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/lit/ - Literature

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17918366 No.17918366 [Reply] [Original]

Is this a tough read? In the mood for fantasy but haven't read a book in 6 years.

>> No.17918420

>>17918366
No. Just pay attention.

>> No.17918430

>>17918366
Not really, no. It's just well written unlike most of genre fiction. I guess it means you can't speed read it, but I wouldn't know.

>> No.17918443

It flows quite well when you get into it. It unironically feels like a fantasy instead of reading an autist describing a videogame

>> No.17918708

>>17918366
No, its just really boring.

>> No.17919593

It's one of those books that aren't as profound and challenging as they are marketed to be.

Go read it for sure, I don't think you will regret it. But don't hold enormous expectations

>> No.17919675

>>17918366
https://pastebin.com/Dp4VeHkK

>> No.17919729
File: 332 KB, 415x430, Annotation 2019-11-28 114533.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
17919729

>>17918366
I fucking loved it. It's actually well written fantasy and the author plays with your understanding of the world he's describing.

I ended up binging the 4 first books, and I'm normally bored very fast of series of books.

Also, I agree with >>17918443

>> No.17919885

>>17918366
>Is this a tough read?

Wolfe expects you to pick up on things. Consider the following line: "He had been a man taller than I, perhaps even an exultant". From this throwaway line we learn that exultants are tall. A normal book would have Character A tell Character B that exultants are tall. With Wolfe, it's mentioned in passing. No attention is drawn to it. Most readers can't handle this.

>> No.17919992

>>17919885
bullshit

>> No.17920081

>>17919992

It's true. There's no overt exposition in Wolfe, and many readers have trouble with this.

>> No.17920095

>>17920081
it's bullshit that "A normal book would have Character A tell Character B that exultants are tall."

>> No.17920128

>>17918366
Read at a slow pace and maybe read out loud, that helps me and I read a lot

>> No.17920136

>>17920095

The example Wolfe gives in one of his interviews is that of a deceptive character. Some authors might demonstrate a character's deceptiveness by having him say falsehoods, but this is not a popular approach because readers don't pick up on it. They take everything the character says at face value.

>> No.17920152

>>17920136
retard

>> No.17920168

>>17920136
>>17919885
correct

>> No.17920177

>>17920152

I think you overestimate the reading comprehension of the typical reader.

Consider the analogous case of the FPS video game and artificial intelligence. Players claim to want more intelligent enemies, but when an enemy soldier is programmed to distract the player while another flanks him, players assume their foes are teleporting next to them and accuse the game of cheating.

>> No.17920315

>>17918366
This cover art is unfortunate. It looks like something off deviantart and does not do the book justice.

>> No.17920335
File: 244 KB, 1738x736, qxdw4yx0p9411.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
17920335

>>17920315

It's hard to believe that good evocative book covers were once the norm.

>> No.17920367
File: 530 KB, 589x900, f4mzlLq9_2612141224551.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
17920367

>>17920335
never seen a good one for Urth

>> No.17920786

>>17920136
Na Hong Jin left the film industry because nobody understood The Wailing. Really makes you think.

>> No.17920870

>>17920786
>The Wailing
is it good?

>> No.17920888

50% of the people on this board are from charls carrol twitch stream looking for opinions on his book list

>> No.17920889

>>17919885
>From this throwaway line we learn that exultants are tall.

Wolfe is truly a genius wordsmith.

>> No.17920898

>>17920889

Multiply it ten-thousand-fold. Everything builds up the world.

>> No.17920927

>>17919885
How the fuck else are you meant to read that?
>He is more retarded than I, maybe even gabagool.
There is literally nothing else you can reasonably assume exultant to be in that sentence.

>> No.17920935

>>17919885
this is basic show-don't-tell ...

>> No.17920946

>>17918366
I'm just starting the second one. The first one was ok ... I was a bit let down by it.

>> No.17920981

>>17920927

Modern readers skip entire paragraphs. I'm not even joking.

>> No.17920987

>>17920946

Seeds were planted... Will the books grow and grow on you?

