/sffg/ - Science Fiction & Fantasy General

[Anonymous No.23235882]

Easter 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: >>23228624

[Anonymous No.23235888]

first for zyzz

[Anonymous No.23235889]

Read Beyond Apollo

[Anonymous No.23235895]

>>23235882
To quote anon from the last thread about Hugo nominations.

>>23233895
>Best Novel (1,420 ballots cast for 576 nominees.)
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, Shannon Chakraborty (Harper Voyager; Harper Voyager UK)
The Saint of Bright Doors, Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
Translation State, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Starter Villain, John Scalzi (Tor US; Tor UK)
Some Desperate Glory, Emily Tesh (Tordotcom; Orbit UK)
Witch King, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)

>Best Novella (962 ballots cast for 187 nominees.)
“Seeds of Mercury”, Wang Jinkang / 水星播种, 王晋康, translated by Alex Woodend (Adventures in Space: New Short stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers)
Thornhedge, T. Kingfisher (Tor; Titan UK)
Rose/House, Arkady Martine (Subterranean)
The Mimicking of Known Successes, Malka Older (Tordotcom)
Mammoths at the Gates, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)
“Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet”, He Xi / 人生不相见, 何夕,translated by Alex Woodend (Adventures in Space: New Short stories by Chinese & English Science Fiction Writers)

[Anonymous No.23235931]

>>23235899
I was using the guide in my copy of The Silmarillion but was still a little confused.

[Anonymous No.23235960]

>The editor is 3 quarters of the way through manuscript of my first work
My body is ready for my first [/spoiler]flop[/spoiler].

[Anonymous No.23235962]

A few years ago I kept seeing the audio book of pic related get shilled and compared with Neuromancer so I gave it a shot. It's a pretty fun story, kind of memey - the main character's name is Hiro Protagonist, they say "Nipponese" instead of Japanese, in virtual reality bouncers at a bar are gorillas in tuxedos, there's a reference to people using a walking penis as their virtual reality avatar, etc. But I just found out the book was first written in 1992 which seems pretty crazy to me.

[Anonymous No.23235982]

>>23235960
Traditional publishing process or something else? Also, you should keep in mind whether it flops or not will depend entirely on marketing rather than quality.

[Anonymous No.23235986]

>>23235960
Just self publish
Also how pozzed is your story?

[Anonymous No.23235992]

If anyone needs an inexpensive editor, reply to this post. I have nothing to do for the next few days while I get promoted

[Anonymous No.23236005]

I, unironically enjoy steampunk

[Anonymous No.23236011]

>>23235962
It was written to satirize cyberpunk

[Anonymous No.23236028]

>>23236005
have you read the Books of Babel series?

[Anonymous No.23236033]

>>23235877
>>23235899
Huh, I always pronounced it like the e in elephant.

[Anonymous No.23236163]

>>23236011
Much like how Watchmen was a commentary/satire on superheros only to give birth to many superhero tropes in its own right.

Also what is the consensus on the Children of Time trilogy? Is only the first worth a read or the sequels are worthwhile?

[Anonymous No.23236235]

>>23236163
Funny you posted this anon, I came to this thread to shill Children of Time and ask for recommendations for similar books.

Children of Time is by far the best. I enjoyed Children of Ruin a lot but found it slow in parts. That said, if you like the speculative evolution aspects of the first book with the spiders, Ruin has more of that with 2 other species. I still enjoyed it a lot but it's my least favorite of the trilogy.

Memory is excellent, I read through it in like a week. It's the most cerebral and creative. It still has the speculative evolution piece with a new species, but bucks the trend by focusing on something else which I won't spoil.

The whole series has made me a massive Tchaikovsky fag. I'm reading through Cage of Souls right now, also very enjoyable.

[Anonymous No.23236295]

>>23236235
A Deepness in the Sky (prequel to Fire on the Deep by the recently passed Vinge)
Dragon's Egg and its sequel Starquake by Robert Forward.
Thanks for the recommendation as the one you are replying to. How hard is the sci fi in the trilogy though?

[Anonymous No.23236319]

>>23236235
>I'm reading through Cage of Souls right now
would definitely read another book in the setting
I liked the underground

[Anonymous No.23236328]

>>23236295
Also Star Maker by Stapledon. Reads more like a huge fictional wikipedia at times though.

[Anonymous No.23236443]

A spider just Mission Impossible'd from the ceiling a foot from my face.
I need recs for these feels.

[Anonymous No.23236543]

>>23236235
I tried children of time but dropped it because its soooo fucking boring.... just thinking about it is putting me to sleep.

[Anonymous No.23236560]

>>23236295
I don't know how good a judge I am of hard sci-fi, but it seems pretty good. No FTL travel, good descriptions of the various technologies used by the different species. Where Tchaikovsky really excels is in the evolutionary biology aspects of the books. He really goes out of his way to describe their various cultures and methods of communication, which are based on the existing traits of the species themselves. And he describes pretty effectively how the different species then communicate with each other knowing these differences.

>>23236443
Unironically Children of Time

[Anonymous No.23236584]

>>23236028
I have not

[Anonymous No.23236592]

>>23236163
re: cyberpunk. those attributes were already rife within the genre for several years, so once Snow Crash came in it was old-hat so I don't think many authors retread those paths; as the genre had already somewhat died out or moved on already

[Anonymous No.23236602]

>>23236443
The Tower of the Elephant by Robert E. Howard

[Anonymous No.23236617]

Are there any books that have a very realistic approach to alien first-contact/invasion?
I liked 3-body, but some parts just annoyed me, such as; being able to understand the alien message perfectly from the first transmission.
Is there anything that goes over the struggle of trying to understand a species that would have evolved extremely differently to us, that goes into things about how they would use a different number base system etc.

[Anonymous No.23236621]

>>23236617
blindsight

[Anonymous No.23236638]

/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.23236640]

>>23236443
Perdido Street Station has a cool multi-dimensional spider character.

[Anonymous No.23236649]

>>23236621
Thanks anon.

[Anonymous No.23236680]

/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.23236701]

The wheel of time is so comically bad. I really don't know why I expected it to be better, but I did. It's so horribly paced and bloated with random characters who disappear for multiple books, I can see what he was going for but it's clear that it would take an author leagues better than him to execute a story like this well. I'm on book 4 and this excerpt made me laugh out loud. The leader of the channelers just mentions a bunch of random ass countries that you know nothing about to some random ass character that can randomly see people's auras inexplicably, who then literally disappears for the next 30 chapters (possibly the whole book until the conclusion). This prose is delivered with all the elegance of a freight train randomly spewing its load of coal everywhere as it gleefully passes you by, explaining nothing. What a shitshow.
https://files.catbox.moe/pmey7s.mp3

[Anonymous No.23236723]

>>23235895
shyte as usual. also, more and more chinese authors every year.

[Anonymous No.23236733]

All of these locations have been mentioned and explained many times before though. The borderlands is shown in the very first book, so is Min. You're just outing yourself as a speed reader. Also:
>leader of the channelers

[Anonymous No.23236736]

god i love this shit

[Anonymous No.23236766]

>>23236733
One throwaway line is not "explained". Min's random aura seeing is not explained, and she does in fact disappear for the next 30 chapters. "The Prophet" is also not mentioned for the next 30 chapters either. I am not wasting my time writing this stupid bitch's proper title because it is a shit series by a shit author copying greater ones without realizing what made them great. Alma Mavis Taraza, Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit is a great character in a great series that deserves my respect and a place in my memory. The stupid bitch from the wheel of time is not. Accuse me of speed reading when it's obvious that this series was speed written. Cope.

