/lit/ - Literature

First for charts that aren't full of "urban fantasy" dreck

>Beginner's Guide to Fantasy
When did we sneak that one in?

>>8742676
Last thread is when I first noticed it .

>>8742666
I also hate dreck charts.

>>8742624

Does any oldschool 80's 90's predictable full-of-clichés-but-still-lovable fantasy exist? I mean, shit like the orphaned farmboy who can talk to wolves goes on adventure to save the world or whatever.

I do enjoy modern works, but there's something to be said for the romantic innocence of these books, and I haven't really read any since Wheel of Time (I gave up after book 6 or 7).

>>8742752
Codex alera?

>>8742752
What, generic elves/dwarves whatever DnD ebin fantasy?
Raymond Feist, Terry Brooks, Joel Rosenberg etc. There's tons.

>>8742773
>Terry Brooks
There is a rule I follow and it has never let me down as yet. Don't read any books whose author has in their name.

>>8742812

?

>>8742817
It's that anti-Terry namist.
Yiff in hell :3

/lit/ tell me about Steven Brust the Vlad Taltos series

Are we "above" Star Wars here?

Is it bad if a large chunk of my scifi inspiration is from anime?

Things like Macross, Outlaw Star, Gundam, and Legend of the Galactic Heroes, to be precise.

I just feel as though a lot of western scifi just doesn't touch my buttons the way I'd like them to.

Also, any ideas? I was just going to do a space colony war thing, but I feel like everyone and their nanna does that.

Anyone read Children of time by Adrian Tchaikovsky or Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson? Thinking of picking one of them up.

>>8742843

Nigga, I read Children of Time not long ago, and that fucking book is great as hell. I'm not familiar with Aurora.

I'm not sure what to say about Children without giving too much away, but it's definitely worth a read if you're into sci-fi. I enjoyed it immensely.

anyone else read the rangers apprentice when they were a kid?

>>8742840
I personally wrote some Colony Sci-Fi, however I plan on expanding on the tech and universe in later books.

>>8742878
Really, I like scifi because of its mythological kind of character it has. Everything is big, there's so much at stake, yada yada.

Also Lots of anime scifi is just so goddamn fun and unapologetically nutters. Western scifi is all but exclusively grim and "prophetic" and such. And all the scifi comedies the west produces is on the nose with its humor and is more parody than just a good ol fun romp.

Wheel of Time is SHIT.

>>8742898
Is it? I tried to read the first book, but I must not've been in the mood for it and I lost interest in it. I keep hearing high praise for the first four or five books, but I haven't gone back to it.

Should I give 'er 'nother go, /sffg/?

>>8742898
>>8742924

I agree that it is shit. The series is not worth wasting your time on.

>>8742924

I dropped WoT after book six or seven, I think. Up until that point they were mostly good, just brace yourself for stereotypical high fantasy.

Fourteen books is a lot, though, and personally I got fed up with the women in the story. I don't know if I'll ever go back... it's hard to justify reading so many pages of the same story.

Book one is great though! If you didn't like that one then you probably won't like the rest either.

>>8742924
>that filename

wut

>>8742873
Yeah that was my jam, I stopped reading once they went to not-japan though.

>>8742624
Which one is the best?

>>8742924
I've read them all. The main problem is that Robert Jordan has zero respect for the reader. You will get to sit through literally 1000 pages of uninteresting slice of life garbage just to get to the climax, which is relegated to the last two pages of the book.

This is not a hyperbole. Literally the entire climax, to which the previous 1000 pages have built up, is over in the absolute last two pages of most WoT books. It's like Robert Jordan didn't want to actually write a story. He just wanted to indulge a cathartic hobby of free writing pages and pages of absolutely unbearable boring shit.

The part that I will never forgive: In book 6 (maybe?), the climax that has been built up to is that one of the main characters has to fight Couladin, who has been one of the main villains for the last 3 books. This is a massively important event for this character that sets the stage for his entire storyline in the rest of the series.

This is how the book is actually written.

>*1000 pages of L I T E R A L L Y N O T H I N G*
>"We were walking along... and then Couladin attacked us!"
>*scene cuts to 10 pages of women not on the battle lines talking about how the desert people raise their kids or some stupid shit*
>*scene cuts back*
>"The desert people danced around the fire, where Couladin's head was impaled on a pike."
>*book ends 5 pages later*

Every day since I read that, I've felt bad that Robert Jordan is no longer with us -- because I'll never be able to tell him to his face what an absolutely indefensible, nauseating piece of worthless trash he is.

>>8742989
So basically you hate it because it wasn't all action and battles and you have zero ability to appreciate world building or understand intrigue. There is so much going on in these books that claiming they are filler just proves you are barely even engaging with the story. The first book alone is so jam packed with foreshadowing of events that stretch all the way to book 7 that you probably could not cut a single scene from it.

>>8743028
Alright fucker, now I'm triggered. That entire post just revealed what an absolute, irredeemable pleb you are.

>So basically you hate it because it wasn't all action and battles

No you stupid asslicker. 99% of good books have zero "action and battles" and are still good because they have good plots, interesting characters and substantive drama. Wheel of Time books has NONE of that. Robert Jordan's world building is a mile wide and half an inch deep.

>world building or understand intrigue

World building? Maybe. But you can't hold up 15,000 pages on world building alone if NOTHING happens in it and there are NO good characters. Intrigue? AHAHAHA. Please tell me what your favorite example "intrigue" was. Was it the Tower of Genji, which was mentioned once in passing randomly in the first book, and then LITERALLY NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN until it becomes important in the 13th book? What about the part where they're about to get killed by the Aelfin, but then Mat somehow remembers the precise wording of a wish he made 10 books before, and somehow deduces that it means his spear is a magic key to escape? What about the entire plot device of "Ta'verin" which meant that ANYTHING MAGICAL COULD HAPPEN TO ANY OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS AT ANY TIME AND ROBERT JORDAN DIDN'T HAVE TO JUSTIFY ANY OF IT? Of course, I'm guessing you haven't even read past the first two books (like most people, since everyone ends up finding it unbearable.) Any "intrigue" in WoT is like fifth grader garbage from a bad anime.

>There is so much going on in these books that claiming they are filler just proves you are barely even engaging with the story.

Did you even read the fucking books? There is no story to engage with. Each WoT book is about 1000 pages long. The entire timeline of the story takes place over just 2 YEARS. 13 extremely long books to cover just 2 YEARS of story. Perrin's wife gets kidnapped in book 7. She doesn't get rescued until book 10. For three books, Perrin's entire plot is him being depressed. They just keep cutting back to him jacking off over leather. He doesn't even START to try and save her for two books. It's not filler. It's worse than filler. It's Robert Jordan just fucking around aimlessly repeating the same "WOAH LOOK AT HOW BITCHY WOMEN ARE HMMMM I'D BETTER TUG ON MY BRAID SOME MORE" platitudes that he had repeated constantly over and over throughout the entire series.

>The first book alone is so jam packed with foreshadowing of events that stretch all the way to book 7

That isn't good novelization you fucking kike. Novels should be modular stories, even if they are serialized. Instead they're just an indecipherable, jumbled interconnected fuckfest where each book starts 5 minutes after the last book left off. Every entry in the series was just a delay until the end -- which is pathetic because very few things happened that contributed to the series as a whole. Tarmon Gaidon just randomly started whenever the fuck Jordan decided.

>>8743086

>>8743086
Not who you were responding to, but can't a book be just about world building with not much else in it and still be good, because the world was good? Also I have never read any of the books in this series.