>> No.17920997

>>17920981
What, why would they? And how do you know?

>> No.17921058

>>17920997

They'll admit to it. Here's a redditor talking about Wolfe (this comment was made less than an hour ago):

>I was reading fast trying to find some coherency in the plot. So at a certain point I stopped looking up terms, started scanning long descriptions, etc. The prose and descriptions of the world itself was not intriguing enough for me to make up for the lackluster plot and characters.

"Scanning descriptions" is code for skipping over paragraphs because they don't have "character development".

>> No.17921064

>>17920367
Is that bad or good?

>> No.17921077

I AM NOT A TECHNICAL EDITOR

HE READ THE DEEP LORE FIRST

>> No.17921081

I THOUGHT IT WAS A ROCKETS

KANYE VEST, IN REAL LIFE, ROOTLIN

>> No.17921525

>>17921064
pic rel was for Sword. Urth looks super bland.

>> No.17921542
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17921542

>>17921064
this is Urth.

>> No.17921582

>>17921525
>>17921542
Yeah, I have the plain red cover. I wonder the reasoning behind it having no awesome fantasy cover, was that stuff uncool by the time Urth came out?

>> No.17921608

>>17919885
fucking kek amazing bait

>> No.17921611

>>17921058
Is this real life?

>> No.17921625
File: 40 KB, 308x475, 05 - Urth of the New Sun.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
17921625

>>17920367
I like this one.

>> No.17921643
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17921643

>>17921625
This one is also pretty good.

>> No.17921657
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17921657

>>17921625
>>17921643
They pale in comparison.

>> No.17921668

>>17921657
It's not like there are any big action scenes in Urth, most of the book is just Severian wandering around and talking to people.

>> No.17921671
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17921671

>>17921657

>> No.17921678
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17921678

>>17921668
the one on the mast while entering Yesod

>> No.17922055

>>17921058
My god, I fucking hate these people. Would they fast forward a movie too? Fucking mongrels.
That and people saying they "read" something if they listened to an audio book. Some YouTube faggot made a video where he had to read 7 books in 10 days or something, and he starts with Don Quixote. Reads the first 2 - 3 chapters, and then the fucking spastic says he listened to the next 75% of the book as audio book while working the next day, and only read the last 3 chapters or something. What even is the point then in saying you "read" Don Quixote? You listened to it at work, you didn't fucking actively sit down and read for multiple hours and concentrating on imagining characters and descriptions.
Audio books are great, but they're more akin to listening to radio or podcasts.

>> No.17922066

>>17920095
>it's bullshit that "A normal book would have Character A tell Character B that exultants are tall."

I've read a lot of genre garbage, and yeah, most books do it exactly like that.

There's a reason Wolfe gets meme'd so hard.

>> No.17922089

what do people think of his standalone novels. I'm a fan of free live free

>> No.17922090
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17922090

>>17921058
reddit fucking shits....

>> No.17922107
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17922107

>>17918366
Wolfe sucks and the only people who like him are tradcath larpers.

>> No.17922115

>>17918366
I wanna try and read some fantasy, haven't done that since I was a kid.
Where do I start with this author?

>> No.17922280

>>17922107
Get raked leaf

>> No.17922396

WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME ITS A FUCKING FOUR PART BOOK WHEN I WENT TO THE STORE AND GOT A COPY OF SHADOW AND CLAW. WHY THE FUCK WOULD THEY NOT PRINT IT ALL IN THE SAME BOOK GOD FUCKING DAMN IT. I REFUSE TO READ THIS BECAUSE WHAT IF I GET REALLY INTO IT AND THEN I NEED TO GO BUY THE FUCKING OTHER HALF OF THE FUCKING BOOK. REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

>> No.17922473

>>17922396
>raked

>> No.17922549

>>17922396
just buy it retard

>> No.17922975

>>17922396
>Shadow & Claw: The first two books of The Book of the New Sun
retard

>> No.17922993

>>17922396
Five part. Urth of the New Sun is important too.

