne think I'll give it a revisit

>>23596833
I just finished it. The only thing I regret is it's not complete, which makes me hate it

>>23596846
It's not that big of a deal, in fact it makes it better. Imagine if it was finished and the story complete, no matter how good the ending, people would have forgotten about it already. One other thing to consider is how many otherwise good novels actually have poorly written endings

>>23596525
He constantly gets pulled away from the class setting to do whacky bullshit, so if thats your only issue then youre good.

Have you gotten to the cuck monologue yet?

Ritual posters get the rope

23595095
23595984
23595986
23596092
23596833
Ritual posters get the rope

I enjoyed. I await the next audiobook.

the slog of slogs a metaphor for the slog of life

bakker truly is king

>>23596438
What’s the name of the cunnykino?

>mere moments away from first encounter
>flashback chapter about some whore nobody cares about
One of the worst chapters I've ever read, and I pray there's no more of her because everything before that was actually enjoyable.

>>23595041
How do I stop enjoying harem litrpg slop.

>>23596092
>Space vampires
>Hard Sci-fi

>>23595994
Vernor Vinge

>>23597547
Ilium/Olympos. tbf cunny is only a small, uncomfortable part of it. It's a pretty good book if you can get past the intellectual masturbation. That has always been Simmons's problem. He wants to tell grand, neatly connected narratives, but he also wants you to know that he has a degree in English literature.
>>23596568
Pre-retardation Stross is kinda comfy ngl
>>23596889
oh god please post the cuck monologue

>>23596525

>>23597671
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu6MaN9tT_8

how "writer's barely disguised fetish" is Sapkowski's tidbit on female elves in the Witcher ovulating when cumming from human men?

Why is Pat such a cuck, bros?
>https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2016/11/the-obligatory-election-blog/

>>23597686
What does any of that have to do with fantasy? Glad I skipped Wither.

>>23597718
He was explaining why Witcher elves got supplanted by humans in one world and why the Aen Elle elves wiped out the humans on another world

>>23597726
>a fantasy novel
>time period reflects those of middle ages or late middle ages
>characters use words introduced in 1700s, 1800s and even 1900s.

>>23597595
The space vampires are great and it's hilarious how many midwits get triggered by them.

Desolate Era sure is boring

>>23597767
>getting filtered by a fantasy novel because it wants to be readable to its target audience

>>23598095
NTA, but I wonder how much is making it readable and how much is because the author's fetish requires modern day knowledge

>>23598095
>fantasy novel
Not really. It's just some polish coomer fiction set in a fictional world with few fantasy elements. Like many such novels it's pretending to be something it's not.

>>23595325
new book cover

>>23598148
>polish coomer fiction
what's coomer about it besides the passage posted? I've never read it.

>>23598077
Drop it, read Eternal Sacred King instead.

>>23598177
Geralt is very low t, he never shows any kind of initiative, he is a submissive side character that just follows female mcs.

>>23598203
that explains the cuck porn SFM I saw of him watching Coach from L4D2 fuck Yennefer

>>23598227
>watches cuck porn
>blames Geralt

>>23598244
I was just searching rule 34 xxx for Yennefer and clicked a video that had Coach's face in the thumbnail

>>23598183
is it haremtrash

Reading dune currently and really loving it
Any good books like it?

>>23597767
Wait until you figure out that Nilfgaard and Kaedwen ally to divide Aedirn between each other and Keadwenians justify the event as "brotherly help" and "liberation of oppressed minorities" and it's actually completely okay to do since the state ceased to exist when Nilfgaard invaded.
Also Nilfgaard invades the north using army groups and they commanders give orders ripped straight from the German invasion of Poland in WWII.

>>23598364
sounds like Sapkowski likes his fantasy to be allegories of IRL stuff

Is it bad that I think the most plausible apocalypse in sci fi is not nukes or global warming, but the elites just using space ships to leave and taking all the people with expertise to maintain our tech with them?

>>23597186
>>23597194
Holy newfag

>>23597680
Literal cuck cope

>>23598393
The books were written by a Pole and for Poles, so they're made to be easily understood by that audience. It took a long while before they got translated into English.
I wonder if westerners even pick up on these things. For any Pole the usage of phrases like "brotherly help" is a dead giveaway for what the author is going for.

