/lit/ - Literature

Sanderson and rothfuss are the best fantasy authors of the 21st century

>>8363488
Across the Nightingale Floor is the first book in the Tales of the Otori series.

I read it ages ago but remember liking at least the first couple books in the series.

>>8363493

Do I think GRI is a /sffg/ meme?
Do I want to think that?

I bought Railsea the other day when I was really tired.

>>8363493
Requesting less famous gene wolfe stuff if anyone has it on Mega or something

>>8363500
>forgetting based Cline

>>8363547
You were answered in the previous thread, the answer remains the same. >>8363204

>>8363593
There is no Gene Wolfe bibliography on the torrents.

Hey guys, I'm new to reading and I think this would be the best place to ask about books that are similar to the Fallout games (more like 1,2 and new vegas) I would really like to read a book with the same feel and atmosphere as the game.

>>8363598

The Stand by Stephen King

>>8363598
Canticle For Leibowitz

>>8363593
You won't post a link, but you'll go to the trouble of posting your smug non-response twice.

>>8363598
The Road by Corncnob
Canticle for Leibowitz
Lucifer's Hammer
Deus Irae

>>8363598
Never played the game but, metro 2033, and roadside picnic. If I recall fallout is post nuke winter right? Those books right up your alley.

>>8363614
>sffg is two persons alone
>the one asking, and the one answering

>>8363614

http://forum.mobilism.org/search.php?keywords=gene+wolfe&sr=topics&sf=titleonly

Are you happy now? Are you content? That was literally one of the first google results for "gene wolfe ebooks", by the way.

>>8363634
>fallout is post nuke winter
More Mad Max irradiated desert
Honestly the best I can think of is the Dark Tower series, but I've only read the first two books.

>>8363646
Not exactly. I never used Mobilism before hence it didn't appear on it, I looked on torrents, libgen and bookzz, they didn't have it. I wouldn't have asked otherwise.

>>8363605
>>8363610
>>8363619
Thanks, some of them sound really good

>>8363634
Metro 2033 had a different feeling (I only played the game)
I saw that roadside picnic is a major inspiration for STALKER games. Not exactly what I asked, but a really great rec, this book is right what I would love. Thank you all!

>>8363646
Also thanks. Sadly the only short story collection they had were strories from an old hotel.
I'd really like to read his non fiction in the book of days.

>>8363428
People are always asking me what my favorite X is, cheap smalltalk or something. Questions like this are difficult because I can't not take them seriously. Eventually I will pick an X, just to have a canned response. It doesn't end there however, the initial choice may be flippant to some degree, but once made has to be true. This can cause me to go a bit overboard, X IS my favorite after all.
This in no way extends to soliciting ancient lesbians for carnal gratification.

Please Like and Subscribe

>>8363614

>>8363784

Yeah that one is on piratebay but it lacks many core works like Island Of Doctor Death.

>>8363733
.... what?

Can anyone recommend any good fantasy or sci-fi with a focus on like religion/theology, kinda like A Canticle For Leibowitz?

It doesn't have to be a real religion, just something with well developed religious systems

>>8363979
Which part confuses you?

>>8363493
Dhalgren made me pretty uncomfortable. I stopped reading after the THIRD sex scene within 100 pages. I don't care if your book has sex, but three times is a little much.

>>8364048
Oh come on... literally everyone has atleast one of these

>>8364018
The Sparrow and A Case of Conscience are both good Jesuits in Space books. The Doomsday book is incredible and features a tine traveler in 14th century England with with a very central role for the church (no spoilers). Ted Dekker's Circle trilogy is straight up christian. Also Robert J. Sawyer's Calculating God reads like his theological thinking, fictionalized.

>>8364048

I'm confused - literally none of Sanderson's original worlds follow the stereoptyical fantasy map like that. That's one of his hooks, the creative worldbuilding.

>>8364050
>three times
lel delany a shit, and dhalgren a shit too. Lucky you didn't read it out. It's FAR more then 3 scenes.

>>8364018

I don't know what your thoughts on Sanderson are, but all his works revolve around divinity to some extent, the man is literally obsessed with the idea of humans as gods (whether masquerading as them, trying to become one, etc.).

*Warbreaker is about a god that doesn't believe in his own religion

*Elantris is about the gods suddenly turning into zombies

*Mistborn (all of them) are about religion in a lot of ways, particularly the third book (Hero of Ages) which largely revolves around some characters trying to mantle godhood, and a sort of priest trying to discredit every religion he used to research

*The Stormlight Archive's divinity connection is more tangential, but it's kind of about a world where god died

*Legion is about someone using a camera to prove god

Probably more examples that I'm forgetting.

Maybe worth a shot if you're into that sort of fantasy.

About to buy Book of the new sun by Gene Wolfe
Can anyone tell me if link related is the complete version of it, it says it contains "the second two volumes of a four volume novel"

https://www.amazon.com/Book-New-Sun-complete-vol/dp/1568658079/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1470415507&sr=8-1&keywords=the+book+of+the+new+sun+complete+gene+wolfe

Can't find anything with a complete collection on Amazon

>>8364142
That edition is terrible, just buy these two. They're cheaper too
https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Claw-First-Half-Book/dp/0312890176
https://www.amazon.com/Sword-Citadel-Second-Half-Book/dp/0312890184/

>>8364157

How does the edition I linked you have 950 pages, and claims to only have the last 2 volumes(Citadel and The sword of Lichtor)
While the 2 you linked me have only 840 pages but are supposedly the whole book?
I dont get it

>>8364157

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-New-Sun-Citadel-MASTERWORKS/dp/1857987004/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1470416108&sr=8-4&keywords=book+of+the+new+sun

Then you got this one which is supposedly just one book but has 650 pages..

>>8364172
>>8364180
Is this the first book you're gonna read? Font, intros and so on. Don't stress it.

is completed Conan chronicles worth a purchase?
i don't see it on the recommended list but, anyone read it?

>>8363502
I read a few of these years ago, but I think I lost interest around the third book.

>>8364090
Thanks! I'll definitely check those out.

>>8364135
Ive read quite a lot of Sanderson actually so I definitely get what you mean.

Ireally liked the church or w/e in the stormlight archives all these different cadres worshipping the same god but through different ways and conflicting with one another; I suppose I should say it's books with an interesting focus on unique, developed organised religion like that that I'm looking for

>>8364192
Howard's Conan is great. A free man, from the times before Dark Lordism squelched the genre

where do you start with borges?