>> No.17923101

>>17922396
It's 4 books split into 2 omnibuses you bought the first omnibus shadow & claw (shadow of the torturer & claw of the conciliator)
idk why it's that way confused everyone. they were originally published 1 at a time I think (hence op image)

>> No.17923281

>>17922993
Plus 4 for long sun and 3 for short sun, you'd be doing yourself a disservice to skip those.

>> No.17923512

>>17920946
>I'm just starting the second one. The first one was ok ... I was a bit let down by it.
I honestly preferred the second one
the description of time travel is fucking incredible

>> No.17923524
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17923524

Does the cover in the center of this picture exist or is it just fan art?

>> No.17924410

>>17923281
You'll be doing wolfe a disservice if you read those

>> No.17925950

>>17919885
If this is bait consider me baited

>> No.17926017

>>17923524
The absence of anything, even a barcode, on the back suggests it's fanart. Looks like watercolour

>> No.17926072

>>17918366
Is it okay to read this book in translation? I'm not very good at reading in English.

>> No.17926089

>>17926072
The English is pretty easy though.

>> No.17926317

>>17926089
Is that so? I'll read it in English then, thanks.

>> No.17927198

>>17921058
why would you read just to not read

>> No.17927400

>>17918430
It's not really genre fiction, it's literary fiction.

>> No.17927411

>>17926072
It's not that it's difficult to understand, it's just there are so many concepts and details that might not make sense at first.

>> No.17927421

>>17927400
>it's literary fiction
It can't be, it's not just poorly disguised cuck porn.

>> No.17927443

>>17927421
Kek, really though that's what a lot of the novels shilled on this board boil down to.

>> No.17927456
File: 1.06 MB, 970x728, Screenshot_2021-04-02 dpdq4z5q6ftaxbanybhb webp (WEBP-bild, 1100 × 825 pixlar) - Skalad (88%).png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
17927456

>>17919885
”You flew the Gullfire over Leningrad, didn’t you?”

:-)

>>17920136
>Wolfe
>a deceptive character
Of course he was! Just look at him.

>> No.17927471

>>17920997
Skipping paragraphs is how I'm getting through The Stormlight Archive. By and large I'm enjoying my time, but I'll be fucked if I'm going to go line by line through an extended anime fight.

>> No.17927497
File: 781 KB, 786x1065, New-Sun-Prints.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
17927497

>>17920335
Nice covers and collection, but.

>executioner's sword
>almost as tall as him

>> No.17927951

>>17919885
https://www.amazon.ca/Shadow-Claw-First-Half-Book-ebook/dp/B008S0E77Q/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1617379730&sr=8-1

Look at the reviews lmao

>> No.17927982
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17927982

>>17927951
>I was searching for a dark souls themed book

>> No.17928070

>>17927951
>Tolkien reigns supreme
Why are Lotr fans so insecure?

>> No.17928172

>>17923524
100% fanart, I remember seeing it on DeviantArt when googling for BotNS covers. or maybe it was on the wolfe subreddit

>> No.17928188

>>17926072
Protip: If your first language has romance roots you'll understand most of the terms that make plebs think "wtf no way this word isn't made-up"

>> No.17928550
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17928550

>>17928070
>Why are Lotr fans so insecure?
Haha! You didn't joke.

>Certainly not competition for Tolkien

>Reviewed in Canada on October 20, 2018

>I was attracted to this series by some of the glowing reviews I read. I've read many books in this genre and I've enjoyed all of them (to varying degrees of course). The thing that prompted me to write this review is that "Shadow and Claw" is so convoluted, opaque and frankly in many places indeciperable, that after getting about half way through it, I did not like it, and I am pretty sure I will never want to finish it. There is a story line underneath all the clever dross, but it's too hard to unpack from pages and pages of fluff. Obviously that has its fans, but if you want a story that has a satisfying motion and development to it, then I suggest looking elsewhere. I don't mean to denigrate readers who found the work fascinating; we all like different things. But my honest reaction is that even though I bought the book at a budget price I wish I could get my money back.

>> No.17928623

>>17928550
Thanks for greentexting the review! My doctor said I should not read from .png files or i will go blind.

