/sffg/ - Science Fiction & Fantasy General

[Anonymous No.23172523]

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

Previous: >>23159414

[Anonymous No.23172705]

You guys read any interesting sci-fi lately?

[Anonymous No.23172757]

>>23172705
No

[Anonymous No.23172799]

>>23172705
I re-read 1984. Still good.

[Anonymous No.23172800]

>>23172799
>>23172705
By the way, she has a nice ass.

[Anonymous No.23172831]

Finally finished pic related. I enjoyed it. Only skipped one story and skimmed another, but all the other ones were good to varying degrees. It's actually a great collection for anons new to Sword & Sorcery who don't want to read the classics yet and want to start with something more modern.

[Anonymous No.23172833]

It's obvious Varys and Littlefinger work for the Blackfyres, right?

[Anonymous No.23172851]

was looking for a story whose one of the main character is a completely armored rip and tear kind of templar
but the guy from this story is too ambitious, jealeous, autistic and most certainly a schizo

[Anonymous No.23172857]

Read Beyond Apollo

[Anonymous No.23172886]

>>23172851
Kormak series by William King

[Anonymous No.23172902]

>find out recently ive been in this shithole general for 9+ verifiable
i have about had mcfucking enough and i hate myself

[Anonymous No.23172938]

Finished reading (listening) to dune up through god emperor and was a little disappointed with god emperor so not planning on continuing as i hear it really drops off. Thinking of doing Three Body Problem, Dark Matter, or Hitchhikers guide next. Which should i pick? Or just give me a better option.

[Anonymous No.23173096]

>>23172938
Read Hitchhiker's guide, it'll be a good fun break after that dune disappointment.

[Anonymous No.23173106]

>>23172938
Agree with the other guy, hitchhikers would probably be a decent palate cleanser

[Anonymous No.23173125]

Looking for scifi / fantasy novels to keep me bussy for the rest of the month as a warm up for an April readalong.
Roughly 800-1200 pages in total is desirable (one or multiple books) but it has to be self contained (no LotR lore, etc)
Any suggestions?

[Anonymous No.23173143]

>>23172523
how should i read elric of melnibone and conan the barbarian?

[Anonymous No.23173155]

>>23173143
start at page 1 then read page 2 then read page 3...

[Anonymous No.23173163]

>>23172705
>sci-fi
dead genre

[Anonymous No.23173170]

>>23172523
what does he mean with this

[Anonymous No.23173230]

>>23173125
Your April read along is going to be 800 -1,200 pages as well?

[Anonymous No.23173445]

>>23173170
I don't know, why don't you ask him?

[Anonymous No.23173514]

/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.23173523]

/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.23173603]

>>23172705
A Matter for Men was quite good, very tempted to keep going with the series but it's apparently unfinished. Anyone know if it's worth it anyway?
It seems to me the Chtorr must be from the future.

[Anonymous No.23173605]

>>23173143
For Conan get the Del Ray Coming of Conan.
For Elric get the Elric Vol 1 that was recently reprinted.

[Anonymous No.23173606]

Good Lit-RPG

>The Nailmaker
>Cinnamon Bun
>Book of The Dead
>The Tutorial Is Too Hard
>The Reincarnation of Alysara
>Dawn of The Void
>Eight
>Hell Difficulty Tutorial
>Age of Stone
>Overgeared
>The Warlord
>The Mana Influx
>Red Mage


Good Fantasy and sci-fi

>The Murderbot Diaries
>Melody of Mana
>The Dragon Riders of Pern
>Warlock of The Magus World
>Ringworld
>Neuromancer
>12 Miles Below
>Berserk
>There Are Superheroes In This Story
>The Reality Dysfunction
>What We Do To Survive
>A Practical Guide To Sorcery
>Healer of Monsters
>Blame
>Tenebroum
>Sokaiseva
>I Am Not Chaotic Evil
>Violent Solutions

[Anonymous No.23173685]

Is there any reason why people with grayscale won't attack each other? If they have gone mad, I would assume they would just attack everythibg

[Anonymous No.23173741]

>>23172851
Not armored, but certainly a righteous religious figure. Robert E. Howard's swashbuckling puritan avenger, Solomon Kane. He's the type of hero who will hound a murderer across Europe into the jungles of darkest Africa to avenge a dying innocent he'd only just met.
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70570/pg70570-images.html

[Anonymous No.23174087]

>>23172800
Yeah, the idea is to grab attention, maybe get a good recommendation along the way.
Alas /sffgay does not read.

>>23173514
Damn, there are some horrible recommendations in there.

>>23173523
Those are all horrible.

Has anyone read any good, recent(ish) science fiction?

[Anonymous No.23174352]

>>23172705
Plenty. Can't discuss them here because none of the titles are part of the top three global bestselling series.

[Anonymous No.23174545]

>>23174087
Or recent(ish) fantasy?
Honestly, same bloody books in every SFFG thread.

[Anonymous No.23174557]

>>23173143
The Del Ray collections for Conan.
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone collections for Elric.
Retards and Moorcock himself will tell you to read the Elric collections that have the stories in chronological order; they are wrong. The quality of Elric stories drop off significantly after the 60s. The collections I suggest are in published order.

[Anonymous No.23174559]

>>23173514
I recently picked up Between Two Fires because I've heard it's pretty good. Hoping it's good, medieval horror sounds like a good genre.

[Anonymous No.23174587]

Last
Current
Next

>Last
The Black Company
>Current
We Few
>Next
I'm thinking either Armor or Between Two Fires. What do you lads think?

[Anonymous No.23174623]

>>23174559
>>23174587
Between Two Farts lol

[Anonymous No.23174631]

>>23174557
I'd say there's merit to enjoying Elric in both chronological and publication order. I started with publication order myself and really enjoyed it, then went back to read an earlier chronological collection and still found Elric of Melnibone to Weird of the White Wolf to be good. OTOH I can see the merit in starting chronologically, especially for those weaned on LOTR and ASOIAF and other sequential fantasy "epics". Stormbringer certainly packs a bigger gutpunch that way...to an extent. If a chronological collection has Revenge of the Rose, skip it, as it makes a lot of plot developments afterwards feel redundant.

[Anonymous No.23174652]

Finished 'The Darkness that Comes Before'. While it had some interesting conflicts and one or two tense moments, i couldn't care less about the background plot and characters. i liked Kellhus education, the mantra meditation in particular. does it pay off to continue reading or is it more of the same?

[Anonymous No.23174661]

Anyone read any of the following and can give recommendations?

-Godkiller
-The Spear Cuts Through Water
-The Book That Wouldn't Burn
-The Stone Door
-The Hurricane Wars
-The Awakening
-The Dissonance
-The Spice Gate
-Spirit of the Wood
-Emberclaw
-The Land of the Living and the Dead

[Anonymous No.23174663]

>>23174652
It turns into Kellhus worship. There are some kino moments to be sure but I gave up after book 3 because it was just too much. Achamian was my favorite character, but even he cucks out to Kellhus

[Anonymous No.23174665]

>>23172523
Would I be able to get an invite to the sffg Goodreads group?
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/117200066-cal

[Anonymous No.23174668]

>>23174661
-Godkiller (Haven't read it)
-The Spear Cuts Through Water (Haven't read it)
-The Book That Wouldn't Burn (Haven't read it)
-The Stone Door (Haven't read it)
-The Hurricane Wars (Haven't read it)
-The Awakening (Haven't read it)
-The Dissonance (Haven't read it)
-The Spice Gate (Haven't read it)
-Spirit of the Wood (Haven't read it)
-Emberclaw (Haven't read it)
-The Land of the Living and the Dead (Haven't read it)
Hope this helps!

[Anonymous No.23174670]

>>23174668
Thanks, King, enjoy your Bakker!

[Anonymous No.23174735]

>>23174665
It's not based on invites. You answer the join question and you're in.