Redpill me on R A Lafferty, bros. Where do I start?

>>23598428
It's not bad, just retarded

Looks pretty good
Now do people feel about about first ace edition covers?

>>23598523
meant to quote
>>23598155

>>23598177
There isn't anything coomer about it, sure there's a lot of sex and teasing but it's never really focused on. People have sex, it's normal. Just because you have educated wizards and elves who both live for hundreds of years use scientific terms sometimes to describe genetics and societal behavior doesn't mean much.

>>23598527
>People have sex, it's normal
Speak for yourself, you nasty sex-haver

>>23598485
Why so? They're already attempting population downsizing and destroying our educational systems.

finished Darker Than Weird, another short story collection by John Fultz, after liking The Revelations of Zang collection (and Worlds Beyond Worlds somewhat) as recommended by a bro here a couple of months ago.
it is quite good. some fantasy and some scifi stories, horror tinged

>>23597588
His stupid fucking girlfriend? She dies eventually.

>>23597595
Space vampires but plausibly constructed with mostly existing or near-future tech, what's wrong with that? Every component of the creature already exists.

>>23598476
Fourth Mansions. I just finished Past Master earlier today and it's a bit more abstract.

>>23596111
Fucking garbage

>>23598307
I don't know what counts as harem in chinese xanxia. There is an awful lot of female characters (too many in my opinion) but mc only has one love interest not really a harem but still too many females. Apart from that the story and writing are pretty good

>>23598641
Yeah, her. You're told of her passing before she's even introduced which only makes you give even less of a fuck. Is there gonna be more of her and her dumbass butterfly tattoo that "flaps nervously"

>>23598725
Don't remember. Just skip past her bits, it's not like you'll be arrested if you don't thoroughly savor every word in a book.

>>23598738
The only reason I trudged through that muck was because I expected there to be some piece of information that would be important to the overall story later on. If that's not the case then I'll gladly skip them all.

Remeber these things?

>>23595994
Pandora’s star

>>23598337
The sequels, Foundation, Hyperion

>>23595994
Anything by Wolfe

i enjoyed twi so ive been reading litrpg slop for a few months. ive come to the conclusion that most of it is shit (surprise). wouldnt recommend anything below b tier. also my opinion is gospel and basically youre retarded

Read Tenebroum

>>23598889
you know what, ill do just that. im counting on this rec anon.

>>23598889
If you want to be the next meme book you need to spam your shit everywhere, not just once a thread

Bizarrely enough, this is one of the few books I've ever read where for 95% of the book I felt
>uugggggghhhhhh, this is terrible
and then at the finale everything comes together in a satisfying fashion that makes me think "huh, that was worth the read after all".
Don't trust the cover though, this isn't medieval fantasy at all, it's steampunk Napoleonic/Great Game fantasy with a shamelessly transparent version of 19th century Earth. It's half Horatio Hornblower, half The Wild Wild West.

>>23598889
Does it cost money?

>>23598916
kek

>>23598911
There is no need for that.

>>23598916
It's on royalroad

>>23598921
If something isn't available in physical I ain't reading

>>23598889
so far this is actually quite good. did you write this?

How do I know if a book written by a woman is readable by men or only for women?

>>23599058
Look at the cover.
Does it have a man on the cover? If yes, is he embracing another man romantically? If yes, then the book is gay as hell and not worth reading; all other scenarios are readable.
Does it have a woman on the cover? If yes, is she sexy? If no, then the book is feminist drivel and not worth reading; all other scenarios are readable.
Does it have a non-human creature or object on the cover such as a wolf or dragon or airplane or boat? If yes, is it embracing a woman romantically? If yes, it is shameless bestiality smut and not worth reading; all other scenarios are readable.
Does the cover not have any figurative art at all, just text or abstract geometry? If yes, the book is some philosophical twaddle or feminist drivel, and not worth reading. There are no scenarios where this will be readable.

I hope that helps clear things up for you.

How do you guys deal with book burnout? I finished Oathbringer a month or so ago and haven't felt the need to pick up any other book since. I REALLY want to get back into reading, but man, as good as that book was, it took me out.

>>23599135
I don't deal with it because i avoid bloated garbage. Oathbringer is not a good book, you don't want to continue the series because its dull Marvel nonsense.
Read the Curse of Chalion as a palate cleanser. Stay away from anything by Sanderson or Erikson.

