/lit/ - Literature

>>8508326
>gene wolfe will never again publish an ambitious novel

>>8508326
a-any good sci-fi about being dominated by alien women, cats or otherwise?

for research purposes of course.

>>8508290
still made u feel bad :)

>>8508335
No.

>>8508335
There's at least 6 that I know of, but not for you, you sick fucker

Dammit I was drawn into your genrethread by the cat face in that picture and now I've nothing to do here
humm read Gene Wolfe mkay? b-bye

>>8508354
RUDE

Anyone read any new releases lately?

>>8508345
>>8508354
I guess I'll have to write one then.

>all these sad elitist trying to fit in and failing big time
Just an hero desu

>>8508393
Just read Wolfe, kiddo

>>8508326
Forgot to link previous thread...
PREVIOUS >>8498819

Have a corny cover as recompense.

>>8508414
Kek. Look at the pic.
In the window that says "bring your own little girl protagonist". At the bottom.

>>8508422
Have you read Game of Rat and Dragon, crazy catperson?

>>8508439
HAHAHA
!!!

>>8508444
I have not. Should I be?

>>8508451
Damn right you should! It's just a short story, so not a big time sink. Available on Gutenberg.

>>8508444
Oh right, Cordwainer has come up as relevant to my interests here before. I know I've got a few of his, but I don't remember which ones.

>>8508461
NESFA Press did a golden job collecting all the Rediscovery of Mankind stories in one volume. I think all other collections (even the ones named similarly) collect only part of them.

>>8508468
I think I have this one, hmmmm. It's in a taped up box right now. I need to finish my library :(

Thanks for the tips, sorry I haven't followed up yet.

>>8508326
The people who whinge about Gene Wolfe's popularity in these parts will only make people curious, and read him. In the same way, I will inevitably cave in and read Brandon Sanderson before long.

As for SF book covers, the more lurid and garish the better. The old PKD editions are a good example. Cheesecake art is more questionable.

Following the last thread I will be reading I, Robot this weekend.

>>8508371
I'm reading Moore's memebook, nothing traditionally sff atm tho

>>8508490
forgot pic

>>8508490
>>8508497
Hey man, no need for that! I have a couple of hundred unread books on my shelves, so I sympathize. At your leisure.

>>8508326
How's the book so far OP? Any gri yet?

Want to know if I should add this catgod to house of blades as to read.

>>8508354
Could you please give me a hint as to the name of one of those six books?

For research purposes of course.

Is this /sffg/ approved?

>>8508597
Young Adult trash.

>>8508528
Only been able to read a little during lunch break. There've been some near misses for feline on feline, but not G or I. I think something might happen, maybe even in the R department. I probably won't be able to get back to it for another couple of hours.

recommend me some dark comedy,/lit/.

>>8508710
Gene Wolfe

>>8508710
Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn is really funny. Of course it isn't science fiction or fantasy.
Kafka is also entertaining.
Gene Wolfe isn't particularly funny tho.

>>8508710

"Eyes of the Overworld" and "Cugel's Saga" by Jack Vance, in the fantasy genre.

Douglas Adams isn't dark so I'm drawing a blank in the scifi genre.

>>8508719
>>8508724
>>8508741

Thanks!
I'll check them all out.

First for Bakker! The fan favorite of old /lit/ before the you guys ruined this place...

>>8508775
Fuck off to reddit.

>tfw finished Towers Of Midnight and now beginning A Memory Of Light

Finally it's nearly over. It got extremely bad in the middle books but as much as he gets shit on here, Sanderson was the best thing to ever happen to this series. Reading The Gathering Storm was like breathing fresh air after being drowned with hot sand for six months.

>>8508765
Just keep in mind that Gulag Archipelago is funny because it's absurd, real and Solzhenitsyn has perfect banter comments.

>>8508371
Finished up the new Shadow Campaigns book last week. Started the Lazarus War series but the second book has two holds on it at the library. Dropped Off Armageddon Reef for the third time, I think I'm done with giving Weber a second chance.

Currently reading Mechanical Failure by Joe Zieja, which is a fairly funny scifi/comedy that really reminds me of Keith Laumer and Harry Harrison's comedic stuff, with a bit of Spaceballs and Terry Pratchett mixed in. I'm about halfway through and I think I'd recommend it.

New(ish) books on my to-read list:
Exordium of Tears (first book was great, bunch of human soldiers from various time periods get abducted by aliens to fight demons)
The Fifth Season
Ninefox Gambit
Necrotech (waiting for epubs to show up)
Outriders by Jay Posey
Revenger (anybody read this yet? never read anything by Reynolds but the plot description sounds cool)
Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers
Breath of Earth by Beth Cato

>>8508781
>replying to b8

So there's a new Reynolds book coming out tomorrow.

Reviews on amazon seem good.

>>8508929
The galaxy has seen great empires rise and fall. Planets have shattered and been remade. Amongst the ruins of alien civilisations, building our own from the rubble, humanity still thrives.

And there are vast fortunes to be made, if you know where to find them . . .

Captain Rackamore and his crew do. It's their business to find the tiny, enigmatic worlds which have been hidden away, booby-trapped, surrounded with layers of protection - and to crack them open for the ancient relics and barely-remembered technologies inside. But while they ply their risky trade with integrity, not everyone is so scrupulous.

Adrana and Fura Ness are the newest members of Rackamore's crew, signed on to save their family from bankruptcy. Only Rackamore has enemies, and there might be more waiting for them in space than adventure and fortune: the fabled and feared Bosa Sennen in particular.

Revenger is a science fiction adventure story set in the rubble of our solar system in the dark, distant future - a tale of space pirates, buried treasure and phantom weapons, of unspeakable hazards and single-minded heroism . . . and of vengeance . . .

>>8508932

Are we back to 1950s scifi now?

>>8508939
I pray

>>8508491
>I will inevitably cave in and read Brandon Sanderson before long.

>>8508975
And then you will have a reason to warn against reading him.

>>8508932
>>8508929
sounds like quite a tale of revengeance

>>8508975
>Now I understand why the Hugo Award trophies look like dildos.

>>8508975
>600 pages into Way of Kings
>Still waiting for the plot to start

>>8508975
>>8509023
Do I get one of these chrome dildos too if I write a book about a transgender magic girl with only one leg and one eye?

>>8509023
>ugly nerds, beardos, and hambeasts.

For sure, what a horror show.

>>8509027

>only 600 pages to start the plot

Sanderson is like a little baby.

>>8509042
It's incredible one can say so little in so many words.

>>8509047
>that sure is a interesting scifi series you have there
>it would be a shame if someone were to... add 200 pages of technical descriptions to it

>>8509027
Just skip the flashbacks, they don't matter for the plot at all in the first book.

>>8509114

>skipping anything ever

>>8509114
All these flashbacks and interludes feel like padding honestly

>>8508371
Obelisk Gate was tight. 30% Dilbert in a geode, 30% loredumps with a cannibalized petrified fag, 30% Loli SoL, 10% magic.

>>8508775
Pretty pumped for The Unholy Consult.

It's all but confirmed that everyone and everything is going to die horrifically, and no one is going to have a happy ending.

>>8508335
Can't say as I recall any. Wouldn't you rather have a feral waifu?

>>8509042
>Start reading first book of the Mistborn Trilogy
>Sanderson calls a door a 'portal'
>Stop reading

His prose is so cringey. It's like he just used the synonym option on Microsoft Word to make himself sound more fancy. I fucking hate it.

