/lit/ - Literature

>>8461993
SJW Edition you mean

Does this get any better? I don't understand the praise it has received. It reads just like a shitty Jack Vance.

>>8462016

>shitty Jack Vance

Do you mean like one of Vance's bad stories or like a bad copy of Vance?

I just read most of Matthew Hughes' Hengis Hapthorn trilogy because of the critical comparison to Vance. The similarity is there but it's more "Kokod Warriors" than "The Languages of Pao". It wasn't bad but by the third novel, I was tired of Hapthorn.

>>8462002
I probably hate woman writers, except Le Guin, as much as you, but this is one I'm fine with.

Ancillary Justice was trash.

Oryx and Crake was meh.

>>8462063

What about Lois McMaster Bujold? I tried a bit of her Vorkosigan Saga and while I didn't really find it compelling, I don't recall it being used as a vehicle to showcase her gender.

>>8462092
She's okay, but the organization and recommended reading order/continuity is such a clusterfuck (30 works completely out of order, standout works among them don't even stand out) it adds to the stereotype that women are sorely scatterbrained.

Compare that shit to the relatively clear order of the Foundation, as well as the Galactic Empire, series. Like, it almost doesn't need to be said that Asimov is so much easier to get into, and more widely read.

Don't get me started on Darkover.

>>8462016
No. New Wave types liked it back in the day because it subverted heroic tropes. Michael Moorcock wanted it to be the New Wave Lord of the Rings he didn't have the talent to write.

>>8462127
You've gotta feel pretty bad for Moorcuck though, his only popular work was the literal antithesis of his personal beliefs and to this very day still writes hit pieces on popular blogs about Tolkien.

>>8462058
I meant a bad copy of Vance. I am actually just on page 80, but I'm questioning if it gets any better.

So wait is the Handmaidens Tale good or not?

I thought it was pretty interesting, at least the idea of a fallen manic Christian US was. It was obviously putting across a lot of ideas and themes about feminism which went over my head but I thought the story and world were pretty good. I was considering a 7-8/10.

>>8462164
I'm not sure why you're asking for confirmation when you already read and enjoyed the book. But yes it's good.

>>8462173
Well I also enjoyed the Dune sequels so I'm not sure if I trust myself. I've heard people talk shit about it on this board before, and seen it recommended as a troll once. I guess I just wanted to know if I was in the minority or not.

Reminder this sick asshole is a pedo, supports pedophilia, and is in general a low test edgelord.

>>8462180
Don't be fooled, most people in this board do not read books. Stay true to your own senses and judgement.

>>8462180

I wouldn't worry whether your preferences are popular or not. Besides, your tastes will change over time as you age.

>>8462195
>invents evolution
>asshole

you're probably a salty Lemarkfag

>>8462198
>invents evolution
>invents
>science

God confirmed real?

>>8462195

http://shetterly.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-conversation-with-samuel-r-delany.html

I came across this awhile back and found it an interesting read.

>>8462195
>Implying an author needs to be moraly correct in order to be good.

Bait 1/10, since you made me reply

>>8462198
Actually guy in pic invented the periodic table.

Checkmate gaytheists.

>>8462225

>>Implying an author needs to be moraly correct in order to be good.

No but they do tend to weave their perversions into their writing. If nothing else, it gets tiresome and therefore poor.

If they compartmentalize their inability to cope with being beta and keep it away from their writing, then I've got no problem with them.

>>8462231
Dimitry Mendeliv was a saint, get out.

>>8462254
You have never written a single shit in your life, have you?

>>8462223
>found from that link

>>8462367
he doesn't have to you cuck. and he clearly knows more about literature than you, which is enough for his critiques to be taken seriously, tripfag or not.

>>8462367
I'm sorry, that came out as pedantic. What I wanna say is that your comment is completely narrow minded and simplistic.

Assuming the do then to weave "perversions", as you call it, is simply not true.

Louis Ferdinand Celine, Roald Dahl, Erza Pound, just to name a few, are known polemic figures, yet they did nothing of the sort, and western literature wouldn't be the same without then.

On the other hand, must we asume someone like Pynchon, for example, is into coprofilia for his amazing description of it in Gravity's Rainbow?

A good author should be able to convey such "perversions" (again, your words) without having to be labeled as such.

Your view is simplistic and narrow minded.

>>8462387
If he knows more than literature than anyone in this place, then def this is not my place.

What is the thing you like most, and the thing you like least, about the fantasy genre?

>>8462387
It's like this place has never heard of Roland Barthes and the dead of the author

>>8462164
It's Redditor masturbation material and another case of "Heinlein did it better 20 years earlier".

>>8462400
Where did I say that idiot? Learn to read.

You should leave anyway.

>>8462446
Because I called bullshit on some dude's comment? Cry me a river, cunt.

>>8462410
Most: Made-up rules
Least: Dark Lordism

>>8462438
>>8462164
Also the author is objectively fucking awful at writing prose, it reads like a first draft where word corrupted the file and randomly injected prefixes everywhere.

And then there's the fucking ending, which is literally "lol and then social progress was made overnight!". The ideas, themes and concepts about feminism shouldn't have went over your head, they're so simple the book is primarily read in high school by 12 year olds.

>>8462396

I was referring to science fiction, or at least the authors I've read. If you're addressing a pan-literature critique, I can't defend it because I have no interest in Pynchon or D.F. Wallace.

My experience is by no means comprehensive but yes, their less desirable traits often seem to print through. However, so do their desirable traits. My point isn't that writers should be saints to be taken seriously; it is that their vices often do color their work. Assuming that to be true, the severity of the vice should be taken into account and I would rate pederasty quite high among vices.

Is it possible that I've read and enjoyed books by pedophiles? I would say yes. I wouldn't knowingly read or promote them, though. Some evils outweigh any good.

>>8462491
Fair enough answer, man. No mean to cause harm, you seem like a well read dude. Peace out.

>>8462501

No offense taken. This is 4chan, after all.

>>8462485
>"lol and then social progress was made overnight!".
???

The end takes place 200 years after the events in the book.

>"Well," Shallan said to the captain, blushing but still eager to speak, "I was just thinking this: You say that my beauty coaxed the winds to deliver us to Kharbranth with haste. But wouldn't that imply that on other trips, my lack of beauty was to blame for us arriving late?"
>"Well...er..."
>"So in reality," Shallan said, "you're telling me I'm beautiful precisely one-sixth of the time."
>"Nonsense! Young miss, you're like a morning sunrise, you are!"
>"Like a sunrise? By that you mean entirely too crimson"-she pulled at her long red hair-"and prone to making men grouchy when they see me?"
>He laughed, and several of the sailors nearby joined in. "All right then," Captain Tozbek said, "you're like a flower."
>She grimaced. "I'm allergic to flowers."
>He raised an eyebrow.
>"No, really," she admitted. "I think they're quite captivating. But if you were to give me a bouquet, you'd soon find me in a fit so energetic that it would have you searching the walls for stray freckles I might have blown free with the force of my sneezes."
>"Well, be that true, I still say you're as pretty as a flower."
>"If I am, then young men my age must be afflicted with the same allergy-for they keep their distance from me noticeably." She winced. "Now, see, I told you this wasn't polite. Young women should not act in such an irritable way."

>The man pulling the machine was short and dark-skinned, with a wide smile and full lips. He gestured for Shallan to sit, and she did so with the modest grace her nurses had drilled into her. The driver asked her a question in a clipped, terse-sounding language she didn't recognize.
>"What was that?" she asked Yalb.
>"He wants to know if you'd like to be pulled the long way or the short way." Yalb scratched his head.
>"I'm not right sure what the difference is."
>"I suspect one takes longer," Shallan said.
>"Oh, you are a clever one." Yalb said something to the porter in that same clipped language, and the man responded.
>"The long way gives a good view of the city," Yalb said. "The short way goes straight up to the Conclave. Not many good views, he says. I guess he noticed you were new to the city."
>"Do I stand out that much?" Shallan asked, flushing.
>"Eh, no, of course not, Brightness."
>"And by that you mean that I'm as obvious as a wart on a queen's nose."
>Yalb laughed.

can't believe i fell for the meme. two chapters of fighting with no characterization worth a damn, then this autist

fucking DROPPED with the force of a thousand suns

>>8462530
Pro-tip: Read a history book about Welsh law to understand why the ending is hilarious.

>>8462501
There see, he showed again he's smarter than you, even if he isn't widely read in literary fiction. Why do cucks like you have knee-jerk reactions to this sort of polemic?

>>8462548

You might at least update the quoted passages in that copypasta, friend anon.

>>8462578
no i will sink his career through repitition

>>8462578
no i will sink his career through repetition

>>8462195
he black tho

How is GRRM's prequel book, 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms'? I finished the series the month A Dance With Dragons came out, which must have been at least 4 years ago. Is it worth trying?

>>8462564
what the fuck does Welsh law have to do with the Handmaid's Tale?

>>8462593
Your one dimensional hatred makes me want to read the book t b h

>>8462610

I liked it more than the main Song of ice and fire series desu Since its a knight going around and having small adventures like the stuff i read as a kid. Feels much more satisfying and actually has pacing throughout the short stories rather than the mess that his books have become. I wish he would just write Dunk and egg stories instead

>>8462623
dont say that

>>8462548
you're clearly a darkeye pleb

>>8462633

Have you read "Tuf Voyaging" by GRRM? It reads more like a series of short stories using the same protagonist, Tuf Haviland.

why didn't you guys tell me a song of ice and fire was boring as fuck before i bought all the books? i'm trying to get through a clash of kings but i keep dozing off.

>>8462653
just watch the TV series

>>8462653
That's the good part. If you want boring get ready for book 4.

>>8462652

Nah ive only read his song of ice and fire stuff. I did know that he had written sci fi but ive never read any of it. Is it actually good? or is it a mess like game of thrones

>>8462653

God help you if you try to read books 4 and 5. Dance with Dragons is cocktease: the book

>>8461593
I'm gonna have to be that asshole and ask, none of theses stories were copyedited were they?