Can we have "To Kill a God" added to the recommended list?

>>8743086

*tugs braid*
*straightens skirt*

>>8743086
wew lad

>>8743086
fucking autistic piece of shit, no book will be okay in your eyes.

>>8743086
kek. you're alright by me triggernon.

>>8743086

I should just untrigger you by saying I really think you should read Name of the Wind, at least it has substance compared to WoT

>>8743028
>>8743086
messed with the wrong anon.

>>8743175

It's a masterpiece

>>8743253

i dropped it after 300 pages

>>8743262

Did you like it?
Because my book provides 300 pages for free.

>>8742827
g-guys please respond

>>8743291

It's trash never write a book again

>>8742878
Gaskun?
ding

>>8742852
One of yall Tchaikovsky fans hyped the black and gold empire, not reading anything by him again.
Fat fetish, cucking, friendzoning, etc. Fuck you.

>>8743432

There's no weird romance in Children. Only evolving intelligent spiders who enslave ants and build an empire, and they also fuck up humans... sorta.

>>8742989
You could hate fuck his widow and hope he feels it in whatever afterlife he is in. She isn't bad looking either...

Although I think Sanderson got there and cleaned out the cobwebs before you
>that look of satisfaction on her face
>that look of regret on Sanderson's

>>8742972
I only read the middle, so I will say that.

>>8742831
>listing Star Wars
>lists The Joiner King EU trash

Tbh, there's not even a single good Star Wars book.

>>8743291
>>8743253
>>8743175
Stevian, stop shilling your own book. The reason books are in the chart is because people read them and liked them.
Go to tumbgay or redshit to shill your work.

>>8743439
So he is reusing his insects guild shit from black and gold empire?

>>8743479
>Tbh, there's not even a single good Star Wars book.
(not true, by the way)

Say I were to write a Fantasy novel. What concepts, genre, story, etc. would be considered God Tier potential to /lit/? Then give it the best author to deliver its prose.

>>8743500

I don't know, the only book of his that I've read is Children.

>>8743504
Eh. Like what? And if you say anything Zahn, I swear to God.

>>8743450
Does the guy shampoo his hair in oil?

>>8743508
>guys tell me what to write about, then tell me whose flow and prose to copy

>>8743521
I'll copy Goodkind just to get you to read it, you pleb.

>>8743494

I'm not Stevian

>>8743523
I don't read terrys. Sorry.

>>8742259
>honestly he's better at worldbuilding than he is at writing.
>endless pitched battles with no exhaustion of manpower
>nobody seems to be doing any farming
>castles are starving during sieges when they should have 20 years of food storage just for the winter

>>8743508
It's probably better to deal with universal experiences and with the conventional trappings of the genre, and there are plenty of those to choose from, but, anyway, I will throw some word salads at you, because I have little else to do after eating a meal.

LIVING DEATH (in the sense of living wrongly, this turns up in Russian writing quite a bit, maybe try plugging it into a fantasy)

THE CAVE (metaphorical or not. womb? )

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR (metaphorical or not. what's in there, should we bother?)

THE HOLE IN THE GROUND (metaphorical or not. how deep, what depths [in man?])

FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE VS RESPONSIBILITY (a well worn trope but it's good enough for Shelley, HG Wells, Lovecraft)

THE NEXT STAGE OF EVOLUTION (is it purely psychological? Ties in with...

MAN'S HIDDEN POTENTIAL. What is holding it back?

IS MAN A VILLAIN? (standard ruminating of good vs evil)

You will probably have no use for this mulch, but there you have it. Ray Bradbury recommends compiling a random bunch of nouns, any that come to mind at the time, and then ruminating on them, thinking what they mean to you, and using that as a creative well. I am not a writer, but if I did bother, I think I would begin with an evocative concept of mine and treat it with a bunch of Jungian archetypes in there to start with (the hero, jester, the crone, the maid, etc.)

>>8742924
Any good Char Aznable style stories? The best I've read is The Traitor Baru Cormorant.

>>8743612
two more interesting tidbits and the writers who treat them

THE SKULL IS A PRISON FOR THE CONSCIOUSNESS (Robert Silverberg)

PERCEPTION IS REALITY (Philip K Dick)

WE ARE WHO WE PRETEND TO BE (Vonnegut)

THE PEOPLE OF THE LONG PAST ARE NOT HUMAN (Strugatsky Bros)

THE DIVINE SPARK (as referred to in biblical texts. what is it? Is it the unconscious - is it the god within?)

Ok, no more, I promise.

>>8742840
The anime you mentioned is the stuff that's most like western SF. Look up Planet Stories and Astounding Science Fiction on archive.org, also try stuff like Larry Niven and Jack Campbell.

>>8743086
saved

>>8743508
Sexy praying mantis women.

>>8743612
>THE NEXT STAGE OF EVOLUTION
Is this a list of the worst SFF concepts?

>>8743086

Thanks for saying what i was thinking anon

Are there any Fantasy books that has a main character who is essentially a version/copy of Judge Dredd?

>>8743510
yoda dark rendezvous

>>8742750
Why is anubis gate in modern fantasy?

Any fantasy with a real mana sue/gary stu who also happens to be very positive as opposed to a whiny bitch boy?

bonus points if he/she has a clear case of plot armour

>>8744005
runelords?

>>8742967
this

>>8744050
I think he means you can't SS with 2 guys

>>8744005

Mistborn

>>8744056
then this guy has a really effeminate body

>>8743086
I agree that WoT is shit, can't get behind your point about novels should be modular stories.

>>8743086

Wrong.

>>8744093
well I have not watched old gundam and read the subs as kistler and not kycilia

>>8744162
I'd recommend old Gundam(Specificaly the original, Zeta, ZZ, and Star Dust Memories), but that's because I'm a UC fag. I like everything up until Unicorn. Turn A was okay.

>>8744177
its not happening. I have seen
Orphans
Thunderbolt
Reconguista
Age
Trailblazer
IGLOO
00
SEED
SEED DESTINY
Turn A
wing
Victory
and I can see no more

>>8744192
There's your problem:

All the ones you watched were either shit, mediocre or just plain ol' not UC.

Try 08th MS Team. Takes place during the One Year War, has great animation, and is only thirteen episodes.

>>8744106
They can contribute to a wider series, but each novel should have a distinct, enjoyable plotline. While maybe not to the point where anyone can pick up any book and enjoy it without reading the others, the books should have explicit individualism. Otherwise, you don't have a series of novels. You have one big novel that's arbitrarily split up so that you have to pay for it multiple times.

>>8743107
>can't a book be just about world building with not much else in it and still be good, because the world was good?

Name a good book that does this. Maybe its possible, but I've never read one.

>>8744012
Thanks.

>>8744074
I've read on tvtropes a while back that the MC is a bit insecure.

>>8743223
Jesus you should just kill yourself

>>8744297
>I've read on tvtropes a while back that the MC is a bit insecure.

Only in the sense that he's just a man who's now responsible for leading a revolution.

>>8742624
Which Ursula K. Le Guin book should I read first? I was thinking of getting A Wizard of Earthsea, but I hear it's a YA novel and that kind of put me off. Is it good?

(I'm broke so I can't afford any screwups)

>>8744854
None.

>>8744854
It's really good, it's listed as YA sometimes because it's written simply enough but there's a lot of artistry in how it's put together. Not a bad starting point at all.

Also learn to find ebooks already, it's in the /lit/ sticky.

>>8744854
>(I'm broke so I can't afford any screwups)

Pirate an ebook..

