/sffg/ - Science Fiction & Fantasy General

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10051958]

Jack Vance edition

What are you reading next, /sffg/?

FANTASY
Selected:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21329.jpg
General:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21328.jpg
Flowchart:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21327.jpg

SCIENCE FICTION
Selected:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21326.jpg
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21331.jpg
General:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21332.jpg
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21330.jpg

NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books:
>https://imgoat.com/uploads/6d767d2f8e/21333.jpg

Previously on 'Should I read Brandon Sanderson's Epic Retelling of His WotLK 5-Man Run?':
>>10042802

[Anonymous No.10051986]

>>10051958
I've read 5 so far. Surprisingly comfy.

[Anonymous No.10051990]

>>10051986
Shades is good but I loathed Thursday Next.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10052002]

>>10051986
Fforde
What an odd surname. I feel like this should not be legal.

[Anonymous No.10052007]

>>10052002
What

[Anonymous No.10052010]

Hello, I'm new.
Do people read PERRY RHODAN outside of Germany?

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10052029]

>>10052007
Is this common in some heathen part of the world? Double consonant openers and a silent E are pretty much grounds for KoS, in my opinion. Even Chaucer would tell that jerk to call himself Ford.

[Anonymous No.10052132]

I'm currently re-reading the Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M Banks. I still can't see why I or anybody else should give much of a shit whether the Gzilt sublimate or not. That was the main problem with the plot I remember from the book from my first read.

[Anonymous No.10052293]

>read hyperion
>Keats
>the meme itself
>Kant
>reading Greg Bear city at the end of time
>Arthur Conan Doyle is showing up excessively
>he goes on about books, how books are the best, reading is the best
>Conan Doyle....I know that name from somewhere...
Why do authors try to cringingly wax poetic about reading books... in a book? Is it to score cookie points with autistic readers? I'm fed up of reading (in a book) that reading is the best thing ever, and holding a book is better than sex. And this person is so cool because they read.

[Anonymous No.10052298]

>>10052293
> and holding a book is better than sex
'Tis.

[Anonymous No.10052304]

>>10052293
>not knowing that holding a book is better than sex
virgin spotted

[Anonymous No.10052381]

why are you negros always memeing these old crusty ass 50 cent sci-fi novels? no one wants to read that corny shit.

[Anonymous No.10052390]

>>10052029
It's a Welsh name. They're a funny breed

[Anonymous No.10052405]

>>10051958
I recently finished the Dying Earth omnibus. The two Cugel books and Rhialto the Marvellous were comfy af. I wasn't as impressed with the first book, perhaps because it's such an early work that Vance's style hasn't fully developed yet? Anyone else feel the same?

Anyway, which should I read next out of these books? I also have that Songs of the Dying Earth anthology...

[Anonymous No.10052433]

>>10052293
>not reading works by writers that think books are fucking stupid and people who read them are useless parasites .

[Anonymous No.10052436]

>>10052293
It's almost as though they like books or something

[Anonymous No.10052721]

>>10052132
The colonel-assassin got his happy ending. That's the only thing that matters.

[Anonymous No.10052741]

>>10052381
Same reason y'all always memeing those babby-tier post-millenial fantasy doorstoppers. We read and enjoy them :3

[Anonymous No.10052770]

>>10052381

[Anonymous No.10052790]

>>10052770
based

/pol/ pissbabies BTFO

[Anonymous No.10052972]

>>10052381
>/pol/shits confirmed for being reddit tier

[Anonymous No.10053038]

>>10051958
I don't know

[Anonymous No.10053047]

>>10053038
Read BotNS.

[Anonymous No.10053165]

I've seen discussion of "cutting-edge" science fiction and what it means, quite a bit. Generally, there are two camps:

One argues that the absolute edge of science fiction is sci-fi that is rooted in the latest scientific knowledge and theory, and in likely further developments on current bleeding-edge technology.

The other argues that science fiction's "cutting edge" is fiction that explores the anxieties and fears of today, pushes the boundaries of how we think about fiction and about our lives, and generally tries to show the world in new ways.

Without choosing one over the other as the "right" answer, since I think both are legitimate things to look for in science fiction, I'm more interested in the fact that, while fantasy obviously has little to do with the first definition, it can, in theory, fit the latter. So, using this second definition of "cutting edge," what would you consider today's cutting edge fantasy, that explores the boundaries of what fantasy as a genre can do, deals with social, philosophical, and psychological matters in an interesting way, and generally is likely to blow the minds of its readers?

[Anonymous No.10053176]

>>10053165
Broken Earth series

[Anonymous No.10053189]

>>10053176
Thanks! Are there any fantasy magazines that push this kind of exploration, like how Clarkesworld does for sci-fi?

[Anonymous No.10053472]

What is a good place to start with the
Strugatski brothers?

I was thinking pic related but roadside picnic seem to be more popular.

[Anonymous No.10053486]

>>10053189
No, sadly. I might be overselling BE but its ths only recent fantasy that comes to mind. Fantasy is generally more lowbrow and escapism oriented than scifi from what I've read.

[Anonymous No.10053505]

>>10051958
Clark Ashton Smith does the best dying earth stuff, fucken fite me

[Anonymous No.10053519]

>>10051958
the new cover is a sight to behold

[Anonymous No.10053554]

>>10053519
wew laddie
What the fuck is this about?

[Anonymous No.10053569]

>>10053554
The levitating Moff Tarkin and his harem of thots.

[Anonymous No.10053580]

Is "Skulduggery Pleasant" any good? Trying to get into a new series and was recommended it.

[Anonymous No.10053631]

>>10053486
Sucks. I think both Earthsea and The Magicians do a good job of being "more" than that, but Grossman has tackled the same set of themes in all his work so far and Le Guin mostly does sci-fi.

Looking forward to The Bright Sword.

[Anonymous No.10053637]

>>10053472
Hard To Be A God was written a bit earlier, but I couldn't choose between them. These books are great to read if you're jaded by American sci-fi. They have an earthy, ironic, slapstick, debauched and philosophical quality that is very Russian.

[Anonymous No.10053794]

I'm about to cancel my audible account and Have one credit left.
Anyone got a good suggestion for a fantasy or scifi that's contained to one book?

[Anonymous No.10053846]

>female gets pregnant
>is killed within 5 pages

I'm not someone who demands feminism in their books but it's ridiculous just how many books I've read where this happens.

[Anonymous No.10053907]

Just finished Words of Radiance, I know the third book is out in November.

Any recs on what I should read? I'm enjoying fantasy so far, wouldn't mind it being over the top violent.

[Anonymous No.10053947]

>>10053846
lol now the protag got buttraped

[Anonymous No.10053960]

Is there some kind of weird attitude these days that only the absolute hardest sci-fi is actually sci-fi at all? I read a rant yesterday from someone claiming that women keep trying to pass off fantasy (read: anything that includes FTL or time travel) as sci-fi because they want to be the center of every genre, and while I haven't seen any other claims that extreme, it does seem like a lot of people are reacting to the increase in female sci-fi authors, black sci-fi authors, gay ones, etc., by trying to dramatically shrink the definition of science fiction.

I'm not saying there isn't stuff that gets called science fiction that really draws more heavily on fantasy, like the Star Wars movies for example, especially the original trilogy. But this seems like much, much more than that.

[Anonymous No.10053970]

>>10053947
>>10053846
what the hell are you reading?

[Anonymous No.10053978]

>>10053846
>>10053947
>>10053970
Do tell, it sounds like something that I should avoid

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10054018]

>>10052390
Aha! Thanks for the enlightenment.

>>10052405
>"The Blue World" (1966)
Gadget story but well written and check out this cover!
>"Trullion: Alastor 2262" (1973)
Excellent world-building and dialogue; hussade provides an excuse for a naked girl on the cover.
>"Showboat World" (1975)
Travelogue. In my opinion, a rare miss of his works done in this form.
>"The Worlds of Jack Vance" (1973)
Fairly random short story collection but includes "The Moon Moth" which is regarded as some of Vance's very best work, an opinion I agree with. I would recommend reading that story and then choose one of the novels.
>perhaps because it's such an early work that Vance's style hasn't fully developed yet?
Yes, I agree. The omnibus is a mishmash of works that don't really belong together but they sold well and therefore are now the de facto introduction to Vance.
Read the anthology only if you fell in love with the setting.

>>10053505
I've read that Cabell was generally considered the style Vance mimicked. I keep meaning to read some Wodehouse to see if that's where Vance got his dialogue.

>>10053519
I generally like the Spatterlight art. The paperback project is doing better work than the ebook guys; I found out recently that the ebooks aren't the digitized texts of the VIE which is just baffling (and irritating: what's missing?!).

>>10053554
Speculation on the influence of language on the behavior and capability of a society. It's an underdog story and quite good: one of my favorite Vance.

>>10053960
>Is there some kind of weird attitude these days that only the absolute hardest sci-fi is actually sci-fi at all?
To my knowledge, hard scifi fans have always been regarded as supercilious by those of us who don't require a physics textbook in our fiction. SJW aren't exposing any new divisions in the genre in that regard.

