/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.16385588]

What are some of your favorite fast-paced, fun and easy, guilty pleasure reads in the fantasy genre? Stuff like the hobbit, eragon, harry potter (though preferably not quite as childish as harry potter). Pic related would probably be my personal favorite in this category. Not looking for the greatest literary works of the century, just fun reads, preferably in a pseudo-medieval or tolkein inspired fantasy setting.

[Anonymous No.16385670]

>>16385588
I makes me happy to know other people also like the pulpy Middle Ages setting :)

[Anonymous No.16385688]

>>16385588
Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series

[Anonymous No.16385696]

>>16385670
I know people are going to shit on me for it too which is why I thought I'd preemptively just admit its a guilty pleasure. But uh... Any recs?

[Anonymous No.16385703]

>>16385588
Pretty much everything David Gemmell ever wrote.

[Anonymous No.16385732]

>>16385696
Gatherer of clouds, by Sean Russell. You might like The Domesday book by Connie Willis, it's more gritty medieval.

[Anonymous No.16385802]

>>16385688
>>16385703
Thanks, looking into these now. Sword in the storm sounds like it might be up my alley.
>>16385703
The Doomsday Book is listed as science fiction, you sure that's the book you were thinking of? And the other one is a sequel, my autism won't let me start on a sequel.

[Anonymous No.16386241]

>>16385588
The Last Unicorn

[Anonymous No.16386271]

Disk world, top tier shit

[Anonymous No.16386452]

>>16385588
The wind through the keyhole by stephen king

[Anonymous No.16386902]

>>16385588
Conan the Barbarian, Robert E Howard's other stuff.
Clark Ashton Smith's stuff.

[Anonymous No.16387353]

>>16385588

[Anonymous No.16387371]

>>16386271
Based

[Anonymous No.16387393]

>>16386902
Where the hell do you start with conan? Apparently there are a bunch of different conan series by different authors? Which are worth reading?
>>16386271
I've heard good things but not really looking for a goofy sci fi right now.

[Anonymous No.16387398]

>>16385588
The rats in the walls. Lovecraft

[Anonymous No.16387405]

>>16387353
>But soon, the savagery of the Lenelli begins to eat at Hasso Pemsel's soul, causing him to question everything he has long believed about race and Reich, right and wrong, Ubermenschen and Untermenschen. Hasso Pemsel will learn the difference between following orders... and following his conscience.

[Anonymous No.16387424]

>>16387398
Every Lovecraft story I've read so far has been meh at best. Just read at the mountains of madness and I think he used the word opalescent to describe snow about 8 times in 80 pages. He seriously stops and dedicates a paragraph to describe the terrain over and over ever other page. The basic premise itself was cool, but the story telling was terrible.
>scientists go to Antarctica
>opalescent snow
>scientists find a rock
>opalescent snow
>scientists find a mountain
>opalescent snow
>scientists find alien monsters
>opalescent snow
>some people die mysteriously
>opalescent snow
>scientists find some spooky ruins
>opalescent snow
>the end
I think I'm done with Lovecraft for a while.

[Anonymous No.16387437]

>>16387405
what are you trying to say anon?

[Anonymous No.16387458]

>>16385588

[Anonymous No.16387568]

>>16387437
You already know.

[Anonymous No.16387582]

>>16387568
I am going to have to ask you to spell it out

[Anonymous No.16387586]

>>16385588
Anything from the Pern series by Anne McCaffrey.
I read them like fucking crazy as a kid. I still reread them all the time. Dragonflight was my absolute favorite.

Also, the Xanth books by Piers Anthony. I bought and read about 20 of them before I got bored.

[Anonymous No.16387634]

https://www.pdfdrive.com/levitation-what-it-is-how-it-works-how-to-do-it-e165840809.html

[Anonymous No.16389080]

>>16387424
I have to agree he's repeating himself very often, do you have a favorite one from him story wise?

[Anonymous No.16389661]

>>16389080
Not really. I love his ideas, but I don't think I particularly enjoy his writing style. The limit of my patience for slow pacing and excessive descriptions would be right around the level of Tolkien and Stephen King. For example, I liked Stephen King's pacing in the Dark Tower series and The Eyes of the Dragon a lot more than in Tommyknockers or The Stand. The Inheritance series felt a bit below my reading level, but I thought the pacing was absolutely fantastic. The way the author constantly introduced new loose ends and resolved old ones at the same time struck a perfect balance between keeping you satisfied while anxious to find out what happens next. They weren't the best books I've read, but they were some of the hardest for me to put down, which is kind of what I'm looking for more of right now.