>>8462657
the tv show is garbage.

>>8462653
I only liked the 1st and 3rd books. The 2nd is meh. The 4th and 5th book are filler-trash.

What are some good dark sci-fi books? Not cyberpunk, mind you

Preferably something that points out the fragility of man and the powerlessness of technology in the larger scene of existence. Dark, helpless tone is a must.

Something like a futuristic Lovecraft

Hello, what's a good book that involves a time distorted city? Already read Dhalgren.

>>8462667

>Is it actually good?

I would say it's worth reading. I haven't read the Dunk & Egg stories so I can't directly compare them to give you a better idea but the underlying concept of the novel is interesting. It's earlier writing so his dialogue and characterization isn't as polished as it is in Game of Thrones.

>or is it a mess like game of thrones

You know, it's valid to say the series after "Storm of Swords" is pagefiller trash but the series to that point was very good. I can't really hate on GRRM for bowing to the logic of market forces and choosing wealth over quality production.

>>8462693

Poul Anderson's "Tau Zero" fits the bill, I think.

P.K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly" or "UBIK", possibly although those are more innerspace than outer space.

>>8462704

The summary seems interesting so ill pick it up in the next few days.

>>8462704

>You know, it's valid to say the series after
"Storm of Swords" is pagefiller trash but the series to that point was very good. I can't really hate on GRRM for bowing to the logic of market forces and choosing wealth over quality production.

Yeah i used to really like the series but im just annoyed because i finished a re read of 4 and 5 and realised how bad they are in comparison to the earlier ones. Im just hoping its a mid series slump that gets broken whenever the next book comes out

>>8462716

>Im just hoping its a mid series slump that gets broken whenever the next book comes out

Anything is possible but I suspect "A Song of Ice and Fire" is to this generation what "Wheel of Time" was to mine: a lesson in the economics of publishing. At least this one has a twist, what with GRRM having the TV royalties as well. Perhaps being financially secure beyond any reasonable expectation will allow him to turn his attention to preserving a legacy. I doubt it but maybe.

Hello, what's a good book that involves a time distorted city (or any other particular place)? Already read Dhalgren.

>>8462693

Oh hey, I was just checking GRRM's scifi novels to see if I had read any others and one of them might be what you're after: "Dying of the Light". I haven't read it but the Wiki summary fits.

I hate to ask for recommendations but I have practically no idea where to start. Does anyone know any space opera sci-fi books that are similar to this? But done better basically, the closest I have found was The Red Rising Trilogy which has all I like about pic related, so anything that contains Mars, orphan young protagonists, brutal and dark tone and a lot of politics.

hey there fantasy people

I had a dream some nights ago and it was weird, I met like, an evil Randall Flagg style wizard and he told me his name, and I was like "Wow that is a good name for an eldritch wizard" and then I woke up, so I could write it down.

But it sounds super arabic to me, and im trying avoid it

"Guerm Al Vulca".

Is that good? How can I make it sound less arabic?

>>8463060

Try /tg/ if you don't get an answer you like here.

>Vulcar the Eternal

>>8463039
Stick to A/Z faggot.

>>8463039

Hmm. Greg Bear meets Fullmetal Alchemist. Nope, can't say I've come across anything that matches.

>>8463039
Endymion is really similar to IBO and indeed the Gundam franchise for all the wrong reasons especially because the female protagonist is the spitting image of Mineva/Kudelia and suddenly everyone becomes a newtype. I believe Mars features roughly once. A couple of times?

Hyperion (the two books before Endymion) is less space opera but fantastic and worth the read.

All the books have much more religion in them than Gundam.

>>8463093
>be subhuman then get adopted by guy who (almost) killed your waifu and wage interplanetary war also mars.png
>that file name
You know, I read Kay's Tigana (which is not in any way shape or form anything to do with scifi) and Brandin actually makes Slaine look well adjusted.

I read two Philip K Dick short stories from the early 1950s: Defenders, and Second Variety. Two post-nuclear Cold War tales with robots.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed them, especially Second Variety. Its images of desperate military bunkers beneath ruinous ash-strewn landscapes, filled with killing machines, will be appreciated by anybody who watched the Terminator films.

>>8463224

Have you read "Wool" by Hugh Howey?

Opinions on this trilogy?

>>8463242
Yes, and I liked it. It was published serially, which I think impacts the structure of genre fiction in a positive way, pushing it out of the three act rut a bit. It irritates some people, though.

As a story, all of the weight rests on the concept, with the characters just acting out the scenario. Not necessarily a bad thing. I gave the book a solid 3/5, the sequel a less solid 3/5 and the third a weak 2.

>>8463242
I hadn't heard of it, but it looks popular and something that I might enjoy. I can never quite tell. New authors are a leap of faith. Meanwhile the to-read pile accumulates steadily.

>>8461993
>tfw dont know what to read next
pls kill me rn

>>8462693
Blindsight

>>8463298
Fellow anons aren't complying with you? Consult the i ching my nigga.

>>8463224

>Second Variety

Thanks, I picked up the ebook from Project Gutenberg. It's pretty good so far--coming up with "The Terminator" in 1953 is remarkable.

>>8463298

>>8461993

>blurb from Salon

hoo boy

>>8463266
>Dragons are overdone? This isn't a dragon...it's a...flying dinosaur...

Any new good coming of age fantasy/science fiction come out this year?

>>8463060
It already doesn't sound Arabic.
1. Arabic, save the Egyptian dialect, has no g sound.
2. Arabic can't have two vowels consecutively.
3. Arabic never has a v sound.

>>8463479
>2.
يوم for instance you retard

Is Django Wexler any good?

I'm 100 pages into The Thousand Names and the pace is so glacial that I'm considering dropping it already.

>>8463565
Yes, it gets better once Janus starts flexing some muscle

>>8463576
Cool I'll carry on

I don't have an issue with not revealing your plot straight away but I was losing faith a bit

>>8463537
Except that ي is exactly analogous to y in that it sometimes acts as a consonant and sometimes as a vowel. The first letter of "Yankee" is a consonant even though the last letter of "why" is a vowel. يوم is an example of the former.

Also, >>8463060 you should go full parody and call him "Gurm el-Baka". You could even make the tetragrammaton "GRRM" significant.

>>8463436

>>This isn't a dragon...it's a...flying dinosaur...

Incidentally, does anyone know when dragons showed up in fiction?

>flying dinosaurs make a lot more sense

>>8463598

>Incidentally, does anyone know when dragons showed up in fiction?

Dragons are ancient mythological creatures (although i bet their characteristics have changed depending on the culture) that appear in stuff like Gilgamesh and Beowulf (and this Mosaic of a Roman dragon). So i think its safe to say they have existed for most of Human civilisation in Folk stories and stuff. But im betting some more knowledgble people could trace the creation of the 'Modern Dragon' to some exact date or period

>>8463598
>when dragons showed up in fiction?
They predate the written word

>>8463093
To be honest I can't think about Aldnoah Zero without getting a little nauseous and that was just after watching the first three eps. I like the idea of IBO much better than the execution of that premise as of now though so that's why I stuck with it longer.
>>8463115
At least you tried.
>>8463176
Thanks, I'll definitely try those books out.

>>8463619

Hmm, interesting. Wiki says that mosaic dates to the third century BC. I was guessing dragons were Norse but it's clearly much older--from what I've come across, China may have the oldest evidence to date at 5000(!)BC.

Thanks, anons.

Hey guys <3 can you recommend me something like Ender's Game, but without ender turning into a giant pussy?

So I read a few of Jemisin's other books (namely The Inheritance trilogy and Killing Moon) and I have to say that they aren't anywhere nearly as well written or polished as TBE.

>The Inheritance Trilogy
The Inheritance trilogy has a very simple prose style except in the third book but unfortunately the plot in the first and second books are more developed whereas the third book essentially consists of pagefiller and then a random battle. The third book also reads like Jemisin initially loved the universe and as time went on it became a chore to write. The first book has the best pacing and sequence of events and the worst prose but it's a very light series where random edgy occurrences happen for no reason and have no real lasting impact on anyone. The second book extends upon the universe established in the first in a more logical manner whilst worldbuilding in a different manner without losing the dramatic tension that the third does.

Gods or otherwise supremely overpowered beings on the side of the protags are a genuinely awful concept in fiction as there is no real tension or meaning if they have reality warping powers to shape any circumstance to their whims. The series should have ended at the superior book number 2 as it not only maintains a good dose of tension and plotting but also has a surprise ending. Not randomly wanting to cause a genocide isn't an excuse for non-interventionism especially if the characters themselves make it clear that they care about the outcome.

Unfortunately a good portion of the characters are obviously evil or behave gratingly like being a fucking faggot versus a bigger fucking faggot and the third book is narrated by the shota god of childhood shitposting. The second book is somewhat a significant improvement on this state of affairs.

cont

>>8463901
>Killing Moon
It's somewhere in between Inheritance and TBE in quality. It's almost like a proto TBE as Jemisin leaves behind that awful first voice narration and makes significant improvements to the worldbuilding and prose. The plot pacing is fixed. Lapses in characterisation never occur and the mood is not ‘happy go lucky and moments of edginess’ like Inheritance. The characters encounter interesting philosophical quandaries such as euthanasia and have their views challenged and pleasingly reach a middle ground. The characters are more morally grey which is good and are not bizarrely grating like IT. Also, much like TBE plot doesn’t rely on random battles but internal struggles and conflicts and the characters feel and act more humanly than IT with more complex machinations and red herrings.

The ending definitely does the book as a whole justice.

Conclusion: Killing Moon is worth reading if you like TBE but is still a bit unpolished compared to the most recent works. Inheritance Trilogy is not worth it other than book 2 unless you like bad anime cliches. I mean it’s fun, but there’s nothing about it that is especially thought provoking about it.

