/sffg/ - Science fiction and Fantasy general

[Anonymous No.18936861]

Pawnshop Edition

Previous Thread:>>18921602

>Recommended reading charts (Look here before asking for vague recs)
https://mega.nz/folder/kj5hWI6J#0cyw0-ZdvZKOJW3fPI6RfQ

>Archive
>>/lit/?task=search2&search_subject=sffg

>Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1029811-sffg

>A link to the ultimate colossal science fiction and fantasy collection torrent
>>>/t/1023504

>Discord
Never going to be created.

[Anonymous No.18936865]

Any fantasy and/or Science fiction novel where the main character or the love interest are unrepentant psychos killing love rivals and isolating their loved ones? Preferably psychological focus.

[Anonymous No.18936876]

"Yes, I'm a China-Chad, how could you tell?"

[Anonymous No.18936972]

Anything with Graeco-Roman aesthetics?

[Anonymous No.18936977]

>>18936972

[Anonymous No.18936982]

>>18936972
The Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. Someone bet him he couldn't write a book about Romans with Pokemon, he said "hold my beer".

[Anonymous No.18937065]

>>18936876
because you read cringe

[Anonymous No.18937133]

I am looking for a dark fantasy series with intense battles, pitch black lore, highly intellectual themes that dovetail into real world philosophy, poignant character psychology, and just a hint of Lovecraftian horror. Is there anything out there like this?

[Anonymous No.18937146]

>>18937133
Let me guess, you're also into gay sex and cuckshit?

[Anonymous No.18937151]

>>18937146
I can take it or leave it.

[Anonymous No.18937154]

>>18937133
Berserk by Kentaro Miura.

[Anonymous No.18937181]

>>18936789
He asked for a standalone book, do you know how fucking long is LoTM?

[Anonymous No.18937493]

>>18936982
That sounds awful.

[Anonymous No.18937517]

>>18937493
Yes, which is why it's so surprising that it turned out decent. It's not groundbreaking or anything, but it's a fun ride. It varies between coming of age, military fantasy and spy drama at different points.

[Anonymous No.18938017]

>>18937133
not a series but The Library at Mount Char

[Anonymous No.18938327]

>ancient rome historical fiction
is this any good?

[Anonymous No.18938340]

>>18936861
>Book Club
sep 1: inhibitor phase https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56072402-inhibitor-phase
sep 15: wisdom of crowds https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40701780-the-wisdom-of-crowds
sep 26: the scar https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68497.The_Scar

[Anonymous No.18938344]

Rei

[Anonymous No.18938507]

>Nietzschian

[Anonymous No.18938513]

Are there fantasy novels with this feel?

[Anonymous No.18938550]

>>18938513
My diary desu.

[Anonymous No.18938670]

Started Maelstrom. Rifters movie when?

also,
>Lenie Clarke = Lenny Clarke
bravo, Watts
What a corny leaf.

[Anonymous No.18938712]

>>18937133
Mistborn
Wheel of Time
Name of the Wind
Not Bakker

[Anonymous No.18938914]

>>18937133
You know there is, and that it's called The Second Apocalypse

[Anonymous No.18938927]

>Mistborn
>Wheel of Time
>Name of the Wind
>Not Bakker

[Anonymous No.18938958]

>>18937154
I know you mean this in a way that’s half serious, half tongue in cheek, but I really do have a sense that, for whatever reason, manga does fantasy, especially dark fantasy, a lot better than prose novels do and I just want to know what’s going on there and why that it is.

[Anonymous No.18938985]

[Anonymous No.18939035]

>>18936972
>>18936977
Latro In The Mist is a masterpiece but don't go into it expecting a fun swords and sorcery type of story

[Anonymous No.18939048]

The "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" series is fucking great, why don't you faggots read it? It's the perfect "classic" fantasy story that doesn't ape Tolkien too much while giving the same feeling of an "epic saga" that all the Tolkien clones try to get.
The story was so good George R. R. Martin outright stole it when he wrote game of thrones.
I'm on the second book now and it's just great.

[Anonymous No.18939245]

Just finished Dune Messiah, liked it a lot. Read it after recently rereading Dune, don't think I would have enjoyed it as much if I read it right after my first read of it in high school when I didn't really grasp the extent of Paul's powers with prescience and social consciousness and the like. It definitely fulfills the same thematic grandeur as the first, and I enjoyed the philosophical/conspiratorial musings. Was disappointed in the lack of adventure/action compared to Dune but I think some of that is made up for in the intimidating descriptions of Scytale and Edric, fitting replacements as antagonists for the Harkonnens, and the scale of it, I awe imagining the cultural Smörgåsbord of hundreds of planets' architecture crammed into the shield basin of Arrakeen, the reception hall as well obviously.

Did anyone have different interpretations of Paul's vision of the moon falling? Or was the meaning behind that as simple as Chani dying? Also I guess I don't fully understand exactly how everyone's prescience plays off against each other. Edric disrupts Paul's oracular vision as does the millions of Arrakeen denizens who play tarot, but doesn't Alia disturb it as well? I really enjoyed Alia as a character even though she sort of frustratingly lost all agency in the last few chapters to create conflict with Scytale and tie up the Duncan romance, I look forward to her when I read the next two, though I'll probably take a break before doing so. Also, how did Scytale/Bijaz know Chani would die in childbirth? Did they determine it with their Tleilexu Kwisatz Haderach, or did they directly assassinate her somehow?

[Anonymous No.18939308]

>The ThousandCope Seethe

[Anonymous No.18939460]

Bros is there any fantasy series where the protagonist is a real hero in a grimdark setting?
And they don't job to the grimdarkness?

[Anonymous No.18939474]

>>18939460
Solomon Kane

[Anonymous No.18939513]

Finished Gardens of the Moon and it was really, really good, surprised I'm surprised at people pretty harsh criticisms of it. Is simply that the nexts books are just that phenomenal GofM pales in comparison?

[Anonymous No.18939527]

>>18939460
This is why I can't stand grimderp for the most part. I very much like "dark" fantasy, but grimderp is specifically about subverting traditional epic fantasy tropes which includes the "hero."

[Anonymous No.18939529]

>>18939513
The books is all over the place, especially in the second part. I don't mind the first half as much, which is what's usually criticized. Hairlock being killed was also a huge bummer.

The second book is the best one in the entire series. Enjoy!

[Anonymous No.18939661]

>>18936861
What are some key resources or sources of inspiration that you would recommend for writers looking to create interesting magic systems?

[Anonymous No.18939674]

>>18939661
A DnD book so that you play that instead of writing.

[Anonymous No.18939678]

>>18939661
>magic systems

[Anonymous No.18939900]

>>18939661
Don't bother, Brandon Sanderson has you already beat as the Supreme Magic System Autist.

[Anonymous No.18939921]

>>18939513
Book 2, Deadhouse Gates, is one of the best books in the series, if not the best, many people rate it as their favorite. Meanwhile Gardens of the Moon is a pretty disorienting first book in comparison, and the narrative arcs in it aren't as compelling as later books. People tend to underrate it in my opinion, because they want people to think "it only gets better from here" to encourage them to read on to Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice, where Erickson really shines.