>>23599135
Read Dawnshard then go for Rhythm of War

>>23599139
Well it's a good thing taste is subjective, anon.
>>23599142
That was the plan, but I might shelf it for a bit. At least until Stormlight 5 is closer to being released.

>>23599058
By reading it, chudrick

>>23599148
Are you caught up on other Cosmere books? If not the most relevant imo to read would be Warbreaker followed by Mistborn series. Warbreaker can be seen as a prequel of sorts to Stormlight.

>>23599156
I've finished Mistborn era 1, Warbreaker, Stormlight 1-3 and half of the Arcanum stuff. Saving Mistborn era 2 after Stormlight 5.

>>23599156
to add to this, the secret histories should be read after the mistborn trilogy, and before stormlight

>>23599158
Don't bother with mistborn era 2.

>>23599160
I'm gonna read it all eventually.

sandersonite CRETINS please go

>>23599163
Right but era 2 is worthless. It literally has nothing to offer. If mistborn era 3 ever comes out, then read era 2. But as it stands era 2 is not worth reading.

>>23599165
fuck off and go read your bakker- and xianxia shit
we're enjoying books here

speaking of enjoying books. the wheel if time is single handedly destroying my interest in fantasy as a genre. it's literally that one episode of family guy where brian world builds on adderal and then writes a boring book.

>>23599169
How far in are you?

>>23599174
book 4, chapter 35

>>23599179
>book 4
Well there's your problem. You're supposed to stop reading after book 1.

>>23599191
jej

>>23599179
I'd say finish the book and if you aren't feeling it by then drop it. Most people rate it as their favorite book but I didn't agree with that, though I still thought it was great.

>>23599135
I take a break from reading and watch youtube videos on history. At least that's what I did a few months ago.

>>23599213
i think it's the best so far, but like... the best of a bad situation is still not good.

>>23596768
>Depends on what you two fellas mean by "hard SF".
this is a good point. does hard sf have to be rooted in real science or extrapolated from it? if someone autistically comes up with made up principles and "science" while his story focuses on it as principal point would that classify it as hard sf?

>>23599224
I think hard sci fi necessarily must mean the latter. Because no sane person would think that the book that one theoretical physicist wrote based on fringe theoretical physics is anything other than hard sci fi.

>>23598748
I haven't read the Xanth series but it keeps popping out to my attention that I might consider checking it out. All I know is it's somewhat lewd and lighthearted. How it compares to Dickson's The Dragon and the George ? I found that series (well, book since I've only read the first book so far, two next ones are still waiting on my bookshelf) fine but somewhat lacking.

Recently found my old box of Dragonlance novels and reread the first book. I remember loving these when I was younger and reading it again as an adult was a somewhat enjoyable stroll down memory lane. It's certainly not the highest quality prose and it often reads a bit railroady (probably due to it's nature as a DnD book) but it was a pretty simple and fun enough read. Except that one dump part where Goldmoon and Riverwind stop the plot to give Caramon a lecture on abstinence. That was just... a bit much. Like I wasn't really reading this to see a chapter where to dude plows Tika over a mountain of dead Draconians but c'mon. You guys were being a lot better at keeping your shit out of this until then. Anyways I'll probably get to the other ones sooner or later. I'd like to at least get through the first trilogy again. Tanis needs to stop being a bitch.

>>23599045
Of course not

>>23599074
>Does it have a non-human creature or object on the cover such as a wolf or dragon or airplane or boat? If yes, is it embracing a woman romantically?
are there books where a woman gets fucked by an airplane/boat out there?

>>23599058
Is it Ursula le Guin?

>>23599169
>taking 4 books to realise this

>>23599169
>>23599179
Book 4 is pretty good but I can understand where you're coming from. Removing most of the women from the story would have improved it immensely. I'm on book 5 right now but whenever I start a chapter and see Egwene, Nynaeve and/or Elayne on the first page somewhere I put the book down and start the audiobook at 1.75 speed.

>>23599258
People told me it got better :(

>>23599268
It gets better. But then it gets worse. It's kind of all over the place frankly.

>>23599268
Unfortunately people are wrong

>>23599268
It starts kinda mid, gets progressively better up to book 6 and then starts getting worse with each book with the lowest point being book 10. After that the last four are amazing and just gives you payoff after payoff and makes the whole journey worth it.

