/sffg/ - Science Fiction and Fantasy General

[Anonymous No.14949541]

Social Isolation edition

BOOK CLUB SELECTION:
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
https://mega.nz/#F!O1cFiKaS!hPf1KFnauX7PSaM5PJE3QA
RECS https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1029811-sffg
CHAT https://discord.gg/KWPCM7m
CHARTS https://mega.nz/#F!QyJVEQpL!utXEIGMAprWxM9GMGLxxtg
LINKS https://pastelink.net/sffglit
THREADS >>/lit/?task=search2&search_subject=sffg

[Anonymous No.14949583]

>>14949541
I never liked the idea of an "evil" god, who is evil just for the sake of evil instead of opposing the rest of the pantheon for more complex reasons, and has evil as an actual divine domain. How have you approached the concept or seen it approached, and is it better to have a more Satan-like figure or a more Loki or Coyote-like trickster figure, and should they be a true pantheon member or distinct somehow? What are some good domains besides war and/or the underworld (which I feel are a bit overused, at least as primary domains)?

[Anonymous No.14949601]

>>14949541
April book club voting: https://www.strawpoll.me/19616290

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40495148-blindness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17274667-metro-2033
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/910863.Spin

Gideon discussion post coming up in a few hours (when I finish the book).

[Anonymous No.14949609]

>>14949583
You're thinking of this too much in D&D terms and too little like a real religion desu.

[Anonymous No.14949636]

>>14949583
What is better than all that is to have a monotheistic system where God is evil by his sheer negligence, silence and incompetence (aka our world)

[Anonymous No.14949648]

>>14949583
>What are some good domains besides war and/or the underworld
The biblical version of Satan wasn't actually connected with hell, the closest thing you had to a traditional "King of Hell" devil was the angel warden Abaddon, Satan actually seemed to be king of Earth and the physical considering he offered Jesus all the kingdoms of Earth.

[Anonymous No.14949680]

Whats a good starting place for someone who has never read science fiction. I hear Book of The New Sun is good. How is pic related?

[Anonymous No.14949759]

>>14949583

The road to hell is paved with good intentions

[Anonymous No.14949780]

Has anyone read Hyperion by Dan Simmons? Considering checking it out.

[Anonymous No.14949794]

>>14949680
>Kiva Lagos was busily fucking the brains out of the assistant purser she’d been after for the last six weeks of the Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby’s trip from Lankaran to End when Second Officer Waylov Brennir entered her stateroom, unannounced. “You’re needed,” he said.

>“I’m a little busy at the moment,” Kiva said. She’d just finally gotten herself into a groove, so fuck Waylov (not literally, he was awful) if she was going to get out of the groove just because he walked into it. Grooves were hard to come by. People have sex, and he was unannounced. If this was what he walked into, it was his fault, not hers. The assistant purser seemed a little concerned, but Kiva applied a little pressure to make it clear festivities were to continue.

>“It’s important.”

>“Trust me, so is this.”

>“We’ve got a customs official who won’t let us take any haverfruit off the ship,” Brennir said. If he was shocked or scandalized by Lagos’s activities he was doing a good job of hiding it. He mostly looked bored. “Offloading our haverfruit is why we came to End. If we don’t sell it, or develop licenses, we’re screwed. You’re the owner’s representative. You’re going to have to explain to your mother why this trip was the cause of the financial ruin of your family. So perhaps you might like to join Captain Blinnikka in talking with this customs official right now to see if you can resolve this problem. Or you can just go on fucking that junior crew member, ma’am. I’m sure those are equivalent activities as regards your future, and the future of this ship, and your family.”

>“Well, shit,” Kiva said. Her groove was definitely gone, and the assistant purser, her little project, looked pretty miserable at the moment. “That was a pretty impressive jab you just gave to someone who can fire your ass, Brennir.”

>“You can’t fire me, ma’am,” Brennir said. “I’ve got tenure with the guild. Now, are you coming or not?”

>“I’m thinking.”

>“I should go,” the assistant purser said. “I mean, I can go. Maybe I should go?”

>Kiva sighed and looked down at her conquest. “When are you on duty again?”

>“Three hours.”

>“Then you stay right here.” She untangled herself from the assistant purser, put on something acceptable for the outside world, and then followed Brennir out of her stateroom and through the ship.

[Anonymous No.14949813]

>>14949780
Yeah it's good but just buy the second one (Fall of Hyperion) because the first book ends on a gigantic cliffhanger which is continued by the (less impressive but still good) Fall.

Don't even think about reading the Endymion books, they're awful.

[Anonymous No.14949958]

>>14949794
what the fuck is this garbage that i've just been subjected to.

[Anonymous No.14950058]

Any good /k/-tier sci-fi? I've already read Neuromancer and Altered Carbon.

[Anonymous No.14950125]

>>14950058
>/k/
Maybe you can explain to me what the fuck the Cobra from Neuromancer is supposed to be.

[Anonymous No.14950151]

>>14950058
The Eclipse Trilogy - John Shirley
Hardwired by Walter John Williams

[Anonymous No.14950299]

>>14950125
I think it's pretty much just an asp

[Anonymous No.14950312]

>>14949958
It's from >>14949680

[Anonymous No.14950337]

>>14949541
>March 25
>only read 14 books
i don't think i'm going to make it

[Anonymous No.14950341]

Still searching for a novel I read in highschool more than a decade ago.

MC is a man in a dying tribe who are one of many different sentient species who hunt each other to eat. I think meat is their only food source. He ends up on a journey of course and encounters many hostile races. Its post apocalyptic sort of setting with dilapidated cities.

I remember a satellite crashing, a journey on a river of carnivorous aquatic folk, a skeleton-esque race with maybe four arms that they eat and tastes "sweet". I believe the ending is the MC saving his love interest by sending her off world in an escape pod and it turns out the whole thing is either a reality show or how the various races of the universe settle disputes/wars.

[Anonymous No.14950370]

>>14950312
Why would anyone write this unironically and then submit it for publication?

[Anonymous No.14950404]

>>14950370
Dude there are no standards in SFF, as long as you sell. This isn't even close to the most cringe thing I've read

[Anonymous No.14950406]

>>14949794
This reads like one of those "so bad it's good" fanfics

[Anonymous No.14950467]

What's /sffg/ consensus of KJ Parker? A lot of his standalones look promising, but I'm not that into grimdark.

[Anonymous No.14950649]

>>14950467
His trilogies are the really intensely grimdark/tragic ones.
If you don't want that I'd suggest reading Sixteen Ways first which is almost a comic novel (he writes those under his real name) despite having a deliberately similar plot to most of his more morose books.
Sharps is also not that tragic despite being a book dealing with the consequences of a war crime, not a massive fan of that one though because the plot is mainly about what happens offscreen/around the characters.

[Anonymous No.14950687]

>>14950649
>>14950467
this isn't to say that there isn't comedy in the trilogies btw
The Engineer Trilogy is pretty much 2000 pages of setup for an exceptionally cruel joke of an ending.

[Anonymous No.14950934]

Is Revelation Space any good? I'm looking for new Sci-Fi in these trying times. Any other recommendations?

[Anonymous No.14950971]

post genuinely patrician obscure fantasy
*no women

[Anonymous No.14951058]

Popularity has its own inertia. Most of what is often mentioned isn't because it's good, it's because it's known. Marketing, advertising, aND other forms of promotion are far more important than quality.

[Anonymous No.14951107]

>>14949601
I've finished reading it. As I told you though,it will be a few hours before I'll be available to discuss or begin to write questions.

[Anonymous No.14951335]

>>14950934
Yes. You could even start with the stand-alone book Chasm City that is set in the setting before committing to the trilogy, to acquaint yourself with the author. The books even have an infectious disease sometimes featured in them, that is now topical:
>The Melding Plague is a nanotech virus that attacks anything that has nanotechnology present within it and does not discriminate between human and machine. It attempts to meld the nanomachines and implants that are commonly present in the bodies of humans, with the structure of their body on a cellular level. This results in horrific, uncontrollable modifications to the body of whoever is infected and almost inevitably leads to death.
I like the work of the author and I'm currently reading the last book in the Revenger trilogy. The tongue scene has reminded me that Alastair Reynolds can sometimes write effective (cosmic) body horror.

For other new sci-fi I would recommend Blindsight or Children of Time.

[Anonymous No.14951352]

>>14950058
Hammer's Slammers

[Anonymous No.14951395]

>>14949601
Blindness was so depressing that I had to drop it.

