/sffg/ Science Fiction & Fantasy General

[Anonymous No.14689093]

Because of your past you may not be present in the future Edition
What do you think about books written in the past that were set in a future that is now our past that failed to come true in any way?

Group Reading For February
Small Gods - Terry Pratchett
Chateau Cascade - Dusty Ridgeman
https://discord.gg/KWPCM7m
https://mega.nz/#F!O1cFiKaS!hPf1KFnauX7PSaM5PJE3QA

What does /sffg/ think about [book]?
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1029811-sffg
>>14635086

Charts
https://mega.nz/#F!QyJVEQpL!utXEIGMAprWxM9GMGLxxtg

Resources
https://pastelink.net/sffglit

Threads
>>14667183
>>14654445
>>14635080
>>14611881

[Anonymous No.14689097]

And Shall Machines Surrender - Benjanun Sriduangkaew
A highly enjoyable novella.
I will be reading more from her in the future.
I can't quite remember if I've read any of her short stories in the past as I don't keep track of all them that I read, only the ones that I've found to be particularly notable.
The prose was very much to my liking, aside from a few confused perspective lapses.
Some may need to look up what various words means and think for a bit about what has been written.

The author herself describes it as "A cyberpunk/space opera thriller of lesbian cyborgs and deadly mysteries, inspired by NieR: Automata, Miss Sherlock, and Psycho-Pass." and I agree.
One reviewer said it reminded them of Ergo Proxy as well.
That being said I wouldn't describe it as being written like an anime or videogame, but I'm biased in the matter.
It certainly bears little resemblance to that which I would describe as such.

The two protagonists, separated lovers with a sordid history, are in a "city" within a dyson sphere controlled by automatous AI.
They are tasked with discovering why some of the AI incubators, humans, are spontaneously committing suicide.
There are a few brief scenes of lesbian BDSM, though they are more teasing than anything fleshed out, as it were.

So, if I found it to be well-written, fun, and generally highly enjoyable, why have I rated it 4 stars rather than 5?
Well, in short, it's because I have mixed feelings on endorsing it to that degree.
Not because of who the author is, but specific to this work.

This author, which is a pseudonym, has been controversial.
Her exultation in the savaging of others under many names exhibits a level of hostility uncommon even on 4chan.
That being said, many here would now consider her anathema, considering those who now constitute the vocal plurality, if not majority.
Alienating many ostensible allies while drawing ever more ire from enemies is not an enviable position.
She has issued multiple apologies for whatever value they have, though she seems to remain acerbic based on her anime-filled twitter.
As someone who separates an author's work from the author, this doesn't really affect what I think, which is why I find it unfair that her ratings have been suppressed by those who feel in their righteous anger that that's a suitable way to punish her and by others without pretension of righteous malice.

Then there's her seemingly strong affection for the nasuverse. That's just bad taste.
In a similar vein, I recently read the 3 volumes of the yuri manga, After Hours, but that isn't SFF. 3/5 stars overall for that.

TL;DR 4/5 stars for a work described by the author as "A cyberpunk thriller of lesbian cyborgs and deadly mysteries"

Recent Reviews
>>14682124
>>14654455

[Anonymous No.14689107]

>>14689097
based

[Anonymous No.14689108]

How do we save fantasy bros?

[Anonymous No.14689123]

I miss having passion

[Anonymous No.14689126]

>>14689123
I've never had it so I wouldn't know.

[Anonymous No.14689130]

>>14689108
>elves are sinister, alien, make lopsided contracts, pay tithes to hell
>magic's price is moral, not just physical, and if you get too close you WILL be corrupted
>magic governed by Contagion and Similarity, not x-men rules
>there's all kinds of unexplained things out there, hermits in huts who can see the future, centaurs who will teach you archery then screw off to who knows where, river spirits who will make you their husband by drowning you
>more purple prose but the good kind not just thesaurus-looking
>more unambiguously moral people (it's OK if they lose it, the struggle's what's needed)
Also I'd like more modern tech with completely secondary worlds Ace Combat style but that's just my preference.

[Anonymous No.14689141]

>>14689108
By writing what you want there to be.

[Anonymous No.14689182]

>want to write fantasy
>don't want to use the names of our world
>not smart or autistic enough to develop entire cultures and languages of this fantasy world
>browse /lit/

no .

[Anonymous No.14689193]

>>14689182
Just change the names and use actual history as the basis. That's what most do.

[Anonymous No.14689201]

>>14689130
Read John C. Wright's Moth & Cobweb books

Too bad he's probably never going to finish the series.

[Anonymous No.14689260]

>author thinks solar panels don’t work when it’s cloudy

The heck

[Anonymous No.14689346]

>>14687307
>soulcatcher a shit
Fuck you, Soulcatcher a waifu.

[Anonymous No.14689455]

How much of a slow burn should an opening be?
Like 40000 words at the most?

[Anonymous No.14689499]

>>14689455
>160 page opening
wat

[Anonymous No.14689569]

>>14689108
Stop buying sequels to mediocre books. That'll force the publishers to take some risks. Then we reward the successful risks.

[Anonymous No.14689585]

>>14689569
>Stop buying... books.
Already there.

[Anonymous No.14689596]

>>14689130
>and if you get too close you WILL be corrupted
Sounds trash. It's just another throw away excuse for undeveloped villains to do bad things.
>there's all kinds of unexplained things out there
As long as it's not an excuse for there not being explained things. You don't want Gandalf arse pulls, you want the bounds of the world to be bigger than the story contained within it.

[Anonymous No.14689602]

>>14689596
>You don't want Gandalf arse pulls
Like what?

[Anonymous No.14689635]

>>14689602
Either every time he used magic or every time he didn't; which ever you prefer.
The rules surrounding its use were not explained so that it could be used to save named characters but couldn't be used to make things easier.

The classic "why didn't they just fly to Mordor" comes to mind. The excuses are shithouse.
"Why even have eagles" works just the same.

[Anonymous No.14689637]

>>14689635
>secondary spotted

[Anonymous No.14689733]

>>14689596
>As long as it's not an excuse for there not being explained things. You don't want Gandalf arse pulls, you want the bounds of the world to be bigger than the story contained within it.

There is a reason why "but this is just an RPG setting" is one of the strongest possible accusations to be made against a fantasy world. That reason being, whenever an author tries to explain everything, to "make the world bigger than the story", or to invent yet another motherfucking magic system with codified rules, i.e. things which are sort of necessary if you need to hand over your world for other people to play with it, the story ends up ranging from aggressively mediocre to nonsensical garbage fire. Oh, and STILL full of asspulls, because practically no TTRPG in existence can produce anything resembling fun if you stick to rules and settings as written, instead of fudging things based on common sense.

[Anonymous No.14689747]

>>14689130
>elves are sinister, alien, make lopsided contracts, pay tithes to hell
>magic's price is moral, not just physical, and if you get too close you WILL be corrupted

M-muh grimdark...

Actually, do you understand how overused the two points above are?

>magic governed by Contagion and Similarity, not x-men rules

Only shitty minor magicians should be using magic governed by that. Real powerhouses should be using magic governed by math.

[Anonymous No.14689757]

>>14689747
>Real powerhouses should be using magic governed by math.

[Anonymous No.14689770]

>>14689757
People with no idea what people did trying to make magic work in the real world absolutely are not going to make a good magic system for a fantasy world.

[Anonymous No.14689773]

>>14689770
I just don't understand people wanting to use the word "magic" in a context without any mystery or doom involved. I don't get it.

[Anonymous No.14689806]

>>14689733
Explaining the rules doesn't make the setting bigger than the story, it imposes hard limits on what's possible. When I said make the setting bigger than the story I meant mention cities or countries that aren't visited, languages you don't know. Have rules but don't have them be fully understood. Have different rules for different people.

Mistborn has a very hard magic system. Eat this metal to get this effect. Don't they end up discovering new metals? what a load of shit. That's perhaps worse than saying "because magic" in the first place.

A magician should have some idea about how his magic works and its limitations. But it doesn't have to be precise.

