/lit/ - Literature

>>23731067
Is it kino?

>start Path of Daggers
>chapter 1: walking
>chapter 2: more walking, Moridin looks at people, Gholam looks at people and Moridin
>chapter 3: again walking
>chapter 4: literally nothing
>chapter 5: the macguffin they were hunting for 3 books is finally used
What the hell? The slog hits like a fucking truck.
At least the bowl bullshit is over and done with and they can actually help my boy Rand for once instead of making his life even harder.

>>23731069
Yes. The character interactions are good bottom of the ocean is a comfy setting. Dr. Scanlon is the best character. I've heard the sequels are crap, but I haven't read them so don't take my word on that.

>>23731191
I gave up reading wheel of time after book 5 when I heard that fans considered book 4 the peak of the series. Book 4 is good, just good. From book 6 I just listened to the audiobook while I cooked or had a long drive. I cannot believe people praise this series so much.

>>23731069
underwater horror is what it is

>>23730339
>I almost lost hope in Forgotten Realms, everything other than Drizzt I've read so far has been painfully bad.
Just like every proper that gets a lot of fiction most is mediocre and you get couple of hits. I personally liked the Cleric novels, but everything D&D is basically "how do we adapt and translate game shit into prose?" so much so it's entertaining to see authors fluffing up spells and shit.

>>23731398
I really like Rand and Mat. They're what's keeping me in. Seems like the best stuff in the series is whatever is directly tied to Rand, with the rest being either whatever or bloat.

You have the motherfucking savior of the world who hears voices, goes insane, gets tortured and shit on and despite that still doing his best because the fate of the world rests on his shoulders. And then the next book you have Elayne sorting through garbage, bickering with old hags over pointless shit and generally just doing nothing, because every single plot line she's involved in turns out to be a waste of time.

The bowl of winds arc could have been resolved in like 5 chapters with how little the problem needed to get solved.

>>23731398
90s fantasy is pretty weird because if you weren't there and have grown up reading other stuff there's a big chance that it just will not click for you

>endlords is still not out
god damn it, i keep picking up these series that will never be finished

>>23731796
serves you right for reading a writer who actually does research

>>23731069
it was more watts after blindsight. pretty okay.
>>23731498
havnt read those but how do you mess up magic in writing. you can literally make up any of it. I suppose writing for a specific dnd setting cripples your creativity then. i mean vance just made shit up and then it got made into a dnd system. it was whimsical.

>>23731067
>science fiction writers want to talk about autistic subjects
>the more autistic the more interesting
>but the more autistic the author, the worse the characters will be

How do you solve this?

>>23731863
you're not gonna like the answer female writers

>>23731863
Bring Jack Vance back to life.

Any books about wandering through abandoned/desolate cities/megapolises/megastructures? Post-apocalipsis, sci-fi, fantasy.

>>23731867
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

>>23731529

I'm about 4 books in just about to start The Shadow Rising. I enjoyed the first three a lot the third especially which felt like the grand finale to a really long prologue because everything was sort of starting to fit into its place and make sense a little. I think Rand and Mat's chapters are the highlights of the series so far, and they are the best out of the Two Rivers lot Perrin can be cool but he's kind of boring I actually didn't mind the White Tower plot in The Dragon Reborn but Jordan bringing up "Nynaeve tugged her braids" every now and then almost made me want to hurl the book across the room in frustration. I sometimes forget Elayne is even important because she doesn't feel like she has much presence.

Is Bakker alive or what?

>>23732036
I sincerely apologize if this comes off as condescending in any way. The subject of Nynaeve tugging her braids is something really interesting to me. I read a lot of Japanese literature (not weebshit, don't get caught up on that) and it's really striking to me how they just do not care about repetition at all there. They even may consider it good writing to have this manner of repetitious through line. Quite shockingly, they can even like, start 10 paragraphs/sentences with the same word and a Japanese reader will barely take note of it, even if like in English that would be seen as the worst shit ever, unedited text, the work of a hack, etc.