[Anonymous No.14951449]

I don't even know how to start writing.

[Anonymous No.14951527]

>>14949780
Yes, but don't buy the second one because the first is vague and mystical and in the second hey it's a robot

[Anonymous No.14952001]

>>14951449
Oh boy, that's a good question. How to even begin

[Anonymous No.14952046]

>>14949541
>>14949601
BOOK DISCUSSION
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Was it what you expected?
How did you like the writing, the modern language and obscure sepulchral words?
Will you read the next book?

[Anonymous No.14952229]

>>14952046
she a cute lesbianism

[Anonymous No.14952248]

>>14952046
I tried to read it a couple month ago, but I dropped it an hour in. I understand that I might have not gotten past some slow set up part, but I had no interest in following through.
Putting a dramatis personae right at the beginning of the book did not help me distinguish between or care about all the bland houses and the non-characters that inhabit them. The fact that right at the start the book threatened me with more such "characters" that I had the displeasure of meeting, several houses of them, just put me off.
Does it really get interesting? Could I find anything curious deeper in the book that is not another superficial cliché? Was my mood just a bit too sour to enjoy a lighthearted and wacky adventure? The picture of the author, humanizing a name, and the fact that many people seem to have enjoyed it do make me doubt myself, but perhaps their tastes differ from mine. Perhaps I will never find out.

[Anonymous No.14952427]

>>14949601
wrong kind of leather

[Anonymous No.14952429]

please stop posting paragraphs about how you read one chapter and decided to hate a book because of guesses you formed from it

[Anonymous No.14952624]

>>14952046
> Was it what you expected?
No, I was decidedly not expecting a bunch of teens in magic camp. Guess I didn't read the blurb clearly, or at all. Also, I was surprised that the physical intimacy was limited to mostly hand holding.

> How did you like the writing, the modern language and obscure sepulchral words?
The modern language felt fresh, not every book has to go the Star Trek route of avoiding all slang to appear timeless, or the Clockwork Orange route of inventing a patois. It felt a bit like fanfiction, and in the author bio at the end she mentions that she wrote Animorphs fanfic.

> WIll you read the next book?
Yup.

This book felt intentionally confusing, maybe to reflect what being a teenager is like. The first few acts kept changing things up, I didn't know where the story was heading until the murders finally gave the plot a push.

It was really different to see a female friendship, the pool scene was very strange and intimate.

I have some gripes, the deaths were really casual, even Gideon doesn't get a full mourning because her spirit lives on. The beginning especially felt like more flash than substance, there was no plot or character development until the second half, just world building (but still so many questions) and slice of life.

part 2 coming maybe later

[Anonymous No.14952717]

>>14952248
the plot really starts in act three, and yes it is a struggle initially to distinguish the houses. however it always revolves around the personal interactions, and there are many unanswered questions waiting for the next book, so it might just not be your thing.

[Anonymous No.14952782]

>>14950649
How grimdark are we talking? Are they grimdark just to be grimdark or do the stories necessitate it? So long as it's not misery porn I don't mind tragic. What would be a better standalone be than Sharps?

>>14950687
>Cruel joke of an ending.
Joke as in it being a punch line or it being a let down?

[Anonymous No.14952789]

>>14952782
v. dark punchline to the whole trilogy

[Anonymous No.14952796]

>>14950370
You clearly haven't read Anita Blake's books.
The author just repeats descriptions to fill page count.

[Anonymous No.14952805]

>>14952429
No.

[Anonymous No.14952826]

>>14952782
>What would be a better standalone be than Sharps?
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City or Blue and Gold and The Devil You Know which are novellas.
And they're grim in terms of handling stuff like genocide, the death of civilisations, immoral characters triumphing over moral ones and good deeds leading to bad outcomes but it's never insanely edgy.

[Anonymous No.14952842]

>>14950058
Gun Meister Online
I think a kfag wrote that. They had to.

There is also Zone War by John Conroe and Shadow Sun by Dave Willmarth.

[Anonymous No.14952868]

>>14950337
How many did you put down? 100?
I put down 50 in goodreads. There are 52 weeks in a year, so if I keep the books short I can finish my goal easy.

[Anonymous No.14952900]

>>14950341
Sounds like princess of mars, book of the new sun and Acts of caine had a baby.

[Anonymous No.14952914]

>>14952046
I could easily tell in the first chapter this book wasn't for me. I didn't like Gideon's voice. I have no problems with female authors or heroines but I thought the faux-tough snark was annoying and unfunny. I understand why others might like it. I'm also kind of anti-horror. I don't read in that genre anymore and only watch a few horror movies by choice but I'm dragged to horror movies sometimes.

I kept reading and got a little more than halfway. I thought it was a big ask to have a >450 page book as the monthly reading. I felt there was too much padding in the book. I had no expectations going in. I'll probably read the rest of the book because of sunk costs but won't read book 2. I'll dip out too on the next monthly reading because my to read pile is large. Station Eleven is calling to me and I've sampled it and know it's something I'll like a lot.

This book was educational because I want to be a writer too and haven't read anything current for awhile so it's good to see what's popular in the field right now. I won't be surprised if this gets picked up for a movie or tv series. I thought the New Adult tone was kinda weird. It's probably the first one that I've read. It felt like an early teen trying to appear more grown up, very YA in substance, Hunger Gamesish, Harry Potterish, except add swearing and a little gore, but! still scared of sex! I felt like Gideon was 14 years old. I did enjoy the combat sections because the author either had done some fencing herself or her research was good.

[Anonymous No.14952929]

>>14950971
>that pic
Rent free. They weren't even mention and you thinking of them.

[Anonymous No.14952944]

>>14952914
She looks french.

[Anonymous No.14952962]

>>14952789
That sounds interesting. Thanks for the rec, Anon.

>>14952826
Sounds like my cup of tea then. Thank you as well, Anon.

[Anonymous No.14953152]

gone from slagging off the 1 book per month publishing gimmick for this to thinking it was perfectly suited
the books are readable and tell a decent story but boy is it one that moves slowly, waiting years between entries would have killed interest but it works quite well as an epic when the next book is always right around the corner.
if nothing else it's neat to read a war fantasy where all of the main characters are in positions of command and thus rarely engage in combat themselves, even during guerilla warfare.

[Anonymous No.14953260]

>>14952914
>I thought the faux-tough snark was annoying and unfunny
>I'm also kind of anti-horror
Why did you keep reading, is the book that good that it can overcome your resistance, or do you normally keep reading books you don't enjoy?

> I thought it was a big ask to have a >450 page book as the monthly reading
it was the longest book nominated that month. There's apparently a really small sweet spot, I'll go 200-400 pages for nominations.

> Station Eleven
Good book.

> New Adult
While reading I saw that everyone was mostly teenagers, so I went 'oh this is YA then right?', but it definitely did not feel YA. I forgot that New Adult is a thing.

> combat sections
I have a minor gripe about that in the final acts - Gideon shrugs off a rapier through the arm. Admittedly I've never been pierced by a rapier, but I find it hard to believe you can just ignore that.

[Anonymous No.14953405]

>>14953260
>Why did you keep reading
I have an English degree so I'm used to reading things that don't necessarily appeal to me strongly. I kind of did this as a reading assignment to see what /sffg/ voted for, to see the current state of popular fantasy. I do like heroines and the magic system was unique. The murders definitely helped pick up the pace after so much set up. Now that the conflict has finally started with the keys I think story will finally begin. I checked GR and found a reviewer I like who 3-starred it but also said the second half of the book picks up so I'll keep going.

Altho I didn't like the snark I mean I get it, that like a lot of fantasy it's wish fulfillment. The snark is for people that don't speak up for themselves. This motivation is the main takeaway from Gideon that I'll use in my own writing.

I haven't read up to that point obvs but a rapier thru your arm would hurt like hell even with the adrenaline rush fighting some of the pain. If it was through her sword arm that would definitely fuck up her skills

[Anonymous No.14953513]

Any good recommendations for military Sci-Fi if I love the bureaucracy aspect. Power armor and space fights are cool but I'm always interested in the paperwork and diplomacy angle. A lot of David Weber's stuff hits that spot but Honorverse seems to drop of in quality drastically 6-7 books in.

[Anonymous No.14953697]

>>14950404
>This isn't even close to the most cringe thing I've read
Post some SFF cringe I could use a good laugh.