>>8744192
Wow so you watched everything except for the original UC. How did you fuck up so hard?

>>8744910
>you need to watch the QUALITY-infested toy commercial and 100 eps of MAXIMUM TOMINO or you're not watching Gundam
Really, Turn A was all he needed to watch.

>get 50 pages into a book and realise I'm not enjoying it
>again
ffs

Time to cross Mercedes Lackey off the list of authors I've tried and disliked.

Why is it apparently so fucking hard for people to write decent adventure fantasy?

>>8744923
Zeta is the greatest Gundam. Turn A is the hipster choice.

>>8743866
>Are there any Fantasy books that has a main character who is essentially a version/copy of Judge Dredd?
Talion: Revenant is literally about a warrior judge

>>8743086
> 99% of good books have zero "action and battles"
And yet that was your primary complaint about WoT. You apparently spent the entirety of book 4 anticipating a battle and ignored everything else happening in it.
>Wheel of Time books has NONE of that. Robert Jordan's world building is a mile wide and half an inch deep
This from somebody who probably skimmed them.
>But you can't hold up 15,000 pages on world building alone if NOTHING happens in it
You just keep digging that hole ever deeper, proving you didn't even bother to pay attention to what you read and just assumed it was fluff. WoT has lots of parts you could cut out past book 5, but the first 4 or so books are densely packed with information.
>Please tell me what your favorite example "intrigue" was. Was it the Tower of Genji, which was mentioned once in passing randomly in the first book, and then LITERALLY NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN until it becomes important in the 13th book? What about the part where they're about to get killed by the Aelfin, but then Mat somehow remembers the precise wording of a wish he made 10 books before, and somehow deduces that it means his spear is a magic key to escape? What about the entire plot device of "Ta'verin" which meant that ANYTHING MAGICAL COULD HAPPEN TO ANY OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS AT ANY TIME AND ROBERT JORDAN DIDN'T HAVE TO JUSTIFY ANY OF IT?
And here you prove you don't even know what intrigue means. Most scenes with Forsaken involve some kind of misdirection or veiled hints, most of the parts that involve Darkfriends are this way actually. Though I guess if all you care about is "Muh battles" then stuff like figuring out who is the traitor and what somebody is planning doesn't matter because it's not "epic" enough for you.
>Each WoT book is about 1000 pages long
More than half are 800 pages or fewer. In fact Jordan only wrote 3 books that came close to 1000 pages (they were still under). The only WoT books that broke 1k were done by Sanderson. WoT started off much tighter and got more bloated as it went, book 1 was almost 800 pages exactly, 2 and 3 were fewer than 700 pages. And these contained some of the most deft world building and tightly written intrigue in the series.
>Perrin's wife gets kidnapped in book 7. She doesn't get rescued until book 10. For three books, Perrin's entire plot is him being depressed
Yes this is easily the weakest part of the books and is well past what I consider to be the best part of the series. By then Jordan was bogged down by side plots and needlessly illuminating trivial events. What was once very carefully planned scenes that deepened understanding had just become informing the reader of everybody's status by rote.
>WOAH LOOK AT HOW BITCHY WOMEN ARE HMMMM I'D BETTER TUG ON MY BRAID SOME MORE
If you don't even understand what Jordan's books were doing with relationships between the sexes then you definitely did not follow this series at all.
>Novels should be modular stories
lol

>>8744928
maybe you're a #pulpmuncher

Seriously though, how does any one enjoy reading Bakker?

I don't understand what he's trying to say half the time.

>>8745098
That's because he has nothing to say

>>8742989
Why don't you skip the "reading part" and go straight to Wikipedia you faggot?

>>8745163
Good question, because worthless fantasy epics often make for decent Wikipedia lore articles.

I finished the Eye of the World. I'll be done before you know it.

>searching r/fantasy for a starting point on looking for a new book to read
>literally every thread is 90% people recommending Dresden Files, WoT and Sanderson
They do realise that those are the things everyone there has already read, right?

I see brandon sandersons "the way of kings" on some of these recommended charts but I have seen him accused of being 'reddit' as they say.

is it worth reading? Its over a 1000 pages and I have a limited time left on earth so I will trust you lads opinion on the matter

>>8745347
The question very much depends on how pleb are you.
Do you read classics and fantasy such as Tolkien, Dick, Wolfe etc.?
Or have you never moved away from King tier stuff?
If it's the first, you'll hate it. If it's the second, it was made for you.

>>8745347
If you want 1k pages of altruistic honorable hero, Sanderson's attempt at writing a smart female character, and altruistic honorable fallen war hero.

>>8745356
>>8745359

Also I had read the first two chapters and it was a bit too much "pssh nothing personal kid" -ing for my taste, like what I imagine a patrick rothfuss novel to be.

Thank you lads.

>>8745347
Well even though it looks like a thick book Sanderson is very plain to read. His 1000 page book is some peoples 300 page book. Have you read other stuff from the charts yet?

Anyone experienced with Peter Hamilon's commonwealth saga? Really loving the worldbuilding and expansive characters but I feel like everytime I open a new chapter it's a whole new storyline. only on chapter 9 though i'm sure it will pick up. Now kind of speed reading it though, a lot of describing

>>8745370
>>8745347

Do you mean the prologues? Those are necessary in a way. The universe is just too Big.

The book only really starts when Kaladin shows up.

Apart from that, its one of the best books I've ever read. The second one is even better.

>>8745098
It's not that difficult really, the biggest issue I had is that the plot of the darkness that comes before and the next one is literally that of the first crusade but with fantasy undertones.

>le scheming byzantines trying to manipulate the crusade for their own ends
>grain being used to blackmail the crusade to their own ends
>Religious demagogue pushing the crusade from back home
>Holy city taken by a similar but disrinct religion which is the focus of the crusade

I mean it's ok to take inspiration from history but holy fuck man, at least a little variation would be nice other than adding wizards and your typical long forgotten evil

>It's a "the beginning of every chapter begins with an excerpt from a historical record of the events in the book" episode

Help me decide what to read next out of these senpaitachi.

>>8745417
How about just adding wizards and forgetting the ancient evil?

>>8745460
Diamond Age.

>>8745460
I've only read Mythago Wood of those, it's nice.

>>8744287
I can't name one, i dont think there are many. But the question was because I thought that does a book always have to do certain things to be good? Can't books be good in different ways and the ways could be unrelated to each other? Or does a good book always need several good aspects that make it objectively better when combined?

>>8743479
Plagueis looks upon your low effort bait with disdain

>>8744287
The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.

>>8745460
City of Stairs and First Law were awful.
Solaris and A Scanner Darkly are very unique and excellent. Dick is for druggies what Dostoevsky is for gamblers and Solaris whacky in a way while also being bizarre and depressing. Loved both, some of the best science fiction out there.

>see Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell in the recommendations charts
>look it up
>"She supplements the text with almost 200 footnotes, outlining the backstory and an entire fictional corpus of magical scholarship."

Is Susanna Clarke the spiritual successor of David Foster Wallace?

>>8745514
>Evil-sounding word+latin or greek-sounding suffix for a name

>>8742831
Holy fuck that book was garbage and Denning is garbage

>>8745219
Took me 3 tries to finish the whole series - godspeed

>>8743942
It's modern in the sense that people of this era can enjoy it. The works have aged well and are not dated.

>>8745435
The best episodes

>>8745356
I've read some of those classics. I've never read Stephen King. I like The Way of Kings so far. About 3/4 of the way through.

>>8745536
Just a short story, not an entire 200+ page novel.