Therefore, it always nags at my mind: why the hell does stuff like braid tugging annoy western readers? I, myself, don't understand it at all. I also notice the repetition. But I have no perception that it is poor or annoying. A character has a physical tic which she repeats a lot. It's like, I don't know, me scratching my cheek a few times every day. If I were to accurately record my life it would have repetitious descriptions of similar actions. I have no idea why, when reading literature, I would see something like that and not completely gloss over it. I don't know why I wouldn't just think of it as realistic, if I thought of it as notable at all.

And this is to say I just really, really don't understand why English readers hate this stuff so much. Almost every wheel of time reader mentions it. I wouldn't and don't. It means nothing to me. But there is just something about English and English culture that makes it a huge problem, and I don't get it. Why is it? Why do you feel this way? Do you think that, if you sat down, thought about it, and worked through your feelings, you may not end emerging thinking that actually it's silly to think poorly of braid tugging? It seems hard to come up with a rational reason for disliking it. I think after careful thought one would end up needing to think: "Okay, it annoys me, but for reasons beyond my control, like the culture I was raised in, and although I intellectually respect it, I can't help but feel annoyance. However, since this annoyance is not my own, I will look down upon it and not mention it."

>>>23730339
>>>23730590
>first two trilogies
You mean Moonshaes and The Avatar trilogies? those were pretty rough, Forgotten Realms fiction gets good around the early 90s or so. Azure Bounds (and sequels) are considered one of the best early Forgotten Realms novels so you are in good hands
>>23731498
Danica my beloved

Do you think the end of the Cold War is a significant enough event to cause a schism in the Magical world?

>>23732222
I haven't read the series, but I wonder if it could be that some people notice this kind of stuff because they saw comments on it before actually reading the books and then it keeps popping out to them and they end up mentioning it after they finish reading.

>>23732222
it's an american thing, don't put all english speaking people in the same box.

>>23732222
>why doe Braid tugging annoy western readers
If braid tugging means literally 'pulling on ones braids', I don't even know why you would do it.
Otherwise, I've never heard of it.

>>23732292
Not really sure what you mean by this, if it's a real world setting the cold war itself would surely be the schism.

>>23732361
No, in this setting, the end of the cold war breaks the stranglehold of the western wizarding community. People begin to see an opportunity to move away from it, as they do in the east. But as The Russian Sphere of influence is not the focus of the story, their wizards are not my concern.
In essence, as happened post cold war in our world, many things that held parts of society together (fear of Russian/US aggression, for example) stop existing for wizards as well as us.

>>23731067
Every time I revisit LOTR I realize just how high a bar Tolkien set for fantasy. The stakes, hope, despair, lore, symbolism, actually good multi-POV, mythology... Such a good story.

Unironically, is there any fantasy that actually matches the scope of this story? Not asking for le autistic worldbuilding just a good, compelling epic that stays on track and doesn't get lost in the weeds of subplots.

>>23732380
Forget Tolkien.
I wish I could capture 1/100th of what some of the final stands Jackson depicted in the movies on the page. To die gallantly, for a good cause, is something that people should remember has import.

>>23732222
It didn't annoy me that much, desu. It was repetitive, yes, but it didn't break the story, either. At least not for me.

>>23732380
Second Apocalypse has a higher scope in that people's immortal souls are at stake rather than just the world, but it is very much anti-Tolkien in tone, maybe the most so.

>>23732385
I recently watched Return of the King, which is why I returned to LOTR and I agree. One of my favorite movies ever and there's nothing like that nowadays. Now everything is soaked in muh irony, muh quips and muh meta fourth wall bs.

>>23732405
The problem is, ironically, is that they think they are better and smarter...and that their mythology is, most likely, Harry Potter.