[Anonymous No.14953965]

>all Chinese web novel authors believe virgins have a special fragrance

[Anonymous No.14954316]

sanderson is a hack

[Anonymous No.14954333]

>>14953965
male virgins certainly do

[Anonymous No.14954355]

>>14954333
*sniffs (you)*

Hmm.

[Anonymous No.14954520]

>>14954355
*sniffs (you)*

smells like dog

[Anonymous No.14954531]

>>14954520
Dogs are based.

[Anonymous No.14954541]

>>14954531
indeed they are

[Anonymous No.14954576]

what are some good stories about dogs?

[Anonymous No.14954587]

>>14954576
A lot of fantasy stories have them, Gurm's unfinished series, the Farseer books, and so on. Well, wolves anyway.

[Anonymous No.14954610]

once i finish i finish deadhouse gates what should i read

>shadow of a torturer
>lies of locke lamora
>last wot book
>blindsight
>accelerando
>black company
>culture
>hyperion
>dune

[Anonymous No.14954619]

why the fuck are the so many fantasy books? holy shit

[Anonymous No.14954637]

>>14954619
because fantasy is based

[Anonymous No.14954812]

>>14954610
help

[Anonymous No.14955068]

>>14954531
Not that dog. He's an Apple fag.

[Anonymous No.14955079]

>>14954610
>>14954812

[Anonymous No.14955286]

Need books where knife ears get human cock, and love it.

[Anonymous No.14955414]

>>14954812
Gene Wolfe.

[Anonymous No.14955417]

>>14955286
Lord of the Rings.

[Anonymous No.14955426]

>>14955417
There are only sausages in the Lord of the rings.

[Anonymous No.14955465]

I read a book that I liked "L'ange du chaos" by Michel Robert, but I don't know if it has been translated to english. If you can read french I recommend it, was a pretty fun read.

[Anonymous No.14955469]

>>14949680
book of the new sun has the same type of narration as dark souls. Great book, great universe, but you have to concentrate to get everything.

[Anonymous No.14955486]

>>14951335
I read chasm city after I found it in a house where a college party was being held, best book I ever stole.

[Anonymous No.14955540]

>>14955486
Filthy book thief
It's why I don't let people visit me.

>>14955465
>I surrender frog legs

[Anonymous No.14955546]

>>14955426
You obviously haven't read it.

[Anonymous No.14955676]

>>14955286
Longsword chronicles. It’s a bit ya ish, but it’s got a human prince claiming his elf waifu over the disapproval of her parents and her people.

[Anonymous No.14955806]

>>14955676
But does the cock enter the elf. You saying it's a little ya-ish tells me no.

[Anonymous No.14955941]

>>14954576
City by Clifford Simak

[Anonymous No.14956096]

>>14955286
The King of Elfland's Daughter

[Anonymous No.14956189]

>>14953965
We're talking about people who've only ever seen women through computer screens, what do you expect?

[Anonymous No.14956604]

>>14955806
Yes it does, but it takes till like, book 2 or 3. The cock does enter the elf, it’s just after they get informally married

[Anonymous No.14956718]

what book would you recommend in the vein of the next generation and ds9?

[Anonymous No.14956798]

>>14954333
Well they do

[Anonymous No.14957184]

>>14953513

Try the lost fleet series .
It has a lot of strategy and fleet management elements to it.
If you can get past the protagonists " muh honor" its a decent read.

[Anonymous No.14957331]

I started reading Dune
80 pages in, it's pretty good so far. You guys might give it a look.

[Anonymous No.14957462]

Is libgen any good for extremely new releases? Mobilism's missed a lot of stuff in the past two months so I was looking for a backup

[Anonymous No.14957473]

>>14957462
No go to irc or your local library

[Anonymous No.14957528]

>>14955540
It was at a jock's house, so I figured he wouldn't really need it

[Anonymous No.14957536]

I can't be the only person who has ignored Reynolds, pretty much unintentionally, because of the font he uses on the covers.
just makes them so unmemorable that I've never thought to look into him

[Anonymous No.14957580]

Going through my backlog now, what should I read next sffg?

Three Body Problem, The Terror, Starfish or Player of Games?

[Anonymous No.14957604]

Is Blindsight any good?

[Anonymous No.14957630]

>>14957604
It's probably the SF book most likely to be regarded as a classic released in the 21st century so far, but it has a highly technical, abrasive, confrontational style, and can be read as misanthropic, so it's not to everyone's tastes.

[Anonymous No.14957720]

>>14949541

[Anonymous No.14957741]

>>14957536
Popular books tend to have multiple editions with different covers.

>>14957630
what he said. blindsight is good, but don't expect anything comfy.

[Anonymous No.14957994]

Why is it that in the regular twilight the mc is an average girl while in the rule 63 version the mc is a 6'3 good looking chad? Kinda messed up desu

[Anonymous No.14958052]

Just read pic related. Not bad but could of been a bit deeper on the quantum physics and the science behind it all.

Any similar books that are a bit deeper than this?

[Anonymous No.14958056]

>>14957720
I'm spending my extra time learning Japanese so I can read Night on the Galactic Railroad by september (if im still alive)

[Anonymous No.14958059]

>>14957994
Stop reading trash.

[Anonymous No.14958077]

>>14957580
I really enjoyed three body problem

[Anonymous No.14958098]

I'm up to the Council of Elrond, after saying that I wouldn't read LOTR. Not long after this scene is where I dropped the movie, but the book is comfy as heck and super indulgent. Pretty good quest stuff so far.
Wish I was musically-minded enough to have the songs not seem like slogs in my head, though.

[Anonymous No.14958115]

>>14957994
Because they're both made by a fanfic writer

[Anonymous No.14958125]

>>14958052
I've never read that but I thought this was clever and playful quantum fun. Especially if you have at least a wikipedia-tier understanding of quantum physics and have thought through different ways of interpreting it. There are two follow-ups in the same vein that were worth reading but not as sharp.

[Anonymous No.14958156]

>>14958125
Thanks i'll give it a try. Quantum physics has always intrigued me, I don't have a deep understanding of it but I like to learn about different theories and the different ways of interpreting them.

[Anonymous No.14958275]

>>14954610
If you've already read the rest of the WoT, read the last book and get it over with for crying out loud.

[Anonymous No.14958278]

>>14954576
Malazan The Book of The Fallen.

[Anonymous No.14958380]

>Gideon the Ninth
Horribly overmarketed by its publisher for such an ultimately unimpressive story.

[Anonymous No.14958394]

>>14956718
Honor Harrington series by David Weber. Kind of like Star Trek in setting, although the political message is very different (doesn't become preachy or obnoxious about how guns are good and welfare is bad until the later books. First couple have decent worldbuilding).

[Anonymous No.14958416]

>>14949680
Scalzi's publisher is giving out free e-books of his stuff to people who sign up for their e-mail list. I think they just ended the giveaway for Redshirts but that one (or one of its sequels) should be available in April.

[Anonymous No.14958439]

Did anyone read Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo? I liked her YA stuff so I was really disappointed. It's a Bardugo book so I kind of expected her to get preachy about how capitalism is evil and toxic masculinity poisons everything, but it's usually handled a little better in the context of the story in her YA stuff.

Ninth House, on the other hand, is a rambling fucking mess that is about 90% preaching about the evils of capitalism and why society needs feminism, with almost no plot, a lengthy sequence of not!Harvey Weinstein getting murdered in a shoehorned prologue sequence near the end of the book, and the story's heroine getting raped in a bathroom by a ghost.

[Anonymous No.14958447]

>>14958056
>Characters are adorable cats in the movie
>They're humans in the original book
I feel tricked

[Anonymous No.14958466]

>>14957630
>Main character gets vampire!raped and has to stay on the good side of his rapist
>Giant mysterious organism relies on being constantly in pain
>Main character is an autistic sociopath
Definitely not comfy.

[Anonymous No.14958474]

>>14958447
I just really like the super fantastical idea of a space railway. Galaxy Express 999 (the movie) really captured my imagination when I saw it when I was like 10.

[Anonymous No.14958488]

>>14958474
>Galaxy Express 999
Leijiverse settings always have the right mix of wonder, adventure, and in-depth created universe worldbuilding.

[Anonymous No.14958498]

>>14957331
>You guys might give it a look
Everyone and their mom has already read Dune, the question is are you just gonna read Dune or go down the Golden Path

[Anonymous No.14958557]

>>14955286
Magician: Apprentice.

Main character's childhood BFF marries an elf MILF.