[Anonymous No.23236783]

>>23236584
you should, it's good

[Anonymous No.23236791]

Also, Perrin inexplicably and randomly becoming a wolf brother after meeting that dude is a better example of a random and inexplicable ability unrelated to the one power, because he is a main pov character and it spends a great deal of time developing him and how he feels about it and how it affects him. Min literally shows up, tells Rand or whoever that she can see his aura (lol ok bitch), then disappears until the other three bitches are in the white tower, apparently having become friends with them offscreen. Then she goes with them to that place where the channelers are being enslaved, does basically nothing, goes back to the white tower, gets trapped by the mother superior bitch, and does nothing again. One pov chapter about her seeing some shit about a battle that I have already forgotten because it has been 30 cocking chapters and one random battle and some dead channelers really doesn't hold a candle to the fucking battle at the end of the universe
>also known as kralizec, another dune reference. wow so epic robert jordan, I clapped

[Anonymous No.23236800]

>>23236766
>The Prophet" is also not mentioned for the next 30 chapters either
Oh because if something is mentioned it immediately has to take center stage. Ok retard. The prophet becomes relevant later on. This is just the robert jordan setting up the pieces and giving a quick rundown of how Rand's actions have affected the world.

And aes sedai really have nothing in common with bene jessrit aside from being a female order. I don't even know why you're seething about that.

[Anonymous No.23236804]

>>23236800
>aes sedai really have nothing in common with bene [g]essrit
>all female very powerful manipulators with lots of history and knowledge and influence, both trying to utilize one very strong male
>im-fucking-plying
you are fucking retarded

[Anonymous No.23236955]

>>23235982
Self-publishing and using my /biz/ gains for marketing. I have an AI tool that will make a seamless audiobook with unique character voices. I'll release on Youtube as part of the marketing strategy as well for people to try the story without buying.

>>23235986
Private editor known ny the family. Proof-reading only, no structure or content changes. The story hasn't been ZOGged.

[Anonymous No.23236982]

>>23236955
I hope you know that AI produced materials can't be copyrighted. As in, others would be able to legally sell your audiobook version that uses AI generated voices.

[Anonymous No.23237030]

>>23236982
Where I live, copywrite is allocated to the creator, in cases of AI since an AI is not a human, the creator of the AI. I have all rights to the underlying story, then an AI is the "creator" of the audiobook. In the AIs terms and conditions, the developer allocated all rights of the output to the user, not someone who uses VLC and posts it on their channel simply because it is an AI rendition. Same as if you simply read out books in ASMR as a ploy, using an AI to read someone elses story doesn't automatically make it public domain, which is the effective impact of your suggestion.

Even if there was a flood of AI rips of my story about AI, why contain it?

[Anonymous No.23237039]

>>23237030
>ESL
Best of luck

[Anonymous No.23237047]

Why didn’t Kellhus just use his giga-IQ to invent nukes and orbitally glass Golgotterath? The Dunsult figured out nukes so why couldn’t Kelly Boy?

[Anonymous No.23237060]

>>23237047
You should try to read about history of physics, engineering and technology. Nothing appears in vacuum.

[Anonymous No.23237061]

>>23236804
Yes, nothing in common. Order of "witches" is a common trope.

[Anonymous No.23237065]

>>23237047
Because magic is the clear shortest path.

[Anonymous No.23237074]

>>23237061
so you just haven't read dune

[Anonymous No.23237083]

>>23237030
based pseud talking about a field of law that has practically no precedent and could flip on a dime either way

[Anonymous No.23237087]

>>23236443
The Silmarillion has a spider-fu that becomes so thicc that Melkor can do nothing but screech autistically for help when she comes at him.

[Anonymous No.23237094]

>>23237074
It's because I've read dune I know the comparison you make is very superficial. If anything the dunyain from TSA are much more like the bene gesserit than the aes sedai.

[Anonymous No.23237095]

>>23236701
SO true
The worst fantasy series I have ever read, closely followed by the Chronicles of Amber.

[Anonymous No.23237098]

>>23237094
that's because the aes sedai is just a superficial garbage version of the bene gesserit.... which was my point
>I can see what he was going for but it's clear that it would take an author leagues better than him to execute a story like this well.

[Anonymous No.23237111]

>>23237098
You saw an order of manipulative females and decided to sperg out over it for some reason but that doesn't change the aes sedai aren't the bene gessrit, thematically or narratively.

[Anonymous No.23237114]

Anything similar to Fallout? I like it's settings and themes very much.

[Anonymous No.23237115]

>>23237114
the chrysalids

[Anonymous No.23237121]

>>23237111
I sperged out (see: posted in your thread about sci fi fantasy slop like wheel of time) about it because it is fucking garbage and clearly just aped from far better books. They aren't similar thematically and narratively because the books are fucking shit and take 5 to say what dune says in 1. They are on a different planet of quality when it comes to narrative and theming, I agree.

[Anonymous No.23237134]

>>23236617
Solaris

[Anonymous No.23237136]

Why's the dying Earth subgenre so comfy?

[Anonymous No.23237141]

>>23237136
Because it reminds you that you're in the same condition

[Anonymous No.23237170]

>>23236783
I'll be sure to check it out, thank you

[Anonymous No.23237191]

>>23237136
it's a safe space for chuds

[Anonymous No.23237215]

>>23236617
solaris like the other anon said but also "his master's voice" by the same author

[Anonymous No.23237225]

>>23237083
I'm taking that shot, There's no precendent until there is. Legislation is rigid and slow, but does eventually shift and is already starting to solidify into guidelines for artistic works in my region.

For U.S. posters, Blue Skies ruling hadn't existed from times of cavemen. Howey test hadn't existed from times of cavemen.

>>23237039
>No rebuttal of substance
>Just call him a jeet
>mfw
NGMI

[Anonymous No.23237229]

>>23237114
Deus Irae by PKD and Roger Zelazny.
Imagine if the Master merged with Charlie Gordon from Flowers for Algernon and starred in Hell Comes to Frogtown.

[Anonymous No.23237609]

>>23237136
It's perfect blend of science fantasy

[Anonymous No.23237679]

>>23235882
any good books on cyber totalitarianism?

[Anonymous No.23237708]

Give me some funny fantasy books (Aside from Discworld)

[Anonymous No.23237920]

>>23237708
Humor is especially subjective.

[Anonymous No.23237978]

>>23237708
I recall "To The Far Shore" on royalroad to be pretty funny. May not be to your taste but don't discard it because it's a webnovel, the prose is above average even for professionally published stuff.

[Anonymous No.23237982]

Someone I know recently recommended I read Babel. Anyone here agree with her recommendation?

[Anonymous No.23237991]

>>23237982
if you like being hit over the head with a sledgehammer repeatedly with "white people are evil racism is BAD" yeah sure. it felt more like a ya book with how much the author tries to hammer it into the reader's head.

[Anonymous No.23237993]

>>23237982
There are several here who like it. I thought it was ok.

[Anonymous No.23237997]

>>23237993
Why ok and not bad? Why ok and not great? This isn't me being a shit head, I'm genuinely curious what disqualified it from both categories in your pov?

[Anonymous No.23237999]

>>23237982
A waste of time better used huffing glue or reading something better

[Anonymous No.23238016]

>>23237982
>Thematically similar to The Poppy War, Kuang's first book series, the book criticizes British imperialism, capitalism, and the complicity of academia in perpetuating and enabling them.
Why are modern female authors all like this?

[Anonymous No.23238033]

Seveneves is absolutely terrible. Stephenson is 90% pseudoscience info dump that's an complete slog to sift through. What a colossal waste of time that was.

[Anonymous No.23238037]

>>23238033
Sorry I should've warned you

[Anonymous No.23238042]

I only finished 8 books in 2023 and I read more pages combined than the year before in which I finished 64 books.

[Anonymous No.23238088]

>>23236235
Cage of Souls reads like 10 different settings and stories combined into one. Everything is interesting, but almost nothing is examined, like the earth's sea that's instantly kills and preserves all living things it comes into contact with in perfect condition indefinitely, or the entities that make the waves. There's a even a Russian time traveler in the somewhere.

[Anonymous No.23238145]

>>23238042
>read 64 100 page novellas
>read 8 800 page novels

[Anonymous No.23238164]

>>23238145
More like drop 60+ books at the halfway point or more.