>>23732263
I stared with the Drizzt prequel trilogy and Iceiwnd Dale which were all really great so I had high hopes. Then I read Moonshaes. Though I'd like that one because I'm into Druids but it was just boring. Then I read Shandril Saga and the less I say about that the better. Azure Bonds feels like a much more focused story while the other two were all over the place. I hate when FR tries to be epic fantasy with kings and world ending threats when really it should just be about a small party of adventurers killing dragons.

>>23732396
Shit. Am I gonna end up reading Bakker? The only thing putting off from it is all the rape that anons keep talking about. Though, I dunno if they do it for the memes or if Bakker really went all out with the rape.

>>23732380
The second apocalypse, nothing else compares in terms of prose, scope, thematic depth

>>23732417
No, the rape is really front and center. Very anti-Tolkien tone, as I said.

>>23732405
>Now everything is soaked in muh irony, muh quips and muh meta fourth wall bs.
watch The Green Knight, not as good as ROTK but still a very beautiful film, probably one of my favourite arthurian films (first being John Boorman's Excalibur of course) and yes Dev Patel's look nothing like Gawain but his acting skills make up for it

>>23732432
>The Green Knight
Is it based on the legend?
Or is it something else?
I feel like the Green Knight is a story that should be taught more often, as virtue is rewarded, even in the face of death.

>>23732422
yes it's
>gay rape
>BLACK SEED
>i'm muad'dib the incel rapist
>what if conan...was a gay rapist?
>RAPISTS FROM OUTER SPACE
>brown women getting bleached
>underwhelming fight scenes
and then
>characters philosophizing about our immortal souls

>>23732263
Blades of the Moonsea is pretty good.

>>23732437
>Is it based on the legend?
It's based on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
>I feel like the Green Knight is a story that should be taught more often, as virtue is rewarded, even in the face of death.
This was the exact reason why i was VERY skeptical about a film adaptation, a modern hollywood adaptation of a story about honor? but thankfully i was wrong, the film obviously takes some liberties but nothing major.

>>23732353
it's the equivalent of "stroking your chin" or something, isn't it? imagine if you were reading a novel and characters had to literally stroke their chins every time they were thinking about something. I'd throw the book in the trash after about fifteen minutes

>>23732444
Don't forget the food that makes you rape people to death.

>>23731894
The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara

>>23732444
Half the continent's biomass is rape goblins.

>>23732465
Okay.
I don't really understand why you would pull on a braid, but I'm not black so I don't freak out if someone touches their Nordic/Gaulic/African hairstyle in a weird way.

Story recs for (non-historical) civil wars and brother against brother wars?
>>23732462
When was it made? Because if it's after 2016, where the hedonistic era of fiction really kicked off, it'd be surprising if Gawain wasn't a black woman who got the Green Knight to apologize for slavery or something.

>>23732444
Sounds based

>>23732413
>Shandril Saga
oof, i'm grateful for Greenwood because he created the realms but he's NOT a good writer i advise to stay away from him, his only good book is Cormyr: a novel and that's just because he only did the plot points and Jeff Grup was the one one who actually wrote it.
Try something like Year of Rogue Dragons, Elfshadow, Starlight & Shadows.
>>23732445
Yes it was, i really like when authors use lesser-known classes for their protagonists

>>23732489
>When was it made?
2021 and as i said Gawain is played by Dev Patel who isn't white but that's about it.

>>23732514
That sounds like an Indian name.
For all the retardation that comes out of India (not having enough outhouses to shit in, since apparently toilets are too expensive), they aren't leftist faggots.

>>23732422
well Tollers has some raep too, it's just offstage. The bandits are planning something with some girl in Children of Hurin, and orcs give Elrond's wife so much BOC in the Misty Mountains that she ends up sailing west.

>>23732489
>it'd be surprising if Gawain wasn't a black woman who got the Green Knight to apologize for slavery or something.
When has this ever actually happened? Usually its white women Hollywood props up when they ruin franchises.

>>23732405
>muh quips
it was unironically lotr quips that started the quip era is the late 00's marvel movies.
Just as Resident Evil 4 began a dark era of horror and pale imitations.