[Anonymous No.14958564]

>>14950404
The worst science fiction book I've ever read was Adrian Barnes' NOD. The narrator was the most annoying fucking character, even worse that he sounded exactly like the author does in interviews.

[Anonymous No.14958573]

>>14950341
Isn't there a pulpy series where a bunch of warriors fight in a fantasy universe created specifically for broadcast television? I can't remember the author but I've seen it on the shelves at used bookstores every now and then.

[Anonymous No.14958941]

>>14958573
Acts of Caine is teleporting to a fantasy world and murdering in order to create VR footage

[Anonymous No.14958980]

>>14958394
>doesn't become preachy or obnoxious about how guns are good and welfare is bad until the later books
it starts in the 3rd book and it's pretty fucking funny because of how badly done it is.
basically having UBI somehow causes an isolationist planet that has complete control over its own economy to run out of money and thus they go to war entirely to distract the population

Also he titles the book with a quote from a Tsarist Russian rather than from a Soviet one which makes the whole analogy even more confused.

[Anonymous No.14959088]

anyone read elizabeth bear's space opera stuff?
I liked the fantasy book I read from her but I also had no real desire to continue on with the series

[Anonymous No.14959098]

>>14950337
If it makes you feel better I don't read any books, I just browse this thread.

[Anonymous No.14959256]

Who was the superior writer?

[Anonymous No.14959263]

>>14959256
Tolkien smokes a pipe. Martin is a fat fuck. Therefore Tolkien is better.

[Anonymous No.14959284]

whats the western equivalent to wuxias

[Anonymous No.14959309]

>>14959256
Tolkein easily, though Nightflyers is better than ASOIAF

[Anonymous No.14959315]

>>14954316
Thanks for the daily reminder.

[Anonymous No.14959321]

>>14959284
wuxia is just good hearted hero plus weapon skills so most of fantasy especially anything in the three musketeers tradition
westerns if you want to go by film genre and era

[Anonymous No.14959533]

>>14959256
>Man so dedicate to his craft he invented an entire language just so his poetic epic that defined an entire genre for the next century felt a little more authentic
>Man whose whole motivation behind writing is hating tropes within that genre and subverting them in the most half assed ways possible just for the sake of saying "see guys, I'm different!"

[Anonymous No.14959671]

>>14956798
Can someone isolate anon's face from the glass?

[Anonymous No.14959673]

>>14959321
The Three Musketeers' plot is more like shonen anime. It's about a hot-blooded young man on a quest to prove himself by joining a team of elite fighters, followed by a series of brawls that gradually increase his power levels.

[Anonymous No.14959699]

>>14959533
If there's one thing that comforts me about remembering Tolkien's legacy, it's that despite being a polymath linguist, artist, poet and folklorist, as a writer he was actually pretty awful.

Most of his characters were just a name with a family tree attached, lacking even the most basic vestiges of personality. Half the word count of his stories are just devoted to describing changes of scenery or the character waiting around for something to happen. And to top it all off, his favorite character in the story is so annoying, jarring and tangential that he's cut from every single adaptation.

It's a good reminder that sometimes great men aren't so far above you. Now if only I could look that way at Da Vinci

[Anonymous No.14959741]

>>14958564
>reading the author before reading their books

[Anonymous No.14959744]

>>14959741
Always read their Twitter first
Like john scalzi is a retarded lib, I’ll never read his books

[Anonymous No.14959746]

>>14958380
>Gideon
>ultimately unimpressive story
it wasn't about the plot

[Anonymous No.14959766]

Fuck E William Brown

[Anonymous No.14959810]

>>14959256
Tolkein wrote a very opaque yet complete epic, and managed to put everything forward so sincerely and detailed, you've got to respect the dedication.

GRRM also is a fan of detail, but its killing him. He's going on year 9 of writing Book 6 because his existing details are bogging him down, and further to this his own self-declared writing style exacerbates problems, his plan is to not have a plan, but just figure out how he'll reach a destination along the way.

Also, LoTR gives the audience a pay-off.
ASOIAF doesn't. He angles it as being true to live, but even in real life occasionally the good guys wi. GRRM gives you likeable characters but then blueballs them or unfairly cuts them down without warning. After waiting 9 years for a payoff that will never arrive, it makes sense a chunk of the audience just goes schizo and starts supporting secondary factions like the Greyjoys or the Boltons or Stannis, since they're the only ones getting satisfying wins so its the only way to cope.

Imagine if Tolkein was particularly vindictive writing Two Towers, and then withheld Return for nigh a decade. That's what's GRRM's done. His overt pessimism and subversion (which has resulted in the current directionless quagmire he's found himself in story-wise) leads the audience to giving up on the main heroes because they can't bear any further pain, and turn to hoping the Uruk-hai or Saruman, *ANYBODY* getting some victory and satisfaction for their efforts

Hopefully Winds never gets released and the failings of ASOIAF can stand as a monument to the failings of post-modernism

[Anonymous No.14959822]

>>14949794

[Anonymous No.14959852]

>>14949636
>waah waah why hasn't God solved all my problems for me what the fuck???

[Anonymous No.14959874]

>>14949648
This, pop-culture satan is completely detached from the biblical "entity". In old biblical hebrew satan just means adversary. Satan isn't a character, it's closer to the "devil on your shoulder" idea; satan is our innate desire to stray from god and indulge in sin, serving ourselves above others.

[Anonymous No.14959888]

I have a synopsis for a story:
>star wars program with laser weapons capable of elimnation hundreds of targets simulataneously. targets being tracked by radiation imprints fired onto their person. low orbital sattelites could designate threats in real time for destruction such as icbms or aircraft. although monitored most functions of the internal planetary defnese network will be carried out by a neural network aritifical intelligence designated tay.
>on surface vast underground complexes will be built to provide for undesirable elements safe but seperate from the advanced surface culture.
does this ring any bells of plagiarism? i'm aware of the conotations with 50s sci-fi like the morloks but i mean are there more exact recent copies of my story?

[Anonymous No.14959911]

>>14959888
>morlocks
>the 50s
bro...

[Anonymous No.14959918]

>>14959911
LIKE you're a faggot?

[Anonymous No.14959947]

>>14957473
Local library closed due to aids
I'm stuck with books I took out of my school library on religion. Thankfully I can take my time with them now since all loans have been indefinitely extended, but yeesh it's gonna be a droll month or so.

[Anonymous No.14959959]

>>14959947
there's a goodly set of sci-fi (100 audiobooks) on torrent servers. i get annoyed listening to speech though.

[Anonymous No.14959975]

>>14959256
Tolkein, but Martin is also excellent, definitely at the top of modern fantasy. Their styles and approaches to pretty much every aspect of the storytelling is very different though and the real reason they get compared so much is just because they're popular fantasy authors. There really is no good to come from framing it like a binary conflict between the two.

[Anonymous No.14959998]

>>14959810
Good job not understanding asoiaf.
But yeah Martin's way too bogged down in the details, clearly. It's not acceptable that Winds has taken this long to come out. I'm sure it will eventually, but I'm genuinely concerned about A Dream of Spring, which has real chances of never coming out.

[Anonymous No.14960178]

Any fantasy books featuring a plague or magical illness?

[Anonymous No.14960398]

>>14959256
this pic is so reddit it hurts

[Anonymous No.14960420]

Any other YA like this? Stuff that has genuine soul and character depth.

[Anonymous No.14960468]

>>14960420
>terry

[Anonymous No.14960700]

I see India is now mandatory quarantine for three weeks.
Any of you anons not in a quarantine country?

[Anonymous No.14960818]

>>14958098
There are YouTube videos of people singing them.

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

>>14960700
Greetings from the blasted plaguelands formerly known as western Washington.

[Anonymous No.14960849]

>>14960700
We have barred travel, but that will not hold them for long. The ground shakes. Coughs...coughs in the deep. We cannot get out.

[Anonymous No.14961014]

>>14952046
I thought it was pretty great, felt very Blame/Dorohedoro for whatever reason, if only the aesthetic feel. I'll certainly read the sequel.

>>14952796
Yeah I've heard the first 10 or so Anita Blake books are good/okay and then after a certain point it turns into Anita Blake and the Mystery of the Haunted Cockring.

[Anonymous No.14961065]

>>14953513
>Diplomacy

A good portion of the Vorkosigan series is about the protagonist getting involved with diplomatic snares since he's a mercenary/spy.