If you're talking about D&D; there's a reason you're using a person as a game engine. Soft rule imposition and an expansive setting are important to variability between plays.
That said, rules as written could be a lot better. There aren't major revisions to rules to explain / create ambiguity or even to balance the game.
If anything the need for balance is the issue. Come up with some creative way to use magic and you'll quickly run into "no because that's too powerful. " In that sense prescriptive rules would be better.

tl;dr I don't know how to balance a table top. Iterative improvements maybe.

[Anonymous No.14689833]

>>14689773
If you put in ANY laws that result is magic producing predictable, replicable results, it can only be mysterious by various authorial sleight of hand, for examples of which I can direct you to, say, Robert Howard's works (where magic is quite literally just a form of weird science, if you think about it for a second). Contagion and similarity will if anything make it less mysterious than astrology and math, because the principles are so simple.

[Anonymous No.14689844]

>>14689833
Astrology IS Contagion. The ambiguity comes from our total inability to use it right, to only come out with some vague prophecy that's probably going to fulfill itself anyway. "Law" is a bad word for this anyway. It's a bad word for physical phenomenon, too, actually. "Tendency" maybe. "Desire." "Warning." The hero can't predict what terrible thing will come out of his brush with the supernatural, but it will be in some way appropriate.

[Anonymous No.14689846]

>>14689833
>Contagion and similarity

And by the way, Jack Vance once wrote a novella where magic largely based on these principles was used to mock people's idealized assumptions about modern science as of system of unified, logical rules from which results are derived in a precise and logical fashion.

[Anonymous No.14689863]

>>14689806
Magic is a really poor description of the superpowers in Mistborn.

[Anonymous No.14689880]

>>14689863
Allomancy, Ferrochemy and Hemalurgy should just be called power systems, the rigidity bears no resemblance to magic.

[Anonymous No.14689994]

Is it okay for a fantasy setting to be a little generic and not that well fleshed out if the story is more about the characters and an exploration of them than the world itself, or should you still have a pretty well constructed lore even if touring the world isn't the point of the story at all?

[Anonymous No.14689995]

>>14689994
Everything should serve the characters.

[Anonymous No.14689997]

>>14689994
If you're not leveraging the setting then why are you writing fantasy? Just write regular fiction.

[Anonymous No.14690004]

>>14689994
>write in genre that is defined by its setting
>hey guys is the setting important or can I skip it?

[Anonymous No.14690014]

>>14689880
Cause they are systems designed by a higher power. That's why they're "perfect", and mathematically symmetrical.

[Anonymous No.14690016]

>>14689994
If the story is character focused then sure it's fine. But then the question is why make it a fantasy at all?

[Anonymous No.14690050]

>>14689997
>>14690016
Maybe you want to examine fantasy tropes.
What would a wizard actually be like when you consider they're effectively immortal and can bend reality to their will, what kind of person would give up their life to go hunting 8' tall tribal monster people for money, that sort of thing.

[Anonymous No.14690098]

>>14690050
What are you even trying to accomplish? You claim to want to write something character focused, yet both examples you provided are characters you've defined almost entirely by their role in a fantasy setting. So which is it?

[Anonymous No.14690135]

>>14689130
Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick

>good purple prose
tiktoktopkek.mp4

[Anonymous No.14690143]

>>14689455
you're going to lose readers

>>14689569
people love reading the same shit but slightly different

[Anonymous No.14690148]

>>14690098
>What are you even trying to accomplish?
Murderhobo's: The Book

[Anonymous No.14690218]

What are some good fantasy books based around Middle Eastern/North African mythology?

[Anonymous No.14690331]

>>14690218
Dune :^)

[Anonymous No.14690345]

>>14689093
>ctrl f
>nobody is talking about Hubbard's work.
Let fix that!

[Anonymous No.14690630]

>>14689260
They don't though. It's called solar panels for a reason. If there is no sun, there is no power.

[Anonymous No.14690680]

>>14690331
Should I get an actual copy of Dune, or will the ebook version suffice?

I glanced that the terminology section at the back once, and I feel a paper version would be easier to quickly flick back and forth, as opposed to the ebooks slowness.

[Anonymous No.14690721]

>>14690218

Arabian Nights

[Anonymous No.14690760]

>>14690680
Some ebooks have those numbers linked above the words that open a small window with the description, that's nice and quick. Others only have the glossary at the end, like Malazan, that's a pain. I used to have the ebook on my phone as well, only to look at the glossary.

[Anonymous No.14690974]

>>14689097
>>14689107
>a bitter feminist
What a shocker

[Anonymous No.14691003]

>>14689097
>A cyberpunk/space opera thriller of lesbian cyborgs and deadly mysteries
>inspired by NieR: Automata, Miss Sherlock, and Psycho-Pass
That sounds fucking awful

[Anonymous No.14691079]

>>14684865
I completely forgot about the sequel.
Thanks.

[Anonymous No.14691164]

>>14685799
I was thinking about something more along the lines of organized resistance to the various supernatural and dare I say Lovecraftian threats (instead of the usual hysteric individuals) but sci-fi thrillers are also cool.
I'll check out the Cormac series.
I actually did stumble upon on the first book in the Joe Ledger series, Patient Zero, back when I was on a zombie binge but it didn't really catch my attention. I'll give it a try. A recommendation here is worth more than a hundred Goodreads reviews.
I did read the first book Monster Hunter International by Correia and while I really wanted to like it (with the whole free market will triumph over the Mythos) it fell flat. Way too many elements that simply do not belong and not good enough writing to tie them all together.
I still haven't find anything that approaches that feeling of dread that The Colder War by Stross invokes.
Thank you for all recommendations.

[Anonymous No.14691197]

>>14690148
Don't quit your day job anon.

[Anonymous No.14691235]

>>14691197
What's a job?

[Anonymous No.14691241]

>>14691164
>organized resistance to the various supernatural and dare I say Lovecraftian threats
then they're not lovecraftian

[Anonymous No.14691325]

>>14691235
Oh I had no idea it was that bad.

>>14691241
Yes they are. The scope of the threat remains the same, the answer to the threat changes.
As I said instead of isolated incidents involving hysteric young man given to flights of fancy we are talking about organized, coordinated response.
Stross did it well (rolling it all with the Cold War), Powers did it well, there are some other authors like Brian Lumley who tried to do it.
It's just modernizing the Mythos.

[Anonymous No.14691384]

>>14691164
>>14691079
>flat skinny white grils posing in odd angles to give thw illusion that they have ass

[Anonymous No.14691416]

>>14691384
Anon we are here to discuss science fiction and fantasy not post like... you know.

[Anonymous No.14691427]

>>14691325
>It's just modernizing the Mythos
The Mythos is demodernization. Trying to push it into a modern context where Something can be Done is putting a thriller in tentacleface. Nothing wrong with that, it's just not Lovecraft.

[Anonymous No.14691472]

>>14691427
>The Mythos is demodernization
Fuck no. I have no idea where you get that from.
Who said anything can be done about it? When the Soviets were nuking Novaya Zemlya it was an act of desperation. A nice tie-in with a bit of Cold War trivia.
Besides it's not like a lot of "classical" Mythos derived works did not suffer from the "Something can be Done" syndrome. Even in the original Lovecraft's works something was always done (sometimes at a sharp end of a sea going vessel).

[Anonymous No.14691480]

>>14691472
idk, moving it away from the personal does not strike me as lovecraftian at all

[Anonymous No.14691602]

>>14691480
That depends on the author. The good ones mixe the sheer butt-clenching insanity of modern technical marvels like the SLAM project with the unknowable madness of the Mythos.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_Low_Altitude_Missile

[Anonymous No.14691803]

Would you read a book written in first person about a man trying to describe a great adventure he had but who constantly gets side tracked by mundane observations and ranting about how much he hates elves?

[Anonymous No.14691888]

>>14691803
Only if he ends up marrying an elf.

[Anonymous No.14692012]

>>14691803
Absolutely. Ironically he should eventually fall for an elf and absolutely hate himself for it.

[Anonymous No.14692246]

>>14689455
If you are writing a web novel then spending 20 or 30 chapters in an opening is fine

[Anonymous No.14692837]

>>14690135
Dang I need to read that again. I was not really prepared for its strangeness the first time.