[Anonymous No.18939943]

I am thinking of writing something, or at least creating a setting of mine as a pet project, but I can't really nail down what would its genre would be:
>Late Reneisance ish technology
>No magic
>World that is extremely altered from what Earth would be, but it is explained via made up materials with their own laws of how they function
>Scatered fragments of cosmic precursors, however these play minimal role and are extremely rare
>Flora and fauna that is more monstrous than on Earth, but realistic
>The main focus would be on how would a society that arose on such esoteric planet be different in their historic development from Earth
Would this be sci-fi or fantasy? Perhaps there are some similar settings I could view first for ideas?

[Anonymous No.18939964]

>>18939048
I read it a long while ago, it took me a long time to get into the first book because it's a very slow build up. That's basically how Tad Williams writes everything, but MST was his first series, and his slowest. He gets better about ramping up the pacing with everything he writes. If you enjoy MST I highly recommend reading his other series, because he only gets better over time. Tad is very interested in folklore and fairy tales, which you can probably tell from the way he wrote MST, and that shows up in basically everything he writes. Even Otherland, which is a sci-fi series, is riddled with folklore and mysticism. My personal favorite by him though is Shadowmarch. I had so much fun trying to untangle the mythology from the three different versions of it he teased throughout the books, trying to match up the different names and accounts to figure out what really happened.

[Anonymous No.18939974]

>>18939943
I can't think of a question that matters less for writing than "is this sci-fi or fantasy?" Why would that matter at all? Would you abandon the story entirely, or change it substantially, based on the answer?

[Anonymous No.18939982]

>>18939661
Battle shounen manga. Pick any 5 battle shounen series at random and you'll have a good sampling of power systems, and hopefully be cured of any interest in them.

[Anonymous No.18939989]

>>18939974
It doesn't, but I am a bit autistic about things like this, so I would like to know if there is some sort of genre of fiction that fits into what I described. And as I said, if so, then seeing other works could be a good source for inspiration.

[Anonymous No.18940009]

>>18939989
Writing in a genre is mostly about using the cliches and tropes of the genre. Content is whatever, even if nobody has done your exact mix of setting elements before, what makes it sci-fi or fantasy is what cliches you choose to include in the setting, characters, or story. And there's some overlap there, cause genres aren't cleanly delineated. If you admit to being autistic then you'll probably find that hard to accept since you like things to be in neat, discrete categories, but fiction doesn't really work like that.

TL;DR if you want to write in a genre you just include genre cliches. Details are largely irrelevant, you can't blindly copy them anyway cause that's plagiarism.

[Anonymous No.18940062]

>>18940009
Hmm, I guess in that case I don't really fall into either category. Because more that I think about it, I don't really want any cliches from either. If anything, I guess I might be more in line with counterfactual/althistory crowd as the tropes I would like to use are less tropes, and more reuses of certain historical events or developments, but redirected through a fantastical worls.

[Anonymous No.18940149]

>>18936876
based
I thought about RI and realized that it is already a masterpiece and any kind of ending, a conclusion to the story would have ruined it.
It is a story that will never end and only readers imagination is the limit. For me, FY has currently arrived in present day China and is about to feed his dogs all present members of ccp

[Anonymous No.18940157]

Does anyone know any books that are similar to E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy in tone?

[Anonymous No.18940162]

>>18940062
Writing in a genre is something people do either because they're huge fans of the genre and genuinely love the cliches they use, or because they're cynically trying to make a lot of money by pandering to those types of fans. If neither of these describes you, there's no reason to wade into genre writing, just write your story the way you want.

[Anonymous No.18940164]

>>18940157
Maybe something by Victor Pelevin?

[Anonymous No.18940171]

>>18939661
don't reinvent the wheel, just use generic functional magic system, what is important is how you explain it to the reader, just giving all the information in one huge infodump will ruin it, intertwine it into the story, have (sub)plot revolve around mc finding out about magic little by little, have training/old cranky hobo master/academy arc etc

[Anonymous No.18940258]

>>18936876
RI is way too edgy for my tastes. LOTM was a lot more enjoyable

[Anonymous No.18940315]

Is there any book out there where a roughly 18th century ship has to navigate through a pitch black void filled with dangerous monsters that only become visible if they're too close to the ships lights, and if that happens they have to shoot it with an energy canon on the ship?
It's been in my head and I honestly can't tell if it's something I've seen before or just some really vivid dream I had

[Anonymous No.18940328]

>>18940315
this sounds like it might've been a vidya you played

[Anonymous No.18940798]

Bakker is King.

[Anonymous No.18940849]

>>18940258
>lotm
What is it about?

[Anonymous No.18940892]

>>18939661
>writers looking to create interesting magic systems

[Anonymous No.18940911]

>>18940315
Shadow and Bone is what you're thinking of. Recently got a netflix adaption. Its YA shit tho so it is probably cancer.

[Anonymous No.18941127]

Why are fantasy book covers always so ugly and cheap looking?

[Anonymous No.18941141]

>>18941127
To match the content inside them, of course.

[Anonymous No.18941156]

>>18938017
Seconded, I loved this book.

[Anonymous No.18941167]

>>18941127
Covers became less important (financially) when people started buying books online from word-of-mouth rather than by browsing in a bookstore. So sellers lower risk by using stock art and photoshop. Got to admire those who add a nice cover once their book sells, though.

[Anonymous No.18941251]

What percent of books that you start do you drop /sffg/? How do you know you've hit the wall?

[Anonymous No.18941257]

>>18941251
99% I drop, not enough gay scat in them, I only read King Bakker

[Anonymous No.18941264]

>>18939661
>anime
>demons good
> west bad
KEK

[Anonymous No.18941272]

>>18941251
I usually drop them in the first few chapters so I don't truly consider them dropped, since I just wasn't feeling the book and might come back to it latter. I don't usually drop books or series after investing time into them thanks to the sunken cost fallacy. The one exception I clearly reminder is the shitfest that was the wheel of time, which i dropped 9-10 books in.

[Anonymous No.18941284]

>>18941272
I never officially dropped WoT but somehow I just can't make myself go back to it.

[Anonymous No.18941308]

>>18941251
I find that many fantasy series struggle at the beginning because they only become interesting once the key characters are brought together and that you have to muddle through the various contrivances of the plot that bring the cast together. So usually I will read up until that point, and if it doesn't improve upon reaching this milestone I know I can cut my losses. If this milestone isn't reached at some point in the first book I will not continue on to the second.

[Anonymous No.18941414]

>>18940849
Isekai'd mc starts a secret society to gain power and try to return to his parents back on earth.
Involves scp,gaslamp fantasy, tons of conspiracies and schemes and an actually intelligent main character.