Some occasional tasty panther lady PoV here.

>>8509242
>portal
>noun
>1. a door, gate, or entrance, especially one of imposing appearance, as to a palace.
>2. an iron or steel bent for bracing a framed structure, having curved braces between the vertical members and a horizontal member at the top.
>3. an entrance to a tunnel or mine.
>4. Computers. a website that functions as an entry point to the Internet, as by providing useful content and linking to various sites and features on the World Wide Web.

Any books featuring a brown witch as an antagonist?

>>8509299
The Wheel of Time

>>8509289
Yes it makes sense from a technical standpoint, but it sounds ridiculous. Nobody says 'I walked through the portal' when referring to doors because they'd sound like a jackass. I got the same feeling with the rest of his prose: he's trying to sound smart by using 'smart' words, and as a result his writing comes off as stiff and awkward. Like I said, it reads like something the author went through on Word, swapping out words with the synonym option in an attempt to make himself sound more intelligent. It simply didn't fit.

It's like saying "gather around the light source" instead of "gather around the fire". Only a cunt would use the former.

>>8509242
Is there an author who shoves in more palindromes than Sanderson?

>>8509467
perec

I just finished it

>>8509027
Prologue had me expecting 1007 pages of
>*unsheathes shardblade*
>*windruns behind you*
>Heh, tell me how's the weather when you meet the stormfather, kid

>>8509499
one can never truly finish Dhalgren

>>8509428
No the usage of portal implies something more like a big, arched door made from dark wood secured with heavy iron bands, instead of a regular door.

>>8509499
Review for us? Was it good?

Reposting since it got some positive feedback last thread.

>>8508929
I hadn't heard of this. Is it post-Galactic North?

>>8509572
Better than the other chartanon's.

I will dub you G (Good) chart anon. And the other, B Chartanon, for bad.

Can you do one for fantasy, G chart anon?

I bought the Jim Butcher book because there is an airship on the cover. It was ok. Interested in seeing where he goes with it.

>>8509572
It's not set in the Revelation Space universe (unfortunately).

>>8509536

Oxford agrees with this anon.

>A doorway, gate, or other entrance, especially a large and elaborate one.

>An Internet site providing access or links to other sites.

A door doesn't seem strictly necessary although the root Latin word "porta" does mean door so I would probably restrict my usage to an opening with a door.

>>8509556
I don't know if it was good, but I really liked it. Sometimes it was repulsive, sometimes bland, sometimes piercing.

It has nothing to do with Stranger in a Strange Land, Dune, the end of time or really science fiction, even. It's a portrait of the artist as a young man, when that man is Sam Delany in the early 1970s. As he surrenders his identity to find his voice, struggles to observe faithfully and to communicate his observations truthfully, balls boys, girls and men, and is reconstructed by all according to their needs.

Sorry if that sounds elliptical. No one can be told what Dhalgren is.

>>8509594
which is completely stupid and shallow. how many people find delany interesting? fucking nobody except trans and queers, because thats all he writes about.

>>8508371
THE THING ITSELF
ADAM ROBERTS

>>8509811
WAS IT GOOD?

>>8508326
>and fascinating characters
lol, I bet

>What SFF book cover elements are automatic purchases for you?
Well fucking Boris Vallejo for one

>>8509579
I might when I have time, but I haven't read as much fantasy as SF so the chart will likely be a lot smaller if I do.

>unlikely things to read in a science fiction book

>>8509906
healthy three dimensional human relationships

>>8509906
Subtle or original themes

>>8508326
>What SFF book cover elements are automatic purchases for you?
It is, of course, the felines. Even if they look like strung out milfs. I only shop the super-cheap used, so the impulse buy feels ohsogood.

>Boris Vallejo for one
Definitely love these

>>8509906
good prose

>>8509852
Fantasy is less productive to be honest, smaller would make more sense.

Thanks in advance.

>>8509814
Very good.
It's incredibly strange though. It swaps between this multi-century collection of historical short stories and this modern action packed philosophical narrative.

I tried to recommend it to someone before here and failed dreadfully. All I can say is read the first and/or second chapters then go from there. It stipulates ones of the finest novel hard science principles I've heard in a while, and does it well.

Also my god it never shuts up about Emanuel Kant.

10/10 it's my 3rd fav book ever

>>8509906
An excellent metaphor for trannies.

Ran across this last night, I'm tempted to read it.

>>8508326
>Your favorite SFF felines?
These gals are certainly up there. Hilfy is pretty swingin :3

>Ran across this last night, I'm tempted to read it.
Looks fun to me.

>>8509931
>shoots lazers out of fingers
bet the ladies love him

Science fiction depresses me

It just reminds me how fucking insignificant we all are

>>8508975

>>8509572
To clarify, what does the "likelihood of satisfaction" scale mean? That the books at the higher end are better, or more what someone interested in that subgenre is typically looking for, or something else?

>>8510133
Not him but

When I finally read Dune after countless people telling me too, I did not feel satisfied.

I was glad I read it. I felt slightly accomplished and relieved. I wasn't satisfied.

Satisfaction is my book is when you, personally, are glad you've read something. I dunno though.

Has anyone the Vorkosigan Saga?
I just finished Shards of Honor the audiobook and I wasn't that into it. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either, it was very middle of the road for me. I've heard great things about the series, does it get better later on?

>>8510162
In my book, rather. I'm a little tipsy

Pyanfar, posing for posterity.

>>8510056
The author found it necessary to include a glossary of abbreviations at the front of the book. Of note, SM = Sex Machine. Perhaps it doesn't refer to the catgirl, eh?

>>8509023

Hypothetically speaking, am I alone in thinking that if I won a Hugo award, I would avoid receiving it if at all feasible?

I count 23 awards in this picture. How meaningful can it be at this point? Heck, GRRM has two there from a TV episode based on his work.

>the lady in pink's personal bubble

>>8510215
It's a fucking Hugo award

If you ever want validation from newbies/normies/muppets then you can just impress them instantly

Why not take it?

>>8510194
I wonder, if on receiving the concept art for Venture, Cherryh gave Whelan the "come on now" look before insisting Pyanfar get a mastectomy.

>>8510215
>I count 23 awards in this picture. How meaningful can it be at this point?
Plenty of dreck gets published every year senpai. It would still be nice to get singled out.

What is good sword and sorcery? I have appendix N but that shit mostly just lists authors. Is there any non-appendix N S/S books that are godlike?

>>8510133
Subjectively how likely I think someone on this board is to think it was worthwhile after having read it. No guarantees, and it's probably more pronounced the further back you go. I'd be surprised if more than one in five modern readers didn't throw The Night Land at the wall before 20 pages.

>>8509242
That's called purple prose.

>>8509289
The word isnt any less cringe to use about a door unless it's actually relevant

>>8508932
Sounds uninteresting, to be honest.

>>8508975
>>8509023
You should learn how to greentext first.

>>8509133
Interludes are pretty fuckin' goddamn important, you filthy darkeyes.

>>8510262
I'm not a big fan of S&S but Conan (Howard) and Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser (Lieber) are the usual recommendations. Elric (Moorcock) if you want your protagonist to KNOW the EDGE.

>>8510262
Also if you're an ~Appendix N~ guy Larry Correia's new book, Son of the Black Sword, is S&S. I haven't read it but Correia's probably the right kind of author to be writing modern S&S.