>>8744928
>I will play 1 minute of your 5 hour long gwme to know if it's good

>>8745460
I liked the First Law up until the end where it became quite strange. I think the characters that I enjoyed really carried it for me.

>>8745540
What didn't you like about it?

>>8745460
Library at mount char

Any novels out there that take place inside a very intricate castle?
Ive yet to encounter a fantasy novel that goes into detail. It's always "large throne room, hallway that leads to other room, and stairs that lead to dungeon".

>>8744854
I didn't read Earthsea until I was an adult and I still enjoyed it. There are a lot of better books, but it is still worth your time. >>8744867 is correct, it is also probably listed as YA because it is short.

>>8745728
It starts with a Gormen and ends with a Ghast, come on anon. Also The High House.

>>8745728
there is a huge DnD campaign called worlds largest dungeon. not really a novel but a game.

Has anyone read Matthew Hughes?

>All you can do is think of cool scenes but can't put them into an actual story

End my life, even Sanderson and Rothfuss can do this.

>>8742898

Wheel of Time is a few god-tier characters handcuffed to a bevy of atrocious ones and tossed into the narrative equivalent of molasses.

I don't regret reading it, as the scale of the work still impresses and I truly love a few of the characters, but I certainly won't try to defend it.

>>8744192

Watch War in the Pocket. 6 episodes, no newtype or political bullshit, just a truly affecting story about the human cost of war

>>8745359
>Sanderson's attempt at writing a smart female character


I want shallan to be eaten by a Chasmfiend.

>>8746039

At least Jasnah will be fun once we get her as PoV.

>>8746026
Why is prose so hard?

>>8746019
>one of the mods is a Szethfag

>>8746047
The problem with Jasnah is she's just a smart male character in a dress. Shallan's insufferable but at least she's feminine.

>>8746026
What's the point of the scene? Once you get a handle on the story beats in the scene it shouldn't be too hard to build a story around that.

>>8746039
How do you poop in plate?

>>8743510
Hard Contact was good. Actually decent characters unlike Thrawn Trilogy.

I still don't understand why I wonder outside 4chan. I'm reading critics on good reads saying the book is 4/5 instead a 5/5 because there's racism and sexism in a fantasy novel.

>>8746417
The top reviews on goodreads always have flashing gifs, dank '70s memes or virtue signalling.

If my memory wasn't so bad I wouldn't bother with the place.

>>8746417
>racism and sexism in a fantasy novel.

If people are complaining about it it means it's a good book more often than not

>>8746417
>goodreads

>>8746590
Don't forget the pretentious fucks with philosophers as their icons who think their opinions are their over analysis of shitty pulp fiction is to be taken seriously.

>>8743028
>>8743086
rekt

>>8745460
The Blade Itself

>>8742624
What's a fantasy book that is well written and interesting, but also has great comedy?

Now I know comedy is subjective so to put it simply I just like the autistic brand of chan comedy that people would look at me weird at best and claim harassment at worst.

I'm just now reading Elantris and the "comedy" in it just leaves me cringing and feels unrealistic even for people opposite of me.

If none comes to mind the what well written and interesting fantasy book contains no humor?

QUICK

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TECHNOLOGY OR CONCEPT FROM A HARD SCI-FI STORY

>>8746737
Not really hard sci fi, but the AR from Dennou Coil really hyped me up. Obviously it won't have all those nulls and obsolete spaces, but I really fucking want those glasses

>>8745918
nice. this is exactly what im looking for.

>>8746737
the monolith from 2001 a space odyssey.

>>8745728
Pic related

>>8746612
>wot
>interesting magic

Fuck me. I love WoT up and down but seriously? It's elemental magic that's set up so that a solution to almost any problem can be pulled from thin air without disturbing the context.

>>8746691
Johannes Cabal , enjoy.

>>8746818
Some people like deus ex machina magic that are vague and filled with asspulls.

Others like magic that is explained, almost like a science, that way it's more liable to exist.

>>8746691
Johannnes cabal, like the man said. Warning though: the second book is a low point in the series., but it gets better

>>8745674
50 pages of a 350 page book is about 15% so it'd be closer to 40 minutes of a five hour long game, which is a perfectly reasonable metric to judge something by

I just finished the Sword of Truth series.
It took me all of my willpower, but I did it.

What do I read now?

>>8745728
The Dragonbone Chair.
At least the beginning of it.

>>8747045
Halfway through this. I'm enjoying it so far, but does Simon ever stop being a wimp?

HEY GUYS GREAT THREAD HERE

I love GOOD books. I love sci-fi and fantasy!!! They really keep my buzz going. During the day I fantasize about the elements of magic and technology that I read about and how they would integrate into my life. It keeps me really stimulated and happy throughout the day. Without my books everything is so dull. With all the really unique and creative ideas I absorb every day life becomes vibrant! Instead of focusing on all the bad things and all the problems I have I can ignore all of them and use my IMAGINATION to find a transcendent solution!

Also I like to incorporate the mannerisms of the characters of the books into my own repertoire. I find that reading sci fi and fantasy lends my presence something whimsical and mysterious. It helps me express the unique and interesting aspects of myself that are hard for everyone else to see.

I don't really care about the world beyond my eyes. I'm really quite overwhelmed with all the challenges in my current life. I couldn't imagine how anyone really understands all the stuff I see in the news. I think I know which sources of news to believe. I take things with a grain of salt. I know the truth when I see it. I follow my heart. That's what being a liberal is all about. Trusting your feelings, using the context of your own life as a magic key to unlock the mysteries of all the questions of the universe and shed the bright light of science and logic on the dark things, the things that entangle the lesser minds of the unfortunates and the conservatives.

AM I /lit/ ENOUGH FOR YOU?

my most browsed board is /pol/ though it isn't my most browsed thread.

I hope this is pasta btw

I'm in the mood to start a new generic fuckhueg high fantasy series. Which one should I pick?

>>8747166
go Robert Jordan

>>8747166
at one point i thought these were the same series.

>>8747166
If in doubt, go by the cover.

>>8747132
Even if this is not a copypasta, and it takes an imagination to believe so, what are you getting at by making this post - do you mean to express the idea that people read for escapism, and to identify this as a reason for reproach? If so, I should expect to find a similar post in /tv, /v, /hc, any board concerned with a medium or hobby. In any case, you're a shitter.

>>8743670
Well, any shoddy concept has the potential for good writing, if the writer is upto it. Theodore Sturgeon wrote all about brain evolution in More Than Human, which is a good book, but I prefer The Dreaming Jewels.

>>8744854
Le Guin's Lathe Of Heaven is a standalone SF, which is why I chose to read that one first. I liked it a lot, imagine a feminine PKD with better prose. I can't speak for her other books.

>>8746691
Discworld.

>>8747233
Brain evolution is a great concept. Evolution of any kind occurring in stages with a goal is really stupid.

Is there a book similar to the TV show Fringe?

>>8747306

I really don't like the term, it's an ugly word but
KEKED

Thoughts?

>>8747333
>tfw you start a silly writing podcast with your bros and it gets hijacked by belligerent minorities but you don't want to be rude so you keep your mouth closed and think about dragons until it's over

>>8744272
I know what you meant, I just don't agree. Book of the New Sun is a single book split up, and it's great, and for practical reasons on Wolfe's part he couldn't publish it all at once.

>>8747016
>I will just put the tip of my penis in a vagina
>if I don't like what the tip is feeling I will pull out and know that I am gay

>>8747140

Let's cast the inevitable Way of Kings adaptation.

Shallan : unsufferable, red hair, how about Ron Howard's daughter?