>>23732706
Doesn't really matter.
The only reason why they don't put more black women in things is because the cheapest worker with talent is that one black woman with the bulging eyes they put in the modern Jedi series of vidya.

>>23732716
No. Scream was.

>>23732478
Nothing will top Elfstones

>>23731067
I am thinking about reading this trilogy. What will I think about it?

>BANE?

>>23732036
Mat is just starting out at that point, he just gets better over time. Remember that he gave Gawyn a permanent brain damage during that fight in Tar Valon, this is the only way to explain his decisions in the future.
Rand's development over time is actually fucking amazing. I'm not sure I've seen a character that tormented before, it's great. At book 7 there is literally noting left of that small and scared farmer from Two Rivers.

It's hard for me to get engaged with Elayne, Egwene and Nynaeve because their entire role is just searching for macguffins to pad the story. They come back from Tanchico after dealing with one, they sit on their ass for a while and then they go "shit what do we do now, we need another time wasting plot or else the series might finish in 2 books", so they find another macguffin to chase after. I know Rand is the MC, but these girls are getting completely fucking shafted.

>>23732353
Nynaeve in WoT has a weird tick where she tugs on her braid every time she gets angry, and her entire character is just an unending stream of anger and frustration, so this happens all the time.
I can't imagine it not looking strange in my head.

>>23732824
Nynaeve has a comeback that makes you appreciate her character. Egwene is a motherfucker to the bitter end.

>>23732841
>and her entire character is just an unending stream of anger and frustration
h-hot...

>>23732036
There are like entire books worth of braid tugging later on in the series.

Is library genesis finally dead?

>>23733034
good one, made me check

Say what you want about cultivation slopa, but romance fantasy enjoyers deserve to be ensconced in an even lower region of literary hell.

>>23733043
What? You are able to access? Fuck my thirdie shithole govt which blocks sites randomly

>>23733034
definitely 502-ing here

>>23732222
If not used in a deliberate fashion repetition is senseless and grating. When used carelessly repetition is frustrating for the reader. Saying the same thing over and over again is wasting the reader's time. Readers find repetition frustrating. Authors shouldn't repeat themselves lest they frustrate the reader. Repetition is irritating.

>>23731069
Definitely. Anything by Watts is kino, I think Blindsight is better but Starfish is still great. Love his ideas and writing, has to be the best active SF author no?

>>23733034
>>23733043
>>23733094
>>23733165
libgen.is also 502ing for me. libgen.li is fine. Anyone have the whole mirror list?

>>23733216
Just noticed that .li does list some

>>23733216
>.rs .is .st
>The original domains
>Not for profit. They accept donations on an 'as needed' basis, and run no ads.

>.fun
>New non-profit mirror created by original creator of Library Genesis who lost direct control of the project as a result of disagreements over profiteering.
>They are are currently collecting donations and do not have ads.

>.li .gs .vg .pm
>Operates using AdWords and donations. They collect donations all year.
>The ads they use links you to pretty suspicious adware type software installs, but the site itself is safe.
>Has a marginally larger database then the main domains as they add their own books.

>>23733225
Thanks anon!
Looks like all 3 of
>.rs .is .st
are down unfortunately. Also
>.fun
Seems like slightly shittier searching w/ adware libgen is the only option :(
I refuse to use Anna's Archive because it's either owned by a woman or a tranny.

>>23733192
Your post did not irritate me.

Why is it senseless and grating? Can you explain/justify that? Seriously. Let's say Nyvaene tugs her hair twice in two paragraphs. Who gives a shit? That just means she tugs her hair twice in that period of time. Why is it senseless? Why would it grate me? Why would it waste my time? Why would it frustrate me? Something happened twice. The same words were used to describe it. That's that. Where do any of these emotions come from? Is any value genuinely added by stating the same thing in different words just to avoid triggering people? Oh, this time she tugged her braid, this time she pulled her hair, this time she jerked her ponytail, blah blah? I don't think so. And that can only go so far. Are you saying no character should exist that does a repetitious action because you arbitrarily get annoyed? A girl can't tug her braid often? She can only do it once per book, or as many times as synonyms allow?