[Anonymous No.23238185]

Just finished the entire Fafhrd and Grey Mouser series. Pic related was the best book by far and, perhaps not coincidentally, the first written. The series falls apart completely in the last book and a half, introducing a ton of bland and uninspired characters and coupling them with a cliche and predictable story. Adventurous rouges should be out adventuring, not getting bogged down in wistful reminiscing and homebuilding. At least Conan got that right.

[Anonymous No.23238229]

What’s the best Asimov book, and why are all his damn novels just fix ups? Currently reading I robot, it’s okay.

[Anonymous No.23238245]

>>23235882

Good Fantasy and sci-fi

>Healer of Monsters
>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
>Blame
>Tenebroum
>Sokaiseva
>I Am Not Chaotic Evil
>Violent Solutions


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

[Anonymous No.23238246]

>>23238229
Foundation and Empire IMO

none of his books are good

[Anonymous No.23238412]

>>23238042
The Wandering Inn enjoyer?

[Anonymous No.23238439]

>>23236736
Where's this from?

[Anonymous No.23238499]

>>23238439
Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Sun".

[Anonymous No.23238525]

>>23236736
Yeah lol and it was like the easiest thing to decihper, man is writing on another level, several of them
I am not even sure I liked these books but boy what a trip it was

>>23236443
Spider World by Colin Wilson

>>23238033
>Seveneves

So let me get this straight, a giant black cock of a ship literally impregnates a cunt-shaped piece of moon ("Cleft" lmao could you be even more obvious) with seven badass stronk women? Wtf is this woke degeneracy
Jokes aside, kinda liked, technobabble and last chapter aside.

[Anonymous No.23238580]

>>23238229
problem is asimov gradually lost his fucking mind. he'd absolutely be welcoming the abomination that was foundation tv series.

[Anonymous No.23238696]

>>23237047
all the dunyain did was repair a single malfunctioning/broken nuke which is 100s of times easier Uranium might not even exist in Earwa

[Anonymous No.23238913]

>>23237134
>>23237215
Cheers anons.
I really like Lem, I read the Invincible a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it.

[Anonymous No.23238974]

>>23238016
Because infecting their novels with trendy politics makes it easier to get them published.

[Anonymous No.23239011]

Haven't read nor heard of a single Hugo nomination.

[Anonymous No.23239016]

>>23239011
They're absolutely not an indicator of quality anymore. Which is sad when you go back some decades and look at those nominees/winners. They're generally classics or at least highly acclaimed titles.

[Anonymous No.23239027]

>>23239011
That means you're a casual /sffg/ thread reader.

[Anonymous No.23239161]

Did anyone like the ending to The Stand? It seemed kind of retarded imo

[Anonymous No.23239174]

>>23239161
The first half of the stand is great. Then it turns into retarded magic bullshit.

[Anonymous No.23239178]

Got recommended Red Rising. Anyone read it?

[Anonymous No.23239179]

>>23239161
I read this too long ago to remember the ending which apparently wasn't memorable enough to me anyway. What was it?

[Anonymous No.23239184]

>>23239179
Trashcan man comes back to Vegas and blows up the bad guys

[Anonymous No.23239186]

>>23238033
It has so many idiotic contrivances, like the entire world being prepared for their sad farewell concerts on short fucking notice when it ends several weeks prematurely. Yes, those musicians chose to perform instead of being with their families, and the entire world was ready to broadcast this. One of the characters being related to the people who end up surviving on the earth is fucking hilarious, and yet another one of the speshul characters on the ISS being engaged to the guy who nukes a country and heading to ANOTHER secret colony that survives at the bottom of the ocean is just way past the limits of suspension of disbelief.

Stephenson is a total fucking hack.

[Anonymous No.23239216]

>>23239027
NTA but can you really say with a straight face that there is a single book in that list that is worth reading?

[Anonymous No.23239220]

>>23239216
Tchaikovsky NOPED out of the Hugos, so no. It's all BIPOC LGBTQ123+ feminist, female-only trash.

[Anonymous No.23239224]

>>23239216
Yes, I can, and you wouldn't have asked that if you knew who you were asking. Fortunately we're anon though so it doesn't matter.

[Anonymous No.23239231]

Award lists serve only to inform you of what to avoid.

[Anonymous No.23239242]

>>23239231
What if the awards were given out by those very similar to you?

[Anonymous No.23239250]

>>23239242
No exceptions. People like me don't care about awards.

[Anonymous No.23239279]

>>23239250
Yes, you do. You care about opposing them and letting others know what you think about them.

[Anonymous No.23239284]

>>23239279
I realize I hurt your feelings, but I don't care at all, no. I simply saw posts regarding this at the bottom of a dead thread and decided to engage briefly. Don't worry, reddit fangirls love awards so you can easily find good company there.

[Anonymous No.23239291]

>>23239184
Huh, thanks. Sounds like the typical tweeest ending.

[Anonymous No.23239294]

>>23239284
What a tsundere you are!

[Anonymous No.23239297]

>>23239294
'ate weebshit.

[Anonymous No.23239315]

I should really finish up Memory Sorrow and Thorn

[Anonymous No.23239326]

>>23239315
Beginning was too slow for me

[Anonymous No.23239374]

[Anonymous No.23239423]

>>23239178
I've read the first three, waiting to read the post-timeskip stuff until the last book has a release date in sight.

First book is just alright, rips off The Hunger Games but has some actual worldbuilding, and sets the stage nicely for the next two books, which are proper sci-fi and way cooler. It's not a particularly great series, and don't expect advanced prose, but it's crazy entertaining if you just want dumb fun action

[Anonymous No.23239449]

>>23239326
With Simon and Doctor Morgenes? I loved that part. I'd read an entire novel slice of life sort of thing

[Anonymous No.23239511]

I wish more Cthulhu Mythos took place on other planets. Sick of 1920s Earth.

[Anonymous No.23239543]

Recommend me the weirdest, most gonzo sword and sorcery you've read.

[Anonymous No.23239564]

What are some sci-fi books with aliens that have inverted gender politics? I've read Children of Time and Mother of Demons. Anything else with that kind of dynamic?

[Anonymous No.23239671]

>>23239564
Left Hand of Darkness

[Anonymous No.23239680]

>>23238229
the next 2 robot books are good
reminded me of Android Sheep by PKD, though it predates it

[Anonymous No.23239685]

>>23238229
My favorite novels would be the Naked Sun and Caves of Steel. Nemesis is also good. Foundation and Empire is the best of the original trilogy. His works improve in regards to character writing over time. Have yet to read most of his catalogue though.
How good is the gods themselves?

BTW, I finished Star Maker a year ago by Stapledon. How good is first and last men?
>>23238033
>>23239186
I am one of the few that loved it I guess. Then again I have a hard sci fi bias and I skimmed the autistic descriptions. The Musk ripoff aged badly too (No I don't think he's Hitler, just an overrated inept narcissist who is pissing away his legitimate talents)

[Anonymous No.23239706]

>>23238245
I like how the writing on the page is in chink

[Anonymous No.23239714]

>>23239671
>Left Hand of Darkness
I want to see the meltdown of a modern lefty reader over that one.

[Anonymous No.23239730]

Rereading the Warrior-Prophet and I gotta say it’s the best in the series (after The Great Ordeal). I love the almost sitcom like banter with Kellhus, Esmi, Akka, Cnaiür, Serchaa and the gang. And it’s really enjoyable seeing how he wrote it such that you don’t really know if the metaphysics (for example the Gods and damnation) are real yet. I love that he keeps it a mystery until very late in the game.
Also Cnaiür’s schizo meltdown after Anwurat is hilarious.

[Anonymous No.23239755]

where should I start if I want to begin reading Arthurian legend? I've got the once and future king as mentioned in the rec image, but is that a good starting point?

[Anonymous No.23239762]

>>23239543
BleakWarrior

[Anonymous No.23239764]

>>23239224
Who did he ask then? Who are you, dox yourself

[Anonymous No.23239785]

>>23239543
Lords of Dyscrasia

[Anonymous No.23239790]

>>23239764
There's nobody here but us anons.