Dhalinar : Liam Neeson or Jeremy Irons.

Rock : This one is obvious.

I'm lost on Kaladin tho.

>>8747508
Shallan: some Chinese slag with dyed hair
Dalinar: some old Chinese dude
Rock: Matt Damon
Kaladin: some Chinese prettyboy

>>8747519

>a guy who is literally called ROCK and is a COOK
>Matt Damon

but why.

>>8747526
>he doesn't get Matt Damon shoehorned into Chinese movies reference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avF6GHyyk5c
Our corn-fed American manlets will tower over their malnourished Chinese manlets, so the proportions will be the same.

>>8747508
Shallan: get rid of her, unforgivably shit character
Dhalinar: get rid of him, shit character
Kaladin: get rid of him, shit character
Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamor: get rid of him, shit character

>>8747497
hi

>>8747348
It's good, although I didn't like the ending
Best experienced if you were raised in post soviet country

Why is it so hard to come up with anything original and creative? I'm roughly 200 pages into writing about a character that is a mix of Geralt of Rivia from the Witcher Trilogy, Talion from Shadow of Mordor, and Joel from The Last of Us with a plot similar to the latter aforementioned game with a "Journey to the West" feel where said Main Character has to escort a young 14 year old girl through a war-torn Not!China Kingdom with the help of two criminals seeking atonement for their crimes.

A realm filled with warring states, a zealous templar knight Crusade, and Yokai/Demons are attracted to said Main Character to boot. It just sounds like a mouthful and beyond stupid when I write it down all summed up like this.

>>8747720
>he didn't start with the Greeks
You might come up with less derivative ideas if you weren't nourished from such derivative sources. Find what they copy, read that. Take walks in nature. Watch documentaries on ball-bearing factories. Call your grandmother. You will find your natural creativity returning.

>>8747720
I wouldn't mind hearing your plot with a little more detail. Personally I hate it when anons sum up their WIP by saying it's a little like [existing novel/game], and the protagonist's a little like [existing character]. Stop encouraging us to think of your shit as unoriginal.

>>8747720
Everything is a copy of something else really. If not works and art, we constantly copy each others thoughts and actions. It's normal. As long as you make an interesting, fun to read work it's all good.

>>8747757
>I wouldn't mind hearing your plot with a little more detail
Alright. The Main Character belongs to what this world knows as "Revenants" - beings that are Humans for all intent and purposes except for the fact that they have unnatural strength, speed, reflexes and endurance compared to others of their kind and it's pre-determined upon becoming one that they have 30 years left to live, but they can't die during these years. Once they die, their souls will be consumed by the very thing they carry within them that grants them immortality. Only a Revenant can choose to create another Revenant, which is a taboo in itself because it robs the person of an after life, if such a thing exists.

So, a Revenant is hired to escort a 14 year old girl who grew up in a Monastery located amidst the southern mountains up North to the city of York that lies at the borders to this war-torn Kingdom. He does this to repay a debt to them after they took care of him when he was close to dying before becoming what he is today. It is not revealed until the end of the book that she is the crown princess who was sent into hiding when she was but a babe when the Kingdom in the North was suffering through a Civil War that threatened the royal family.

With the Revenant and the young girl of unknown origins, two criminals is sent along as well. They've been told that if they help the girl reach the city of York, they will find atonement for their crimes. They accept this forgiving deal. The journey deals with the criminals' pasts and their possible future, the girl's coming of age, and discovering more about the Revenant as both a Human and as something far more sinister when they move through a country ruined by the Warring States constant internal struggles. They end up tangling with roving bandits, Violent and twisted Yokai spirits that hunt for the very thing Revenants carry inside of them at night, and a regiment of Templar Knights that see Revenants as Monsters and anyone associated with them as tainted that needs to be purged in the name of the Maker.

Planning on having the book end with The girl turned over to the ones expecting her and on the night after, the Revenant and the two now atoned criminals find themselves overwhelmed by a Yokai that has been tracking them the entire journey. The youngest of the criminals - the 17 year old boy who took the most interest in the Main Character - finds himself on the brink of death once the Yokai is slain. He chooses to accept the Main Character's proposition to become a Revenant. The following morning they say good bye to the middle aged former criminal before the Revenant duo set out on their next journey together.

Why do so many people who ripoff Black Company decide to add a protagonist who can't fight at all?
It's no interesting

>>8747824
reading the summary makes me want to kill my self but I think actually reading it as a book would be different
so good luck.

>>8747824
Starring Vin Diesel.
Go for it.

>600 page into WoTK

Ok when is Kaladin gonna get a fucking Shardblade? It's super obvious it's going there but instead I have to sift through more and more segment of exciting bridge crew life and Shallan fucking chapters.

Also Szeth is so Coldsteel I feel like it must be intentional on Sanderson's part. He is LITERALLY "nothin personnel kid : the character".

>>8745688
>What didn't you like about it?
I cannot stand books with shit prose and shit characters.

>>8747918
>Ok when is Kaladin gonna get a fucking Shardblade?
He doesn't take shards, he kills shardbearers. Stone cold.

>>8747925

Well the lighteyes made his life a living hell, I can kinda understand the guy.

I'm confident he's gonna go on a murderous rampage now that he survived the highstorm. This Sadeas bloke needs to fucking go.

>>8747918
Literally nothing happens until the last 100 pages of the second stormlight book

So let me get this straight, Gavilar's murder is 9/11, the Parshendi are the Arabs, the Alethi with their warmonger culture are obviously the americans, and the futile prolonged war on the Shattered Plains is supposed to be Iraq/Afghanistan?

Bravo Brandon.

>>8747936

I see he learned well from his master. The more I read this thing the more it feels like WoT 2 : Stormlighted Boogaloo

>>8747957
I like Sanderson more than Jordan (WoT killed me like 4 books in) but he's getting worse as he gets more succes.

Stormlight has actually told a really fucking small story so far (two armies meet on some rocks, fight and then some stuff happens) and yet he's already doubled Lotr's wordcount

>>8747881
>>8747885
Thanks for the words of comfort.

>>8747968

I read the whole of WoT despite /sffg/ telling me not to.

They were right. Although it did get noticeably better when Sanderson took it over.

>>8748000
Sanderson makes amazing endings. He's nothing like Jordan.

>>8748041

Except the ending was written by Jordan before he passed.

>>8747166
Haven't read WoT, but go for Malazan.

>>8747824#
Genderbent every single character.

>>8748075

>>8748052
Nice joke, but I wasn't talking about the Wheel of Time.

>>8747166
If you want something "generic" (i.e. lots of very familiar themes and tropes) then go with Wheel of Time. Malazan Book of the Fallen is different.

Is Glen Cook's non-black company series any good?

Not the weird detective ones, I've already read them

>take favorite fictional character
>genderbend them
>literally change nothing else about them, so probably lesbian

Is there anything wrong with this?

>>8747968
The story isn't the only thing he's describing and building up in those books though. He's unpacking a whole mythos. True there's redundant description aplenty in both Stormlight books, but the real bulk comes from information about magic, history, and culture to create a massive, living universe. And I have to say it works, his setting does feel alive. And I can't really say he wasted a whole lot of time while doing it, unlike Jordan.

>>8747918
I like Szeth. Sure he's a bit edgy but Sanderson characterizes him well. The way he's started blaming his victims for not being strong enough to put him down was a nice psychological turn.
Also Kaladin doesn't get to do cool violent shit very often because [honor].