[Anonymous No.23174746]

>>23174735
Got it, thank you

[Anonymous No.23174750]

>>23174661
Several of these books aren't even released yet and exceedingly few here read current year releases.

[Anonymous No.23174764]

>>23174750
>and exceedingly few here read current year releases.
For good reason.

[Anonymous No.23174770]

>>23174661
Based on what you've posted you may be interested in this:
https://locusmag.com/2024/02/2023-recommended-reading-list/

[Anonymous No.23174776]

>>23174764
the "good reason" is that half the thread barely reads and instead just pretends to
Like this "my girlfriend lives in canada" but for books dickhead >>23174352

[Anonymous No.23174791]

>>23174587

>Last
The Sailors on the Seas of Fate-Moorcock
>Current
Heretics of Dune-Herbert
Swan Song-McCammon
>Next
Weird of the White Wolf-Moorcock

or maybe Chapterhouse if I find it this week

[Anonymous No.23174794]

So I hear Bakker's stories have rape, but how much rape? Are there many hot women? any examples?

[Anonymous No.23174808]

>>23174794
Yes. A good deal of rape, including gay rape. Only 1 or 2 hot chicks. An entire family literally gets raped to death by dog monsters....

[Anonymous No.23174811]

>>23174750
I may or may not have just gone to Amazon and sorted by publishing date. My bad, but thanks for the response.

>>23174770
Hey, thank you, good sir! I'll check this out.

[Anonymous No.23174873]

>>23173606
Actually good sff:
>The Time Machine
>The Hobbit
>The Stars My Destination
>The Broken Sword
>Neuromancer
>Swords and Deviltry
>Conan
>Dune
>Wizard of Earthsea
>Shadow of the Torturer
>Titus Groan
>Blind Voices
>Fevre Dream
>The Forever War
>Berserk
>Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
>Illuminatus!
>The End of Eternity
>Bridge of Birds
>Soon I Will Be Invincible
>Spaceman Blues
>The Pastel City
>Cloud Atlas
>Black Leopard Red Wolf
>The Swords Trilogy
>Assassins Apprentice
>A Song of Ice and Fire
>The Darkness That Comes Before
>Lovecraft
>Borges
>Jack Vance
>John Crowley

[Anonymous No.23174876]

What's Robert Silver burg 's best books?

[Anonymous No.23174936]

>>23174794
There’s tons of rape, but not the fun kind. Everyone and everything in the World is vulnerable to rape, including eternal spiritual rape in hell by the lovecraftian demongods. It’s not supposed to be alluring or erotic, it’s just horrible, given that this is about the most horrible grimdark fantasy world imaginable.

There are a bunch of hot women, and they’re some of the best written women characters in fantasy, since they think and act like real women and not like idealized feminist warrior-wahman stereotypes.

[Anonymous No.23174945]

>>23174936
Ok. As long as it's the fun kind.

[Anonymous No.23174957]

>>23174936
Wait you said it's not the fun kind, then described the fun kind. That's a bit confusing.

[Anonymous No.23174968]

>>23174876
Dying Inside
Downward to Earth
The Stochastic Man

Time of Changes and Book of Skulls also get a lot of attention, but I didn't think they were anything special.

[Anonymous No.23175103]

Out of curiosity, what are some trends you've noticed in modern fantasy? We seem to have moved past everyone aping tolkien but now the trend seems to be copying Sandersons "hard' magic systems.

What other things have you noticed have recently seemed to become fantasy staples?

[Anonymous No.23175110]

>>23175103
There's a whole trend of writing about revoltuons/governmental overthrow, I got really bored by it when I was reading new releases.

[Anonymous No.23175151]

been years since i been to this board but i just woke up from a dream where i saw r scott bakker at a gas station while i was at work (i drive trucks)
and i was stumbling around with my words being super awkward and trying to tell him my romance woes and telling him i felt like cnaiur
and he left

[Anonymous No.23175167]

>>23174663
Thanks. Reading something else then. i didn't like Achamian's schizo conspiracy map. such an bad element.

[Anonymous No.23175176]

>>23175103
Too many male protags. If it's a female protag it's usually a shitty romantasy.

[Anonymous No.23175394]

>>23174587
>Last
The Watch, Discworld series (All were comfy kino)
>Current
Death, Discworld series, currently on Soul Music (Don't like it as much as much as Vimes/Rincewind)
>Next
Treasure Island knock out my classic book for the year, then back to Discworld.

[Anonymous No.23175432]

>reading SoL fantasy stuff
>about some demons adopting a would be child sacrifice and making a mock family
>comfy for about 30 chapters
>suddenly succubus character shows up
>except this succubus is asexual
>and also has mommy issues
>starts ranting about how the patriarchy is why hell is shit
>when hell is ran by a female version of lucifer

[Anonymous No.23175471]

>>23175103
I'm glad there seem to be less and less "An X of Y and Z" titles. Those were a gigantic fad for a while.

What are we calling recent, though? It feels like half the people in here would rather die than read a book that came out after 2000.

[Anonymous No.23175527]

>>23174776
You not reading doesn't mean nobody else reads at all. Fucking bizarre quirk to get hung up over in a book reading thread, dumb faggot.

[Anonymous No.23175567]

>>23172705
The Second Variety by PKD.

[Anonymous No.23175629]

[Anonymous No.23175741]

Requesting recommendation for the quintessential sci-fi horror.
Don't mention Dead Space the book, already read that one.
Please and thank you!

[Anonymous No.23175785]

>>23175741
A Momentary Taste of Being by James Tiptree Jr

[Anonymous No.23175814]

>>23175527
Yeah real bizarre to point out the posters who come in here and make a bunch of empty posts about reading unspecified (non-existent) books that waste everyone's time.

[Anonymous No.23175946]

yeah, it's good
thanks to the anon who posted it last month or so

probably going to check out Fultz's other fantasy collection which apparently has 2 stories set in the Zang world, and also his more horror-bent collection

[Anonymous No.23175986]

>>23175946
That was me and you're welcome. Currently reading his new novel and it's also good so far.

[Anonymous No.23176063]

>>23175986
Immaculate Scoundrels?
actually wasn't aware of this because it's not on his isfdb lol.
blurb sounds more interesting than his previous novels. decided to pass on those once I looked into them after finishing Zang

[Anonymous No.23176076]

>>23172831
>that blurb
>that preface
cringe
this is the reason why S&S is flanderised and why every S&S is just a conan clone

[Anonymous No.23176125]

>>23176063
His Tall Eagle novels are decent. Nothing amazing, but solid enough. I'd recommend them if you're wanting to read Native American S&S or you become a big enough fan of his. Never bothered with his Seven Princes series or whatever since even fans of his say they're not particularly good. Scoundrels so far has been excellent though, but I guess it's going to be the first book in a series so it's not as wild as Zang. Worlds Beyond Worlds is pure kino though. One of the best modern single author short story fantasy collections you'll read.

[Anonymous No.23176207]

Between two fires was amazing. I loved it.

[Anonymous No.23176223]

I read Way of Shadows and found it fairly enjoyable. Things escalated much more quickly than I expected, yet Weeks left a lot of dangling hints and mysteries to keep me interested. I think the book jumped around way too much and it could've done with fewer perspectives, but the story moved along at such a fast clip that it didn't feel too much like bloat.

[Anonymous No.23176273]

>>23176207
BETWEEN
TWO
FARTS

[Anonymous No.23176285]

What books are most like GITS, Blade Runner and Cyberpunk 2077?

I've already read Neuromancer

[Anonymous No.23176335]

>>23176285
The Mirrorshades anthology is the kinda foundational cyberpunk source.
Snow crash is where lots of more recent cyberpunk stuff gets lifted from, Hardwired is where the cyberpunk ttrpg in particular lifted from.
Cyberpunk's a multimedia genre though if you really want to trace all of the inspirations you need to read comics like Akira and watch OVAs.