>>23733235

>>23732813
>What will I think about it?
you will think that Darth Zannah is a hot psycho blonde bitch with a big ass

>>23733265
I fucking warned you about sea lions, bro.

Z-library is messaging me and asking to redeeeeem a Google play voucher into their account, because they're apparently going to become a paid service with some FOMO bullshit model. That's clearly a scam, right?

>>23731529
I was quite surprised by how quickly I found myself interested in Rand after that first book. Really cool "chosen one" type if character

>>23731894
>inb4 blame

Any dark fantasies with lot of sexual violence? Asking for myself haha

>>23733418
bakker
see >>23732444

>>23732164
He is posting.

Lazy bum.

>always thought Blade Runner was a masterpiece
>finally get round to reading Electric Sheep
>re-watch Blade Runner
>realize it's actually awful

>>23732841
So she's autistic and she stims off of her braid?

>>23733559
many such cases (among book adaptations)

>>23733597
HOWEVER

>>23733605
Is king still seething about how inferior his work was in comparison

>>23732976
She is also one of the strongest (female) magic users in the setting, but can only use it when she's pissed

>>23732716
I'm not saying quips per say are bad. It's one thing to have a few quips here and there between buddies, that's true to life. LOTR did it just fine. I'm talking about almost every second being riddled with
>...uhm, awkward?!
>that was weird, casanova. *smirks*
>did I just see that?
>it's just like a superhero movie! *looks at camera*

>>23732554
Built for BOC.

>>23732964
This. Nynaeve won my heart in the end. My hate never wavered for Egwene.

>>23732716
>it was unironically lotr quips that started the quip era
I've never heard this take before. What do you mean by that?

Give me your most misogynistic fantasy series.

>>23733829
If its written by a woman there is a 100% it will have rape. Is rape misogynistic?

>>23733862
only if the woman doesn't enjoy it

>>23732222
One is a literary technique used plenty in western stuff, the other is just the author being lazy. "I need to show shes upset, I'll use this shorthand for the 40th time".

The braid tugging is not being used rhetorically, for emphasis, its being used because the writer can't think of a more interesting way of showing something than a turn of phrase he has already used.

The reason its annoying is because its needless repetition outside of its niche, which is for emphasis, or to evoke something strongly.

>>23733893
If you think about what you're saying, you should notice the holes in logic.

Fact 1: There are people with behavioral tics they perform a lot (be it scratching their cheek, bobbing their knee, averting their eyes, or indeed tugging their braids)
Fact 2: In an accurate depiction of the life of a person with behavior tic, this action will be described often
Corollary: Instances can be cut at an authors will, but each cut is less accurate to the person's lived life, e.g. cutting out all the times someone bobs the knees or scratches their cheek until they do it so rarely that it is no longer a behavioral tic.

>the other is just the author being lazy
Not true; assumption. A skilled, purposeful can describe a repeating action in clear language without simply employing a literary technique.

>I'll use this shorthand for the 40th time".
It's not shorthand, it's a description of an action that is occurring.

>The braid tugging is not being used rhetorically, for emphasis,
Irrelevant; repetitive actions do not exclusively have value if they are being used rhetorically or for emphasis. There is value to them occurring (as per the intentions of the art) without being locked to whatever literary technique you choose to approve of.

>its being used because the writer can't think of a more interesting way of showing something than a turn of phrase he has already used.
Baseless assumption; accurately describing a repetitive action taken by a person (this being fiction or nonfiction) does not fundamentally indicate an author could think of no other description.

>The reason its annoying is because its needless repetition outside of its niche, which is for emphasis, or to evoke something strongly.
Shallow thinking; it does not need to have a niche, and it is incredibly reductive to say repetition is only useful for emphasis or evoking something strongly.