>>8748236
Szeth is also all about honor, but more the "you must follow the rules no matter what" kind rather than "always do the right and noble thing" kind that Kaladin is saddled with. Basically Kaladin is a Paladin and Sanderson is his DM trying to make him fall with the most bullshit series of events ever to test his honor.

>>8747824
I like it. My advice is try to distance it from the things you think make it unoriginal. I can definitely see the Witcher and Journey to the West influences so maybe tweak the protagonist and the story structure a bit.
For example I had fleshed out a story and knew a fair bit about the world I was setting it in then I realised the magical abilities the characters use are basically Stands. I'd been watching a lot of JoJo recently. So I've been working on the nature and origin of the abilities to make them less "anime". In the end I'm hoping the similarities won't be obvious.

>>8748259
Kaladin's basically fucking Rincewind played seriously

ooh yet another bad thing has happened to him, how exciting!

>>8748263
Thank you. I'll sit down tomorrow and muse over what I could possibly change that wouldn't lead to a massive edit session, or maybe that's what it needs? Who knows?

>>8748280
I'm pretty sure massive edit sessions make up most of your life if you're hoping to get something published. Something you have to get used to I guess

>>8748309
https://bondwine.com/2013/03/12/creative-discomfort-and-star-wars/
Absolutely. Writing is a lot of work.

>>8745568
>implying this book isn't good

>>8748356
that is indeed the implication

>>8748371
Come on now, I haven't read Denning's other stuff, but Tatooine Ghost is fairly well written and engaging.

>>8742666
Why aren't harry potter and the kingkiller chronicle included on the list?

>>8747324
Is that actually good, though?

>>8748471
Is Fringe?

>>8748411
Because they're bad

>>8748411
>oh look, a chart of fantasy books, better look for something I haven't heard of
>I wonder what this "Harry Potter" is

>>8747838
Like who?

>>8748538
>14 from the top
ayy lmao what the fuck is going on there
real autism hours

>>8748557
Reading Scourge of the Betrayer and so far it's BC with half the cast and the Croaker stand in being useless.

>>8747720
>that gif
kek
>>8747166
damn, its too bad america has shit covers and ill never find a copy of that gardens of the moon.
why are fantasy covers such shit these days? its always real life photographs with literal edgelords on them.

>>8748052

>>8748666
That's clearly a hotel dining area rather than a five star restaurant

>>8748692
Did...
Did you just take the bait?

>>8748699
Wow you just fell for my taking the bait bait

>>8748706
I am once again defeated by a master baiter.
Here, take my forfeit.

My classic baiting the bait taking baiter bait.

>>8748485
I am asking since I haven't read it, just curious.

>>8748869
I didn't like it because of gross sex all over the place, but the parts that weren't disgusting were pretty well-written, it was fun and engaging.

>>>r/books

>>8747720
>Why is it so hard to come up with anything original and creative?

read this:
>>8747132

Because you don't have a soul. Your reason for writing a story is writing a story.

You don't have anything to express. There's nothing you want to tell people about the world that you can't express otherwise, let alone anything interesting.

You're trying to carve a sculpture of an elephant out of a block of marble that has already been sculpted into an elephant.

>>8747233
It is copypasta, but it has been used for the first time ever here and now. /tv/ and /v/ don't think they're smarter than everyone else.

Stop simplifying my message. I'm not accusing you of "escapism". I'm describing the brainlessness the toxic shit you ingest engenders.


The point of all this is that fantasy and sci fi is all pure shit. Everyone who writes that trash has absolutely nothing to share with us. They just want to masturbate around in the same circles. This shit is published because it makes you retarded. It distracts you with insanity. It makes you pliable. It makes you more profitable.


The Lord of the Rings is not fantasy, but it is the only work that is considered by some to be fantasy that is any good that I have ever encountered.

In order to make something good you have to funnel something into it orders of magnitude greater than the apparent scope of the work itself. Is that true for any "fantasy" work besides Lord of the Rings?

>>8748908
Lotr is shit though, I think you just have a heavy case of bad taste.

>>8748908
>You don't have anything to express. There's nothing you want to tell people about the world that you can't express otherwise, let alone anything interesting.
Man you are gonna be so bummed out when you realize that just because you feel divinely inspired does not make your ideas original. You can love what you do with all your heart and still create something totally unoriginal. Originality has pretty much nothing to do with how authentic and personal something is.

>>8748908
wow great post imma read it for sure someday

>>8748908
back to /v/ and /tv/

>>8748932
>pretending you have some insight over me to distract yourself from the fact that I utterly skewered your retarded point of view
>being this illiterate
seriously what sense do you think you're making right now?

>>8748939
everyone knows you already did you little bitch

>>8748908
Show me on the doll where the fantasy and/or sci-fi nerd touched you.

If Dune is fantasy so is Sprawl Trilogy.

Hell Gibson had never even touched a computer before he wrote the first two books. It was basically alien godz an shiet made of sillycones.

>>8748915
>>8748932
>>8748939
>>8748948
>>8748963
Pretty sure that the response time coupled with the sheer number and consistency of responses proves the absolute truth of everything I said

>>8748962
You're a little angry right now. A little heated.

>>8748965
>Hell Gibson had never even touched a computer before he wrote the first two books.

and it shows

Daily reminder this is a board about literature.

Science Fiction and Fantasy do not qualify as literature. Please remain on subject or bring such threads to /b/ or reddit.

>>8748973
*tips fedora*

>>8748973
mynygga

>>8748967
>>8748973
>i am become the bait
the posts

>>8748965
>If Dune is fantasy so is Sprawl Trilogy.
Why not? Fantasy/SF aren't mutually exclusive.

>>8748962
This is my first response to you. I'm pointing out you're hilariously naive in overrating originality as if it's somehow inherently good, or that genius is always totally original. You're sucking Tolkien's dick yet his story borrows heavily from ancient Germanic folk tales and legends and Catholic theology. He's not somehow "more original" than other fantasy others that followed him, others have done much the same thing as him, borrowing old ideas and existing frameworks and weaving something different out of them. What Tolkien did is not really any different from what Tad Williams does, what Steven Erikson does, or even what Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, or Patrick Rothfuss do.

The one area Tolkien really excelled at and makes him unique to this day is the depth and complexity of his constructed languages, which given his background in linguistics is a no brainer why he's the best.

TL;DR you just sound like somebody who hasn't read much fantasy and for whatever reason think Tolkien's world building is somehow more "authentic" than other authors despite having no real arguments as to why.

>>8749012

>>8749012
>TL;DR you just sound like somebody who hasn't read much fantasy
>TL;DR you just sound like somebody who has seen a vagina before
FTFY

>>8749012

this is correct but you still took the b8.

What happened to Red Rising?

>>8749028
I unironically believe Sanderson is one of the most intellectually curious writers of our day. He's going to get so incredibly wiki-educated before he's done.

>>8749029
It sold a lot of copies and got a movie deal.

>>8748973
Daily reminder not to rattle the bars.
It irritates the monkeys.

>>8749038
I started to read the trylogy a month ago thanks to a guide of books you guys posted but now I can't find it. It was like a sci-fi cryptic, describing tastes like "do you like blah blah? Yes/No".

>>8748973
>Daily reminder
This is a lie. You were not here yesterday. You were not here the day before. Begone, shade.

>>8749060
What, you're looking for the guide? Is it in the sticky?

>>8749065

Nope. It was a month ago but now it isnt. The point is, I really liked Red Rising and I want to give that guide another try

>>8748973
>tripfag
You have nothing worthwhile to say.

>>8749012
this is not correct.