[Anonymous No.23176401]

>>23176207
It's woke though.

[Anonymous No.23176412]

>>23176401
It isn't.

[Anonymous No.23176415]

>>23176401
Obsessed.

[Anonymous No.23176426]

>>23176285
Read 'Thin Air' by Richard K Morgan.

Cybernetic dude on Mars, corpo, sabotage, hackers, military espionage.

Super based.

[Anonymous No.23176458]

>>23176412
It is.
See?: >>23176415

[Anonymous No.23176603]

>modern fantasy novels that have plenty of magic, but no magic systems
So refreshing. So heterosexual.

[Anonymous No.23176625]

I'm getting fucking lost in The Book of The New Sun, I feel like every page is a metaphor that's going over my head. Currently slogging through some play which I have no idea what the writer is trying to say. The urge to skip ahead is strong.

[Anonymous No.23176672]

>>23176625
The play describes the ending of the series and expose you to more layers of the story, which are difficult but not impossible to grasp at the first reading.
And if you can’t comprehend it at once, that’s okay, as the story goes on you’ll connect the dots and understanding will be delivered.

[Anonymous No.23176700]

>>23175741
>Requesting recommendation for the quintessential sci-fi horror.

https://alexbeyman.substack.com/p/necrobot

[Anonymous No.23176857]

>>23176700
prompts?

[Anonymous No.23176866]

>>23176857

Fuck if I remember. Antarctic geodesic dome cluster, hexagonal layout?

[Anonymous No.23176870]

If "book of the new sun" is dark souls, then which sffg book is Skyrim or fallout?

[Anonymous No.23177085]

does this get any good? someone recommended after reading bakker but im struggling with it

[Anonymous No.23177119]

>>23176870
sanderson slope

[Anonymous No.23177246]

>>23177085
The first two books in that series are fantastic. They aren't at all Bakker-esque apart from the rape, though.

[Anonymous No.23177465]

You fags are no better than raving Star Wars or capeshit fans.

[Anonymous No.23177467]

>>23177465
Explain.

[Anonymous No.23177472]

>>23177467

>>23177465
Here, i apologize. I had a hard life and cope by pretending to be mature on 4chan.

[Anonymous No.23177478]

>>23172938
How are the audiobooks after Dune #1? George Guidall is such a good narrator but apparently he's only done the first one and the rest are an ensemble, which I may personally find distracting.

[Anonymous No.23177481]

>>23177472
That's okay. Just find a nice book to read and you're gmi.

[Anonymous No.23177493]

>>23177472
Bing bing wahoo poster here. I do it to show ironic contempt for the adults that were in my life as a child.

[Anonymous No.23177532]

>>23176603
Not really fantasy just shitty drama with occasional unexplained supernatural phenomenon. Why even include it at all?

[Anonymous No.23177553]

Just finished the entire Horus Heresy and Siege of Terra series. Want to fucking kill myself

[Anonymous No.23177559]

>>23176285
The Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter

[Anonymous No.23177673]

>>23177553
the time warp bullshit at the end of siege of terra melted my brain with how retarded and boring it was, so repetitive

[Anonymous No.23177974]

>>23174652
first book is mostly setup, 2 and 3 are better but not hugely so. If you dont like 2 you definitely won't like 3 though

[Anonymous No.23177979]

>>23175432
She had internalized misogyny chud

[Anonymous No.23178019]

Any news about the status of this man?

[Anonymous No.23178114]

Just finished pic related. What did I think of it? Well aside from some virtue signaling issues (a male character is gay for no reason, an especially retarded and unnecessary GRRL POWER scene) I thought it was great. Futlz isn't the type of writer that feels like he has to include that nonsense in his stories so I don't why he does it here, but it wasn't enough to ruin the book like it would be with most authors.

[Anonymous No.23178115]

>>23173143
is Elric of Melniboné worth reading?

[Anonymous No.23178126]

FUCK I'm reading the dark forest and I think I just got spoiled on Foundation. Was watching the tv show for that shit.

[Anonymous No.23178155]

>>23178115
Yes. If you can't get the Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone, then the recent chronological collections will suffice. Just skip Revenge of the Rose on volume 2.

[Anonymous No.23178229]

>>23178115
Yes but Corum is better

[Anonymous No.23178263]

>>23178229
holy based

[Anonymous No.23178266]

>>23178126
Don't worry. Foundation is not worth reading.

[Anonymous No.23178273]

>>23178019
He's reached Godhood, there is no higher status than that.

[Anonymous No.23178307]

>>23178019
Since he's Canadian he was either suicided by their communist "healthcare" system or imprisoned by their communist "justice" system.

[Anonymous No.23178342]

>>23177085
The first book is basically an introduction to Caine and the setting. Good enough but nothing special. The rest get more into the philosophy/metaphysics/brutality combo one might associate with Bakker.
Like the other anon said, they aren't really like Second Apocalypse but they're in the same neighborhood.

[Anonymous No.23178347]

>>23178307
Very likely one of these

[Anonymous No.23178542]

>>23178114
i would read this book on the strength of the cover art, i'm a sucker for this shit

[Anonymous No.23178555]

>>23178542
You are a sucker for homosexual male main characters?

[Anonymous No.23178578]

>>23178555
i don't really care desu, unless the sex scenes are addressing my specific fetishes i skim right past them

[Anonymous No.23178607]

Fantasy books with foggy atmosphere of Silent Hill?

[Anonymous No.23178639]

>got depressed
>can't write
>can't enjoy anything
>guess I'll audiobook some fantasy to get back in the swing of things
>Get through Thousandfold Thought without shooting myself, barely

Okay is there like, any really good fantasy that isn't fucking depressing? Black Company made me want to shoot myself, Abercrombe made me want to shoot someone else and then myself, Bakker made me want to to pay someone else to shoot my wife and then me, I've already read Martin and Wolfe, Book of the New Sun was cool (but depressing glad I read it earlier) and I'm running out of quality material.

What's the most generic fantasy with Elves and Dwarves that isn't Lord of the Rings but is actually decent, there has to be at least one. It occurred to me that the only thing I've never actually read was generic fantasy, the thing that everything else is desperately trying not to be.

[Anonymous No.23178640]

>>23178542
>>23178578
Based. And the only 'gay' part of the character is in his backstory which only lasts a few pages and can be skipped over (which is what I did). Aside from that he might as well not even be gay since he literally doesn't do anything faggoty in the main story.

[Anonymous No.23178644]

>>23178639
>Okay is there like, any really good fantasy that isn't fucking depressing?
See: >>23175946

[Anonymous No.23178663]

>>23178644
Thanks Anon I've got nothing else going on.

[Anonymous No.23178664]

>>23178639
some of that light generic 80s fantasy was pretty cheerful, like Eddings and Terry Brooks

[Anonymous No.23178670]

>>23178663
Sad.

[Anonymous No.23178709]

>>23178670
Yeah I know. that is sort of the point.

[Anonymous No.23178741]

>>23178639
>Book of the New Sun was cool (but depressing
nigga, how the fuck was it depressing? This whole post seems like it's more of a you being depressed in general problem.

[Anonymous No.23178791]

>>23178607
just pick anything set in britain

[Anonymous No.23178796]

>>23178607
The Black Farm

[Anonymous No.23178903]

Dear /sffg/tards.

I was wondering if any of you could give me guidance on the following:
Has any of you experimented with AI? Reason being that I am interested in generating stylized pictures based on book prompts I feed into the thing.

Any feedback would be very much appreciated.

[Anonymous No.23178910]

>>23178639
Daggerspell and Darkspell are decent, but don't continue on to book 3 or beyond, the quality drops off a cliff.

[Anonymous No.23178920]

Has anyone read the Elric Saga?

Been tempted to read since I love the aesthetic of Albino characters (Geralt, Arthas etc...)