>>8510277
Nah, purple prose is:
>Then unexpectedly my hands came upon a doorway, where hung a portal of stone, rough with strange chiselling. Trying it, I found it locked; but with a supreme burst of strength I overcame all obstacles and dragged it open inward. As I did so there came to me the purest ecstasy I have ever known; for shining tranquilly through an ornate grating of iron, and down a short stone passageway of steps that ascended from the newly found doorway, was the radiant full moon, which I had never before seen save in dreams and in vague visions I dared not call memories.

>>8510289
>As I did so there came to me the purest euphoria I have ever known; for shining tranquilly through an ornate grating of mountain dew cans, and down a short carpeted passageway of steps that ascended from the newly found doorway, was a radiant package of moon pies, which I had never before seen save in dreams and in vague visions I dared not call memories.

>>8509572
Wow, this is actually a pretty good chart.

I think the "satisfaction scale" is a little too arbitrary though, and will attract shitposting, so the message might more effectively be delivered by simply removing that label and leaving the chart as is. Sort them according to your preference if you wish, but leave what you've done unsaid.

I think it would also be appropriate to expand the chart into other sub-genres. It's already only mostly chronological, so adding categories that aren't quite "eras" in their own right onto the end seems like it would be appropriate enough. I see this as a very sturdy "main section" though.

Stunning how much better this is than the shitty chart that gets spammed thread after thread, to be sure.

>>8510215
Just like the Oscars, everyone knows only a few of the specific Hugo awards matter. If you were winning the big one, it would be stupid not to show up.

>>8510215
>>8509023
Just go to the ceremony and then trash talk the lefty beardos in their little clique.

Tell them you'll give it to a gay club as some public dildo for what it's worth. Then watch their little liberal minds explode deciding if that's offensive or progressive.

>>8508597
Yes it is. It's also GRI APPROVED.

>>8510420
>Stunning how much better this is than the shitty chart that gets spammed thread after thread, to be sure.
Because sci-fi readers are more easier to please than fantasy readers. This general's most obvious active users are also the sci-fi crowd. Don't you think they will find a problem with my chart ?

I read more fantasy than scifi, 90%(fantasy) to 10%(sci-fi). It doesn't help that most of sffg seems to be 38year old+, and there is a stigma against fantasy at that age.(they say it themselves that fantasy is for kids)

Also my chart is "modern" his chart is Victorian (old). My chart might mesh with the younger generation than his will, but seeing as the old farts are the most boisterous users in sffg, they shit on my chart every chance they get.

>>8510531
Completely wrong on almost all accounts. No wonder you don't speak to the crowd.

>>8510531
Sorry, but I have no idea what you are talking about.

I don't really read any fantasy (no problem with it, I just don't personally seek it out), but it seems to me that these threads are usually about 75% fantasy posting about authors I've never read like these fucking "Sanderson" and "Bakker" memes.

I liked the other guy's chart better because I felt like it captured modern sensibilities better. Yours strikes me as stuck in the 70s with a few weirdly unfitting additions. I'm in my early 20s and have never really wanted to read that old fart "muh vietnam war" stuff (although I guess I've read Vonnegut).

Your post is really just baffling to me. I do like that your chart has Anathem though. The new chart seems to be avoiding doubling up authors, but when I posted about adding a few rows, I had stuff like Anathem, New Sun, and Hyperion in mind.

>>8510531
People don't like your chart because it's shitty. That's it, end of story.

>>8509242
>doesn't know portal was used widely back in the day

You do know that book takes place on a planet that isn't earth, and in a time that is closer to the romans than Americlap right?

It's like you are finding little pieces of shit to bicker over. Should I shittalk lotr? I'm sure you enjoyed that shitfest.

>>8510288
Black sword is shit. Gets political, and turns into someone trying to set up a puppet /shadow government.

Fantasy is turning more and more shit every year, only Sanderson is bringing hope. While he is not wholly original, he is at least entertaining. And brings new concepts to already existing tropes.

>>8510541
Then help me senpai. Be my spokesman, help me meme the chart to the max.

>>8510573
Define shitty. What is so offensive about my chart? Is it because i started with a female protagonist subsection in my first chart? Are you misogynist really still holding that against me?

>>8510672
I don't think anyone cares about that. If there are people who literally can't read a book because it has a female protagonist, we aren't concerned with their opinions. I just don't like your chart because I don't like the books you put on it. They are weird, incoherent recommendations.

It feels more like a list of books you have read in the last year than a recommendation chart.

>>8510679
>They are weird, incoherent recommendations.
<-

>The glow from the fire silvered his silhouette as he sank heavily onto a cushion. "How do you think I feel, knowing that the only feeling I have left in life is for a furry CAT?"

So much... tension, in this book :3

>>8510679
The whole point of my chart is books that I read, that I would recommend. I could understand some OCD on your part.

The chart is still in it's infantile stage. As I said before, it was suppose to have subsection of the most requested /memed recommendations.

I.e: military, gods, gri, female protagonists, urban fantasy, etc, etc.

I took like 30 minutes (6+ months ago) to organize all the subsections... when it came time to sort my books and start editing I couldn't go through. It takes a lot of patience and time to make a chart.

I dropped out 3 hours in and made pic related.
I hope to finish what I started months ago someday, but for now I just have them in two subsections, fantasy and sci-fi. There is a little bit of everything in my charts.

>>8510578
Portal was used for church doors, not regular doors. Back in the day books never used the word portal for a regular door.
>>8510531
Fantasy readers are more likely to be mouth breathers, like yourself.
Science fiction in general has higher quality because the fans for whatever reason are less likely to be retarded.
And no, your chart has nothing to do with age, as literature in general isn't based on age. After all this is /lit/ where the average poster is 21 years old and the average favorite novel was written in the 19th or first half of the 20th century.

>>8508597
It's awful. Even for YA.

>>8509572
The chart looks good.
I suggest Solaris though.

>>8508975
>that slightly tilted glasses look
He looks fucking adorable even if his prose leaves much to be desired.

Wanted to get back into reading. Picked up a few books at the local thrift store

Lucifers Hammer
Enders Game
Cryptonomicon

Where should I start?

>>8510658
How about no. You have poor taste, poor analysis, and limited PR skills. It's just an appalling abyss. There's about 3 people here other than G chart anon who can work some good charts. I'll bet on the winning horses, including myself.

>>8510162
That's why you gotta read Dune Messiah anon, ties up Paul's story pretty well.

>>8509536
And that'd be fine if the context wasn't literally the door a motherfucking hut.

>>8510894
*to a motherfucking hut

>>8510842

I would go with "Ender's Game", then "Lucifer's Hammer" and "Cryptonomicon" last.

"Ender's Game" is paced well with good action sequences and should be make for an easy reentry into reading.

I haven't read "Lucifer's Hammer" but by the process of elimination I would place it second because "Cryptonomicon" is a tome that will tax your patience.

>>8510571
>I'm in my early 20s and have never really wanted to read that old fart "muh vietnam war" stuff (although I guess I've read Vonnegut).

Hammer's Slammers is a exception to that. The author was tank crewman and intelligence officer in Vietnam, so the descriptions of vehicles are analogues to M113 APCs and Patton/Sheridan tanks, but they're very combat heavy and aren't anywhere near as preachy as The Forever War and similar. I'd suggest the short stories "The Butcher's Bill" and "The Interrogation Team" to start with.

