/sffg/ - Science Fiction and Fantasy General

[Anonymous No.22250160]

End Times Intensify Edition

>Recommended reading charts (Look here before asking for vague recs)
https://mega.nz/folder/kj5hWI6J#0cyw0-ZdvZKOJW3fPI6RfQ/folder/guIyhAzS
>Archive
>>/lit/?task=search2&search_subject=sffg

>Thread question
Are you even paying attention to various awards anymore?

Previous:
>>22233483

[Anonymous No.22250171]

Who would you nominate for the 2023 Dragon Awards? It must have been published after June 2022.

[Anonymous No.22250201]

God damn some of the changes between the original copy of a story and the Amazon book version or wherever else suck.
Just bizarre retcons that made me glad I saved original versions of some of these web novels and litrpgs. The most egregious offenders were Randidly Ghosthound and ironically Practical Guide to Evil.

[Anonymous No.22250203]

>mfw after looking at 2023 Hugo nominees without realizing it was that bad

[Anonymous No.22250208]

>>22250201
Can you give concrete examples? It seems to me webwriters stagnate rather quickly because of patreonbucks

[Anonymous No.22250214]

>>22250208
Re-reading Randidly Ghosthound and weird shit was retconned on his first visit to Tellus. The relationship with Helen is completely different, and the wights are teased way earlier which makes no fucking sense considering Tellus undergoes a world change.

For Practical Guide, a lot of the Country and Religious names/concepts were changed which makes rereading very hard. Pacing was made worse too somehow.

Separately, Metaworld Chronicles has very few/no changes to the paperback versions which I really appreciated.

[Anonymous No.22250216]

>>22250203
The Hugo awards have been terrible for more than 20 years it has been its primary characteristic since. It is hard to comprehend how terrible, my brain automatically forgets it to keep me sane.

[Anonymous No.22250228]

>>22250203
At one point I joked you had to be a black woman to qualify for anything, but with time it changed to your work pretty much needs to be some variety of LGBT to count.

[Anonymous No.22250252]

>>22250228
I think that's a misdiagnosis. The stuff getting awards is just unoriginal and mass-produced. The problem with stuff like Kaiju Preservation Society isn't wokeness but that it's basically a novelization of an anime that doesn't exist. If you look at the kind of stuff sad puppies nominates it might not be "woke" but it's otherwise not any better. Mostly the lastest books in long industrial series. Monster Hunter Inc. or 1632 or some trash military space opera.

Who's the 21st century's Gene Wolfe? Where are the authors with real writing talent? Or at least authors with original ideas?

[Anonymous No.22250260]

>>22250203
You know I'm tempted to just read the fucking finalists and see if they're actually that bad. Maybe there's something worth salvaging there.

[Anonymous No.22250261]

/SFFG/ Recommendations:

Read Reverend Insanity, Lord of The Mysteries, Neuromancer, Hyperion, The Prince of Nothing

Also read The Wandering Inn, Between Two Fires, Mother of Learning, Cradle, I Shall Seal the Heavens, A Song of Ice and Fire, The Poppy War.

[Anonymous No.22250265]

/SFFG/ Recommendations: LITRPG Edition

Read Azarinth Healer, Primal Hunter, He Who Fights with Monsters, Dungeon Crawler Carl

Also read System Universe, Dissonance, Defiance of the Fall, Iron Prince.

[Anonymous No.22250381]

Can somebody illumined on Tolkien lore explain wtf happened in this scene? Did Samwise see a vision of Eru or something?

[Anonymous No.22250397]

>want to re read the first Dune trilogy
>forgot I lent it to a mate who a) never read it, b) moved across the country and took the book with her

[Anonymous No.22250443]

>>22250171
https://application.dragoncon.net/dc_fan_awards_nominations.php
Eligibility period: July 1 2022 to June 30 2023
Deadline: July 19th 2023
Minimum novel length: 70k words

https://www.sfadb.com/Dragon_Awards_Winners_By_Category
Some awards omitted due to character limits

sf novel —
2022 Leviathan Falls, James S. A. Corey
2021 Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir
2020 The Last Emperox, John Scalzi
2019 A Star-Wheeled Sky, Brad R. Torgersen
2018 Artemis, Andy Weir
2017 Babylon's Ashes, James S. A. Corey
2016 Somewhither: A Tale of the Unwithering Realm, John C. Wright

— fantasy novel (including paranormal) —
2022 Book of Night, Holly Black
2021 Battle Ground, Jim Butcher
2020 The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern
2019 House of Assassins, Larry Correia
2018 Oathbringer, Brandon Sanderson

— fantasy novel —
2017 Monster Hunter Memories: Grunge, Larry Correia & John Ringo
2016 Son of the Black Sword, Larry Correia

— YA/middle grade novel —
2022 A Dark and Starless Forest, Sarah Hollowell
2021 A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher
2020 Finch Merlin and the Fount of Youth, Bella Forrest
2019 Bloodwitch, Susan Dennard
2018 Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi
2017 The Hammer of Thor, Rick Riordan
2016 The Shepherd's Crown, Terry Pratchett

— military SF/F novel —
2022 A Call to Insurrection, David Weber, Timothy Zahn & Thomas Pope
2021 Gun Runner, Larry Correia & John D. Brown
2020 Savage Wars, Jason Anspach & Nick Cole
2019 Uncompromising Honor, David Weber
2018 A Call to Vengeance, David Weber, Timothy Zahn & Thomas Pope
2017 Iron Dragoons, Richard Fox
2016 Hell's Foundations Quiver, David Weber

— alternate history novel —
2022 The Silver Bullets of Annie Oakley, Mercedes Lackey
2021 1637: No Peace Beyond the Line, Eric Flint & Charles E. Gannon
2020 Witchy Kingdom, D. J. Butler
2019 Black Chamber, S. M. Stirling
2018 Uncharted, Kevin J. Anderson & Sarah A. Hoyt
2017 Fallout: The Hot War, Harry Turtledove
2016 League of Dragons, Naomi Novik

— media tie-in novel —
2022 Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil, Timothy Zahn
2021 Firefly: Generations, Tim Lebbon
2020 Firefly: The Ghost Machine, James Lovegrove
2019 Star Wars: Thrawn: Alliances, Timothy Zahn
2018 Leia: Princess of Alderan, Claudia Gray

— apocalyptic novel —
2017 Walkaway, Cory Doctorow
2016 Ctrl Alt Revolt!, Nick Cole

— horror novel —
2022 The Book of Accidents, Chuck Wendig
2021 The Hollow Places, T. Kingfisher
2020 The Twisted Ones, T. Kingfisher
2019 Little Darlings, Melanie Golding
2018 Sleeping Beauties, Stephen King & Owen King
2017 The Changeling, Victor Lavalle
2016 Souldancer, Brian Niemeier

[Anonymous No.22250493]

>>22228473
>>22228509
>I picked up the 2nd book, plan to get at it when I finish this challenge. Want to see where the author goes with it, 3rd book tournament arc aside.
I'm glad you noticed that Infinite Realm is a worthwhile story. The later books keep shifting stuff around, and characters change noticably due to various encounters. Tournament arc is more of a prelude into the larger story than just another arc, the author really wants to make a big, epic story. Damn, I miss reading epic stories. They require time and preparation that young webnovelists simply don't have, The Wandering Inn being a noteworthy exception.

[Anonymous No.22250503]

>>22250171
>>22250443
Infinity Gate
>>/lit/thread/21917688#p21918601

The Tyranny of Faith
>>/lit/thread/21599850#p21601810

Seems that I didn't read all that much SF in the eligibility period that I particularly enjoyed. Since I've been reading books in advance though there's a lot more for the next eligibility period.

There just aren't that many people relatively that read recent stuff. I don't feel like ranting about awards or anything else at the moment.

[Anonymous No.22250535]

>>22250160
https://mrphilipslibrary.wordpress.com/2023/07/06/2023-hugo-finalists-analysis-and-commentary/
There's a lot more in this than the copypasted stuff below

Significant facts and figures over the last five years

27/30 novel finalists have been written by authors who had a prior history with the Hugo Awards (won/nominated/longlisted). The other three are within the last two years. Of those 27, seven have been written by repeat authors. Mary Robinette Kowal has the most nominations with three.

26/30 novella finalists have been written by authors who had a prior history with the Hugo Awards. Of those, 11 have been written by repeat authors. Seanan McGuire has been nominated all five years for her Wayward Children series, which itself won the award for Best Series last year.

26/30 novel finalists have been written by women and gender minorities. The four others are within the last two years.

23/30 novella finalists have been written women and gender minorities (one was co-written by a man and woman).

24/30 (80%!!) best novella finalists have been published by Tor. I’m curious to hear thoughts about that particular dominance and why that is.

Over the last four years 15/24 best novel finalists have been published by Tor (16 including Legends and Lattes which was originally published by Cryptid Press before Tor picked it up).

17/30 best novel finalists have been bestsellers (NYT, USA TODAY, or PW)

Half of best novel finalists were also Nebula Award nominees and 29/30 were on the Locus Recommended Reading List

14/30 best novella finalists were also Nebula Award nominees and 23/30 were on the Locus Recommended Reading List

28/30 novels were also Goodreads Choice Award finalists

Regarding the genre of the best novel finalists, 15 have been primarily sci-fi, 14 fantasy, and one horror.

Of the best novella finalists 12 have been SF, 16 fantasy, and two horror.

There were a whopping 1847 nominating ballots, 500 more than last year, and the most since 2017

[Anonymous No.22250537]

I've been reading dungeon crawler carl because reviewanon keeps giving the books pretty high scores. It's definitely better than I expected and pretty good even if I don't really like litrpg. Mordecai's job seems comfy as hell if you ignore the sadistic alien assholes running the whole thing. I'd like to work as a dungeon guide. Makes me think of park rangers in a weird sort of way. There's got to be some slice of life book about this by now, right?

[Anonymous No.22250554]

What are some good sff books from the last 5 years or so? I don't trust any award list anymore.

[Anonymous No.22250564]

>>22250537
I'm glad that what I've written has been useful for you. You certainly have an interesting perspective on what dungeon guides are like. There's probably something that's been self-published or otherwise written online in some language about just about anything. In terms of prose it's repeatedly been the case that I only seem to like "slice of life" in theory. I keep trying though and sometimes and I find stuff that I like, though it's almost short fiction. I think there's several reasons for why that's the case. It's far easier to find it in Japanese visual media.