[Anonymous No.23239825]

>>23239790
And Jesus. The original anon.

[Anonymous No.23240126]

are there any dark fantasy novels written for clinically depressed loners that capture a similar atmosphere to something like dark souls?

[Anonymous No.23240142]

>>23240126
If it does not exist: write it yourself anon.

[Anonymous No.23240145]

>>23240126
Book of the New Sun is loner kino

[Anonymous No.23240149]

Can I write sci-fi in English if it isn't my first language, are there any writers who did so?

[Anonymous No.23240164]

>>23240149
Joseph Conrad, Vladimir Nabokov

[Anonymous No.23240170]

>>23240149
No, it isn't allowed.

[Anonymous No.23240179]

>>23240164
>both known for great prose
That's inspiring, I have no excuses now.

[Anonymous No.23240191]

>>23240149
Not scifi but the mother of learning guy is a croat and he's a succesful english language webnovel author

[Anonymous No.23240208]

>>23237047
He's not giga-IQ, he's mega-IQ but mostly only knowledgeable in people. Nukes take tremendous research in physics and chemistry and also electricity and power production.

[Anonymous No.23240241]

>>23237920
Okay, still would like recommendations though

[Anonymous No.23240292]

>>23240208
He is giga-IQ. Reread the parts where Achamian is stunned at his intellect while teaching him. The man could intuit the conclusions of the ancient mathematicians and perfect their theorems without any prior training or experience.

[Anonymous No.23240385]

>>23237708
Kings of the Wyld maybe, I don't know.

[Anonymous No.23240438]

>>23236701
WoT is Kino
I think those countries have been mentioned. It probably just didn’t strike you as important when it was first brought up. The “leader” you’re referring to is the Amyrlin the name of which should be seared into your brain at this point. I recommend reading more slowly, the story is best walked through not ran through.

[Anonymous No.23240442]

>>23235882
Thanks to the anon from the other day who realised that Ubbo-Sathla was what I had born trying to find.

[Anonymous No.23240463]

Books about philosopher kings?

[Anonymous No.23240478]

>>23240463
You already know the answer

[Anonymous No.23240582]

>>23237095
fuck me I just started amber. I should have dropped it halfway through the first book but the main characters suffering towards the end kept me going until it finished.

[Anonymous No.23240636]

>>23240463
>>23240478
yeah unironically Bakker.. but beyond that, The Just City and sequel novels (the sequel literally being called The Philosopher Kings) in which the Greek gods try to emulate Plato's Republic. I haven't read these but it sounds good and I love ancient phil to death.

[Anonymous No.23240783]

>>23240636
>Jo

[Anonymous No.23240788]

>>23240126
pasta incoming

[Anonymous No.23240863]

I want to read stories that take place on Yuggoth.

[Anonymous No.23240880]

reading robert jordan's wheel of time garbage really makes me appreciate stephen king's mild retardation in the dark tower, and in general as a storyteller
>>23240438
yeah they have been mentioned once or twice, but you know basically nothing about them and it's setting up shit for multiple books in the future which leads to terrible pacing because he just keeps doing this over and over, and writes multiple books in advance at a breakneck speed. I believe in a misguided attempt at a realistic and grand narrative. nigger, he wrote these books year after year, don't pretend writing 10 books in as many years is "kino", it's just not fucking possible. you know the most about shienar because one book was basically just spent there but it's still badly described and could be switched with any other country with a warrior culture. nothing to justify all these distinct nations vying for power in this grand narrative, just a bunch of samey nothing.
>The “leader” you’re referring to is the Amyrlin the name of which should be seared into your brain at this point.
again, the writing is garbage so I am not committing all these autistic make believe fantasy spellings to memory.
I commit dune's spellings to memory because it is good and I have good taste. you commit wheel of time's spelling to memory because it is bad and you have bad taste. we are not the same.
>I recommend reading more slowly, the story is best walked through not ran through.
listening to the audiobooks while doing repetitive tasks, best conditions for listening to the poorest narrator. the books fucking suck dude. read better books, or just read more of them.

[Anonymous No.23240899]

What are some fantasy novels with strong women in them like Electra

[Anonymous No.23240914]

>>23240126
I was considering writing something like dark souls because it's my favorite series, but then I concluded that it would be utter trash. Dark Souls' storytelling is really not that great, or at least would not translate well to the written word. It is characterized almost entirely by loneliness, oppression, and struggle against seemingly impossible odds, all because you as a player are controlling it. The chosen undead/bearer of the curse/ashen one represents the player entirely. You play the game because you enjoy the dreary fantasy atmosphere, the fucked up monsters, and the depressing tone of a once mighty civilization fallen to ruin and madness. You alone fight against this for some forgotten hope that things can be better, and the very brief interactions with friendly NPCs throughout only serves to highlight this. If the player gives up, the kingdom is doomed forever. Attempting to convey all this through writing along would be a herculean task.

[Anonymous No.23240917]

>Want to buy the book series
>Huge netflix logo on the front and backside
I'm embarrassed that i care so much about silly things like this, but it's for my book collection.

[Anonymous No.23240924]

>>23240917
anon I completely agree with you. I'd have gone out of my way to buy versions of the book that did not have that netflix logo. anyway.. enjoy

[Anonymous No.23240930]

>>23240917
I never buy anything with stickers and I don't buy used books that have a broken spine either.

[Anonymous No.23240953]

>>23240917
At least it's not a Netflix movie tie-in cover, those are always fucking awful

[Anonymous No.23240958]

>>23240917
it's not silly, they are a completely evil and satanic company that hates you and sees you as merely walking wallet and nothing more. don't let anyone convince you that matters like this are silly if your gut instinct says otherwise.

[Anonymous No.23240990]

>>23240914
>>23240126
The Dying Earth
maybe The Road but not exactly fantasy

[Anonymous No.23241015]

>>23240990
the road is nothing like dark souls, it's a standard apocalypse story that is more comparable as a shortened and more depressing version of the last of us (except that game is 10x more cringe). I haven't read the dying earth but I'm just gonna go ahead and say dark souls is impossible to translate because I know I'm correct.

[Anonymous No.23241137]

>>23240292
Mathematics wasn't a serious topic until calculus, so it doesn't matter. Still not giga-IQ. At least untill he creates the Newtonian Model.

[Anonymous No.23241191]

>>23240442
no worries fren

[Anonymous No.23241290]

Chris chan is the reincarnation of Philip K Dick

[Anonymous No.23241329]

>>23240880
>I have good taste.
>Praises Stephen King and Frank Herbert
lol.

[Anonymous No.23241436]

>>23240126
Darkness by Lord Byron
Tales of the Dying Earth by Jack Vance
Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
A Quest for Simbilis by Michael Shea
Nifft the Lean by Michael Shea
Zothique by Clark Ashton Smith
Viriconium by M John Harrison
The Dancers at the End of Time by Michael Moorecock
Earths Last Citadel by Henry Kuttner
The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson
The Shattered Goddess by Darrell Schweitzer

[Anonymous No.23241593]

>>23235882
/sffg/ Goodreads Group April Monthly Theme: Novelizations & Tie-ins
Game, Halo: The Fall of Reach
Movie, Star Wars: Heir to the Empire
TV, Doctor Who: The Shadow in the Glass
Comic, Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_novels_based_on_video_games
More series have books than you're probably expecting. Surely there must be at least a few decent ones. This isn't a complete list. An obvious missing one is the Dark Souls book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novelization
It's easy for the book to be better than the movie when it's the source material. Is it possible that the book could somehow still be better even when it isn't the original source?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_series_made_into_books
The one I read, the continuation of Orphan Black, which I posted here, apparently isn't listed. The ones based on the 30m shows that only last 23m must have a rather different structure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_novels_based_on_comics
I wasn't sure what to go for this since I didn't want anything Marvel or DC. As with all the other lists, this is incomplete and doesn't even list The Walking Dead.

