/sffG/ - Science Fiction and Fantasy General

[Anonymous No.10701793]

The New Genre Edition
>have you read the new genre that is taking us into the next 2 decades?
>why haven't you read the new genre as yet?
>when are you planning on reading the new genre?
>new genre you would like to recommend?

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

SF&F author listing with ratings and summaries:
>http://greatsfandf.com/authors-full-list.php

Previous Threads:
>>10687103
>>10667398
>>10651204
>>10635230

[Anonymous No.10701839]

first for sanderfag a hack

[Anonymous No.10701844]

>>10701793
>stuck in a game
>Title: Online
>skills
Second for what a shitty edition.

[Anonymous No.10701848]

>>10701844
please. litrpgs are so 2016 and 2017.
2018 os all about politically thought-provoking romantic comedy written by women of color.

[Anonymous No.10701863]

No wonder outer/lit/ looks down on us.

[Anonymous No.10701873]

>>10701793
the image art for these threads has really gone downhill in the fast few weeks

[Anonymous No.10701876]

can someone make an actual thread? you litrpg mouthbreathers can use this one to talk about your harem sword art online shit.

[Anonymous No.10701907]

>>10701873
It's better than that piece of shit you posted a few months ago.

>>10701876
Yet we have to hear blindshit and too like the shit every thread?
Why don't you make a general to discuss your philosophyshit.

[Anonymous No.10701914]

>>10701876
You seem upset my friend. Just calm down, it's only books.

[Anonymous No.10701925]

>>10701793
Really???

/outerliit/ are going to be laughing us again

[Anonymous No.10701928]

>>10701925
at us

[Anonymous No.10701931]

This here is a wholehearted recommendation for the marvelous book Senlin Ascends. Do give it a try.

[Anonymous No.10701937]

>>10701907
posting your shitty rating chart that nobody laughed at it equally vapid

from now on just go back to the funky fanarts and epic landscapes that used to be our staple

[Anonymous No.10701967]

>>10701863
>he cares what a bunch of roleplaying elitist fags who don't even read think

[Anonymous No.10701975]

>>10701967
Let's be honest. Even we're laughing at you and your bootleg Sword Art Online shit right now.

[Anonymous No.10702000]

>>10701975
>he doesn't know I get off on being shamed and ridiculed
>you're just making me harder

[Anonymous No.10702009]

>>10701873
I would take this shit thread to the pol bait one last thread. At least this is lit related. Last one was a /tv/ fag waifu shit!

[Anonymous No.10702016]

>>10701793
Dear OP,

Please to be redoing your list with fresh background for avoiding tard jpeg artifacts.

Praise Crom,
anon

[Anonymous No.10702027]

>>10701931
Seconded. One of the best fantasy books published within the last 5 years. It's incredibly good.

[Anonymous No.10702032]

>>10701793
Serious question from someone who doesn't read science fiction and fantasy.

Why are they joined together like this so often? Wouldn't it be more reasonable to have them remain separate communities?

[Anonymous No.10702037]

>>10701839
I actually came to this thread to vent a bit about The Final Empire. I'm nearly done (<4 hours left on a ~24 hour audiobook) and it's become painfully clear that the heist and rebellion that was talked about near the beginning, which is the entire motivation for the plot, is nearly guaranteed not to occur at the end of this book. And it's just hit me that barely anything has fucking happened. 90% of this fucking book is exposition, Branders jerking off about his fantasy world. I thought this would have some promise, but goddamn I'm just baffled by how much of this book is filled with nothing.

There are a million other things I can complain about but my number one after the lack of things happeneing would be Kelsier's motivation. (I have no idea if that's how you spell his name and I don't care. You have no idea how annoying and stupid fantasy names are until you have to listen for them rather than just read them. Kelsier? Chelsere? Quelsiar? I thought Vlora's name from Promise of Blood was Laura until I starting reading the Wikipedia page.) This dude's motivation for overthrowing a tyrannical, oppressive government that just drips evil is... because his dead wife wanted some flowers. Fucking really? This is some anime-tier bullshit.

Holy fuck, everything /sffg/ said about this guy is true. I didn't believe you guys, but you were all right. I'm so sorry for ever doubting you guys.

[Anonymous No.10702040]

>>10702032
If it was just fantasy it would just be a few autists posting about Ian Brandon Sanderson and Rothfuss for all eternity.

[Anonymous No.10702041]

>>10702032
Because they're genre fiction, and genre fiction should be seen and not heard, so toddle off to your corner while the literary fiction adults do the important things.

[Anonymous No.10702046]

>>10702040
So fantasy has attached itself to sci fi like some malignant barnacle?

[Anonymous No.10702048]

>>10702037
>This dude's motivation for overthrowing a tyrannical, oppressive government that just drips evil is... because his dead wife wanted some flowers. Fucking really? This is some anime-tier bullshit.
Way to go, Nostromo.

[Anonymous No.10702056]

>>10702037
>This is some anime-tier bullshit.

That's what Sanderson does. He writes anime in novel form.

[Anonymous No.10702059]

>>10702009
same. buncha whiny babies.

Any horror themed SF released recently? I just saw W. Michael Gear's Outpost on a upcoming releases list and it sounds interesting.

[Anonymous No.10702060]

>>10702041
Well once you've read one book about "depressed middle aged man struggling with alienation" or "woman ranting against The Patriarchy" you've kind of read them all.

[Anonymous No.10702065]

>>10701839
Is Sanderson not a good writer? He is pretty popular from what I've seen but that obviously says nothing about quality. Curious what the run down on the guy is.

[Anonymous No.10702069]

>>10702060
Precisely. But then the literary genre counterargument would be to essentially list off the most popular tropes in fantasy/sci-fi, then basically repeat what you've said, just substituting the tropes.

[Anonymous No.10702075]

>>10702065
I'm near finishing my first Sanderson novel, and I have a laundry list of complaints. I go over two here >>10702037

[Anonymous No.10702078]

>>10702069
He was criticizing lit? I thought he was talking about the Witcher series.

[Anonymous No.10702087]

>>10702078
*badum-tish*

[Anonymous No.10702112]

>>10702069
Sure. But it's a very "write what you know" kind of thing which is probably why those examples I mentioned are so numerous. Both lit and SFFG are decadent wastes of time anyway and you'd be reading non-fiction if you cared at all about some sort of gay personal enrichment shit.

[Anonymous No.10702162]

>>10702037
Read Dragons of Babel.

[Anonymous No.10702201]

>>10702162
>It follows the plight of a young man named Will Le Fey after a crippled dragon takes up residence in his town and inside his mind.
I'm getting very bad Eragon flashbacks. You'll have to sell me on this.

[Anonymous No.10702222]

Read online: www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/soi.aspx
E-book: https://archive.org/details/TheCompleteWorksOfHPLovecraft_201412 (including like 30 additional stories)
Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFZrqYn5f_0

[Anonymous No.10702231]

>>10702222
Shit, forgot about that. Guess you'll have to count me out. Also, nice quads.

[Anonymous No.10702234]

>>10702037
>nearly guaranteed not to occur at the end of this book
You sure about that? Sanderson usually ramps up the excitement at the end of his books, finally doing something with all that exposition. I certainly wouldn't drop one of his books with so little left.

[Anonymous No.10702244]

>>10701793
>have you read the new genre that is taking us into the next 2 decades?
No.
>why haven't you read the new genre as yet?
My dick does not have much to say when it comes to what I chose to read.
>when are you planning on reading the new genre?
As of now, never.
>new genre you would like to recommend?
Eeeeeh, enviromental sci-fi?