>>23599279
god damn you

>>23595191
picked up the entire series in hardcover omnibus volumes. What am I in for?

I want to read WoT but every time I go to pick up a copy I see it's like 800 goddamn pages and I just lose any urge to break into it.

>>23599290
800 pages is like a normal book what

>>23599293
No. And also for the first part of a series? Also no. Lord of the Rings is like 1200 in it's entirety. 800 for a volume 1 is just a doorstop.

>>23599290
that's like a regular fantasy book these days
my Shadows Rising copy has 1250 pages while Fires of Heaven has 1000

>>23599301
I haven't read either but they sound bloated to high hell.

>>23599304
don't look up brandon sanderson

any recommendations for RR?

>>23599293
Only because everyone wants a doorstopper trilogy.

>>23599309
A lesson in motivation and focus

>>23599304
They are. You could remove entire BOOKS from WoT and miss nothing. Joke that Jordan got paid by the page exists for a reason.

>>23599310
I hate that shit. You cant find a good standalone fantasy novel anymore without it being spun off into a trilogy or outright series.

>>23599299
LotR walked so that the rest of fantasy could run. People expect more of the genre these days than just a basic bitch DnD session.

Someone should make an edit that cuts WoT down to a three books and one wife

>story is already slow as shit thanks to the hunt for black ajah interrupting the good stuff with Rand, Mat and Perrin
>supposedly it will get even fucking worse after book 6
I don't know if I'm gonna survive this bros...

>>23599310
I mean, from a publisher perspective it makes sense. You're taking a relatively large gamble putting a book out, might as well ensure that you recoup more of that investment by trying to get fans hype for more books from the same author, that way you're not having to get the hype cycle started up all over again and can pick up where you left off.

>tfw listened to the audiobook for the first book
>didn't know it was 800 pages
how, seriously how the fuck? nothing happens! the entire book is setup! 800 pages of fucking setup! HOW!

>>23599315
I've read some of his Conan stories. They were fine. I don't think he really GETS Conan but they were fine and it's clear the man CAN do short.

>>23599321
One book and three wives, take it or leave it.

>>23599336
it's a long series

>>23599342
For no other reason that it wastes its time.

>>23599320
The problem is they're not running. The strolling at best. LoTR was a singly long book but a lot of stuff was actually happening. This shit is just a fundamental lack of editing.

>>23599334
Funny you say that because Japanese approach with LNs has been a ton of smaller, shorter publications rather than few massive ones.

>>23599352
But we're not talking just about wheel of time now, EVERYTHING is that long these days. SoIaF? several books between 700-1000 pages. Stormlight? 1200 pages EACH. All authors want their own epic story that they'll be remembered by.

>>23599320
>People expect more of the genre these days than just a basic bitch DnD session.
I at least respect D&D fiction. It's always amusing to see the author transcribing game rules and spell effects into prose to tell a story.

>>23599352
yes but with lotr there's the whole "actual story structure doesn't match the trilogy format it was published as" which might impact the pacing and actual things happening

>>23599363
It's almost like you can have self contained stories within a larger work.

>>23599361
>1
>3
>2
>4
>5
You sicken me

>>23599365
Tolkien is an interesting case in that his stories were just something to fill the world with rather than the other way around. When you think about both the Hobbit and LotR were just two stories in a ridiculously fleshed out world with extensive history and languages of its own.

>>23599379
Sure, but all the same the world building never got in the way of the actual story. We learned about the world, characters myths and legends and it was like seeing the world as the characters did on their quest. He didn't pause the plot to pad out his page count.

>>23599379
But the key thing ti take away is that they are actually stories.

Are there still any BotNS autists in this thread? I've started rereading The Shadow of the Torturer and I'm nooticing lots of details that went over my head on my first read. One of the things I've been thinking about is when Sev meets Rudesind the old picture cleaner. Rudesind makes an off-hand comment that he believed Sev was for Vodalus, something that no character, and especially not some no name, should know at this time. If I recall correctly Rudesind later returns in connection with Father Inire, a known time traveller and old man. Could Rudesind simply be one of his disguises?

>>23599397
>Could Rudesind simply be one of his disguises?
Obviously, but that's not really important.