If you think something else should be the featured book let me know. I had some difficulty in deciding what sort of silliness to do for April Fools, though this is for the entire month rather than just the day. I was considering putting some of the most ridiculous four choices for a single day, but nah.

[Anonymous No.23241629]

i've made it this far, but so far i'm enjoying the entire series. the first two books (hyperion and fall of hyperion) were better than endymion. in particular, i felt that hyperion would make a great miniseries. not sure how i feel about the bizarre john keats obsession, though i suppose i don't like keats.

simmons is really at his best when he's writing about datascapes and cities, though. he's got some great visual imagery of stuff.

[Anonymous No.23241794]

They really did fuck up the ending of Memories of Ice didn't they? I seriously considered dropping the series after the ending and reading that House of Chains is very disliked. 4 chapters into HoC and I'm loving it. Reddit lied to me. Do you guys share this same opinion or is it just Redditors hating it because "rape = bad"?

[Anonymous No.23241858]

BRO READ THE CULTURE
>They had had an intense love-affair and, after a series of sex changes, had each become impregnated by the other until Genar-Hofoen was unfaithful and Dajeil attacked Genar-Hofoen, killing the unborn child. Dajeil then suspended her pregnancy and withdrew from society for 40 years and the Sleeper Service hopes to effect a reconciliation between them.

[Anonymous No.23242082]

>>23239730
yeah seeing kellhus weave between people with his dunyain tricks is some of the most fun parts, anyone recommend similar?

[Anonymous No.23242115]

>>23241329
compared to robert jordan? no brainer. nabokov is better, but he doesn't write sci fi/fantasy. you fucking retard faggot.

[Anonymous No.23242295]

>>23242115
King, Herbert, and Jordan are all pretty comparably bad writers. If you're gonna shit on WoT and praise your own taste you should at least come up with a better alternative. If you can't come up with a book better than Dune or The Dark Tower without stepping out of the scope of SF/F to bring up Nabokov that's pretty telling. And you didn't even bring Nabokov up for the questionable take that Ada is sci-fi, that at least would have made some sense, instead it was just a random namedrop. You seem like a very insecure pseud. Take your own advice and read better books, or just more of them.

[Anonymous No.23242306]

>>23237708
Kings of the Wyld and Bloody Rose

[Anonymous No.23242372]

Where should one start with Guy Gavriel Kay?

[Anonymous No.23242373]

>>23241794
House of chains is great imo

[Anonymous No.23242378]

>>23236617
Rendezvous With Rama is exactly what you want.

[Poor Investor No.23242380]

Fantasy is in a dismal state and SciFi is not much better. What happened to us?<div class="xa24desu"></div>

[Anonymous No.23242428]

I just don't read the new stuff. There's an endless supply of older and non-hyper-modern books to read. Same with videogames, - I don't play the new stuff anymore.

t. 34 years old

[Anonymous No.23242495]

Test

[Anonymous No.23242548]

>>23242428
Bakker is a horny bastard but he is king.

[Anonymous No.23242550]

>>23240917
>I'm embarrassed that i care so much about silly things like this, but it's for my book collection.
are you a woman?

[Anonymous No.23242553]

>>23242380
The same thing that happened to movies, television, video games, comics, and music.

[Anonymous No.23242560]

Broken Sword was pretty damn good.
Valgard >>>>>>>>> Skafloc, btw

[Anonymous No.23242575]

>>23242380
Jews and women happened.

[Anonymous No.23242598]

>>23242372
pick a book, doesn't really matter The Lions of Al-Rassan is probably the usual starting point

[Anonymous No.23242650]

>>23242560

Skafloc getting elf and human poon was kind of based.

[Anonymous No.23242782]

>>23242380
We are going through a Dark Age were almost no one is capable of writing anything good whether it be a movie script, game story, cartoon, or book. It will end at some point but I don't know that my eyes will ever see it. There is plenty of older stuff out there that you probably haven't read that will keep you busy for a lifetime.

I like to visit used books stores when I travel and see what they have. You can still find a lot of good, old books for reasonable prices in stores. (Stay away from ebay)

>>23241629
>>23241794
I cant stand how everything printed these days has moved away from these types of classic covers. It really adds something to the book. This is another reason I like to find old used copies when possible. Covers are such low effort shit these days. It looks like they just find the first image that comes up on shutterstock and go with it.

[Anonymous No.23242830]

>>23241137
>Mathematics wasn't a serious topic until calculus
Most retarded thing I have read on 4chan today, congratz

[Anonymous No.23242862]

>>23241137
Nigga what? Glad to know there's always someone dumber than you

[Anonymous No.23242870]

>>23239326
Man, I never understand this take. To me that slice of life beginning is incredibly kino and comfy. I'm such a fan that I'd urge you to go into it with the expectation of comfiness and really watch as the world expands suddenly

[Anonymous No.23242876]

>>23239161
Yeah, the ending was pretty weak. It's crazy because, imo, the buildup is top notch and then the climax just sort of... happens. That's pretty typical with King, anyways

[Anonymous No.23242877]

I wish there was some good Native American fantasy.

[Anonymous No.23242879]

I've never read scifi but I got shadow of the torturer and dune and I'm not gonna read em

[Anonymous No.23242971]

>>23240126
BOTNS and The Night Land, as anons above have mentioned already, are great.

[Anonymous No.23243004]

>>23238245
I've read only one of those but that's all I need to know your taste is shit

[Anonymous No.23243011]

>>23241858
The only good culture books are the first two. The others are impressive but ridiculously degenerate

[Anonymous No.23243031]

>>23242877
The Testament of Tall Eagle.
It's decent; not great. The sequel is less 'Native American,' but better.

[Anonymous No.23243040]

>>23242877
>Native American

[Anonymous No.23243044]

Anyone got the image with the history of books about entropy/ worlds dying?

[Anonymous No.23243062]

>>23242428
i've spent the last 3 days playing stronghold stoping only to eat, sleep and work. and shit and pee

[Anonymous No.23243069]

What you fags reading?

[Anonymous No.23243098]

>>23243062
very based. I never played those games going up, which game would you recommend? I see they all have HD updates. I've personally been playing Master of Orion II

>>23243069
69 noice. I am reading some non /sffg/ now, pic related - very Tom Clancy esque and definitely the definition of military slop but hey I blasted through 100 pages last night. Imagine it's 2034 and China is just done with the US and it's bullshit, so it pulls the trigger and sinks some US Navy ships.

[Anonymous No.23243100]

I'm reading The Darkness That Comes Before, and Kellhus is basically a YA cringe self-insert character so far, lmao. Is the weebnovel/litrpg spammer actually the Bakkerspammer as well? Would make sense.

[Anonymous No.23243271]

>>23241858
thats from Excession, an excellent novel, despite that subplot which really was too long
Culture books normally have lots of subplots and some are better than others
(see Surface Detail)

[Anonymous No.23243336]

>>23242295
not my fault you think dune and wheel of time are even on the same planet in terms of quality. seethe harder, wot is shit.

[Anonymous No.23243349]

>>23243100
How far are you? Akka is the self insert obviously.

[Anonymous No.23243376]

>>23243100
>Kellhus is basically a YA cringe self-insert character

[Anonymous No.23243397]

>>23242428
extremely true and redpilled. 90% of new shit fucking sucks. once in a blue moon a game like satisfactory or bloodborne comes out that's actually worth playing.

[Anonymous No.23243400]

>>23243100
I’m one of the Bakkerposters (never spammed anything), and I hate litrpg webnovel dogshit with the fury of a thousand rampaging Scylvendi.

[Anonymous No.23243459]

>>23243100
It's the same kind of people, but the Bakker"chads" are gayer.

[Anonymous No.23243508]

>>23243100
Sounds like filtered to me.

[Anonymous No.23243512]

Any Bakker news?

[Anonymous No.23243524]

>>23243512
soon

[Anonymous No.23243525]

>>23243512
Yeah, he's contracted AIDS from all the gay sex.