[Anonymous No.10702271]

>>10702201
>Eragon
Is that a Tolkien clone?

I'll tell you one thing, Swanwick the writer of Dragons of Babel writes differently. Very differently.
And the dragons in that universe are more akin to (evil) sentient fighter jets. They're sentient machines.
The dragon is only present in a small part of the story, he's not a typical goodboy anyway.

I'm not a great seller, but it's absolutely no Tolkien rip-off and no *pure* fantasy. More sci-fi/fantasy.

[Anonymous No.10702276]

>>10702041

[Anonymous No.10702286]

>>10702231
It's not a long story, you'll probably have time to read it in a week! I have not started yet myself because I'm reading another Lovecraft story, The Whisperer in Darkness, as side reading at the moment.

>tfw I got quads

[Anonymous No.10702295]

>>10702234
Oh, I'm definitely going to finish it. I just had to vent about it, because I was just staggered when I realized I had about 4 hours left in the damn thing, and I couldn't believe how little had actually happened besides exposition.

It's actually quite fortunate I recently read Promise of Blood since it turns out the two authors knew each other, something I wasn't aware of at the time. You can definitely see a lot of similarities (eg. X-Men mutants), but overall McClellan is better than Sanderson. Even though McClellan stumbles on exposition (one of the three main plots is basically a fetch quest for more worldbuilding exposition, but it's fairly entertaining, and does tie into the other main plots as well), stuff actually happens in his book.

[Anonymous No.10702301]

>>10702276
Guess I should've added an /s to that.

[Anonymous No.10702311]

>>10702065
Sanderson's writing is essentially workmanlike, he has a formula for what he writes and follows it. The prose is mediocre, the characters are inoffensive and forgettable, and the plot rarely if ever stands out.

[Anonymous No.10702331]

>>10702231
I forgot to read the last one till the day of.

[Anonymous No.10702335]

>>10702271
Eragon was written by a kid and definitely feels like it too. It's been forever since I read it, but just imagine the most generic Tolkien ripoff ever, then add dragons. It was basically sold on the fact that it was written by a 14-year-old.

Might look at Dragons of Babel in the future, but it's not going to be high on my list. Also, the Wikipedia page said the same author wrote something called Iron Dragon's Daughter, would you recommend that too?

>>10702311
>the characters are inoffensive and forgettable
I dunno, I've gotten pretty offended by Eamond(?). He's supposed to be the leader of this rebellion, but he's a giant pussy. Princess Leia is more of a man than this jackass could ever hope to be.

[Anonymous No.10702351]

>>10702335
>Eamond
Elend? He gets a little better I guess, by book 2 he starts to have more struggles and becomes more useful as well.

[Anonymous No.10702378]

>>10702335
> Iron Dragon's Daughter
Yes.

Both of them are very unique books that explode the cliches.

[Anonymous No.10702442]

>>10702351
No, not him. Uh... Yeden. Sorry, again, audiobook. And I'm not great at remembering names already.

Though speaking of Elend, I just find it weird how Vin seems to keep getting possible love interests. The thief in the beginning who gets gutted, Spook, and now Elend.

And speaking of Spook, is his "accent" any easier to decipher on paper than it is when listening to it? Because with the audiobook he's completely unintelligible.

And going back to the audiobook, is Sazed supposed to be fantasy!Asian? Because he really sounds like it in the audiobook. Though that could just be the narrator. He's pretty good, but I've noticed he also sometimes forgets to change voices with certain characters until he gets a few words in.

I've actually never listened much to audiobooks, so doing it now after reading books for so long is actually pretty interesting.

[Anonymous No.10702454]

>>10702271
oh hey Swanwick is the guy who wrote "Dogfight." I really liked that short story.

[Anonymous No.10702470]

>>10702442
Unless I'm misremembering Spook barely qualifies as a love interest. I'm pretty sure it was completely unreciprocated.

[Anonymous No.10702614]

>>10702311
basically he's ur-pulp.

>>10702442
The impression I got was that the Terris are more of a generic "eastern mystics" ala ancient Persia and India than they are Asian.

[Anonymous No.10702626]

>>10702470
There's a part I read recently where he blushes and gives a handkerchief to Vin, who is completely oblivious. Again, anime-tier shit.

And speaking of anime, watch Ghost Stories. I will shill the shit out of that show, because holy fuck it's hilarious.

[Anonymous No.10702640]

[Anonymous No.10702652]

>>10702626
yeah Spook basically plays no meaningful role at all, he's basically like a fucking appliance, only useful for his metal-burning thing

[Anonymous No.10702657]

>>10702640
>good novels are just about communicating information efficiently
Is this a real opinion people have?

[Anonymous No.10702690]

>>10702652
Eh, kinda figured. That tends to happen with these kinds of characters. Now that I think about it, there seems to be a lot of elements from Push (movie) in this. People who move stuff, people who find people, people who hide people, people who influence people.

[Anonymous No.10702719]

>>10702657
Omit needless words.

[Anonymous No.10702742]

>>10702719
don't write books

[Anonymous No.10702754]

>>10702690
>there seems to be a lot of elements from Push (movie) in this.
>Mistborn: The Final Empire, also known simply as Mistborn or The Final Empire, is a fantasy novel written by American author Brandon Sanderson. Wikipedia
>Originally published: July 17, 2006

>Push
>Initial release: February 6, 2009 (USA)

You have it the other way around.

[Anonymous No.10702770]

>>10702657
>I love filler.

[Anonymous No.10702777]

>>10702640
eh i don't really agree with this

GRRM isn't the greatest author or even one of my favourites, but i maintain that ASOIAF is a good story (thus far) and told fairly well.

despite being super lengthy it never felt like a chore to read, the damn thing's a page turner, and i for one enjoyed reading about the backstory of secondary characters and all that description. it fleshes out the world, made me more engrossed in the story.

[Anonymous No.10702785]

>>10702754
Similar influence I guess. Sanderson is pretty anime, but I see a ton of comicbook stuff in here too.

[Anonymous No.10702804]

>>10702770
>filler
First you have to define what filler is in the context of fiction, brainlet. Obviously fiction's purpose isn't solely to convey information.

[Anonymous No.10702810]

Speaking of GRRM, a friend just sent me a link saying that Winds of Winter won't be out 2018 because Martin is writing some Targaryen family tree instead.

[Anonymous No.10702812]

Sagan''s "Contact" teaches you so much about the guy

In the end, he was just another fedora

[Anonymous No.10702816]

>be reading the Expanse
>mfw they start dropping rocks on Earth

[Anonymous No.10702843]

>>10702785
>i got caught and outed
>l-lemme save face

[Anonymous No.10702846]

>>10702719
Thanks Hemingway. But not everything has to be whittled down to what amounts to a summary on the back of the book. Not to defend GRRM's bloated garbage but there should be room for some style and substance, the story is just the skeleton of a book and should have some meat on its bones.

[Anonymous No.10702859]

>>10702804
People hate filler because nothing is happening, so the story doesn't progress. The point of the story is to be told, whether it includes character development, worldbuilding, plot twists, etc. How does any of that happen when information is still being conveyed? Actions can't be taken when information is still being conveyed, so the story has to screech to a halt until it does. Do you really think a story that actually takes time away to just convey information would be good? I don't even like Harry Potter, but don't you think it would be a lot worse if it took time to tell us about every trip Hedwig takes to and from Hogwarts to deliver letters?