Keep in mind your logic would need to be airtight enough to, for example, completely overturn Japanese literature. Your logic would need to be strong enough that you can pull a Japanese author aside and say to their face that they are being lazy and writing purely because they can't think of anything else. (No, repetition in Japanese is not exclusive to emphasis or whatever other literary technique you conjure; it is everywhere and used all the time for various purposes, like most aspects of language).

The alien franchise of movies since Aliens (1986] has been mixed at best. There are some fantastic ideas floating around in what are unsatisfactory sequels but they were executed poorly.

What are the alien novels like? Have any of you guys read any of them?

>>23732222
There are thousands of ways to get the emotion behind 'braid tugging' across to the reader. The repetition is a sign that the writer is being a lazy, unimaginative asshole. Any person who either enjoys or is not bothered by the repetition can be safely disregarded as a retard with shit taste.

A character tic is not an excuse for you to deploy it regularly with no variety.

>>23734006
You are falling at the very first step of logic. You have failed to point out why it is bad to be repetitive, you just use circular reasoning to call it bad. "X is good. Y is bad. Ergo, Y is bad." No actual reasoning is occurring here, though given your superlative dismissal at the end I don't imagine you are very invested in being thoughtful.

Consider that from the very start you're being reductive and assuming an author is mentioning an action just to convey an emotion, as if all of writing and all of literature and all of art can be reduced to "think of ways to depict abstract thoughts and emotions." It could be that a character (or in the case of non-fiction a person), is simply performing an action, and the author is recording that action. This is the most basic level of writing - a simple recording of events as they occurred. You will have to think more seriously for why this is a bad thing than to simply beg the question.

>>23733893
Braid tugging is subtly important to the character. Nynaeve does it because she can't channel when she's not angry. Nynaeve spends the entire time she's in Tanchico and Ebou Dar terrified out of her mind.
Her braid tugging isn't simply something she does unconsciously, it's something she does when she's trying to work herself into a temper, so she can channel. She mostly stops doing it once she breaks through her block and no longer needs to intentionally work herself up to defend herself.
Nynaeve's attitude makes more sense when you realize she spends half the series intentionally trying to make herself angry so that she can use the power, which she feels the need to do all the time, because she feels like she's way out of her depth and she's constantly scared.

This is why her character shifts so dramatically later on, when she no longer has to do that and immediately mellows out.

>>23734080
>Braid tugging is subtly important to the character
It isn't. Being mad but not able to express it properly is important to the character. That and having a temper. That is often expressed through braid tugging. Too often for some people, such that it loses any interest as a description.

It is trying to be subtextual (showing rather than telling) but is used with such frequency that this effect is totally nullified. Its just telling. Its why people who notice it enough don't enjoy it.

There is also the point that braid tugging is an awkward turn of phrase. Its not a commonly used one in other fantasy stories, nor is a common thing for people to do as a tick when they're annoyed.

>>23734051
>watches one Jay Dyer stream
Swallow a bullet, you little faggot. To read is to engage with another intellect. When an author repeats themselves over and over, it shows they don't possess the tools necessary to build something that surpasses a threshold of understanding and ingenuity sought by the reader. Why is that bad? Because I don't want to spend time with someone I consider to be a dumbfuck for 12 books. I know this must be tough for you to grasp, considering you have to be around yourself all day, but that is the reality of the situation, and no amount of 'philosophizing' is going to change how the thing in question is experienced. This is especially true when your cockamamie attempt to disregard my position due to circularity applies equally to yourself.

What are the best space horror books?

>>23734080
>Braid tugging is subtly important to the character

>>23733989
>What are the alien novels like?
dunno
>Have any of you guys read any of them?
i haven't

>>23734153
I have not seen any Jay Dyer streams.

>When an author repeats themselves over and over, it shows they don't possess the tools necessary to build something that surpasses a threshold of understanding and ingenuity sought by the reader.