>>8463565
I've only read the first book, but it's not bad.
I enjoyed the first two thirds of it, the last third devolves into a bunch of meaningless intrigue and anime magic shit that feels almost entirely divorced from the story that precedes it

>>8462693
Revelation Space universe if you want sub-light speeds and an overall BAD END.

>>8463849
Red rising

>get The Inheritance Trilogy
>skim through "Praise for the DREAMBLOOD DUOLOGY"
>“Ah, N. K. Jemisin, you can do no wrong.” —Felicia Day
I think I've made a mistake

>>8464046
why are you people so fucking autistic

>>8464046
Inheritance feels like it's written by a completely different author compared to The Broken Earth.

>implied rape, consensual rape, shotacon (attempted /ss/ momcon and gay), incest, sex on false pretences, suddenly a brothel (not that I had sex with anyone there because everyone's too busy fucking multiple people regardless of whether they're related or not), NTR, public denouncement of whores, cannibalism, implied BDSM

also
>reading the cover

Is Latro in the Mist and Soldier of Sidon good? I'm a fan of historical fiction, Robert Graves, Williams's Augustus, etc.

>>8462410
Most: Complex mythologies and legends distorted by time
Least: antiheroes

>>8464058
A deeply rooted fear of women

>>8464058
A deeply rooted fear of ebooks.

>>8464058
I run both ublock and umatrix with custom rulesets, hosts file blocking, multiple privacy tracking blocking lists, disabled social media tracking and blocked typing detecting and a whole bunch of cosmetic filtering and even I'm not autistic enough to care about book advertising on the png.

>>8464145
Isn't it hilarious how overabused antiheroes were back in the 90's and early 00's that it directly caused the goody two-shoes action hero movie craze of the last 10 years.

>>8462410
Favourite: muh redemption tropes, science fantasy, regular fantasy, aluminium christmas trees, morality pet especially a loli, apocalyptic settings, mind screw, heel face revolving door, laser guided karma, trauma conga line, a balanced magic system, DEEPEST LORE, woobie destroyer of the worlds especially loli, cloudcuckoolander, villain with good publicity, genre savvy, well done time travel

Least: military drama (it's better with scifi), gratingly edgy shit, cliched epic fantasy, black and white morality, too much focus on mythical animal, coloured swords, school setting, gods, 'I forged an amazingly overpowered magic sword and it has a specially inset coloured gem that shines in all different colours', faerie tales, slice of life, didn't read the evil overlord list, genre blind, did not do the research

>>8462410
Most: complex worlds that reveal themselves gradually over the course of the book(s)
Least: BOB WAS BLUE EYED WHICH MEANT HE COULD USE THE BLUE MAGIC
BLUE MAGIC WAS MADE FROM WATER AND IT WAS USED TO CALM PEOPLE
BOB COULD ONLY USE BLUE MAGIC FOR AS LONG AS HE COULD SUSTAIN AN ERECTION WHILST STARING AT THE SUN

>>8464230
>BOB COULD ONLY USE BLUE MAGIC FOR AS LONG AS HE COULD SUSTAIN AN ERECTION WHILST STARING AT THE SUN
Well we have to have some way of killing off those mages.

>>8464219
tvtropes.org pls go

>>8462410
Most: Adventure and discovery, long journeys, protagonists gaining new powers and changing the way they see the world and interact with it, worldbuilding in general, crazy battles and wars.

Least: Destiny and chosen one cliches, All the gods being real and all the legends being true, SF that goes too far into the future and loses the detail of its own setting, mind control.

>>8464243
>All the gods being real
Even better when they're completely inconsequential to the story.

>>8464243
I hate gods but they're fine as long as they are used sparingly at the very end of the last novel of the series.
Deus ex god is the biggest sign of shark jumping in a book.

>>8464253
I can't remember reading anything where the objectively factual gods outright interfered with the story.

I've been told they do in Malazan though, is that what you guys are referring to?

>>8464270
>I can't remember reading anything where the objectively factual gods outright interfered with the story.
It's the main plot of Trudi Canavan's Age of the Five

>>8464277
>Women authors
Stop. I'm not being rused again.

>>8462410
Most: Swords & castles
Least: Having to read them

Hey guys, recommend me some good dark fantasy.
Please and thank you.

>>8464380
Anything by Bakker

>>8464242
I can't stop anon.

>>8464143
>Is Latro in the Mist and Soldier of Sidon good?

It's by Meme Wolfe, so obviously.

>>8464143
It's by Wolfe, so obviously not.

>>8464386
Thanks, amigo.

>Just started reading Ancillary Justice
>Starts talking about gender pronouns on the third page

Weeeeeew lad. Im guessing this book gets memed on a lot

>>8464400
>>8464402
Thanks for the honest answers.

I've been asking the exact same question in the SFF threads for like the past week and nobody ever responds to me, but here the fuck goes....

Aside from "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" what are the best short stories and short story collections by Harlan Ellison?

>>8464424
Probably because no one has read them. Why don't you try one at random if you like him so much?

>>8464424
Read "The Essential Ellison" or "The Top of the Volcano: the Award-Winning Stories of Harlan Ellison".

>>8463901
Mostly can't argue with this. The Inheritance books are defined in equal parts by adventure, god-mortal romance, and politics. The first book has a strong set-up but shaky execution, the third book had more polished execution but the least appealing set-up. Book two is the best book because Jemisin finds her feet as an author, the book is heavier on the adventure than on the romance or politics, and relative to the other two it's a very compact and personal story. I thought the worldbuilding across the whole trilogy was a blast and I'd love to have more people to shitpost about SHINY IS BEST BOY, OREE IS MAI WAIFU with, but it's unquestionably less innovative fantasy than Broken Earth and I can't get mad if people don't want to touch it.

The only thing I'll quibble with is the idea that having gods on the side of the protags reduces the tension. The god aligned with the protagonist in every book is always massively debuffed, and could be crushed by an opposing force.

Also, for you personally, since book two was your favorite, you should consider hunting down "Shades in Shadow" for the short story about Glee chasing down Itempas and him being autism-moe with her.

>>8464068
Don't for the series of events that sets the entire series in motion is an autistic yandere brocon killing his sister so he can fuck his brother for eternity.

>>8463902
Now if you want peak "what the fuck," you'd have to keep reading Shadowed Sun. Normally I tell people to avoid Shadowed Sun, because Killing Moon has such a solid ending and Shadowed Sun is a clusterfuck, but I want someone else to know about this mess.

There are two main and interwoven plots: a political resistance plot, and a dream plague plot. The dream plague plot arises because a nobleman has been repeatedly raping his daughter, producing an incest baby who he forces to live in the cellar. The women in the family have undiscovered strong dream magic, and this culminates in the incest baby's strong magic and misery unleashing something on the city where... I can't remember the specifics, I think people fell asleep, had nightmares, and couldn't wake up and then die. Also a guy sets a girl up to be raped by his political rival so he can denounce the political rival, except the girl kills the would-be rapist. The guy and the girl become an item despite this bullshit.

>>8464386

Shouldn't you be writing your new book instead?

Been reading The Emperor's Blades.

On the 2nd book and been enjoying it a lot thus far. Adara sections makes me want to sleep though.

>>8464468
>SHINY IS BEST BOY, OREE IS MAI WAIFU
Fuck yeah, I really loved Shiny and Oree together. It was an extremely adorable romance The ending was so out of left field that it was saddening and I wish they had book time in the third book.

>Glee chasing down Itempas and him being autism-moe with her.
I'm definitely sold on that one. The gods can certainly be moe when they feel like it.

>Don't for the series of events that sets the entire series in motion is an autistic yandere brocon killing his sister so he can fuck his brother for eternity.
Too true. That was kinda hot though...

With all the plot twists going on in all her other works, I'm beginning to wonder who's going to end up with who at the end of the Broken Earth.

>There are two main and interwoven plots: a political resistance plot, and a dream plague plot. The dream plague plot arises because a nobleman has been repeatedly raping his daughter, producing an incest baby who he forces to live in the cellar. The women in the family have undiscovered strong dream magic, and this culminates in the incest baby's strong magic and misery unleashing something on the city where... I can't remember the specifics, I think people fell asleep, had nightmares, and couldn't wake up and then die. Also a guy sets a girl up to be raped by his political rival so he can denounce the political rival, except the girl kills the would-be rapist. The guy and the girl become an item despite this bullshit.

Wew lad. I honestly wouldn't have expected Jemisin to write something like that

>>8464489
I liked the first book but didn't get into the second at all

Think it was because he did that awful thing of forcing irony with them coming to court as she leaves it.

You have to earn that contrivance

>>8464515
>I wish they had book time in the third book.

Oh so here's some real bullshit. Shiny and Oree do have a short story, "Not The End," that takes place shortly after the end of Kingdom of Gods, and it's perfect. But it was only published in the individual run of Kingdom of Gods, and not in the omnibus Inheritance Trilogy collection. I don't think this oversight can be blamed on Jemisin, but if you bought the omnibus, you should acquire a copy of the original Kingdom of Gods for "Not The End."

>>8464535
>Not The End
Thankfully, it's actually in all the epubs from overdrive. I could give you a copy if you like.

>>8464386
He's good but I really despise how there's an obvious real world parallel for everything. It started off good, the Ainoni seemed unique...then the Nansurium obviously being the Greek empire, then jumping the shark with Shigek and the obvious false-Coptics. I've had enough off political memery, I only read for a few of the characters now, and the Consult.

>>8463593
I meant the a and u sounds you double fucktard. Two consecutive consonant sounds are there. Stop trying to pussy out of it with your "sometimes y" ass pull.

>>8464424
>nobody ever responds to me, but here the fuck goes....

I posted this(pic related), why you fucking lie?
This why ppl ignore your asses, we give you recommendations and you fucking ignore it.

Get fucked faggot.