>>8364018
Have you considered actual theology?
If not, Book of the New Sun and Wizard Knight, after all Wolfe is the best religious writer in science fiction.
>>8364329
Not terribly important with him, but Fictions or Aleph.

>>8364192
Conan and Solomon King are great if you can handle 30s purple prose.

>You will never clean Vin's soles with your tongue

All the people on my friends list rated the Gunslinger a 4+, even ones who I've seen as really tough raters in general.

I didn't hate it by any means but I mean, I don't really feel there's much there to blow you away either. Its kinda too short to do so and its easily one of the least self-supported(?) books I've seen (as in most of the shit really doesn't make any sense at the time of reading it, although I'm sure the picture will become clear with the next books). Also its one of those books where its rather easy to tell from the writing that it was done really early in the author's career

It was entertaining enough and I liked the MC but hell even as short as it was I felt like the plot plodded on a couple occasions.

Whenever my personal rating is so different from the norm I have to wonder if I'm crazy or overharsh. Just me, or overrated?

>>8364728
You need to rate the Gunslinger at least 4 stars or you won't have enough stars to cut out to describe the relative quality of the later books

>>8364728
Who are you?

>>8364728
Sounds like they have shit taste, book 1 is pretty bad.

Bill, Connor, I am disappointed.

>>8363493
you can't get more taboo than bakker...to bad there's no real discussion going on around these parts.

>>8364829
Shouldve been here when TGO just caem out, now save your autism for Unholy Consult next year.

>I wish I had a way with girls, like Mat and Perrin do
>I wish I had a way with girls, like Rand and Mat do
>I wish I had a way with girls, like Perrin and Rand do
Never fails to make me smile

>>8364869
>Mat having a way with girls
>married to Tuon

Wew Lad

I've read a couple things by Samuel Delaney, but I don't recall them living up to his naughty reputation.

>>8364915
If there wasn't rape, pedophillia, and poo poo eating, it wasn't one of his "naughty" stories

>>8364760
Are you comparing it to the other novels are you saying the whole series is rotten?


Learn not to be so fucking retarded anon

>>8365074
What?

>>8364869
Rand somehow ended up with 3 wives so I'd say he had the best handle on women.

>>8363598

You would probably enjoy a lot of Paolo Bacigalupi's short fiction, Pump Six is a great anthology.

>>8364018

Blood Song by Anthony Ryan has a really robust religious system written into the book that really impacts the characters, and it's a fantastic book to boot.

Hopefully this is the right thread. I remember reading a collection of science fiction short stories as a kid, and I can't find it now. I don't remember anything about it other than 1 story:
>crazy scientist dude makes a robot
>it's self replicating and makes more robots
>they're self replicating and make more
>there's a war of sorts where the robots are turning all mechanical things into more robots
>somehow the humans win at the end

Sorry if it's a bit vague, I've done some Google searches and can't find anything. Help with a title would be appreciated.

>>8365653
A shame about what happened to the rest of the series

>>8365674
About what year did you read it and do you know if it was old at the time?

>>8365683

Tower Lord was pretty great too, but yeah Queen of Fire was an upset.

>>8365690
Sometime around 2004, it was very old already though, it was just sitting around in a family friends beach house.

>>8365695
The more PoVs he added, the worse it got

A shame, I really enjoyed blood song

>>8365710
>The more PoVs he added, the worse it got
How many fantasy series does this accurately describe?

>>8365775
Too many

Why is it that an epic fantasy like the bible can keep a massive but cohesive narrative in one book but others can't?

>>8365801
Whoa sick reddit humor. I bet you got a lot of upvotes for that on /r/fantasy.

>>8365801

>cohesive

nah man, nah

>>8365801
>old testament god
>terrible but fair and benevolent, worthy of love ,respect and worship
>new testament god
>Sadistic, cruel and hateful of humanity, worthy of nothing more than fear, loathing and despair
The bible is anything but cohesive since it can't even get it's main character right.

>>8365823
Think you got those swapped senpai

>>8365823
>Old Testament God
>Literally got so pissed at humans he flooded out everyone but his chosen few
>Benevolent

I'm waiting for the twist which explains why all the mistings and mistborn are paranoid psychopaths to be that they're all being driven insane by heavy metal poisoning

>>8365837
If you've actually read the bible from cover to cover than you'll understand how Jesus is pure evil while the jewish god is pure love. Remember how all the supposed 'evils' which the old testament god committed were just physical, e.g death and destruction. Contrast that to the new testament god who has necessarily committed all of the above but with the added bonus of having ALL of those souls being tortured in his personal rape dungeon.
>>8365850
And where did their souls end up? Under the christian god they've been screaming in excruciating pain for thousands of years. The christian god is the real scoundrel here.

>>8363503

Do I want someone to respond to this post?

>>8364196
That's okay, the other two books aren't very good. One's an okay prequel, the other is a sequel that goes out of it's way to point out how miserable everyone's lives ended up. Whole series is frankly a massive downer, like the author completely misunderstood the whole bittersweet ending theme that is so common in Japanese stories.

>>8365863
>Allomancy having anything to do with psychopathology

>>8365823
>>old testament god
>>terrible but fair and benevolent, worthy of love ,respect and worship

Yeah if you're a Jew.

>>8365823

The OT God performed terrorist attacks on Egypt until his demands were met, just like ISIS. Actually I think even a fucking mudslime would have had second thoughts about killing that many totally innocent newborns. I'll take Jesus's God over that asshole any day.

>>8366399
No you don't, you already know the answers.

senpaitachi, should i read the mistborn sequels (the wax and wayne things)?
the original trilogy was alright

>>8366837
Yeh they're good. Best character, too.

>>8364018
Hyperion & Fall Of cover religion a bit.

>kat and piratebay down

The hell? What's the next biggest thing?

>>8366893

piratebay.se works fine for me in spaghettiland.

While I'm at it I will also complain that our sff scene sucks massive donkey balls aside from a few e-publishing independent houses.

>>8366893
Booksee
libgen
Bookzz
Audiobook bay

>>8366893

kat is already back up

>>8366837
Its a pretty solid new series. I was hesitant to pick them up, but its been a fun ride so far.