No, it does not. You may say it doesn't fit an arbitrary criteria you put forward. If I were to put it in a polemic way in your style, it would mean you're a retarded baby who needs jangling keys and bright colors to stay entertained, but repetitive language is so boooooorriiing!!!! You are evaluating art on the level of a child, and indeed, I would not deny the experiences your child-like brain is giving you, but I will call it retarded - something you have failed to disproven. Once again you have provided circular logic. How, exactly, does an author choosing to use repetitive language show they do not possess tools to write another way? It is a purposeful choice. And even if they did not have such capabilities, it would be a leap to say a lack of creative writing makes someone a dumbfuck. It stands to reason that intelligence is not equivalent to making sure to introduce an arbitrary amount of variety to satisfy readers with sticks up their asses.

>>23733559
The book and the movie are both good, but not if you are expecting even vaguely the same story

>>23734224
ya it's like expecting roadside picnic and stalker to be similar

>>23733210
Is he still "active"? I thought he hadn't written anything since Echopraxia

>>23733989
The AvP ones are fun pulpy schlock. The first one focuses on a fairly grounded Aliens plotline with a fairly generic Ripley protagonist, but the sequels get pretty crazy as the heroine joins a Predator hunting clan and flies around getting into various space adventures.

>>23734243
He's currently writing the sequel to Echopraxia. He's also been trying to get Blindsight made into a movie and has been working with Neill Blomkamp. His Hollywood contacts might have told him his chances are better if Blindsight is a trilogy.

>>23734198
>No, it does not.
Not meant to be an all encompassing statement, but in my experience it does apply to the book in question.
>you may say it doesn't fit an arbitrary criteria you put forward
You mean just like the arbitrary criteria you put forward?
>you're a retarded baby who needs jangling keys and bright colors to stay entertained, but repetitive language is so boooooorriiing!!!!
How dare I demand a fiction author be creative and entertaining? God forbid. On second thought, now that I see how low the bar is, perhaps I'll take a crack at writing a book myself. I shall call it "You're a Faggot Retard," and from the first page to the last it will merely repeat the title. You more than anyone should love it.
>making sure to introduce an arbitrary amount of variety to satisfy readers with sticks up their asses
Readers with standards, you mean. Calling it arbitrary because it isn't needed does not make it so when it comes to art. It would be one thing if we were speaking about floral reliefs on a fork, but we're not. You're a soulless deconstructionist at heart. "Erm, well, Van Gogh paintings don't NEED color! You're just being a baby!" "The Blue Danube didn't NEED more than one instrument!" Gross freak.

hello yes i need books with
>aliens chicks fucking human men, like ringworld
>magic system where spells have to be written down to work, like fullmetal alchemist
>fantasy horror that isn't cthulhu

>>23734678
I try to write fantasy horror but humans are the creepiest thing ever:
1. Can adapt to your behavior.
2. Can recover from almost anything that doesn't kill them, and resume normal function.
3. Excels at just following you.

I tried to make a monstrous setting based on the forests of my home but nothing really compares to humans.

>>23734296
Quit responding to the sealion.

>>23734678
>magic system
It's not magic then. just read a science book. So sick of this retarded trend.

Everyone at some point during the Drizzt saga
yes, even Dahlia, she couldn't even stay dead for five minutes
does anyone ever die in these books?!

>>23734847
If your magic has even one rule, like 'no one can revive the dead', then it's a magic system.
The very nature of human inquisitiveness means two things:
1. Magic rules would be sought out.
2. People would develop solutions to problems that don't involve magic because every Muggle is jealous of those racist ass wizard honkeys.

>>23734847
I am so sick of you hard science retards fucking up the scifi genre. Killing future generations' imaginations and what ifs, with boring scientific theories that can be thrown out in the next 50 years.

>>23734901
me? you're replying to someone who hates that too

>>23734678
>fantasy horror that isn't cthulhu
Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton

Recently read The Left Hand of Darkness, and really enjoyed it. Are any of Le Guin's other books any good?