Now my main recommendation would be the Foreigner series. The basic setup is that a colony ship full of humans got stranded in the middle of nowhere and a fraction of them landed on a planet populated by another race that's humanoid but their brains are wired up differently from humans so they don't understand concepts like friendship, the humans lost a war and got exiled to a island for everyone's safety. The protagonist is the sole human negotiator/diplomat allowed on the mainland and is working to try and slowly tech up the aliens so they can get a space launch program going. Then the human colony ship shows back up unexpectedly. It's a great series overall though after a while kinda turns into competency porn.

[Anonymous No.14961076]

>>14960700
I'm only supposed to go outside for work.

[Anonymous No.14961269]

sanderson is a hack

[Anonymous No.14961274]

>>14960700
i don't follow the news but yeah were in quarantine normies going crazy because they don't have media libraries and streaming sites are struggling under the load

300 suicides last time i checked

[Anonymous No.14961554]

>>14960398
You just had to make that observation, hadn't you?

[Anonymous No.14961624]

>>14959256
Tolkien, he had sincerity and a strong foundation. Gurm is the JJ Abrams of fantasy writers, sure, he can write compelling hooks, but that's about it. They don't come together and there is no catharsis to be found.

[Anonymous No.14961627]

>>14958439
>the story's heroine getting raped in a bathroom by a ghost.
Ghost rape is pretty hot desu.

[Anonymous No.14961729]

>>14961269
Based

[Anonymous No.14961735]

Do you think GRRM will use this time to finish the winds of never ever?

[Anonymous No.14961886]

>>14961735
Just stop thinking about it. If any sequels release, then it will be nice, but there's no point in waiting anymore. He probably would kill off some of your favorite characters anyway

[Anonymous No.14961898]

>>14960420
Robert Aspirin, Piers Anthony, and Eric Flint are the only other quirky/LE FUNNAY fantasy writers that come to mind, and their stuff is all "random and quirky" instead of Pratchett-level satire.

[Anonymous No.14962024]

>>14959998
Tell me what I'm misunderstanding.

Writing several chapters on the background of Shitmouth or Crackclaw Point aren't for me to criticise, it's GRRM's story he can do what he wants.. but if he's going to subvert the traditional monomyth through Robb and Jon, he's going to need a plan. Hoping a workable alternative conclusion to Jon's arc will become self-evident over time is proving time consuming.

Likewise, the Meereen arc was chock full of superfluous characters that help craft an authentic world, but there's a dissonance for the audience because they KNOW Dany will have plot armour until she reaches Westeros. We already know the first 200 pages of Winds is just the tailend of Dance that got chopped (read; several characters converge on Meereen to airlift Dany's crew out of their plotline ruts)

Dream of Spring could be the best work ever produced in fantasy literature, but it's a hard sell if Feast, Dance and Winds came before it, with hundreds of pages of useless irrelevant info. Again, detail is nice but it has to be peppered with a sense of progression, and what we've seen is Westeros being a relentless crabpot for the 'good guys'

[Anonymous No.14962130]

>>14962024
Tyrion and Jon are still alive, but Cersei and Reanimated Gregor need to be killed off for the story to progress. Now that she's been knocked down as a villain with no chance of being a compelling threat to anyone, Cersei's character weighs down the entire narrative.

Dance of Dragons' storyline about the false Targaryen pretender could take up two books alone and needs to be cut short for the story to go anywhere.

[Anonymous No.14962174]

>>14961274
>normies going crazy ... and struggling under the load
>300 suicides last time i checked
based

[Anonymous No.14963467]

>>14961735
No.

[Anonymous No.14963569]

>>14961735
too busy watching VR porn

[Anonymous No.14964208]

>>14959852
Why did God give him problems?

[Anonymous No.14964424]

What are the best audiobooks you've listened to? I don't mean just the best stories which have been made into audiobooks, but I mean the best produced and highest quality recordings themselves. I've listened to the audiobooks of A Canticle for Leibowitz narrated by Tom Weiner and the recording of Snow Crash read by Jonathan Davis and they were both excellent. Good quality recordings, the narrator was well spoken, did cool consistent voices, etc. They were a delight to listen to. I've tried a few others such as The First Books of Swords narrated by Derek Parkins and the recording was passable but the story itself bored me so I never finished it. Anybody else found particularly high quality audiobooks?

[Anonymous No.14964481]

>>14964424
I haven't gone through a lot but Steven Weber's reading of IT is very good. He does an excellent job with characterization. Even the stuff like Richie's as the book puts it "Mr. Jiveass Nigga" voice is done pretty well.

[Anonymous No.14964500]

>>14964424
Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, read by Patrick Tull.

[Anonymous No.14964514]

>>14959975
>dem dere bookies be poopular
>must be gud huhuhu
Tolkien is trash, Martin is garbage.

[Anonymous No.14964526]

>>14955465
His name is really Michel Robert kek. I'll try it after I'm done with gene wolf

[Anonymous No.14964532]

>>14959256
How is it a question?

[Anonymous No.14964568]

/sffg/, I really want to go outside, but I don't want to be one of those idiots who infects himself or others

[Anonymous No.14964645]

fantasy books with big giant spider monsters?

[Anonymous No.14964728]

Tolkien is shit. Stop trying to make him be the it of fantasy.
It's like saying Star Wars is the it of scifi.

[None !SFFG.n1h7M No.14964853]

Gideon The Ninth - Tamsyn Muir

BACKGROUND
I first read Muir, whose first published work was in 2011, in 2015 with her novelette The Deepwater Bride, which was published in the The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. It was a nice enough romance. When I saw that she had published her debut novel, I knew that I'd read it sooner or later. This current monthly reading brought it to the top and so I read it. Oftentimes I have been disappointed by the longer works of authors from whom I've previously only read short works. I don't know if it's simply a matter of different standards or that I'm more accepting of short works because they end so quickly. Thankfully that wasn't the case this time. Although I had many quibbles with the book, they were insignificant to my overall enjoyment.

GENRE
It wouldn't be wrong to describe it as a fantasy horror murder mystery with a science fiction background and just a bit of flirting and romance.

CONTENT/THEMES
The characters, sixteen primarily, are mostly teens and a bit older.
There is a religious undercurrent throughout the book of the nominally Christian variety, though it's unclear how much of a role it actually plays. The Emperor, who makes an exceedingly brief appearance, is both the political and religious leader. It's a bit odd really when considering the implications.
The viewpoint character, Gideon, is most definitely a lesbian and expresses her limerence freely, internally anyway, for the most part. I think someone reading specifically for that will be disappointed overall.
There are a considerable number of suicidal actions that occur and similar sorts of actions, which may be a concern for some. I didn't see it as anything out of the ordinary for the amount of pathos that was present, but I may be overly used to it.

STRUCTURE
Act One, the first 18% or so, was relatively slow going for me and not particularly that enjoyable, if it had continued like this for the entire time, I probably would have only rated it as decent, 3 stars. The action doesn't really start to pick up until the end of Act Two, 40% of the way in, which understandably may be too much for many people, but it was quite worthwhile overall for me. By the end of Act Three and the beginning of Act Four at 63%, the pace takes on a sense of urgency. In the last 10% or so the story reaches its crescendo and it is indeed quite the rapid escalation in every way. Act Five, which starts at 96%, is the resolution and lasts mere pages before fading into the Epilogue.

NOTE
In her acknowledgement she notes that "I now possess a kitchen apron embroidered with the worst deleted meme from the manuscript." Considering how much is included, I wonder what it was. She also mentions how she was writing Animorphs fanfiction at eleven years old as well as posting stories from various fandoms on fanfiction.net and elsewhere. Everyone has to start somewhere. Many seem to be dismissive and contemptuous of such activities though.

[Anonymous No.14964854]

>>14964645
Children of Time, oh wait, that's sci-fi.

[Anonymous No.14964858]

>>14964854
>sf
Uh, dude, that would be fantasy.