>naive

You have let wikipedia-grade reductionism take root and vegetate profusely in your brain. You have let the weeds choke out the flowers to their annihilation.

Tolkien had a purpose. He saw something important and employed the devices on which you remarked, and others, to lever this vision into the minds of the public. His goal was not to "entertain", unlike every single hack you listed.

The Lord of the Rings was not written for you. It was written for people who have some awareness of the world or at least some potential and aptitude for awareness. It deals with the most important ideas to our lives in the modern era.
People like you who don't think about their surroundings and the roots of things perceive it as just another "fun story".

Originality is beyond important. It is the only thing of importance in art. The culture of art is a running conversation among all humanity. The only benefit to repeating anything that's already been said is so that younger people can hear it too.
People like you are trapped in permanent infancy so you never grow, never understand what you hear, and so don't tolerate hearing anything complex and relevant.
This is good for the economic system because people like you don't compete, you only work. You are ballast keeping the ship steady in a storm.
That's why there's an industry of "entertainment", AKA retardifying the masses.

Anyway the Lord of the Rings should inspire wonder about the governance of the world and the implements of governance. If nothing like that ever occurs to you when reading it, you should try again.

Sauron for president.

Why is Sanderson so obsessed with compound words?

>safehand
>safepouch
>cityheir
>brightlord
>windrunner
>surgebinder
>cremguzzler

It's getting annoying desu

>>8749065

Ok, nevemind. I found it at previous threads.

It was this guide
http://i.imgur.com/uykqKJn.jpg/

>>8749104
because tolkien did it, it tickled his dormant germanic language instincts, and he got fixated on it.

He's a hack. For the last time, sci fi/fantasy is pure shit.

>>8749111
Why would you go to the previous? It's in the fucking OP you dumb idiot.

>>8747421
It's the same with Tolkien and to some extent with Peake.

>>8747166

i read wheel of time in its entirety and i loved it. funny you pick these two because WOT was the last series i read and now im reading malazan and its glorious.

>>8749012
How is that not more original than 4 authors who don't borrow anything and have no value and are really just retarded versions of Tolkien?

God I wish mods started deleting these threads so cretins like you would stop polluting the board. A polfag is more intelligent than you.

So how is this one?

>>8749207
A worse version of Sanderson.

>>8745417
>Kellhus is a Dunedain Bene Gesserit.
>The Consult has infiltrated the three seas with skin spies aka Tleilaxu Facedancers
>The Consult has it's home in the fortress of Golgotterath (Gorgoroth + Golgatha) far to the North.
>Nonmen aka Elves were used by The Consult to create malevolent Sranc aka Orcs.
And so on. There are TONS of rip-offs, and yet I still enjoy his books.
I could do without the pseudo-philosophical Frank Herbert-esque introductions to each chapter, but the general tone, the vivid descriptions of sorcery, and the fact that despite the rip-offs there are plenty of original moments ("fused Nonman teeth") makes it worthwhile.
Don't fall for the memers brots, Bakker isn't that bad.

>>8749028
I cannot believe how incredibly stupid you are. I mean rock-hard stupid. Dehydrated-rock-hard stupid. Stupid so stupid that it goes way beyond the stupid we know into a whole different dimension of stupid. You are trans-stupid stupid. Meta-stupid. Stupid collapsed on itself so far that even the neutrons have collapsed. Stupid gotten so dense that no intellect can escape. Singularity stupid. Blazing hot mid-day sun on Mercury stupid. You emit more stupid in one second than our entire galaxy emits in a year. Quasar stupid. Your picture has to be a troll. Nothing in our universe can really be this stupid. Perhaps this is some primordial fragment from the original big bang of stupid. Some pure essence of a stupid so uncontaminated by anything else as to be beyond the laws of physics that we know. I'm sorry. I can't go on. This is an epiphany of stupid for me. After this, you may not hear from me again for a while. I don't have enough strength left to deride your ignorant questions and half baked comments about unimportant trivia, or any of the rest of this drivel. Duh.

>>8749233
He's bad because he's unreadable.

>>8749249
>After this, you may not hear from me again for a while
Sounds good.

I prefer Sanderson because at least he has zero edge and pretense, while Bakker has nothing but.

>>8747166
>Malazan
>Generic
>somehow I manage to be both a patrician and a pleb

>>8747039
Literally anything else

>>8749259
>because at least he has zero edge and pretense
But that's a bad thing. His stories feel extremely limited because he's afraid to use swear words or mention the word rape even once.

>>8745546
I'm not sure about that, but I reckon she writes a thoroughly enjoyable book.

>>8749271
>or mention the word rape even once.

He does mention it several times in WoK.

>>8747933
>>8747933
Keep reading senpai and you'll see

How do you read Tolkien? I can never get past the barrow downs chapter. Soooooooooooo fuuuuuuucccccckkkkkkkiiiiiinnnnngg slooooooowwwww

I'm writing a more serious character but I feel like the line between edgy, evil, or just jerk things to do is too blurry, I dont have experience writing so I dont really know much, sometimes I find myself asking if he really should be able to do certain things, sometimes it almost seems overpowered

>>8749365
He's THE dinosaur. He was the father of something good he himself never mastered.

>>8747918
I heard Sanderson's original draft for Stormlight had Kaladin as a generic honorable soldier who won a shardblade and just did good things to rise up in Dalinar's army.

>>8749365
You need a pipe and a porch to read on.

>>8749385
It's actually the exact opposite though

>>8748883
>tripfag
Didn't this used to be a bannable offense a few years ago? I can't remember.

You know what I don't like about this thing? It's just fucking Europe. That's it. They drew a real life Europe and made it cartoony. Seriously, it looks like someone took my mom's Europe and put it in the book.

Older fantasy worlds actually had personalities to them. They had quirks that separated them from the actual world. This thing? It's. Just. EUROPE.

>>8742750
>Magician's Guild
Literally cancer

>>8749402
>Good vs Evil

Yeah, no.

>>8749169
The difference is we (the thread) are actually on topic, unlike your redpill pol companions and 60% of the board.

>>8749420
>this nigga never seen a Sanderson map

>>8749438
>gray morality
eeeughhhhh

Vindication of Man drops tomorrow. Wright's got the first two chapters up on his blog.
http://www.scifiwright.com/2016/11/tomorrow-is-the-vindication-of-man/

>read Asimov's Foundation
>be spellbound by its originality
>later watch a history documentary
>Foundation is just a sci-fi description of the period from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance

>read and love Ender's Game
>time passes, I grow up and realize Ender's Game is just a sci fi training montage

>read and love Old Man's War
>read editor's note and it's just a sci-fi Vietnam

>read and love Starship Troopers
>later realize it's just a sci-fi roman empire with citizen voters/fighters

>read Hyperion and fall in love
>later realize it's just a big drawn out space opera

>watch and love District 9
>realize it's a sci-fi discussion of south african apartheid

>Rendezvous with Rama and Roadside Picnic still seem pretty original to me though

What's the most original work of science fiction you've ever read? I'm really thirsty for something new and original

>>8749446
>absolute morality

>>8749450
>non-absolute """"""""morality""""""""

>>8749449
>space opera
>limited

>District 9
>apartheid

>sci fi training montage
>bad

You need to get out more.

>>8748973
>not literature reported
Nice meme

>>8749464
>Some guy actually took the time to make this
>Thinks he's superior to what he's describing

>>8748471
>>8748485

OA here, Fringe was really awesome the first seasons, mostly due to the actors, in what ways is this similar to it?

>>8749427
>not liking gri
What are you? A normie?