>>8510654
Dunno if it's just me but it's always seemed like fantasy has been glutted by mediocre books of whatever the current flavor (Tolkien ripoffs, GoT ripoffs, etc) is, of course there's plenty of terrible self-published SF but it seems like it's easier for bad fantasy writers to get picked up by a actual publisher.

>>8510842
>Cryptonomicon

One of Stephenson's better works, and I'm not particularly a fan of him.

>>8508326

I'm halfway through finishing my own scifi anthology right now. I plan on illustrating and then self publishing it. What are the odds I get a Hugo for it?

I did a horror anthology that honestly wasn't very good, and I was able to get around 50,000 downloads on Amazon. I think with a quality book I could double that.

>>8510789
You talk as if Fantasy and sci-fi aren't mostly the same crowd of people.

>>8510789
>as literature in general isn't based on age
Kek. Yall shit on YA all the time. Why don't you read twilight and hunger games then.

Shoutout to whoever told me to jump into the Hyperion Cantos a few weeks back; about to finish Fall of Hyperion tonight.

>>8510849
I could get everyone's approval, I just don't feel like sucking up to others, like the other chart anons did.

If I took out what people told me to take out, and put in what they want me to, I could be living it up. But unlike the wannabe authors here I'm not a sellout. I'm not changing my shit because x ppl might like it more.

At least my chart motivates otners to make more charts because their autism can't stand to see my "shit tastes".

>>8510977
YA isn't literature.

>>8509499
Better than Gateway? I bloody loved Gateway.

>>8510989
Holy fuck be ready for one hell of a conclusion.

>>8511059
Yeah but it does an important job getting distractible young idiots into reading
t. Former child

Could someone recommend me some bioscience hard scifi? Xenobiology is obvious ideal but I'm open to other ideas. Stuff like the description of the scramblers in Blindsight.

>be me
>search for fantasy which won hugo awards
>read Paladin of Souls (the trilogy) from Lois McMaster Bujold
>wtf is this name
>nevermind
>1st book
>starts nice, cool character
>names are kinda shit
>what the fuck is this, is this some fantasy fifty shades of grey?
>literally perv
>start 2nd book
>basically a sjw story about oppressed woman who wants to fuck a son of her husband's homo lover

TLDR: don't trust women with fantasy (with some exceptions)

>>8511236
Try Gene Wolfe.

>>8511236
Why even pick something like that up, knowing its going to be shit because
1. It recently won a Hugo
2. It's a trilogy
3. Written by a woman (not a problem in itself)
4. It's fantasy, the most shit populated genre of them all
As far as women in fantasy go, Le Guin is pretty good, but only in her pre feminists writings. Atwood is similar to what you described, it's a martyrdom feminist rape fantasy.

>>8510164
I haven't read the two Cordelia books, but from all that I've heard, Barrayar is the superior of the two.

The Miles books start well from the get go, I thought.

>>8510164
>>8511349
Yes the Miles books are the reason to read that. The others are meh or miss

>>8511015
>I could get everyone's approval, I just don't feel like sucking up to others
>>8510658
>help me senpai. Be my spokesman, help me meme the chart to the max.

Your incoherence is reflected in your chart.

>>8511015
>their autism can't stand to see my "shit tastes".
>>8510531
>old farts are the most boisterous users in sffg
>>8510672
>Are you misogynist really still holding that against me?
>>8510727
>I could understand some OCD on your part.

Your inability to ignore criticism or to respond without insults pegs you as immature, which is also reflected in your chart.

>>8508710
Anything by KJ Parker.

>>8511406
I should reorganize this chat to be more in line with
>>8509572
It's a pretty good chart.

>>8508980
>>8509027
Sanderson is amazing, but he still needs improvement. The stormlight archive is his best series so far. Mist born should have been one book. The 1st is great. The second, a disappointment.

>Inb4: I hate Sanderson because he's popular.

>>8509042
Who the fuck cares. I like slow paced books.

>>8509047

>It's incredible how one cannot describe something so big with zero words.

>>8511015
You're a sellout because you like your shit authors in the first place. Bow down to your betters.

Don't flatter yourself. The lack of useful charts would have caused others to make new charts anyway.

>>8511563
I hate Sanderson because of his massive lack of talent as a writer. He's incapable of writing characters and his prose makes Martin seem like a master stylist. Who cares if he's popular? Most authors liked on /lit/ are very popular, don't seem why you would specifically make an expression for 3 authors autists like.

Anyone got an ebook of the new Reynolds? It's not on bibliotik yet...

>>8511593
Libgen is usually the best place to look. That said, I never searched for fantasy there so the selection of that could be poor.

>>8511593
>look it up
>yet another space opera
How do you guys not get bored of this

>>8511590
It's just too bad that GRRM is a massive hack and as bad as Sanderson.

>>8511593
Set up a notification for Bibliotik, use Page Monitor to monitor fulfilled requests/other keywords in regex for mobilism and lastly add a filter for what.cd and myanonamouse. That's what I did for The Obelisk Gate and my browser was pounded with notifications the instant it went up.

Bibliotik or Mobilism or Kat (RIP Kat.cr) is almost always the first place.

You can also chuck some bounty on books if you're impatient but since Reynolds is popular it's probably going to get upped in a few hours especially if a shitton of libraries have it on overdrive.

>>8511613
Neither is a good writer for sure, but Asoiaf at least has a few people for characters.

>>8508528
Well, I finished it. Decent if you're reading for the felines, but I don't think it qualifies for the GRI seal. Everyone makes passes at the MC, frequently including sensual massage, and she basks in the attention. There was that one "surprise throbbing member to the crotch" incident, but that's as close as it gets.

>>8509572
>Last and First Men
>literally the first entry you see
>being that badly mislabeled
En la basura que va.

>>8511607
And they call fantasy readers immature

>>8511590
>I hate Sanderson

"Hate" is a very strong word friend. Why do you keep buying his books?

>>8511877
Keep buying is an overstatement for reading a torrented epub on an ereader.

>>8511877
So I could burn them. It proves a point that he is shit.

>>8511879
Only for you and I. /lit/ has uh, 'interesting' sensibilities when it comes to computers.

>>8511906
I wish I could buy the books I want to read in paper. 50 dollars each here.

>>8511906
Plenty of people use ereaders and audiobooks here.
I also prefer physical, but it's 20 times more expensive. A 40$ investment has saved me hundreds of shekels and opened a lot of philosophy I'd otherwise have trouble acquiring.

>>8511800
>using google translate for make accurate translation

Opinions on Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy?

>>8512064
I hated it.

What do you think Gene Wolfe's IQ is?

Was anyone else as disappointed by the Laundry Files as I was?
>Modern Delta Green bureaucratic horror-comedy from the guy who wrote Halting State, Glasshouse, Missile Gap and Palimpsest!
>First book is okay, second gets good in the last quarter, third is really formulaic and the way the mc survives danger seems like a huge ass-pull.
>Talks about how magic is just very high-order math and spells can be executed on your iPod, but never does anything with it.
>The cosmic horror isn’t scary and the office scenes aren’t funny.
>The Lovecraft elements are mostly references for the kinds of people who buy Cthulhu t-shirts.
>Want to keep giving it a chance but can’t.
>Realize there hasn’t been much engineering-jargon or European geopolitical nods, as if Stross is trying not to alienate the buy-it-cus-it’s-got-tentacles crowd.
>Know in your heart that he can do so much better when he’s trying to challenge people and talk about expansive sweeps of the future.