>tfw started reading Island Of Doctor Death to take a break from WoT book 11 and now I can't go back to WoT because I remembered the concept that books can be good, which took me eleven WoT books to forget

Just now trying to get into scifi, picked up a copy of Dune. Think it's a good entry point?

>>8367509
Doesn't really matter what book you start with.
Anyhow it's more fantasy than scifi and I thought it was pretty bad overall.

>>8367509
dune is good, idk about entry points or things like that

>>8364048
Kek.

I love Wheel of Time, but this reminds me of WoT more than anything else.

>>8364586

>>8367648

Why are WoT covers so garbage tier?

They look like they were done in the 30s, like fucking Conan covers, was this intended?

>>8365868
So either you haven't actually read the bible or are a extremely shallow and literal reader who never went any further with his studies

>>8367740
>/sffg/
>not full of bakker loving fedora tipping idiots

>>8367775

>bakker is fedora

Nigga pls, if anything he's a full on christcuck.

>>8367735
The new ones are neat

>>8367784
>>8367775

You're away off. Bakker is just a pathetic pothead. He openly admited he smokes weed.

>>8367829
Who doesn't? Are you a mormon? kek

>>8367829
>>8367836

pls don't fucking remind me, my brother does nothing all day except smoke weed and play guitar, his gf left him because of this and he takes out his anger on the rest of the family, plus no one stops him because spoiled as fuck since birth.

I read sff to escape.

>>8367843
>reading for escapism

While I would be ashamed to admit it if I could still feel shame, I originally came to 4chan through /b/. Its hardened my heart (and cock) to taboo subjects.

>>8367966
>I originally came to 4chan through /b/

No shit

Newsflash : early everyone does, they then spend a but of time there, grow out of it and migrate to other boards according to their chief interests.

>>8367836
Not good writers that's for sure.

>>8367998

>good writers don't do drugs

You cannot possibly be serious.

>>8368002
This is not /mu/ son

The Gas, by Charles Platt

>>8368002
He's probably Philip K. Dicking about

>>8367836

how the hell do people get weed?
I don't have any friends

>>8365823
I know you're memeing because you got them switched around, but it's called character development, dude.

If you want to point out lack of "cohesion" in the Bible, maybe you should start with the very first story being repeated twice in a row, completely different both times. Literally just read the first 20 pages of a bible.

>>8367487
It only took you 11 books, but you beat your autism. Congratulations.

I read BotNS and liked it well enough, but the language gimmick tired me out, so I went looking for something straightforward that wasn't garbage.

Read first book of Hyperion and enjoyed it, conveyance of setting felt a bit weak for a series that seemed like it might rely on it, but that was fine because the first book didn't. Second book I was much less fond of. Unfinished setting lead to a lack of context that took the punch out of many revelations, lots of plodding, Keats fanboying got annoying, 'lapis lazuli' replacing every instance of 'blue' made me want to kill myself.

Can anyone give me another recommendation for something competent and non-flowery?

>>8368378
The Buried Giant, Ishiguro

>>8367487
Your autism knows no bounds.
But Island of Doctor Death is Flannery O'Connor tier good.
>>8368378
Fritz Leiber and Moorcock are pretty fun. Reading The Weird of the White Wolf and it's cheesy as fuck, but handles it well. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser are in general some of the best adventure stories you can find.
Philip K Dick is also pretty great and his prose is relatively barebones.
Even other Gene Wolfe stuff, after the New Sun his language games are mostly gone. Long Sun and Short Sun are simple language wise, content wise often harder to decipher than the New Sun (you aren't mentally prepared for the crazy amount of symbols which build stories with other symbols which are hidden from sight). Short Sun also has absolutely incredible characterisation. Actual spoiler Horn becomes Silk, you aren't told until book 3, but you see it in book two, the chance is gradual and subtle and one of those stunning gene wolfe experiences.

About a year late, but I just finished reading Aurora.

This book really fucked me up. This is the kind of book that made me angry at the author for abusing his characters. Then the author told me to shut the fuck up and tried his best to reach out of the book and punch me in the face. This book was as depressing as Blindsight by Peter Watts and as bizarre as God Emperor of Dune. On the first page I rolled my eyes thinking "here's a nice parochial scene that will surely have some overdone metaphoric significance later on." By the middle of the book I thought "well, I have to hand it to him," and by the end I realized KSR is a fucking genius for having manipulated me so effectively.

I think this book was written for people who get emotional thinking about the Voyager probes. But a lot of other people must've hated it. For one thing, this book is so ambitious that "the problem of consciousness" is merely a subplot.

The character development is incredible, especially for a book masquerading as "hard sci-fi," and the literary quality of the writing shows how much KSR has improved over the past 20 years or so. Almost Proustian at times, in a 27th century kind of way.

>>8368413
Hello friend, how are you doing on this fine Saturday afternoon?

>>8368422
Cosmerefag is that you? How many hardscifi fags we have in these threads?

>>8368432

>the slightest mention of Leiber triggers this sad fuck so that he HAS to post immediately

Your life must redefine the very concept of pathetic.

>>8368432

Do I think you are shitposting?
Do I understand shitposting?
Do I want to know?

>>8368440
>>8368450
Jesus guys just ignore him.

>>8368450

Yes
No
No, you only wish he would finally kill himself for the betterment of the thread

>>8368456

Thank you

>>8368456
>>8368440

>>8368438
I'm nobody. I don't discriminate on the basis of "hardness" (as a physicist it's all fiction to me), but is there some kind of unwritten rule in these threads about it? I just thought I'd post something that was actually about a book rather than the endless torrent of shitposting or metacommentary about authors.

>>8368422
>>8368542
It was a good post, ignore him, I havent read it or know anything about it so I can't relate or respond but its nice to see posts like that. I often get frustrated and don't come here much because so few of the posts seem to actually discuss books or series in any sort of detail at all

Currently reading pic related. Have also read The Elves and the Otterskin by Boyer. Both books are heroic tales that incorporate Norse myth and setting. Enjoyable low-key books that are even better if you're already familiar with Norse mythology.

>>8366837
They're pretty bad. Bland. I'd say the series was retargeted for a YA audience. Even less bite than his superhero books.

I'm new to /lit/,
what do you guys do here=

>>8369071
Talk about how my taste > your taste

>>8369073
good,
since your tastes seems superior,
what should I read after I'm done with the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy?