>>23735008
The fags that hate "magic systems" are usually hard scifi retards.

>>23734901
Soft magic is pretty based, anon.
The main issue is when the author is retarded.

>>23731894
Gideon the Ninth has a lot of that.

>>23734901
I love hard sci fi it's just that people really lack imagination, they think that space can only be interesting if you zoom around the galaxy at FTL speed running into things. Fact is there's a dozen fascinating and exotic locations just within the solar system.

does anyone have any recommendations for russian scifi/fantasy books? i like darker stuff but anything is okay as long as its good.

>>23735451
Obviously start with Roadside Picnic.

Hard scifi isn't real

Does anyone have these weird ruski isekai book covers?
Hilarious stuff

>>23735288
a magic system seems to me like faggots wanting magic to be science and explained through a non magical real life lens. Which is gay

>>23731529
Rand hard carries the first 4-5 books. Matt picks up his slack once Rand starts getting bogged down and unable to act dynamically anymore. Without Matt chapters, I doubt I would have persevered through book 10.

>>23732841
Nynaeve is actually a great character. She is my third favorite, after Rand and Mat. It's pretty hard to see past her bullshit as a first time reader, but in the later books that Jordan wrote her true nature really shines through. By which I mean, she finally gets away from being joined at the hip with that bitch Egwene or that ninny Elayne, both of whom bring out her worst qualities and do nothing but hold her back.

scifi is real nigga
just use google

Directed energy weapons? Plasma railguns? Fake bird drones? All real.

https://www.iarpa.gov/research-programs
https://www.darpa.mil/our-research

Do you know books in 'Eternal Night' setting? I remember that McKiernan's The Iron Tower had something like this, and I think that Tad Williams' Shadowmarch might have something like this. Blades in the dark RPG has it also.

Any other books with eternal meteo things? Eternal rain? The Stormlight Archive has periodical storms, for example, something like that.

>>23735645
To many a human on planet earth RIGHT NOW, technology is magic. They can't comprehend how some pieces of sand turning on and off really quick can make shittok videos. Why do you think that magic in a fantasy world can't be comprehensible to the right persons?
We applied the scientific method to many a thing that our ancestors called magic (lightening, earthquakes, tornadoes, etc) and understood them. Why do you feel that a society that has had magic for millennia wouldn't try to understand it? Yes the people in power would try to stop it like the catholic church did, but it will eventually get out, and some of it would end up quantifiable.

They will dig up corpes and dissect them, they will kidnap people and vivisect them, they will find the mana gland that are in those of the gifted and absent from those who are not. They will start experiments on the mana gland until they can quantify a joule of mana and how it works to cast spells. The only people that have a problem with magic not being stuck in the dark ages are the faggots who sucked Tolkien's and Lovecraft's dicks as kids and think think that magic should stay this unknowable uncontrollable thing.

>>23735669
the Night Land is the og

>>23735728
>To many a human on planet earth RIGHT NOW
stopped reading there

>>23735732
Oh, I have read it, but yeah.

>>23735737
You don't read period, I don't know who you think you are bluffing?

>>23734080
>Braid tugging is subtly important to the character.
Hearty kek. The best part is that I'm sure that you wrote this with zero irony.

Is it kino?

>>23735645
As a modern person, you think of magic as woo woo dream poetry nonsense. But real magic was a system for harnessing and controlling cosmic powers for practical ends -- warding off disease, finding treasure, living forever, etc. It didn't work, but the idea was rational.

>>23735451
Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko and try Vita Nostrum by Sergei and Marina Dyachenko

>>23735573
one...

>>23735573
>>23735933
and two

>>23735933
russian looks AI generated

>>23733978
> What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out, you stupid fucking nigger -A. Cock

Good writing is not derived from formal logic. Not that anyone defending one of fantasy's biggest hacks could ever hope to understand the former.