Also, this is a bit YA, but why on Earth can’t Doctorow write endings? Everything I’ve read by him is brilliant around the middle, but then it just tapers off or goes running in a completely anticlimactic direction. (Homeland being the worst offender.)

>>8512073
average redditor

>>8512073
IQ is not something associated with writing.

>>8511199
Aurora

>>8511613
>as bad as Sanderson

gurm actually has an inventive plot

>>8512064

I've read the series a few times, in omnibus format. It's British humor so it can be an acquired taste for Americans. It has little to no science fiction conceptual value, unless one considers the Infinite Improbability Drive as plausible. "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is just good unpretentious comedy in a scifi setting.

>The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say on the subject of flying.
>There is an art, it says, or rather a knack to flying.
>The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
>Pick a nice day, it suggests, and try it.
>The first part is easy.
>All it requires is simply the ability to throw yourself forward with all your weight, and the willingness not to mind that it's going to hurt.
>That is, it's going to hurt if you fail to miss the ground.
>Most people fail to miss the ground, and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard.

If this amuses you, you might enjoy Douglas Adams.

>>8512178
Guess I'll be comitting to it.
Thanks for the info

>>8511199
Solaris

Damn. I told pol trying to take over sffg was bad, but having the elitist try(and slowly succeed) is worse.

This general is dry, I'm not enjoying myself,mthe fucking discussions are barren, dry, nearly academia in nature. It's like some fag is writing a thesis, or a 100k minimum word count report.

Our regular 80+ users is even starting to drop. People are leaving.. I guess soon it will be the elitist amongst themselves, discussing wolfe, lem, robinson, moorcock, and the others every, single, thread.

/sffg/ will become a circlejerk, just like outer /lit/. This is truly sad.

>>8512432
So what do you want to talk about?

>>8512432
Well that's the problem with books in general, there's too many of them coming out every day so people read different stuff, ergo little discussion happens. I don't like to make the comparison, but, when a big AAA video game comes out everyone plays it and thus actual discussion happens.

tl;dr: we need more shills to bring new books to the general, also more people writing short reviews about the books they've read instead of one liners

>>8512127
>>8512096
So 107.

>>8511906
>>8511911
>>8511921
I pay 25 cents per book, sometimes less.

>also more people writing short reviews about the books they've read instead of one liners
<.<

>>8512505
I have no amazon where I live. English isn't even my native language. Average books are way too expensive. Even national regular ones are expensive here between 15/20€ a piece new.

>>8512539
>new
Maybe I should have mentioned that I mainly buy dusty pre-90s paperbacks.

>>8512577
It doesn't matter to me. No used English copies here for sale. Shipping them would do the same.

>>8511199
Bumping the question. I like that theme.

>>8512660
>bioscience
>in hard sci-fi variant
You know that is very unlikely, tey seveneves

For some one with zero insight on what's good and not on sci-fi.

Is there any decent sci-fi series with the length of something like the Wheel of Time?

>>8512729
Babylon V

>>8512729
Thankfully no.

>>8512577
There is no such thing as a pre 90s paperback here. If it's used, it's hard cover. Most of my Russian lit is 30+ years old hard covers, my Portrait of a young man as an artist even has completely unrelated communist propaganda at the end.

>>8512600
>>8512789
Ah, I guess you'll have to emigrate to burgerland then. I wonder how long paperbacks tend to last. It's fairly arid here, so I don't get mold, but the binding glue dries out.

>>8512804
Thank God for Kobo man. Best investment I've made this year. Almost 300 hours in it after a couple of months. I'm almost making the investment back.

>>8512823
I'm glad you enjoy it. I'll probably get one eventually, but I'm pretty attached to physical books. Plus, mobile devices tend to rather egregiously disrespect my freedoms, so I avoid them. My research into Kobos has been promising in the freedom area.

>Spend entire life trying to get better at writing
>After years of hard work you finally get published
>/lit/ hates you

>>8512887
>not getting the ereader and putting on a firewall, and keeping off wifi

>>8512905
Published or self published?

Are you gaskunt?ding ding

What's up with the hate on Bakker? Did the mentions of rape trigger you while you were reading the book in your safe space?

I just finished the second book of the first trilogy and I'm pretty stoked for the third one.
It's not perfect, and sometimes the rip offs in both name and themes are too obvious (Dûnyain - Bene Gesserit mixed with Dunedain, nigger plz), but the rest of the books makes up for it.
Granted, I was always a big fan of the Tleilaxu and face dancers, so obviously I will be positively biased to anything that contains something resembling that.

>>8512905
Maybe you should have been born with talent.

Are you mentally challenged?

>>8512921
>What's up with the hate on Bakker?
He's a boring writer who writes bloated meaningless sentences full of random made up words to sound smart while selling a pedestrian philosophy while having very weak characterisation.
Nobody cares about your edgy safe spaces.

>>8512921
The only people "hating" him actively are Wolfefags, but those hate everything that isn't written like a textbook so.

>>8512921
I preferred Cook before he went by the the name Bakker.

>>8512957
I hated Bakker before I read Wolfe.

>>8512921
>trigger you while you were reading the book in your safe space?
It's not even that you presumptuous idiot. Bakker gives the false conception of edginess while offering nothing of thematic or literary depth. He's just garbage.

>>8512474
>Write book review for /lit/
>Didn't like how the narrator kept calling me a privileged shitlord who deserves to die a horrible death in some weird fake ebonics
>/lit/ freaks the fuck out and starts ranting on about how /pol/ is trying to take over /sffg/

>>8512973
To add to that, when will you non-literate faggots learn to appreciate good literature? You don't even have to like Wolfe. But for some reason you're incapable of valuing good literary qualities.

>>8512911
Avoiding the botnet is a side effect of respected freedoms, not the main goal. I don't want to pay for a device that I won't then own.

>>8512979

>>8512977
You are just showing how new you are.

W few months ago pol used to come in here regularly and post about politics, not koh blacks in books" literal politics about currency and the faith of the European union etc, etc.

>>8512729

In terms of sheer pages or hair pulls, I very much doubt it. However, there are several long series and at least one I would qualify as decent. I don't know of any that follow a serial path with any one character though. The more common modus operandi in science fiction is to imagine a universe with certain basic characteristics and then write separate novels or stories based in this sandbox but usually with different characters.

>The Foundation series - Isaac Asimov
>The Vorkosigan series - Lois Bujold McMasters
>The Dune series - Frank and Brian Herbert

There are series that straddle the line between science fiction and fantasy, using the trope of a magical world that has supplanted a previous technological era.

>The Dark Tower series - Stephen King
>The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe

If you've got your heart set on following one character or storyline, I don't have much to offer. I tend to avoid such series since I gave up on Wheel of Time. If four books would do though...

>The Demon Princes - Jack Vance

>>8513003
People that complain about /pol/ on /lit/ are straight outta reddit, /lit/ used to be /new/'s home away from home, every time the charts reach the frontpage /lit/ unironically becomes a Marxist shithole for a couple of days.

>>8511593
Not gonna read it though.

>>8508497
This guy was really interesting. His real name was Paul Myron Linebarger. He was Godfather to Sun Yat Sen's son and literally wrote the book on Psychological Warfare, it was called "Psychological Warfare".

