/lit/ - Literature

first for space muslims

TUON IS EURASIAN

Third for Turtledove

>>9757955
My favorites were Shadow over Innsmouth and Dreams in the Witch House. Don't like At the Mountains of Madness very much.

Lovecraft is a forced meme at this point but I really liked 'Through the Aeons'.

>>9758063
Dunwich Horror and Whisperer in Darkness are best

>>9758144
If we're counting the ghostwriting, I really like Till A' the Seas and The Night Ocean

>publishers making the covers of older books more and more generic trying to pass the female acceptance test

Holy fuck it's never going to work women only want to read fiction based around child abuse or refugees or the holocaust

>>9758168
was this meant for the Penguin Classics thread?

>>9758188
Specifically SF and fantasy. Like they think it's funny to delete a painting that took a month to make and switch it with something literally anyone could make in 5 minutes depending on the fonts installed on their computer. Actually this seems to be more of a problem with UK editions overall.

>>9758213
ah fair enough
while we're complaining about publishers, and seeing how this is a "lovecraft" thread -- I just got in my copies of Langan's The Fisherman and Barron's The Beautiful Thing that Awaits Us All today and they are simply huge in terms of width and height
why are paperbacks so enormous these days? they seem immensely scaled up for no reason. I miss old-school little trade paperbacks, to the point of seeking out older editions of old books that I want

>>9758234
Yeah I hate large paperbacks too. Or when they arbitrarily change the size slightly from one printing to the next so that you try to collect a series with the same cover style and then some of them stick out slightly. Or when the covers have that rubbery "printed in China" feel like a book you get for free at a seminar or something

>The Kingkiller Chronicle Day One
Are you telling me this masterpiece is told over the course of a single day? That would be ballin' on so many levels.

>>9758375
I think you're wrong on many levels. The first of which is that it clearly isn't. The second of which is that who the hell numbers something that only has one part? It's be like people back in 1917 calling it World War One. "Day One" implies that there's a "Day Two" at the every least.

>>9758383
History of the World, Part 1.

>>9758063
I really liked his dream world stuff, a bit more weird than lord Dunsay works. And full of weird monsters, than are a weakness of mine.

This is my favourite Lovecraft book.

>>9758167
100% right but I would add The Color Out of Space.

Just finished tawny man trilogy, and goddamn there are like 10 different babies in the last 20 pages. If the author continues to refuse to kill anyone off, they're going to have a population issue. Is this what you guys were telling me about womeme authors?

>>9758504
Also, anyone know if I need to read rain wild Chronicles before hitting up Fitz and fool trilogy?

>>9758517
Yeah, kinda. It's the worst series in that universe tough.

>>9758497
It's as if someone read Lovecraft and completely missed the point. I wonder if this is a retaliatory strike over Lovecraft's racism.

>>9758167
Whisperer in Darkness is my favourite, along with Mountains of Madness. The White Ship is possibly my favourite dreamcycle story.

>>9758532
Fuck, it's just going to be 4 volumes of descriptions of how much Dragons smell like garter snakes as if anyone knows wtf smell that would be isn't it...

I'm in the mood for something like The Way of Kings.

I've read most of Brandon Sandersons other work and Kingkiller Chronicles.

Currently on The Dark Tower series but it's not keeping me all that interested.

I'd rather not have to reread Way of Kings again.

>>9758547
Read wheel of time before? Could keep you busy until the next volume comes out

>>9758565
I just heard it was very descriptive, and that's not really my thing.

Also, I go for audiobooks usually.

>>9758569
It has audiobooks. Sanderson is also the worlds biggest WoTaboo to the point they got him to finish writing it

>>9758573
I know, the audiobook thing was more of an offhand comment.

But I'm really not into very descriptive books. I couldn't get even 30 pages into any LotR book due to it.

>>9758578
I don't know who told you it was "descriptive" because is pretty fucking plebeian. Which I say as someone who doesn't subscribe to the shitting on WoT mean.

>>9758168
>he doesn't like books about nazis, space nazis and books about shotas and lolis getting fugged over
The world would be a better place if the west followed Japan by shoehorning it into everything.

>>9758590
I just heard it goes out of it's way to describe fucking dresses and shit, which is just not my thing.

>>9758593
Dude sanderson is a robert jordan clone you've practically been reading it already

>>9758595
I'm gonna pass on WoT though. Any other recommendations?

>>9758547
The authors most similar to Brandon Sanderson are:
>Isaac Asimov's the Foundation
Easy to read series with a fuckton of plot-twists.
>All the rest of Brandon Sanderson's books
>The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington

Books that are more /lit/ but that are just as fun
>Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana


Sanderson's students Brian McClellan (arguably shit)
Copying Sanderson's style - Brent Weeks but the latest book is shit.

Man escapes a pirate ship, is adrift for a couple days until his boat is grounded into a black mire. He smells dead fish, sees a black sun, and believes the stretch of land he is on could have only recently been uprooted by volcanic activity. He spends days exploring the land, reaching the base of a mound. Plagued by nightmares, he gives up on sleep and continues to explore the swamp. Over the mount he sees a valley with a monolith “not altogether the work of Nature.” Through the moonlight he sees aquatic hieroglyphics on the monolith depicting fishes, eels, octopi, crustaceans, and unknown species. He sees carvings of a humanoid race of people, yet these people have webbed hands and feet, wide and flabby lips, glassy, bulging eyes, and the size of whales. He then sees a one-eyed, fast, scaly armed monster that darts towards the monolith while making a sound that turns the narrator mad. He runs away, is whisked up by a ship during a storm, and taken to San Francisco where he continues to dream of the monster finding him.

>>9758601
It's legitimately hard to sink any lower in terms of accessability, Maybe dragons of autumn twilight?

>>9758606

Also to piggyback off this, Mountains of Madness is the best HP story but some of his other short works are worth reading, but skip the curious case of Charles dexter ward that shit blows

>>9758609
It's not the accessibility that's the problem, more that I already have a predetermined negative attitude towards the books, so it's going to take some commitment for me to get to like them, and that's simply not what I'm looking for right now.

>>9758616
Try Isaac Asimov's Foundation. Cosmerefag liked it and so do I. The number of plot twists in it are mindblowing.

The three set of books most similar to Sanderson in writing style (aka simple prose with lots of plot twists) are Asimov's Foundation, The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington and Brent Week's Lightbringers series.

If you like Lightbringers read Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey.

Also there are a lot of classic scifi writers which won't inundate you with complicated writing but do have a lot of great twists like PKD's Ubik which is also very similar to Sanderson.

>>9758623
>>9758605

Thanks. Will look into them.