[Anonymous No.10054045]

What's your favorite fantasy music?

[Anonymous No.10054050]

>>10054018
>To my knowledge, hard scifi fans have always been regarded as supercilious by those of us who don't require a physics textbook in our fiction. SJW aren't exposing any new divisions in the genre in that regard.
I guess my question is if there are people who are moving in that direction and becoming more like the smug, pretentious hard scifi fans you're talking about, because they're bothered by either the actual increase in authors who aren't straight white guys, or their belief (right or wrong) that aforementioned straight white guys are getting shafted in the process.

[Anonymous No.10054056]

>>10052405
>I wasn't as impressed with the first book, perhaps because it's such an early work that Vance's style hasn't fully developed yet? Anyone else feel the same?
YES. It was a chore to go through, mostly because of the writing style.

[Anonymous No.10054058]

>>10053960
Nobody cares what those fucking grognards think. Hard sci-fi is by and large garbage anyway.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10054059]

>>10054050
Well, how would that be knowable? Sales numbers of hard scifi versus whathaveyou?

[Anonymous No.10054074]

>>10053970
Song of Edmon

I read a bunch of the new releases each month and this was one of the september ones I dl'd.

It's very similar to Red Rising's society structure and even has the same genetically modified protagonist.
The most interesting scifi stuff is very much in the background so far with there being 1 maybe 2 characters from other worlds and inconsistent ftl travel which could be interesting if the author leaves the planet.

[Anonymous No.10054081]

>>10053580
It's a kids book, but it's okay if you're into that.

[Anonymous No.10054085]

>>10053960
I've seen similar opinions thrown around a lot on /tg/ and /v/, but not so politicized. Here's the gist of the version without identity politics.

A lot of these people feel that true scifi is something with a few well-researched hard elements (the rest can be much softer) and demand that the author explore the consequences of those elements on the individual, society, and the human condition, etc. etc.

So it needs a certain level of speculation. We've made this distinction for years with the term "Space Opera" or "Science Fantasy." The complaints weren't about women or blacks, but that popular scifi no longer tries to speculate.

More specifically, these were complaints that games (and every medium too) no longer makes games like Alpha Centauri and instead will make Science Fantasy games like Beyond Earth for the lowest common denominator.

[Anonymous No.10054094]

>>10054085
*game industry

[Anonymous No.10054096]

>>10054018
Hell yeah, thanks anon. I'll read "Moon Moth" tonight and then start Trullion. I picked up a copy of the Five Gold Bands at my local used bookstore. Know anything about that one?

I've also been meaning to dive into Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique cycle.... time to start a pile

[Anonymous No.10054103]

>>10054085
>but that popular scifi no longer tries to speculate
This is one of the dumbest fucking things anyone could possibly complain about. Especially considering the vast majority of sci-fi speculation has never and will never be correct.

[Anonymous No.10054117]

>>10054081
Oh, well that's what I get for getting recommendations from idiots.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10054126]

>>10054096
>"The Five Gold Bands" (1953)
Space pirates. Vance is still trying to be a conventional scifi pulp author at this point. My guess is that you'll find it to be more like the parts of "The Dying Earth" omnibus that you didn't like. Unless you become a Vance diehard (oneofus, oneofus, ONEOFUS), you can safely avoid the pre-Sixties stuff.
>excepting "To Live Forever" (1956)

>pic unrelated

[Anonymous No.10054141]

>>10053519
>old scifi books so desperate to draw in young generation they use iron man's bleeding edge armor on a guy
>having him transform one leg and one arm to aid with reactor flight

[Anonymous No.10054157]

>>10051958
>What are you reading next?
The Two Towers. Nothing special I guess but it's my first time actually reading (well, listening to on audiobook) LotR.

[Anonymous No.10054210]

>>10054141
Looks nothing alike.
>old classics need a younger generation to sell
Look at this pleb

[Anonymous No.10054221]

>>10054103
Here we have it folks.

[Anonymous No.10054228]

Just finished The Time Machine and kind of digged it, though I can tell by now that Wells loves two things: his kind of old-fashioned framing devices to lend credibility to the story, I suppose; and social and class inequality. From what I've seen from reading The Crystal Egg (which seems to me a prequel for War of the Worlds, but I can't be too sure about that), War of the Worlds is probably bound to be just the same motifs repeated again. Is it bad that as a sff fan I haven't read War of the Worlds yet?

[Anonymous No.10054236]

>>10054103
But the books inspire people to try and make those things a reality.
They are trying to make a gravity drive from the enterprise right now iirc.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10054242]

>>10053960
>>10054050
Alright, let's speculate a bit and make the assumption that there is an increase in people wanting to limit scifi to a harder definition:
>1: Do fans of hard scifi correlate strongly with STEM?
>2. Is SJW pushing hard to populate STEM with racial and gender diversity?
If both are correct then it stands to reason that this increases economic pressure on the existing STEM population while not providing them the traditional outlet of merit-based excellence in the subject; instead, some fraction of the population would need to be change color or gender to hold the same place they have now. Given that STEM has heretofore been generally governed by reason, this is a state of affairs that is going to provoke complaint.
>pic abstractly related

>>10054157
>The Two Towers
I enjoyed this one the most of the trilogy. Tolkien's use of the forest settings as peaceful interludes are memorable.

[Shrek No.10054255]

>>10054242
SHUT UP DONKEY

[Anonymous No.10054271]

>>10053907
I'm at the last chapters of Way of Kings and getting a shitton of plot twists by the second. So anime, I like it.

I don't think there is a digital release but The Brothers War was enjoyable. Two brothers hate their guts and build machines trying to one up each other until it gets out of hand.

[Anonymous No.10054289]

>>10054271
>The Brothers War
Magic the Gathering huh, I'll look into it thanks!

[Anonymous No.10054438]

Just got my penguin classics Clark Ashton Smith collection. What am I in for lads? Where should I start?

[Anonymous No.10054509]

>>10054438
Read The Tale Of Satampra Zeiros and report back - he's like a more worldly, morbid and exotic HP Lovecraft. Or for something shorter, The Last Incantation. There's no best order. One thing to note is that different settings have different tone/style, so the Averoigne stories are a pastiche of medieval tropes, Hyperborea stories tend to be more wry and ornate (and will make you reach for a dictionary a lot more than the other stories), Zothique morbid. Then there is the Lovecraftian/contemporary stories and science fiction; the Vaults Of Yoh-Vombis is my favourite of these.

[Anonymous No.10054515]

>>10054018
The ebooks published by Spatterlight are the VIE texts

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10054547]

>>10054515
Sorry, you're correct, I phrased my complaint poorly:
>https://jackvance.com/ebooks/information/
>Vance Digital Edition e-books contain the latest digital versions of the Vance Integral Edition texts, formatted to the very highest standards.
>These e-books are not facsimiles of VIE volumes. A specific e-book version of the VIE is regarded as a potential future project for the team.

The ambiguity is what is inflaming my digestion. What would a 'facsimile of the VIE' contain that a digitized VIE text doesn't?

[Anonymous No.10054550]

>>10054438
I love CAS. Vaults of Yoh Vombis, City of Singing Flame, and the Dark Eidolon are some of his most well-known aND are, I think, some of his best. But I love everything he does.

>t. have collection of all his stories

[Anonymous No.10054558]

>>10054547
>tripfag mule was let out of prison and rampages on /lit/ once again

[Anonymous No.10054588]

Anyone remember a fantasy novel where the characters (who are some sort of criminal) have to stage some sort of play for some reason?

All I can think of is Botns which it definitely isn't

[Anonymous No.10054590]

I just read The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Its pretty good, very easy read but also very entertaining and a great story overall. I thought half way through that I had figured out the massive plot twist but there wasn't any plot twist. I had thought that the Taurans were just future Humans.

[Anonymous No.10054604]

>>10054590
Read the sequel, the reveal is way more insane than that

[Anonymous No.10054609]

Try to talk me out of or into reading Moorcock's Elric and Corum stuff.

[Anonymous No.10054614]

>>10054604
Oh shit what's the sequel called

[Anonymous No.10054618]

>>10054614
>>10054604
Are the mysterious Collapsars explained

[Anonymous No.10054623]

>>10054609
Someone's likely to pop up in the next ten minutes and tell you to read the Elric comic instead. Ignore that person.

Read Elric in in-universe chronological order, and listen to 80s metal in the background while you do it.

[Anonymous No.10054679]

>>10054614
Forever Free is the direct sequel, Forever Peace however is actually set in an entirely different fictional universe

[Shrek No.10054707]

>>10054679
>Forever Peace

>This novel is for two editors: John W. Campbell, who rejected a story because he thought it was absurd to write about American women who fight and die in combat, and Ben Bova, who didn't.
kek

[Anonymous No.10054733]

>>10054707
>>10054707
bless bova for helping haldeman but GOD DAMN bova's books are borin

[Anonymous No.10054742]

>>10053846
name 10 books that do this

[Anonymous No.10054819]

Does words of radiance ever let up on the shallan? I find her immensely boring

[Anonymous No.10054848]

>>10054819
She's the protagonist anon

[Anonymous No.10054869]

>>10054848
Kaladin is the protagonist. Either way, she's boring and jeeds less screen time

[Anonymous No.10054878]

>>10054869
Nah each book is designed to be focused primarily on one pov character over the others

book 1 was kaladin book 2 is shallan

[Anonymous No.10054882]

>>10054869
I love her, she reminds me of my ex

[Anonymous No.10054892]

>>10054547
There's a few ebooks put out by Subterranean that probably aren't the VIE, hence the difference. The facsimile VIE they mention would probably mean containing the illustrations as well.