[Anonymous No.22250570]

>>22250535
Is it at least good smut for the whamen? Or just generally woke? Both somehow?

[Anonymous No.22250572]

NO SUBHUMANS BEYOND THIS POINT

ANY POSTERS ABOVE THIS MESSAGE SHOULD KYS AND CEASE POSTING INANE DROSS AND GOOKBOOKS

TRUTH SHINES

[Anonymous No.22250580]

>>22250554
What, or who, would you trust? I could list out what I've most enjoyed from the last 5 years, though it'd almost surely have the same problems for you. I hope you at least know what "good" means to you. It may simply be the case that what you particularly like isn't being much written these days in any kind of way that's acceptable for you. It's entirely fine to only read stuff from before you were born.

[Anonymous No.22250592]

>>22250570
They don't tend to be the former and the latter isn't the primary consideration. If you sincerely want a more informed perspective then read the linked article that explains in detail why books are included and excluded.

[Anonymous No.22250593]

>>22250572
This fag is an actual cult leader, right? I have trouble parsing what the fuck he's on about with his philosophy though. Seems vaguely Eastern, ego dissolution shit. And he makes claims about how the brain works, too, all of them straight out his ass.

[Anonymous No.22250602]

>>22250592
I did? Horrific nepotism and preference for popular stuff is what I got.

[None !SFFG.n1h7M No.22250614]

>>22250160
The Artifice of Eternity - Aaron H. Arm (2023)

The Artifice of Eternity is a technically proficient book about human nature, society, family, and religion. After solving many critical problems on Earth, the world's wealthiest and most influential man decides that problem of humanity is intractable and personally selects four thousand, including himself, to begin an intentionally planned civilization with the ideal culture on another planet.

What I expected from this book was a science fiction novel primarily about settling a new planet with the hope of it being a utopia and that it didn't work out as they thought it would. Instead I got a Christian allegory of ambiguous meaning. I greatly enjoyed East of Eden, which was a biblical retelling, but this isn't that. The book's description says it's called Project Exodus and the planet is Eden, but even given that I underestimated how religiously oriented it would be. That's strange because the organizers of the project intentionally excluded the religious. Maybe that's why they were oblivious to the bible verses intrusively added into their dialogue. The verses were relevant and explanatory for the events of the story, but surely there could've been a better way. I was baffled when one character asked the other to meet them at Numbers xx:xx and it wasn't commented upon, though if the character had, I would think they would've declined the meeting.

The book's title and the name of the spaceship, Byzantium, are from the W.B. Yeats poem, Sailing to Byzantium. That's not the only similarity to Dan Simmon's Endymion. There were other science fiction novels that came to mind, but they were either ones that I didn't enjoy or that I think were failed attempts to do as they had. There are others references as well that I thought were a bit too blatant for their content, or as some would say, on-the-nose. I couldn't help but roll my eyes about the Erinyes, and a few others.

There's a major plot point that's been done in the Hyperion Cantos, Dune, Revelation Space, and several other series. It was both an inevitable conclusion for the story and entirely out of place. What I mean by that is that I felt like I was reading two different narratives. One was a family saga about life on a newly settled planet for ideological reasons and how everyone adjusted to the difficulties resulting from that. I would've enjoyed this more if that's all it was about. The other was a metaphysical, religious, and political allegory about how humanity is fallen and cannot escape themselves. The story puts forth that there was only one possible way to return to Eden. All others would be left behind. I found these two ideals being together to be both incongruent and underdeveloped in how they were presented. Worse yet, I found the latter to be nonsensical.

Rating: 2.5/5

I received this DRC from Cosmic Egg Books, an imprint of John Hunt Publishing, through NetGalley

[Anonymous No.22250622]

>>22250252
John C Wright has interesting ideas.
His books don't look entertaining to me but they definitely have ideas.

[Anonymous No.22250624]

>>22250602
The former, certainly. The latter not quite as much, unless it fits within a specific worldview and style. As it notes the popular more literary sort is intentionally excluded. It has to be "fannish", which is why Kaiju won. Basically the ideals of fandom have won out. Those who support the fandom get a huge boost.

[Anonymous No.22250629]

There's something about Malice by John Gwynne that I don't like. Maybe I thought it would be dark fantasy with a title like "Malice: book 1 of The Faithful and the Fallen series" but it's really not very dark at all. It's not what I would consider "high" either, just sort of bland. The prose is middling, the characters are bland and uncompelling. Phrasing like this are used when describing world shaping events:
>According to the tales, Treasures had been forged from the starstone, seven Treasures–cauldron, torc, necklace, spear, dagger, axe and cup. Wars had been fought over them, culminating in Elyon’s wrath being stirred and dished out: the Scourging.
"Dished out" I mean seriously? You're talking about the wrath of the gods leaving gaping rents in the earth's flesh, and that's the combination of words you use? I almost dropped the book right there. But I went on, and there are literally six (6) POV characters.
First POV: Evnis, the one who makes the pact
Second POV: Corban, little boy
Third POV: Veradis, Warrior who guards the prince
Fourth POV: Cywen, Corban's sister
Fifth POV: Kastell, Another warrior
fifth POV: Camlin, Bandit leader
Forget A plot and B plot, this shit has C D and E plots. And Gwynne is not a good enough author to carry them all adequately. It feels like everything is just dumped onto the reader without any ceremony or craft of storytelling at all. For example, you're going along with five POV characters for a while and then you're introduced to Camlin, who just monologues internally for a few paragraphs, thinking about how his parents were killed and shit nigga, and how he followed the bandits and told the lord of the next town about them and how the lord didn't care and how he decided to join some bandits (the ones who killed his family? or another group? I don't even) and how he rose through their ranks to become their leader and shit. And none of this is explained through his actions or the way other bandits treat him, he just thinks it to himself, for the reader's benefit. This really takes me out of the story and makes me question my life choices up to this point, but at the same time I know there are fantasy novels like Blood Song that have incredible prose, intriguing plots, and wonderful characters. I might finish this one but I don't think I'm gonna read the rest of his books. Maybe I'll skip to his most recent one to see if his prose has improved.

[Anonymous No.22250633]

>>22250252
That doesn't sell and hasn't really ever. Gene Wolfe was never a major commercial success. As the book industry dies less and less risk can be taken and sales are put above all else. Self-published isn't any help either as that's almost all about self-indulgence for the most part.

[Anonymous No.22250636]

>>22250622
thanks

[Anonymous No.22250684]

Apparently Seth Dickinson's next book is a standalone SF novel rather than the final book of his current fantasy series. Is it better if an author only has one ongoing series or even more restrictively doesn't publish anything else aside from their current series until finished?

[Anonymous No.22250697]

>>22250381
Pretty much. Gollum has been given second chances again and again, but this time it's the final one, an ultimatum uttered by Frodo's mouth but actually coming down from up high.

[Anonymous No.22250739]

12 Miles Below

https://www.amazon.com/12-Miles-Below-Progression-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B0BWKDF1C7

Icy death above. Monster-filled dungeons below. He must fight or freeze.

Extreme sub-zero temperatures suffocate the surface. Frozen structures of bygone eras span across massive ice-wastes. And the survivors closely guard any technology rediscovered within them.

The only escape from the deadly climate is beneath the surface, but that doesn't mean it's safe...

Monstrous machines lurk in the depths. Unhinged demigods war against them, dying over and over, treating it all like a game. The depths themselves shift over time, more contraption than rock.

When an expedition into the far uncharted north goes terribly wrong, Keith Winterscar and his father get trapped together in a desperate fight for survival. Stumbling upon an ancient war of titanic scale, the two will need to set their differences aside while they struggle against gods, legends, and the secrets of the realm that lies below.

[Anonymous No.22250754]

>>22250739
Is this advertising from the author, a friend, family, or fan? Does it really matter?

[Anonymous No.22250760]

>>22250580
>I could list out what I've most enjoyed from the last 5 years

Why not simply do that?

I can make my own mind, the problem is that of awareness. The selection of books in the award lists is obviously influenced by the current US culture war and books that don't fall on either end of the spectrum don't get the votes. There might be even good books among those that do get listed but it's difficult to tell them apart.

[Anonymous No.22250798]

>>22250216
Videogames and the internet killed it.
Videogames drastically decreased the number of boys/men who read fiction, let alone SF.
And before the internet, it made sense for sci-fi fans to go to WorldCon, since it was the only way to interact with authors and fellow fans (who didn’t live in the same town).
Now only purple-haired intersectional feminists visit it, and not because they care about the books.

[Anonymous No.22250824]

>>22250798
>Videogames drastically decreased the number of boys/men who read fiction
Movies and tv series, too. Everything is burned to the ground though. I have abandoned narrative vidya altogether. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

[Anonymous No.22250864]

>>22250760
Aside from my personal preferences I've also listed out what current year books that the Goodreads group has been reading each year for the last few years.

*=only the first or first few in the series or rounded up from 3.5 to 4

Series (last book was published in 2018 or later)
The Murderbot Diaries
The Centenal Cycle
War for the Rose Throne
The Interdependency
Imager Portfolio
The Expanse
The Locked Tomb*
The Age of Madness
Dungeon Crawler Carl
Ashes of the Unhewn Throne
The Grand Illusion
The Dandelion Dynasty
Kithamar
Empire of the Wolf
Hierarchy
Dragons of Terra*
Pandominion*
Orphan Black: The Next Chapter*
The Stormlight Archive*
The Masquerade*
The Road to Nowhere*
The Bannerless Saga*
Machineries of Empire*

Standalone-ish (2018 and later)
Vigilance
Elder Race
Tress of the Emerald Sea
A Harvest of Ash and Blood
Generation Ship: A Novel
The Dragon's Banker*
The Light Brigade*

Anthology (needs work)
Sinopticon
New Voices in Chinese Science Fiction

[Anonymous No.22250890]

>>22250554
Dragon Gate by Lindsay Buroker

[Anonymous No.22250941]

>>22250554
The Pariah and The Martyr by Anthony Ryan. Decidedly above average when it comes to sff slop, faggotry is kept to a minimum. His previous series have been hit or miss however, and I don't think he ever matched his first novel from 2011 with any of them.