>>8369089
What genre do you want to read?

I dont read much sci-fi

>>8369110
I'm open to anything, i like reading,

>>8369089
Finish the trilogy. The third is the best. The fourth is not great and the fifth is a kick in the nuts.

>>8369119
>The fourth is not great and the fifth is a kick in the nuts.
really?
I will buy them tomorrow since I just finished Life, the Universe and Everything.

>>8369118
Taken by the T-Rex by Christie Sims
is a 10/10 novel

Who ever did the greentext summary of this book thanks. I went in expecting a comedy from how you greentexted it, but enjoyed it either way.
>my steven
>black slav
>earth now lvl 1 civilization

I don't know if I should read on (are there other books?). The big D travelling in space raping other worlds would be nice. (Don't they have a movie with him on a spaceship?)

>>8368422
I was years late reading "Ring" and I was still mad, am still mad, at how Uvarov's life ended. I reckon hard sci-fi simply isn't good to look for when it comes to happy character conclusions.

I'm surprised by Theodore Sturgeon. He is not the oddball dinosaur I was expecting (Vonnegut's Kilgore Trout.) Instead, he is a weaver of melodramas about the human condition, that are compelling, visceral, and edifying.

It reads how current YA authors should write.

>>8367735
I actually really like the WoT covers. They're simplistic, but I think they're beautifully done, and Sweet always picks a really fitting color palette.

>>8368375
>Not completing an excellent series when you only have one book left (12-14 are just Memory of Light parts 1/2/3)

Sounds like anon embraced his autism rather than beat it.

So when does Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell become interesting? He barely does any magic, the past 30 books have all been about how famous he is how well received he is how generous and smart and helpful he is etc etc, it's like rothfuss's self insertion power fantasy

Is there a better Science Fiction book than VALIS?

>>8369252
You're welcome


And no, everything by Mr. Weber is shit as well

>>8369330
>He is not the oddball dinosaur I was expecting
what did he mean by this?

>>8369535
Not really.

>>8369535
Red Rising

>>8369535
No, Dick is unbeaten.

>>8369535
BotNS arguably

>>8369535
Bro this better be satire cause VALIS is fucking retarded

Meet me at the flagpole, my jimmies are rustled

>>8369562
Look man, don't say such idiotic things, it's concerning.

>>8369562
VALIS may not be written very elegantly, but it's a very well thought out and sincere piece of work, and I respect it for that. Especially in a pulp-infested genre like Sci-fi.

>>8369567
t. Horsefat Lover

>>8369573
t. Kevin

>>8369570
Am I being trolled right now cause every other time an author self inserts /lit/ fucking tears them apart

>>8369579
/lit/ isn't a hivemind you child. Besides, self-inserting in SFF is usually a cringeworthy affair of the author fulfill his earnest desires (usually materialistic in nature) and comes across utterly taxing to read. In PKD's case, you're reading about a very troubled and affected man wrestling with both his own madness and his existential theology through the book - it's engrossing to read, and reveals a lot about his character. It's just well done.

I'm kind of new to /lit/, I have a big interest in Sci fi that has to do with starships, preferably those of the naval variety like in Star Trek. Any suggestions? I'm kind of new to the genre.

>>8369642

>>8369645
Thanks, I checked out the lists at the top of the page, but it looks like I'll have to do a lot of research to find out where to start.

>>8369650
just pick the ones from that list that look cool, check a blurb of the ones you picked and if it sounds like something you'd read, pick it up

>>8369642
Bv Larson
Neal Asher
You're welcomed

>>8369492

you don't think female author was a red enough flag for you?

Is alice in wonderland an enjoyable read? I want to get the edition with the manga artworks.

>>8369696
>trying this hard

>>8367829

The least you could do is insult his books rather than his person, especially if you haven't even published anything, and so what that I smoke pot, it probably helps him write as good as he does.

>>8369742
>and so what that I smoke pot, it probably helps him write as good as he does.
>and so what that I smoke pot
>I smoke pot
That slip. Hello Bakker, what are you doing browsing 4chan?
Is it because when you searched great ordeal 4chan popped at the top?

>>8363493
Am I blind or do I not see the WorShip novels by Frank Herbert on any of those Sci-Fi lists?

Also, the Vang series by Chris Rowley should be on them.

For some reason my library only has one book by Kay, would this be a good starting point? It's a sequel, but apparently set 400 years after so I think I might get away with skipping the first...

>>8368422
You think those cardboard cutouts are characters? That Mary Sue of a main character was impossible to empathise with.
The plot felt like a poorly drawn out vessel for one single pointless point. That we shouldn't even try to colonise other solar systems because they will always fail, also think of the children who are born to die away from mother earth against their will. Childrens rights boo fucking hoo. And to illustrate this he turns the generation ship around and flies it back to earth where the crew joins neo-hippies who build new beaches on climate-changed earth.. And the MC makes a beautiful speech about how we shouldn't send future generations to die. And tthey all live happily on earth the end. How blunt can one get?
It might just be my opinion but it seems that Alastair Reynolds tacles the dread of gen ships better: the emerging political divisions, what happens when one of the ships blows up, the destination and so on.
Shockng book? I was shocked how bad of a anti-generation ship book this was.

What does /sffg/ think of Jasper Fforde, and this book in particular?

>>8369887
I keep meaning to get around to that one, a couple anons have recced it to me along with Of the City of the Saved and [the one about the bottomless pit whose name escapes me] as something a bit "different". Plus I enjoyed The Eyre Affair a lot, though its sequels came off as retreads of the same general idea.

>>8369883
>I was shocked how bad of a anti-generation ship book this was
Sounds like you got punched in the face by a woman and couldn't take it.

I get the criticism, but I think you took it too straightforwardly. Freya wasn't exactly right--her reaction to the events of the book was clearly not healthy. The thesis of the book lies somewhere in between. We gained something and we lost something. Notably KSR doesn't even remark on the fate of the colonies, because that's not the point: he wrote that book decades ago, and this book is about something different.

I think you are one of those people who I suspected would hate the book.

For what it's worth, I haven't drunk so much kool-aid that I fully agree with the position of the author. I think his arguments about "starship earth" make sense, but I also think he hasn't sufficiently discredited salvation through technology. I haven't read Alastair Reynolds, though I have a few of his books, so I'll have to check them out and compare. I did think Aurora was a much better novel than Seveneves, though.