[Anonymous No.10054900]

>>10054878
I wonder if Sanderson will keep this structure for the rest of the series. It'd be weird in the last books.

[Anonymous No.10054904]

>>10054900
Will probably bounce back and forth between 3-4 characters.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10054905]

>>10054892
Have you seen the VIE? I haven't seen the illustrations. If they're akin to the ebook art (>>10054242 pic related) then I can safely forget obsessing about the differences.

>tfw a TNF ad just now talking about scanning the dark web

[Anonymous No.10054915]

>>10054904
Pretty sure he confirmed Eshonai for 4, and Szeth for 3 or 5.

[Anonymous No.10054924]

>>10054915
Oathbringer will be Dalinar.

How are the mistborn series? Better than stormlight?

[Anonymous No.10054927]

What is the appeal of Sanderson and Rothfuss? I'm a GRRM/Mieville fag.

[Anonymous No.10054942]

>>10054927
Sanderson: Shounen battle anime
Rothfuss: NTR anime

[Anonymous No.10054952]

>>10054924
I know about Dalinar. It's just that when he said that about Szeth, Dalinar wasn't confirmed. He may have changed his mind on it by now.

[Anonymous No.10054986]

>>10054900
Yes.
Books 3, 4, and 5 are Dalinar, Szeth, and Eshonai (not sure about the order of 4 and 5).
Books 6-10 will be (in no particular order) Jasnah, Lift, Renarin, Shalash, and Taln.

[Anonymous No.10054990]

>>10054927
Not sure why you're equating the two of them, they're not at all similar. Sanderson publishes a couple books every year; Rothfuss has published 2 books in the last 10 years. Sanderson writes several different series at the same time and connects them in a giant constructed universe; Rothfuss cannot even finish his debut trilogy, which will likely not be completed in 3 books because he squandered so much time in the second book not advancing the plot. Sanderson is famously milquetoast, avoiding gruesome violence or explicit sexual content, he even has minimal swearing; Rothfuss lavishes whole chapters on Kvothe's sexual exploits. Sanderson prose is commonly called "workmanlike" due to how plain and serviceable it is; Rothfuss fancies himself a bard and waxes poetic wherever possible, to mixed effect.

[Anonymous No.10054995]

>>10053794
Library at mount char
I gave it a 4.8/5, but that's just me.

[Anonymous No.10054999]

>>10054995
This was a decent read but 4.8/5? Eeeehhhh?

[Anonymous No.10055024]

>>10051958
Any well written novels/series that deal with hacking in the present day +/- 20 years that tackle big moral questions and have otherwise interesting and engaging content?

[Anonymous No.10055026]

>>10054990

I'm equating them because they're both extremely popular. I get why GRRM is popular, but I don't know why these two are more popular than, say, Tad Williams, Guy Gavriel Kay, or China Mieville.

You've answered why people like Rothfuss but I can't tell from your post why people like Sanderson.

[Anonymous No.10055032]

>>10054623
How's the Elric Of Melnibone novel for a starting point? I read the first couple of Hawkmoon books last year and thought they were bang average and forgettable, but I'm guessing Elric is a more interesting protagonist.

[Anonymous No.10055034]

>>10054018
Donkey chan. I haven't seen you in months.
Did you give up your dinosaur ways and actually started reading some post 1990 sff?

[Anonymous No.10055051]

>>10055032
>but I'm guessing Elric is a more interesting protagonist.
>The book's namesake, the brooding albino emperor of the dying nation of Melniboné, is a sort of Superman for Goths, truly an archetype of the genre.

Make of that what you will.

[Anonymous No.10055062]

>>10054588
Botns
Locke Lamora (red seas under red skies /w/e)

[Anonymous No.10055068]

>cheat on your perfect qt3.14 nordic princess waifu with some random prostitute whore
>get exiled from your tribe
>whore gf gets eaten alive by rats
>go back to tribe
>the tribe got completely wiped out by monsters

What was meant by this?

[Anonymous No.10055102]

>>10055026
This is why ppl like Sanderson.

[Anonymous No.10055199]

>>10055068
It means you have a LOT of adventure in front of you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsBKM5puZDM

[Anonymous No.10055201]

What's the first example of humanity "Ascending to a higher plane"/"becoming beaings of pure energy" in fiction?

[Anonymous No.10055225]

Anyone read Steven Erikson? Currently reading Deadhouse Gates... Hope it stays consistent through all 10 books.

[Anonymous No.10055243]

>>10055201
Hercules and Elijah.

[Anonymous No.10055251]

>>10055243
I mean within the context of modern science fiction.

[Anonymous No.10055260]

>Read ((((literary)))) sci-fi
>It's just middle-aged writers coping with their sexual problems, IN SPACE!

[Anonymous No.10055272]

I need a sci-fi novel or short series (2,000 pages total at most) that will bring me the extremes of emotion. I want to cry, laugh, be filled with joy, be unsettled/frightened, and ultimately have a satisfying (ideally bittersweet, but I'm not picky as long as it's satisfying) ending.

Make me feel, /sffg/.

[Anonymous No.10055273]

Man, yesterday I was so hyped to re-write a myth that I spent hours on just writing, but now that I have to do the other half I'm not as interested anymore

[Anonymous No.10055277]

>>10055251
Star Maker by Stapledon

[Anonymous No.10055278]

>>10055260
Pulp sci-fi only, anon.

[Anonymous No.10055280]

>>10055272
have you read The Paper Menagerie? It's fucking heartrending and normally I don't feel anything for tearjerkers

[Anonymous No.10055286]

>>10055280
I haven't, but I will now. Thank you.

[Anonymous No.10055287]

>>10055225
>Currently reading Deadhouse Gates... Hope it stays consistent through all 10 books.
Should I tell him?

[Anonymous No.10055290]

>>10055277
>Star Maker by Stapledon
Group minds aren't energy beings

[Anonymous No.10055295]

>>10055287
wat

[Anonymous No.10055297]

>>10055278
>not exclusively reading sword & sorcery and experimental sci-fi

[Anonymous No.10055302]

>>10055286
just a heads up, I mean the short story, not the collection

[Anonymous No.10055310]

>>10055302
Okay, I'll just read the short story. Though I was hoping for a novel or series that'd take me on a rollercoaster of emotion. Something fucking intense, you know?

I suffer from both anxiety and depression (and before anybody asks, I'm not self-diagnosing), and while I've worked my way through a lot of the cognitive elements, I sometimes get in these emotional funks and feeling a bunch of different shit is almost like a soft reboot on the emotion centers in my brain or something. Helps a lot.

[Anonymous No.10055389]

y'all know about this? is it any good

[Anonymous No.10055491]

>>10055026
It's rare I see anyone else bring up Tad Williams, I've tried to start discussions about his books but usually only get one response, if any. Sanderson is that combination of prolific and very easy to read that makes him a sensation, like Robert Jordan was back in the 90s. Rothfuss though is basically all hype with very little substance.

[Anonymous No.10055492]

Read Brave New World in highschool, and just marathoned through Dune

Trying to learn German, so any suggestions for German scifi?

[Anonymous No.10055505]

Why did Harry Potter get so popular compared to other YA? It's not bad by any stretch, but it's far from the best YA out there. Earthsea is better off the top of my head if we're sticking to fantasy. His Dark Materials, too, though I get that there's a cap on how popular that one could get because of the religion-related themes.

I mean, there's way worse YA in existence, sure, but what caused that specific series to explode into mainstream popularity, to the point that I was hearing about it everywhere even before the first movie came out?

[Anonymous No.10055512]

>>10055225
Yes lots of people here read him. Some of the books are better than others, and people have conflicting opinions about them, very strongly conflicting. For example, some people absolutely hate Midnight Tides (book 5), while it's one of my favorite titles in the series. One thing I will say about Malazan Book of the Fallen is that you have to be very comfortable with not having all the information and also with jumping to new perspectives, because the series pretty much never stops introducing people, places, and concepts.

[Anonymous No.10055513]

>>10055505
CIA conspiracy. Or from the less enlightened point of view: massive directed marketing. There was more money put into selling Harry Potter than any TEN other books, before it even came out!

[Anonymous No.10055525]

>>10055505
Because it's not YA you dumb fuck. It's children's fiction. To be a succesful children's book, you have to not bore children to fucking death.

[Anonymous No.10055526]

>>10055505
Harry Potter pushes all the right buttons for its target audience. There's tons of analysis out there for why HP blew up so huge if you care to read it. Anything I posted here would just be a rehash of something I remembered reading somewhere anyway.