>>8462410
Most: Catgirls, bizarre allegorical tourism, economic escapades

Least: Lack of Catgirls, overdone romance

>>8464424
Collections: Just get The Essential Ellison, although it does contain a lot of juvenilia or outright marginal stories.

Stories
>Great
IHNMAIMS, obviously
Adrift off the Islets of Langerhans
Repent, Harlequin
Jeffty is Five
Prowler in the City

>Good:
Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes
Grail
The Deathbird
Along the Scenic Route
The Resurgence of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie (NOT SF)

>>8464780
Hi cherrylfag anon

>>8464895
What about this >>8464756 it contains handpicked stories by the author himself.

Left me feeling dirty desu.

>>8464973
I'm not me, I swear!

could use some recs

liked:
hyperion & fall of
foundation
dune ofc
gateway

planning to read:
book of the new sun
blindsight
chasm city

any other shit I need to read?

>>8462410
Most: Interesting monsters (maybe monstergirls), weird sex and romance, and dark rustic village settings.

Least: EPIC stuff about kings and gods, too many made-up names, stock monster types done the same as always.

>>8465005
Does your future hold a Faded Sun?

Dune -> ?Space Muslims? <- The Faded Sun

>>8465027
Are catgirls in there too?

>>8465037
Unfortunately not. Venomous pet bear things, yes. Hermaphroditic flesh mounds that travel by electric cart, yes. Sensual feline warrior women, no.

>>8465027
>duncan
TRIGGERED

Am i a pleb for not liking first person writing? it really takes me out of the book to see 'I' repeated 4 or 5 times each paragraph. Its kind of putting me off Ancillary Justice

>>8465338
First person takes a lot more skill to pull off than third so you will find it more annoying with bad writers.

Black Company's first person and it never bothered me but that edgy post-apoc fantasy (Prince of something) was so grating as 1st person

>>8465409

>Black Company's first person and it never bothered me

yeah now that you mention it i really enjoyed Black company and never had problems with the writing so it could just be that the book im reading is a bit shit because its a debut

>>8464412
Yeah, mentioning it typically triggers the memesters, even though I've read older SF books that used the same "author only uses a single pronoun to illustrate that you're either a roman citizen or a barbarian, and that's the only thing that matters" narrative element.

Keep at it though, the story really takes off past the first quarter/third after all the world building (saundersonheavybreathing.jpg) is done.

>>8465409
Prince of Nothing is third person you ignorant pleb

>>8465598
Good thing I meant Prince of Thorns then

I can't believe they actually pay for the stories published in Analog, holy fuck I thought I was reading satire at first.

>>8465629
Ah, in which case I agree with you 100%

PoT isn't worth the paper it's printed on

>>8465589

The whole no explicit gender thing annoys me though not for any personal or political reason i just think its a dumb gimmick that doesnt add much (probably a pleb opinion desu). My work around is that ill just decide X person is a Guy etc which should help i think

Is this worth a read?
How is the translation?
Thanks in andvance

>>8465884
>Write character to be hilariously masculine
>Wait until readers are calling said character a he
>Write article for the New Statesman about how it's white privilege to automatically assume character is male

>>8465915
The translation is very literal; you'll never forget that you're reading a translation of a Japanese novel. This screencap is pretty representative.

The book begins with a history of the Empire and Federation, and starting off with a massive infodump is a little awkward. The OVA series made a good decision moving that material to the middle of the series (it's all covered in the episodes when Julian is travelling to Earth and watches the History Channel).

But on the whole? I read the first book without having seen the OVAs, and I liked it enough to go watch the OVAs. I guess that reflects well on it.

can anyone shoot me some scifi recs? Im skimming through the recs list, but I cant find shit that sounds interesting

liked:
>roadside picnic
>demolished man
>lord of light
>childhoods paradise
>martian chronicles
>the stars my destination (tiger, tiger)
>left hand of darkness
>city and the stars
>fountains of paradise
>rendezvous with rama
>city
>hardboiled wonderland
>solaris
>hard to be a god

meh:
>f451
>1984
>hell is the absence of god
>carpet makers

disliked:
>dune (literal garbage, wouldnt even use it as toilet paper)

>>8465946
Blindsight

How did "Mayans riding dinosaurs equipped with flamethrowers across Antarctica" go so wrong?

>>8465942
What does "OVA" refer to?

>>8465946

>>8465946
forgot to add:

dislike:
necromancer

>>8465956
I'll give it a shot

>>8465942
Can you link the pdfs, please?

>>8465968
"Original video animation." The Legend of the Galactic Heroes novel series was adapted into a 108-episode OVA series (plus another few dozen episodes of side stories) in the '80s and '90s.

Although only the first few novels have been translated and published (I think there are ten books and only two are out in English), the entire OVA series has been subtitled. So if you don't want to wait a year for the remaining novels, and you have forty hours to kill watching anime, you can watch the OVAs instead of reading the books.

>>8465987
I paid for it.

>>8465946
Childhood's End

You might like Rogue Moon -- Bester-ish.

>>8466012
Ah, that's cool. Where'd you buy it from? I really enjoyed the OVA.

>>8466035
nvm used google

>>8465946
>can anyone shoot me some recs
>"dune is garbage"

I'd be happy to shoot you my man.

>>8465946

You like a lot of older stuff so I will list some well-known titles from the 1950 that I liked.

Theodore Sturgeon - The Dreaming Jewels
> A beaten orphan runs away to a traveling circus carrying a toy, whose eyes have powers of human regeneration. Featuring a cast of midgets, carnies, and a villainous ringmaster.

George R Stewart - Earth Abides
> A student of anthropology survives a virus which has wiped out the population. He looks for survivors, forms a tribe, and tries too preserve knowledge and skills over a life time. Lots of passages about nature reclaiming the land, destroying cities, and of how people think.

Brian Aldiss - Nonstop
>Life among a primordial tribe who are unaware they are living on a large starship that has been on auto-pilot for generations. The ship is overgrown with plants. A rebellious teenager is expelled from his tribe and explores the ship with other outcasts, including a fat priest. They discover other tribes and the secret of the ship.

Jack Finney - Body Snatchers
>Alien spores produce perfect copies of people while they sleep. They overthrow an idealised 50's suburbia. Two divorcees, including a doctor, seek to get the word out and defy them. Psychological horror and SF hybrid.

>>8466012
I never understood why it's called "Original". are there unoriginal or stolen ones? do they also have a seal like that?

>>8466084
>Original video animation (オリジナル・ビデオ・アニメーション Orijinaru bideo animēshon?), abbreviated as OVA (オーブイエー / オーヴィーエー / オヴァ ōbuiē, ōvīē or ova?) media (and sometimes as OAV, original animated video), are animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theatres, though the first part of an OVA series may be broadcast for promotional purposes.

Any suggestions about exploratory or "research mission" style scifi where everybody isn't complete idiots? I mean the opposite of stuff like:
>The Europa Report, where instead of coming back to take a rest and then go fix the damaged communications system the astronaut goes "NAH BRO I'LL DO IT REAL QUICK" and dies because he gets hydrazine on his space suit and doesn't have enough time to clean it off before his suit runs out of oxygen

>Jack McDevitt's "Academy" series, where researchers are continually dying because you'd think that after decades of exploration teams getting killed they'd start issuing hazardous environment suits and personal weapons, but nope, everybody is still running around in their university sweatshirts and oh no Chad the Xenobiologist got killed by a bunch of giant predatory flying jellyfish and all we have to defend ourselves is some laser cutters

>>8466097
the person on the screen looked like Merkel in the thumbnail

>though the first part of an OVA series may be broadcast for promotional purposes.
that'd remove its "original" status then

>>8466113
Not actually read it but Southern Reach might fit

>>8462652
damn, i read that book when i was twelve and could never remember enough details to track it down again. Thanks for the nostalgia.

>>8462410
Most: Detail. Good fantasy is like exploring a whole new world. Countries, cultures, languages, and factions all interacting with each other in believable ways.

Least: Overly reflective characters. No, Abercrombie, your average hardass doesn't spend hours every day moping about how his circumstances have forced him to be a shitty person. And it doesn't add anything to the story to listen to it. And I hate litfags who think no fantasy can be good without frequent philosophical monologues.

>>8464380
Don't listen to this fag >>8464386 . Bakker's not particularly dark. I just finished his second-latest book today--it's quite good, and it has its grim parts, but it's not dark overall.

If you're looking for dark as in everything's going to shit and no one's allowed to be happy dark, I recommend The First Law by Abercrombie. It's dark in a very cynical sort of way, I found that to detract from it but you might like it. If you want dark as in blood and guts, I can't help you.

>>8464625
I agree--it didn't ruin it that much for me but it did bother me a little. I love a detailed background to a story, and I much prefer Bakker's approach to slacking on the details or making a world that doesn't make sense, but still.

>>8466476

You're welcome. The plague star always sticks in my head.

Is this book good? I saw the movie and it was trash but the cartoon was good. Christopher Tolkien's father wrote this book.

>>8465946
To accompany Roadside Picnic and Rendevouz I'd recommend Gateway by Pohl, which kind of combines the two into one. Also for Roadside try Metro 2033, which is kind of the bastard child if you enjoy Russian literature. Also read more Clarke he's great.

Solaris I've also read but I can't really think that accompanied that well. As weird as it sounds, maybe some Ballard? I read The Drought strait after Solaris on holiday and was left with rather similar feelings of confusion and helplessness. Perhaps that was personal context.

If you thought 1984 was meh, then at least try Huxley's sister novel Brave New World. If that doesn't tickle your fancy then go to the root of the problem and read Zenyatin's We.

Dune is overrated but please don't write off the space fantasy sci-fi genre. Try the first and second of the Foundation trilogy by Asimov, which are solid gold. If you enjoy them then you owe it to yourself to chew through the rest of Asimov.

Hope I helped!