>>8369887
A fun read, as narrated by John Lee in the audiobook. It was a more realistic take on a discriminating dystopia than all those YA books, in the sense of how people interact, adapt and fit into the system. No cringey they killed my wife / starved my village motivation in that book. No noble heroic leader main character, just ordinary people. No one man on top of the system to topple.

>>8369920
>Sounds like you got punched in the face by a woman and couldn't take it.
Nah. I just felt the way about the plot as some other people felt about Fury Road. But the MC did make friends too easily.

The microbio stuff was interesting tho.

>>8369755
Lol he deleted it.
Proof that bakker posts here. He was probably spamming his own book. All those weeks.

>>8369937
Top fucking kek
Bakker, if you are here, I want you to know your philosophy is a joke and while reading your prose I can't help myself from laughing at how bad it is.

>>8369937
>>8369946
>>8369755

Scott Bakker doesn't post here that was just someone pretending to be him don't believe what people say on this site

>>8369718
>Is alice in wonderland an enjoyable read?

Yes, fantastic book

>>8369718
>I want to get the edition with the manga artworks.

Please don't read that first, read that after the normal editions

>>8369977
Who are you trying to ruse bakker?
I did love your gri, I hope your next series is full unadulterated kinky taboo shit.

Let the reader see the son take nis mother.

>>8369642
The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell is one of the better Space Battles series out there.

The Dragon Never Sleeps by Glen Cook is good. It's about "immortal" battleships that enforce the status-qo in a galaxy and a uprising against them. Cook also wrote Passage At Arms, which is a Das Boot style story about a journalist on a stealth ship, it's part of the Starfisher series but takes place like 100 years before and is totally unconnected from the other books so you could just go ahead and read it if you want.

The Honor Harington series by David Weber is one of the more popular Horatio Hornblower/Aubrey-Maturin style ones out there, however over the years the main character became quite a Mary Sue and series has just had a general decline in quality. I think I quit it around book 11 or 12 and I've heard it's just been potboiler after potboiler.

Jack McDevit has some good stories about space explorers, and he has another series about a artifact hunter who inevitably gets embroiled in the mystery of a ghost ship or lost space colony or whatever.

>>8369977

Is there anything out there that equals Name of the Wind?

>>8370022

I doubt that, it's a very hard task to write a completely worthless series with barely any proper plot, the worst prose in all of fantasy, with characters that are ridiculous self insertions, and still manage to get a cult following for the series.
The man is far too talented for this world

>Give a female author another try
>What could go wrong
>It's already spouting black on white propaganda and black suffrage
>Feminist bullshit sometimes too

Why do people even recommend Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell?

>>8369642

Leviathan Wakes is pretty dope.

>>8370117
>not reading Flannery O'Connor
>not reading Edith Stein
>not reading Hannah Arendt

>>8370117

I would bet even money that you've complained about "feminists" dismissing books out of hand because there's sexism or racism in them.

>>8370229

No I haven't

>>8370117
Black suffrage and empowerment is more of a Christian thing

>>8370117

Gee I wonder who could be behind this post!

>>8370242
Go back to the interracial breeding grounds Sven

>>8365674
That sounds like "The Cyberiad" by Stanislaw Lem. The two creator robots in "Cyberiad" are named Trurl and Klapaucius, if that jogs your memory. It's a great book.

hey lads, another /lit/ newbie here.
So I've read Lem and Strugatsky books and was wondering what would be a similar experience? Any western authors that do this sort of psychological sci-fi with less trivial stuff?

>>8370355
Philip K Dick

Bakker, you fucking Suck. I fell into your chilling and bought your shitty book.

Fuck you.

>Wants to bring back magic
>Is the enemy of the only other person who can do magic

Heh, nice

Holy trinity of "punk" novels:
Neuromancer
Difference Engine
Windup Girl

Any books with cat girl protagonists?

>>8370471
Orphans of Chaos

>>8370522
what did she mean by this?

>Egwene's KoD chapters are literally 100% spanking and even more spanking

Jordan should have sought help for his sick fetishes instead of allowing them to overtake his work.

>mfw some guy told me not to real translations
>mfw the original is more comprehensible than the translation to my native language

Why are most translations so cringy?
Why don't translators understand that you can't translate everything literally?

>>8370564
I knew I was right to add this to my reading list.

just got myself the Wurms of Blearmouth, this should be fun

>>8370448
>heechi, keechi
>filthy greedy chineseman ruined the world and was still able to escape with his life and his lolispy
Yes i still mad.

>>8370662

As a translator, we do understand that. Truth be told you couldn't work for shit if you didn't. Thankless job anyway.

>>8370471
Do cat women qualify?

/sffg/ official ranking

-nice guy tier-

>Cherryh Anon
>Iron Dragon Shill
>Cosmerefag
>Marc "Absolutely Aram" Aramini

-I don't feel strongly one way or the other tier-

>Bakkerfags
>Little Girls Anon
>Original Dinosaur
>Wolfe Anon

-kill yourself asap tier-

>Dino Anon
>Women Authors Anon

>>8370912
I am 3 of those persons, in every tier. Unless the dino is not the old fantasy recs, but the shitposting anon.

>>8370892
Actually, Hilfy could reasonably be called a "girl" and she gets her own book later.

>>8370471
Consider Phlebas has a major character who is pretty much a sexualized catgirl.

>>8370912
I am 3 of those.

>>8370912
Where is chart anon?
Isn't he in nice guy? I help ppl you know.

>>8370958
How is a person baiting people into reading garbage nice?

>>8369933
>But the MC did make friends too easily.
The author could've at least tried make this a little more convincing, something beyond "she was a good listener," although I think that was kind of supposed to be her superpower.

>The microbio stuff was interesting
Interesting and frankly unexpected for a book with a cover that looks like that (to judge in the proverbially forbidden way). It got me reading a flurry of wikipedia articles, anyway.

>>8370967
>I'll post it again
>every thread
You are becoming dino anon tier, is my chart triggering you so much you HAVE to post??

>>8370991
Are you telling me dino anon and you aren't the same person?
But other than that, more people think you have a bait tier taste, I'm not the one who usually calls you out when you post your bait.

>>8370564
The fedora part is not a exaggeration.