[Anonymous No.10055535]

>>10055513
Than any ten? Holy shit. Source?
>>10055525
Okay, why'd it become more popular than any other children's books? And where's the line? Book 7 has characters getting tortured and murdered left and right.
>>10055526
Any suggestions for where to search so I know I'm getting an informed view and not just wild speculation?

[Anonymous No.10055537]

>just got my first edition of Gardens of the Moon in the mail today
I'm so mad they stopped printing this cover, it's so much better than the newer ones.

[Anonymous No.10055569]

>>10055535
Because it starts as a children's book
And it ages with it's audience

I feel like I'm taking the bait

[Anonymous No.10055587]

>>10055569
That's what I hated about it. The series ended for me after Goblet of Fire. Too angsty to read after that.

[Anonymous No.10055597]

>>10055535
>Any suggestions for where to search so I know I'm getting an informed view and not just wild speculation?
Depends on who you consider informed. I tend to stick to periodicals like Publishers Weekly who have close enough ties to the publishing world to generally know what they are talking about and have contacts in the industry, while still being removed enough that they can be more objective about things. You would think other authors would be reliable but they tend to be either slather on the praise or be really snippy.

[Anonymous No.10055607]

question /sffg/, I know Wolfe got away with making Artemis the daughter of Demeter, but am I walking into a bear trap by doing it myself knowing I'm writing for an audience who didn't start with the greeks?

[Anonymous No.10055686]

>>10055512
Thanks I appreciate an honest answer. I can handle 1 book in a 10 book series being weak (I slugged through all of wheel of time).

[Anonymous No.10055816]

>>10051986
>>10052002
>>10052007
>>10052029
>>10052390

I literally just assumed it was a retarded variant spelling of "Ford" desu

[Anonymous No.10055823]

I need some of that sweet "cutting edge" sci-fi you guys were talking about earlier in the thread.

[Anonymous No.10055864]

>>10055686

[Anonymous No.10055956]

Would any of you be willing to read a fantasy novel that features a scene of not-vikings crossed with not-indians raiding a not-hobbits peaceful village with packs of domesticated wolves and not only killing the not-hobbits, but eating them as well? And the not-vikings crossed with not-indians would actually be considered the "good" guys because they're the vanguard of an army from the last human kingdom on the planet that's reclaiming mankind's ancestral lands from the non-human races that stole it through warfare and genocide centuries ago and pushed mankind into the far north to survive?

[Anonymous No.10055975]

Which do you feel is more important to the quality of a story, originality or execution?

[Anonymous No.10055976]

>>10055956
I don't know where that premise is going, but so long as the edgier bits feel sufficiently justified and aren't just there as extra shock value.

[Anonymous No.10056014]

>>10055976
They're not. In fact I hate shock value fantasy and sci-fi. The premise is not-Alexander The Great has to keep this loose collection of human tribes under one ruler in order to maintain the survival of mankind as a species, but some of these tribes are very brutal like the not-vikings crossed with not-indians and part of not-Alexander's struggles is to deal with humans like that he's trying to rule. The not-vikings/indians are especially grim, but they're an essential part of his kingdom and he needs them.

[Anonymous No.10056024]

>tfw nobody to talk about Radix tetrad with

[Anonymous No.10056027]

>Dude, you can leave hell if you say you're sorry

What a letdown of a novel.

[Anonymous No.10056029]

>>10055975
The latter by far. Have you ever read a bunch of shitty fanfics when you were younger, or trash books even now, and thought you could do certain recurring bits better? Ever come across the same themes or devices and balk at how horribly they're often handled? I'm thinking cliches aren't cliches because they're overused; it's when careless and frivolous use of them becomes the majority.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10056089]

>>10055956
Hmm. I'm unsympathetic with eating sentient andromorphs. I believe I'd have a problem seeing them as the good guys; it's too close to cannibalism and clearly past the line of desecrating corpses.
>I (unsarcastically) wonder if a majority Muslim reader would feel the same.

[Anonymous No.10056165]

>>10055537

[Anonymous No.10056183]

>>10056027
Try this.

[Anonymous No.10056214]

>>10055491
>The Paper Menagerie
I really liked the Otherworld scifi (?) series by Williams, but his Shadowmarch fantasy series dragged like nothing else I have ever read in my whole life. It was sooo fucking long and it could have been shortened by at leat 1/3rd without any loss. Those myriads of fucking gods, with their stories retold in several slightly different myths, all of them with different names in each of them, fuck

[Anonymous No.10056216]

>>10056214
disregard the random greentext quote, no idea why that is in my post

[Anonymous No.10056261]

Just finished this. It was boring as fuck and had that ambiguity and laziness common among all books that aim to be launching pads for pseuds.

I actually read it many years ago and was bored back then as well. Well done, PKD, you managed to write a book that allows the pseuds to make up their own shitty unfalsifiable extrapolations. Even better you flavoured it with "like le spirit of let capitalism" with the Ubik adverts at the start of chapters.

[Anonymous No.10056323]

>>10056261
>boring as a fuck
>for pseuds
Nah, if anything Ubik and Three Stigmata are basically anime (and in my opinion both would make a great anime adaptation). The books are ultra concentrated plot with great characters, some mindblowing plot twists and has plenty of material to chew over. And it's all written in a workmanslike prose, as opposed to something like Wolfe.

I have to restrain myself from reading more PKD.

Well anyway, everyone has different tastes.

[Anonymous No.10056357]

>>10051958
>>10051958
Currently reading this
Im in chapter 5 and still waiting for the fun part

[Anonymous No.10056461]

>>10055823
watts & cixin

[Anonymous No.10056473]

>>10056357
I was wondering if I should start on that one or just keep watching the tv-serie...

[Anonymous No.10056629]

>>10056323
> And it's all written in a workmanslike prose
Nah, it's worse than workmanlike.

[Anonymous No.10056676]

>>10056629
The poor fucker wrote when doped up on amphetamines (which I remember in an interview somewhere was the only way that he could write so many books in such a short amount of time and plus he was going through some dire financial straits).

Poor guy. I can't believe he basically died at 50, the fact that he could have published more books hurts, plus the fact that he didn't get to see how famous he was and those sweet hollywood dollars before he died... fuck.

[Anonymous No.10056697]

>>10056261
I'm fairly sure you're the irritating britbong frogposter in outer /lit who has been complaining about reading Ubik for the last week; more than that, you've also been posting self-pitying drivel about your lack of success with 'staceys', lack of motivation, wallowing walks through hyde park (always with the coffee, which you inexplicably flagellate yourself for consuming) and binge eating, for at least a couple of years; in other words you're incapable of finding joy in anything except complaining and shitting all over the board (sometimes twice a day, for at least a couple of years now) with your sub-r9k doggerel. It's a wonder you're not banned.

[Anonymous No.10056703]

>>10056697
This is unironically the retard.
>>/lit/thread/S10056218
>>/lit/thread/S10048145
>>/lit/thread/S10031136

[Anonymous No.10056769]

Anybody here read pic related? It's written by a black woman and about a black teenage girl, so I know that'll put a lot of people around here off of it, but it's a decent little novella (not mind-blowing, but good) of 98 pages.

I enjoyed it enough that I'm going to read the sequel, and probably check out Lagoon, a novel by the same author.

[Anonymous No.10056771]

>>10052405
The Lyonesse trilogy is my favorite of the fantasy line. But surprisingly I have found the science fiction side of Vance to be less enjoyable, or at least what I have of it. To Live Forever was a dull audiobook,and the Demon Princes books I unearthed in my library are rough going...I see audible has more sci fi by him,but I hesitate to try them out...

[Anonymous No.10056789]

>>10056769
No I haven't, I have read a lot of NKJ, though. The fact that it's now possible to download and instantly read almost anything from an author that you are interested is both a boon and curse.

[Anonymous No.10056794]

>>10056789
Yeah. I want to support writers, but I'm always torn about whether to buy a book that I liked and know I'll probably read again... someday, or just keep the pirated copy and buy the next book by the same author, even though I may or may not like it.

Anyway, if you like sci-fi, Binti is a fun story. I particularly like the ship itself, and the friendship she develops near the end of the story. Can't say more without spoiling.

[Anonymous No.10056810]

>>10056794
I download all my books. If I enjoy the book, I leave a positive review (if I liked it) on goodreads, provided that they don't already have 500+ reviews. And if I really, really enjoy the book I'll try and discuss it and I'll recommend it to people.

Lots of people already get free ARCs of books for nothing more than the promise of a review and I generally write better reviews than them, especially those ungrateful people who get a book (that I want to read) weeks earlier and say that it's bad (even though the book itself is fine or great when I read it).

Also, libraries kinda exist. I have a tonne of cards for the elibraries like overdrive which you can borrow books from and I used to visit libraries and still do visit them to borrow books.

[Anonymous No.10056812]

>>10056794
And yeah it's really good to hear about books you enjoy, anon! There's a lot of books out there and it's good to hear about books which haven't already been mentioned to death already.