[Anonymous No.18941461]

I fell extremely deeply into the gook web novel rabbit hole over the last six months, and I have no one to talk to about it but you guys, so enjoy.
Solo Leveling: A crowd pleaser. Honestly, I've forgotten a lot about this one already. It was very straightforward skill growth and plot progression, and it didn't try to do anything fancy with the landing. 7/10
The Novel's Extra: Same deal as above, with the caveat that the author thinks he is very clever, when in fact he is a 90 IQ monkey. He seems to think he has built up some sort of theme over the course of the story, and I'm not sure why since the whole thing really is just a bunch of plot scenes strung together. Still, he actually bothered to build out a cast and they were all quite likeable. 7.5/10
Invisible Dragon: I was sold this one on the premise that it's the My Immortal of gook web novels, and I was not disappointed. Unrateably beautiful disaster.
The World After the Fall: A strange and melancholy little story. Starts off as a critique of the Regressor genre, and then somehow morphs into being about umwelten and how humans influence and compete for the dominance of their perceptual worlds. Sort of unsatisfying, but I do continue to think back on it. 8.5/10
Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint: Same authors as World After the Fall. Same deal where the serial nature of the storytelling turns an anti-regressor premise into rather maudlin psychological musings, although this one ends up being more about communication. Specifically, it's at its strongest when it's exploring the relationship between the writer, the reader, and the protagonist as a medium between the two. 8/10
Second Coming of Gluttony: Absolutely retarded, but from a pure enjoyment factor it's certainly the most satisfying I've encountered of those that are fully translated. 9/10
A Returner's Magic should be Special: Identical review to Solo Leveling
Isaac: Edgy as hell, but justifiably, I think, for the story it's trying to tell. It's about a terrorist who gets Isekai'd and decides to live his new life in lazy retirement. When politicians drag him into their conflicts, he's very straightforward with them about the costs his brand of warfare will inflict. To his utter lack of surprise, the collateral damage is rarely enough to stay their hands. 8/10 for what's been translated so far.
SSS-Class Suicide Hunter: By far my favorite, from what's been translated. The premise gives the author a lot of freedom to tell mostly unconnected stories about mostly different casts of characters, and he's great at telling stories that make me love and empathize with his characters. As far as I'm concerned it's historically the best recipe for serial fiction, and what made Dickens such a beloved writer. 9.5/10
Second Life Ranker: I would have given it the same review as Solo Leveling, except it just goes on for fucking ever. Author should have wrapped it up ages ago. 4/10
Looks like that's the whole list of what I've read

[Anonymous No.18941731]

>>18941461
>>>/a/

[Anonymous No.18941740]

>>18941731
These are books, anon. You get banned from /a/ if you try to post about things without pictures.

[Anonymous No.18941819]

>>18941461
You should've formatted that better to have each different work separated.

[Anonymous No.18941821]

>>18941740
>these are books

[Anonymous No.18941831]

>>18941819
yeah probably

[Anonymous No.18941966]

>>18941461
>SSS-Class Suicide Hunter
nice rec i'm gonna check it out
seems interesting

[Anonymous No.18942090]

Whats wrong with that one anon so obsessively posting the same types of posts constantly?

[Anonymous No.18942232]

>>18942090
what posts?

[Anonymous No.18942278]

Started reading Warrior-Prophet an hour ago and both Xerius and Achemian already graphically fucked underage girls.

[Anonymous No.18942306]

>>18942278
How do you feel about that?

[Anonymous No.18942317]

>>18942278
What's your point? Makes perfect sense considering the setting.

[Anonymous No.18942334]

>>18942317
>the setting.
Nietzcheian pedo setting with harcore rape

[Anonymous No.18942497]

>>18942278
>Nooooo its not a childrens book I swear look I wrote about rape and pedofilia in there its super adult and mature noooooo

[Anonymous No.18942503]

>>18942497
>pedofilia

bakker haters confirmed as brainlets/esls

[Anonymous No.18942508]

>>18942497
Might I recommend Sanderson. It seems right up your alley.

[Anonymous No.18942788]

fellas, is the three body problem pro or anti ccp/communism? i get conflicting answers whenever I read criticism about the series and the author has made controversial statements about his political views before. some say it reads like a propaganda but I've heard its also about the devastating effects of the cultural revolution.

[Anonymous No.18942802]

>>18939048
this has been on my "to-read" list for like 15 years

[Anonymous No.18942812]

>>18939048
I thought Martin directly ripped off the plot of ASOIAF from "Les Rois Maudits." Apparently he ran out of source material to plagiarize from Druon after Book 3, which is why the series goes swiftly downhill after that.

[Anonymous No.18942846]

>>18942788
Did you consider perhaps that history can be viewed through a neutral or mixed lense? If he is a communist doesn't mean he is a sophist and decided to show the very bad along with the good. If he is anticommunist he decided to show that the goals and motivations might be good, but it also leads to brutality. Notice that if the author is honest both results would basically be the same, and then it is down to you and your beliefs to decide if it is net good or bad. Bioshock was a disaster for human race because it tought midwitts that the onlynway to portay ideologies is to make them comically bad and extreme.

[Anonymous No.18942942]

>>18938958
Berserk is trash

[Anonymous No.18942950]

>>18939048
i read a very small part of the beginning and the hobbits were so cringe and annoying i instantly dropped the series. incredibly shitty dialogue and i could instantly tell the plot would be hypergeneric trash. Terrible series.

[Anonymous No.18942951]

>>18941461
I tried reading several gook novels and I couldn't get into them, just started nano machine, I haven't dropped it but if it doesn't improve soon I will drop it. I tried beginning of end and supreme magus and honestly they were bad and read more like manga/anime script, It feels like gooks always try to mix the tone that chinese cultivation novels have with japanese anime slice of life and dumb japanese school love life (also from anime).

[Anonymous No.18942961]

>>18942951
I very much enjoy chinkshit novels but have hated all the gook novels ive tried too. I think theyre just a creatively bankrupt culture because due to pretty much being a us colony.

[Anonymous No.18942975]

>>18942961
It feels like they are trying to copy and mix western, chinese and japanese styles and put it all in one, of course they fail miserably.

[Anonymous No.18943013]

>>18939048
be aware that tad can't into endings, but yeah overall it's a good series. i haven't read it in a long time but some of the scenes really stuck with me

[Anonymous No.18943379]

>>18942812
Martin stole wherever he could

[Anonymous No.18943529]

>>18938017
I liked Mount Char but I wouldn't call any aspect of it intellectual

[Anonymous No.18943542]

>>18940315
That's Sunless Sea minus the weapon being an energy weapon

[Anonymous No.18943554]

>>18936861
I want to write a rehash of the Iliad where philosophers take the place of the old gods and Hector sells his soul to the devil to save Troy.

Who is the devil?

[Anonymous No.18943630]

>>18941127
For some reason the modern philosophy of graphic design is to make your stuff NOT stand out, for some reason having your stuff kinda just blend into everything else is desirable.

[Anonymous No.18943642]

>>18942278
There's no character named Achemian

[Anonymous No.18943650]

>>18943554
Diogenes

[Anonymous No.18943718]

>>18942950
>I read a very small part of the beginning
I will grant you that it starts slow, like glacially slow. It's one of the faults of this author, but once things start to pick up it doesn't stop.
Also I'm not sure what you are talking about there are small trolls there but they are not just not-hobbits, they behave and act intrinsically differently.

[Anonymous No.18943754]

>>18942942
You are trash.

[Anonymous No.18943862]

any good sci fi retellings of classics? The Odyssey in particular seems like it'd make for an interesting adaptation(I remember reading a comic version of it that, while not perfect or anything was rather entertaining, the cyclops was a high tech Russian soldier on an island with an optical headset as his eye)

I'm nearing the end of The Stars my Destination and it's been a great book. Definitely going to get read again-its pacing is lightning fast. I'm surprised it hasn't been adapted into a movie yet(hopefully it never will at this point, modern adaptations are usually total shit and I don't want this book getting the current year treatment)

[Anonymous No.18943917]

>>18943862
>any good sci fi retellings of classics? The Odyssey

Dan Simmons Illium/Olympos cycle. It is a duology that retells the Illiad and Odyssey in a scifi setting.