[Anonymous No.22250975]

>>22250614
your """reviews""" are SHIT
FUCK OFF

[Anonymous No.22250981]

>>22250754
And people called me crazy when I stated that books and authors are shilled here regularly

[Anonymous No.22250995]

thanks to the anon who rec'd Titanium Noir in the past couple threads.
wonder how a sequel would play out, now that Cal is a titan

>>22250941
>Anthony Ryan
recently read his Slab City Blues stories. giving a rec if anyone is looking for more scifi crime/detective

[Anonymous No.22251002]

>>22250981

If we give it shit reviews, will people finally stop posting about this fucking story?

Has anyone actually read it? I don’t even want to at this point from seeing it mentioned so much.

[Anonymous No.22251027]

>>22250981
>book talked about in /sffg/ more than a few times
Good thing we have 2022 oldfags like you to tell us what is and isn't allowed to be discussed. :DDD

[Anonymous No.22251029]

>>22250593
His philosophy is basic as fuck. Just determinism with bells and whistles and layers of philosophical obfuscation. Like essentially all of philosophy, its not worth understanding better because its just tail-chasing academia with no conclusions or resolutions in sight.

[Anonymous No.22251038]

Is this worth it? The post-apocalyptical magical Western genre is pretty niche, and months ago some anon here was saying that it surpasses the Dark Tower in certain aspects, but lacks in others.

Anyone ITT read this and can tell me something about it? Is it a fun read and how does it compare to the Dark Tower books I - IV?

[Anonymous No.22251039]

Can anyone recommend me a series with a good romantic (sub)plot?

[Anonymous No.22251049]

>>22250633
>Self-published isn't any help either as that's almost all about self-indulgence for the most part.
There are a few problems with self-publishing.
1. Lack of Editing. While big publishers can give editors too much power, at least they have incentives to have quality editors (as well as proofreading, formatting, and other polish and quality control). Self-publishing has the reverse problem where they tend to have incentive to optimize for the most profitable niche and cut everything else. If they notice that their niche audience is buying books at roughly the same rate no matter how much editing and proofreading they do, they're going to stop wasting time and money on revisions and proofreading.
2. The convoluted, SEO'd mess of modern internet commerce. Even if you can handle editing, typesetting and printing/electronic-distribution you are still stuck dealing with globohomo tech infrastructure to promote and sell your books. If you don't spend a lot of time on guerrilla marketing, nobody is ever going to find your book amongst the hundreds of thousands of other books competing for attention.

[Anonymous No.22251052]

>>22250633
I wish there was a way to somehow find your way through the minefield that are self-published books. I'm pretty sure there are masterpieces there, but good luck finding anything. You only hear about those who manage to achieve some acclaim for whatever reason even if it's not quality.

[Anonymous No.22251065]

>>22251002
No
These shills are either mentally ill freaks or are getting paid for it
>>22251027
>shill tries to call someone else a newfag
Kill yourself shill

[Anonymous No.22251076]

>antireviewfag has another heart attack because people discuss books without his permission

[Anonymous No.22251083]

oh for fuck sake

[Anonymous No.22251093]

>>22251076

No one has even reviewed it yet lmao. It’s because someone is constantly posting about it retard. You don’t find it even a little bit irritating?

[Anonymous No.22251112]

I want to read the Lord of the Rings but I'm not sure which edition to get. I preferably want a 3 volume instead of 1 volume, for ease of reading- But I was looking at the illustrated edition as well.

[Anonymous No.22251118]

>>22251093
Preach, brother. All this one post every thread or two is really demanding and enforcing discussion. Look at all the Hyperion and Vance circlejerking we could be doing!!

[Anonymous No.22251131]

>>22251118

If you like it so much, why don’t you review it, faggot?

[Anonymous No.22251159]

>>22251083
Tbh, that makes me want to read The Iron Dragon's Daughter more than anything else I've seen about it. I did a quick text search and there's a larger excerpt on Gwern.

[Anonymous No.22251164]

>>22251065

You probably read Cradle and actually like it. This thread always has such good recommendations guys!!!111

[Anonymous No.22251170]

>>22251039
You should seriously specify if you want it male or female oriented. There is limited overlap between the fantasies.
>>22251083
Would this shitshow count?

[Anonymous No.22251196]

Getting this in early on in the thread since the dude that usually posts it didn't last thread.
>What is the last book you finished?
>What is the book you're currently reading?
>What is the next book you plan to read?

>Last
The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe, 5/5, amazing. I look forward to rereading it and understanding it even less than I think I do now.
>Current
Along the Razor's Edge by Rob Hayes. Pretty kino edgy schlock. The guy that was recommending it a while ago was not wrong, it's awesome.
>Next
Empress by Karen Miller, the first in a hefty trilogy. I hear the protagonist of the first book is the antagonist and villain in the next two which is the main reason I'm interested.

[Anonymous No.22251245]

>>22250995
I wasn't interested by Slab City Blues but I have read most of his longer novels. Blood Song is his best work, the two sequels that complete the trilogy are markedly worse with additional POVs and unsatisfying conclusions/explanations to plot points since, I believe, he had no publisher to begin with and wrote 1 1/2 books for his first one without planning for the others. The two Raven's Blade sequels were equally weak because I didn't consider them a fitting conclusion to Vaelin's story. For fuck's sake Vaelin and Sollis don't even share a bro/father son moment.
Every single chapter in all three books of The Draconis Memoria ends on a cliffhanger and the Drakes are horrifically underutilized. The setting is interesting but no important characters ever die. The Covenant of Steel is better.

[Anonymous No.22251313]

>>22251245
slab city is his only stuff I've read. yeah, I see his other stuff is fantasy.
probably going to check out his new scifi standalone(?) book in october. Red River Seven

[Anonymous No.22251321]

>>22251159
I finished it recently. It's quite well written, and a fairly quick read.
>>22251170
There's not any romance in The Iron Dragon's Daughter. Just a lot of fucking.

[Anonymous No.22251347]

>>22251321
Iron Dragon's Daughter is sadistic and disgusting and the author is a cretinous, angry little turd who hates God for not talking to him. But yes, it's quite well written. In the last thread somebody said it's "gnostic" which is 100% true and just about gives away the whole plot.

[Anonymous No.22251447]

>>22251347
>this upset that someone doesn't worship your semetic desert-tribe child-sacrificing death cult
Christians, Islamics, and Mormons should all be culled.

[Anonymous No.22251463]

>>22251447
*tips fedora*

[Anonymous No.22251480]

>>22251447
I'm not upset that Swanwich isn't a Christian. I pity him for how sad his world must be. His book has no happy people, no intact families, and no children unless they're being abused and weirdly sexualized.

[Anonymous No.22251489]

>>22251447
I commend you on your creativity for not resorting to the same tired fedora buzzwords of "magic jew skydaddy" but that doesn't make you any less of a fedora

[Anonymous No.22251501]

>>22251447
why did you say islamics twice

[Anonymous No.22251502]

>>22251480
A much more civil response than your compatriots. Why do you believe that he needs to follow a religion in order to be a happy person, or present himself as a happy person, since that's where the implication lies?

[Anonymous No.22251511]

>>22251502
Being religious will not necessarily make you happy, but there are no happy people who hate and war against God.

[Anonymous No.22251519]

>>22251511
So ignorance is bliss?

[Anonymous No.22251530]

>>22251519
Considering the message the anon you're replying to is making the explicit statement that willful ignorance of the spiritual is definitively depressing and mentally exhausting, I don't know how you can come to that conclusion.

[Anonymous No.22251537]

>>22251519
Starting a summation of somebody else's position with the word "so" is a sure sign that you've completely misunderstood it.

[Anonymous No.22251560]

Anthony Ryan has a new book coming out in October published under the name A.J. Ryan called Red River Seven. It seems to be a science fiction thriller. The description seems interesting. I'm considering requesting it because I wasn't interested enough to read any of his fantasy series but maybe this could work for me. I'm trying to minimize how many books I request that I'm not assured I'll like though.

What do you think about authors that use various pen names? I'd prefer it if there was only a single name, but I understand the personal and marketing reasons for doing so.

[Anonymous No.22251628]

>>22251519
I just mean like... you're not gonna win a fight with God. You're setting yourself up for failure. It's not even even a noble and principalled rebellion, just a childish temper-tantrum. [spoilers]And even Stanwich shows he understood that with his characterization of 7332.[/spoilers] Fortunately, God forgives rebels.

I think Kipling's poem "Cold Iron" is an appropriate response to this fairy story.
https://bondwine.com/2012/11/21/cold-iron-by-rudyard-kipling/

[Anonymous No.22251631]

>>22251196
>Last
This Immortal by Zelazny, don't like his books in general but this one was great. Amazing ending too.
>Current
Conan the Liberator by Sprague de Camp.
Kind of boring desu maybe it gets better.
>Next
Some Dick. Probably The Penultimate Truth or some old school fantasy from the 80s

[Anonymous No.22251667]

>>22250261
Reverend insanity, lord of mysteries, ISSTH
Based

[Anonymous No.22251670]

>>22251628
>>22251519
I've just realized that Iron Dragon's Daughter actually is a Christian book. The fairy world is a mirror-world and certain things are reversed. When she asks the goddess to punish her, and says that she will never serve her, of course the obverse is asking for forgiveness and swearing fealty to God. In the end Jane's past as an evil whore is wiped away when she is reborn in the real world.

[Anonymous No.22251674]

>>22251628
This kind of gnosticism where it's adherents, in the rage against reality, throw themselves into pursuing power and abusing others, is pretty weird to me. This instinct is part of the natural order, after all. Ultra moralfaggy gnostic cults, like Cathars, at least track. A proper rebellion against the Demiurge, see?

[Anonymous No.22251680]

>>22251670
We need more hotpast waifus in fantasy books

[Anonymous No.22251704]

>>22251511
This is true but it's kind of a tautology. Based on Iron Dragon's Daughter I can buy that Swanwick hates god, but being irreligious doesn't mean you rage against or hate god. Plus, unhappy people write better books anyways.

[Anonymous No.22251720]

>>22251704
>Plus, unhappy people write better books anyways
Certainly not feel good schlock, they don't. That's what's missing in popular culture today.

[Anonymous No.22251735]

I hope "Iron Dragon's Daughter isn't gnostic"-anon is doing better these days.