[Anonymous No.10702865]

>>10702846
The outline is the skeleton, the story is the meat. Everything else is useless fat weighing down the book.

[Anonymous No.10702898]

>>10702859
>>10702865
>being so stupid you think the best parts of a novel are where you're "progressing the story"
why don't you stick to reading wikipedia plot summaries tbqh, sounds like it would be more your speed

[Anonymous No.10702901]

>>10702843
The mistings and mistborn are basically X-Men. Superpowers derived from genetics, discovered during a moment of trauma, usually when young.

[Anonymous No.10702955]

>>10702898
You're being deliberately obtuse. I'm not saying things like character development and worldbuilding should be stripped out of the story, those should be part of the story, at least when done right.

[Anonymous No.10702967]

>>10702955
So basically you're saying the GRRM viewpoint characters that die quickly aren't part of the story? Who decides if something is or isn't "part of the story"?

I say all this as someone who isn't even a GRRM fan (stopped at book 4)

[Anonymous No.10702982]

>>10702859
>People hate filler because nothing is happening, so the story doesn't progress.

progression of the story isn't *only* realised in terms of a series of actions being taken. progression is also world building, which requires description and back story. this is especially important in an "epic fantasy" such as ASOIAF.

i totally agree that it can be overdone, and often is overdone, in those types of books. and the later books in GRRM's series are a bit too long.

but overall is GRRM guilty of this? i dont think so. GRRM's world building is one of his strongest qualities. his faults lie in the overall cohesion of the story, the pacing, and the story knots he's written himself into. but i think it's cheap to criticise GRRM in this way >>10702640

[Anonymous No.10702994]

>>10702967
>So basically you're saying the GRRM viewpoint characters that die quickly aren't part of the story?
The characters who don't contribute to the story aren't part of the story.

>Who decides if something is or isn't "part of the story"?
The person reading it. It's not a science.

[Anonymous No.10703020]

>>10702994
>The characters who don't contribute to the story aren't part of the story.
>character is in the book
>their POV provides information to the reader that otherwise isn't conveyed
>they aren't in the story (?????)
uhhh anon

>The person reading it. It's not a science.
oof
so basically you're going with the "i know it when i see it" train of thought. brainlet confirmed

[Anonymous No.10703022]

>>10702982
>progression is also world building
I said this. If important worldbuilding is happening in a chapter, it's not filler. It might be a dull part of the story, but it's still part of the story.

All of this stuff is on a spectrum. If you have worldbuilding explaining why the hero needs to find a mcguffin and stop the bigbad, that's fine. If the worldbuilding is instead about the inner workings of the kingdom of a foreign nation on the other side of the world that has absolutely no imoact on the plot, then maybe that should be left out.

[Anonymous No.10703028]

>>10703020
Do you know what editing is?

[Anonymous No.10703044]

>>10703028
>Do you know what editing is?
yeah it's a red herring to this discussion in which you are unable to provide consistent working definitions for any of the terms you throw around

[Anonymous No.10703059]

>>10703044
Do all editors edit the same? Because if they don't, that might be an indication that writing isn't a science, as I said.

[Anonymous No.10703077]

>>10703059
>Do all editors edit the same? Because if they don't, that might be an indication that writing isn't a science, as I said.
How did you get from "writing isn't a science" to "I don't have to provide any sort of logical consistency or make any sense"? Philosophy isn't exactly a science either but at least philosophers mostly respect logic

[Anonymous No.10703113]

>>10703022
>If the worldbuilding is instead about the inner workings of the kingdom of a foreign nation on the other side of the world that has absolutely no imoact on the plot, then maybe that should be left out.

two points

1) how do you know that *anything* GRRM mentions in any of the books written thus far *won't* have an impact on the plot in a later book? we've heard characters discuss these random places (such as say, old town) since the first book, and 4 books later we go there.

2) even if he mentions stuff that has no impact on the plot, but it DOES make the world more interesting to me the reader and enhance my enjoyment, then it certainly should not be left out

honestly. there is so much of these random descriptions of food and mud and secondary character backstories in ASOIAF that if they really were an issue, no one would be reading those books in the first place. the fact that they became so popular shows that GRRM did something right with that.

not that popular = good literature, far from it, but it's still to GRRM's merit that the popularity is there despite the length of the books

[Anonymous No.10703410]

>>10702652
>tfw Spook became a fucking pimp and literally helped repopulate the world post-Catacendre
Spook is a pretty cool guy

[Anonymous No.10703662]

>tfw my lack of scientific qualifications make me feel inadequate about writing cyberpunk

All the best authors are scientists. I feel I do not belong in this genre.

;_;

[Anonymous No.10703689]

>>10703662
Gibson was no scientist and didn't even have a computer when he wrote Neuromancer. Just go, remember that cyberpunk is before anything an aesthetic experience.

[Anonymous No.10703711]

Hi /lit/guys.

I generally don't read fantasy, but as I've been in a bit of a reading slump, I think it's something that might get me started again.

I don't want a huge epic, fantasy books in the past I have enjoyed are; The Kingkiller Chronicles, Lord of the Rings, some of The Wheel of Time series but it was definitely too long....Does anyone have any recommendations on something I can pick up and get stuck into?

[Anonymous No.10703739]

>>10703711
The Traitor Baru Cormorant.

[Anonymous No.10703745]

>>10703662
Why would you need scientific qualifications? Cyberpunk is more focused on how technology warps society than anything else. You should be spending your time thinking about societal apparatuses of power rather than if a robot seems realistic or not.

[Anonymous No.10703811]

>Finally find time to continue reading the Expanse
>Those Amos chapters
Absolute fucking gold that man

[Anonymous No.10703832]

>>10702810
i didnt want to read the winds of winter anyways

[Anonymous No.10703876]

>>10703662
quit reposting stupid shit about your anxieties and just write.

[Anonymous No.10703902]

>>10703876
Good point mate. Thanks.

[Anonymous No.10703936]

Is there any other sword and sorcery as comfy as Leiber?

[Anonymous No.10703942]

>>10702234
Yeah, twenty pages of hooks at the beginning, hundreds and hundreds of pages of aimless exposition, and then another twenty pages of bait to get you to buy the next book, iterated ad nauseam. Quality!

[Anonymous No.10704039]

>>10703077
This has made me think quite a lot about storytelling. About stories, worldbuilding, filler, etc. And I think you're right. I'm going to try it, to see if I can break down all this stuff we've been talking about into objective categories. Should be fun. Thanks for the idea!

[Anonymous No.10704240]

webnovels are novels too

[Anonymous No.10704274]

>>10704240
Do you have any xianxia to post? if yes please do

[Anonymous No.10704349]

>>10703662
just pick up the flavor of things and write. everyone knows gibson wasn't a scientist, but he obviously did research and was probably really interested in the ideas and places he discusses in his books. nowadays you just need to be able to read stupid pop science articles and internet forums to get the flavor right

[Anonymous No.10704357]

>>10702777
Martin's weakness is thematic. He's good at keeping things interesting. He's over rated but he's good at epic fantasy no doubt. I just think it's sad that the theme originally was about how people are often myopically focused on their ambitions while ignoring actual threats and most people read the series precisely because of the 'game of thrones'. It failed into success in a way.

[Anonymous No.10704375]

>>10703662
My suggestion is to read Nassim Taleb's books. Not even kidding. They aren't about AI necessarily but they discuss complex systems, chaos theory, path dependence, how certain kinds of concepts and principles manifest in different domains, etc. His discussion on the Lindy effect and how focusing on the future often leads people to overlook how much will be the same. If you have a handle on these kinds of ideas you won't need highly specialized knowledge.