>>8466614
The only story i recall is the arms race he manipulates on the arena world. The fact that its grrm makes me want to read it again and see how it fares, ASOIAF was so bad i dropped it mid-book.

>>8465946
Try Star Maker. It's an epic scope history of the entire universe comprising dozens of civilizations, from the perspective of a disembodied man seeking evidence of an underlying purpose to existence, written around 1950.

Anyone here have a hardon for Fredric Brown? I read a short story book by him a long time ago and The Arena was mindblowing. Google "The Arena Fredric Brown" and ULL has a free PDF.

>>8466600
How can First Law be darker than PoN? PoN has GR in the first two pages, and I less than 100 pages later. Rape and torture throughout, a realistic portayal of how dehumanizing being a whore or concubine was.... Like Anon above said, First Law is a lot of moping and reflecting and DnD party shenanigans. I liked First Law, but saying that it's darker than PoN is just wrong.

>>8466605
Mmmhmmm, exactly. Why not go all the way and make a fully unique, deep world like Dune or Ringworld? But he's not bad.

>It is the story of five University of Toronto senior law and medical students, who are drawn into the 'first world of the Tapestry' by the mage Loren Silvercloak.

This sounds fucking cancerous.

>>8465692

What's so bad about them?

>>8466728
Both of those posts, and "Anon above" were me...

Like I said, if the "dark" you're looking for is blood, guts, and gri, I can't help you, and also you're a shit for wanting that.

I say Abercrombie's work is darker--not in a good or bad way, it just is--because of the overall sense of doom. The whole series almost seems like an attempt to convince you that every sense of independence is futile, everyone is always being manipulated somehow, and no one can direct their own life without either being tricked or turning into some sort of self-hating murderous asshole.

Bakker's story has an overall sense of achievement and hope. Sure, a few people get raped and enslaved, there's some treachery and unfair circumstances. But the characters that succeed are the ones that keep their ideals and goals even when shit sucks bad, and overall, you get to watch a set of interesting, realistic, and ultimately not futile military campaigns.

Abercrombie's message is, "All war is terrible and pointless, no matter the very real reasons it started." Bakker, on the other hand, seems to be saying, "War is very tedious and shitty, and a lot of atrocities happen, but they also save the world sometimes." He portrays a war without glorifying or criticizing it--he just shows the good and the bad side by side, as they actually happen. Yes, someone can rape a few people and then go on to contribute to the protection of a nation.

>>8466730
As an attorney and a fairly recent law school graduate, I can promise that law students are the worst people to send to a fantasy world. At least seventy-five percent would go Edmund Pevensie and work for the local dark lord in exchange for a clean apartment, liquor, and student loan forgiveness. The remaining twenty-five percent would voraciously support the forces of good, but be tremendous pains in the ass about orc lives matter, using "swarthy" to describe the hordes of evil, cruel and unusual punishment, etc.

I couldn't do it /sffg/

I wrote for four days in a row, but today I tried and created nothing new. I knew what I was going to say, but the words came out misshapen and ugly. I couldn't do it.

>>8466780
the orcish predators must be brought to heel.

>>8465972
thank you very much, I'll give it a shot

>>8466024
ye, somehow mixed "childhoods end" with "fountains of paradise"

Sounds promising, I'll try to get it from somewhere. Thanks for the rec!

>>8466053
Im sorry that I dont tolerate fanfiction tier prose.

>>8466066
Very helpful, thank you. I actually remember wanting to read Earth Abides, but I somehow forgot about it. Thanks for the recs!

Nonstop sounds like something I wanted to write when I was a kid, I'll definitely try to read that one.


>>8466636
Gateway sounds very interesting, thank you very much.

I've actually read BNV and enjoyed it, forgot to mention it. I'll definitely check out We in the near future.

The thing about Dune is, it's the 'bookification' of the 'idea-guy' in the video-game industry. Listening to someone talking about Dune is far more interesting than the book itself, which has to be worst prose I've read in a long time. Beginning from the introduction of important thing ("oh no she has the one sword, you know the most important sword blabla" - ever heard of show dont tell, buddy ?) to the 'action'-scenes; it's all just embarrassing. I give him props for the world and the idea, but a 0 for execution.

>>8466722
Honest to god, your description of the book was like 1000 times better in getting me interested in the book, than the description on goodreads. I'll give this one a shot, too. Thanks anon.
These responses are all gold, very much appreciated.

>>8466815
Then just write short fanfics until you can shit out something.

>>8466880
while not a fanfic it was a short story... or at least, it's supposed to be. I'm at the start of page 4 and the introduction isn't out of the way yet so I guess not

>>8466905
>or at least, it's supposed to be
Every time.

>>8466113
Clarke wrote a lot of this, especially in short format--you can't go wrong picking up his collected short stories.

For longer works, try the Odyssey series (especially 2061) and Rendezvous with Rama.

>>8466815
Don't read it you idiot. Just finish it.

>>8466943
I did it. I wrote, if only a paragraph and a half. It's awful to look at. my writing is bad and a feel bad

Rogga genocide best day of my life

>>8463964
Already read the trilogy :(


Any other QUALITY military scifi ?

Shit like Out of the Dark by David Weber is good besides the retarded plot twist

>>8464213
I'm still not ready for antiheroes to make a comeback. That fad can stay dead.

>>8467109
Go to bed Father Earth

>>8466780

>At least seventy-five percent would go Edmund Pevensie

I had to look up Edmund first but then I grinned.

>>8465005
>book of the new sun

You will not be disappointed

>>8466730
Read Everworld.

>>8467205
Try authors like Bv Larson and Neal Asher.

Agent Cormac is futuristic military sci-fi, although a bit serious. Futuristic bio&cyberpunk(kinda) in space, tech has reached the level that we have AIs and we can't be trusted... so the AIs have taken over.

Undying mercenaries is also futuristic military sci-fi, but it isn't 100% serious. It's about a redneck joining a futuristic roman space legion and fucking shit up so much that he started an intergalactic war(kinda).

I've been shilling (just name dropping) these 2 authors for months (since last year) and up to now I don't know if anyone actually read them. Please report back if you actually read them.

>>8465946
Revelation Space

>>8466097
Look at Yang's wastebasket. He's been masturbating a lot lately.

>>8465961

Isnt Pinto Brazillian slang for small penis?

Can anyone recommend more long ass, overly detailed fantasy? I'm looking for something to listen to the audiobooks in the car that'll last for several months, along the lines of WoT, Black Company, and Bakker

>>8468286
Anita Blake and Terry prachet. Together they are over 50 books, they are both shit though.

>>8468286
Temeraire. Good series and good audiobooks, but autistic fixation on describing ocean voyages.

>book one: ungodly detail about being on a ship
>book two: ungodly detail about being on a ship
>book three: ungodly detail about the desert
>book four: i don't remember this book at all
>book five: JESUS CHRIST NAPOLEON INVADED BRITAIN WITH DRAGONS, FUCK YEAH COUNTERINSURGENCY
>book six: ungodly detail about the interior of australia
>book seven: ungodly detail about being on a ship
>book eight: ungodly detail about supply lines
>book nine: ungodly detail about supply lines

>>8468286
Robert Silverburg's Majipoor trilogy is very leisurely in pace without being tedious. A man without a memory joins a travelin band of jugglers, and soon learns he is the legitimate ruler of Majipoor, a world much larger than Earth.

I'm unaware of the audiobook status, but Silverburg's prose has clarity, and would translate well to the spoken form.

>>8468452
I hate these amnesia books where the person to be a princess or Prince. Fucking cliche tropes.

>>8468452
>duck face horse with a snake/rat tail
wtf am I looking at
>has spurs
Is it a platypus?

>>8468495
Majipoor is a bit like Gene Wolfe's Urth in the animal department. Thousands of years of selective breeding to produce odd animals for specific purposes. That's about the only similarity though, the Majipoor books are not as dark and forbidding.

Why do people here hate on Gene Wolfe so much? I've only read Soldier of the Mist and it was interesting, if a little too meandering and at times boring. So what's the deal?

>>8468515
Because of the guys in pic related.

>>8468523

So the problem's not the guy, just the people who like him, gotcha.

>>8468515
If anything it's the opposite. There's a couple people here who praise him like he's the best writer ever when he's just mediocrity. That annoys other people so they start shitting on him.

>>8468515
Plebieans overrun the thread.

>>8468523
>make dino posting great again

>>8468533
>Plebieans

*ahem*

Opinions on the Second Metro book? (metro 2034) i read the first one years ago and im thinking of getting the sequel

I saw there was a Lyar(lawyer) in the thread.

What's everyone's profession?
>proof reader/editor at a local tv station
>tfw having to correct so many mistakes and reading through everything fully
Audiobooks are a godsend for when I get home

>>8468559
irony doesn't drip anymore, it's a geyser.

I've always wondered about audiobooks.
Are they actual word for word retellings or shortened versions ?
Wouldn't it take more than a dozen of hours to read a medium sized book ?

>>8468832
Yes they are, if they say "unabridged."
Yes it would.

>>8468832
Yes. Unabridged audiobooks of /sffg/ material run between like 8 and 20 hours of material. A Clash of Kings is 37.5 hours.

Abridged audiobooks, which just cut out material, seem to max out at 6 or 7 hours.

Redpill me on Sadpuppies Just HOW retarded is awards drama?

>>8468515
He's become well-liked for being a good writer so some people feel the need to maintain their elitist/contrarian status by hating him.

>>8468452
>>8468495
That is a pretty funny horse. I have this one.

Been craving some more science fantasy since seeing Krull lately and reading the first two books of BOTNS, where to progress next, Jack Vance? I know GRRM has written a couple short stories that meet that criteria.

What are some fantasy works that depicts two or more sides of a conflict but never paint one or another as absolute good or evil?