[Anonymous No.18943932]

>I don't write fantasy. I write stories that have important human themes. They have elements of romance, history, adventure, mystery and philosophy. Most fantasy is one-dimensional. It's either about magic or world-building. I don't do either.
How will genre fiction writers ever recover from this scorch?

[Anonymous No.18943936]

>>18943554
would be cool if it was yahweh

[Anonymous No.18944005]

Who wants to start a Sword and Sorcery renaissance with me?

[Anonymous No.18944072]

>>18944005
But that's problematic and stuff

[Anonymous No.18944073]

>>18943932
With a mere two words
Literally who?

[Anonymous No.18944076]

>>18940157
depends what you are looking for but light also does the whole "crazy cyberpunk future may be psychically linked to a murderer's mind thing"

[Anonymous No.18944098]

>>18944005
Sorry, but busy with starting the wizarding renaissance. Working on outlining book one of my Pentalogy.

I am tired of the modern bright and shiny wizards. I want old-school wizards, the dark and evil kind.

[Anonymous No.18944113]

>>18944098
This but with magi being astronomers.

[Anonymous No.18944197]

>>18944113
Not a bad choice.

[Anonymous No.18944213]

>>18944197
Thanks. My novel will be about a wealthy mage having a tower constructed as an observatory so he can follow the movements of a celestial object he theorizes is actually in the upper atmosphere.

[Anonymous No.18944228]

>>18944005
>Fantasy being written by people who just genuinely love fantasy again
God, I wish, but such a movement would never survive in this era where "muh PoC's, muh LGBT" is pretty much a requirement to get published

[Anonymous No.18944239]

>>18944228
Actually, you can use this to your advantage. Remember, Conan was a thief and an outlaw, so writing a black man doing the same things would both pander to the PoC crowd and at the same time let you show black people as criminals.

[Anonymous No.18944242]

>>18944213
how do you get a whole book out of that

[Anonymous No.18944247]

>>18944242
Pirates mostly

[Anonymous No.18944315]

>>18944228
Why couldn't you have gay Sword and Sorcery?

[Anonymous No.18944360]

>>18944228
Why? This attitude assumes you are beholden solely to some whims of fat urbanite editors at TOR or whatever. Just form a writing circle with like minded people, support each other, maybe even start a publishing house or something idk.

The point is you need to break this idea of a passive relationship between yourself and editors/publishers. There is no reason you can't do what they are doing.

And even if you don't get the sales of other shilled authors who cares? You said you are doing it for the love of the genre after all.

[Anonymous No.18944430]

https://www.deviantart.com/uthp/journal/The-Legend-of-Twilight-Zelda-Princess-part-I-348420007

[Anonymous No.18944490]

>>18939661
The Mystical Qabalah
The Golden Bough
Liber Null & Psychonaut

[Anonymous No.18944780]

>>18943013
People here said the same thing about gemmel and his endings are fine.

[Anonymous No.18944932]

>>18943932
rest in piss faggot

[Anonymous No.18944971]

>>18944315
Why are you even asking such a retarded question?

[Anonymous No.18944982]

>>18943917
He said "good," not "retarded."

[Anonymous No.18945001]

>>18944982
He doesn't have the luxury of choice.

[Anonymous No.18945042]

>>18939048
Sorry im not into cuckoldry and used goods love interests

[Anonymous No.18945048]

>Legion was great and BfA was not nearly as bad as people remembered.

[Anonymous No.18945068]

>>18945048
WoD was unironically the last good expansion

[Anonymous No.18945070]

bros how smart do I have to be to understand the Foundation series?

[Anonymous No.18945093]

>>18945070
It's not very complicated.

[Anonymous No.18945223]

The year is about to end and nothing has been released. Fuck E William Brown for this shit. He isn't to publish shit when it's more profitable to have pay piggies pay 5 bux a month for one single chapter. Then he larps with his tabletop campaigns instead of writing Daniel Black.
Fuck E William Brown.

[Anonymous No.18945618]

>is better than bakker

[Anonymous No.18945627]

>>18945618
why are authors so serious every second of every fucking day
chill out retards
that includes you david faggot wallace and reddit mcburgercarthy

[Anonymous No.18945665]

>>18945627
Joe can smile

[Anonymous No.18945695]

KING

[Anonymous No.18945731]

>>18945618
>but only in the alternate universe where Bakker doesn't exist

[Anonymous No.18945743]

>>18936861
that must be the gayest "cyberpunk" picture I've seen

[Anonymous No.18945962]

>>18944005
I haven't read much of it. Got any recommendations? I'm between novels right now.

[Anonymous No.18946077]

>>18944360
>maybe even start a publishing house or something idk.
that'd be pretty cool, especially with print-on-demand being easily available over the internet, distributing physical books would be a lot easier and you could even re-print classic stuff that's in the public domain

[Anonymous No.18946103]

So how did Jonas preserve his biological components? What did he do to keep the cells alive? Did he have a cybernetic or organic immune system and way of providing cells with oxygen and ATP? Even so how did he prevent old age from causing the tissue to die every 60 years. Did he just replace his parts with a hobo corpse every so often?

[Anonymous No.18946168]

>>18939661
Don't set a system, set limitations and an aesthetic. Keep it open and unknown. Lifelike authenticity in the end experience for the reader is what you should aim for, not game mechanics.

[Anonymous No.18946171]

>>18942278
>underage
dude it's medieval med/mena. how are they underage?

[Anonymous No.18946319]

>>18945695
>KING

[Anonymous No.18946390]

>>18938958
>>18943754
you need to hang yourself for having such a retarded opinion

[Anonymous No.18946394]

>>18939661
>Magic system
Nigga, you're writing a book, everything in said book should be crafted around the narrative and the characters, the characters and narrative shouldn't be a vehicle to explore your autistic world building.

[Anonymous No.18946594]

>first edition hardcovers of The Book of the New Sun go for $75–$100 dollars apiece
sheesh, what do you think these things will be worth in 10 years' time?

[Anonymous No.18946605]

>>18946394
this. a thousand times this.

[Anonymous No.18946629]

>>18946394
>MUH CHARACTURS
If I want characters I'd read Dostoevsky or some shit, fantasy's purpose is to let you explore fantastical worlds with unique properties.

[Anonymous No.18946655]

>>18942812
>>18943379
you are absolutely retarded

[Anonymous No.18946657]

>>18945042
wtf are you talking about you schizo?

[Anonymous No.18946658]

>>18946629
This is the autistic line of thinking that leads us to the market dominance of hacks like Sanderson.

[Anonymous No.18946660]

Why hasn't modern fantasy tried to ape the MCU?
>multiple writers working on a single shared universe, writers focusing on different characters
>big crossover events every few years
maybe the Forgotten Realms books do this but nobody cares about it since the 90s when Salvatore was still writing good Drizz't books and even then people only cared about Drizz't anyway

[Anonymous No.18946673]

>>18946655
Go back to not writing Winds, George

[Anonymous No.18946689]

>>18946660
Dragonlance, Warhammer, etc

[Anonymous No.18946691]

>>18946660
Novels don't usually pick up the same size of audience to justify it financially, but still take up a lot of time to create. The MCU movies managed it because they could start with the comic foundation, and those managed it because serial fiction is low initial investment. The west doesn't have a big serial fiction scene, so it would have to start in an asian country, probably.