[Anonymous No.10704430]

This is pretty fucking terrible. Even for generic fantasy trash it's shit.

[Anonymous No.10704434]

>>10704430
Who actually buys books like that? What market is that?

[Anonymous No.10704448]

>>10704434

I have no idea. This is so clearly a GRRM ripoff, so probably fans of that. The real problem is that it pitched itself as a big revenge tale with an old general, which is fine. But then you read it and there's 7 characters across 7 chapters and most of them are terrible in the exact same ways.

[Anonymous No.10704523]

>>10702640
That guy is being pretty disingenuous with his criticism.

If he wants to complain about Josaph Sixpacke and his hopes and dreams taking too many words he should watch Hunter x Hunter. That shit goes way over the deep end on that type of shit to the point it ruins the story.

[Anonymous No.10704664]

>>10703410
"Survivor of the Flames" is also a pretty badass title. Sanderson better pull through and eventually write that book about Spook between the two current Mistborn series.

[Anonymous No.10704670]

>>10704448
Yeah I tried reading it a while back and quit because it felt like a bad GRRM/First Law ripoff that was trying to be notable by being extra edgy and trying (and failing) to cash in on the current "sexy bisexual fantasyland with sexy sex everywhere. sex." craze.

[Anonymous No.10705016]

>>10704670
>sexy sex everywhere. sex."
As much as I like Promise of Blood, I still don't understand why "doing magic makes you horny" had to be an aspect of the setting.

[Anonymous No.10705063]

>>10703711
It sounds like you'd enjoy Sanderson. Read Warbreaker, it's decent and standalone.

[Anonymous No.10705184]

>>10703410
Maybe but Spook is also a great example of why Sanderson's cos-smear is such a joke

[Anonymous No.10705344]

>>10704274
I really like Ze Tian Ji. Everlasting Immortal Firmament is pretty good too, based on what little is translated, though I haven't read it since it got picked up by the new translators. I've mostly stopped reading Xianxia though.

If you're not really interested in actual quality, IET stuff is alright. Stellar Transformations and Coiling Dragon are done and Desolate Era will finish quite soon. I will warn you that they are really mindless reads though.
I Shall Seal the Heavens is better than IET stuff, but it goes full retard towards the end. Renegade Immortal is even better so far, but I don't know how it ends (it has the same author as ISSTH).

I'm really sad that Qidian managed to take over a significant portion of the translation market, because a lot of their translators are terrible. I stopped reading Transcending the Nine Heavens because the translation was butchering it. I don't think they even have editors.

[Anonymous No.10705449]

>>10703711
try the last wish by sapkowski
or the drizzt books by salvatore. those are both pretty easy reads.

[Anonymous No.10705457]

>>10702657
>>10702777
>>10702982
>>10704523
So you're all agreeing it's simply busy and not complex?

[Anonymous No.10705469]

>>10705457
if GRRM had put out a consistent 10 book song of ice and fire series with a beginning middle and fleshed out ending, it would have been fucking great. instead he decided to just write these bloated meandering books with endless character POVs and the series has just crawled to a halt and he hasnt even put out book 7.

[Anonymous No.10706013]

>>10702231
The book takes about 2 hours to read, why don't you just read it?

[Anonymous No.10706122]

>>10703936
The modern pulp suffices. Riyria books.

[Anonymous No.10706129]

>>10704349
I thought you gave up on your aspiring novel, flavoranon?

[Anonymous No.10706145]

>>10705016
>As much as I like Scifi, I still don't understand why "reviving someone makes them horny like a teenager" had to be an aspect of the setting.

[Anonymous No.10706493]

>>10702640
>dude martin da best
>urgh asoiaf is shit cause it's no skakeaspearean epic pinnacle of literature!

[Anonymous No.10706528]

Apologise

[Anonymous No.10706815]

>>10706528

[Anonymous No.10706853]

What are the best YA Sci-Fi/Dystopia books

I wanna turn my brain off and just enjoy a silly story

[Anonymous No.10706895]

>>10706853
>YA
begone heathen you dont belong in this realm

[Anonymous No.10706919]

>>10706895
Murrhurrhurr

[Anonymous No.10706939]

>>10706815
/tv/ meme imports

[Anonymous No.10707006]

>>10706129
not sure who flavoranon is, i'm relatively new to /lit/ cause i'm actually just a shitposter from /k/

[Anonymous No.10707014]

>>10706853
Shades of Gray - Fforde, although it is not YA.

[Anonymous No.10707027]

>>10707006
>shitposter from /k/
i seriously hope that you agree with me when i say that burt gummer is the undisputed king of /k/ now and forever.

[Anonymous No.10707036]

>>10706895
I just enjoy YA a lot more often than "mature" novels. I just like a fun story

[Anonymous No.10707065]

>>10705457
don't get me wrong GRRM is fucking wasting his time

that being said the criticism posted so far in this thread is not well-articulated. there are lots of other authors who do the same things and don't receive the same criticism, because this is entirely fucking arbitrary

>>10707027
/k/ is too fractured to have just one king

but anyways i was really impressed by Gibson when i read Count Zero and read that Turner packs a fucking 10mm revolver with a weaponlight and explosive handloads

and in some other book he talks about people making kydex sheaths for concealed blades

[Anonymous No.10707427]

>>10701793
I told you fags already that Daniel Black and Super Sales is not litrpg. Stop mixing them into litrpg. They are good because they are NOT litrpg

[Anonymous No.10707438]

>>10707006
>i'm actually just a shitposter from /k/

[Anonymous No.10707511]

>>10701793

Why is Fantasy cover art so fucking bad? This is embarrassing

[Anonymous No.10707537]

>>10707511
>says the side slit dress anime slut girl lover

[Anonymous No.10707546]

>>10707537

She is NOT a SLUT. You go COMMANDO when wearing these types of OUTFITS.

[Anonymous No.10707740]

>>10707546
Of course. A brood mare needs be easily accessible at all times.

[Anonymous No.10707814]

>>10707546
your waifu a shit

[Anonymous No.10707848]

>>10707740
>>10707814

Too bad for you, she's all mine.

[Anonymous No.10707905]

>>10702069
>genre fic fags genuinely believe this is all literature has to offer

[Anonymous No.10708234]

When are tight pussies getting slackened?

[Anonymous No.10708258]

>>10708234
wtf? when i googled that pic it's from some meme market?

[Anonymous No.10708351]

>>10708234
>>10708258
... someone posted the meme I made on failbook..
Didn't know we got bottom feeder rats that lurk this general.

[Anonymous No.10708379]

>>10701793
So we all agree that Great Ordeal/Unholy Consult are the absolute pinnacle of the GRI genre right?

[Anonymous No.10708386]

>>10705457
Still has nothing on Wheel of Time

[Anonymous No.10708423]

>>10708379
BotNS is still the standard for GRI and everything else really.

[Anonymous No.10708449]

>>10708423
Prince of nothing opens with prime boipussy being used.
With botns you have to read between the lines that he fucked his granny.

[Anonymous No.10708495]

>>10708449
>fucked his granny
what?

[Anonymous No.10708545]

>>10708495
Anon is right, that does happen, but she's around the same age as him when they fuck. So it's fine.