>>23599429
>but that's not really important
What do you mean by that?

>>23598878
>Carl in dnf
>primal hunter in b
Congrats, you have the worst taste in this thread, it's quite a feat

>>23599058
The only books written by a woman that I enjoyed was the sword of shadow series. Too bad it will never be finished and ofc theres a cuck plot, because femoids cant help themselves

>>23599455
Despite being one of le mastermind puppeteers behind le very event in the book, Father Inire is very much disconnected from the actual content and the plot. Every mention of him could be dropped from the entire series and not much would change. Hence me saying that it's not really important.

>>23599279
I just finished book 7, gotta say I was really disappointed by book 6 which was a slog and a half, while 7 pleasantly surprised me. I though 7-10 were the slog

>>23599262
You have severely misunderstood the series. You're supposed to read the female chapters and rage fap for 40 000 pages.

>>23599268
It does get better than it was.

What nobody ever told you is that it gets good.

>>23599268
Like all epic fantasy it gets better only because you're more invested in the world and the characters. It's a combination of sunken cost fallacy and the Stockholm syndrome.

>>23599279
>After that the last four are amazing
From The Gathering Storm and onwards I hated everything except the last chapter where Rand lights a flame with his new not-Source.

>>23599321
>and one wife
Sounds like shit

>>23599493
Agreed, 7 was really nice imo even though most people put it in the slog. 8 and 9 have their moments too but are generally very slow. The only one I actually had a problem with was 10.

>>23599502
>Like all epic fantasy
no...

>>23599502
nice spoiler bro

>>23599506
>xhe's a harem cuck

>>23599516
>multiple female partners
>cuck
huh?

>>23599512
Mention a single exception and it better not be fucking Malazan.

>>23599514
>muh spoilers
But actually, sorry. I honestly forgot not everyone read this shit as a teen 15 years go.

>>23599525
Legends of the Dragonrealm

My issues with WoT are as follows
>dry narrator
>weak character voice
>character development happens between scenes
>painfuly arbitrary pov swapping

>>23599529
>dry narrator
huh?

>>23599528
I have not read it so I cannot really comment but considering the author seems to be best known for writing Warcraft and Diablo novelizations I seriously doubt it.

>>23599542
Good story telling is good story telling. The problem with most epic fantasy is that it focuses more on the epic fantasy part and less on the telling a good fucking story part.

>>23599548
Yeah, everyone focuses on the big histories, the epic battles and the buckets of lore but at the end of the day they always forget that this shit started out quite mundanely. "In a hole in a ground lived a hobbit."

>>23595325
I am, started book three today and already preordered the new hardcover editions

>>23599519
>xi doesn't know

>>23599624
Only a weak man could be mogged by his harem, and a weak man wouldn't have a harem in the first place. I mean seriously, socializing with your harem as a group? What kind of man doesn't know that would be retarded? There is a reason emperors harems are housed away from the emperor.

>>23599633
History shows that harems are for weak men who need MORE to prove to themselves (in vain) they're not bitches. Imagine spending all your money on women, maintaining them, imprisoning them, guards for them, keeping suitors at bay, being forced to add another concubine because some general wants to get a favor from you, having them murder your children when you're out of town and generally being catty subhumans towards each other, you, and your empire.

>>23599640
bahahahahahhahahaha

>>23597680
He is such a cuck
And his writing sucks

>>23599529
>character development happens between scenes
This is just plain not true. At most this happens with rand at times and it's on purpose to highlight his growing insanity and how the people around see him with mistrust

>>23599698
His writing is good, that's why it's so infuriating that he's a cuck.

>>23599703
>this is just plain not true
>this happens with one of the main character
retard

>>23599624
if that were from a real harem story one of them would be under the table giving him a blowjob.

>>23599640
> a weak man wouldn't have a harem in the first place
1 in 12 people in Asia can trace their genetic ancestry to Genghis Khan and his harem.

How often do you buy a book?

>>23599815
I don't know what youre implying, anon. Are you saying ghengis was a weak man?

>>23599842
Only when absolutely necessary

>>23599842
I guess I get 6 or 7 books a year. Mostly wait for books to get translated to my language when I'm buying physical, which is quite slow

>>23599842
I've bought around 20-30 new books this year, and then I've picked up maybe 15-20 or so from thrift shops and yard sales. Those aren't necessarily stuff I'm planning to read right now but stuff I can see myself getting to some time down the line so might as well pick it up for cheap. I've read 40 books so far this year.