He was part of the psy-ops leaflet program in the Korean war, which created leaflets which would were intended to convince Chinese and North Korean soldiers to surrender or defect. You can read about it here:
http://psywarrior.com/KoreaPSYOPHist.html

>>8512905
That's the secret. /lit/ hates any author that they don't see as an unapproachable genius because they resent that they were published and not them.

Is the 2001 Odyssey sequels worth my tim?

>>8512432
Reminder that being a regular of a general is retarded and breeds shitty blog posters and circlejerks.

>>8513104
That makes absolutely no sense.

>>8512432
Sounds awesome, can't wait until you leave.

Is Damasio good?
He seems pretty edgy.

I read a lot of these when I was younger. Just want to say that it's all of your faults that furries exist.

>>8513139
Edgy can be good. Moorcock is fun because he's incredibly edgy.

>>8512086
Yes. Stress was on track to be one of the all time greats, then dropped the ball; hopefully he can pick it back up. I bet a combination of trying to appeal to Fandom (initially) and losing interest (later) accounts for Laundry Files' failure.

>>8513146
It's disney's fault.

>>8511437
>Anne Frank - The Diary of a Young Girl

>>8511199
Evolution by Stephen Baxter. Similar but more fanciful and less story-oriented is Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon.

>>8512064
I like the series and love the third book. At one point it was essential nerdcore, not sure if people still read it.

The read-by-the-author audiobook is worth finding. He delivers it in his own rhythm.

>>8513174
I blame RARE

>>8512064
I liked the first book. The other books in the series were just weird randomness and some lame love story, probably caused by the author falling in love with a girl.

>>8513226
But Baxter just write false bioshit in Evolution. Clearly not hard. Even cringeworthy.

>>8513120
It makes all too much sense

>>8513244
Are you mad about the stratospheric whale?

>>8513248
No I liked these whales (but he stole it to ACCs Jupiter life)

>>8513253
Well what, then? The whole-cloth bits (like the dino-men) I thought were a great way of highlighting the incompleteness of the record and to fire you up about there might be to find.

>>8511563
I just read the first Mistborn. Reading the Second now but only about 10% or so in.

I might read books wrong but I'm more interested in the story and world itself than the characters. The characters are just a means to tell the story. Unless it's glaringly obvious to me, I don't really notice things wrong with how a character is written. Maybe it's my generally apathetic attitude. Maybe I wasn't taught the basics of characterization so I don't know what to look for or what makes a character well written. Maybe I just have different priorities and care about different things when reading and is a possibly explanation as to why I prefer fantasy/sci-fi.

I read people groaning about characterization and I sit here thinking "meh".

Am I a pleb?

>>8512905
>>8512913
Lol, time to burn your life's work Gaskun

>>8513119
Wolfeanons are incredibly productive relative to the vast majority of lit. Some generals create echo chambers, but Wolfe's very philosophical undertones attracts pretty chill guys, something I would not have guessed.

>>8513126
This, good riddance shit licker.

>>8512432
>This general is dry, I'm not enjoying myself,mthe fucking discussions are barren, dry, nearly academia in nature. It's like some fag is writing a thesis, or a 100k minimum word count report.
You're just too dumb
Stick to WoT and Vance

>>8508326
>What SFF book cover elements are automatic purchases for you?
Just good art in general, with solid contrast, good palette choice and masterful composition. Gotta love a cool, striking fantasy cover.

Though it never makes me purchase a book. It just makes me more eager to read the preview of it before I do, and if I do.

>>8513256
We should just rename the board /pleb/.

I think in genre fiction you take what's on offer, whether it's plot or a good character or a cool idea or an interesting style or whatever.

Demanding the complete package is just setting yourself up for disappointment

>>8513256
Not everyone reads for the same reasons / finds the same things entertaining. You read for plot and world building, which is fine. Some people want complex characters and psychological investigations. I personally don't like stories that focus too much on that either, I like comic book level of characterization at most.

>>8509832
Are you familiar with the Boris Vallejo / Frank Frazetta debate ?

https://barefootjustine.com/2013/09/24/frazetta-vs-boris-resolved/

Thoughts ?

I'm looking for good or diverting youtube videos about sci-fi authors - interviews, docs, panels, whatever.

I recently watched BBC's Arena programme from 1994 about Philip K Dick and thought it was well made. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cK2MPgAHRk

>>8513325
Is that your blog?

>>8513374
No, I happened across it while browsing fantasy art. I knew Boris's work, but didn't know he had a rival so similar in style.

What are you guys' reactions (Is that the right way to phrase that?) to when a character in a book makes a comment about "it's not like it is in the stories" or "I was hoping for X, but X only happens in Y tales".

>>8513349
Shut the hell up you fucking faggot

>>8513382
At first I thought it was clever, then it made me want to saw my own head off, now it just makes me smile.

>>8513325
I wasn't aware there was a debate. I thought it was obvious Frazetta is way better. Vallejo is too showy and clean, and no one really illustrates the dynamism of a scene like Frazetta does.

>>8513382
cringe

Just like Marvel's shit excuses for writing cliches. often use to flatter the dumb reader.

>>8513386
Excuse my autism, but when you say it makes you smile, do you meant that you smile despite it's 'badness', or smile because having seen it so much has revealed another good aspect of it?

>>8513394
Tangentially related, but could I ask you how 'Complex' you prefer a character's motivations be?

>>8513349

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z1dkqUaQFU

I came across this 1976 radio interview with Jack Vance a few years ago. I find his reasons for not publicizing himself more than he did interesting. The overall impression I get from the interview is that Vance really just wrote the genres he did because they paid well and not from devotion. I'm listening to it again to see if it refines that impression.

>>8513421
It's just a comfy old familiar, like beginning with Once upon a time. Thriller and mystery authors do the same thing when they have the character reflect on what would or would not have happened in the movies.

It'll always be the first time somebody saw it used, you know?

>>8513256
>I just read the first Mistborn. Reading the Second now but only about 10% or so in.
>I might read books wrong but I'm more interested in the story and world itself than the characters

Just drop it. I've said this dozens of time here. Mistborn is a Herocentric story. The second books is atrocious. You'll only see what the well of ascension is in the final pages. It's just a generic story until there, boring and dragging as fuck. You'll meet the most cringy character in the series on that book, and you'll hate Vin too. Mistborn as zero world building as you might have seen. Don't hope for it on the next books.

Read the Stormlight Archive if you haven't.

>>8513424
Deep stuff like this is good, I'll bookmark it for after I read Vance. I found out about Hour 25 a little while ago and it sounded pretty sweet. Harlan Ellison presenting radio and talking to authors, gossiping, raving. There is a good PKD interview from the same programme on youtube and an ok one of Robert Silverberg. I'm guessing a lot of their stuff is lost in time or sitting in shoeboxes, not uploaded.

>>8513282
Decent Frazetta imitation, but not nearly as imaginative

>>8513325
>>8513391
I posted >>8509832 and I agree that Frazetta is better. Still love Vallejo and Julie Bell a lot though

>>8512432
>I will complain about nebulous things without adding to the conversation in any substantive way
>I lament the board dying

In your own mind, you're part of the problem. Fix that before posting again.

>>8512921
>Bakker
In the Prince of Nothing trilogy he didn't tell a story, even given 1,600 pages to do it. He introduced some (uninteresting) characters and gave a prologue. Why you would trust a writer going forward is beyond me.

>>8512921
I hated his writing. He lacks creativity when he thinks that omitting scenery is a good thing. He is pretentious and self indulging in his writing.