Also:
>At age 42, Wright converted from atheism to Christianity, citing a profound religious experience with visions of the "Virgin Mary, her son, and His Father, not to mention various other spirits and ghosts over a period of several days", and stating that prayers he made were answered.[6] In 2008, he converted to the Roman Catholic Church, of which he approvingly said: "If Vulcans had a church, they'd be Catholics."

Why are female characters still a thing?

Any books set in libertarian hellscapes?

>>8371258
The Road
A Canticle For Liebowitz
>>8371225
Because women exist. They even make up for almost half of the total population.

>>8370967
90 percent of literature, including fantasy and sci fi, is absolute fucking trash, but everyone has different tastes you fucking fool

>>8371261
Are anons actually against female characters or are they trolling by pretending to be r9k posters?

>>8370574
>spanking is a "sick fetish"
There was a time when such innocence could not be found on 4chan.

>>8371311
Since these threads deal in more accessible subject matter than the rest of /lit/ they attract people who frequent other boards and bring their own baggage. So you got neckbeards from /v/, /r9k/ and /tg/ who hate womemes.

>>8370662
If you rewrite too much you end up changing the work substantially. Plus it slows you down a lot. In works where the aesthetics of the prose are important any translation is going to be subpar though. Personally I see no merit in the translation of poetry.

Does China Mieville belong in these threads?

Embassytown and The City and the City are some of the most interesting books I've read in the last few years. City isn't really sci-fi, but it fits somehow, and Embassytown certainly is.

How're his other novels? Kraken sounds like it could be a trip, but the premise seems stupid rather than fascinating--maybe that's the point? What about the series with Perdido Street Station? Is it comparable to anything?

He also has some short fiction, but I don't know much about that. I wish he'd put out another novel, but he hasn't for a few years. Just a couple novellas.

>>8371311
Just ignore it and post about books.

>>8371353
Translation of poetry is ultimately interpretation. Sometimes it is enlightening to read a skilled author's interpretation of an ancient Greek poem or whatever. Certainly not the same thing as reading a poem in your native language and understanding multiple simultaneous interpretations that are all your own, although you can approach that experience somewhat by studying multiple differing translations.

In general, it's a lot more work. You certainly can't translate poetry like you can translate a fantasy novel.

>>8371368
Kraken is fairly weak compared to his other work, it reads like he tried to do a more "mainstream" Gaiman/Dresden Files type book and couldn't quite manage it. Still a few great ideas in there, though, and I learned the word "benthos".

Also, there's a new novel coming in a couple months, The Last Days of New Paris

I've read everything from Revelation Space and today I finished all short stories and thus closed chapter in my year-long dive in this universe. God damn I feel empty and nostalgic...
Are there any other sci-fi universes with characters and stories that spread through eras of history and many light-years of distance?

>>8371408
The Xeelee sequence probably, Baxter and Reynolds are very similar writers (even collaborating on a thing now iirc).

>>8371408
Iain M Banks "Culture" universe comes to mind. I haven't read revelation space yet so I can't really give you a comparison between the two, but it does sound a bit like what you are describing. There is a universal setting with various books detailing the story of important (or not) historical events. The books don't have to be read in any particular order, but Consider Phlebas (usually identified as the first book) is as good a place to start as any.

>>8371347
Tbh r9k and lit share like 30% of traffic or something.
>>8371368
Yeah, he's sff. I didn't like Peridio Street Station tho, it was mediocre.
>>8371298
That's an excuse for recommending awful books how?
Especially since they are camouflaged with occasional masterpieces/solid works like Book of the New Sun.

>>8371444
90% of books are trash because people's tastes vary, while they may hate BotNS, they may love another, making a majority of books in individuals eyes trash


I'm saying it's an adjective term

>>8371444
What in your opinion is worth reading on that list?

>>8371444
But you cant't discuss book of the new sun every day.

Sometimes you need a change of pace

recommend me some fantasy that doesn't have 3 page descriptons of clothes, armors, meals ...

>>8371539
First Law, because it has no descriptions :^)

>>8371539
Black Company. The pacing of those books are fantastic.

>>8371526
Dick, Strugatsky bros and Wolfe are truly great.
Witcher shorts are pretty decent.
Sabriel and Tigana are solid.
Iron Dragons Daughter is a mad trip, has its problems, but it has a lot of merits.
>>8371528
There's other nice stuff on it too, that's what makes it such amazing bait.
Been reading Elric stuff past 3 days between serious stuff. It's like an anime in book form, edgy, wild, cheesy, half the stuff makes little sense, but it's really cool. Is it worth reading past the 7 main novels?
>>8371539
I mean everything that isn't Asoiaf and WoT?

>>8371258
If by "libertarian hellscape" you mean anarchy, then pic related.

>>8371556
>>8371557
thanks

>>8371565
funny cause i started reading fantasy with wot and asoiaf. glad to know they are not all like that.

>>8371576
Even the most description heavy works such ad Book of the New Sun and Gormenghast never tire you with them, because, unlike Martin and Jordan, are talented writers who try to make it aesthetically pleasing.

>>8371539
Red Rising

>>8371408
Xeelee was nice.

Revelation Space was some wacky shit. What short stories and novellas did you like?

Where do you start with Sanderson?

>>8371627
The trash.
If you must dig it out, Stormlight.

>>8371058
the 6 series ive read from there all turned out alright, though (no i didnt start from the chart, i just recognized stuff ive read)

>>8371682
(the first law, malazan, riyria, gentlemen bastards, witcher, asoiaf)
though desu from what ive seen here it seems like i'm terribly unpretentious since i pretty much like anything

so is hyperion worth picking up

>>8371718
Yes. It isn't brilliant, but it's one of the best space operas out there. The first one was especially good, but it dropped off in quality after that.

New to these threads.
What fresh may mays do you guys have? It's not like I want to steal them or anything...

>>8371611
I really liked the way Diamond Dogs connects with Turquoise Days and that tiny bit of romance in Weather is really heart warming. I like how Reynolds dives into details in his stories. How he explained the way conjoiner drive works, how does it feel to live inside jugglers - I really feel like he made his version of Wang Carpets of Greg Egan. Also after finishing novels it was simply heartwarming to see alive Clavein and Remonoire. But all in all I don't really like how Reynolds "ended" his universe, like two ships with 100k conjoiners 40k years in a future run from greenflies along galactic axis? Is this an end? Also I cannot comprehend why the same greenflies were described by shadows from another dimension. Was that another dimension? Or shadows were conjoiners far in the future that wanted to intervene in their past to make greenflies never happen? Like it was such burden along the novels to fight the Wolfs and in the end nothing matters?

anything with spooky wizards like the black company? i really liked how cooke made them actually scary and op.