BotNS lacks the G in GRI however

[Anonymous No.10708664]

>you'll never be a Master of the Tower
sadfrog.exe

[Anonymous No.10709150]

I just watched ninth gate and rosemary's baby, are there any books that would fulfil an occult itch?
Preferably without the usual 'no supernatural force actually exists' take.

[Anonymous No.10709160]

>>10707065
>that being said the criticism posted so far in this thread is not well-articulated.
The criticism was more addressed to his fans that claim ASOIAF is complex when it really isn't.

[Anonymous No.10709184]

>>10709150
If you're not a pleb and willing to read short stories then Sticks by Karl Edward Wagner is excellent.

[Anonymous No.10709262]

is it possible to have /lit/ tier fantasy where characters have powers more complicated than the classics, or is that exclusively the domain of anime shit?

[Anonymous No.10709339]

>>10707511
Authors don't get to choose their cover art most of the time so they just slap on generic shit.
I asked Joe Abercrombie about this a while back, apparently he barely had any input on his art but luckily he got a god tier artists

[Anonymous No.10709387]

>>10709262
yeah i think so. that part of "voyage to arcturus" where earthrid is using his willpower to "play" the lake to create music whose foundation is pain... that comes to mind.

it's a pretty complex 'power' if you want to call it that

[Anonymous No.10709425]

>>10709387
I mean, it sounds complex when you say it like that, but it's just soundbending. It's not exactly an A-lister in terms of popularity but I don't think it counts

[Anonymous No.10709538]

>>10703936
I just finished the Ice Schooner by Moorcock. The image of being a religious whaling man on a boat wrapped up in furs was aesthetically pleasing.

[Anonymous No.10709637]

>>10709339
Stross did a big blog post about it a while back.
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/03/cmap-6-why-did-you-pick-such-a.html
>The book cover is not the author's job. In fact, the major imprints all have in-house book design departments with art directors to commission paintings, external contracts with professional photographers to commission back-flap author photos, and so on.

>The job of the cover is to make a shopper pick the product up. Retail psychology studies indicate that shoppers are more likely to buy a product if they physically handle it, and this is as true in bookstores as it is in grocery or electronics stores. The cover design will therefore ideally be distinctive (to stand out from the crowd), colourful (to contrast with the crowd), and aesthetically appealing (ditto). Unfortunately these are all culturally variable and highly subjective. Fashion in book design is radically different between the USA and the UK, for example; the US market in SF at least is increasingly driven by saturated hues, while in the UK for a while the trend has been towards grainy monochrome, with one publisher going so far as to reissue an entire list of books with black and white covers.

>There are exceptions, of course. Small presses involve the authors much more closely; I worked closely with the editor, publisher, and artist on refining a series of roughs to pick a final design for the Golden Gryphon editions of the first two Laundry novels, and although the book design was 100% Golden Gryphon house style, the cover artwork was a consensus decision. But if you're with a major publishing house, the first you will hear about your new cover is probably an email with a JPEG attachment saying, "hi, Charlie! Here's your new cover! All of us here at hte office think this is great! What do you think?"

[Anonymous No.10709651]

Is there any speculative fiction about a native american nation?

[Anonymous No.10709735]

>>10709651
Well, there's a comicbook called East of West that deals with a divided states of America with an indian nation. Fair warning that the comics give the indians a huge power wank, though.

[Anonymous No.10709791]

>>10701873
Neat, a life lesson and an expiration date.

[Anonymous No.10709810]

This seems like a fun little read, but does the protagonist stop being a huge waifufag?

[Anonymous No.10709859]

>>10709651
>>10709735

This is a Map from Shadowrun rpg setting.

It is kinda similar to the East of West world, both noaibly have native american powerwanks.

Pic rated is the East of West map.

[Anonymous No.10710301]

>>10709651
https://www.blackgate.com/2015/10/27/the-testament-of-tall-eagle-by-john-r-fultz-2/

[Anonymous No.10710322]

Rolling to see which book to read next

1-2 The Paradise War
3-4 Book of the New Sun
5-6 Wheel of Time
7-8 The Black Company
9 I go buy Malazan Book of the Fallen
0 Whatever GRI book that /sffg/ gives me.

[Anonymous No.10710340]

I enjoy the show, bought the first 6 books for $10 via kobo.

Wish me luck, I have no idea if they're terrible. Just looking for some easy fun.

[Anonymous No.10710363]

>>10710340
Like all series that go on for too long the later books are nowhere near as good as the earlier books. I was obsessed with the first book years ago though. Read it like 8 times in a year. And the books are MUCH better than the show.

[Anonymous No.10710393]

>>10710363
Cool that gives me hope that it'll be fun to read.

[Anonymous No.10710395]

>>10710322
>5-6 Wheel of Time
Why would you do this to yourself?

[Anonymous No.10710444]

>>10710322
rolling

[Anonymous No.10710489]

>>10710395

Because I have the first book and people are telling me to read it and Malazan.

[Anonymous No.10710529]

>>10710322
rolling

[Anonymous No.10710652]

So I finally got around to reading The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. I thoroughly enjoyed it as an adventure tale, especially the dying earth world building, the imaginative imagery combined with a mythological/religious feeling and the prose was a delight (no, the vocabulary choices didn't bother me, save for perhaps the names of the weapons in the last book).

All this alone would be enough for me to consider it a good book. But when I see people talking about it, they keep mentioning how complex it is, and how Gene Wolfe has created the book as a challenge for readers to figure out. Don't get me wrong, I liked the book as a fantasy/sf story, but where are these supposed puzzles and mysteries that people are talking about? Am I missing something? Do these mysteries only appear upon a reread?

[Anonymous No.10710994]

>>10710652
In your own words, what is the New Sun?

[Anonymous No.10710997]

>>10710994
not him but i thought it was supposed to be a jesus figure that will come again and re-light the old sun.
>>10708545
plz explain

[Anonymous No.10711072]

>>10710997
>plz explain
When they're at the Inn of Lost Loves before the flower duel the waiter Ouen gives them a note, intended for Dorcas but read by Severian, it says "you are my mother come again". Dorcas is Ouen's mother.

Then Severian talks to Ouen and you learn two things 1) it's remarked (by the innkeeper) that Ouen has a strong resemblance to Severian and 2) Ouen used to love a woman called Catherine who he says was arrested. So she would've been taken to the Torturers. Severian's mother can only be someone who gave birth in the Matachin Tower as that's the only way they get new apprentices. He's probably talking about Sev's mother, and he was Sev's father. Therefore Dorcas is his grandmother (and I guess the old boatman is his grandfather)..

Furthermore, at the Feast of Holy Katherine, Wolfe describes the Katherine at the ceremony in the same way that Ouen describes his lost love Catherine, i.e. as "dark complexioned". So it may be that is the same Catherine i.e. Severian's mother, and that she stays the same age every year (Sev mentions she doesn't age) through use of the Atrium of Time (like Valeria?)

Thoughts?

[Anonymous No.10711167]

>>10711072
alright, i think i follow. i have no idea what the atrium of time is. i think i may have glossed over that entire chapter.
how long did severian's entire journey take? was it only a year? i remember he describes nessus as ruined when he comes back in the boat.

[Anonymous No.10711201]

>>10710652
>but where are these supposed puzzles and mysteries that people are talking about?