[Anonymous No.22251812]

>>22251704
Nothing in IDD is "irreligous" except 7332's lies that the Goddess doesn't exist.

[Anonymous No.22251880]

>>22251670

bruh it's just a reverse isekai

[Anonymous No.22251892]

>>22251480
>>22251347

This is such a weird take. Like... it's dark fantasy... why would you expect dark fantasy to reflect traditional family values and your meme """wholesome""" puritanical wolrldview?

[Anonymous No.22251906]

>>22251892
Darkness has to be contrasted with light, otherwise it becomes unbearable.

[Anonymous No.22251909]

>>22251906
was this supposed to be a gotcha moment?

[Anonymous No.22251914]

>>22251909
No, it's simply a piece of traditional storytelling wisdom. Were you expecting a gotcha?

[Anonymous No.22251917]

>>22251906
I've heard of fragile masculinity but this is pathetic

[Anonymous No.22251918]

>>22251914
>Were you expecting a gotcha?
that's about the only way devout religious "people" know how to interact, yes

[Anonymous No.22251922]

>>22251909
>>22251892
I can just tell you're straight from Twitter

[Anonymous No.22251923]

>>22251917
I don't know what you meant by this but you should write down these schizophrenic outbursts and compile them into a written work.
>>22251918
If everyone you interact with is unbearable, perhaps the problem is closer to home than you think.

[Anonymous No.22251926]

>>22251922
because i don't worship your mainstream christian viewpoint? ok 2023 newfag

[Anonymous No.22251928]

>>22251922

Christ already died for my sins, I don't have to gaf anymore. Sunk cost.

>>22251923
What do you think 4chan is?

[Anonymous No.22251929]

>>22251928
An anonymous imageboard. What do you think it is?

[Anonymous No.22251933]

>>22251923
Holy shit. Did you... did you just tell that anon that his (opposing) opinion was... schizohprenic? FUCKING EPICCCCCCCCCC!

[Anonymous No.22251934]

>>22251926
>immediately resorts to no u
Looks like I hit the nail on the head I see. No one uses "gotcha" like that except twitter trannies. Kindly vacate the thread. You've outed yourself.

[Anonymous No.22251943]

>>22251934
>tranny
sick 2016+ newfag post
you were never here to discuss books
you immigrated from /v/ or /pol/ to find a place to shit up without consequence

[Anonymous No.22251947]

>>22251933
Yeah, it seemed pertinent since masculinity was brought up in the middle of a discussion about dark fantasy storytelling apropos of nothing.

[Anonymous No.22251946]

>>22251929
>What do you think it is?

The blog in which I compile my schizophrenic outbursts into a written work...

[Anonymous No.22251950]

>>22251947
Ignoring the Judeo-Christian context of the discussion, I see. :DDDDD

[Anonymous No.22251953]

>>22251943
>muh 2016
Typical Twitter tranny response. Seen it many times. Now you can go.

[Anonymous No.22251960]

This thread sucks, but at least we've given anon a new mission in life: rewrite The Iron Dragon's Daughter to reflect traditional Christian values and presumably whine about jews and black people a bunch.

[Anonymous No.22251965]

>>22251960
>The Iron Dragon's Daughter
So why is this book suddenly being shilled again?

[Anonymous No.22251966]

>>22251950
Correct, since the narratively satisfying juxtaposition between darkness and light has absolutely nothing to do with masculinity. Perhaps your understanding is lacking if you think otherwise, or maybe you consider "darkness" or "light" to be the sole province of the male? Seems schizophrenic to me, buddy.

[Anonymous No.22251969]

>>22251892
No it isn't. Dark stories can have life affirming messages, like Stephen Lawhead's Song of Albion or The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: the Unbeliever.

[Anonymous No.22251972]

>>22251960
>rewrite the book
>or I'm gonna go to that there 4chan website
>and I'm gonna spam tranny a bunch!!!!
Sad state of affairs. Pitiful, really.

[Anonymous No.22251977]

>>22251965

/sffg/ is filled with highly autistic people even by the standards of 4chan. I shilled the book to one anon a few threads back and half the retard itt latched on, now it's become some kind of object of contention so they're all fixating on it and the christcuck has apparently decided to astroturf it into an Issue

[Anonymous No.22251978]

Any books with futas?

[Anonymous No.22251984]

>>22251966
>maybe you consider "darkness" or "light" to be the sole province of the male
These would be abstract ideas, with value attached to them. So, yes? If a woman hears this, she will assume these are masculine toys. If she's habitually disrespectful to men, she'll talk shit, also. Like that leftist person did just now.

[Anonymous No.22251985]

>>22251977
It isn't just you shilling it of course.

[Anonymous No.22251990]

>>22251953
>>22251966
>>22251965
>>22251977
>>22251985
What does you coming here after 2016 have to do with the thread topic?

[Anonymous No.22251991]

>>22251990

>after 2016

well for one thing it means you've probably never read anything relevant to the thread

[Anonymous No.22251994]

>>22251991
I agree. They don't read or interact with the media they claim to espouse, in any way shape or form.

[Anonymous No.22251997]

>>22251990
>No one hated us before 2016
Do you truly believe this?

[Anonymous No.22252012]

Fuck this iron daughter shit let's go back to Bakker.

[Anonymous No.22252034]

>>22252012
Fuck bakker, feminist fantasy is where is at boi

[Anonymous No.22252037]

>>22251812
Then conversation was more about the author than the work. However the work is irreligious. The main character actively rejects and works against the authority of the world's diety.

[Anonymous No.22252042]

>>22252037

That's not irreligious you retard.

[Anonymous No.22252045]

>>22252042
>you retard
That's redundant when conversing with their ilk.

[Anonymous No.22252050]

>>22252042
It is, but whatever you say.

[Anonymous No.22252056]

>>22252050

You apparently don't even know what the words you use mean. Denying the existence of the deity would be irreligious. Acknowledging the existence of that deity and rebelling against it is other things, but definitely not irreligious.

[Anonymous No.22252057]

>>22251984
Sounds like a personal (schizophrenic) problem. Feel free to not debate this with me anymore since I don't care.

[Anonymous No.22252058]

>>22252037
antireligion != irreligious ESL

[Anonymous No.22252062]

>>22252056
>>22252058
Trannies need to stop posting

[Anonymous No.22252063]

>>22252056
>>22252058
Cope.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion

[Anonymous No.22252070]

>>22252037
>The main character actively rejects and works against the authority of the world's diety.
Christianity is all about how we are forgiven for our rebellion against God. 7332 is an allegory for evil, sin, and the nails which crucified Christ, and in the end is peeled from Jane's back and thrown away like Christian's pack in Pilgrim's Progress. Up until that point Jane had become a pretty nasty character but after Goddess forgives her Jane gets her life back together in the real world, apperantly living a Christian life.

[Anonymous No.22252073]

yikes

[Anonymous No.22252085]

>>22252070
Also, there's Tetigistus. Besides the connection between the theme of Kipling's poem "Cold Iron" and 7332 being explicitly made of cold iron, the true name of the guy who keeps dying for Jane, the one character in the book who isn't evil, who at one point is even idenified as a "sin eater", Tetigistus means "needle", yet another crucifixion reference.

[Anonymous No.22252087]

>>22251909
No it's obviously not.
You're a dumbass.

[Anonymous No.22252101]

Enough shilling of your shitty book

[Anonymous No.22252103]

>>22252101
Enough crossboarding newfag spam please.

[Anonymous No.22252107]

>>22252103
>any meme of any kind is crossboarding
Kill yourself.

[Anonymous No.22252110]

>>22252070
I don't wholesale disagree, but the ultimate conclusion of the work do not remove the heavily irreligious elements that let up to said conclusion. Claiming The Iron Dragon's Daughter isn't irreligious is just as wrong as claiming that's the central theme.

I could have worded it better, but also people need to stop being spergs. We are on 4chan though so I guess that's to be expected.

[Anonymous No.22252115]

>>22252107
>"every form of media I've never personally heard of is shilling" is a meme
Please do kill yourself, destructive newfag 20 year old.

[Anonymous No.22252117]

>>22252115
>he thinks everyone can't see through his forced shilling and samefaggotry

[Anonymous No.22252118]

>>22252117
>shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill shill
oh no the bot is broken :(

[Anonymous No.22252123]

>>22252118
Is this your final cope?

[Anonymous No.22252159]

>>22252057
>anymore
Mine was the only post in the chain. Nobody ever plays with ideas presented out of the blue.

[Anonymous No.22252165]

>>22252110
I don't understand how a book that's about souls, spiritual realms, reincarnation and killing god can be irreligious but ok.

[Anonymous No.22252177]

>>22252165
Maybe read the Wikipedia page I linked and you'll understand. It's not that complicated

[Anonymous No.22252180]

This gets a bit chilling at times...

[Anonymous No.22252190]

>>22252177
You make about as much sense as saying that a cookbook is irfoodless.

[Anonymous No.22252241]

Can I get some children's fiction recommendations? There is barely any YA fiction in OP recs, let alone children stuff.
Something not ultra childish. And preferably not high fantasy, but not necessary. Stuff like Frostheart, Nevermoor, Coraline, Malamander.

[Anonymous No.22252251]

>>22252241
Start 'em young

[Anonymous No.22252299]

>>22252241
redwall

[Anonymous No.22252307]

>>22252241
Redwall is pretty great if you aren't already familiar.

>AHHMAN

[Anonymous No.22252501]

>>22252241
Deltora Quest is based.

[Anonymous No.22252505]

>>22252241
sabriel
seventh tower
animorphs
everworld
remnants

[Anonymous No.22252527]

>>22250995
based, I'm glad you enjoyed. I loved the book so much I've decided to read and watch lot of the original noir stuff - The Big Sleep, Maltese Falcon - it's all great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8DJGd2-Tk4

[Anonymous No.22252657]

>>22250381
I thought it was just seeing Frodo as a ringbearer

[Anonymous No.22252782]

>>22252034
BROKEN BY BAKKER

[Anonymous No.22252789]

>>22252782
Gay bdsm is something that's exciting to women in general, so.

[Anonymous No.22252792]

for me, it's royalroad

[Anonymous No.22252812]

>>22252792
whats good on royalroad?