[Anonymous No.10056825]

>>10056810
>>10056812
Thanks for your thoughts. I actually just started a blog where I intend to review the things I read (and probably the things I watch), as well as sharing my own short fiction once I get to the point where I want to do so.

Also, shit, the more I think about this novella, the more impressed I am by it. I thought it was just pretty good, but the ways the different elements of the story work together and so much was packed into such a short space is really impressing me.

[Anonymous No.10056827]

finished the trilogy, really enjoeyd it
gonna start blindsight next i think

[Anonymous No.10056830]

>>10055956
>Native American leads a war against caucasians
>whose ancestors stole their land through warfare, genocide, and biological weapons (small pox) years ago
>the natives scalps the caucasians so that their warring spirit doesn't reincarnate back into nature
>the natives are actually the good guys
>they are the last peoples that are still one with the earth and nature spirits

[Anonymous No.10056862]

>>10056825
>actually just started a blog

[Anonymous No.10056988]

How many memes did you make for sffg?
I see a wonderful anon made a new spurdo to add to our ranks.
i personally made over 40 memes

[Anonymous No.10057024]

>>10056825
Need them blogs for them sweet ARCs

[Anonymous No.10057039]

>>10056214
I actually really liked Shadowmarch cause I'm super into mythology, and I found the world building very compelling. But he does take a while to ramp u his stories I've found. That was true in Otherland as well. It feels like he spends half his books just moving characters into position so stuff can start happening, I mean how much of Otherland was characters wandering aimlessly through a huge simulated world without anything of real consequence happening? Quite a lot. I still liked Otherland, the characters really grew on me, but it seems to be a trait of Williams' books that he takes a while to get to the point.

Though his latest series seems to be much better in that regard. Either that or I'm just getting very patient in my middle age.

[Anonymous No.10057046]

>>10056988
Only 2 that I see reposted.

[Anonymous No.10057056]

>>10055686
If you got through Wheel of Time I don't think Malazan will disappoint you. For me, the weak book in MBotF was 8, and even that had a really strong ending, it was just kind of a slog at times. If you're only on book 2 I will say you still haven't met some of the best characters the series has to offer. I forget though, is Iskaral Pust introduced in Deadhouse Gates? Cause I love that crazy old man.

[Anonymous No.10057062]

>>10057056
Best character I've seen so far has easily been Hairlock

[Anonymous No.10057067]

>>10056165
Ugh, no. This one, man. This one. This cover is amazing. Fuck the other ones.

[Anonymous No.10057177]

>>10054882
Tell your ex that her dialogue isn't actually witty

[Anonymous No.10057238]

Anyone read Forging Divinity?
Any good?

[Anonymous No.10057245]

>>10054915
>szeth for 3 or 5
oh no I like szeth even less than shallan

[Anonymous No.10057334]

>>10053569
kek

[Anonymous No.10057409]

So does everyone but the Shin have almond eyes? Is that why the Shin's eyes look bigger to everyone else?

[Anonymous No.10057412]

>>10056862
I didn't even mention the name.

[Anonymous No.10057417]

Is divinity: original sin 2 good?

[Anonymous No.10057426]

What's a nice light hearted novel with a sweet protagonist?

[Anonymous No.10057465]

>>10057039
>very patient in my middle age.

[Anonymous No.10057543]

>>10051958
Looking at current trends, is there any good reason why a sci-fi setting wouldn't be a post scarcity society with complete automation and unemployment? It seems that factor is more often than not completely ignored, especially in the case of many interstellar societies.

[Anonymous No.10057587]

>>10056357
There's no fun part

[Anonymous No.10057589]

>>10057543
Post scarcity is a meme though. Certain things may no longer be scarce, but there will always be something. In The Diamond Age, there were replicators in every household, but blueprints for non-basics cost money. Also, there was a big market for handmade items desired by the Neo-Victorians that supported Luddite enclaves.

[Anonymous No.10057590]

Reading Tanith Lee right now, Dark Castle, White Horse. It's very comfy desu.
Also slowly reading Vellum by Hal Duncan.

[Anonymous No.10057594]

>>10052381
You take that back, Languages of Pao is fantastic.

[Anonymous No.10057599]

>>10054141
That's pretty much how he's described in the book. He's a modified his body with absurdly high-tech augmentations.

[Anonymous No.10057628]

>>10055272
Hyperion Cantos (Hyperion + Fall of Hyperion) by Dan Simmons

[Anonymous No.10057629]

>>10055512
>some people absolutely hate Midnight Tides
What! That one was fantastic!

[Anonymous No.10057638]

>>10057056
>For me, the weak book in MBotF was 8
Yeah, the first parts of Toll the Hounds was a bit slow. But god damn that ending.

[Anonymous No.10057641]

>>10057056
>I forget though, is Iskaral Pust introduced in Deadhouse Gates?
Yes, in the sections with Icarium and Mappo.

[Anonymous No.10057648]

>>10056771
>and the Demon Princes books I unearthed in my library are rough going
Really? I absolutely loved the Demon Princes. Especially The Face.

[Anonymous No.10057658]

Is it true that The Darkness That Comes Before is the best in the series?

[Anonymous No.10057760]

What is some fantasy that is not so human/society based? I feel like too much fantasy doesn't really delve into more imaginative and fantastic worlds like video games do, and are really more about medieval warfare with some magic shit.

[Anonymous No.10057827]

>>10057760
>What is some fantasy that is not so human/society based?
What do you mean by that? Clarify this statement and I can make some recommendations.

[Anonymous No.10057840]

>>10057827
I mean that the stories revolve around big groups of people, there's big civilizations and not many monsters or unexplored lands. I'd love to read a book that focused on the world's beasts, gods and demons, with only few humans being relevant.

[Anonymous No.10057856]

>playing Original Sin 2
>Well of Ascension
:-l

[Anonymous No.10057872]

>>10057840
The Dying Earth, Jack Vance.

[Anonymous No.10057891]

My girlfriend wants to read "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo, is this a good book or a shit and I should tell her to go fuck herself because It tires me when she rambles about bad books

[Anonymous No.10057894]

>>10057760
Keys to the Kingdom might be worth a shot - takes place in the gigantic seven -part house of god, full of autistic angel analogues trying to keep things running, with just a couple of real humans, most of whom are children locked in age stasis forever. Lots of weird creatures and landscapes.

[Anonymous No.10057938]

>>10057543
One novel that looks at post-automation society is Walter Tevis' Mockingbird, which furthers Huxley's Brave New World vision - religion is no longer practiced, the population declines after becoming sterile, people forget to read, skills and knowledge are lost because robots do everything, even govern, and people become completely unable to deal with difficulty and critical thinking due to a lifestyle of comfort, so that existential crises are dealt with by public self-immolation and people are desperately unhappy without knowing why. It poses the automation question in the best way I've encountered yet in science fiction; the problems when machines no longer make our lives happier and enslave us by utopian promises. If there is a better novel on automation and hedonism I'd like to read it.

[Anonymous No.10057962]

>>10056769
Haven't read this yet, but I heard her speak at Readercon this July. Very interesting. Her works are on my to-read list

[Anonymous No.10057968]

Can someone explain to me why Shadow of the Torturer is considered complex? Can a newcomer dive right into it or is there something I should read first?

[Anonymous No.10057998]

>>10057968
He uses a lot of ancient words/neologisms with ancient roots without explaining what they mean - like "Merychips" to mean a Merychippus. There's also a lot of exposition that you'd expect but isn't there, or exposition that is there but its meaning is opaque. Transitions between events are often mysterious. Character motivations and actions are often laid out hazily and misleadingly. Basically every aspect of it is designed to confuse. The only prior reading you'll need is the book itself, meaning the pieces comes together on a reread.

[Anonymous No.10058006]

>>10057998
Alright ty.

[Anonymous No.10058008]

>Audiobookbay is down
great...

[Anonymous No.10058032]

>>10057891
just stick your dick in her mouth lmao

[Anonymous No.10058036]

>>10058032
Alternatively, convince her you're more willing to listen to her shitty opinions if she does so while giving you a handjob.

[Anonymous No.10058041]

>>10057891
hmm lets look at the goodreads page:
>female author
>le quirky description
>mostly reviews by females
>gifs in the reviews
yeah it is absolute fucking trash

[Shrek No.10058051]

>>10057891
>girlfriend asks permisison to read books
you found yourself a tradwife, cool

[Anonymous No.10058055]

>>10058041
Fucking shit, another book I have to hear her talking about for a while.
>>10058032
>>10058036
Will do

[Anonymous No.10058061]

>>10058055
why dont you recommend her good books?????

[Anonymous No.10058080]

>>10058061
Why, when he can make her feel bad for having trash taste in literature and leverage that into sex?

[Anonymous No.10058103]

>>10057589
>>10057938
I will definitely have to look into Mockingbird. Looks like it would hit pretty close to home.

I am also interested in ways authors have created settings which have avoided total automation or even scaled it back from its current level. Have there been any books which satisfactorily explain a lack of automation in the future without defaulting to a Butlerian Jihad scenario or other enforcement by societal norms?