Well ok if you really want to do this, how many Severians did you count? It's disputable but there are as many as 8. You need to read Urth to get the whole picture though. I don't want to explain completely because I'll spoil Urth for you, but looking at just the New Sun books, so I'll only mention some. Do you understand the interplay between

Severian the narrator
Distant past Severian i.e. Apu-Punchau
The First Severian, the one who failed, the one whose mausoleum the Narrator Severian plays in (you probably worked that this is him visiting his own tomb).
The Claw of the Conciliator (also Severian)

The etymology of the names. Certain types of character are named after saints, some have Greek names, some are Roman. For example the alien Hierodules all have Roman names (Barbatus, Famulimus)...

Have you figured out the deal with Master Ash and the Last House?

Did you figure out Wolfe's worldplay games with the Tale of the Student and His Son? I.e. Ship of Theseus -> thesis -> student.

But my favourite puzzle of all is near the beginning and happens in the library and I completely missed it the first time. Thecla asks Severian to take out FOUR BOOKS from the library of Nessus. What IS the fourth book?

Wolfe is a genius, seriously

[Anonymous No.10711234]

>>10711167
>how long did severian's entire journey take? was it only a year? i remember he describes nessus as ruined when he comes back in the boat.

It's pretty difficult because they use the lunar year and Severian doesn't bother tracking time precisely, and there's no precise reference points. But if we're talking about narrator Severian then yeah it seems to have been just over a year

[Anonymous No.10711262]

>>10710322
>no special case for dubs
Mediocre.

[Anonymous No.10711273]

>>10711201
not that guy but im in the same boat.
>8 severians
wut. theres like 2. little severian and the narrator/protagonist.
ok you dont have to explain everything you just said but theres that part at the end of the 4th book where he just starts mentioning all these different severians but i thought he meant it in a metaphorical way.
>the first severian
>the claw of the conciliator
what are you going on about? are you saying the conciliator was a severian?
>what is the fourth book?
ok so you're saying its book of the new sun, the one severian has written. please tell me how this makes any kind of sense.

[Anonymous No.10711291]

>>10711167
Nessus did not change much during Severians travels. He left from the occupied north and returned through the ruined southern quarters. The city is slowly moving as people move from the slums in the south to uninhabited houses in the north once a generation or so. It's note worthy that Dorcas lived several kilometers down river from the current slums, indicating how old she actually is.

[Anonymous No.10711312]

>>10711273
The 8 Severians include the ones revealed in Urth, I don't want to spoil Urth for you if you haven't read it. Michael Andre-Driussi explains all this better than I could in his Lexicon Urthus so I have taken a picture of the relevant pages (Severian 8 is on the next page, he is builder of the mausoleum that houses Severian 1). Again:

WARNING
PIC RELATED SPOILS BOOK OF THE NEW SUN AND URTH
PLEASE DON'T VIEW IF YOU HAVEN'T READ BOTH

>little severian and the narrator/protagonist.
Little Severian is a completely different character unrelated to protagonist Severian except for his name and the fact that they meet up. He's not the same as Severian.


>that part at the end of the 4th book where he just starts mentioning all these different severians but i thought he meant it in a metaphorical way.
I think he only mentions Severian 1 at that point (narrator is Severian 2). It's not metaphorical it's literal.


If you HAVEN'T read Urth and don't want spoilers (so you haven't viewed pic related), but want more detail on one of the Severians mentioned in New Sun, let me know and I'll try to explain more.

>what are you going on about? are you saying the conciliator was a severian?
Yeah. The Conciliator was a Severian but not the "first Severian" (who was a failure).

>ok so you're saying its book of the new sun, the one severian has written. please tell me how this makes any kind of sense.
If you're going to die and you're even slightly religious what book do you ask for? The bible, the Book of the New Son i.e. the future garbled version of the New Testament which is nothing more than another version of the Book of the New Sun. However for various reasons I think the Book of the New Sun taken out of the library is a different version to the one we are reading (cast out into space by Severian, drifted into its past/our present, discovered and translated by Gene Wolfe).

P.S. can you please use spoilers so people who haven't read BotNS don't get caught out?

[Anonymous No.10711324]

>>10711312
>Little Severian is a completely different character unrelated to protagonist Severian except for his name and the fact that they meet up. He's not the same as Severian
Neat. It never make sense to me when people claim they're the same.

[Anonymous No.10711331]

>Little Severian is a completely different character unrelated to protagonist Severian except for his name and the fact that they meet up. He's not the same as Severian
Neat. It never make sense to me when people claim they're the same.

[Anonymous No.10711340]

>>10711312
well shit sorry i havent read urth. ill make sure to book mark this thread and read your post later though. i was under the impression you didnt need to read urth cause it was bad.

[Anonymous No.10711351]

>>10711340
IMO Urth isn't as good as BotNS but it's still good. Some people like it better. It has a pretty weird beginning - I found the first half much harder to get through than my first time reading through BotNS. But it does explain a lot of stuff.

You don't NEED to read it in order to appreciate BotNS. I would say it isn't necessary at all, and BotNS easily stands by itself as a self-contained novel. However if you are interested in all the plot intricacies and how everything ties together, then you need to read it.

[Anonymous No.10711454]

>>10709637
Thats kinda sad. I remember Glen Cook saying that the cover for the Black Company was chosen by some big retailer who saw the art on the publishers desk and said he'd take a thousand copies of anything with that on.

[Anonymous No.10712033]

I blazed through Blindsight yesterday. I expected more of a cosmic horror feel going in, and while I appreciated how all the protagonists were different angles on the central theme of sentience, I ended up wanting more about the aliens. It felt a bit overambitious in that sense.

Wasn't sold on the vampires, I may go as far as saying that the story would have been better without them and the exposition they needed, the only thing that appeared to justify them in theme/tone/pacing was the mention that they were evolving towards non-sentience by the time they went extinct.

[Anonymous No.10712157]

>>10712033
Echopraxia ought to satisfy you.

[Anonymous No.10712219]

>>10710994
A "white fountain", the opposite of a black hole ("black pit"), not sure what is, some kind of astronomy thing.

>>10711167
I think in book 4 he says it only took a summer, but I don't see how that could possibly be true.

>>10711201
Thanks I didn't pick up on all those things. I only counted 3 Severians.

Having slept on it now, I did think of 1 mystery. After the green man and Agia save Sev from the Ascian Prison, the green man says that he still owes Sev, and that he will save him another time. I just assumed he was talking about the future, but what if he was talking about the past? Mayne he saved Sev from drowning in Gyoll, or one of the other 8 Sevs you were talking about, or at another time in the book, disguised as another person.

Also the appendix to book 4 mentions that The same word is used for ships on water and for ships in space. So I should go back and check each of ships Sev was on, and see if it was a journey through space or through a body of water.

[Anonymous No.10712228]

I just finished The Diamond Age after reading Snow Crash a few years ago.

I wish the book was about 1.5 times as long. It felt like half of the cast didn't get any proper resolution. At least was pretty feel-good towards the end.

[Anonymous No.10712297]

>>10712219
>the green man says that he still owes Sev, and that he will save him another time.

Mmhm, that happens in Urth

[Anonymous No.10712368]

I just finished reading Lions of Al-Rassan. Any recommendations?

[Anonymous No.10712597]

Is Saturday a finishing day? So many "I just finished" posts.

[Anonymous No.10712606]

>>10712597
I guess. I should be studying for a test but I rarely if ever have good focus on Saturday morning.

[Anonymous No.10712610]

>>10712597
theyre finished with life and attempting to become an hero.

[Anonymous No.10712645]

>>10712606
>should be working on my thesis but been browsing 4chan for five hours instead

[Anonymous No.10712676]

>>10712645
Cosmerefag you going for your STEM Doctorate?
You gonna go into research or teaching?