[Anonymous No.14692883]

>>14690331
Dune was based on the Chechen struggle against the Russians, to be more on the book "Sabres of Paradise" by Lesley Blanch. Some words of the "Fremen" culture are lifted 1:1 from that book, like chakobsa as a hunting language, kindjal for the dagger or sietch for a settlement.

[Anonymous No.14692894]

>>14692883
>to be more on the book
to be more precise

[Anonymous No.14692989]

>>14689093
>>14689093
The following is just for amusement and shouldn't be taken seriously due to various problems with it.
If anything, maybe people will list more of what they've read.

There are now 101 members of the goodreads group.
Listed doesn't mean "read".
92 have 1+ books listed
83, 10+
61, 50+
46, 100+
16, 500+
4, 1,000+

Top 20 Books Chart, members who rated the book:
Dune: 27
A Game of Thrones: 23
The Fellowship of the Ring + The Lord of the Rings: 16+7= 23
Foundation: 22
Eye of the World: 14
The Shadow of the Torturer + Shadow & Claw + The Book of the New Sun: 8+6+0= 14
The Blade Itself: 13
Hyperion: 12
Neuromancer: 11
Roadside Picnic: 10
Way of Kings: 10
Black Company + Chronicles of the Black Company: 8+2 = 10
Solaris: 9
Ubik: 9
Blindsight: 9
Titus Groan: 6
A Canticle for Leibowitz: 6
The Silmarillion: 5
The Dying Earth: 4
Revelation Space: 3

Based on this, at least a few shouldn't have been included in the chart.
Some of these less than I thought they'd be based on this sample, considering how much they are discussed.

and then a few others for amusement:
1984: 38
Brave New World: 29
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: 24
The Name of the Wind: 19
Ender's Game: 19
The Final Empire + Mistborn Trilogy: 16+2 = 18
Farenheit 451: 17
The Hunger Games: 12
Ready Player One: 11
Unsouled: 6
Black Prism: 6
The Darkness That Comes Before (Prince of Nothing/Second Apocalypse): 2 (Is this the most overly posted relative to how many have read it?)
Throne of Glass: 1 (2 stars)
The Fifth Season: 1 (5 stars)

Gardens of the Moon (Malazan): 9 (0 5 stars, 4 4 stars, 1 3 star, 3 2 stars, 1 1 star)
Deadhouse Gates (Malazan 2): 5 (3 5 stars, 1 4 star, 1 3 star)
The Crippled God: (Malazan 10): 2

[Anonymous No.14693227]

>>14691803
That's like 60% of the way to being Name of the Wind

[Anonymous No.14693400]

Emperor-sorcerer chads where you at?

[Anonymous No.14693779]

I have a horrible guilty pleasure: I like stories where the protagonist goes to magic/superpower/special ability or what have you school. Not the HP series though. Anyone have any recommendations? Even if they're only moderately good.

[Anonymous No.14693803]

>>14693779
The Magicians

[Anonymous No.14693804]

^ Also web content is fine.

[Anonymous No.14693810]

Has anyone read the latest Gibson yet?

[Anonymous No.14693848]

>>14693803
Olivia Dudley was hot in that.

>>14693810
Fuck no. I don't read hipster sci-fi.

[Anonymous No.14693910]

Any barbarian kino besides conan

[Anonymous No.14693960]

>>14693779
The Shadow Stone

Light Novels with official English releases
Last Round Arthurs
Little Witch Academia (anime is the source)
My Hero Academia (manga is the source)
The Asterisk War
The Greatest Magicmaster's Retirement Plan
The Irregular at Magic High School

Anime/Manga/Light Novel (not officially translated)
Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor
From The New World
Kill la Kill
Medaka Box
Mx0
Negima
Psychic Academy
Rosario + Vampire
Witch Hat Atelier


lots of others

[Anonymous No.14693990]

>>14693779
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/10764.Schools_of_Magic

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/126931.Studying_magic_and_magical_schools

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/100453.MAGIC_SCHOOL_FOR_YA

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/96436.Coming_Of_Age_Magic_School_Books

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/22304.Schools_with_Magic

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/wizard-school

[Anonymous No.14694001]

>>14693960
>The Shadow Stone
Link?
>other stuff
Never read any jap stuff but I guess I can try.
>>14693803
>>14693990
Thank you! Now I won't need to bring this up again.

[Anonymous No.14694077]

>>14694001
All I did for >>14693990 was type magic school goodreads in google. Enjoy your spoonfeeding.

[Anonymous No.14694103]

>>14690218
The Rage of Dragons (well it's African, idk about north african)

[Anonymous No.14694120]

>>14694103
North Africa isn't black is the difference.

[Anonymous No.14694134]

>>14690218
Castle in the Air

[Anonymous No.14694157]

>>14692837
That book was too depressive for me.

[Anonymous No.14694170]

>>14692989
based autist

[Anonymous No.14694180]

>>14693779
Vita Nostra (magic university), russian depressing lit

[Anonymous No.14694202]

>>14694170
It only took me maybe 10 minutes at most since it's all listed out in the group. I just used the activity section of bookshelves which provides the numbers.

[Anonymous No.14694255]

>>14694180
Sounds interesting, and I found a link quickly. thanks!

[Anonymous No.14694445]

So, the Culture. Dystopia or utopia? I am leaning towards dystopia, because Horza's arguments against it remind me a lot of The Grand Inquisitor.

[Anonymous No.14694477]

>>14694445
Isnt there an interview where Banks proclaims he's the only utopian writer left?

[Anonymous No.14694617]

Any of these you like?

[Anonymous No.14694629]

>>14690218
for middle eastern fantasy you've got a lot of good options

>The Twelve Kings of Sharakhai (4 books so far. Great fun, but warning the first chapter of book 1 has a random explicit sex scene. It doesn't do that again)
>The City of Brass (2 books so far. A god tier work of fantasy)
>Kingdom of the Crescent Moon (1 book "so far". Extremely fun but the sequels aren't coming)
>The Killing Moon (2 books. Good but kind of gay)
>The Orphan's Tales (2 books. The rightful successor to the arabian knights, but the setting is more global than just middle eastern)

For african, not as much
>Children of Blood and Bone (2 books so far. Extremely entertaining but you'll find 90% of the conflicts in the story boil down to the characters oscilating between a desire of peace and violent extremism out of sync with each other)
>Black Leopard, Red Wolf (1 book so far? Highly rated, but the narration style turned me off)
>Sorcerer of the Wildeeps (2 books so far? Again, highly related, but immediately devolved into gay sex scenes. Have not read past the first chapter)

[Anonymous No.14694642]

>>14694617
Since you are already on goodreads, I hope you realize you can just look what the /sffg/ goodreads group thinks about them.

[Anonymous No.14694689]

>>14693779
Mage Errant was decent--everybody gets a degree of generalized and specialized training based on the magic system.

[Anonymous No.14694690]

>>14690218
Zothique (also an inspiration for BotNS)

https://archive.org/details/smithclarkashtonzothique1970lennysamouse/mode/2up

[Anonymous No.14694697]

>>14692989
>tfw part of group and always reading
>never rate books

[Anonymous No.14694716]

I need inspiration or I'm going to fucking die

[Anonymous No.14694725]

>>14694697
It was more effort than I wanted to put forth to look for and count ones marked "read' that hadn't been rated, which is why it says what it does.

[Anonymous No.14695262]

I just want to play a short, angry tavern-keeper who's a genius at cooking-related magic and nothing else so he has to rely on a cleaver for most things

[Anonymous No.14695286]

>>14694617
Dark Age was pretty fun, over-the-top cartoonish grindhouse BRVTALITY, I just wish the Ascomanni were spontaneous and not just another one of some Gold's plans

[Anonymous No.14695292]

>>14694134
>djinncel hidjinnks

[Anonymous No.14695350]

>>14694617
Gideon was good, felt very Blame!/Biomega in feel for whatever reason. Hope the author can pull off the sequel.

>>14694629
For Africa there's also the classic Imaro sword and sorcery series by Charles R. Saunders.