[Anonymous No.18946696]

>>18946673
he is right though

[Anonymous No.18946698]

>>18946660
It has. Read more.

[Anonymous No.18946707]

>>18946660
>multiple writers working on a single shared universe, writers focusing on different characters
Because it's a very shitty idea that brings out constant inconsistencies and plot hole on the very nature of reality in one universe.40K somewhat manages to do it because you are dealing with broken records of a broken empire with it's communications and archive networks completely fucked and shrouded in mysticism. And even then there are some continuity erros so egregious they have to re classify what is or isn't cannon every couple of years.

[Anonymous No.18946717]

>>18946696
We are all retards here, that doesn't mean martin isn't a hack.

[Anonymous No.18946721]

>>18946707
Plus editorial mandates suck. All of the best MTG writing is effectively unrelated to what WotC actually pushes

[Anonymous No.18946725]

>>18946717
but every fantasy writer is a hack so that does not say much

[Anonymous No.18946730]

>>18946629
The very purpose of fictional genres is to explore facets of human nature in unreal environments and conditions first and foremost. Sure you can autistically build a setting and you can build it good, but if you fail to build a good story that showcases human interactions and conflicts on top of it, it will still be worthless to most readers.

[Anonymous No.18946749]

>>18946673
>Deep lore alert<
Reminder that A Song of Ice and Fire is a sci-fi horror. Westeros/Planetos exists as a fractal hypercube within an elder entity's pocket universe inside the Lovecraft cosmos.

[Anonymous No.18946756]

>>18946629
Sure, until the autistic world building author is JUST competent enough to actually put out a novel and you get bored of it real fast because the whole thing reads like someone's private wiki without a single decent story thread or compelling character to latch onto.
It's fine for the first few chapters since you think "he's just establishing the world" but eventually it starts to dawn on you that the whole book is like this.

[Anonymous No.18946757]

>>18946657
>Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn
the love interest of the mc sleeps with another man. i'm not into cuckshit

[Anonymous No.18946763]

>>18946749
Explain the time traveling foetus hypothesis please

[Anonymous No.18946779]

>>18946763
>he doesn't know
When Mirri Maz Dur cursed Dany's womb in Book 1, it had the effect of sending the living foetus of her baby with Drogo, Rhaego, the prince who was promised, back in time into Joanna Lannister's womb, where he would be born as Tyrion Lannister. This would explain Tyrion's exceptional qualities and also confirm the three heads of the dragon are D, J, and T.

[Anonymous No.18946800]

>>18946779
This theory is ironclad btw.

[Anonymous No.18946817]

>>18946730
>The very purpose of fictional genres is to explore facets of human nature in unreal environments and conditions first and foremost.
Go home Scott you're drunk, most people read fantasy cause they like magical adventures and cool creatures. If you jump into some 10000 page epic cycle cause you want to learn about "human nature" I say you're fucking retarded.

[Anonymous No.18946822]

Is it gud

[Anonymous No.18946844]

>>18944098
>I am tired of the modern bright and shiny wizards. I want old-school wizards, the dark and evil kind.
You should check out Mask of the Sorcerer then.

[Anonymous No.18946845]

>>18946822
All Simmons is good my dude, you will be extra lost if you didn't read Iliad first though

[Anonymous No.18946881]

>>18946757
Look I'm not a fan of cuckoldrry either but it has a definite meaning for fucks sake. Stop trying to apply it so broadly to everything.

[Anonymous No.18946887]

>>18944098
>modern wizards are bright and shinny
You wot m8? Forgot about Shit of the Rings and his Glow in the dark wizard?

[Anonymous No.18946904]

>>18936972
Seconding this, it's kind of weird that the greco-roman period, one of the most popular history periods of our world for several reasons, is almost completely ignored in fantasy.
I can think of maybe one or two books set in roman times and they are both shit.

[Anonymous No.18946916]

>>18946845
>All Simmons is good my dude
The first Hyperion book is great but the sequels are so bad I completely dropped the author.

[Anonymous No.18946920]

Nifffft

[Anonymous No.18946921]

>>18945042 >>18946757
ritualposting autist with an obsessive-avoidant fixation on cuckoldry >>18946881 ignore him and carry on

[Anonymous No.18946929]

>>18946916
Fall of Hyperion is still pretty good.

[Anonymous No.18947009]

>>18946822
It's decent and it does not shit itself completely in 2nd half like Hyperion, however to me it felt like it was intended as a trilogy but then he decided to quickly wrap it up in the end of book 2 for some reason.

[Anonymous No.18947024]

>>18946929
He probably meant first two and second two respectively.

[Anonymous No.18947093]

>>18946881
>>18946921
i like how you two can't even deny it lol

[Anonymous No.18947114]

>>18947093
Cuckoldry fills the pages of world literature, including the Bible. You are the cuck for cucking yourself out of reading due to your obsessive-compulsive phobias.

[Anonymous No.18947142]

>>18947114
bro it's not that deep. i just don't like cuckold protagonists. good for you if you do. more power to you.

[Anonymous No.18947158]

>>18947142
your definition of cuckhold is not the dictionary definition nor the definition most porn sites use. what definition are you even using?

[Anonymous No.18947162]

This is an extremely stupid discussion.

[Anonymous No.18947165]

>>18947158
the /a/ version obviously

[Anonymous No.18947213]

>>18947165
Of course you are a filthy weeb.

[Anonymous No.18947250]

This is good, surprisingly. I never see anyone talk about it.

[Anonymous No.18947262]

>>18947250
>surprisingly
It isn't surprising that it's good; Gemmell was BASED.

[Anonymous No.18947268]

>>18947250
I read that a few weeks ago. Maybe a couple of months. It was good.

[Anonymous No.18947362]

>>18942846
>Did you consider perhaps that history can be viewed through a neutral or mixed lense?

None of you actually think this right?

[Anonymous No.18947664]

I posted about this book a while back, when I started reading it, and I finished it last week and I've taken some time to finish thinking about it. This book, Exiles vol. 1, the Ruins of Ambrai, by Melanie Rawn, was the first installment of an intended trilogy that was never finished. It was published in 1994, and its sequel in 1997, and the last word we had about the third was in 2014. Rawn has since moved on to other projects. As far as I know this is the only edition of the book ever published and it was never reprinted. I picked it up in a used book store for $1.60. I hope I can find the sequel since I actually did enjoy it, but on Amazon the mass market paperback is over $70. Hoping I can score it cheap at the same used bookstore this week.

As for the book, one might call it "feminist fantasy" but I think that's a little simplistic. It's a fantasy world called Lenfell, governed by matriarchy, women dominate in political, commercial, social, and military affairs (men still serve as soldiers, but officers are mostly women). However it's also a post-apocalyptic dystopia in many ways. The government, called the Council, rules the entire world and maintains what is basically a police state with a caste system. Much of the land and wealth is controlled by an aristocratic class known as the Bloods, who sit at the top of the caste system and who dominate politics and commerce on Lenfell. Slavery is also widespread and the backbone of much of the world's economy, and it's also been mentioned that the Council committed genocide against the lower tiers in the past. So not exactly a utopian example of a feminist society.