[Anonymous No.10712756]

What's China Mieville's best work?

[Anonymous No.10712823]

>>10709810
read the rest too and leave the man alone, he's had a hard life

[Anonymous No.10712900]

>>10712597
>tfw 20 pages left of what I'm currently reading
Friday night and Saturday means lots of time for reading.

[Anonymous No.10712976]

q-quick
What are you guys reading?

[Anonymous No.10713004]

>>10712976
Foundation

[Anonymous No.10713017]

>>10712976
Norwegian Wood

[Anonymous No.10713035]

>>10712976
Dragons of Babel.

[Anonymous No.10713149]

>>10712976
finished Ubik last night
gonna start Snow Crash soon
>tfw waiting for my Children of Time copy to arrive

[Anonymous No.10713221]

>>10712976

Nearing the end of Perdiod Street Station. One of the most original fantasy/sci-fi books I've read in a long time. Pretty refreshing that the author didn't have to rely on Tolkien copy and paste world building for his own works.

[Anonymous No.10713245]

>>10712756
Probably The City and the City, though I have a soft spot for Last Days of New Paris as well. Don't think he's written anything truly awful yet, although King Rat has a lot of "undergrad first novel" symptoms running through it.

[Anonymous No.10713286]

>>10713245

Should I read The City and the City after I'm done with Perdido Street Station? Aside from that City and Iron Council are the only Mieville books I have on hand.

[Anonymous No.10713301]

>>10713245
>"undergrad first novel" symptoms
Like what?

[Anonymous No.10713308]

>>10713245
Isn't King Rat a children's novel?

[Anonymous No.10713331]

>>10712976
Starting The Summer Tree rn

[Anonymous No.10713345]

>>10713301
Mainly thinking drum 'n' bass culture is a lot more interesting than it really is.

>>10713308
Sort of in the YA sphere, I guess; he was only 26 when he wrote it. Still better than most urban fantasy targeted at the 18-24 group, though that's more damning to current publishing practices than it is redeeming of the actual book.

>>10713286
Probably. Iron Council is a controversial one, Mieville himself thinks it's his best, but a lot of readers find it politically heavy-handed (essentially a worker's revolution on a giant train).

[Anonymous No.10713410]

>>10712976
The Thousand Names

[Anonymous No.10713411]

are there any fantasy stories that have managed to live on for more than a human lifetime that aren’t heroic fantasy or fairy tales?

Only things that come to mind are the divine comedy, faust, and dorian grey

[Anonymous No.10713459]

Anyone familiar with the Death Gate Cycle?

I've literally never heard of this series before. I just stumbled across it in a wiki binge, and the worldbuilding sounds pretty interesting. I mostly prefer hard sci-fi, and I tend to avoid books with dragons and knights and shit on the cover. The cover literally makes it look like a D&D novel, but the Wikipedia summary makes me wonder if it could actually be worth reading?

[Anonymous No.10713469]

>>10712976
i enjoyed disciples of the horned one so i thought id give pic related a try. so far im not really enjoying it.
the setting seams interesting but more than half the book isnt even about the mc and everything seems so drawn out.
anyone else read this? should i just stop or power through? does it get better?

[Anonymous No.10713477]

>>10713459
>female authors

[Anonymous No.10713497]

>>10713459
It's the same team that did Dragonlance, which was a very mixed bag imho (basically the Raistlin trilogy was cool, but everything else pretty bland and uninteresting), so proceed with caution I guess.

>>10713477
What about them?

[Anonymous No.10713504]

>>10713497
>he reads female authors'

[Anonymous No.10713506]

>>10713504
Basically, yeah.

[Anonymous No.10713516]

>>10713497
Ignore him, he’s just some retard whining about how he got put in the friend zone by a girl who finds him and his personality repulsive but tries to be civil because she’s afraid he might shoot up their middleschool

[Anonymous No.10713530]

>>10713516
the weak should fear the strong

[Anonymous No.10713545]

/sffG/ moves really slow these days :(

[Anonymous No.10713580]

>>10713530
Yes, you should.

[Anonymous No.10713601]

Is Shadow of the Torturer the best place to start with Wolfe?

>>10712976
Just began 2001:Space Oddisey, the part with the man-apes was so well written it took me by surprise considering I've never read sci fi before.

[Anonymous No.10713653]

>>10713601
shadow is where i started.
>>10712976
redwall series.

[Anonymous No.10713662]

>>10713459
>I mostly prefer hard sci-fi

[Anonymous No.10713708]

>>10712976
At the Mountains of Madness

[Anonymous No.10713740]

I wonder if Tyrion will invent some sort of new weapon or something that will be useful in Winds.

[Anonymous No.10713774]

>>10713740
>anything ever happening in ASOIAF ever again

[Anonymous No.10713785]

>>10713740
Why would he?

[Anonymous No.10713799]

>Reading Dragons of Babel
>The chapters with Lord Weary in the train tunnels
I didn't see that coming.

[Anonymous No.10713808]

>>10713785

He could do it to prove himself as a valuable asset outside of his plot armour strategic abilities but he did invent the saddle for Bran's horse back in the first book. It's weird how Tyrion's gift for engineering was pretty much forgotten about outside of that moment.

[Anonymous No.10713819]

>>10713808
His main asset is his knowledge of his family and presumably the fact that he's also researched dragons a bunch.

[Anonymous No.10714083]

Does anyone care if an author recycles the same characters and themes from story to story, even if the plots are all original?

[Anonymous No.10714170]

>>10714083
As long as the story is good then it shouldn't matter. I'm a big fan of Gemmell and he was pretty guilty of feeling 'samey' with a lot of his books with themes and characters, but almost all of them were consistently entertaining so I didn't mind.

[Anonymous No.10714203]

>>10712976
Prefect #2
Pretty good so far. Reliable Reynolds.

[Anonymous No.10714284]

>>10702065
I liked Era 1 of Mistborn, don't give a fuck what /lit/ thinks

Era 2 was lame though.

[Anonymous No.10714297]

>>10702442
No, Spook's dialect is essentially word gibberish in the form of another language.

[Anonymous No.10714301]

>>10703410
Catacendre is the term they use for the fire at the end of Ages, right?

[Anonymous No.10714456]

>>10709651
>vancouver is a noteworthy sprawl
wut

[Anonymous No.10714583]

>>10712976
Nemesis Games

[Anonymous No.10714621]

>>10713799
Rape? I enjoyed the rape in iron dragon's daughter.

[Anonymous No.10714631]

>>10712976
The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia (Paul Theroux)

[Anonymous No.10714658]

>>10712976
Reading a bunch of litrpgs.
These are fun as fuck.

[Anonymous No.10714677]

>>10706853
red rising is very comfy, pretty top tier YA comfy series imo. It also fits the sci fi/dystopia thing.

[Anonymous No.10714772]

>>10706853

Shade's Children by Garth Nix my negro

[Anonymous No.10714846]

>>10712976
Plot feels more stagnant than Promise of Blood but I still enjoy it, mainly due to the characters.

[Anonymous No.10714860]

>>10712976
Traitor Baru Cormorant (audiobook)
Crime and Punishment

[Anonymous No.10714877]

>>10714658

[Anonymous No.10714900]

>>10713245
What is happening in the world of "The City and the City"? The exposition really confuse me. Are these two cities located in different dimensions? For every place there seems to be a Beszel side and an Ul Qoma side. Or are these two cities just like west/east Berlin, i.e. they exist in the same universe and everything?