[Anonymous No.23243533]

>>23243524
You think? i’m actually starting to lose hope at this point. He hasn’t touched his blog in 4 years now. He’s brother’s news article made me feel depressed more than anything. I think that Bakker became bitter and resentful with all of the undeserved backlash against his work and with the lack of mainstream success it deserved.

[Anonymous No.23243551]

>>23243533
have faith, anonymous, for i am the greater mystery. it isn’t another book series, but something else i think the fans will enjoy

[Anonymous No.23243596]

>>23241436
>Viriconium

[Anonymous No.23243604]

>>23243336
God damn, i’m not even going to read the post you replied to, because entertaining the thought that jordan was even on the same league that Herbert was is laughable.

[Anonymous No.23243638]

>>23243604
completely agreed. to say you dislike frank herbert's writing is fine. to say he's comparable in quality to robert jordan is like saying renaissance paintings are comparable to children's macaroni art. what fucking absolute retards who post in this thread. as expected, I suppose

[Anonymous No.23243706]

Thoughts on Ursula K Le Guin? Any of her books worth reading? I beleive The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness both won Nebula/Hugo the same year. Some of her stuff sounds like a hard pass if it were written today, but I thought it might be interesting coming from the 70's.

[Anonymous No.23243751]

>>23243706
she's a feminist who writes feminist science fiction

[Anonymous No.23243756]

>>23243706
the left hand of darkness is tranny propaganda (which is why it won the hugo award)

[Anonymous No.23243766]

>>23243706
>female writers

[Anonymous No.23243774]

>>23243706
Is this a new one? This has been asked every thread for the last several. Weird of it is, strange if it's coincidence.

[Anonymous No.23243781]

>>23243774
tranny discord raid, just ignore it

[Anonymous No.23243793]

>>23243774
>>23243781
it's literally the opposite, it's a pol guy bringing up the one left wing woman he knows so he can tell the whole thread that he's based and redpilled

[Anonymous No.23243841]

>>23243793
No, It was just a curious question. I haven't read a lot of scifi/fantasy. I was under the impression that the Hugo's/Nebula's weren't as compromised back in the day and actually picked some great novels. The list being full of writers like Clark, Herbert, Heinlein, Asimov and Dick, I assumed that many of the winners, at least up until around the 2000's, where at least worth considering.

[Anonymous No.23243855]

>>23243706
the lathe of heaven was interesting, in that it had the 1980’s boomer view of daoism, wu-wei, etc., and that it’s basically literary fiction with a scifi veneer over it.

[Anonymous No.23243934]

*wakes up after blacking out in rage*
"Why is there shit on my dick?"

[Anonymous No.23243950]

>>23243841
Speaking off, I think you can clearly see a shift in the direction of both around 2007/2008. It's around that time that Scalzi seems to be on the list each year along with books like Boneshaker while other notable books are absent. Then you have the last couple of years that are an absolute joke with books being nominated like Legends & Lattes.

Fucking Legend's & Lattes being nominated for awards that have been given to some of the greatest scifi fantasy writers ever......

[Anonymous No.23243992]

I've been looking for a sci fi book series involving artificial intelligence. Are The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells any good?

[Anonymous No.23244014]

>>23243992
They're fun, although I lost interest with the first full length novel.
But Murderbot isn't really an AI she's more of a cyborg who has (prior to book 1) had her thinking capacity limited to make her seem non-thinking.
There's other characters who are a bit closer to the typical understanding of ai but they're basically just ship minds from the culture ported over.

[Anonymous No.23244055]

>>23242830
>>23242862
It's true for Renaissance Europe, which is the only place and time that matters for the beginning of scientific advancement.

[Anonymous No.23244138]

>>23242306
Kings of the wild was fun. Bloody rose was shit. Author decided to cram what should have just been the next book into the last quarter and fucked it all up.

Also women and lesbianism in the second and the first has a gay guy.

[Anonymous No.23244145]

>>23243950
The voters have entirely changed since then. It's only to be expected.

[Anonymous No.23244208]

>>23243950
>Legend's & Lattes
what a meme lmfao

[Anonymous No.23244212]

>>23244138
>Also women and lesbianism in the second
Nice. Been a while since I fapped.

[Anonymous No.23244221]

>>23243950
the 2023 hugo awards were a sham anyways. It was held in china and they rejected a bunch of authors in order to appease the chinese government.

[Anonymous No.23244230]

>>23244221
Weren't some of the rejected authors chinks themselves?

[Anonymous No.23244235]

>>23244230
yes, but they weren't chinese nationals

[Anonymous No.23244245]

>>23243706
>doesn't like white people being the default in fantasy
>instead of making a fantasy setting based on a non-white culture she just makes medieval europe but with black and brown people
>endless praise, mainstream media never shuts up about earthsea

[Anonymous No.23244252]

>Revelations of Zang
>Hard Scifi Renaissance
good recommendations, thanks for those.

[Anonymous Mogul No.23244257]

For me it's 70s-80s soft sci fi

[Anonymous No.23244262]

>>23244245
Bot her fault medieval europe has better aesthetics

[Anonymous No.23244281]

>>23244252
>>Revelations of Zang
This was me.

[Anonymous No.23244284]

THE PULPSLOP ODYSSEY CONTINUES

[Anonymous No.23244366]

Anyone else read Ring? Like what the horror movie is based on. It's more of a scifi story sort of. Definitely has stuff I didn't expect.

[Anonymous No.23244601]

>>23244366
Does it have schoolgirl boobas?

[Anonymous No.23244693]

>>23243044
This?

[Anonymous No.23244760]

>>23244284
Is it good?

[Anonymous No.23244831]

>>23244693
yes, than you very much

[Anonymous No.23245001]

>get recommeneded a book
>it's written in the first person

[Anonymous No.23245007]

>>23244760
Is what good?

[Anonymous No.23245403]

>>23241436
>Shattered Goddess
>not Mask of the Sorcerer

[Anonymous No.23245414]

>>23236621
>>23237134
Damn, was going to post both these exact books.

[Anonymous No.23245421]

>>23241436
More like Darrell Schweitzer?

[Anonymous No.23245429]

>>23244366
I read it after watching the American remake and was surprised at how different it was. I also read it at night in a hotel room with a very noisy refrigerator and spooked myself out when the journalist (?) was researching that bathroom. I can't remember much else.

[Anonymous No.23245520]

>>23237047
Same reason he didn't invent guns
>Would have taken too long logistically
>Puts too much power in non-dunyain hands

[Anonymous No.23245533]

>>23242877
West of West by Angus Watson is pretty fun.

[Anonymous No.23245555]

>>23244366
Just finished this. Started it right after finishing Parasite Eve. As usual, I liked it better than the movie, but the movie did make a faithful attempt at following the book. (The Japanese film, of course) It was interesting to see Asakawa considering the possibility of a biological explanation. So far, the Japanese Horror books seem to have a certain level of intelligence to them that a lot of Western Horror seems to lack. For fucks sake, Parasite Eve was full of footnotes from the authors research. these books aren't just horror though, they have a sci fi element to them that ends up being the reason I enjoy them. Im not a big fan of Western style gorefest shock horror.

I did find it funny how a lot of people reviewed the book and were so outraged about Ryuji. I tend to believe most of these people didn't really read the book.

I do plan to read Spiral and Loop, but since they are not a direct sequels I may not read them just yet.

[Anonymous No.23245615]

>>23245520
>Chorae bullets

[Anonymous No.23245627]

How do you guys feel about the extermination of damsel in distress love interests in fantasy?
It's weird because in romance books written by women, it's still extremely common for the Female protagonist to be a damsel.

[Anonymous No.23245668]

>>23245627
Like, the systemic slaughter of women? Pretty based if you ask me

[Anonymous No.23245702]

>>23243098
>very Tom Clancy esque and definitely the definition of military slop but hey I blasted through 100 pages last night
Please elaborate on "militaryslop." I've never read Tom Clancy but enjoyed the video game and movie adaptions.