[Anonymous No.22252827]

>>22251196
>the dude that usually posts it didn't last thread
I don't post it every thread purposely. We don't have enough active readers to make it worth asking every 1-2 days--nor is there enough activity to warrant a general, but it is what it is.
That said, I'm currently reading Dungeon Crawler Carl 6 and it is easily the most engaging series I've read in years, that is, a series that holds the same fervor and cadence across many books. The first one was rough but everything since has been delicious. Another insane gripping finale. I have under 2 hours left, and once again, I have no idea how it will end.
I'm torn on what is next. Afterward, I might get back to the Culture series, with that short story collection, or I might reread a Dick novel.

[Anonymous No.22252837]

>>22252812
"good" is subjective, but the ones i am currently following and most enjoying are (in no particular order (well, actually i think it's going to be in order of most recent update)):
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/57018/the-systemic-lands-dark-progressive-litrpg
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/64916/weapons-of-mass-destruction-hell-difficulty-tutorial
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/65887/demonic-devourer-litrpg-progression
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/62881/reborn-as-a-demonic-tree
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/65812/the-young-lady-is-a-reborn-assassin
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/68679/return-of-the-runebound-professor
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/64901/the-holy-fool-darkness-hellfire-a-reverse-isekai
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/63762/100th-run-a-regressors-litrpg-adventure
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/40920/the-path-of-ascension
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/62573/unchosen-champion
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/62054/tale-of-the-malice-princess
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/28023/katalepsis
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/66793/lamentations-of-the-dead-dreamer
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/68959/the-cabin-is-always-hungry-a-dungeon-core-horror
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/59967/necroepilogos
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/58643/tenebroum
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/69594/sage-of-shadows
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/58180/death-after-death-roguelike-isekai
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/51358/dungeon-devotee
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/62411/the-jester-of-apocalypse
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54581/erind-x-deen-alternate-reality-spin-off-of-rend
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/32615/rend
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/36904/how-can-i-save-the-world-if-im-no-longer-the-hero
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/60691/the-endless-isekai
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/41574/candlelit-lives-serial-reincarnation-litrpg

[Anonymous No.22252911]

>>22252837

[Anonymous No.22252919]

>>22252911
all i do in my free time is read
it's pretty bad

[Anonymous No.22253032]

>The King in Yellow
did anyone read it? I always thought it was some made up thing by Lovecraft but apparently it's real. Is it any good?

[Anonymous No.22253194]

>>22253032
It's a collection of short stories. The first few have weird shit in them and they are ok. Then there are a few that still have weird shit in them but they are eh. And in the end there are a few that have the weirdest shit in them - namely regular XIX century faguette frogs going about their faguette frog lives while nothing out of the ordinary happens. These are whatever.

The whole thing is known largely because the first story is really weird in a really good way, and people think it has something to do with Lovecraft.

Honestly it's like if Brian Aldiss wrote a short stories collection, with several of them being sci-fi and containing androids, and people started thinking it's a Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep spin-off.

[Anonymous No.22253260]

[Anonymous No.22253264]

A future in which there's a rich nation which has exclusive usage over amazing technology surrounded by poor nations
The people in the rich nation make bets on the state of the poor nations, the outcomes of wars or battles, the outcomes of elections, coup d'etats, economic statistics, etc simply because they're bored and have easy lives
Originally they were content just leaving it to chance but eventually people started taking more direct control and so there's a profession called fixers who infiltrate the nations and manipulate them to get the results of their bosses
Does this sound like sci-fi?
I want to get into sci-fi so I've been thinking about reading PKD
>>22253032
Yeah I read it years ago
I think I liked 2 or 3 of the stories but some of them aren't great
Maybe I'm misremembering it but I remember there's a story about some zombie standing outside a church who disturbs the protagonist which was great
I'm a huge fan of lovecraft so if you are too you should at least check it out

[Anonymous No.22253269]

Would you read my book if I write something that can save the fantasy genre?..

[Anonymous No.22253302]

>>22253264
>Does this sound like sci-fi?
No

[Anonymous No.22253364]

>>22251038
I haven't read that but Gemmell >> King

[Anonymous No.22253367]

What a disaster of a thread. You're all fucking twats

[Anonymous No.22253374]

>>22252241
Gregor the overlander, Ranger's apprentice, and Redwall.

[Anonymous No.22253454]

>>22253032
It's great, but probably less than half of the stories are the kind of pulpy horror people expect. The rest are exquisite portrayals of free and romantic college life in 19th century france.

[Anonymous No.22253460]

>>22252527
you read anything else by Harkaway?
might have to myself

[Anonymous No.22253463]

>>22250622
Awake in the Night Land was pretty good. Wright wavers back and forth between being an insufferable boomer and being the second coming of Robert E. Howard depending on the day.

Sadly he suffers from terminal conservatism and cannot bring himself to recognize that everything he hates about modern society was engineered specifically by Jews--whom he bootlicks for incessantly--thus rendering his worldview inherently untenable.

[Anonymous No.22253483]

>>22253364
NTA, but Dark Tower explores grander and more interesting concepts, and Wizard and Glass is better than any of the Jerusalem Man books, but overall Jerusalem Man trilogy ends up being a tighter, better realized series.

[Anonymous No.22253519]

>>22250252
>Who's the 21st century's Gene Wolfe?
Gene Wolfe is the 21st century's Gene Wolfe. The last book of Short Sun came out in 2001, the Wizard Knight in 2004, and he kept writing up until his death in 2019.

[Anonymous No.22253615]

>>22253269
No

[Anonymous No.22253646]

>>22252241
Redwall and the Spooks series are both a good idea.

[Anonymous No.22253754]

>>22252241
Chrestomanci, The Dark is Rising, The Spook's Apprentice

[Anonymous No.22253767]

>>22252837
I've only read REND on that list and its alright, the MC being a psychopath is probably the best part about it. A lot of things are annoying though, like how every arc ends with her going wolfmode and eating everyone
Not reading any of those litrpg/isekai recommendations though. Would recommend
>Godclads
>A Practical Guide to Sorcery

[Anonymous No.22253878]

>finally finish DCC 6
ALL THOSE CLIFFHANGERS FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUCK

[Anonymous No.22254695]

>>22250160
I got the first malazan book two days ago. I'm going in with very low expectations because I'm pretty sure it won't be what people who treat it as the best fantasy series make it out to be.

[Anonymous No.22254806]

I'm 100 pages into it and so far it absolutely does not measure up to The Dark Tower lol. Everything is extremely simplistic, and the scene where they debated whether pre-collapse society had working trains was cringe as fuck. They don't understand what fairy tales are anymore?

So far this is another /sffg/ meme

[Anonymous No.22254814]

>>22254806
The Dark Tower is terrible after the first book.

[Anonymous No.22254829]

>>22254814
Wastelands and Wizard and Glass (where the series ends) are excellent.

[Anonymous No.22254860]

>>Top 20 Fantasy Books of All-Time:
>The Fellowship of The Ring
>The Well of Ascension
>Sword of Kaigen
>Before They Are Hanged
>A Clash of Kings
>Oathbringer
>A Memory of Light
>Memories of Ice
>The Hobbit
>Jade Legacy
>The Blade Itself
>The Hero of Ages
>A Game of Thrones
>The Lies of Locke Lamora
>The Final Empire
>Last Argument of Kings
>The Name of the Wind
>Words of Radiance
>The Way Of Kings
>A Storm of Swords

Lmfao. Fuck this "community".

[Anonymous No.22254940]

>>22254860
>Using a meme strawman chart rather than the available empirical data
Oh, you're just low effort trolling. Nevermind, carry on then.

[Anonymous No.22254957]

>>22254940
Retard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF_M2Fc__mM&

[Anonymous No.22254970]

>>22254957
>daniel green 10 seconds in
annnnnnd closed

[Anonymous No.22255017]

>>22250214
Have you read Pale Lights? I almost never see anyone mention it which is never a good thing.

[Anonymous No.22255030]

>>22254860
>>22254957
>voted on my 500 of my viewers
I'm not at all surprised that troglodytes who watch booktubers have absymal taste in fiction.

[Anonymous No.22255086]

>>22254957
What does that have to do with /sffg/? It's irrelevant.

[Anonymous No.22255144]

>>22255086
newfags don't read books and only come here to shit up any and all discussion. this isn't unique to /lit/.

[Anonymous No.22255275]

>>22250864

Thanks anon! Saved, and I appreciate the effort.

[Anonymous No.22255321]

>>22255086
>what does science fiction and fantasy have to do with /sffg/?
yeah, sounds about right for this place.

[Anonymous No.22255569]

Redwall and Animorphs are good picks. I'd also suggest Artemis Fowl, personally.

These would be books for somebody in late elementary or middle school, by the way.

[Anonymous No.22255601]

>>22255321
They're separate communities.

[Anonymous No.22255634]

>>22250443
Have you read all of those?
And are any of the Military SF/F and alternate history novels writers faggots or SJW tipes? I read Old Man's war by John Scalzy and I liked the first 2/3 books but then the mask droped and we wrote about faggots and pronauns.

[Anonymous No.22255644]

>>22255569
I don't really care who's the intended audience, I'll be the one reading them. Thanks for the recs everyone.

>60 Animorphs books
>15 Everworld books
>15 Remnants books
>30 Making Out books
>few more series 10+ books each
>all in all 200+ books in 30 years
The hell is her problem?

[Anonymous No.22255658]

>>22255644
I recently learned her husband is the guy who wrote the Gone series, too. And that's, like... Counting its follow-up series only like 10 books?
How the fuck do you have a 60 book series like that that's not an anthology sort of deal?

[Anonymous No.22255705]

>>22255644
A lot of Animorphs books were ghostwritten. I can't speak for others.

[Anonymous No.22255747]

>>22255644
Animorphs books are not exactly long or difficult to read. I can't imagine her other books are either.

[Anonymous No.22255775]

>>22255644
Oh, add this one too. Add the Andalite Chronicles and Hork-Bajir Chronicles as well. They're all good. The Ellimist is xianxia.

[Anonymous No.22255807]

>>22252837
gonna go out on a limb and just assume that all of these combined don't come close to matching the weakest Dune book. can anyone confirm or deny this?

[Anonymous No.22255843]

>>22255807
>holy shit DUNE!