The Shadow of What Was Lost seems interesting.

Have you read The Lies of Locke Lamora? Any good?

>>9758623
>Ubik is similar to sanderson

I really want to hear your justification for this claim

What are some fantasy books which influenced the development of D&D/tabletop rpg's lore?
Was it a gradual process from tolkien or were the elements already present when tabletop rpg's first began?

>>9758647
dying earth very heavily influenced the magic system

Book of the New Sun desu

Any great novels with a little girl protag?

>>9758627
Ubik has a lot of plot twists but very simple prose. Although it does not share themes with Brandon Sanderson's novels, I think that fans of one would probably like the other, especially readers who are fond of characters surprising them.

Ubik is probably the most similar, from what I've read, to Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey, however. Lots of lighthearted humour and the undercurrent of something not quite right, going on, and some genuine horrifying mindfuckery at the very end.

I also think that Sanderson is also trying to introduce some measure of complexity with charcters like Taravangian which could potentially be the basis for plot complexity.

>>9758625
>Lies

Yes, it is fantasy and if you like Sanderson's stuff and Rothfuss stuff the author's writing is like half way between those two authors. Locke Lamora is a fun character and the books are fun in much the same way as an anime like Code Geass where you can live vicariously through one of the characters is fun.

Just order The Unholy Consult. let's see how it is. the first three books were very tight, the next three a bit stretched out.

I'm also currently re-reading the first three books. yeah I fucking love R Scott Bakker

>>9758703
Dick is a naturally mischievous person who puts a humorous spin on whatever he writes just because he can't help it. His dialogue and characterisation are top notch and his story ideas can barely be matched by anyone, maybe like 5 people. He isn't really a natural novelist, his novels are more like expansions or meshings of his short stories which is what he really believed in but novels are more commercial. He also almost always writes about the real world in the near future.

Sanderson is the epitome of the "world building" meme. Yes his world is interesting but he's also a humorless person. When he has to try and be funny for plot reasons it's amazing how bad it is, you'd think the publisher would at least get someone else to write some jokes that might fit. His dialogue is also pretty damned forced and characterisation does not exist.

I do still like sanderson's series enough to follow it but him and dick are so far apart it's like absurd to even mention them together.

If you really want wacky interesting sci fi worlds with a truly novel-like feel I would suggest Hyperion by dan simmons or The Reality Dysfunction by peter f. hamilton, also far better writers than sanderson

>>9758741
Scifi writers appear generally more capable, in my opinion, compared to fantasy writers.

>>9758749
That's because writing sci-fi takes a modicum of innovation while fantasy can be any old sword and sorcery shit.

>>9758741
>When he has to try and be funny for plot reasons it's amazing how bad it is
Give me an example, this makes me want to read it.

>>9758696
"The Sunday without God" by Kimihito Irie.

>>9756945
>>men can't write good female char-

Erikson wrote such a good female toon I still get butthurt whenever I even see her name

>>9758758
He rhymed assassin with ass sass

>>9758773
That is the worst thing I have ever heard. Picked up.

How much Wolfe has /sffg/ read today?

The answer: not enough

Can someone do me a favor and post the secret instructions for Madokami? I know one of you has them.

>>9758810
https://manga.madokami.al/READ.txt

>>9758836
Thank you.

>>9758785
Can I read Long Sun before Urth? I don't want to read Urth yet.

>>9758546
If only. Normally I can get behind Robin Hobb characters, but those in there were so fucking grating, specially the homo and the elderlings. If you want you could skip it, really it's only minor stuff, or better, read the wiki. The Fitz and the Fool books are different to the others in the Fitz trilogies, and the end it's bittersweet as fuck. I'm still internally debating if they were good or not.

>>9758749
Unfair. Scifi can wing itself on good ideas and passable writing and characters, but the content of fantasy books is harder to create (while being original) so authors are graded more on their prose and ability to write worlds/characters

>>9758844
No worries.

>>9757142
bretty gud

>tfw spent almost three years trying to write your own novel
>literally have hundreds of thousands of words with no value

I take back all of the terrible things I've said about crap books and their authors.

>>9758168
They're not doing anything of the sort, they just don't own the rights to the original piece of artwork anymore.

>>9758911
there is absolutely nothing wrong with an achievement like that even if the result is not great

>>9758911

Spend another three years on what you have and you'll improve. You only get better at writing and editing by writing and editing.

>>9758875
You can ... they are different books and one visual thing at the conclusion won't make you go hmmmm when you are supposed to. Definitely read urth before short sun. Dont expect new sun weird out of Long Sun. It is a great novel/series but the pace is strange on a first read.

>>9758911
Post some excerpts for us, anon

>>9758569
>I go for audiobooks usually.

>>9758696
I know you didn't finish those thousands of pages I gave you a few threads back. You just shitposting.

>>9758785
Had enough Christianity allusions for the time being.

>>9758168
>tfw no pulp era cover No Longer Human
My SF Masterworks edition is just so dull by comparison

>>9758911
I feel you man, for years I could never understand all the godawful hackneyed shit out there. How the hell did people not notice how bad it is? How did that shit get written? Then I started writing, and for a little while everything seemed fine. But then one day I was reading something I wrote, there was a click in my mind, and suddenly I could see it fucking everywhere! I still don't understand how it's possible, but that shit is INVISIBLE to the writer! Maybe there's some sort of hallucinogen in the ink, or maybe the mental state involved in writing makes you delirious, but all sorts of incredibly awful shit sneaks right in there and you'll never know it!
Now, that still doesn't explain how it gets past editors and beta readers, but it's an amazing and horrifying thing to discover.

tl:dr - man who laughs at other's incontinence not so smug after shitting own pants

>>9759259
I don't know. For a period I was really overly critical of pretty much anything I wrote. I was like "this is shit, this is garbage. I have millions of years to go before I can do justice to my ideas" but it's died of since. I started reading a lot more to see what I should do instead of mentally lashing out at myself for everything I do.

I need some short fantasy books to read through, preferably pulpish.

>>9758917
>>9759134
It's complete garbage and you'll just start shitting blood if I showed you any of it.

>>9759259
>shitting your own pants

That's exactly what it feels like.

>>9759271
>That's exactly what it feels like.
At least when you shit your pants you don't go around loudly discussing it and showing everyone.

>itt anons discover reading and writing aren't the same skill

>>9759179
I'm the person who asked a few threads back and I just want you to know that's a different person. If I were to ask I wouldn't hesitate to say "loli." But you gave me a lot to work with so I'm satisfied.

Maybe repost that list again in case this other person somehow missed it?

Anyone read this? Is it badass?