[None !SFFG.n1h7M No.14964859]

OVERALL
The book is heavily influenced by both Western and Japanese pop culture, arguably to a fault with how its integrated. There is a quite possibly gratuitous pool scene that seemed to me to be entirely taken from the pool scene in Life is Strange. There are many references in general. It has a decidedly strong videogame and anime feeling at various times, though most certainly nothing mechanic-wise as would be found in LitRPGs or similar. So, if that isn't your sort of thing, then this may be something that could be difficult for you to like.
At first I was very annoyed by the dialogue seeming out of the place, previous /sffg/ reviews and others appreciated more than I did, but around 10% in I decided to accept it as the author translating the meaning of what the characters were saying for a cotemporary audience rather than that being literally what they were saying. Is this absurd of me? Yes, yes, it is, and no I don't care. I don't have a problem so much with it in of itself so much as the seeming mismatch to me, though it's quite possible I may be a minority in that regard.
I was undecided on whether to give this 4 or 5, but it did enough right overall with how it made me feel to give it 5 stars. I will most certainly be reading the second and third book sooner rather than later. It's now a series near the top of my reading priority, but with how life goes, it's unknown how much that will actually mean. This is actually more of an accomplishment than it seems because it also had several things that I generally don't particularly like. I have a moderate dislike of necromancy, which is its entire basis, as well as the gothic aesthetic. Yes, both sorts. Several have noted that it's somewhat confusing as well in what it all means or why it is how it is, but that's just how it sometimes go. I don't think this could aspire to anything more than a cult classic, but even so I have a soft spot for noble failures. Those works that could have been so much more, but even as they are, they are wonderful. The best example of this for me would be Xenogears.
What I've typed here is a near minimum of what it could be, but that would be overly long and almost surely of far less interest. I had highlighted 85 passages while reading on the Kindle, but turns out that I didn't use any of them.

OPINIONS
/sffg/ GR group: 3 5 stars, 1 4 star, and 5 stars from the person who proposed the book.
Although it was nominated for some awards, it didn't win any that I see.

OTHER
https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/d52ok2/im_gideon_the_ninth_debut_author_tamsyn_muir_and/f0jrjrw/?context=3
A guaranteed minimum income would be the single greatest way to further the arts and much else.

TL;DR: 5/5. A lot of fun for people who would enjoy a book heavily influenced by popular culture with a moderately strong videogame/anime feeling. I don't know how well how it would go over for others, but may well still be enjoyed by many sorts as evidenced by its overall reviews.

[Anonymous No.14964864]

Could you recommend me some western xianxia stories?
Only thing in this vein I've read is Unsouled.

[None !SFFG.n1h7M No.14964873]

>>14964859
>>14964853

>>14949541
>>14952046

[Anonymous No.14964907]

>>14957462
>>14957473
I had good luck with booksc's sister site (it's b-ok.cc now, but they keep changing domains so I ususally go there through booksc).

[Anonymous No.14964927]

>>14959256
This is the most underage post I've read this week.

[Anonymous No.14965073]

>>14964907
thanks its got some new releases that mobilism doesn't have on there so it's worth keeping an eye on

[Anonymous No.14965115]

>>14965073
For extremely new releases it may also be worth it to just try a search engine ([title], [title] free dl, [title] torrent), there are sometimes torrents or even DDLs on small, random sites. At least that's how I finally managed to get a few books that weren't out yet on the bigger sites.

[Anonymous No.14965142]

Anyone got an epub/mobi of the Worm Ouroboros that isn't formated like complete crap? Every digital copy for Kindle I could find has jumbled text.

[Anonymous No.14965157]

>>14965142
From what I've heard it's for the best that you can't find it.

[Anonymous No.14965274]

>>14964645
LotR

[Anonymous No.14965420]

What is your honest opinion about Lud-in-the-mist?
I really enjoyed the prose even if the plot itself was not that interesting for me overall.

[Anonymous No.14965493]

>>14959699
>Most of his characters were just a name with a family tree attached
>It's a good reminder that sometimes great men aren't so far above you
lmaooooo

[Anonymous No.14965511]

>>14964514
Why include the selfie though?
>>>/soc/

[Anonymous No.14965557]

Not liking Tolkien is perfectly reasonable.
Saying his work is trash just exposes you as a huge retard and a contrarian.

[Anonymous No.14965597]

>>14965142
I wish I had such a cute bf

[Anonymous No.14966191]

>>14965557
There's a difference between brainlessly shitting on something through memes and ad hominems and actually taking a time to rationally critique.

Tolkein had strengths and he had weaknesses, just like every other author. As a mythmaker, a world builder, a poet and a visionary it's impossible not to admire him, but in terms of characters it's painfully obvious which characters he cared enough to assign a personality.

Tolkien was a human being. It's idiotic not to treat him like one

[Anonymous No.14966792]

>>14950971
>libbies libbies lib-lib-libbies
Fuckhead.

[Anonymous No.14966864]

>>14950971
lol the only people who believe that "history has ended" are "liberals" in the philosophical rather than political sense. That entire picture is confused and created in bad faith.

[Anonymous No.14966955]

>>14952789
darker and more of a punchline than the end of book 1 where the wife he's trying to save is cucking him?

[Anonymous No.14967381]

sanderson is a hack

[Anonymous No.14967396]

>tfw you should be writing right now but all you feel is emptiness and boredom and the lack of any desire to improve your situation

[Anonymous No.14967397]

>>14967396
i'm drinking

[Anonymous No.14967485]

>>14950058
>VZ58

You and I are friends now.

[Anonymous No.14967533]

>>14967396
i'm looking at insta and funposting on /x/

[Anonymous No.14967737]

>>14966792
It's rent free. You don't even have to try with them. Libs are on their minds 24/7.

[Anonymous No.14967988]

Insolent dogs. How dare you imply that I don't read real sff. Let me fuck your mom while holding her legs open and I might let your family live.

[Anonymous No.14968343]

Fuck pirate aba and wandering inn.
Because of her shit, Andrea can't do the audiobooks for series I actually wanna read

[Anonymous No.14968459]

I know Kantbot is a bit of a meme but I'm curious what you guys have to say on his opinion of modern fantasy and how it seems to lack something compared to the genre's roots.

If there's more detailed essays on the subject or any opinions on what's "Real Fantasy", I'd love to hear it.

[Anonymous No.14968464]

>>14968459
Link: https://autisticmercury.com/2019/12/17/real-fantasy/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

[Anonymous No.14968501]

>>14968459
>old good, new bad

[Anonymous No.14968563]

>>14968459
>Fantasy itself, as its was conceived, was not about magic, but was magic itself.
>But the spell is faded.
Stories, which include all fiction not just fantasy, are still magic. He and lots of /sffg/ just don't like the direction it's going. Altho from the little I know about him, he and /sffg/ seem to disagree about which things are bad. The magic comes from how stories influence people and I'll expand this to movies too which are often fiction based but almost always have a written screenplay except for a small % of films.

[Anonymous No.14968608]

>>14968501
Is it wrong?

[Anonymous No.14968610]

>>14959888
This isn't a synopsis

[Anonymous No.14968740]

>>14968459
imagine giving one solitary shit about what a tripfag who got bullied off of lit thinks

[Anonymous No.14968838]

>>14968501
Yes.

[Anonymous No.14969054]

>>14968740
>a tripfag who got bullied off of lit thinks

Damn, ,why'd he get kicked?

[Anonymous No.14969071]

>>14969054
Maybe because this board still conserves some of the old culture

[Anonymous No.14969449]

Reading through GGK's The Summer Tree. Also greatly enjoyed Night's Master and Death's Master recently, from Tanith Lee. I will most probably go back and finish the Tales from Flat Earth Series after the Fionavar Tapestry.

Any good recs for Portal Fantasy? (Not Narnia, done with that). Also, any books with weird fantasy settings similar to Morrowind's?

[Anonymous No.14969462]

>>14969449
merchant princes is worth a try for portal

[Anonymous No.14969465]

E William Brown a fuck

[Anonymous No.14969751]

Have you read the passe miroir?
It is one of the few fantasty YA series that I really liked, in addition, the covers have beautiful lighting

[Anonymous No.14969940]

>>14969465
>rent free
there are so many other authors you could be reading

[Anonymous No.14969943]

I just started reading Hyperion and find it much more fun than I expected. (Father Hoyt's story was told and the pilgrims have arrived in Keats.) I'm thinking of buying the rest of the series rn because it takes weeks for deliveries to arrive nowadays. Are other books in the series worth buying? Including Endymion and all.

[Anonymous No.14969977]

When will the hidden magical denizens of the world do their big reveal to save humanity, like in all the books I read?
When the death toll reaches 3 billion? 4? I know they won't interfere for a couple hundred million.

[Anonymous No.14969986]

>>14969977
stories aren't real anon.

[Anonymous No.14969997]

>>14969940
I am reading tens of other authors. This fucker though has taken up mental occupation without my leave. I can't stop going back to him, and thinking how he is publishing his book one chapter at a time in patreon-star. Fucks are paying 5 dollaroos for one single chapter each month, sometimes they get hentai versions of books. I wonder if he will have a hentai loli space marine princess.