>>23599842
Whenever I find a good deal for a book I liked.

>>23599842
I used to buy them constantly and now I have more books than I could read in a lifetime at my relatively slow pace, but I'm still planning on taking a motorcycle ride to the next major town over early next week to see if I can find anything that looks good.

>>23599842
2-3 times a year. I usually buy about 10 books a year.

>>23598878
Thanks for the list, I'll give some of the top rated ones a read
I tried finding more good litRPG stories after getting into TWI too but all of them were absolute bottom of the barrel seld indungent garbage

It isn't as good as LOTM...And now Lumian became a girl

>>23600174
>g*rl
terrible

>>23599842
once per book

>>23599502
>spoiler
Sounds kino, is it a
>In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
type deal? Or is it a sanderson style non-phenomological type situation?

If it' the former I'm going to trudge through the series to get to it.

>>23600209
The actual quote from the final epilogue: "No way to light the tabac. He inspected it for a moment in the darkness, then thought of the pipe being lit. And it was."
And a couple lines later the text mentions him "smoking his impossible pipe"

The main theory seems to be that the scene implies - due to events at the end - that Rand has become so attuned to the pattern that he can manipulate it's threads through his will alone.

Read Godclads.

>>23599254
Yes. I can't remember exactly what it was called but it was either by Holly Lisle or Mercedes Lackey.

I read Patrick Son of Ireland finally. It's decent enough, and oddly enough a quick and easy read despite being 557 pages, but I think it's the weakest of the Stephen Lawhead books I've read, with the exception of the latter two Dragon King Trilogy novels. It doesn't hold up to the likes of Dream Thief, Song of Albion, or Byzantium. Or the first Dragon King novel.

>>23600260
The Dragon soul is the Demiurge, simple as.

>>23600260
Thank you for giving me the actual quote. It killed my desire to read on. I'm giving up, I quit.

Why is the prose so hostile? It's not even laconic, it's fucking barren.

>>23599074
So if a wolf or a dragon is embracing a man, that's good, got it

>>23600268
persuade me

>>23599483
dcc is 14 year old 'ow my balls' type humor.

>>23600268
i tried and the author just uses so many retarded buzzwords in the first few chapters without explaining shit.

>>23600317
Yes, because a wolf or a dragon next to a man always indicates a platonic friendship, since no author will ever satisfy the desires of male monsterfuckers, only women.

>>23600406
>the author just uses so many retarded buzzwords in the first few chapters
this but LOTR

Never seen anyone mention this author itt, what do we think of him?

You people and Gene Wolfe told me that Mask of the Sorcerer is good. It's not good. What gives?

>>23599074
If a book has a fag or a female on the cover then it's not worth reading.
Simple as.

>>23600556
Tigana is a classic rec, lurk more

>>23600565
I have a life :(

>>23600561
but females are cute.

>>23600558
it is good

>>23599288
mid books that usualy have great endings.
the concept and the worlds are also preaty unique

For their time they are preaty great (better than most other old series) , I don't know why they are not more popular.

>>23600556
I've only read the Fionavar Tapestry (of which that is the first book) and it was a little bit underwhelming based on the presumed premise - that of a portal fantasy from modern day college grads to a medieval fantasy world - which is practically dropped as soon as they're in not!Middle-Earth. As far as LOTR ripoffs go however, it's rather better than Mithgar/The Iron Tower by Dennis L. McKiernan.

Name the most obscure good sci-fi book you know.

>>23600699
>obscure
>good
I only read popular good books. Obscure books are obscure for a reason (because they are garbage).

>>23600000

>>23600268
i suppose it’s a faint hope that the author’s read at least a poem of Lovecraft?

>>23600757
This. Nobody here actually reads for sake of pleasure and discovering new ideas and thoughts. It's all normalfag-approved bestsellers with zero creativity, or nothing.

>>23600699
>>23600757
>>23600779
Hell Divers by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

>>23600810
I stopped reading this a long time ago around the point in the story where the young lad finds his own you know what with a you know what to find you know who. Does it get better or worse from there? I might pick it back up.