Wanting to get into Arthur C. Clarke. Want to read either City and the Stars, Childhood's End or Rendezvous With Rama first, which one is best?

Anyone read the Death Gate Cycle? My brother used to love those books and I'm wondering if they're any good.

>>9759279
It's more like you crawled inside someone else's skull and took a shit there that they can never wipe clean. Best to just embrace it and at least entertain yourself in the process

>>9759411
They start really strong in the first four but don't sustain it for the last three; still worth it imo.

>>9759335
It's about marines in space? Because I'm sick already of wanking marines.

>>9759335
>kameron hurley

i doubt it

>>9759279
>>9759428
That's a stunning visual narrative you've crafted there.

>>9759411
This sounds interesting, I'll read it and get back to you.

>>9758696
>>9759322

>>9759271
You want me to make an aspiring author with tears streaming at an unfinished manuscript for you?

>>9759271
Robert Howard's Conan stories.
Nobody has done better 'pulp' fantasy since imho.
Also, it's mostly pre-Tolkien, so it doesn't feel like a Middle Earth rip-off like a lot of fantasy.

>>9759508
>Tampa
>That picture
>Nutting

Kek

What's the best collection of Lovecraft to get?

>>9759398
Childhood's End is a very interesting novel. Rama is good, but the first book is really just a tease for the rest of the series, which I haven't actually read, so I can't say.
Songs of a Distant Earth is my favourite Clarke novel.
The Light of Other days (co-written with Stephen Baxter) is also excellent, and a profound allegory of the societal changes brought about by mass electronic communication.

>>9758168
>Holy fuck it's never going to work women only want to read fiction based around child abuse or refugees or the holocaust

Imagine getting uppity and elitist about reading choices in /sffg/ of all places, like a subway customer laughing at mcdonalds plebs, completely unaware of the fact that he's as obese and retarded as them.

>>9759541
awful cover but got all the greats

so how was TUC, Bakkerfags?

>>9759561
>Starbucks plebs laughing at hard-working Subway customers who understand their food isn't the best but like it for other reasons

>>9759466
Isn't she pretty GRI?

>>9758711
Tfw the audiobook is scheduled to be released in december.

How do you find a good name for your fantasy series / book?

>>9758168
Hey! Fuck you! As a woman, I'll have you know I only read fiction based on uncomfortably passionate male friendships and overtly symbolic sword thrusting. Guns too. I like guns.

>>9759786
Most people try using vague allusions to the plot or their characters roles.

>>9759520
i actually couldn't quite grasp that.

>>9759528
Danke.

>>9759758
>Tfw the audiobook is scheduled to be released in december.
Wtf? Audiobooks, ebooks and print are released the same time for popular authors.

>>9758497
sounds like stolen story from 'A Colder War' by C Stross

>>9759793
So you like long pointy things that stab, or hard barrel shaped things that expels (quite explosively) small substances that are hot?

>>9759815
The pic will be a guy (with an aspiring author head, like pic related) sitting at a desk with a bunch of papers that have rejected stamped onto them and him shedding tears. Might ot might not have him holding his hands to his head, depends on the source material found.

>>9759869
Wow, you really caught all the subtleties there, anon. I'm really impressed.

>>9759335
Is there any SciFi left that's not been taken over by SJWs, Genderists and Leftnuts? Someone bring back Heinlein

>>9759869
Source of pic... my friend was reading through this thread and asked me if I knew.

>>9759943
Because I like Mil Sci fi, it tends to be less grating the SJW, Genderist and stuff, but lately it's leaking hard.

>>9757955
>Tfw lost all of my love craft books except two comps of shitty Derleth pastiches

Tore apart my book cases and half dozen cardboard boxes of stored books, this stinks. I wanted to read them in hard format as a break from reading e-books

>>9759943
>Leftnuts
There are faggots that are republican. Just use sjw or faggot propaganda PC pushers. This left right shit is stupid because you both are equally cunts pushing your own agendas.

To your other question. Bakker. He doesn't portray faggots as loving and caring when they are people that just want an orifice filled (and all types of people are trash). A matter of fact the faggots are the most destructive in the series.
And yes, faggots are defined by who they fuck. The only difference with a faggot and a straight guy is who they want to fuck.

>>9759972
>I have the books to read at hand
>I just want this particular format
Kys blogger

>>9758451

And yet atheist fags will still insist that aliums don't exist

>>9759984

They're not at hand I'd have to track down PDFs. I already have a backlog on my PC though

DID SANDERSON RELEASE ANYTHING THIS YEAR??
W H E R E IS T H E NEW S A N D E R S O N
H
E
R
E R E H W

>>9759989
I'm semi atheist and believe in ayyys. How did the world jump in technological prowess in only a few short years? I want America to declassify all the info it has on reversed engineered alien tech.

>>9760025
Snapshot (short story), Oathbreaker in November, supposedly another one of his YA books coming out later this year too
another volume of his graphic novel series with terrible art supposed to be released this year too

>>9760076
SHIT I DON'T WANT
ONLY OATHBREAKER IN THAT LIST OF YOURS IS INTERESTING

>>9760081
well you asked if he released anything this year, nigga. he's only one man, cut him some slack

>>9760098
He has to stop all the fucking YA shit.

>>9759943
Lot of folks seem to like Niemeier.

>>9760076
Oathbreaker plz be out already

>>9759848
Not this time apparently.
https://www.recordedbooks.com/title-details/9781501976865

what are some fantasy books with lots of vanilla sex

>>9760380
Any urban fantasy written by a female.
Pic related has some tame examples
extremes include: Laurel K Hamilton, Christine Freehan, Immortal series by Joy Nash, and others

>>9760414
gay rape ?

>Trying to read listen through Name of the Wind because I drive 6 hours a day
>This fucking faggot's voice

Rothfuss, I know you're here, and I work at CPS in San Diego. You listen to me motherfucker. If Michael Kramer doesn't voice your next audiobook I will call ICE on ten wetback families every day for the rest of my life. I have a list with addresses a mile long.

>>9759975
No one is ever just gay in a vacuum they always have other weird shit going on like they put kids in animal costumes and tie them to cieling fans or some shit. No one I've ever learned was gay has ever been slightly surprising they always been some level of socially retarded or oddly shapen.

>>9760495
>they always have other weird shit going on like they put kids in animal costumes and tie them to cieling fans or some shit

I can verify that this is exactly how zany it's gotten. It's like some people can't get off unless they take things too far, but then enough of them do it because it's everything bad about drunk guys out mixed with sex and drugs, so it normalizes, so they have to go further, but then that normalizes ad infinitum. It will never end. I can 100% see how like Conan the Barbarian-era pulp always depicts decadent nobles as faggots, because that is EXACTLY what we'd become if we got power and could just have orgies all day without legal repercussions.