[Anonymous No.14695465]

thick

[Anonymous No.14695551]

I critiqued in the crit thread but no one really responded. Any feedback is appreciated, no matter how harsh.
I like writing juvenile romance because it helps me simulate the experience as most girls aren't tsundere IRL, they just straight up hate me

[Anonymous No.14695585]

>>14693779
Wizard of Earthsea
The Night Circus, at first

>>14693848
>hipster
>mainstreamiest sci-fi writer in not-dead existence

>>14694157
Same. Not sure if I'll read the sequel. I liked Stations of the Tide a lot tho

[Anonymous No.14695587]

>>14695551
If you're just writing it to simulate, why does anything else matter about it?

[Anonymous No.14695633]

>>14695551
Well I hate romance but it was cute and had a good set up situation.

[Anonymous No.14695639]

>>14695585
>>mainstreamiest sci-fi writer in not-dead existence
But that's wrong. That would be Suzanne Collins.
What about about males? Nope, not by a long shot.
The most ratings Gibson has on goodreads is 247k.
Orson Scott Card would be a better choice for a male. Ender's Game has over a million.
Looking at sales is going to be about the same.

[Anonymous No.14695678]

>>14693910
prince of nothing
house of chains

[Anonymous No.14696048]

>>14695585
>>14695639
>Goodreads = sales figures
no
https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-sff-all-time-sales-list-revised.html

[Anonymous No.14696077]

>>14693848
she looks just like Hannah Hayes

[Anonymous No.14696090]

>>14696048
>thinking sales figures are a good measure of relative influence

[Anonymous No.14696249]

>>14693400
Pic unrelated?

[Anonymous No.14696343]

>>14692989
Why not calculate an average rating for the most commonly read books?

[Anonymous No.14696596]

So I've enjoyed Fellowship of the Ring a bit, but myself so bored by Tolkien's descriptions of where they're heading and what they're doing to get there, but love all the dialogue and storytelling whenever characters interact.
Then I remembered The Two Towers movie and can only imagine how much worse it is (thinking of Sam/Frodo/Gollum landscape descriptions and shit).

convince me to continue reading the trilogy plz

[Anonymous No.14696611]

>>14696596
You don't deserve it though

[Anonymous No.14696618]

>>14696611
the concept of deserving something is rooted in retardation

[Anonymous No.14696648]

MALAZANCHADS WY@

[Anonymous No.14696706]

So what DID Steven Erikson mean by this (pic rel)

(Malazan; memories of ice)

[Anonymous No.14696723]

>>14696706
So this is the power of Malazan

[Anonymous No.14696728]

Do you guys know of any Sci-Fi/Fantasy that does interesting shit with gender?

I read The Left Hand of Darkness and was pretty underwhelmed after reading several articles that hyped up its portrayal of gender. I have since gone through a few other books I've found on a list and was left wanting.

I am going to start Auxiliary Justice because that supposedly does something with gender.

[Anonymous No.14696757]

Anyone else read this? For a book about high school students having to kill each other it has a surprising amount of heart to it. Nothing like the god awful manga that's grotesque from the first page.

[Anonymous No.14696777]

>>14696728
Read this, if you can deal with the narrators autism you're in for the ride of your life. If you read Auxiliary Justice, remember not to read the sequels.

[Anonymous No.14696795]

>>14695551

[Anonymous No.14696822]

I don't get why people rate Dune Messiah so highly in the series, I was bored throughout.
They literally spoil you the fate of Paul early on and it just feels like such a drag to get to it.

[Anonymous No.14696827]

>>14696757
No but I enjoyed the live action movie about 15 years ago damn it came out in 2000?
I'm getting old.

[Anonymous No.14696838]

>>14696728

???
Youll never be a real woman bro

[Anonymous No.14696844]

>>14689994
Just write it dude and focus on the characters for the early drafts of your plot and shape the world around them after the fact. Let things be generic blank spaces if you don't have ideas for it and then add your curly decorative world details to those holes after the story has bones.

[Anonymous No.14696860]

>>14696728
Not exactly "gender" but a lot of the Vorkosigan series is about the social implications of uterine replicators that basically allow for a baby to be grown in a artificial environment, which not only allows for cloning/gene tweaking but also eliminates the risks of pregnancy for a mother.

The standalone novel Ethan of Athos is pretty great, it's about a obstetrician (pregnancy doctor) from a planet of gay men traveling to a space station to investigate a faulty shipment of genetic material and he has to team up with a female mercenary from a previous (unrelated) story to stop some spies.

[Anonymous No.14696902]

>>14696618
Yeah. Yours.

[Anonymous No.14697178]

>>14691416
Then stop posting insta-thots photos.

[Anonymous No.14697209]

>>14692989
>users are being used for data gathering
Glad I didn't join that rebbit fest.

[Anonymous No.14697221]

>>14694120
Everything Africa is black. Isn't that the reason you tell people to "go back", Mr Kay Kahvil Kosovo?

[Anonymous No.14697225]

>>14689107
>>14689097
Jesus, these people have shit-colored souls.

[Anonymous No.14697234]

>>14691803
Only if he has sex with elves.

[Anonymous No.14697241]

>>14696596
Drop it. Lord of the shits is boring. Just read the hobbit and drop Tolkien.

[Anonymous No.14697251]

>>14697221
>Get blown the fuck out by someone with actual nuanced perspective on the demographics of Africa
>Y-Y-Y-YYUR WACIST

Lmao

[Anonymous No.14697282]

>>14697251
>there are only two persons on sffg
>one making a statement
>the other getting their statement destroyed
>no body else comments on a post ever, only the person who was destroyed trying to do damage control
I guess America demographic is white too. Like how Africa is white.

[Anonymous No.14697300]

Is this really hard to follow or am I a brainlet? I have no idea what's going on after the protag gets healed

[Anonymous No.14697311]

>>14697300
it's not that hard to follow. what's confusing you?

[Anonymous No.14697345]

>>14697300
>Neuromancer
Actually, you are probably a brainlet.

[Anonymous No.14697365]

>>14689455
That moment when you added the extra 0,
fuck me anons, that was my bad.

>>14690143
I figured as much with 40000 words, that's like an entire first arc if you're rushing or at least a good amount of development otherwise.

--

>>14696706
Literal big dick energy.

>>14694629
What about the Arabian Nights collection?
Haven't read it myself, but was wondering if you had anything to say about it.

>>14689994
Characters first, plot second, everything that's not setting third (but make sure history/general lore is high up on that list) to Xth, setting dead last.
Write about your setting in dialogue or in observations, I don't need to know the populace count of some village at fuckbutt point. Rebbit worldbuilders built the importance of setting over story meme and it fucking blows.

[Anonymous No.14697416]

>>14697282

Boers are white, Berbers are also white. Copts are white

[Anonymous No.14697420]

>>14689097
Stick to the op, threadslave. Your autistic writing style doesn't work over more than two sentences.

[Anonymous No.14697561]

Any good fantasy that is set in or takes heavy inspiration from Greek mythology? Preferably where the good guys are good and wholesome, rather than the morally ambiguous Game of Thrones type stuff that's so popular these days.

[Anonymous No.14697624]

>>14697365
You motivated me to cut some of my bullshit. The end result will still be an exposition dullfest though.

[Anonymous No.14697655]

>>14691803
yes, sounds based

[Anonymous No.14697671]

>>14697561
Latro in the Mist
Circe

[Anonymous No.14697717]

>>14689097
I liked this asshole's blog way back when, don't give a fuck about her prose

[Anonymous No.14697946]

It's February.
What new books are you reading?
What books are you waiting on to be released?

[Anonymous No.14698038]

>>14696343
Because that would be more effort than I want to do because I would have to do it manually or get around to using one of the scripts I saw.

>>14696757
Yes, I've read both translations. The newer one is better. I've also read the manga and watched the movie.

>>14697209
Yes, the stated purpose has been from the beginning for /sffg/ to learn more about /sffg/.

>>14697420
4 days

[Anonymous No.14698127]

>>14697946
Since Mother of Learning has finished (bar the epilogue) and I've never read it I thought I'd give it a try.