[Anonymous No.22256156]

>>22255843
this but unironically. are you insecure about your webnovel slop?

[Anonymous No.22256228]

>>22255807
dunno, can't compare them since i've never read dune. always got circlejerk vibes from it

[Anonymous No.22256230]

My shitty webnovel has reached peak viewership with some beta readers, and I fixed it best I could. What should I do with it now?

[Anonymous No.22256242]

>>22251038
I read the first one it was pretty fun. He’s basically a cowboy and the demons have magic powers and shit. It’s cool if you like biblical stuff like demons and you might get a little more out of it if you know some bible stuff but it’s not necessary at all.

I actually want to continue with the series I kind of forgot about it. It was my first read of his stuff.

[Anonymous No.22256254]

>>22256230
make it not shitty, or make money with it. what else is there? you really need someone to spell this out for you?

[Anonymous No.22256278]

>>22256254
Guess I'll start querying.

[Anonymous No.22256328]

>>22256156
>this but unironically
>>>/v/

[Anonymous No.22256329]

Whatever happened to smut review anon? Had some more shit to recommend.

[Anonymous No.22256331]

>>22256328
>>>/v/
this but unironically

[Anonymous No.22256405]

>>22250443
Project Hail Mary wasnt bad

[Anonymous No.22256469]

>>22256329
He's still around.
Currently he's reading other stuff going by his Goodreads accouunt.
He's read at least 114 of those sort of books, those the series seem long, going by the relevant self anyway.
Last review was June 18th of the smut sort at a quick glance.

[Anonymous No.22256484]

What is something you guys are tired of seeing in fantasy writing? Ditto for Sci-fi writing? I'm an aspiring author (kinda) and I want to know what mistakes to avoid. If this is a dumb question tell me to fuck off

[Anonymous No.22256495]

>>22253460
yep I read the one before, Gnomon. it's great and big and philosophical and heady, nothing like Titanium Noir which is fast and pulpy - but very much worth the read.

[Anonymous No.22256511]

>>22256484
This is a dumb question because individual answers won't apply to the masses.

[Anonymous No.22256523]

>>22256511
But a wealth of opinions is still valuable. I don't want broad opinions, I -want- to talk to people one on one, or I guess one on however many people are here now.

[Anonymous No.22256540]

>>22256484
>What is something you guys are tired of seeing in fantasy writing?
Magic. Do a setting with no magic but with people who believe in religion and spirits and witchcraft and act like it's real.

[Anonymous No.22256555]

>>22256540
nta, but isn't that simply historical fiction rather than fantasy?

[Anonymous No.22256569]

>>22256484
Lovecraftian bullshit. It's been beaten beyond death, it's pointless cliche at this point.

[Anonymous No.22256578]

>>22256484
Chosen ones. They're the worst.

[Anonymous No.22256584]

>>22256484
Humanoid protagonists. Where are my sci-fi books with alien protagonists who don't know that Earth exists and never will.

[Anonymous No.22256603]

>>22256484
Chosen ones/prophecy that is explicitly spelled out via some contrived plot device like an ancient book or a fortune teller. I much prefer characters who seize their own destiny by themselves, not because they need a prophecy to either carry their asses or motivate them to fulfill it. It's like time travel, unless your story is written explicitly with it in mind like Steins Gate or Back to the Future, it's just going to be retarded as fuck.
Magic systems that are fully understood and explained, what the fuck is the point of literal MAGIC if it's treated like a solved science? Few exceptions to this one, most prominent I can think of being LotR (magic is basically just the creator's divine gift bestowed upon a chosen few). Counterpoint to this being Eragon however as even though magic is mostly understood by the elves, they still treat it with caution since the simplest mistake can kill you, and the magic system itself underpins the entire story, with the author basically being forced to admit that the protagonist became way too overpowered since he can reshape reality. Goes back to the chosen one/prophecy point since the potential of magic is present from the start.

[Anonymous No.22256616]

>>22256578
>>22256603
Name 10 (ten) books with chosen ones.

[Anonymous No.22256625]

>>22256616
Why bother when it's so prevalent that you can simply google it? You have to do something interesting like give the chosen one a god complex that is caused by the prophecy, causing problems for him, otherwise it's pointless.

[Anonymous No.22256626]

>>22256603
What about chosen ones designated directly by gods who are characters in the story?

[Anonymous No.22256632]

>>22256626
If it has a real place in the story and isn't just there to make you think "Wow, (main character) is so special and unique!" then all that matters is your execution, as with most things.

[Anonymous No.22256643]

>>22256632
For example, in Good Omens the Antichrist is literally brought to earth via satanic demons in order to usher in Armageddon as foretold in the book of revelations. The apotheosis of all chosen ones, as literally named by god to his prophets in the holy text itself. Instead however, because of his upbringing bereft of any satanic or angelic influence, he turns out to be able to see good and evil equally, and chooses not to destroy the world by bringing Armageddon to earth. He is still the Antichrist and can reshape reality since he is of divine blood, but his character is more complex than a chosen one performing the function foretold in the prophecy.

[Anonymous No.22256699]

should i read the hyperion sequels or is this one of the "they cheapen the original" situations?

[Anonymous No.22256702]

>>22256699
Yes.

[Anonymous No.22256757]

Are there any books like the Monster Hunter International series by Larry Correia. In the way that it's Military/ paramilitary Organisation or groups versus Monster and Demons? It feels like there should be a lot of similar books but I don't really find any that are not "kindle" only stuff that's even lower than pulp.
I could do without the whole choosen stuff and I don't need to read about zombies for the next 100 years. Would be nice if it takes itself serious but other than that it can be horror, action or even comedy.

[Anonymous No.22256862]

>>22256699
The second book retroactively ruins the first

[Anonymous No.22256932]

>stuck in the middle of malazan
>miss goofy rincewind hijinks

[Anonymous No.22257001]

>>22256555
Not if it takes place on an alien world with made up cultures and history.

[Anonymous No.22257021]

>>22256757
plenty of japanese cartoons like that

[Anonymous No.22257023]

>>22256757
Just read demon slayer lmao

[Anonymous No.22257075]

>>22257021
>>22257023
I hate you weeabos

[Anonymous No.22257080]

>>22257075
I'm not the one asking for more books that include bog standard anime tropes. I looked up the one you named and the introduction literally reads like a japanese light novel. swap a few words and this dude is getting hit by a truck and waking up in a different world (the term for this is "isekai", by the way)

[Anonymous No.22257088]

>>22257075
You literally reading trash on par with an average shounen manga retard. /a/ seems more your speed.

[Anonymous No.22257106]

>>22254829
God I fucking hate Stephen King. The Dark Tower has the most unsatisfying ending I have ever had the displeasure of experiencing, and yet The Gunslinger/Wizard and Glass are some of his best work. Must have been the coke.

[Anonymous No.22257206]

>>22256469
>>22256329
I'm still here, currently reading other stuff and preparing for studying my Master degree and looking for a job. I might not be as present as usually. If you have some interesting smut to recommend I'm all ears.

[Anonymous No.22257250]

>>22257080
It's not isekai at all. It's bog standard urban fantasy.

[Anonymous No.22257303]

>>22256578
>>22256616
Chosen ones only bother me if they're retroactive chosen ones. Like you have "just some guy" protagonists who later on the story goes "actually there's a prophecy" or some shit and it just feels like you're scrambling to justify the protagonist being special, where it can just be... Some people are just exceptional.

[Anonymous No.22257333]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL2ZHCna3AU
kino

[Anonymous No.22257344]

>>22257250
I'm glad I haven't read any of that then

[Anonymous No.22257532]

Should I really donate books I haven't read yet? KonMari says if I didn't read them when I got them, but I don't feel good about getting rid of books like that.

[Anonymous No.22257845]

>>22257532
She changed her mind .
https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2023/01/26/marie-kondo-kurashi-inner-calm/

[Anonymous No.22258048]

Read Lem

[Anonymous No.22258070]

>>22256757
Delta Green novels maybe.

[Anonymous No.22258094]

Anyone know where to go to commission a book cover?

[Anonymous No.22258109]

>>22258094
If you want one that isn't awful you'll have to ask the artists personally. Try a site like art station. If you want something terrible, then go to a gig site or even the generals on this site that do art commissions. If you want something that will get complaints, but otherwise look fine, use AI.

[Anonymous No.22258112]

>>22258094
Fivver to pay someone that's going to use AI to generate something for you.

[Anonymous No.22258148]

I'm looking for some really light reading with young, energetic male protagonists. So I started reading Light Novels.

Dear God.

[Anonymous No.22258155]

I give up on the expanse. I gave it a chance and all it has done is waste my time and put me to sleep.

[Anonymous No.22258181]

>>22258155
You should read something more stimulating for you then. Failing that, maybe accept that books just don't do enough for you.

[Anonymous No.22258259]

Bought both Mona Lisa Overdrive and Count Zero today my only experience with Gibson so far was Neuromancer and I think I got filtered pretty hard on it but could appreciate the world building and influence on cyberpunk it had but dumb question which one should I read next in the trilogy

[Anonymous No.22258277]

>>22256699
Not only are the following books extremely bad, they ruin what was already a good duology with deus ex machina. Save your head canon and stay away from Endymion.

[Anonymous No.22258311]

>>22258259
> dumb question which one should I read next in the trilogy
The order is Neuro -> Count -> Mona, if that’s what you’re asking

[Anonymous No.22258420]

>>22258148
Show me an example of what a light novel is like.

[Anonymous No.22258425]

>>22256484
female mcs

[Anonymous No.22258487]

>>22258425
Yes. There's something unseemly about male authors who use female MCs for everything.

[Anonymous No.22258571]

>>22250798
>>22250824
>Videogames and the internet killed it.
>Videogames drastically decreased the number of boys/men who read fiction, let alone SF.
I don't buy it. Not entirely. I think there's equal blame to SF&F literary societies ~ publisher circlejerk for driving away the audience.