There needs to be some kind of cultural safety valve or this whole thing is going to reach critical mass and society will correct like the fucking stock market. I can 100% see this happening, weirder shit has happened overnight. I fully expect that in my lifetime everyone will just say "you know what, I think we're done with queers," and throw us all off of buildings.

>>9760568
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt4Pfhd02w0&list=PLG3C2Pqsd4UkhKq7HlJcvBenFXg_G-uJG

>>9760568

>enjoying a book
>a character acts stupid to drag out a plot for another two entries in the series
hate this

>>9760590
[concern intensifies]

>>9760623
Don't worry. Sure, Space Hitler might purge most of your kind, but homosexuality will still remain in the galaxy.

Friendly reminder that:
>Philip K. Dick
>Harlan Ellison
>Stanislaw Lem
>Olaf Stapledon
>C. S. Lewis
>J. R. R. Tolkien
and
>Brian Jacques
are the only great SFF writers worth talking about.

>>9760806
Swap Lewis for Chesterton and add Ray Bradbury

>>9760590
This isn't deep at all. This is what human """"civilization"""" has been like since its conception. Civilization has almost always seemed to be in decline when its not in its Golden Age (even so-called Golden Ages have had a lot of brutality and violence simmering under the surface), people have always seemed to be barbarians. Why? Because people as a whole don't change, even if a minority of humans create new technology and scientific/philosophical programs that give the illusion of progress. Now = last days of Rome = last days of Babylon = etc.

Thoughts on Harry Turtledove? I read United States of Atlantis and thought it was OK, not a masterpiece or anything, but with nice characterization for the historical figures. Going to try pic related next.

>>9760428
>gay rape
And incest.

>>9760495
You don't know many gay people, do you?

>>9760414
I meant historical fantasy or high fantasy, not urban contemporary fantasy

>>9760806
>implying

>>9760873
Don't care.

>>9760806
>Implying that this you shall perceive
MINE OWN LOVE, AND HER FEET MOST TENDERLY DID STEP, FOOD TABLETS, DISKOS, THE WATCHER OF THE EAST, 200,000 WORDS, NO ENDING, STILL THE BEST

>>9760904
What's that mean? And what's with the transparent virGENEya Wolfe?

>>9760941
HAHAHAHAAH

I just finished this book like a week ago, I really did enjoy the plot but the language was often laughable.

>>9760941
>mfw the youths get lured to the House of Silence
>mfw the story of the Road-builders
>mfw he finds the crashed airship in the lavalands
>mfw they're getting chased by the giant tree

>>9760495
Perhaps to your point, I've known several people who identified as furries, ALL of them are gay. Coincidence?

>>9761132
I was hoping to find out what was in the House of Silence, or what the deal with the Silent Ones was. Wasn't the airplace atop a destroyed Redoubt?
>tfw he almost stumbles into The Place where the Silent Ones Kill
>tfw the hounds are coming
>tfw within the sphere of influence of the Watcher
How did he manage to make a book with this style so tense?

>>9760853
I've read this book. I like it a lot. I was frustrated at first by the fact that history is "on rails" for most of it. Things happen pretty much the same way in real life, until the last quarter or so where shit finally starts getting crazy.

>>9761148
>Wasn't the airplace atop a destroyed Redoubt?
If so I need to reread.

I think the style is part of what made the book so tense, you're always on edge straining to see through it to what's going on.

Make sure you read the John C. Wright shorts in Awake in the Night Land. He had the House of Silence be the House on the Borderlands

>>9761163
Is there any broad-ranged alt-hist that isn't on rails? Years of Rice and Salt had a lot of different things happen but it all narrowed back down to big war -> decolonization, and there was even that Chinese Communist revolution thrown in there to crap up everything good he'd accomplished until then.

I want to read a sci fi where there is good world building in which likeable characters go on semi light hearted adventures and maybe some war.

Bought this book for $3.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/819679.The_Norton_Book_of_Science_Fiction
>Poul Anderson, Margaret Atwood, Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany, Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, Joanna Russ, Theodore Sturgeon, James Tiptree, Jr., Gene Wolf, Roger Zelazny
Good deal, right?

>>9760941
What's the name of this book?

>>9761233
Sounds like The Night Land

>>9761233
The Night Land

>>9761233
The Night Land.
>faux-Tudor noble finds true love, she dies of illness
>as he dreams he wakes up in the far future after the sun has died
>the remnants of humanity live in a giant pyramid surrounded by monsters
>hero's bond with his true love lets him find her in another, smaller pyramid that's about to be overrun
>sets out alone overland to rescue her
In some senses it's a spiritual successor/attempted rebuttal of The Time Machine.

>>9761253
Isn't she dead? Or is how she's alive in the far future meant to be a mystery?

>In some senses it's a spiritual successor/attempted rebuttal of The Time Machine.
Go on then

>>9759882
You should do that

>>9761275
Don't encourage the WordArt

>>9761276
You don't tell me what to do

>>9761277
You actually like his weird photoshop collages?

>>9761283
Yeah they're great, very descriptive too

>>9760806
Ubik?

>>9760909
>deconstructs entire argument in witty comeback
just fuck off already

>>9761176
Ender's Game g

>>9760827
It's not meant to be deep. It's literally a fucking survey lesson on modern history that's just skimming over the surface with quick explanations for events. Why is it any time something comes with lengthy explanations people immediately think it's trying to be "deep"? Is the concept of depth really that obscure to people these days?

Hey, /sffg/ are there any good sci-fi/fantasy books that have a compelling, horrible truth about their universe revealed. Some inconceivable horror that floors the beings in this world. For example, in the "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" twilight zone episode when the viewers finds out that [/spoiler]they're just dolls in a bucket and I just loved that feeling of existential dread it gave me at the end.

I had this thought as an ant walked across my desk and how I had no empathy for it. And how it probably had no idea how unbelievable complex my world was in comparison to its. Yea, so I'm basically looking for realization of insignificance or something like that. I hope this made sense.

Hey, /sffg/ are there any good sci-fi/fantasy books that have a compelling, horrible truth about their universe revealed. Some inconceivable horror that floors the beings in this world. For example, in the "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" twilight zone episode when the viewers finds out that they're just dolls in a bucket and I just loved that feeling of existential dread it gave me at the end.

I had this thought as an ant walked across my desk and how I had no empathy for it. And how it probably had no idea how unbelievable complex my world was in comparison to its. Yea, so I'm basically looking for realization of insignificance or something like that. I hope this made sense.

>>9760414

Is Lilith Saintcrow the single worst pen-name in all of recorded history?