[Anonymous No.14698146]

>>14697365
arabian nights has some hits but a lot of disappointments. both ali baba and the city of brass both suck ass (the latter is especially disappointing because it took me months to find a version that included it), however The Fisherman And The Jinni is a shockingly good hit, as is The Porter and The Three Ladies of Baghdad. There's a few others but in general your best hope is to find a copy with historical annotations because those annotations are actually more interesting than half the stories.

also, a heads up: there are multiple translations of the stories. look through a bunch of different ones to find the one you like, because in my opinion the most popular version is so purple and lacking in flow it's basically unreadable

[Anonymous No.14698190]

Alright scifi guys, can I get some recommendations or thoughts on where I go next, I'm getting through a lot of classic scifi after being mostly a fantasy reader for years. Crossed over from Glen Cook's scifi stuff and then Gene Wolfe. I've got Philip K Dick's Library of America 13-novel collection on the way and am excited to get into that, just finished Gibson's Neuromancer series (loved it, started reading Agency and not so much) and picked up the recent Asimov matching Robots and Foundation set. Finished the original Foundations trilogy, and will come back to the rest later, but loved the world and tone. Also enjoyed Dune.

Few questions I have:
>Is there other Asimov or Gibson worth getting to after Foundation/Robots and Neuromancer?

>I'm a sucker for a long series and so haven't somehow read a lot of classic stand-alone novels; how much importance should I place on getting to 1984, Brave New World, Farenheit 451, Canticle for Liebowitz, or any other suggestions?

>I'm a fan of the fantasy works by Harrison (Viriconium) and Donaldson (Covenant) is it worth delving into their Light and The Gap Cycle?

>I'm a big Halo fan and really enjoyed Greg Bear's Forerunner trilogy, does he have other stuff worth getting into?

[Anonymous No.14698230]

>>14696728
Homestuck prior to the epilogue.

The trolls look like a matriarchal species, but the sexes seem vestigial and its implied that both are actually just different types of males with the females being enormous non-sentient grubs that live in the catacombs beneath the surface of their planet

Cherubs meanwhile have four sexes, all of which are capable of conception, though we only ever meet two in the story. Interestingly, they're born hermaphroditic, but soon after birth they start switching back and forth between two compatible sexes in their sleep cycles with distinct personalities between the two sexes until puberty when they lock in to one sex

[Anonymous No.14698291]

>>14698190

Did you read do adroids dream of electric sheep?

[Anonymous No.14698402]

>>14689108
What? Fantasy is great. There's so much great shit to read it's hard to reach the bottom of it.

[Anonymous No.14698483]

>>14696596
Kids these days. Reading isn't always fun. You have to put in the work to truly enjoy most epic fantasy. You get back out what you put in.

[Anonymous No.14698525]

>>14698402

I cant find good fantasy in the giant sewer river of shit. Female authors, handicapped nigger transexual authors, cucks, sojamänner. Where did the based good stuff go?

[Anonymous No.14698533]

Why do people think book of the new sun and dune is better than lotr

[Anonymous No.14698540]

>>14698533

Lotr is nonfiction

[Anonymous No.14698566]

>>14698525
There's still a lot of good fantasy out there. What do you like and what have you read so far?
I'm currently reading the second book of the Broken Empire series, it's a lot better than the first and a great book overall, Ot actually surprised me, I was close to give up on the series after the first book.

[Anonymous No.14698611]

>>14698483
Yes, yes, thank you for detailing to me the jutting gray rock between the row of trees above the cliff, 50 leagues away from Ainos Bepsi for the millionth time.

[Anonymous No.14698618]

>>14698190
Burning Chrome, Neuromancers sequels and the Bridge books are good from Gibson.

BNW, 1984 and farenheit 451 are pretty short reads but if you've seen a lot of dystopian stuff before they probably won't be that mindblowing. Haven't read Liebowitz yet.

I've heard good things about Greg Bear's Blood Music and Eon.

[Anonymous No.14698651]

>>14698611
Let us discuss Tom Bombadil instead.

[Anonymous No.14698672]

>>14698618
That seems to be the pattern of recommendations for Gibson, I think I'll move on past him for now then and get to Bridge later maybe.

1984, BNW and F451 I'm mostly curious about for their place in the context or current dystopian and scifi fiction, do they hold up on their own? Liebowitz soudns interesting but doesn't get talked about as much.

I'll look into those, Eon sounds particularly interesting.

[Anonymous No.14698707]

>>14698672
Canticle for Leibowitz by far the best of those I believe, though I haven't read Fahrenheit 451. 1984 is good to read because it's referenced so often (and with little insight at that), but it's also a good if extremely depressing book.

I would also suggest reading A Fire upon the Deep and its sequels.

[Anonymous No.14698721]

>>14698190
>scifi guys, can I get some recommendations

[Anonymous No.14698806]

>>14698721

[Anonymous No.14698832]

im thinking of going back and censoring my book so it can sell as YA. Im not going to make it any less raunchy, im just going to replace everything i can with double entendres, and everything else with yiddish or medical terminology.

now I just need to figure out how much I can get away with specifically the topless loli scene

[Anonymous No.14698834]

I need another book like The Goblin Emperor or The Curse of Chalion where the protagonist is just a genuinely nice, likeable person.

Lately even in non-grimdark, every character is a cunt.

[Anonymous No.14698849]

>>14698721
>The Painted Man

Who put that waste of good paper on there?

[Anonymous No.14698851]

>>14695585
You are going about this (predictably) all wrong.
You do not judge someone's work by just how people have read or pretend to have read it. You also do not put said work into neat little boxes based on the same metric.
What you actually do, and please pay attention, is judge the work based on it's content. And going by the content of Gibson's few last novels (like The Blue Ant series) he writes the definition of hipster sci-fi. Inoffensive, kinda bland but well written stories about hipster marketing experts (one allergic to brands like Tommy Hilfiger, like some uber-hipster) chasing down the origins of a series of pretty hipster movie segments, all paid by a shady marketing mogul who plans to monetize said hipster cred of said movie segments. I mean come on.
And now you have a novel involving an alternate timeline in which Hillary won.
Dare I say - yikes.

[Anonymous No.14698858]

>>14698834
Lyonesse

[Anonymous No.14698863]

>>14697178
>insta-thots
Why do you have to sound like the worst stereotype this site shat out in a long time?

[Anonymous No.14698871]

>>14698566

I tried 1st law trilogy but tossed it aside halfway 2nd book
Im reading malazan now.

[Anonymous No.14698874]

>>14698721

>filtered

[Anonymous No.14698883]

>>14698190
>I'm a big Halo fan
Egads! Keep it to yourself man.
>and really enjoyed Greg Bear's Forerunner trilogy
So you enjoyed his quick Gaylo cash grab and didn't bother to pick an actual novel by him?
>does he have other stuff worth getting into
Try Darwin's Radio.

[Anonymous No.14698884]

>>14698863
I don't care abou your feelings.

[Anonymous No.14698888]

>>14698806
I think you (you)'d the wrong anon.
You probably meant to reply to >>14698230

[Anonymous No.14698906]

>>14698849
That chart is years old. In a few years it will be a decade + old.
The series started good but the author shit the bed. It's why self published is the future. Publishing House authors have to write and include what their betters want.

[Anonymous No.14698914]

>>14698863
why do you have to avatarfag

[Anonymous No.14698918]

>>14698874
No one cares. You don't even read.

[Anonymous No.14698921]

>>14698884
I know anon. You are one stone cold mofo.

>>14698914
It lubricates the discussion.

[Anonymous No.14698925]

What the fuck happened to the last book of the Vorkosigan series. What a way to ruin your own series.

[Anonymous No.14698934]

>>14698925
What happened to the Vorkosoggyian? I've been thinking of getting into the series for the last 5 years or so, but now I might have an excuse not to.

[Anonymous No.14698973]

>>14698921
You are a sociopath and a narcissist.

[Anonymous No.14698981]

>>14698921
i'd like to lubricate you

[Anonymous No.14699005]

>>14698871
I liked the second book, It has that siege with Glokta, that was the best part of the book.
I've read the first book of Malazan and half of the second, I'll have to continue it someday.