>>23595201
Are the Brian Herbert books worth reading? I've seen people shitting on them for not being as philosophical and such but the main draw to Dune for me is the setting.

>>23600570
Use the archive. It only takes seconds to search.

>>23600844
That's still book one, right? It gets better. The first three books are genuinely good as a whole. The ending of book one is particularly amazing, but the series putters out in book four. That's where I stopped reading.

Did you read the extinction series?

>>23600900
It has nothing to do with philosophy, the brian books are just terribly written.

>>23600905
It also takes seconds to post, and archives don't give me (You)'s

>>23600810
How pozzed?

>>23600779
Obscure books have no new ideas or thoughts, if they had people would read and they wouldn't be obscure anymore.

>>23595095
It's hard to say, every reader seems to have their own favorite books/arcs and with different slog points too. In general the series let's up on the military fiction after HoC with much more expository philosophy prose and I happen to like Erikson's themes and style for that which has carried me through book 8 now. I wouldn't force it just for plot though, especially if 2+3 were underwhelming. I'd say finish HoC for sure for the cool Karsa stuff and a conclusion to the Rarakuu arc then drop or take a break. Book 5 is set in a whole new place and people's which will probably filter you at this point but I loved it, again for the writing as it's like King Lear with dark elves and a curse with themes of slavery, debt, shadow, familial obligation. Book 6 is back to the Malazans and relatively action heavy and Karsa continues to be a prominent story and whose who/important ought be pretty evident and easier by then

>>23600699
absolute sci fi kino under 200 pages

>>23601008
I've just finished reading part 3 of HoC and pretty soon after I wrote that post the book started turning around for me. The Karsa chapters have been great and he's probably my favorite character now. There's also been a lot of mystery, lore and worldbuilding which I've really enjoyed.

I pretty much zone out every time there's a chapter about the marching Malazan army with Tavore/Fiddler/Gamet but around the halfway point of the book every other character and plotline got really interesting, so for now I'm hooked back in. Nice to hear that the military stuff lets up after this one too. There was really heavy focus on that in both DHG and MoI which is probably why they didn't work as well for me.

I'll have to see by the 5th how I do with a whole new setting and another cast of characters but that was never really the problem for me with DHG, so I'm staying cautiously optimistic for book 5. Heard a lot of people say it's their favorite.

>>23600980
This. It's a good thing that the top 10 most popular books in any genre contain the sum total of the depth of human experience and imagination.

>>23600980
>>23601075
While there may indeed be great novels obscured by time, the sad truth is that like today, most of what was the top of any decade was slop. The good stuff was, and is, often overlooked.

>>23600914
I don't think so, I recall that being like book two or three when the new crew lands in some swamp or something like that. I've never heard of the Extinction series.

>>23600810
>The New York Times and USA Today bestselling series
My mistake for actually searching. You got me.

>>23601104
I read this book a few years ago and can't remember a thing about it.

For a book with a homosexual main character, there wasn't nearly as much faggotry as I expected.

>>23601195
For as popular as it was at the time, The Beetle is assembly line slop, checking every cliche from the era. For a novel with a similar villain, She by H. Rider Haggard is leagues better for what it is, though I'm sure most anons who can stomach Victorian fantasy adventure stories have read it already.

>>23601197

>>23601227
I've been meaning to read She ever since I learnt it was one of Tolkien's favourites but somehow I keep forgetting about it.
>tfw suffered through Lair of the White Worm instead of reading The Worm Ouroboros (another T favourite) because I'm retarded and mixed them up

>>23601250
The Lair of the White Worm movie is actually pretty fun if you like schlocky b-movies.

>ASOIAF condensed in 150 pages
Kinda based, the prose was great too

>>23601197
Sounds like pandering faggotry. He's probably terrified of being called a homophobe like this helps any. You can suck cock in broad daylight and still be called homophobic for not having sucked two instead.

>>23601291
It really wasn't.

>>23601292

>>23601197
What the fuck happened to /our/lad joe? He used to be based

>>23601054
FWIW, you won't get much Karsa in book 5 but he's in every book after that. And yeah, book 5 is really fucking good, I found it pretty slow and hard to get into right up until a certain point (you'll know exactly when), then it's nothing but gas for the next like 70%

>>23601376
You don't like girlbosses jammed into everything now?