>>9761045
>Give me an idea on how to make a macro that deals with dino measurements, that also has sffg allusions
>I don't know, how about something with a big pair of scales in the foreground, with Gene Wolfe, Jack Vance and Walter Miller books on one side, and five disembodied dinosaur heads on the other, weighing down, and Gene Wolfe's big old face grinning coyly behind it, perhaps alongside other disembodied heads of the venerable Robert Howard, Fritz Leiber, Vance, Tolkein, et al.

>>9761267
They're both reincarnated.

As far as The Time Machine goes, Wells' time traveler went into the future and only found more class struggle, then the sun goes out and everything dies. History follows the dialectic, we are just a part of nature with a start and expiration date, and there's this sense of scientific detachment.

With Hodgson, even when the sun goes out humanity uses technology to try to stay alive just a little bit longer. They're not any less doomed than Wells' humans; their technology lets them glance into the future and discover the exact date the Redoubt will fall, but they don't live in despair or detachment. There are still heroic lives to be lived and sung about, still adventures and love stories and great works of engineering and scientific triumph left in mankind, and as science has discovered that the soul indeed reincarnates there may be hope left even after the fall.

Even the characters, a nameless man and a woman of the future, are new takes on Wells'. Weena is beautiful but mostly animal, not really a thinking, reasoning creature; she's humanity as a product of historical forces, just the laws of physics working themselves out. Naani is just as helpless, maybe even more so, but she's aware of what's going on and what the stakes are; she's humanity trusting itself to whatever good might remain in the world.

>>9761338
I dunno, anon, that's a good question. Can anyone help him out? Has there ever been a famous, prolific author who had that as a major theme in his many works, to the point his name is synonymous with inconceivable horror and existential dread?

>>9760873

I do and he's 100% correct. They just behave tamely before the straights because of a deepset psychological thirst for approval and legitimacy in the eyes of the other 97% of the population, itself probably a result of daddy issues

>>9761338
Blindsight
The Thing Itself (But more gradual)
Ubik

>>9761354
I said "good"
I should have added the caveat that isn't hp lovecraft i read the dunwich horror and found his writing boring

>>9761370

LMAO shit taste confirmed m8

>>9761370
Well you deleted your first post since you're a newfag who can't do spoiler tags, you had every opportunity to mention that you wouldn't like the first name everyone thinks of.

>>9761386
I didn't have enough time, though since I was trying to courteous to replies and not have them reply to a deleted post, so I did it quickly. HP is so boring that suppress his existence. His books did not age well at all.

>>9761147
That's because the furry fandom is synonymous with sexual deviancy in today's popular culture, which causes such deviants to embrace and usurp it's cultural memes. A tragedy of our time.

>>9761405
they're classic horror you nonce
what you've described, the old "big reveal" aren't exactly his forte, he instead shines on the slow burner of increasing feeling of dread and unease
But if you can't manage Lovecraft man you're still a pleb. I don't even like horror but he's required reading

>>9761425

This. If you can't read lovecraft then you probably can't handle anything written before 1965 and almost nothing worth reading was written after 1970

>>9761447
Except Lovecraft was a shit writer for his time, this isn't just an age thing

>>9761491
>some insolent shit has the sheer gall to insult old weird-face howard
excuse me pussyol'? he might have won fame posthumously but I can trace whatever horror you claim to enjoy back to him

Do series of short stories have any place in fiction any longer? Where should I go to try and publish short stories?

>>9761510
let us read it before you publish shit anon

>>9761523
I could describe it here briefly. I can separate the groupings of short stories into three sections:

>Inspector
>Physician
>Victim

The general idea is of an inspector for asylums in pre-WWI England. He is an employee of the british government sent to different asylums under the guise of an inspector when he is actually given specific criteria for patients to send back. He does not know what he is sending them back for or why, merely that the government wants them for something. Each story is of a different asylum and a different patient, or of a small portion of his life. Each story is not in chronological order but takes place over the course of two years between 1913 and 1914, just before than just as WWI begins. The Inspector is never named, merely referred to as Inspector. You find out over the course of the short stories that he suffers from severe OCD which caused the death of his mother and cost him his marriage. Part 1 ends when someone he was to send to the government commits suicide and he breaks under the pressure.

Part 2, physician occurs two years after Inspector after the main character put in to change positions and serve in the British military. He serves as a field position. Part 2 takes place between 1916 and 1917. In this he in fact reconnects with a few of the individuals he sent to the British government and is introduced to the ideas of 'The Light Shining Behind Their Eyes" and "A Connection Between Two Unlike Things'. Basically British occultism enforced upon mental patients. This chronicles further segregation of his life and his daughter's disowning of him, and how it sends him further into depression while being surrounded by the horrors of WWI.

Part 3 is the point at which he discovers the truth behind what those he sent to the government endured and why he was chosen in the first place. How his life, his wife, and his existence was on a course predetermined. This takes between 1919 and 1921 after WWI and mainly chronicles the main character as a homeless man in war torn Germany hiding from the British government.

>>9761343
Is this thread a Meme on demand?

>>9760904
who are all those faces?

Just finished the Black Company books. Holy shit was that good, probably my favorite series with Hobbs books. Thinking of starting Malazan now, though the last time I was just pissed off how nothing was explained at all.

>>9758547
Read Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen Donaldson.

That's not a recommendation, that's a goddamn order.

>>9761338
Hmm... Not exactly what you were thinking but Ligotti's The Tsalal has this theme. Ligotti's in general fits the bill (down to the dolls in the bucket) but his stuff isn't really character driven.

Maybe also: Priest's Inverted World.

>>9761731
I really liked Inverted World but I wouldn't classify it as existential horror, more the opposite with that anticlimax.

>>9760941

William Hodgson's prose is near unreadable but his imagination and ideas are wild. I feel like the bad prose makes his writing feel more esoteric. It's like making sense of an occult text. I enjoyed The House On The Borderland, but gave up on one of his seafaring novels. Maybe I'll give Night Land a crack, but I know it won't be easygoing.

>>9761732
I'm a classic cosmic horror guy with a weak knowledge of sci fi so I was stretching since anon requested sf/f. If he doesn't like Lovecraft, he probably won't like anyone who fits the bill from those days, which limits what I can recommend.

>>9761803
He's not worth it, you should stick with me and rec more Christopher Priest. I've only read Inverted World but I did watch The Prestige, and I felt like I wasn't seeing its best side.

>>9761788
Some guy rewrote The Night Land recently if you find yourself absolutely unable to deal with the bizarre prose in The Night Land (it's called The Night Land: A Tale Retold). Also, Hodgson himself made a much much shorter abridgement called The Dream of X but it's hard to find.