>>8469605
Jack Vance is superb. Highly recommended. I'll have to read more of him some time in the future.
>>8469623
Book of the Long Sun
Book of the Short Sun

>>8469623

>Good and evil existing
Probably the biggest lie in history of anything, it's just what you morally agree with.

>>8469634

Will look into Vance. Love anything with a science fantasy and dying Earth vibe to it.

>>8469645
Evil absolutely exists, knowing that's a fact is actually one of the single biggest religious philosophy Problems

>>8469623
Going to recommend the Temeraire books for the second time in this thread, because you opened with LOGH.

The series is set in the Napoleonic wars, except there are dragons, and the dragons get used for aerial combat. (There's no magic, just talking dragons.) A principled but uptight naval captain, William Laurence, winds up with a dragon egg, and gets inducted into Britain's aerial corps. They're part historical military fiction (the first book began its life as Master and Commander fanfiction) and part travelogue, because Laurence and the dragon, Temeraire, keep getting shipped around the world.

Laurence and Temeraire, jointly, share a lot of traits with Yang: Laurence is the dutiful officer, Temeraire is inquisitively bookish and quirky and inspires personal loyalty, both of them wind up suffering under incompetent or outright hateful commanders. (Napoleon should remind you of Reinhard because Reinhard is space Prussian Napoleon anyway, but Napoleon only shows up in person a couple times.) Britain's politicians, commanders, society, and allies are depicted as seriously flawed, while France becomes morally superior in many ways over the course of the series. Laurence winds up with a lot of grudging respect for Napoleon particularly. Because Laurence and Temeraire are the only narrators, you don't exactly get the even-handedness that you do with the FPA and Empire in LOGH. But no side is ever evil. Like the actual Napoleonic wars, they're just people shooting each other. With added dragons.

The battles are fun, the sea and land voyages are fun, the world building of "how would you incorporate a dragon into Napoleonic combat" is fun, it's just generally a fun, light series that somehow hits a lot of the same themes of wide-scale non-magic warfare between two non-evil entities that LOGH does.

The amnesiac weeaboo interlude at the start of book eight was pretty fucking weird though.

>>8469634

>Jack Vance is superb.

I like you.

What Vance have you read?

>>8469717
>Napoleon
>talking dragons
>amnesiac weeaboo
>Master and Commander fanfiction

>>8469717
I'll be honest, that sounds absolutely horrible and it's not a surprise that it started out as a fanfic

>>8469717
>talking dragon homo slash fiction
What the actual fuck.

I've been using goodreads for the last few hours and I'm frustrated

I've read the books I was forced to in high school and I don't care for most of them.

I'm stuck reading Crime and Punishment because it's something I thought I'd enjoy but I'm over half way through and I'm uninterested, even though I admit I love the way characters express themselves and contrast with each other.


I wanted to read a science fiction book that had action, developed characters and universe and that maybe portrayed lgbts

I found a bunch of them but none were ever translated to portuguese. tips?

>>8469864
>portrayed lgbts
>reading translations
Reddit should be more your forte.

>>8469864
>I wanted to read a science fiction book that had action, developed characters and universe and that maybe portrayed lgbts
Sound like you want the Culture by Iain Banks. Try Use of Weapons

>>8469864
>I wanted to read a science fiction book that had action, developed characters and universe and that maybe portrayed lgbts

>I found a bunch of them but none were ever translated to portuguese. tips?

I can't tell if you're being serious or not

>>8469759
The human MC is on a ship to China when he gets swept overboard in a storm off the coast of Japan, smacks his head, and wakes up on shore missing the last few years of his memory. It takes up maybe a third of the eighth book and it's unquestionably the stupidest thing that happens in the entire series.

>>8469792
It sounds silly, but aside from the indefensible amnesiac weeaboo part, it's just solidly written flintlock fantasy/historical fiction/military fiction with "what if dragons" thrown in.

>>8469840
What are you playing at, anon, I didn't mention any homo. The fanfiction was homo, apparently. But in the novels, the MC gets jumped by a MILF in the first book and they're on-again off-again for the whole series.

>>8469870
>be born in brazil
>be doomed to only read brazilian literature?

also 4chan is gayer than reddit

>>8469878
There isn't a single lgbt relationship in Use of Weapons, just saying.

>>8469881
If you can post on 4chan you can read English original novels, retard.

>>8469880
thanks, I'll pass.

>>8469870
>>8469878
>>8469879
>>8469881

I'll settle for reading it in english.
And thank you >>8469878

I'm writing lore and shit for a Runescape-like game.

Any fantasy shit worth reading to give me ideas?

I'm nearing the end of the wild ride that is The Book of the New Sun

Throw some hot recommendations my way please. I sci-fi and fantasy both and above all value new and abstract concepts and complete mindfuckery like the claw of the concilliator and its 'healing' by turning back time thing

>>8469897
the greeks

>>8469897

this desu >>8469909 read a bunch of Myths (Greek, Japanese, Norse, African) and religious texts. You should have plenty of ideas if you take inspiration from them

>>8469752
Only the first volume of Dying Earth.
I've been taking a break from sff since, finishing up some more serious reads.
I'll read more of him for sure, at least 2-3 more Dying Earth volumes.

>>8469905
Fictions by Borges
Napoleon of Notting Hill and Man Who was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton.
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Flow my Tears, Policemen Said by Philip K Dick.

>>8469905
A Canticle for Lebowitz.

I've enjoyed reading it. Maybe you'll enjoy a Sci-fi story about humans being human.

I haven't read the sequel, but I want to catch up and read it. I've liked the ending quite a bit.

>>8469982
Catholics, in space

>>8461993
AKA Niggered Edition
--
ant@flussence.eu

>>8469905
>new and abstract concepts and complete mindfuckery

it's not specifically what you asked for but try reading a Grant Morrison comic.
you'd be surprised at the sheer amount of mindfuckery he can dish out.
specifically:
>Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth
>GM's Animal Man run
>GM's Doom Patrol run
>Seven Soldiers of Victory
>The Invisibles
All of them use elements of both science-fiction and fantasy, especially myth-building
ask /co/ for specifics

>>8470058
Thanks for the rec, I'll check some of his stuff out

The Variable Man, the 1953 novella Philip K Dick, is the most action-filled thing I have read by him. A repairman is transported two hundred years ahead from 1913, where he is embroiled in Earth's war preparations against Alpha Centaureans. He has unique skills of ingenuity and creativity (lost in the future world, by a culture of specialisation and automation) which can break the Cold War-like technological stalemate.

It's public domain and a fun read if you like future war or time slip stories.

>>8470226
>He has unique skills of ingenuity and creativity (lost in the future world, by a culture of specialisation and automation)

What a scary thought. I keep thinking of Idiocracy any time I read something related to the US presidential election.

Automation will soon replace simple jobs in droves -- every McDonalds I go to has at least one kiosk now.

If we ever figure out how to use technology to destroy resource scarcity I feel like we're going to end up destroying ourselves in a few generations because no one will know how to do anything anymore.

Does anyone remember this Orson Scott Card book that ends with a teenage girl being mind controlled and raped by a blob monster and giving birth like four minutes after impregnation?

He's into some weird shit.

>>8470226
I got it in my PKD short story collection and that was the one story that made me fall asleep a few times so I stopped reading there and haven't taken it in hand for 2 years now.

>>8470238
>Idiocracy
that movie is more frightening than funny because I can see it actually happening here in Germany, what with all the influx of unskilled and unwilling-to-work immigrants who set a dozen kids each into the world.

>If we ever figure out how to use technology to destroy resource scarcity I feel like we're going to end up destroying ourselves in a few generations because no one will know how to do anything anymore.

if automation and resource and energy scarcity could be solved, I don't see why there is still any need for paying for basic stuff. and most science-people do their shit because they actually enjoy doing it and if we can fix a (friendly) artificial intelligence, scientific progress is guaranteed as well. The Culture works.

>>8462695
The Spin Trilogy. I only read the first one.

>>8469645
Jack Vance's Dying Earth does not have a "dying earth" vibe, if you mean apocalyptic and elegiac. It's more petty, comedic and cunning. It always seems like vance is winking at you, but never more so than in the Dying Earth.

I love him and will recommend him to anyone, but don't read with false expectations or you'll be disappointed.

>>8470257
>"GAY PEOPLE ARE BAD"
>writes book with detailed scenes of teenage boys showering

>>8463948
Probably not an overall ending yet. the greenfly shit just reeks of him setting up for some ultimate resolve in a novel that plays out very far in the future.

humans are still around, after all, since they talk with themselves in the past. there's also going to be new revelation space stuff for sure, don't know how many stand alone things he wants to write in that universe. (new novel supposed to come out next year)

>people ITT don't like Dune

contrarian levels are out of control

Does /sffg/ read any Light Novels?

>>8470830
No. They booklets for people who are too stupid to read.

>>8470830

I plan to read Horizon in the middle of Nowhere one day since I liked the anime so much.

>first shadow campaigns book is first 3/4 almost pure military warfare and then 1/4 magic
Who is this actually supposed to appeal to?


You put off the typical fantasy fan with the complete focus on battles and then you put off the military fan by moving away from that

>>8470830
Aren't they basically just spec scripts for anime?

>>8470857
Nah, they're just pulp books marketed to otakus

>>8470830
kek i'd buy that edition

How hard do you need your hard SF to be?

What are some things tech or setting-wise that make you go "fuck off author that's not something that would exist in this world you've got here"?

I'm trying to do a sci-fi short story for a contest because I came up with a good idea but I want to make it feel authentic.

is this too dumb of a plot device to include in a story?

>a wizard gives a girl he's hiding from murderers a pair of magic glasses powered by a bound krypton elemental
>they allow her to hide in plain sight and cause suspicion to roll off her like water off the back of a duck
>he has a pair of his own that keep her from realizing he's the one who hired the killers to scare her into his arms

>>8468953
What kind of fucking total pleb would listen to an abridged audiobook anyway?