[Anonymous No.10714973]

>tfw your chances of writing a memorable fantasy novel are literally zero unles you stick to one of two done to death subgeneres
>one of them is dead to the target audience and the other is the loose, flappy-vagina'ed whore of the fantasy world

[Anonymous No.10714983]

>>10714877
>book #7
>he read 6 others

[Anonymous No.10714991]

>>10714973
LITRPG is now a thing. Cash in while you can.

[Anonymous No.10715008]

>>10714900

They exist next to each other, to varying degrees. There's areas completely one city, areas completely another, and cross-hatched zones where the buildings are right next to each other.

The citizens of each side are trained to ignore the other.

[Anonymous No.10715044]

>>10715008
And just wait until you get to the third city

[Anonymous No.10715068]

>>10714991
All litrpg does is write about catgirls. Once a book has a catgirl, it's a litrpg.

[Anonymous No.10715147]

>>10714991
LITRPG?

Is that like game-mechanics isekkai?

I'm going to be honest, if I try to do that I'm going to write a homestuck knockoff. I'm not even touching that genre and I'm already barely averting it

[Anonymous No.10715174]

>>10713411
All three of those could easily be categorized as "fairy tales" if they were older.

[Anonymous No.10715222]

>>10715174
faust maybe, but the divine comedy is heroic fantasy and dorian grey is magical realism

[Anonymous No.10715243]

>>10712976
The King of Ys.
Felisin is looking pretty good now.

[Anonymous No.10715248]

wild wastes is such fucking liberal hippie garbage

>hurr i'm a super human man and I can satisfy all these alium wimmens
>time to kill the white pipo for the benefit of the xenos
>also they all worship me as their masters and serve as my servants despite the fact we're all equal, no bigotry please!

[Anonymous No.10715252]

>>10712976
The World as Will and Representation
Book of the New Sun

Works really well together ackshully

[Anonymous No.10715264]

>>10715068
I don't believe you.

[Anonymous No.10715308]

>>10715248
you got meme'd hard, my man. super sales, wild wastes, and all that other litrpg harem anime shit is trash and shouldn't even be discussed here.
i wish they would get placed into the same bucket as Worm, where it's in a weird limbo and gets deleted from /a/, /co/, and /lit/ so that no can discuss it at all.

[Anonymous No.10715353]

>>10715308
>people like things I dislike
>how dare they
>even though it's a book, and fantasy, the mods should delete and ban it
>why doesn't 4chan cater to my whim
>don't they know I decide what others should read
Kys

[Anonymous No.10715411]

>>10715353
t. I read urban fantasy, female authors, and enjoy shitty harem pulp trash

[Anonymous No.10715424]

Do people here seriously read female authors?

[Anonymous No.10715436]

>>10715424
Why wouldn't they?

[Anonymous No.10715438]

>>10715436
Most can't write worth shit.

[Anonymous No.10715456]

>>10715438
neither can most male authors

[Anonymous No.10715460]

>>10715438
Same goes for everyone else. Pick and choose my friend.

[Anonymous No.10715464]

>>10715456
Woman detected

[Anonymous No.10715467]

>>10715456
>>10715460
history proves this shitty comeback wrong tho

[Anonymous No.10715478]

>>10715264
Every book in op's shit chart has a catgirl in it. Wild wastes 2 ends with him having a zombie catgirl that has to give him a blowjob daily to survive.

[Anonymous No.10715481]

>>10715467
You posit that most males can write worth shit?

[Anonymous No.10715483]

>>10715438
can you?

[Anonymous No.10715496]

>>10715483

Yes

[Anonymous No.10715497]

>>10715478
That's some proof for all litrpg books containing catgirls, which wasn't your assertion.

[Anonymous No.10715499]

>>10715438
>>10715467
by what metric do you measure quality?

>>10715496
prove it

[Anonymous No.10715506]

>>10715499
I'll go type up a 300 page novel just for you, what do you want it to be, science fiction or fantasy?

[Anonymous No.10715521]

Does anyone here know a way to show a main character discovering they have a weird superpower that they gained spontaneously? This is literally the hardest thing I've had to handle

[Anonymous No.10715561]

>>10715521

whats the power?

[Anonymous No.10715567]

>>10715411
Please, my kind Sir, tell us why you've chosen to slum it with us degenerates? A gentleman of fine tastes such as yourself, must find the company of such abhorrent individuals distasteful.

[Anonymous No.10715594]

>>10715561

...

the ability to change how things taste on a chemical level. yes, I know I said I'd given up but this is just too important to me

The thing is, there can be some exposition that explains he has to have a power even if he hasn't discovered it yet, but that just raises the question of how he figures it out

[Anonymous No.10715599]

>>10715594

sucking a dudes dick and the cum tastes like raspberries

[Anonymous No.10715638]

>>10715599

or a girl makes him eat ass and hes like "oh fuck no i dont wanna think about the taste thats where poo comes from think of chicken mcnuggets instead" and it does taste like mcnuggets

[Anonymous No.10715645]

>>10715638

maybe some bullies hold him down and piss in his mouth so he thinks of his grammas sweet tea instead

[Anonymous No.10715667]

>>10715599
>>10715638
>>10715645
im not writing porn for you you sick fuck

[Anonymous No.10715682]

>>10715667

these ideas are for your benefit, weirdo.

[Anonymous No.10715692]

Did this book end up being any good? I was super let down by Queen of Fire, especially after Blood Song being so great.

[Anonymous No.10715788]

>>10715667
No, you should write GRI.

[Anonymous No.10715917]

45k into my first manuscript. Some anon told me at 10k to keep going. Another anon told me to keep at it when I hit 30k.

This one thread is genuinely more supportive than anyone I know

[Anonymous No.10715929]

>>10715667
word to the wise, don’t share any of your ideas you care about with anyone on the internet ever no matter how much you trust them. humans have become incredibly sociopathic

[Anonymous No.10716074]

>>10715929
I trust that the people here are too lazy to actually steal anything if it means they have to do all the work, and too snobbish to use any idea that sounds as stupid as mine does

[Anonymous No.10716385]

>>10715692
I thought it was better than both of the sequels to Blood Song if that's what you're asking.

[Anonymous No.10716495]

>>10715594
>but that just raises the question of how he figures it out
Easy brah.
>MC enters cooking competition
>Grand prize is a candlelit dinner-for-two with Chef Sugarlips
>hijinx
>Oh noes, my flan is RUINED!
>yet more hijinx
>actually tastes phenomenal
>wins the contest
This book just writes itself yo

[Anonymous No.10716579]

>>10715917
well dont stop there. you might as well get to 55000, which is around 200 pages.

[Anonymous No.10716631]

>>10712976
Makaria. So far pretty bland. Hoping it picks up.

[Anonymous No.10716636]

>>10716385
>not that anon, but being better than tower lord and queen of fire is not a great benchmark for quality. The question most people, including me, want to know is whether it's on par with blood song.

[Anonymous No.10716661]

>>10714621
Not rape.

[Anonymous No.10716925]

>>10716074
Sffg might be lazy, but outer lit has hollywood writer's guild people makin "post your ideas thread, not like it going anywhere". They then steal all the poor saps info who post in those thread.

[Anonymous No.10716939]

>>10715467
>most books written since forever are good
This is without a doubt the most stupid thing I've read this year.

[Anonymous No.10717285]

New thread when>?

[Anonymous No.10717327]

>>10717285
In 2 posts and a while.

[Anonymous No.10717341]

new thread, migrate whenever
>>10717339
>>10717339