>>9761806
I've only done the same with Priest, unfortunately

>>.9742790
Thanks for the Idea bro.

>>9761838
>>9742790
I fucked up.

>>9761670
Look at >>9761343

>>9761554
Someone please tell me if this sounds like absolute garbage.

>>9761838
I like the blogposts, at least the reviews.
I don't always reply because I usually hasn't read or intend to read their subject matter, but I always read them.

>>9761275
Making a part two soon.

>>9761990
Reviews are not blogs. It's those wannabe authors that cry about writing and giving us how their day went with no sentences on paper.

>>9761554
>>9761973
This sounds awesome and original anon. Not many people choose ww1 as a backdrop for a mystery sci-fi story. If you have a good idea of how it pans out then i'd say keep writing.

>>9761973
Your lack of felidae disturbs me.

>>9761992
>>9761275

Ligotti has left a void in my my.

>>9762012
How it pans out if basically the British are fucking with things they know how to manipulate but not why they work and that mental illness often is a sign of some sort of spiritual decay. Clairvoyance is an implied connection between two things. The British use people who show signs of it as focal lens to kill people over great distances with no means of defense. That's the light shining behind their eyes.

>>9762036
Lack of cats?

>>9761288
"Yes."

I'm losing patience with The Expanse (book 4), I can deal with the shitty prose but the formulaic story arcs of uninteresting new POV characters are getting boring. It's like they're just filling in the blanks.

>>9762463
yeah 4 is a slump in the series it picks up again just in time to plummet right into the fucking trash at a higher velocity with book 6.

7th was the planned last book but now it is going to be 9, they need all that time to pull this shit out of the trash. I think it is possible.

>>9762388
Indeed, a proper author knows how to pander to their audience.

>>9760806
>Harlan Ellison
Harlan, get off the internet you old hack faggot. Lem shit bigger than you. You aren't even very remarkable among short fiction writers. Most people only remember your name because of a point and click adventure game.

>>9761838
Wolfe is staring at my soul and I don't like it.

>>9762749
I'd say he's probably more known for his confrontational persona. I mean he had a pretty sharp tongue and a quick wit back in the day. Age has definitely slowed him down though. Very funny in old interviews I think.

Read this, it was actually pretty decent. Writing style was very easy and kind of light on description to the point that travel was sometimes too fast-paced but the story itself was interesting because it starts off with this guy and his simple expectations of a situation being bamboozled and constantly having to rethink the whole scenario. Also it has lots of setbacks and losses so it's fun to watch the protagonists struggle.

There's an earlier trilogy in the same setting but I think I'll get the second book of this one because I'd like to see where it goes first. Hopefully not into shit.

So why is kingkiller bad again?

Yeah Kvothe is really strong and a self insert but he still makes mistakes and the story is still enjoyable. The complaints about "muh debts" just seem stupid to me.

also fuck denna.

poor prosha can't get a break

Any good fantasy about Antinatalism?

>>9763142
Bakker's stuff.

ubik

>>9762140
>>9761992
Nice

How are the Dragons of Babel?

>>9763376
is*

>>9759508

Not nearly enough boylove, what a shit list

>>9763417

It needs:

Sandel by Angus Stewart
Les Amitiés Particulières by Roger Peyrefitte
Young Torless by Robert Musil
The Portrait of W.H. by Oscar Wilde
The Garden God: A Tale of Two Boys by Forrest Reid
Uncle Stephen by Forrest Reid

Why is he never discussed here?

>>9763480
Because it has one of the worst covers ever

>>9761163
Rice and Salt is the best you're going to get I'm afraid. Just be thankful you were never subjected to the appearance of a Napoleon Al-Sardinani or some stupid shit.

>>9761172
Rice and Salt is the best you're going to get I'm afraid. Just be thankful you were never subjected to the appearance of a Napoleon Al-Sardinani or some other stupid shit.

>>9763484
Are you sure?

Wow this book is um... it's not good.
Horrendous prose, indecipherable dialogue and main characters that repulse you - why do I care about people in these mass open polygamous incestuous marriages where girls get pregnant at 15?!

Really disappointing, I'm a hundred pages in but I'm considering shelving it.

>>9763563
Just accept that starship troopers is the only good thing he ever did. His writing style is antiquated in all the wrong ways especially his female characters who I want to stab and you will never grok his loony left philosophies unless you eat a bunch of acid

>>9763563
>where girls get pregnant at 15?!
What's the problem?

>>9763642
>grok

Thanks for triggering me

>>9763563
>why do I care about people in these mass open polygamous incestuous marriages where girls get pregnant at 15?!
gb2 earth normie terran scum

>>9763642
Most of his pre-SiaSL stuff was pretty good, especially Have Spacesuit and Citizen of the Galaxy. Starship Troopers isn't even in the top five for Heinlein juvenilia.

>>9763672
Yeah, he's the best YA writer ever but his adult stuff isn't that good

>>9759249
I find it baffling how a cheap pocket novel or a pulp magazine of the past that was more or less disposable trash always had better covers than the expensive books of today. I suppose they can't afford to contract good artists anymore after the postmodernists pozzed the discipline of painting. Good luck finding an artist who's both affordable and doesn't just draw abstract doodles these days.

>>9763643
Healthy unaborted kids without autism aren't allowed.

Is there any space opera series out there where the main character isn't commanding/running a ship by the second book?

I love the genre but could do with a little change

>>9758168
Got a perfect example of this:
Before...

After...

>>9758234
>they are simply huge in terms of width and height
why are paperbacks so enormous these days? they seem immensely scaled up for no reason
holy shit this so fucking much, why do publishers feel the need to do this? is it to appeal to the retard market who can't read anything other than size 18 print?
I would kill for some decent pocket-sized editions of my favourite books. By that I mean literal pocket-size instead of this fucking 140 x 216mm bullshit that is so unwieldy.

>>9763810
it's to appeal to old people with bad eyes, who are the main demographic to actually pay for paper books nowadays instead of just downloading the epubs

>>9763810
>>9764062

It's just justify charging $16+ for a paperback novel that cost $4.99 less than ten years ago, when they were still normal paperback size

>>9763563

I dropped Farnham's Freehold about five pages into the We Gon Be Kangz segment

Heinlein was kind of a tumblrite by the standards of the 1950s desu, and his obsession with nudism gets old fast

>>9763788
Iain M Banks 'Culture' novels.
Most ships are actually controlled by AI who are characters themselves, hilarity frequently ensues.

Are there any good books on how to write okay genre fiction?