That's like someone selling you a book, but first they rip out half of it and say 'oh nah you don't to read all that anyway'.

>>8470927
Sounds good & sinister to me mate

>>8470960
I'm honestly just worried about whether the glasses sound like a dumb superman reference (though I guess he's old enough and famous enough that referencing him is no different from referencing sherlock holmes or alice lidell)

>>8470927
>a wizard gives a girl he's hiding from murderers a pair of magic glasses powered by a bound krypton elemental
>they allow her to hide in plain sight and cause suspicion to roll off her like water off the back of a duck
>he has a pair of his own that keep her from realizing he's the one who hired the killers to scare her into his arms
N-nani?

>>8470995
doctor who has done everything anon, it's been on the air twice as long as the simpsons

>>8470830
I have read only the Overlord volume 1 and thought it was alright.

>>8471005
The premise sounds quite interesting if not slightly humorous (as glasses are not what we'd typically associate with objects of power) though.

>>8471010
I don't see why there aren't more magic glasses in fiction. it seems like the sort of thing that would be enchanted a lot

>>8470817

"Dune" is an oddity. I have re-read it at least twice. Each time I think, why am I reading this pulp.

I think it's the premises that draw me in. The intergalactic feudal empire, the sand worms, the spice economy. It's a marvelous setting: "Lawrence of Arabia" in space! Then Frank Herbert starts reading every character's thoughts to you because he cannot write dialogue.

Still, somewhere down the road, I'm going to get the itch to read it again.

>It's set on the Ribbon World but that's not important to understand the general idea. All names are tenative.
>The hero is Adat gaKier, the frst and last Tërpat of Shayaril. He's in exile in Osheiæ, which is one of the two warring dynasties of the kaYekun Empire- it's open to trade and degenerate, while the other, Kizi, is closed and ultrareactionary hyperconservative. He fled there in asylum after his brief empire in his home country was overthrown.
>However, the Emperor-Heir is selling him out to a Shayaril Song-Prince in exchange for some Technicians (like sorcerors). So he's going to flee so he has a chance to live, but first he leaves his memoirs with a prince (of Osheiæ) he's grown close to. So that's the prologue, and the rest of the book is his life story.
>So Shayaril are a country of small states of various sorts (like ancient Greece or Phœnicia), which share a common language and culture and such. The people are tall and bronze-skinned, with four eyes and black or brown or bronze hair. There used to be an advanced Empire there, about a thousand years ago, but in the Day of the Blades every written word turned into blades, including the blood of everyone literate and everyone descended from anyone who was literate. So there's really not much record of what the Empire was like, because mostly only the serfs survived. Though the old Imperial family is now worshipped as cthonic lords by Shayaril's urban population, since they are regarded to have conquered and raped and enslaved the "Uncles", that is, the nature-gods.
>Anyway, though something else happened in the far western part of the Old Empire (because there was an illiterate Justin I like officer in high rank there; it's become the Silver-blood Kingdom) the peasants basically had to start from scratch and build their own civilization. They had a high regard for poets though, so their standard dialect and their (new) written language were driven by the old songs and the wish of nobles to write them down for decoration.
>At some point, they worked out how to communicate in the language of the "demons" or Black Ones, which are advanced two-mouthed beings who come "from the opposite side". How they do this is pretty interesting, I can explain if you want. But the point is, the Black Technicians can summon these creatures and trade enormous feasts of delightful food for the demon's... technology? I'm not -quite- sure whether they get knowledge or objects. But anyway these Black Technicians are aligned with a single university, not with any of the individual states. But they've enhanced this literate, trading people's already considerable wealth, and so the Song-Princes admire rather than fear them.

>>8471132
>Anyway Adat's life is something like this: he was born poor as an ox-blood brewer's son. The population in Shayaril's cities is growing insanely because of the Black Ones' technology, so the cliffs are covered in Kowloon-like apartments looking out onto the streets, and there are so many, thousands even tens of thousands even hundreds of thousands even millions of persons. And little Adat is very disturbed by this and wants to remove this terrifying unæsthetic bloat on the population.
>Anyway somehow he becomes a servant, and somehow he is able to attend the Black Technicians' university. But after studying for a while he's so disgusted by their witchcraft he abandons it, and flees to the court of a poor Song-Prince.
>Anyway he uses his insights to rally several poor principalities against the Black Technicians' influence, and his knowledge of their ways to reverse-engineer some technology and equip his patrons' armies with them. Or something.
>So he conquers and unifies a good amount of Shayaril, and begins rebuilding the culture along his æsthetic ideals, which are rather puritan and pessimistic, with a strange high regard for the nature-gods (at least their mythology) and the old poems. Maybe he courts a wife at some point, but it won't work out. Also he starts burning down and genociding the high-population cliff-cities.
>There's going to be a bit here were he vists an old wealthy Masked Venlit about Marduk, but that's not of plot consequence, only world-building and thematic meaning. I'll explain who Marduk and his folk and the Masked Venlitil are later.
>Anyway maybe ten or fifteen years of minor warfare and consolidation occur, but the heir of a prominent conquered Song-Prince and the remaining Black Technicians have fled to the Silverblood Kingdom, and Adat knows that they'll create abominations to destroy him if they have the time. So his armies invade first, but fail.
>So he loads up his ships with riches and flees to Osheiæ for asylum, and that leads into the opening, which is of course also the ending.
>So it's about disgust at the world and religious despair and finding one's own path and the inability of even the virtuous to affect history for the better. Or something like that.
>The Black Ones too.
>And Marduk- especially Marduk.
>And the Ribbon World itself.
>The point is to be bizarre; to show the fallacy of the of induction and the presumption of knowledge. And to be æsthetic, of course.
>I mean he's never poor, I shouldn't have said that, he's like middle-class at birth.
>So- Marduk.
>To the south of Shayaril is a great sea, on the other side lie Yekunil, and to the south of that lie strange principalites, mountains, and the edge of the world. To the west of Shayaril is the Silverbloods' Kingdom, to the east are barbarous lands of wyrms.

>>8471139
>Now, Shayaril lies on a mix of steppes and mountains & canyons- some being the buildings of the Old Empire. To the west are more steppes, to the east are more mountains. To the north is a vast desert, eventually boxed in by mountains. There used to be kingdoms and peoples here, but Marduk has destroyed them or made them flee to anywhere else.
>From the northeastern mountains came the gypsy-like people who infests Shayaril's cities, disgusting and dance-worshipping a three-legged, three-armed, three-faced pot-bellied golden idol.
>But beyond the northwest mountains there used to be a desert kingdom, bordering on an inland sea. And in the vast desert, between mountains and upon the sea, lives Marduk and his folk.
>That desert kingdom, perhaps five hundred years ago, was advanced and prosperous. Marduk, then unknown, came to them and offered them a place in his entourage. They declined. And in one night the entire great city-kingdom was destroyed by palaces built in the still-living hollowed-out bodies of crimson wyrms, and all its people were left impaled, their bodies somehow inverted while they still lived.
>So. Marduk rules an enormous train of palaces built on and in the hollowed-out bodies of still-living dragons. Of course he has horsemen and footsoldiers traveling along his great parade. The dance around the desert, overflowing with riches of no unabsurd source. Occasionally they'll destroy some nearby minor kingdom, and Marduk warns all who visit him that he will destroy them if they do not follow him. But in five hundred years he has hardly moved.
>Those soldiers outside the great caravan are tall, muscular, swarthy, and all men. They too drink of the dragons' blood and seed, but they never tire, though they wear full army.
>But those inside Marduk's palaces, these are what is meant by "the folk of Marduk". They live in endless pleasure and decadence, surrounded by the most luxurious riches, ever feasting and drinking and making love, above all partaking of the drug of the dragons' fluids. Their skin is a light fair bronze, almost gold in some lights, deathly pale in others; their hair is completely black, and their eyes are red. The men wear small goatees, and their hair is done like an Achæmenid's; smirks are ever on their face. The women are unbelievably soft and lovely. On their faces they are ever blushing. They are arrayed in rich robes and golden garments.
>Marduk himself is not entirely unlike them. But he is clean-shaven like a woman, and his hair is not voluminous like the rest's. Moreover, he has no blush, but a colder gaze. On his forhead he wears a golden star, sort of like the emblem of the Hittites. He says that he is God, that he created the entirety of this world, and that the only ethical purpose of all who live it is to partake in his feast and join his ecstasies.

>>8471143
>Now, Marduk fills all outside with lust and terror. His riches are great, and literally endless and overflowing. But if you drink of the dragons' fluid, if he learns your name, if he even sees your face, you are his.
>Obviously as many come to join him as do flee from him.
>But some- these Masked Venlitil- are desirous of the pleasures and riches, but wish to keep their freedom. Therefore, they abandon their names, sew masks to their faces, and join Marduk in his revelries. They spend decades within, carefully avoiding the dragons' fluids while Marduk smirks at them. And all the while they are carrying out the palaces the endless wealth, and selling it for their financial gain.
>Some remain there forever. A few, however, retire to Shayaril or such in the most fabulous decadence- though why they leave so great a pleasure is rather mysterious, and most intend to return.
>As for the Black Ones' language and how the Technicians deal with it:
>1) All speech or actions in their language, even accidental, have a tendency to attract their attention, and if so interested they will respond. While of course there are plentiful stories of one being summoned by a peasant making an odd noise or tripping and catching himself in an off manner, and thereafter slaughtering and eating the entire village in wrath at having been seen, this chance increases with both the length of the utterance or gesture, and -especially- with the -speaker's having so spoken before-.
>2) This means that a Technician cannot use any element of the language outside of a Calling or Intercourse without putting himself in extremely grave peril. Therefore they must strictly regulate their speech, writing, drawing, and very motions of their body.
>(In case this wasn't clear, the Black Ones refuse to be seen under pain of death (and they do enjoy eating humans a great deal), and it's probable that the first Black Technician was a particularly clever one of these peasants.)
>3) The Black Ones have two mouths, one above the other, and both are used in their speech. Moreover, being alien, much of their language- spoken, writen, and gestural- is irreproducable by humans.
>4) The written language is three-dimensional, and is an extremely complex system of phonograms and ideograms, all based on a very ancient form of the language and all images stylized to the level of the Arabic or Latin alphabets, with two simultaneous lines (one for each mouth). Basically imagine three-dimensional two-lined Ptolemaic-level-obscuritarianist carved alien Japanese. Sometimes words require voids to be made -inside- the object, without touching open air; obviously one cannot reproduce this without Black One technology.