>http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=6085
>No, I judge that what is dessicating and poisoning the Rabbit version of SF is something distinct from left-wing political slant but co-morbid with it: colonization by English majors and the rise of literary status envy as a significant shaping force in the field.
>Literary status envy is the condition of people who think that all genre fiction would be improved by adopting the devices and priorities of late 19th- and then 20th-century literary fiction. Such people prize the “novel of character” and stylistic sophistication above all else. They have almost no interest in ideas outside of esthetic theory and a very narrow range of socio-political criticism. They think competent characters and happy endings are jejune, unsophisticated, artistically uninteresting. They love them some angst.
I think ESR is a little to focused on angst and I don't agree that "pull sci-fi back into the gutter" is a very good slogan, but I think he's close to the mark on the evolution of the editorial and critical institutions toward style and fashionable ideas (eg gender politics, trope subversion for its own sake, etc) over story substance.

[Anonymous No.22258573]

>>22258148
Just read Belgariad, Man of His Word or Riftwar bro.
>>22258425
I love female mcs

[Anonymous No.22258574]

>>22256484
Tired of writers relying heavily on their worldbuilding and infodumping pages of pointless facts about their setting while being completely incapable of believable character writing and dialogue. If I don't care about your characters and their stories I certainly am not going to give a shit about your super unique setting or whatever. Fantasy and sci fi writers get too far up their own ass about their pointlessly obscure worldbuilding that the actual story and characters end up taking a back seat.

[Anonymous No.22258603]

>>22258571
>>22258571
>>http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=6085
thanks for the read

[Anonymous No.22258604]

>>22258574
This. The world should be in the service of the story, not the other way around.

[Anonymous No.22258608]

>>22256484
Love interests that are just blatant dream gfs of the author. Nobody writing the “girl they personally want to fuck/marry” can do so with enough objectivity to make the character interesting to outsiders.

[Anonymous No.22258618]

>>22258571
How can you look at the slop that's winning SFF awards and think "the REAL problem is that the left-wingers are too stylistically literary!"

[Anonymous No.22258661]

>>22258311

Cheers going to start reading Count maybe after finishing End of Eternity by Asimov

[Anonymous No.22258674]

>>22258618
Because I don't have a knee-jerk reaction and probably have a better understanding of what ESR means by "style."

You personally might have a viscerally negative reaction to Scalzi's "did a thing", but the fact is that it was a deliberate stylistic choice by Scalzi and the fart-huffing circlejerk in the editorial/critical circles recognizes and admires this.

>the REAL problem is that the left-wingers are too stylistically literary!"
This is an incorrect paraphrase. The problem is the literary ASPIRATIONS (and pretentions), not that they are actually achieving anything worthwhile as literature. And the concern about style is where stylistic/language creativity is valued for its own sake over storytelling. That is not the same as saying "they are too stylistically literary."

[Anonymous No.22258683]

>>22253264
It needs more futuristic and speculative elements in order to be sci-fi. You could easily have this set in modern day with the US as the strong rich nation and all those African states being the poor manipulated nations.

[Anonymous No.22258696]

>>22258674
Your boy says,

>Literary status envy is the condition of people who think that all genre fiction would be improved by adopting the devices and priorities of late 19th- and then 20th-century literary fiction. Such people prize the “novel of character” and stylistic sophistication above all else.

What about "the helicopter did a thing" is a 19th or 20th century device? What about it is stylistically sophisticated?

I may simply be ignorant but I can't think of a recent SFF book I hated because it had literary pretensions. I have hated books because they had the "millenial writing" cringe symptoms and that's only gotten worse. This may even be an attempt by the so-called "rabbits" to dumb themselves down for the twotter generation like the "evil league for evil" already has.

[Anonymous No.22258770]

>>22258487
They're just trying to get published. Don't forget that leftists are constantly complaining about white men not making things about people who aren't white men.

[Anonymous No.22258776]

>>22258574
What are some examples of this?

[Anonymous No.22258783]

>>22256484
hard magic systems
evil empire
plucky underdog protagonist
female MCs
female authors
maps
chosen one
low stakes
apocalyptical threat
elves
dwarves
boats
vaguely roman aesthetic
vaguely western europe circa 1400 aesthetic
chinese
retarded names without thought
homosexual characters
coomer characters
anachronism of speech
multiple POVs
worldbuilding
trilogies
sagas
chronicles
bows
grimdark
fetishized violence written by upper-middle class academics

[Anonymous No.22258800]

Anyone read this book? It sounds interesting to me but I can easily imagine it being really boring.

[Anonymous No.22258816]

>>22258800
I gave it a shot. It's set in the past and within the first 50 or so pages the main character espouses how great black people are, and then a little mixed kid pops a boner while naked in the woods after hitting the main character with a rock.

It's fetish porn for a literal fedora wearing redditor

[Anonymous No.22258817]

>>22258783
any book you like?

[Anonymous No.22258826]

>>22258816
That sounds really bad. Too bad, I really like the southern setting.
Thanks for warning me.

[Anonymous No.22258829]

>>22250160
What would you guys consider the fantasy canon
LOTR, ASOIAF and?

[Anonymous No.22258832]

>>22258696
>What about it is stylistically sophisticated?
It's conspicuous, self-conscious use of colloquial language.
> I have hated books because they had the "millenial writing" cringe symptoms and that's only gotten worse
It looks to me as if you are so hung up on style opinions you're missing the point on style vs substance.
And again you are looking directly at the books themselves and not where ESR's actual criticism was directed, which is the editorial and critical institutions.
Here's the first review I find on the internet for KPS:
https://sfbook.com/the-kaiju-preservation-society.htm
>This is a book that is intelligently stupid, and I am here for that any day.
Reviewers can't help but talk about whether a book is smart or not.

[Anonymous No.22258834]

>>22258826
I know. Southern settings are peak kino when done correctly, but being "linked to slavery" people started using them as a vehicle to preach.

Karl Edward Wagner, which I'm pretty sure everyone's already read by now, has some great Southern setting short stories though, if you're looking for that setting in general. Mostly horror, too.

[Anonymous No.22258840]

>>22258817
No, i hate books.
I'm an incel btw

[Anonymous No.22258843]

>>22258783

[Anonymous No.22258847]

>>22258829
>ASOIAF
>Canon
Go back

[Anonymous No.22258858]

>>22258847
AOSIAF was popular here before it became known by normalfags. Nothing has really changed in its content since the show aired, so the only reason it's now considered shit despite being listed as great in every single image macro from years back is because it's popular.

People only started pointing out the weird fetishistic shit scenes and thinks of that kind after it became popular, too.

[Anonymous No.22258863]

>>22258847
Its THE fantasy series of this generation. The definitive epic fantasy book and the peak of grimdark trend. What do YOU think should belong to the canon?

[Anonymous No.22258878]

>>22258863
>THE fantasy series of this generation
>Unfinished
>Author is fat
No wonder every modern fantasy fag is a retard.

[Anonymous No.22258881]

>>22258878
To be fair, all fantasy fags have always been retards, the authors themselves are the only ones that can avoid that, and only sometimes.

[Anonymous No.22258886]

What would you guys say is the best Horror book that is not just straight up torture and scat start to finish?

[Anonymous No.22258887]

>>22258832
>And again you are looking directly at the books themselves
Well, yeah. I don't get my opinions second-hand. I don't care what the "editorial and critical institutions" say, or what some reviewer said on some website somewhere.

Your boy ESR is a libertarian who sees himself as above the left-right cagematch. He's also a fan of plot-driven, action-heavy books like those Baen is known for. He's just reframing things so that the books he likes are the platonic ideal and the *real* problem is that there are people out there writing books that are light on plot and action. I don't agree with his preferences. I would love to read low-plot, low-violence sff so long as there's no cringe in it.

[Anonymous No.22258888]

>>22258829
Clearly Name of the Wind, a modern fantasy classic!

[Anonymous No.22258890]

>>22258878
>>22258881
>try start a discussion
>instantly get hit by midwit pseuds with shit taste

Why do I even bother?

[Anonymous No.22258898]

>>22258817
Babar and the song of Hiawatha
>>22258840
Triggered bitch

[Anonymous No.22258900]

>>22258890
But anon, I like ASOIAF just fine and believe it fits into the canon as it did change the trends of writing. However, I now consider it shit because you love it so much and jumped to insane conclusions and used stupid buzzwords.

I will shit up every ASOIAF conversation I can for at least a year now, because of you.

[Anonymous No.22258905]

I really wanted to like this book since it was sold to me as a villain origin story, but basically all everyone does is opine about the will of their vaguely Arabic god. My issue is that the god clearly exists and wants specific thing but those things are never really laid out. God should have had a POV, I tried and it was on the cusp of being something for me but ultimately I dropped it 300 pages in. None of the characters feel like real people, just marionettes controlled by a god we don't know anything about.

That's another thing. The book is like 750 pages long and it just meanders with what I have concluded is purposelessness. I read some reviews of book 2 and tons of them felt like this book would have worked better as a prologue instead of its whole own thing.

[Anonymous No.22258907]

>>22258890
You can literally go anywhere else to talk about fat Martin. Even my racist grandpa that has never read a book in his life know who the fuck he is. What are you going to ask next? Any books like dark souls/berserk? Should i read the Hyperion sequels?

[Anonymous No.22258909]

>>22258900
But I haven't even read ASOIAF

[Anonymous No.22258912]

>>22258909
I'm still doing it to spite you

[Anonymous No.22258917]

>A Child of God
Did he wrote it in the same style as blood meridian or is it easier to follow conversations?

[Anonymous No.22258918]

>>22258907
>What are you going to ask next? Any books like dark souls/berserk?

Already asked that. Got recommended Elric of Melbourne. Anyway, this was not to discuss ASoIAF but what could be the possible essential fantasy canon

[Anonymous No.22258923]

>>22258900
Praise be to the severely mentally ill anons among us.

[Anonymous No.22258924]

>>22258912
Good luck

[Anonymous No.22258927]

>>22252241
Lloyd Alexander: Westmark, Prydain, Remarkable Adventures of Prince Jen, Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian, etc
Diana Wynne Jones: other anon mentioned Chrestomanci but she has a ton of great standalones, plus there's three Howl's Moving Castle books and imo they're more Ghibli than the Ghibli movie
Patricia C. Wrede: based Frontier Magic with no injuns

[Anonymous No.22258930]

>>22258905
It's like the empire trilogy by janny wurtz except worse and with arabic people instead of asian. Book three is way better but if you already hate book 1 you should drop it imo
The innocent mages is good. It's like farseer/Tawny man trilogy but the mc does Magic and doesn't get cucked

[Anonymous No.22258931]

>>22258918
"Fantasy" is too broad to have a single canon. And that's a good thing.