The main characters are mostly women, with one man, a traveling minstrel. The women are all sisters and mageborn, that is, born with magical powers. The eldest belongs to the evil faction of mages, the Lords of Malerris, and the other two are part of the "good" faction, the Mage Guardians. This book is set over many years, starting with these characters in their early childhood and following them to their adult years (the eldest is in her late 20s I believe, the youngest in her teens). A peculiarity about this series, which in many ways resembles other elaborate epic fantasy works with constructed worlds, is that Rawn does not do a great deal of visual description, nor does she ground the reader in the moment while things happen. She seems to prefer a loftier narrative distance, where she can summarize events and elaborate on abstract concepts. She crams a ton of exposition into this novel which details a lot of her world's history, society, politics, etc. She has a detailed genealogy and index in the back of the book too, so never let it be said that autistic world building is just a boy's club, in my mind she's proof women can do it too.

However her books lack the "cinematic" quality that I would say writers like Jordan or Erickson have, where they paint a picture and draw you into a physical place. Still a fascinating world.

[Anonymous No.18947700]

>>18946658
And?

[Anonymous No.18947702]

>>18946730
>The very purpose of fictional genres is to explore facets of human nature in unreal environments and conditions first and foremost.
No, this is what pseuds claim to justify the fact they're reading genre fiction. Do a survey of what most people say they like about fantasy and you'll get
>cool settings
>cool characters
>fun adventures

[Anonymous No.18947744]

>>18947664
Sounds hella gay, but I appreciate that you took the time to write that out

[Anonymous No.18947760]

[Anonymous No.18947764]

>>18947760

[Anonymous No.18947784]

>>18947760
good looking people like Sanderson, fedora wearing people like B*kker

[Anonymous No.18947796]

fuck you idiots

[Anonymous No.18947806]

>>18947664
Sounds pretty gay bro.

[Anonymous No.18947810]

>>18939048
It moves so fucking slowly and none of the characters are endearing
If I read it when I was 12 I might have finished it but had to stop near the middle of the second book

[Anonymous No.18947817]

Anyone read anything by Cordwainer Smith here?

[Anonymous No.18947828]

My goal for the next tournament is to get one win.

[Anonymous No.18947899]

>>18947760
Right is a Sanderfag
Left is the average Bakkerchad.

[Anonymous No.18947914]

>Step One. Eat Sranc.
>Step Two. Profit.

[Anonymous No.18947933]

>>18947914
>>Step One. Eat Sranc.
>>Step Two. Profit.

[Anonymous No.18947947]

>step one. rape dirty ass.
>step two. profit.

[Anonymous No.18947993]

How do you feel about anachronistic modern dialogue in a pseudo-medieval fantasy setting? Would you see it as something amateurish that takes you out of the story, or accept it as a stylistic choice?

[Anonymous No.18948038]

>>18947993
It's terrible. There's a novel called The Grey Bastards that does something like that. The author was HEAVILY inspired by the Sons of Anarchy TV show so he has the main characters (who are Orcs) talking like bikers from the show in a fantasy medieval setting and it's bad.

[Anonymous No.18948044]

>>18947993
Depends on what you're calling "modern" dialogue. Characters not talking like they're in Chaucer or Shakespeare doesn't automatically make them "modern". Things like using idioms and slang from contemporary English are obviously jarring in a medieval setting, but I'm a lot more forgiving in what I consider to be incongruous dialogue in a fantasy setting. Characters can talk in fairly normal voices that don't sound stilted and "old fashioned" and I have no problem with this as long as the word choice makes sense given the setting.

[Anonymous No.18948059]

>>18947993
depends if gay rape is involved, if so its ok

[Anonymous No.18948066]

>>18947993
There's always going to be a balance, but if you've got characters saying 'dime a dozen' and there are no dimes you're reading trash

[Anonymous No.18948100]

>>18947744
It did tick boxes for gay and rape in the GRI trinity, and in the first chapter no less. No explicit sex scenes, but plenty of bawdy and suggestive dialogue and jokes. It felt pretty randy and free handed with sexual content, but on the whole most of the exposition was about politics.

[Anonymous No.18948106]

>>18948100
>It did tick boxes for gay and rape in the GRI trinity
then its 10/10

[Anonymous No.18948121]

>>18948100
>No explicit sex scenes
Oh I forgot about when, in the final climax of the series, one of the sisters literally mind rapes the other by forcing her to mentally go through being raped and impregnated over and over again. So that's almost incest too.

[Anonymous No.18948208]

>>18947993
Cook used that pretty well in his Garrett PI books. I think it locks you into a certain informality. Like it's probably not good to write your magnum opus that way, but if you're writing the kind of shit where an anime episode might happen, it's acceptable. You have to be aware of the etymology of the terms you're using too, like other Anon mentioned.

[Anonymous No.18948255]

what's the actual worst book you've read (no epic meme responses like Bakker/Sanderson)

[Anonymous No.18948291]

>>18948255
Worst book I've ever finished? Schild's Ladder, with The Difference Engine as a close runner up

Worst book I dropped? Mistborn

[Anonymous No.18948299]

>>18948208
>You have to be aware of the etymology of the terms you're using too, like other Anon mentioned.
This seems like an opportunity for Pratchett-esque footnote jokes giving the origins of phrases that wouldn't fit otherwise.

[Anonymous No.18948309]

>>18948255
Worst book I've ever finished? Red Rising, with StormFront as a close runner up

Worst book I dropped? Prince of Nothing

[Anonymous No.18948315]

>>18948255
The Mass Effect novels. I couldn't even tell you which was worst or what their names were. The whole series is such a trainwreck.

[Anonymous No.18948409]

>>18947993
>anachronistic modern dialogue in a pseudo-medieval fantasy setting?
Unless its an Isekai, then no.

[Anonymous No.18948433]

>>18948255
From fantasy and sci-fi, it's a tossup between Poppy War and The Blade Itself. Both are first books in a longer series that I had no desire to continue reading. If that were the only criteria, I'd include Malice as well, however Malice was simply boring, while Poppy War I found repugnant, and Blade Itself utterly trite and offensively lazy. I can't pick one over the other because I didn't wholly hate both books, but merely found the bad to outweigh the good.

Poppy War had a decent enough setting and the plotting was coherent, the author knew how to write an action sequence and seemed to have a good grasp of suspense as well. Unfortunately the story was an extremely heavy handed allegory to world war 2 and the protagonist is a very unsubtle mouthpiece for her political views, and, as the story progresses, the instrument of her imaginary vengeance against her imaginary version of Japan. As I said, not subtle, not enjoyable to be clobbered over the head with messaging that obliterates the setting around it.

The Blade Itself is just the opposite. Abercrombie writes good characters and doesn't beat his reader about the head with what he wants them to feel and think. Or at least Golkta and Jezal are good characters, Logan was so utterly trite I found it hard to believe the same author wrote him. Golkta and Jezal though are compelling, very human-seeming in their foibles and their triumphs. Had the story been written in a more character driven way, I might've enjoyed the experience. Unfortunately the story has what I can only term a railroad, full of nonsense and contrivances with barely sketched in details. I think Abercrombie missed his calling, he should've written for television or theater, he clearly wanted to leave the work of filling in the background to somebody else.