[Anonymous No.23245704]

>>23243793
trannies, blacks, and women do not belong in sff.

[Anonymous No.23245755]

>>23245627
It's classic tropes based on human nature. The men writing SciFi these days tend to fall for the whole stronk woman meme and it's no surprise that the current state of modern sci-fi/fantasy is so poor.

Of course, this doesn't mean you cant have a good story otherwise, its just that it is a tried and true trope for a reason.

[Anonymous No.23245759]

I finished Permutation City.
I believe that the plot was lost upon transition to the actual City. There was much padding, as with the subplot(s) of Riemann, who seemed to have finished his "development" by placing himself within guilt-ridden self-imposed exile until his model-of-a-brain broke; and the story with Peer, while having an okay twist at the end with the idea of the literal Solipsist Nation, his meanderings too far too long to arrive where they did and his 'relationship' with Kate was forced plot, eye-rolling.
The epilogue was unneeded and made little sense. The story with the intelligent Lambertians felt like it belonged in another book. PC, overall, was setting up something that never came to be.

[Anonymous No.23245773]

>If you have no appreciation of sci-fi you can't write good fantasy.
true or false?

[Anonymous No.23245825]

>>23245773
Sci-Fi is Fantasy.

[Anonymous No.23245843]

>>23245421
The Revelations of Zang

[Anonymous No.23245848]

>>23235895
>mdw john scalzi again
I guess hugo baiting is a real thing

[Anonymous No.23245914]

>>23245848
> mfw Scalzi nominated again
Might as well call it the Scalzi award.

[Anonymous No.23245916]

>>23245759
Yeah, I agree, it's unfortunate, and I wrote similarly. Though it didn't bother me so much to have lessened my overall enjoyment appreciably.

[Anonymous No.23245951]

>>23245914
> New York Times Best Selling Author
Obligatory reminder that the New York Times Best Seller list is a scam.

>Defendant(NYT) further argues that inasmuch as the list was compiled in the exercise of its editorial judgment and represented its opinion of which books were best sellers, the First Amendment shields defendant from liability for interference with plaintiff's prospective advantage by refusing to include his book in the list.

>Blatty v. New York Times Co., 184 Cal.App.3d 1144, 1144 (Cal. Ct. App. 1985)

[Anonymous No.23246004]

>>23245825
Other way around. Fantasy is science fiction. I can explain if you're too dumb to understand.

[Anonymous No.23246006]

>>23245914
Is this the guy who wrote a really shitty knockoff of the Forever War and has made a career out of writing endless sequels?

[Anonymous No.23246015]

>>23246004
Science Fiction is Fantasy.

[Anonymous No.23246022]

>>23246004
>>23246015
https://pastebin.com/MiMMCCN6

[Anonymous No.23246041]

>>23246022
This is good, but let me explain why this makes fantasy a subgenre of science fiction not the other way around. Everything in fantasy is possible. Impossible things would make it surrealism or nonsense.

[Anonymous No.23246183]

My folio society copies of dune and dune messiah just came in and they're gorgeous. I didn't know they were cloth bound in this shimmering metallic cloth, it's fucking beautiful under sunlight.

[Anonymous No.23246197]

why is book of the new sun so expensive?

[Anonymous No.23246213]

>>23246183
Looks pretty faggy desu

[Anonymous No.23246223]

This needs to stop.

[Anonymous No.23246225]

>>23246213
ignore the blanket

[Anonymous No.23246227]

>>23246197
Amazon friendo, search by used copy and individual volumes and you'll find affordable copies.

[Anonymous No.23246229]

>>23246223
the Witcher cover looks pretty good, aside from the netflix sticker. Please tell me that's a sticker

[Anonymous No.23246249]

>>23246227
Unless you are looking for something that resalers are interested in. Finding a copy of Shogun is kind of stupid right now. The new release has piss poor covers and they have broken it up into two books. Greedy bastards actually broke the audio book up in to part 1 and 2 also...lol

>>23246229
Of course some are better or worse than others. They used to just be stickers but I have noticed the move to it just being printed on for a lot of books. It mainly irks me because I dont like mixing different sets. I have the first couple of books in the series and now I have to try and hunt down copies of the originals from somewhere.

I do give credit to the Elric books, they have some decent character art although it doesn't look like there are paperback versions. Im not a fan of hardbacks.

[Anonymous No.23246256]

All these physical book problems are solved by going digital.

[Anonymous No.23246282]

>>23246229
>Please tell me that's a sticker
I got bad news for you.

[Anonymous No.23246284]

>>23246256
>>23246282
Forgot pic

[Anonymous No.23246391]

>>23244693
Brief me about Books of the Long/Short Sun, please. Are they mainly for fans of BotNS?

[Anonymous No.23246398]

I saw pic related in another thread? Is it from the actual Witcher book and not some fake/fac fic or something?

[Anonymous No.23246420]

>>23245627
I'm legit having trouble trying to think of any examples from the last decade where they actually used that trope.

[Anonymous No.23246444]

>>23246398
https://books.google.com/books?id=HUQXCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT105

[Anonymous No.23246459]

>>23239755
Seconding this. I'm thinking of picking up The Once and Future King myself, but I'm a little worried about it being low-brow.

[Anonymous No.23246460]

>>23246284

[Anonymous No.23246465]

>>23246459
>I'm worried about it being lowbrow he said as he wallowed around in the sewer mumbling to his fellow rats.

[Anonymous No.23246485]

>>23239755
>>23246459
It isn't really a good starting point of arthurian legend unless you really Lancelot and only Lancelot.

[Anonymous No.23246512]

>>23239755
>>22987850
This is what I said last time it came up in here

[Anonymous No.23246518]

>>23246512
The post I'm replying to has Pyles "story of king arthur and his knights" in case that doesn't show up

[Anonymous No.23246520]

>>23245914
he won't win because he's a straight, white male. simple as.

[Anonymous No.23246522]

>>23246183
do faggots really spend obscene amounts of money to have "pretty" bookshelves for instagram? no wonder this hobby is going to shit.

[Anonymous No.23246524]

>>23246522
Yes.
Reading a high quality hardback is half the experience of reading.

[Anonymous No.23246531]

>>23246485
I accidentally a Lancelot

[Anonymous No.23246539]

>>23246522
Yeah
Like look at Chiltern, I don't even like them but they do "nice" books and it costs £20 a book from them for classics that you can get for half that price from other publishers and another half to a third again for even cheaper and/or second hand versions.
And that's for something that's not in copyright.

[Anonymous No.23246587]

>>23246520
>straight
Debatable. He has made it clear he's a lgbt+ ally either way. Someone post the pic where he's wearing lipstick

[Anonymous No.23246597]

>>23246587
doesn't matter. the hugo's can't tolerate having a straight, white male win the award. the last one to win, coincidentally, was scalzi in 2013.

[Anonymous No.23246616]

>>23246524
>hardback
you are a massive, MASSIVE faggot. if the book's not floppy, i don't want it. give me the wordsworth classics flop or no book at all. suck a dick poser.

[Anonymous No.23246658]

>>23246616
cringe
hardbacks are the best. nothing beats propping open a large hardback on a table and reading it like a tomb.

[Anonymous No.23246671]

How typical to whine the most about what matters the least.

[Anonymous No.23246742]

>>23246444
Thanks, I have added it to my Do Not Read list.

[Anonymous No.23246765]

>>23246616
That dude posted Dune. You think that normalfag reads anything beyond Dune? Who fucking cares. Stop giving attention to normalfags.