[Anonymous No.16389681]

>>16386452
Thanks for the rec, I didn't know about this. I need to read the dark tower series again, I think it's been too many years since I finished it to dive back in.

[Anonymous No.16390172]

>>16387582
History is written by the victors. Do you believe the history taught of WW2 is a unique exception to this? Do you find it odd that the people who destroyed child bothels, burned child pornography and books recording early transgender experiments forced on children- that these people are considered the greater evil today? Do you find it odd that after 70 years of beating this dead horse, the very things that horse tried to stop are now making a comeback? Do you think its impossible their faults and crimes were exaggerated to cover up even more atrocious crimes committed by the allies? See the rape of berlin "8 to 80", the firebombing of dresden, Churchill's connection to the Rothschilds. Did you know that jewish psychologists led a post-war experiment which guilted German parents into having sex with their own children under the guise of preventing "sexual repression" from creating more nazis? Do you find it odd that the debt slavery and central banks they fought back against now rule the world as we know it? Do you really still believe they were the greater evil?

War is never black and white. The nazis may not have been good, but they were not in any way uniquely evil either, and I'm tired of people pretending they were.

[Anonymous No.16390274]

Read stuff by George MacDonald, for example The Princess and the Goblin.

[Anonymous No.16390516]

>>16385802
Oh, I thought Gatherer of Clouds was the first one. Uh, read the first one first. Doomsday book has time travel but it mostly takes place in medieval England.

[Anonymous No.16390624]

>>16390274
I can't tell if some of these book recommendations are intended as subtle insults, because of my 'tism, and because of how young of an audience they're targeted at. I'm also not too familiar with /lit/'s board culture yet.

[Anonymous No.16390677]

>>16390516
I downloaded it along with most the recommendations ITT. Sounds kind of neat. Anyone here played chrono trigger? I could get down a sci fi/fantasy book with time travel were it done in a similarly epic scope and scale. Anyone know if hyperion or the wheel of time series are similar in that respect at all? I guess the dark tower series would also be kind up the same alley.

[Anonymous No.16391291]

>>16385588
Pretty much just Harry Potter. I can justify it by saying it's important to me. But besides Tolkien, I can't read any adult fantasy, because it posits itself as mature, and contemporary genre fiction is hostile to literary fiction (I get why we come off as pretentious and elitist, but this is just a sign of intellectual insecurity). Take Terry Brooks, whom I loved as a teenager--reading him now seems like an empty experience, and at least HP gained its cultural momentum during my lifetime.

In any case, if I hadn't grown up reading Harry Potter, I'm sure I wouldn't still enjoy it.

[Anonymous No.16391331]

>>16385696
No one is going to shit on anyone if this topic or similar ones are contained to their own threads. A lot of folks here will trash those who read genre, but most of us understand that, since there is a distinction between literary and genre fiction,that there's nothing wrong with reading either, so long as you know acknowledge that distinction. Of course, there are plenty of examples where the two can meet, but that has to be a particularly imaginative, and talented, author.

[Anonymous No.16391350]

>>16386241
Peter S. Beagle is great in general. His prose style can tend toward sentimental or sugary, but he can certainly be moving at times. Have you read A Fine and Private Place? IIRC, he was only 17 when he wrote that.

[Anonymous No.16391366]

>>16387437
>>16387582
He's cringing over the trend in contemporary lit which is to remind us that being a Nazi is bad.

[Anonymous No.16391384]

>>16387398
>>16387424
The only story by Lovecraft I've read and enjoyed is "The Colour Out of Space". I just don't think he is a very good writer. He's a total manifestation of tell over show.

[Anonymous No.16391432]

>>16390624
So you won't read Alice in Wonderland because it is a children's book? Pleb.