[Anonymous No.22258933]

>>22258886
Horror doesn't really get discussed here often. I also need to read more of it

[Anonymous No.22258934]

>>22258918
Essentialism has no place here. Begone canon cultist.

[Anonymous No.22258949]

>>22258886
Solaris

[Anonymous No.22258951]

>>22258829
Please read fantasy from before 1950

[Anonymous No.22258952]

>>22258930
I dropped it before posting my little review. Good ideas but awful execution. Been meaning to check out Jany Wurtz though.

Gonna give Heretics of Dune a go and once that's done I'm gonna read Red Rising. Depending on how I like Red Rising I'll either finish it or move on to Book of the Long Sun.

[Anonymous No.22258956]

>>22258949
Sorry I mistyped.

[Anonymous No.22258957]

>>22258931
Yet literature itself has a canon.

[Anonymous No.22258961]

>>22258957
I will tie literature itself to a cannon and blow it up "has a canon" all passive voice like it's inherent to literature and not a list a bunch of idiotic postwar academics scraped together

[Anonymous No.22258963]

>>22252241
>not ultra childish
I remember the Bartimaeus Trilogy being unexpectedly mature for YA, but I haven’t read it since I was young so take that with a grain of salt.

[Anonymous No.22258975]

>>22258618
>>22258571
I thought that was obvious. Look at the actually thriving fields of sff: litrpg, fanfiction, and light novels. All extremely popoular and profitable hack slop churned out by greasy midwits. The key is those greasy midwits ACTUALLY LIKE THE GENRE! There's a real living community, the fans and the writers are one large mass that breeds it's own next generation.
Compare it to western lit, where there's a class divide between the "elite" writer and his humble buy-slaves who praise him for blessing them with a book every 20 years.

[Anonymous No.22258991]

>>22258961
That's kinda the point. To scrap together a list.

I think an entry from Sanderson should be there. Stormlight archive or mistborn. Also the solar cycle series.... What else?

[Anonymous No.22258995]

>>22258975
i dont wanna read hack slop though

[Anonymous No.22259000]

>>22258975
What about the month paypigs that may not even get really anything for their monthly payment on Patreon, SubscribeStar, and whatever else that's almost entirely for those "thriving fields"?

[Anonymous No.22259001]

>>22258991
This is still just a list of meme books without a theme, more related to best-seller lists than literary canon, which is fine. Which Robert Ludlum books get on the literary canon? Which Michael Crichton or Tom Clancy? None, and they're all really fun to read and people love them but that's not their purpose.

[Anonymous No.22259007]

>>22258991
This has already been done in terms of /sffg/, though obviously nothing could ever satisfy everyone.

[Anonymous No.22259020]

>>22256484
Lack of mystery. Specifically the autistic urge to explain EVERYTHING as some sort of perfect clockwork machine. Even literal real life mathematics isn't that pinned down and "finalized" and people have spent TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS arguing in circles about metaphysics and philosophy without coming to a definitive conclusion.
Leave things undone, unexplained, unsolved, ambiguous. Have people present what they THINK or HOPE to be the answer, but have multiple incompatible theories explained.
There's so much nihilism about technology and science now because of people not understanding that not only have we not "solved" anything, we're actually MORE confused and uncertain that ever before in history and it'll keep getting worse as time goes on. Answers only create more questions, the more you know the more is revealed that you don't understand.
Don't kill your story by making final decisions or canonical facts. ALWAYS leave room for alteration and deus ex machina. Even if everyone in the entire world of the story think something is true don't let it stop you from changing it.

[Anonymous No.22259024]

>>22258957
Purpose of literary canon is to show the bounds of what literature can do as an artform, not necessarily to make a must-read list. The literary canon for SFF is the same literary canon as for everything else.

[Anonymous No.22259029]

>>22256484
FUCCKKKKK I accidental esc and my ten line+ list is GONE. I can't type all that shit out again and give well thought out examples of each.
>Story has multiple POVs
>Story protag do something stupid to further narrative
>Forced Drama to push unlikely conflict
>People fighting for their lives are making jokes and bantering
>Protag sacrifices himself and dies for a girl he just met (progression and litrpg doesn't do this much, but publishing houses are still forcing this trope)
>protag is a carpet and has people walk over him, blame him for their mistakes and kick him while he is down, yet he still goes out his way to help them
>YA love triangles
>forced romance to manufacture drama
>Protag has to keep being beaten down to show that he isn't actually powerful

I can't remember the rest I had, but these are some of the most annoying shit while reading.

[Anonymous No.22259037]

>>22259020
>read Branderson
>big mysterious ambiguous edge case shows up
>sense of adventure, sense of the deep grows
>author notices "whoops didn't explain that" and has a character named Talion Saizoning dump out all the mystery

[Anonymous No.22259039]

>>22259000
Those are just wayward buyslaves who wandered into the fanfiction realm after waiting 30 years without a sequel novel coming out.

[Anonymous No.22259042]

>>22259029
I can stomach multiple PoVs so long as there aren't also multiple plots and it isn't first person.

[Anonymous No.22259065]

>>22259029
>>22256484
I'll second, third, fourth, and fifth multiple POV being TRASH GARBAGE. Unless you're some kind of literary genius it's never going to work out the way you want it to.
Also no matter how tempted you are DO NOT knock out the main character and drag him around between set pieces while he's unconscious. Every action he takes should be a direct personal decision, even if it's a spurr of the moment subconscious whim, even if he's held at gunpoint and forced to do something he should still DECIDE to go along with it.

[Anonymous No.22259084]

>>22250995
>never heard of this book
>spoiled in the first post I see of it
well then

[Anonymous No.22259121]

>>22259084
>person spoilers the post
>anon reads spoiler then tries to blame the OP

[Anonymous No.22259131]

>>22258863
>peak of grimdark trend
But ASOIAF isn't grimdark, it's just realistic and pseudo-medieval.

[Anonymous No.22259142]

>>22259131
>realistic
Yes, anon, everyone was a rape machine back in the day

[Anonymous No.22259156]

Tell me about the Riyria Revelations. Are there any dungeons or underground complexes?

[Anonymous No.22259163]

>>22259156
Yes, it's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser for zoomers

[Anonymous No.22259164]

>>22259142
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droit_du_seigneur

[Anonymous No.22259169]

>>22259164
>2nd paragraph

[Anonymous No.22259188]

>>22259163
Any resemblance to the Thief?

[Anonymous No.22259195]

>>22259169
In practice, it may have been the feudal lords using their power and influence over serfs to sexually exploit the women free of consequences, as opposed to a legitimate legal right.

[Anonymous No.22259211]

>>22259084
as mentioned in the unspoilered part:
it would only affect a possible sequel.the spoilered bit doesn't spoil the mystery/investigation in any way. just being courteous

read it. short cool book

[Anonymous No.22259224]

>>22259195
they weren't rape machines any more than we are

[Anonymous No.22259319]

>>22259164
That's some ntr Doujin levels of degeneracy.

[Anonymous No.22259341]

>>22259131
>ASOIAF is realistic
Congrats! You're as retarded as GRRM

[Anonymous No.22259355]

>>22259164
Does that even count as rape? Given what we know now every village girl was probably praying for Sir Chad's bastard son over farmer Chudley's stunted spawn.

[Anonymous No.22259383]

>>22259355
Go back to /gif/ cuckold thread

[Anonymous No.22259456]

>>22250214
>Practical Guide
You can grab the complete epub of it before the changes were made if you know where to look like ZLib or Libgen too probably
>>22255017
>Pale Lights
It didn't grip me as hard as the Guide, Book 1 recently finished so I'll probably catch up and read it after Light Bringer comes out on the 25th

[Anonymous No.22259496]

>>22259383
Any books about women getting femocided?

[Anonymous No.22259547]

>>22259496
The Word for World is Forest

[Anonymous No.22259641]

It really says something about the infantilization of fantasy readers these days when people are calling ASOIAF grimdark...

[Anonymous No.22259653]

>>22259641
Same niggas who call Kirby bosses "lovecraftian" lmao

[Anonymous No.22259657]

>>22259641
It was called grimdark on early /lit/ but you gotta remember that ASOIAF is most people's first/only interaction with that type of material.

[Anonymous No.22259818]

>>22259641
It's the reason the grimdark fad happened.

[Anonymous No.22259900]

>>22259641
That's just you arguing about the definition of grimdark. I bet the people who claim that are just saying it's not the Belgariad.

[Anonymous No.22259940]

i ran out of books to read
i already finished reading every book that is good
authors need to start writing more quickly

[Anonymous No.22259952]

>>22257845
The article doesn't say that

[Anonymous No.22259978]

>>22251196
>What is the last book you finished?
Third volume of Tales from Meekhan Borderlands
>What is the book you're currently reading?
Fourth volume of Tales from Meekhan Borderlands
>What is the next book you plan to read?
Fifth volume of Tales from Meekhan Borderlands

All volumes are ~700 pages long.
I started reading this series two months ago and its pretty good.

[Anonymous No.22259981]

Do I have to be smart to understand Tau Zero

[Anonymous No.22260005]

new bread?

[Anonymous No.22260013]

When Jai Long died I just started laughing, the most random death out of all 10 Cradle books

[Anonymous No.22260066]

>>22259900
Overwhelmingly feel good/cheesy fantasy novels aren't really a thing. A trope that never was. Well, Tolkien counts. Fucking videogames took up that role for around 15 years, and then that went away, because you know why.

[Anonymous No.22260074]

>>22260013
Felt like he just wanted somebody to die but couldn't think of any major characters he felt comfortable killing off.

[Anonymous No.22260174]

>>22260074
Eh, i think it kind of worked. The silent king was obviously going after his allies, so Lindon took precautions, and as a result the silent king just killed whoever he could get his hands on.

[Anonymous No.22260223]

>>22260066
>Tolkien counts
Last for you're an idiot

[Anonymous No.22260257]

>>22260223
Conflict and tragedy are perfectly fine, it just has to consistently (attempt to) provoke positive emotion. Tolkien 100% counts.

[Anonymous No.22260274]

>>22260223
If I said that the opposite would be something like Thomas Covenant, for persistent negative pathos, would you argue?

[Anonymous No.22260355]

>>22260223
your*