[Anonymous No.10058106]

>>10058061
>>10058080
I did, she didn't enjoy them. They didn't have "character development" or "she couldn't see into the minds" of the characters

[Anonymous No.10058110]

>>10058106
What did you recommend her?

[Anonymous No.10058140]

>>10058110
I barely read, so I just came here for your opinion, but Dune (which she said the things I said in my previous post), and The Black Company which was too grim for her

[Anonymous No.10058173]

>>10058140
Why the fuck would you start her off with Dune? Have her read some Sanderson or WoT and then ease her into the good stuff.

From the description of Six of Crows, it's literally Mistborn except YA, so it's bound to be worse. So have her read Mistborn instead.

[Anonymous No.10058180]

>>10058173
And also tell her that YA is a malignant tumor and that her favorite authors are trendhopping hacks.

[Anonymous No.10058272]

>>10058103
In my reading it's usually by top down legislation, or lack of resources/mineral/material wealth:

e.g. In Jack Vance's Emphyrio, for example, an other world society is restricted to non-automated tools so that they can produce speciality art items that are sold on by their overseers for large profits - a whole world as a sweatshop.

Robert Silverberg's Majipoor is another secondary world, far into the future, that combines a feudal with some future tech - men in doublets in floating vehicles. The lack of automation is explained by a lack of fossil fuels as well as metals. IIRC Ursula Le Guin does something similar where a world is too cold for wheat and starchy crops, with no beasts of burden - so no automation or high tech there either with only a few exceptional imports.

I would guess other authors would use a religious angle - it would not be a stretch to imagine a superstitious race viewing cyborgs as abominations. Historically there are also the luddites.

[Anonymous No.10058282]

>>10058173
She already sucks Sanderson's cock. WoT she finds too slow and boring

[Anonymous No.10058320]

>>10052304
at least books have original thoughts

[Anonymous No.10058467]

>>10056830

That's a great summary of a book I wouldn't read

[Anonymous No.10058515]

>>10058272
>or lack of resources/mineral/material wealth:
>The lack of automation is explained by a lack of fossil fuels as well as metals.

I have actually toyed with this kind of idea when I was considering writing sci-fi. I thought of the possibility that our own automation was only a bubble enabled by diminishing resources like petrol products and that it would pop, leaving us with jack shit.

I also considered the idea that automation was limited by a finite amount of materials and that it would level off once we reached our "cap". It would create a static global "store" of automation enabling materials with countries jockeying for existing automation. Like say, the globe has the total potential to be 30% automated but it would be unequally distributed among countries with one being 100% and another being 3% with no potential to automate further.

Though in the end I decided to not continue because I realized I did not know enough about science or economics to write proper sci-fi and I figured that there were probably major holes in those theories.

[Shrek No.10058554]

>>10058515
>Though in the end I decided to not continue because I realized I did not know enough about science or economics to write proper sci-fi
you're right, skip scifi and go straight into political punditry

[Anonymous No.10058572]

>>10054679
Damn talk about a sequel that totally ruins everything. Forever Free was awful, I wish I never read it.

[Anonymous No.10058605]

>>10058515
>I realized I did not know enough about science or economics to write proper sci-fi and I figured that there were probably major holes in those theories.

So do some research nigga you have good ideas flesh them out

[Anonymous No.10058610]

>>10058515
It's the legacy of Asimov and the rest of the Campbellian gang, and an overly pedantic readership, that authors feel obligated to go into the nuts and bolts of a setting. We're dealing with characters, drama, and conflict - for example, in a world where metals are scarce, the locations of existing metals would be the generation of conflict and plot - the seeds of warfare, coups, intrigues, decadence, inequality, hubris. This is surely more interesting than textbook-like passages to satisfy STEM autists. Hard SF is often too laden with this.

[Anonymous No.10058612]

Hello, /sffg/, I come to you with great hope.

I have been very interested in the fantasy genre but it has been difficult to find the sort of things I like.

I'd appreciate recommendations on any of these:

1) A world with detailed history and lineages/genealogies with a heavy focus on culture, clans and the peoples inhabiting the world.
>Example: Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, ASoIaF to some extent

2) A world with detailed descriptions of the fauna, gods, monsters inhabiting it - a fantasy ecology that is delved into in some detail, I guess.
>Example: Something like Jeff Vandemeer's Annihilation, Witcher books, Hellboy

3) Something that focuses on survival and/or nomadic lifestyles. Based perhaps in a wasteland, frozen land or a desert
>Example: Roadside Picnic, Dune, Metro 2033

[Anonymous No.10058619]

Does anyone know of any good romantic fantasy? I'm getting tired of reading dinosaurs. I've been recommended Mercedes Lackey, but I don't know if it's any good.

>inb4 the meme that comes before

[Anonymous No.10058623]

>>10057894
Sounds interesting. Who's the author?

[Anonymous No.10058627]

>>10056771
Lyonesse Trilogy is Vance's best work, hands down.

"Nothing is more conspicuous than a farting princess"

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10058664]

>>10056771
You're right, the fantasy line has far better audiobooks. Morey is exquisite as Cugel and Collins only slightly less for Lyonesse.

Looking over the scifi line, I would say Simon Vance (no relation) is the best here in "Araminta Station" but the sequel is performed by Courtenay, who I didn't care for. The last book in the trilogy, "Throy", is voiced by yet another reader who I don't recall an opinion of.
The Tschai series has the advantage of having the same reader for all of the books but if you don't like the Demon Princes then my guess is you won't like Tschai as the protagonist is very similar. I prefer it to the Demon Princes but that wouldn't hold water with someone on the fence about liking Vance because I'm obviously an incorrigible Vance shill. Still, it's a nice long audiobook series to get into.

[Anonymous No.10058708]

>>10057409
Protect against windblown dust maybe

[Anonymous No.10058712]

>>10058619
Jemisin Inheritance trilogy is probably the best rec from what little I've read

[Anonymous No.10058741]

What is the Metroid of sf literature. Lone prortagonist on a hostile planet killing everything they can.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10058752]

>>10058627
"A farting horse will never tire.
A farting man's the man to hire."

t. Navarth, Demon Princes

[Anonymous No.10058754]

>>10053846
It's a really cheap way to get an emotional reaction. Lazy authors use it.

[Anonymous No.10058765]

Mr Smith describes a magician's abode vividly in The Last Incantation. For me his descriptive detail is one thing that sets him about from Lovecraft.

--

Now Malygris was old, and all the baleful might of his enchantments, all the dreadful or curious demons under his control, all the fear that he had wrought in the hearts of kings and prelates, were no longer enough to assuage the black ennui of his days. In his chair that was fashioned from the ivory of mastodons, inset with terrible cryptic runes of red tourmalines and azure crystals, he stared moodily through the one lozenge-shaped window of fulvous glass. His white eyebrows were contracted to a single line on the umber parchment of his face, and beneath them his eyes were cold and green as the ice of ancient floes; his beard, half white, half of a black with glaucous gleams, fell nearly to his knees and hid many of the writhing serpentine characters inscribed in woven silver athwart the bosom of his violet robe. About him were scattered all the appurtenances of his art; the skulls of men and monsters; phials filled with black or amber liquids, whose sacrilegious use was known to none but himself; little drums of vulture-skin, and crotali made from the bones and teeth of the cockodrill, used as an accompaniment to certain incantations. The mosaic floor was partly covered with the skins of enormous black and silver apes: and above the door there hung the head of a unicorn in which dwelt the familiar demon of Malygris, in the form of a coral viper with pale green belly and ashen mottlings. Books were piled everywhere: ancient volumes bound in serpent-skin, with verdigris-eaten clasps, that held the frightful lore of Atlantis, the pentacles that have power upon the demons of the earth and the moon, the spells that transmute or disintegrate the elements; and runes from a lost language of Hyperborea. which, when uttered aloud, were more deadly than poison or more potent than any philtre.

[Anonymous No.10058770]

>>10051958
Currently halfway through The Land of Laughs. It's ok. The main character is a jerk. So far, I don't see what all the fuss is about for this book.

Next up is Daryl Gregory's Afterparty

[Anonymous No.10058782]

Sanderson.

[Anonymous No.10058801]

>>10058765

The dusk rapidly deepened; the glades grew dark; the crackling of the fire and the wash of little waves along the rocky lake shore were the only sounds audible. The wind had dropped with the sun, and in all that vast world of branches nothing stirred. Any moment, it seemed, the woodland gods, who are to be worshipped in silence and loneliness, might stretch their mighty and terrific outlines among the trees.

--

Algernon Blackwood, from the Wendigo, describing plain old Canada.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10058814]

>>10058765
Supposedly he memorized Webster's 13th edition. Reading that, I believe it.
>fulvous
>umber
>glaucous
>verdigris
I find color words annoying.

[Anonymous No.10058827]

>>10055956
These humans sounds like edgy bitter assholes
At least just enslave the non-humans.

[Anonymous No.10058848]

>>10058814
It might be websters of encyclopedia britannica but you're right, he was an autodidact without exaggeration. The other key text was Arabian Knights - the school system just would not produce his or Lovecraft's precise quality these days (another auto didact home schooler.)