>>9764117
>>9763563
>>9763642
>degenerate
>left
>birth before 30
>>>/pol/
Where do you think you are faggot? This is the lit board. Where people write about fucking little boys, swallowing farts, and eating other people's shit, and get awards and notoriety for doing so.

>>9763810
>why are paperbacks so enormous these days?
Because pseuds and casuals feel good about reading "big" books and series. Even if the print is blown up to one word per page proportions.

>mfw the unholy consult was dunyain all along

i should have seen it coming

Having bones up on trees, I now feel ready for those previously murky arboreal passages in fantasy novels. Sweet chestnut, horse chestnut, silver birch, copper beech, sycamore, osier, cedar, cypress, spruce, pine; I can tell all of these, so come at me now all you fantasy and SF authors who are so keen on describing trees, the common ones anyway.

>>9765357
>the tree autist from a few months ago read up on all the tree books rec's to him, and is back to tackle all the authors who use a lot of vague description in their travelogues while passing through forests.

>>9758766
Felisin?

>>9765429
never say that fcucking cunt bitch name again god fucking damn it that fucking CUNT

>>9758766
>toon
You're back I see

>Erikson wrote such a good female toon I still get butthurt whenever I even see her name
>>9765429
>Felisin?
>>9765445
>triggered

You are small time. Watch this. Adare

>>9764692
My mother needs them because her eyes are bad and she can't read small print. If anything you are the pseud for acting like you're superior because you can read tiny print.

>>9758766
Felisin died at least, and exactly as she lived: sweaty and in the company of person who she despised for no reason.

>>9765429
>Felisin?

IT'S ALL COMING BACK

I've noticed these threads slow to a crawl during the work week, so what kind of jobs do sffg posters have? I get the impression a lot of the regulars are NEETs but obviously for traffic to drop so much some regulars must have jobs.

>>9765429
Spoiler that shit man, what is wrong with you

>>9765473
>you will never make passionate love to feslisin while she feels nothing and gives away your baby months later without a backward glance

>>9765481
I'm a regular and work as a proof-reader at a tv station.

Reading Scalzi's blog has to be the most depressing thing I've ever purposely done, I can't actually believe he's whining about selling less hardcovers than Milo.

>>9765453
>Adare

Someone worse than Felisin?

Impossible. I demand you justify your answer.

>>9765569
I'm seconding this

>>9765548
It is pretty disappointing when you read someone's work, enjoy it, and then find out the author is a weasel IRL.

Though I guess reading The Postman should have clued me in. The whole theme of the book is literally "Death to all Chads! RRREEEEEEEEE!"

>>9765569
Read the Unhewn Throne Books 2 and 3 and rage.

>>9765595
Why does he have a portable Government Viewer on his person?

New chart idea

>>9765643
Edgy and comfy aren't opposite ends of a spectrum. I found the first law looks to be both for instance.

>>9759943
Check out the two Galaxy's Edge books. No leftshit crap at all.

>>9765643
Put Bram Stoker's Dracula at the far left, it's super comfy

>>9765666
That was just fantasy, there'll be new rows for horror and SF at some point.

>>9765643
>edgier than bakker

impossible

>>9765692
>Roth turned, panting, the gory strip of hair and flesh in his fist. He trembled with rage and the men holding Logan went as white as paste. “Bring me his head when they’re finished. But before you give him to the sodomites, cut his cock off and bring me his sack for a purse. I want him to bleed to death as they fuck him.”

>>9765643
>shitting on Brent Weeks
I bet you are the Breeks anon. KYS

>>9763775
You can find decent artists on Deviantart or Fiverr or wherever, at least better than the "title over a monochrome picture of clouds" style, but then you have to pay fifty bucks instead of zero.

>>9763791
Can anyone ID the fonts in that?

>>9765736
Why does everyone hate the night angel trilogy?
It was pretty great for a first series

>>9765734

This is the peak of Canadian literature

>>9765772
making an EoE edit, lad?

>>9764576
*ahem* good sir you are actually not in /lit/ but in /sffg/, a general with its own separate culture and tradition we urge you to consider before speaking

>>9765595
>mfw I loved John Barnes and he blocked me on twitter

>>9765785
That's a great idea but I'm actually planning on commissioning a decent retro-style cover for my novella when I get it done.

>>9765778
First books okay but once it turns out that that dead guy isn't dead it becomes GRIM AND EDGY in the most dull way possible

Just fucking drags after that

Holy fuck, can someone please tell me that Gemmell stops with the shitty cliched romances? Legend was great, save for the cheesy scenes between Rek and Virae. Literally every other character was more interesting than those two going "I love you" and "No, I love you more" every single paragraph.

I just started book two and groaned when the same exact fucking romance starts blooming in the first couple of pages. "Gee, I just met this girl, she sure is cute, better make her the sole reason of my entire fucking existence."

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RomanticPlotTumor

>>9764576
>am I fitting in yet?
Fuck off

>>9758234
The Fisherman is standard "trade paperback" size. At least the copy I read was.

The smaller sized paperback (eg, 80s horror novels or Elmore Leonard) is the "mass market paperback."

>>9765783
That image isn't real, right?

>>9766121
just think of all the newly unemployed underage buttsex investigators

>>9766001
I think the romantic subplot is necessary for published and best selling authors due to commercial considerations, so for authors it's a matter of compromising or embracing it. A romantic element brings in the woman reader. It can also break up the texture of a novel so that it isn't repetitive.

Done well, it can make for a breezy and exotic type of book, the likes of which I rarely see now. I'm thinking of the planetary romances of Leigh Brackett and C.L. Moore, with their devious and bare-chested femme fatales (usually some sort of concubine or whore), always leading their protags into mischief.

If you ask me, authors should bring the Hawksian woman archetype into their characterisation; Angie Dickinson, Lauren Bacall. Write something like Key Largo or To Have And Have Not but on another planet.

>>9766169
It's annoying that its seen as mandatory because some authors will just never find it interesting or natural to write about. And if they dodge around it some chick will leave a one star review on amazon like

"Haha no romance? People fuck get over it xD"

>>9766186

Well at least there's the potential for the writer to do something interesting with romance, though I can't think of what off the top of my head.

>>9766169
>>9766207
The point is that there's so much more going on in the story. In Legend, there were so many more interesting things happening than the hackneyed romance between Rek and Virae. There wasn't any tension in the romance either. They literally fall in love and fuck by the second chapter, and the only interesting thing to come of it is when Virae dies, which means fuck all since she gets magically resurrected by deus ex machina a couple pages later. My friend who recommended the book had actually forgotten about it since it was so unmemorable.