[Anonymous No.23178937]

>>23178639
The Dwarves - Markus Heitz
The Elven - Bernhard Hennen

[Anonymous No.23178955]

>>23178639
Read some Pratchett, I guess, if you want to read something that isn't depressing.

If you want really generic fantasy there's always the Riyria Chronicles.

[Anonymous No.23178959]

Can I get a rec for something grimderp like Night Land?

[Anonymous No.23178993]

>>23178959
The Black Farm

[Anonymous No.23179007]

>>23178607
Lord of the Mysteries

[None !SFFG.n1h7M No.23179228]

>>23172523
Judas Unchained - The Commonwealth Saga #2 - Peter F. Hamilton (2005)

Judas Unchained is the second book of a single story, though considering their combined length, which approaches 750k words, this duology could've been several more books. That would read worse because few of the plotlines are able to stand alone. Each viewpoint character narrative relies on the others for support to become greater than they would be on their own, forming a gestalt narrative. If you didn't like that in the first book, then reading this would be an even more of a slog.

When I was more than halfway through, the plot reached a turning point and I wondered how there was so much more left. The answer was that there were many other perspectives to fill out before continuing. The bulk of its duration comes from the many viewpoint characters doing their own thing. One character hides inside a refrigerator for a few hundred pages before it returns to him. That isn't say I didn't enjoy it, I did, sometimes greatly, but surely there were better ways to present the story.

The greatest problem by far is how unoptimized it is. There's so much that could be removed, notably almost anything to do with Ozzy, or greatly reduced, especially its final few chapters. If it were entirely optimized, then I'd say without qualification that this was among the best space opera that I've ever read and that it ranks highly among all space opera.

Aside from its setting which I enjoyed to an absurd degree, the book's greatest strength is the relationships between its characters. Each of the ensemble cast has their own motivations, beliefs, and goals which conflict with that of other characters. Often I see this as written as problems caused by misunderstandings, so it's nice to see that it's because of conflicting values or a lack of trust.

If the web of their relations were visualized, it would be very tangled and regularly shifting. Characters that entirely oppose each other are often linked through intermediary characters who may be on good terms with both. The character behave in consistent and believable ways based on relevant circumstances, so it rarely felt contrived, except when a specific twist was overly used.

A personal complaint is that too many similar names are used and not only for the characters. This is annoying when they're only referred by their first name, even if it's only for minor characters hundreds of pages apart. One example is Francis Rawlins and Rowden.

There continued to be lots of sex, which was longer in duration with increased description, though the vast majority was from a single viewpoint character. She had sex with several men throughout the book multiple times and really enjoyed it.

Despite their inordinate length I'll be reading more from Hamilton, including the rest of those set in this universe. May I continue to not let my enjoyment be ruined by its flaws.

Rating: 4/5

Pandora's Star
>>/lit/thread/22756330#p22756515

[Anonymous No.23179271]

>>23179228
>There continued to be lots of sex, which was longer in duration with increased description, though the vast majority was from a single viewpoint character. She had sex with several men throughout the book multiple times and really enjoyed it.
Gross.

[Anonymous No.23179276]

>>23179228
>There continued to be lots of sex, which was longer in duration with increased description, though the vast majority was from a single viewpoint character. She had sex with several men throughout the book multiple times and really enjoyed it.
Thanks for filtering this for me.

[Anonymous No.23179347]

>>23179271
Nah.

>>23179276
Helping decide whether to read or not ought to be the purpose.

[Anonymous No.23179464]

Read The Alchemist by Lovecraft earlier. You can really tell it was written by an 18 year old.

[Anonymous No.23179543]

What's a good epub reader app with nice oled black for dark mode?

[Anonymous No.23179616]

The more I struggle Sturgeon's Law by reading the 90%, the more it seems that I should stick to the 10% consensus

[Anonymous No.23179635]

I finally finished the outer/lit/ meme book

It was pretty good

[Anonymous No.23179653]

I just spent an hour on Amazon lookin for some sf to read and couldn't find anything worthwhile.
The situation is grim.

[Anonymous No.23179730]

>>23179653
>searches in one of the worst possible ways
>decides the situation is grim
Why would you do this to yourself?

[Anonymous No.23179763]

>>23179276
Nta I think Hamiltons Pandoras star and judas unchained worldbuilding is superb, scifi, tech, human worlds, alien worlds etc is top notch (action is good too) but when it comes to characters his inner far left liberal alter ego comes out (actually it has completely taken over his good personality since his Salvation series)

[Anonymous No.23179808]

>>23179543
Bump

[Anonymous No.23179821]

>>23179808
Moon reader

[Anonymous No.23179974]

>>23178920
Also do the books play into the ""anti-conan" premise?. I've only read some of the comics and i was disappointed that they don't put too much emphasis on elric's physical frailty

[Anonymous No.23180011]

>>23178920
Yes, it's great
>>23179974
A little, the real reason of why moorcock called him the anti-conan it's because their stories are opposites SPOILER elric starts as a king and ends up as a mercenary that kills the entire world becasue he is a retard addicted to his tsundere sword while conan starts as a filthy barbarian but becomes the king that (may) unite the whole world under one flag

[Anonymous No.23180090]

Did he ever comment on the current political scene before his death?

[Anonymous No.23180096]

>>23178639
Have you read Fifth Head of Cerberus?

[Anonymous No.23180195]

>>23180090
He said eat at joes

[Anonymous No.23180227]

>>23180090
He died in 2019, so "current" may be stretching it. Why does it matter? Would knowing one way or the other entirely change your mind about him? Do you need to know because you can only like those who agree with your personal beliefs?

[Anonymous No.23180259]

>>23178639
The Icewindale Trilogy is a ton of fun, highly recommend for anti-depression reading.
Wizard of Earthsea is pretty uplifting.
Read Fafhrd and Grey Mouser and Conan if you haven't. Those are rollicking good times.
I recommend Bridge of Birds.

[Anonymous No.23180267]

>>23180227
Not at all. I was just curious because Wolfe always impressed me with his unorthodox views that transcended the left right dichotomy. I thought he may have disliked the continual decline of discourse in America.

[Anonymous No.23180273]

>>23179653
Have you read The Time Ships?
>>23180090
His essay on Tolkein is the only place I know he directly commented on politics:
https://www.scifiwright.com/2015/10/the-best-introduction-to-the-mountains-2/

[Anonymous No.23180283]

>>23180267
https://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=WolfeWiki.Interviews

[Anonymous No.23180286]

>>23178639
Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: The Unbeliever is the real "we are all gonna make it" of fantasy, he goes from unbeliever to believer and protector of all life.

[Anonymous No.23180350]

Any good, like "fantasy horror" books? Not modern urban supernatural, fantasy stuff. Like Between Two Fires (which is more historical i guess but it has the right energy), and Throne of Bones (Anthology about ghouls, especially the first short story). There's also Manifest Delusions I guess but it's more a broader sense of existential despair. Knights and peasants and lord and grungy mercenaries doing their shit through a horror lens.

[Anonymous No.23180374]

>>23180350
Lord of the Mysteries

[Anonymous No.23180379]

>>23180374
I looked it up, saw it was xianxia-adjacent, thought you were bullshitting me, then read deeper to find it apparently really is horror? Consider my interest piqued.

[Anonymous No.23180387]

>>23180379
It's a mashup of SCP, STALKER, Elden Ring, Bloodborne and whatever shit your mom likes to watch on BBC. If only the prose were actually good and it'd be great.

[Anonymous No.23180405]

>>23180374
>machine translated chinkoid web "novel"
horror

[Anonymous No.23180415]

>>23174557
>Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone collections for Elric.
I picked up the first volume of this on your say so. I've been eyeing the fancy hardovers but eh, this is way cheaper for something I've never read.

[Anonymous No.23180533]

>>23180350
Iconoclast trilogy by Mike Shel is tagged as horror, but I have not read it yet.

[Anonymous No.23180540]

>>23180415
Based.