Define girlboss jammed into everything

>>23601425
I was ok with Monza and Shy, but good god do i hate Savine and the 2nd trilogy because of her. An absolute cunt that made everything worse and got away with it, what the fuck was that faggot thinking when he wrote her worst part is everyone ignores her while shitting on leo.

>>23600556
>guy gavriel gay

>>23601376
>reddit author writes reddit book
Why are you shocked?

>>23601434
Lol that video looks retarded. 50% mma 50% dance off.

>>23601467
Abercrombie used to post on 4chan lol, own your children

>>23601291
I find Crowley funny because he's a completely standard genre writer but because he's so good he gets classified as literary fiction

>>23601499
You haven't read much Crowley.

>>23600699
The Eighty-Minute Hour by Brian Aldiss

>>23601292
You are pandering faggotry yourself, you aids infested faggot, kys.

>>23600174
>girl
terrific

>>23601434
Anything involving women that doesn't get my dick hard

>>23601640
Meds

>>23600699
The Quiet Earth

>>23601494
>redditors have never posted on 4chan

>>23599058
Leigh Brackett?

>>23599074
Close enough desu

>>23600699
Fugue for a Darkening Island by Christopher Priest

>>23601445
>spoiler
The general consensus I've seen is that pretty much everyone loves Leo and is indifferent to or hates Savine. And if you hadn't realized it by the 10th book in the series, it never rewarded good characters and pretty much always showed bad people getting ahead.

Are there any modern sf or fantasy books of a comparable quality to Wolfe's?

>>23601197
> a homosexual main character
Stopped reading there. Hard pass.

Need an sffg book with a manly gay MC who goes on adventures with a twink.

I've only read Fellowship of the Ring once when I was like 12 and I will never read the rest of it. There's just too much good new stuff and I can't be bothered reading these old dry overrated books. I appreciate what it did for the genre but Tolkien simply paved the way for the better things that came after.

>>23602365
Newer books are crap and you're an idiot.

>>23602365
t.anon (13)

>>23602366
Why would I read boring old Tolkien with pages upon pages of meaningless drivel that adds nothing to the basic trope-filled story when I can read amazing stories that push the imagination from the greats of our time like Sanderson, Abercrombie, Lynch, Brown, Rothfuss, Lawrence etc?

>>23602374
I'm 31

>>23602365
name 1 (one) "good new stuff"

>>23602389
You're good new stuff, anon. I love you.

>>23602407
a-anon

>>23602365
>>23602389
>>23602407
>>23602413

>>23602365
Don't worry, there's still plenty of time left to grow up and acquire some taste

>>23602462
I like to rearead it every wear. Then I watch the movies. Both animated and live action. And then I read the silmarillion.

>>23602512
literal brainrot

>>23602527
Here's something more your speed

>>23602198
Not a single female character has gotten her comeuppance since best served cold, except that poison girl apprentice. Every one of them has had a good ending.

>>23602623
Anon, why are you so bothered about female characters coming out on top? Are you a misogynist?

>>23602663
yes

>>23602686
here's something more up your alley then

>>23602663
>here's a clear issue that plagues these books and makes them worse
>ummm chud why do you even care
Fuck off

>>23602695
what exactly is the issue? that a woman won in the end?

>>23602697
Read what i wrote and find out dipshit

>>23602703
You sure know how to support your argument.

>>23602703
I did and you're just seething that woman didn't get bad ending.

>>23602708
I do, while you clearly didn't present any counter argument besides why do you care, hence once again, fuck off

>>23602717
your argument is simply that you can't stand the woman character you don't like not getting punished in the end

>>23602709
Women always get good endings, men get bad endings (they sacrifice themselves to save the women) so why not seethe?

>>23602746
There's a clear difference between a single female character and every female character getting a good ending in a series that regularly punishes its characters.

>>23602210
Too Like the Lightning

>>23602758
>Women always get good endings, men get bad endings (they sacrifice themselves to save the women)
Just like in real life.

>>23595325
Don't gaslight me, Jesus.

>annas-archive is down

>>23603367
works on my machine

>>23603367
>>23603371
Same, just refresh and try again anon.

>>23603367
https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/annas-archive.org?proto=https

>annas-archive is working again

>>23603489
>>23603489
>>23603489
New!

>>23603359
My sides were gone in that moment

>>23602709
Stop trannyposting, simp