[Anonymous No.14699019]

>>14698883
Yeah, because as stated in my post, I've not delved into scifi and clearly got into those books by dint of them being Halo related, not Greg Bear written. Thanks for the rec, that one sounds interesting.

>>14698707
Hadn't come across Vinge, will check out.

As an aside, seems like I'm coming across a lot of winners of various awards. I don't tend to put too much stock into those for film, games etc. but how decent a bet is reading say, the Hugo winners for most years? Any other consistently deserving awards given out?

[Anonymous No.14699090]

>>14698934
She retcons a character that makes their motivations and personality do a complete 180.

A bisexual man who killed 2 people because of his wife's infidelity which lead her to suicide. He then spends the rest of his career/life atoning by being super honourable and for 15 books he was monogamous with no indication of cheating. Then in book 16 we learn he actually cheating on his current wife, mother of the titular character, with one of his military aides. She's ok with it and somehow they kept a 3 way relationship secret for a decade.

It's also just a bad book. Reads like Mary Stu fanfic with a 70 year old flicking her bean over having a relationship with a devilishly handsome younger man.

[Anonymous No.14699118]

>>14693910
Almuric by Robert E. Howard.

[Anonymous No.14699134]

Let's settle this once and for all. Is Malazan Book of the Fallen a good book?

[Anonymous No.14699154]

>>14699134
There’s no “epic fantasy” worth reading

[Anonymous No.14699163]

What are some just plain old comfy books? Sci-fi or fantasy, either or.

[Anonymous No.14699169]

>>14699019
I don't really know anything about awards, I just go with recommendations I find online. Once you've read a bunch you can ask/search for "books like such and such".

[Anonymous No.14699184]

>>14698973
Do you... do you even know what those words mean? Like for real?

>>14698981
Pretending to be a sodomite on the Internet... how low will you go anon?

[Anonymous No.14699194]

>>14699090
Oh that sounds hilariously bad. Not to mention degenerate. Sounds like another victim of the Rowling syndrome.
Thank you for saving me from a 16 book slog.

[Anonymous No.14699201]

>>14699184
>>14699194
You delight in the suffering of others. Sadist then.

[Anonymous No.14699204]

>>14699134
>Is Malazan Book of the Fallen a good book?
Heh... of course not.

>>14699163
Where you from anon? We barely had a winter here, let alone a comfy one.
Also I would recommend https://www.amazon.com/Ass-Goblins-Auschwitz-Cameron-Pierce/dp/1933929936..

[Anonymous No.14699232]

>>14699201
Waaaait... so you are telling me pics of hot chicks cause you pain?
Nigga I am afraid the problem is on your end.
Here's a fairly tasteful 2D image so as not to trigger you as musch.

[Anonymous No.14699256]

>>14699163
There's nothing more comfy than The Hobbit.

[Anonymous No.14699262]

>>14699134
No wonder your broke. You looking after 3 cats and eating noodles so you have enough money to feed them. You must be American.

[Anonymous No.14699266]

>>14699163

unironically if you've not read it yet - the fellowship of the ring

[Anonymous No.14699271]

/sffg/, I wanted to insert a scene that's kind of sexual scene into my novel and pass it off as a symbolic part of a character arc but now that i know im going YA i don't know if I can include it.

Ive got an alternative scene lined up, but it will either require me to dull the impact or just make the scene extremely obvious magical realm

[Anonymous No.14699299]

how long does it take you guys to read a 400 page book? I'm seeing posts >>14698190 like this, takes me sometimes over a month maybe even longer, am I just a slow reader? Never thought about it before

[Anonymous No.14699311]

>>14699299
>how long does it take you guys to read a 400 page book?
Dude it's not a race.
Just b urself.

[Anonymous No.14699324]

>>14698918

I read which is precisely I think the anon that posted that chart needs to be put against the wall after his tiny balls been cut off and live fireants poured into his ears

[Anonymous No.14699333]

>>14699232
You know that isn't what I meant.

[Anonymous No.14699342]

>>14699005

Second is the best.

I liked the siege actually, but then they went to the north to fight barbarians and the battles are just so basic and characters so lame and simplistic

>le incompetent prinz meme

MUH INDIGESTION

LICKS GUMS

hell, maybe i finished it. I dont know. I cant remember the ending except that it is lame. I truly wonder how such a basic book can reach such a premier position in sales and renown.

[Anonymous No.14699346]

>>14699134

Which one

[Anonymous No.14699352]

>>14699271

How about you stop being a degenerate

[Anonymous No.14699367]

>>14699352
Degeneracy is love.
Degeneracy lis life.

[Anonymous No.14699368]

>>14699299
100 pages an hour is an average rate

[Anonymous No.14699370]

Sup homos

[Anonymous No.14699376]

>>14699163
Terry Pratchett - Guards! Guards!
or most any other Discworld book.
I've also been reading the Long Earth series. It's pretty comfy sci-fi but not much happens.

[Anonymous No.14699417]

>>14699376
Oh no, I completely forgot about Guards! Guards! getting the BBC treatment.

[Anonymous No.14699418]

>>14699368
No, it isn't.

[Anonymous No.14699437]

>>14699418
Learn how to skip the boring paragraphs

[Anonymous No.14699438]

>>14693779
blood song

[Anonymous No.14699451]

>>14699437
>Learn how to skip the boring paragraphs
But that's cheating!

[Anonymous No.14699473]

>>14699417
I'm moderately hyped. The pseudo-modern fantasy aesthetics could be interesting, so I'm looking forward to seeing that in action.

[Anonymous No.14699482]

>>14699473
But it looks so fucking bad. And not just bad, but BBC bad.

[Anonymous No.14699491]

I don't know why I put this one off for so long. It's surprisingly good.

[Anonymous No.14699528]

>>14699019
Hugo is voted on by attendees of a big convention, Nebula, PKD and John W Campbell awards are decided on by different commitees. The Hugo and the Nebula are the most prestigious. I find Hugo winners can be somewhat hit and miss, and its been going downhill for decades now. Any book that won a Hugo and a Nebula is probably a deserved classic.

[Anonymous No.14699538]

>>14698721
Thanks

[Anonymous No.14699539]

>>14699482
I don't think it looks so irredeemable. I'm willing to turn a blind eye to some details, like the not-electric fans in your image, if the show can convey the charm of the books.
Look at it this way: the last Discworld adaptation was Going Postal in 2010, a whole ten years ago. We've gotten nothing since then, if you don't count community theater productions of Witches Abroad with busty amateur actors playing the witches, and such.

[Anonymous No.14699597]

>>14699437
Congrats on being both a speedreader and speedskipper. It's that's what you have to do cope with your ADD and ADHD then that's an awful way to be.

[Anonymous No.14699608]

>>14699352
can I just explain it?

it's supposed to be a scene where the MC realizes his Manic Pixie Dream Girl crush isn't quirky, she's an emotionally stunted womanchild and he's a piece of shit for being interested in her. I originally planned to do this scene where they go swimming together and she just gets naked without a second thought, but there's no way I could include that. the alternative idea was her innocently trying to share a bed with him, but that's too easy to accept dismiss as her being interested. A third option was the same as the second, but then she falls asleep and wets the bed. obviously that lasr one sounds magical realm as fuck, so it's out.

honestly, considering the scene is supposed to represent the MC's self-hatred coloring his judgement, options 1 and 2 might actually be hilarious in retrospect when he realizes the truth.

[Anonymous No.14699644]

>>14699299
It's more an issue of finding the time to read than how fast you read. I'd rather spend the time visualizing every scene, properly sounding out the prose and dialog than reading really fast. But I do miss the days of being a single neet and reading hundreds of pages a day.

[Anonymous No.14699649]

>>14699473
>pseudo-modern fantasy aesthetics could be interesting
you know i really enjoyed the movie "bright" because of that. it like a great setting that seems to mash modern times with fantasy elements really well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUY3GVByRUs

a lot of people disliked the movie but i really enjoyed it. when people reference urban fantasy they think dresden files for example but id like something like bright but in book form.