>> No.17928656
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17928656

>>17927982
fucking hell

>> No.17928673

>>17927471
Why read it in the first place?

>> No.17928958

>>17928550
We are here for you.

>> No.17928974

>>17928623
We are here for you.

>> No.17929197

>>17918366
It's pretty good YA fantasy I guess. The main narrator/character is such a wormy little simp that I couldn't stand it.

>> No.17929249

>>17929197
(You)

>> No.17929720

>>17924410
Stick to the black library, chump.

>> No.17929867

>>17927982
it's funny because all his complaints fit dark souls perfectly

>> No.17930122

>>17929720
Stick to reading the pleb bait, midwit.

>> No.17930208

>>17920335
Are those from a limited edition or something? I tried looking for these covers and they were all like $200 minimum.

>> No.17930230

>>17926317
Lmao, the English is not easy. But >>17928188 is right: if you speak a Romance language, the Latinate/Greek-inspired words should come easily to you. Much less familiar is the Sanskrit.

>> No.17930444

>>17930122
I will, thanks. BotSS is better than BotNS, and it's even worth slogging through the other 4 to get to it.

>> No.17930675
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17930675

>tfw no fiery elf pussy at your beck and call

>> No.17930700

>>17928070
They've always been.

>> No.17930725

>>17930444
Lmao. Midwit reatard

>> No.17931795

>>17930725
Do you know any other words?

>> No.17932139

>>17918366
>Is this a tough read?
>fantasy
Answered your own question.

>> No.17932171

>>17918366
Is this the beginning of a series or a stand-alone book? Much more willing to read a stand-alone.

>> No.17932199

>>17932171
botns is basically all 1 book and urth is a sequel/expansion/closer but not necessary

>> No.17932214

>>17927951
The reviews used to just be whiny about what a misogynistic rapist the main character was. How did the reviews become utter shit of insufferable retards with no reading comprehension

>> No.17932241

>>17922055
Your reading comprehension must be pretty bad if that is what you thought was happening in that simple video.

He read 6 books.
He listened to one shitty new release Stephen King audio book because he has an obligation to shill for his sponsor(Audible). He did not listen to Don Quixote, he read the entire thing.

>> No.17932262

>>17930208

All old things are limited editions.

>> No.17932266

>>17921058
You’re a faggot for making me ask but I need the link I need to see this atrocity

>> No.17932480

>>17918366
Does he really have that goofy ass hair?

>> No.17932999

>>17921058
>>17927951
How did it get this bad?

>> No.17933008

>>17932480
It’s supposed to be the way his hair stands on end from the straps in the mask. Although I never remember the books describing the mask or his hair other than saying he had black hair

>> No.17933949

>>17918366
If you're a zoomer than yeah, avoid it.

>> No.17934561
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17934561

>>17922055
>Would they fast forward a movie too?
Yes, they do. I have known first hand that young zoomers play netflix series at 1.25 or 1.5 speed so they can binge watch more. I am not kidding.

>> No.17934586

>>17933008
The mask is also fulligin-black like the cloak iirc

>> No.17935649

>>17930122
>BotNS
>Widely regarded as a classic, millions of copies sold, even Alec Fucking Baldwin has a coherent take on it
BotLS
>Universally panned, blandest MC of a book since John Fucking Bunyan, 0(Zero) Earth analog easter eggs for redditards
Which series is the pleb bait, again? Who's the midwit?

>> No.17935674

>>17935649
>Alec Baldwin
What?

>> No.17935713

>>17935649
>this post
Definitely you.

>> No.17936132

>>17935713
>No U
You got recommended BotNS in a Dark Souls thread. You enjoyed reading it and imagining yourself wandering around without your shirt on and carrying a badass sword. Your weewee felt kind of tingly every time Wolfe described Jolenta, and you weren't sure if you should tell your mom. /Lit/ is absolutely clogged with these types, its a wonder any books get read at all.

>> No.17936437

STILL LIBIN

APPARANTLY

HEARTS AND MINDS, BRO