[Anonymous No.23180544]

>>23180350
Peter Fugazzotto - Skin

[Anonymous No.23180545]

Can I read "the Judging Eye" as my first Bakker book? It's the only one my library has

[Anonymous No.23180546]

>>23180350
Mask of the Sorcerer

[Anonymous No.23180548]

>>23180350
Tales from the Dark Tower

[Anonymous No.23180553]

>>23180350
Night Winds by Karl Edward Wagner

[Anonymous No.23180554]

>>23180350
Worms of the Earth by Robert E. Howard

[Anonymous No.23180555]

>>23180350
Lords of Dyscrasia

[Anonymous No.23180556]

>>23180533
>>23180544
>>23180546
>>23180548
>>23180553
>>23180554
>>23180555
thanks i will be checking out all of these

[Anonymous No.23180557]

>>23180350
Empire of the Vampire

[Anonymous No.23180720]

>>23180350
Vampire Hunter D

[Anonymous No.23180733]

I've started my DUDE DUNE LMAO era.

[Anonymous No.23181075]

>>23180267
>unorthodox views
you can look up his political donations and they were all for boilerplate republicans lol

[Anonymous No.23181095]

I never read Dune and now every time I think of Dune I picture that jewish twink from the film advertisements and I'll never be able to read it without picturing that ugly freak so I can never read Dune now.

[Anonymous No.23181113]

>>23181095
Skill issue

[Anonymous No.23181229]

Guys, I need to know. What notable fantasy stories came out before The Lord of the Rings beside Howard's stuff?

[Anonymous No.23181416]

>>23181229
That depends on your definition of fantasy, because it could go back 1000s of years.

[Anonymous No.23181418]

>>23180545
no read the first trilogy

[Anonymous No.23181436]

>>23177246
>>23178342
thank you, the premise sounds very schlocky on the surface but it sounds like theres more to it from what people say

[Anonymous No.23181470]

>>23181229
Isnt there Lord Dunsany? Havent read it, but Ive been meaning to.

[Anonymous No.23181481]

>>23181229
read wikipedia yourself since you can argue it's anywhere from like 5 to an uncountable amount depending on where you set the fantasy boundary at

[Anonymous No.23181500]

>>23181229
The Broken Sword came out the same year as Fellowship of the Ring

[Anonymous No.23181503]

Just finished punching up the upcoming story Path to Antares. Anyone else need a cheap editor? I'm free this week

[Anonymous No.23181709]

>>23179730
Where would you look?
Goodreads recommendations are horrible woke cultist crap, I don't have the time or will to check each and every publisher individually and I sure as shit ain't following the "10 new best afrocentric sf novels" that google spits out.

>>23180273
Not really my cup of tea.

[Anonymous No.23181735]

>>23179653
>>23181709
I don't get why guys like this feel the need to come up with an excuse not to read and then tell the whole thread about it.

[Anonymous No.23181753]

>>23178639
Thieves' World by Robert Asprin is pretty light-hearted, no elves and dwarves though (there are wizards)

[Anonymous No.23181760]

>>23178607
Necromantra by Philip Emery

[Anonymous No.23181797]

>>23181709
You should look at the profiles of /sffg/ members who share your preferences.

[Anonymous No.23181808]

>>23181760
Did an anon read this based on my recommendation?

[Anonymous No.23181811]

>>23181808
yeah, it was alright

[Anonymous No.23181855]

>>23181811
Based.

[Anonymous No.23182487]

>tfw we're all too busy reading to discuss what we're reading

[Anonymous No.23182493]

>>23173170
He's just yapping. That's nonsense. Many many people dream of being happy, being sovereign, being healthy, having all they need, having all they want, etc. etc.

If a writer is going to do one thing, it's yap.

[Anonymous No.23182494]

>>23182487
I've finished 37 books this year and none of them are really worth mentioning unless someone wants to discuss their subgenres in detail lol

[Anonymous No.23182562]

>>23181229
The Worm Ouroboros, by E. R. Eddison
Dunsany, as mentioned, particularly The Gods of Pegana, and The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories
All of Robert E Howard's stories
Two Sought Adventure by Fritz Leiber predates LOTR, but most of his other fantasy came later
The Circular Ruins, by Borges

[Anonymous No.23182579]

>>23182487
I read litrpg, I've been in this general since day one (10 plus fucking years) and I know not to waste my time effort posting. No one would respond, or the dinosaur posters would come out and start thumping their bibles.

[Anonymous No.23182613]

>>23176207
so bases,anon.
i too believe Jews are misunderstood heroic martyrs and that those who don't forgive their backstabbing, cheating wives should burn in hell

[Anonymous No.23182623]

What's the Nox of literature?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5pPxMQJ0Mg

[Anonymous No.23182741]

>>23181709
has AI gone too far?

[Anonymous No.23182743]

>>23182623
Dungeon Cuck Carl probably

[Anonymous No.23182763]

>>23181229
George MacDonald, as popularized by C.S. Lewis.

[Anonymous No.23182775]

Should I start Malazan? What about Realm of the Elderlings? Or is there something better you recommend?

[Anonymous No.23182805]

>>23182775
Go with Hobb first, it's split into trilogies so you get a lot of natural places to take a pause. So if you wanted you could read Farseer and then go read Malazan or something else. Hell even the books end well enough to not compel you to immediately keep reading.
With Malazan I think you'd want to read it all in one go to try and keep it coherent in your head.
And after the first trilogy (which is good) you get to read Liveship which is one of the absolute best fantasy trilogies.

[Anonymous No.23182814]

>>23180557
cool
>>23180720
I've actually been meaning to read these for a bit, guess I gotta knuckle down and find the translations

[Anonymous No.23182831]

>>23181735
That is a very hurtful comment anon, not to mention patently untrue. For you and for this anon >>23182487 I'll bore you to death with the books I picked up recently. To jump start the discussion.

The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway - nice post-apoc premise but get's bog down at the very beginning by, I kid you not, actual ninjas and kung-fu masters out of some Hong Kong flick from the 70s. The change of direction was so jarring (and boring) I dropped it. Gonna try my luck with another novel - Angelmaker, by the same author.

No Hero by Jonathan Wood - another Bri'ish urban fantasy novel, along the lines of Rivers of London and it's ilk. Very, very Bri'ish guvnor - especially the scene where our reluctant hero is waiting on a serial killer with a double digit body count with a baton and that stiff upper lip. You start asking yourself - why not just shoot the fucker, and not just for this particular novel. Also not written as well as Rivers of London (or the Twenty Palaces series, which is also along the lines of urban fantasy and all that jazz). Dropped.

Delta Green novels - not really written all that well. I find the early novels of the Laundry series a lot better, before Charles Stross turned into a fill blown Karen and his novels into bad propaganda. Declare by Tim Powers is also a far better researched and written novel.

Cold as Hell by Rhett Bruno - western fantasy and not well written at that. Full of clichés, dark brooding characters and mediocrity. Don't get me wrong, this could be a nice time waster, I just don't have the time.

What I did finish:

Watchers by AM Shine - kind of well written horror(ish) urban fantasy novel. I think they made it into a movie, unless it's some other novel of the same name.

Ymir by Rich Larson - a really nice sf novel (not space opera) with aliens, ruthless corporations and sibling rivalry. Interesting characters and interesting world building that never crosses into the 'tism territory.

[Anonymous No.23182869]

>>23175167
Lol retard

[Anonymous No.23182872]

>>23182741
How dare you sir.
I don't post AI slop, just girls photoshopped to Hell and back.

>>23182814
Fevre Dream by GRRM. He actually finished that novel.

[Anonymous No.23182885]

>>23182872
>Fevre Dream by GRRM.
S. Craig Zahler gave this 4 stars out of 5. Would you agree with that rating?

[Anonymous No.23182926]

>>23182885
No idea who that dude is but I liked the novel.
Interesting time period and characters.