[Anonymous No.18948466]

>>18947993
horrible

[Anonymous No.18948506]

Has anyone read gamebooks here?
I want to try Lone Wolf books as I learned that they are freely available online.
For anyone interested; they are available on
projectaon<D0t>org

[Anonymous No.18948530]

>>18948506
>Has anyone read gamebooks here?
Only the Resident Evil books.

[Anonymous No.18948688]

>>18948309
red rising is good for YA. have you never read any other YA? Most of it is even worse

[Anonymous No.18948709]

cool trick i'm trying to add flaws and depth to one of my characters is making them intellectually smart, but emotionally retarded. Not autistic, just sporadic in a way that blurs their better judgement, or a woman if you will.

[Anonymous No.18948740]

>>18948709
Its not cool, its projecting

[Anonymous No.18948749]

>>18948740
So?

[Anonymous No.18948785]

>>18948749
You have no depth nor intellect. You are probably writing some kind of anime or manga which of course is perfect for a soulless autist protagonists. I suppose there is no way of stopping you from writing but know this; no one cares.

[Anonymous No.18948815]

>>18948785
I don't even read manga or watch anime you dumb little bitch lmao

go play in traffick fag

[Anonymous No.18948825]

or those interested, I compiled public domain, creative commons short stories and interviews (Watts did one) on a small website:

https://sfss.space/

[Anonymous No.18948956]

>>18948825
nice. thanks for rss

[Anonymous No.18948971]

I read 5 books this month, bros. I'm so proud of myself since I haven't read a fantasy or sci-fi book in months.

[Anonymous No.18949083]

There's a lot of "international" scifi around right these days - stuff from non-western writers, often translated - what about it is good, instead of just pandering?

[Anonymous No.18949087]

>>18949083
pandering to what?

[Anonymous No.18949095]

>>18949083
Also and perhaps moreso I'm interested in fantasy actually.

>>18949087
Woke diversity blah.

[Anonymous No.18949097]

>>18949095
only westerners have to "pander"

[Anonymous No.18949273]

In retrospect I actually liked Red Mars quite a bit!
It had some shitty parts (sex scenes), but I still think about it every now and then and even dreamt about it
I really liked the political intruige stuff

[Anonymous No.18949277]

>>18949097
he's talking about the praise by westeners you dip

[Anonymous No.18949299]

>>18949273
i read it years ago and all i remember is maya’s a cunt

[Anonymous No.18949367]

>>18946594
>modern book
>first edition
does anyone care about that stuff? anything mass produced essentially has no collector value unless we're looking at some distant hypothetical future scenario.

[Anonymous No.18949440]

After reading more of Outsphere, it's actually pleasant. It's still badly written with simplistic syntax and too much repetition, and the author really wants you to know EXACTLY how the characters feel at any given moment.
BUT it's somehow comfy, it's easy to read and feels like the backdrop of a sci fi tabletop RPG, with psychic humans, a colony that grows and adapts to a new world, hordes of primitive aliens attacking the settlements and ancient alium ruins doing weird shit.
After reading more challenging books, it's a nice change of pace.

[Anonymous No.18949536]

>>18938914
Isnt the second apocalypse another series by him and the first one called prince of nothing?

[Anonymous No.18949547]

>>18949536
No. The Second Apocalypse is the story that covers the Prince of Nothing Series (First three books) and the Aspect Emperor Series ( Subsequent four books after a 20 year time skip).

[Anonymous No.18949549]

>>18949536
No. Prince of Nothing is part of 2nd Apocalypse. Like how Farseer is part of Realm of the Elderlings. Do you see?

[Anonymous No.18949658]

Any reccs for a sci-fi author or novel with unique or just well thought out environments and creatures? I'm an artist looking to steal ideas.

[Anonymous No.18949663]

>>18948255
Piranesi
Women can't write wasn't a meme

[Anonymous No.18949738]

>>18947810
After you have read Jordan everything seems to move at a hare's pace in comparison.
One thing the wheel of time taught me is endless patience.

[Anonymous No.18949751]

After you have read Bakker everything seems to be vanilla and clean.
On thing Prince of Nothing taught me is hardcore dirtiness

[Anonymous No.18949984]

>>18949751
Agreed. For all his world building prowess Sanderson is confined by the slave morality of his religion, he could never write a line as sublimely grotesque as "The honey of unwashed anuses".

This is why Bakker is King.

[Anonymous No.18950048]

Guys I'm kind of new here. I've perused this general before and even posted a few times but I've never really considered myself to exclusively be a fan of SFF, because I'm a real stickler and even downright dislike a lot of fantasy. I'm much more a fan of SF however and I thought I would introduce myself here and share some of my favourite SFF books and the ones I DNF.
Favourites:
>The Hobbit, LOTR
>Solaris
>2001: A Space Odyssey, Rendezvous With Rama, Childhood's End
>The Time Machine
>I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream
>almost anything by PKD
>Redwall
>1984
>Never Let Me Go
Notable DNF's:
>Dune (I've tried to read this one so many times and I just don't get the appeal)
>Neuromancer (on the second attempt now and I'm really digging it despite being pretty confused)
>A Fire Across the Deep (not exactly a DNF but I read the first few chapters while bored a few years ago and I really want to read it soon)
>Brave New World (can't stand the narration and the plot is ruined for me via cultural osmosis anyways)
Idk why I'm sharing all this but does anyone have any comments? Next after Neuromancer I'm going to read the rest of the Sprawl Trilogy and then A Fire Across the Deep+A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge and then read some more classic SF like The Cyberiad by Lem (currently reading actually), Roadside Picnic, Snow Crash, etc. So I'm basically saying I really want to really dive into SF and I'm excited lol. Sorry for my blogpost.

[Anonymous No.18950267]

[Anonymous No.18950312]

>>18947993
Depends on what exactly, if you mean the characters in the novel just use normal modern vocabulary instead of "ye olde speaketh" it's fine, if they use modern slang and shit it's garbage.

[Anonymous No.18950357]

>>18939513
Book 2 and 3 are honestly the best in the entire series. Not that the other are bad, mind

[Anonymous No.18950366]

>>18947993
personally i hate it, i recently read 16 ways to defend a walled city and was close to dropping it several times because of that reason. the plot was entertaining once it got going but the characters felt like retarded charicatures completely out of place and there several modern concepts shoehorned at random places, i get that it's supposed to be a fun book but it was way too much edgyness for me

>>18947664
ok but how is the book? good, bad, entertaining?

[Anonymous No.18950387]

>>18948255
The Winter Road
It was so bizarrely confused about what the hell it wanted to be, half of it was some weird feminist rant that didn't even make any sense in the context of the book, and the other half was torture porn that was so weirdly detailed you swore the author wrote it with one hand down his pants.

[Anonymous No.18950442]

>start reading bakker
>so far 3 out of 3 relationships were either gay or pederast

[Anonymous No.18950651]

>>18939245
The way i see it, the more people see the future, the more uncertainty it introduces into the future, because everyone who knows the future is liable to change their behaviour because of it

[Anonymous No.18950703]

>>18939245
>I look forward to her when I read the next two

[Anonymous No.18950711]

>>18939245
>I look forward to her when I read the next two

[Anonymous No.18950860]

>>18950267
How horrible

[Anonymous No.18950889]

>>18936861
Does F Gardner count as speculative fiction?