[Anonymous No.14970076]

>>14969943
buy the 2nd book and pretend it ended after

[Anonymous No.14970080]

>>14969986
You don't believe that stories are means to slowly indoctrinate and accustom personages to the idea that we aren't alone? That beneath all the fiction there is a modicum of truth that we unknowingly latch onto? Something that would prepare us to favorably accept a new and unknown reality?
Humans first action when dealing with the unknown is to attack first/kill it, then ask questions after. We see the different as a threat, even though they may be passive. Many times we make our own enemies from our knee-jerk reaction of "defending" ourselves.

Why would it be unbelievable that something /someones were in the shadows slowly influencing public thought for their eventual reveal?

[Anonymous No.14970119]

>>14970080
bcos it's a meme. i'm more inclined to believe in transdimensional aliens than ones that have to fly around with running lights on their aircraft. i am also more more inclined to believe in beings in the spirit realm that individuals can at great pains seek out for data. but no one's going to come down and save humanity from ourselves. we will either do it on our own or die out and evolution will raise another species for the next try. it's up to us alone.

[Anonymous No.14970272]

How the fuck are we on page 4?
Report all the off topic threads in the catalog.

[Anonymous No.14970430]

We at page 6.
I'm done.

[Anonymous No.14970575]

>9th day of quarantine
>starting to seriously consider reading Battletech and W40K novels
is retardation one of the symptoms of corona-chan?

[Anonymous No.14970612]

>>14970575
If you do read them Dan Abnett's pretty good for 40k and whilst I haven't read any of his battletech stuff Stackpole wrote a pretty good fantasy novel (Talion: Revenant) so there's promise there.

[Anonymous No.14970801]

>>14969977
In WW2 there were people who believed that THEIR mythical heroes would come back to save the day. Why didn't the hidden denizens do anything about the Spanish flu, or the black death?

[Anonymous No.14970870]

Just started pic related. So far so good, it is pretty dark and the characters seem well written. Only on the third chapter but it has me hooked already.

I'm going through a time travel/quantum mechanics phase at the moment.

[Anonymous No.14971020]

/sffg/, hit me with some imaginative epic fantasy from the past 20 years. No european or russian settings please, I hate those.

[Anonymous No.14971054]

70s sci-fi has such a weird aesthetic

I just started Congo and the technowank is silly. Still enjoying it though.

[Anonymous No.14971172]

>>14961735
GRRM will die and his series will be finished by Sanderson.

[Anonymous No.14971206]

>>14964645
Spiderlight by the same guy who wrote >>14964854 Also by the same writer the Shadows of the Apt saga has spider people who are accompanied by man sized pet spiders. Tchaikovsy is uncomfortably into spiders.

[Anonymous No.14971289]

>>14971206
>Tchaikovsy is uncomfortably into spiders.
And he likes cucking the underdog.

[Anonymous No.14971361]

>>14964645
dagger and coin iirc

[Anonymous No.14971370]

Earthsea is a fucking meme, why does anyone like it? It's so boring and the writing style is poop.

[Anonymous No.14971381]

>>14971289
I don't get it.
Is it because of the beetle girl refusing the simp beetle engineer and picking the chad wasp captain?
The sci-fi books and the novellas I've read didn't have romance, and I can't remember much romance on Echoes of the Fall

[Anonymous No.14972237]

Page 9. We will be killed by the corona.
See yall.

[Anonymous No.14972255]

>>14972237
just go away and stay there

[Anonymous No.14972347]

>>14972255
Why did you bump the thread faggot. We were on page 9.

[Anonymous No.14972438]

In the minority opinion on Gideon the Ninth, but between the cliche action movie dialogue that could have come from any Arnold Schwarzenegger movie and the unnecessarily cryptic exposition, I wasn't sold.

[Anonymous No.14972453]

>>14971370
>It's boring
That's literally the point. Miz LeGuin was trying to make a statement against the pyrotechnics and toxic machismo that characterized the fantasy novels of her era with a critical take - an alternate world in which masculine values are instead those of restraint and tranquility.

The characters who keep seeking adventure or wanting something big to happen are a source of spiritual/magical imbalance, and their redemption arc when they have one is all about finding and influencing their world through inner peace.

[Anonymous No.14972485]

Fuck E William Brown. The simps in his daniel black thread are happy to discuss theories and not get a book. They will pay Brown thousands of dollars a month for him to take what they said and use it in his book.

[Anonymous No.14972518]

>>14955079
>blindisight not on there
retard

[Anonymous No.14972519]

>>14972485
>daniel black thread
There is such a thing?
How curious.

[Anonymous No.14972529]

>>14959699
based. tolkein is trash, just because you take the time to come up with a language doesnt mean the story is improved for including it.

[Anonymous No.14972570]

>>14959321
>wuxia is just good hearted hero plus weapon skills
its really not. For me at least the main point is cultivation or whatever and powering up to eventualyl become a god or immortal or whatever. That definitely doesn't describe any western fantasy i cna think of.

[Anonymous No.14972580]

>>14972570
that's xianxia different genre

[Anonymous No.14972627]

>>14972518
>putting it on there
No.

[Anonymous No.14972805]

>on last book of Desolate Era
>all this shit to be wrapped up in 17 chapters
Not sure how to feel.

[Anonymous No.14972808]

Almost finished the hobbit uwu

[Anonymous No.14972821]

Thoughts on The Black Cloud? One of the weirdest but most enjoyable first contact stories I've ever read.

[Anonymous No.14972921]

>>14952914
Because of your post I looked up station 11. I love post apocalyptic stories so I bought it. So far so good! It was a pleasant little surprise that I know all the settings, as I'm from Toronto myself. I was even born in the hospital where Hua works lol. Thanks bud!

[Anonymous No.14972945]

>>14970575
I read Halo books without ever having played halo. Property novels aren't necessarily bad. Ambitious genre writers can get in there where they're shut out of traditional publishing. Timothy Zahn wrote good star wars before becoming a solid b-lister. Get in there and find some gems.

[Anonymous No.14972956]

>>14972945
Timothy Zahn's stuff is pretty good for easy reading stuff. Icarus Hunt is a solid standalone novel and you don't see those much anymore (I've read it 3-4 times now over the years IIRC) and the Blackcollars series is awesome, it's about how humanity's only hope after alien conquest is Ninja Commandos and it's about as radical and fun as that sounds.

[Anonymous No.14972962]

>reverend insanity on hiatus due to getting censored by chinese government
>author decides to start new series so he can make money and commits to finishing it before finishing RI, says it will take around 3 years

this cant be happening bros. Reverend insanity is by far the best chinkshit out there and now Xi has delayed it for 3 years at least.

[Anonymous No.14972997]

>>14972956
Ha! Are you the other guy here that likes that book, or someone new? I find Icarus Hunt to be the smooth jazz too. The first time you read it it seems like the payoff is the twist, but it really isn't, because it's still engaging on rereads when you know what's coming. I think the Han and Chewie main chars really work well together. But even beyond that that it's just a satisfying read.

[Anonymous No.14973042]

>>14972997
I think I've posted about it a couple times in the past when people have asked about standalone books. I tend to give myself several years between rereads so that I've mostly forgotten the ending.

>Han and Chewie main chars

I legit suspect the book was originally written as a Star Wars EU title but got rejected for whatever reason, either because the story didn't fit H&C or because they were OCs.

[Anonymous No.14973054]

>>14973042
I like to think it started as SW but he got into it and thought this is gold I'm keeping it for myself.

[None !SFFG.n1h7M No.14973199]

>>14972438
There aren't really enough responses really to have a valid majority opinion.

[Anonymous No.14973241]

>>14972805
What is going on with one poop these days?
He pirate king yet? He beat all of the four emperors or whatever?
I haven't read the manga (or any manga) in about two years. Now I heard a while back that all scanlation sites got dmca'd. So you got to pay for your ruffy now?

[Anonymous No.14973249]

>>14973241
mangadex still works fine

[Anonymous No.14973256]

>>14973249
>streaming manga

[Anonymous No.14973268]

>>14973249
I didn't ask what site you use, I wanted answers to my questions.

[Anonymous No.14973336]

>>14972627
I feel like I could tell this is a CYOA from the art alone.

[Anonymous No.14973681]

(Take what I say with a grain of salt, because I haven't read that much fantasy). As much as I'm enjoying BotNS, I feel a flaw of Wolfe's dialogue is that he implants the male mind into female characters. Jolenta is maybe the one exception, but Dorcas especially feels like a stale character because of how logical and "male" sounding a lot of her dialogue is. Severian will say something, and she will respond with some philosophical shit that sounds nothing like anything a woman would believably say. Or am I just missing something? Please no spoilers, I'm halfway through Sword of the Lictor.