[Anonymous No.23182937]

>>23172833
Littlefinger does not, Varys might.

[Anonymous No.23182939]

>>23182831
Ymir is the secret book of the series. Did you read the first one?

[Anonymous No.23182942]

>>23182939
Second book that is

[Anonymous No.23182948]

>>23173170
I don't know, avant garde thinkers tend to be misunderstood?

[Anonymous No.23182952]

>>23182939
>>23182942
No I did not.
Didn't have the time to look for other works by that author.

[Anonymous No.23182970]

>>23182493
Have you considered that instead of being deliberately fucking obtuse and stupid in a thread full of ostensibly literate people, you could try actually reading what the person said instead of just lying?

Because what he said makes perfect sense if you try to understand it instead of seething impotently and "huu huu huu yap yap" posting. It doesn't make you look smart or above it, it makes you look like a seething tranny.

>Dreams have only one Owner, and these people are lonely
Wow I can't imagine what he means by this. He must just be YAPPING, he's not saying that avant garde thought is necessarily isolating. He can't mean that geniuses tend to be misunderstood no no, that would carry meaning, there's nothing I like more in the evening than failing to understand meaning and being proud of it, it's just YAPPING, fucking unbelievable. Stupidest fucking post I have ever read on /lit/.

[Anonymous No.23182985]

>>23182926
>No idea who that dude is

[Anonymous No.23183059]

>>23182487
I don't like discussing what I'm reading here until after I've read it but then it just seems like I'm posting a review and no one responds

[Anonymous No.23183077]

any good large scale space operas that have that ethereal quality to them like stars my destination, book of the new sun, or solaris?

[Anonymous No.23183088]

>>23183059
No one responds for many reasons. They haven't read the book, they read it too long ago discuss specific details, they aren't interested in discussion, the right people weren't around, and several other unfortunate reasons. The unfortunate fact is that unless it's one one of the most read books here there's probably no one else around who has also read it. There are so many books after all.

If you want responses you'll either have to have somewhere that's actively discussing the book, good luck with that, or at least somewhere much more trafficked. I don't see anything wrong with reviews, though I'm biased in that regard.

[Anonymous No.23183091]

>>23182970
>being this personally offended because someone didn't care about a quote you completely identify with

[Anonymous No.23183142]

>>23183077
Bump

[Anonymous No.23183213]

>>23182970
>big mad
You should definitely decouple your sense of self and what you believe to be true and/or untrue. Your reaction is ridiculous. It's way too much for the topic and the words said with reference to the topic.

>Because what he said makes perfect sense if you try to understand it
I didn't need to try and I still don't. I'm very very familiar with english words and how they add up to form complete thoughts/sentences.

>Wow I can't imagine what he means by this. He must just be YAPPING
Oh. I see now. You don't know what yapping means. It's basically when someone says something worthless, usually at length, with no regard for how interesting/important/canny what they are saying actually is.

I said he's yapping because what he said it stupid. But here it is, quoted as if it's profound. The key to a good yap is that it's put in a position of attention despite being unworthy of attention.

[Anonymous No.23183240]

what is the adjectival form of Galeoth?
Is it Galeothi? or Gallitic?
asking for a friend

[Anonymous No.23183243]

>>23183213
>>23183091
>>23183088
Brothers pls I just want recs >>23183077

[Anonymous No.23183253]

>>23183243

[Anonymous No.23183256]

>>23183243
That "ethereal quality" is a subjective feeling of yours that others have no access to.

[Anonymous No.23183262]

>>23183243
And this.

[Anonymous No.23183276]

>>23183256
I’m not saying ethereal isn’t a subjective feeling but you have to admit there are books that make you feel awe and wonder more than others

[Anonymous No.23183277]

>>23182937
Both do. Littlefinger and Varys work together.

[Anonymous No.23183281]

>>23183262
>>23183253
Thanks anon these seem quite interesting based on the covers

[Anonymous No.23183291]

>>23183281
Based.

[Anonymous No.23183321]

>>23183276
I’m searching for this feeling too. Do you have any recommendations?

[Anonymous No.23183373]

>>23178019

considering that the main highlight of his books is a gay cannibal holocaust, i think we're all better off with him vanishing into the canadian wilderness, never to be read of again.

in all seriousness, he got addicted to painkillers several years back and struggled to make ends meet because his publisher dropped him after the disaster that was the aspect-emperor series, combined with his increasingly obstinate demands for better book deals. he also astroturfed a TON of online hype for his last couple books in the hopes he could count a 50k word encyclopedia towards his contract's requirement for novels, which didn't resolve his dispute with his publisher and led to them doing almost no advertising for the last 2 of his books. reading between the lines, he probably also had to return a big chunk of the advance he got for the aspect-emperor series.

to top that all off, he let his mind rot and got sucked into major crazy political nonsense online. he'll rage against trump continuously, despite being a canuck, and then complain to his small fanbase in a reddit AMA that everyone else is too stupid to understand the cRaShSpAcE oF mEaNiNg!!1! and how he really doesn't hate women he just thinks that they're all just fucktoys.

good riddance, i say.

[Anonymous No.23183376]

>>23183373
>his publisher dropped him after the disaster that was the aspect-emperor series
Was it really that bad? I liked it.

[Anonymous No.23183378]

>>23183321
I seem to feel it when thinking about stories or lore from stuff I read when I was younger that seemed to have it. I wonder if it’s because I didn’t understand fully all the words or I had a better imagination. Stuff (not exclusively lit) that gave me this feeling
-Holes
-some of the redwall books (mossflower, the legend of Luke)
-Sphere by Michael Crichton
-some Star Wars spin offs series for kids
-the end of link’s awakening the original one
-Spyro the dragon
-the original unreal game
-shaman king
-titan ae

More recently
-sundiver
-book of the new sun series
-Hyperion
-Solaris
-stars my destination
Most of this is off the top of my head and I’m sure there are more impressive examples

[Anonymous No.23183384]

>>23179228
beware reading the night's dawn trilogy if you're not really into a lot of cheap smut thrown all over your SFF.

hamilton takes the horny old pulp bros and cranks it up to 11

[Anonymous No.23183387]

>>23183378
Of course
Stranger in a strangeland

[Anonymous No.23183388]

>>23180286
interesting, given what he does in like the 3rd chapter of the first book...

[Anonymous No.23183394]

>Étaín felt the full force of the Shepherd’s gaze, then. The spirits rustled beyond the boundary of the Cruithne stones, and she heard the mingled awe and scorn in their subdued voices. She heard Grimnir mutter under his breath. But she could not tear her eyes from the eerie form of the Shepherd of the Hills—more ancient than Golgotha, where her faith was born; the eyes that pierced her soul had seen countless ages of Man, ages undreamed of, from the fall of doom-haunted Atlantis to the rise of the sons of Aryas, and more. She felt the weight of millennia grinding her into the dust she came from, the dust she would return to.
And just like that the author decides to stick his novel in the same timeline as Conan for no reason other than he loves Conan. Talk about based.

[Anonymous No.23183416]

>>23183384
Cheap smut is entirely fine by me.

[Anonymous No.23183420]

>>23183376
everytime he'd introduce an interesting new thing, he'd get bored and go back to either killhouse and his neverending great ordeal, continuous gay rape (for reasons??), or back to his messed up kid as a viewpoint character.

things like sauglish, ishterebinth, and cil-aujas had great potential. some really fascinating characters like sorweel were dropped in favor of more gay rape and meaningless "philosophy" from koringhus and crabbicus.

dude needed a far better editor than his brother and the neckbeards stroking it over at the 3 seas forum

[Anonymous No.23183426]

>>23183376
i didn't like that the last 2 books did new characters that i really enjoyed dirty, and ended up giving most of the time to the characters i've never liked --> esme, cnaiur, and proyas.

i also think he needed to be more explicit with what was really going on with damnation, the gods, etc. instead of dancing around it and dressing it all up in a bunch of metaphysics.