This video reminds me of his writing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6LoC9KUVtI

>>8513462
Mistborn is rife with worldbuilding though.

Is it a thing now to outright lie and claim a story doesn't have a thing it does have? The /v/ crossboarding is ridiculous.

>>8513088
Kek at the "physiological warfare"

>>8513563
>alloy of law

Fuck off

>>8513512
He is actually literally a pseud, because he failed at getting a PhD in psychology and now just churns out """"""""""deep"""""""""" fantasy schlock for edgelords.

Hate to add another question to the pile, but anyone read The Three Body Problem?

I've heard nothing but praise for it, but the blurb made it sound a bit stupid and weird.

It's like 5 bucks so hardly difficult but if anyone's read it, then...

>>8513563

>>8512957
>The only people "hating" him actively are Wolfefags

But I'm a huge Wolfefag, and I like Bakker.

Out of all the /sffg/ trash I've sifted through, Second Apocalypse is the only still running grimdark series that doesn't resort of cheesy Reddit humor to lighten the mood.

>>8513588
>doesn't resort of
*to

>>8512957
Cook is an enormous waifufag. He wrote the entire series to fellate his self-insert MC by grinding him against the big bad girl (who is also magically a virgin for some reason). God what a crock of shit. Fuck you for making me remember that shitpile.

>>8513512
He peddles a book with cute grill feet on the cover and gets away with it without even raising an eyebrow

The absolute madman.

>>8513608
>footfaggots think that everyone is mentally damaged as they are

>>8513608
footfags are on the same level as coprophiles

>>8513632
Feet aren't AS smelly or unsanitary as shit, surely?

Humble Bundle has a bunch of scifi stories written by scientists on offer:

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/science-fiction-by-real-scientists

Well, that's a change of pace. In the OP book everyone made passes at the feline. In this one >>8509931 everyone just wanted to rape her. In OP humans were slaves. Here, cloned humans are less than animals. Real females are rare, and the plentiful clones are raped/tortured/chucked off balconies without a second thought. The writing's not great either. I just want to get it over with :(

>>8510440
It's not about what's said, it's who says it. If they know you're a Bad Guy they'll take it as an insult, if you're One Of Them they'll laugh and pat you on the back.

>>8510957
>What are the odds I get a Hugo for it?
How many friends do you have?

>>8512086
>Also, this is a bit YA, but why on Earth can’t Doctorow write endings?
He's a zealot. Can't bear to watch his plots unfold like they actually would.

>>8513109
Absolutely not. Boring and non-innovative.

>>8513570
It's got some really nice SF in it and some stuff that feels dragged in from 80s sci-fi movies. The good stuff is great, the bad stuff makes it feel a little silly. There are some really good moments in it, though.

I've heard The Dark Forest was excellent.

>>8513826
Would you trust science done by sci-fi authors?

>>8513958

I spent the buck to find out. I could use a little more hard scifi to remind me why I should have done better in college.

>>8513953
Dark Forest massively improves where Three Body left off, Three Body is a dry, lacking in emotion, hard science tale.

I recently tore through all of Kane the Mystic Swordsman and Conan the Barbarian (mostly just Howard's stories though) and I loved them. Does anyone have similar sword & sorcery to recommend? Read Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and it just wasn't nearly the same.

>>8513291
I don't see why that should be the case. Unless you are so fucking despite for entertainment you can't find anything else to read.
>>8513382
Name of the Wind flashbacks and stopping reading the novel.
>>8513468
Dying Earth 1 is 6 short stories, each 30 pages long. You can do it in an afternoon. And it's great.
>>8513496
Like I've talked about it earlier, it's kinda fascinating how much some authors can write without having any substance. The first trilogy is 4 times as long as Crime and Punishment or twice as long as Brothers Karamazov or equally long as Gulag Archipelago and so on. It's like these people aren't capable of self editing. Chekhov's gun is definitely not a thing many modern fantasy writers follow and most of their work would in fact benefit from it.
>>8513640
It very much depends on whether the feet are washed, freshness of the corpse and if the feet are belonging to a living person.

As usual, fiction from the hippie age is far better than fiction from other ages

>>8513032
Well I was here for years, complained about pol, and never went to redshit.

Once it was on topic you couldn't do shit.

>>8513570
>TBT is literally the best sci fi to come along in years and you're pooh-poohing it away.

>First of all, no one likes it because of some wishy washy desire to see more translated fiction. How facile and pandering. I have literally never read a worse thought.

>Second, and this is tied to the first point, it's laughable that the only part of any relevance is the Cultural Revolution section. Again this pandering oriental fascination. Read a history book if it's so eye-opening. That said, the historical context of China is well utilised for the plot, and it all comes together so magnificently.

>It's truly reminiscent of golden age sci fi, with big ideas and lots of science. It's exciting and fresh, and yeah The Dark Forest does just take it to the next level. This isn't a book about fucking characters - it's a book about scientists and existentialism (by the way The Dark Forest is a beautiful love story) and it works perfectly for that. There are issues with translation and this is mostly in dialogue, but honestly there was some killer writing in there. But oh no sorry Station Eleven is just so beautiful it made me cry. Give me a break. This is far and above a lot else out there.

>tl;dr appreciate, fools.

>Addendum: I went to a seminar in Sydney with Cixin Liu was speaking. I have never seen such a packed event. A university lecture theatre filled with Chinese students (and me and like 5 white dudes). During question time there was a literal stampede of people wanting to ask him questions. And no, not questions like 'how do you find time to write?' or some lame bullshit Western audiences would ask, but deep and meaningful questions about science and the future of China.

>That day I saw the West die.

>>8513149
Do you hear yourself?

Moorcock is good because he is old, night angel is "edgy" according to yall, and you still say it's shit.

Fucking hypocrite scums.

>>8514209
Moorcock is intentionally edgy and melancholic which is the whole point. It reads different than a self insert power fantasy and he, while mediocre, can actually craft a decent sentence.
How in the world does his age even matter? How the fuck does it make sense to judge something by the older the better? I wouldn't be reading fantasy, ever, if that was the case.
You are an actual retard, I honestly can't wait until we chase you away. Besides Elric is not even very old for most stories, it has been often published in the 90s or early 2000s.

>>8514226
Your buddies plain say that the older something is the better.

Old edgy is fine, new edgy is shit.

Look one of your brethren here >>8514195

>>8514208
>(and me and like 5 white dudes)

You can feel the derision oozing out of this sentence.

I'll bet this guy has a Little Red Book next to his toilet.

>>8514226
Nooo. Moorcock is edgy because he aims to bring realituh to genre and make scifi great again.

He's bad because he's a pompous tryhard, while Night Angel is bad because it's tween mud. Just give it up.

>>8514299
Still, it's intentional edge and cool edge too. Eternal champion conversation on who suffered more was super fun.
I can't think of his stuff as something he wrote seriously when I read it. All those sardonic faces and woe that hits Elric who always rejects hot women and is thrown by the whims of gods, it feels very much like an Odyssey or another epic, but corny. It's a Boss Nigga/Black Dynamite kind of thing, but for fantasy.
That said, I completely understand why someone would dislike him, it isn't like he has much depth and is significantly worse as a stylist and is bad at crafting characters (only Elric has personality) than any other popular sword and sorcery author, like Leiber or Vance.