>>8371851
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser

>>8371729
I thought about insulting your intelligence, but then I realized that was uncalled for. I agree almost entirely with the substance of your post anyway, except that I would say Hyperion is in fact quite brilliant. It's true that the second book is not quite as coherent as the first.

>>8371718
Thus, to you I say read it! If you like worldbuildy space opera stuff and know who Chaucer is.

>>8371144

>not to mention various other spirits and ghosts over a period of several days

>If Vulcans had a church, they'd be Catholics

>>8371917
>Scully
>not a Catholic
Wut

There are 82 persons in this thread.
Everyone give 3 fantasy and 3 scifi recs, all containing a taboo subject (rape, gay, incest, little girl protagonist, etc etc)
I'll start:-
Fantasy:
Black Jewels Trilogy
Sold by Patricia McCormick
Darkness that Comes Before

Scifi:
Red Rising
Iron Dragon's Daughter
The Word for World is Forest

Hardmode : You can't suggest what someone else suggested.

>>8371957
>not one but TWO YA books
>"taboo subjects"
You have to be 18+ to post on 4chan.

>>8371957
Book of the New Sun
Book of the Long Sun
Book of the Short Sun
Fifth Head of Cerberus
The Dispossessed
Diary of a Young Girl

>>8371957
I don't really keep entries like "has rape scenes" in my mental index of books I've read. It's not really something I would pay attention to or focus on remembering.

I can definitely think of books I've read that had incidental gay characters, but I'm guessing you mean like explicit sex scenes.

Some works are famous for it (Dhalgren, ASOIAF) but those shouldn't really count here anyway.

Also I don't read much fantasy.

>>8371969
Which two are "YA"?
It just shows that you don't read. Go meme in outer lit troll.

>>8372134
Steel Remains is what you're looking for anon.
You're welcomed.

>>8371408
Go read his newer Poseidon's Children trilogy, it is a little different, a little the same. As you asked, it has:
>characters and stories that spread through eras of history and many light-years of distance

Slightly off topic in terms of taboo.

I remember reading one of the Asimov's Empire books, though I forget which one, which dealt with the segmented populations on a city-planet. In the city planet, the protagonist investigates a population of people which have almost religiously outlawed any form of hair. This lead to a scenario in which one of the locals gets off on the visiting protagonists hair, which Asimov used as an excuse to wander on about the nature of taboo and the resultant fetishes.

>>8372147
prob the same sperglord who has an autistic rage for Red Rising and yells YA whenever he sees it


(as if a majority of Science Fantasy aren't in essence manchild Gary Stu's)

>>8372296
>rape
>cannibalism
>beheading
>boasting about buggering your little brother and him liking it
>mass genocides
>YA
Is he autistic or something?

Has L Ron Hubbard produced any decent sci fi books?

>>8371957

A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin
Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson
The Darkness That Comes Before, R. Scott Bakker

Neuromancer, William Gibson
Dune, Frank Herbert
Legion, Brandon Sanderson

>>8372487
Not really, pretty sure the reason he made his cult in the first place was because his SFF book sales were shit

>>8371957
I only feel like giving you 2.

>muh homosex
>muh male pregnancy
>muh orgies
>muh general aristocratic debauchery

>>8372598

>muh incest
>muh pedophilia
>muh hermasex
>muh homosex
>muh hermaphroditic incestual pedophilic three-way (pretty sure this happened, but don't quote me)

>>8372394
So what the fuck was Tactus' problem?

Did his brother actually rape him or something?

>Science Fiction
I think this is the thread to ask: Do you guys suggest any good horror sci-fi books?
I've read a bit Asimov, Heinlein, King, Barker etc, however what i actually want is something in between, something akin to the film Alien, hell, even something about alien abductions and /x/ tier conspiracies would be fun.

>>8371957
>rape, gay, incest

is it still a taboo when everyone and their grandmother is writing about it so that they can edgy like grrm?

>>8371957
I don't really read much sci-fi so I have no GRI recs for it since I have only read very entry level books.

But hard mode for Fantasy:

Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence
Dusk & Dawn by Tim Lebbon (Tales of Noreela #1)
Black Magician trilogy by Trudi Canavan

How would /sffg/ classify le guin's fantasy?
It has clear style but I just can't finger out what exactly it is, besides saying that I enjoy it.

Did dragon sex anon ever return?

>>8370332

>>8372632
You want Blindsight

All the anons in /sffg/ should team up to write our own book. Sorta like what /lit/ did with Legacy of Totalitarianism in a Tundra and Hypersphere. Together we could make the worst piece of speculative fiction since The Eye of Argon!

>>8372805
That seems promising, thanks for the suggestion, Anon.

>>8371408
The Xeelee Sequence by Stephen Baxter
The Culture by Iain M. Banks
Count to a Trillion by John C. Wright

>>8372487
No. I can't emphasize this enough. Some of his stories still being in print is like a time capsule to the world of white noise Golden Age writers but they aren't worth your time unless you want to be some sort of SF history scholar.

>>8372806
I'll write the school shooting.

Who's a good modern fantasy author that tends to leave magic mysterious and scary instead of scientific and mundane?

>>8372927
jackson bennett

>>8372927
Derek landy. Great author, a bit underrated on /lit/ though.

>>8372775
I've seen people compare it to old oral tradition storytelling. I think that's pretty accurate, it sounds like something you'd hear told by a fireside or something.

>>8372806
The Tundra series was meant to be a post modernist pile of shit, I don't think it would work for something that's supposed to have a narrative.

>>8372963
>>8372966
Thanks. I just finished Lieber's stuff and am looking for something a little more contemporary, just for a change of pace, but while I understand what Sanderson is going for, what he calls "hard magic" just doesn't do it for me.

It's one thing to say "hey, good books still come out." Which is true. It's another to have an issue with people liking any older books, and daring to mention them without covering their asses and talking about new books in that same post.