[Anonymous No.23183435]

>>23183416
What about non-sf&f smut?

[Anonymous No.23183843]

>>23183416
I confess to have a certain fondness for Gor novels

[Anonymous No.23183910]

>>23183378
>Spyro the dragon
based

[Anonymous No.23183914]

I have three requests/questions:

- What should I choose from the late 1970s classic? What is better from literary point of view?
1) The Sword of Shannara Trilogy
2) The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

- What should I choose if I want something in the vein of late 1990s-early 2000s and of ASOIAF (in style and in nostalgic feeling)?
1) The One Kingdom by Sean Russell (and subsequent books)
2) A Cavern of Black Ice by J. V. Jones (and subsequent books)

- Brief me about The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding, please. Does it fit in the second request?

[Anonymous No.23183985]

>>23183277
Not at all. They're bitter enemies.

[Anonymous No.23184012]

>>23183914
You might not like Covenant but it actually has something to say, Shannara is probably the absolute apex of trend chasing epic fantasy. Fine if you're a reader desperate for more of the subgenre but it really doesn't stand out on its own.

[Anonymous No.23184035]

>"Honor is dead. But I'll see what I can do."
KINOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Anonymous No.23184047]

bakker bros?!

[Anonymous No.23184050]

>>23180733
checked and based. are you on book 1 now? I only got up to finishing book 4

[Anonymous No.23184125]

>>23184012
Thanks. What if I widen the list by adding R. Feist's "The Riftwar Saga" and D. Eddings' "The Belgariad"? What would you choose?

[Anonymous No.23184138]

>>23184047
>porn but censor all the swear words
women...

[Anonymous No.23184407]

>>23184125
Riftwar is one of my favourite fantasy series, from Magician right through the Serpentwar tetralogy it's good stuff, an don't miss the Empire trilogy either.

[Anonymous No.23184481]

>>23183256
Not really. The fact of the matter is all named things are given a universally recognized distinction. If you can put it into words, like that anon did, it can be reckoned by someone else.

>>23183243
I'm the first anon. I can't help you though. I've literally never read a space opera. In fact, I may have read less than 3 sci-fi books in my entire life. I'm a fantasy guy through and through.

But now that I'm thinking about it, have you read Dune? That seems to sorta fit the bill to me. It's only of the 2-3 sci-fi books I've ever read and it does seem to have an ethereal vibe and it is a space opera-y

[Anonymous No.23184508]

>>23184481
>he believes qualia can be communicated
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia

[Anonymous No.23184549]

>>23172523
https://www.sfwa.org/2024/03/14/sfwa-announces-the-finalists-for-the-59th-nebula-awards/

>SFWA Announces the Finalists for the 59th Nebula Awards
What a strange list. These choices aren't popular or well-rated. Who are they for? Example: Terraformers by Annalee Newitz. 3.39 rating on Goodreads with only a few thousand ratings and that's more than most. This isn't a even a fan vote, it's by members of the SFWA, which shows that they're even more disconnected from what's popular and good. There aren't some sort of hidden gems or anything like that, or even literary for that matter. Of the 24 nominations for a novel, novella, novelette, and short story, 20 are women, a majority of whom aren't white. The 4 who aren't are a Nigerian (twice), an Asian American, and a White American who writes sapphic romance. Then there's the fact that TOR has 9/12 of the nominations of Novel and Novella, which potentially could've been 11/12 if Martha Wells hadn't declined two nominations. What a farce.

[Anonymous No.23184571]

>>23184549
>it's by members of the SFWA, which shows that they're even more disconnected from what's popular and good.
No fucking shit

[Anonymous No.23184646]

>>23184549
Terraformers is mainly low rated because goodreads readers don't like having their lifestyles challenged

[Anonymous No.23184656]

>>23183985
>>23183277

This is partyl why I think Sansa and Aegon will actually wind up and win the Iron Throne brining about A Dream of Spring with the help of Bran who will probably be their hand he could be the real matermind acting behind the scenes I guess but I think it'd be great poetic jutice if Sansa manages to become queen without Little Finger by her side even more ironic it's Vary's own pawn who she ends up with the two have a lot in common and their respective house colours on their sigil are refletive on their hair too the Targaryen red appears in Sansa's hair while the Stark white or silver like on the background of their banner behind the Direwolf appears on Aegon's.

[Anonymous No.23184660]

>>23175103
I honestly don't read any current year shit 99% of the time. The last one I read was Piranesi and it was actually pretty good. The ending was a bit too "explained", if that makes any sense but I enjoyed it. No nonsense muh strang wahman bullshit, just a straight up interesting and pretty mysterious atmosphere. So I guess there's still hope for a mainstream release to be original amd interesting

[Anonymous No.23184672]

>>23177532
As opposed to shitty drama with explained phenomena? You're unironically gay

[Anonymous No.23184680]

>>23178639
Memor, Sorrow and Thorn can scratch that itch, imo. Has that realistic optimism that I really enjoyed from LOTR and is unique in its own right. Funny enough, read it when I was in a very dark spot in my life ans it helped shed some light into my life

[Anonymous No.23184702]

>>23184672
What's funny is he obviously only reads gay fantasy with magic systems because he can't even fathom a fantasy story having lots of magic without wasting its time on magic systems (aka Sword & Sorcery.)

[Anonymous No.23185088]

Could Dragonmount be Olympus?

[Anonymous No.23185313]

>>23185088
genuinely what the fuck are you on about

[Anonymous No.23185450]

>>23184702
>he obviously only reads gay fantasy
Nice projection there m8

[Anonymous No.23185515]

>>23178639
>ny really good fantasy that isn't fucking depressing?
There's plenty.
Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd & The Grey Mouser.
REH'S stories like Conan and the rest.
Jack Vance's Dying Earth, Planet of Adventure etc.
Roger Zelazny's Lords of Light.
Clark Ashton Smith's stories.
Lord Dunsany's.
Poul Anderson.
Leigh Brackett.
Most classic Pulp isn't all that depressing. (and when it is it's usually in dark humor short stories like CAS's the Sevean Geases where you don't feel too bad because it's meant to be amusing)
>generic fantasy
That tends to be D&D inspired so i'd look to Gord the Rogue, Dragonlance (the first three books a lot of the later ones are terrible), older japanese LNs and tie-in materials (like 80s/90s dungeon fantasy stuff like Guin Saga, Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko, Lodoss, Wizardry OVA, Dungeon Meshi etc) that are clearly D&D derived through Wizardry and maybe some of the chinese D&D ripoffs (Super Dimensional Wizard and the like), the mediocre D&D tie-in books from Salvatore et al and the inferior Tolkien apers like the Belgariad and similar if you're really not feeling the rest of the recs.
Terry Pratchett 's Discworld is also good for uplifting stuff if you can stomach light-parody. (with the caveat that the last few books came about during his alzheimers and feel ghost-written and weirdly preachy)

[Anonymous No.23185519]

>>23180286
Covenant is unbelievably depressing what are you on about.
>starts by raping the first woman who is nice to him
>he harangues himself over this ad nauseam
>so does the other characters

[Anonymous No.23185526]

>>23185450
Stop reading gay fantasy, anon.

[Anonymous No.23185537]

>>23185526
No, thanks.

[Anonymous No.23185550]

>>23180090
Interview here is from 1992:
>J: Let me turn to political philosophy if I might. Your first novel, Operation Ares, really has that as something of a theme, John Castle. I guess that
‘J. C.’ is deliberate somehow. Does that novel reflect your ideas?
>GW: I think it reflected them at the time that I wrote it. I don’t think it does now. I think I was much more like you said you were. I was much
more a doctrinaire conservative when I was a good deal younger. You said that was true of you and it was true of me. I reacted away from the general political current in this country post-Roosevelt and became pretty much a ‘William F. Buckley conservative’ for a while, and then kind of
split off from that. I am now in the unhappy position of finding no one that I agree with. I am big on freedom. Freedom is the bedrock political value that we need to hold on to. Patrick Buchanan said that in his speech at the [1992]
Republican convention, and he is about the only person that I have heard saying it. Today I think people are so used to being free – to having some
degree of freedom – that they don’t appreciate it; but people are noticeably less free now than they were, say, thirty years ago.