Just finished King of Thorns

Is it some kind of a post apocalyptic shit? Who are the builders and where did the magic come from
Also what happened?
Builder fire = Nukes?

>>8514394
Haven't read it in a while, but I think you're pretty much right.

>>8514396

>Hair falling out
>Teeth coming out

That sounded like intense radiation sickness to me

I love the Elder Scrolls video games, gimme some fantasy books recommendations for similar comfy settings. No Lord of The Rings.

>>8514483
The Hobbit and Children of Hurin

>>8514483
Silmarillion

>>8514483

>>8514483
The Hobbit
Children of Hurin
Silmarillion
Unfinished Tales

>>8514396

How much is revealed about the world/past/magic in the last book? Emperor of Thorns?

>>8514299
>multiple rape and incest scenes
>tween ya
Nigga what?

I bet you are like 40+, and anything that doesn't have complex vernacular, and syntaxes is seen as ya to you.

I bet you have a 17 year old kid.

3/10 made me respond

>>8514394
Yep it's PA. Magic comes from a reality altering machine. I think he wrote it the same time they were building the large hadron collider in Switzerland.

Back then they said a bunch of shit would happen, black holes etc. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to have "magic" leak out too due to fucked up physics

>>8514258
Are you the mentally challenged autist who couldn't read books older than 20 years?

>>8514133
>dry
>hard science
No need to repeat yourself.

>>8514926

I was pretty sad when Jorg lost his fire and necromancy magic powers I was hoping he was gonna become some uber king hoarding powers but instead he just lost them

What do you think of Altered Carbon? I'm almost done with The Diamond Age, and after I finish off Meditations (which I left halfway through once my copy of this arrived), I'm going to begin reading it (I already picked it up, hope I didn't jump the gun)

>>8514542
A bit I think, but more gets fleshed out in the Red Queen's War trilogy, which runs roughly concurrently but focuses on different characters.

>>8514941
Naw. I read both old and new. I just hate elitist faggots who live it up on an American preowned Japanese carbon copied shitposting forum.

>>8514961
Wasn't his to begin with.

>>8514988
I enjoyed it, read it and find out.

>>8515015
But there's nothing elitist about not liking to consume literary garbage.
>>8514988
I've only read Snow Crash. It was really dull. The characters were walking fedoras, the plot was slow and the humour just wasn't funny. It was like reading a 16 year old trying to write 'witty' character with cool retorts.
I hope he improved as a writer.

>>8514988
Sorry, mixed him up with Stephenson.
I always thought he did Altered Carbon for some reason.
My bad, Combiner

>>8515017

Yea true but still sad he lost them, I just started the last book, but it's not long enough for him to get any magic I guess

>>8515029
I liked Snow Crash, and I think that the actual prose and everything about the book was meant to be a cyberpunk Holden Caulfield in a way - ironic caricatures in the most crude and unlikable ways.

The Diamond Age is also by Neal Stephenson - thought it was more cyberpunky but it really just turned out to be more "post-cyberpunk.". Not doing as much for me, although I hear books of his like Anaheim and Cryptonomicon are his best and most acclaimed works, even if Snow Crash is his most famous.

House of blades shill, I'm starting the book.
You better not disappoint me.

>>8515029
>I hope he improved as a writer.
He really did. Never lost the self-indulgence though, goes on long filibusters to explain concepts, less so in Seveneves.

He even, starting with Baroque Cycle, learned to have satisfying endings. Seveneves ended with part 1, it had a satisfying ending. We talk about Seveneves and Anathem a lot, but we never talk about Baroque Cycle.

>Half-Cocked Jack Forrest Gumping around the world of the late 1600s
>Ridiculous crew of historical fanfic heroes slowly dies, gets maimed, or settles down
>At least his sons and Enoch Root the actual wizard hang around
Wild ride.

>>8515084
I'm going to point myself out as a newfag to /lit/ or a fucking pleb, but you can tell he loves showing off his vocabulary (or the dictionary). The whole Sumar wank in Snow Crash, whilst interesting and completely ironic was a bit too over the top you could really tell his own ego dipped into it, too. Some of his passages are needlessly obfuscated, and yes, I get them, but I don't feel it as concisely in my head.

I used to be an avid reader but not so much in recent years, so maybe it's just because I need it to become natural again, who knows?

>>8515101
Also, would have read Anaheim or the Baroque Cycle, but it seemed a bit too high-scifi and a lot less palatable than I would have liked, especially given his prose. I still need to get back into it first, plus I didn't really see it so much as my taste.

>>8515084
Seveneves was shit. It made me hate hard sci-fi, and I never liked it in the first place.

Delta v this, micro meteor that, clone vagina baby this.

I rather soft scifi with a believable explanation for hard field generators, and using current scientific theory to make new weapons or space travel.

>>8515084
I just started reading him. I found Seveneves more info-dumpy than Snow Crash, though I really enjoyed both books. And I'm enjoying the Cryptonomicon now.

I had always dismissed him, somehow thinking that he would be a pompous hipster, but instead his books come across to me as abundant nerdy enthusiasm.

I'm hype to read the rest of his catalog.

By the way, has anybody read "Embassytown"? Was really when I was out of reading, but got it as a birthday gift 5 years ago and found it so unbelievably boring. That being said, I was young and probably didn't have the interest in it.

Probably not surprising he's a tasteless commie faggot given how boring that book was.

>>8515117
Whatchu looking into reading by him next senpai?

>>8515101
Oh, yeah, early Stephenson is really awkward. The big change happens around The Diamond Age, and that's when he starts having interesting philosophies of his own, too.

>>8515135
I liked it. Not enough to reread, but there was some neat SFnal stuff going on in the background and a really cool major conflict. I've heard it was a metaphor for British politics but I read it blissfully ignorant. Then I read another two pages of Perdido Street Station and I've been away from Mieville ever since.

>>8515135
Diamond Age next.

>>8515135
>By the way, has anybody read "Embassytown"? Was really when I was out of reading, but got it as a birthday gift 5 years ago and found it so unbelievably boring. That being said, I was young and probably didn't have the interest in it.
>Any suggestions?

Yes, drop dead.

>>8515174
I don't remember asking for a suggestion, but I wish I could.

>>8515155
I thought the beginning of it dragged on, but after you're about 80/500 pages in really kicked up a lot more.

>>8515154
Obviously didn't get that either!

bump

>>8515277
>bumping a thread on autosage

>>8515135
>>8515154
Read the Scar gents.

You thoughts about Ian R. MacLeod?

>write sword and sorcery story
>get feedback from people
>bretty gud anon, fix up the technical issues and you might be able to sell it
>feels fucking good ma-
>what if nobody buys it
>what if I get told by an editor its shit
>I mean even my asshole friend who told me my last girlfriend was a fatass and I could do better(in front of her) said it was good
>but what if they're being nice
>what if im a failure
oh
god
oh god
oh god
im going to burn this manuscript and delete all the files

>>8515378
Post it on 4chan. They're ruthlessly critical, and if they don't bully you mercilessly, you know it's sincerely good.

That being said, just take it to an editor.

Any good sci-fi about exploring the galaxy and contacting new groups and species? Preferably without moralising and with good tech porn.

>>8515378
Just post it here nigger.

Or on /tg/ or something if you want a place slightly less critical, in one of the story threads as a PDF

>>8515001

So it's like the same time but focusing on other characters?

New thread
>>8515534
New thread

Just finished this book.

Was it good?

>>8516167
No.