[Anonymous No.18951108]

>>18950889
That he can write speculative fiction is a speculative fiction

[Anonymous No.18951522]

>>18948255
There's nothing meme-y about answering Sanderson. He's a terrible writer. I wish I'd dropped the first Mistborn, but the ending was supposedly worth it so I grit my teeth and waded through, but it was the most by-the-numbers shit I've ever come across. Such a boring, predictable and overly long piece of generic cliched crap. Only other book even worse and more boring I've made the mistake of picking up was the first one of Brent Weeks' Night Angel or whatever the fuck it was called. At least I dropped that before I wasted too much time on it. Never going to touch another book by either of these hacks.

[Anonymous No.18951526]

>>18950267
Yikes!

[Anonymous No.18951631]

>>18949367
>mass produced
that's where you're wrong; a lot of first editions of books that were not popular when they were first released but over time gained widespread critical acclaim are worth a lot; the first edition of Blood Meridian (actually, the first editions of all of Cormac Mccarthy's books before The Border Trilogy) only had about 2,000 copies printed (the rest were destroyed for some reason); nowadays they are very rare because they are so limited; same thing with The Book of the New Sun; after the first edition, each single volume was either printed in paperback or combined into an omnibus; the first edition is the only edition with each single volume in hardcover, which is why its so rare

[Anonymous No.18951660]

>>18951522
now say it without crying

[Anonymous No.18951670]

Is it too late to explore dark sublimity and madness in a speculative fiction setting? It feels like Lovecraft beat that dead horse, and he made a lot of heirs that would continue it.

[Anonymous No.18951683]

>>18947817
I read the Instrumentality of Mankind/Rediscovery of Man a while back yes. Would recommend

[Anonymous No.18951750]

>>18942788
>anti ccp/communism
it starts with students beating a physics professor to death for teaching relativity and the big bang. its anti communism, they're the villains in book 1+2 who side with the aliens against humanity. also i heard the author has been disappeared but who can tell when it comes to getting info out of china

[Anonymous No.18951779]

>>18943862
Hyperion is Canterbury tales

[Anonymous No.18951817]

>>18946887
>Lord of the Rings
>published 1954
>modern

[Anonymous No.18951859]

>>18950366
>ok but how is the book? good, bad, entertaining?
I believe I stated that I enjoyed it and found it fascinating. How are you confused?

[Anonymous No.18952015]

>>18951859
i've enjoyed and found some books fascinating while also recognizing they are shit. they might be badly written, or very forgettable, or barely original, but you know even if i like something a lot it doesn't mean i consider it great

[Anonymous No.18952262]

>>18948255
Prince of Thorns. It is incredibly awful.

[Anonymous No.18952357]

>>18950048
ngmi

[Anonymous No.18952400]

>>18937133
Read the Black Company series by Glen Cook.

[Anonymous No.18952469]

>>18948255
At this point I'd have to say The Mad Elf, a modern-medieval litrpg where the Elf is a lightly encoded Jew tackling White supremacists.

[Anonymous No.18952492]

>>18952469
could've just said litrpg

[Anonymous No.18952652]

>>18952492
Nah there's plenty of good stuff and I'm a forgiving reader if the author has anything to offer.

[Anonymous No.18952712]

>>18949663
t. filtered subhuman

[Anonymous No.18952796]

>>18949751
>After you have read Bakker everything seems to be vanilla and clean.
>On thing Prince of Nothing taught me is hardcore dirtiness

[Anonymous No.18952904]

>>18951817
Everything after about 1870 is modern if you have a 12th grade vocabulary.

[Anonymous No.18952919]

What are you favorite books focused on or largely featuring revenge? Do you prefer the pure revenge tale with "justice" being served or are you more partial to the "cycles of violence" and "revenge is empty" styles?

[Anonymous No.18952935]

>>18952919
The Second Apocalypse series, unironically

[Anonymous No.18952941]

>>18952919
>"cycles of violence" and "revenge is empty"
Honestly I have yet to read a single book about revenge that didn't have this as a theme.

[Anonymous No.18952954]

[Anonymous No.18952972]

>>18952954
is that a lighthearted humorous passage in a book? aaahhhh help me numanuma kaelthas

[Anonymous No.18952975]

>>18952972
>is that a lighthearted humorous passage in a book?
Just standard Sanderson.

[Anonymous No.18952992]

>>18952919
Count of Monte Cristo is my favorite tale of revenge. He ends everything on his own terms after his need for justice is sated. I find it a better portrayal than overwrought tragedy or some kind of poetic comeuppance.

[Anonymous No.18953001]

>>18952015
Okay? Good for you. I find actually talking about the book in detail is better than just saying "it's shit" or "it's good".

[Anonymous No.18953021]

>>18953001
Didn't ask.

[Anonymous No.18953040]

>>18953021
Feel free to not respond to me then, and I'll show you the same kindness.

[Anonymous No.18953043]

>>18953001
Pretty based. Wished we had more of you, anon.

[Anonymous No.18953044]

>>18953040
Not my problem.

[Anonymous No.18953089]

>>18953021
>>18953044
Why do you constantly shit up the thread?

[Anonymous No.18953240]

>>18953089
Does it trouble you?

[Anonymous No.18953258]

>>18947664
>Still a fascinating world.
Would you recommend this to others?

[Anonymous No.18953272]

>>18953240
About what?

[Anonymous No.18953280]

>Being this new.

[Anonymous No.18953323]

>>18953280
It’s always the frogposters that shit up the thread.

[Anonymous No.18953365]

Some short stories books? Not really into cosmic horror type of short stories.

[Anonymous No.18953374]

>>18953365
What do you like?

[Anonymous No.18953378]

>>18953258
If anything I described sounds interesting, yeah, I'd say it's worth your time. Though the fact the series is unfinished makes it hard to enthusiastically recommend it on principle. I still think it tells an entertaining tale and if you like exploring really detailed constructed worlds I think you'll enjoy it. I think my summary of it doesn't really do it justice though, I had to be very brief in order to stay under the 3000 character limit, and I knew if I didn't limit myself to one post I'd end up writing something so long nobody would read it. Hell, it's already long enough most people just scroll past it or skim over it. It's a pretty hefty sized book, over 800 pages (not even including the genealogy and index at the end), and when you combine that with Rawn's writing style which tends toward summary, you have a book where a lot of stuff happens and a lot of information is dumped on you, so it's hard to tidily summarize all of it. I ended up having to zoom way, way out to get the biggest possible take on it, and I'm not really satisfied in my representation, but I don't think there's really any interest in doing a more thorough write up.

[Anonymous No.18953385]

>>18953378
Thanks, I’ll check it out and thank you for effort posting a response.

[Anonymous No.18953396]

>>18953385
Glad somebody got some use of it. I wanted to try reading a novel I'd never heard of before and share the experience here, since we're always getting complaints of the same books being talked about.

[Anonymous No.18953397]

>>18953378
We need more of you in this thread.

[Anonymous No.18953406]

New thread
>>18953404

[Anonymous No.18953439]

>It’s always the frogposters that shit up the thread.

[Anonymous No.18954887]

>>18951779
except actually interesting