[Anonymous No.23246771]

>>23245759

>>23245702
well shame on me as I technically haven't read a Tom Clancy book but it was the only "thing" I could grab to compare 2034 to. So I back track, but I can example what I mean by militaryslop by giving specifics from 2034:

1) completely inane characters. a) the whizbang middle age male fighter pilot whose daddy was a fighter pilot and his daddy before him. a guy who's plane loses control at an Iranian military base and who decides to brandish a pistol at the Iranian military b) a whizbang middle age female Navy Commodore who decided not to have a family so that her family could be the Navy, and now regrets it. She also survives an insane attack by the Chinese on her mass of destroyers c) a tough guy Iranian military man who at one points feeds the squirrels for weeks, only for one of them to get up close and eat out of his hand, bite his hand (it's a wild animal after all), and he crushes it. This scene was like two pages

2) completely inane plot elements and actions (but I suppose this is of course what drives the book) a) the Chinese attacking a series of US Navy destroyers for silly geopolitical reasons "They have be traversing our waters for years and need to be taught a lesson!"

So.. the book was sold to me as being "sharp" "smart" "military thriller" and it's certainly the last of those, but not the first two. With all that said I'm not going to DNF it because well.. it's fun, and it reminds me of a Michael Bay movie. I'm tired of heady hard-sci-fi philosophical shit anywho, I just came from reading Zelazny's Lord of Light and I need to chill for a bit

[Anonymous No.23246776]

>>23246765
obscene cope

[Anonymous No.23246781]

>>23246776
>generic 2016+ bot incantation spell
yawn

[Anonymous No.23246798]

>>23246781
maximus copionne siithis

[Anonymous No.23246893]

>>23246771
>I'm tired of heady hard-sci-fi philosophical shit anywho, I just came from reading Zelazny's Lord of Light and I need to chill for a bit
I understand. 2034 seems like a good palette cleanser.

[Anonymous No.23246895]

>>23246658
>>23246671
>>23246765
you know >>23246616 is trolling, right?

[Anonymous No.23246901]

>>23246895
huh?

[Anonymous No.23246905]

>>23246895
no, i really do hate hardcovers. maybe not as much as i made it seem in that post, but they truly (truly) get on my nerves.

[Anonymous No.23246907]

>>23246905
why?

[Anonymous No.23246910]

>>23246905
you sound like a woman.

[Anonymous No.23246921]

>>23246907
they're usually too big and unwieldy, and their binding is so "good" that they just refuse to stay open. that scenario anon mentioned of "propping open a large hardback on a table and reading it like a tome" is fantasy. an example of a good hardcover would be the tiny Picador Modern Classics pocket book editions, but those things are expensive.

[Anonymous No.23246923]

>>23246905
>i really do hate hardcovers
Me too. >>23246907 because their just not comfortable to hold. I don't sit and read at a desk like a virgin monk. I like something that is portable, light weight, and comfortable to hold. A hardback made since when some monk was painting on parchment and needed something durable to protect it from when the peasants got rowdy but in modern times, it just doesnt serve a purpose.

[Anonymous No.23246924]

>>23246249
there’s like 8 different copies of second/third edition clavell’s shogun at my county library

[Anonymous No.23246927]

>>23246921
that dune hardcover that was posted is one of those hardbacks you can read like that, since they aren't just glued as a block like in the cheap hardbacks, but are instead sewn in signatures, which makes opening it easy as it lays flat when opened.

[Anonymous No.23246929]

>>23245759
The sex scene was forced and astoundingly bad and the last portion was too undercooked like Seveneves epilogue in that there is no resolution.
>>23242782
Blame the phones and modern entertainment for crippling attention spans.
>>23242115
Sci fi literature is more carried by ideas than prose. I am saying this as someone who considers it to be my favorite genre.

[Anonymous No.23246957]

>>23246895
Nobody has "trolled" since maybe the early 2010s. Newfags who spam "cope" do not even know what trolling is.

[Anonymous No.23246973]

>>23245843
Looks really cool. Also:
>the authors goodreads DP

[Anonymous No.23246986]

*downloads any cover I want and assigns it to the e-book*
nothin' personal

[Anonymous No.23247025]

>>23246924
Are you suggesting I eternally check one out?

[Anonymous No.23247070]

>>23246957
reeks of newfaggorty

[Anonymous No.23247092]

Any western xianxia worth reading? I've already read Cradle, A Thousand Li, and Painting the Mists.

[Anonymous No.23247096]

>>23246921
Is Name Of The Wind's prose as good as Housekeeping's?

[Anonymous No.23247102]

>>23247096
I haven't read either, so I couldn't say.

[Anonymous No.23247111]

>>23247070
Yes, "cope" is a 2016+ newfag buzzword.

[Anonymous No.23247127]

Has anyone read this series besides me? I personally like it a lot but with some big caveats. The author does really fun and evocative worldbuilding but the characters are mostly unlikeable, but in such a way that you can't tell if the author is good and doing it on purpose, or bad and trying to present them as good without realizing they are bad. Also, the overall plot goes off the rails in later books. I just sort of endure it until I get to a page or two that off-handedly mentions some really cool feature of a country that gets a single chapter of development and then I keep plodding along for the next crumb of cool imagery. Imo still a fun trip though.

[Anonymous No.23247128]

>>23236736
?

[Anonymous No.23247174]

>>23247128
yes

[Anonymous No.23247203]

>overwritten
can you name a more poisonous criticism?
if anything, modern fiction is underwritten. editors need to do less cutting and more editing.

[Anonymous No.23247354]

>>23247127
Apparently that's an obscure and badly rated self-published book, so it's quite probable no one else has.

[Anonymous No.23247362]

>>23247203
No, you're wrong. Most everything is bloated and the excessively long stuff could stand to lose a few hundred pages. Serialized stuff is the absolute worst in this regard.

[Anonymous No.23247369]

>>23246249
>I do give credit to the Elric books, they have some decent character art although it doesn't look like there are paperback versions. Im not a fan of hardbacks.
?????

[Anonymous No.23247383]

>>23247362
No, you're wrong. Most everything is clinically sterile and could do with an additional few hundred pages of sovl.

[Anonymous No.23247386]

gene wolfe wouldn't have been published today

[Anonymous No.23247406]

>>23247386
The most recent post-humous publication was in 2020.

[Anonymous No.23247410]

>>23247406
i mean if he was a new author

[Anonymous No.23247411]

>>23247354
This is what i get for getting all my books from looking up "books like [this book]/[this genre]" and then getting them off of Anna's Archive thus leaving me completely unaware how rare they are.

[Anonymous No.23247422]

>>23247383
No one who uses "sovl" is to be trusted.
Proof: >>/lit/?task=search&ghost=false&search_text=Sovl

[Anonymous No.23247433]

>>23247411
How has that worked out for you overall? The algorithms don't seem better than humans, especially those with similar interests, yet.

[Anonymous No.23247474]

>>23247433
Sometimes I find garbage, sometimes I find something good. I'm the type of person who can keep reading something shit for little kernels of quality I can use in my own projects so I tend to have fun regardless. Mostly it is forgettable though but one I stumbled into was Crooked God Machine which I really liked, and also Empires of Dust and the Worm Ouroboros. I think it can be an enjoyable method if you have an open mind and low expectations but results may vary.

[Anonymous No.23247475]

>>23247369
Context anon. I was talking about the new ones like >>23246249. The ones with the new art don't seem to have a paperback version.

[Anonymous No.23247510]

>>23247422
ad hom
try again

[Anonymous No.23247536]

>>23247025
you should try browsing your local libraries. they should have used books to sell in some part of it.

[Anonymous No.23247639]

>>23243706
Sparrowhawk has to be the most cuck character in literature.

[Anonymous No.23247662]

>>23247660
>>23247660
>>23247660
New!

[Anonymous No.23247675]

>>23246398
Yeah, witcher get pretty faggy when men start catching feelings. When it's just a bunch of people who fuck each other without feelings is fine. I know it sounds wrong from a moral standpoint, but you guys know what I'm talking about right? Geralt should either not give a fuck or refuse to interact with Yen and move on.
Those are the only two options that give him a scrap of dignity for interacting with a slag. But Sapkowski has a fem dom fetiche, so that's never going to happen.

[Anonymous No.23247697]

>>23247675
anon theyre literally bound by magic