>>8749469
>implying I'm the anon that made that meme

>>8749464

It's missing quite a few of the newer memes

>>8749546
>reading comprehension

>>8749555
The anon that made it wasn't seen for a few months, I hope he is well and returns to update his meme.

>>8749559

>>8747166
RE:GOTM cover, what is that an illustration of?

>>8749457
>morality

>>8743479
Vector Prime wasn't bad

I also remember reading Darksaber. That was shit. Retarded Mary Sue villainess to replace Thrawn, Pellaeon looking like a cuck, that retarded plot with the Hutts and their Death Star ripoff that they literally sabotage themselves, terrible main character, Kyp Durron sucks, and Luke's awful virtual waifu all add up to a crock of shit..

>>8749462
it's true, most sci fi, even critically acclaimed sci fi, is just other genres dressed up with lasers and aliens. Most examples of sci fi where the futuristic/advanced tech settings actually majorly controls the main parts of the plot are really weird and unsatisfying.

And after you've seen one sci fi training montage, you've seen them all.

District 9 was written/directed by South Africans, filmed in South Africa, and starred South African actors. It also heavily deals with government enforced slums and racism. How is it not about apartheid?

I'll give you that maybe Hyperion isn't so bad for being a space opera though.

But, I am interested if you know of any sci fi that feels really original to you. I'm not gonna try to hold it against you, I would like to read some good books.

>>8749449
You just described fiction in general. Taking events from the real world and building stories around it.

>>8749926
what's the point of reading fiction then, if it's all based on history? Why not just read history if humans can't imagine anything beyond what's already happened in real life?

Doesn't your post admit that the only reason people read sci fi is for lasers and aliens?

>>8749954
I wasn't defending sci-fi. Just saying most authors take and write about what they find important or interesting.

>>8749909
If you keep conflating quality with originality you'll keep getting disappointed, especially when you just assume any possible reference to something you know is that thing. Because what could possibly have happened in South Africa but that thing I heard of? You don't even realize District 9 was about Zimbabwean economic migrants messing up black South African neighborhoods. And the South Africans were plenty racist against the Zimbabweans. Those interviews where the blacks are going off about the aliens being stinky? That's real life footage but they're talking about Zimbabweans.

And Ender's Game isn't about a sci-fi training montage. It's about youth being cut short by being gifted I mean did you even read it?

>>8749954
Yeah, why eat candy if it's just made of corn syrup and cocoa beans? Why not just drink corn syrup? Why eat bread when you could just chow down on wheat kernels?

>>8749954
You're taking some really big logical leaps, dude. Settle down.

>>8749954
>>8750007
>wrecked

>>8749963
ah, I see. Sorry if I got a little defensive

>>8750001
>Until 1955, Sophiatown had been one of the few urban areas where blacks were allowed to own land, and was slowly developing into a multiracial slum. As industry in Johannesburg grew, Sophiatown became the home of a rapidly expanding black workforce, as it was convenient and close to town. It had the only swimming pool for black children in Johannesburg.[68] As one of the oldest black settlements in Johannesburg, it held an almost symbolic importance for the 50,000 blacks it contained, both in terms of its sheer vibrancy and its unique culture.[tone] Despite a vigorous ANC protest campaign and worldwide publicity, the removal of Sophiatown began on 9 February 1955 under the Western Areas Removal Scheme. In the early hours, heavily armed police forced residents out of their homes and loaded their belongings onto government trucks. The residents were taken to a large tract of land 19 kilometres (12 mi) from the city centre, known as Meadowlands, which the government had purchased in 1953. Meadowlands became part of a new planned black city called Soweto. Sophiatown was destroyed by bulldozers, and a new white suburb named Triomf (Triumph) was built in its place. This pattern of forced removal and destruction was to repeat itself over the next few years, and was not limited to black South Africans alone. Forced removals from areas like Cato Manor (Mkhumbane) in Durban, and District Six in Cape Town, where 55,000 coloured and Indian people were forced to move to new townships on the Cape Flats, were carried out under the Group Areas Act of 1950. Nearly 600,000 coloured, Indian and Chinese people were moved under the Group Areas Act. Some 40,000 whites were also forced to move when land was transferred from "white South Africa" into the black homelands.[69]

District 9 is almost explicitly about whites relocating blacks outside of Johannesburg during Apartheid. It's like if in the movie the prawns lived in Alabama and were owned by cotton farmers, and you tried to argue it wasn't about US slavery.

That's an interesting point, but I think that the big Ender vs the Buggers conflict overrides that. Ender is troubled and tormented by his older brother by the beginning of the book, and is scheming how to survive in the transport ship before he even leaves earth. He's already grown up at the beginning of the book.

>>8750007
a better analogy is "why eat steak if you can just eat hot dogs, which are ground up pork and beef mixed up with nitrates and stuffed into a form that take less chewing and are easier to consume"

>>8750001
It's about both.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/movies/06district.html
>The plight of the film’s crustaceanlike extraterrestrials can be easily read as a metaphor for the persecution of South African blacks under apartheid. But Mr. Blomkamp said he was also trying to comment on how the country’s impoverished peoples oppress one another. While “District 9” was being filmed in the Chiawelo section of Soweto, Alexandra and other townships were ravaged by outbursts of xenophobic violence perpetrated by indigenous South Africans upon illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe, Malawi and elsewhere.
>also

>>8749559
>>8749588
>someone made a kip spurdo
We need more spurdo guys.
What about a Sanderson spurdo? Somebody get on it.

I haven't read a fantasy novel in at least a few years , but I've been playing Witcher III and was wondering if the books are worth checking out?

>>8750216
I wanted to make a "that's where you're wrong kiddo" with someone telling Sanderson he can't create mythopoeia by just using "high" for a prefix for everything but you just don't get as much for a meme anymore.

>>8750236
Writing ain't free. The creation of the cosmere gotta be litterd with the blood of innocence. Profanity, aka cussing is not to be used. It is the sign of an unbeliever and probably a non-Mormon as well :DD. A book every year and not every 6 ok.
Praise the shards.

How the fuck do you open the chest that contains the Horn in the WoT? I must have missed something.

any good new cyberpunk or biopunk? theory welcome

also any good new post apoc?

also split fantasy into separate thread already

We all agree that Science Fiction is better than Fantasy, right?
Is it even debatable?

>>8750501
>based on fantasy book

Has anyone heard news of the Three Body Problem movie over the past few months? Why haven't we gotten a single trailer yet?

How the fuck is Luna getting a show? This shit is just Dune on the Moon with shitty YA prose.

>>8750416
>start playing Underrail last night
>complete first main mission
>told I could get a sledgehammer from that quest
>didn't
Dropped

>>8748184
dread empire's prequel novels (the fire in his eyes & with mercy towards none) are good, the rest are trash.

instrumentalities is nice, although the world is a little too-obviously faux medieval europe

>>8750784
The Dragon Never Sleeps is a good standalone novel about immortal space legions making sure that nobody's able to form a space empire.

The Starfishers series is hit or miss IMO. The first is a bland space opera about a family of mercenaries, the second two are okayish espionage novels. However the fourth one, Passage at Arms, is a unconnected prequel that's basically Das Boot in space and is pretty good.

I haven't read any of the Darkwar stuff yet if anybody minds commenting on it...

>>8748184
Yeah the original Dread Empire stuff is really rough and obviously a prototype of the Black Company. I haven't actually read the prequels or the newer stuff though.

Seconding Instrumentalities as being good. Shame he didn't get to do another book or two in the series.

>>8751083

New

>>8751083