[Anonymous No.14699667]

>>14699539
Anon we can never settle for less in out pursuit of quality TV adaptations. Anything else would be a betrayal of the highest order.

[Anonymous No.14699682]

>>14699342
The best part in the north was the group of Named man that helped out West. I didn't care much for NineFingers, what a fuck up he was. The books were ok, but Glokta was really well written, I'd say he carried the series.

>>14699491
And nothing will ever come close. Croaker beating One-Eye at cards, those were the days.

[Anonymous No.14699706]

>>14699324
Weird fetish you got their. Sissification and torture of straight males. You must be a tranny or a feminist.

[Anonymous No.14699738]

>>14699342
> I truly wonder how such a basic book can reach such a premier position in sales and renown
You faggots look back on the past and make judgements without living it.
Abercrombie made sales because he wrote for modern readers, same with Rothfuss and others. None of that dino shit boomers masturbate over.
Shit for books was far different 10 years ago. Now you could raise your nose in the air and be a choosy bitch, but you had to take what you were given fifteen years ago.

[Anonymous No.14699762]

>>14699667
>>14699649
When it comes to adapting "urban" fantasy, it seems to me that the BBC has taken an "interesting" direction. I also liked Bright, but that was just our world with elves and other races, with some magic thrown in.
Discworld however, is a different world with its own history, with no shared industrial and technological past. Only similarities and parallels, set in a late-medieval world on the cusp of industrial revolution. This adaption seems to be doing something different. For once it isn't generically medieval or the same tired old 19th cenury London that Ankh Morpork is depicted as. The city and the costumes look colorful, gritty and like nothing much we've seen before, and that's the part that looks interesting to me, personally.

But some things still stick out, when considering the costume or prop department: the military knee-pad covering that henchemans arm, the battle-rifle magazine pouch on the other guys chest, the picatinny rail on the crossbow and so on. The helmets are fun though.

[Anonymous No.14699769]

Wrapping my my first read of The Wheel of Time after starting the journey with The Eye of The World in the nineties. What should I read next anons?

[Anonymous No.14699794]

>>14699769
>What should I read next anons?
Something good for a change.

[Anonymous No.14699828]

>>14699794
Open to recommendations. Keep in mind that I actually enjoyed WoT.

[Anonymous No.14699835]

>>14699769
Imajica - Clive Barker

[Anonymous No.14699908]

>>14699769
Redemption's Blade

[Anonymous No.14700081]

>>14699769
Do you want something similar or something darker?

Try the licanius series if you want something like WoT.

Try Bakker if you want grimdark.

[Anonymous No.14700119]

>>14699738
Abercrombie succeeded because he was a GRRM replacement. Rothfuss was a Rowling "but for adults"

[Anonymous No.14700272]

>>14699828
>Keep in mind that I actually enjoyed WoT.
Anything else after will most likely be a huge improvement in quality.

[Anonymous No.14700277]

>>14700081
>Try Bakker if you want grimdark.
More like grimderp.

[Anonymous No.14700306]

>>14699762
What it looks like to me is that the lack of proper funds made them raid the costume prop department and do a low cost mashup of the resources they had on hand.
I am not sure how affected the American BBC will be but once BoJo kills the loicense fee in Bongistan the proper British BBC will be in a world of financial hurt.

[Anonymous No.14700403]

>>14699835
>>14699908
Thanks for the recommendations. I hadn't heard of either of these before. Taking a look at them.
>>14700081
The Licanius Trilogy seems to hit a little too close to the WoT for me. I like the epic scope of WoT, but I'm not so sure I want to read something so similar to it.
>>14700272
Well, if that's the case I'm going to be like a kid in a candy store reading these recommendations.

I hear a lot of good about Malazan. So, I'm kind of thinking of diving into that.

[Anonymous No.14700424]

>>14699835
Are you going to recommend that to everyone (newfags) now, newfag? Search the archives, it was done and ranted to death years ago.

[Anonymous No.14700448]

>>14699299
on a holiday without a PC to distract me, a few days
if it's a boring book like Fellowship of the Ring, and i'm reading on the toilet daily, and a bit before bed, a month
if it's Rothfuss and i want to read more before bed, a week or two

[Anonymous No.14700459]

>>14700424
I apologise.
What would you prefer me to talk about?
The Black Company?
The Darkness that Comes Before?

They have already been suggested and talked about in these threads. I'm just throwing out something different for people to perhaps consider.

[Anonymous No.14700507]

>>14700459
Not that anon but I would prefer if you kept quiet altogether.

[Anonymous No.14700552]

Oh ok took me a while but I figured out that the (bl) tag means it’s fucking gay

[Anonymous No.14700600]

>tfw bored out of my gourd and no fantasy can hit the spot
>tfw trying short stories on tor.com but almost every one of them turns out to be too gay for comfort

[Anonymous No.14700617]

>>14700600
Read webnovels

[Anonymous No.14700622]

>>14700617
there are webnovels besides worm that are worth reading?

[Anonymous No.14700638]

>>14700622
Depends on what sorta flavour you like

[Anonymous No.14700672]

>mouthy bossy mc is raped and broken
>she can't look anyone in the eyes because she knows they saw
Man. My dick is on steroids, never saw so much veins. Why is it that women authors know how to write the best rape. It's like they know what they want.

[Anonymous No.14700675]

>>14700600
Have you tried the self published rabbit hole.

[Anonymous No.14700681]

>>14700552
It means boys love. It's a Japanese term.

[Anonymous No.14700689]

>>14700681
Those slanty eyed degenerates. Why can't they be more like Hollywood?

[Anonymous No.14700690]

>>14700672
Reading erotica are you now.

[Anonymous No.14700695]

>>14700638
>flavour
if you've got it. Otherwise, something that's not set in medieval europe or russia

[Anonymous No.14700702]

>>14700672
Erotica authors do one of two things. Either they try to figure out what readers want to read and write around that or they self insert and write about what they want to happen to them.

[Anonymous No.14700704]

>>14700689
>>14699367

[Anonymous No.14700713]

>>14700681
I shoulda guessed by how many times the author had a guy find another guys eyes beautiful

[Anonymous No.14700760]

>>14700713
Unclear how you started reading it at all.

[Anonymous No.14700931]

Anyone here read the Condor Trilogy? If so, would you recommend either the fan translation or the official translation.
I heard the official translation awkwardly transferred some of the names due to the direct nature of the translation, while I heard the fan translation has a more accurate version of the names.
But I also know that fan translations tend to have an inferior and stilted prose due to the amateurish quality of the translators.
Keepint both of those cons in mind, would guys recommend the fan or official

[Anonymous No.14700967]

>>14700931
Look at both side by side and decide for yourself.

[Anonymous No.14701133]

>>14697561
>greek mitology
>good protagonist and heros.
>pick one

[Anonymous No.14701236]

>open up fantasy book
>no map inside
>not even a map online somewhere
Into the trash it goes

[Anonymous No.14701292]

>>14701236
No one cares, you ultra autist.

[Anonymous No.14701387]

All is transient.

[Anonymous No.14701410]

>>14696777
Just finished reading too like the lightning and really enjoyed it. Is it worth reading the rest of the trilogy?

[Anonymous No.14701622]

>>14689097
The Dispatcher - John Scalzi

Another investigation novella.
People who are killed respawn at home. No one knows why.
The protagonist is a dispatcher, a licensed therapeutic killer, who kills those who are better off from being killed because if they die from any other cause other than being killed, they stay dead.
Another dispatcher is missing and the protagonist is coerced into investigating his disappearance.
I would have liked the idea to be developed somewhat more, but it is a novella.
It's very heavy on dialogue.
There are a few illustrations for some reason. I don't think they really add anything to it.
There's quite a bit of silliness.
At first I thought it was going to be more like Ajin, which I've enjoyed a good bit more, but apparently not. Minimally related to Russian Doll.

Rating: 2.5/5 (rounded up to 3 on gr)
/sffg/ gr rating: 2/5 (1 rating)

[Anonymous No.14701676]

Taking an intentional break from writing is far and away the most retarded thing I've ever done in my entire life

[Anonymous No.14701679]

>>14701676
Now you've lost all your skill again and have to start all over!