I find his choice of words is always felicitous, something that becomes apparent after reaching for a dictionary or on rereading - CAS has an extremely pleasing rereadable quality, there is a quote that he aimed to write short stories as if they were incantations, so that the distinct rhythm and quality of these archaic words would produce a deliberately absorbing effect. He was a poet before prose writing.

In a fantasy piece it is better to call something fulvous or umber instead of reddish brown. Prelate also trumps bishop every time. It's about avoiding the mundane.

[Anonymous No.10058865]

>>10058623
Garth Nix.

[Anonymous No.10058892]

>>10057238
Please respond

[Anonymous No.10058923]

>>10057629
I'm inclined to agree, I loved it and it introduced so many good characters.

[Anonymous No.10058934]

>>10057638
All those extremely long paragraphs of Kruppe narrating everything in Darujistan was just self indulgent of Erikson. I found it hard to get through and I normally like Kruppe. But after that I decided he's best in small doses.

[Anonymous No.10058962]

>>10058041
There are good female SFF authors. The description doesn't seem that quirky. I don't see any gifs in the top few reviews. Are you high?

[Anonymous No.10058976]

>>10058962
>>10057891
I was gonna read it once but I was put off because it was tagged as ya a load

[Anonymous No.10058987]

>>10058619

[Anonymous No.10058997]

>>10058055
>>10057891
>>10058140
>/pol/fag thinks that Dune, The Black Company and The Wheel of Time is an example of good non YA literature and confesses that he doesn't read enough to recommend her books but shits on her anyway
Absolutely eric. Why don't you fuck off back to /r/fantasy? Because even that shithole has better taste and reads more than you do.

[Anonymous No.10059060]

>>10058987
i-is that wolfe?

[Anonymous No.10059075]

>Now, some context, here.

>In this universe there is no such thing as “faster-than-light” travel. The speed of light is not only a good idea, it’s the law. You can’t get to it; the closer you accelerate toward it, the more energy you need to keep going toward, and it’s a horrible idea to go that fast anyway, since space is only mostly empty, and anything you collide with at an appreciable percentage of the speed of light is going to turn your fragile spaceship into explody chunks of metal. And it would still take years, or decades, or centuries, for the wreckage of your spacecraft to zoom past wherever it was you originally planned to go.

Why doesn't anyone ever teach SF authors how to write / plot?

[Anonymous No.10059112]

>>10059075
Scalzi's whole style is being informal and jokey moaning about it is silly

[Anonymous No.10059128]

>>10058814
Verdigris and glaucous are great words that should be in common use – they instantly call up certain unique shades suited to describing natural phenomena. Donaldson makes use of glaucous.

Fulvous and umber are more superfluous.

[Anonymous No.10059130]

>>10059112
>Scalzi's whole style is being informal and jokey
Cringe.

[Anonymous No.10059138]

>>10059112
I don't have any problem with informality, it's just not good. I also don't see how an exposition dump is funny.

Anyways, it's not a problem unique to Scalzi. It's just the latest I've read. SF seems to exist in an in-between land, lacking the edification of a textbook or the nuance of fiction.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10059164]

>>10058848
>"My own conscious ideal has been to delude the reader into accepting an impossibility, or series of impossibilities, by means of a sort of verbal black magic, in the achievement of which I make use of prose-rhythm, metaphor, simile, tone-color, counter-point, and other stylistic resources, like a sort of incantation."
That's a good quote. It's impressive how he was able to sort of meander into verbosity in the middle yet snap right back and sew up the thought cleanly with 'incantation'.
>In a fantasy piece it is better to call something fulvous or umber instead of reddish brown. Prelate also trumps bishop every time. It's about avoiding the mundane.
You're unassailable there yet:
>cold and green as the ice of ancient floes
>amber liquids
>coral viper
>ashen mottlings
>verdigris-eaten clasps
Wonderfully evocative and flavorful! Are these not preferable to:
>fulvous
of a dull brownish yellow: tawny
>umber
a dark, yellowish brown color
Or the most irritating of the three:
>glaucous
of a pale yellow-green color
of a light bluish-gray or bluish-white color
having a powdery or waxy coating that gives a frosted appearance and tends to rub off
Now, granted, those definitions are the M-W app's "for plebs" summaries. However with a quick look at tawny, you can directly tie it to the color of a lion's coat (or hairband music videos although regrettably less accurately). Glaucous--is it yellow-green or white-blue? Or was he describing the gray on the beard as being like unto that spray-on snow for Christmas trees?! Umber is still umber: even looking at a more precise definition, it's 'darker than ocher and sienna'. Grr!

>>10058892
Toss in a cover photo and maybe a thought or question about "Forging Divinity". At worst you'll still get no answer but perhaps someone else might be prompted to read it as well.

[Anonymous No.10059214]

>>10059128
Agreed on verdigris (verd-ee-gree), the copper/brass/bronze version of rust. The statue of liberty is covered in it.

[Anonymous No.10059268]

Fuck you all, I love verdigris and umber as words.

[Anonymous No.10059273]

>>10059164
Well, I'm sure there's a few fulvous clothes and windows in Jack Vance somewhere - and what about Gene Wolfe's fuligin cloak?. For me fulvous is like a certain duck - but I know CAS was fond of tawny too, and any other colour in the red/brown area. You kind of have to for Dying Earth stuff like Zothique where the sun is a darker shade, or everything is just reddish. The good thing is these colours crop up a lot, and certain other favourite words of his, so reading Smith gets easier before long. He isn't have as forbidding as Wolfe, and Vance can be a bother with his loquacious wizards.

[Anonymous No.10059284]

Is verdigris considered a hard word?

[Anonymous No.10059313]

Reading A Cavern of Black Ice based on a random anon suggestion, this is surprisingly good

[Anonymous No.10059325]

>>10059284
I discovered it about 7 years back back when I was looking up words to name my adoptables. Names had to be unique on that website so I kept large stalker lists of the most pseud words imaginable to mankind to name my shit.

[Shrek No.10059333]

>>10059313
it's a gem
hope she finishes it eventually

oh and of course KILL SCARPE KILL SCARPE KILL SCARPE KILL SCARPE

[Anonymous No.10059340]

>>10059325
And now we're educating SFFG - all you authors take note. Don't get me started on minerals and stones either - do you know your chalcedony from carnelian?

[Anonymous No.10059343]

>>10059333
Wait what? Aren't those books from the 90s? Is she another GURM?

[Anonymous No.10059346]

>>10059284
I thought that was just called patina. Seems redundant, but it's just the right amount of tangible and observable to not feel forced. It's not just obscurity that can make ten dollar words annoying, but whether they're latin loan words for abstract concepts and have way too many syllables. So this doesn't necessarily fall into the abstract part.

[Anonymous No.10059360]

>>10059340
>carnelian
No, even though I had a big mineral collection back in the day.

My favourite stone related word as a kid was cabochon and it hasn't changed. I did have a short carbuncle phase which ended when I figured out that carbuncle was also used in dermatology which absolutely ruined my appreciation for the word.

[Anonymous No.10059367]

>>10059360
*
I did, however, guess what colour carnelian is from "carn". Like "incarnadine" from the multitudinous seas incarnadine and carnation.

[Shrek No.10059379]

>>10059343
gurm is a lazy cunt who probably doesn't know how to finish the series
she had personal problems, if I recall correctly, and hasn't written anything since 2010 (when the most recent book came out)
but from what I've read somewhere she's back now and will start working on a new one

[Shrek No.10059387]

>>10059343
>>10059379
>(May 2017)
>Work on Endlords began in 2010 but stalled after a few chapters as the author's life entered a tumultuous phase which was only recently resolved. Jones has resumed work on the novel, but cautions that after such a long break she is approaching the project slowly to get back into the same writing space as before and deliver a continuation of the same quality.

[Anonymous No.10059392]

fucking hell, forgot to remove the name

[Anonymous No.10059394]

>>10059346
In my opinion, patina is more superficial whereas verdigris implies more encrustation.

[Anonymous No.10059411]

Is it humanely possible to have a job and read four books a week? I just saw someone on goodreads claiming so.

[Anonymous No.10059414]

>>10059387
Wow. Good to hear I suppose.

[Anonymous No.10059421]

>>10059411
>people on this faggy social media website for posturing pseuds keep bragging about how much/fast they read
gee whiz

[Anonymous No.10059429]

>>10059411
Knowing goodreads, and presuming to know the reading public, they're either audiobooks, pop non-fiction, or books for juveniles/YA, in which case four is doable.