[Anonymous No.16392051]

>>16391291
>I can't read any adult fantasy, because it posits itself as mature, and contemporary genre fiction is hostile to literary fiction
>>16391331
>there is a distinction between literary and genre fiction
I'm not familiar with these sub genres or even sure what exactly to call the genre I'm looking for. I read more than normies but not as much as /lit/ does, and for the last 15 years I practically forgot fiction existed. Have mostly been reading IT books and a lot of books relating to mythology, spirituality, psychology, or health and fitness. Just recently rediscovered how fun fiction can be though, and when it comes to fiction, I simply want a fun escape that's hard to put down.
>>16391350
>>16386241
>>16391432
I don't exactly want children's stories, but I'm not entirely opposed to them either. The Hobbit for instance will always be one of my all time favorites. I thoroughly enjoyed the inheritance series too, but that might be closer to adolescent/young adult. Kind of looking for material closer that, the eyes of the dragon, the dark tower. Stuff with good pacing that might be a little too dark and have a little too much humanity to really be appropriate for children, but not George RR martin tier edgy dark either.

In any case I think I've already got plenty of great recommendations I'm looking forward to reading, so thank you everyone. More suggestions are always welcome though. Mainly just looking for anything with swords, magic, and adventure with good pacing.

[Anonymous No.16392309]

>>16385588
had a great time with this book in my teens
i'm no longer in my teens
thanks for the nice memory, OP
you actually weren't a faggot today

[Anonymous No.16392324]

>>16392309
Any recs? If you liked the eyes of the dragon the way I did then your opinion immediately has more value to me. Looking for books with similar pacing, themes, and maturity level.

[Anonymous No.16392671]

>>16391366
well its not like the storys main character is gonna turn into a pacifist or anything

[Anonymous No.16392813]

>>16392671
Then how much does he cuck on his convictions? Because all the book descriptions and reviews seem to suggest it's a typical redemption story of how le ebil nazi learns racism bad.

[Anonymous No.16392832]

>>16392813
From a review:
>Hasso Pemsel gradually begins to realize that the short, swarthy Grenyes - and, by extension, the Russians, American Indians, Slavs, and Jews from his own world and time - are just as human and intelligent as anyone else. It takes his being captured by the Grenyes and being coerced into cooperating with them to bring the point home, as well as learning their language, but it eventually dawns on him that the idea of racial superiority and inferiority is nonsense on the face of it.

[Anonymous No.16392836]

>>16390677
Never played Chrono Trigger, Hyperion doesn't have significant time travel and I don't think Wheel of time does either though I never read that one. You may enjoy Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams.

[Anonymous No.16392895]

>>16392813
>Then how much does he cuck on his convictions?
Hes a professional soldier, the war was 5 minutes from being over, the Russians were already in Berlin, hes alone and unable to return home, its more pragmatism than being 'cucked'

[Anonymous No.16393483]

>>16390172
>War is never black and white. The nazis may not have been good, but they were not in any way uniquely evil either, and I'm tired of people pretending they were.
I am going to have to say you never read any of Turtledoves novels if you're thinking you're delivering new information to me

[Anonymous No.16393490]

>>16393483
I do kind of however disagree with his portrayal of Otto Skorzeny a bit

[Anonymous No.16393493]

>>16393490

[Anonymous No.16393496]

>>16387353

That cover is a hoot and a half

[Anonymous No.16393501]

>>16393493

[Anonymous No.16393506]

>>16393496
I don't usually read fantasy but that one was very enjoyable

[Anonymous No.16393518]

[Anonymous No.16393519]

The Myth Adventure series.

[Anonymous No.16393673]

>>16393483
Yeah I'd never even heard of him before this thread. Does he have any books where he doesn't try to lecture the reader about how racism is bad? Because I firmly believe "racism" is no more inherently good or bad than using any other category of information to recognize patterns and make decisions, and I'm extremely tired of well meaning but misguided people attempting to convince me otherwise.

[Anonymous No.16393699]

>>16393673
>Does he have any books where he doesn't try to lecture the reader about how racism is bad?
try the "Joe Steele" novel or "the Hot War" novel series

[Anonymous No.16393711]

>>16393519
Fine taste there anon. Couldn't get into the newer ones after he started writing again, but all the way up through Sweet Mythtery of Life is quality yfic

[Anonymous No.16394672]

I liked Bartimaeus, felt like there was always something happening without much meandering or lulls