It was boring as shit and detracted from the dozens of more interesting things happening (and dozens of more interesting characters like Orrin, Serbitar, motherfucking Druss, the two farmers in over their heads, and Bowman just to name a few).

>Well at least there's the potential for the writer to do something interesting with romance, though I can't think of what off the top of my head.

That's the point. He never did ANYTHING interesting with it. At best, it was just a fucking plot excuse to get Rek to go to the fortress. The entire story, he's being yanked along by his penis, and when his waifu dies he turns into a blubbering faggot until Druss told him to sack up, and that solitary chapter of character development ends up meaning fuck all as explained above.

>romantic subplot is necessary

No, it fucking isn't. This book has zero excuse either since it was published in 1984 (nearly a decade after he wrote it). Female readers were a super minority back then, so I doubt there was any pressure on him.

So, can anyone answer my question? Is there more shitty romance in his future books? Because everything other than the romance is quite nice, but it's like eating around a turd.

>>9766241
Okay, after reading some reviews, it looks like I'm in for more shallow romance.

Dropped.

>>9766241
I haven't read the book, and you've reasoned out your grievances clearly. Nevertheless, Gemmell must have had his reasons, either commercial considerations, or for reasons of tone, flow, and rhythm. Like how Shakespeare follows tragic bits with comedy relief. I think the romantic subplot can be utilised in this manner - as a breather, a way to make the pages roll by in flirtatious banter and innuendo after reading something gut churning. I see anime do this - look at the breakfast scenes in Evangelion. It's all about bringing the tone back down to earth, to something universal, so the story can feel more like something relatable.

>>9766281
>It's all about bringing the tone back down to earth

That's fine save for the fact that the romantic "breather" was made utterly redundant by the dozens of other things that performed the same function: the various soldiers sitting and joking over meals, their discussions about one another's pasts and hopes and families, all of them talking about their reasons for being there at the fortress.

>Gemmell must have had his reasons

You didn't even read the fucking book, so why are you even arguing this? The romance was garbage. It was shit. Dull. It served no purpose other than to get Rek to the fortress. Nothing is done with it. It was just a cheesy pile of cliches from start to finish.

It's a noticeable wart on an otherwise pleasant book, and it looks like this is pretty standard for Gemmell, so I'll be avoiding his work in the future.

>>9766318
Why, you say? It's because Iike to be the devil's advocate, and because I like to talk. I also like to get to the bottom of matters. The only completely sexless author I can think of is HP Lovecraft, so I'm afraid you're in for a lot of disappointments.

8 days for Age of Swords
excite

>>9766272
You should stick to grimderp, my fedora-wearing friend.

>>9760806
Daniel Keyes and Michael Moorcock desu

Are the any more /sffg/ magazines and collections published? It seems like all the science fiction and fantasy periodicals are from like 20-30 years ago.

>>9766539
Dead as a doornail. Asimov's still exist but they are heavily editorialised in certain directions. Those magazines don't really serve a real purpose anymore now that ebooks are a thing. No one's going to sit around churning out pulp for magazines when they could make a lot more shekels on amazon or with a novel. No sane worthwhile people anyway.

>>9766539
It's a dead genre

Do the sequels get any better? I enjoyed the chapters about the revolution but the alien plot just doesn't excite me at all. The Trisolarans seem basically indistinguishable from humans in their chapters so I don't know how any first contact scenario can be all that interesting.

I need a comfy book to read. Howl's moving castle was okay but I'm not big on castle in the air

>>9758497
I tried reading that and enjoyed it, but after 3/4 of a book of no plot development I kind of gave up

>>9766739
The Borrowers

>>9766760
maybe a bit less comfy

>>9766739
Johannes Cabal the Necromancer is ultracomfy. Avoid the sequels.

>>9766775
read it years ago. I agree about the sequels

>>9766656
Apparently the second one has a part where Venezuelan president/dictator Nicolas Maduro defeats America at war and is selected by the UN to be one of the leaders against the aliens.

>>9766882
>Maduro performing competently
Well I suppose it is sci-fi.

>>9766656
>The Trisolarans seem basically indistinguishable from humans
I'm 160 pages into the second book and at least this changes drastically. However, I think I like the first book better.

>>9767137
>this changes drastically
How so? I imagine they look bizarre but I was referring to their mindset.

>>9767215
We still don't know much about how they look, it's more about their psychology. This is quite a major plotpoint but maybe not that huge of a spoiler:They communicate by thought and everyone can see/hear what everyone else is thinking, which mean they had basically no concept about lies and deceit before they encountered humankind.

About their looks, all I know this far is that they have brains and that their eyes function similar to ours.

>>9766656
Those chapters were metaphor.
You gotta read Dark Forest that shit is nuts

>>9767137
Actually at about the same spot right now. What bugs me though is their weird plan to move to earth being caused by them learning there is life there without them ever talking about what they need to survive. They can send proton sized AIs to monitor a whole planet but couldn't discover other planets that might be able to support them and send probes all this time?

>>9765548
Wait, milo yianopolous?

>>9767614
>Inventory is currently limited on this title, but we’re working hard to get more. Orders may be delayed by several weeks. We’ll notify you by email as soon as we have an estimated delivery date.

I don't like milo or any of the alt lite but truly epic lulz are my weakness

>>9766352
I never got into Riyria, is it worth giving another go

>>9767638
I meant was some faggot really complaining that milo "pos me up scotty" yianiopolous outsold them or is it a different guy?

This is truly the greatest time line.

>>9767644
Yes it is him, I checked his blog

>>9767644
>>9767638

I heard Milo was lying about his actual sales though.

>>9767749
I'd believe it either way, his detractors will lie through their teeth just to spite him and milos a great promoter.

>>9767749
Maybe. #5 spot on amazon though. High enough to trigger the publishing mafia.

Jesus christ, I'm halfway through The Night Land and I just realized that now he has to WALK BACK AGAIN! Who the fuck writes like this? DEAR GOD WILL IT NEVER END? WHY DOES NO ONE EVER SHIT?
>Nanni is the plot, far away, weak, and in desperate need of rescue
>the Night land is the prose, impenetrable, endless, and filled with grotesque horrors
>the Narrator is an Evil Power, seeking every moment to Destroy the Soul of any reader who possesses insufficient good cheer and hardy courage to ward off despair and continue reading

>>9767639
Only the first series, not this Age of Feminism garbage.

>>9767531
Well, going by the game they have about the same basic needs that we do and Sun is the closest star, so it makes sense that they want to come here. Their chapters isn't that well fleshed out but I assumed that building the photon computers was a huge undertaking, in scale similar to building a space fleet. All in all they seem slightly retarded, which might be the explanation anyway

new thread
>>9768174
>>9768174
>>9768174