[Anonymous No.14701710]

>>14701679
I've only ever had talent, and I'm pretty sure that has a stable half-life. No, I'm just out of discipline

[Anonymous No.14701775]

After finishing The Book of the New Sun, I'm so confused as to what to think about it. I'm not sure if I actually even like the series or not, but for some reason I can't stop thinking about it. I found the ending really satisfying, but I'm simultaneously confused as fuck.

Is the general consensus as to why Severian is such a dispassionate narrator because he has all the past Autarchs + Thecla in his brain so he tends to not put much of his own emotions into his writing because its been muddled up with all those other personalities? Or is Severian just autistic to begin with?

>And what of the dead? I own that I thought of myself, at times, almost as dead. Are they not locked below ground in chambers smaller than mine was, in their millions of millions? There is no category of human activity in which the dead do not outnumber the living many times over. Most beautiful children are dead. Most soldiers, most cowards. The fairest women and the most learned men – all are dead. Their bodies repose in caskets, in sarcophagi, beneath arches of rude stone, everywhere under the earth. Their spirits haunt our minds, ears pressed to the bones of our foreheads. Who can say how intently they listen as we speak, or for what word?

I mainly had this quote in mind. When Severian refers to himself as 'dead', is he referring to the personality death that has been brought upon him from having all the Autarch memories?

[Anonymous No.14701812]

>>14701622
Snapshot - Brandon Sanderson

Yet another investigation novella.
Two disgraced officers are investigating a crime in a snapshot, which is supposedly an exact recreation of an area on a certain day. It's unclear on how exactly it works, but it seems to be more augmented reality than virtual reality. Everyone else is a "dupe" (NPC) who they can basically take control of by flashing their badges at them. Everything they interact with has the effects as if it were real, including what can be done to them by the "dupes". The protagonist's partner really likes that he can whatever to the "dupes" and there's no lasting consequences. Maybe I haven't read enough Sanderson, but it certainly different tone from I remember of what I have read. They become bored and stumble upon a mass murder and decide to track down a serial killer. They figure the fastest way is to go to the police HQ and mind control everyone with the badge and end up murdering their boss, because why not? Various other "we can do anything because consequences" don't matter sort of stuff happens. Eventually they catch the serial killer and he's killed. The protagonist then tells his partner that he's going to kill him now. Why? Well, in the language of certain anons on 4chan, because the protagonist is a soiboi betacuck who was cucked by based bull chad which made him blackpilled about his thot wife so he's become the supreme gentleman. Which is to say his partner not only has been having sex with his wife every time they are in a snapshot, he's had sex with her in IRL as well, which is what they call it. He doesn't go through with it though, much to the disappointment of the FBI, because this is a snapshot of a snapshot, snapception, and they wanted to catch him in the act, because he had actually murdered his partner. Then they reveal that they use these two for PR reasons while the black ops teams do all sorts of stuff all in the time in secret in snapshots. The FBI then uses the badges on them, kills one of them, and ends the simulation. The End.
So while the general idea is fine, I didn't like how it was done. I didn't like much about it overall in general, but I don't outright dislike it.
Rating: 2/5 (rounded up)

[Anonymous No.14701836]

>>14699539
Yeah but there's no Nobbs or Colon

[Anonymous No.14701839]

>>14701236
KJ Parker BTFO

[Anonymous No.14701894]

>>14699370
at least buy a good pen

>>14698832
>>14699271
taking out sexual scenes isn't going to magically turn the rest of the book into YA.

[Anonymous No.14701902]

>>14699370
>terrible handwriting
>screenshot of a photo
who let the witlets in?

[Anonymous No.14701906]

>>14701775
i dont know dude but its really fucking good

[Anonymous No.14701918]

>>14701775
I think in that particular he's referring to being imprisoned

[Anonymous No.14701978]

>>14699370
I guess you didn't notice that you're reflected on the glass of the bottle.

[Anonymous No.14702058]

I'd like to read some fantasy with vassals anyone have any recommendations? I looked at the recommendations but couldn't find a thing

[Anonymous No.14702087]

>>14702058
Curse of Chalion
The Warrior's Apprentice
High Crusade

[Anonymous No.14702146]

>>14689097

I would give this a 3.5/5.

Extremely, almost annoyingly verbose. Doesn't explain how the mechanism that's killing the AI's and their hosts, just that Seung was killing them. The Doctor just feels like she is tagging along next to her superpowered, subby gf that's actually doing everything. The conflict at the end is extremely confusing in terms of location and what precisely is going on.

I can't criticize the book on this, but the use of ze/xe pronouns was very weird considering that they were both used. They/them is the more formalized ones anyway.

Oh, and the Admiral thread at the end was pretty pointless. No reason for it to have been included.

I am glad that there was some emotional resolution. I am fucking tired of unrequited lovers still having to separate at the end for reasons.

[Anonymous No.14702226]

>>14702146
>Extremely, almost annoyingly verbose.
I read this a couple hours ago. It's much more so.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23526499-and-the-burned-moths-remain

[Anonymous No.14702239]

I wish I at least had the energy to do something productive. I'm not even working on getting a publisher

[Anonymous No.14702248]

>>14702239
>publisHER
You mean
>publisHIS

[Anonymous No.14702254]

>write the first chapter of a Sci-Fi story
>the only people who have read it, and coincidentally also like it are people with AGP and trannies

Welp. Do I just die, or...

[Anonymous No.14702258]

>>14702254
Why are they the only ones who have read it?

[Anonymous No.14702266]

>>14702258
Technically they weren't supposed to.

I posted it in a Discord for people who want to fuck robots/cyborgs, and overwhelmingly the only responses I got were from people with AGP or were trans on there.

[Anonymous No.14702273]

>>14702266
Oh, I think I read your story in the critique threads and commented on it then. At least, that's what the story was about anyway.

[Anonymous No.14702282]

>>14702273
You mean on /aco/?

It's more or less killed any motivation I've had to continue.

[Anonymous No.14702291]

>>14702282
No, on /lit/. I guess not then. It was a sex with robots/cyborgs story.

[Anonymous No.14702297]

>>14702239
i hope you mean agent

[Anonymous No.14702300]

>>14702291
Yeah, not me.

I've specifically didn't post it on /lit/ because my grammar is fucking ass. Even /aco/ yelled at me about it.

[Anonymous No.14702339]

>>14702297
i do

[Anonymous No.14702356]

>>14699491
It's down hill from there tho. Soulcatcher a waifu.

[Anonymous No.14702434]

>>14702254
If in doubt, the answer is

[Anonymous No.14702436]

The end is nigh

[Anonymous No.14702451]

>>14702356
No, no waifus allowed.

[Anonymous No.14702462]

>>14701292
no u r

[Anonymous No.14702466]

>>14693848
All the women were

[Anonymous No.14702481]

>>14702436
The end is here.

[Anonymous No.14702753]

>>14700704
You gotta admit your point of view is awfully skewed due to you being a disgusting sodomite.

[Anonymous No.14702770]

>>14702466
But Dudley's udders in those tight sweaters were a cut above the rest.

[Anonymous No.14702786]

>>14702770
Forgot the photo.

[Anonymous No.14702787]

>>14702753
skewing is logos.
skewing is ethos.

[Anonymous No.14702793]

>>14702786
I prefer Stella Maeve

[Anonymous No.14702803]

>>14700695
Library of heavens path

[Anonymous No.14702811]

>>14702787
There is no need for excessive mental gymnastics.

>>14702793
Gaaaaay.

[Anonymous No.14702818]

>>14702811
Aside from being a titcow, she doesn't really have much going for her, so relatively rather low really.

[Anonymous No.14702885]

NEW THREAD
>>14702882
NEW THREAD

[Anonymous No.14703248]

>>14699271
>/sffg/, I wanted to insert a scene that's kind of sexual scene into my novel and pass it off as a symbolic part of a character arc
that's the type of shit female authors do

[Anonymous No.14703452]

>>14701978
Can you clear it up?