[Anonymous No.23185557]

>>23180090
Interview here is from 1992:
>J: Let me turn to political philosophy if I might. Your first novel, Operation Ares, really has that as something of a theme, John Castle. I guess that ‘J. C.’ is deliberate somehow. Does that novel reflect your ideas?
>GW: I think it reflected them at the time that I wrote it. I don’t think it does now. I think I was much more like you said you were. I was much more a doctrinaire conservative when I was a good deal younger. You said that was true of you and it was true of me. I reacted away from the general political current in this country post-Roosevelt and became pretty much a ‘William F. Buckley conservative’ for a while, and then kind of split off from that. I am now in the unhappy position of finding no one that I agree with. I am big on freedom. Freedom is the bedrock political value that we need to hold on to. Patrick Buchanan said that in his speech at the [1992]
Republican convention, and he is about the only person that I have heard saying it. Today I think people are so used to being free – to having some degree of freedom – that they don’t appreciate it; but people are noticeably less free now than they were, say, thirty years ago.

[Anonymous No.23185564]

>>23180090
Interview here is from 1992:
>J: Let me turn to political philosophy if I might. Your first novel, Operation Ares, really has that as something of a theme, John Castle. I guess that ‘J. C.’ is deliberate somehow. Does that novel reflect your ideas?
>GW: I think it reflected them at the time that I wrote it. I don’t think it does now. I think I was much more like you said you were. I was much more a doctrinaire conservative when I was a good deal younger. You said that was true of you and it was true of me. I reacted away from the general political current in this country post-Roosevelt and became pretty much a ‘William F. Buckley conservative’ for a while, and then kind of split off from that. I am now in the unhappy position of finding no one that I agree with. I am big on freedom. Freedom is the bedrock political value that we need to hold on to. Patrick Buchanan said that in his speech at the [1992] Republican convention, and he is about the only person that I have heard saying it. Today I think people are so used to being free – to having some degree of freedom – that they don’t appreciate it; but people are noticeably less free now than they were, say, thirty years ago.

[Anonymous No.23185579]

>>23183914
>2) A Cavern of Black Ice by J. V. Jones (and subsequent books)
I read the first novel and was pleasantly surprised. You won't be disappointed.

[Anonymous No.23185585]

>>23185519
Covenant gets off lightly compared to what happens to some other characters, like that blind government spook.

[Anonymous No.23185621]

>>23180350
Clark Ashton Smith's entire bibliography.
The Dark Eidolon, The Empire of the Necromancers, The Holiness of Azédarac, The Death of Malygris, The Seven Geases, The Beast of Averoigne, The Charnel God, the Last Incantation, The Tale of Satampra Zeiros, The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan, The Isle of the Torturers, The Last Hieroglyph, etc etc.

[Anonymous No.23185706]

>>23184508
>He hasn't broken through to actual communion and confirmed, with direct experience, it's existence
I would pity you but that's not a cash money reaction to someone in the existential trenches.

[Anonymous No.23185998]

>>23184481
i havent but im considering it because the movies dont cut it for me. there has to be more to the novels in the same way lotr and the hobbit are

[Anonymous No.23186007]

whats the best l ron hubbard novel?

[Anonymous No.23186010]

>>23186007
The one with John Travolta

[Anonymous No.23186014]

thoughts?

[Anonymous No.23186017]

>>23186007
I love Rembrandt.

[Anonymous No.23186063]

>>23185998
The book is written in first person. One of the draws is absolutely the intrigue of the character's inner dialogues and views (evolving or entrenched) about things (life, the universe, people, etc.). So, yeah, the book is much more entertaining than the movie which has only dialogue (does Dune/Dune 2 use lots of voice-over? I don't remember) and visual vocabulary at its disposal.

[Anonymous No.23186107]

>>23186014
I dropped Consider Phlebas the other day because it was just a character going through series of loosely action vignettes and those bore me to tears.
I've heard that it isn't representative so I'll give The Player off Games and maybe Use of Weapons a try before giving up entirety. The blurb on UoW seems intriguing enough.

[Anonymous No.23186200]

>>23185998
The movies (mostly part two) rewrote a lot of characters and flattened out most of the nuance and depth of the book.

[Anonymous No.23186246]

>>23182579
>I've been in this general since day one (10 plus fucking years) and I know not to waste my time effort posting

[Anonymous No.23186255]

Any good Scifi or fantasy books that are stand alone and around 300-400 pages? if it's 450 pages that would be okay too but I don't want a series or 500+ pages for a while.

[Anonymous No.23186257]

>>23186107
Phlebas is a weakest of them
Player of Games was good
Use of Weapons felt dense and confusing to me until the end, but its better than Phleb

[Anonymous No.23186261]

>>23184047
is this actually bakker?

[Anonymous No.23186262]

>>23186014
skip State of the Art

[Anonymous No.23186310]

>>23186107
Funny I also felt blah about Consider Phlebas, the only Banks novel i've read.
I suspect I won't like the rest of the series much either since what people rave about it sound kind of offputting to me. (what I hear is basically star trek but with neoliberal interventionism-humping, troon sex change stuff and vacillating between self-righteousness and self-loathing)
I intend to read Player of Games sometime but the fans are really fucking offputting.

[Anonymous No.23186313]

>>23186310
you won't like it if you can't go two posts without a pol rant but half of your impressions are very wide of the mark

[Anonymous No.23186321]

>>23186255
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/s/khOw0retYp

[Anonymous No.23186333]

>never understood why science fiction is grouped with fantasy
>come to /lit/
>they are doing it to
Okay, not understanding it is an exaggeration. Book stores and libraries just don't want to have to spend a single moment of their lives trying to figure out if the one in a million book with wizards and guns is science fiction or fantasy, but /lit/ as well?

It makes me wonder about what other genres create grey areas. Military Science Fiction? Alternate History? Books about witches like Charmed or some shit?

Is there simply a lack of content on the periphery of the genres that might otherwise pry science fiction and fantasy apart or do they actually belong together?

[Anonymous No.23186334]

>>23184549
Why is it always gay novels that get nominated

[Anonymous No.23186339]

>>23186261
No obviously. Pic related is Bakker.

[Anonymous No.23186371]

>>23186333
https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/fantasy

[Anonymous No.23186375]

>>23186334
Because of who is nominating them.

[Anonymous No.23186398]

>>23186375
Which to say, if you aren't reading current year SF you can't really nominate books or vote for them, at least not in meaningful way.

[Anonymous No.23186453]

>>23186339
how can one man be so punchable

[Anonymous No.23186458]

>>23186333
they both belong to a larger category called "speculative fiction" along with horror.

[Anonymous No.23186549]

new>>23186539

[Anonymous No.23186566]

>>23183985
Not at all. They appear to be but their actions end up helping each other. But there is ONE huge clue why they work together. In A Game of Thrones, Ned has a conversation with Petyr, and they're alone in the room. Later, when Ned is imprisoned, Varys tells Ned he knows exactly what he and Littlefinger talked about. How could that be when the two were alone? The answer is obvious of course: Littlefinger told him.

[Anonymous No.23186604]

>>23184125
the belgariad is comfy but poorly written, easy read though

[Anonymous No.23186982]

>>23186566
Varys has spies baka

>>23184549
>sapphic
I fucking hate this term

[Anonymous No.23187409]

>>23186982
There was no one else in the room.

[Anonymous No.23187521]

>>23185313
What if Wheel of Time was set on Mars, not Earth?