Something I find kind of interesting is the weird assumption dino anon makes that if you mention an old book and don't happen to mention a new book in the same post, that must be because you don't like any new books.

Then he proceeds to have a meltdown and piss all over the place while posting pictures of extinct fauna.

Lighten up, dude. Maybe kick back and read a good book.

Pic related is a lot of fun.

>>8372972
If we coordinate it well we can make a purposely shitty riff on modern SFF.

>>8372972
>>8373043
We could always just do an anthology type thing. Just incorporate some nebulous theme or throughline

>>8372502
>Warbreaker
You wot nîğęr®
Sanderson is the squeakiest writer there is currently publishing, there is no smut in warbreaker

>>8372986
>dino anon slowly stops dinoposting
>openly, directly addresses the dino anon in the hope that he bites
Just ignore him , it's people like you how are causing the shitposting.

What do you guys think of Jeff Vandermeer? I don't see him mentioned at all in these threads.

I read City of Saints and Madmen and loved the stories, thought the setting was fantastic. Then I read his first ever book, Veniss Underground, and found it overall clunky and charmless, with some neat imagery scattered throughout.

I'm reading Shriek: An Afterward right now and so far it's pretty good. Vandermeer has a penchant for straining too hard to achieve 'literary' prose, but Ambergris is such a cool setting that I forgive him that.

>>8371368
I wanted to like his Bas Lag novels but I just couldn't get into them. He apes Lovecraft and Mervyn Peake and then uses that language to tell a pretty generic steampunk action/adventure story.

There are some neat concepts here and there, but his characters are about as deep as puddles and the stories themselves are unsatisfying mashups of baroque language and D&D tier dungeon crawling.

>>8373084

>Gets naked in front of a god
>Not smut
>Not erotic while he keeps watching her naked
>Not a power fantasy

>>8372632
sci fi and horror, off the top of my head:

jack finney - the body snatchers
hp lovecraft - the shadow out of time

>>8371627

Warbreaker is a standalone so a good way to dip your toes in

The first Mistborn trilogy (The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages) is his recommended starting point

Some people say start with the Way of Kings, I don't really agree, but you could always try that

Wild card: start with the novella The Emperor's Soul, it's real short and real good

>>8373084

The criminal women in the crew with Viv literally has sex with a zombie every night

Siri rolls around naked on the floor for weeks in front of a god emperor, screams orgasm sounds against the walls to trick people, then has to teach the manchild sex

>>8368422
What was so depressing about Blindsight? I read both Blindsight and Echopraxia and found them uplifting in a certain sense, but maybe that's just me...
More importantly, would you recommend this book for somebody who enjoyed Blindsight and Echopraxia?
I feel like nothing else can compare after I read those two books

>>8372775
>>8372971
her style of writing/prose is the definition of comfy

is chronicles of thomas covenant worth checking it?

I'm going to watch the TV series of Jonathan Strange because it's shorter and it looks like the book might become very shit and boring

>>8373151

I've only read Finch, which is also set in Ambergris. Pretty good.

>>8371258
Frederik Pohl: The Merchants of Venus might qualify.

>>8373490
I quite liked the book to be honest. It did get a little slow in the middle, and the constant footnotes got old, but overall I preferred it to the tv series.
The series wasn't really able to preserve the trippy faerie shit, but the casting was absolutely perfect, the production design was phenomenal, even though it lost some of the charm of the prose.

>>8371798
You basically listed all my favorites and interests right off the bat. Neat. Diamond Dogs was definitely great; loved the premise and story in that on.

The RS universe 'ended' by humanity fleeing to another galaxy from the Greenflies. The Shadows are theorized to be humans in the far far future (because curved space) trying to escape into the past.

>>8373615
You who posts the cosmere maps all the time, you're the cosmere guy right? Sometimes these threads mention "cosmerefag" and I'm just assuming it's you?

>>8371408
Commonwealth universe has first books set at a typical sci fi starting time (couple hundred years past now, not much though), and the void trilogy in the same universe is set over a thousand years later.

that was one of the most awesome things about those books I thought. how the characters and technologies and societies evolved over those thousands of years, and how the monumental seeming events of the first two books are viewed through the lense of that kind of span of time.

>>8373801
oh, and the author is Peter F. Hamilton. Pandora's Star is your starting point (don't bother with misspent youth)

>>8373487
I think so. Complaints would be that it's overwritten, and has a sometimes jarring mix of adult and childish sensibility. And it has a dark lord and an edgy anti-hero.

But I read it years and years ago and several scenes and characters are still very vivid to me. So on balance I'd say go for it.

>The Emperor was jubilant. Since the departure of the Vulgar Holy War weeks earlier, more than ten thousand Thunyeri under Prince Skaiyelt, the son of the infamous King Rauschang, and at least four times as many Tydonni under Gothyelk, the bellicose Earl of Agansanor, had arrived.

I like this book so far but holy shit...

>>8373965

How is it that every time, literally EVERY TIME a Bakker excerpt is posted here, it is invariably, absolutely and undeniably shit?

I can't find the will to ever begin his books because of this fact.

>>8373973
That's because the book is shit, what did you think?

>>8374055

I didn't want to jump to this conclusion without having actually read it, but the evidence is overwhelming.

>>8373965

>THIS is the guy they say it's better than Wolfe

loving
every
laugh

>>8374084
Bakker says it himself mate

>>8374091

I'm gonna need a link for this, surely no man can be this fucking arrogant, hell even accomplished writers like Swanwick, LeGuin and GRRM acknowledge they're small time compared to the Genemeister.

>>8374100
He posts here and wrote long posts about how he's better than Wolfe. Didn't know it was him at the time so I didn't screenshot. >>8370004

>>8374110

Which is more likely, that a published author actually knows about this obscure thread on an irrelevant Burmese knitting convention and cares enough to post in it, OR that a retarded anon made a typo?

I swear Occam's Razor is all but forgotten lore these days.

>>8374119
/lit/ has had a solid number of published authors posting.
Fucks sake Aramini still posts.
Other than that, Laurie Penny, Tao Lin, Nick Land and maybe a few others I'm forgetting.

>>8374110
>believing b8 posts

Wew lad

>>8374307
>>8374307
>>8374307
>>8374307
NEW THREAD

>>8374157
>Laurie Penny
I really wanna fuck her....
I want her to call me degrading things as I plough her desolate tunnels