[Anonymous No.10059430]

>>10058997
>Dune, The Black Company and The Wheel of Time is an example of good non YA literature
>Good
>Non-YA

At least the first two of those are literally that

[Anonymous No.10059432]

>>10051958
I made a thread to ask, but I didn't see this thread so I'll ask here:
Are there any good Sci-fi books with human on qt alien romance that aren't erotica trash? It doesn't have to be the main focus of the book but I'd like to read something where it is included like pic related. Thanks.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10059434]

>>10059273
>Well, I'm sure there's a few fulvous clothes and windows in Jack Vance somewhere
As it turns out, I can empirically check: pharesm.org reports no uses of fulvous.
>loquacious wizards
>>10059273
>bother
“What?” spoke Lucounu in a voice like a horn. “You dare stand before me and state preferences? You, who came skulking into my house, pillaged my valuables and left all in disarray? Do you understand your luck? Perhaps you prefer the Forlorn Encystment?”
>implying that's not the best part of Vance

Oh, and pic related is something of interest for our CASbros: it's Vance's physical location relative to Smith's when teenaged Vance '. . . discovered Weird Tales and subscribed to it. It was a banner day of the month when I ran down to the mailbox in front of Iron House School to find it there.'
>disclaimer: locations not exact to the pixel
>yes, this slightly triggers me, too

[Anonymous No.10059437]

>>10059411
I can read about 50 pages an hour in good conditions. If I could read during your commute then put in a couple hours in after work I could read a book every 2 days probably. But I can rarely do that, last time that happened was with the Broken Earth books where I finished all of them within 3 days of starting each one. Mostly I read shitposts each evening.

[Anonymous No.10059467]

>>10059411
I don't see how anyone with a job and minimal social life can read four real books a week. The best I did was Mievelle's Bas Lag trilogy in 10 days and that was on a holiday.

[Anonymous No.10059486]

>>10059411
>read at breakfast
>read on way to work
>read at lunch
>read on way home
>read in bed
>read on weekend
sure

[Anonymous No.10059492]

ive read
do androids dream of electric sheep
ubik
valis
flow my tears the policeman said
a scanner darkly
time out of joint
the three stigmata of palmer eldritch
dr bloodmoney
deus irae
lies inc
now wait for last year
the man who japed
vulcan's hammer
counter clock world
the man in high castle
martian time slip
the transmigration of timothy archer
the divine invasion
a maze of death
radio free albemuth

reccomend me my next PKD novel

[Anonymous No.10059500]

>>10059430
>giving grimdark fantasy and some shit tier scifi to someone who likes high fantasy
Dune and TBC together comprise of two books with some of the most vomit tier prose in existence. And unless said girl enjoys ten million years of repetitive braid tugging and stalled plot cliches, anon's recommendations were really shit tier to begin with.

[Anonymous No.10059508]

>>10059500
I don't remember Dune sounding this autistic when I was 14.

[Anonymous No.10059509]

>>10057648
I guess its the fact that I consume audiobooks while laboring at work and reading print is for the half hour I allow before bed,so 90% of anything has .e crosseyed quickly. But I find the first Demon Prince work less engaging than the fantasy line. I will continue to work through at least one whole book,because there is no audiobook version of them.

As for audiobooks,a few that Audible has caught my eye: City of the Chasch,Servants of the Wankh,Planet of Adventure,the Dirdir,the Pnume,the Men Return Worlds of Origin... anyone know of these?

[Anonymous No.10059512]

>>10059492
You're going to run out of PKD and then you're going to hate yourself.

[Anonymous No.10059522]

>>10059500
"vomit tier" is a bit much for Dune
TBC on the other hand didn't impress me at all when I read it, didn't go past the first book

[Anonymous No.10059536]

Can I have some recs for books about deathsports?

Pref scifi but not too bothered

[Anonymous No.10059541]

>>10059512
i've read 20 of his 44 novels and i've barely cracked his short stories
at a pace of 2 or 3 novels a year i'm still set for a while

[Anonymous No.10059544]

>>10059432
Found the TV tropes page
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/InterspeciesRomance/Literature

[Anonymous No.10059545]

>>10059434
The interesting thing (fir myself) is if Clark was at all aware of Vance - Clark dying in 1961 and a being a more retiring character later in life, but corresponding with SF+F authors, some of whom like Fritz Leiber visited, and still had a foot in writing. I've seen no evidence in the searchable letters.

[Anonymous No.10059547]

>>10059434
Donkey could I have your charts again?

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10059681]

>>10059509
Planet of Adventure is the omnibus, or whatever you'd call an audiobook equivalent, of the Tschai series. Chasch, Dirdir, Wankh, Pnume are all individual novels within the set. See >>10058664.
The Men Return and Worlds of Origin are short story collections. I wouldn't recommend them, especially if you end up disliking the Demon Princes. Perhaps you prefer shorts though, in which case bon appetit.

>>10059545
'Who has been influential upon my development as a writer? Who indeed? I don’t know. To name some names, I admire C. L. Moore from the old Weird Tales magazine. As a boy I was quite affected by the prose of Clark Ashton Smith. I revere P. G. Wodehouse. I also admire the works of Jeffery Farnol, who wrote splendid adventure books but who is today unknown except to connoisseurs of swashbuckler fiction. There are perhaps others—Edgar Rice Burroughs and his wonderful Barsoomian atmosphere; Lord Dunsany and his delicate fairylands; Baum’s Oz books, which regrettably are of less and less interest to today’s children.'

So far as I know, that's the only reference I've seen Vance make to CAS. I'd guess they weren't in the same circles although from cursory inspection, it seems like CAS' circle literally died out along with his scifi production, at least a decade before Vance entered the field in earnest.

>>10059547
I have never made a chart, so no, you may not.

[Anonymous No.10059683]

>>10059681
That chart with Algernon on it.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10059695]

>>10059683
If it's not in the OP links, then I don't know what to tell you. To my knowledge, I have never created or promulgated a chart. I may have commented on liking an OP chart but I can't point you to said hypothetical chart. Good luck!

[Anonymous No.10059714]

>>10059695
Actually I found it, it's CS's chart. https://i.warosu.org/data/lit/img/0085/79/1475715303353.jpg

[Anonymous No.10059766]

>>10054623
>and listen to 80s metal in the background while you do it.

pic related

[Anonymous No.10059768]

>>10054927
Sanderson is nice simple stuff with somewhat interesting world building.
Rothfuss doesn't switch POV which instantly gives him 2.5 points in a 1-10 rating on that alone. The mythology in kingkiller is kinda nice and feels sincere. He's only really hated here because
1. People conflate a talented character with a mary sue, which is really more about being a self insert of the author
2. Sffg is filled with numales and they dislike things that don't focus on or put great stock in masculinity.
3. Rothfuss ironically wore a silly outfit once

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10059779]

>>10059714
Grats. "Hothouse" sounds interesting.

[Anonymous No.10059831]

>>10059768
>2. Sffg is filled with numales and they dislike things that don't focus on or put great stock in masculinity.
I'm confused

[Anonymous No.10059845]

>>10059411
I hit that pace sometimes, it isn't hard. The standard 200-300 page pulp novel is easy to finish in a single 2-4 hour bedtime reading session. What slows me down is selecting a new book. If I have a vetted stack (made sure they aren't part of an incomplete series) ready to go, then I rip through them pretty fast. I can finish a 1000+ page doorstop in a single off day if I'm bored enough.

[Donkey !HOTAY/zB0Y No.10059865]

>>10059831
Yeah, I don't get it either. We're clearly all bursting with male jelly.

[Anonymous No.10059868]

>>10059831
Numales can't handle when things aren't conventionally masculine because they lack those characteristics so much that absolutely everything they consume must make up for that. See: rebbit, art of manliness, katanas

[Anonymous No.10059869]

>>10059845
Fucking speedreaders
why can't i fucking do it

[Anonymous No.10059884]

>>10059467
A job is only ~10 hours including lunch and travel (you can read during lunch too, I do). Add 6 hours of sleep and 1 for dinner and you still have 7 potential reading hours. I usually wouldn't exceed 4 on a work day, but sometimes if I'm down or something I'll read the entire span of time between arrival home and sleep.
>and minimal social life
Ah, well I wouldn't know what effect one of those has. I would count the time I waste socializing with you here on 4chan.

[Anonymous No.10059888]

>>10059869
Speed reading is just skimming yknow. No one really reads remarkably faster with equal retention. What is much more significant than reading speed is focus.

[Anonymous No.10059892]

Is there a place to go online where others share epubs and pdf books? I'd love to download and read some good sci fi...by actual writers and not fan fic that is :)

[Anonymous No.10059896]

>>10059432
>>10059544
Tell me if you find anything good

[Anonymous No.10059899]

new bread
>>10059897
>>10059897
>>10059897
>>10059892
Please read pic related.

[Anonymous No.10060157]

>>10054819
Finish the book. IMO Shallan is waifu tier by the end. Reminds me of asuka. Sanderson is literally anime

[Anonymous No.10061444]

>>10058612
>1) A world with detailed history and lineages/genealogies with a heavy focus on culture, clans and the peoples inhabiting the world.
Ann Rice's Mayfair witches book 1(autist detail of genealogy)

>2) A world with detailed descriptions of the fauna, gods, monsters inhabiting it - a fantasy ecology that is delved into in some detail, I guess.
Can't think of any right now. The ones I think of you read, or are YA.

>3) Something that focuses on survival and/or nomadic lifestyles. Based perhaps in a wasteland, frozen land or a desert
Seven forges by J Moore (turns shit in later books)