>>8471146
>5) The Technicians have invented a new spoken, written, and gestural language with a one-to-one correspondence to the Black One's actual language, which they use in talking about the langauge or in rehearsals. One can use the original language itself without summoning, but the demands for these cartouches are even more complex and ritualistic. Most Technicians learn by watching.
>6) Hence the Technicians' rituals and conversations with the creatures more or less consist of two of them singing and dancing and carving about before a great veiled eating-table where the "demon" is.
>As for the Silverbloods' Kingdom: as I mentioned, they're of a similiar race to the Shayaril, and their language is of the same family, but with many more cases and tenses than the Shayaril's three or four, being closer to the Old Imperial dialect.
>The Royal Family is, as I said, descended from a local imperial commander and his family, who had risen from peasantdom on talent, but were illiterate and so survived the Day of Blades.
>All members of the Royal Family have the familiar bronze skin, but silver-white hair worn long.
>The "Royal Family" composes tens if not hundreds of thousands of indiduals. They are the only ones allowed to read and write, leave the country, or really be anything other than rightsless slaves and serfs. This is of course in emulation of the Old Empire.
>Because everyone of any standing is a Royal, the kingdom is pretty much actually run like a republic or democracy.
>Breeding is heavily regulated to avoid the dysgenic effects of incest or defiling the royal bloodline. To allow the Silverbloods vent for their desires, trap and reverse-trap slaves are used for the males and females respectively. This of course has led to an epidemic of homosexuality.
>(For their part, the Shayaril usually impale sodomites.)
>They're like the Poles, the Elves, the ancient Greeks, the the Saudis, and the Old South rolled into one awful civilization.
>And I guess they're also a bit like the Byzantines.

>>8470927
Maybe you should drop the krypton elemental. That doesn't do much to explain shit so why go with these confusing Superman references. Maybe if you derive a new word from "cryptic" like cryptobifocals or I don't know it would work better.
Otherwise it's ok, especially if the girl ends up using these same glasses to escape the wizard.

>>8462410
I primarily read sci-fi, however I recently decided to try some fantasy books.

I read Magician and its 3 sequels by Robert Feist, which makes me question why Daughter of The Empire is included in the list above when it's the 4th book in the series. I liked that series it was pretty interesting albeit some more boring characters had much more focus than they should, almost like the main character switched. Lot's of the magic had reasons for existing, things were explained properly while leaving some mystery, I though it was put together very well.

I also just finished Eragon by Christopher Paolini and its sequels which was just ass pull after ass pull.

So I kind of got turned off by fantasy once again because its just always fucking haha at the last minute there was secret magic and it's going to save you.

I like some stuff in fantasy, mostly that it's fantastical and whatnot but it's such a homogenized genre. Every single book is 4 primary races, humans, elves, dwarves, and dragons, and then on top of that they always have the exact same social structure. Sometimes there will be new races thrown into the mix but it always must contain those 4 no matter what, no variation and elves are always regal and dwarves are always stone workers and blah blah blah.

Anyway I'm back to reading sci-fi I just started the Sector General series by James White which seems like it could be fun, before that I read Cobra by Timothy Zahn and its sequels, the sequels aren't very good you could honestly just read the first book and be done with it. That first book however is really good, I highly recommend it.

>>8471272
It's because you want to read old ass books where they have 4 races and asspulls 24/7.

Why didn't you read the magician trilogy by lev grossman?

>>8471301
never heard of it, thanks for the recommendation

>>8471272
Negro you read two of the plebbest fantasy series that there are.

>>8471272
>I just finished Eragon
Dude, everyone says that about Eragon. It's the most mocked fantasy out there except maybe the Sword of Shanara.

>>8471547
What's wrong with Sword of Shannara? i haven't read it. How is it Eragon-tier?

>>8471547
Sword of Truth is the most mocked series I've seen desu

>>8470848
I don't understand this complaint. The military stuff continues in the face of the magic, like using the "form square" meme in the face of zombies, and still needing tactics to survive against the Penitent Damned long enough for Feor and Winter.

>>8470955
Sometimes the publisher only releases an abridged version and not an unabridged version. That was the case ten years ago, anyway. Abridged audiobooks seem less common now.

>>8471552
Sword of Shannara was written in 1977. It's plot, characters, and worldbuilding are a blatant ripoff of LOTR. To the best of my recollection, the writing isn't anything special either.

To the best of my understanding, this was actually kind of unique in the 1970s -- you had LOTR in the 1950s, and then nothing as popular until Sword of Shannara came along. The idea of ripping off LOTR was a novel concept in the 1970s, and the book revitalized high fantasy publishing.

In the wake of Sword of Shannara's success, a lot more LOTR ripoffs came out, and they all introduced new and more nuanced concepts. To a modern audience, Sword of Shannara's simplicity and blatant LOTR ripoffery is laughable, because we have better high fantasy available. Sword of Shannara has been eclipsed by the very books it paved the way for. And to a modern reader, Sword of Shannara's simplicity is laughable now. It's like if you went to a car dealership and there was a Model T and a bunch of modern cars. The Model T would seem overly simplistic, inelegant, and featureless. But we probably wouldn't have all those other modern cars without it. Like the Model T, Sword of Shannara has the weird distinction of being shit compared with today's high fantasy, but also probably being the book that made today's high fantasy possible. It's a victim of its own success.

>>8471826
>using the "form square" meme in the face of zombies, and still needing tactics to survive against the Penitent Damned long enough for Feor and Winter.
It's not really the same in tone though. The military themed stuff is mostly about the details and politics of running a military campaign, with a few character bits here and there, the last quarter of the book basically goes from a pulpy, but still somewhat grounded military drama, to a bunch of anime magic shit.
You can see it in the overarching motive for the campaign, it starts as being about being a symbolic act in order for one country to fulfill it's obligations of defense to another, and then is revealed to actually be some sort of Dan Brown-magic-illuminati ploy to find the ark of the covenant.

Know any other author resembling Egan?

>>8471856
>it starts as being about being a symbolic act in order for one country to fulfill it's obligations of defense to another, and then is revealed to actually be some sort of Dan Brown-magic-illuminati ploy to find the ark of the covenant.

That's just how Count Colonel Janus bit Deliberately Obfuscating Autismhusbando rolls.

More seriously, I think the magic is integrated into the storyline earlier than you're giving Wexler credit for. The Head Justice sees a zombie interrogation pretty early in the book, Feor marbles Bobby pretty early on, the supernatural assassin fights Marcus and Janus half way through the book on, and Feor repeatedly mentions that there's a sorcerer in the Vordani party.

I guess to answer your original question, I'm a more typical fantasy fan for whom details of military campaigns are neither a feature nor a bug. I read it for the action-adventure, the magic, Winter's development as a commander, and "what's Janus's deal anyway," and I wasn't bothered either by the heavy military emphasis in the beginning or the lack of it later on. I imagine a substantial portion of readers are the same way.

You're may be annoyed by book two, just as a heads up. It shifts back to Vordan and does a French Revolution story with urban warfare and Bastille storming involving irregular forces, rather than force-on-force campaigning. But the third and fourth books go back to force-on-force campaigns.

>>8471856
If you want military books, try scifi. Military fantasy WILL always get magic. No one (except you) would pay money to read a boring ass book about soldiering in the 1700 and 1800 and how some whore gave you the itch and how you got trenchfoot/foot rot(as the novel calls it).

It would not have become so popular.

If you're pissed go read a history book. Authors wouldn't make money if they carbon copied a history book without something to make it fantastical.

What would you read:
a memoir of going to the sandbox and nothing happening (at least with your only deployment)...

or a book about going to the sandbox and being possessed by Jinn, going back home and killing your people?...

or a book about going to the sandbox and using futuristic weapons to kill sanddiggers who have a a hidden space shuttle hidden under some dune, and you and your people have to take it for your own to get enough power to escape the atmosphere.

You probably would read the memoir.... I bet you're the faggot that suggested that war memoir a few weeks ago to someone asking for military sci-fi

>>8461993
>Flowchart: http://i.imgur.com/uykqKJn.jpg/

I guess this isn't really directed at anyone as the copypasta is at least a few months old, but why is Hyperion science fantasy?

>>8471967
Have you read it? Loads of fantasy-esc shit. The tree worshipers, the semi-magic technosphere. The fucking shrike? He's /f/ af

>>8462063
What about Susanna Clarke

>>8471942
>and Feor repeatedly mentions that there's a sorcerer in the Vordani party
The identity of the sorcerer was so obvious that I was actually offended

>>8462410
>Most
Magic
>least
World building

>>8472139
Janus was the sorcerer right?

>>8472167
Nah, the spy woman

>>8472175
I thought it was janus when I was reading, he got shit to go his way too much. I thought he had a luck demon or something.... still do. Or maybe something like the demon that makes you (in a deep baritone) "listen".

NEW THREAD

>>8472214
>>8472214
>>8472214

NEW THREAD

>>8471944
>No one (except you) would pay money to read a boring ass book about soldiering in the 1700 and 1800 and how some whore gave you the itch and how you got trenchfoot/foot rot(as the novel calls it).
>tfw he mocks an entire genre with claims that it doesn't exist
I'm not the anon you replied to, but historical fiction can be entertaining. I occasionally slip some in with my SFF.

>>8464230
What series are you making fun of?