[Anonymous No.14973703]

>>14972821
It's great, though I actually liked the process of the cloud's arrival better than the communication with it.

[Anonymous No.14973781]

>>14950299
The dealer who sold the cobra to case made it sound like it was more than just a baton stick. I didn’t get what it was either until I looked it up out of confusion.

[Anonymous No.14973948]

Fiery took out the folded paper from his crusty leather jacket pocket and confirmed the address written on in. He looked up at the scale of the apartment complex, a cold sweat breaking out in the folds of the back of his neck. He stuffed the note back in his pocket and with a shakey hand, pressed the buzzer to be let in the building.
"What do you want" said the exhasberated voice.
"It's Guy..."
"SHHHH - shut your fucking face" The voice said curtly as the intercom clicked off.
The locks unlatched as Fiery reached for the handle.
"Looks like the lobby staff left for the evening" he thought. He realized he would need a key to use the elevator with no staff around. Fiery didn't want to piss his patron off any further buy calling them again. He decided to proceed up the stairs to the 4th floor to find room 450. The stair well was dimly lit, even for a more upper class apartment complex in New York City.
Gasping for air, Fiery finally made it to the 4th floor. His cold sweat now replace with that of exhaustion.
"Fuck" he thought "I gotta stop visting so many fried food joints".
Pacing himself, he fumbled to the end of the hall until he rounded the right corner to find himself face to face with the right door. After catching his breath, he raised his hand to knock on the door. Before his knuckles made contact, the door opened swiftly and black leather clad hands rushed Fiery through the entry way.
Fiery found himself being pushed from behind and guided to a blow up mattress in the middle of the living room. He wound up tripping on the slightly dog-eared carpet runner, stumbling and fell onto the matress.
"You bumbling Oaf! Don't embarass me!" growled the figure.
Fiery instantly appologized, "I'm sorry! It's dark in here, I didn't see..."
"Oh shut the fuck up before I make chutny of your arse" the figure demanded as the steped closer, the stove light iluminating them from behind.
"Okay, Okay, but I'm not really sure what you want of me Mr...." Guy stuttered
"Don't make me use an apple and turn you into pork roast" Scowled Gordan Ramsey as he snapped his whip across the palm of his left hand.
"Yes Sir..." winced Guy.
Part 1/?

[Anonymous No.14974017]

Are there any good books set in Atlantis?

[Anonymous No.14974028]

>tfw my friends are too busy with their families to hang out with me on voice chat.
>tfw the two times we have met, we spent 90% of the time dealing with technical issues on discord, zoom and google hangouts

[Anonymous No.14974116]

>>14973681
I don't think that's true for any female characters besides Dorcas.

[Anonymous No.14974381]

>>14974028
Why haven't you gone somewhere else more active where you can get more social activity than here?

[Anonymous No.14974548]

>>14949541
>>14949601
ok the april strawpoll has 27 votes, evenly split 9 9 9, someone's clearly manipulating it.

STRAWPOLL CAPTCHA EDITION: https://www.strawpoll.me/19644510

i'll post this in the next thread too, winner decided on the 1st.

[Anonymous No.14974850]

>>14972453
I dunno, there's plenty of quiet "restrained" fantasy that's nice to read, be it through the prose or interesting characters. Hers has neither.

[Anonymous No.14975193]

sanderson is a hack

[Anonymous No.14975197]

>>14975193
Based

[Anonymous No.14975245]

>>14949583
Not quite the same thing but in the World of Five Gods you have The Bastard who will kill someone for you if you perform his rite, at the cost of your own life. He also takes into his care the souls the other gods won't.

[Anonymous No.14975249]

>>14975193
rent free

[Anonymous No.14975379]

>>14974017
Lyonesse isn't Atlantis but Vance heavily merges the lyonesse and atlantean myths
Echoes of the Great Song by Gemmell

not a lot else that jumps out

[Anonymous No.14975587]

>>14975193
Fuck E William Brown

[Anonymous No.14975599]

>>14949794
ah shit. Stuff like this gives me hope that my writing isnt that bad after all. Maybe one day I'll actually publish something

[Anonymous No.14975786]

>>14950971
Cradle series by Will Wight
Mostly men. There's one or two chicks though, they spend most of their time behaving in a manner synonymous with masculine goal driven behavior or very lightly pining after the main character.

[Anonymous No.14975816]

>>14955079
>American Gods
What a wasted premise. Could have been interesting.

[Anonymous No.14975877]

>>14964864
I too would very much like this recommendation. Finished Cradle in a week and #8 is really far away, I need more.

[Anonymous No.14976085]

>>14975816
I enjoyed Crispin Glover's performance in the TV show way more than any of the writing.

[Anonymous No.14976150]

So I read this and it's sequel God of Broken Things yesterday. Decent enough start, the dialogue felt a little weird because everyone speaks with very modern vocabulary despite it being a setting completely removed from earth where humanity isn't even a naturally existing species. It manages to be a bit edgy without coming across as unbelievable, and it pulls of the whole "City where everything sucks and everything is miserable" cliche well enough.
Second book was kind of disappointing because of how utterly generic and ununteresting the antagonists are mind controlling bugs that crawl into people and steal their bodies, never heard that one before., but it makes up for it in the second half with some strong action and a great ending.

One thing I liked about it is the author never got side tracked into irrelevant shit, the story progresses rapidly without seeming truncated.

[Anonymous No.14976164]

>>14976150
didn't realise this had a sequel, Iooked at it on goodreads and then never downloaded.

re: spoiler I absolutely hated that when another book made those the antagonists so I still might not pick it up

[Anonymous No.14976189]

>>14976164
It was still worth reading, the antagonists honestly didn't get much focus and it really seemed like the second book of a trilogy right up until the ending which seemed to wrap everything up neatly.

[Anonymous No.14976459]

March ends tomorrow (Tuesday), what books are you getting for April, or expecting to be released in April?
Is your body ready for the "April's fool" corona cures? If people did "corona challenges", I wouldn't put it past them to do some shit on April first.
2020 is the year of Darwin Award winners.

[Anonymous No.14976485]

>>14974116
With minor female characters it happens more often than not.

[Anonymous No.14976550]

>>14976459
I don't pay any attention to new releases. I also don't have a huge amount of time for fiction so I'm going through a couple anthologies I have.

[Anonymous No.14976573]

Just about to start City We Became, how many chapters until I get bingo?

[Anonymous No.14976721]

>>14976459
tor hasn't put their list out yet and goodreads isn't showing much thus so far all I have is the end of the queen in hiding quartet. I will read the new Mark Lawrence but I still haven't read the final book in the sister series that is set in the same world so I'll either have to read that or reread the whole series first depending on how much I've forgotten.
Same thing goes for the Foundryside sequel, never finished the original so I might go back and complete it.

[Anonymous No.14977024]

>>14976459
This seems like it might be ok. The only release on Godreads for April that interests me.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45695101-bubblegum

There is also this, but it looks like it will focus on the love story more than the sci fi.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51907779-now-then-and-everywhen

[Anonymous No.14977290]

>still on pace for 100 books without reading any novellas
love the corona virus

[Anonymous No.14977457]

>>14975786
i dont know if id say cradle is patrician although it is very enjoyable.

[Anonymous No.14977664]

>>14976459
I sure hope Winds of Winter has an April release.

[Anonymous No.14977677]

Is there SFF that has good writing AND well put together plot? Seems like all the "good" writers have shit, often very sparse and shallow stories (Wolfe, Peake, Le Guin) and all the good plotters have horrible writing, either too juvenile or too convoluted (Sanderson, Erikson, King).

[Anonymous No.14978041]

>>14977677
There's no way you're going to get serious responses with those examples as good plotters lol

[Anonymous No.14978258]

>>14974017
I wish, I want to buy a pile of well written books set in ancient Atlantis, Lemuria, Hyperborea and other lost wonders, but I can't find shit.

[Anonymous No.14978474]

>>14977677
you have shit taste but blindsight fits that

[Anonymous No.14978522]

>>14978258
>>14974017
I've heard good things about Mention My Name in Atlantis by John Jakes. But I haven't found a digital copy, haven't really searched either.

[Anonymous No.14978708]

>>14978705
>>14978705
>>14978705